Hours later, Annabelle made the decision to step out of the woods, trekking towards the country house. The sun was fading behind the trees, painting the sky with that yellow and orange kaleidoscope she knew so well. A variety of small, puffy clouds scattered themselves throughout the atmosphere here and there.
Strangely enough, Annabelle felt a sort of peace within her as she studied the clouds. She had found her uncle dead and abandoned her cousin to what had no doubt been her demise, but she didn't care. She cared about how she was finally alone to enjoy the time she had outside without their bothersome presences, admiring the beauty of nature as she walked.
A figure stepped out from behind the cover of a palm tree, her dark green eyes lit up with emotion, her fists turning white from deep clenching. The tomato red consistency of her facial expression was almost humorous in contrast to her burgundy hair as the girl glared at Annabelle with nearly bloodthirsty anger.
“Yes?”
“What the fuck is the matter with you?” Rita demanded.
“Well, you see, many things, but at this particular moment, I didn't think anything was wrong,” Annabelle replied. “I am just a girl out here on her walk.”
“Don't play games with me,” Rita said, her eyes blazing. “You know what you did.”
“Usually, I am quite aware of what I did wrong, but uh, not this time. Here I am just strolling along in the beautiful countryside, minding my own business, behaving quite civilized might I add, yet...surprise!” Annabelle exasperated. “I still get my ass reamed out.”
“I saw you leave the house this morning. I decided to follow you.”
“Uh huh. So, leaving the house is a crime?”
“I know you found my father dead. You didn't make any move that you were coming back to tell us. Instead of acting like a normal person, you high-tailed it into the forest.”
“Ah, so that's what this is about. How do you know I wasn't coming back now to tell all of you?”
“I don't know, but honestly, I wouldn't believe you if you told me that. I have seen the way you act and speak towards people, I have seen the way you act when you're not. Your behavior is wrong. Completely, utterly wrong.”
Annabelle yawned. Rita wasn't echoing anything she hadn't already heard from people.
“What's your point, Rita?”
“I wouldn't put it past you to kill our father while you're suffering from one of your 'episodes',” Rita said. “That's what you did. There is no doubt in my mind you murdered our dad...what kind of person
stumbles upon their dead uncle and just shrugs it off?”
“Oh, fuck no, you just wait a minute,” Annabelle steamed, her own knuckles changing color. “I took safety in the woods to cover my own ass....why the hell would I linger about with somebody like that on the loose?”
“Why would you come across your uncle, hanging from a tree, and not think to tell his family?”
“I don't give a shit about you people, that's why. It is also the reason that I left him there.”
“Wow, you truly more of a psychopath than you let on,” Rita said. “What a convincing way to cover up murdering your uncle. You don't give a shit, huh?”
“My lack of caring doesn't mean I am a murderer, for fuck sake.”
“I don't believe you, and I doubt the police will, either. Or my sisters and mother, whom I am going to look for now,” Rita said. “You are truly a cunt. Enjoy your stay in jail, Annabelle.”
A man materializing out of thin air spooked them both.
“I hate to barge in on this lovely conversation and thus ruining my free entertainment, but I am going to offer the same advice I gave to your sister. Sometimes, you should listen to the cunt; yes, even this cunt. She speaks the truth.”
“Uh, who are you?” Rita asked timidly.
His lips rose just barely at their corners as he answered Rita's question. “Well, my dear, I would love to present myself to you as your father's killer.”
The man grinned wickedly, holding up one of his palms, counting to three. “I've also taken care of your mother and sisters. There is no need for you to search for them. They got to endure a nightmare, meeting me.”
The sound of Rita's wailing filled the air as what the implications of the man's words meant hit her like a truck. Annabelle continued to stand silently; even she appeared shocked.
“Why...would...you...do...that?” a hyperventilating Rita asked “Why...did...you...kill...them?” The question seemed to anger the man, as though Rita was intruding upon his personal life by asking it.
“When I was just a young boy, about five years old I would say, I watched my parents be murdered by human-folk. In front of my own eyes, too. The humans knew I was watching, knew I was there, but they didn't care. I remember listening to the screams my parents made as they were killed. This provoked a strong sense of vengeance in me, you could say,” the man spoke in a bone-chilling tone.
Rita and Annabelle listened in silence.
“After I watched my folks get killed, I vowed to myself I would find justice for them in every way I could. But you see, my kind goes to sleep for a good couple years; make that a century. I decided with my years that I awoke, I would avenge my family by slaughtering humans.”
A thunderous voice boomed from within him with his next words. “Then I discovered you and your family, Rita Cunningham. With some digging around, I managed to trace your family's ancestry back to the people who took my family from me when I was a child. What greater way to avenge my folks than to kill off descendants of the people who murdered them?
I could not think of a better way myself; but I didn't want to just swoop in here and eliminate any of you, one by one. Oh no, I needed to get to know each one of you. Your lives, your schedules, what you do day-by-day; it would make each killing just that more personable and satisfying. Now, here we are.”
Rita turned to Annabelle. “I'm...sorry,” she mouthed, barely, through her tears. “For...accusing...you, Annabelle.”
“You know, that reminds me. I'm not one to forge any sort of connection with a human, but your cousin here is a special exception to that rule. That is one thing I would have never expected: to break a code of conduct. I would have never allowed myself to bond to Annabelle if I had not thought that she is capable of more than she thinks she is,” he said.
Those words snapped Annabelle out of her Parkinson's-like trance. “Uh, pardon?”
“The way to your heart is through nature or cats. A certain cat with blue eyes caught your attention here. Dragon, I believe?”
It started to piece together for Annabelle. This was the person she had seen in one of the premonitions: somewhat pale skin, black hair tinted with silver cascading to his chest, hazel eyes with a tinge of some color she couldn't quite place.
“What the hell are you?” Rita demanded.
“An ancient demon of the shape-shifting sort, child,” the man almost purred the words, before fixating on Annabelle again. His eyes twinkled red as he spoke to her.
“I am Dragon, Annabelle. I can say after hanging around in your presence, you are certainly capable of greater things than you think.”
“What do you mean by 'greater things'?” Annabelle asked, feeling as though she had stepped into lunacy far more outlandish than she could have thought of: her cat was a demon whom had gone on a murderous rampage, and here she was, holding a conversation with that demon.
Dragon produced a knife and a hatchet, displaying them proudly as he settled them into her palms.
“Finish what I started.”
“Oh, Annabelle, please don't,” Rita begged. “You're not this crazy. Please, don't do this.”
“I've spent my entire life being deemed a mental case when I hadn't done anything wrong. I was ostracized for being that quiet girl who'd rather talk to cats,” Annabelle fumed, fumbling with the weapons in her hand. “What happens next? I'm sent to this place by the people who are suppose to love and stick by me, no matter what. I am sick of being treated as though I am a psychopath. I'm going to prove I am not.”
“To prove you are not psychopathic, you are going to finish what this fucker started?”
That made Annabelle pause, just for a nanosecond, as she studied the weapons, flipping back and forth between them. Should she really go through with this?
You either finish this or die with Rita, Dragon's words echoed inside of her mind. He watched her pointedly, encouraging her to finish it all.
“Yes, that's exactly what I am going to do,” Annabelle affirmed. Rita's eyes dilated as she flailed backwards onto the ground, turning halfway towards the house, eyeballing her escape.
Dragon's arm reached out towards her, planting her to the ground with an invisible force that she could not break free of.
Rita's screams pierced the air as Annabelle sunk the knife into her cheek, hooking it upwards into her temple, raking it through the other half of her face. She unhooked the knife from her skin, peeling the hide off she did, chucking it to the ground at her feet.
Annabelle forced her lips apart, reaching in for her tongue, and sank the knife into it deep, severing the flesh that bound it. She discarded it into the pile of skin.
Then she gazed down upon the hatchet clutched in her hand. This is it.
She cut off her cousin's one last scream, bludgeoning the girl's head in; brain matter and blood spilled onto the grass. The liquid splattered Annabelle's face and clothes crimson as she hacked away at Rita's skull, until she was nothing but a decapitated corpse.
Annabelle dropped the hatchet, gasping as the world around her turned gray, a three-dimensional tunnel appearing before her. Fire replaced the gray, the voices chanted around her, the veins underneath her skin rippling with the words they mimicked as intense emotion she had never felt before made its presence.
Red sparkled in her dark brown eyes, her tan skin turning the same pallid color as Dragon's. Then, silence.
“Welcome to my world,” Dragon declared. “You have just proven yourself to be admitted into this world. From this moment on, you are my bride. However, for your first day in my world, you may have whatever your heart desires.”
“Anything my heart desires?” Annabelle repeated, her voice humming with the same purr as Dragon's. “I want my family, who were suppose to love and take care of me, dead.”
“So, it shall be done. Take my hand.”
ns 15.158.61.7da2
