Page 23 of Possess Us

I walk towards him. Thunder and lightning crash beyond the window, the storm raging on our very heads.

My demons stay close, watching us both with bated breath.

I stop close. I smell Xion’s cologne. His sweat. I see it beading on his forehead and the vein in his temple bulging.

‘You’re afraid,’ I tease.

‘I am not afraid of your demons.’

‘No. Not them. Me. You’re afraid of me.’

‘Don’t make me laugh. You?!’ He forces out a nasty laugh. Spit flies from his mouth, and his eyes widen. ‘You are a fucking whore. A vessel to use and discard. Held in chains that you secretly long for. All your kind long for control. To be handled and commanded. To be used.’

‘Maybe I do.’ I lean into his face. ‘But not by creepy old bastards like you.’

‘You won’t kill me. You can’t. You’re weak, Willow. Afraid. All the loudest females are. The louder you are, the more insecure you are. The more you need to be controlled. And the more you deserve to be put in your FUCKING PLACE!’

His hand breaks free of the rope, and his fingers grip my throat, squeezing tightly. I feel that pull of energy as he channels me.

I’m his conduit, too.

Idiot! He’s pretended to be caught so he can get me close.

His fingers stretch out, sending the guys flying backwards through the air and slamming into the wall.

He’s freed himself of the restraints, the chair arms snapping like kindling as he slowly rises. The fire in the fireplace doubles in size, the flames going black and plunging the room into a deeper darkness. His eyes are somehow more soulless than any of theirs. His hatred is endless.

‘I am the only one who knows you, Willow. I am your family. Your reason for living.’

I claw at his fingers, my nails dragging along his skin and drawing blood. The wounds heal instantly.

He draws more and more power from me, my connection to the demons fuelling him and weakening them. They push themselves back onto their feet. But slowly and with difficulty, as though sore and stiff.

The black flames stretch out of the confines of the marble fireplace and stretch up and along the walls. But in Xion’s eyes, they are a vibrant red.

‘A Brotherhood without a conduit is nothing,’ he says darkly. ‘But a disobedient conduit is nothing but a dead whore. So, let’s speed this along, shall we?’

The manor trembles in reaction to his immense power. Chunks of plaster fall from the ceiling, and cracks appear in the wall as he wrenches at my power of connection. No longer is he taking gentle pulls, but stealing it all.

Lust runs at him. The floor becomes quicksand around his feet, pulling him in.

Pain is next, sprinting at Xion.

The wallpaper comes to life. The painted vines become all too real, exploding from the walls and wrapping around Pain, trapping him and keeping him pinned.

Fear throws a dagger. It stops mid-air, multiplies, and all of them return to him, impaling him on the door.

All of us are trapped. The all-powerful leader has us exactly where he wants us, and with every passing second, my life force is being taken. And his is being strengthened.

‘I can purchase another Conduit, Willow. I can recruit more men to serve like that.’ He snaps his fingers.

‘You bring my enslaved demons to my house of worship, and try to get them to kill me for you ?’ He spits in my face and sneers in utter disgust. ‘When I have finished here, you will be a husk. An empty vessel no good to me or them. You will become just as the last conduit, and the one before that, and the one before that. A shell. You won’t think.

Feel. Eat. Drink. Your soul will be burning in Hell, your body left behind to wither and die slowly.

I may fuck you. I may hand you around to those still alive.

Or perhaps I will keep you as a warning for my next conduit so she knows what will happen if she dares betray me.

Either way, one thing is guaranteed. You will die unloved.

Unnoticed. Unmissed. The world will not be different without you in it.

There will be no mourners at your graveside.

You will not even have a grave. I shall have you buried in a ditch.

You are pointless beyond your use to me, and now you have become useless even in that regard. ’

I grit my teeth. I will not let him steal my soul for a power boost. Not after I survived everything I have. Not the system I grew up in. The endless placements. Not the abuse of the Brotherhood. And not the agony, terror and death I have endured and caused tonight.

I feel my strength failing as I sense his powers grow.

Fuck that!

I plunge my thumb into his eye, sinking my nail in deep until I hear a wet, squelchy pop and warmth seeps down my fingers.

He drops me, stunned by the pain as he grabs his eye. Blood and whatever hell else is in an eyeball oozes down his cheek. The wound isn’t healing.

‘You foolish bitch!’ he snarls, lowering his hand and balling his fists at his side.

He begins an incantation. His voice quickly becomes otherworldly. Demonic.

The room falls into shadow as he speaks, and dark figures appear on the walls around us, as though the cursed souls from Hell itself are clawing their way towards me.

‘Fear? Is this you?’ I ask, coughing and spluttering as I recatch my breath.

‘KILL HIM!’ Fear bellows back. ‘Before he can tell Hell what we’ve done!’

I take that as a no.

‘He is calling an army from Hell. Summoning lower-level demons to kill you and catch us,’ Lust calls over. ‘You have to kill him!’

All three struggle against the hold Xion has on them. But I realise, he’s not using anything like that on me.

He never has. His magic has never touched me. Not in all the years I have been enslaved to the Brotherhood. Only violence, threats and chains have held me. Never their magic. And the wound I have inflicted is not healing.

When the demons hurt him, he healed. But he’s lost that eye, and it is not coming back.

There’s a reason the demons brought me here, and why they agreed so readily to help me kill him. Why the Brotherhood keep us locked away and so tired, weak, and afraid.

They tied him down for me to kill.

The injury I inflicted is not healing.

Tyler, Nate and Kai never used their powers on me, and when I brought the demons, they couldn’t fight them off.

Xion said it himself.

No demon can kill him.

'Because only a conduit can.'

I look at them. My struggling demons who tear and pull at the spectres holding them back.

‘Kill him,’ Pain mouths. I think he sees my understanding. ‘Now!’ he adds.

Before I can think, I run straight at Xion, scooping up the broken chair arm as I pass it.

And with all my strength, I slam it into the side of his face.

Two nails sink into his temple, and his remaining eye turns blood red.

When I pull it free, two little holes spurt blood, and he falls to his knees.

‘A demon cannot kill a witch. But I sure as shit can,’ I tell him as I raise it once more.

‘W-w-wait!’ he sputters, holding up his arm weakly. ‘I-I will let you go. I will pay you.’

‘Nah. I’m good as I am.’

I rain down all the hatred and vengeance my tired and broken little body can muster, slamming the wood into any part of him I can.

He yells, failing to protect himself. When I split open his scalp, I see his skull.

Another hit, and I see his brain. He falls on his side, and I keep hitting, raising it high above my head and crashing down on him over and over again.

Blood sprays over my face. It goes in my mouth and eyes.

I barely realise the fire has returned to normal. The shadows have retreated. The house is silent.

All that remains is the crackling of the fire, now calm and orange in the fireplace. The rain lashes the windows, and thunder rumbles as lightning cracks. And my screams, unhinged and manic as I bring down the wood on the mush that was once his skull.

For every hit he and his men delivered. For every humiliation. For every touch I never wanted. For every scar left on my body. For every tear shed. For every moment of despair. For every time I thought I was never going to be free.

My screams are feral as I beat the fucker to an unrecognisable pulp.

Before I can bring it down again, a hand grabs my arm, stopping me.

I look to see Lust. His eyes shine as they meet mine. Panting, I drop the wood, tears stinging my eyes, and all my strength abandoning me.

'Do you know how much easier that would have been if you had just told me I had to kill him!' I pant, spitting blood from my mouth.

'No demon influence allowed,' he says, hungry eyes watching my mouth. 'It had to be your choice. Your actions. We couldn't say anything.'

He steps close, his forehead resting on mine before his lips crash into me.

The kiss is deep and desperate as he holds me close, claiming my mouth with his.

We fall to the floor, my head landing on Xion’s stomach. He lifts my knee and effortlessly eases his already hard cock inside me. I am desperate to feel all of him. I need to drown in his body. His touch. His everything! I don’t want to think or feel anything else but my monsters.

He fucks me slowly and deeply, driving himself into me with a steady pace as he kisses me. His tongue runs up my cheek, collecting the blood spatter left from my frenzied attack.

Pain kneels over Xion, his erection in hand as he strokes himself. He takes my hair in his grip and guides my mouth onto him, gently easing his thick length in and out of my open and willing mouth.

Fear kneels beside Lust and takes my knee, lifting it high and resting it on his shoulder.

I moan around Pain’s throbbing cock as Fear eases himself against my ass. With a steady motion, I take him too, my puckered hole stretching for him.

I lie there, resting on the corpse of a monster, as I’m fucked and shared by the demons I set free from Hell.

‘That’s our good girl,’ Pain says, fucking my mouth and watching his brothers fuck me together. ‘You set us free from Hell and killed the man who held our chains.’

My entire body is soaked in blood. More of it pools beneath me as I lie on Xion’s corpse.

My soul is as black as ever, and I know there’s going back. No more normal life after this. No more hoping for freedom.

I am theirs. And they are mine. Bound together for the rest of what remains of my life.

They fuck me hard as the storm outside rages, and I fall happily into damnation with them by my side.