Wax

IV

She bit so much into his neck that his head fell off cleanly from his torso. His convulsing body was still fighting a lost battle. With each spasm, it was trying to scream for help in a language only it could understand. Her mouth, covered in blood, was revealing her teeth, with flesh and skin in between them. Carnal, breathtaking beauty. Savagery and arousal. As she was sinking her sharp teeth into the still-warm corpse, a thought hit me. He is the sheriff. People will be looking into this. Powerful people, three-letter agencies, and sooner than later the traces will lead them to me. I had to somehow cover all of this up, but I couldn’t replace the sheriff. Or can’t I?

I quickly ran up to my car and basically flew toward the supply store.

- Another project of yours, huh? - the cashier looked at me.

- Yeah. - I said, out of breath.

I paid, grabbed everything, basically forced it all into my car and drove back home. His corpse was still bleeding out on the floor and my loving wife was waiting for me on the couch, her legs and arms crossed, as if she was worried. How cute. I quickly told her about the whole process of making a new body. She is a quick learner. With her help, we quickly finished the task. I was unaware of how the soul gets into the body, but she knew, and she was eager to show me. We grabbed both of the bodies and headed into the forest at night. She led me to a clearing. We placed the bodies on the ground right next to each other and stepped back into the forest, basically hiding in the bushes.

- Now what? - I asked with curiosity and slight nervousness in my voice.

- Now we wait. - she smirked at me.

Not long after, we spotted movement in the forest on the opposite side of the clearing.

- They are coming. - she giggled like a little girl. - They are coming!

I probably had to be more suspicious of the situation, but I couldn’t admire this side of my wife, that I could have lost forever. But she is here again. My eyes, as much as I didn’t want to, stopped looking at my beautiful wife and looked at the direction of the movement we had noticed earlier. Everything went quiet. Time felt as if it had stopped. From the forest emerged four black figures, almost resembling people in black robes. Their eyes were two bright lights and they were staring right at us.

- Don’t look at them. - Eleanor whispered. - Look at me instead.

You don’t have to repeat.

Screaming. Loud, guttural screaming. It was the sheriff’s voice. Eleanor grabbed my head, her eyes focused on mine.

- Don’t. - she whispered.

The screaming only got louder. Sounds of flesh being torn apart and bones getting crushed.

- JOHN!

He was calling my name.

- Don’t turn around. - she kept whispering.

- JOHN HELP ME PLEASE!

- IT HURTS, JOHN PLEASE!

Maybe I was going insane, but the voice was getting closer each time it yelled my name.

- JOHN! JOHN!

Suddenly, silence. I felt almost at eternal peace, but my body still wanted to run away. If it weren’t for my beautiful wife, I would have run away fifty times already.

And then, the breathing. It was right behind me. Eleanor’s eyes slightly looked up behind me. Full of joyful tears, she stood up, still holding my head down.

- JOHN! - the voice screamed in my ear, but Eleanor was still holding me down.

- JOHN LOOK AT ME! LOOK WHAT YOU HAVE DONE! LOOK! LOOK! - something grabbed me from behind and threw me away from Eleanor.

- Don’t look at him! Close your eyes!

- JOHN! - two hands grabbed mine and pulled them away from my face.

The smell of charred putrid meat was suffocating, it felt like no air was going into my lungs.

- JOHN! - the two arms hands were now forcing my eyelids open.

I was kicking and pushing something that felt like a rock. I couldn’t do anything to stop it from gauging my eyes out, which is how it felt. And just before it opened my eyes, everything just stopped. The screaming, the smell, the weight on top of me, the fingers reaching into my eyes. A velvety hand caressed my face.

- You can look now. - I could recognize her voice everywhere.

She was standing before me, the four beings standing right behind her. I pointed at them with my index finger. She nodded and smiled. I stood up and looked around, the bodies were gone. Eleanor stepped behind the beings and knelt. They started talking in one voice.

- You were able to withstand the temptation to look at the truth. You chose to remain mortal and unknowledgeable. We admire the courage of your soul. We would watch with interest. - the two nearest to Eleanor placed their hands on her head.

Before I could say anything, they vanished, as if made out of smoke. Eleanor stood up and smiled.

- W-what...who...where…? - I was in shock.

What did I witness? Where did the sheriff’s bodies go? Who or what were these silhouettes? I could see that she understood my troubled self, but the only thing radiating back at me was just that, her understanding. As if she herself knew nothing of them.

- When is the sheriff coming back?

She stepped closer and grabbed my hands.

- He will come back. - she said.

The next morning I woke up sore and still confused. I was hoping that everything was just a casual nightmare of mine, although they were becoming too real to be from my imagination. Before I could even stand up from the bed, a knock came from the front door. Taking a last look at the gorgeous woman on my bed, I went to the door and opened it. My knees almost gave out.

- Hey, John. - the sheriff’s voice coming from the sheriff’s mouth into the sheriff’s face.

- R-Richard? - I almost puked.

- Hey, I’m off duty today, wanted to visit you and catch up on things.

Eleanor came out of the bedroom. The sheriff gave her an unbothered look, then looked at me and smiled.

- I see that Eleanor is here. I always knew she would come back. - he smiled. - We always knew she would come back.

- Uh...yeah? How are you feeling, Rich? - I was analyzing every wrinkle on his face.

- I feel amazing. Who knew that I only needed a deep, long sleep? Sorry about yesterday, by the way. I was stressed out and, well, I needed to talk to someone.

- Hey, no problem. Do you want something to drink?

- Sure.

I felt weird. I was sitting in my house with the two people whose bodies I created. I could feel their vibrations, temptations, needs, thoughts. My bond with them was preset, as if it was written in my DNA. I felt like God sitting on a table with my Eve and my Adam. The question is, who’s the snake?