Saint Death Read Free Page A

towards the deep bruise of the foreign night sky, sensually licking at the stars endless shimmer.
    You were more than a little drunk by then, the voice reminded her. You'd been drugged.
    Angel parked the car and motioned for them to follow him up towards the sound of wild drums and rhythmic chanting in the distance. As they approached he and Hector fell behind Christie and Alexis, giving them a clear view of the night’s feral festivities. At first Alexis thought they'd simply arrived at a Day of the Dead themed rave. Men in skull masks watched on as topless women painted like skeletons danced around a tall woman with a headdress made of colorful flowers and bones, whose face had been elaborately painted to look like a human skull. She wore a flowing white dress and was adorned from head to toe in gold, with trinkets and bracelets and rings glistening by the light of the roaring fire. In her skeletal hands she held a gleaming silver dagger with a long, bone handle.
    It took Alexis a moment to see the bound, naked blonde girl on her knees in front of the garishly clad woman, crying and pleading to be let go. The skull-faced high priestess handed the blade to a man in a white shirt and jeans, who looked suspiciously out of place among the rest of them. The man wasted no time putting the deadly instrument to use. Raising the dagger over his head he plunged it down quickly several times, stabbing the wailing girl in her exposed chest. Alexis gasped as the gleaming blade pierced all the way through the helpless victim, sticking out her back momentarily in several places. An unearthly wail of suffering rose up into the sky like something dark and preternatural, the girl shrieking in abject horror and raising her hands to her face to ward off her attacker. It was no use. The high priestess laughed as her evil cohort brought the blood drenched blade down again, hacking the helpless girls left arm clean off at the elbow. The sound of her merciless delight sent icy cold shivers through Alexis, chilling her to the bone.
    Without saying a word Alexis and Christie turned to run back towards the car, but their dates were ready for them. Hector punched Christie hard in the face and she crumpled into a heap on the ground, knocked out cold. Alexis tried to dart past Angel but he seized her by the wrist and began slowly dragging her towards the bonfire while she screeched like a bobcat with its foot caught in a steel trap, thrashing wildly about in her drugged stupor. Hector hefted Christie's unconscious body over his shoulder with a grunt then proudly marched out towards the high priestess, passing them as he went. Alexis scratched at Angel's arm, trying to free herself, but it only seemed to make him pull harder. She tried digging her feet into the ground and pulling back, but it was no use. She was simply not strong enough to fight him off.
    A roar of approval rose up from the ghoulish crowd as the girls were brought in. The men greeted Hector and Angel like conquering heroes returned from war with human spoils for sacrificing. The killer with the blade placed it to the poor blonde girl’s throat and sliced it open with one quick motion. Blood sprayed out in thick bursts as the high priestess held out a silver bowl to catch some, her gauzy white gown and golden baubles darkening with a scarlet-tinted shadow in the process. The girl’s eyes rolled into the back of her head, leaving only the whites visible. She choked and sputtered momentarily before pitching forward to her executioner's feet and going limp. The high priestess of death showed no interest in her whatsoever, casually stepping over the dying girl to greet Angel and Hector and see what her good little boys had brought her. She took Alexis's face in her bony hands, examining her the way a farmer might look over newly acquired pig for slaughter.
    “Get your fucking hands off of me” Alexis raved, but the old woman just smiled. She rattled off something quickly in Spanish, the