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Random Rants and Other Nonsense

Kiss of the Damned
By PitchforkPrincess

Feb. 14, 1902 - They say, "Love conquers all", but how can such be true when everything I've cherished is gone? I have run as far as I will ever go, and now find myself in this old house, where the evil first began. I know not what this beast seeks, but he pursues me endlessly. He is ancient, older than the stars. Though once human, he has lost his soul, and seems to reach toward me, to embrace mine. Even now, I hear him moving through the house. When he finds me, his wretched kiss will destroy me. My soul will die, and I'll no longer be human. I cannot endure such pain. I must rid myself of what he seeks. I must

"'Must' what?" Tara, who sat crouched near an old, dusty chest, demanded. She glanced briefly at Cecily, who held the torn, crumbling remnants of an old journal between her fingers, gingerly examining the paper for the secrets someone had apparently murdered her great-aunt Emily for.

"That's it. I guess she didn't have time to finish," Cecily mumbled, the disappointment clear in her voice. She carefully placed the torn page back inside the leather bound journal it had fallen from, and tucked the intriguing book under her arm. She planned to peruse the pages within at her own leisure, after her friends had all gone home.

In the corner, a stack of old, moth ravaged cardboard boxes toppled to the floor. "Ah shit!" Jacob yelped, fleeing from the downpour of literature, fruitlessly attempting to remain graceful. He crashed to the floor with a thud that shook the entire attic, flinging his arms about wildly.

Tara shrieked sharp waves of laughter, shaking her small head back and forth and pulling long wisps of blond hair from her face. She slapped a dainty hand across her mouth and tried to stifled the horrible hiccups of laughter that flew from her mouth.

The three giggling teenagers abruptly suppressed their hysterics when the door bell rang. Cecily turned her face toward the slightly open window on the far side of the attic. She nibbled on her lip and glanced at Jacob, silently begging his help.

Suddenly, Tara guffawed, "It's the evil Aunty Em spoke of, and oh dear--us without the knowledge to defeat it!"

Jacob broke out in laughter once more, his jowls jiggling obscenely and his soft body trembling. He rolled onto his hands and knees and crawled toward the window. He shoved his head through the open space and the window opened further. He peered out and looked across the yard. "It's Kevin," he said, sending Tara into hysterical sobs of laughter again.

"Ooh la la," Tara grinned.

"Shut up!" Cecily hissed. She ran from the attic, descending the ladder dangerously fast, urgent to reach the door and welcome the lust of her life into the house.

Kevin smiled one hundred watts of pure, unadulterated sweetness when Cecily opened the front door. He gazed at the disheveled girl with fondness, his eyes twinkling and his hands growing clammy, and waited to be allowed entry into her domain.

"Hi Kevin!" Cecily squeaked, blushing with embarrassment as a warm sensation shot through her body. She grinned too widely as she stepped away from the door. She tried not to imagine what a fool she was making of herself, but it seemed all too evident. "Come in."

Kevin nodded and stepped across the threshold, shutting the door behind him. He turned to Cecily and grinned, tilting his head to one side in curiosity. "What are you doing?"

"Discovering my destiny," Cecily quipped, pointing skyward.

Kevin chuckled. "You're already an angel, Cecily."

Blood rushed to Cecily's face in hot waves, coloring her cheeks like fresh-bloomed roses. She choked on her words as total euphoria filled her soul. "You're so sweet, Kevin!" Oh, how I love you! "Everyone's upstairs in the attic, going through boxes." But you and I can adjourn to my room if you like!

"I thought you weren't allowed to go up there," Kevin said.

"What's your point?" Cecily chuckled. "When adults say no, how can someone resist? Anyway, my parents are out of town."

Kevin grinned. "Cool. What's this about your destiny?"

"I found an old journal up there, written by my great aunt Emily. The last entry is really bizarre, and she never finished." Cecily stopped briefly to collect her scattered thoughts, before adding, "She rambled a lot about some demon-like thing that was coming for her. It's weird. I think she was nuts. I sure as hell hope so!" Cecily laughed nervously.

The temperature in the room suddenly dropped dramatically. Cecily glanced at Kevin warily and massaged the goose bumps popping up on her arms. When Kevin held out his arm, Cecily eagerly moved next to him, relishing the warmth radiating from his firm body.

"How did she die?" Kevin suddenly asked. Cecily raised her head and looked up at him, confusion furrowing her brow. "Emily, I mean," he added.

"I don't know," Cecily whispered, glancing at her fingernails nervously. The urge to gnaw on them was almost unbearable. "I didn't even know I had an Aunt Emily until I found the journal. But, I'm being paranoid. It doesn't mean anything. She was crazy."

Kevin nodded. "Sure sounds like it."

"OHHH FUCK!"

The two teenagers jumped. Cecily's eyes grew wide. She bolted toward the attic, where the shout had come from, and climbed the ladder like a spider chasing its pray across a web. When she thrust her head through the opening, she saw Tara barreling toward her.

"Get out of the way!" Tara screamed.

Cecily backtracked down the ladder. Her foot became tangled in the third rung from the bottom and she fell toward the floor. Kevin caught her in his arms and they both tumbled backwards, landing on the carpet with a loud THUMP!

"Go! GO!" Tara snarled, descending the ladder less than gracefully.

Suddenly, Jacob burst through the opening in the ceiling, screaming, half of his body still hidden within the attic. He flailed about wildly, searching for something strong to grasp.

"Oh God!" Cecily whimpered. "What's happening?"

The bottom rungs of the ladder broke under the sudden weight of Tara's scampering body. She cried out as she fell, colliding with Cecily and pinning Kevin to the ground. "Hell has broken loose!" Tara screeched. "Come on! Get the fuck out of here!"

"Jacob!" Kevin suddenly shouted, pushing the frantic girls off of him. "We've got to help him!"

Tara rose to her feet and hissed, "Like hell! I'm gone!" She turned and raced away from the others, disappearing from sight around a corner.

Suddenly, all fell deathly silent. Cecily looked at Kevin with horror. She choked out a few words. "We're in the eye of the storm. We're safe... but not for long."

As if her words were law, the silence turned into a cacophony of sound, reverberating against every surface in mad, evil triumph. The three remaining teenagers pressed their hands to their ears. The noise was so loud it shook the house and cracked the glass in every picture on the wall. Cecily heard her bedroom window shatter, and imagined it bursting outward, heaving deadly shards of glass at innocent bi-standers on the street below.

In a sudden inhalation of hot air, Cecily and Kevin found themselves being sucked toward the broken ladder. Both gasped in horror as the rung Jacob had weaved his arm around splintered down the middle. Jacob screamed as the overwhelming forced pulled him back into the attic.

Then, as quickly as it had started, the force reversed itself, sending a cloud of dust and debris across the hall and against the walls. Cecily fell backward onto the floor, and the unstoppable gust of wind and heat thrust her toward the opposite side of the house.

"OHHH SHIT!"

The attic suddenly spat Jacob out, as if he were a foul taste it wanted to eradicate. He tumbled to the floor and hot pain shot through his left arm. He screamed in misery, closing his eyes in hopes that the horror around him might disappear.

As if by sheer exhaustion, the wild display of power ceased. Dust settled and the hallway became calm. The temperature returned to normal and the three looked back and forth at each other, hoping one would have an explanation.

A harsh, brittle whimper escaped Jacob's throat. He tried to raise his arm but hot pain shot through his limbs. When he turned his head to examine the damage, he gagged. His attempt to swallow down the bile in his throat failed and he vomited.

"Oh God," Cecily whispered. Jacob's arm was mangled. A bone, snapped in two down the middle, protruded from Jacob's skin. Blood rushed out of the tear in floods. Cecily watched helplessly as the color drained from her best friend's face.

Kevin knelt down beside Cecily and pulled her into his arms. He ran his hand through her hair and kissed her cheek. It seemed a poor excuse for comfort, but it was all he could do to keep himself from losing his mind. "I'll protect you, Cecily," he whispered.

"My aunt wasn't crazy," Cecily sobbed, "but she took the answers to her grave."

Jacob moaned and pulled himself up onto his knees. He shuffled toward Cecily and Kevin, who could do no more than stare at him in puzzlement and sadness. When he reached Cecily, he forced the best smile he could. "I don't believe that, Cecily. Emily may be dead, but what she knew cannot be forgotten. It wouldn't be right."

Kevin touched Cecily's shoulder and she jumped. "Sorry," he whispered, nervously shifting his weight back and forth between his feet. "You mentioned a journal. Where is it?"

While Cecily searched her brain for where she'd last left the journal, Jacob carefully stood up. He eased toward the ladder and cautiously looked up into the attic. "It's still in there," he whispered. "It doesn't matter, though. Tara skimmed through it. Before the entry you read out loud, there isn't anything important." Jacob scratched his head with his good hand, and asked, "Where is Tara?"

"Gone," Kevin hissed, angrily. "But, at least she stabbed you in the front."

Jacob sighed. "It doesn't matter. I don't blame her."

"But, in her place, would you run away?" Kevin demanded. He balled his hands into fists and slammed them against his sides. "She left all of us to die. None of us would have left her behind."

Suddenly, the cold, cruel wind of moments before returned. It passed out of the attic in a quick gust and sank into the flesh of each friend. Cecily gasped and all three spun to face the battered ladder. A creature, human in appearance--though with eyes that were completely black and skin the color of paste--descended mid air, forgoing the ladder for a much more entrancing entrance.

"How touching," the intruder hissed. He smiled, reveling a rather conspicuous set of razor-sharp teeth, and turned to face Cecily and her friends. "You humans never cease to amaze me."

"Amaze you?" Jacob demanded, abandoning good sense for a chance to play the hero. "According to the journal, you were human once, too!" He shook his undamaged hand at the beast standing before him and strode forward.

"Silence!" the monster roared, his hand flying forward and halting Jacob in his tracks--which still left them beyond any physical contact. With a flick of his wrist, the unnamed villain thrust Jacob across the hallway and into the wall. Jacob screamed in agony when his broken arm snapped into several more pieces.

When Cecily whimpered, the creature turned his attention to the young woman he sought. "Ahh yes, Cecily, Emily's grand niece. The resemblance is breathtaking."

"Who are you?" Cecily beseeched.

"My name is Le'Shaun. I am a creature of the dark, risen once more to claim a soul for my own purposes," he answered and cast his cold, vicious eyes toward Cecily's slim, alluring figure. As if to pound the nail home, he hissed, "Yours."

A sharp, loud growl escaped Kevin's lips and he lunged forward. Le'Shaun merely snapped his fingers and the young man crumbled to the ground, pain evident in the scream that escaped his lips. He twitched a bit and his eyes rolled back in his head.

Cecily whimpered. She turned toward Kevin, hands outstretched. Their fingers touched briefly and a spark of electricity passed between them. Kevin opened his mouth to speak, but before he'd managed more than "I...", Cecily was yanked away, into the cold arms of the beast.

"They'll die slowly," Le'Shaun taunted, grasping Cecily's right arm painfully, and shaking her a bit. "Does that bother you?"

"Yes!" Cecily choked, flailing about in Le Shaun’s arms, beating at his chest with one flimsy fist. "Please! Let them go." Cecily burst into hysterical sobs as she watched her friends slowly fade out of this plane of existence. "I'll do anything."

Le Shaun’s eyes filled with brilliant, evil light. "They will live, if you die. Forfeit your soul, become mine. It is the only way."

Suddenly, Kevin screamed, "No, Cecily! He's already taken your aunt!"

Le'Shaun kicked Kevin in the ribs, forgoing a wild display of supernatural power, and said wistfully, "Emily is far beyond what death provides. She gave herself up to non-existence. Now I will have that which she stole from me--her bloodline!" Le'Shaun gazed down at Cecily and whispered, "The choice belongs to you. If you die, they walk away from this mess. If you refuse me, they die, and you always wonder who they could have been."

A tremble of defeat passed through Cecily's body and her shoulders sagged. She glanced from Jacob, her best friend since birth, to Kevin, the boy she'd spent her life yearning for. These people were what defined her. She'd grown to be who she was because they'd been her guides and inspiration. She loved them powerfully and nothing on earth would keep her from saving them.

"Then take my soul, you worthless monster. Let them go."

"Cecily!" Kevin cried, searching for words that would remain with both of them forever, even when the girl was gone. "I would have died for you!"

Cecily moved to turn toward Kevin, her eyes dark with tears, her heart breaking, but Le'Shaun held on, crushing his lips against hers. The kiss was cool and calculated, yet warm and passionate. Le Shaun’s lips were hard and chapped and he was less than considerate, but Cecily thought she felt him soften, as if for once he fully acknowledged the beauty he was ripping from the world.

With all her strength, Cecily endured the kiss. Tears poured down her face, each defining a memory she would never share with Kevin. She clung desperately to the idea that some sort of miracle might save her, but her hope was quickly draining, riding along into oblivion with the tears she wept.

Suddenly, Le'Shaun began to tremble. His grasp on Cecily wavered and he stumbled backward against the wall. He choked around words which hardly escaped his lips.

"What have you done?" Le'Shaun gasped. "You've cursed me with your damn humanity!"

When he turned and glared at Cecily, Le Shaun’s eyes began to swirl and grow pale. Though white as he already was, the color seemed to run from his skin. He reached out to touch Cecily's face with an arm that shook and fell back to his side. He trembled once, before a sudden gust of icy, chilly wind encircled him. His body froze--leaving the teens with the impression that he was nothing more than a life-sized ice carving--and suddenly shattered.

In an instant, Kevin was by Cecily's side, sweeping her up in his arms and kissing her entire face. When their lips met, warmth exploded in their limbs and they trembled against each other. They understood that the horror they'd experienced could have torn them apart, but the willingness to die for each other had pulled them closer together.

A single piece of time-weathered paper drifted from the attic toward Cecily's feet. She picked it up and examined it. It was a badly beaten piece of the journal entry Cecily had read earlier. Only three words remained, but they were what had made the difference.

Love conquers all.

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