Chapter 3 – LUST

Quentin’s eyes widened as he looked at his box. He lifted the lid and peeked at the contents. When he saw them, he stood up from his seat and darted out the room. My family finding they were no longer being held down, all ran out. I stood to run but looked at Lucifer. He was sitting there, calmly tapping his fingers on the table.

I turned and ran following my family to the front door. I caught up to them quickly and one by one we all ran out the door. We ran right out the front door…. right back into the room we just left.

We looked at each other confused and again at Lucifer who was still sitting there watching us with interest.

We again ran out the door and right back into this room. We tried running out the back door. The same thing. Right back into this room. We broke a few windows and hopped out. Somehow we ended right back here. I don’t know how many times we did this but it never changed wherever we exited the house.

“To hell with this!” My dad grumbled. He ran upstairs to his study with all of us on his heels.

He fumbled for the keys to his gun locker. “I’ll kill that son of a bitch. I don’t care who he is.”

My dad was sweating and scared so badly he dropped the keys twice. Finally he found the right key and jammed it into the lock and wrenched the door open.

It’s as if the world fell silent. All the sounds that accompanied us in the house, my mother’s quiet sobs. My brothers panting after all the running and even my own heartbeat fell silent.

A girl was crammed into there with half her head caved in. Her skin was cracked and shone an angry grey. Her hair was left in clumps on her skull. The white dress she wore was dirty from mysterious stains.

My mother gave a loud shriek and my father fell backwards. I had seen it inside there earlier when my dad was showing off his new crossbow. My eyes looked from face to face looking at my family. I was wondering if anyone knew her. Everyone was shocked to silence except Quentin. He was frozen and made eye contact with the corpse while speaking quietly.

“How? She’s dead!” he whispered. He sank to the ground and held his head in his arms. He began to rock back and forth muttering that over and over. “No no no no no!” He began to shout and rock faster.

My oldest brother Marcus tried to comfort him but he slapped his hand away. He began to wail and thrash around angrily. I’ve never seen him cry before, or more accurately if he did I was never there to witness it.

“I-I loved her. But she died. I missed her so much.” Tears sprang in his eyes. My other family rushed to hug him but I stood there. I’m not much for emotions so I stood from afar watching.

Since I didn’t rush over to the huddle, I noticed the corpse twitch and rise shakily. I moved to speak but my words caught in my throat. She stumbled over twitching all over. She reached out a gnarled hand towards my father’s back.

Quentin noticed her and scrambled back. My mother, father and brother all recoiled from her grasp as if she had the plague. They stood in silence as the corpse steadily walked over like a zombie towards Quentin.

“I-I l-ove y-o-u-you t-too.” The corpse stuttered.

Before any of us could react the corpse let out an inhuman wail. We all covered our ears in pain as she screamed so loud I could feel the beginning of a nosebleed. I stumbled around the room, my vision was becoming blurry.

I heard a body drop to the ground and I tried to open my eyes to see who, but the pain kept them sealed. Finally my head had enough. I stumbled a few more feet and collapsed on the ground losing consciousness. Right before I blacked out, I saw Lucifer quietly walk into the room. His shiny black shoes walked towards me right as I sank into oblivion.

When I woke up, I knew I was in someone else’s body. I was obviously in a girls body because of the dainty fingers and the long brown hair that covered half of my vision. I looked for a bathroom and found one adjacent to the room. I quickly walked over to see who it was.

It was the face of the corpse. This must be her before she died. I reached to touch her face when the body snapped back into autopilot. I watched helpless as she did her daily routine. Including eating an entire pack of cookies in one sitting. She looked over to another bed close-by. Her roommate slept soundly.

She quietly slipped out of the room while texting her roommate.

I’m leaving Marcie. I want to hit the gym before 9 AM. I’ll see you then!

She slipped her phone into the pocket of her shorts and jogged out the building. It was so early the street lights hadn’t turned off yet. She ran past a decal and I recognized it. It was my brother’s college. She put in some new band that I faintly recognized on her headphones. She jogged for a solid 10 minutes when her phone buzzed.

She slowed down to pull out her phone to read the text. It was my brother. From her face reflecting off the screen I could tell she was annoyed.

Please Kayla! Give me another chance. It was a one night stand. I still love you!

She started to type out a reply, but deleted it and kept running. Her phone buzzed a few more times but she ignored them. She arrived at the gym and pulled on the door. It was locked. She saw a worker inside cleaning and she waved them over.

“I’m sorry we’re closed right now for a deep clean. We’ll be open tonight though.” She said behind the glass door.

Kayla groaned and began to walk back to her dorm. Her phone began buzzing again. Over 30 texts from my brother. Honestly it was sort of pathetic. She was about to ignore them again when she hesitated. She decided to text him back.

I’ll consider it for the price of breakfast.

Instantly Quentin replied.

I’m on the way to the gym, are you there yet?

She explained it was closed and he suggested he take her to a nice off-campus coffeehouse. She agreed and sat on the curb waiting for his beaten up car to drive up to her. She slipped into the passenger side.

They drove in silence as Kayla read a few texts from her family. Seems her aunt was pregnant again. She typed back a half hearted congratulations. She started to text Marcie where she was going but decided against it.

I’m assuming Marcie would most likely tell her not to go.

“So where is this coffeehouse?” Kayla asked, glancing outside.

“It’s a secluded and sort of strange place but the coffee and breakfast foods are good.” Quentin said in a tone of voice I heard often. He was lying. I noticed him fidgeting with the steering wheel. He was always a horrible liar.

I wanted to yell at her to do something but I was merely an observer to her fate.

My brother turned off the main road and Kayla got nervous.

“Where are we going?”

“Just a shortcut, don’t worry!” Another lie from Quentin.

He pulled into an empty parking lot for an abandoned mall. Kayla looked at him and dialed 911 on her phone but didn’t call.

Quentin got out of the car and beckoned her to follow him. She did protest the whole time, but he just told her it would be worth it. He entered the mall through an open back door. He led her to the top floor walking past ghosts of former stores who attracted hundreds of people daily.

He walked into a store whose metal gate was raised. Inside was a carpet store. It looked like Quentin had arranged the inside of the store as a mini apartment. Carpets were arranged as beds and seats. He sat down on a box with another facing it.

“Okay first off this is creepy, but kind of cool.” Kayla said sitting across from him.

Quentin rummaged around behind him and pulled out a huge portable cooler. He reached inside and removed two semi-cold iced coffees. “Here is your coffee.” He smiled at her.

Quentin never smiled. He was always sulking. This is the first time I’ve seen a genuine smile from him. Kayla blushed and took it. They talked for a bit, I learned more about my brother in those minutes than in my entire life.

“Do you think you can give me another chance, Kay?”

Kayla thought for a bit before nodding. Quentin smiled and leaned in for a kiss. She kissed him back which sickened me. I didn’t want to see this.

‘Okay so you’re going to love this next part.” Quentin said reaching into his pocket to pull out a small black box. My heart sank when I saw it. He was only 20.

He got down on one knee and opened it. “Kayla, will you give me the honor of marrying me?”

Kayla’s face turned beet red and she gasped. She looked at him for an uncomfortably long time. I could see his smile wavering.

“I’m sorry Quentin, I said I would give us dating another chance. Not marriage!” She said quietly.

Quentin’s smile dropped. “But, I used the rest of my grandparents college fund to buy this for you.”

She shook her head and began to walk out the store.

“You selfish bitch!” Quentin yelled behind her. She didn’t even get a chance to turn around before something hit her in the back of the head. She went down and her vision blurred. She tried to get back up but Quentin held her down.

She screamed for help and clawed at his face and anywhere she could reach. Quentin’s right hand groped around until it fell on a big fire extinguisher. He brought it down on her head multiple times. He did it over and over until she stopped moving. I could still see out her eyes despite her being deceased. I saw Quentin begin to freak out. He wiped his bloody hands on her shirt when he cursed at his stupidity.

He pushed her body onto a carpet and rolled her up into it. He lugged her body to an end of the mall that was dark from the lack of lights except the faint sunlight peeking through. He walked to an old and defunct elevator. He looked down the shaft and pushed her body down. I saw the glimpse of my brothers scowl as her body tumbled down and I heard a sickening crack.

Blink.

We were all back at the table, except my sister and brother’s corpse were gone.

“How was your little movie?” Lucifer taunted us. The invisible pressure on top of his had returned stronger than ever. We couldn’t even turn our heads. We could just move our eyes and mouths.

Lucifer stood behind Quentin and leaned down next to him. “What do you think your punishment should be?”

“I’ll confess to it. I’ll tell everyone that listens! Please!” He begged.

Lucifer stood and walked back to his seat. “Have you ever been skydiving?”

Quentin couldn’t shake his head so he croaked out a no.

“I see. Well there is a very big chance you’ll fall on some rocks and hurt yourself so badly you’ll never be able to function again, but you’ll still be alive. Some would consider that a fate worse than death.”

Quentin’s eyes widened.

“Quentin Kemp, aged 27. I condemn you to an eternity of endless plummeting. You will feel your bones snap and puncture your organs and you will suffer double what you inflicted on that poor girl. And each time you will barely survive and have it happen all over again!”

Quentin’s eyes lit up in flames and he leaned forward reaching towards Lucifer. But he died before he even got halfway. His dead body slumped on the table.

“Well think it’s time now we get into the particularly heinous crimes of yours.” Lucifer said to us.

He turned to look at my last sibling Marcus. “Open up your gift and let’s see how you’ll explain your crime.