That made him put the thought out of his head. He reminded himself it would be a sin to approach the game in that way. Even though that may be what the evil video game designers, undoubtedly hailing from some hotbed of sin and lust like California, wanted, he wasn’t going to give in. He knew that was the secret of the game. That was why it was one of the few forms of popular entertainment endorsed by the Church.
“Dougie! You home!” His mother shouted up the stairs.
“Yes!” he screamed toward his closed door.
“You got the phone!”
“Yeah, Mom!”
“I need it!”
He slumped his shoulders, picked up the phone, opened his door, and tossed it out onto the stairs. Cigarette smoke wafted up. He slammed his door.
“Coulda brought it down!”
“I don’t wanna get cancer!”
He heard her grumbling and went back to playing his game. He thought about the beer in the bottom of his drawers and decided he would wait until he knew his mother was in bed. Tonight, he would take the cans and hide them in the trash can as soon as he was finished so he didn’t have to worry about doing it in the morning.
He achieved the golden cross around midnight. He had heard his mother’s snores start around ten and, after about a half hour of that, he pulled the first tall boy from the drawer and downed it within a few minutes. It made the game even more fun. It made fighting off temptation even that much more difficult. Still, he had managed. And three beers later, he had the golden cross and felt like he was going to pass out. He went downstairs to the garage and hid the cans in the trash, put the phone back on the charger after wiping down the mouthpiece, noticed there weren’t any voice mails, and went back upstairs. He didn’t even take off his clothes. He lay down in the darkness, listening to the summer sounds outside his bedroom window and thought about Mindy and Whitney and that awful thing they had seen on the road. He remembered how Mindy had said the guy who had died had looked like he was mauled by some kind of wild animal. Could that have been the wild animal? Who knew? His next lesson was tomorrow after work and that already seemed too far away. It wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be and Mindy was really fun to be around. Not to mention that she was about the most attractive girl he had ever seen. His penis was very stiff in his jeans. He thought about masturbating and then he thought about going to hell to burn for all eternity and then, finally, he fell asleep.
Ten
Angie thought Jim Lankmeyer was taking his Christ adulation way too far.
“I don’t see why we can’t just fuck like most normal people.”
He was crouched down, pounding the final nail into his makeshift cross. He whipped his head back over his shoulder and hissed, “Because that is a sin, Angie.”
“Something tells me this is probably a sin, too.”
“I haven’t found any evidence of that. Where is Christ if we are having sex? Nowhere. That’s where. This will be beautiful. This is sacrifice. I will put myself in Christ’s place and feel what he felt.”
He handed the hammer to her. She let it rest against her shoulder and rolled her eyes. “It just seems so sick and wrong.”
“I know what you did with Elliot Beerman. I heard all about it. I know you like to hurt people. I know you like to cause pain. This should be right up your alley.”
“You know what else I like sometimes? A cock in my vagina. That feels good. You might like it too if you’d give it a try.”
He stood up and stood very close to her. “Not until I am married under the eyes of God.”
“No fun.”
“Why do you have to be so difficult?”
“Because this is dumb. That’s why.”
“Do you think you can lift me up if I lay down on it?”
“I can try.”
“Okay.”
Jim lay down and spread his arms out on the cross. Angie rifled through the toolbox until she found the big, thick nails the sick bastard probably bought just for this occasion. She really wished she lived in a city. All this nothing. All this nowhere. It caused people to do things like this. She was in her early twenties and didn’t think this was how she was supposed to spend a Friday evening. But she stuck around. Just like everyone who went to the Church of the New Covenant, or the New Cov, as they said when they wanted to try and make it sound cooler than it could ever be. Something was going to happen. If everything Pastor Don said was true, something was happening right now. But soon—SOON—something really, really big was going to happen. She had made a pact with herself to give it another year and then she thought she would have to get out.
Jim cast his eyes toward the big moon and took a deep, shaky breath. “This is all for you,” he whispered. “Lord Jesus, this is all for you.”
Angie rolled her eyes. She lowered herself onto his hips in a blatantly sexual position. She was curious to know if he was hard over this. He gave her a disparaging look. “What? How else am I supposed to do this?”
She wore a black skirt and liked the feel of the lump in his jeans pressing against the thin layer of her underwear. “So I just pound them in?”
“Yes. Try not to pound them into any bones.”
“Are we doing the feet too?”
“I don’t think that will be necessary.”
“It might give you some support. You never know. You don’t want any tearing.”
“That’s why I’ve put the foot rest on the bottom. If a nail through my feet is necessary, then we will drive the nail through my feet.”
“Jesus probably didn’t have a foot rest.”
“Angie.”
“I’m just sayin.” She took a deep breath. At first, she didn’t know if she could do this or not but it was one of those things that became so absurd she felt like she had to. Her friends would enjoy hearing about it anyway. “Left hand first?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Are you sure you don’t want some painkillers? I have some pretty decent stuff in my bag.”
“That is not necessary. I will absorb the pain and turn it into Christ love.”
“Ready?” She steadied the nail in her left hand, reaching over his body, her crotch resting snugly against his. She was pretty sure she felt something there. With her right hand, she swung at the nail head, missed, and smashed his middle finger. He gasped sharply. “Sorry.” Jesus, he was even harder now. On the next swing, she connected with the head of the nail and it went most of the way through his hand. He bucked his hips against her. She was pretty sure he was crying. But he had told her not to stop under any circumstance so she gave the nail a couple more blows until it met wood. She continued pounding until the head was flush with his bloody palm. He was relatively quiet and she wondered if he had passed out. Looking at his face, she could see the tears streaming from the corners of his eyes but the eyes themselves were upturned rapturously. He kept muttering things like “yes” and “Lord Jesus” under his breath. This was becoming more and more like sex.
“The other one now?” she asked.
“Yes. The other one now.”
This one went more smoothly. By the time she was finished, he was breathing heavily, almost panting. Now she was to stand him up against the huge tree and leave him there until morning. She knew that, even though he said he was doing all of this to prove his love for Christ, he was actually doing it so he could go to church on Sunday morning and show Pastor Don his hands and try to convince him he had stigmata. It was like a race with the men in the Church to see who could be the holiest. She didn’t know why women were never included in this. If there was such a thing as the second coming of Christ, wasn’t it possible that it could be a woman? Or did that go against some type of family values?
Oh well, she knew the secret of the Church anyway. She wanted to laugh at all of Jim’s false piety.
If he only knew.
If so many of the parishioners only knew.
She stepped up to the top of the cross. She guessed, maybe, it was a cr
ucifix now. She made sure to step directly over Jim’s head, affording him the perfect chance to see up her skirt. He probably didn’t care. She bent over and put her hands under the crossbeam.
“I don’t know if I’m strong enough to do this.”
“It is Christ’s will, Angie. Of course you will be able to do it.”
She lifted and managed to raise it off the ground with no problem. She didn’t know if it was Christ’s will or if Jim just wasn’t really that heavy. He probably only outweighed her by about thirty pounds. She gave the crucifix a yank and let it come to rest against the tree. She now stood in front of him and pushed the crucifix up higher. She walked back to her bag, resting beside the toolbox, and pulled a length of rope out of it. She held it up in front of Jim.
“I thought you would probably want your feet restrained in some way. Since you didn’t want to be like Jesus and have me put a nail down there, I thought this rope would do.”
“That was an excellent idea, Angie. But I don’t appreciate your derision.”
“I’m not deriding. I just thought it would be a good idea.”
“Then do it. That will ensure that I do not tip the cross over and walk to seek help.”
“I thought I would be staying here with you.”
“This is between me, God, and his son.”
“Suit yourself.”
She tied the rope around his ankles. Secure, but not tight enough to cut off the circulation. She backed up to look at him. He continued to stare up at the sky. He wasn’t a bad looking guy. She knew he wasn’t a virgin. He was one of those “born again” virgins. The type of guy who did his hard living in high school until they almost died or something and then his brain was so fried he decided to start going to church and do things like this. It still came down to the same macho posturing bullshit, Angie thought. She took a step toward him. She unbuckled his belt.
“Angie? What are you doing?”
She unbuttoned his jeans. Unzipped them. Slid them and his tighty whities down to his knees. His penis was very erect. It wasn’t huge but it seemed to be at maximum volume.
“Angie. This is not a game. This is not some kind of sex game. I don’t know what I’ve done to give you that idea.”
“Just, uh, think of Jesus or something.” She went down on her knees. She touched her tongue to the tip of his penis. Wrapped a hand around the base. Used the other hand to cup his scrotum.
“This is practically rape, Angie. I’ll tell Pastor Don of your paganish ways.”
She laughed softly, eyeing his stiff cock. “Yeah, you go ahead and do that.” She ran her tongue down the length of his shaft and the next thing she felt was a ropy strand of warm semen coursing down her cheek. She rolled her eyes and wiped it away. Stood up. Her fun was over.
Unless.
Unless she just left him like this.
She began backing away. She waved and smiled sarcastically. “Night, Jim.” Then she turned and darted off into the woods.
He had never felt this much shame before. His face burned with the heat of the summer and embarrassment. Who would find him in the morning? Who would find him like this? His penis hung limp against his scrotum, a rope of semen trailing out. That was the bad part. The semen. It cheapened everything. Now whoever saw him, whether they believed what Angie had done to him or not, would think this wasn’t pure. Would think tonight’s activity had been fraught with lustful thoughts.
The woods and dead leaves were suddenly alive with sound.
His face continued to burn with shame. He even thought about trying to free his hands just so he did not have to face the dispersion that would be cast upon him.
Who would find him like this?
Would it be mean high schoolers or someone from the Church?
The ground seemed to rumble with the force of the intruder. Maybe it was some kind of wild animal. A really large wild animal. Maybe it was just a wild horse. Maybe it was a bear. He’d never heard of bears in these parts but... anything was possible.
What he saw was none of these things.
It stood in front of him, covered in reddish fur, giant horns gleaming under the moonlight.
Angie. Angie’s harlotry had summoned the Devil.
“You don’t want me,” Jim said. “I am pure. You want the girl.”
The beast sniffed the air and moved closer to Jim on cloven hooves, its tail swishing back and forth. It leaned toward Jim, lowered its head to his crotch, sniffing.
Jim started to pray.
The beast took a great bite and bathed in the blood.
Eleven
They had just finished taping the last of the black trash bags to the living room wall when the door bell rang.
“That’s probably them.” Mindy walked toward the door and opened it up, the humidity immediately assaulting her. A man in bib overalls stood illuminated in the porch light, moths flapping around his head. “Are you from Baal’s?”
The man didn’t say anything. He shrugged and looked down at the goat to his left.
“I guess so.”
He spit out some tobacco juice to his right and produced a clipboard with a contract on it. “I’m gonna need you to sign here.”
Mindy took the clipboard, gave the contract a cursory glance, and signed at the bottom with the man’s greasy pen. She handed the clipboard and the pen back to the man. He tore off the carbon copy and handed it back to Mindy.
“It’s all yours. No returns.”
“I don’t think that will be a problem.”
“Never is.”
Mindy took the goat by the collar and shut the door as the man turned to head back to his black cargo truck. Once inside, the goat unleashed a torrent of urine, spattering against the plastic of the trash bags.
“Yuck,” Kristen said. She looked away from the pentagram she was spraying onto the wall with glow-in-the-dark paint. “Why do we have to use my house?”
“Because your parents are gone.”
“This is creepy. And gross.”
“We’re just doing what we were told. There will be rewards. You know that.”
“I know. This just isn’t how I thought I would be spending Friday nights once I got out of college.”
“But you didn’t graduate from college. You’re graduating from the Tabernacle and this is one of the things we have to do. It will all be over soon and then the Kingdom will be in Clover. We’ll be a Mecca for the entire country.”
Mindy let go of the goat. It bucked its hind legs, shat on the floor, and moved to the other side of the room. Kristen finished the pentagram. Mindy put a hand on her left elbow. “Come on,” she said. “You know it’s worth it.”
Kristen turned around and met Mindy’s intense gaze. Mindy moved in and kissed the other girl on the lips. They moved closer to each other, their tongues darting in and out of each other’s mouths.
“I guess you’re right.”
“Now let’s finish getting it set up before he shows up.”
Kristen commenced to painting some more pentagrams and upside down crosses on the walls. Mindy lit several candles. The goat slept.
Soon they heard the beast at the door, something between a pant and a growl. Kristen rushed over to open the door before the beast busted it down. He would be hungry and sometimes that made him destructive. The beast rushed in, huge and stinking. Kristen quickly shut and locked the door. The worst thing in the world would be for someone to walk in on them in the next few hours.
The next few hours, she mused. That was why they had come to love the beast. He could make them feel things no one else had.
The beast couldn’t talk when he was like this. Too many teeth. Too many primal desires surging through his body. He growled and held out his arms. His hide was damp and dark and Mindy wondered if he was already soaked in blood. She moved close to him and he grabbed the back of her head, pulling her into his chest and then forcing her mouth open. He wanted her to lick his fur. To suck the blood from it. She wondered who the blood had
come from. She licked and sucked a clump into her mouth until the rich taste was gone. Then she pulled away from him and said, “We’ve brought you a present, Lord. Kristen, the goat.”
Kristen picked up the curved ceremonial knife from a trash bag covered end table. She approached the sleeping goat. She straddled it, grabbed it by one of its horns and lifted its head. Its eyes shot open and she dragged the knife across its throat. It began bucking and twitching, its blood spurting out, darkening its coat, pooling on the floor. Kristen forced it to the ground. It continued to bleed on the floor, its twitches becoming slower. The beast and the two girls approached the puddle. The girls stripped off their clothes and dropped to their knees, bathing in the still warm blood. And then the beast pulled both of them to him and forced their mouths to move over him. His penis became larger and harder. And, once they were all full on the blood of both human and goat, he reminded them why they were both so devoted.
This continued until nearly dawn, when he disappeared back into the humid night.
Mindy and Kristen fell asleep in each other’s arms.
Saturday, June 14th
Twelve
Crank had awoken sometime after midnight. He was terrified but reminded himself everything was okay. He convinced himself he hadn’t seen what he thought he saw. He needed something to do to take his mind off it. He went into the bathroom of the double wide and got the hair scissors. Then he went into the kitchen until he found some tape. He went back into his bedroom, huddled in the corner and cut off chunks of his greasy hair. He picked the clumps of hair up from the floor and began taping them to his left arm. He checked his cell phone to see if he had any messages. It looked like Doug had called but it was too late to call him back now. He wished it wasn’t dark outside. He wished a lot of things.
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