The music, he usually played loudly, faded to static. He turned the knob, but every channel he came to played the vibrating hum. Twisting it again, tuned the radio to choir music. He wrinkled his nose and gave the knob another twist.
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me!” a man shrilled.
Again he turned the knob, finding silence, not even the hissing sound of static. He pushed the button turning it off. “It’s silence then,” he said, thinking how strange it was the only channels coming in were ‘God’ channels.
A woman wearing a skintight, maroon dress stood in the crosswalk at the median. Slowing, he glanced at her, hoping she didn’t move. He squinted in confusion; her facial features were blurry as though they were obscured behind a rain-streaked window. His car’s illuminated dashboard brightened, flashed, dimmed, went to normal intensity, and then went out. The car sputtered and jerked.
“Are you fucking kidding me!?” he said, turning the steering wheel with all his strength, and willing gravity to have enough force to move the car to the curb safely. The car stopped farther out in the street than he preferred. “Dammit!” He pounded the wheel.
Repeated attempts to start the car were futile. Every time he turned the key, the vehicle clicked. In his frustration, he didn’t see the strange woman cross the street, and creep toward him.
He popped the hood, knowing he had no idea of what to look for. Turning away from the car, he called roadside assistance on his cellphone. The woman came closer, but he paid her no attention.
Cody stepped back on the curb. The woman leaned through the open window of his car, one hand supported on the door, the other dangling at her side. Cody’s attention snapped toward her as she stood.
“Hey!” he yelled. She walked away from him. “What were you doing in my car?” he demanded, but she continued on her way. “Did you steal something?” He looked through the open window, seeing his sunglasses and silver laptop bag on the seat.
She stopped abruptly, body shaking as though she were laughing, but no sound came from her. Steadily, she turned toward him.
“Fuck!” he yelled and stumbled back.
While this creature wore a dress, he wasn’t sure female was the sex. Dark, jagged hair hung chin length around its head. The body was broad, not fat, but not muscular either. Where breasts should be, were lumpen masses. The torso bulged down to the groin in a teardrop shape, filling in the hips and butt perversely. Its legs were thin and stick-like, as were its arms. The fingers at the ends of its hands were long with pointed nails. The skin covering its body was as tight as the dress, and a strange yellowish-cocoa color. Its face was the most disturbing thing Cody had ever seen. The eyes below a high forehead were black in the narrow sockets. Its nose was wide from the bridge down to its flat end above full, red lips.
“I fixed it, fool,” it said with a raspy, breathy voice. “No thanks needed, but you owe me now.”
Cody glanced at his car purring softly, and music spilling through the open windows. In the few seconds of him assessing his vehicle, the creature had disappeared. His head spun, looking for it, but there was no trace of its presence. He closed the hood, still searching for whatever it was, then drove the rest of the way to work.
Chapter Six
Having confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say.
Philemon 1:21, KJV
Tyler froze in mid-step, glancing around. He swore someone had called his name. Finding no one, he made his way into the high-rise, looking over his shoulder as he crossed the threshold. The elevator door slid open, and as he was stepping inside, he again heard someone calling his name. He scanned the lobby, finding the black-coated, security guard standing behind the desk, but no one else. On the street, people walked to their destinations, but no one he recognized. However, he didn’t notice the tall, thin man standing to the side of the glass doors watching him intently.
He pressed the button marked ‘14’ and shook his head without realizing he’d forgotten the discombobulated feeling of thinking he heard his name being called, as the doors closed with a soft thump. Watching the floor numbers light, then blink out, he wondered why designers still skipped ‘13’. After all, the fourteenth floor was technically still the thirteenth floor. “Silly superstitions,” he mumbled as the door opened to the seventh floor.
A lanky, pale man joined him in the elevator but didn’t push a button to a different floor. Tyler assessed the man, as he often did; even at thirty, his insecurities forced him. The man was tall and thin, so what, Tyler might be short, but he made up for it in muscle, and he had nice dark-brown hair. Why do men think a shaved head is a hairstyle? He thought with a smirk. I win! Tyler wanted to laugh but held back. To his rescue, the doors slid open to the fourteenth floor, and he stepped out into the bright, sterile lobby.
“This is for you,” the man in the elevator said, holding out a business card.
“What?” Tyler asked, turning back to the man, who held the door open. He saw the card in his hand, and said, “No, thank you.”
The elevator buzzed in contempt with being held open.
“You really need it,” the man said with a familiar drawl.
“Do I know you?” Tyler looked the man over, trying to place him, and finding a strange familiarity in his taut cheeks. If the man hadn’t worn sunglasses, Tyler might have been able to recognize him.
“You might. Please take my card. It is important.”
Tyler reached for the card, then pulled his hand partially away, as though it were hot. He glanced from the card to the stranger. Seeing the determination in the man, he took the card, and said, “Thanks?”
The man pulled his other hand away from the elevator door, allowing it to close. Tyler examined the card. In bold dark letters, a phone number was printed. He flipped the card over, then back to the printed side.
“Whatcha got?” a pleasing, familiar voice said beside him.
He glanced to his right to see Jen; the woman he had a secret crush, or at least he thought it was secret. She was everything he dreamed about. Her curves were as enticing as the piercing green eyes she hid behind thick, black-framed glasses. He loved watching her twist her long, auburn hair when she didn’t know he was watching her.
“Not sure,” he said, staring intently on her. “Strangest marketing technique ever, I think.”
“What do you mean?” she asked as they walked down the down to the last door on the right.
“Guy gets on the elevator, doesn’t say anything, and then when I get off, tells me I need it.”
Jen laughed, entering the office while he held the door. Tyler glanced down the hall with a shudder before following her inside as he dropped the card in the waste bin near the door. The card landed face down inside. Flickering fluorescent lights found its dull surface. The thirty-one-digit number hidden in the card’s watermark stood out clearly to the lights and ceiling looking into the bin.
Tyler had lost his concentration. The strange encounter with the man in the elevator haunted him. Abruptly, he stood and hurried through the field of cubicles to the front door. What if it were the chance of a lifetime and I threw it away? He fretted, standing over the waste bin, hoping the trash hadn’t been emptied.
Discouraged, he removed empty soda cans, candy wrappers, and an uneaten sandwich squashed in a bag with cigarette butts. Under a ball of wadded paper, he found what he hunted for. Stuck to gray gum was the business card he had so carelessly thrown away. Removing the gum, he hooted, then put the card in his pocket. Without returning the removed trash into the bin, he strolled happily back to his desk, humming an unknown tune.
“You wanna grab a drink?” Jen asked as they waited for the elevator. Tyler was miles away, rubbing the card in his pocket, and imagining all the possibilities this card meant. “Hello?” She touched his arm.
He jerked his head toward her, and said gruffly, “What?”
She gaped at him, shocked by his tone. “Never mind, you don
’t seem to be in the mood.”
“Sorry, Jen,” he replied, quieting his voice. “I was thinking of something else.” He put his arm around her waist, kissing the side of her forehead. “Yeah, let’s get a drink. It might be our last.” Her eyebrows rose watching him enter the elevator. He began laughing, seeing her expression. “Just a joke after a very long day.”
“You ok?” The shocked expression receded from her face, replaced by concern. “You’ve been kinda weird all day.”
“I’m great, Jen.” His face broke with a wide, open-mouthed smile. Her gaze darted around him nervously. “And things are going to get greater. I can feel it. Can’t you feel it?”
He left the elevator, and she followed. Usually, Tyler was full of himself. This was different though, but she didn’t see the detail telling her how or why she had the thought. His gaping smile had not disappeared from his face as he stood, holding the door for her.
They had a few drinks at the bar down the street, where he revealed his crush. She wasn’t surprised but wondered what took him so long to say anything. He didn’t have a reason, and she didn’t reveal her suspicion of his sexuality. They ended up at her apartment. The drinks at the bar and the hits from her bong didn’t deflate Tyler. He became more gregarious as the night went on. Shyly, he leaned in to kiss her, and she didn’t refuse. After hours of heated passion, she knew he wasn’t gay. A gay man didn’t have the skills he used to bring her pleasure.
Jen stirred in bed, reaching for the man who had changed her in a single night of ecstasy. When her fingers didn’t find him, she sat up, seeing him staring out into the night. The parted drapes broke the darkness of the room. Tyler’s silhouette was cast with a blue outline.
“Tyler?” she whispered. At first, he didn’t answer, and she wondered whether he was sleepwalking.
“Do you feel it now?” he said with a lilting tone. “It was already in me.” Smiling, he turned to her. “And now it’s in you, too. Isn’t it magnificent?”
Her brows clenched, not understanding what he meant. She slid from bed to join him at the window. The fever he expelled from his flesh was breathtaking, and she stopped before she touched his radiant skin.
“You’re burning up,” she said, forcing herself to place her arm around his shoulder. “Come back to bed. I’ll get you something—“
“No,” he whispered. “I need to make a call.”
He turned into her, encircling her in his arms and the heat of his body. His erection pressed against her. He kissed her forehead, then released her, crossing to the bedroom door.
She followed him to the living room where he bent to pick up his jeans and retrieved his phone from the pocket. His naked buttocks flickered blue in the darkness. Scrutinizing the room, she looked for the source of light but found nothing giving off any illumination.
The light from the face of his phone cast a pale light onto him, but it didn’t extinguish the blue glow pulsing across his skin. In his other hand, she saw the business card—its back flickered and pulsed with the same blue light on him. His thumb moved smoothly across the surface of the phone, as it found the numbers to dial, then the send button.
One ring from the other end echoed in the room, followed by a smooth, sensual voice saying, “Hello.”
The blue light brightened as it engulfed Tyler from the phone. She heard him groan, and rushed toward him, concerned a fever was overtaking him. Though the blue brightness confused her, she wasn’t afraid. It was too comforting to cause fear. Ejaculate shot from his prick when she approached, then the light from his phone screen found her. It came to her in caressing touches, light as a lover’s or caring as a parent’s.
“Welcome,” the voice from the phone said as the cerulean hue dissipated, showing them a plain and old hotel room. “Oh,” he said. The blue streams from his eyes swiftly moved to them, unsure why they were in his presence. “I wasn’t expecting you, Tyler. And you brought a friend.” More ejaculation streamed from Tyler’s engorged penis. “Good to see you, too.” The man pursed his lips.
“Shit,” Jen whispered. “Tyler? Who is this?” She covered her breasts with her arm. “Where are we?”
Tyler blushed, feeling another surge ready to explode from his balls, and gasped, “Mr. Bel.” He crumpled to the floor.
The man stared down at Tyler as Jen squat next to him.
“Tyler?” she said, anxiously patting his cheek. “You’re burning up.”
“My curse for so many people,” he said, still staring at Tyler, wondering why he was there. It appeared that Mark had made a mess of things.
Tyler sat up, breathing heavily. He moaned, and his body convulsed, followed by a dribble of semen from his cock. Jen stared up at the man standing over them. Part of her mind told her she was in a perilous position, violence finding her with anything she did to displease the man. But as she looked into the beautiful face, she didn’t see any cause for alarm. The man snapped his fingers at his side, and the door opened.
A woman, appearing to be in her early fifties, came into the room. She never looked at the man standing over Tyler and Jen. Her dingy jeans and red and white floral shirt were clean, but old and out of style. The scowl worn on her face contradicted the caring gaze looking over them.
“Carol, please take our guests to their room. They are exhausted.”
“Can you stand?” Carol asked Tyler in a quiet, motherly voice. He nodded, and Carol and Jen helped Tyler to his feet. “Let’s get you out of here.”
Chapter Seven
And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
James 3:6, KJV
Once they had crossed the threshold, the door closed behind them, leaving him alone in his room. He frowned, creasing the smooth beauty of his face. The room paled as he closed his eyes, and his face returned to glamorous. When he opened them, Mark stood, shaking in the middle of the room. Wetness blossomed the front of his pants. He squeezed his face tightly together, his breaths turned erratic, and his heart raced.
“Open your eyes,” he demanded of Mark. Though he was angry, his voice remained melodic and cool. “And don’t take them from me until I tell you otherwise.” He met his Master’s gaze. “I did not send you for Tyler. I know whose name I wrote down for you, and I, for the life of me, cannot fathom how you messed this up.” Trickles of sweat rushed down Mark’s forehead and neck. His stomach churned. “Please explain how this happened.”
Mark gulped, trying to force his voice to work.
“Speak,” he commanded.
“He escaped,” Mark said, badly wanting to blind himself so he wouldn’t have to see the vision in front him. The euphoric feeling of climax swelled in him. “I was in the middle of transferring the rev…rev—“
“Revenant.”
“Yeah. Revenant. When she showed up and stopped me. I tried other things, too. I even set the revenant free, but it helped him.”
“I find your explanation hard to believe. They do as they’re told. You must’ve messed up something with the unlea…” He stopped abruptly, pondering what Mark had said for a moment, never letting Mark’s gaze break with his. He tapped his lips. “Who stopped you?”
With every moment, the excitement in his nerves grew. The soft grazing of his skin by the very air in the room moved him closer to the edge. “The Watcher chick,” he moaned.
“How?” Belphegor questioned, as Mark tilted his head back and groaned without losing eye contact. “Mark,” he said, bringing him back to the conversation.
“She put her hands on his head.”
“Interesting,” he said. “They normally don’t intervene.”
“It’s true. I swear, Master.”
“Oh, I believe you.” He stared intently at Mark for a moment. “What I don’t understand is why you thought Tyler a suitable replacement. I clearly—“
“I know, Master,” he said in a slurre
d voice. “I figured you could use him as bait.”
“You baffle me.” He drank from his glass, his gaze not breaking from Mark. “Explain how it was so easy to roust Tyler.”
“I gave him your card. He was very easy, always has been.” Mark gulped finished his statement.
“Why didn’t you give Cody my card, saved us both this trouble? Now I have two unwanted guests.”
Mark stared at him for a moment, then said, “I hate him.”
The man in the blue suit smirked, understanding the simplicity of his emotion. “This is getting too messy, but I guess I’ll have to make do.” He watched the sweat pour from Mark’s head, looking pleased, and then continued, “One more thing, Mark.”
“Yes, Master, anything.”
“Say my name.”
“Sir?”
“My name. Say it.”
Mark opened and closed his mouth rapidly, as though his lips were trying to prepare for the feeling of the man’s name.
“Say it, Mark.”
Twitching, he knew he didn’t have a choice in the matter. When his Master asked for something, he received it.
“You can look away afterward.”
“Belphegor,” Mark said in ecstasy.
Belphegor watched with curious attentiveness as Mark’s body throbbed, and shuddered. His pants wetted further with what seemed a never-ending flow of sperm. Not wanting the humiliation of shitting himself in the presence of beauty, Mark clenched his sphincter. After what felt like an eternity, the spasms and jolts wracking his body ended. Mark bowed his head, relieved it had stopped. Unfortunately, sleep was out of the picture for at least a week, and he would carry an erection for longer.
“One more thing, did you leave anything behind?”
“No, never,” Mark hissed his reply, hoping his Master didn’t call him out on the lie; he’d left the revenant and a few others behind to torment Cody a little while longer.
“Good. You are dismissed,” Belphegor said, turning from the drenched man.
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