Page 91 of Diamonds

Holy shit.Holy ever-loving shit.

The ceiling opens up onto a soaring vista.A beautiful mountaintop, with a delicate spring trickling around my feet.The buzz of birdsong in my ears.I’m lying naked in the soft grass, feeling it brush against my skin, the warm sun enveloping me totally.

It’s getting warmer.Too warm.Hot.

I’m burning.Boiling.My skin is literally bubbling.

I blink again.Three times always seems to do the trick.

Back in the bed.Rouge is on her hands and knees.I’m fucking her in her ass.

Fuck.So tight.So good.So...So…

I’m stuck.

I’m in a desert.Surrounded by white sand.

Excepts it’s not white sand… I bend over and slide my fingers through.

Tiny diamonds.

I take a handful.I’ll pocket them.Sell them when I get home.

But I don’t have pockets.I’m naked.

And I’m slowly sinking into the diamonds.

They’re digging into my skin, burrowing into me like tiny little gremlins.Their tiny teeth gnaw at me, consume me from the inside out.

And… And…

“Maddox?You look thirsty.”

I’m back in the four-poster bed.Rouge is lying next to me, stroking her fingers up and down my nude body.Her eyes keep changing sizes, and I can swear her pussy is winking at me.

I breathe in, but I can’t speak.

“Your throat is dry.Here.”Rouge gets up, goes to a small sixties-style refrigerator.Red, of course, and next to a large safe in the same color.She returns with a goblet of red liquid.“Drink.”

I behold the glass.Swallow several times, enough to lubricate my throat to rasp out the words “Bloody Mary?”

She sits next to me.“Bloody Mary.The first true queen of England.Do you know why she was called that?”

I shake my head.

“Her father was Henry the eighth—you’ve undoubtedly heard of his six wives.He was the one who started the Church of England, mostly to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, Mary’s mother.When Mary took power, she restored Catholicism as the state religion and executed anyone she could find who remained clinging to Protestantism.”Her eyes light up with crimson fire.“Burned them at the stake.”

I try swallowing again.I don’t really want a drink right now, not with whatever the fuck is going through my system.

“Elizabeth the first took over upon Mary’s death and reversed the decision.”Rouge grins.Her teeth are made of the same diamonds that were burrowing into my flesh.“Of course, she couldn’t unburn the ashes of the dead Protestants that lay at Mary’s feet.”

I close my eyes and rub at my forehead.Why is Rouge talking about this?

“You’re not speaking, Maddox.Drink what I gave you.You’ll feel better.”

I hold up the glass of red liquid.Smell it.

It doesn’t smell like a Bloody Mary.It smells like…something familiar.