“Only in plain sight.”

Luna bolted down the hallway towards the basement. The girl slowly raised her hand and pointed to the basement door. 

“This way.” She said. 

I was suffocating with tension and lost in her mesmerizing gaze. My legs lead me down the hall despite my mind screaming at me to turn around. I kept my eyes fixed only on the girl’s dark hair as she took me down the hallway. The girl opened the door and peered into the darkness beneath. 

“We’ve been waiting for you.” She said.

“We?” I said. 

The girl walked past me, her figure now becoming swallowed by the unknown. I was standing at the crossroads, every logic beckoned me to turn away. But what would I have turned around and run back to? Return to being corroded gold and a piece of meat? Be the martyr that never tasted death? 

No fucking way. 

I knew that whatever lied beyond the darkness was better than what was done to me in the light. I stepped onto the floor of the basement and moved further into the dark cloak of shadow. I stood there for ages in a maddening silence.

Meow.

I saw Luna’s amber eyes crack open like the Cheshire. Her eyes were almost shining, a dim reflection in a lightless room. I felt icy hand wraps themselves around my shoulders. I wanted to scream, but that showed resistance.

“Mother wants to speak with you.”  The girl said. 

I could feel something massive behind where Luna stood.

“Who are you?” I said.

My palms were sweating profusely. I choked on the anticipation of what awaited next.

“I am that which is attained at the end of all desire.” A feminine disembodied voice spoke. 

All I could see were Luna’s glowing eyes.

“All and more shall be given if all and more is returned. Blood must spill at the feet of my altar. You, who would feign to learn the Art, yet have not yet won its deepest secrets.” The voice said.

“What do I give?” I wagered.

“What do you desire?” 

“Vengeance.” I answered without hesitation.

The voice chuckled and faded out. The girl’s clammy fingers swam up my curves and over my womb.

“Then you know the price to be paid. I am the altar your blood will be shed before, in the presence of my mother who spoke to you and my father.” The young girl said.

“Who’s your father?” 

“Lucifer. The one true light, the dawn; morning glory.” 

The girl circled me like I was prey.

“Will you reclaim what is yours?” She said.

The girl cupped my face.

“I will.” I said, finally.

“Then taste the power.” 

The girl leaned in and I tasted the honeycomb sweetness that was her lips. My body was set ablaze with circulating currents of fire inside me. I caught my breath and felt my lips tingle to the touch of my fingers. When I looked up I was alone again.

Every night, I was reminded of the choice I made. I would hear scratching at my door, other times I saw robed figures standing around my bed watching me sleep. They were silent guardians.

I was still dead to Moises. I envied the wonderland he lived in, where he could make something not so simply by ignoring it was there. 

One day I caught him sitting alone having an apple under a tree during lunch. He didn’t hear me move as I approached him. Maybe I was this spectral force to him, only to be conjured when appearances need be maintained.

“Hey,” I said. “Can we talk?”

“Lily?” He said.

His face flushed red, I could see the realization of my existence hanging in his eyes. I felt alive again, watching him curdle in fear.

“I just wanted to talk.” I said.

“What about?”

I wanted to gouge his eyes out with my bare hands.

“I’ll be home alone after school.” I said.

Moises smiled at me chagrin.

“I’ll be there.” 

I turned around with my heart in my throat.

“Lily,” he said.

“This isn’t gonna be about us getting back together or something, is it? Because I don’t want you. Not like that, anymore.”

I saw a vision of myself holding his severed head and brought myself to smile. 

The afternoon light was soft. The sky was painted with soft hues of magenta and baby blue. The sun was dipping over the horizon and birds lined the electrical wires in the streets. 

I saw Moises turning the curb that led into my driveway and up to my doorstep. I opened the front door.

“Hey, Lily.” He said, coolly. 

Moises let himself in comfortably. He turned on heel and looked at me.

“We gonna talk in your room?”

I nodded and took him by the hand. I lead him down the hall and into my bedroom. Moises sat on my bed with his hands between his legs. My hair hung in front of my face like stringy curtains. 

“Maybe we could give all this another shot, after all.” He said.

I clenched my fist, and the door rattled. Moises glanced at the door, startled.

“I was always a good boyfriend to you. And you just wouldn’t put out, no matter how many times I tried.” 

My breath felt like steam and my stomach became a cauldron of hot coals. My eyes welled with tears of disdain and frustration. He put his arms on my shoulders, I cringed.

“I just couldn’t help myself. Maybe now that you got your first time over and done with, you’ll learn to like it more?” He said. 

It wasn’t his malice or the degradation he carried in his mind that sent searing blood throughout my body, it was the sincerity in which he said that with. 

I put my arms around his neck. I could feel his manhood stiffen in his pants as our tongues met again. I removed my clothes and stood clad only by my roof. He got on his knees and crawled on all fours towards me as I spread my legs for him. He looked up at me, animalistic craving in his eyes and smiled.

I feigned arousal as he slurped and sucked between my legs. He began to slow down. I smiled. Moises looked up at me with his face sliced and carved into serrated chunks and hanging pieces. 

“What…” He said, disorientated. 

He touched his mouth and shrieked in pain, feeling the flesh hanging from his face and the shredded bits of his mouth. I laughed raucously. Moises looked down between my legs and saw not my fleshy pink opening, but a cluster of bloody razor blades.

Moises screamed and ran for the door. The door slammed firmly in place. Pieces of his cheeks fell on the floor hanging by fleshy bloody webs. His fingers slipped off the doorknob as he desperately tried to take hold of it. He whimpered, slamming his body against the door to the point of exhaustion. Moises fell to his knees, a bubble of snot blew from his nose as red tears streamed down his face.

“Please, please, Lily.” He said.

His eyes were nearly glued half open with tears and blood, coughing and blubbering. 

“Please… don’t do this.” 

“I loved you.” I said. I held out my open palm and slowly began to close it. As I did, Moises’s body curved upwards.

“No, no, no…” He stammered. 

His pleading was soon drowned out by the beautiful symphony that became the sound of his screaming. The back of his head touched the soles of his feet and past that. He began to hack.

“NO!!!” He yelped.

Then I closed my fist, snapping him in half. His head slammed against the ground with a large thud. I sat beside his corpse, feeling the warm blood seep against my thigh. I rested my head against the back of the wall, laughing with maddened elation. I sighed, then chuckled again to myself. 

I was trembling with power that flowed relentlessly through my veins. I was glowing with a victory that drove me to tears.

The A.C. hummed. I sat quietly, my eyes closed, lost in my reclaiming. I was not his plaything that he could pick up and fill with his depravity then cast aside. I refused to become a rag for his milky deposits, to let the rot of his seed take sprout and grow inside. To birth his monster and then fashion for him an abomination in his own likeness; I wouldn’t dare. 

Watching his gaping mouth and cold dead eyes staring back at me melted the frost on my heart. The blood running down from his face was inspirational. 

I turned and looked at my bedroom door. Bloody hand prints were smeared along my white walls. The door in front of me began to slowly vanish until only an abysmal black void waited beyond the frame. I hoisted myself up against the wall behind me. 

The sound of the A.C. died out. 

My heart raced, I wondered what was waiting for me next.

“Do you feel the power?” A voice spoke from beyond the door frame. 

It was the same strange voice that spoke to me in the basement. 

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Who are you?” I said.

Silence.

I felt violent contractions in my stomach and blood ran down my leg. I wobbled, nearly knocked to my knees by the violent jerking. My insides were twisting and tightening, I wanted to bite my own tongue off. 

“Who are you?” I said again.

Something shifted from beyond the door, the hairs on my neck raised as I felt something move passed the void and begin to come forward.

Luna.

My heart fell to the trenches of my stomach as Luna stood just inches in front of the door. 

“It is time.” The voice said.

I looked down at my chest, and I was now wearing a flowing white gown with lace at the ends. I ran my fingers against the smoothness of the fabric, it was as real as the hair on my own head. I looked back up at Luna, mystified. Luna turned around and walked back into the darkness, and I followed behind her.

All I could make out was a red door with figures wearing black robes standing on either side. I moved slowly and cautiously towards the crimson door. I could hear faint chanting growing louder. Luna made her way in front of me and phased through the door like a ghost. The moment I stepped through the door, I felt cold wood beneath my feet. 

I could see a faint trace of stair steps from a dim flickering glow beyond. People were chanting in whispers from down below. I saw Luna’s great eyes peering at me.