Darkroom Saga Omnibus 1

by Poppet

  “To find the button that makes all the doors open at the same time. It's time we got the hell out of Dodge.”

  ~ Chapter 29 ~

  When one snake dies

  a worse one comes to takes its place

  ~ Isaiah 14:29

  66: Evan:

  Bounding up the stairs, the fear of discovery comes on strong.

  He's got connections old John the Revelator does. God, for one. I do not plan on meeting god again. I need to get the fuck out of this sanitarium!

  Running into the place he goes to hide, I spot a board of buttons and rush over, pressing them all.

  Andrew sprints into John's quarters, lifting a gun off the desk at the door. Moving like the fury of a tornado, he stands behind me, watching the screens, “The doors are open.”

  “Right,” I nod, not hesitating, shoving his shoulder to pitch him at the doorway, “We need to get the hell out. Now!”

  I'm operating on the fumes of panic, the two of us charging flat out to the doors one level down, and I shout to them, “You guys each grab a chick! Jerry take number 9, she's the smallest. I'll carry the heaviest. We need to make a break for it before...”

  I leave my fears unvoiced.

  Call me superstitious.

  I run into the room of 14, ordering, “Just cover yourself with your blanket. We're escaping. Run for your fucking life woman!”

  Andrew has number 3 slung over his shoulder fireman style, barking at me, “There's another one. But she's in bandages and plaster. There's no way we can carry her out.”

  Impatient, dread taking root in my adrenal glands, I snatch the blond and sling her over my shoulder, running back out the door, panting at Andrew, “We'll call 911. The medics can move her. I have a really bad vibe. We need to haul ass! Asap!”

  What a pathetic sight we must look, three dudes in dirty boxers carrying women wrapped in fleece blankets - wearing nylon undies; split, broken, swollen, sweating, filthy, reeking of fear and abuse.

  Bashing in alarmed cacophony down the stairs, we sprint for the doors, bursting through them, the smell of clean air wafting in cold from beneath the set of doors at the end of the polished hallway.

  I can smell freedom, it's so close my heart feels like it's on the wrong side of my ribcage, the trembling is beginning to seize my muscles. Shifting the deadweight on my shoulder, I put my head down and charge like hellhounds are behind me, our bare feet squeaking on the floor, the smell of antiseptic harsh down here, the brisk air biting into exposed flesh.

  My cuts are beginning to sting, but I don't care, the doors are three steps away when the sound of thunder bombs the passage.

  Squealing to a halt with soles on polished tile, I look up, pausing a nanosecond, wondering if that was a detonation to collapse this fucking hell down on our heads.

  The tinny sound of the speakers coming to life ices my blood, making me mildly dizzy.

  “The lord your god sees all that you do. You cannot hide your sins from him.”

  Wild eyed, I look at Jerry and Andrew.

  Fuck it, I'm going for those doors before it's too fucking late.

  Bursting into speed, I aim my shoulder to slam into the door, to bust it wide, to finish this, when the high pitched shriek of unoiled metal slices my nerves, severing my focus, and I halt just before the spikes would have impaled the top of my head.

  “Fuuuuuuccccccck!” I bellow, cracking.

  I can't take any more! I can't!

  Dropping the chick, I square off, facing the cage dropped upon us, shouting up, “Come down here you fucking asshole! Come and face me like a man! Lunatic!”

  There's a low chuckle, before his deranged voice echoes down the passage through archaic speakers, “You have two choices. Beg forgiveness, be exorcised of your evil once and for all, crawl for my mercy. Or. You can kill each other the way you just murdered my son.”

  Andrew has John's gun in his hand, when god says, “God will put his angels in charge of you ~ Psalms 91:11.”

  Sagging weakly against the bars, disbelief wars with reason. This isn't happening.

  I can't.

  I can't do this again.

  Jerry squeaks in a cracking baritone, “That angel of chaos! He's coming. He's going to be in charge.”

  Andrew's sweating, swallowing convulsively, shaking his head, “No more angels. No more....”

  The rusty haired chick with number 9 branded on her arm wails with such grief and sorrow it slices my soul clean in half, “Nooooooo! He... god pleeease! He cut me open from the inside! He made me pass out with his cock in my mouth! I had a concussion for days, spots in my eyes, and he promised he'd blind me next time. He's going to kill us all anyway!”

  Throwing herself at Andrew, she begs him, on her knees, “Kill me. Please!”

  Andrew looks at me, helpless, the dilemma we have before us clear as salvation and sin.

  We either kill each other right here, right now, or we live the hell all over again, knowing that after all the suffering and humiliation, we'll die anyway.

  Number 14 stays silent, sitting on the floor, staring uncaring at the ceiling.

  She's a shell. There's nothing left there to save. Her mind has been so broken, her body ravaged and savaged, the scars standing up on her flesh in grotesque relief, that I know that's our fate.

  By the time he's done with us we'll be praying for death.

  The redhead is wailing, her voice harsh with hysteria.

  Jerry sits down when his legs fold, as if unexpected. It's sudden, and he looks up at me with horror in his eyes. “We became the monsters. We're no better than them.”

  Looking at the gun, then at the six of us, we're stuck in one diabolical dilemma.

  This is the beginning, and it is the end.

  It's the end, and it's the beginning.

  The alpha and omega is a cycle, he's going to plant us all over again unless we plant metal slugs in our brains.

  God has the final say when he hisses spitefully, “When one snake dies, a worse one comes to takes its place.”

  The radio static ceases with a sharp click, silencing the speakers. Sunshine peeks a slither of light under the door, beyond the impregnable bars. Air breezes through the gap beneath; fresh, soft, a balm on my abused skin.

  Freedom taunts. It's so close I'm tempted to lay down on the floor and stare through that tiny gap to the daylight and autonomy outside. That's my natural habitat and it devastates my composure to be this close – to be this far.

  Looking at Andrew, I know we have no choice. Free will was a sham anyhow. We're a microcosm experiment of the macrocosm we took for granted out there in the world. He's made his point. Freedom is an illusion. Out there or in here, we're slaves to someone else's rules, to their beliefs, to their laws, whether we agree with them or not.

  The only real freedom, is death.

  THE END

  He will grow strong – but not by his own power.

  He will cause terrible destruction and be successful in everything he does ~ Daniel 8:24

  Sincere regards

  Your smiting god

  MemSamechVau ••

  a.k.a. The Beast

  a.k.a Molech (and his band of Rephaim)

  It was not to me that you slaughtered and sacrificed animals

  for forty years in the desert. It was the tent of the god Molech and the image of Rephan, your star god.

  ~ Acts 7:42

  •• See Poppet's comment

  Acknowledgements

  An enormous thank you to the psycho band The Vodun Haunts for permission to use the photo of their lead singer Le Riche Meyer on the cover of our novel Satanarium. Thank you to all the band members who were an absolute dream to work with, thank you guys!

  I'd also like to thank my co-author Troy Lambert. He brought some truly inspired scenes to our diabolical tale. Thank you Troy!

  About The Vodun Haunts

  The Vodun Haunts is a five piece psycho band from Cape Town, formed in April 2012. They have
been quick to rise to the occasion and have performed to well-attended audiences alongside some of South Africa’s top artists since October 2012. The combination of an upright bass, two guitars, vocals and drums, is what is needed to unleash the Vodun Haunts’ heavy, progressive and intense sound.

  Musically, the Vodun Haunts write well planned chord progressions with catchy key changes, builds, and mind blowing solos. The lyrical content is often inspired by the true horrors that headline our daily South African newspapers. Songs such as Muti, Devil’s Valley, Moonrising and Feelings of Murder show the Vodun Haunts’ ability to embrace South Africa’s more sinister side. Their professional event planning and design has created relative success for the Vodun Haunts in leading a rock ‘n fucking roll revolution.

  End Note:

  From Poppet:

  Okay... you want to know about the elusive ••. Here it is:

  •• Using the priestly Hebrew alphabet (gematria), the name of the beast is: 600: Mem 60: Samech 6: Vau

  John originally wrote this number out longhand as

  Six hundred, and sixty, and six

  (600: Mem 60: Samech 6: Vau)

  (You can thank the cunning editors of misdirection for abbreviating it for you to 666)

  I remind you John also said:

  Whoever is intelligent can work out the meaning of the number of the beast, because his number stands for a man's name. [Revelation 13:18]

  The Douay Rheims bible states it as thus:

  Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding, let him count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man:

  It must surely piss off a few sanctimonious men that a female author decided to decipher this for you and put it in a book – published for public consumption for an audience of philistines*.

  The clue to deciphering John's work are the words that come from the Tree of Life (The Kabbalah). When he makes an announcement before a revelation, using one of the key names from the Kabbalah, then he expects you, you person of profound intelligence, to remember he was from a priestly family, he was schooled as such and had authority as a rabbi. He knew their teachings intricately and when he uses keywords like crown, understanding, wisdom (the top 3 circles on the Tree of Life), then only their teachings (holy (priest) alphabet / Kabbalah) will explain the passage to you and give you the answer to his 'revelation'.

  (*philistine means non-believer)

  A final word from Poppet on the contents of Satanarium:

  The bible advocates pain. It enables savages, and in the hands of a psychopath it is the authority to beat women and children, to rape, to commit genocide, to murder your children in the name of religious devotion, to desecrate all female equality (destroying everything dedicated to Asherah (the god that women loved Daniel 11:31)* ; to put to death anyone who goes against the laws set out in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. It's homophobic, racist, it sanctions cold blooded murder of men, women and children; the raping and abduction of virgins; slavery, subjugation, and it's sexist. It's continuously quoted out of context, and when it suits folks it's 'metaphorical', and when it suits folks, it's 'literal'. Well which is it? It's the literal that is used to persecute which is why in this novel every sentence is used literally.

  You may consider my writing blasphemy, but I can tell you I don't care. I find those who adhere to these practices (and religion) abhorrent and you are an abomination to me. To those of you who wish to rebuke me for my vocal opposition to your god of savagery and bloodlust - I quote this for you: where there is no law, no account is kept of sins... Romans 5:13 / God did not keep an account of their sins, and he has given us the message which tells how he makes them his friends - 2 Corinthians 5:19

  So keep your laws for yourselves and leave the rest of us happily out of your antiquated allegiance to the god of fire and sacrifice (Acts 7:42). We do not require saving, you do (because you worship Molech, and a disciple gave you that information and he was murdered. Acts 7 verse 51. "How stubborn you are!" Stephen went on to say. "How heathen your hearts, how deaf you are to God's message! You are just like your ancestors, you too have always resisted the Holy Spirit! Was there any prophet that your ancestors did not persecute? They killed God's messengers...).

  And as a female writer who chooses to write books like this to expose the hypocrisy and the violence of the 'word of god' - let me remind you that Lilith was innocent of all sin, as was Eve: Adam divorced Lilith• because she refused to be dominated by him during intercourse, and 'god' couldn't force her because she had free will and was free of 'sin'. (So he made a new wife for his domineering male creation, named Eve.)

  (Read the Hebrew version of the OT for confirmation • explained in depth in The Legends of the Bible – compiled from private libraries of original documents of Hebrew history, by Louis Ginzberg – it's an illuminating read which includes exposing the angels as guilty of a lot of bad shit.)

  And even your bible states Eve is innocent of wrongdoing:

  Sin came into this world through one man, and his sin brought death with it. ... death ruled over mankind, even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam did when HE disobeyed God's command. It is true that through the sin of one man death began to rule because of that one man. Just as all people were made sinners as the result of the disobedience of one man... Romans 5:12. / Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me. Isaiah 43:27.

  (I've double checked this against a multitude of bible imprints, from King James to the Douay Rheims bible, they all name Adam as the first sinner. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, you quoters of (the self ordained disciple) Paul.)

  Hebrews 8:7 If there had been nothing wrong with the old covenant, there would have been no need for a second one. 13: By speaking of a new covenant, God has made the first one old; and anything that becomes old and worn out will soon disappear.

  So keep using the old testament to justify your hatred. Your own god doesn't sanction your prejudice – he has 'done away with it'. By nullifying the first laws by creating a second agreement (summed up 'love your neighbor and treat him as if he was you' be s/he gay, black, muslim, atheist, tattooed, long haired, sleep with their wives during the dreaded bipolar season of her cycle... et al) – that means every law that bashes same sex relations, that says sex is restricted, etc etc... well sorry that law no longer applies. The entire OT no longer applies (by the words in your own bible quoted above). Don't use a book to justify your prejudice and narrow-mindedness if you haven't read it in its entirety – because you make you and your religion hypocritical disgraces. The root of your bias has been disregarded in your own book.

  Fyi asherah means 'hostage' (it comes from the word aseerah). The bible disrespects this female god by referring to her by the title 'hostage', rarely giving you her name. She is actually the goddess Tiamat, (and it's at her prehistoric temple on the island of Malta that the Templar Knights built their home base.) After the crushing of all her temples her name is wiped from public record – and I assume she was taken captive (hostage / prisoner) by the smiting egomaniac an entire religion is founded after (as he refers to her as 'hostage' whenever her temples are mentioned, or her alliance with Baal). 'God' is the one who calls her Asherah, and pottery excavated claims she is his concubine. Nice one god, nice one (he abducted for himself a vessel for his libido – leading through example eh). At least he signed his pottery 'YHWH and his asherah'. (You can Google that)

  Another point of interest for you, the top three circles of the tree of life in the Kabbalah create a holy trinity, a triangle. They are: the top point – crown (keter), the left circle beneath this is understanding (binah), and the right is wisdom (chokmah). (John's keywords).

  This is a Hebrew belief system only practiced by wise men in the priesthood. Some gnostic gospels have a name for Wisdom (it's Sophia – and gnostic means 'spiritual knowledge'). Sophia means wisdom, and her hebrew meaning is 'consciousness' – it is the part of you that communes with a super conscious (your spirit / th
e holy spirit)– without it you'd be dead. That means that one of the trinity is female.

  The way wisdom and understanding work is that you can't have one without the other. So for every church that teaches you that there is no female in the trinity – I hate to burst their bubble but 'the holy spirit' would be the female, kept inside the holy of holies with the lily which represents Lili-th (created on the second day. When god called forth the light from heaven – created before humans). And when Immanuel (aka Jesus) tore the curtain to the holy of holies, this is the big secret he was exposing – in the center of every temple, the holiest place within it, is the female kept hidden from the public. Without the female there is no redemption or salvation. And he warned – whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will be damned. That means every church on earth which doesn't glorify the female role in the holy trinity blasphemes – and is damned. They teach you it's all male, and I sure hope there is a sheol where they can go to suffer. (Woe to you, experts in the Mosaic Law! For you have taken away the key to knowledge; you did not go in yourselves, and you hindered and prevented those who were entering – Luke 11:52)

  But hey, it's your belief system, not mine. You'll find out when you die if this snippet of 'wisdom' could have saved your sorry ass. 'God said, Let Us make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness.' And oh look, they made them male and female. Rationalize that!