Page 71 of Her Wicked Knights
"Fucking hell!" Carson laughs. "We gotta hurry this up, boys! Our girl Marley's a natural born porn star."
Nick laughs. "She's already coming on Mark's fingers like the little whore we knew she was."
I snap my attention to the TV, where I can see that they're telling the truth. Marley's on her back, legs spread, with Mark finger-fucking her through a screaming orgasm. They're also right about her coming like a porn star. She comes apart with reckless abandon, her screaming creating a symphony that clashes with Audrey's.
I want to break Mark's fucking hand for daring to touch her, for daring to do it where the rest of them could see it in every glorious and excruciating detail, for having a part of her she's never willingly given me.
Whit moves in and kicks Audrey over with the toe of his boot.
I cringe away when she rolls around to face him, her fair skin covered in blood as he takes a moment to look down at her one last time.
And then Whit descends.
He's a flurry of motion, the sleeves of his robe flying wildly around as he lifts his arm and delivers a series of stabs, frenzied jabs over and over again that don't cease even as she pleads, screams, chokes on blood.
I didn't expect to be horrified, but I am.
I thought that I didn't feel anything for Audrey, and I don't, so that would mean I would feel no remorse with her death. But watching Whit turn into an absolute maniac as he seems to go for overkill, I feel... overwhelmed.
"They're heading this way." Nick warns, slipping the porcelain mask in place over his face.
I turn, scanning the room to see who's assembled.
Tripp and Rev are standing just a few feet behind me, their faces obscured by their masks, but I don't doubt they're as shocked as me. Maybe even more so.
The last killing had been a little more ritualistic. This one feels like it's somehow personal. I have to wonder if Audrey was hooking up with Whit too, if she slighted him somehow and this is his chance at revenge. He doesn't even seem to remember that he's been telling us we all have to participate in killing her, and I'm not going to remind him.
When he finally steps away from her body, I'm pretty sure she's exactly that. A body, nothing more. Her eyes are vacant, and no sounds come from her.
Whit's 'disciples' form an open ring around the shadows at the back of the theater, watching from a distance as he takes another step back, appraising his work.
Whit's frenzy left Audrey covered in blood; I can't even see the source of all of it, and I assume it's just a series of stab wounds. The little bit of clothing she was wearing has been shredded, and her breasts are exposed, one leg twisted at an awkward angle, her head back in an awkward arrangement. It's far more brutal than anything I expected, and as he lifts his hands in the air and her body rises, it showcases the damage he brought upon her.
Blood drips still from her body as he pushes her toward the rafters over the stage, rotating her so she looks like a marionette, just waiting for someone to come along and pull the right strings to put on an act that she's alive.
Audrey liked to believe herself a puppet master, capable of pulling people's strings to get the right reaction. But she met her match with Whit. He's the true puppet master, and he turned Audrey into one of his things.
Maybe I should have seen it sooner. But it doesn't change anything. She was still doing things that hurt people, still killing people, still perfectly fine with her best friend's murder.
Whit closes his eyes, and for just a moment, I think he's mourning.
But then I watch Audrey's nipples stretch toward the ground, pulling them taut in a grotesque way.
It takes me a moment to realize what he's doing, and another moment to realize why. But as the little metal jewelry rips free of their piercings, and Audrey's nipple rings clatter to the floor, I realize he's just a fucking psychopath. A psychopath with power that's only about to grow stronger, because the light goes out, a warning that they're here.
A moment later, Mark leads Marley into the room.
35
Tripp
Ifeelsick,horrormingling with adrenaline and disgust and terror.
Because as I watch Whit so callously tear Audrey apart and then brutalize her one last time, unnecessarily, I realize we're in a territory we aren't meant to be in. Whit isn't normal. He's deranged, and while we suspected as much, now there's not even a chance to deny it. What he just did wasunhinged. And I don't have time to contemplate it, because Marley just walked in with Mark, who's already slunk away from her before she even realized it.
I watch her from the shadows with Rev at my side, holding my breath in horror as the reality of what's about to happen unfolds around us in real-time as Marley looks around at the cardboard set, the shadows where she doesn't see us all waiting.
"Mark?"
