Parasite ; Sleeper Cells ; Kingdoms of the Dead

by Ian Woodhead

  Even with his eyelids shut, Damien could still picture the vast sea of stars blitzing the night sky. There weren’t that many delights left from being stuck at his Aunt May’s on a weekend but he had to admit that this was one of them. The advantage of being away from the town centre was that the view was awesome, even with his eyes closed.

  “Will you just cool down your jets, sis? Will you at least give the man some time to get up here? It’s not exactly next door is it? Hell, even dad still makes the occasional wrong turn and he used to live here.”

  “That’s cos dad is an idiot,” she muttered.

  He smiled. “Just give him a few more minutes.”

  The irony of the situation did not fail to amuse him. As Damien opened his eyes just a crack to see if his imagined star map matched the original, he recalled just how excited he had been when Ben casually informed the pair of them that he’d be bringing up a friend. By the smirk plastered all over Elsie’s boyfriend’s face, Damien just knew that the lad was going to bring up a female companion. A date for Damien so he wouldn’t have to play gooseberry.

  No matter how many times that Damien had asked, Ben just refused to reveal any information, he kept his mouth firmly shut telling Damien that he didn’t want to spoil the surprise. Ben would not even reveal her name to him.

  All those pent up hormonal feelings only invaded Damien’s psyche during daylight hours. When the sun went to bed and the moon and stars came out to play, he always found that his daylight worry and stress just faded away. Both he and his sister preferred the night; they had been like this since kids. The darkness was their friend.

  He turned his head to face Elsie and frowned. Her normal night time placid self was absent tonight. This problem with Ben not showing his face was really getting to her. Come to think of it, she had been acting a little odd for the past couple of hours.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s really wrong with you?” He lifted his body, turned to look at her and rested his elbows on the grass. “You’re not usually this weird.”

  She shrugged. “There’s something in the air, Damien. Can’t you feel it?” she whispered. “It’s like there’s a storm coming.” Elsie sighed then quickly shook her head, “Oh, just ignore me, I’m being daft.”

  He wasn’t too sure how to respond to that outburst. He did know that his sister was more sensitive than him and she was susceptive to unexplained events. Either that or she was just in a really bad mood and was looking for some excuse to explain away her feelings. Elsie had fallen deeply in love for this Ben. Damien decided to ignore her last comment and just slip into his usual brother routine. It seemed to be the best course of action. “He will get here, sis. You know that. Think about it, you know for a fact that your Ben has been looking forward so to climbing inside your panties for the last few days. Wild horses won’t stop him from getting up here.” He ran his eyes up and down her well-proportioned body, trying his hardest not to leer and look like a perverted old man. Damien then ran his tongue over his lips and dramatically groaned. “Oh, he is such a lucky young man!”

  “Jesus, Damien, will you please stop doing that? Have you any idea how weird and creepy that is?” she said, tutting in disgust.

  “He nodded and giggled. “Ain’t my fault that I have a hot sister.”

  “God you can be such a dirty fucker sometimes.”

  The deep, grinding pain drilling through the back of his skull subsided just a tad when he saw the beginnings of a smirk appear on her face. Even after seventeen years of living together, it still felt so weird staring into his sister’s face. It was just like looking into a distorted mirror. His twin sister was the spit of him, apart from the fact that his dyed black hair hung past his shoulders and Elsie preferred her blonde hair cropped short.

  “I don’t even know what Ben even sees in you. Let’s be truthful here, we both know that I received all the best bits from our parents.”

  “You’re such a cheeky twat,” she retorted. “I thought you said I was hot?”

  Damien laughed. “You are hot, at least on the surface. But you know that I’m right, sis. If you looked under the bonnet, anyone would see that you were just cobbled together from all the leftover bits.

  “I seriously am going to punch you, Damien.”

  “Don’t kid yourself,” he replied, shaking his head and happy to see that Elsie’s face now exhibited full-on grin mode. Damien grabbed two cans of beer from the carrier bag next to his hips and passed her one. “You’re just too weak to hit anything. It’s taking all of your strength just to hold that can. Hit me and you’d break apart into your constituent pieces. There’d be bits of stale spunk and fragments of rotting placenta scattered all over the grass.”

  Elsie giggled. “You’re getting fucking worse, Damien.”

  He nodded, happily. “I’ll take that as a compliment. Besides, I make you happy so stop being such a prude.” Damien spotted a new light, low in the sky, he sighed with relief what that new light doubled up. “You see. I told you to stop worrying,” he said, watching the headlights grow as the car approached the house. “You were getting your knickers in a twist over nothing.”

  Damien shivered, he looked at Elsie and saw that the car had transfixed her, he blinked in surprise when she shivered as well.

  “It won’t be long now before your Ben will have his tiny penis deep inside you. Admit it, lass, that’s the only reason why you were getting stressed out.”

  His sister surprised him by refusing to bite. Was he losing his touch? Damien then found himself gazing at the approaching car as well. He couldn’t see if it was Ben’s car but that didn’t matter, although not many vehicles passed this way, even in the day, he knew that Elsie’s current boyfriend, Ben White, was in the driving seat.

  His sister wrapped her fingers around his hand. “Admit it, Damien, despite all your piss taking and your constant crude remarks, you don’t really think that Ben’s a bad lad, do you?”

  “You have been fucked by worse,” he replied, smiling when she viciously pinched the thin web of skin between his fingers.

  “For crying out loud, Damien, will you please just give me a straight answer?” Elsie sighed loudly. “You know that I value your opinion above everyone else. Although I do sometimes wonder why I bother.”

  How could he tell her the truth? Damien knew deep down that Ben was a decent enough lad, he was just a year older than the pair of them, had his own car, a decent job that gave him plenty of disposable income and Damien just knew that Ben doted on Elsie. He didn’t doubt that the lad would take care of his sister.

  His reluctance stemmed from the fact that he didn’t want to see anyone turn her into a pet housewife, watching her priorities change to housework and doing the weekly shopping. Deep down, Damien didn’t want to lose her.

  “You’ve gone very quiet, Damien. Come on, tell me, what do you honestly think of Ben?”

  Damien shrugged before turning around to stare at the house. Who was he trying to kid? He tried to pretend that they were both a pair of rebels, what a load of crap that was. How many other seventeen year old kids stayed on a weekend at their aunties? He already knew the answer to that question, precisely none of them, they’d all be in the town centre, drinking their way through the pubs or having the time of their lives at house parties.

  He used to look forward to visiting his aunt May, they both did. The woman hadn’t been able to have kids of her own so she always went out of her way to spoil them both stupid with sweets, unlimited television and lots of toys to play with. It used to be great coming to visit when they were kids, aunt May would give them anything they wanted. It wasn’t just the fact that she treat them like surrogate children, Damien was under the impression that spoiling them was her own way of apologising for her brother’s behaviour. Aunt May knew how much of a bastard their dad was to them at times.

  They were getting older though and their needs had altered. The prospect of unlimited sweets and staying up until past midnight no longer had th
e same appeal.

  “She’ll be sleeping for a while yet.”

  Damien sighed. “She’ll never accept the fact that we’re not kids anymore, you know.”

  “She will, it’ll just take time.” Elsie followed his gaze and smirked, “Right now, she won’t be bothering us tonight. I’ve made sure that she’ll sleep to at least morning.”

  His stomach lurched, “Oh shit, what have you done?”

  “Well, I didn’t want her to find me and Ben in her bed.”

  He jerked up, aware that the car had stopped. “What the fuck have you done?” he hissed.

  “I think you should cool your jets now, Damien. I just added some of her crushed up sleeping tablets to her mashed potatoes at our supper.”

  “Are you out of your mind? You don’t know how that’ll affect her. That was so fucking stupid.”

  “Oh hush your lips, you big girl’s blouse. Of course I know what they’ll do, it’ll keep her asleep. Don’t worry, I’ve done this before, I know what dose to give the woman.” Elsie got to her feet and waved at the two figures climbing the stairs and heading for their auntie’s huge back garden. “Ben might not have told you what he was bringing for you but he sure as hell told me all about her.” She sighed. “He’s not himself for the past few days, Damien and I did start to get some very odd ideas floating around my head.” She elbowed him in the ribs. Looks like I was wrong after all. I’m going to make sure that Ben doesn’t get any odd ideas.”

  Were his eyes actually functioning correctly? Damien stared open mouthed at the young woman accompanying Ben up the stairs.

  “You’re starting to drool,” his sister whispered. “Now you see why I wanted to make sure that aunt May stayed asleep.”

  His first thought, once he had got past the black leather jacket straining to hold in her large breasts was that he had no idea who she was.

  “Ben has found your poster girl. You make sure to thank Ben for bringing you a hottie.”

  They were now close enough for Damien to see her face in detail. She was just gorgeous, and he was right, he had never seen her before. Their town wasn’t that small but he was sure he would have spotted a pretty young thing like her swanning around the area.

  “Have fun with her, Damien.” She whispered, running down the grassy slope, towards Ben. “The bed is still ours!” shouted Elsie.

  Damien leaned against a tree and watched his sister grab Ben’s hand then pull the lad over to the front door. He noticed that she didn’t even bother introducing herself to the new girl. His legs felt like jelly, the shaking increased as the girl neared. She really was a fucking stunner.

  Her raven coloured hair was even longer that his, he longed to brush his fingers through it. Beneath the leather jacket, her black latex trousers just clung to her shapely legs, it looked like they were painted on her.

  Elsie had her initial description perfect. She really did look as though the girl had just peeled herself off his wall. “I’d so like to peel that clothing off her,” he murmured. Damien wondered who he was kidding. “She won’t be interested in me.” As soon as that notion lodged in the back of his head, Damien’s bulge softened.

  “Er, I’m sorry about my sister,” he stuttered. The girl slowed down then stopped a couple of paces in front of him. He felt his heart start to beat a little faster when her face softened into a smile. “Elsie isn’t normally that rude.”

  He wanted to slap himself, after that, Damien would try to kick himself in the bollocks. Why the fuck did he have to go and spurt out with a stupid comment like that? It wasn’t the best of chat up lines.

  This was so unreal, Damien had never been so tongue-tied before. He’d never before had any problem with charming members of the opposite sex, no matter how desirable. His mouth felt like the bottom of a budgie cage,

  “Well, isn’t this a bit of a surprise?” she murmured, chuckling. “Ben did tell me that you were good looking but I thought he was having me on, you know? You really are a bit of a cutie-pie.”

  The girl covered the last few strides, he blinked, not sure how she had done that. Damien swore that he hadn’t seen her move.

  “You smell so different.” She leaned a little closer and breathed in. “Yeah, there is something about you.” She encircled his waist. I’m called Eleanor Slinta and you have confused me. That has not happened for a long time. Oh, don’t you worry, it’s not a bad thing.”

  He fought the desire to push her away when he felt goose bumps spread under where she held him. The girl was freezing cold. “Would you like a drink or something, Eleanor?” Damien gazed down at the carrier bag. “Or perhaps a cup of tea or something, you seem to be a bit chilly.”

  Damien’s awakened raging hormones drowned out the sensation of wrongness about this strange girl. Something deep inside his body was telling him to get away from her, to run as fast as he could. Damien suppressed that emotion and tried not to gasp as Eleanor dragged her long fingernail down the front of his shirt. Damien couldn’t help but yelp when she glided her long nails up the inside of his thigh.

  “I think I’m going to enjoy the rest of this night.” Eleanor licked his earlobe and sighed, “I so need to find out why you are so different. Would you like me to taste you?”

  “Oh yes please!” he gasped.

  As soon as the girl released him and took a step back, he grabbed her jacket zipper and tugged it down, releasing Eleanor’s heavy breasts. Damien gasped again. She was perfect. Her contours were plainly visible through the gossamer veil of her black blouse.

  She shrugged off her jacket then grabbed his wrists and placed Damien’s hands on her breasts.

  “Oh fuck,” he murmured. He rubbed his thumbs over her hard pointed nipples.” I must be dreaming this.”

  Eleanor chuckled. “You are so sweet.” The girl leaned forward and brushed her cold lips against his.

  Damien stiffened.

  “Sorry,” she said, giggling. “I know that I am not very warm. The heater in Ben’s car did not work.” Eleanor wrapped her arms around his chest. “Do not worry. I’m sure that you will be able to warm me up. Hmm, perhaps we could go find a quiet place to lie down?”

  He nodded eagerly. “Oh yes please. You are so incredible.”

  “The others have no concept of the pleasure that I get from milking the animals,” she said. “All those heightened emotions and volatile chemicals riding your body before you spit your germ so vitalises the experience.

  Damien’s body shuddered, as her fingers travelled down his spine. He cried out even louder when he felt her teeth sink into the side of his neck.

  The sharp pain was gone in an instant. Damien was so sleepy. The girl hadn’t moved away from his neck, but that was okay, it didn’t really hurt too much as long as he didn’t move. He felt his eyelids grown heavier. Everything was slowing down and Damien’s conscious thoughts were slipping away. The pleasant harmony of drifting into oblivion came to an abrupt end when Damien felt two heavy weights lands on his shoulders. He snapped open his eyes and saw two huge men stood beside him and Eleanor. They were both dressed in identical tattered leather trousers and tunics.

  He couldn’t move his body. He then realised that there was another man stood behind him, digging his hard bony nails into Damien’s flesh. His mental apathy collapsed the instant that the two men ripped the girl from his neck. She fell back onto the grass. She smiled up at Damien. Thick red blood dribbled down her chin.

  “Thank you,” she said, that was just exquisite.”

  He watched her tongue escape from between her lips and, like a ravenous worm, licked the bottom of her face clean.

  “What the fuck are you?” Damien slapped his fingers against his throat, moaning when they came away soaked in blood. “You’re a fucking vampire? You’ve got to be shitting me!”

  He noticed the two men’s hungry eyes followed his hand until he wiped his palm against his trousers. “This is just so much bullshit.”

  The figure behind Damien lifted his hands. When
he turned his head, he saw the man had just vanished. Damien yelped when he looked back and saw there were now three men facing him. The middle one, smirked while the two others stood there with their arms folded.

  “Get out of here, before I call the police!”

  The man in the middle chuckled. “I think that it is way too late to cry for help now, boy.” He then glared at Eleanor. “You were told to just taste the beast, you spoilt little brat. You were not supposed to fill your greedy little face.” He then stared down at her exposed breasts. “We all watched how you allowed the food to maul your body, Eleanor. Does Desmonus know of your perversions? Maybe even he isn’t able to satisfy you?”

  The girl growled, “You cannot tell me what to do, Caldis.” She got to her feet and snatched her jacket off the grass. “Desmonus is our First Father, you will treat him with the respect that he deserves. She shrugged into her jacket and zipped it up.

  Damien felt a sigh of regret leave his lips.

  Caldis spun around and broke into a deep laugh. “Look at what you have done. Your new pet is now enthralled! He took a deep breath then turned and tapped his two companions. They both nodded before sliding back, heading towards a slump of trees on the other side of the garden.

  Damien tried to keep them in his vision but their serpentine movement threatened to give him a headache as he kept seeing them shimmer then appear to jump forward. He had never seen anything move in that way before in his life. Damien blinked and found that they were no longer to be seen.

  “Were you too busy enjoying yourself with this beast to extract the required information?”

  Eleanor sidled up to Damien. When she gave him a slight smile and a wink, he thought that his heart was about to burst.

  “Don’t you dare question my judgment,” she hissed. “Desmonus put me in charge of this expedition. Just remember that. You and your two quarter-breed cast offs take orders from me. Of course I got what I wanted. He is just a stupid beast. They are not that hard to read. Even you, with some practice might eventually be able to pick out the occasional word from inside their animal minds.”