Golden Darkness

But had Mickey lived long enough to meet and talk with Killian, she would have been instructed that his wing was off limits after midnight. This night she simply did not know that. Everybody assumed the new woman must have been told that already by somebody. It was an oversight, that’s all. She could not say why, but she felt drawn to wander through that part of the chalet. Perhaps David would be awake. Perhaps she could even spend some time with him tonight. Wouldn’t that be grand? She noticed a light coming from a room at the far left end of the hall as she walked down the dark, large corridor. She stopped to listen because she thought she heard voices, too. She did—a man’s and a woman’s voice. Talking? Laughing? What was that? The thought that she should turn back briefly entered her mind, but it quickly flew away from her—as quickly as her sanity would forever leave her in a few short minutes. The thick, soft carpet felt comfortable on her bare feet, which would soon be bloody and nearly frostbitten. No lights were on in the corridor; it was easy to tell that the orange dancing glow coming from the far room was created by a fire. Again, she quickly thought to turn back. Again, her curiosity got the better of her. Mickey continued quietly down the hall, certain that the man’s voice must belong to David, the girl’s voice to one of the disciples. As she came closer, now only a few feet from the partially open door, Mickey heard the girl laugh and then moan with what could either be deep pain or deep ecstasy. She then clearly heard David’s voice. “Tell me what you want me to be tonight, my love. Do you want the angel again? Do you want the beast? Tell me.” Mickey could not have resisted looking had her life depended on it. In fact it did. She just did not know that to be the case. She sidled up to the double door. One door was closed all the way. The other door was open perhaps a foot. She was able to lean quietly forward and look into the room. This must be his room. It was as majestic as Thomas had told her. On the wall to the left, a fire danced in a fireplace that was as large and grand as this magnificent room commanded. The ceiling was high and vaulted and took up the space that the second story of the rest of the chalet had. No other lights seemed to be on. The fire cast the reds and golds of the room’s carpets and walls in a warm, invitingly seductive light. The girl spoke again. The sound of her voice changed Mickey’s focus. “David, I want the demon. I want the demon tonight.” Mickey now saw a large round bed directly across the room from the door. She could not see the girl, for David stood at the foot of the bed, his back toward Mickey. He was naked. Mickey softly gasped. David was naked and perfect. Long, sandy hair rested on his broad, muscular shoulders. His back seemed to be cut with muscles easily seen even in the dim firelight. His buttocks were slightly round and equally muscular. His legs were as hard and perfect as the rest of him. Mickey could not help but think he was the personification of Adonis. David’s voice broke the erotic spell his body cast upon her. “The demon? We haven’t done that in a while,” David said. “I want the demon tonight. I want all of him.” Mickey was sure she could hear the deep, slow breathing of the girl. David’s form still blocked Mickey’s view of the girl. But that was about to change. “All right, my love. It is the demon you shall have.” “Change slowly,” she said. “That alone almost makes me climax.” “As you wish.” Mickey then saw David raise his hands toward the high ceiling, like he was beckoning some higher power to embrace him. In the moving dim light, she thought she saw something on David change, but she was not certain. But her eyes were riveted to his form. What she was about to see, she would see for certain. She would understand its reality. And that would be her undoing. David threw his head back and moaned in a voice that was not from this world. She saw his hands start to grow. They became elongated and yellowish. They grew in proportions that were not that of the human hand. They had almost become talons. What were once fingernails were now claws. His entire body began to morph at once. He seemed to grow shorter as the yellow scaliness of his talons captured the rest of his body as well. Then one change after another happened, and with each change, he grew a bit shorter. Out of David’s shoulder blades, membranes seemed to grow that resembled ... no, they really were wings, like the wings of a bat. He flapped them vigorously, enough to make a sickening noise that began the retreat of Mickey’s sanity.