Before The Storm

The room was stuffy even an hour after their last coupling. Cainen
rose from the bed carefully, so as not to disturb his partner, and
glided across the floor to the window. The cool breeze that swept into
the room when he opened the window caused the attractive blonde woman
to murmur in her sleep and bury deeper between sheets still damp with
sweat. The air through the window was damp too and carried the smell of
ozone and the sea.
'The tempest is near,' he reflected.
Cainen stared up at the burgeoning storm clouds and dwelt momentarily
on the tumult inside himself. Duty to his masters and the bitter seed
of self-doubt battled within him, causing his stomach to churn and his
heart to race.
He slowed his breathing, to control his erratic heartbeat, turned,
walked over to the chair and pulled a length of black silk from his
jacket pocket. He played it back and forth over his naked torso
savouring the brush of the soft fabric against his skin. He looked down
on the sleeping woman, her blonde hair fanning out on the pillow and
framing her delicately boned face.
'Helen, loving Helen. Exquisite though you are, you can help me back
into the dark,' Cainen stopped himself mid-thought 'Do I really believe
that. No, probably not, but then I will feel nothing for your loss
either my sweet. I shall make it quick.'
He opened his briefcase, which also lay on the bedside chair, and
quietly removed the pearl handled dagger and shallow silver dish that
were hidden within.
He placed the bowl on the floor about seven feet from the bed and
slowly scratched a rough circle and pentagram on the wooden floor. He
repositioned the bowl so that it sat at the topmost point of the
inscription and scanned the room for a second. Candles cascaded like a
waterfall over the empty fireplace and provided the only light in the
room. He collected four of the largest and placed them in the remaining
points of the star. This done he turned his attention back to the bed
and its occupant.
He took the strip of silk, which he had tied around his upper arm to
free his hands for their work, and blindfolded the sleeping woman. As
she awoke he whispered to her suggestively and nuzzled the pulse at the
base of her neck. He lifted her smoothly from the mattress causing a
shocked giggle, she draped an arm languidly around his neck.
With great care he placed the woman in the centre of the circle, her
head towards the bowl. He knelt, straddling her slender waist, and
reaching across he retrieved the dagger. He placed the cool flat of the
blade against Helens lips and slowly, gently so it just caressed her
skin, ran the point of the blade down over her breasts, her nipples
hardening as it passed, across the flat of her stomach and back up to
her parted lips. Her breath was shuddering from her with excitement as
he pulled her arms back to her sides and pinned them there with his
knees. He leant forward and licked her full lips and she sighed into
his mouth. Still lingering in his kiss he placed his left hand against
her brow, whispered "forgive me" and drove the dagger up beneath her
chin.
He twisted the blade once and pulled it out, the flesh desperately
gripping the metal her last breathe spraying blood down the neck. Heart
racing he squeezed her cheeks, forcing the jaws apart, reached into her
mouth and cut out her still moving tongue. He placed the trophy into
the bowl. Removing the blindfold he cut away her eyelids and threw them
to one side. Next, shifting his position, he carved a large spider into
the soft, unresisting flesh of her stomach and moved her arms and legs
to match the pentagram beneath them.
He rose unsteadily, suddenly weary and staggered to the bathroom where
he ran a cold water into the shower. After a few minutes under the icy
water he was shocked back to reality. He dried himself, replacing the
towels on the rack to dry, and dressed in his thousand dollar
suit.
Back in the living area he reclaimed the dagger from the floor and
returned it to his briefcase. He checked his reflection in the mirror
and stepped over Helens body on his way to the door. He paused as he
reached for the handle, nodded to himself, then walked back and shut
the window.
He then retraced his steps, opened the door and headed out into the
storm.
'Still not enough,' he thought.