Amelie wanted to spurt the words out who are you, while she crawled backwards on the floor, her palms facing away from, her knees shoving herself back against the concrete wall of the old construction site.
She was so beyond words and so overwhelmed by fear she didn't recognize the fact that she was dragging her palm against broken asphalt and hard clumped dirt, which sliced in her palms like loose pieces of glass.
The debris grazed her soft skin, searing into her tender flesh, which left long open streaks of blood that looked surprisingly similar to the claws of a animal or perhaps the scrapes from hooked nails, if there was such a thing.
"I am Fear."
The voice was both hollow and soulful.
It sounded of sadness and rage, there was bitterness in the words but also a secret joy and amusement.
The voice was strange because it echoed in a way that no human voice could do regardless of how low it could go; the voice was purposefully slow and it had a dark baritone quality that altogether unnerved her.
The Face that went with it was not very comforting either.
It was a white face, ghostly, dead and void of any life.
What was odd was he appeared to have silver pins placed on nearly every inch of his face.
The pins looked deep and immovable even though they did seem to follow the movement of his face when he spoke.
She wondered if these pins were sharp, she pondered on whether or not the tips would draw blood or prick her fingers.
Did those pins go all the way down into his skull?
Did they reach so deep that they touched his brain?
Perhaps the pins went even further.
The thought both terrified and fascinated her.
He was a tall figure, oppressive and upright, be held himself like a gentleman. He walked into room as if he were a prince.
He wore intricatly patterned leather that clung to his shoulders and even more so tightly around his chest.
There was however 4 distinctly rib like openings on either side of his that stood in strange columns exposing pale skin and even worse what appeared to be too bloody strips that has obviously torn from each of his nipples.
The leather jacket had a strange stiff skirt that ruffled robotically as he walked.
There was a series of strange looking tools that resembled a saw, a sickle and a hook but they were of a very unique design, one which she had never seen before in her life,these tools hung on a belt which seamlessly blended in with his bizarre leather attire.
He had long black boots with vicious spikes on the heels and black leather pants to match the macabre ensemble.
His eyes were surprisingly lively, they were a warm bluish grey, nearly metallic in quality, yet they were blessed with a calm serenity.
He seemed at peace with his life and a that he was doing, the fact that he absolutely terrifying she could tell didn't bother him in the slightest.
"Fear has a face".
Amelie's usually brown eyes now came aflame with a new ember like gold.
Her cheeks bled pink and she felt her face prickle and tingle with a rather uncomfortable warmth.
She put a hands to her small but voluptuous lips, she wanted to check if she had indeed said these things aloud.
It sounded like her voice but the voice was so vacant and soulless, she hardly recognized her own voice.
It was as of her lips had moved involuntarily without the knowledge of her brain.
Amelie had nicely tan skin not tan from the sun but tanned by her unmistakable Hispanic heritage.
Her father's Family was from Spain but her mother was from Burundi but she had relocated to Belgium as a teenager. Her mother was of both African and French descent, so she too was rather tan, her skin had been the shade of warm cinnamon with a dash of Carmel.
However Amelie somehow just appeared to be some unspecified Hispanic race, nonetheless she looked like a one of those teenage pop idols, with heart shaped face, naturally pouting lips and the high sloped diva eyes with long lashes that many assumed were fake but were in fact completely natural as well.
She was every inch a independent woman but all of that had changed when she met her husband.
Her husband was a charming man to most but outside of the masked formality he had a darker flare at home, a flare she was not aware he had.
She was always attracted to taller men despite her long model legs she was only 5"6, so she found safety in those that were taller than she was, so of course she found a man that was exceptionally tall.
She hadn't really found him, He had found her.
She was working in a vintage clothing store which she thoroughly enjoyed yet somehow he happened to walk into that shop, ruining the whole experience.
She was immediately drawn to him by his heighth and dignified accent.
He had claimed he was from South Africa but the accent sounded very British to her ears.
He always spoke softly, seductively like he was reciting poetry to music.
It was a voice that reminded her of oil sliding down into water,it was soothing and she was instantly willing to follow him anywhere he told her to.
She was bewitched but the spell didn't last.
The years unraveled the web of enchantment he had cast upon her.
She was left with a dry and withered a bundle of loveless and joyless void, a vast emptiness, abysmal and unfeeling, it mocked her and cruelly crushed her spirits every day.
It squeezed the happiness out of her chest, it choked the peace out of every moment and it shut out every ray of light in her life.
She hardly left the house, often there was no way to leave the house.
His favorite game was locking the doors, one time he went as far as adding bolts to all the rooms.
He changed locks and made the doors so that only he could unlock them from the outside.
There were times where he'd leave her in certain rooms, preferably the bedroom, where she would be confined for days.
There was no family left to speak of, so there was no one she could call to speak to, no one to comfort her and her husband didn't allow friends over so she couldn't very well have anyone keep her company.
She had had friends before but when you don't leave the house that tends to put a damper on friendships usually.
Once he had found her on the phone and he had assumed she was speaking to a another man so he tore the whole phone out of the wall which left a huge plastery hole in the kitchen that was about the size of a man's fist.
So phone calls were out of the question. There wasn't much to do except watch TV and check You Tube on Roku.
She had been all into social media at one time, she had actually dreamed of being a professional YouTube creator;she had planned to use her channel to launch her singing career but he told her to delete her accounts which in truth she hadn't she had only deleted the apps but he was not thorough enough to check if she had done so, so that secret was safe from him at least.
At first he was just he would just ignore her but then he began to treat her more than just the background wallpaper, he began treating her like a prized piece of furniture, that was rare no was allowed to touch without special gloves.
However this obsession grew to the point that he was no longer worried about using a gentle touch.
He began to realize she wasn't just a possession but a person, a person that could possibly be unpredictable, someone with a heart, a soul and a mind completely separate from his own.
So when he was not locking her in closets and other rooms in the house, he began doing the unthinkable, he began to strike her with the force of a military commander.
It was at first just a brief smack here and there, it never left mark just a shocking sting afterwards but then he decided to use more radical measures to keep her in line.
He eventually ended up using his fists, he'd occasionally give her a few kicks if he was in a particularly foul mood but normally he'd just hit her until she collapsed.
However this wasn't enough for him, he thirsted for something even more aggressive.
One day when he came home he slammed her against the walls, he had this gleeful look in his eyes and grappled onto her throat, first with one hand then the other.
It was a terrifying experience.
She thought she was going to die but after awhile death did not seem such a terrible outcome. Then the dreams came, the dreams of the leather bound man with broad shoulders, a bare head and whitewashed face covered in pins.
She dreamt of hooks, of saws and sickles biting into her and then she felt a great calm come over her.
They were horrible and horrifying dreams but they weren't quite nightmares because lately her whole reality was one big nightmare so even these dreams of such graphic, gory and gruesome nature were a welcoming and a much needed escape for her.
She thought she must really be losing her mind because she actually liked these types of dreams, she enjoyed them and she thought, Maybe I am sick.
Maybe I do need to be locked away.
I see my death every night but somehow I enjoy it, I enjoy ever minute of it.
I must be a real sicko. I must be really disturbed but then again theses dreams might just reflect how eager I am to die in this point of my life.
It's probably just wishful thinking but hey if I'm twisted at least I'm not spreading it around out there.
I could be a real psychopath.
I could really hurt somebody but I'm not capable of that now am I?
It was definitely a interesting question.
The answer was rather complicated.
Anyone is capable of hurting another person but to actually choose to hurt someone intentionally is quite another matter.
It takes a certain kind of individual to act upon one's feelings of rage bitterness and discontent her husband did that all the time but he never went as far as to actually kill her.
So no Amelie was not a killer, she might wished have her husband dead but she did not have it in her to kill her husband herself.
She'd prefer someone else to do it.
She was hoping one day that would happen, a accident at work, perhaps at home, something fell on top of him, a car ran into him or perhaps he tripped on something lying on the floor in the house.
She'd prefer it not to be a murder.
There was too much guilt attached to murder because even if somebody else you had never met ever in your life were to commit the murder you'd blame yourself for it all.
You'd hold yourself responsible because in your mind you had killed them over and over again.
She didn't want to live that way, she wanted to be free of guilt if anything tragic were to happen to him.
She wanted her life back if he died, she didn't want to live with guilt anymore,she didn't want shame to rule her life any longer.
Anyhow getting back to the Leather Bound man, in case you didn't know this was indeed a dream but this dream had more life than the other ones.
She felt his breath icy and cruel, the air from his lungs filled the construction site, with a smokey mist, it swirled and curled around the room until it coated everything except his head which just appeared to be floating in mid air because the strange fog concealed the rest of his body.
"Yes. I am a pain. I am the face of pain itself. I am every cry in the night, I am every scream of agony, I am the stings of the whip, I am burn from the brand, I am the fire that consumes all flesh,
I am the shrieks of the last dying child, I am tears of the children that have fallen.
I am the blade that cuts, the hook that tears and the saw severs.
I am Torture, I am anguish, I am sorrow, I am misery, I am the burden and hardship of every human soul.
I have heard your cries, I've heard your moaning and your groans of agony and despair.
I have tasted the salty bitterness of your tears and I have quaffed of your cup of bloody misfortune.
No human has however been powerful enough to summon me by their pain alone.
You however experience pain on a different plain, it is a level of pain I have not witnessed in well over a millennia.
How is it that such a weak vessel is able to stir me from my hellish realm and reach even my inner chambers, chambers that have long been private and untouched by any human hand?"
Amelie yet again didn't know quite what to say yet somehow she managed to blurt out
"Summon you? How was I able to summon you?"
She yet again spoke her thoughts out loud without her brain's approval.
"That is precisely what I would like to know. I am usually summoned by sacrifice of flesh, blood and bone.
Unfortunately you were not able to summon me entirely.
You were able to bring forth my mind but not of my true and glorious self and my true imperishable form.
I am now merely just a image from my Twisted psyche that now resides in one of the many realms of hell!"
He bellowed angrily but his expression remained as serene and peaceful as ever.
"Okay I'm sorry for disturbing you, I didn't mean to summon you from where ever you are from.
I wasn't even aware I was capable of summoning anything let alone- wait what are you exactly?"
"A Centobite of the highest order.
I am the ruler and leader of my realm, I am even above royalty.
I am the most powerful of all priests of darkness.
You are speaking to the Dark Prince of Pain, the Xipe Totec.
I am to be feared and hated, despised even. I am master of all that I touch, I expect every knee to bow to me one day.
You should not be a exception".
"I get it your important and I'm very small and insignificant but that still doesn't explain how I brought you here, wherever here is."
"It is a place that has long been forsaken by human kind, quite the perfect place for one to hide a secret artifact long forgotten by this world".
"It looks like a construction site to me."
"It is indeed but it is more than that, it is a abysmal place, devoid of all hopes and dreams.
It is almost like home".
At that he chuckled grimly but it sounded more like a dry throaty growl, than a laugh.
"What's this artifact you speak of?"
Amelie narrowed her eyes in curiosity but it made her only look suspicious rather than curious.
"It is artifact that is quite new to humanity, it has come in many forms, it has manifested itself in many places over the the centuries but it has remained nearly the same in every age.
The purpose was always clear but it's maker was oblivious.
This artifact was used to summon demons from the very realms of hell.
Most times I was summoned by accident, other times it was intentional.
I still am greatly curious how such an insignificant creature as yourself had the power to rip through my world and drag my mind into this one.
Perhaps underneath this weak exterior you not quite as insignificant.
Perhaps you have purpose and with purpose there is power.
Your pain gave you purpose no doubt, I heard your pain from the confines of my chambers.
It awoke me, it echoed through my brain, it was the most exquisite sound I have ever heard in all my existence."
"Pain is my life. It's inescapable, inevitable even.
I can't seem to get rid of it these days but then there's you.
Why I wonder do you haunt my dreams every night?
Why do I see you everytime I close my eyes?
Why do I have these sick feverish dreams about you?"
"Because it's what you want to see.
It is your wish isn't it to see me in the dark corners of your mind?"
"I don't know. I'm not quite sure but what I really want to know is why do I see myself being horribly mangled and mutilated by you?
Every dream I see you come to me and you take my life over and over again.
You brutally murder me, you torture me, you tear through my flesh, you cut through my bone, you are my executioner.
You sentence me to death.
Have I angered you in some way?
Did I know you in a different life perhaps and now you're seeking revenge for the harm I did to you?"
"Revenge. How amusing.
Revenge is petty and highly delusional.
Only demons of lower class seek revenge, I seek power, I seek the pleasure of watching every human being suffer.
This isn't about revenge, this is about justice and vengeance.
However you are a different matter, you made it clear when you brought me into this realm that I was to give you relief from your life of pain.
It did not give me any satisfaction...at least not at first.
You didn't seem very sure, you weren't quite sure of what it was that you truly desired.
I have to admit you're gluttony for punishment is quite impressive."
"I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask for you.
Why would I ask anyone to kill me a million times?
It doesn't make any sense.
I just want an escape from this harsh reality.
I didn't want to die."
"Interesting, that wasn't what was going through your mind when you were having the life choked out of you by that vermin you call a man"
"Don't you understand? People think those things when they go through constant pain, they don't mean it, it's just relief, it's just peace, release that's what they want, not this sick and twisted nightmare".
"This is first time you have referred to this place as a nightmare.
Before you were calling it a dream."
"I didn't ask for nightmares or dreams! I just wanted a way out.
Is that so bad? I wanted something different, something that wasn't me, something that wasn't a part of my shitty miserable life!
I wanted freedom. I'm not that sick and disturbed!
I'm a good person!
I'm just in a bad situation".
"So you thought summoning a demon would solve all your problems or is it something more?
Oh I see, you see me as your ticket to freedom.
You want me to be your rescuer.
Just another hopeless romantic, searching for someone strong and powerful to carry them away.
I'm not a hero, Amelie.
I am evil in it's purest form.
I don't rescue people, I drag them away kicking and screaming, I hang people on hooks and I enjoy watching them squirm.
If you continue going down this forbidden path you may find yourself with the same fate as all the rest of them.
Vermin Flesh, Weaklings, Blemishes upon this sad little planet is all I see here.
Humanity is a disease and you reek of it.
I will tear that humanity right from your skin, I will rip it from your bones and I will reap it from your soul".
He yet again bellowed but this time he didn't sound at all angry, he sounded like he was a ringmaster announcing some great marvel that he had discovered in some remote part of the world.
"You don't get it.
My soul has already been torn apart, my heart has been crushed so many times it's not even funny.
my spirit has been beaten down over and over, so I doubt if there is much else you can do to me.
I'm a old piece of meat that's been left out to rot in a scorching desert.
I'm used up, washed up, I'm tired of life and tired of living.
You want to make threats, I get threatened at least 3 times a day, sometimes more.
So if it's death you're promising me, I'm not going to fight it, I'll welcome it, hey I might even enjoy it but I'm not frightened by a little death threat.
So seriously bring it on".
"This is exactly what I had expected.
Precisely, dare I say what I had hoped you would say to me.
You see you have proven to me that you have indeed asked for my aid intentionally. You wanted me here within your mind, within this world you call your home.
You wanted me to show you suffering, you desired to see death and I have given it to you.
This is indeed a rare occasion for any creature of the flesh let alone a woman of perishable form that has been able to command me.
You must have a great power and a even greater will to be able to both summon and command demons from the very cursed depths of hell
Then again power is the will to survive even beyond death.
That is why I have survived, that is why I can never die because I will myself into existence and I choose to live and exist forever and all eternity."
"That's great and all. I mean I'm glad you have it all figured out but if I was only able to summon your mind what about the rest of you? How do I bring you into this world for good?
What must I do so you can cross over from your realm to this one?"
"I thought you'd never ask.
Find the Gold puzzle box, hidden within this place,solve it then bring it to me".
"Yeah well since I know you're a demon, no doubt you have some trickery up your sleeve and I know that no demon can resist a bargain.
So what do I get out of this?
What do you get out of this exactly?
What will you give me if I retrieve this box for you?"
"You are clever, many souls before you, they never asked. They assumed I would play fair, they assumed finding the box would give them all they desired and that it work for them, serve them as a faithfully as a hired hand, but we cannot be controlled, we cannot be contained nor subdued.
We follow no rules and no laws and we are not required to keep our promises.
Yet since you clearly have the intelligence to comprehend my plans I will tell you them.
I wish to dominate this planet, I want to dominate every planet, if possible and perhaps one day every universe.
If you retrieve that box for me, I Will keep my promise this time.
I will give you a way out, a escape.
I will allow you to cross over to my realm if you wish".
"Well that's sounds fun but I'm Afraid that that's just not good enough.
If you are to keep your promise, you must swear to me that you will not murder, mutilate or torture me any way shape or form unless of course you know I ask.
I assume there are others like you in this realm, well I wish that none of them would harm me either.
I want access to other worlds, I don't want power so much but I do want a purpose, a job if you will, some form of importance, you know something that makes me feel like I'm useful.
It's not the importance that matters it's more of fulfillment you understand.
I'm not expecting any fancy titles or some great status, just give me something to do but most importantly give me some kind of adventure.
I don't want fame or recognition, I just want a change, something different.
Oh yes in this bargain I get to keep my soul.
I hope that's not too complicated for you".
"My you are specific aren't you. You are not only clever but you are very demanding.
You seem to know exactly what you want, very assertive, direct and how absolutely disgustingly honest you are.
Very well it will be as you say since you haven't given me much room for trickery I will keep my side of the bargain. Consider yourself fortunate and shall we say lucky.
You bring me that box by tomorrow, at precisely 12:00, your wishes and desires will be fulfilled."
"If I don't succeed, what happens then?"
"I will tear you limb from limb, I will strip you of all your flesh, I will rip out every vital organ and I will tear your sad little soul apart.
In other words your soul will be mine, yes your soul will belong to me for all eternity."
"Well then I better get to it.
So how do I get to this Forsaken place?"
"I presume you have legs that are still functioning.
You can walk. You are young, you should get there soon enough.
Oh yes since you've been here so many times in your head, you'll know the way.
Another thing, this is where the challenge comes in, the box has a certain shall we say song, if you can hear it, you should find it without any trouble but if you don't, you will indeed cross over to my realm but your soul I will use as the key to enter this world.
Remember I am watching.
I see and hear many things and if you try to run I promise you there will be no escape from me. Wherever you hide I will find you.
Remember that Amelie".