Page 164 of Devil Inside

There isn’t a chamber in his heart we can’t fill. There isn’t an inch of his skin we can’t consume. There isn’t a drop of blood that we can’t distill, instilling ourselves within.

I want to fuse with him. Body and soul. Demon and host.

A partnership. A union. A fire.

I call you back.There it is. That voice. His voice. We hear it.

Hear him.

It is him, isn’t it? He’s here. He has to be. He’s drawn us in.I call you back, Lilith...

There. We spot him from across the room. Jordan burns so bright, he blinds us.

Come to me...

He’s not alone. Jordan has brought company with him, whether he knows it or not...

Look at the dance floor.

Demons, everywhere.

I shouldn’t be here. Dancing with the damned. Sweat is everywhere. I see beads of it fling through the air as these people whip their hair around, like shattered glass showering down on everyone. Bodies are just pressed against each other. Everybody heaves with a sense of desperation. There’s no room in here. No air. But who needs to breathe anymore?

What’s the point?

It’s so hot inside the house. The second I stepped through the back door, it’s as if the thermostat cranked itself up. The sheer number of partygoers takes all the oxygen out, replaced with a muggy atmosphere. The dining room is spillover from the living room, a muddy overflow of people pressed against the walls. I enter the flow of bodies clotting the hall and slip downstream, easing through the main channel before washingup on the dance floor. Why the hell not? The music is palpable here. The sound system is cranked up so loud, it pushes against my skin in dull waves of bass. I feel the beat rush up against me.

The Commodores’ “Brick House.” Hats off to the DJ, whoever they are. Cranked up at this volume, the song is nothing but sibilant bass and it absolutely hurts to hear. The trumpets hiss in distorted waves. The whole effect—the sweat, the pulse, the distortion—there’s just no fucking way you can’t feel yourself getting sucked into the whirlpool swirling at the center of the room.

I’m diving in. Headfirst.

I’m losing myself tonight. I don’t care if I ever come back. To hell with dancing the night away. I want to melt this flesh right off the bone. Dance until my soul leaves my body.

What soul? I don’t have one anymore, remember? So what the fuck am I?

Damned, that’s what. Dead man dancing.

The faces I find all around me are unfamiliar. Who even are these people? Where did they all come from? Everyone’s lost in their own world, eyes closed in a half-lidded ecstasy. Tendrils of sweat-soaked hair cling to their skin, snaking against their chests. Nobody is paying attention to each other. We’re all just lost in the music. As it should be.

Their faces are melting. Now I see it—seethem. Did I bring them? I called them, didn’t I? Works for me. They can’t have me. I just want to dance until my legs give, my body breaks, and I plummet. I don’t ever want to come back. I’m diving down to the deepest recesses of this room. Where the song hits the house’s foundation. Even deeper. Let’s dig down to hell and never come back. That’s where I’ll find her. All the way at the bottom.

In the abyss.

We’re all possessed. We’re all gone. We’re outside our bodies. Jaws slack. Eyes roll up into the safety of everyone’s skulls, leaving behind nothing but white.

Feel gravity lose its grip. Feel your spirit drift. Fallen angels all around.

I close my eyes. It’s better to feel the music that way. Feel it come in. There it is. That sinister beat. It’s writhing, such a serpent. It coils around my ribs. Grabs hold of my heart andsqueezes. Not just one snake, but several. The sounds slips in from all around. Coiling creepers, like sonic ivy, their invisible threads slithering over the bone. Let it take me. Let it pull me under. Let me die right here on the dance floor. I never want to come back. Never breathe air again.

Find me, Lilith. Come on, I know you can... I call you back.

I’m drowning. Can’t you feel it, Lilith? Can you be my breath? The house is a killing jar and we’re all madly scrambling for one last gasp. Too late. I’m thrashing on the dance floor, losing myself to the music, as it presses against me, wanting to find its way in. All I need to do is open my mouth. Split these lips and let the song rush in, like water.

Where are you, Lilith? Are you here? Can you hear me calling? Can you feel me?

I call you back, Lilith...

Water always finds a way in, doesn’t it? I’m in over my head. Losing myself.