Inner Horror

by L. A. Tafe

  Quivering just a few feet from what is left of Chester’s scorched cinder of a body, Jezebeth gets to her feet, just barely able to stand up through the agony caused by wounds I can’t see. She takes a few steps before crashing to the ground, something hitting her in the back, driving knocking her form her feet, dead before she even hits the ground.

  The images in Jezebeth’s eyes fade as quickly as they came, replaced by the lifeless gray once again. “Now that is a man,” Jezebeth says in a mocking tone. “It’s to bad about Him . . .” She pauses, letting her words sink in. What have they done with Oliver?

  “What have you done with Oliver?” I growl. Chester presses down on the blade of the axe, making it cut even deeper into my flesh. Blood now seeping out steadily. “We didn’t do anything to him.” Jezebeth says with a giggle. Chester takes his eyes off me for a second, shooting Jezebeth a look, a look that tells me she has said too much.

  Jezebeth looks hurt for a moment then continues on talking, she must love hearing her own voice.

  “That’s enough small talk for now. Time to have some fun with you.” She says, running her claws down the side of my face. “Grown into such a handsome young man you have. Makes this all the more pleasurable.” Jezebeth says, flicking one of her talons across my face, tearing deep into the soft flesh.

  I bare my teeth, grunting in pain, struggling in Chester’s grasp trying to break free but to no success. Jezebeth kisses the fresh blood pouring from my cheek, her tongue like ice on my skin.

  I feel her talons upon my chest, each of the sharp tips searching for a second before piercing my skin, skewering me in ten different spots, tearing into the muscles and my lungs. I cough and gasp for breath, spluttering blood as I do. I thrash violently, in too much pain to care about the blade against my neck or Chester’s ever tightening grip on my neck. Fighting against the blood in my throat, I cry out. yelling at the top of my lungs as Jezebeth drives her claws even deeper into my chest.

  “Mmmm, that’s the cry I was waiting for!” Jezebeth moans, Chester now laughing, deep like a pounding drum. I continue to fight, lashing out at them as best I can, hardly able to think of what I'm aiming for. But fighting against Chester’s massive girth is pointless. They have me. Unless . . .

  Dream Amy’s words come to me, close your eyes! Chester digs the blade deeper into my throat, now through my skin and against my windpipe ready to slice right through.

  I smile at Chester and his face contorts with rage in response. “You dare smile!” I feel the blade cut into my windpipe. But it doesn’t matter, I close my eyes and all the pain subsides, no longer am I pinned down, I am standing with my eyes closed and I can hear Amy’s voice. Something is wrong.

  Amy is looking at me, saying something I can’t make out, her words seem distant and mumbled. She looks so worried. Where the fuck am I? Wind rushes past me on all sides, chilling my skin slightly. My balance feels off, my body is rigid, tense. I try to look around me but I can’t, my body won’t obey me. What the hell is going on?

  Again I try to look around me, fighting with my own muscles to look down. Finally they obey and I see that I am standing on the edge of a building, several stories up above a parking lot, the library parking lot.

  I look at Amy, slowly she moves towards me, her hands raised in the air as if pleading with me. I try to go to her, try to step off the ledge I am on and get away from the edge. But my body doesn’t obey, instead a sharp pain shoots through my head, blurring my vision, Amy’s distant pleading voice leaves for a moment then returns.

  My eyes clear and I see Amy, hot tears streaming down her face, I have never seen her so upset and it kills me inside. Why am I up here? What is happening?

  Amy’s voice gets louder and now I can understand what se is saying.

  “Lance! Please don’t do this!” She begs, her voice cracking upon each word. “Please, baby. Step down. Please!”

  I try to step down from the ledge, desperately fight with my body to step down and go to her. An even greater pain than before ensues, driving me into darkness. “IT’S MINE!” is the last thing I hear, the voice sounds just like Amy.

  Pain is the first thing I feel, the same crippling pain Jezebeth had inflicted with her claws. “Thought you could get away, boy?” Chester bellows, picking me up off of the table by my neck, slamming me again and again, pummeling me into a bloody mess. Finally the tabletop collapses in on itself, driving right against the ground and upon one of the mangled metal table legs, piercing me through my back and out through my stomach with a jagged end sticking out.

  Before I can take a breath, Chester picks me up once again, hurling me across the library into a large oak bookcase. The impact causes the hutch to explode, burying me in rubble.

  “Lance!” Amy's words ring in my ears. I open my eyes just slightly and can see her hazy outline. “Please, stop! Let me go!” She screams at me, my fingers closing around her throat. I shake her viciously as I squeeze her throat. What the fuck is happening?! Stop it! Let her go!

  My fingers loosen up and Amy takes in a hard breath. Pain hits me again and I am not strong enough to fight it. My eyes close again and I hear Amy scream.

  I hear Jezebeth and Chester, their hysterical laughter muffled slightly by the rubble I’m buried in. My whole body is on fire, electrified by an intense agony that numbs and tortures all at the same time. I can’t move. It hurts too much. Amy.

  I close my eyes again, not strong enough to take hold of my body but strong enough to see what is happening and feel my limbs just barely. I see Amy crying hysterically with her hands over her face, fresh bruises on her neck. I feel a jerk in my shoulders and realize my hands are pinned behind me by someone.

  My body struggles with whoever is restraining me, fighting to get back to Amy. I can feel how much I want to hurt her, but it isn’t me.

  I fight to speak, withstanding the sharp pain in my head that follows. “Amy!” I moan, just barely loud enough for her to hear. I see her body go rigid at the sound of my voice. “Amy!” I say again, barely a whisper this time. The stabbing pain hits again and my vision blurs. She looks up at me, looking right into my eyes, seeing something. “Lance?”

  My vision doesn’t return, with one last bit of strength I manage to speak one more time before losing myself to my dreams once again as the agonizing pain drives me away. “Amy, stay away.”

  Buried in the rubble once again, the throbbing pain hitting full force, gasping for each breath like a panting dog. My body is cold, so weak. I am barely able to stay conscious let alone move. With each passing wave of agony my nerve begins to give way. Ready to give myself over to my nightmares. Ready to let Lancifer win.

  My body begins to go numb, getting colder and colder. My thoughts begin to grow scattered and senseless. All of the pain begins to leave me, replaced by no feeling at all. Amy’s face appears in my head. That last look she gave me before saying my name. There I was ready to kill her and she looked so worried, so compassionate. How could she love someone that is so fucked up?

  Lancifer will kill her. You can’t let him. With the thought, a numbing warmth sweeps over my body, what’s left of my senses can feel it taking hold. Sweeping over the pain, squelching it all together. Something drives me to move my fingers and toes, gives me the strength to open my eyes to see bits of light poking in through the rubble. The same thoughts pay over and over in my head. Kill him. Kill all of them. Again and again the words repeat. A crazed rage burns within me. A self-assurance I didn’t know I had, the will to kill. I think of Oliver, how Jezebeth showed me how he killed. Effortlessly. Devoid of all emotion. That same strength is within me. And now I have it. It’s time for my revenge. I need to save Amy.

  I burst from the rubble, standing up without any trouble. Jezebeth and Chester are right where I left them, next to the caved in table. “You should be dead!” Jezebeth screams, a tinge of fear in her voice. My wounds heal themselves as they watch, each and every one of them sealing right up.

  Chester doesn’
t waste any time. He rushes me with his big axe raised to strike. Barreling through everything in his path, a wrecking ball of a man coming right at me. I pull the jagged table leg from my stomach with only a quick sharp pain. The wound healing as the metal comes out. I launch the table leg at Chester, hitting him just below the knee, causing him to crash to the ground. The impact shakes the ground beneath us and I smile at Jezebeth. Taking off down the nearest aisle of books. Jezebeth lets out a blood-curdling cry and I know she is already in pursuit.

  I turn down row after row, winding my way through the library till I reach the longest one aisle. Chester shows up right on time, appearing in front of me at the end of the row with his axe in hand and a fresh bloody wound below his left knee. He looks even more pissed off than before. I look behind me and see Jezebeth at the other end of the aisle, walking slowly towards me. Perfect.

  I turn back to face Chester and he begins to speak. “What did you think, boy? That we would just let you go?” Chester continues in a taunting tone. “Your body is ours now. Lancifer is the rightful owner. And through him, all of us will live.”

  Jezebeth creeps up on me and whispers in my ear, “Just give up, sweetheart, and I promise I’ll come visit you and Jack if Lancifer decides to cage you. I know you loved having me all those years ago.” She sticks her tongue inside my ear and cackles. I turn to look at her. Her lifeless eyes peering into mine. I smile at her and put my arms around her hips, pulling her body into my own, feeling her bony, rigid body against mine.

  I press my lips against hers, kissing her gently, guiding my tongue past into her mouth as I her cold body closer to me. For a moment she fights begins to pull away before relaxing in my embrace, practically swooning as my hand grabs her ass.

  Chester is behind me yelling, hollering at the top of his lungs in frenzy. “You fucking bitch!” The ground shakes as he begins to charge down the aisle. I take a hand from Jezebeth’s back, putting it behind me, giving Chester the finger. His steps become even heavier, shaking the ground even more as he gets closer and closer.

  My tongue glides back up Jezebeth’s, tasting like ash. I end our kiss, nudging my cheek against hers as I whisper in her ear, “go fuck yourself.”

  Jezebeth’s doesn’t have a chance to react before I seize her, taking her in both hands, throwing her effortlessly down the isle at Chester. Bones shatter as they collide; more Jezebeth’s thank Chester’s. With my thoughts I cause the aisle to crash down around them, burying them in books and heavy bookcases. The surrounding bookcases fall like dominoes, rattling the whole library like an earthquake.

  In the chaos, two shelves begin to fall towards me. I reach for each of them as they topple, each of them turn to dust as I touch them, burying me while the crashing continues around me.

  When the floor stops shaking and the sounds of the crashing ceases, I let out a deep breath, blowing away the dust that encased me, revealing the remaining rubble that once was aisle after aisle of bookcases.

  I climb over toppled oak shelves and books upon books, looking for the perfect piece of splintered wood, one long and thick enough to be the perfect spear. I find it just in time for Jezebeth to crawl out of the rubble that covered her, getting to her feet and trying to stumble away.

  I turn and launch the piece of wood like a javelin, watching it fly through the air perfectly. Piercing right through Jezebeth’s chest, driving her into the wall behind her. I stare at her for a second, watching tears fall down her blank face. Hanging there, looking as lifeless as her eyes.

  “Chester!” I call out. “Ohhhh, Chester!” Waiting in the silence, listening for movement. Chester bursts out of what remains of a bookshelf, his axe in his hands, stumbling over debris to get to me. His fat body cut up and bruised everywhere. His wounds dripping blood over everything he tramples.

  When he reaches me, he takes a swipe at me with his axe, the blade aimed right for my head, but it’s to slow. I grab the handle just below the blade before it can reach its mark. Taking a hard kick at Chester’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him, causing him to fall to the ground gasping for air.

  He looks up at me as I put the axe to his neck, “How’s it feel to kill, boy?” He splutters, blood dribbling form his mouth. “Your not real.” I tell him as I bring the axe up. “In here, we are just as real as you, boy.” He coughs, a smile stretching across his face. I bring down the axe, beheading him in one simple motion. Satisfying a need that has risen inside me.

  Chester’s body lays motionless for a moment before bursting, shadows explode from where his body once was, and then disintegrate into nothing. I look up searching for Jezebeth, wondering if her body had done the same thing. But she is no longer pinned against the wall, the spear lays on the ground, blood covering the tip where Jezebeth once was.

  “She isn’t here anymore. Your safe.” I turn and throw the axe towards the voice. It’s Oliver. The axe hits him, the blade snaps into two pieces while the wooden shaft shatters. Oliver moves towards me unfazed, like the axe never hit him. Anger wells up inside me. Along with that same need to kill I just satisfied.

  “Where the fuck have you been?” I say, disdain clear in my voice. “I thought you are supposed to protect me?” I add.

  “I was busy making sure Amy didn’t hurl you off the library.” Oliver responds, his voice is as cold as Jezebeth’s. “You what?” I stammer. Did he have control of my body? Is He was the one who attacked Amy!? My anger grows inside me as I feel for all the wood splinters and books behind me with my mind, making them rise off the ground slightly, ready to be hurled at Oliver.

  “Amy tried to kill you.” Oliver says, the same cold tone. “Amy didn’t do shit to me! I saw it! You tried to kill me! You had control!” I begin to rant. “You tried to kill her!” I add. Wood splinters and books rise into the air behind me.

  “You think I had control?” Oliver says contemptuously. “Amy had control, you fool. Lancifer’s pet Amy.” I let the makeshift missiles fall to the ground, no longer concerned with Oliver. Dream Amy is my new target. “Wake up and see for yourself.” Oliver tells me. But I have already shut my eyes, opening them to a world of shit.

  CHAPTER NINE

  I wake with my arms on a small table, my head laid down on top of them. Dream Amy must have gone to sleep. I look around the room, having no idea where I am. A small room with pale yellow walls, a simple gray door, and no windows. Nothing but a metal fold out chair I'm sitting on and a small metal table with fold out legs in front of me. I notice a security camera looking down on me from one of the corners of the room and I begin to realize where I am. When I try to move my arms my suspicions are answer. I have handcuffs on. I’m in jail.

  Things quickly begin to click into place. A cop was cuffing me when I spoke with Amy. Someone must have called them when I was about to jump and they got there around the time I tried to kill Amy. I can’t believe I hurt her. No. It was Dream Amy. Not me. And she will pay. The self-assured rage begins to flourish within me, filling me with the same warmth it had before.

  I wait in the little room for what seems like a long time, no one coming in, only the occasional muffled voice or the sound of footsteps are heard from the other side of the gray door. Finally some footsteps stop at the door and in comes a man with closely cropped hair and a look of disgust on his face. The look is for me. Looking down on me like an insect he rather grind under his boot than speak to.

  “We finally got a hold of your parents,” The officer says, voice loud and slightly threatening. “They are coming down to get you.”

  I nod in at the officer, looking down at the table, unable to bring myself to look at him. I’m embarrassed to be here. I shouldn’t be here.

  The officer closes the door behind him and I look up at him now. His eyes narrow to glaring slits and his face contorts into a strained calm, anger burning just below the surface. “You think you’re a big fucking man strangling that little girl?” His voice is like a yelled whisper, like he is doing everything he can from flying right int
o me. “Just a few more months boy and you would be thrown in jail. Oh, there’s a special place in prison for guys like you.”

  His tone never changes and it scares me. This man seems like he is going to snap at any second and ring my neck. But my eyes never leave his, giving back the same stare. I think I even have a smug grin on my face.

  “Stay out of trouble, son. Or ill make sure you get a cell with a guy who’d love to fuck you up.” The officer holds my stare for a moment more then storms out, slamming the door behind him. Leaving me alone in the tiny room, the same smug smile on my face.

  The next officer to come opens the door and motions for me to follow him, never says a word to me. With my hands cuffed behind my back, the officer holds me by one of my arms with a firm grip, leading me down hallways till we reach the front of the police station. My parents are here, the looks on their faces a mix of anger and embarrassment. Neither of them look at me as I am uncuffed, they just turn around and walk out the front doors. I follow them to the car, all of us getting in quickly and driving off.

  The drive home is more of the same, no talking or acknowledging that I'm in the car. My mother finally talks to me when we get inside the house, telling me to go up to my room and “your father” will be up to talk to you.

  I go up the stairs without a word, opening the door to my room and seeing the mess from Lancifer’s joyride. Fuckin’A. I sigh and close the door behind, tripping over a bottle as I make my way to my bed.

  I don’t even have a chance to sit down before Dad comes in, slamming the door shut behind him with enough force to rattle the frame. He doesn’t waste any time, just lays right into me. “Don’t say a fucking word, got it?” He starts. I just nod. Seems like nodding is best at the moment.

  “You are no child anymore, not some fucking kid that can get away with shit like this.” I open my mouth to talk but he screams at me, “Shut the fuck up!” I shut my mouth and he continues, “You have done nothing but break this family apart for years now! And look at you! You look like a fucking freak! Have we really been this bad of parents?!” Oh here we go. but he just pauses and his voice changes, similar to the officer that ripped me a new one in the small room back at the police station. “How could you hurt that poor fucking girl?!”