Page 8 of He Who Sleeps

Chapter 2

“Something is different.”

Neon looked up from his tablet to see Ghosty leaning against the door frame, fiddling with his knife as usual. Goblin, Plague, Devil and Stitches all looked to him. Ghost rarely talked, but when he did, they all took notice.

Snake was engaged with their girl, and Neon knew why he wanted to go first. He wanted to get it out of the way. Out of all of them, he was the most reluctant for the arrangement, but the rest of them were all in, to the point where they had made her their yearlong obsession.

They had inserted themselves into her life in several ways, to make sure she wasn’t a snitch, but she wasn’t. Never once did she utter a word about them, or the situation. Oh, she was researching them—they’d have been surprised if she hadn’t tried to find the house or some idea of their identities—but she wouldn’t find anything they didn’t want her to. They made sure of that.

They didn’t know exactly what she believed, because she didn’t get to spend a lot of time talking while they were together, but it was clear she thought her two nights was the bare minimum contribution to stop them from killing other women. It couldn’t be further from the truth. The energy they were harvesting from her, and pooling between them, was more potent and varied than anything they’d sent below to the Dark God before. Not that she needed to know that. She was a tool...one they were all obsessed with, for better or worse.

When they were presented with her as an option, it was an easy choice between getting covered in blood or coated in cum. She shined like the sun, the brilliance of her spirit almost too much to bear. They had thought corrupting her soul would be easy, but the light in her hadn’t changed. And while sliding a knife through flesh was satisfying, nothing beat getting a nut with a willing woman. And she was willing, past their pact.

She craved what they did to her, that was obvious, and in that she was special as well. What single woman would be that perfect as to enjoy all their varied attentions, their various interests in pleasure? She did. And while her pleasure was important, it was more her submission to the acts, the acceptance was more potent than the fear. The orgasm was always a bonus they all enjoyed.

Regardless of who they were, they were still men, and Petra was insanely hot. And even with their various tastes in women, she ticked all the boxes for them.

For him, her tears were sweet fucking bliss.

“Yep, hair is longer, and that ass is as perky as those perfect tits,” Goblin said to them. “Our girl has been working out.”

“Yeah, but you knew that,” Neon said, knowing Goblin was in a yoga class with her. He looked to Ghost. “I agree, something is different. She’s more confident, and I think she’s hiding something.”

"Maybe she wants to be here as much as we want her to be here," Stitches said. "I fucking missed her. Maybe she's started to miss us. You know she ain't getting dick like this from anywhere else."

She wasn’t getting it fromanyoneelse. They had made sure of that. Any guy that seemed interested had been discreetly warned off, either collectively or individually. That vibrator she had was almost out of warranty with the amount she used it through the year, and Neon knew she was only thinking about them.

“I got that impression,” Goblin mused aloud, “that she wants to be here. Her bearing...” he trailed off. “She has the countenance of a woman knowing her worth in this situation.”

“And one that needs the attention,” Neon added.

"This is when it kind of sucks that we only need to sacrifice once a year," Plague said thoughtfully. "If we had more Sabbaths, we could tell her to come more often."

"This is the only time of year the veil between worlds is thin enough for the Dark One to receive all of the energy from the sacrifices," Devil reminded him. "Trying to repeat the ritual at other times of the year would only give him a trickle of energy at best."

"Better some than none," Stitches smirked. "His hunger knows no bounds."

“And he gets a lot from Petra,” Neon said. They all got a lot from the woman. Given their own proclivities, women were, for most of their lives, a non-entity. Oh, they all had needs and handled them, but getting close to anyone was verboten, until her. She served so many purposes, but none as important as soothing the monsters that lived inside each of them.

Seven lunatics, psychos, mad dog killers... She had challenged them three years before and had been rewarded since. And it seemed she didn’t want that to stop.

“You know she’s keeping that body tight for us.”

“Unless she’s got better endurance, I’m going to say it’s foryou,” Ghost said. They all knew his brand of play with her. He liked a runner and, so far, she had delivered, but they knew it wasn’t that much of a challenge. He had planned something more elaborate for this year.

“And if she does want to stay?” Goblin asked.

“What? You just wanna ask her? She doesn’t even know what we fucking look like,” Neon offered.

"Besides, we'd have to discuss something of that nature with the Elders," Devil reminded them. Any outsider coming in posed a threat to the organization. Even though she had been thoroughly vetted after that first year, when they knew she was coming back, she was still a risk. They'd have to be damn certain of what she wanted before even thinking of doing anything about it.

“Maybe we should put a request in,” Goblin said. “She’s young enough that we could potentially get her in as a brood mare. Even Snake would...”

Neon shook his head. “We would have to be sure she was into it. Otherwise they’ll kill her.”

"Yes. No requests until we know for sure," Devil said. "They've already approved this little experiment of ours, but they're watching us closely. Let's not push it for now."

Neon nodded. “She’s worth more serving as a sacrifice right now.”

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