by T. S. Mann
“Really? All good, I hope.” Matt smiled as warmly as he could manage under the circumstances.
“Of course.” She took Matt by the arm. “Listen. I know this is all new to you, but it’s important to me that you feel safe here and that you don’t feel like anyone is pressuring you into doing something you don’t want. I want this to be a positive experience for you.”
Lindsay and Matt walked into the church’s sanctuary arm-in-arm, with Luke following behind. “To that end, if you’re sure you want to participate in our Samhain rites, I’ve asked Meredith to be your partner.”
Lindsay called out, and in response, a rather well-endowed blonde put down a candlestick and walked over. Meredith appeared eager for the festivities to begin – she had already taken her top off, and a black lacy bra struggled to restrain its contents.
“Meredith, this is Matt, Luke’s brother. He’ll be joining us for tonight’s activities. Look after him, won’t you, sweetie?”
Lindsay gave Matt another winsome smile, and then she and Luke moved off to talk to the others, leaving Matt alone with Meredith and her bra. He struggled to maintain eye contact.
“So, you’re Matt, huh? You’re cuter than I expected.”
“Um, thanks. So, where do you go to school?”
“Belmont Prep.”
“Great,” he thought, “a rich pagan.”
“I’m a senior at Upper Eagleston,” he said. “It’s in Roxbury.” There was a long pause. Matt was pretty sure he could smell bourbon on Meredith’s breath. “So, how long have you been, um, Wiccan?”
“Oh, just a few months. We’re all kinda new at this. Me and Bree – that’s Bree over there,” Meredith waved at another half-naked hottie who was arranging pizza and beer on a table in the corner with the assistance of a shirtless boy with a scraggly goatee. “Anyway, we met Lindsay at this rave last July. She invited us back to her dorm room and we talked about stuff for hours over pot. Lindsay’s very spiritual.”
“I can tell.”
“Say, why don’t I get you a beer and some weed while you get undressed. Then we can get a little better acquainted.”
Meredith gestured towards the far wall, where several other coven members were already disrobing and engaging in a little preemptive fondling, and then she wandered off, apparently in search of marijuana.
“So much for romance,” muttered Matt as he headed over to the wall.
Roughly an hour later, after Matt had stripped down to his boxers and gotten better acquainted with Meredith’s breasts, Lindsay clapped her hands, and called for everyone to disentangle and gather in a circle in the center of the sanctuary. Matt had quickly gotten over his body issues. No one had gotten completely naked yet, but he wasn’t worried anymore, at least not about that. He’d never thought of himself as particularly good-looking, but he was Brad Pitt compared to most of the other guys here.
Still, he remained tense and anxious, even after splitting a joint with Meredith. It was almost as though something was trying to warn him. Of what, he couldn’t tell, except perhaps to let him know that he was not in the strangest porn he’d ever seen but in some altogether different movie with a very different second reel still to come.
Matt glanced at his brother who shot him a dopey grin and a thumbs up sign. Luke’s glassy eyes indicated he’d probably had a bit more than just pot. Matt shook off his misgivings and sat down on one of the sheets spread out to cover the rough sanctuary floor. The members sat in a circle, boy-girl-boy-girl, with Lindsay in the middle. Except for Lindsay, everyone was nearly naked and reasonably high.
The coven leader herself was still fully clothed and completely alert as she knelt on the floor to light the black candles arranged about her in what Matt assumed was some mystical pattern of occult significance. Once she had finished, she stood and slowly turned as she spoke to the group.
“Brothers and sisters, I welcome you to our Samhain rites in a spirit of perfect love and unity. We’ve all been worshiping together for many months now, growing as a coven, and strengthening the bonds which connect us. This night is All Hallow’s Eve, a very special night and one very auspicious to our workings. I have every confidence that the Goddess will give us a sign of her favor. You have all done so much to help bring this about. I am certain that tonight all of you will get exactly what you deserve.”
Matt had nearly tuned out Lindsay’s bland platitudes about “the Goddess” and “perfect love” and all that New Age crap, but something about that “get what you deserve” line sounded a tiny alarm in his head. He looked around at the others, but no one else seemed to sense anything suspicious about the remark. They all sat beaming at their leader, waiting for the signal to begin the ceremonial orgy.
Lindsay stooped over and put her hand just above the candle nearest to Matt. Then, she slowly turned moving her hand over each of the twelve black candles arranged around her, intoning as she went.
“Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth.” Then, she raised her hands up and cried out: "Come forth."
The incantation seemed familiar to Matt, and then he remembered – it was from one of Luke’s horror novels, a really crappy one Matt had read out of sheer boredom when the cable was out during last winter’s blizzard. He vaguely recalled that it was part of a spell to summon horrible monsters from beyond the stars or some similar nonsense, but he wasn’t sure whether to be worried that Lindsay might want to do something like that or amused that she would rip off such corny source material. Some of the other coven members, including Luke, also recognized the incantation and looked at one another in confusion as their guru invoked B-movie dialogue as part of their Halloween rites.
And then all Hell broke loose.
Lindsay stood tall and raised her arms, and a wave of force seemed to emanate from her and spread out in all directions, startling the coven and causing several of the girls to utter short squeals. The candles glowed brightly, and then shot up streams of green flame into the air, instantly melting the wax into a huge black puddle on the floor. The impact knocked Matt, Luke and the other coven members flat on their backs and pinned them to the floor of the church.
Lindsay spoke again, her winsome girl-next-door demeanor replaced with cool sarcasm.
“As I was saying, dear brothers and sisters, I want to thank you for all your hard work, patience, and devotion, as well as your gullibility, promiscuity, and general stupidity. I mean, it hardly took any mind control at all to lure you all into a sex cult. Mind you, I couldn’t help noticing a lack of appreciation for my incantation. Admittedly, Ole Harry Lovecraft is a bit cliched, but I think he’s just perfect for my needs.”
Matt struggled to sit up but was held fast. It took all his strength to raise his head enough to look towards Lindsay, and he almost wished he hadn't. She stood encircled by a writhing mass of molten black wax, a lot more wax than could possibly have been in those candles. The mass bubbled and expanded grotesquely in a ring around Lindsay, and Matt thought it was ... growling?!? Suddenly, several snake-like tentacles extruded themselves out of the waxy mass and lunged out in all directions towards the stricken coven members.
As the first tendril splashed against Matt’s left foot, he braced himself for burning pain, but the actual contact was even worse than he’d expected. It was not hot at all, but bitterly cold. Worse, its very touch was instantly nauseating, as if the merest contact was some sort of unholy invasion. As the black ooze slithered up Matt’s bare legs, it pulsed and throbbed in time with his racing heartbeat.
The tentacle expanded and poured over Matt’s body, and the same thing was happening to all the other kids. To his right, Matt heard a piercing scream from Meredith that was suddenly cut short. He struggled and tore at the sticky mass and barely reached out in time to grab a tendril as it lunged for his open mouth. The tip of it stretched forward and distended itself, and to Matt’s horror, it seemed to open up a tin
y mouth full of needle-like black teeth as it strained to reach his face.
Matt cried out for Luke but couldn’t make himself heard over the screams of the other victims and, he realized, the child-like laughter of Lindsay. He could just barely make out the sound of his brother’s terrified voice, suddenly reduced to a gurgle as the wax covered Luke’s face. Matt had just enough time to cry out one last “LUKE!” before the black mass washed over him as well, engulfing him in darkness.
It was like drowning in crude oil. The disgusting material slipped and flowed across his bare skin, causing sensations that were somehow as erotic as they were sickening. The living ooze pushed its way up his nostrils and tried to force open his mouth. Nor was the invasion simply physical – Matt could feel the living wax drill into his mind, forcing him to relive every nightmare, every moment of shame and doubt, every terror he had ever encountered or imagined, all the while searching through his mind for the very worst thing of all. And all too soon, it found the very worst thing of all.
The squeal of brakes. The sound of metal tearing metal and of glass shattering all around. Ambulance sirens coming from somewhere too far away to matter. The smell of blood. From the backseat, Luke’s cries of agony as he clutched his broken arm. And then, the sight of John Sullivan’s broken body, pinned behind the impaling steering wheel as his life drained away before his son’s eyes.
“Matty ... listen to ... me.”
“Dad, don’t talk. I hear an ambulance coming. You’ll be okay.”
“So stupid. Tried to beat the light.
The dying man tried to laugh but it soon turned into a wracking cough and then an agonized wheeze. Matt quickly tried to wipe the tears from his eyes but succeeded only in smearing more blood across his face, his father’s mixing in with that flowing from the gash on his own forehead.
He pressed down harder on his favorite baseball jersey, now drenched red from where he had tried to jam it into John’s chest wound. A half-remembered health class lecture told him to apply pressure to stop heavy bleeding, but there was so much blood now, he didn’t think he was really accomplishing anything at all.
“It’s okay, Dad. Just stay with us. You have to stay with us.”
“Matt, listen. You’re gonna ... gonna to have to be strong now. For your mother. For Luke. You’re gonna have ... have to be the man now.”
Pain and fear and the beginnings of grief welled up within Matt, and the tears started to pour, even as he struggled to speak. “Dad! Daddy, please! I can’t ... I’m only nine. I can’t....”
“I’m sorry, Matt.
The light in his father’s eyes died out and his rasping breath finally stopped. Matt buried his bloodied face in his father’s shoulder, weeping uncontrollably, as he swore that he would always look after his brother and keep him safe.
Except ... except that he hadn’t kept Luke safe. The memory ran its course, and Matt returned to the reality of his present nightmare. He had failed to watch out for Luke. He had let hormones and insecurity lead him to a situation that he knew he should have avoided. He had ignored every warning sign.
And now some ... thing was about to devour both Luke and him, and there was nothing he could do except think about how completely he had failed his father and himself. As a crushing wave of hopelessness washed over the young man’s soul even as the disgusting black ichor ensnared his body, Matt steeled himself, and with all of his will, he cried out into the darkness.
“OH GOD! SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME!”
And he was answered.
The blackness surrounding him was suddenly pierced by the most brilliant golden light he had ever seen. It bathed the young man, not just in light, but in peace, in contentment, in sensations of absolute purity and perfection, and in a nearly irrational certainty that everything would work out as it should.
He couldn’t look directly into the source, but he could sense something moving towards him and reaching out for his hand. For a second, he even thought he heard the sound of mighty wings beating in the distance. Part of him dared to hope that it might even be his father, coming back down from Heaven to save him and Luke both.
Matt reached towards the light only to hesitate at the last second as a strange, inexplicable dread seemed to warn that he was about to make a choice he could never take back. But he knew the alternative to whatever it was offering, so Matt took a deep breath and thrust his hand towards the approaching light source.
Instantly, he felt that light pour into his body and soul before exploding outward in golden flames that cascaded out over the church. Where it met the oozing, black creature summoned by Lindsay, the fire obliterated it, sending the creature back screaming to whatever hell spawned it. Lindsay screamed as well when the fire met her, but while she was knocked to the ground, her outrage was more surprise and anger than pain.
As Matt’s vision cleared, he climbed unsteadily to his feet. To his amazement, he saw that his hands were now surrounded in a corona of golden flames that lit up the entire church. Glancing around, he saw that none of the other coven-members were moving save Lindsay, who didn’t scramble to her feet so much as float up off the ground to a standing position. She regarded Matt with amusement.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding! I spent months preparing these little Goth twits to experience the Great Beyond, and the only one to open his eyes is the oversexed jock we brought in as a spare?!? That’s hilarious!”
“Fuck you, bitch!” Matt snarled in a voice that resonated with a power as exhilarating as it was terrifying. He instinctively threw his arms out in Lindsay’s direction, and with that gesture backed by those simple words uttered in an unearthly voice, another gout of flame exploded in her direction.
Lindsay crossed her arms in front of her chest, her hands forming some occult gesture. “No Way, Jose!,” The flames struck her full on and caused her to slide back several feet across the floor, but when they subsided, she was still standing and unharmed.
“Not bad, but we’ll have to work your incantations, I think.”
Matt felt his knees nearly buckle from the strain, and he noticed the fire that surrounded his hands seemed to dim. Alarmed, he suddenly realized that whatever the source of his new power, it was not limitless. Then, his attention was drawn to a sound coming from his right, the sweetest sound he’d heard in a long time.
“Matt? What’s going on? What -cough- just happened?” Luke stirred, semiconscious and deathly pale, but alive. Lindsay noticed as well.
“Well, hey! Would you look at that? Magic must run in the family!”
“Luke! Stay down!” Matt steeled himself to launch another of his fiery attacks at Lindsay, but she was too fast.
“Get over here!” she hissed as she gestured in Luke’s direction. Matt unleashed his flames towards her, but to his horror, his twin’s limp body flew across the room even faster. Luke screamed in agony as Lindsay interposed his body between her and the flames. Horrified at harming his brother, Matt focused his will and somehow managed to pull the fire back into his own body. The process was agonizing, though, and Matt dropped to his knees.
“Whoops! Made you blink!” Pressing her advantage, Lindsay stepped forward and swung her arm as if giving a backhanded slap. To Matt, it felt like the hand of a giant had slammed into him, and the force of the blow lifted him up off the ground and threw him brutally against the wall some twenty feet back.
“And then, containment, I think.” Lindsay gestured once again, holding up her hand in Matt’s direction and then clenching it into a fist. “Cruciform!” Suddenly, Matt was caught in the grip of some invisible force which held him immobile against the wall, his arms splayed in a parody of the Crucifixion. Stunned, Matt tried desperately to clear his head from the impact, as Lindsay advanced towards him, victorious. Behind her, Luke remained where
she left him, barely conscious and hanging suspended a foot above the floor.
“Don’t feel too bad, Matt. To be honest, I’m very impressed. Five seconds after you went strange and you’re already up and about. Better than up and about, in fact. You disrupted my summoning. Even got few good hits on me. Of course, it helps, I suppose, that you went into the Light instead of one of the other directions. But regardless, you could never hope to hold out against me so soon after attunement.”
Matt spat out some blood along with his reply. “I don’t understand a single damn word you just said, you crazy freak!”
She giggled. “Of course not. Insight does not equal understanding. But don’t you worry. Soon, I’ll be answering all your questions. About what you are. About what you’re going to become.” She gave that winsome, elfin smile again. It was terrifying.
“Oh, and then comes the torture! For you and your brother. Physically, mentally, and even spiritually. I’m going to rape your soul, Matt Sullivan, yours and your little brother’s. And when I’m done, I’ll introduce you both to my masters. Who will presently become your masters. And then, the real fun will start!”
Lindsay laughed again, a wild, crazed laugh that spoke of cruelty and madness to come. Matt struggled in vain against his invisible bonds. Whatever the golden fire had been, it was gone now. Perhaps he had used it improperly. Perhaps, as Lindsay said, he had never even had a chance. All he knew was that he was beaten and that he and his brother were meant for some nightmare even worse than what they had seen so far. All he knew was that, once again, he had failed his father’s dying wish.
Luckily for Matt, it was at that moment that the stained-glass window just to his left exploded, as Electra Dellamorte came bursting through on her 1975 Yamaha Silverbird, her silver-plated Desert Eagles glinting in the moonlight.
And so, the strangest night of Matt Sullivan’s young life continued.
CHAPTER 3: