Page 158 of Devil Inside

This is my gift.

These people are desperate for their own annihilation. Let them have it, I don’t care. Who am I to argue? I’ll happily oblige.Take me, they all say.Come inside...

Let me in, let me in...

Let me in.

Voids. So many open hearts, full of nothing. Emptiness all around. Look at them. The desperation in their faces. The neediness seething up from their skin. It clings to their bodies, like a grease. Napalm sweat.

I’ve never been so bored. It’s so easy to inhabit these people. It takes nothing. So little effort. I’m just going through the motions. My heart just isn’t in it. Hasn’t been for ages.

Not since Jordan. He still has my heart, and look what he did with it.

Rejected it.

Exorcised.

Corruption is everywhere. On everything. A film of sin, basted and battered on these people. We run our hands over our body. Absorb the sound in our skin. Move to the music.

Take me, take me, more and more every day. Where’s the fun in this? The challenge?

The love?

“Hey, what’s your name—”

I flood his body before he can finish.

“Have I seen you before—”

I flood her flesh before the words leave her lips.

“You come here often—”

I seize their tongues. I’m so tired of their trivial come-ons. The pretense of interest, of curiosity. There’s nothing but lust. Wanton, eager, lust. Desperation. Neediness.

I’m getting drunk off these hosts. Bingeing on their sin.

Drifting...

I can finesse the flesh on this dance floor. Arouse every last one of these people. Just a tip of the scales. A hand here. A passing glance there.

I drift through each of them, slipping into their skin with the slightest friction.

So many lost souls on the dance floor, all fighting for my attention. Look at this one. There’s a darkness brewing within him. Just a shimmer. I can slip in, press against the cracks. Force them open even further. There is a loneliness to him. A sense of desperation. So young. All it would take is for me to slip inside and push. Just a nudge. Tip the scales.

“Hello,” we say.

“Hi.” His soul sweats. There’s perspiration even in his words. “How’s it going?”

“Are you dancing?”

“Yeah, uh—sure.”

He’s too timid to act upon his urges. I can give him that courage. That desire. Just the slightest push. That’s all. He wouldn’t even notice.

I abandon this man, sinking back into the dance floor.

What about her? Her essence is already curdling. We feel it from all the way over here. All she needs are a few encouraging words, a little nudge, and... off she goes.