13 Tales of the Paranormal Page 7

  That was the hope anyway. She’d have to convince Hale to go along with it first. Knowing him, he’d rather wait for him to wake up, let him feed a little, feel a little and then drive a stake through his heart, as slowly as he possibly could. Hale has always enjoyed watching the life leave his victim’s eyes. Normally she did, too.

  She pulled into the open garage and pressed the button to open the trunk. Hale stepped out of the shadows with a cool smile on face. He’d sensed her anger the second she pulled into the driveway. Then he saw what she had planned. The poor guy in the trunk was in for a lifelong case of blue balls.

  He tossed the guy’s body over his shoulder and headed towards the door. “I’ll get the drip started. You go get changed.” He turned around to look at her. She looked like she’d gone twelve rounds in a mud pit. “What in the hell possessed you to attack him outside the car?”

  “Just tell Joe to get the damn car detailed,” she mumbled as she slipped past him, handing him the keys to her car.

  Hale walked in behind her and threw the keys at a young man sitting at the kitchen table. Letalia smiled weakly and hurried upstairs. The last thing she needed tonight was a horny kid begging for scraps.

  “You’ve got a job to do,” Hale told him. “Get off your ass and get it done.”

  “One of these nights y’all are gonna wake up, and I’m gonna be gone,” Joe mumbled.

  “One of these nights you may wake up find yourself the main course,” Hale warned. “You know as well as I do, Letalia doesn’t take threats well.”

  “So now that I can walk again I’m just another employee?” he asked. Hale clicked his tongue and winked. Joe rubbed his leg and sighed. “You people are-”

  “What?” Hale asked, letting his fangs retract. His brown eyes took on a wild glow. “Crazy? Mean? Demented?”

  “Demented works,” he mumbled. Hale stepped closer. Between the mean glint in his eyes and the mass of muscles standing before him, there was no chance. Joe was stuck and he knew it; he shook his head in defeat. “I’ll have it clean before the sun comes up.”

  “Good boy. I’d hate to have to heal that shin of yours again. Course the next time Letalia decides to break you it’ll probably be your neck.”

  The thing he loved about his lover was the fact that almost anything could set her off. That poor kid had done nothing more than leave a little wax on her car door. Breaking his shin seemed a little extreme, but even he had to admit they had a fun time healing the kid. It’s amazing what you can do with a kid who’s willing to try anything.

  Now that the little shrimp had been put in his place, it was time to see that the one snoozing on his shoulder found his. He quickly took him upstairs and dropped his lifeless body on the floor. He had started to put him on the couch like Letalia had asked, but then a glorious idea hit him. One he just knew she’d find more than satisfactory.

  In one of the guest rooms they kept the most wonderful invention Letalia’s devious mind had ever conceived. It was made of unfinished oak. The arms had solid silver restraints that covered the prisoner’s arms to the elbows. The legs were held in place by another set of silver cuffs that fit around the ankles. She wanted her victim to have the freedom to wiggle around driving an untold volume of splinters to implant inside the skin.

  To a human, the wood would be nothing more than a nuisance until they were removed. To a vampire, especially one who’s been weakened with silver, it would be excruciating. Wood inside any part of a vampire’s body is not a good thing. He glanced at the lean body lying on the ground and smiled.

  “This is going to be fun.”

  He dumped Jarrod into the chair, careful not to let his arms and legs touch the silver. Granted the change wasn’t complete yet, but there was no need in torturing an unconscious man. That would be pointless.

  “Oh my,” Letalia said dropping the towel to the floor. She put on her satin robe and sat down on the bed, admiring her creation for the first time in a long time. “I’d forgotten all about that useful contraption.”

  “I didn’t,” he said proudly. “I’ve just been waiting for the right time to break it out again. He shrugged his shoulders and smiled. “This seemed perfect.”

  “Shall we?” she asked. “Daylight’s coming on fast, and I want to have some fun tonight.”

  “And fun you shall have,” he said, smiling brilliantly. “What do you want to do with his clothes? Leave them on, or strip him down?”

  “Take them off,” she said quickly.

  “He’ll burn the second the change is complete.”

  “Not if we put something around his arms and legs,” she said slyly.

  “You are an evil minx,” he said, burying his hand in her hair. He pulled her lips to his and kissed them hungrily.

  She broke away from him and started ripping Jarrod’s clothes off. Once he’d been stripped clean, she wrapped a soft cotton pillow case around his arms and legs and secured them in place. Hale quickly ran a thick tube down his throat. The larger the tube, the faster the process worked. A little while later Jarrod was on a constant drip of blood. One of their maids was put in charge of his food supply while they were forced to retire for the day.

  Jarrod’s eyes shot open. A hand patted his shoulder gently. He tried to speak, but choked instead. It was then that he realized something long and big had been stuffed down his throat. Beside him was what resembled an IV stand with several empty bags hanging on it, and one nearly empty one draining into him. Scared he tried to lift his arm to yank the tube out, but found his arm was bound. When he looked down, fear gripped him even tighter. He looked to the woman sitting beside him, desperation clearly present in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” she said meekly. “I can’t help you. They’ll kill me.” Her eyes shifted away from him. He looked up to see a couple lying on the bed in front of him. “I don’t know what you did to piss her off, but I suggest you start praying now.”

  “She?” he thought. His mind was so fuzzy he could barely remember his name.

  “Hold still and I’ll get that thing out of your mouth. Obviously you don’t need it anymore.”

  She slowly pulled what felt like an endless amount of plastic tubing out of his mouth. As expected his gag reflex kicked in. Through the coughing and dry heaves the red liquid dripping into his body finally hit his taste buds. His eyes widened as understanding hit.

  “Is that-”

  “Blood,” she said cutting him off. “Like I said, start praying now. I’ve seen what they do to other vampires.”

  “Vampires?” His mind couldn’t or maybe didn’t want to comprehend what she was saying. “They aren’t real.”

  “Try telling yourself that,” she said sarcastically. “You’re one of them now.”

  “Leave!” A sultry voice commanded. The young woman scurried out of the room. “Oh my, it’s that time already?”

  “Letalia?” He knew that woman. He’d gone out with her last night. They’d been stranded and then…Holy shit! He remembered! “What have you done to me?!”

  She got out of the bed and knelt down on the floor in front of him. “Only what you asked me to do. You said you wanted to stay with me. I simply made that happen.”

  “Be with you,” Jarrod corrected. “I only want to be with you.”

  “Oh, well I am terribly sorry for the misunderstanding.” She stood up and dropped her robe. His eyes widened. Suddenly questions didn’t seem so important anymore. Good lord she was perfect. Oh how she loved blurring the minds of her toys. “I suppose you’ll want me to let you go then?”

  “How can I touch you if I stay tied up like this?”

  “Do you remember what I asked you last night?” she asked straddling his lap. She smiled when she saw him react. Typical man.

  “Do you remember what I said?” He pushed up on the metal restraining his arms trying to free them.

  “I do,” she whispered. “I assume you still feel the same way?”

  “Uh-huh. Now let me go. I want what y
ou promised me last night.”

  Letalia slapped his face and jumped off his lap. “My dear, you will never have me. You will never have anybody.”

  “Excuse me?” He snorted. She let her hold on his mind go. His attitude changed in an instant. Everything the woman had said earlier came back. “You can’t do this.” You can’t treat people this way.”

  “People?” she laughed. “Oh, Jarrod, you left the people population some time ago. You are now, in fact, a vampire, and you are mine. Until I let you go and I assure you that will never happen; you have no more free will. I own you.”

  He jerked his arms against the restraints even harder than he had before. Getting out was all he could think about. This chick was crazy.

  “Here, let me make things a bit more complicated.” She yanked the material off his arm. Almost instantly his skin started to burn. He screamed out in pain. “Oh good, now that’s what I like to hear. Shall we do the other one?”

  The pain shooting through his body was like nothing he’d ever felt before. He felt the flesh bubbling underneath the metal sheath. A slow flow of blood had started to trickle down the arm of the chair. He wasn’t prepared when she yanked the material off his ankles. As his body recoiled against the pain, splinters injected themselves into the backs of his thighs and buttocks. They felt like hypodermic needles.

  “Now this is what the rest of your life will be,” she said smiling. The pain she saw in his eyes was exactly what she wanted. “Every night you will sit here. Every night you will burn. Every night you will watch as I gladly give myself to another man. Every night from this point on will be torture.”

  She walked away from him and crawled back into the bed. The man who had been so still before came to life. He yanked Letalia’s head back and sank his fangs deep into her neck. She moaned, digging her nails into his back. With a wink at Jarrod he dropped her in his lap. Now it was time to show the little prick exactly what he was missing.

  Toothless

  J. S. Wilsoncroft

  Toothless

  J. S. Wilsoncroft

  The horrid dream woke Kate up. She hurried, pulling the purple blanket off and ran to the bathroom. She reached over the sink and flicked on the light. What happened next… neither Kate nor her roommates, Kelly and Shawna, will ever forget.

  Two weeks prior:

  “Cool! We have a fortune teller moving into the apartment below us.” Shawna said excitably. She set the bowl of salad in the middle of the table as Kate finished mixing the sauce into the spaghetti.

  “Where did you hear that?” Kate asked turning around, setting the pot of spaghetti on the table next to the salad.

  “I ran into her downstairs when I was getting the mail. She’s a creepy looking thing, but having a psychic in the building will be kind of fun. Don’t you think?” Shawna sat down in her usual seat at the far end of the table. Her dark, natural curly-hair was pulled back in a ponytail as it always is during dinner time. Any other time she kept it down to hide her face that is riddled with acne scars.

  “Where is Kelly?” Kate asked as she sat down, setting three cans of diet cola beside each plate.

  “She’s coming right back. She went down to the basement to get the load of towels that she left in the dryer,” Shawna replied with her lips curled in smile

  “Oh geesh…I hope that idiot Stanly isn’t down there sniffing the damn things, or worse rubbing them all over his skanky body,” Kate remarked. Both girls gave each other a disgusted look before busting out laughing.

  “EWWWW!” Shawna continued to giggle.

  “What are you guys ewwwing about?” Kelly asked when she came through the door. She sat the basket of neatly folded towels next to the kitchen table then sat down at her usual seat, across from Shawna. She stared at her two, giggling roommates for a moment before taking a sip of her Diet Pepsi.

  “Are you two going to tell me what the hell you are laughing about?” She asked in a teasingly bitter tone.

  “We were talking about your boyfriend, Stanly, and how he likes to sniff your laundry.” Kate chuckled.

  “Oh shut the hell up and eat your spaghetti before it gets cold.” She scooped a pile of spaghetti out of the pan and slopped it onto her plate before stabbing her fork into the pile. She twirled the noodles around her fork and took a huge bite. Shawna and Kate did the same. The three roommates ate silently for the next fifteen minutes until the sound of the doorbell startled them all.

  Kate opened the door and jumped when she saw an old lady standing in the doorway. The woman looked to be in her seventies with long, thin, straggly red hair. Her tie-dye dress looked like something she wore from the hippy days of Woodstock. She smelled like Woodstock. But it wasn’t the hair or clothes or smell that freaked Kate out. It was her eyes. They were orange, the same shade as her hair.

  “Hellooo!” The old lady spoke. Her voice was raspy and deep, three packs of cigarettes a day for thirty years, deep. Kate nearly choked on her half chewed spaghetti as she stared at the freaky looking woman.

  “Can I help you?” Kate finally managed to speak after clearing her throat. “Yes, could you ladies help me move my furniture?” The old woman spat. Kate cringed when she saw the spit fly out of her mouth and hit her on the cheek. She turned around to face Shawna and Kelly, squeezing her eyes tight as she wiped the gunk off her face.

  “Sure we can help. Just give us a few minutes, and we’ll be right down,” Shawna said politely.

  “Oh thank you, my sweetness.” The old woman smiled then turned around to walk back down the stairs. Kate’s lips curled up as she glared at Shawna. Kelly glared at her, too.

  “Why in the hell did you volunteer us? I was going to send her to Stanly’s apartment, but I wanted to wipe her funky, mouth juice off my face first.” Kate continued to rub her cheek with the sleeve of her shirt, making her cheek all red in the process.

  “What?” She stared at Kate and Kelly with wide eyes. “Oh come on. It can’t be that bad. Didn’t your parents ever tell you to respect your elders? And besides, who knows, maybe she will tell us our fortune for free if we help her.” She smiled widely before taking another bite of her spaghetti.

  “Well…she ain’t giving me my fortune. She looks and sounds like someone who has been hitting the crack pipe too damn long,” Kelly commented.

  Fifteen minutes later the three girls were in the small living room of the old lady. The room reeked of incense burners and mothballs. The woman ordered Kate and Kelly to move the mustard color couch from one wall to the other. They both cringed when they picked up the funky-scented couch and moved it. She asked Shawna to slide the TV stand to the other corner so that it faced the couch. Then she had the girls bring out a folding table that was stored in the closet and set it up in the middle of the entryway between the kitchen and living room.

  Quietly, the girls did as they were told, but the whole time Kate and Kelly were quietly bitching to themselves about the stink, and touching the funky couch that had a stain on one of the cushions, that neither one of them could identify. Shawna didn’t seem to mind at all as she smiled contently helping the old lady.

  The three of them stood by the table, watching the old lady as she continued to root through the closet. They gasped when they saw her pull out a round crystal ball out of a black velvety bag and place it in the center of the table.

  “I thank you girls very much for helping me today.” She coughed as she sat down at the small folding table.

  “Sure, no problem. We were glad to help,” Shawna said proudly. Kate and Kelly smiled weakly, nodding their heads in agreement.

  “Oh come now….sit. I can’t have you girls leaving without repaying you.” She patted the seat next to her for Shawna to sit down. Shawna eagerly sat down and smiled at the freaky old lady. Kate and Kelly hesitated until Shawna insisted they sit, too.

  The girls knew right away what the old lady was going to do. Shawna, who was literally bouncing in her seat, was excited about having her fortune told, but Kate
and Kelly were both skeptical over the whole fortune-telling thing, especially with this lady, who reeked of mothballs and dopey scents, and looked like something out of a Stephen King novel.

  “Here…grab my hand,” the old lady wheezed. The four of them grabbed each other hands with the old lady holding Shawna’s and Kelly’s. She told them to close their eyes and not to open them until she said. The old lady began to mumble under her breath, words that didn’t sound like anything from the English language. A few times it sounded like she was cursing, calling someone a selfish bitch and a whore, sounding like the devil himself. Sometimes she would change her tone and speak softly like a coo of a dove, which was surprising with her raspy, deep voice.