Jake
How fucking dare she!
My car swerves dangerously on the rain-slicked drive, nearly spitting me off into the cypress trees that line the shoulder of the path. I consider that maybe I shouldn’t have had that final shot at the hotel bar before getting behind the wheel, but the thought floats away as quickly as it comes.
None of this is my fault.
It’s Julia’s.
That bitch is the one who told me not to come home. You know, the home I fucking built for her.
I can’t believe the level of disrespect she’s shown me. I’ll fucking show her what happens when she challenges me.
The path finally opens up into the wide, open expanse of the driveway. I can’t seem to steer straight enough to confidently navigate into the garage, so instead, I haphazardly pull up at the front door. The pouring rain thunders on the roof of the car, drowning out the sound of the gravel beneath the tires.
I stumble out into the storm. Within seconds, I’m already drenched. Cursing loudly over a peal of thunder, I stagger through the darkness trying to find the front door.
Instead of the hard stone slab of the stoop, my shoes slide on slick grass underfoot. I’m confused for a moment, unsure of where I am. The backyard maybe? How’d I get all the way around the house?
I can barely see the building in the gloom. The alcohol I consumed earlier, along with the pills I’d popped in the bathroom of the hotel room when Ellie wasn’t looking, pitch the world to spin around me. Even though my feet are moving, I have no idea where I’m going.
It’s as if my body moves of its own accord. I’m powerless to resist the pull as my feet sink into increasingly soft ground. Mud sucks at the soles of my shoes. I feel like I’m slowly sinking in quicksand. Yet, I still move forward.
When I reach a patch of moss littered with a treacherous maze of long, narrow holes, I realize where I am.
Somehow, I’ve made it through the marsh to the clearing where the decayed cemetery once stood.
Amos is waiting for me there. Its form wavers in the rain, like a projection on a disrupted screen. It looks less human than I remember. The general form is there, but the angles and proportions are all wrong. For some reason, it makes me think of an anglerfish, drawing me in with the promise of a light in the dark.
“Rough night?” the demon asks in a voice that’s merely an extension of the howling wind. It grins, revealing thin gleaming teeth that flash in the lightning like slivers of bone.
“That bitch didn’t learn her lesson,” I growl, struggling to be heard over the rushing rain.
“She didn’t,” Amos agrees. “In fact, she’s forsaken you entirely.”
“What?” My brain’s too addled to make sense of the words.
Its smile grows impossibly wide. “She’s been whoring around with another man. A ghost. Can you imagine a dead man fucking your wife while you’re gone? I’d be furious.”
A ghost? I don’t stop to consider the logistics. As horrifying as Amos is, the demon has never lied to me. If it says Julia’s been running around on me, it’s probably telling the truth.
“That fucking bitch!” I rage into the storm. My hands claw at the air in front of me, and I know that if she was standing before me right now, I’d squeeze the fucking life out of her.
“Now, now,” the demon croons. “Let’s have a little patience. If you confront her like that, the fun will be over far too soon. The ghost took you over before in order to fuck your wife. Did you even know that?”
“No,” I grind out. If Amos is trying to sooth me, it’s doing a terrible job. The thought of some asshole ghost possessing me and bending my wife over just adds fuel to the fire.
“Now, here’s what you’ll do,” the demon instructs, ignoring my rage. “You go in and act sweet as molasses. Let her think you’re her lover, Zeke. And when you’ve got her where we want her, you let me in.”
“Let you in?” I slur.
Amos hisses in agreement. “Yes, yes, like before. Let me punish Julia for you, and, in return, I’ll give you everything.”
I narrow my eyes. The demon made good on its promise of securing me that last investor. Hell, I’d even gone out to celebrate that night, and for the next few days after. Everything is going smoothly now, but I could always use a boost in the industry. If Amos will give me that in exchange for my whore of a wife, who am I to argue?
“Deal,” I say quickly.
“It’s a deal!” Amos confirms gleefully. “Now go.”
I’m barely aware of my surroundings as I wade across the sludgy ground and back toward the house. I hike up the lawn and across the porch to let myself in the back door.
Nothing moves inside the house. Rain blares against the windows as I creep through the first floor toward the darkened stairs. My muddy shoes leave a trail of murky footprints in my wake, marking my path as I journey upward.
Julia is asleep in bed, as I expected. Rage flares within me at the sight of her. How dare she look so peaceful, so content, when she’s torn my life to shreds?
Patience.
Amos’s voice slithers coolly across the contours of my mind, soothing my anger even as I think about Julia fucking somebody else.
The smallest worm of doubt wriggles in my gut. What if there is no ghost? What if Amos is lying? Is it possible that the demon could desire my wife so badly that it would do or say anything to get me to agree?
But that final tremble of uncertainty is snuffed out when her eyes flutter open to see me standing beside the bed.
“Zeke?” she murmurs.
Amos’s grating laugh rips through the inside of my skull.
I told you. Now do as you promised.
I blink hard. What am I supposed to do? I can barely think with Julia staring at me like that with heat and questions brimming in her eyes.
Tell her you’re him.
“It’s me,” I say dutifully. “Zeke.”
The soft smile that spreads across Julia’s face is pure torture. It takes every ounce of my self-control not to slap it off her.
“I thought you were out of energy,” she muses as she sits up.
“I’ll always have energy for you.” I try not to look too pained as I say it.
Her eyes flicker down my body before she meets my gaze again. “Does Jake know? I mean, is he aware you’re in there?”
I shrug. “Does it matter?”
Julia bites her lip as she ponders the question. Eventually, she responds, “Yes. He doesn’t deserve to feel even a fraction of what we share between us.”
My hands itch to strike her, but the cool fingers of Amos’s presence hold me in check.
The pause is just long enough for Julia, unaware of my inner turmoil, to sit up on her knees. The fire in her eyes is unmatched, like nothing I’ve ever seen from her. It strikes me that she’s never once looked at me like that in all the years we’ve been together.
“I’m glad you came back,” Julia breathes as her hands move to gently brush the rain-slicked hair from my eyes. Confusion builds in her expression as she realizes that I’ve been outside. She opens her mouth to ask me a question that I won’t be able to answer, so I do the only thing I can to shut her up.
I kiss her.
My lips are reluctant to meet hers, and I’m worried she’ll realize that something is wrong, but she seems to interpret it as gentleness. I close my eyes, wanting this to be over.
Patience.
Amos’s voice is a hiss in my mind, filled with promise. It urges me to kiss Julia back with as much passion as I can muster. The reward at the end will be worth it.
It has to be.
Julia’s body is hot and slim against mine. As disgusted as I am right now, I’m still a man, and my body reacts accordingly, especially when one of her delicate hands skims over the front of my pants.
The sensation, even muted by layers of wet fabric, seems to breathe life into Amos. I can feel it seeping into my muscles and coursing through my veins. In a matter of seconds, I’m bursting at the seams with dark power.
Julia doesn’t seem to notice the change in me. Her nimble hands make quick work of my fly, and she flashes me a sweet smile as she pulls my cock free from my slacks.
Her hot tongue presses against the blunt tip of my length, teasing me before her lips close over me as she draws me into her mouth.
Amos’s presence surges through me. It’s all consuming. My hands work of their own accord as they weave into Julia’s hair and push her head roughly forward on my cock.
Realization blooms in her eyes as she stares up at me with wide eyes. She knows it’s me now. She knows it’s not Zeke.
“Is this what Zeke does to you?” It’s Amos’s voice that hisses out through my lips, its words that spark panic in Julia’s face as the demon forces my cock deeper into her mouth. “Does he fuck your pretty face until you drown in his come?”
Julia’s hands are on my hips. She pushes against me, struggling to get away, but my hold on her head keeps her locked in place. She can only endure as Amos’s will guides me to pleasure myself in her mouth.
The more she squirms against my hold, the closer I get to release. I’m so lost in the pounding rhythm that I barely even notice as the phone in my pocket jolts to life to erupt a wavering, haunting melody. Julia’s laptop, open but dark on the other side of the bed, blasts the same song, but the audio doesn’t match up. The beats are uneven, the words crossing one another in a wretched dance.
…St. James Infirmary…
…Let her go, let her go, god bless her…”
The sound is maddening. I thrust faster, pumping my hips to the uneven gallop of the music.
And then finally, I tumble off the edge, emptying myself into Julia’s mouth as Amos’s unholy energy streams out of me in a shuddering release.
Julia finally pushes me off her and crawls back on the bed, gagging and coughing. Tears streak down her face. Her hair is a matted mess where I’d held her down on my cock.
It’s only then that I realize what I’ve done.
Spears of guilt and shame pierce me, but I push them back. She deserved it, didn’t she? After cheating? After what she’s put me through?
I feel sick. The world spins as I try to focus on Julia, who’s huddled pathetically on the other side of the bed.
When she speaks, her voice hits me like a punch to the gut.
“We’re done,” she whispers. “I want a divorce.”
I blink heavily. For a moment, I think I’m going to vomit, but when I open my mouth to retch, a high-pitched laugh rings out instead.
Amos’s laugh.
Julia’s eyes widen in fear at the unhinged sound. She scuttles off the bed and launches herself into the en suite bathroom. The door slams behind her, followed quickly by the lock clicking into place. But not even the cacophony that erupts from my throat is loud enough to drown out the sound of her tears.
I’m not sure how much time passes. At some point, I realize that I’ve simply stopped laughing. Disoriented, I use a discarded towel to haphazardly clean myself up before I tuck myself back into my pants.
My brain doesn’t seem to be working properly. I can’t seem to decide what to do next. But then I feel a tug behind my navel like there’s a rope attached, and somebody’s pulling, pulling, reeling me in.
I walk out of the room on numb, unsteady feet. I stagger down the stairs and out the front door, where the rain lashes against my skin in stinging curtains.
“Amos!” I howl into the night. “Amos!”
“No need to shout,” a voice chides from just over my shoulder.
I whip around in surprise, expecting to see the horrendous form of the demon looming over me, but there’s nothing there.
“Want do you want, Jake?” the disembodied voice queries expectantly. It seems to be coming from the very rain itself, from the stench of the swamp, from the muddy gravel under my feet.
I want to forget. I want to be anybody else. I want this nightmare to end.
“I want you to take her!” I scream into the storm. When Amos doesn’t answer, I bellow, “You can have her! Do you hear me, you piece of shit? You can fucking have her!”
Two bony hands clamp down on each side of my face. Talon-like nails dig into my forehead as Amos’s waxy face swims into view. It stops less than an inch from mine, so close that I can’t possibly look away from the matte black pits of its eyes.
“Yes,” Amos agrees, grinning. “I will have her. She will be mine.”
I screw my eyes shut. I can’t bear the sight of the demon in front of me any longer. “What do I have to do?” I ask weakly, all traces of my former bravado washed away with the rain.
“It’s simple,” Amos assures me. “All you have to do is let me take you over completely. And then you’ll see. You’ll see… everything.”
I already know how I’ll answer. My soul’s already damned, anyway.
“Yes,” I breathe. “Do it.”
“She’s mine,” Amos croons as his fingers tighten over my skull.
The pain is blinding. I want to scream, but the air is stolen from my lungs. It’s unbearable.
But over the agony, I can hear Amos’s voice ringing through the night, repeating its promise over and over again.
“She’s mine. She’s mine. She’s mine…”
And in my final moments of clarity, I think that maybe, just maybe, I’ve made a terrible mistake.