Chapter Five

     Chapter Five

     1

In the corner she heard the thing shift. Its muscles popped. She jerked, forced to gaze upon its glistening exposed flesh as it crossed patches of moonlight, and gasped.

"Oh, Stephen," she sobbed.

The thing paused. Its jaw hung open to reveal a set of fangs stained pink. Through a veil of unshed tears she watched it turn. Its hunched shoulders rounded more so as it bowed it's sopping crimson head. Before it a weave of electrical brilliance sliced through the darkness and from it stepped forth its creator.

"What have you done to him," Patty cried.

Ronan smiled. "It is an improvement."

Sickness rose in her throat and she clasped her mouth shut with both hands. Her stomach sucked down the liquid reluctantly as it bitterly churned. Though every inch of her longed to back away and flee into another room her feet refused to obey. Rooted in place they quaked.

"How," she said, her voice muffled.

"How is it an improvement," Ronan asked. His voice was almost charming if not for the hint of malice that came directly after. "He was a monster wearing a human disguise. Now he is exposed for what he truly is."

The thing strode toward the door. Tattered remains of a shirt swayed over fissured skin that married columns of bone in a truly horrific manner, yet she continued to stare as it entered the hallway and galloped away.

"There will be more," Ronan promised, his angelic features ever more handsome yet dangerous as he spoke. "There will be a colony of chaos just before the next season."

2

The channels of her mind played static before tuning in the thought she never had before. It was perhaps more of a memory, but not hers. Patty blotted it out. Reaching for the phone she punched in the digits that would connect her to Brenda. Then she hung up the receiver just before finishing the numbered sequence. The diary lay within her grasp and she picked it up, opened it and began to write. The pen throbbed against her fingers, its black ink wafting to her nostrils as barely legible words scrawled across the yellow tinted page.

They would get what they deserved, she heard Ronan hiss and Brenda's face popped into her mind.  When her hand came to rest she read what she had so fiercely scribbled. She again reached for the phone and pressed redial.

3

As she stood outside the two story apartment complex Patty looked up at the window on the second floor. It was at the closer end, curtains drawn and a cadence of music rocketed from its panes. Her hands closed around the metal handle and she opened the heavy door. Her attention dwelled toward the flight of stairs.

On the phone she had heard Thomas's voice in the background when she talked to Brenda. If she was right that meant they were having another session of marathon sex. All the signs followed it; drawn curtains to conceal their foreplay and loud music to drown out their panting and moaning. Though the bedroom was their place of choice for their games, any room available was any room available. Last time she knew they were exploring public sex as well. The long list of locations she read once when Brenda showed the piece of paper to her included a train station, an airplane, a train, a bus, a park, a movie theater, a shopping mall, and on and on. A green mark by the space to next it represented a deed done. Other symbols and markings indicated whether it was oral sex, intercourse, anal sex and if she had an orgasm or not. She had tuned most of her explanation out, but fakes interest in the rest. She figured it was best. At times though she wondered what exactly it was she had in common with Brenda or any of her so called Wiccans.

Patty stood on the first step. There was a high cord where she swore she heard a cry of ecstasy. It matched so perfectly she doubted herself at first. Then as she climbed the second and third step she paused as more cries mingled with the hard mashed sound of Cradle of Filth. A smile played on her lips. She had nothing for the band nor against them but it marked her as odd that they would choose such music to make love to. Of course what they did they did not consider as lovemaking. To them it was called drawing down the moon and although she was not a Wiccan she thought drawing down the moon was only performed on certain occasions, not four or five times a day and wherever you feel like it. Still she kept her mouth shut.

There was a time a while back when Brenda, Thomas and there other spell casting friends were engaged in an orgy. They had wanted her to join in but she simply backed away and sat alone in the forest, listening to them until she knew they were finished and then she returned. They were beginning to dress and talk about their swinging partners when they saw her. She did not want them to ask her about it but they did and she tried to give short answers that would not upset anyone. They did not understand desire was not her game to play. She could not get aroused and even if she could will it so she regarded sex as something shameful and….

What is sex but a savage sport? It only is a way of disease to reproduce and mimic true creation. The parts of man and woman were never intended to interlock for purposes mankind so often used and abused. That is why they must….

"Be quiet, Ronan," she hissed.

Patty ascended to the sixth and seventh step. The railing under her hand was cracked and taped together with electrician's tape. She gave it a look and then finished her ascent. The level floor was well groomed aside from the pile of autumn leaves decaying in the corner. At first glance she thought to have seen a family of maggots among the dead colors strangling long wet worms. As she stared longer the light overhead flickered on seemingly of its own accord and then died as soon as she looked away.

She took a deep breath. She doubled her fist and then relaxed her fingers. As she exhaled she raised her hand to knock and then hesitated midway. When she did knock it was soft, dull and almost feeble. Her jaw tightened. She imagined a huge fist balling up to deliver the next series of knocks. That would surely get their attention. As though the thought projected from her mind, four deafening bangs resonated throughout the hallway. It shook her from her thought and she started to look around to see what could have made the noise. She was alone.

"Ronan, stop," she whispered. "Don't knock so loud!"

She heard a scuffle from behind Brenda's door. A moment later it opened slowly and Brenda poked her head out. 

"It is just you," she said. There was a sigh of relief that followed and she closed her eyes briefly. "I thought it was the cops."

She moved aside to allow her passage. Brenda in her white satin robe and messy brown hair was looking quite a fright. Now as color began to return to her cheeks and a shine lit up her eyes, she strayed into a hallway and opened a door. Patty listened to Thomas's low voice as the music came to an abrupt end.