Over

It happened. It happened and it’s done. Finally over. Everything Peter told me was right. All it took was one life of someone He wanted. All it took. I don’t know what held Him back. I don’t know why He wanted me to see. I don’t know how It works. But the plan did. The plan worked. I’m going to get Judith back and all it took was Kiera.

I was in the kitchen, getting ready to make a sandwich, pulling out the jelly. It was the last act of kindness she ever showed me, letting me eat before kicking me out. She was a bitch, but she didn’t deserve this. But I had to. I hope you understand that I had to. I had to get Judith back. It was the only way. The only way… Strawberry. It was strawberry jelly. I’ll never be able to eat that stuff again. It looks too much like her.

I finished, turned the corner to head into the living room, and saw him standing there behind her. I froze. It was time. I didn’t expect it so soon. Kiera looked at me. Her eyes blazed, “What the hell is wrong with you?” Sandwich fell to the floor. She took a step towards me, “Seriously. Get the fuck out of m—“

Black tendrils exploded from Kiera’s kneecaps. She started to scream before her teeth bit down on her lip, choking it down. Her gaze lowered, taking in the writhing tentacles that were protruding from her legs before her eyes came up to meet my own. Her teeth slowly released their grip on her lip, blood glistening from how hard she’d been biting. She shouted at me, anguish in her voice, “YOU FUCK!”

I couldn’t move. Kiera was suddenly whipped into the air. He threw her around the room, her body smashing into the walls, the floor, the ceiling. He hung her upside down in front of him, her face looking straight into his. I watched her arms swing as she tried, vainly to hit the beast. The impossibility seemed to dawn on her, and she settled down. He simply seemed to watch her. The next thing I knew, she was screaming in pain, swinging her body forward despite it, her hand curling into a fist. She must have connected. A sound emanated from that monster that filled my home, one I could never possibly describe.

Kiera fell to the floor. One leg fell beside her. The other hit the wall next to me.

I could hear her ragged breathing like it was in my ear. Even then, she was cursing him. “Don’t like it when someone fights back, huh? Don’t like that at all…”

Those two tentacles reached out again, wrapping around her arms and hauling her up to face him once more. The air hummed and distorted. Everything was fading out and wavering away except for those two. He shoved himself into her face, and white noise enveloped me. She lunged in closer, mouth open. Her teeth dug into him. The world screeched.

I heard her sinew tear. I heard her bones pop. Slowly, her arms were separated from her, and she fell once more to the floor. She didn’t make any noise. I was sure she was dead, but her eyes still moved. She was looking at me, trying to mouth words. He leaned down over her. Tendril after tendril came from him, cracking into the air. She lay beneath him. I can only assume she accepted her death.

A single long, thin tentacle came down, pressing itself in just under her throat before making its way down her torso, agonizingly slow. She didn’t scream, whether because she still refused or because she simply couldn’t, I’ll never know.  He finally finished. A second tentacle joined the first, and he split her open. At last, I saw her eyes go blank. She’d found peace... But then they moved. Her eyes moved. She was still alive. That monster was somehow keeping her alive.

That thing tore into her. All those tendrils dug into her body. Piece after piece, bone after bone, organ after organ were ripped from her and she was still conscious. He tossed them aside as though they were nothing to him. I don’t know how long he worked on her. I could only watch, frozen stiff.

Finally, he stopped. Reaching down, his hands gripped her and lifted her to him. He pressed his face into her own. The humming finally stop, the rest of the world slowly began to return. All but one of his tendrils retracted. Slowly wrapping around her neck, it yanked upwards. Tossing aside her head, he released his grip on what was left of her.

And he looked at me, looked at me with that eyeless face. His head tilted. A lone, blood-drenched tentacle reached out to me. The tip gently touched my cheek, caressing down to my chin before pulling away. My vision went black.

 

I awoke to a perfectly clean apartment - no blood, no body parts. It was as though nothing had ever happened. I stood, shaking, wondering if it had simply been a dream. I walked into the bathroom. I looked into the mirror. Upon my cheek was a single smear of blood and tissue. There it still remains. I haven’t washed it off. It’s all I have that proves I’m not insane. It’s all that’s left of the woman I traded for the woman I love.