Satanicus Part Two
By: Matt Wall
I didn't wait to dry off. I walk out of the bathroom and right before I get to my room, I hear Miss Kat calling, "Anne, come here please. There is someone that I would like you to meet."
Dread fills my soul. I do not want to meet another one of Miss Kat's crazy friends. I go anyway. If I don't, she will just bring them in my room and that would be worse. My hair is still dripping and I'm getting water all over the floor. This too, Miss Kat, will not like.
Miss Kat is standing with three men in suits. They are Japanese, I think. Miss Kat smiles and presents me like a prize on a game show and the men don't smile, but they seem more pleased then they were when I first walked out.
Something is happening. I don't like the way they are looking at me. There is a feeling…
The men bowed at me and then to Miss Kat and quickly left the room.
"Thank you, Mr. Yamamoto." Miss Kat's eyes turned furious. She stormed over to me with her high heels clicking loudly. "You really need to lighten up. People are going to start to freak out at the sight of you!" She turned and left me standing alone, soaking wet, wrapped in a towel.
I walk into the kitchen and pick up some fruit. I bite into the apple and hold the peach in my other hand. I sit at a table to the left of the room. Over my crunching, I guess, I didn't hear or realize that Meagan was sitting across from me. She is the token ginger in the mansion.
"It's good to see you eating again," she says, in a soft and pleasant voice. "I'm glad you can eat now. We were worried about you."
I finally chewed the apple piece in my mouth enough to swallow it. For some reason, I say nothing.
"So, where did it happen?"
I tilt my head toward the foyer and take another bite.
"That must have been so hard for you."
I nodded.
"Was he lying face down?"
I look at her and shrug. I don't want to talk about it anymore, or at all for that matter. She doesn't seem to understand and she is too sweet for me to tell her that she is being rude.
"Was he like this?" Meagan gets up and walks across the room and lays on the floor.
I don't know how she did it, but she was laying in the exact same position Gene was in when the police came…
Meagan wasn't moving. She should have gotten up by now. Anger wells up in me and I walk over to her in a huff and give her a good kick in the side. She doesn't move. She doesn't make a sound.
I scream.
Wait, is that my mother? She is on the other side of the room. She looks to be floating; not in space, but underwater. Every movement she makes seems like one made by a mermaid. She is waving her arms, shaking her head and mouth one word, "No."
How is my mother floating here? My mother has been dead for years.
The next thing I know, I'm sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall. I'm just a few feet from Meagan's body. There are detectives here. I don't know how long they've been here. One of them is tall and wide. He has a fedora, a trench coat on and a stubbly beard. The other detective was shorter and nicer looking. He is neat and well kept. They both look at me and I realize that I am still in the towel, but dry. I must have been here for hours.
The nice one motions to me to come to him, but I freeze. I can feel my eyes bugging out of my skull. I probably look like a lunatic…
"Could you come here, please?" he asks. Then, he smiles and his teeth are bright and straight. "We just want to make sure that you're all right."
I want to get up. I want to go to him, but my body isn't listening to me.
The big scary one then blurts, "To hell with this." He storms over to me and before I can do anything, he grabs a fistful of my hair and drags me across the room. I kick my legs and scream. One hand tries to free myself from his grip while the other tries in vain attempts to hold my towel in place. He finally lets go once I am at the feet of the nice looking one. Then, he barks at me, "Spill it! What the hell happened?"
Before I can say anything, while I am wiping the tears from my eyes, he stomps his foot right next to me. "This is crap," he shouts.
Then, the nice looking one, squats down to my level and talks quietly. "This would be a lot easier if you helped us. Did you see who did this?"
I shake my head.
"Was there someone else here?"
I nod, then shrug.
"Jesus!" shouted the mean one. He looks at Miss Kat and asks, "How many girls stay here?"
Miss Kat has a far away look in her eyes. "It's impossible to say."
The mean one scoffs and says, "Of course it is."
The nice one put his hand on my bare shoulder and spoke softly to me again. "Did you see the person's face?
I thought about it. I can't remember if I did or not. I can't even remember what happened exactly. I shook my head in the negative.
"I call bullshit!" The mean one shouts. He points his fat, sausage shaped finger at me and says, "I think you did this. We all know what happened to your boyfriend."
The tears began again. I shook my head uncontrollably. They couldn't possibly think that I would do something like this, would they?
The nice one tries to rescue me. "That's enough, man."
"Don't you freaking start with me."
"Back off!" The nice one stood up and put his hands on the other, pushing him back away from me. He looks towards me and asks, "Could the two of us go to your room and talk about this?"
I nod. He reaches his hand out for mine and I take it.
The two of us sit on the foot of my bed. We are extremely close to one another. I can feel my heart beat faster. He smiles and says, "I know this is very scary for you, but if you don't tell us what you know, we won't be able to help you in what happens next. Do you understand?"
I nod.
"I don't think you did anything wrong. My partner though, he just wants to pin a murder on you so he can close a case." He licks his lips. "But me, when I look at you I get this feeling of innocence and purity. It makes me want to…" he leans in with his eyes closed and smells my hair. "…oh, god…" he runs his fingers through my hair. "You are beautiful. You know that right?"
He doesn't give me a chance to answer.
"I'll tell you what, you're gonna need a friend through this. I want to be that friend. Can I be your friend?"
I didn't know what he meant exactly.
"Can I? Can I be your friend?" He licks his lips again. "If I can, just give me a little kiss. Right here. On my mouth."
I don't know what to do. I hesitate, but, I nervously lean towards him.
"That's right. I'm your friend. That's it. On my mouth."
As soon as my lips were close to his he kisses me. He grabs my face and presses his against me so hard that I thought my teeth would break. He pulls back and whispers, "Tell me the truth. Did you kill her?"
Tears roll down my cheeks and I say, "No."
He lays me back on the bed and open my towel. His eyes run up and down my naked body, as I shiver from the chill. His fingertip traces down my lips, between my breasts, passed my navel, then he stops. He traces a circle there with his finger and then stares at it, as if he drew something.
"That's the spot," he says, then is on his feet and walking out the bedroom door. I wrap up and follow him out, mainly out of curiosity. He begins to talk to his partner before even entering the room. "She didn't do it. We are looking for a male. Five-foot-six, probably." He looks at Miss Kat and snaps his fingers. "Do you have a doctor on site?"
"There could be one here in minutes," Miss Kat says.
"There is a good possibility that she was sexually assaulted. You need to have her examined immediately." He finally notices me standing there. He walks over and kisses me softly. "Get some rest." And just like that, the two detectives were gone.
Miss Kat eyes me with disgust. "A cop? Really?" She walks to the phone and I can hear her as I walk back to my room. "Doctor? … Yes, it's happened again… I don't care what you're doing, just get over here, now!"
I lay in my bed and try to get some sleep. It seemed impossible. My brain keeps telling me horrible things. I keep seeing girls in the house jumping out at me and telling me that everything I my fault. I keep imagining that every door I open leads into darkness and at any moment, someone or something can explode towards me out of that blackness and swallow me up.
My bedroom door flies open and I gasp. Miss Kat walks in like an avalanche and says, "What's wrong with you, Anne? The doctor is here!" She motions me to get out of bed and the look in her eyes tells me that she isn't playing around. I can hear a man down the hall. He sounds unnerved.
"I'm telling you, I don't have anything with me. Today is my day off. I have a life!"
"In here!" Miss Kat shouts. "And you have no life, doctor. Not without me, and don't you forget it." She points to me and says as if I'm not there. "Examine her."
The doctor looks around my room nervously. He rubs his hands together as if doing so will magically send him somewhere else. He fakes a smile at me and I send him the same one back. "You must be the poor girl that the horrible thing happened to."
He pauses, waiting for someone to say something. When no one does, he seems more nervous than before, if that is even possible. "Go ahead and lay back," he says, "like normal. Just relax."
I do what he asks. He sits at the foot of the bed and places one of his sweaty palms on my knee.
"I said, relax, meaning spread them a bit for me, sweetie." He points to my legs and motions that I need to open them for him. I don't like this. I don't like this at all.
I do what he asks but he seems preoccupied and doesn't even look at me. He looks around the room as if he is looking for something he put down only seconds before. "Miss Kat," he says, "I don't have any tools, or gloves or a speculum or anything!" He turns to me and smiles. "I am really very sorry. You see, I didn't know that I would be with patients today. I was going to go golfing, as real doctors do, and then I get this call, and I'm over here. I am never this unprepared. It is very unprofessional."
I say nothing and this makes him nervous and he clears his throat. "I'm sorry, I'll have to use my bare hands. It is a bit unsanitary, but under the circumstances that might be the least of your concerns." He fakes another smile then over his shoulder he shouts to Miss Kat, "I need something sharp! And long! I need to scrape it! How about a knife? A large kitchen knife should do the trick." He looks at me with that same face, "That really sounds a lot worse than it is. Really."
Miss Kat came back in and looked annoyed with me. She hands him a really big knife. I have seen it before, in the kitchen. My chest pounds.
The doctor looks at the knife and thanks her for it, then he looks at me and something changes in his eyes. I don't know what, but, he seemed to not be so nervous anymore. "Now, Anne, this will most likely be horribly painful."
Was that a smile? Did he just grin?
The pain is excruciating. I won't show him that it hurts. My breathing is heavier, but I make no sound.
Suddenly, there is an odd look on the doctors face. He looks surprised by something.
"Oh dear," he says. He swallows hard and I see sweat beading on his forehead. "Anne, I'm going to need you to hold your legs back as far as you can." He puts his hand behind my knee and pushes my leg towards me. While he does this he looks over his shoulder, screaming out, "Miss Kat! Come in here! All of you! Now!" He retches, then says, "There is something that all of you have to see…"
I sit in the shower, hugging my knees tightly to my chest, letting the hot water run all over me. I watch as the red water that flows away from me, slowly turns pink as the minutes pass. I cry, but I don't mind. I like to cry in the shower. The water makes it loud enough so most people wouldn't be able to hear me.
The water leaving my body, clears up for the most part and I get out of the shower. I dry myself off, conscious to not hurt myself where I have been injured, and as I do, I see something; something that wasn't there when I got in the shower.
On the mirror, in red lipstick, there are not two letters, but four. G, A, O, R.
The shower curtain flies open and Grier runs passed me shouting, "Ears! Ears! Get the hell out of here! Are you deaf?" She slams the door behind her.
I begin to feel dizzy, but the sound of someone screaming, brings me back.
I follow the scream. It's down the hall and towards the foyer. I look over the railing and see Miss Kat on her knees, tears in her eyes, as she strokes the body of Grier.
Miss Kat looks up at me with so much hate in her eyes. "What did you do?" she screams, then sobs. There was nothing that I could do for her. I went back to my room.
A voice keeps echoing in my head. The voice says, "What happened?" I feel confused but, then realize that I have been sleeping. I open my eyes and see that there is a face to go with the voice.
"What happened?" says the nice detective.
I wanted to ask him what he was talking about, but as seconds ticked by, I remembered. I told him what I could.
"It isn't safe for you here, but I can't let you leave."
"What?"
"I could arrest you, but I would have to let you go in forty-eight hours, and then you'll end up right back here." He sits down on my bed and takes my hand in his. "I don't think you did it, hell, my partner doesn't even think you did it anymore."
I close my eyes and when I open them again, the sweet detective isn't there anymore, it's Jake. I hate Jake.
"Listen up!" he shouts. "I don't care who died or isn't alive anymore, I need to get you up and moving. Get that sad stupid look off your face. I don't care what crawled up your slip-slip, we got a deadline! Do you even know what a deadline is? No?" He grabs me by my wrists and pulls me out of bed. "A deadline is where you better not fuck up and you don't have a lot of time. You get me?"
I nod.
"All right, turn around." He spins me so that I'm facing away from him. He starts to clap, trying to keep time. "Reach the sky! Stretch and lean. Stretch and lean…"
I stretch. I lean. Then, Jake doesn't say anything. It isn't like Jake to ever stop talking, I turn to see what is wrong and I gasp as I see Jake dead on the floor. He has marks around his neck like he's been strangled.
I can feel my eyes rolling back in my head. The world dances around me, faster, faster, faster…
I feel fingers stroking my face. It feels nice. "We have to stop meeting like this," a familiar voice says. I open my eyes and see the nice detective. I smile. Then I remember what happened.
"Is he…?"
He nods. "Yes. He's dead. Strangled like all the others."
"She is doing this. She is doing this to make me look crazy!"
"Who?"
"Miss Kat."
He scoffs. "Miss Kat? Why would she do a thing like that? She paid for your stay at the hospital. She kept your room ready for you. She cares about you a great deal."
"I'm not so sure." I attempt to get up but feel dizzy and slow down. "I just need to get out of here. Take me with you." I grab his hand tightly and plead. "Please, take me with you."
The look on his face told me that I overstepped my bounds. "I can't take you with me."
"Please. You have to get me out of here."
"I'll stay with you tonight. Would that be all right?"
My smile says more than I ever could and I leaned my head in and we kiss. I don't want it to end. I want this kiss to last…
I'm standing in the doorway. How did that happen? I look at the bed and the nice detective is sound asleep. What is going on? Am I losing time?
The dryness of my mouth left a horrible taste in it. I walk through the dark hallway to the bathroom. I turn the tap on and let the cold water run over my wrists until my skin starts to numb, but then, the water warms up and feels pleasant to the touch. I cup water in my hand and lean down to drink. The water feels so warm and nice that I splash some on my face and rub the skin around my eyes.
I lift my head up and see something strange. The writing on the mirror, in the red lipstick has changed yet again. Now, its letters are evenly spaced and it seems to actually spell something. I mouth the odd word silently and then try to say it out loud.
"Gargor…"
I look at myself in the mirror and I seem to change, just slightly at first, but then more severe. My eyes change shape and my cheeks swell up. My hair slowly falls out in large clumps and my skin changes color. My skin turns from ghastly pale to red and black. My eyes turn from blue to yellow. Suddenly, I recognize the thing in the mirror. I recognize the red scarf it holds between its hands.
I touch my hair… it's still there.
I touch my face and it feels normal.
I stare at the creature in the mirror. "Gargor?" I say out loud but when I hear it, it sounds more like a plea than anything else. The creature my eyes have fallen upon, is Gargor…
Suddenly, as if the mirror wasn't there at all, Gargor launches itself through the mirror and grabs my shoulders.
"MEEEEE…GOOOOOOT…YOUUUUUUUUUUU!"
I scream and turn, running out into the hallway. I get to my room and throw the door open but am then frozen in my tracks as I see on the other side of my room, Gargor, strangling the nice detective with his red scarf. The detectives body hangs lifeless.
I turn to leave the room and am met with Gargor's hot breath, beating upon my face. I feel pressure and then burning, and then nothing…
I look down in time to see Gargor pulling a blade out of my stomach, blood spilling everywhere. In shock, I stumble passed him, down the hall. The flickering of lights grab my attention and I follow the glow into a room at the end of the hallway. Inside the room, are many candles burning brightly. There are also many figures, clocked in black with strange masks that depicted faces in various forms of agony and pain. They seem to know I was coming, for they stood in horseshoe shape, all pointed towards me, then close in on me once there was no escape.
The cloaked figures start chanting. The word they chant is, "Gargor."
They all pull out large knifes from their cloaks and as they chant, bring their knives down into my flesh, over and over again. I run my hands over my body and feel more holes than skin…
I fall on my back and look up as the circle of figures closes in on me. Their masks come off and I see Miss Kat, Mahogany, Dawna, Jake, Grier, Meagan, all the girls from the house. I also see the doctor… the two detectives, even the nice one… Gene!
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