Page 20 of Voodoo Doll
“It was you,” I muttered under my breath, almost afraid to speak the words, as though merely uttering them would somehow make it fully real.
“Pardon?”
“In my dreams. It was you. You were the one placing those thoughts inside of my mind. That darkness. Those fantasies.” My voice sounded strange to my own ears, the words disjointed as I fit the pieces of the puzzle together.?
Dark gaze narrowing, he leveled me with that solitary look, the corner of his lips turning up in a decidedly sinister grin.?
“They will become reality, if only you accept,ma chère.”
“They will?” I asked, emotion and trepidation lodged firmly in my throat. My pulse pounded in my veins, roaring so loud in my ears I could barely hear him speak.
“You only have to say yes. Do you have the strength to surrender to the darkness, Luna?” For a single moment, that ominous invitation hung in the air between us, both of us waiting on bated breath for my answer.
“Yes.”
No sooner had the word fallen from my lips than his hand found my throat, wrapping tightly around until I could feel myself growing light-headed. Panic and fear raced through me as he pushed me back until my legs hit the long table that stood in the middle of the room.?
“The power of a voodoo doll is not something to be trifled with by the faint of heart, Luna. You must truly, deeply understand what this power represents, what itmeans, down in your bones. No one can wield this power lightly or flippantly. The cost is too great.”
I instinctively tried to pull away, the tone of his voice frightening me, but his grip on my throat forced me to stay planted before him. His grasp tightened further, and my voice stuck in my throat so I could do little more than nod my understanding. While my heart raced with horror and fear, my thighs pressed together with an arousal I did not understand.?
Still gripping my neck, his powerful arms shoving me down prone across the table so hard my head bounced, and I saw stars dance behind my eyes. I tried to cry out, to call for help, to say anything at all, but before the words could move past the pressure of his hand on my throat, the feel of thick, rough ropesslid against my arms and legs as they slithered and gripped and bound me at his command.
Left wrist to the left corner. Right one to the right.
Left leg to the lower corner, and same to the right again.
“Liez-la!” he called out loudly, a word I did not know, but as the ropes tightened around me of their own accord, I quickly understood.?
Stretched out nearly to the point of pain, there was nothing I could do to save myself. His plan was in motion, and I was powerless to stop it. The thundering beat of my heart threatened to break my ribs, my breath nothing more than quick, panicked pants. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes as fear settled over me.
“Let me show you how it works,ma chère. But before your true lesson begins, let’s make this more interesting, shall we?” His sinister cackle wreaked havoc on my senses, fear settling deep in my bones as he reached once more for the burlap doll. “I have spent many nights watching you, tormenting your dreams, torturing your mind with lurid fantasies. Now, I can truly indulge myself.”
Slipping the doll into his back pocket, he pulled a long, wicked-looking knife from its sheath in his boot. My eyes widened. My stomach lurched as acid burned my throat, and I choked back a scream of terror.
“No! Please, don’t!” I cried out, tears running down my face. The uncertainty of whether he would hurt me, kill me, or perhaps even pleasure me, turned my thoughts into nothing more than fog.
“Luna, Luna, Luna,” he gentlytsked, shushing me as he ran the tip of the knife over my cheek softly, almost as though he were wiping away my tears with the brutal tip of the blade. “Have I ever hurt you?”?
For a moment, I almost nodded yes. But as the fear calmed, only by a slight bit, I realized the truth. I shook my head no. He hadn’t. And yet, even with the weight of that truth, the fear remained.
“Fear is a powerful tool, if you choose to let it be. Stop fighting it. Let it wash over you. Accept it. Embrace it. Just see what happens.”?
The brutal grip of fear made his words impossible to obey as the cold steel of the blade ran down my neck, following the line of my heartbeat. Scarcely allowing myself to breathe, I held myself still as a corpse, the cool touch of the blade burning like ice against my already too cold skin as he moved lower and lower, over my chest and between my breasts.
With a sharp motion, he pulled, and the fabric of my dress ripped like paper beneath the blade’s sharp edge.
I gasped, flinching as he cackled, seemingly delighted by my terrified response. Dropping the knife, he leapt onto the table, straddling me with an agility I did not think a man of his older age possessed. He yanked the fabric, ripping the dress to shreds, and leaving me in nothing more than my bra and panties. Nearly bare to his heated gaze, I trembled with embarrassment.
“Such innocence hidden behind such a sultry dress,ma chère. I long to take that innocence from you. To use it, wield it, and to pay homage to the ancestors with it. But first…” he trailed off, lifting the knife’s sharp blade between my heaving breasts again. “But first, I shall play.”?
The fabric of my bra parted under the blade’s sharpened edge next, ripping from my body violently. The sharp point of the knife followed down to my panties, where he quickly cut each side at the hip before ripping the thick scrap of ruined fabric from between my legs. In the space of a breath, I was completely naked before him. My eyes closed, humiliated by my nudity and bracing for his ridicule.
“Ancestors ashes, but you are a true goddess among mortals, my Dark Moon. I have never felt the need to possess someone so acutely as I do when drinking in the sight of your gorgeous body.”
While I was still trying to process his words, he leapt back down off the table, placing the knife carefully to one side.?
Laid out bare, embarrassed, cold and trembling, I watched as he took the doll, whispering so quietly I could not hear a thing. He ran a single fingertip up the side of the doll, paying me no mind.
