NIGHTMARE SUBURBIA

Part 9

After ten minutes had passed since Ashley went upstairs—and Dave did not show up—Maxine leaned over to Adam with a worried gaze to the stairs. “I don’t think he’s coming,” she said.

“Is he even home?”

“Ashley told us he’s here.”

“He must be busy?” Adam craned his neck to peer into the backyard. “Well, he’s definitely not out there.”

“And did you see that earlier?” Maxine asked.

“See what?”

“I thought Ash got blood under her nose.”

Adam shrugged. “I didn’t see anything.”

“I think I saw it.”

Adam shrugged again. “Well, if you saw it—”

“I saw it, okay?” Maxine hissed, annoyed. “I’m not blind.”

“What’d you think happened then?”

“I don’t know. Something’s weird. And did you smell that earlier? Like someone pissed in the room.”

“Don’t insult someone’s house, babe. It’s not polite.”

“Well, I smelled it.”

“Should we just leave? Maybe come back later? My parents are waiting for us, Max. You know what they are like if we’re late again. We won’t hear the tail end of it.”

“No, we won’t be long,” Maxine insisted. “Ashley’s probably telling Dave to come. Yeah.”

“Are you sure? I don’t think so, babe,” Adam rubbed his hands over his upper arms; he was only wearing a short-sleeved shirt. “Shit. It’s cold in here, huh?”

Maxine shook her head. “Fuck it. I’ll find Dave and the gem. Find out what he’s so scared about. Then we can go to your parents.”

“Dave’s always scared about something. What’s he on about this time?”

“Hodge told me he sounded scared. Something about the gem. And this whole house gives me the fucking creeps.” Maxine started walking out of the living room.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“I’ll go to his office and look for the gem there. You can stay right here in case Ashley comes back down. Tell her I went to get water. Or, you know, you can help?”

Adam let out a breath. “That’s alright with me. I’ll stay right here.” It was clear Adam didn’t feel like looking for a lost gem anyway. He was still worried about getting to the restaurant where his parents were waiting.

“I’ll be right back.” Maxine walked out of the living room.

I watched Adam sit there for a couple more minutes, tapping his fingers on his knees, twiddling with his thumbs, and checking Reddit with his phone. He received another message on his phone, smiled, and replied with a purple heart and an eggplant emoji. Looking over his shoulder, this was a different woman than the one he texted in his house!

How many women does this sleaze have?

I also checked up on Maxine, who looked into the garage and found Dave’s car was still inside. “Dave is here,” Maxine muttered. “Where the fuck is he?” She went back to the kitchen and checked the thermostat.

“Seventy-five degrees?” She scrunched up her face and visibly shivered. She looked like she regretted wearing a blouse today.

Her eyes glazed over to the basement door, and at first, I thought she was going down there, but she walked past it and made a beeline for Dave’s office instead. His office looked like my dad’s: a computer desk littered with envelopes, loose papers, bills, folders, the odd gum packet or two, and scattered pens and pencils. She started rummaging through his things.

“Where did you keep it, Dave?” She muttered under her breath.

In the other room, Adam still waited. He got up and peered through the sliding doors leading to the backyard. He was eying the shed. He reached for the handle and was about to slide it open when I triggered [Strange Noise].

“Adam,” I whispered his name right behind his right ear.

Startled, he whirled around and found that no one was there. “Max?” He called out. Maxine was too distracted trying to open one of Dave’s desk drawers. “Was that you?”

No one answered.

Grasping with [Phantasmal Cold] again, I made the room suffocatingly cold, and Adam tried to stifle his trembling.

Adam slowly walked into the foyer, listening. The muffled sound of water cascading in the showers upstairs was still audible in the foyer. The Yates didn’t exactly make their home soundproof. He noticed that Ashley had been taking that shower for almost twenty minutes. “Ash?” He called out to the second floor.

Ashley didn’t answer.

He walked up the stairs. They creaked beneath his weight. He stopped halfway to the top and listened again. There was nothing except for the water running in the bathroom above. He continued to climb the steps until he could see into the hallway from the landing.

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“Ash?” The water from the showers was a little louder here now. “Are you okay?” He walked down the hallway.

The light in the master bedroom was off; the door was slightly ajar. He pushed it open and peeked inside. His aura had turned from green to a lighter shade of orange in a minute, then a darker orange. Clearly, he was freaked out. Whatever the demon was planning, it wanted to lure someone upstairs, trying to separate them.

Suddenly, Adam took a step back, shaking his head. “The hell am I doing?” He whispered to himself. He pivoted his heels, heading for the stairs.

He’s leaving!

Maybe he wanted to grab Maxine and check up on Ashley together. Well, I’m not going to have that happen. In my favorite horror movies, when the characters are separated, the more chances one of them will die.

Splitting Up was an overused (and excellent) trope for a reason in slasher movies, and Adam will find out why.

I triggered [Luring Trance].

Adam stopped in his tracks, frozen on the landing. He looked back to the master’s bedroom, frowning. If he told her something was wrong with Ashley, Maxine would make a fuss that he was reading into things, maybe chastising him for being a peeping tom. Then again, if he just went over there, he had always found Ashley attractive in a bomb-ass MILF way. Even he wondered how Dave managed to bag a bitch like that.

Only a deal with the Devil could.

For a split second, I was taken aback by the access I could glean from a delver’s mind and emotions with [Luring Trance]. But before it could dissipate into a long cooldown, I quickly focused on the dark energy emanating from the walls, cloaking Adam’s aura briefly. I pulled him back to the master’s bedroom, dangling a mental image of Ashley’s body like some forbidden fruit. It helped that Adam had always been a pervert. After all, when I spied at their house, he cheated on Maxine with another woman—multiple women. With [Strange Noise] still active (I had one minute), I produced an audible moan from the bedroom.

Adam narrowed his gaze, confused and hesitant. Still accessing his emotions, I could feel him getting aroused as well. He doubted whether Ashley was touching herself inside the room. No, he imagined it. Pictured her naked now, splayed on the bed on her knees.

Good, good. Come in, Adam. Come inside the room.

Adam walked inside. He saw a large bed covered in white satin sheets, but there wasn’t anyone in sight. The bathroom door was wide open, and cautiously, he headed over there. Steam filled the entire room and caught Ashley’s naked silhouette behind the glass shower stall. Instinctively, Adam licked his lips.

He leaned against the wall near the shower, trying to peek between the gaps. Maybe if he stepped a little closer, he’d get a good view of what’s hiding behind those laced-cardigan shoulder tops and tight skinny jeans—

He froze, mouth hanging open. “What the fuck?!”

Ashley’s skin was peeling from the water’s almost boiling heat. The smell of boiled meat filled the bathroom. She was facing away from him.

“Ash!” Adam called out, but she didn’t respond. “What the fuck?!”

He rushed forward and opened the glass door, reeling back when the water splashed on his exposed arm. “Max! Max! I need help over here! Max!” He screamed.

He gasped at the sight of Ashley’s nude form. Soaking wet, she had red welts covering her arms, legs, chest, neck, and face. Second-degree burns covered her body.

And she was grinning. Like this was all a big fucking joke, foam streaming out from the side of her curved lips; her pupils dilated, almost black.

“What the fuck, Ash! What have you done?” Adam yelped. He tried to pull her out of the shower, but the water was too hot. He grabbed a bundle of towels from the hooks, forced his way in there, and yanked Ashley out of the shower stall.

Ashley fell to the linoleum floor with a loud thud, tackling Adam down to the floor with her. When Adam let go of her arm, some of her skin stuck to the palm of his hands. “Fuck! Max! Get in here right now!”

Downstairs, Maxine ran out of Dave’s office. “I’m coming! I’m coming!”

“Oh my God, Ash. What did you do? Oh my God.” Adam looked like he was about to burst into tears as he struggled to get her off him. Fear engulfed him as his aura switched to a pinkish red. His Resolve was shedding fast.

“What’s wrong, Adam?” Ashley asked gleefully. “You don’t find me attractive anymore?”

“What? What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You don’t want to fuck me now? But I look so pretty. Prettier than ever before.”

Maxine darted into the master’s bedroom. “Adam! Why are you screaming—!” Maxine screeched at the sight of Ashley’s body. She rushed toward the bathroom.

“No,” I whispered. I slammed the door shut and locked the door with my telekinesis, trapping Adam with the demon.

[Power: 6/10]

“Adam! Adam! Open the door!” Maxine wailed and pounded her fist against the door, and tried to kick it open.

Adam was about to head over to the door to unlock it when Ashley grabbed his arm with an iron grip, holding him there.

“Let go, Ash!”

Ashley leered at Adam. “I know what you like, Adam. You’re such a stud.” She stood up, grabbing Adam by the collar of his shirt and pulling him close to her. “I’ll give it to you real good like no whore ever will.”

Adam was a big dude, easily a hundred pounds more than little Ashley. But with the demon inhabiting her body, she chucked him off the ground and slammed him against the bathroom mirror, shattering it. Adam grunted, rolled over the counter, and fell on his stomach. Maxine stopped pounding on the door momentarily. “Adam! What’s that sound? Unlock the door!”

“Max! Call for help!”

Still, Maxine continued pounding her fist on the wood. “Open the fucking door, Adam!”

Ashley picked up a big shard of the glass from the sink and raised it high, moaning as she stabbed Adam’s back multiple times. Blood seeped out of each wound. Adam screamed.

“I can smell your fear.” She laughed as she plunged the shard deeper into his flesh, then another, and turned him around to face her.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Stop!” Adam begged for someone to save him. He kicked and punched at the demon, trying to push her off him, but she kept stabbing him with the broken mirror. Blood poured out of his mouth as Ashley punctured a lung. “Ash! Stop!”

“Hello,” Ashley said giddily.

“I like your pic. You have nice breasts.

“So perky.

“Send nudes?

“You like my dick?

“I’m divorced.

“I’m not married.

“You’re so beautiful.

“Let’s see each other tonight.

“My wife is not home for the week.

“If I have a choice, I’m leaving my wife for you!”

With each stab, Ashley mocked him. Adam’s eyes widened, realizing she was repeating what he texted on his secret dating app on his phone with his multiple mistresses. “You have been a naughty boy. You’ll do well with the maggots.”

Demon Ashley then jammed the shard into Adam’s privates. Even I cringed and looked away for a moment as Ashley took off Adam’s shorts and cut off his penis, forced his mouth open, and shoved his dick inside his mouth. She covered them with her free hand, forcing him to choke on the organ.

“Take it like a man, Adam!” Ashley cackled.

Maxine banged on the door again. “Ashley! Stop it!”

Ashley grabbed a handful of Adam’s hair and pulled his head back, exposing his throat. “Say, please.”

Adam gasped through clenched teeth. With his hair pulled back, he swallowed pieces of his flesh.

His aura turned blood red.

Ashley smiled. “Good boy.”

Then she slit his throat with the sharp edge of the broken mirror piece.

Blood gushed out and hit Ashley straight to the face, soaking red. The demon howled in ecstasy as blood dripped onto her naked body. Adam’s aura faded into a brighter red glow, which coalesced into a wisp and entered my consciousness. Inside Ashley’s body, her faint aura also became a wisp; the demon had finished consuming her soul.

[You have gained 2 essences: Adam Fairlie, Ashley Yates]

[You have gained 300 crystals]

It was addicting, the rush entering my form like drinking water after hiking in the desert for days or washing off my body from filth after wading through mud. My mind was clearer; my senses more heightened than ever before. I wanted to feed on Maxine’s essence next, almost eager to get it over and crush her skull with my mind.

However, Revenge is served best cold. And I still wanted to make the people who killed me suffer a worse fate than death.

“She’s next,” I said to the demon, gesturing to the door. “But don’t kill her just yet. I want you to possess her.”

With a creaky voice, Ashley said, “Understood, Master.”