Page 35 of Can't Stop
Veins bulge in the woman’s neck as her head is held at that awful, awkward angle. They thump in a desperate ragtime beat as the circuits disconnect in her brain. The rapid tempo is so similar to the clench-clench-clench of Rayna’s pussy that I’m almost certain we’re all connected in this moment.
“I’m going to fill you, bones. I can’t hold back.”
Rayna cries out and lets go fully. Come jets from me, unloading all of my pleasure deep inside her perfect pussy as her orgasm overcomes her. The scrabbles of a thrashing body in its death throes provide the perfect accompaniment as we ride out our pleasure together.
When I’ve finished, I brace myself above Rayna and look into her eyes. I have never loved anything the way I love this woman. She makes my happiness possible.
I lean down and place a gentle kiss on her lips. She sighs against my mouth, and we breathe each other in as our victim ceases to breathe at all.
“It’s done,” I say. “We did it. We beat them.”
She smiles up at me and takes a deep breath. “The Halloween Harvesters strike again.”
Epilogue
Three Months Later
Dalton
I stand at the hotel window and look into the snow-covered courtyard. Rayna wanted to go north for winter, so we hoofed it back up to New York to stay for a bit. We still move around a lot, just to avoid drawing too much attention, but we tend to stick around one spot for a week at a time. It makes Rayna’s oddities business a little easier to operate.
She got the idea when we were driving out of Oak Hollow. When we got back to our car, Samuel had fixed it up and loaded it down with gifts. The entire backseat had been filled with all sorts of unique taxidermy pieces. It was more than we could tote around, so Rayna decided to sell some of it.
Well-done taxidermy goes for a fucking premium. Who knew?
Now she’s turned it into a money-making machine. With the profits from one piece, we typically have enough to pay for our living expenses for a few weeks. We’ve even managed to stash away a small nest egg. We’re saving for an RV.
“What do you think about this one?” Rayna shoves her phone into my face.
I pull the device back so that I can see whatever it is she’s trying to show me. It appears to be a wedding dress made of latex, but it’s been designed to look like sewn-together chunks of human skin.
I clear my throat. “I think it’s unique, but you’d never be happy with the facsimile. You’d want the real thing.”
“You’re right.” She lowers the phone and sighs. “I feel like I’ll never find the perfect dress.”
“The dress doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s just going to end up on the floor.”
She swats my chest and laughs. “I still want to feel pretty on my wedding day.”
“We’ll be the only ones in attendance.”
“Exactly. I want to look good for my man.” She stands on tiptoes and plants a kiss on my cheek.
I pull her against my side and smile as I stare out the window again. Never in a million years did I ever think I’d propose. Now it seems like the best decision I could have made.
The clouds break enough to let a bit of sunlight catch in the diamonds perched on Rayna’s hand. Her vintage ring gets compliments galore. I felt weird about it at first, but seeing how much she loves it lets me know it was meant to be. Nothing I came up with would have had quite the punch. Or the memories behind it.
We’ve watched the Florida papers for any mention of what occurred in Oak Hollow, but we’ve seen nothing. The town’s website was quietly shuttered one night, and we haven’t heard anything since. Wherever Samuel and his grandmother are, they made good on their promises. They didn’t return to Oak Hollow, and wherever they are, they’re keeping their heads down and their mouths shut.
“We should start planning for next Halloween,” Rayna says as she takes a seat in the chair by the window. Van Gogh stands on the small table beside her. “The killing was pretty great, but there wasn’t enough of it. Now that we have a van, we gotta up our game.”
That’s another change. We’ve swapped the car for a van. It was white with no windows, which draws entirely too much attention, so we painted it a pretty shade of purple and emblazoned it with Rayna’s business name: Beautiful Bones. Oddly, we get fewer looks than we did when it was white.
“Speaking of the van,” I say, “I should probably bring in that lemur you were working on. Didn’t you want to practice some more today?”
She nods. “Yeah. I’ll never get good if I don’t practice. Once I can touch up pieces, the next step is learning how to do it from start to finish. Let me throw on some shoes, and I’ll come with.”
We dress in coats and trudge into the winter wonderland. By the time we reach the parking lot, she’s stopped no less than three times to make a snowball and throw it at me. I let her because it makes her laugh. I love that sound.
