Page 5 of Her Dark Promise

“Tsk tsk tsk.” I released her chin and grabbed onto her finger.

“Wh-what are—” I giggled at her guttural cries of pain as I dug the tip of the shear underneath her nail bed and slowly pushed in toward the cuticle and scooped, effectively severing the nail from skin.

“You are a guest in my home. Do not use such foul language while addressing me.” Tossing the ripped out nail bed to the floor.

“How’re you any different from us! You killed my Claude fer no reason!”

I laughed dryly. “No reason? Weren’t you just boasting about an elderly woman that the two of you murdered in cold blood before arriving here?”

Her eyes widened. “So what if we did?”

I towered over her, and gritted my teeth as I demanded, “Tell me what you did to her, Merrill.”

“Get away—”

I lowered my voice and repeated, “Tell me what you did to her, Merrill.”

My powers afforded me the luxury of twisting minds to do my bidding. It was all a matter of finding the right buttons.

She blinked rapidly, and then the truth started to slip out of her. “I—well, we needed more money to pay off someone we owed. We were out looking fer something to steal and came upon her home.

“That woman had nothing but herbs, handmade blankets, and books made of roots and flowers. She was simple.”

“Gold, she had gold,” she panted the words, sweat beading down her face.

The gold I had paid her over the years, buried in one of her floorboards. I felt my chest tighten.

“She should have stayed in her bedroom, but she didn’t. She came out with a broom and—”

Merrill tried to clamp her mouth shut, confused as to why she was telling me all of this. It didn’t matter, she didn’t have a choice once I used my powers to force her to tell me, “and I used my blade to cut into her throat.” She clenched her teeth together and gritted out with a smile on her wrinkled face. “And I watched the light fade from her eyes. And I enjoyed it.”

I nodded slowly and asked, “So, her only crime against you was to protect her home from intruders?”

“She should have stayed out of our way!”

I could feel the rage steadily building inside of me with every word out of this wretched woman’s mouth. To think that they believed they had a right to kill someone weaker than themselves. But not just someone, one of the three strays I’d collected over the years. That was not something that could go unpunished.

I squeezed the arms of the chair so hard that my knuckles began to ache. I knew that my eyes had begun to glow purple by the look of fear in her eyes. Shadows, a dark purple that nearly appeared black, skittered along my skin, a reaction to the burning emotions flowing through me.

“Can I tell you a little secret? You and I have something in common. I love murdering humans, hearing their screams, seeing the blood drain from their skin, and watching the soul leave their bodies…but I have rules…only those that deserve it, and you signed your death warrant when you killed Mariam.”

“Who?”

“The old woman you killed!”

She ignored me and instead begged, “You don’t have to do this. I will leave, I’ll tell no one you're here. I swear it.”

“Thank you, Merrill, I needed this. I needed you.” I leaned my eyes close to her face, tears ran down her cheeks as she screamed in terror.

I grabbed her hand and began the same agonizingly slow pace of extracting the rest of her fingernails. She tried and failed to yank her hand out of my grip, which only caused me to tighten mine. I squeezed her hand so hard that I could hear bones snapping and continued the pattern over and over again until both of her hands had not one fingernail left. Until her blood was running down the wooden frame of the chair.

I leaned back and tilted my head, observing my work of art. I smirked as she said while hanging her head in defeat, “Please…please, I can’t handle anymore…”

“Well, I did win the game. I did warn you what would happen if you lost.” Her cries began to get louder at the realization that it wasn’t a matter of whether she would die but of when. Her cries turned into an all-encompassing scream of anguish.

“If you could please stop screaming in my ear drums. You’ll burst them if you continue,” I said sweetly.

This time, she made eye contact and stared at me like I had lost my mind. She wasn’t wrong—I lost it years ago.

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