Page 165 of Devil Inside

I feel the helix of sweaty limbs at all sides. People are closing in. Nobody cares who they touch. It’s this slender caress. Slickened skin, like warm fish, wriggling in every direction.

Eels coursing over my body. Eels, everywhere. Not even human anymore.

Just an ocean of skin. Of melted flesh. We’re drowning in ourselves.

In our own bodies. Choking our hosts.

I see my friends. There’s Lys. There’s Deak. All of them, possessed. Leering back. These demons aren’t here for them. It’s me who they want. They’ve come for me. Crave me.

So let’s dance.

There’s blood on the dance floor now. It’s a feeding frenzy out here. The second I spot Jordan—calling me, he’s calling me, I can hear his voice—I know I’m not the only one.

I sense them, the others, worming into this house from all corners. So many. Too many. A hell on earth. The very presence of them, all these demons, pressing against one another. We are a writhing knot. The dance floor is a nest, a heaving pile of hijacked humanity. The people around me are not in control of their bodies. They want what I want.

Him. We all desire Jordan. Crave him. His body beams. The darkness seething out from his hollow heart lights up the dance floor. It burns the very air. There’s a charred electricity in the atmosphere. It smells like burning hair. Singed skin. An ozone of flesh that only gets us drooling.

It won’t stop. We’ve all come too far. Such a giddy insanity. A delirious need to dance. It’s overtaken us all. No one can stop, not now, not even if they tried.

Who wants to stop now?

We’re all burning.

These demons filter through and flow, passing from one body to the next, a river of flesh, feel how we connect, a whirlpool, a vortex.

Take me, he says without any words. They all push in. Desperate to possess him.

Take me.Who will he let in?

Take me.Who will he open himself up to?

The song switches. Kylie Minogue. I fucking love this song. The hollow beat thuds against my solar plexus, all plastic, propelling the people around me forward, faster now.

It’s our song, Lilith. It’s always been our song.

I just can’t get you out of my head...Feel them in there? Those slithering whispers?

Where are you, Lilith? I can’t hear you. I need you.

I call you back...

I summon you. I want you here. I want you with me. I need you inside.

I call you...

There’s a current just underneath the song, voices insinuating within the rhythm, making their way through the music. It’s indecipherable at first, all those tongues flickering against the inside of my skull. I can’t make the words out. The voices. There are too many.

There are more people now, if that’s even possible, crammed inside this suffocating space. Pumping our legs. Hunched over and heaving. Where are they even coming from?

Are we dancing anymore? Are we all drowning?

The electronic beat pounds at my temples and I hear a woman laugh next to me. Her voice is there and gone before I can clock her position. Where did she go? Her laughter trails behind me.

I see teeth gritting. Eyes burning, smoke billowing out from their sockets. There’s such a determined surge to the people on the dance floor. Our movements have gotten aggressive. Anxious. Something’s started and it’s not stopping.

A man not two feet away from me has locked his eyes onto mine. He’s hunched over and stomping his feet, shaking his head like a bull about to stampede. His eyes aren’t his own. The harder he writhes, pounding to the pulse of the music, the more I see what’s inside him itching to get out. Wriggle free. He’s down on his hands and knees, but his eyes never leave mine. He’s not alone. Someone is behind him, thrusting. His body is there and gone, lapsing into shadows with every heave.

A hot gust of someone’s breath spreads down my neck. It’s a hot jet of air. They’re right at my shoulder. When I turn to see, I find a woman writhing at my back. Losing herself.