Heart Eaters – Part Three – Benedict

 

Heart Eaters

Part Three

Benedict

 

Lucy smoothed her stiffly starched uniform as she walked down the white, sterile hall. Her mind rang with warning as she, once again, walked through the swinging doors clearly labeled, Criminally Insane Unit, Violent Offenders, Authorized Personal Only! Lucy walked on. Once more, she straightened her skirt, her cap, and swallowed hard. She didn’t want to admit that she was nervous, every day, every time she walked these halls. No, she wouldn’t admit, not to herself and especially not to Doug or any other the other staff, but her stomach turned at the knowing she truly was. Most of the patients were catatonic, lost in the throes of their own personal hells, hardly acknowledging the duties performed around or to them. It was the lucid ones, the coherent ones that frightened Lucy. Three especially, patient one ten, one o’ seven and one o’ one, all of which she was scheduled to care for that day.  

“Benedict Galloway”, Lucy read the name at the top of the chart aloud as she pulled it from the bin next to room one hundred and ten. “Mr. Galloway?” she called after she opened the small, sliding window in the middle of the door. “Mr. Galloway?” she ventured again as she peered though the small hole wondering where he could be.

“Lucy!” Mr. Galloway burst jumping up from the floor.

Lucy jumped back two feet, sucking in a deep breath. Cursing herself for being so jumpy, she stepped back.

“Mr. Galloway you startled me.”

“Benedict, Benedict, call me Benedict.” He said through the opening.

Lucy smiled. Kind, she thought, his eyes look kind this morning. Lucy knew though how quickly that could change.

“Good morning Benedict, how are you?”

“Ok, well I’m doing swell. Well, maybe not swell, but ok, ok, ok.” He said as he pulled at the little hair he had left on his head. After rolling the gray, freshly plucked, hairs between his fingers for a moment, he let them fall to the floor with the hundreds of other deposed follicles.

“Could you put your hands though the opening?”Lucy requested as she lifted the small, silver chain hanging from and bolted to the door.

“You know this really isn’t necessary Lucy. I wouldn’t hurt you.” Benedict lamented as Lucy clasped the cuffs around his wrists.

“Yes, I know and I’m sorry. It’s hospital policy. I have to.” Lucy consoled, but was truly thankful for such precautions. “You’ve been picking at your arms again. The sores will never heal if you continue to reopen them.”

“I know I’m sorry” He said with a sheepish grin through the hole. “You’ll forgive me won’t you?”

“Yes, I’ll for give you.” Lucy answered as she slowly opened the door. Benedict walked with it and sat in front of the open door on a chair Lucy had pulled from across the hall. As he settled his hands in his lap Lucy cuffed his ankles with and apologetic smile.

“You’re so lovely,” he said looking down at her. “You remind me of my Ruby May.” Lucy cringed inside as he said the name. “Have I ever told you about her?”

“Yes you have.” Lucy said quickly hopping to dissuade any further talk of her, but Benedict continued as if she hadn’t spoken.

“Her hair was like the sun on a clear day, a gold that warmed the heart.” He smiled as his mind traveled to a different place, a different time. “Eyes like that clear sky, lips so soft, so full, every guy in my high school dreamed of them. We dreamed of her, and the way her cheeks lifted when she smiled, of the way her poodle skirt swayed when she walked. She was kind to me, though I wished she were more than kind. I never expected more. Why would I? Look at me!” He said with a harsh laugh gesturing to himself. “I wasn’t quite as ugly then as I am now, but I wasn’t a looker.”

“Oh, Benedict you’re too hard on yourself”, Lucy said as she busied herself cleaning his cell. It was time for its monthly deep clean so Lucy resigned herself to being there a while. Having heard parts of the story before, she sighed wishing she could be done more quickly.

“No, big ears that stick straight out, muddy colored hair and eyes, a big fat pug nose, no I had all those things then to. Being rich helped a little,” he went on. “I got to see her in school because her friends would ask me for money, and I would give it, just to see her. “The kindest boy ever”, that’s what she would call me. Though, my father didn’t approve.

“I envied those other boys, with their shiny, slicked hair and muscled shoulders. I tried, I tried to work out, to build muscle, but I couldn’t. I wished I had David Sallis’s body; he was captain of the football team. I wanted her to look at me like she looked at him. I wanted to see her smile when I caressed her hand the way he did. No, all I got was the sweet, pitying look. I had brains and money, but then it wasn’t enough. My want for her nearly killed me. Alone in my room at night with the smell of my release on me, I thought of only her. I was nothing to her, invisible. So, I focused on school, graduated a year early.” He said with a proud smile. “That, my father did like. He sent me off to Yale. That’s where he had gone. I wanted to go into public service; I loved politics, but Daddy,” he said scornfully, “would have no such thing. “Business management, that’s what you need.” Daddy said!”

As Lucy swept Benedict began to rock back and forth in his chair. His cuffs ground horribly, metal on metal, in her ears as he wrung his hands. Doug says it’s good for him to talk about it, Lucy thought, but it only seems to upset him.

“With honors,” he said suddenly causing Lucy to jerk. “I graduated with honors. Four years I was gone, but I thought of her every day. I assumed she would be married by the time I got back, probably to that jerk David! So imagine my joy when I returned to find her unmarried. Not only was she unmarried and single but that asshole Sallis was pushing carts at the local grocer. Apparently, he got a little to frisky with one of the loose girls at school and ended up having to marry her and take care of his premarital conceived brat. The moron didn’t even finish high school!  Of course Ruby May dumped him; wish I could have seen that.” He said with a wistful smile. “And it gets even better!” He said his eyes sparkling as he recalled. “Ruby was working as a teller at my bank! How perfect! It made the idea of running Daddy’s chain of Banks not so ghastly.

“Kansas Bank and Trust, I had never thought I would want to go to that office so badly. Just seeing her would have been enough for me, but a miracle occurred. One evening, I think it was in the spring, I discretely watched her as she closed up her till, cleaned her workstation and wrote her reports. I found I was always watching her. She was slow, taking her time, piddling I guess. I worried because it wasn’t like her to be lazy or sluggish. It was an opportunity, so I closed up my brief case, took a deep breath and went to her. I asked if she was well.”

Lucy could see him phase out, as if he was living the moment again as he spoke. Despite herself, Lucy imagined it as it must have been in his mind’s eye, letting her mind wander to a place and time that was not her own.

The Nightmare of a Memory –Part Two–

 

Hands pinned above my head, I violently thrashed as I felt his teeth draw blood on my breast. His strong hands tore my dress from color to waist. Knees between my legs, I felt him push hard against them. I fought to keep them together, but was losing the war.

“Oh Great One please help me!” I struggled and screamed wondering how it was possible to relive the horror of that night and find it worse than the first.

 I closed my eyes, desperate to feel nothing.

“Sister,” I heard my sister Aija’s sweet voice and opened my eyes.

Aija stood behind Mikhail, a lovely two-edged blade in her delicate hands. I cannot express the joy I felt as I watched her thrust the sword into Mikhail’s back. I could hear it pierce his fetid heart and rejoiced as blood spewed over my face released by the blade coming through. Dead, gloriously lifeless, the sick deviant plopped to the left of me, mud splashing.

Aija reached for me softly smiling and pulled me up. Then, without a word, she walked to Mikhail, his brilliant red blood seeping, mixing with the cold, dirty water. With a grin and a chuckle Aija kicked his shoulder pushing his face into the mud, the glinting blade in his back becoming erect. She looked at me and looked at the sword; I could feel her, feel what she wanted. I wanted it as well. Two steps brought me to the sword; ten fingers yanked and lifted it high. With all my strength, I swung it down severing his head. With a clank the weapon fell to the bloody ground.

Breaths quick and heavy, hands quivering and eyes red and dry, I turned away from the ocean death.

“Sister,” Aija said, but I did not respond, “Korina, my friend.”

“Aija,” I breathed and fell into her embrace.

“Come, let us walk and sing together.”

I smiled at the pleasantness of the idea. One of my most cherished memories was of walking and singing in the warm summer rain with Aija. It was amazingly easy to leave the horrid scene. Arms around each other’s backs we walked into a more pleasant time, more pleasant memories. My subconscious mind making my sister real and alive again made me want to sleep forever. I could almost imagine that I had never lost her.

Warm breezes moved around the giant raindrops, but could not lift my sopping hair from my neck. Water dripped from my open mouth as I harmonized with Aija.

Her grey eyes sparked as she lifted her arms up toward the sky, her skin glowed, the water picking up light. We skipped, marveling at the greatness of the beautiful land; the bright greenness of the forest, the humming of frogs, and the chirping of the frail blue birds, lost against the color of the sky. Dresses hanging heavy we laughed interrupting our song.

 

The Nightmare of a Memory

Serving the darkness they found themselves trapped into sacrificing their own sons, their own daughters to demons.

Fear wove intricate designs within the lovely sounds of Father Peter’s pleas to the Great One in that place between waking and sleeping. I wished to stay in the realm of the conscious, but had not the strength.

The vividness of my dreams always surprised, excited, but more often horrified me. While I still had control, I prayed with Father Peter, but then as I knew they would dreams became my reality.

The full moon shone brightly on the uneven ground as I walked along kicking small pebbles on the well used path. The warm night breeze caressed my heightened senses, and I realized that I was drunk. My hands tingled, my head felt light, and I smiled into the darkness at nothing. I was thinking of my Niklav, calloused hands blazing trails along my soft skin. The memory seemed so familiar. Of course it would, I thought. I think of my glorious lover all the time. It was more than that though.

Breathing deeply, I smiled at the smell of moist air and fish. There must be a lake nearby.

“No!” I breathed after I froze on the dirt path. “Please Great One not this place!”

I scanned the area instantly sober. A massive lodge cast menacing shadows too close to me. I heard people afar off, laughing, singing, and celebrating. Light green and brown, my dress hugged the ground, and my heart began to race as I looked it over. Aija, my sister, had made the dress for me. I had not seen it for years. Not since the night it was destroyed.

He lurked in the darkness, but I saw him. I turned. I ran. I could feel his breath on the nape of my neck, the tips of his toes on my heels. Frantically, I moved, stumbling in the darkness. My tears created puddles, barring me.

The ground seemed unnaturally hard when I hit. I scratched and clawed trying to pull away from him, but I heard my dress tear as he yanked me toward him. I screamed for Niklav, but in my fear I had run far from his ears! I cried and screamed as Mikhail rolled me over. My nails dug into the skin on his face ripping it away and infuriating him. His fist hit hard and my eyes went black for a moment, ringing in my ears.

“No, please Mikhail!”

“I have waited so long for this,” Mikhail said the lust burning in his eyes.

“Mikhail, please,” I cried. Swinging my arms and kicking him in the genitals I earned another hard punch in the face. I tasted blood. Through blurry eyes, I watched as Mikhail’s eyes turned that glossy black I had grown to fear.

The blackness in his eyes made me angry not afraid, but the more I kicked and screamed the more excited Mikhail became. His eyes returned to their nasty green, and I actually wished for the blackness. The green of Mikhail’s eyes made me vomit. I hoped the chunks of food I had spewed on him would be a discouragement, but they were not.

“Even Exquisite Beauty Cannot Hide The Demon Within”

Asmodeus

My First Novel

Even exquisite beauty cannot  hide the demon within!

Imagine you are thrust in to a world of malevolent spirits, a world of demons, the world of the Fallen Angels? Envision a being of deceiving beauty seeking to devour your soul and destroy your life, the life of your lover, your family, your people? Its lust for power reaching further still causing the rivers of humanity to run red. Its need for vengeance driving it to destroy the sons of Adam that usurped its place within Gods heart. What if this tormented spirit chose you to possess? What if it chose your daughter?

What if?

ASMODEUS

“Continue with life,” Asmodeus said. “Work hard to make our city prosper,” it instructed. “We will find a new, better way of life,” the demon encouraged as it boarded up the doors of our church. “We will become strong and powerful!” Asmodeus declared as it sent our women and girls to the fields, and drilled our men and boys in merciless and gruesome training hour after dangerous hour.

How could we continue with life, our beguiled hearts and souls sacrificed upon the altar of all our hopes? How could we work to better our city when it lay in the covetous hands of a hellish creature? How could we find a new and better way with our freedom to worship our Great Father ripped away and our children cursed by the quintessence of evil?