Page 39 of Welcome Home
I blanch as he inhales deeply, right at my core. “You smell so sweet, so ready for me.”
“Vosz!”
“Yes, Cora dear?” He asks, his tongue already prodding the battered flesh, still sore and swollen from taking him.
“I’m… hurting.”
“Then I’ll be gentle.”
And gentle he was.
My Alcoholic Friends - The Dresden Dolls
Vosz
My kind rarely need sleep, but with here there’s something innately… special about lying beside her while we rest. Listening to her breath become more and more spaced out. Wondering what her dreams are filled with. What my dreams would be if I could dream like they do, dreams that are made up of fantastical things and not memories that no longer have a body to tether them? Lives and skins stolen ages ago. Cora is so warm, so soft in my arms that this time when I’m taken by sleep, I don’t expect it. Waking with a panicked start.
For a moment, Cora isn’t there. I don’t know who, where, orwhenI am. A growl leaves my throat, making a mumbled hush jolt me.
Cora…
She grumbles again, shifting off me, rolling on her side. Her raven-colored hair casting across her skin like a shadow. I can’t help myself when I reach out for her. My hand halted by the sound of rustling far outside the house, by the road.
Two-fifty-four a.m. Could be an animal. That cat that terrorizes the neighborhood. I sit up against the cracked headboard, closing my eyes and listening.
We buried what was left of Rachel hours ago, after I made her scream on my tongue. After I ran her a bath, sinking her into the bubbling water before returning downstairs to clean. My girl is quite messy-
The sound comes again, closer. Then the latch of our back gate. Joined quickly by yet another sound, metal against hard ground. I shift off the bed, my speed thrusting me in front of the back door in a matter of seconds. The house is silent, deathly so, my skin falters urging a change as Detective Rappert thrusts the shovel into the ground again wincing at what must be a very quiet sound. My fists clench along with my jaw, rage… that overwhelming need to wipe out any threat to Cora burning in my chest.
She digs, I watch for a long time. The displaced dirt in the garden, marigolds wilted, chopped and forgotten as I turn heading for the window on the opposite side of the house, urging Oliver’s form smaller to make the action smooth. It’s silent as I slip out, walking casually around the house, my form hidden in the shadow of the building. The smell hits me before her. She’s getting close to him. The lime I covered him in doing its job well. Her eyes widen as she bends frantically, using her fingers to dig before she stops. “Holy shit, I was right.”
Her gasp of disbelief is cut off as she fumbles for her phone, jerking it free from her pocket. I’m behind her before she gets it unlocked. “It’s a shame you saw that, detective.”
She stills, her breath leaving her in pants, she doesn’t turn to face me frozen in fear like so many before her.
“I really did plan to let you live. If you’d only let it go.”
Her mouth gapes, her harsh inhale speaks to her oncoming scream. My hand slaps over her nose and mouth, first cutting off her air supply as she thrashes against me. Her nails scoring and digging into flesh I heal immediately. Cora’s light footsteps bound down the stairs, sliding at the bottom. “See now you’ve gone and woken my wife. She needs her rest if she plans to take me again tonight.” I chastise, parting my face, allowing my entire true head through.
She screams behind my hand, wasting precious oxygen as the back door creeps open. “Vosz?”
I flash my sweet Cora a smile, happy to see her even in the worst of circumstances. Pain flares in my hand as the annoyingly strong-willed detective bites down hard, her teeth reaching my true skin underneath before she bolts towards Cora. My hand grips her hair, wrenching her to the ground as she screams commands. “Cora run!”
My girl just stares dispassionately down at the frantic woman. No different from how you’d watch a fly spasm after you struck it with a newspaper.
“What are you!?” Rappert screams again. I’m not sure if it’s at me or Cora but it’s far too loud. I bend for her, annoyed by the idea of burying another today, hoping my wife doesn’t insist on cutting this one up too when a brain splitting siren erupts from the woman. Everything in me recoils, agony splintering my skull as I double over, my knees hitting the ground.
“Vosz!” Cora screams, the panic in her voice forcing my head up. The detective is scrambling up, her eyes round with shock as she looks down at the panic key on her belt.
I bellow, the sound that leaves me closer to a roar as my limbs refuse to respond Cora’s small frame barrels into the other woman as my vison blurs, my desperation to protect her sending my heart into a frenzy.
FUCK!
I can feel my own blood leaking from my face, cascades of warm blue smearing Oliver's skin as I struggle to a stand. My vision blurs again as Cora straddles the detective, fighting her for the key to the siren. Lights flick on in the neighboring houses.
FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! GET UP!
Cora’s pained grunt forces me to my feet, my limbs numb and unsteady underneath, when the siren abruptly cuts off. The detective gasping for breath laying on her back, my Cora bloodied and standing above her, shovel in hand. My speed is half of what it normally is when I reach her, urging the man’s skin back into place as the sound of fast approaching sirens fills my damaged ears. One of the only times the police respond in a quick manner. Lovely.
