Gemini: A Psychological Horror

by Stuart Keane

She’s to blame.

  She played you like a fucking violin. And you fell for it.

  He chuckled, dumbfounded by her effortless ploy. He couldn’t help but admire it a little, a sense of begrudging respect started to boil deep down, but it didn’t excuse the blatant display of vulgar behaviour that she had shown him. He sniffed again, the stale urine tickling his nostrils.

  “Fuck sake, Shay. You got me a good un.”

  “I did, didn’t I?”

  Steve yelped, the husky voice sending a ripple of ungodly fear down his spine like a lightning bolt, and igniting every inch of skin into immediate goose flesh. He fought against his bonds for a second before calming down. The sweat and urine concoction lightly splashed the bed around him, spattering the floor with soft, hollow plonks.

  “Shay?”

  “The one and only.”

  “You … you came back?”

  “Yes. And I’m sorry, I’ve left you here for three days. How selfish of me.”

  Steve composed himself. Get out of this. Deal with her later.

  “It’s fine. Whatever floats your boat, I suppose? I would say I’m happy to see you but … well, I’m naked. You can see that’s a lie.”

  “Indeed. I should have left one arm free. Silly me.”

  “Well, what’s done is done. Can you untie me, please?”

  “What’s the safe word?”

  “Safe word?” Shit, Steve thought. I don’t remember a safe word.

  “Erm…”

  “You utter the safe word and I’ll let you go.”

  Fuck. Steve tried to shuffle up the bed a little, the edge of the pillow was now digging between his shoulder blades. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember the safe word.”

  “Well, that’s a shame. You ain’t going anywhere.”

  “Please, Shay, it’s been days. I need some –”

  “Only kidding. We didn’t have a safe word. You should have seen your face.”

  Steve glanced around, his nerves fraying a little, trying to locate the origin of the voice. His eyes narrowed against the shallow darkness of the curtained bedroom, confused. “Where are you? I can’t see you…”

  “I’m here.”

  “Well, can I see you? Now the fun is over, maybe we can go and grab a bite to eat?”

  “Sounds good.”

  Steve saw a flicker of movement from the corner of the room. Of course! She’s sitting in my armchair. I hope she didn’t crease my shirts, he thought, remembering he used the chair as a temporary clothes holder. I need a wardrobe. He laughed, thinking it obscene that such a mundane thought was entering his mind at a time like this.

  Shay stopped, just short of revealing herself. The shadows settled once more and curled around her like a deep shroud; he saw no shape or figure.

  “I still can’t see you.”

  “Maybe that’s what I wanted. I remember you liked to be … teased.”

  You can say that again, he thought. He shook his head. “Shay, I need to get out of these bonds. I think I’m losing the feeling in my extremities. The pins and needles are torturous.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Well, if you let me free. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

  “Sounds like a promise a girl can’t refuse.”

  Steve nodded. Come on, come on…

  “Yes, it is.” He licked his lips. “Trust me.”

  “Well, okay…”

  Shay stepped into the light. Steve finally smiled, happy to see her face.

  Until he realised just what he was looking at.

  Steve screamed, his voice enough to offend even the deafest of ear drums.

  Shay had her eyes closed. Well, one anyway.

  The other was missing completely, the left side of her face pummelled into a pink, fleshy mound. A grotesque groove cut into her face at an acute angle, starting beside her mouth and curving up above her nose, and that’s when he realised a large chunk of her head was actually missing. Her now-blonde hair was flopped across her forehead, but only on the right side – his left – of her head. Her mouth was open, her tongue limp and inert.

  And she had no neck. Or body.

  In fact, Shay seemed to grow in height, to tower over him, and that’s when he realised that a second person, another woman, was holding Shay’s mutilated, decapitated head in her trembling hands. The severed cranium seemed to rise and rise, and then rolled to the side before disappearing altogether. A wooden thud shattered the silence and Steve realised that Shay’s head had been tossed across the room.

  A brunette woman stepped into the light.

  On a different day, she could have been beautiful, stunning even. Steve groaned, wondering if he’d ever been in the presence of such a gorgeous woman in his life.

  But now?

  Her face was a mass of swollen welts and puffy bruises. One wide brown eye stared at him through the multiple blemishes, the other swollen shut. The eyelids resembled a closed mouth, two huge puffy lips. Her savaged chin was streaked with black flecks of what Steve assumed to be dried blood. Her mouth twitched, and he realised she was trying to smile.

  “Hello,” she said. “What’s that? Oh, yes. He’s in a very compromising position.”

  Steve watched the woman, confused. “Why … please, let me go.”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “Why wouldn’t you? I’m a prisoner in my own home.”

  “Oh? If I know Shay, and I think I do … did … then you were the one who suggested this when she whispered sweet nothings in your ear.”

  Steve groaned. “How … how …”

  “We were kind of close.” The woman stared at the head on the floor. “Once.”

  “You killed her though, right?”

  “In a manner of speaking,” she rasped.

  “Please…”

  “I’m not letting you go, and no amount of pleading will convince me. What? Yes, yes, I know. Stop it, let me do my thing.” The woman flinched, slapping herself in the head.

  “Why?”

  “Because I said so. Huh? Oh, for fuck sake, all right. Listen … Steve, is it? My friend in my head told me to tell you that you’re going to die.” She looked off to the side. “There, you happy? Yes, I called you a friend. Jeez.”

  Steve yelped, a low whimper. “You’re insane.”

  “I know,” she said, smiling. “I have it on good authority that talking to yourself is the first sign of such a personality trait. And … well, look what I’m doing.”

  Steve glanced left and right. “Let me go. You can’t do this.”

  “Oh, I can. And I might not have agreed with her ways, but I’m here to finish Shay’s work.”

  “Work?” Steve rattled his bonds as a spray of urine dribbled from his flaccid penis. “What? What … what is that?”

  Odette smiled, her one eye roaming over his naked form. “Oh, trust me. You’re about to find out.”