The Dark Inside (A Human Element) Read Online Free PDF

raced. Hers slowed.
    "Sabrina?"
    She did not move. He lifted her head. Dull eyes stared at him. He pulled himself out from under her and flipped her over.
    Dead?
    Her neck bore the red marks of his hands. The hands of a monster.
    "No. No!"
    He touched her as gently as she had touched him. He tried to heal her with his power but there was only stillness. Water filled his eyes, a damning film. It spilled down his cheeks. It was painful. These human tears.
    He pulled her limp body to him, folding her small nakedness into his beastly mass. He knelt with her on the floor and cried. He would not give into this temptation again. It was too much pain, this human pleasure. He would stick to killing for release. But oh, he had not sought to kill tonight.
    His experiment had failed.
    He would never be Charlie the good guy. Dr. Bjord was right. He wasn't worthy.
    He was X-10 the monster.
    Then she coughed.
    Color rushed into her face. She leaned over and hacked. Exultation rushed through him. He pulled her up. Her body shook as she sputtered, tried to breathe.
    He held her in his arms. She beat feebly on his chest. "You tried to kill me."
    "No…no! I didn't realize my strength." He leaned his big head down on her petite one. "I'm sorry."
    "Water," she whispered.
    He placed her on his bed and rushed to get her a drink from his tiny fridge then knelt before her.
    She drank an entire water bottle and squinted at him. "You didn't mean to hurt me?"
    "Never. I-I love you." His heart unfolded as he said it and he breathed her wonderful smell that gave him life.
    She intertwined her dainty fingers with his brutish ones and bent her head to touch his. Her hair hung glorious and alive around her, framing him in her world. Her hand grazed his face then she stood and pulled her clothes on.
    "My hour is done, Charlie."
    "Come back?" He hoped. Could she be another reward? He would do anything.
    She looked at him with sad eyes. "What will you do to me next time?"
    "Love you."
    She turned away, knocked on the door. The lock clicked. Metal slid open. She stepped through the space that would separate them.
    "Sabrina, stay." He was captivated.
    She glanced back. "Goodbye, Charlie. I hope you never forget your first time."
    He stared at her in anguish and then her gold was gone.
    "Wait. Don't go!" He came out of his reverie and rushed to the door. "He'll kill you!" But the door locked in place. He beat his fists on it. Even if he had gotten through he would never escape. Drugs sprayed into the air from his captor would knock him out the instant he tried.
    "Bjord, leave her alone!" There was no answer from his master. "You hear me? Keep her here with me. I'll do anything you want. Anything!"
    He paced his cell that night, smashing his hands on the concrete walls until they bled, wondering if she made it back to the streets. Wantingher to be back on the streets. Wanting her to be with other men. It would mean she was alive. He sought her out in the city with his mind's eye but she was nowhere.
    Finally, he fell into a nightmarish sleep. He stood on a riverbank and pieces of Sabrina floated by. An arm. A leg. A hand, frozen in a delicate wave. Her decapitated head stared at him with those blue eyes as her gilded hair flowed behind her.
    When he woke, visions of Sabrina riding him with lust and tenderness fell heavy in his mind. And something white lay on the floor.
    He wiped the sleep from his eyes and sat up, staring at it.
    Sabrina's shirt.
    Slashed with red.
    A memento from Dr. Bjord.
    He staggered out of bed and smashed the camera that mocked him. He would pay for that later.
    He fell on his knees and caressed her blouse then picked it up gently so as not to add to its wounds. He breathed deep of this garment that had clung to her as she had to him. Her sweetness filled him–and then loss replaced it. She had called him an angel, but she was now the angel. His tears wet her shroud. It was all he could give her now. He willed Sabrina's musk– their