by J.R. Bowles
CHAPTER 47
Zolar had showered and had been dry for quite a while but sat around in the towel waiting for Rudy.
Rudy had given him the answer as to how he could get the information he needed and possibly even into any room. All he had to do was “parade around in his underwear.” That had been the key Rudy mentioned when talking about how Michael made him tell him everything.
Well the underwear bit had been done and he would be a little too obvious to answer the door in just his drawers so he decided he would do one better. He had not used the bath towel to wrap around himself but the little hand towel. Hey sex sells, he told himself. If you got it flaunt it.
He sat and sipped his drink. He had ordered a bottle of vodka, tonic and some lime for himself and daiquiri mix for Rudy. Strange how he had asked for Vodka. He had just had this yearning for it.
He heard the elevator door open and then close and then a quiet peck at the door. Showtime, he thought. He ran to the bathroom and turned the shower on, jumped in then out. Wrapped his hand towel loosely around him and grabbed the bath towel for his head.
“Hi, I hope you haven't been knocking long.” Zolar said to Rudy as he opened the door. “Come on in. I was going to grab a shower earlier but my mom called and you know how hard it is getting rid of a parent without offending them.”
“I sure do.” Rudy said as he walked in.
“Drink?”
“Thank you, I would like that. Lord, I'm so tired my feet are killing me. A drink is just about all I need to unwind.” Rudy said as he let his eyes roam over Zolar's hairless muscular body.
Zolar hated using Rudy like this but desperate situations demanded desperate action. He fixed Rudy a drink and handed it to him.
“You didn't by chance see either of my lost amours?” Zolar asked trying to be casual but knowing he was running out of time. He sensed something was wrong.
“No.” Rudy snapped and then added more softly, “I sure haven't. It's been quiet all evening. I guess they're still in their rooms.”
He was running out of time. How could he get Rudy to tell him which room Bernie was in and where he could find Jackie. Then he remembered that Rudy had described Michael as being forceful and had a look of awe on his face. That's it, time to quit pulling his punches.
Rudy sat down in an arm chair and propped his feet up on the coffee table. He was sipping on the drink Zolar had given and watching Zolar intensely.
Zolar swaggered over in front of Rudy and stood to where his crotch was less than two feet from Rudy's face. The towel was tied and fastened to where one side of his hip and leg was completely exposed.
“Listen to me you fucking bastard.” Zolar nearly bellowed. “I'm going to ask you some god damn questions and you're going to give me the fucking answers I want. Do you understand?” He propped his leg on which the towel was tied up onto the arm of Rudy's chair giving Rudy a slight glimpse of what lay beneath.
Rudy gulped and nodded. His face showed fear but his eyes begged yes.
“Which room is my cock-sucking friend Bernie in?”
“Uh, room 228.” Rudy answered in barely a whisper.
“I see your fucking lips moving but I can't hear what the fuck you're saying. What the fuck did you say?” Zolar ran his hand down his own thigh again, allowing the towel to sway open giving him another glimpse.
“Room 228.” Rudy said louder.
“Better, and call me sir.”
“Yes sir.”
“What the fuck did you say?”
“I said yes sir, sir.”
“Now you got it. Have you got a key for all the rooms?”
“What?”
“I didn't say you could ask me questions.” Zolar screamed and grabbed Rudy's hair in the back of his head and jerked his head slightly back. “And I told you, you had better fucking call me sir. Understand?”
“Yes sir.”
“Now, have you got a fucking house key to the rest of the rooms?”
Rudy gulped. “Yes sir.”
“Give it to me.” Zolar ordered yanking harder on Rudy's hair.
“I, I, I can't, sir.” Rudy stammered with real fear in his eyes.
Zolar brought Rudy's face to less than an inch away from his crotch. So close he could feel Rudy's breath through the towel.
“I said I want the fucking key.” Zolar screamed.
“Sir, I can't. They would fire me if they ever found out I gave the key to a non-employee. Sir!” Rudy protested.
Zolar rammed Rudy's face into his crotch so hard it made Zolar wince. Only the towel separated Rudy from his limp desire.
“Listen you cock-sucking faggot, I said give me the god damn fucking key. Now!” Zolar tightened his grip on Rudy's hair and pressed harder.
Rudy had obviously lost his battle. He fumbled to pull a card key from his shirt pocket and handed up toward Zolar, his face still buried where Zolar had put him.
Zolar grabbed the key, jerked back on Rudy's head making him fall backward into the chair. Zolar stepped back and picked up a pair of pants that had been lying on the couch. He pulled off his towel in front of Rudy and to Rudy's delight but quick disappointment when he quickly slipped into his pants. I at least owed him a peek, Zolar thought and then stormed out of the room leaving Rudy staring after him.
Bare chested and bare foot Zolar ran as hard as he could. Glancing at his watch it was eleven forty-five. The do not disturb switch had been flipped. He hoped the card would override it. He was in luck. He heard the lock click open and flung the door open.
As he stared into the dimly lit room he couldn't see anyone but he could feel someone there. He slowly entered and saw a man leaning down over Bernie. He jerked around when he heard Zolar's approach.
“You're too late.” He said flatly turning to face Zolar. He clutched Bernie's heart in his hand. Bernie's blood graced both of his hands and the front of his clothes.
Looking down Zolar saw where Bernie's blood spread from his chest all over the couch covering a large area of the mauve carpet. His rib cage had been separated and jutted up exposing shrouds of flesh clinging to bone.
“Oh God!” Zolar roared so loud the walls seemed to tremble. “Oh my God, my God, what the hell have you done?”
“I have done the work of the Lord my God, Jesus Christ. It is he that hath sent me.” Thomas stated calmly. He had replaced the horror of what he had done by telling himself that it was God's will.
The crowd in the next room came rushing out into the hall trying to see what all the screaming was about. Billy had been the first to enter, followed by Michael. They all worked their way into the room.
“Oh! No! Dear God―no!” Jackie began to cry when she recognized Bernie's agonized face.
She dropped to her knees and began to sob. Her body shook with bursts of horror.
John was the last one to enter. The group parted as he came forward to face the preacher.
“What have you done?” John quietly asked Thomas.
“So you are he?” Thomas asked already knowing the answer.
“What he? Is it that you speak of?” John asked.
“You are the Beast that has been sent to destroy the world.”
“I have been sent by no one. “ John stated not knowing where his words where coming from but felt compelled to answer what was ask.
“Then you are truly the Beast for you have sent yourself.”
“I am not a beast but a man, no more nor less than you are.” John's own mind began to protest, was the man right?
“You are the liar and deceiver of man. I can expect you to say nothing less.” But Thomas' began to doubt. The man did not seem more than man and yet....
Thomas bit at his lower lip and continued. “The man that lays there, this man Bernie, he told me that he was the heart center. That you are the Avatar, the Messiah; and seven keys are used to open these chakras giving you the power to save the world. He was a mere key used to unlo
ck your power and I think these are the keys that unlock the pit in which you were cast for a thousand years.”
Was it possible? John asked himself. Was he this Beast? No, he cried to himself, although he had his faults he was not evil.
“What is your name?” John asked.
“Thomas Lamb.”
“Well Thomas you doubt me. This I understand. For I too have doubt. I do not know what has been happening but it has become obvious that you have been involved and if I am this Beast, as you say I am, then perhaps you have murdered in my name. You have sacrificed this sheep to me and stand ready to give me his heart.”
Thomas stared at the bloody heart he squeezed in his right hand.
“Yes here is his heart. It beats no more. All that you have sought I have put asunder. Take his heart and return to hell, for his soul will return to God.”
Thomas took his left hand and slowly lifted John's hand and slapped the heart into John's hand.
“Now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I command thee to get the hence Satan.” Thomas's voice seemed to crystallize into the air.
As John clutched Bernie's heart everyone in the room stared down at Bernie's lifeless body. The room began to fade. It was not a vision this time but reality. All that was material in the world dissipated, like some phantom on the run. Their bodies ceased to exist. All of those near became light. All separate, mere specks of brilliance floating free in the wasteland of nothingness.
Bernie's life force swirled before them and all was dissipating out into the nothingness, to be lost forever and ever. It was he that had become their sacrifice and he would be no more. They felt their own life energies fading as did their material bodies and world had vanished. Soon they would be no more.
As the life force faded before them they began spreading out, they felt it touch them. It began to slip past them and they did not want to lose it. It should not have been so, and they each drew this spreading life remains to them. They cherished this life. It would not be lost but would live in them.
And when they had felt this love that had been given to them, they learned love and grew. They each held part of this love close to them. Existence of life and the power it has was understood. All of the, I AM, that did exist and does exist and will exist.
And when all that had been the life and love that was no longer collected, they again became strong and no longer were fading.
They had accepted the love that had been given and they sent it back. Back to from hence it had come.
Each one gave and the love that had been lost, the energy that had become love, was given back. It once again existed.
The life and love that had been but had ceased was once more whole. When they saw that he who once was, and was no more, had once again become he that was, they praised him.
Their love now became his love, as his love had done unto them.
They did unto him as he had done unto them.
Their life was his as his life had been theirs.
Visions of the world began to return like a pulsing heart. Throbbing.
Life giving oxygen was again being breathed.
Each one of them was returning to where they had been. Once more they were in the material world.
There before them lay Bernie whole. His body was no longer mutilated. No hole in his chest. No heart in John's hand, no blood stains.
His breathing was slow and gentle like the ebb and tide of the sea. His face serene.