• Sometimes,
    You can cry until there is nothing wet in you. You can scream and curse until your throat rebels and ruptures. You can pray all you want, to whatever god you think will listen. And still, it makes no difference. It goes on with no sign as to when it might release you. And you never know that if it did relent...
    It would not be because it cared.

    I'm blowing through that lid...
    I'm going over the stars...

    -Johnny the Homicidal Maniac





    I used to think that if I kept feeding it, it would leave me alone. That it would stop attacking me...I guess I was wrong...It still follows me. I still hear it. I still feel it when it touches me. I know it's still there. I know Theron still follows me. He still feeds off me.
    ...But he's going to stop.




    "Dawn...?" it asks from the darkness before me.

    "Yes, Theron?"

    "Do you have the souls you promised me today...?"

    I nod. "I do."

    "I want them, Dawn."

    I take a few steps closer to the darkness. I fight the urge to cringe as I always do. I don't care to think about the people that have lost their lives over me. Over Theron. So that he could survive. The people who have given their souls to me.

    He reaches his clawed, black hand out of the darkness, and he touches the tip of one of those claws to my face. Gently, he brushes my dark hair out of the way, and lets his claw trace the line of my jaw, tipping my chin up to face him. I see only darkness. I have never seen Theron's face. I only know that he isn't human. I simply assume he is male by his voice. The deep, ragged sound of his breathless voice as he waits for me to open my mouth to feed him the souls which I have collected. Slowly, I let my lips part, and the white substance of the souls start to slip out. It hurts as they tear back up my throat. I watch them disappear into the darkness, where he swallows them noiselessly. I fight the overwhelming urge to cry. It hurts so badly. My throat feels as if it's on fire.

    "I need more, Dawn." he says to me when he is finished. "You know this isn't enough."

    I cough and choke a little bit. That part, I can't fight. "That's all I could get this week. My supply is running very low, Theron...They're also starting to suspect foul play with all these cause-less deaths. I'm going to be killed one of these days..."

    Theron pulls his hand back from my face. "Then find a new city."

    I choked one last time and tried to straighten up a little. "I...don't want to leave here..." I tell him. My heart aches as I think about moving on to another town. I've killed so many people in this one alone. The population has fallen so far so fast in just a few years. It's gone from 26 000, to a mere 21 000 in just three years...I've taken the lives of more than five thousand people...So many deaths...So many people lost...

    "Then you'll just have to deal with this, my dear. If you do not get me what I need, I will kill you, and not because I don't like you, love..." Theron said, snapping me back to my reality. I feel a single tear slipping down my cheek. I try my best to ignore and not let the rest follow it. I will not show weakness to Theron.

    "I will not leave this place. I will not wreck havoc on the other cities. That's where I draw the line." I tell him sternly.

    "Then you better get back out there and find me more souls, Dawn." he tells me. "I'll be waiting..."

    I nod and turn to away from the darkness. He stops me, a claw on my jaw again. "What do you want, Theron...?" I ask.

    "Bring me what you can. I will tolerate this much until next week when you will surely have more for me. Or you'll go over the stars, love..."

    I try to pull away from him, but not before he manages to leave a scratch in my skin. The blood beads a little to the surface, and I wipe it away before he can get the satisfaction of seeing me bleed. I ignore him, and make my way out of the darkness. As always when I make this trip, I find myself suddenly standing in my backyard under my apple tree. I take in a deep, shuddering breath. I must find more souls for him to eat, or he will kill me. He'll kill me and who knows what will happen after that. I walk to my house and through my backdoor. My fiance is sitting on the couch, he's falling asleep. I don't want Theron to kill him. I don't want him to kill me. I don't want to die at Theron's hands. I slip over to my fiance and he looks up at me.

    "You're home... Where do you keep going so late?" he asks. "You disappear for hours. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were-"

    I break off his accusation with a kiss. I deepen it and he doesn't retaliate. I breathe in, and I can taste his soul. I can taste his very being. I don't stop. I take more of it until his heart beat slows down, until it finally stops. I cough and choke again. It hurts to know what I've just done. It's killing me inside to see that I do this everyday, to so many people who have lives and families just like we did. I press my fingers to his neck, there is no pulse. I choke on the taste of his soul again, it's almost too good. I press my ear to his chest. There is definatly no pulse. I shudder at this thought and pull away from him. Walking out to the kitchen, I search the drawers for a knife. I stare at it in my trembling hand. Theron is going to stop.

    "I'm going to kill myself , Theron...What are you going to do then?" I demand. "What can you do to me then? I'm already dead...!"

    I smirk.

    As the blood drains from chest, I crawl back to the living room. I reach out for my fiance's hand and I feel that it's already getting cold.

    "I'm sorry..." I whisper to the dead body, "but I didn't want...Theron...t-to have you..." I smile. "And...now h-he can't...And we'll be together...without him...without...that...beast..." I tell him with my last breath. "I'm blowing through that lid...I'm going over the stars, love..."