by Amo Jones
“Why not?”
“Because it’s business, and until you’re wearing a rock on that pretty little finger, you can’t know anything.”
“A rock? Marriage? Not likely,” I scoff, taking another bite into my deliciously crisp and juicy sandwich.
Miles wraps his long fingers behind my neck and pulls my face towards his, pressing a soft kiss on my forehead. “Won’t be long.” He begins walking out of the kitchen when he stops. “Oh and puddin’?”
“Yes?”
“Raze will need special attention tonight. Begin preparing yourself now.”
Then he leaves me there with my empty thoughts.
RAZE
Pushing the mask over my face, Joker drives the van up the curb. The cold stone concrete arches line the outside of the ancient building and the giant clock which sits in the front was only counting down the hours.
“Remind me again why we’re doing this?” Joker asks, looking up at the church.
“Because I said, that’s why.”
“Well, I guess that’s always a valid point,” Joker replies sarcastically.
My hand squeezes on the handle of the van door. “You wanna say that again, Joke?”
He mutters something, pulling his mask down. “Fuck man. Kurr is going to lose his shit when he finds out.”
“He won’t know that it’s us.” I look at Miles who’s working on his laptop, his shoulders square and his glasses on. “Done?”
He continues tapping on the keyboard and then closes his laptop, his eyes beaming with excitement. “Fucking done. Let’s do this shit.”
Joker and Viking begin climbing out of the front seat of the van and I pause, my hand going to Miles’ chest. “Yeah, you’re gonna need to put this on.” I hand him a ski mask.
“What?” He scoffs. “No, man. That’ll fuck up my outfit.”
“Miles…”
He takes off his glasses and pulls his hair out of the bun before pulling on the ski mask. “Fucking, fuck, man.”
“What? You can still wear your glasses.”
“No, no. I fucking can’t because it’ll look fucking stupid.”
“Miles?”
“Yes?”
“Shut the fuck up and get the fuck out of this van before you have no eyes to need those glasses for.”
We both climb out of the van and walk towards Viking and Joker who wait for us. “The fuck took you two so long?”
I ignore Joker. If he gets in my way too much he’ll be added to the body count. You’d think years of us working together I’d be used to him, but I’m not. There are just some people you can never warm up to and Joker is that person for me. Smart fucking mouth, but ruthless. It’s the only reason why I haven’t killed him yet; he’s too much of an asset. Clicking the strap of the semiautomatic around my shoulder, I twist on the scope and push a couple GLOCKs into my jeans for backup, and if I run out of those, I have my fists, which I’ve been told are just as lethal.
We begin shuffling towards the church with the AK propped on my shoulder and my eye peering through the scope. The sun has long since gone down and the air has a distinctive chill that whirls with it. We call it the chill of death; it’s when the adrenaline shoots up and your blood begins pumping faster, spiking your endorphins to all new heights as you wait, fight, and bleed for the love of the kill. I let out a growl, swinging my arms in circles to stretch them out.
Joker lets out a loud wolf howl. “The devils are home, baby!” he says before launching his foot through the heavy wooden door with a loud crack.
A nun who’s walking past the big cross standing proudly in the center of the stage throws up her hands and lets out a scream. I lift my gun and pull the trigger. Pop. She falls to the ground.
“Dude,” Joker says to me with a chuckle. “Why’d you do that?”
“She fucking screamed. You know how much I hate screamers.”
“Oh, really?” Miles smirks from behind me. “Since when?”
“Shut up. Move.” Stepping forward, we continue to the back of the room where the door leads you down a dark hallway, taking you to all the bedrooms which house the nuns. We walk past each room. Every nun that sees us remains quiet, their head hanging between their shoulders.
Miles laughs sadistically as we walk down. “Ladies, keep your mouth shut and you won’t end up with my monster dick shoved in it with a bullet lodged in your brain.”
We’re almost at the end of the long hallway when gunshots ring out in front of us. I lean back against the wall with the boys following suit. Once the shooting stops, I put one foot in front of the other and make my way towards the end where the office door is wide open with no one inside. I look to the left, seeing the way down to the basement and out to the fire exit. I know this because we studied the layout of the church before coming. I nudge my head and aim my gun. Pulling open the door, I step down the steep stairwell, the musky smell of old books and dust floating through the air. A flapping sound comes from the door where the fire exit is and I pick up my pace, taking two steps at a time.
I point back up the stairs. “Joker and King, take the front.”
They quickly shoot back up the stairs as Miles and I run towards the fire exit and out the back alleyway, which is between the church and a concrete two-story house. The alley is dark with a single car parked to the side of the gutter. I pause in my step and look up over my shoulder to one of the three windows, which has a clear view of the alleyway, before looking back.
Images flash in my mind of what Millie would have witnessed from her standing point the night she saw the priest take a nun’s life and what started this particular shitstorm. I point my gun up to the middle window, looking through the scope, then do the same to the remaining two windows before lowering it.
“You done?” Miles asks.
“Yeah, let’s go. He can’t be far. He’s probably holed up in that house and already calling backup.”
“Or worse,” Miles says. “He could be calling Kurr.”
“I have a solid reason as to why we’re here, that Kurr won’t second guess, if that happens.”
My heavy combat boots press on the loose gravel as we make our way down to the end of the alleyway. Once we reach the end, I look left and then right. Right is a dead end, and the left takes you back where we came.
A loud gunshot reverberates through the atmosphere and every hair on my skin stands to life as my feet pick up and bolt towards it. Miles and I round the corner to find Joker holding his pistol to the kneeling priest’s head.
Joker cocks his head at me. “The fucker bit me. Tell me I can at least put another bullet in him.”
I smirk and walk towards them. Kneeling down, I drop my face to the priest’s ear. “You lose, priest, and you put your filthy hands on my woman.”
He looks up at me under his blood-smeared forehead. “Who?”
I chuckle, bending down to his level and unclipping the switchblade that is secured around my ankle. “Who do you think, David?”
“Oh, he’s a natural fucking idiot,” Joker laughs in a high-pitched tone.
“Pull him up. We can take him into the house.”
Joker pulls David to his feet and I shove him forward. “Move.” We continue to walk him towards the old brick house that sits near the church. I stop and look over my shoulder, inching my head back to the church. “Yo, how theatrical do you all feel?” All the boys stop and turn towards me before looking over my shoulder to the church. Miles chuckles devilishly. “Because it’s Millie? Very fucking theatrical.”
Pushing David down onto his knees in front of the heavy large wooden cross has my skin itching and my fangs twitching. I am thirsty. I want his blood and I want it now. Seeing him manhandle Millie that day started my thirst. Fucker is lucky I let him walk free for this long.
Flicking my switchblade between my fingers, I cock my head down at the pitiful piece of shit kneeling in front of me. “Hmmmmm…” I look around the room and then look over to Joker.
“What’re you thinking, boss?”
Just as he says that, an idea clicks in my head. Chuckling, I put my palm out to him. “I need all your knives.”
Joker pauses along with Miles and Viking.
I snap my head up to them. “Now.”
Each of them pull out a knife and hands it to me. I kneel back down to David and smirk, though he can’t see it. Bringing the point of my blade up under his chin, I tilt his head up.
“You’re fucking lucky you’ve been breathing this long.”
“Come on, man.” Joker itches beside me. “We don’t have much time and I wanna see some blood. Stop toying with our soul food.”
I chuckle, pressing the tip of the blade into David’s chin deeper until blood slowly trickles down the shiny silver blade and onto my hand. “Get him up.”
David breathes heavily. “You won’t get away with this, Raze. You think you’re God!” He roars as Joker and Viking pull him up to his feet and walk him towards the crucifix.
I crank my neck and swing my arms around before turning around to face him. “Those your last words?”
He snaps his mouth shut as Miles walks to the side of the little platform and pulls out a ladder, pushing it against the crucifix. David’s head turns to see what Miles is doing before he looks back at me, shaking his head vigorously as realization set in.
“Ahhh,” I chuckle, walking towards him. “He gets it.”
“You can’t do this to me,” David whispers. “I bring in the pure girls. No one else has that pull!”
Throwing my head back, I chuckle. “You think you’re irreplaceable, David? You’re very fucking mistaken.” I stop an inch away from him, my eyes searching his. Grinning, I flick my finger up. “Put him up. I want his back facing me.”
“Back facing you?” Miles asks.
“Did I stutter? Yes, back to me.”
With a round of howling and dark laughter, the boys work with each other to get David up onto the crucifix and undress him.
“How much time, Miles?”
Miles looks down to his timer. “Fifteen. Can you swing it?”
I pause, looking at him. “Don’t ask me that.”
Gripping onto my shirt, I pull it over my head and drop it beside my AK. Collecting the knives, I walk towards the cross and Miles’ hand comes up to my shoulder. “I want in, Raze. I care about her too.”
Shoving two knives at him, I nudge my head at David. “Go at it.”
Miles’ face goes from eager to downright hungry in a split second and he pats my shoulder before climbing up the ladder. Both Viking and Joker are balancing on the tables beside the cross, holding up his body by his arms.
I crank my neck again and place my earbuds into my ears, pushing play on Marilyn Manson’s “The Nobodies” just as Miles launches the first knife into David’s left hand, drowning out the bloodcurdling screams. Walking back to the cross, the air prickles over my bare chest and adrenaline ripples through me in fucking tsunami-sized waves. Miles drops down to David’s feet and lodges another blade deep into the back of them, pinning them both to the wooden crucifix. David’s head tilts back, his face, from what I can see, is turning purple and the veins in his neck popping to the surface. That must have been some mighty scream.
Flicking my military knife around my fingers, I step up the ladder as Miles turns to me, tapping his timer. 12:15 minutes remaining. He walks down and I take his place, running my eyes past the bloody holes in the back of his feet, up past his boxer briefs and up past his bare back before eventually landing on the back of his head. The muscles in his outstretched arms tense and his head flies back again. I chuckle and both Joker and Viking stare at me suspiciously from the sides.
Joker watches me, and I see the exact moment he has finally figured out what I’m going to do. He pulls his mask off so I can see his face and mouths “Really?” with pure excitement shooting out of his eyes.
I nudge my head and he jumps from his spot, pulling his mask back down. Bringing my attention back to David, I bring the tip of the blade to the back of his neck and let it sink into his fatty flesh slowly, the pulling of his skin vibrating over my blade. His head tilts back again, so I push the blade in deeper until I feel the tip hit the bone I was aiming for. Running my tongue over my lips, I grin before slowly slashing the blade down his back. Each slit has more blood running out, over my mask and over my bare chest. I can see Joker bouncing beside me and Viking shaking his head. Chancing a glance to the floor under the ladder, Miles is kneeling under it, his arms stretched wide, his chest jiggling in his laughter as blood pours down over him.
Very fucking theatrical, alright.
Grinning, I come back to my task at hand and in one soft movement, I rip the blade down the rest of his back and step back slightly to watch his skin peel away from each other like white fillets before more blood seeps through. Knowing I’m strapped for time, my hands launch inside the fresh wound, blood seeping all over my skin, bone and tissue skimming over the palms of my hands. Gripping onto each side of the cut, I widen my elbows and slowly stretch the cut open, inch by inch, the ripping of his flesh being torn away from his ribs as bone reverberates over the palms of my hand. I watch as the inside of his back is unfolding, literally, in front of us.
Pressing his skin out of my way, I nudge my head at Joker and Viking. “Cut it off.” Then I look back to the inside of his back. This is my favorite part. David’s body is stock still, possibly dead, but probably not. Not yet, anyway. I grip onto the back of his spine, the heavy bone grating over my rough hands. Pulling out my knife again, I bring it to his spine and tug on the bone until every single inch of his spine and rib cage is turned inside out and hanging out of his body.
Ripping the earbuds out of my ears, I look down to Miles. “We gotta bounce, boss.”
I nod. “Yeah, we’re done here.”
Collecting up all our shit, we walk out the way we came with my heart pounding against my chest. I look over my shoulder just as we hit the exit to see the catastrophe. Whoever finds him won’t be able to recognize that as a body at first. I chuckle, walking out the door and kicking it closed. I’m still tweaking though; I need more. That was a mere taste and hasn’t fully satisfied my appetite.
MILLIE
It was four a.m. when I heard the heavy footsteps track down the hallway. I pop my eyes open, sucking in heavy breaths. My bedroom door cracks open slightly and I stiffen. The strong smell of metallic takes over my small bedroom and my gut slowly begins to churn because I know that smell. Footsteps walk towards my bed while I keep my eyes trained on the shadow the light from the hallway has let into my room. I can almost feel his breathing across my back so when he opens his mouth, I’m not all that surprised by his proximity.
“Pet?” His voice is low and husky.
“Yeah?” I answer, swallowing past the inch of fear that had wiggled under my skin. What Miles had said earlier plays on my brain a lot since they’ve been gone.
“I need you right now.”
I pause, my stomach fluttering from those simple words leaving him.
“I’m here, Raze.” The bed sinks down and I fling the blankets off. “Come here.”
He pauses. “No… I need you. This… this is for me.”
I swallow, unsure what those words mean. “Okay, well, I’m all yours.”
His deep chuckles hit me right in the gut and before I can think about what I had just said, his hands grip around my thighs as he pulls me across the bed until my legs are hanging over the edge. He inches between them, tearing off my underwear, his face diving between my thighs. My back arches when his hot, needy mouth covers my clit and I let out a deep groan that isn’t attractive, not even a little bit. It is a hungry growl. He props my ass up and widens my legs until they’re pressing down on either side of my stomach. He dives back down and assaults my clit with his tongue. His finger dives inside of me as his mouth kisses, sucks, and licks all over my clit. Slowly, he runs his tongue across to my inner thigh and bites down on it
roughly. My eyes snap open in shock. It hurt a little, but it turned me on more. The pulsing pain from his bite begins to throb over my clit and I rock my hips into his feasting mouth. He growls a deep, predatorial growl that shakes the flesh on my thighs before slowly grazing his teeth over my clit. My breathing stops for a few seconds. He better fucking not…
He does. Biting down on it with a pressured but well-controlled snap before his skilled tongue slides over my pulsing nub, wanting more, needing more, starving like a dried out crack whore, she needs Raze and all his over-the-top domineering shit. I bring my hand to his chest and that’s when I feel how soaked it is.
I know it isn’t raining, and I know the smell of blood. He just killed someone. Something deep inside of me roars to life and my heart pounds against my chest. This killer, not just any killer, the fricking killer, is eating the shit out of my clit. It brings me a sick kind of pleasure to know that I can, quite literally, bring this beast to his knees. His tongue dives inside of me and the walls inside of my pussy tighten around the invasion just as fireworks explode behind my eyes and hot sweat oozes out of my pores.
Standing, he rips off his belt buckle and pulls down his jeans before crawling over my body onto the bed. “I fucking need you, baby. You and only you.” He drops himself in-between my thighs and I bring my nose to his chiseled jaw.
“Then take me, Raze. I’m yours.”
With a hiss escaping his lips, he pushes inside of me slowly. I hook my hand around the back of his neck and keep my eyes on his. Even though it’s dark in here, there’s some light that’s cracking out from the hallway so I can see the outline of his features and eyes. His eyes remain locked on mine as he slowly pulls out, my pussy clinging to his departure and he groans again. Shit, the way he’s looking at me and the pace he’s taking this, it’s making my stomach flip and my insides flutter. Raze doesn’t do deep sex; he fucks and he fucks hard. But this is different and new. His skin slaps against mine as our sweat and moans mix together. Circling his dick inside of me, his pelvic bone rubs across my clit in slippery movements and I latch my legs around his waist.