The Devil Next Door

76

While the dam saw to the gut sack that smoked over the fire, jabbing it from time to time with a stick, and seeing to what roasted in the coals, Kylie played with the man.

He did not like to be played with.

After binding him with clothesline, they dragged him back to their lair and deposited him in the corner. He had slept for some time—or pretended to—but now he was awake. His eyes were open, wide and bright.

Still covered in ghostly white ash, Kylie grinned at him.

He did not smile back.

Kylie crept over to him on all fours. He tensed. His muscles were good. She straddled him, her long flaxen hair hanging in his face. She studied his eyes, his scent, his facial expression… all the things that would tell her what she wanted to know.

She pressed her crotch down on his own, rubbed it again the coarse material of his jeans. The texture, the pressure excited her. She could feel him getting excited, too, only from what she saw in his eyes he did not like that.

She brought her mouth to his own.

He trembled.

She pressed her lips to his own.

He did not move. She pushed her smallish breasts into his face, daring him to suckle them or nip at them. He did not.

He just looked up at her with eyes that were shocked and glassy. They looked very wet. He was frightened and she could smell it on him.

Frightened. Yes, Louis was frightened. More scared than he’d ever been before in his life. This girl… Jesus, painted white like something dead, completely naked, red bands of paint on her face, red slashes across her breasts and belly and arms. And her skin… it was beaded with welts like she had been burning herself, only the welts were formed into symbols of some sort, concentric patterns and diamonds and half-moons. Like those tribes on TV with the beads under their skin. She hovered over him. Teasing him, rubbing herself against him… he guessed she was no more than thirteen. Younger than the other girl who sharpened stakes in the corner. The older woman at the fire must have been their mother.

And this… this house of horrors… their den.

Their warren.

Louis saw human remains scattered over the dirt floor, bones and scraps of meat. There was a head in the corner. Severed limbs were dangling from the beams overhead on ropes of gut. There was garbage and filth everywhere. The air stank of putrescence, burnt meat, smoke, and excrement. The girl toying with him smelled like urine.

Grinning, she licked his face.

Elissa came over now. She turned to make sure the dam was still occupied; she was.

Kylie gripped the man’s throat with her hands. Spreading her legs wide, she rubbed herself on him faster and faster until she began to tremble. The man’s face was a contorted mask of dread. This excited Kylie more as she rubbed herself against him harder and harder, making communion, feeling her heart pounding, her skin hot and moist.

Still, he resisted.

“Get the fuck off me,” he suddenly said.

Kylie brought her face to his own and he flinched. She buried her face at his throat and licked him, tasted his skin. As wave of ecstasy rolled through her, she bit down on the bare flesh of his shoulder and kept biting until she drew blood, until it filled her mouth. He screamed and she bit down harder, harder, filling her mouth with the taste of his blood, his flesh.

“No!” the dam cried.

She grabbed Kylie by the hair and tossed her aside. She kicked Elissa and then kicked her again when she dared snarl at her. She dragged the man over to the fire and pressed her mouth to his bleeding shoulder. She sucked the blood away and then pressed a rag to the wound. He was shaking, squirming.

The dam poked the gut sack. Hot juice sizzled into the fire.

She drew a rib bone from the coals. It burned her fingers. She gnawed at the meat and pressed it to the man’s mouth. But he would not eat of it. She hissed at him and struck him in the face with her palm. When he refused the meat again, she struck him harder. He was defiant. But she was confident that she could break him. And if not, she would slit him open and yank out his intestines. While he still moved she would roast them and eat them.

It was an ancient punishment.

Kylie and Elissa crawled over. The dam bared her teeth at them. She crouched over the man and scented him with her urine. Then she clawed out at the girls.

“Mine,” she said. “Mine, mine, mine…”