J. Gonzalez - They

Tracy stepped forward and now she was holding him and he was letting her. His mind wasn’t even registering what he already knew about her, that she wasn’t even human. His senses weren’t even registering the faint scent of brimstone and rot that seemed to permeate from her pores, the heat that radiated from her body as she took him in her arms, pressing him close to her. He didn’t resist as he felt himself lust for her, felt his penis rise to the occasion. He felt another flush of heat rise through his groin as she placed her lips to the cusp of his ear and began to whisper to him, and what she whispered to him was what he’d been thinking for the past week, not seriously, but as a bad joke. It had all seemed like a bad joke back then, even when he’d brought it up to Frank Black. Now the bad joke was not only confirmed as being real, it was real.

“Your mother took you from us,” Tracy whispered, her voice deep and ancient and evil. “We didn’t foresee that; your mother’s state of mind hid that from even Sam. She’d been gone for over a week by the time her husband came home, and by then she’d erased her tracks. They went crazy looking for you—after all, you’re the Dark Prince, the Red Opener, who will allow the Dark Father into this world to reclaim it for us and defeat the lowly prince of hypocrisy. You were our only hope, we couldn’t let Maggie bring us down. Satan promised he would bring you back; as your father, He saw this as an opportunity to expose you to the world, to allow your mind to develop on its own. Sam was wary, but he allowed it. The dark seed was planted inside you, and we knew it would grow, that it would need time to grow, that there was no fertilizer better than His Kingdom, what god gave him when he cast our Father into the pits of hell.”

Samuel Garrison continued. “On your twenty-second year, we conjured a Succubus from bodily fluids that we preserved from some clothes your mother left behind when you fled. She was designed for the purpose of zeroing in on you, and it didn’t take long. She located you here, in Orange County, and we couldn’t have been more delighted.” He laughed; it sounded like hot coals being rustled by a barbecue stick. “I knew then that the Dark Lord had kept his promise; He’d protected you; His guiding hand had led you back to your birthplace.”

“We worked at bringing you back into the fold,” Brian Dennison continued the narrative. Vince felt the walls close in on him as the nightmare unfolded. “Once Diana learned your name, it was easy to find your mother. It turned out that in the end her loyalty to us won out. She could have killed you hundreds of times after she took you, but she didn’t. She let you live because deep down, she knew that this was what her blind, idiot god wanted.”

“No,” Vince said, shaking his head.

“When we found you, I came in to your life and offered you the position at Corporate Financial, which is actually a front company for our global expansion. And through it all we groomed you for your future position as the years went by. Rituals were held, sacrifices made for the Lord of Darkness to protect you and give you strength. You learned fast. Rituals were performed to awaken your memories on your thirty-third birthday, a magical year for us because it coincides with Christ’s thirty-three years on earth. You would achieve magical powers on this year in your life. All that was needed was to bring Diana back in to your life as Tracy. She worked in protecting and guiding you. We knew there might be danger, and there was. Those assassination attempts… you thought that was us ?” Brian shook his head, chuckling, a slight grin on his face. “That was the work of a defector of The Children of the Night, a member who knew of His plans. A renegade Christian cult that thought they could go against their god’s plan by killing the Anti-Christ. What fools!” Brian shrugged, his eyes glimmering. “After introducing Tracy back into your life, it was a simple matter of taking your mother out once and for all and then—”

“But Tracy isn’t even… human!” Vince was confused; his mind was whirling. “How could… I mean… when I met Laura shortly after…”

Brian’s smile faded a little. “We never anticipated that,” he said. “How could we? You were doing so well. Your love for money, for mammon , had been greater than love for your fellow man for so long that when that part of you was awakened by Laura, we knew something had to be done. So,” he shrugged, “it was taken care of.”

The implications of what Brian just said hit him like a ton of bricks. His mind reeled. He blinked back more tears, feeling the fear that had gripped his chest melt into something else, something that grew hot and bubbled to the surface of his psyche as he struggled to contain his emotions. “You…” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “You had her killed ? But she…” he gasped, thinking back on that day when Laura had her accident. “But she… it was an accident ! You mean to tell me you… cursed her somehow? Caused her car to lose control and fly off the road like that?”

“Of course,” Brian said, smiling. His eyes were black pits that reflected the depths of his soul. “What else would you expect us to do?”

The memories he had of Laura, his best friend, the woman who had awakened feelings he never thought he would have, the woman who had made him a man, bubbled to the surface. He experienced a brief epiphany of not only her memories, but what had been lurking in the shadows the entire time he’d been with her; Brian and Kimberly Dennison, their friends, wearing masks of kindness and love all the while secretly plotting Laura’s demise. And all because Vince had allowed Laura into his life, had allowed himself to feel the love of another person. If he hadn’t let Laura into his life she’d still be alive. The pain of her death that had fallen on her parents, her family, her friends, wouldn’t have happened. And as he realized this, the heat that Vince felt bubbling to the surface came pouring out of him. It came out of him like a blinding white-hot miasma, pouring out of him in waves. He let it propel his emotions forward and he screamed in anguish, at the pain he felt over her death. He tipped his head back and screamed in agony and hate, his eyes closed against the world, seeing only red.

“Yes, Andrew,” Samuel Garrison said. His wizened features were wrinkled in triumph. His dark eyes blazed. “Let the anger and the hate pour out of you. Let it be your guide. Let it compel you!”

Vince continued screaming, no longer able to control himself. All he could experience, all he could feel, was the blind hate he now felt. He’d found all of this so unbelievable, so fantastically absurd, that now that it was staring him in the face he couldn’t deal with it. Worse, they’d killed Laura! Why couldn’t they have just…

“We couldn’t have just left her alone, Andrew,” Samuel Garrison said, now joining Tracy at his side. The old man was standing next to him, his face inches from Vince’s. “She was part of it; she was nudged into your life by the Dark Father himself. She was a willing sacrifice and she didn’t even know it. Her death was to prove that what is inside you would come out and it’s coming out just fine now, so let it out. Let the hate and the anger and the rage you feel come out and take over. Let it overwhelm you. And then use it to your advantage; use it to do the bidding that you were born to do!”

His rage and hate was pouring out of him so swiftly, so fiercely, that he didn’t even know he’d so much in him. He felt it invade every pore, every blood vessel, every nook and cranny in his system and it was so overwhelming, all so pervading, that he felt something else enter him. And when he felt it, it seemed like a switch went on in his head and then he felt a sudden surge of power ! And the power he felt was good . It was filling him with something he could only describe as otherworldly, spiritual. And as he screamed in rage and frustration he heard the dim voices of the people in the room as they crowded around him, encouraging him on, chanting beside him. He opened his eyes, not even aware that a spark had lit them, that they now glimmered with something else, something dark and full of rage and purpose. And when they saw it, the people in the room—Gladys and Tom Black, Paul and Opal, his old childhood friend Nellie and her father, Samuel Garrison, Brian and Kimberly Dennison, all of them began chanting.