Page 29 of Unbinding the Demon
Tiny droplets of wax trickled down the tall black candles that rested on the kitchen table. The flickering flames illuminated Ashton and me as we sat together, eating our very delicious homemade pesto pizza. I had wanted to have my leftover tortellini from lunch, but this was way better. I peeked over at Ashton, who was in the middle of taking a bite, then burst out laughing for the tenth time during our meal.
“Is it really that funny?” he asked while laughing at himself. “You know, you don’t look any better.” He stuffed another big bite of pizza into his mouth.
I snickered at the ridiculous sight of him as I took a bite. His hair was in complete disarray and dusted with a fine white powder. Small white handprints and tiny powdery splotches covered his face, shirt, and pants, making him look like a stack of powdered-sugar pancakes. He pretended to glare at me while aggressively chewing.
I struggled to swallow the bite of pizza in my mouth as I desperately tried not to laugh at him again. “Well, if you don’t want me laughing at you during dinner, then don’t start a flour war and act like a rabid gorilla the next time we make a pizza! You were literally jumping from countertop to countertop while throwing powdery fistfuls of it all over the kitchen. It looks like it snowed in here, for goodness’ sake!” I said through my near-hysterical laughter as I flailed my arms in the air, gesturing around at our flour-covered kitchen.
“Yes, but I really got you good, didn’t I?” he chuckled as he brushed one of the large white handprints from my boob.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” I waved my hand dismissively as my cackling died down. He had gotten me good, though. I looked as if I’d been attacked by a sentient, bloodthirsty flour cloud and had just barely escaped with my life. “So, why again are we going to the cliffs tonight?” I asked with a carefree smile.
He tensed at my subject-changing question. “Well... um, as I said earlier, there’s something important that I need to speak to you about.”
My smile faltered. There was something in his eyes that I couldn’t quite place, but whatever it was, it made me feel uneasy, like this would not be a pleasant talk. I looked down and brushed some extra flour from my pizza crust using my finger. “Well, um, can I at least know the topic?” My heart was pounding anxiously in my chest.
“I’d rather tell you once we get up there.” My eyes followed his hand as he nervously ran it through his floury hair while avoiding eye contact, causing my heart to sink.
Oh, shit... No, no, please, no!
A suffocating feeling of dread and anxiety came crashing over my body and mind. Terrible breakup scenarios began racing through my head. Then, awful memories of past relationships where I had been used for sex and then dumped came flooding back. I was actually in love for the first time in my life. Sure, he was a psychopath who’d killed a few people here and there, but I was still deeply fucking in love with the man! How would my heart survive if he abandoned me now?
“What—w-why?” I stammered as a nauseous feeling settled in the pit of my stomach.
“I-I just... Please just let me tell you when we get there.” He put his piece of pizza down and shifted in his chair while apprehensively staring at the wall.
Oh fuck... He’s not even finishing his food!? Something’s really wrong.
I sucked in a deep breath with absolutely no intention of blurting out my thoughts, but that’s exactly what I did. “Look, if you’re going to break up with me, just do it now! Don’t bring me to—”
“Whoa!
Hold on! No, no, no!” A look of both startlement and panic
fell across his face as he quickly interrupted me . “The last thing I ever want to do is lose you!” He reached over and grabbed my hand while staring intently into my worried eyes. “I love you, Gwendolyn. You are so precious to me, and I want to share the rest of my life with you.” He took a deep breath and looked away for a second. “But there are some things about me you need to know. Things that are likely to upset you. However, I hope that you’ll come to accept them so that we can have a healthy and honest relationship.” He squeezed my hand and searched my eyes. “No matter what I tell you tonight, please remember that I truly do love you.”
Well, thank fucking god... But still, what secret, upsetting things could he possibly have to tell me?
Despite the uncertainty I was feeling, I was relieved to know we weren’t breaking up. The fact that he had just told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me had my heart wanting to leap for joy like a little Mexican jumping bean inside my chest. However, the look of trepidation in his eyes swiftly stomped that poor little jumping bean to death before it could even get off the ground.
“Alright, very well then. Let’s go to the cliffs tonight.” I got up and grabbed my plate to clean it.
Ashton grabbed my upper arm and looked at me as if he were about to say something, but changed his mind and didn’t. It seemed like the words got stuck in his throat, so he gave my arm a light squeeze instead and then began cleaning up too.
Bright beams from the headlights illuminated the uphill gravel road as we whooshed by countless rugged trees. They reminded me of mighty guardians protecting the dark inner forest. Their gnarled branches stretched overhead like the skeletal limbs of the dead ready to menacingly ensnare poor wandering souls.
I stared out the window with apprehension, trying to distract myself from the awkward silence between Ashton and me. The only sounds were the eerie screams and overly distorted, heavy riffs of an obscure black metal band pouring softly through the speakers, the gravel crunching beneath the tires, and happy panting coming from Belzar.
The chilly night air crept its way straight into my bones, causing chills throughout my body. My shivering hands grasped my jacket as I wrapped it around myself a bit tighter in an attempt to warm up. Ashton’s eyes glanced over as he watched my small action; then he turned up the heat. He glanced at me with a small smile and reached over to put a warm hand on my thigh, giving it a gentle rub. Even though I could feel the anxiety radiating off him, his small action still comforted me.
I took that as an opportunity to break the suffocating silence. “Belzar seems happy to have come along,” I stated, while popping open a tube of vanilla chapstick. I applied it to my lips and then smooshed them together.
Ashton glanced through the rearview mirror at him for a second, then shifted his eyes back to the road. “He’s always happy to tag along, but he needs to come with us this time. I haven’t been honest with you about what exactly he is or where his species is from.”
“Oh, are you talking about how he’s clearly a fucking wolf?” I smiled and gestured behind me at Belzar’s panting, fluffy face. “Because if you are, you should know that I never bought into that ‘he’s just a dog’ bologna you tried to sell me.” I made finger quotes as I spoke about Belzar being just a dog.
“You’re right. He’s not a dog. However, he’s not your average wolf, either.”
“He’s some kind of rare Scandinavian wolf, isn’t he? That would make perfect sense, considering his massive size and the fact that you’re from Finland.” I reached behind me to scratch under Belzar’s chin. “Look, I honestly don’t care if he’s an illegal breed. I’m not going to—”
“Gwendolyn...” he interrupted and turned to me with a stern expression. “Please, just let me explain all this when—”
“Oh, fuck!” I screamed as I turned back around to see a mysterious figure walking across the road.
Ashton’s eyes shot ahead, and he slammed on the brakes. A loud cracking and thud echoed as the figure violently slammed into the hood, jerking the car. My face contorted in horror as they fell limply out of sight beneath the front tires. Their pale hand dragged down across the smooth black surface of the hood in a weak attempt to hold on, and then it slipped down below.
“Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!” I grabbed my head in panic and disbelief, as my wide, wild eyes shifted back and forth between the blood-stained hood of the car and Ashton.
Ashton sat there, cool as a cucumber, his narrowed eyes fixed on the windshield with suspicion. “What are you fucking doing!? We need to go help them!” I shouted like a crazy lady, then I tried to jump out of the car frantically. He swiftly grabbed my upper arm and held me in place while keeping his eyes up front.
I stilled and glanced forward as movement caught my eye. The beaming rays of the headlights illuminated the mysterious figure as they slowly began stumbling back up into view. Blood dripped down their head in thick streams. It obscured their face and stained the weird white cloak they were wearing. The crimson droplets mixed with large splotches of dirt from the road. They turned and looked through the windshield toward me with a wide, unsettling grin.
“ Whoops , guess they’re not dead yet,” Ashton stated flippantly, with a murderous look in his eyes.
He threw the car into reverse and quickly backed up. Then, despite all my horrified screaming, he maniacally stomped on the gas, driving full speed ahead, and slammed right back into the cloaked figure. A gruesome symphony of a loud wet thud from their head smacking against the hood, the violent cracking of bones, and a gurgled scream rang through the air.
“What the actual fuck are you doing!?” I screamed and held my hands up as if I were about to clutch my face. “Are you insane!? When you run someone over, you’re supposed to help them! Not run them over a second fucking time!” In a fit of hysteria, I made frantic gestures toward the windshield.
“Just trust me,” he said as he jumped out of the car. I rushed out right after him, pausing only to hold the door open for Belzar, who hopped out behind me. A dizzying spell fell over me as I ran around the hood and gasped at the horrifying scene.
Ashton towered menacingly over the crumpled-up, mangled figure, which I could now identify as a thin, middle-aged woman. Her stained white cloak was embroidered with a royal blue cross on the right upper chest and had matching blue trim sewn around the hem of the hood and sleeves. She had normal-looking sea-green eyes, but black sludge was oozing out from the side of her mouth. It slowly dripped down her pale, hollow cheek, mingling with the blood that poured out from her broken, hooked nose and caked into her curly, sandy-brown hair.
She glared up at Ashton with venomous hatred in her eyes. He scowled back down at her as if they were enemies at their very souls. A pathetic, gurgled growl began coming from her black goo-stained lips. “Azzaaath—”
CRACK.
I gasped in horror as Ashton angrily cut off whatever she was trying to say with his boot. He kicked her face in with brutal force, breaking her neck and nearly decapitating her. The wind rustled through the trees, and an owl hooted in the distance as she laid there, cold and lifeless, with an unrecognizable, bloody, mangled face. I muffled my scream and fell to my knees in distress, with tears welling up in my eyes. My hands trembled, and it felt like I was suffocating. Belzar gave my cheek a comforting lick while letting out a small puppy dog whine. I didn’t even register Ashton walking over, but he was suddenly crouching with his arms wrapped around me.
“ Shhh , it’s okay. You’re safe,” he reassured while stroking my arm.
“ Wha-what the fuck? Ashton, she had that black goo in her mouth...” I pointed at the mangled corpse, my hand unsteady. “It’s the same as that girl! The one from the house!”
“I know. That’s why I killed her.” He casually gestured towards the woman, then looked me in the eye and held onto my shoulders. “Listen, I need you to take a deep breath and calm down for me. I have to get rid of the body, and I don’t want you straying far from my side. Can you handle that?” he asked while helping me to my feet with care.
I did my best to compose myself and nodded. “Yeah, I can handle that.” I looked at him with wide, terrified eyes. “How are we going to get rid of her?”
“Throw her into the forest, I guess.” He shrugged, seeming unaffected by the horrific event. His eyes were focused on our surroundings, searching for something. He walked over to the body, grabbed a leg, and then began dragging her off. “Follow me.”
I stared with wide eyes as her mutilated head limply rolled around, still attached only by a small amount of muscle and skin, leaving a bloody trail across the gravelly road. “Don’t you think we should report this?”
“No, now hurry up and stay by my side!” he yelled with urgency, already disappearing into the woods.
Jeez, he sure is fast for someone moving a dead body .
I chased after him, with Belzar staying right next to me. As we entered the shadowy treeline, Ashton was once again surveying the area. Brittle, frost-kissed leaves and twigs crunched and rustled around us as we walked deeper into the forest. The light from the car disappeared, making our only light source the half-moon, which peeked out from behind the wispy clouds every now and then. I clung to his arm, afraid and struggling to see.
“Do we need to keep going? Isn’t this far enough?” My eyes were adjusting to the dark, allowing me to somewhat see our surroundings.
Ashton halted and carelessly plopped the woman’s lifeless leg onto the leafy ground. He grabbed my waist and pulled me against him protectively. “ Shhh , don’t make a sound... Just listen...” he whispered.
Fear and anxiety coursed through my veins while I stood there, listening with wide, shifty eyes. My cheek pressed into the rough material of his black denim jacket as his arms instinctively wrapped tighter around me in a coil of safety and warmth. Strands of his hair blew in the cold wind, twirling around us as I continued to listen. I only heard the sounds of his beating heart, the rustling of the trees, and distant owls.
“Do you hear that?” he whispered, his gaze fixed above my head, peering deeper into the dark woods.
“I don’t hear anything abnormal, but I also don’t know what I’m supposed to be listening for.” I looked up at him in confusion.
Belzar growled, his gaze fixed on the darkness, which made my hairs stand straight up. Ashton gave him a nod, and Belzar ventured deeper into the forest, careful not to make a sound, as if he were stalking some poor prey animal. His black furry body quickly disappeared within the dark shadows of the trees. “Follow me, but don’t make a single sound,” Ashton commanded firmly as he grabbed my hand and led me in the same direction that Belzar went. I wanted to protest, but I was way too spooked to say anything, and Ashton was acting like he was on an important mission.
Oh yeah, great fucking idea! Let’s just walk deeper into the fucking forest where there might be more of those fucking zombie people!
He stealthily glided through the darkness like a swift, agile predator prowling through the night, while I stumbled and bumbled along behind him. The layer of frost on all the fallen logs and stones made the ground extra slippery, causing my feet to slip as I tried to keep up with his pace. I likely would have fallen flat on my face several times if he hadn’t been holding my hand to steady me.
This is ridiculous! Where the hell could we possibly be going!? We’re literally in the middle of the fucking forest at night!
Ashton slowed the pace as a distant flickering light came into view. My eyes widened in shock while we crept towards it. A strange foreboding feeling washed over me, as a low, eerie chant came through the trees. The sound was so strange and unnatural that the only way I could describe it was it simply didn’t belong in this world.
Belzar emerged from the trees and seemed to lead Ashton and me over to a suitable spot to spy on whatever was going on. The three of us silently crouched behind an old rotting log that was covered in dying moss and little fan fungi. Other than a few thin trees, we had a pretty good view of what was happening, but we were still far enough away to stay hidden. I placed my hand on the crumbling damp wood and warily peeked over to see what exactly was going down. And let me just say, I couldn’t believe my fucking eyes.
What the actual fucking fuck!?
Flaming torches surrounded a slightly raised clearing made from the natural mountain stone. About thirty or so people stood chanting in a circle, all wearing the same white cloaks as the woman whom Ashton had just killed. The dim lighting and hoods obscured their faces, but I could still tell that each person held a solemn countenance. At the heart of their circle was a large stone altar. They had tied a clearly distraught, shirtless man to it like an imprisoned starfish. Tears streamed down his face and glistened in the firelight as he desperately begged for his life.
Next to the altar stood a tall, slender, hooded figure, whom I can only assume was the leader of this bizarre ceremony. The cloaked man hovered over the crying man, with a twisted smile peeking out from beneath the shroud of his hood. The chanting stopped, and he pulled out an old, simple-looking black book from his cloak. I felt Ashton tense up behind me; then he leaned forward for a better view. The man read a strange incantation from its yellowed pages, his voice booming through the trees. It sounded sickening and otherworldly. I couldn’t, for the life of me, even begin to guess what language it was, but it filled my spirit with an unsettling sense of dread. He placed his slender hand on the bare chest of the terrified, tied-down man, as if he were praying over him.
Ashton began whispering to Belzar in another strange-sounding language, as they shifted their gazes between one another and the scene before us. It was weird, almost like he was having a bizarre one-sided conversation with his dog... or should I say, wolf. I didn’t pay too much attention to them, though, because I was too busy watching the crackpot cult doing, well, whatever the fuck they were doing.
Ashton grabbed my upper arm with a light grip and whispered in my ear in a barely audible voice, “I’ll be right back. Stay with Belzar no matter what happens.”
I frantically shook my head and tried to gesture for him to stay, like a panicked mime. But his large hand gripped the log anyway, as he readied himself to jump over it and make his presence known to the cult like a fucking madman. Luckily, he froze and crept back down. I drifted my gaze back over to the cult to see what had made him change his mind.
The cloaked figure now held a long, shiny, black dagger in front of his face like a samurai, while the others were all pulling out their own black daggers from their sleeves. They pointed the daggers in unison at the center man and chanted the eerie words after him. The dagger glittered with an iridescent sheen in the firelight as the man lifted it high above his head, heightening the fear of the man strapped to the table. I panicked as the reality of what I was about to witness slapped me across the face. Ashton’s warm hand clamped down over my mouth to prevent me from screaming as we watched anxiously.
Oh no! No, no, no!
The cloaked man grinned as he plunged his knife into the bound man’s chest, piercing and slicing it open. The tears forming in my eyes blurred the sight of him writhing in agony, but I couldn’t shut out his harrowing screams. It was the sound of someone being killed violently. I blinked my tears away to see blood gushing out from the victim’s mouth as his screaming came to a gurgled stop. His body then stilled with just a few lingering twitches.
The cloaked man stuck his slender, slithering hand into the bloody opening in the victim’s chest and dug around for a minute. The terrible squishy noises it created seemed to go on forever until he finally used the dagger to cut something inside. He then removed the man’s heart. Thin, glistening rivulets of blood dripped down the length of his twiggy arm as he raised the heart high above his head and began chanting again.
The body on the altar began to convulse. Disbelief and horror washed over me as what I can only describe as tentacles made of wispy black smoke arose from the corpse. They swirled like a sentient mist around the cloaked man’s arms before being absorbed by the heart in his hand. Both the heart and the blood dripping down the man’s arm turned black and putrid-looking.
What the actual fuck is this sci-fi, dark magic, wizard shit that I’m witnessing!?
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, the cloaked man brought the glistening, black, oozy heart up to his grinning mouth and bit into it. I felt beyond sick as the thick, blackened blood squirted out from around his disgusting, yellowed teeth. It dripped down his chin and arms, staining his ivory cloak. Ribbons of black mist swirled around him as he continued to feast on the tainted organ like a starving animal, all the while the others still chanted around him.
What the fuck!? What the fuck!? WHAT THE FUCK!?
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Ashton whispered right into my ear as he released his hand from my mouth. He grabbed my hand and we, silent as the dead, got the flip out of there.
As we swiftly maneuvered back to the road, I kept slowing us down by scanning the woods and glancing over my shoulder like a paranoid chicken. Ashton held my hand tightly, but eventually just said, “fuck it,” and began carrying me. The trees were suffocating, and I just wanted to be out of that accursed forest fast. I let out a breath of relief once the headlights came into view. All three of us jumped into the car in a hurry, and that’s when the full-blown panic crashed over me.
“What the actual fuck did we just see!?” I yelled in a fit of hysteria while failing to shake Ashton’s large, sturdy arm.
“Well, I think we just found the heartless killer’s killing spot. However, I didn’t think there would be so many people involved.” He seemed like he was trying to hold back a smile as he calmly started to drive.
“Yeah, no kidding! But that was more than just your average, every day, run-of-the-fucking-mill ritual murder! What were those black smoky tentacle things!? It looked straight out of some sort of black magic, voodoo fantasy movie! That was some serious fucking Voldemort shit going on back there!” I waved my hands in the air like a crazed lunatic.
He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “That was black magic. A very dark and corrupted form of it.” His voice was soft, and he kept his eyes on the road.
“But, magic isn’t even supposed to be real?” I shook my head in bewilderment.
“Then how do you explain what we just saw?”
“I—I don’t know. I really just don’t know.” I truly was baffled by the whole thing. “Besides, what makes you an expert in black magic?”
He grabbed my hand and gently squeezed. “I think we should wait until tomorrow to have our talk, since you’re already so upset.” His lips pressed against my knuckles, and I gave him a small smile. I noticed his failure to answer my question, but chose not to press it.
“Okay,” I said in a soft voice. I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear as tears brimmed in my eyes.
Ashton glanced at me with concern. “ Shh , everything is going to be okay,” he reassured me with a loving smile.
“I just wish there had been a way for us to save him, that guy on the altar. What an awful fate to have your heart ripped out and eaten like that.” I took a shaky breath. “Don’t you think we should tell the police?”
“No, I don’t think we should do that. I can guarantee some of those people are officers themselves,” he said, gently squeezing my trembling hand again to provide comfort.
I gazed out the window as we continued to drive home. I felt hollow and sick from having just seen both that cult woman and that man violently die. Ashton was right, though. There was no way to know who exactly those cult sickos were. That man would probably never get the justice he deserved. He was doomed to be yet another heartless corpse to turn up in the woods, and I was powerless to change that.