• The sound of her voice resounded through the room, through the halls connecting the room. Her soft words drifted on wings of air as they reached his ears. She was singing again, with that beautiful golden voice of hers.

    He couldn’t hear exactly what it was she was singing about, but the tone of her voice invoked such a calm in him that it seemed he might drift right out of this miserable world and into the bliss of the afterlife.

    Such was his curse. He was condemned to lie in his hospital bed for the rest of his life, listening to an angel sing, every time she came to visit him. Although visit wouldn’t be the word he’d choose. Torment was a much better fit.

    The sound of her heels clicking on the hospital floor joined the beautiful echo of her singing to create a whole new level of music of its own. It was pure anguish for him to have to listen to it, to listen to such a blessing, yet not be able to move yourself or even bring tears to your eyes.

    Others would relish at the sound of her voice, but he did not.

    How could he possibly enjoy the voice of the monster that had put him here in the first place? He hadn’t even seen it coming.

    He wished he could groan or roll himself over so he would be facing away from the door, but being paralyzed, it was impossible. The only thing keeping him breathing and conscious were the various machines and numerous tubes going in and out of his body. Doctors had been astounded that he was still alive with such extensive damage.
    They called it a miracle. He called it death.

    The door opened with a soft click and a young, exceptionally beautiful dark-haired woman stuck her head through the opening. Her eyes were as black as death itself. They made everything else around her seem to brighten, as if her eyes were draining the light from whatever came close to her; draining the hope of anything or anyone around it, draining it of its beauty.

    “Good morning, Dennis!”

    Her voice was lively and happy-sounding. She always sounded that way. She either sounded happy or she sounded seductive, both of which were as far from the truth as anything could ever be.

    “It’s been a while hasn’t it? How’s life going for you?”

    She tilted her head and smiled at him as she strode into the room, closing the white door behind her.

    Others had been fooled by her smile, thinking she was sincerely trying to make him feel at ease, trying to comfort him and take his mind off of his cruel fate. He knew better. He knew her smile was nothing but an empty shell, housing a dark void. Nothing could ever fill that void. Nothing could ever satisfy the hunger that it brought forth. He knew this better than anyone.

    He also knew that in the end, it was his fault that she had become this way. He knew he’d carved that hole inside of her heart and gradually made it larger, darker.

    “That bad, huh? You won’t even acknowledge me?”

    She took a few steps, sitting herself down at the side of his bed. She gently put a hand on top of his, feigning being worried. He knew she would continue to do this for some time. Continue to play her twisted little games.

    Oh, how much he wanted to jump up and scream at her. Roar at her to wake up, grab her shoulders and shake some sense into her. He so much wanted to embrace her and apologize for what he’d done. He also wanted to strangle what little of life was left, out of her. He knew nothing short of death would grant her the peace and time she needed to straighten herself out.

    Every day he prayed to every god he could think of, every deity he’d ever heard in his life, to offer her guidance. He prayed that they would be merciful and grant her a peaceful afterlife.

    Of course, that required that she died first and judging by the look of things, it might be a while before that took place. More than once, she had made it clear that she didn’t intend on leaving this place. She had claimed she wanted to have more fun. He’d seen the menace in her eyes as those words passed her sweet, cherry-red lips. He had seen the hunger speaking through her. He had seen what she really meant by it. It was her purpose to torment him and watch his soul writhe in unbridled agony. She wanted to watch him suffocate in the consequences of his own terrible actions.

    “Guess what I did today?”

    The uplifting tone of her voice sounded to him like a foreboding of ominous terror. He knew she had done something horrifying again.

    “I met this great guy at this hotel I was staying at. We had so much fun!”

    He waited. She would tell him the details of her sickening adventure.

    “At first it was pretty boring, you know? Getting him to show his true face. But after a while he warmed up… then he warmed me up.”

    Her face seemed to brighten, but behind it was the lethal mask of numbness.

    “It was so red! You won’t believe it. We did it in the elevator and the walls were completely red at the end.”

    She seemed to wait for a reaction, even though it was obvious there would not be one.

    “I held his heart, you know. It felt great… I could still feel it beating in my hands after I cut his chest open!”

    He’d become numb to her stories. At first it somewhat pleased him, but as time wore on, the tales of her cruel and horrid acts became the subject of many of his nightmares. But even that fear had faded. Now there was nothing. He endured them, simply because he had come to accept the fact that he could do nothing to stop her from telling him.

    He came to realize that even though he wished to somehow salvage her humanity, he could not. Not in his current state.

    “Well!”

    He blinked, turning his eyes towards her to see what she was up to now.

    “You’re being no fun, as usual.”

    She put her hands at her hips and playfully rocked back and forward on the balls of her feet. She pouted like a little kid and turned around, looking over her shoulder before winking at him.

    “I guess I’ll come back some other time.”

    She waved, pulled the door open and stepped through, turning around at the last minute before closing the door again.

    “I’ll be back when your prison’s just a wee bit darker.”



    “How was he?”

    Her question left a long silence in its wake before Diana answered it.

    “As unexcitable as always. No matter what I do, I can never seem to elicit an emotional response from him. It’s as if he’s become completely numb to anything I do.”

    The other woman leaned against a nearby wall, scanning the hospitals surroundings before bringing her attention back to Diana.

    “You sound disappointed, wasn’t it our goal to break him? After the things he’s done to you… to us.”

    Diana put her hands behind her back and rocked from side to side, feigning innocence.

    “I guess… I was just hoping he would last a bit longer. All those years he lied to me, manipulated me and then abandoned me. All that pain he caused… and he gets off so easily.”

    The other woman put both her hands on Diana’s shoulders, staring straight at her eyes.

    “Not just you. Stop acting like you were the only one to carry this burden. We’re both in this together… and we’ll both finish it.”

    Diana smiled, her dead, dark eyes showing something other than void for once. They showed longing. She longed to make him experience pain. He had pained them both, played them like toys. He had made them lose so much of their life, he had made them do so many terrible things. Things they’d become accustomed to, things that had become part of their lives now.

    Inflicting pain had become somewhat of an addiction to them now. It was their favorite pastime. They went out, acting lush and seductive, scanning the crowds for helpless victims.