BLOOD under the skin

The rain fell softly on the ground. The scant sunlight filtering through the black clouds was a pale, deathly hue. Each ray of light climbed the cold stones of polished marble until it reached the champagne-colored oak wood that protected the pale young girl who hadn’t breathed for a couple of days.

Everything was perfect for the occasion, or so it seemed to the hooded figure watching the funeral from a distance. They lingered on the young woman who stepped up to the podium to say a few words. Her pale skin, with a slight blush that declared her alive, her eyes blue like the sky, and her short, dark blonde hair that barely reached her shoulders.

"The truth is, I’m not the best person for this. I never liked public speaking, and I was never any good at it either, but... I can’t let the person I have loved the most in my life leave this world just like that, without saying goodbye..." The young woman’s voice and body trembled for several reasons. She had been crying for a while, furious at losing her partner, helpless for not having been able to do anything, nervous about speaking in front of everyone.

The gloomy figure in the back smiled as they strained their ears to hear the results of their actions. They didn’t like meaningless suffering, but they enjoyed it immensely when that suffering was payment for something that had been done before.

"Ema wasn’t the kindest or most affectionate person in the world, but she didn’t deserve to be murdered. She had made mistakes in the past, mistakes she admitted and did everything to change..." That made the gargoyle laugh. They knew full well that those attempts to fix her past mistakes were “postureo,” in the dead girl’s own words; they knew they were words without actions. "She made me the happiest girl in the world for the last three months... when she agreed to go out with me, but she had already made me immensely happy just by being my friend for as long as I can remember... I don’t know the reason for this crime: homophobia, sexism, a random assault, a robbery gone wrong... the only thing I know is that I will not rest until whoever did this is behind bars."

The smile was joined by a delirious, eager glint in their eyes as they remembered everything they had done to that pale teenager who now lay dead in the soft white silk lining the coffin.

A FEW DAYS EARLIER

"Let me...!" At that very moment, a hand covered the young woman’s mouth.

"We both know that if you resist, it will be much worse..." A sharp blade grazed the young woman’s porcelain skin after slicing through the light clothes she wore, as it was early September.

"Please... have mercy... don’t rape me... don’t hurt me... I’ll give you all my money..."

"Rape you? No, lesbians are not my type... In fact, I think there’s only one person in the world I find sexually appealing..." Even after what she had just heard, Ema felt a tongue slowly slide up her neck to her ear. "And your money disgusts me, just like everyone else’s... But as for hurting you, I’m going to make you pay for all your sins..."

Before the young woman could react, she felt the knife plunge into her back. The shadowy assailant went to town with that small knife. They weren’t very good at biology, so, although they wanted to keep her alive as long as possible while still stabbing her, they couldn’t keep her conscious for more than ten seconds, and she died a minute and a half after the assault began.

Blood covered the body of the victim and her assailant. One of the two enjoyed the situation immensely, having relished the last words of their young victim: “I’m sorry, Ane.” Those words caused them to laugh. That harpy with a good-girl face felt nothing in life, much less in death.

They walked away from the corpse, leaving the weapon right there; they wore gloves, so there would be no fingerprints. The first drops of the torrential rain that would wash their saliva from the corpse began to fall from the sky; with luck, it would even take the weapon with it. They loved the rainy season; the evidence disappeared quickly without having to do absolutely anything but wait and coordinate everything so the police wouldn’t find out where the body was before the rain started.

PRESENT

Back at the funeral, that humanoid figure began to feel a slight excitement when they saw the speaker kiss the forehead of the dead girl. They didn’t like lesbians, but those memories, combined with the pain that was present and the eroticism their mind had superimposed on the scene, managed to draw a disturbing smile and raise their libido.

The coffin was closed, the grave was covered, and people began to leave. A few stayed a while longer, offering their condolences to the family and to Ane once more. When the grave was deserted, they slowly approached the site and stroked the cold stone while reading the inscription.

“Beloved daughter, friend, and partner. We will always love you and never forget you.”

They stifled a gag at the cheesiness of that phrase and stepped back slightly from the stone to give it one last look before walking away through the Polloe cemetery towards their new home, thinking about whether it was better to get rid of the excitement they felt on the way without masturbating or to wait until they got home to think about their object of pleasure and explode the moment they started touching themselves, thinking about everything they would do.