The Tapestry (20 page)

   
‘When you find the trident, the dragons will come to you again. They will help you to understand more clearly. I have done what I came to do and I must go now Clara... I am feeling very weak.’

    ‘Will I ever see you again Joseph? She asked as the tears welled up in her eyes.

    ‘I don’t know’ was the only answer he could give before he vanished back into the ceiling and then was gone. Clara hoped he was not gone forever, she could see that it had put an awful lot of strain on him to come through and deliver his message from an angel.

   ‘Well... what do we do now? asked Seb, breaking the silence that had entered the room in wake of the spirit Joseph. Clara sat back in the chair and took in a deep breath through her nose and said very solemnly, ‘we find that trident before it’s too late’.

    ‘Well....yeeees’ he drawled rather mockingly ‘but you still don’t know where or what it is and I haven’t got a.....’

‘Yes I do’ she interrupted him, Joseph told me to look back and remember what the Dragons showed me, I can’t believe I didn’t remember it sooner. I guess my thoughts have been kind of clouded lately; we’ve been looking in all the wrong places. I remember now, when they took me above those hills and they showed me the visions of what is and what would be. There was a pub and if I’m not mistaken’ she sat up excitedly now and blurted it out, ‘yes thats right, It’s coming back to me now I know where to look, the pub that was in those visions, well it was called the trident and there was a big iron trident on the side wall of that pub... that must be it. She gave the arm of the chair a little victory slap and said ‘we’ve got to find that pub’.

   
‘Do you know something La, that’s the best thing you’ve said all day’ he then bravely

                                            
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

    Gavin had let Craig escape into the darkness so that he could have a little fun with him, much like a cat playing with a mouse before the deadly strike. He had been watching the little man run round and round inside the building but he had stretched Craigs own personal timeclock so what would have been a minute for you or I was effectively turned into a week, or a month for Craig. He also messed with his senses, this is why he thought he was running around in total darkness for what seemed like forever, when in reality he was just running around the inside of the building.

    When
he tired of watching him he bellowed,

   
‘TIME TO WAKE UP LITTLE MAN’ and Craig looked up from floor, still naked and bleeding, still uttering those words
beetle beetle beetle
but he could see something now. Light was beginning to make its way back through to him and he could see the figure before him. It called to him and he went, still on all fours like a duty bound pet.

    Actually having Craig on all fours and so obviously detached from his mental faculties was an unexpected side effect but not an unpleasant one. If anything it was going to keep Craig alive a little while longer until Gavin bored of watching the little beetle
. The beetle man stopped at his feet and pawed at them straining his neck to see what this new thing was. He sniffed around Gavin’s legs and feet, not too sure what to make of it, he then decided he wanted to see what it tasted like so made to bite the leg. As he lifted his head back to sink his teeth into the leg, one of those legs came up and caught him full force under the chin and he went reeling back across the room.

    ‘Ha ha ha who’s the freak now hey? He
laughed as the beetle man scurried for cover.

    Saul had been watching his little protégé and was quite impressed at how he had managed to control the skills he had learnt and was even more impressed at his imagination and originality, he then thought back to the dark twisted mind he had to start with and realised Gavin had a head start anyway
.

    ‘I think your little pet is hungry, shall we feed him his dinner’ Gavin turned to see Saul turn his head up to the ceiling. His eyes brighter than ever and the little demon that liked
to hang around the chandelier watching, jumped back into the ceiling and emerged seconds later. It released a large package as it swung back up onto the chandelier, again to sit and watch.

    Gavin untied the package
to find a set of eyes looking back at him, blood swathed over the side of her face and he recognised it to be Jane...Craig’s girl.

   
‘An eye for an eye and all that’ Saul spoke into his ear as Gavin’s smile broadened. He looked between the two of them; Craig was sniffing around, wanting to come closer and investigate but not wanting another kick in the face. Jane was beginning to come around. She struggled against the ropes that the little demon had bound her with.

    ‘Let me up.. l.. let me up, what’s going on’ the terror in her v
oice was all too evident. At the sound of her voice Craig’s head snapped up towards the new voice and he scurried round in a circle, looking at Gavin and then back at the other thing with the softer voice. He looked up at Gavin again as if waiting for permission. That kick had taught him well.

    ‘Well come on then, dinner’s not gonna eat itself now is it?’ And with permission granted the little beetle man scampered over to the thing on the floor. He had no recognition of what or who she was. He just knew that she smelled nice and wanted to taste her to
o, he sniffed around her like a wild animal.

    ‘Craig, what have they done to you... get me out of here love, please... what ar
e you doing... please.... honey?’

    Gavin bent down on one knee at her side and brushed her hair out of her eyes,

    ‘He doesn’t recognise you any more my sweet. He only sees you as possible food now, although he may not be hungry right now as I have just watched him eating his own shit for a while, much to my distaste, I’m going to have to teach him some table manners I can see.’

    She struggled trying to move her face away from his hand, but she had been bound tightly, arms behind her back and legs together. She was still half wrapped in a bin liner and breaking free just didn’t seem possible.

    ‘What have you done to him you sick bastard...why?’ she trailed off as Craig came a little closer and began sniffing round her mid section and licking at her exposed belly.

    ‘Craig... Craig love it’s me... Jane? Love I don’t know what they have done to you, but you’ve got to remember me love pleeeease’ she begged. His only response was to slap at her face.

    ‘Craig, stop it’, another slap at her face, he was beginning to resemble a little monkey and she could see no recognition in his eyes. She tried to wriggle free but there was no give in her bindings at all.

    Gavin and Saul had returned to the bar area so that they might get a clear view without the
mess.

   
‘Please honey, come on lets get out of here’ but there was no point in talking to him, whenever she spoke he just dashed his hand at her face. He then began to tear at her clothes and the bin liner she had been wrapped in. As he tore at her clothes he began to tear at her skin. Little rivers of blood trickled down her abdomen, and this seemed to excite him further. She screamed in agony and this just annoyed him even more, he took a great swipe at her face, he obviously liked his food to be quiet. Her head smashed into the concrete beneath and little comet like trails exploded across her vision. She tried to kick herself free but couldn’t muster enough strength to lift both her legs, so she then decided to use the floor as leverage and try to push herself away. She managed an inch or so before he realised what she was doing and pounced on top of her. He continuously smashed her around the face till she was unconscious and then went back to work. The little beetle ripped her clothes off her or as much as he could with her arms and legs tied up and went back to her stomach. It looked so tasty and fresh, he licked the blood that was running freely from the scratches he had left there before, and it tasted good but not as good as the first bite. He sunk his teeth into the fleshy mound before him and tore away a large chunk of her stomach. She jumped up, the pain bringing her back around. She had never in her life felt so much pain. She saw Craig, her former lover sat beside her, blood dripping from his chin onto his bare chest, and something flapping around his mouth, it only took a split second to realise what that was before she screamed so hard he actually jumped away in surprise.

    Her eyes were filled with terror as she dared to look at the gaping wound in her stomach although she didn’t need to look to confirm the terrible agony she could feel. The pain ripped through her like a hot knife through butter. She could feel the agonising dread that she was about to faint as the shock began to set in, but she knew if she passed out now, she wasn’t going to be waking up.
Now’s not the time for sleeping, you silly cow. You gotta hustle bitch.
Her father had always instilled it into her that she shouldn’t dilly daddle. If she wanted to make anything of herself, she had to
hustle
, had to
keep movin’
. Never had those words meant more to her than now. She could feel the blackness enclosing around her with that slight dizzy feeling that always accompanies the darkness just before you fall. She saw Craig just before the blackness took over completely and he was coming closer to her, still with that piece of skin flapping about from his mouth, and she bit down so hard on her bottom lip that it began to bleed. The pain and shock brought her back around and she tried to push away from what was Craig, she could see there was nothing left of Craig now. Whatever they had done to him was
“Done and done”,
another of her Fathers favourite sayings.

    She was in an awkward position and having her hands and legs bound made it difficult to move but she knew she had to. She pushed herself along the floor, her s
houlder scraping along the concrete and then with her feet pushed again and again. All the while tears flowed and mixed in with the blood on her face. Repeatedly she sobbed,

    ‘Why...why?’ She realised
she was never going to get away but there was a little voice in the back of her mind somewhere telling her
not to give up, just gotta hustle girl
and that voice was permanently put to sleep when she felt Craig pull her back towards him. She shrieked an anguished cry as he came round and began licking her stomach again, and then she felt the tearing as he ripped into her skin like some sort of rabid dog. She was numb with pain and shock, he lifted his head up once and she saw his face full of blood and he had something in his mouth and sat down to chew it properly, it could have been her kidney or maybe her liver, she wasn’t sure. She vaguely recalled that she hated the way Craig always used to eat with his mouth open, he was doing the same thing now, only uttering the words
Beetle, beetle, beetle
as he did so. What she saw next filled her with such dread that she wished she were dead or that she would pass out right now and be done with it, that way she wouldn’t feel the pain any more but... no that wasn’t going to happen, although she did feel a slight grogginess wash over her and at least she would be dead soon, that was for sure. It seemed that the beetle Craig had a penchant for blood as he was now aroused and playing with himself; he was rubbing whatever it was he had ripped from inside of her all over himself. The words beetle, beetle, beetle with each stroke. He threw the meat away when he was done with it and then turned his attentions back to her. The grogginess was really settling in now and no amount of biting her lip was going to help. The loss of blood
(and organs)
wasn’t helping her in her mission to stay awake and get out of there, although she really did know now that it wasn’t ever going to happen, she was never getting out of there, not alive anyway. Just as she had resigned herself to this, she felt his weight on top of her and a pain like no other as he had obviously made some loose connection with the piece of meat that was giving him so much pleasure before. Well there was more of the pleasure giving meat inside of her so he had shoved himself deep into the hole he had made and was now thrusting hard into the wound, all the while just that one word over and over again. She could no longer feel any pain; her last thought was
great I’m truly being fucked to death
.

                                                     
CHAPTER THIRTY

      Gavin let his little pet finish its meal as he sat in the big wing back chair across from Saul. The demon seemed quite excitable tonight.

   
‘Well I believe I have held up my part of our little bargain and now it is time for you to uphold yours’. Saul spoke softly and serenely, his voice was like a velvet wind brushing by. His purple eyes deeper than ever and a seriousness in his face conveyed with just one look. ‘Your wish is my command’ laughed Gavin as they clinked their glasses together.