Wrath James White presents Poisoning Eros I & II

by Monica J. O'Rourke

  The man’s eyes widened in fear as he watched Gloria and her daughter head back toward inferno. “He wouldn’t see you? Why? What did they tell you?”

  “They said we’re damned,” Gloria said. “We’re all damned. That’s why we’re here. This is just another method of torture, as far as I’m concerned. Just another way to give us hope so it can be crushed again. We’re going back where we belong, back to the only place that will have us.”

  They wandered away, and the man and his family stood in the dimly lit tunnel, clearly petrified to move forward.

  The light of heaven was almost a memory as Gloria and Angela walked deeper into the gloom.

  Gloria stopped suddenly and her daughter looked up at her quizzically.

  “What’s wrong, Mom?”

  “Why are they here?” Gloria glanced back. “How could an entire family wind up in hell?”

  Gloria yelled into the tunnel. “Hey! Hey, wait!” She jogged back and found them waiting. “What did you do?”

  “What?” The puzzled man studied Gloria’s face.

  “How did you get here? Why is your entire family here?”

  “We died together in a plane crash.”

  Gloria was almost frantic. Everyone was looking at her like she’d lost her mind, but insanity was so common in this place that her anxiety seemed almost pedestrian.

  “But why did you all end up here? Why didn’t you go to heaven? You all couldn’t have been bad people. At least the children—”

  The father stared at the ground, refused to meet Gloria’s eyes. “Because we were atheists. We didn’t believe in God. We denied him.”

  “So you were sent here? Your entire family? But that’s not right. How could God do this?”

  “We didn’t believe.”

  “No! That’s not right. Kids can’t be blamed for—”

  “We have to go. Maybe he’ll take us now. After all, we can’t possibly deny his existence now, right?”

  “But … how long have you been here?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “What year did you die?”

  “Nineteen forty-three.”

  Gloria’s mouth dropped open. They’d been suffering in damnation for more than sixty years just for not believing? It was so cruel she couldn’t wrap her mind around it.

  “We really need to get going. I don’t want the demons to catch us. Not when we’re so close.”

  Gloria and Angela watched the man and his family walk off into the light. She held her daughter as they walked back toward hell, more determined than ever to find a way out. They wouldn’t spend eternity there.

  It wasn’t fair. None of it was fair.

  *

  By the time they fully exited the tunnel, a group had gathered at its entrance. She recognized their frightened, apprehensive looks and knew that seeing her and her daughter walk out did nothing to embolden them.

  “Did you see him?”

  “What was he like?”

  “Why didn’t he take you?”

  “She must be a murderer or Satanist or something.”

  “Why didn’t he take you?”

  “I’ll bet she murdered babies back on Earth.”

  “She must have been a child molester or something.”

  “Maybe she committed suicide. They say that’s an unforgivable sin.”

  “Why didn’t he let you stay?”

  Gloria had to fight her way through the small angry mob, trying to protect her daughter from their questions. Terrified, confused faces, all wanting answers, none wanting answers.

  The crowd turned vicious. They tore at Gloria’s hair. Someone slapped her. Someone else punched her in the stomach. Angela screamed as they attacked her, too. They were knocked to the ground and the crowd moved in to kick and stomp them. Angela’s screams grew louder and Gloria crawled over, using her own body to protect Angela’s.

  Gloria took the brunt of the attack, her ribs bruised, head bloody from the assault.

  “Why are they so mad?” Angela screamed. “Why are they hurting us?”

  Gloria tried to respond but a boot smashed down on her mouth, shattering her

  teeth. She coughed and spit blood as she was stomped again. Her eye was squashed and sunk down into her skull. They pummeled her with rocks plucked from the cave floor. It felt as though every bone in her body was being mashed to bits.

  Gloria screamed, the pain in her ruined face and head unbearable, but she knew that screaming was a huge mistake.

  Then, the sound of thunder as demons poured down the corridor and into the chamber. More than a dozen filed in, their skin a gruesome tapestry of scarified flesh decorated with animal horns and teeth, metal and bone, grafted into their skulls, torsos, and limbs like the demon that had held Gloria captive. Fallen angels self-modified into hideous monsters. They each stood more than seven feet tall, stooping with their backs scraping the cave ceiling. Their mouths were filled with jagged shards of metal, bone, and stone filed to sharp points. A profusion of fangs and tusks, glinting in the flickering torchlight was embedded in their gums in no discernable order, the insane artistry of some demented orthodontist. They grinned and snarled, gazing with sadistic, undisguised lust and cruelty upon the frightened humans, their intentions etched into their twisted flesh as plainly as the scars and tattoos that adorned them. Quickly they fanned out to block both exits, cutting off all avenue of retreat. The trapped humans began to cry and pray and beg. Some of them simply laid on the ground, curled into fetal positions, shivering with fear, waiting for the blows to fall, for the pain to begin.

  Massive clubs and axes swung with lethal ferocity at the fleeing humans, mowing them down like blades of grass, hacking everyone to pieces. Some of the demons simply scooped up the fleeing souls and shredded them with their teeth and claws, literally chewing them up and spitting them out. Still others took the opportunity to satiate their savage lusts, raping and sodomizing anyone they could get their hands on even as they eviscerated and dismembered them.

  Gloria had never seen such wholesale slaughter. She doubled over, dry heaving, unable to regurgitate with an empty stomach. The screams were deafening. She clamped her hands over her ears, trying to block out the din, then added her own screams to the chorus.

  Body parts flew in every direction as the demons tore the mob apart. Bits and pieces hit Gloria in the face and smashed against the cave walls. Gloria tried to crawl away from the carnage, dragging her hysterical daughter with her. Their only hope was that the demons wouldn’t notice them escaping, would be too caught up in their apparent glee at attacking the humans who were still mobile.

  They hid in a nearby hole carved into the cave wall, barely able to conceal themselves in the small opening. They dragged the remains of other human on top of them, hiding beneath severed limbs and organs. So far the demons hadn’t seemed to notice. Gloria glanced over as a demon beheaded the last human. Not that that would pose a problem for any of them—they would all regenerate, and knowing the demons’ behavior the way she did, they would wait patiently so they could attack the humans all over again.

  The demons were laughing. Standing over the body parts and laughing, pointing at chunks of human meat strewn throughout the cave, still hideously alive. Unable to die despite the grievous injuries they’d suffered. They watched the undulating limbs, heads, and torsos, the beating hearts and expanding and contracting lungs that had been ripped from ruptured chests with ghoulish glee. Taking delight in stomping them into pulp, relishing the sounds of cracking bone and squishing meat and organs.

  Some were still furiously copulating with the dismembered bodies, forcing the hideously wounded souls to submit to intercourse and anal penetration, forcing them to perform fellatio, raping their headless necks, eviscerated stomachs and eyeless skulls along with any other orifice they could find or create. Lubricating their malformed phalluses with the blood of one before sodomizing another in an orgy of violence that seemed to go on forever.

  “Watch,” one s
aid, its bulbous head topped with a profusion of horns, antlers, and tusks, wobbling as it laughed. It picked up a woman’s head, her eyes blinking furiously, her tongue trying to work despite her head no longer being attached to her vocal cords. The demon snatched various body parts from around the cave and pressed them together, like trying to fit the wrong pieces into a puzzle. But the limbs began to reattach and regenerate as piece by piece was added, until the demon had created its own type of human.

  The human-thing stood on mismatched legs, its male torso supporting its female head. The other demons followed suit and created their own human hybrids.

  The small human mob that had attacked Gloria and Angela were herded out of the cave, some crawling on distorted limbs, others trying to walk on arms that had been assembled where legs should have been. One had had his head reattached backward and screamed hysterically when he realized it was permanent.

  “We’re okay,” Gloria whispered through her shattered mouth, her arms tight around Angela’s shoulders. Her face was already beginning to regenerate.

  Her daughter’s eyes were squeezed shut.

  “It’s okay to look. They’re gone.” Gloria made sure to keep her voice as quiet as possible.

  Angela looked at her mother and shook her head. “You look horrible. What did they do to you?”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “I’m so scared.”

  “Me too.”

  “That could have been us!”

  Gloria nodded. “I know,” she whispered. “But you have to be quiet. Very quiet.”

  Angela nodded. “Serves them right. For what they did to us. They deserved that!”

  “No one deserves that, Angela.”

  Angela scowled. “They were disgusting. Horrible and disgusting.”

  Gloria cradled her daughter’s head against her shoulder. “Try to relax. Get some sleep.”

  The need to sleep—along with every other bodily function—no longer existed, yet like breathing or gasping for breath when pain became too much to bear, the overwhelming desire to curl up in a warm cozy bed, bundled beneath a comforter was something Gloria yearned for. As it was, she would accept curling against a rock and shutting her eyes, hoping dreams would take her far from this place. But there never were dreams, never the solace of escape. Only nightmares, asleep and awake.

  When Gloria opened her eyes, Angela was staring at her. “How can you sleep?”

  “I told you, I—”

  “But it’s not real! And you’re putting us in danger. How can you be so selfish?”

  Gloria excused the remark as teenage angst. And stupidity. And a young lifetime of living with a degenerate father.

  “What would you like us to do then?”

  Angela scowled, huffing her indignation.

  “Picnic, perhaps? Take a walk along the shore?”

  “You know what I mean, Mother.”

  Gloria always wondered why her daughter didn’t finish that with fucker. “All we can do is hope to survive. We have no place else to go. Not yet anyway.”

  “There has to be someplace. You said so yourself.”

  “Where else do you have in mind? I’m open to suggestions.”

  “You’re the mother. You’re supposed to know these things.” She sobbed, wrapping her arms around her knees, hugging herself for comfort.

  There were moments—moments of weakness where Gloria knew she didn’t belong here, knew she could escape, could desert her daughter and escape into heaven if she desired. And it was tempting … she’d even convinced herself that once there, she might be able to plead with them, convince them to allow Angela in as well. All she’d have to do is leave Angela behind. Angela, the girl who had betrayed her in life, had subjected her mother to an eternity in hell.

  Gloria hadn’t exactly been a saint on earth. She’d done what she’d needed to do to survive. But she didn’t deserve this, and heaven seemed ready to forgive her transgressions, including sacrificing herself for Angela’s baby, which had amounted to committing suicide, despite the selflessness of the act.

  “Can we go now?” Angela whined. “Find some food or something.”

  “You’re not hungry.”

  “Yes I am!”

  “When’s the last time you ate?”

  The girl shrugged, scowled, turned away. “I had a cheeseburger.”

  “Months ago. You don’t need to eat. These bodies aren’t even real, not real flesh anyway, despite being able to touch and feel. There’s no need to eat. Do you understand?”

  “Whatever.” She studied grubby fingernails that would never come clean enough. “But I want to eat. Just like you and your stupid naps. You can’t be tired. We don’t get tired here.”

  “Fair enough. What would you like to eat? Grubs? Maggots? Rats? I haven’t seen much else.”

  “Why are you doing this to me?” the girl whined.

  “Because you’re being ridiculous. We can’t waste time on nonsense. We’ve got to get out of this place.” She laughed in spite of her fear.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing. Reminds me of a song by The Animals. You know?” Gloria sang quietly, “We gotta get out of this place, if it’s the last thing we ever do.”

  Angela rolled her eyes. “Never heard of it. Must be one of your Golden Moldies.”

  “Yeah, well, not a big surprise. That group was way before your time.”

  “Do you think we ever will? Get out, I mean.”

  “We have to. Right? We have to. It’s not like we have a choice. I’m not spending an eternity in this”—she almost said hellhole—“place.”

  “What will it take?” Angela asked—in a rather strange way, Gloria thought. A little introspective, as if the question had been for herself and not her mother.

  Gloria grabbed Angela’s hand. “Come on.”

  “Where?”

  “I have no idea. But we should keep moving. Things have been way too quiet. Our luck’s bound to run out, especially the farther we travel into hell.”

  They passed demons and humans along the way but managed to evade capture and not attract attention. Gloria knew it wouldn’t last. There were just too many sadistic creatures roaming around, and she shuddered, afraid to imagine what they might encounter next.

  Or how they’d survive.

  But there had to be a way out of hell. Had to be.

  Angela abruptly stopped walking and yanked Gloria back half a foot. “Why are we going this way?”

  Gloria thought for a moment and half shrugged. “Not too many choices.”

  “Yeah, but we were safe where we were. Right? So why leave?”

  “We weren’t safe.”

  “Well not exactly, but compared to the rest of the place? It’s only going to get worse the further in we go. Why don’t we go back?”

  “Because there was nothing there, Angela. No freedom. No escape.”

  “And you think going back into hell is a way to escape? That makes no sense!”

  “You have to trust me.”

  “No, I don’t! I think you’re nuts. I think maybe you enjoy being fucked over and over again by those things.”

  “Don’t be stupid. Of course I don’t!”

  “Bullshit. Why else go back? You didn’t go into heaven and why would anyone want to go into hell?”

  “Angela—”

  “No!” She yanked away from her mother’s grasp. “I’ll bet it’s your fault I turned into that slug thing. I’ll bet if I went by myself they would’ve let me in.”

  Angela stepped back, as if repulsed by having to share space with her mother. “Tell me, Mother, what kind of deal did you make? How did you sacrifice me? You’ve done it before, so I don’t know why this surprises me. You gave me up because you loved drugs and fucking more than you loved me. So what did you do this time?”

  “Lower your voice. We’re too close.”

  “Fuck you!” Angela screamed. “Fuck you fuck you fuck you!” The girl smirked.

  “Jesu
s,” Gloria muttered, cringing at the sound of heavy footfalls echoing in the corridor.

  “Protect me from that, you lying bitch.”

  “What are you?” Gloria snapped. “Bipolar?”

  From around the sharp corner three demons emerged.

  “Uh oh,” Angela whispered, but Gloria was sure she saw the girl grin.

  The first demon wielded a club studded with railroad ties. He swung it at Gloria’s head and she ducked, barely escaping the swing, and it smashed into the wall instead, now embedded in the rock. The demon cursed her and the club and struggled to pull it free.

  “Run!” Gloria screamed, but the second demon lunged for Angela, grabbing hold of her calves. Rows of hooks jutted from the creature’s arms, a fishing accident gone strangely awry, and he dragged his forearms down the length of Angela’s legs, destroying the skin, chunks of bloody pulp sticking to the hooks. Angela landed on her stomach, the wind knocked out of her, and she pawed the earth trying to escape.

  The third demon opened its mouth and leaned into Gloria. She hadn’t been ready for the attack, had been watching Angela, trying to figure out how to save her daughter. Inside the demon’s mouth was a second mouth like a crocodile’s snout, and beyond that a third mouth like an eel, all three filled with row upon row of jagged razor-like teeth.

  Gloria shrieked and cowered as those endless rows of teeth swallowed her head up to her neck, hot puddles of sizzling, acid-like saliva cauterizing her skin. The last thing she remembered was the crunching, the chewing through her flesh and bone as her head was severed from her shoulders.

  *

  Gloria woke to the fleeting memory of the man with his head on backward, terrified for a moment until she was able to determine after a quick check that she was again in one piece, all of her parts in their correct place and none that did not belong to her.

  Lying on the ground, naked again, as if these monsters had nothing better to do than steal the filthy rags she’d managed to scrounge. Never mind the smell—despite a lack of bodily fluids, the body retained the memory of past odors. So sweat and exertion generated a musky, earthy, offensive aroma. And death itself? Besides the smells of dirt and embalming fluids, Gloria’s body emitted an offensive reek of decay. She wondered if it was something she would ever get used to.