Page 166 of Devil Inside

Her eyes jolt open. She finds me—and smiles. Laughs. She licks her lips, her tongue tapering out and slithering across her chin. Aren’t we all just demons on the dance floor?

The thickened beat can’t continue. We’re all about to collapse. And yet, we’re not stopping. The song will never stop. It continues to play, lost in a loop, a limbo, a purgatory in this living room. What if this is what hell is like? Dancing and dancing until you combust.

The bodies twist. Limbs aren’t meant to bend in that direction.

I’m at the heart of this house party, the sacrificial lamb, the lighthouse.

Let’s light up this place.

I call you back, Lilith... I summon you. I need you.

I love you.

The beam that breaks free from my body distorts the atmosphere. I’m spinning...

Spinning...

Spinning.

The wallpaper blisters and peels from the heat. The plaster cracks and crumbles.

The walls shudder. The foundation of the house itself seems to rattle. The floorboards warp. Bend and buckle. The house can’t hold itself together. It’s all going to collapse.

An inferno. A hell on earth.

The party won’t stop. There are bodies writhing everywhere. Against each other.

Agony. Ecstasy.

Everyone moves in a syncopated frenzy. We’ve all connected to the rhythm. The song is our pulse. Our heartbeat. We’re tethered together, but I won’t let them in. There’s a wall. A barricade of flesh and bone. Of blood.

You want in? Fuck you. You can’t have me. Yeah, I’m a catch... but I’m not yours.

Only Lilith. She’s all I want.

I call you back, Lilith...

Pick up. Answer me. Please. I can’t hold them back. I feel them. The rush all around me. The thrust of one after another. Pushing. Pressing. They want in, but all I want is you...

He’s exhausted. About to collapse. He’s let his guard down. Lowering his defenses.

Open himself up.

One finds its way in. They’ll use him, abuse him. Grind his bones down to powder.

They can’t have him.

He’s mine.

Look at him. He’s so pale, lips faint blue. His eyes are bloodshot, burning red coals. There is a delirium in his eyes, an absence of humanity. The unfocused glare is too much.

Does he recognize me? See me?I’m right here... I just have to slip in. Find him.

Jordan’s body seizes, limbs locking. The veins in his neck constrict, tightening like steel cables. His eyes roll into the safety of his skull, leaving behind nothing but a wake of white. The veins in his eyes constrict, tightening until they burst, vessels hemorrhaging red.

Now. I need to hurry. Ease my way in. Through the skin.

The spine is a knotted column to wind around, his bones a scaffolding to climb down. His veins offer a tender netting. The contours of his body are spread out before us.