Dark Corners - Twelve Tales of Terror (15 page)

“
Tell
me what happened next,” Rhodes said as he picked up his pen and
prepared to start writing.

“
Well,
after I calmed down, I started to feel guilty about what happened
with Lexi. I hadn’t wanted to fall out with her—it’s
just that Monde has this way of driving me crazy, you know? I mean,
obsession is too weak a word. Anyway, I dwelled on it and decided to
ask him about everything outright. We had words and things got
heated, but when it was all said and done, we understood each other,
and he sat me down and told me everything. It was a lot to take in,
so I went out to get some air afterward. I don’t know if it was
deliberate or just by accident, but I found myself outside Lexi’s
place.”

Seven

Lexi lived in a small ground floor apartment. The walls
were whitewashed, and beside each white panelled door there was a
mailbox and gold painted number. Lexi lived at number six, and as
Tina knocked, she hoped that it wasn’t too late to put things
right. She waited and was about to leave, when she heard the chain
rattle on the other side of the door. It swung open, the acrid smell
of cannabis drifting out. There was no welcome, no excited hello,
just a strained silence as the two friends stared at each other
awkwardly.

“
Lexi...
We need to talk.”

“
I’m
listening,” she replied, watching Tina with glassy, half-baked
eyes.

“
I
spoke to Monde about the things you told me...” She barely
finished the words before breaking down, and in an instant the
argument was forgotten as Lexi draped her arm around her friend,
ushering her inside.

“
Hey,
hey, come on in.”

Tina allowed herself to be led as Lexi kicked the door
closed behind them. She was wearing black leggings and an oversized
Iron Maiden vest. The apartment was cluttered but cosy, one wall
devoted to a large shelving unit filled with records and an extensive
CD collection. Tina sat in an armchair and Lexi perched on the sofa
opposite, quickly putting out her large, oddly shaped joint in the
overflowing ashtray on the table.

“
Sorry
about that. I was feeling down in the dumps,” Lexi said with a
shrug as she waved away the smoke. “So what happened?”

“
I
confronted Monde. I asked him about Paul. He didn’t deny it.
Lexi, I’m so sorry for doubting you.”

“
Forget
about that, hon,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
“I’m just glad you came to your senses. Look, here’s
the thing, I’ve been doing some research on Monde.”

“
Lexi…”

“
I’m
sorry, but I needed to know. I was worried about you. Hell, I’m
still worried about you.”

Although she felt a prickle of anger stir within, Tina
let it slide. She didn’t want to get into another fight.
Besides, her curiosity was piqued

“
What
did you find out?”

“
Nothing
that will put your mind at ease. I made a few calls, did some
independent research of my own... Tina, he doesn’t exist. No
social security, no traceable history. It’s like he just
appeared out of thin fuckin’ air.”

Tina said nothing. She felt sick with nerves.

“
And
to top it off, his fucking name! Did you get it, when you rearrange
his name it spells...?”

“
Demon,”
Tina said with a smile on her face. It felt good to say it aloud.
Those two syllables rolled easily off the tongue.
De-mon
.
She watched Lexi carefully as a look of realisation came over her.

“
You
already knew, didn’t you...”

Tina nodded.

“
I
think I suspected something right from the start. I knew there was
something about him, I just wasn’t sure what it was.”

Lexi looked as if she wanted to say something, but
instead she simply sat motionless and stared at Tina, her revulsion
barely hidden.

“
But
you argued with me, you defended him…”

“
I
didn’t know what he was then, not completely anyway. But I
suspected something... It was the little things that added up, Lexi.
The way his skin is always hot to the touch. The way he can make
anyone bend to his will. And the way he is in bed… the way he
snarls and bites and hurts me…”

“
You’re
sick,” Lexi whispered, her eyes flicking towards the door. She
wanted to run. Tina could sense it, almost smell it in the air.

“
When
I asked him about what he was, and he finally told me, I asked him to
show me his true self. How he really looked behind the human mask.”

Tina smiled to herself, sitting back and crossing her
legs as if she was discussing the news or a movie she watched the
night before.

“
He
didn’t want to, but I insisted, and when he did I was glad.
You
would have screamed, of course. Screamed and run away because you
don’t understand. But when I looked at him, I could still see
how beautiful he was. I let him take me then. Not as Monde, but as
the thing that lives
underneath
.
His skin was so hot it burned, and his nails tore at my flesh. Here,
look at this.”

She lifted up her shirt to show her ribcage, which was
lined with deep scratches, and just below her navel there was a deep
bite mark, still weeping blood.

“
He
has branded me, Lexi. I’m his. You know what he told me? He
said he chose me because I was just as lost and as dark a soul as
he.”

Lexi leaned across the table and grabbed Tina’s
hands.

“
Tina,
you need help. You’re delusional.”

“
I’m
pregnant, Lexi. He told me. Our baby will be born half of our world
and half of his.”

Lexi let go of Tina’s hands and half rose.

“
This
is sick. I won’t listen to it anymore.” Lexi marched to
the door on rubber legs that wobbled beneath her.

“
I
want you to leave,” she said as she opened the door.

Monde was standing outside. Lexi shrieked and backed
away. Her eyes darted from Monde to Tina, then back to Monde as she
back-pedaled away from the door.

“
What
is he doing here? Why did you bring him here?” Lexi shrieked.

“
Lexi,
just relax. I wanted to explain, to make sure you understand that
this is what I want.”

“
Tina,
snap out of it! Think about what you’re saying!”

Monde smiled at Lexi then, and his teeth were
needle-like daggers, his eyes black pools of hate. He casually walked
into the apartment and closed the door behind him.

“
I
want to go with him, Lexi. Back down there.”

Tina pointed to the floor, and Lexi knew she didn’t
mean the maintenance basement. She licked her lips nervously, her
eyes bulging out of her head as she backed away from Monde. Lexi
thought she could see the tip of a forked tongue flicking between his
partly open lips.

“
Tina,
don’t do this! Tell him to leave me alone. I know you are a
good person. Please!”

“
I’m
not a good person, Lexi. I pretend to be, but I’m not,”
Tina said with a sad shake of her head.

Lexi was now backed into a corner with Monde’s
six-foot-seven frame looming over her.

“
I
asked him to do it quick, Lexi. It’s all I can do.”

“
Tina,
please!”

“
Goodbye,
Lexi.”

Tina watched as Monde went to work, the violence and
frenzy exciting her. She tried to hold back for as long as she could,
but the wet ripping and tearing sounds and the sheared copper smell
of the blood overcame her ability to hold back, and she loosed
herself upon him, pushing her tongue into his mouth, pulling the heat
of his body towards her. They rolled in what was left of Lexi,
smearing it on each other, lost in the primal act. Tina knew that
somewhere deep down she should feel some sense of guilt or remorse,
but there was none to be found. All she could think of was Monde.
They finished, climaxing together as she held Lexi’s severed
hand in her own, their fingers interlocked.

Rhodes felt nausea roll through him as he looked at Tina
in a new light. What he had mistaken for innocence was nothing more
than a complete and utter lack of remorse. Unlike him, she would
sleep soundly tonight. She was insane, of course. Of that there was
no longer any doubt.

“
So
what happens now?” Tina asked.

“
We
check your story. But you need to give me Monde. Where is he?”

“
Gone.”

“
Tina,
come on. Gone where?”

She flicked her eyes to the floor.

“
He
said he would come back for me once the baby was ready to be born.”

Rhodes leaned forwards, looking her in the eye.

“
Can
I tell you what I think, Tina?”

“
I’m
hardly in a position to stop you.”

“
I
don’t think there is or ever was a Monde. I think you invented
him.”

Even as he said it, he glanced at the bruises on her
neck. The ones that looked exactly like hand prints.

“
I
think you found out that Lexi was sleeping with Paul and you killed
them both, plain and simple.”

He had expected this to rattle her, but she simply
smiled at him. He was growing to hate that smile.

“
Tina,
you’re going to be put away for this. You know that, don’t
you?”

“
I
suppose I will, but only for a while. He’ll come back for me.
He promised.”

He realised there was no helping her. Even though he
would push for a criminal conviction, he was sure she would be
institutionalised. Taking his notes, he stood. He wanted to say
something profound, something thought provoking. He felt as if
something should be said, and Tina seemed to be expecting something
too as she watched him with her icy gaze. But try as he might, he
couldn’t think of anything. Without a word, he walked out of
the interview room and closed the door.

Eight

The subsequent trial of Tina Rose Delatros was a
whirlwind of media attention and speculation. As Rhodes had feared,
Tina was deemed unfit to stand trial for the murder of Alexis Greene,
whose remains were only identifiable by dental records. (Although
Rhodes had speculated that Tina was involved with Paul’s death
as well, further investigation confirmed it as a true suicide.) Those
who attended the trial had commented on the way the girl carried
herself during the proceedings, showing neither remorse nor shame.
Despite an extensive search, no evidence of Monde’s existence
was ever found. His apartment was never located, and when pressed,
Tina claimed she couldn’t remember where it was.

Some argued that it would have been impossible for Tina
to inflict such damage on Lexi by herself—that the savagery was
more akin to an animal attack than anything a human being was capable
of.

Three months after her interview with Rhodes, Tina stood
for sentencing, the bump of her stomach now confirming her pregnancy.
Tina accepted the guilty verdict with the same indifference she had
displayed since her arrest. Rhodes had met with her several times
following her incarceration at the Wren State Mental Health
Institute, and in collaboration with the psychologists and staff, he
ascertained that Tina’s story never once changed, never once
altered throughout her numerous retellings. She was either telling
the truth, or was so deeply invested in her story that she believed
it to be true.

In late September, with the baby’s arrival only
weeks away, Rhodes came to visit Tina, wanting to follow up on some
potential sightings of Monde by patrons of Quint’s bar the
night before it burned down. (The case was now closed, but he
soldiered on, driven by his own maddening curiosity.) What he saw
when he arrived at Tina’s quarters would haunt him forever. No
alarms had been triggered, there had been no breach of security, nor
had there been any breaks in the twenty-minute hall patrol rotation.

Here were the white walls and wire-covered windows, the
bunk style beds—but no Tina. Rhodes could see the wet patch
where her water had broke, and a thin trail of liquid leading to the
wall, where she had come to rest. Her cellmate, a young schizophrenic
named Melissa, had tried to help deliver the baby, and now had four
deep gouges across her face. Rhodes spoke to her only once in the
days following Tina’s disappearance, but her words were ones he
would never forget.