Chapter 01 - Scott Vale
“Scott, get up.” I woke up just in time to see a pair of icy blue eyes staring through me. “It’s time to get started.”
I whipped out my knife and thrust it where his throat would have been, but he was suddenly gone. I figured it must have been my imagination.
“Tex, was someone here?” I nudged him, but he didn’t wake up. I didn’t try further. He hadn’t slept well in a long time. It was hard adjusting to being out on the cold concrete.
I put away my knife, but noticed something in my other hand. It was a colorful pamphlet that read:
Is your son or daughter the pinnacle of their generation? If so, come to the Temple before the end of the month to apply to join our new something, something, something…
I didn’t really give a fuck about what it said, until I noticed that they were giving out free room and board to those who made it through.
“Hmm, maybe we should apply,” I said, not remembering that Tex was still asleep. I decided to tell him about it when he woke up. It looked like it might be a good opportunity for a couple of homeless kids from the Gray District.
Chapter 02 - Ross Keller
“Always remember good hygiene.” That’s what the billboards spouted again. The streets were always crowded with that not-so-subliminal messaging. I didn't enjoy listening to it, but it was playing every time I walked home from work.
I quickly removed my nametag and carefully placed it in my front pocket, while listening to the billboards shout tips at me for building a brighter tomorrow.
All of the messages were sponsored by the Men of the Temple, who felt that it was their duty to babysit the entire city. Their video screens and audible memos made Jamestown’s Sunset District, where every building was wrapped in ever-changing neon lights, even more of a clusterfuck for the senses.
Impoverished Homo Sapiens held up signs by the road saying how they needed money for food, had broken their legs or had gone blind. Some even said they needed heart or brain surgery, but when the container you tossed your money into was half of an old carton of box wine, you got a pretty good idea of where your money was really going.
I had no idea who kept letting those guys into the Ring. I’d seen Sapiens in the Cages who lived better than these guys did, begging for change and scraps.
However, there was one that made me stop, even after walking past dozens of beggars; an old Sapien, who was relatively clean, with a wide brimmed hat pulled down over his face. He wore a thick coat and his right hand was tucked inside. Instead of a cardboard sign, he had a box of chocolate bars sitting on a blanket. Occasionally, kids would pull their mothers over and put a dollar in his jar so they could have one, or the mothers would pull them away out of the fear that being close to this old man could give them lice, the flu or anthrax.
I pulled out a dollar and passed it from my left to my right hand before dropping it in his jar.
“Hey, boy!” I heard him say. His voice was scratchy, but resonant.
“I was just trying to help.” I said back to him.
“What does this say?” He tipped down his hat so I could see the top. He had written in block letters around the brim, ‘Candy Bars $1’.
“I don’t want any candy.”
“Then what did you pay me for?”
A crowd was starting to gather now. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I muttered under my breath. Being the center of attention always made me nervous and twitchy. Fortunately, the people went back to what they had been doing when I held out my hands and reassuringly told them, “It’s ok. I’m a liberal.”
I walked up to the old man, coming down on one knee right in front of him. “I’m sorry. Take the money. I’m just trying to spread the wealth around.”
“And what does that mean, exactly?”
“I’m an archivist for the government. I’ve been out in the Cages several times. I know where you probably came from and how hard it can be for you people.” I had also heard horror stories about men who worshiped dog-beasts living in the Cages, but I didn’t mention them.
“What do you mean by ‘you people’?”
“You know what I mean. Sapiens.”
“Ah, you mean to say danks.”
“No, I would never use that word,” I assured him. “Can’t you just take the money?”
“Oh, now I get it. You think I’m a prostitute.”
I could just imagine the crowds that that would draw. “What? No, not at all!”
“Yes, you do. You see, prostitutes give you sexual satisfaction, but with no commitment. You can use her, and walk away feeling nice and good about yourself. When you help out an old man like me, especially because I’m a poor little Homo Sapien and you’re a big bad Homo Omniscient, you feel better about yourself and get mental satisfaction. Then, after you’re done you walk away thinking, ‘I’m just a great fucking human being.’ Therefore I am your mental prostitute. You paid me to mentally pleasure you.”
“What is wrong with you?! Why can’t you just take the dollar?!” I screamed at him.
“For two reasons. The first being that prostitutes cost a lot more than that, so next time put some real money in the jar. Secondly, don’t try to help me, help yourself. Listen to what the world is telling you.”
He pulled a dollar out of his coat and put it in my hand before yanking the brim of his hat back down over his face. I got up and walked away, unable to even attempt to respond to what he had just said to me. Only at the end of the block did it occur to me that he had pulled the dollar bill out of his coat, when his jar was close to empty.
I pushed that out of my mind. He said to listen, so that was what I was going to do, though I wasn't sure of exactly what I was supposed to be hearing. I had heard everything before. It was all just white noise now.
However, some small realization started to hit me as I mouthed along the words spoken by the Temple’s video billboards, and so I listened once more, intently this time, to the messages I had heard a thousand times before.
“A good society is built on good people, and society must have the best people to be at its best. Always remember good hygiene, because good racial hygiene makes for a cleaner, happier society.”
Chapter 03 - Sirius V
“Join together hand in hand! Together, and we shall make a world that is beautiful and pure. We shall make a world where everyone has a place and no one is outcast. Through cultivated evolution we shall achieve this. We shall make a better world.”
The Temple Men kept talking forever. They could spray their words in all directions here, but even those who stopped to listen would not truly accept them. Those fairies were old and weak. Wolves only followed the strong.
The Cages were always busy. Men hung chickens and ducks by their necks. Others sold trinkets. Many women washed clothes and children played. We had built our own society here, away from the “Homo Omniscients”. I hated saying those pretentious words. They dared to classify themselves “all knowing humans”? They were just weak little fairies to me.
As I started to get angry, I took a moment to put my thoughts back in order. The Wolf’s Heartbeat continued to play from the loudspeakers overhead. Whenever I needed to center myself I simply stopped to listen, and felt Canis once again fill my body.
I saw a man standing down the block. He, whispered to men as they walked by, but they all hurried away from him. A woman stood nearby, wiping tears from her eyes.
I took out a cloth and wrapped it around my head, as many did to battle the dust that hung over this part of Jamestown. I walked past him and as I grew close he pulled at me. His wedding band dug into my arm.
“My wife is a fine woman. Send a little some
thing my way and she is yours for the night.” At hearing those words I almost tore out his tongue. The idea that he could wear that band with dignity sickened me.
I took the rat by his scrawny throat and lifted him off the ground. With my other hand I tore the cloth from my head, exposing myself. The tattoos across my face made him shrink and cower in my hand.
“Sirius! I will obey! I swear! Please, do not harm me!”
I let go of him. He dropped down to his knees and groveled before me, but I would not let a disrespectful worm go unpunished.
“Give me your hand.”
“Sirius, I shall never again forsake Canis. I will follow till the day I die.”
“Yes, you will, because this loss will forever remind you to stay the path. Now, surrender your hand or I will take your head.”
The worm was silent. He lifted his hand and trembled like a bitch. I took a moment to inspect his wedding ring. It was perfectly carved. The woman must have put much care into it. It was a shame it had to go to someone like him.
My eyes met those of his wife. She was beautiful. Her face relaxed as she looked at me, and no more tears were shed. She then looked at her former husband with a touch of sadness, but mostly with satisfaction. I looked down where she gazed and saw him crawling on his belly; fitting for a worm.
I found that he was on the ground, because I had inflicted his punishment without realizing it. His finger was in my hand, and it occurred to me that I was stronger than I thought. I held it up and took one last look, before ceremoniously removing the now blood covered ring from the worm’s severed finger and handing it to his former wife. She took it and triumphantly clutched it in her fist.
I heard boots come thumping behind me. The fairies had sent their petty police to quell the show. I turned to look at the three of them. The black ink on my face made them step back, but their guns stayed level.
“Shaman, put your weapon down.”
I hadn’t even realized I had pulled my machete.
As I listened to the sound of the Wolf’s Heartbeat and let its power flow through my body. As the sound of drums centered my mind I tore off my shirt to show them my full tattoo. “I am not a Shaman, I am a warrior, a wolf, and you will leave my cage, fairies.”
The police exchanged glances to determine who would disarm me, knowing that the first one to try would lose more than their arms. They decided not to try and simply left like cowards, but they took the worm with them, probably to the hospital. He cried like a bitch all the way down the long dusty road. They fled out the steel doors of the cage, under the triangle with our numeral inside it, number five. The same insignia was inked on my forehead, to symbolize my power. Here, on the fifth dusty block, surrounded by metal bars, I was both a citizen and a ruler.
I looked back to the woman who was once married, but no longer. “Come with me,” I told her, and she followed, passing by dozens of wood and metal shacks constructed along the walls.
My house was the largest in Cage V, but many others lived in it. Two women came to greet us as we entered. One of them put out her palms and I handed her my machete so she could put it away. I kissed her on the forehead. When she left I told the other, “This is our guest. She will be staying with us for a while.”
“I must thank you for your hospitality. What is your name, warrior of Canis?”
“I go only by Sirius V. That is my symbol and the only name I need.”
She seemed confused, but that did not shock me. Most did not comprehend the workings of Canis’s inner circle.
“Well then, Sirius V, thank you for saving me from that wretched man.”
“You are more than welcome.”
The happily divorced woman was led upstairs to another room.
“She is pretty. Will you ask her to stay?”
“You know I can’t do that,” I told Haylow. I knew it was my second wife before I even saw her.
“She has to ask, but do you plan to seduce her? To make her want to stay?”
I had thought about it, but not much. “Maybe. Her husband was a cretin. She needs a strong man. She deserves one who will treat her with respect, one who will protect and serve her.”
Haylow came close to me, wrapping her arms around my neck, but pulling back just an inch when I tried to kiss her. “With that spectacle you made of her husband, and his treatment of her, she may need time away from this place. It would be best if you didn’t seduce her. It may even be best for her to leave this cage.” She kissed me, and in less than a heartbeat I belonged to her. “Besides, you don’t need any more wives.”
“No, I suppose not.”
I began to kiss her neck and slid my hands under her clothing, and perhaps if my mind had been alert I would have heard her whisper, “Good boy.”
Chapter 04 - Scott Vale
“I’m glad to see the two of you made it.”
The whole room stopped as we walked in.
“Sorry,” I said. “Every building looks the same around here.”
“Oh, you must be our other candidates from the Gray District. Have a seat, please.”
There were nineteen others sitting in the Temple’s main hall, and all of them were around seventeen or eighteen years old, just like us.
Sitting in the front were six older men and women in red and white robes. One was at the pedestal speaking, while the others sat behind him, watching us and looking high-and-mighty in their expensive clothing.
“I will say this once again, since we have some new people in the room. My name is Father Frollo. I’m head of the Men of the Temple and the Elected Official presiding over the Sunset District. Do you all know why you’re here?”
A girl up front raised her hand. “Because we were chosen to form a group of intelligent social elites, who will set an example for the youth of Jamestown, as well as serve as a trained police force under the command of the Men of the Temple, assisting the people of the Sunset District.”
That shiner set a new standard for ass kissing. What she had said was a direct quote from the pamphlet.
“That’s very good. I can see why you were chosen,” Father Frollo said to the girl, with just the slightest hint of condescension.
“Your test scores were the best out of all young Homo Omniscients throughout the city. As stated before, we need you to be an example to the youth here to let them know that they can be something better. You will be the pinnacle of what they can achieve. You will be pushed to your mental and physical limits, but you will also be given the best equipment and resources money can buy, so that you may symbolize a better future.”
I didn’t trust the Men of the Temple. They had always seemed like a bunch of pretentious creeps… but, they had offered us free housing after we aced the test and Father Frollo was surprisingly charismatic. The intelligence and passion in his voice made me almost want to believe what he was saying... almost.
“You two.” He looked right at us. “Please stand up and tell us your names.”
I stood up and spoke first. “My name is Scott Vale and I don’t know a single one of you. That’s probably because none of you rich kids have even been to the Gray District before.”
“Oh, really?” Frollo said. “I think you might be surprised. How about everyone who is from the Gray District raise their hand?”
Tex and I raised our hand, and so did someone else; a guy who was sitting way in the back. That was the second biggest surprise of the day.
“It seems you are not alone. It’s a good thing we got you boys out of there before it was too late.”
“I’m so freaking glad you did,” I said in my most sarcastic voice, while plopping my butt back down in the seat.
“Hi, everyone. My name is Tex Mecklen, but my friends call me Tex Mex.”
Everyone else in the room chuckled, except for Frollo.
“Now let’s not laugh at this boy’s name. It is a strange one, though. How did you get that nickname?”
“My dad was light skinned and my mom was dark skinned;
dark skinned like a Mexican.”
“Well, I think you’ll find that when we speak of race here, it is based only on science. And besides, if you, and your friend, were able to make it this far, then you must have some amazing genes.”
Tex Mex looked so proud of himself. It was an adorable moment, watching him blush as Frollo smiled at him.
“Since we’re on the subject of race, who can tell me which is better; Homo Sapiens or Homo Omniscients?”
The same girl from before raised her hand again.
“Homo Omniscients are better, because we’ve been scientifically enhanced.”
“That is absolutely untrue.” That response from Father Frollo was the number one surprise of the day. “We must remember what the study of evolution has taught us. I’m going to read you a passage from The Templegoer’s Guidebook of Evolutionary Teachings, written many years ago by yours truly:
If any two creatures are to be placed side by side and one said to be superior and the other inferior, they can only be categorized as such in one specific setting or environment. No creature can be said to be better than all others in all settings, and thus, for every setting in which a particular creature can be found to be superior to another, another must exist in which the roles are reversed, making he who was superior, inferior, and he who was inferior, superior.
“You’ll have to learn these teachings one day, but for now just know this one simple rule; everyone who works hard has a place in society, even if they come from a currently inferior race. Everyone belongs somewhere. Now, we’ve wasted enough time. Let’s finish up introductions so Father Michael can show you to your living quarters.”
Everyone went around the room introducing themselves, and I found out that the female kissass's name was Jane. She was from a wealthy family in the Sunset District. In fact, most of the others came from families with a lot of money. Why they would sign their kids over to the Men of the Temple is a question I still ponder to this day.
Black Light: The Deplorable Savior Page 1