Hell House

By Erin Lee and Olivia Marie

He was never satisfied. Kill after kill only suppressed the urges. He thought coming up with new ways to hurt them would help, but each release lasted less than the last.
Until he saw her.
She was perfect and she would be the one that would set him free.

She had her whole life in front of her but couldn't see that it was worth living.
When she found herself stuck in the house of a thousand hells, it was up to her to fight for her life and see it was worth living for.

But nobody had ever made it out alive and he wasn't going to let her be the first.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Crazy Ink
• Release date: Sep 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201455682

Erin Lee

Erin Lee lives in Queensland, Australia and has been working with children for over 25 years. She has worked in both long day care and primary school settings and has a passion for inclusive education and helping all children find joy in learning. Erin has three children of her own and says they have helped contribute ideas and themes towards her quirky writing style. Her experience working in the classroom has motivated her to write books that bring joy to little readers, but also resource educators to help teach fundamental skills to children, such as being safe, respectful learners.

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Text Description automatically generated with low confidenceCat staring at shadow

Dedications

Erin Lee

For every victim of yourself.

Live with it or die from it.

Better yet – save yourself and change.

Also, for any best friend who’d ask how big his dick was. They are the true keepers.

Olivia Marie

To the one person who never gave up on me and taught me that I was worth it, thank you. You are the best friend I’ve ever had. Everyone should have that once in their lives.

CHAPTER ONE

Dan

H ey Danny, wait up , Steve yelled after me.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. If I didn’t turn around, hopefully he would stop calling me and let me go. He was the biggest slob I'd ever seen and I’d been around my share of slobs. The stain on his shirt from lunch was still on there, hiding behind the mess he called a beard. Smeared from his big belly hitting the greasy old car all day, it looked like a swatch of blood, like the hot dogs he ate that day bled out all over him.

It made me want to get home faster.

Danny, he yelled again.

Dan, I replied through my teeth.

That sounds so stuffy, he whined.

Steve’s voice sounded like he never fully made it through puberty. It screeched and jumped all over the place. When he talked, I wanted nothing more than to rip out his vocal cords and strangle him with them. I even dreamt about it a few times. Those were the dreams I never liked to wake up from.

What are you smiling about? he asked, pulling me back into the moment.

Nothing. What do you want? I have to go.

Going to the strip club tonight. Wanna come? He danced around when he asked like one of the bitches he was about to go watch would. Any moron that found that entertaining needed to be taken out, but he wasn’t the one I wanted.

No.

Aw, man. Come on. You never go with us, he whined.

I have better things to do than watch a bunch of sluts wiggle their asses on some stage. See you Monday, Steve.

"Whatever. You’re weird, Danny," he spit out.

I waved him off and raced to my car. Once the door was shut, I took a deep breath, fixed my hair in my rearview mirror and started the ignition. I had done nothing but think about her all day and it was time to show her how much she meant to me. I would make her famous forever and that was the best gift any woman could get. Soon she would join the others and I couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when I told her what her future held for her.

Traffic was horrible and it took me an extra twenty minutes to get to the house. I had the door open and was half out before I even put the car in park. All I thought about that whole day was my little cougar in the basement.

Man, she was a looker too. Her light brown hair that curled around her perfectly made-up face and the way it rested gently on her shoulders got me going every time I looked at her. Then there were her eyes. I loved blue eyes the best, but her chocolate brown doe eyes had me hooked.

I tried to fatten her up since she came to me, but that wasn’t easy to do. Bulimia was a real thing and the poor creature had it. She threw up everything I gave her, and it was sad. I worked so hard to make her the foods I knew cougars ate. I did my research and even found people who would sell me the meat she would need on the web. I even gave her a few of the bones to chew on because they said it was good for her teeth. She wouldn’t touch them and after the second day of her rejecting all the things I’d done for her, I lost it. She didn’t want to chew on the bones, then I made her.

I had to put my hand down my pants and calm myself. Thinking about the way she looked with the bone sticking out of her mouth and the blood dripping from the corners had me going so bad, I wasn’t sure I could make it down the steps to her without handling things myself first. I didn’t want her to think I was a minute man, so I would have to take a minor detour to my room first. A few minutes later I was back on my way to the basement. My wild cat had waited long enough.

Here cougar. Come out and see me. I want to play with you, and I brought you dinner, I said softly as I finished with the three locks on the door that kept my pets safe.

Please, go away, I heard her sob. Her voice wasn’t as strong as it was the first few days I had her. I missed the strong wildcat I had gotten. The one in front of me was weak and I hated weak.

Now, now. That isn’t very nice, is it? I go out of my way for you and that is what you have to say to me? I love you. Don’t you love me back?

No, she said and spat in my direction. She was lunging as far as her chain would let her and, while it annoyed me that she was so unappreciative, it also turned me on.

I know what will make you happier.

I turned around and looked at the table laid out in the corner. I had all the things on there I needed to tame a wild one like her. She would learn quicker than the last pet I had; I was sure of that.

The teddy bear I had before her, that one wouldn’t learn no matter what I did to help her. She made me so sad because I really liked that one. She was a chocolate bear and she tasted as sweet as honey. But she was mean in so many ways and when she tried to bite off my dick, that was when I had to put her down.

I turned back to my little wildcat and brought the stick with the metal hooks on it closer to her. She was so small,  curled up in a ball naked on the cold floor. I almost stopped because of how pathetic she looked, but she needed to be put in her place and I was horny.

Taking the stick, I shoved that up her butt as I got ready to enter her. Her screams of agony only turned me on more. The timing was perfect. She begged and begged for me to stop the whole time I was going and as soon as I was done, she was silent again. That was the one thing that made me want to keep her. She knew what I needed and when. If I could get her to stop being so stubborn and rude, she might be the perfect pet.

Cougar?

I shook her gently at first but when she wasn’t responding, I shook harder. Her head rolled side to side as I tried to get her to answer me. I looked down to see the pool of blood leaving her body from where I had jabbed her with the iron stick. I reached my hand down and smeared it across the floor. It was beautiful. I drew her a picture with it so when she woke up, she had something pretty to see.

I’ll be back later to check on you, I whispered in her ear before kissing her cheek. She felt cool to me, but it wasn’t as warm out as it had been earlier in the week and the basement reflected that.

I tossed her dinner at her feet before making my way back up the stairs to cook my own food. Playing with my pets always made me hungry and seeing all her blood on the floor had me craving a steak very rare.

I went back down to my wildcat after dishes were put away and I had taken my shower. She was in the same spot she had been in when I left her a few hours before.

Dammit, I hissed. They are all weak. Not one of my pets lived long. Why do you let me get attached to you if you are all going to leave me in the end? Selfish, stupid, rude cougar.

I took her head in my hands and hit it against the floor. The first thud was the best sound I’d heard in months. As her skull cracked and blood began to pool at my feet, the wet smacks were even better. I hit her head over and over until my arms hurt. She was the one that was going to fix me, and she let me down.

I sat by her lifeless corpse and pulled my legs into my chest. Rocking myself back and forth next to her, I sobbed at the loss of another pet. The feeling of being hollow inside was creeping back in. I was alone again, and it was worse than all the times my momma would lock me away while she went out to sleep with the next man she would let rock her world. I hated that feeling and I refused to let it stick with me for long.

Luckily for me, I wouldn’t have to wait long.

It was the next day and I had to get groceries. It wasn’t my favorite thing to do, but I didn’t mind cooking. I was paying for the things I needed for the week when she walked by the big windows. She was perfect.

I threw the money at the cashier and took my cart out to the lot. My car was on the other side, but I had to follow her. She would be the one that would save me. I knew it in my heart. She was the most perfect thing I’d ever seen, and I had to make her mine. The little kitty cat had to come home.

I watched her move like a graceful creature. She looked sweet, innocent and kind. She would know how to take care of me and give me what I wanted when I wanted it. She would be the piece I was missing and because of her, I would be whole again. I knew it. I could feel it.

I followed her for a while. Her hair caught in the sunlight and the golden waves bounced with every step. She had a small frame but looked healthy. I knew I would be at least a foot taller than her and that was perfect. No woman should be over five and a half feet in my opinion. Any taller wasn’t a woman, but an Amazon creature. She couldn’t have weighed more than a hundred pounds and would make making love so right. I could feel my hands around her waist and her body bouncing up and down on me. I could imagine how wet and warm she would be on the inside, and I knew I had to have her.

Then she turned around.

Her face was like she had been sculpted from God himself. She was so pale and pure like she hadn’t had anything ever ruin her perfection. Her lips were so full and red that they almost looked like she’d dipped them in blood before leaving her house. The part I loved the most about that was because she was beautiful, no one would’ve ever questioned what she used to make them so red.

Then there were her eyes. She had the most piercing blue eyes I’d ever seen. I could’ve looked into them forever.

Charlotte, are you ready?

Another girl approached her, and she turned to smile at her. She wasn’t nearly as beautiful as the one I would make mine, but it also showed me that she could care about other things than just her looks.

Yep. I just have to load this in the car, and we can head to the park, my creature said back.

There was only one park around, so I knew right where she was heading. I raced back to my car and loaded the food I’d bought in the back. It would have to wait to be put away. I had to follow her. I had to get to know her. I had to make her mine.

CHAPTER TWO

Charlotte

It hadn’t been my idea to start our walks at the park. But Brooke wasn’t exactly someone I could say no to. Persistent and generally annoying, she was also my best friend since the second grade and I’d never really been able to turn her away for long. Even during our college years, she always managed to find her way to my dorm room or couch on long breaks and somehow, against my better judgement, we’d spend nights drunk on cheap wine and dizzy off a shared blunt. Long ago, I’d accepted that Brooke was basically in charge.

If she wanted to lose weight, well, it wasn’t like walking would do me much harm. Besides, I wanted to tell her about Tom. For once, I was the one with news of my own. There was a part of me, of course, that wanted to keep Tom to myself. Only a few weeks in, it was hard to say for sure that he was the one but there was something in my gut telling me he was different. If I kept it from her, she’d find out. She’d already asked three times why I was suddenly wearing lipstick and if they’d changed the school dress code. She’d figure it out sooner or later.

Pulling my laces tight, I glanced at my iWatch to be sure I had the steps checker on and wondered if I’d have time later to finish grading papers before meeting up with Tom. Always conscientious about my job as Memorial Elementary’s remedial reading and English teacher, I certainly didn’t want to let anyone down but I didn’t want to be a shit friend either. If only there were more hours in a day.

It was ironic I was even worried about what Brooke might say if I went missing for Tom. More than once she’d disappeared into one relationship or another and I’d been there to pick up the pieces every time they cheated or the other way around. It wasn’t like I had anything to prove or that I owed her, either.

Ready? she asked, pulling her thick hair into a ponytail. Kind of chilly today.

Yeah, I said, not that I’d noticed. I was good with cooler temperatures after spending my undergrad years in New York City. Brooke, who’d gone to college even further south, called anything under seventy degrees winter. But that was no surprise. We were opposites in exactly every way.

Smiling up at her, I used my hip to slam my driver’s door shut and hit the automatic lock button on my car. Looking over my shoulder, I couldn’t help but stare at a pair of squirrels and regret that I’d forgotten to pick up another bag of unsalted nuts.

Brooke, who detested exercise the same way I did her ex, was already ten feet ahead of me as I jogged to catch up. It wasn’t that she was in a rush to make our six loops around Jenson Park. It was that she wanted it over with. We’d made this journey enough times before for me to know that she’d be the one behind by the second loop. I’d spend the last four cheering her own and telling her she could do it.

And the same way she hadn’t wasted time on the walk, she didn’t mince words when I finally caught up. You gonna tell me or should I guess? I could play dumb and act like I haven’t noticed. Who is he?

Rolling my eyes, I humored myself with one last perusal of my options. I could lie to her – which wouldn’t work. I could be vague about it only for her to riddle me with a million more questions until I finally fessed up. Or, I could do what I always did and just hand it to her.

Fine. His name is Tom.

I didn’t bother asking her how she knew. It didn’t matter anymore than the fact that she did.

Mmmm hmmm.

We met at a parent-teacher conference.

Grinning, I wasn’t shocked when that one sentence alone stopped her mid step. I kept walking anyway. Wait. A student?

Student’s parent. Big difference. I certainly wasn’t dating nine-year-old Hayden LeDoux. His father? Well. I hoped it was official.

Jesus.

"Oh, come on. It’s not that scandalous. It’s not even against the rules." Promising myself that I didn’t need her approval and reminding myself, too, that I was talking to someone who’d made her way through school as a private escort, I intended to stand my ground. For once, I wasn’t going to let Brooke talk me out of something I was sure of. Other than Hayden’s mom, it wasn’t like I had many real concerns. Besides, I refused to be like Brooke and spend my life juggling a harem. I knew