Freedom

Tangent Universe entry Round 7 ~ Musical Prompt: Monster by Meg & Dia

*Author's Note: I joined Tangent Universe for that session to challenge myself. It was a greater challenge than expected as the contest genre wasn't known until it launched and when it was revealed to be "Vampires", I was incredibly out of my depth. I'm a romance novelist and occasional high fantasy writer with little experience in paranormal. To say the weeks long contest was a challenge would be an understatement. However, by the end, I was proud of each different entry I'd submitted, including this one. Thank you for reading. ~QM

                   As his sleep deprived body fell to the mattress, Jordan wished with all of his heart that he’d listened to everyone who’d told him to abandon the child. He’d been moved by the pitiful, nearly dead woman as she cried for help… for someone to take the babe from her womb. She begged for him to give her child a chance at life and Jordan hadn’t been able to deny her dying request.

         It had taken Jordan a long moment to recognize the woman as she lay dying as his own, dear Hannah. She was gaunt and pale, not the vital, beautiful woman he’d fallen in love with. She’d been his one, his only, his first and his last as far as he’d been concerned and Jordan had been utterly devastated when she’d disappeared eight months earlier. He’d taken her innocence and had been planning on proposing to her as it only seemed right that he should shower his love on her in the same fashion for the rest of their lives but had never gotten the chance.

         It had shocked him when he’d found her lying in the dark back alley behind his flat, hugely pregnant and dying. Jordan hadn’t known what manner of evil had taken the life from Hannah, other than the blood oozing from two small holes on the side of her neck. He’d never seen such a mark before, but his compassion and love for Hannah had compelled him to use a shard of broken glass to remove the fetus from her womb. The babe, a boy, had been nearly full term and had emitted a loud, indignant wail almost instantaneously.

         Nearly six months had passed since that haunted night and now Jordan lay in his bed every night with his pillow over his head trying desperately to ignore the wails of the boy, whom he’d named Damien after Damien Echols, who Paradise Lost had been based on.

         Jordan had discovered early on that Damien was different. Before the babe was a month old, he’d acquired all of his teeth and as strange as that was, his baby canines seemed to be oddly elongated. Along with his teeth, came a strong urge to bite which Damien tried to do often, regardless of whom he was biting. Damien also screamed horribly as though he were in pain if Jordan took him out of the house into the sun. Jordan had noticed small pock-like burns on the baby’s skin after once such outing and had decided that the boy was simply allergic to the sun.

         Jordan had all but given up on holding or comforting Damien as his biting and ear-splitting wails were more than he could bear. And after catching the baby attempting to crawl from his crib in the night on several occasions, Jordan had resorted to inserting Plexiglas panels along the sides of the crib to keep his young charge from harming himself or Jordan in the night. Night was the only time that Damien was active and because he couldn’t escape his bed, he wailed. During the day, Jordan would pass out for a couple of hours just after daybreak when Damien would cease his constant noise then stumble off to work while the nanny tended Damien until evening. Jordan would again crash for a couple of hours until darkness fell and the wailing would begin again.

         After five months of this, Jordan was exhausted and nearing the edge of insanity. He knew that Damien craved attention just as all small babies did, but the scars that marred his arms and legs were blatant reminders that he could not give the boy the love he craved. Not for the first time, Jordan wondered what had happened to make Damien act so oddly.

         As evening approached, Damien’s wails had yet to begin and Jordan, just home from work, started to drift to sleep, as he did every evening. A light tapping on the door didn’t rouse him, nor did it bother the still calm baby. The tapping continued, becoming louder and more insistent until they were punctuated with terrified cried for help. Jordan moaned, he didn’t think he could handle giving anyone anymore help.

         “Please… please…” cried a woman as she pounded on the door. “Please let me in.”

         Jordan grumbled and cursed but rose and went to the door, if for no other reason than to stop the pounding and crying… he had enough of that with Damien. He threw the door open to find a gaunt and pale woman, holding a tattered dress to her breast, sobbing brokenly. Jordan’s gritty and red-rimmed blue eyes widened with shock as the haunting image of Hannah as she died flared in his mind. Without a word, Jordan waved the woman in and closed the door, locking it.

         “Are you Jordan Blackstone?” the woman asked tearfully, her emotions easing now that she was out of the approaching night. Jordan frowned suspiciously as he looked at the emaciated woman.

         “I am. How do you know my name?”

         “I was friends with a woman named Hannah… before… before…” the woman began sobbing fearfully again and Jordan had to work to understand her. “Before He took her away.”

         Jordan arched an eyebrow at the cryptic words. “Who is He? And where did He take her?”

         “He… He… He’s a monster,” the woman whispered, terror now lacing her words heavily.

         “What is your name? Let’s start there and then you tell me what the hell you’re doing here and how you knew Hannah.” Jordan suggested almost angrily as he settled himself in a chair opposite the woman. She looked at him with wide, soft grey eyes.

         “Angeline… I’m Angeline. I lived in Surrey before He took me and brought me here… wherever here is.” She told him. Jordan rubbed his tired eyes and ran a hand through his tousled black hair. He only wanted his sleep and now it didn’t seem as though he’d be getting it.

         “All right Angeline, how did you know Hannah?”

         “Hannah was there when He brought me there. She was in the cage next to mine. We’d hold hands while He slept. She was my friend.”

         Jordan felt his heart stutter and falter in his chest. His Hannah in a cage? Oh what torture had his beloved gone through before she’d returned?

         “Cage?” Jordan gagged.

         “Yes. We were all brought in at night, all left in cages until He wanted us. Hannah was just starting to show her pregnancy when I was caged.”

         “Did He get her pregnant?” Jordan asked, unable to stop himself.

         “No,” breathed Angeline. She brought her bare feet up to rest on the chair, smoothing what was left of her dress over her knees. With a trembling hand, she pushed a lock of her filthy white blond hair from her eyes. “Hannah told me that the baby was yours. She told me that you were her one true love and that she’d given her heart and body to you. She… she told me that no matter how many times He used her she remained yours in her heart. But it made her cry when she said that she never got the chance to tell you she loved you.”

         Jordan swallowed over the misery that threatened to destroy him. His Hannah had been caged and abused… had still loved him to the end.

         “He had enough of us that He only needed to use us once every seven days,” Angeline continued in a tiny voice full of terror. “He was rough and He hurt me… but nothing hurt as bad as when He bit.”

         “Bit?” Jordan exclaimed in growing horror. Angeline nodded and lifted her matted hair from her neck to reveal two small scabs on her neck. Jordan closed his eyes as the misery grew heavier. The marks were the same that had been on Hannah. Oh what nightmare had Hannah suffered?

         “I always felt so woozy after He bit. The night He took Hannah from her cage… the last time I saw her,” Angeline whimpered, “He was angry, but none of us knew why. Hannah was afraid because He was so angry. I heard her scream from the hallway and then she was gone.”

         “How did you get here then?”

         “When He brought Reva, she was brought in to replace Addy who just died in her cage. He didn’t know that Reva used to be a thief. She knew how to pick the locks. When He went to sleep, she let us all out and told us to run away. Hannah had told me that you were a good and kind man so I tried to find you. It took me all day. Please don’t make me go back.”

         Angeline fearful plea struck at Jordan’s heart. “No, I won’t. You are welcome to stay, dubious pleasure though it may be.”

         “I wish I knew what happened to Hannah. I’d hoped that she’d be here with you.” Angeline sighed.

         “Hannah died six months ago just outside in the back alley,” Jordan told her quietly, his heart breaking all over again. She’d been trying to escape hell to get back to him… he knew that now. Angeline began to cry softly in mourning for her friend. “I didn’t recognize her at first and when I did, she was nearly dead. She begged me to take the baby from her, to give him a life… so I did.”

         “Her child lives?” Angeline asked incredulously. Then as though on cue, Damien awoke and began to wail. Jordan was shocked at the speed in which Angeline moved, her terror blatant in her face and eyes. She flew to him and launched herself into his arms and lap, clutching at him.

         “And there he is,” Jordan scowled in exhaustion as he tried to calm Angeline.

         Suddenly Angeline added her scream to the din. Her eyes widened in abject horror and to Jordan’s surprise, she managed to pale further.

         “He’s here… He found me,” she gasped. Jordan looked to his right out the window into the darkness. There, outside his window was a pale figure with an intent look that was fixed on Angeline. Jordan blinked and Angeline screamed again. The bloodless face had gone, but there was a soft swirling mist that had entered the room, although Jordan had no idea how as all of the windows were closed tight.

         The wailing of Damien continued as the mist began to form into the shape of a man. Then it seemed to solidify into the pale faced man right before Jordan’s eyes. The creature looked like a man except for his unnaturally bloodless appearance, but Jordan had never come across a man who could turn to mist and back.

         “There you are girl…” the creature began, but was cut off by Damien. He froze and turned slowly toward the bedroom where Damien was carrying on. The creature moved to the next room and Jordan couldn’t believe his ears… Damien’s horrible wailing ceased and silence fell over the flat. The creature returned carrying Damien almost tenderly. The child was quiet and content, cooing softly.

         “I shall release you girl… in exchange for this boy,” the creature informed Jordan and Angeline. Then before either of them could move or react, the mist was back and the creature gone.

         Jordan and Angeline sat in shock, staring blankly, in the deafening silence then a slow, triumphant smile began to blossom on both of their faces… they were free.

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