Rob Zombie - Lords of Salem

He had his hands behind his back and seemed lost in thought, his face half frowning. He didn’t seem to notice her.

He was almost past Heidi when she said hello and smiled at him. The priest stopped, startled at first. Slowly, he focused his gaze on her, squinting, almost as if he had difficulty seeing her.

“Why are you here?” he asked, his voice low and hoarse.

“Why am I here?” she asked. Good question, actually, if this was the kind of reception she was going to get. “I don’t know,” she said, straightening a little in the pew. “I was walking by with my dog and I thought I would just come in and sit for a moment. Is that okay? Are you closed?”

“You brought your dog into a house of worship?”

“No, of course not,” said Heidi. “He’s tied up outside.”

The priest nodded in curt acknowledgment. “No, we’re not closed,” he said. “The Lord’s house never closes. God is always open and ready to listen.”

“That’s good to know,” said Heidi. “I’ve been having some problems lately and thought…” She looked up. Something about the way the priest was looking at her bothered her. Fuck it , she thought. “I don’t know what I thought,” she said. “I guess I just needed to sit.”

“Sit,” said the priest. “Hell, don’t mind if I do.” And with that he sat down next to her, close enough that their shoulders rubbed against one another.

Not very priestly language, thought Heidi. She felt crowded and was tempted to move away, but she was worried about offending the man.

“Yes, it is a nice place to just come and sit,” said the priest. He had turned his head toward her and she could feel his breath as he spoke. There was a strange smell to it, like spiced meat. As she watched, she thought she saw a fly slip out of his mouth. I’m still stoned , she told herself. I’m hallucinating. There was no fly.

He reached out and gently placed his hand on her shoulder. Very gently he began to massage her there.

“You’re very tense, my child,” he said.

Another fly slipped out of him, from his nostril this time. I definitely saw that , Heidi thought. It crawled along his lip and over his cheekbone and then burrowed into his ear. The massage was less gentle now. Slowly, he slid his hand up behind her neck. What the hell? she thought.

“Um, yeah,” she said. “I feel better now. I think I should be going.”

His hand paused momentarily on the back of her neck and then gripped it hard. Just when she was about to cry out, he let go. She started to stand but when she did he wound his fingers into her hair and tugged hard, dragged her back down. When she tried to pull away, he sunk his fingers deeper and pulled harder so that her head was being cranked backward over the back edge of the pew, leaving her throat bare and exposed.

“Ow, what the fuck?” she said.

“What the fuck indeed,” said the priest, seemingly unperturbed. He reached out and kissed her on the throat, and then opened his mouth and clamped it around her windpipe. She could feel his teeth exerting pressure, constricting her breathing just slightly. She struggled, but he had, she suddenly realized, shifted his body to pin one of her arms and when she tried to strike him with the other arm he first batted the arm away and then caught her wrist in one thick hand and squeezed. She cried out in pain, and when she did he bit her hard on the throat, hard enough that when his mouth came away there was blood on his lips. He let go of her wrist and began fondling her breasts, knocking her hand back effortlessly when she tried to push him away.

“You have a lot to learn,” he said. “And I’m going to teach it to you.”

“Let go of me!” she yelled.

But he did not let go. Instead, he brought himself a little closer, looming over her. When he spoke, his voice was strangely flat and calm, perfectly cold, which frightened her more than if he’d been shrieking at her. “You have to understand there is a war waging in Heaven,” he said. “Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his serpents. But God does not spare angels when they sin. He sends them to Hell.”

She heard the sound of him unzipping his fly. Suddenly the hand that had been pulling her head back pushed it forward hard, nearly bending her double and forcing her facedown into the priest’s lap. She felt his cock slide against her cheek, warm and semitumescent and smelling of standing water and oil.

“You are a filthy whore of Satan,” he claimed. “Christ cannot save you. Only I can save you.” His voice had begun to change, becoming harsher and deeper, and he had begun to lose his composure now. His breathing was growing more and more heavy. He shifted his hips and forced himself into her mouth, pulling hard on her hair when at first she refused to open.

“You must no longer offer worship and sacrifice to the goat idols to whom you prostitute yourself,” he was saying.

He forced her head up and down. She choked and tried not to gag and wished for it all to be over. He began to moan, and she felt his thighs begin to tense. She felt humiliated, but quickly the humiliation shifted to anger. Rage filled her. She tightened her mouth and bit down until her teeth were tearing into the flesh of his cock and her mouth tasted of blood. But the priest, rather than protesting or hitting her, seemed to enjoy it. She tried to get her hand that was trapped behind his body free but it was wedged too firmly. She tried to strike him with her other hand but bent over like that, it was all but impossible. He just laughed.

He was panting heavily now, his hips bucking as he forced himself farther down her throat. “You must,” he said, “understand what the Lord… has done for you… and how… he has supreme… dominion… over your soul.”

Suddenly he gave a scream and Heidi expected him to come, but nothing happened. Instead, she felt something wet on the back of her head and neck and he let go. She pulled her head back quickly, saw that his eyes had rolled up into his head. From his mouth spurted a black, viscous ichor, spraying into her mouth and eyes as she tried desperately to get away.

She woke up suddenly, feeling someone shaking her. She raised her hands to defend herself before realizing it was a priest.

“Miss… wake up,” he said. “Wake up.”

She looked at him in horror. He was the same priest as in her dream, though the lines of his face were different, softer, his expression anything but cruel.

“I believe you fell asleep,” he said, leaving his hand on her shoulder. “I’m afraid you must have been having some kind of nightmare. You kept calling out. I felt it my duty to awaken you.”

Heidi rubbed her face with her hands. “Oh, sorry,” she said. “I, um… I gotta go.”

“Are you all right?” he asked. “Do you need someone to talk to? God is always open and ready to listen.”

Hearing the same words as in her dream, she recoiled and pushed his hand away. He hovered there at the end of the pew, confused. “No,” she said. “I’m just fine.” Quickly she gathered herself together, pushed past the priest, and fled the church.

Steve had managed to get himself tangled and could hardly move. How long had she been asleep in there? Fuck, she was going to be late for work if she wasn’t careful. It never seemed to stop. Hands shaking, she untangled Steve and the two of them started quickly off and away.

She couldn’t stop herself from casting a glance back over her shoulder. She expected to see the priest standing by the open doors, but he wasn’t there. Instead, there were the two old nuns just standing motionless, watching her.

It’s like the whole world is out to get me , thought Heidi, and then, No, that’s just the joint making me paranoid .