Prologue – “The Devil Inside”

Death had her in its icy fingers, tightening its grasp around her throat, but Cassandra did nothing to fight it. She was deemed a lost cause long ago, unable to wrest herself from the affliction that had first landed her in the Gateway Psychiatric Institute. The Institute tore away every semblance of her former life bit by bit. Her family abandoned her. She had no friends. Even her real name was taken from her. Now she was only Cassandra, or Cassie to those that thought they could be more casual with her. The name seemed to stick to her like tar. It started as a joke told by one of the orderlies due to Cassie’s claims to prophetic visions, but over time, the entire hospital was calling her by that name. Through repetition and her own psychosis, Cassie stopped caring and accepted the new moniker. It was only a name after all, and at this moment, names weren’t important. Soon, she thought, she would be in a better place.

Cassie’s skin was pale and had a sickly yellowish-green hue to it. Her face was entirely drained of blood, leaving the beaded droplets of cold sweat dotting it as the only things that made her look like she was still alive. Her once vibrant blonde hair was matted against her cheek, a few strands sticking in the corner of her agape lips. Shallow gasps for air came and went as she sat spread eagle on the floor of the Institute’s clinic. The source of her malady was painted on the front of her smock, between her legs. It was soaked in diluted crimson, a mixture of her blood and afterbirth. Her fingers still curled around the straightened coat hanger, stolen from the orderlies’ dressing room. As for the foetal matter she had scraped from her womb, it nestled below the crook of her slightly bent knee, pushed there by the flow.

Alone, Cassie bled out, staining the linoleum beneath her. In her haste to excise the blight from her body, she cut too deep. Although the wounds were a mistake, she accepted them all too easily. Why fight for life when the release would solve all of her problems? She stared blankly at the patterns in the ceiling tiles, and the patterns stared right back at her. She could make out a toothy grin and when the pattern winked at her, the corners of her mouth upturned just slightly. Slowly, she let her heavy eyelids close. Then, she embraced the inevitable.

“Good Lord Cassie! What have you done?”

The frenzied voice of Nurse Campbell roused the fading girl. As the nurse sounded the alarm, Cassie began to weep. Arms soon wrapped around her sickly frame, pulling her away from the mess she had made on the floor.

“We’ve got an emergency in here! Get the doctor, now!” Cassie’s savior shouted as she embraced the girl.

Cassie’s face was jerked around so that the nurse could look her in the eyes. Her heavy eyelids were pried open as her tears continued to fall.

“Look at me Cassie. You’re going to be all right. Just don’t give up!”

Her vision blurred by her sobbing, Cassandra could not make out who the other figures were that rushed into the clinic. She could feel herself being hoisted up onto a table and then strapped down. The oxygen mask went over her face before she could object. She yearned to shout out to those now trying to save her life, to tell them to stop, that she didn’t want to live anymore.

“Hang in there Cassie!” The nurse’s voice rang out above the rest.

Her head swam giddily. Those kind words of encouragement, of someone who wanted her to live echoed in her head as consciousness left her.

 ***

“Go ahead and leave me. I think I prefer to stay inside. Maybe you’ll find someone else to help you.” Nurse Campbell sang.

The young nurse was on duty in the clinic, watching over Cassie. Her head bopped back and forth as she hummed the last verse of the song that was stuck in her head. Doctors worked hard to save Cassie’s life, and even though there had been complications when infection set in she was–

“Still alive.”

Cassie’s face was positively angelic since the color returned to her cheeks. The nurse often remarked to herself how cute Cassie looked while she slept. She had become quite the caregiver for the girl since Cassie’s stay in the clinic began. The disturbed girl refused to communicate with her when she was awake, and remained silent as to why she mutilated herself in the way she did. Nurse Campbell still did her best to make sure she was comfortable at every turn. Once, she managed to fasten a heart-shaped barrette in Cassandra’s hair while she was sleeping and got no complaint from the girl when she awoke. This led the nurse to believe that Cassie was at least appreciative of the help she was receiving.

Today, however, Cassie was due to be moved back to her room. Nurse Campbell waited around impatiently for the girl to wake up. There was no real need for her to wait for her, as one of the orderlies could have waited with the girl and taken her back to her room, but the nurse had put in so much effort with the girl that she wanted her chance to say goodbye. Cassie stirred and the anxious nurse shuffled over to greet her with a smile.

“Good morning sleepyhead!”

Cassie’s eyes fluttered open and she nearly groaned when she saw the jubilant nurse’s piercing blue eyes staring back at her. Nurse Campbell couldn’t have been any older than Cassie and just like the girl in the clinic bed, she looked even younger than she actually was. Her porcelain skin was framed by hair the color of dark chocolate. It bounced happily around her shoulders as she tugged the blankets off Cassie’s frame. Cassie whimpered like a child who was being woken up by her mother.

“You know, this is the last chance we’re going to get to talk to one another like this.”

Cassandra turned her head away from the cherubic girl.

“Oh don’t be like that. You know I don’t get much chance to talk when I’m handing out medication.”

Her patient refused to respond to her, and it was quickly frustrating the usually elated nurse.

“Listen, I know you can talk. Every time I walk past your room, you are in there talking to your friend in the wall. You haven’t said a word to me this entire time.”

Cassie shrugged and kept her head in a way so that she wouldn’t make eye contact with the nurse.

“All right, you can ignore me if you want, but you still have to get out of bed and get dressed, Missy. We’re not going to have you walking around in a hospital gown.”

The nurse stood there waiting for Cassie to do what she was just ordered to do and was met with a scowl. This was followed by the spinning of a down-turned finger. The nurse rolled her eyes.

“Oh we’re being modest today too. You forget who had to sponge bathe you those first few days you were in here, don’t you?”

Cassandra doffed the open-backed gown and set about putting on the clothes that were laid out for her. The new outfit was not much of an improvement fashion-wise. It consisted of pajama pants with an elastic band, white nursing shoes with no laces and a plain grey t-shirt. Nurse Campbell grew impatient and turned around as Cassie was sliding the shoes onto her sock-covered toes.

“There, you look positively lovely.” She paused for a moment and sighed. “Well then, we should be on our way.”

The nurse took Cassie by the arm and was met by resistance. The stubborn girl yanked her arm away just as fast as Nurse Campbell had a chance to touch it.

“Cassie, you know the rules. Honestly, I don’t know why you’re being so difficult with me. We saved your life and you act as if you’re ungrateful. Come along now.”

Cassie relented.

Light spilled in through the wall of windows that lined one side of the corridor leading from the clinic and rec room down to the residential wing. The sky outside reflected the nurse’s sunny mood. It would have been a lovely day to sit out in the courtyard and feel the breeze blowing through her hair, but Cassie’s sour look refused to leave her face.

“Lovely day, isn’t it ladies?” Nurse Campbell and Cassie were stopped in the hall by a deep wheezing voice.

“One of the nicest we’ve seen in a while, Eugene.” The nurse smiled at the man dressed in orderly whites.

Cassie moved towards the inside wall, like she was trying to press her body up against it as if someone had just dropped a rattlesnake into the middle of the hallway. Eugene gave the girl his best Eddie Haskell smile, flashing his grimy stained teeth.

“She seems a mite sheepish, doesn’t she?”

The nurse felt the tug on her arm and looked at the girl shying away.

“Don’t mind her. She’s been like that all day long. I’m sure once I get her back to her room she’ll be her usual chatty self again.”

“Well don’t let me keep you now Miss Campbell, the sooner our little prophetess is safe and sound in her cubby, the sooner we’ll all be able to get back to our usual routines.”

“Good day to you, Eugene.”

“And to you ma’am.” Eugene motioned as if to tip a hat that wasn’t on his head, then continued on down the hall, whistling a happy tune.

Cassie retreated to the nurse’s side, looking back over her shoulder as they traversed the rest of the corridor. The nurse just gave her head a shake. There was no use in making more of a fuss over the girl’s behavior. They stopped in front of a heavy wooden door. The nurse took out her keys, and Cassie listened as the jingled in the lock. She popped up onto her tippy-toes to look through the small windowpane, and seemed to excite like a puppy wanting to be let in.

“Don’t worry. Everything is the way you left it. The only thing we did was give your sheets and clothes a good wash.”

Cassie wriggled right under the taller girl’s arm the moment the door was open and ran to a point on the wall, dropping to her knees. She nestled her cheek against the discolored part of the wall and soon seemed quite content. The nurse just gave a frown and walked away without saying the goodbye she planned on, though she was secretly wishing that the girl had given her the same affection.

“I missed you Jeremiah,” Cassie remarked to an amphibian-shaped stain on the wall.

To the other people in the Institute, the water stain on the eggshell white walls was just a stain. Cassandra held it much higher regard though, even higher so than the zealots who worshiped the face of Jesus on a grilled cheese sandwich. Cassie called the stain Jeremiah. The staff thought this was because it vaguely resembled a bullfrog’s head, but Cassie insisted that that was just the spot’s name and it had nothing to do with a song by Three Dog Night.

Cassie scooted a few paces back from the wall, though remained on her knees as she focused on the spot in front of her.

“This?” She pointed to the heart-shaped barrette in her hair. “Nurse Campbell gave it to me. My hair kept falling into my–”

She paused and carefully slid the clip from her hair.

“I know. You’re just looking out for me.” She offered a reluctant smile. “You know, I saw you wink at me right before they found me in the clinic. It made me so happy. I thought I was finally going to get to see your real face.”

Cassandra sat quiet for a few moments, and then shook her head.

“No, I did it exactly the way you told me to. It just wouldn’t come out. I’m sorry Jeremiah, I tried my best.”

She lowered her head and became silent again, looking ashamed.

“He’s here right now, the Tobacco Man. I saw him in the hall, Jeremiah. What is he doing here during the day? He’s never here this early.”

The girl shivered and looked like she was on the verge of tears.

“You’ve told me that before… that you can protect me during the day, but what if?”

She nodded a few more times looking at the wall attentively.

“Yes, I remember. I just have to call out your name and say that I accept.”

*** 

Cassandra’s room was awash in a deep orange glow. She feverishly scribbled on a pad of paper with a purple crayon. A grinning circle stared back up at her as she added two little nubs to the top of its head. She was having trouble making out her drawing, which contained dozens of the tiny simple creatures of her own creation, as the orange shifted to red and burgundy. She looked out the window and saw branches, still in the process of budding that looked like crooked soldiers standing with their bayonets raised. The whistling of When Johnny Comes Marching Home filled her head as platoon after platoon of the soldiers marched into the fading light.

“Hurrah! Hurrah!” The raspy voice on the other side of her door sang.

Cassie quickly snapped out of her daydream and wheeled around. First she looked at the door and then to where her friend rested on the wall.

“Jeremiah, are you there?” She whined in a panicked voice.

The sun was setting fast. When she looked at the door again, there stood Eugene, staring through the window like a raptor. His hot breath fogged up the glass, but she could still see his ghoulish face staring at her in the waning light.

“Speak to me!”

Cassie lunged at the door, trying to keep the beast out, but was pushed back with little more than a hard shove. Eugene slithered into the room and stood over the fallen girl. His hair was thin and wet with a disgusting looking spit curl in hanging over his sweaty brow. He was not an imposing figure, standing a good few inches short of average, but with a closed door behind him and the girl in a prone position, he more than made up for it.

“Daddy’s home.”

His bloodshot eyes and sickly yellow teeth seemed to glow as if they were the only things in the darkness.

“You’ve been a bad girl, my sweet petunia. Daddy has been very lonely while you were off playing down the rabbit hole.”

Cassie scrambled backwards like a crab, her hands seeking some sort of shelter.

“Look at you, so unappreciative of the love your daddy gives you. I was in such a fret, worrying about my baby girl. I’d nearly lost you, but I prayed. Oh, I prayed, and the Lord delivered! He brought you back to me, and now you can give me what I so richly deserve.”

Cassandra felt a bony hand grasp at her ankle. She slid back towards her tormentor like the floor was greased. Saliva hung in the corners of the man’s maw and he licked his lips as he crept closer to the frightened girl.

“That’s it baby, give me a kiss.”

Dark brown bits of Skoal stuck between the man’s incisors. The rotting smell coming from his mouth as he flicked out his tongue was so pungent that it made Cassie withdraw, pulling her head desperately away. Eugene lashed out and soon Cassie’s cheek was throbbing.

“Fine. We’ll jump right past the pleasantries and move to the main event.”

Cassie’s head bounced off the floor as a hand forced it down. Her jaw ached as it was crushed by the weight of the man’s body. Her entire body was twisted and turned so that her behind would be forced up into the air. She sobbed softly as she turned to look for salvation one more time. Jeremiah was barely visible now, and had not answered her last plea. She could feel a touch of cold air on her bare ass and could hear the long slow unzipping of Eugene’s pants. She knew what was coming. She mouthed ‘help’ to Jeremiah, who she believed was the only one that could save her.

A tear of joy streaked down her cheek, as Jeremiah made his presence known with the blink of an eye.

“Remember girl, you asked for this!”

“Jeremiah, I accept.” She whispered.

Time stopped.

Cassandra couldn’t move, but she was aware. It was quiet, and the touch of the disgusting man above her was numb. The stain she called Jeremiah gave her a fanged grin that she had never seen from him before.

The first thing she felt was cold. It was like the feeling she had right before she was saved in the clinic. Her life was being sucked away from her. This time though it was leaving her at a much quicker pace. Cassie thought she could see a wispy strand of light wavering in the air between her and her friend. As the last bit of energy passed between her and the wall, she felt an emptiness over take her. The shape on the wall faded away as if it had never been there.

Fear overtook her. He left her, empty and alone. This was not what she had envisioned when she was told that she would be saved. The emptiness seemed to envelop her. She thought she would drown in it as she sank deeper and deeper, being pulled down by the current. The world had vanished and she would be lost forever.

Then there was fire. It appeared first as just a speck in the distance, but she could feel the radiating heat seeping into her pores. It poured in through every orifice, replacing the emptiness and searing her body from the inside out. Unbearable, never-ending pain became her new reality. She struggled to keep her eyes open as millions of tiny needles tried to pierce them. There was no escape. She was free falling into a pit of despair. The cacophony of tortured souls threatened to steal her hearing, but through it all, her fear was leaving. Each torture, worse than the one before it actually strengthened her resolve. Soon, she welcomed the fire and her eyes adjusted. Amongst the flames, she found something of a familiarity that she had forgotten long ago. It was her name.

The world came back to her. Once again, she was in the dark malaise-inducing room that had torn away her childhood and consumed all of her adult life. This time though, she was different. She could smell fear and knew it was directed towards her.

“W-what are you?!”

A spade-tipped tail snaked from her backside, rising like a serpent from the marshes. She pushed herself up onto cloven feet. The ground crackled and sizzled, and she took in a deep breath. She ran her tongue over newly fanged teeth, giving a Cheshire grin.

“You’re not much of a man, are you?” Her voice echoed in a sultry tone.

Leathery wings with clawed tips, which jutted out through the shredded remnants of her clothing, flapped briefly, and then she turned. This pathetic creature, sniveling in the corner is what I was afraid of all these years? She thought. Eugene still had his pants down around his ankles, though now he was cowering in the corner, shriveled like a prune.

This new woman before him was intimidating, even with her lack of height it was hard not to be afraid of the menacing curved horns that rose out from amongst fiery red hair. The only remnant of the former blonde was in her bangs that were perched right above her Elvin ears and threatening red eyes. She loomed forward, her heavy chest swaying slightly without support. Her once subtle curves were now pronounced in a way that made her the epitome of womanhood.

“You’re just a worm, but no bird would pass up such an easy meal.”

Her tail wrapped around the man’s neck like a noose and she reveled in his agony as he choked.

“Who are you? Where did you come from?” He managed to squeak out.

“My name is Anibelle Elisabeth O’Reilly, and you’re about to find out where I come from first hand.”

He tried to scream, but the ability to do so was cut short. Anibelle’s tail retook her position twitching merrily behind her as Eugene’s head fell into his lap, landing in a position that made the succubus giggle.

 ***

 Screams echoed through the corridors of the Gateway Psychiatric Institute for hours after Anibelle had her first meal. It reminded the well-dressed man in the snakeskin wingtips that stood on the building’s front steps, of home. With a manicured hand, he adjusted the brim of his bowler, and then returned it to the cobra head at the top of his cane.

His wait would not be long. The succubus soon appeared before him, bathed in the blood of those both innocent and guilty of the torture she once suffered. She thought it best to let the fates decide which were which.

“Well, not that you don’t look positively ravishing in bloody shreds of cloth, but I’d prefer if you put on something more presentable for the trip home.”

“Hello to you too, Jeremiah.” Anibelle chuckled as her body was engulfed in flames, dying down only to show her in a low-cut black dress with a skull and crossbones painted above her right knee and heavy black boots. Her unnaturally smooth skin was also cleaned of the rubble she had left in her wake.

Jeremiah’s snake-like eyes focused beyond Anibelle. Soon she knew what he was looking at as she felt a slender hand touch her on the shoulder.

“Cassie, I know that’s you in there.”

Nurse Campbell stood behind the demon, relatively unscathed.

“You left one standing. You really shouldn’t waste food my dear.”

The demon girl crossed her arms and let out a resounding, “Hmph! She’s a female and a scrawny one at that, why would I waste my–”

“Cassie…”

“That’s not my name, human.”

The nurse grabbed Anibelle by the hand, and turned the demon girl so that she would be forced to face her. The succubus could feel something cold pressing into her palm as the brave girl stared into her eyes defiantly. Those vibrant blue eyes seemed to penetrate her even now.

“Listen, I know that’s you in there still. Remember, you’re still human on the inside. They can’t take that away from you. I doubt that this is what you wanted for yourself. I saw Eugene lying in the corner of your room. I’m sorry that I didn’t realize what was going on sooner. I could have done something.”

“Do you want me to kill her for you?” Jeremiah called out.

“You must have been so lonely…”

“Don’t cross me girl!” Anibelle shouted out, shoving the girl away with the sharp point of her tail, leaving a deep gash below the nurse’s right eye that streaked her cheek with blood.

The succubus turned to her companion and slowly approached, her hips swaying side to side.

“Forget her, let’s go home.”

“If you insist.”

Jeremiah took his cane and traced an oval in the space in front of him, leaving a glowing orange portal in front of the two demons. Anibelle uncurled her fingers and looked down at the heart-shaped barrette that rested in them.

“What have you got there?” Jeremiah asked.

She closed her fist quickly around the object and looked back up.

“It’s nothing, just a souvenir.”