# The Nightmare: Chapter 9



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

It was around 10 o'clock at night. Alexandrov had gone looking for his wife 12 hours straight, but was so tired that he left the other authorities to keep searching. But he refused to go to sleep. Instead, he sat and prayed.
A few minutes later, his prayer was answered. There was not even a knock on the door, but Natasha had used her own key and stepped right into the room alone.
"Natasha! Where have you been! I've been so worried!" Alexandrov ran to embrace her.
But Natasha pushed him away, and glared at him.
"Only now is it that you missed me? _Only_ now?" she looked very angry.
"What? No! I've been searching for you all day!"
"Why did you not go searching for me yesterday, or the day before, or last week, huh?"
This outburst from his wife shocked him. He had never heard her speak like that to him before. He was speechless.
"You know why you didn't? Because you didn't care then! I could have had anything happen to me these last days, and I bet you wouldn't have noticed. The truth is you don't love me."
Alexandrov's eyes lit up in anger. "That's not true. I've always loved you!"
"You love work! You love your fame and money! That's all you ever care about! You know it to be true, Ivan! And that's why I'm leaving you."
He was speechless again. Guilt and despair drowned his soul.
"Well said, Natasha."
Alexandrov flipped around. A man with blond hair and blue eyes was standing in the door well. The man approached him.
"Who are you? Are you the one who has put all these ideas into her head?"
"No!" said Natasha, "He gave me no new ideas! He only gave me the courage to express them! His name is Sergei, and I love him."
This was unbearable for Alexandrov. He put his face in his hands.
"So, you're the famed Alexandrov, aren't you? The one on this quest to find the answer to this mysterious homicide? I've been following your progression in the news papers."
"I imagine you would."
"I think you are very close to solving the mystery. But I think you yourself have made a wrong turn." Here, Sergei's voice turned very ominous. He glared darkly at Alexandrov.
"What do you mean?"
"It's time for this case to close, Alexandrov. And when I say close, I mean _close_."
At that word, Alexandrov heard a rushing sound through the air. Instinctively he ducked, and a candle stick swiped through the air where his head just was. He turned around and saw Natasha with the weapon.

It all dawned on Alexandrov. It all made sense now. This was a reenactment of what happened to the couple who was murdered. The woman had killed the husband out of revenge. And he knew exactly who was behind it all. The only unfortunate thing he realized now was that he would be the victim in this new revenge killing.

Alexandrov ran up to Natasha and grabbed her hand. He saw the ring with the face.
"YOU!" he yelled turning around to meet Sergei, who was now sneering. "YOU did it! You murdered that couple!"
Sergei scoffed. "Would you really think I would do it? I swear by all in me that I did _not _kill that couple."
"Clever way to escape the question. That's right. You didn't kill the couple. You only killed the _woman_ after you had seduced her to kill her husband. And now you want to get rid of me."
Sergei's eyes flashed. It was all true. Alexandrov looked around at Natasha. She had gone pale.
Sergei sighed. "Well, you are a pretty clever detective. That's what I always thought. But that won't stop me. I'm not afraid of you. Do you know who I am? do you know _what_ I am? Give me that ring."
Alexandrov backed away slowly towards Natasha. She had gone deathly pale, and couldn't say anything, but she still held the candle stick in her hand. He pulled the ring off her finger and gave it to Sergei.
Sergei put it on his finger and raised it so Alexandrov could see.
It turned into a skull.
Sergei began to laugh. Not so friendly anymore though. It was evil.
"You know what this means, don't you?"
"Yes. You are dead."
"Something like that. But not quite... I am an incubus."
"A what?"
There was a bang behind Alexandrov. He turned around to see that Natasha had dropped her candlestick, and had a completely horrified expression.
Sergei smiled at her. "Yes, all your gothic novels taught you something didn't they? Or... perhaps they didn't."
Natasha fled to a corner and began screaming. Sergei walked up to her, and she simply screamed louder.
"You are mine now," he said above her voice, "And you, Alexandrov, can do nothing about it."
Natasha was frozen in fright. Alexandrov wondered if this was from only fear, or was some evil magic working on her. Sergei pulled out a small vial from his jacket. It was the poison.
Alexandrov remembered what it would do.
"NO! Get away from my wife!" he ran to Sergei, and pulled him away from Natasha.
"_Off_ of me!" Sergei resisted with supernatural force. But Alexandrov, in a rush of adrenaline, had become strong too.
They fought each other for a whole minute, giving blows over and over. Suddenly, Sergei pulled out a small dagger: the likely murder weapon. He meant to kill this time, and lunged at Alexandrov, who had no weapon.
Natasha, now that she had woken from her spell, ran behind Sergei, and grabbed his throat. She began to choke him, and held him back.
"_No!_ Get off! You cannot kill me!"
"But I will! You evil creature!"
Alexandrov picked up the candlestick. Sergei had real fear in his eyes.
"No! Mercy! Don't do it!"
"If you're a demon, won't you be indestructible?"
Sergei said nothing. This puzzled Alexandrov.
"You mean...?"
Sergei remained silent.
So Alexandrov beat Sergei on the head, and he fell to the floor unconscious, but not dead.

Immediately Alexandrov called the police who came and put Sergei in handcuffs. When Sergei woke up, he struggled in vain, and gnashed his teeth.
"This isn't fair!"
"What kind of demon are you?" asked Alexandrov. "You are bound by human limitations or something?"
Sergei glared at him. "It was my choice."
"Or, maybe your just a man who's gone mad," Natasha suggested.
"Serial killers are often mentally insane, and imagine themselves as other people," said Alexandrov.
"NO! NO! NO! I'm not mad! I am what I am! AHH!" The police pulled Sergei out to the hall and out of the building.


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