Beguile

Chapter 67

"You were going to kill me." I finally said, then his eyes went wide as if my words were too much, too absurd for this situation.

"It's not like that." His eyes briefly narrowed, changed to a subtle plea of understanding. "It's about saving, my goddess."

"You know I've already stained my hands-"

"That's why I'm not letting it go further... I'm willing-" He clenched his jaw, putting a palm up to his chest to show his conviction. "I'm willing to change that. I'm willing to accept you whether how many atrocities you've committed. I'm willing to save you!"

He swallowed hard, the gulp echoing like a suppressed plea.

Yet it screams like a blame across my ears. Like I'm at fault, emphasizing a murderer when he too does the same.

No matter what God he believes in, taking a life is murder.

The taste of revolt lingered in the tip of my tongue, but I pressed on, concealing the tempest within. Yet the mix of curiosity and obsession overpowered whatever fear I have left.

Obsessed with the idea that I can't seem to read them despite memorizing their files, their life, their crimes.

I want to keep them. To watch them longer.

So I can't die yet.

"You're going to change?" I asked, repeating his words.

"My beliefs, I'll change them if it means to save you."

"Whether how many atrocities I'd commit?"

"Yes." Hope sparkled in his eyes, and he clasped his hands together as if his prayers have come true.

"Then..." I lingered. The zip-ties etching in my skin, a reminder that he has control over my body. And if dissent were to color his response, a flung of a paddle will all it takes to kill me. But in the eloquence of his actions- the subtle tremble of his hands and the repeated gulps- unspoken victory already hung in the air. "You won't mind if I'll commit more atrocities that you've spoken of, won't you?."

His eyes widened, a silent gasp escaping his lips. "M-my goddess?"

He stuttered. Days from now he won't be calling me that name anymore, instead he'd find me the devil that would shake down his beliefs.

"But... What would I get for waiting?" He pondered.

My eyes fixed on him, a gentle tilt of my head, and a subtle nod accompanied my words. "I'd keep my skin clear of flaws, and you- you can do whatever you want, anything that won't kill me."

"Like what?"

"You can be as close as you want."

"Touch you- uh..." He looked down to his feet. Squeezing his eyelids shut from the slip of his tongue, a blush staining the edge of his ears adding to his charming awkwardness. "That is... if you'd allow me."

"Of course." An impish grin tug on my lips. "How 'bout you fulfill your end of the deal right now?"

My words hold no other meaning but to convince him to free me. So when he decides I'm better off as a decor, then I can at least try to fight back.

But he didn't do that, even among the other possible situations I imagined to happen.

Instead, he subtly retreated, shifting his weight backwards as if the ground beneath him momentarily tilted.

A curious tension hung in my shoulders. My grin gone to a complete gloom, not reading whatever he's thinking.

Suddenly, his gaze moved to mine.

He traced an unabashed journey to my body -searing into my flesh like lasers. Devouring every curve and contour as if trying to etch my image into the recesses of his desire.

I can feel the heavy weight of his gaze -locked up, caged- yet like a bird , my heart flattered in the tantalizing allure.

"To touch you..." His words were tinged with disbelief. "I can." He announced like it's something important to note.

He extended his hand, touching the air as if it's my skin itself. His fingers danced with elegance, caressing it, until they distorted into the monster that he is.

Both hands were desperate to strangle, that veins popped out of his arms - an alien in his porcelain-like skin. Yet there's a coil in my guts that's far from fear.

"You've become too bold." He whipped his eyes to mine. And I jumped, a gasp leaving my lips. "Being with them is no less than a curse and it'll continue to spread until you part from them."

"But you'll save me still." I shuddered at the thought, yet it flowed in my tongue like a script.

"Yes." He answered without hesitation, before he added. "Then, you're saying you're willing to go into their grasp despite everything?"

I didn't get to answer when he picked up Cody's head like a fragile ornament. And I began to imagine if that's my head instead, wondering if I'd become a lamp or a blanket he'd cuddle in his bed.

Another anxious coil weaved in my guts. The back of my head swirling with butterflies at the thought of cuddling with him.

"Then I'll let you have him." He held up the rotting head in my face. "I'll let you suck out his innocence, to lessen the curse occupying from your body. The curse that you got from them devils."

I recoiled. The scent no longer bothers me but the scene of a decaying macabre will likely unfold to be a never-ending nightmare for nights to come.

Im a murderer, but rotting flesh is a whole 'nother level.

"It's a promise."

My thoughts were interrupted when he spoke. And instead of eyeing the hollow sockets of the dead, I stared on Rie's instead.

"Make a promise that you'll be mine after everything's done."

"Everything?" I wondered.

"Yes, for whatever purpose you have to do in this mortal world, until then, you'll come to me. Me and no one else."

I nodded, agreeing to his condition, but it's a promise I'll likely break.

He held it up in front of me.

Closing the distance until it's cold, waxy texture touch my lips. There was no pulse, and an eerie dryness as if the essence of moisture have abandoned them.

It felt like hours, that when I opened my eyes in frustration I ended up staring on its hollow eye-sockets that gaped like dark voids. The skin, a parchment-like texture, stretch taut over the skeletal frame. And I can't help but imagine, that this'll will be my head soon.

As I parted on my communion with the dead, I come to realize that it has been a mistake.
His face of deceit crumbled. A cruel smile twisted his lips.

And right then I found, that the kiss of the dead was an irrevocable seal that bounds us for life and beyond.

-----------------------------------------

Don't forget to VOTE. (⁠θ⁠‿⁠θ⁠)