Touched By A Star
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And next up. Ugh, sorry folks… Looks like we’ve got a nasty one on our hands. Listener discretion and all that crap. It appears that a couple out on a date to the cove up north... Beautiful place, by the way; took my wife there once. Uh, it seems some tourists were wandering off the beaten path when they ran into what police are describing as a ‘harrowing and incredibly gruesome’ crime scene. I can see here from the pictures that a group of people were found cut open, sorry, ‘mutilated’ and their remains were then scattered around the area. The victims appear to be your average drunk college students out on some sort of unsanctioned party to the cove where someone or something really had their way with them, if you don’t mind me saying.
(nervous laughter) Yeah, yeah. That, uh… I wouldn’t want to be one of those people. Right, Jerry? This is… this is something else.
Yeah… gruesome. Strange how things like that keep happening. Especially when you go running around drinking and wasting time in places you don’t belong. Typical dumb kid stuff. And speaking of gruesome, folks. Our next guest will bring out all sorts of terrifying secrets from out of the depraved world of politics. With us tonight, is one David Shelfield. Political commentator, fellow talk host, writer and all-around honest, hardworking All-American guy. David, why don’t you tell us about…
The radio droned on with its dark tales of both real and manufactured horror. The world can always be trusted to bring out the worst in people, though few things are as cruel as a person’s own self-inflicted nightmares. As poor Coraline laid still in her bed, she couldn’t help but be enraptured again by those very same waves she had enjoyed in her trip up to the cove.
She looked down at the bodies, so drenched and stained by the sand were they that even without the blood they’d be particularly hard to identify. By now, only one was still left alive and it seems that nobody truly wished to see her make it out of here alright. Not everyone wants what’s best for others, of course.
“Hey… Hey. Still awake?” Moira asked as she knelt down besides the broken woman. All her life she had spent her time trailing after artists and famous celebrities. Wanting to meet them, dreaming of the day she could talk to one of them. Be like them, perhaps. Posters on the wall, tattoos of quotes in the heart. Some clearly would’ve chastised and referred to her as nothing more than a simple-minded fool who wasted her time away with the vanities without value. But she was just a young girl, barely grown out of her teens and living her life like anybody else. Wanting what all others dreamed of; so used had she been to the things life and media offered up to her. That’s all she’d ever seen, could she truly be to blame?
The poor girl cried as she looked up to a person she had once admired. One of the pretty stars she always wanted to be inspired by; tears running down her eyes as she realized just how little she meant in this one-sided relationship with the icons of the world.
“Please… stop… let me...” the girl sobbed, the light taken from her now-faded smile.
“Yep, still awake. Man, she’s lasted way longer than all these other dweebs, huh? Think she likes it?” Cinzel chuckled as she, Ara and Coraline all stood around the gruesome site. Their boat limply floated nearby in the water as darkness shrouded the horrors of the blood and the cuts. And there was a lot to hide here; these weren’t just any simple killings, of course. There was… a method. Wasn’t there? A purpose, it couldn’t all be about the fun. Though fun it had been.
“Yeah, I think she wanted it. The way she kept looking at me… calling out my name. So desperate to catch my attention, weren’t you? You know… you’re fortunate. Sweet, sweet… Carly, was it?” Moira whispered and smiled as she gently ran her fingers through the bruised girl’s hair. They had roughed her up for quite a bit, though it seems they weren’t done just yet. Now, their latest victim simply sat there pressed up against a large rock with little other than more misery to look forward to. This night should’ve been an escape, the rest of her life wasn’t quite so perfect either.
“My name is Carey...” the poor woman said.
“Oh… Carey. What a beautiful name, truly.” Moira mocked. Then she leaned in closer to the girl’s ear before whispering gently again. “Carey… Carey… Maybe I’ll write a song about you. I like to do that, you know… write songs about girls like you… Hopefully it’ll be number one on your playlist.” she said with a gurgled laugh.
Carey continued to cry as she felt her life drain away. She, like so many others was a person with her own thoughts and dreams but now, like this, she was so easily reduced to being her tormentor’s plaything.
They say you can’t truly understand freedom… until you don’t have it anymore.
Moira leaned back.
“So… what do we do with her then?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Same thing we did to the other idiots? Let me get your scary butter knife, Queen Bee.” Cinzel chuckled as she walked towards one of the nearby corpses. She reached down to grab onto the dagger before ripping it back out. The demon must’ve had its fill by now, surely.
“Oh, I don’t know. The night’s so young… and so is she. There must be something else we can do to pass the time for now… right?” Moira smiled with remorseless, inhuman depravity as she looked on at her loving fan. So cruelly had she lured her away, just like all the others. Abusing her own talents to take away the innocent from the comfort of their simple lives… out into a den of misery where there were no happy songs.
Cinzel stood back up straight with a little groan before shrugging and juggling the demonic butter knife, as she had called it. Perhaps she could be wiser than playing with things she did not truly understand but… it’s not as if Moira was in any hurry to speak the full truth to anyone around her. Least of all, this Carey.
“Lift her up, think it’s time someone sang us some songs for a change.” Moira ordered as she brought herself to her feet. Ara and Coraline dutifully obeyed their devil’s wishes as Cinzel continued to twirl and throw the dagger around. She had done her own share of horrors and she certainly was no innocent. She just couldn’t believe how good Moira could be at it herself.
Cinzel pondered the situation a bit as Ara and Cora grabbed onto Carey before lifting the poor woman up. They restrained her, one on each side, though they clearly struggled just as much to simply keep her from falling back down. Carey’s right knee was not as strong as it once was, certainly not with that thin bone sticking out of it.
Cinzel always thought a bit poorly of Coraline. So cruel when she could be but otherwise… opportunistic to a fault. Cinzel often wondered what Cora would’ve been doing with her life if Moira hadn’t come around. Would she be cruel on her own time? Doubtful... too spineless and a wimp, Cinzel thought.
Ara on the other hand was… a rat… a snake. She slithered quietly around, careful not to make a noise. Soft spoken, calm; could barely even notice her. One would think she was shy as she stared at others from the corner of her eyesight. Thinking devious things, picturing twisted fantasies. Keeping her dark pleasures to herself, too much of a coward to go out loud and proud. But heaven forbid she catch someone all alone with no chance to be caught or for her prey to get away. The quiet ones can be so… disgusting, can’t they? But then again, maybe she’d like to be caught. Certainly seems to enjoy being a bit guilty at times. At least, she can partake in the same horrors she would deal to others; an abuser but she did not think herself a hypocrite.
Cinzel looked at the two then glanced away. Moira? She was her own beast, wasn’t she? She didn’t need a dagger…
“Tell me, Carly.” Moira said as she stepped in front of the restrained Carey. Her eyes lusted after her newest plaything, though the sadism was still hidden a bit behind her own self-righteous arrogance, narcissism and hypocrisy. Like usual.
“Which of my songs do you like most, I wonder? Is it… Thrill Kill, or… I know that one’s pretty popular with some of you, though I feel it’s a bit too simple and… generic now. I like to think I’ve grown past that. So perhaps instead…”
“Songbird...” Carey said with a broken heart. Moira raised a brow.
“That… How have you even heard that one, it isn’t out yet. Did… oh, were you a part of the private preview event I did? Online?” Moira asked. Carey looked up at her with faded eyes and pale lips, she had simply wanted to meet her shining star and now… so why… Why this? Built up by the media, fleshed out by the fans… the idea of a perfect world, never even being given a chance to look up to anything else. And then broken. Shattered. Two losses, one painful moment.
“Yes...”
Moira scoffed with mild amusement.
“Ah. I see… Well, I’m glad you supported me then. I didn’t know how to feel about spoiling a full song but people did tell me fans would be willing to pay up in droves for crowd-founded bonuses. I obviously don’t need to go that way and I didn’t really want to rush the song out like that but… I appreciate the consideration.” she said.
Now Cinzel scoffed, though quietly and to herself. What was she going to do next then? Start a campaign to pay for a mansion makeover? Though Cinzel never did quite like that old-timey, classy atmosphere… too dreary and pretentious for her... Moira absolutely loved it.
“But then again...” Moira added. “How many times by now could you have possibly heard it? Do you just like whatever has come out recently? A bit uninspired if so, I’m afraid.”
After a few more snide comments, Moira soon proceeded to beat Carey as they held her in place. Forced her to sing the song back to her, note by note, verse by verse. And when she was done with her fun, Moira ordered Coraline to strike the woman down with the harpoon gun from the boat. Said she’d always wanted to see what it would look like. And it seems she wasn’t disappointed.
Cinzel watched the whole time, though her eyes were paradoxically uncertain. Had she not done the same herself? Had she not exploited and abused the malignant pleasures of depravity time and time again? Had she not degraded and taken lives all on her own?
Strange then… that she should feel such contempt for the woman who taught her all she knew.