Responsible for bringing out my darkest side. I tried to hide what I feel but it's my time. To inflict all the damage, some indescribable pain.

December of 1954

My maker is humming a jaunty tune to himself. His back is to me as he readies today's instrument of torture. I perch on the edge of my mattress in a tranquil calm. At least, that's what I want him to perceive. I've kept up the serene, submissive act he delights in for the past month and a half. Learning bare snippets of information on my new state of being from his deranged ramblings. Feeding from what he brings me. Mostly children. Behaving for him. Taking any punishment he exacts. Trembling and cowering when it seems necessary. Keeping my motives hidden. Most importantly...strengthening myself. Preparing. Preparing for tonight. My own laughter echoes through my head and I find myself fighting a smile.

I know I can't make this last as long as I'd like. He's a clever, ferocious beast. I'm well aware of how quickly he can and will turn the tables on me once I rise up out of this pathetic facade. However I manage to bring about his end, it will be too merciful. I owe him more suffering than I can exact. For my family. For my life. For the past fourteen months of anguish and misery. The faces of my slaughtered family flash through my mind. The beatings. The mental rape. The brutal, physical rape. The time he took to slowly destroy the honorable young woman that I was, before he turned me into this deathless monster. He made me in his image, he doesn't realize that yet. But, he will.

"Madelyn." He beckons to me without turning around. "Come to me, monster." I rise obediently and approach him. Eyes cast down, hands linked in front of me. Just how he likes. He turns to face me, and peripherally I glance at the lit kerosene lamp on the table. And the red hot branding irons next to it. The mere sight of such items would have made me quake in fear before. Now, it's just ammo for my revenge. He gestures to my blouse. "Take that off." I comply. He grazes his hands along my shoulders appreciatively, leaning in to run his nose along my neck. "Ah, my monster. You still smell just as sweet as ever." He turns me away from him abruptly. One hand still retaining a firm grip on my collarbone, he reaches to the adjacent table. "This is something I've wanted to do for quite some time. I didn't think you could handle it...as a mortal." He laughs. "A shame, I could of marked you as mine for eternity." I feel the heat exuding from the iron before it even touches my body. It presses to my skin with a sizzle. Despite myself, I let out a small whimper. It hurts, and I can smell my scorched flesh in the air. He inhales deeply, savoring the scent. "...so sweet." I try to keep my reactions minimal. It's when he presses the burning tip into the small of my back, dragging it up to the nape of my neck, tracing a fiery course of agony along my spine, that I unwillingly let loose with a pained wail. At the sound, his hand whips around, striking me on my cheek before clenching around my throat. With the other hand, he holds the hot iron centimeters away from my face. "NOT ANOTHER SOUND!" He bellows. "You'll stay quiet, or I'll jam this down your sweet little throat." I don't speak. Don't move. After a moment, he relinquishes his grip. "Good girl. Good monster." He pats me on my head before continuing the branding. I take my mind beyond the pain. Focusing on my vengeance. Adding this moment to the arsenal. Envisioning all the lovely ways I can send this beast to hell. Strangling him with his own entrails. Dismembering him until he resembles a fleshy pillow. Setting him ablaze and dancing around the flames. Oh, I hope he screams! A malevolent giggle slips from my lips. I feel him freeze behind me. NOW!

Before he tenses for attack, I spin around. Grasping his jaw with both hands, I give a mighty wrench, dislocating it from it's socket and ripping tendons. Still taken aback, he lashes out, landing a blow across my chest. I feel my clavicle snap. The pain hinders nothing. I grab the metal chair next to me and fly at him, thrusting the chair legs into his gut and slamming him against the wall. "...you. YOU! You little..." His speech is cut off when I slam the chair across his skull, opening a fissure in his scalp. The sight of his blood sends me leaping at him, tossing the chair to the side. He catches my fist as I attempt to thrust it through his chest. He swipes his nails across my face, laying the skin open. I feel a runner of my own flesh flap against my cheek wetly. With a growl, he grabs me around the waist, flinging me hard against the ground. I see him draw his foot back and roll away a second too late. The kick catches me in the ribs, shattering two of them. I cough painfully. He draws his foot back again, aiming for my face. I catch it before it makes contact, and savagely bite into his ankle. My teeth grind against the bone as I yank at his other leg. He falls backward to the floor. I release my jaws from his leg and pounce on him, straddling him with my hands around his throat. And to my disdain...to my FURY. He laughs at me. His grin is wide, mocking me. "Ha ha ha, oh my monster! My brutal little BEAST! Ha! Ha ha!" I toss my head back and shriek. The sound of it reverberates with madness. I bring my face down to him, meeting his eyes, falling into his mind. I bring forth the deep terrors. All the things he hides from himself, that he thought he could hide from me. I bring horrific memories, screaming to the forefront of his brain. Twisting and gnarling the thoughts into unspeakable horrors. For the first time in the fourteen months I've been trapped with this beast, he is afraid. Terrified. I see it in his eyes and relish it with a smile. My hand flashes to the floor, grabbing one of the branding irons that rolled off the table in our brawl. Still hot, it blisters the skin on my hand before I stab it into each of his wide, aghast eyes. Then, finally...I hear that sound I've yearned for. He screams in agony. Sweet, sweet agony. I only enjoy the music of it for a moment, before clamping my mouth over his and biting away his tongue, his lips. Tearing the skin from his face with my fangs. A throaty, gurgling sound emits from the bleeding hole of his maw. I curl my hands into claws and tear into his chest. I punch and rip, pulling parts from inside him and tossing them aside like garbage. Eventually my fists start scraping the concrete under what used to be his body. I stand up, dripping with his foul effluence. Striding over to the table, I grab the kerosene lamp. I splash the flammable liquid on the walls and the floor, upending the last bit over my maker. Picking up the matchbook from the table, I strike one, casting it onto his body. In moments, the beast is engulfed in flames. Flames that quickly spread along, chasing me to the shelter's door. I pause with my hand on the hatch. Briefly oblivious to the heat scorching my already tender flesh. Eyes closed, I deliberate. Should I stay? Stay and permanently end this? Even if he's dead, he still made me...his monster. My lip lifts in a condescending snarl. NO. "I'll never die for you again." I heave open the door and tread blindly out of my burning prison. When I open my eyes, I'm staring at the moon through a light flurry of snow. I'm out. I'm free. I frown. Not free...but out. LIBERATED! The serene winter's night is ruptured by my delirious laughter, and after awhile the laughter sounds like screaming. Screaming diverting to sobs as I enter the genesis of my new...life.