Teeth excerpt titled The Devil's Toy
Annie felt the familiar pressure on the bed near her legs. She froze and closed her eyes shut so tight the outer lids started to tremor slightly. She told herself it would go away just as it had before. This time, however, something began to pull at the blanket wrapped around her right leg. She continued to ignore it.
Suddenly, the blanket ripped from her legs completely. Annie wasn’t certain, but she surmised the blanket wasn’t on the bed at all anymore. Still, she did not move, remaining face down in her pillow as if not seeing what was going on was her only defense. Something- someone began to caress both of her calves. A few tears slid out of her closed eyes and saturated the pillow. She didn't budge as her tears ran over the round of her cheeks into her ears and irritated her. Abruptly, she was flipped over face up in the bed by an unseen force.
Annie ventured to look; she opened her right eye slightly- just enough to still appear closed but render her a glance. Everything looked like a black and white movie. She cautiously opened the other eye the same way as her right. There still was no color. She could see her wall to her left along the side of the bed, the sickly pale blue color of it that she often referred to a “colonial puke” to spite her Grandmother's assertion that the color was “colonial blue”, was gone. Confused, Annie blinked hard a few times but the color didn't return- she was colorblind! She wondered how long she had been and resolved to close her eyes once more when she saw something huge and black at the foot of the bed. Annie watched while it moved up on top of her.
Face to face with what appeared to be a dragon or a wolf; she realized she couldn’t tell what the hell it was! It had a short snout, too small for a wolf. It resembled the Chinese dragons, but without the frills or whiskers, those dragons typically sported off the nose. It consisted of simply a snout, mouth with sharp, thin teeth, and some sort of eyes.
These “eyes” were fascinating! They were vortexes of blackness that continuously sucked inward in a fluid, terrorizing motion into what would be the eye socket had it been human.
“Say ‘yes’,” it whispered to her.
Annie didn’t respond to it at all. She hoped it would think she was hopelessly asleep and just go away. I’m boring, go find another person to be your little friend, she thought. This dark thing seemingly chuckled and started to part her legs. Annie’s eyes flew open!
The entity in her bed appeared to be partly made of black smoke. Annie couldn’t tell if it had a lower body. It repeated its demand to her. Its words seemed to echo in the room yet it didn't speak out loud. Its voice was gravely and raspy but seemingly only loud enough for her to hear it. It was straddling her waist and leaning back to rest its arms between her legs. Though its head was leaned back towards the end of the bed, its low voice seemed in her ears.
“No way,” she replied weakly, “You’re some sort of demon.” Annie tried to pull her legs together but they'd only move an inch or two inward against this thing's “arms”.
“You would recognize that, now, wouldn’t you?” It let out a low, dark chuckle as the corners of its mouth tipped upwards slightly. It appeared to be trying to smile at her for a moment then its expression changed to anger. The scaly skin above its vortex eyes pinched in a hood and the swirling waterfall of blackness in them started to move more rapidly. Its nostrils flared.
It lunged forward and penetrated her abruptly, knocking Annie's head off her pillow and into the headboard. It then remained still, pinning her into the position with her head forced painfully into the wood behind her. Annie could hear the wall behind her headboard struggling against the force, it could crack and give way at any second. The thing wasn't pushing her further into it but maintained the pressure as it stared at her. Then it heaved back slowly.
Annie closed her eyes again anticipating pain that never came. Her body instead felt tingly all over, energetic. The demon rocked her back and forth steadily until Annie’s eyes opened. The thing appeared to be trying to smile at her again. It went full force on her. Annie’s head whipped up from her pillow and back down again in a clumsy rhythm until it cradled her in its arms to keep her still. There, she felt almost peaceful, but she could hear the bed sounding as if it were going to break and the headboard beating into the wall. Her ears were overcome with the racket, but when it spoke to her, she heard it clearly.
“Tell me ‘yes’,” it teased.
Still, as good as sex for the first time felt for her, she resisted. She wasn’t sure but saying ‘yes’ to a demon seemed like an invitation. Annie refused to host the party. The more her body built up towards climax, the more the thing repeated itself. She resisted. Then, as she succumbed to her lust and convulsed, Annie threw her arms to her sides and screamed, “Yes, yes, yes, yes!”
Suddenly, she was alone again. The color filtered back into the room and the sun was shining directly in her face. It was morning now. She reached over and pulled the tattered blind down. The sun still hit her face so she turned over in bed. She felt sensitive down there as she closed her legs together and bent her knees up towards her stomach.
A chill shot through her as she thought about what she had done. She had said yes to what could only have been a demon. Her entire body broke out in goosebumps. She reached for her blanket.
“Crap.”
The abandoned blanket laid on the floor- all the way by the door. Annie grudgingly got out of bed to retrieve it.
Like she used to do as a child, she stepped off her bed in a leap to avoid any boogie monsters that may have been hiding under there. She felt silly but excused her childishness for the moment. Blanket in hand, she jumped into bed from one foot away.
“There’s no way I can sleep now- not ever,” she sighed. She had planned to sleep all day Thursday, but after this, she debated getting up, grabbing some cereal, and starting her day. Annie drifted off before she came to a decision.
It originally started slowly, taking months to show itself. The thing had played with Annie quite often during the last few months. Annie was seventeen and a high school senior. Grandmother had left Annie behind due to school when Grandmother went to visit a friend who moved to Florida. Annie knew she’d never be invited- school just offered a convenient excuse. Grandmother had turned the helping of a friend into a week-long vacation, a vacation away from Annie.
With Grandmother away, the thing took every opportunity to show that it was there. On Monday, it was just strange noises and on Tuesday, Annie would see shadows move in her peripheral vision. Then, on Wednesday, it really made its presence known to Annie:
Grandmother sure left a nice long list of chores to be done without taking Annie’s eight hours of school into consideration. Annie, not feeling like going to school, decided to stay home that Wednesday with the intention of knocking out the entire list and do minor upkeep until Friday when she expected Grandmother back. First, however, Annie wanted to actually sleep in for once in her life. She hit her alarm off and smiled.
While Annie laid down on her stomach, she closed her tired eyes. She didn’t sleep, but needed the rest. She'd get around to the cleaning soon enough and planned to sleep most of Thursday, knowing she'd better get to school for Friday. The spot of the mattress near her right foot sunk in.
It felt as if someone had put down their hand or knee near her on the bed. She sensed a weight hovering over her.
Had Grandmother returned? Grandmother rarely came into Annie’s room; when she did enter, there was always hell to pay, so Annie kept quiet and didn’t open her eyes. Whoever she sensed went away after several minutes.
Annie got up and took a look around the room. She entered the kitchen expecting to see her Grandmother reading the paper or sipping coffee at the table. Annie searched the entire house and did not find her. It was then that Annie remembered Grandmother went out of town to visit a friend, there was no way she'd have returned on Wednesday, so Annie felt stupid.
Slowly, it occurred to her that whoever was in her bedroom was not Grandmother. They were no longer in the house- that she could find. A chill glided its way down her spine and it made Annie’s shoulders tighten and spasm awkwardly.
“I am just fine,” Annie told herself.
The house suddenly settled causing a cracking sound in the nearby living room. Annie jumped. She walked over to the wall, peered into the room, but found nothing. She sighed and went back to her bed.
“I AM just fine,” Annie told herself again; loudly.
And she had been fine until now, Thursday; yesterday seemed like nothing at all by comparison to what just occurred. Annie stirred in her bed. She had been asleep but still playing the week's events in her head. Wednesday had indeed been horrifying for her, but she had plunged herself into the cleaning and successfully distracted herself.
Annie recalled trying so hard to rationalize those little sounds and incidents. She had faked confidence all week prior and had a list of logical reasons for everything Now, she feared she had given herself to a demon and sat up in bed.
She scanned her room for any remnants of black smoke and pulled her blanket up over her lap.
“Perhaps it was all a dream,” she said out loud, “Besides, I was saying yes to the sex, not to any old demon, right? There's no harm in that.”
She waited in awkward silence for a response. Something- anything- that would assure her that she’d finally gone crazy. She heard nothing- creak or crack. Nothing appeared to her in the room and the colors in the room were normal. Nothing. Maybe, she was indeed safe., at least until Grandmother returned home tomorrow. Annie didn’t look forward to that any more than finding out if she’d somehow accidentally sold her soul to the devil.
A different part of the book:
Annie could feel Anthony’s pursuit of her yet he wasn't there. She knew everyone was still downstairs and most of them were sleeping off the night's festivities so why she was feeling watched, she couldn't explain. She ducked into her room. She felt relieved when she closed her bedroom door behind her, but no sooner than it had shut, she heard the doorknob move.
Glancing over her shoulder, she watched it turn slowly, in a shaky fashion, as if someone with barely a grasp on it was struggling to turn it all the way. Annie stood there holding her breath just watching the doorknob seemingly work itself all the way over and the door move towards her in what seemed slow motion.
Search Teeth by KL Mazon available on lulu.com and electronically elsewhere.
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