Sacrifice (27 page)

Cindy was helping her mom clear the table when Ted pulled her aside.

“I’m going to ride my bike up to Terrel’s Peak right now. I’m putting the book back.”

“Now?” Cindy’s mouth twisted in surprise. “Why now? It’ll be dark by the time you get up there.”

“I don’t want the book in the house anymore,” he lied. “It’s been giving me the creeps.”

“Well, give it to me for to night,” she said. “I’ll keep it in my room.”

He shook his head. “I can’t sleep knowing it’s in the house. I just want to get rid of it.”

“Well toss it in the garbage then.”

Now it was Ted’s turn to feign shock. “We can’t do that! It’s like, a piece of history. It belongs down there in that little room. I just need to get it back there.”

Cindy took a deep breath and held up a hand. “Just wait,” she said. “I promised I’d help with the dishes. But then I’ll drive you.”

“You won’t tell Mom where we’re going, will you?”

“Are you insane?”

Ted smiled. He knew his dorky sister like the back of his deceitful hand.

“Good,” he said. “I’ll go get my backpack.”

“God this place gives me the creeps,” Cindy said, as they stepped slowly down the stairs beneath the rubble of the old lighthouse. Even though she’d driven them there, it was still almost dark out by the time they had parked the car and walked up the trail to the top of the cliff. Now as they descended into the caves, the blackness around them seemed absolute, except for the thin beam of Ted’s flashlight.

“I don’t know why this couldn’t have waited,” she said, rubbing her arms. Goose bumps had sprung up as soon as they’d started on the path towards the blue room. She could only think of the last time she had been down here, and the horror of the bloody cave freak lying there, dead on the stone ground with a knife in his back. A knife that she had put there. He had tried to rape her, and she had made him a sacrifice to Malachai.

“Let’s get this over with,” she breathed as the cave around them suddenly lit up with shimmers of electric blue. She saw the dais where Malachai had possessed her just a few weeks before. He’d forced her to lie on her back, nude and open for the taking of the hippie caver.

A hand came out of nowhere to cover her eyes; the dais disappeared.

“Not so fast,” a deep male voice said. Someone grabbed her around the waist and pulled her hands together behind her back. “We’re going to take our time, to night.”

“She’s a nice one.” Jeremy stroked the stubble on his chin and circled the dais where they’d hog-tied Cindy. Ariana had stripped her as Jeremy held her, and then she had tied the girl’s hands and wrists together. Jeremy used the pink thong she wore to gag her.

“Thank God for elastic,” he’d said. All the while Ted had stood to the side, sometimes walking towards the exit, other times sneaking obvious peeks at his well-built sister.

“She
is
a real blonde,” Ariana remarked, dragging the edge of the razor from the girl’s belly button to her pubes just heavy enough that it drew blood. “I think you’re going to enjoy this.”

“I didn’t know you were bringing someone with you,” Ted finally said from the shadows.

“I’m sorry,” Ariana said, stepping away from Cindy’s crotch. “You boys haven’t been properly introduced. Ted, this is Jeremy. Jeremy, Ted.”

She walked across the dark cavern to put her arm around Ted. With one hand, she pushed the glasses up his nose for him, and then she bent to give him a warm, long kiss on his pale lips.

“Thanks for bringing her, love. I didn’t tell you about Jeremy, because he just joined me a few days ago. But he’s been a big help. And I’ll need him for the sacrifice part anyway. I was going to have you fuck your sister, but I always thought that might get a bit dicey.”

Ted’s eyes grew wide. “Um…” was all he got out.

“Don’t worry about it,” Ariana said. “I’ll take care of you.”

She put a hand on his belt buckle and let her fingers dangle lower as she leaned in to whisper hotly in his ear. “You and I are going to have a good time to night.”

Ted’s face grew red, and he visibly shivered.

“Can you do me a favor?”

He nodded, mute.

“We need to work on your sister a little, before she’ll be ready for the sacrifice. And I get the feeling you probably don’t really want to watch.”

He nodded agreement.

“I was going to have Jeremy do it for me, but if you could stand lookout for a couple hours for us, that would be great. If anyone shows up and looks like they’re headed this way, just come down the stairs and let us know, okay?”

“Sure.” Ted shifted his hips and looked uncomfortable. “But…what about…”

“You and me?”

He nodded vigorously.

“I’ll call you down when it’s time. You won’t miss the big moment, I promise.” She pulled him clumsily into an embrace, and then kissed him again, this time with tongue. “Don’t disappoint me.”

He gulped, and half ran back down the corridor and up the stairs.

Ariana turned back to the dais, where Jeremy was tracing his fingers around and around the wide, pale pink circles of Cindy’s half-erect nipples. The girl’s eyes looked ready to bug out of her skull; their natural color reflected the blue of the cavern like a mirror.

Ariana reached into her back pockets and held two short-handled razors up in the air. “Enjoy them now,” she told Jeremy as he bent to run his tongue across one of the girl’s pale buds. “Cuz they’re coming off to night.”

“It’s almost nine o’clock,” Alex said. “Do you know where your serial killer is?”

Joe killed the lights and pulled the car off the road just around the curve from the path up to the light house.

“I’d bet a lot of money that she’s a couple hundred yards away.”

He pulled a backpack from the rear seat, and retrieved two flashlights from the pouch. “Walk softly,” he said, handing one aluminum-handled light to her. “And carry a big flashlight.”

They closed the car doors with a soft nudge, and started up the road. In minutes, they saw the regular pull-off for the cliff path. A car was parked there, lights off.

“They’re downstairs,” he whispered.

Not all of them.

Joe put out his arm and crouched down. Alex followed suit. “What do you mean?” he whispered to Malachai.

Take a look at the boulders by the entry. A good look.

Joe squinted at where he knew the entry to the caves below was. The moon was rising, and the rocks shone bright as bleached cotton in its rays. Then he saw the dark shape ahead, weaving in and out of the boulders. As he watched, the figure traced a circular path, moving around the hole three times before hopping up on one of the larger boulders to rest awhile.

“Do you see him?” he whispered at Alex. She nodded.

“Malachai, what about the beach?”

It appears unguarded.

“C’mon,” Joe whispered, and crab-walked backwards a few yards before rising fully. He led Alex back to the car and then backed out onto the road and flipped around before turning the headlights back on.

“Where are we going?”

“I know another way in. But we’re going to have to hike it.”

Joe pulled off the road a little ways down the hill. Then they slogged down the sandy embankment until they reached the rocky beach. “This way,” he said, and began jogging along the farthest point of the beach from the water. The cliff grew closer and higher, and the sand turned dirty, until they were running across jagged rocks. The moon was blocked behind the cliff, and in the shadow, Joe risked pulling his flash and aimed it first at the ground. Then, he shone it slowly around them, until a dark opening was visible in the gray and green algae-splotched rock.

“That’s it.”

They ducked beneath the low overhang, and stepped into a small cave. Joe didn’t linger, just waved Alex on to a wider room, and then a corridor.

“It’s been awhile,” he said, “but I think the blue room is to the right here. Keep your flash off, I’ll shield mine with my hand like this until we are almost there.”

Slowly, almost blindly, they walked. And then suddenly, Joe doused his light. He said nothing, only pointed.

Just ahead, Alex could make out a faint, bluish light.

Something moved along the corridor, right in front of them. Alex grabbed Joe’s arm as the shape turned and ran the few steps between them. Before they could react, it stopped, and began laughing. Joe could just make out the features of a small child; pug nose, cupid lips, and eyes that glowed with the life of a transistor radio.

“They’re coming,” the child cawed. It pulled a long silver blade out from what looked like a bathrobe. Pointing it at Alex, the thing charged. Alex stumbled backwards, trying to escape the deadly tip, but the child came on fast. Feral eyes glinted hotly at her own as he caught her, and plunged the blade upwards and into her chest.

Alex screamed as the blade caught her shirt and then passed through, and into her. There was no pain. And then she realized, finally, that it wasn’t a real knife. It wasn’t a real boy.

“Run,” Joe hissed, grabbing her hand.

They turned and started back the way they’d come. Joe rounded the corner that led back to the beach caves, but Alex’s hand suddenly slipped from his.

“Alex?” he hissed, and turned back. Almost immediately, something slammed hard against the side of his head. He staggered, and looked up just in time to see a thick, balding man lifting a steel rod above his head. Distantly, he heard a
smack
and then he was kissing the cold ground.

“So much for sentries,” Ariana said, as Jeremy dragged first Joe and then Alex into the blue cave.

“Rope,” he demanded, and she quickly bound both of them, hand and foot. By the time she’d finished, Joe’s eyes were fluttering open.

“Welcome home, Mr. Exorcist,” Jeremy laughed, and pulled him up against a wall. “I hear you had a good time down here before, center stage.”

“Ugh,” Joe said. He couldn’t seem to control his tongue.

“Well, this time around, you get to be in the audience.” Jeremy kicked him in the belly and Joe coughed, doubling over to spit a hot stream of bile. “Shit, man, you’re front row for the big night. The ultimate performance.”

Joe spit, trying to clear the acid from his mouth. He looked at Alex, who lay silent on the ground nearby. A thick stream of blood ran down the center of her forehead. “Alex,” he wheezed. “Alex, baby, wake up.”

Ariana stepped into view, and bent over the girl, running a hand through her shock black hair. It came up crimson red. “How hard did you hit her?” she asked.

Jeremy shrugged. “Hard enough, I guess. Never hit anyone with a pipe before.”

Ariana shook her head and stood up. “We don’t need her anyway. We’ve got our sacrifice. In another hour, none of this will matter.”

Joe looked finally at the dais, and saw the pale naked foot there, and the sleek thigh, and the overflow of blonde hair that, for a while anyway, he’d known so well. Cindy turned her head and met his eyes, then shook her head slightly.

“Cindy,” he gasped. “Not again.”

“Déjà vu?” Ariana grinned. “I heard you saved her once before from a demon possession. Funny how you decided to turn up again. You and your little sister should have stayed away.”

“She’s not my sister,” Joe growled.

Ariana shrugged. “Whatever. You and your jailbait. I’m not sure she’s going to wake up again. And if she does, it won’t make any difference. The Curburide will have a party with you two. I imagine they’ll be pretty hungry for sex and blood those first few minutes when they hit our world. From what I can tell, it’s been centuries since they got some.”

She bent over and pulled a handful of bones out of a backpack, and then carefully placed them equally apart, all around the stone dais and Cindy. When she was done, she interwove a handful of rocks from her backpack in between the bones.

“We’ve got the makings of a powerful Calling,” she said to Jeremy. “If you’ve ever had a perverted bone in your body, now’s the time to let it out. The nastier we get with our sacrifices…the better we’ll be when the Curburide are here. They respect only perversion.”

“I can think of a thing or two.”

“Good,” Ariana said, and started to strip off her clothes. Naked, she stepped to the corridor leading up to the steps and called for Ted. “Let’s begin.”

It didn’t take the teen any time at all to shuck off his jeans and shirt. Not with Ariana standing cool and utterly nude in front of him. She embraced him, and felt his little pecker pop up against her thigh.

“I want you to perform the first cut,” she said, and pushed him back. “I’ve told you that we are here to sacrifice your sister to the Curburide.”

He nodded.

“And you are alright with delivering your sister to her killers.”

“She’s a bitch,” he shrugged. “And you said I could have the sex of my dreams if the Curburide come through, right?”

Ariana smiled, and rubbed a finger still sticky with Alex’s blood across the boy’s lips. “You’ll do,” she said. “Choose now,” she said. “Your sister will die by the ritual of twenty-one cuts. Before she goes, she will be defiled by Jeremy. But you will start.” She handed him one of the straight razors. “Make your mark on her. But not too deep yet.”

Ted’s hand shook a little, as he accepted the razor. “Anywhere?” he asked.

Ariana grinned. “Wherever you like. Just don’t stab. Cut.”

Then he didn’t hesitate to walk up to his naked sister. He placed the edge of the blade just above the jut of her pubic bone and smiled, just a little. “This is for all the times you wouldn’t take me to the beach with you,” he announced, and pulled the blade towards him in a flash. A line of blood instantly welled up in its wake, beads of it slipping down as she exhaled, to pool in her belly button.

“And this cut begins
our Calling with blood
Come to me, Curburide
Taste the fruit of our body,” Ariana chanted.

Ted was staring at the blood slowly washing across his sister’s belly, and then at the blade he’d used. His face grew white. “I don’t feel so good,” he whispered.

Ariana laughed. “You get used to it. Come here.”

She drew the boy down on top of her on the ground. “You’ve earned your reward.” She reached down and stroked his flanks until his erection bobbed to life again. Ariana whispered in his ear. “I promised you the ride of your life, and I’m going to keep my promise,” she said. Then she reached between their legs to position him, and pulled him close. The teen’s eyes lit, and he moaned slightly.