Ethan spun around and stared at her sullenly. His gaze narrowed; a menacing glint surfaced, replacing the vacant look that was usually in his eyes.
Jen shot an alarmed glance downward and went cold with dread. She wanted to run but she couldn’t move. She felt frozen in place.
“Did…you…uh…tinkle?” she stammered.
“Not yet!” he responded in a terrible voice that sounded gravelly and ancient.
Her limbs loosened in response to her brain’s desire to take flight. “Carmen!” Jen cried, keeping an eye on the menacing child while she quickly backed away. The boy, his expression deadly, his temples pulsing in rage, paced toward her, his steps hastening as he aimed his penis as threateningly as if he were pointing a gun.
“No! Don’t!” Jen tried to run but tripped over the sash of her robe, which had come undone.
Expecting at any moment to feel the hot splash of urine, Jen grimaced and curled into a ball on the floor.
But she felt something else. The vibration of footsteps bounding up the stairs. Carmen? No, the footsteps were much too heavy—so heavy the house seemed to shake. Felt like more than one person was running up the stairs. Lizzy and Carmen? she thought hopefully. No, not Lizzy either. The maid was a tiny thing; she couldn’t make the house quake—and she had the day off. Besides Carmen, there was no one else inside the house.
Ethan’s wheezing escalated to his piercing scream. A shock of fear made Jen’s heart double its rhythm. Oh, shit. An episode. She needed help. “Carmen?” she called aloud, her voice squeaky with panic. She came out of the fetal position, propped herself up on an elbow, her neck stretched in the direction of the pounding sound that was growing closer.
Unbelievably, from her vantage point on the floor, she saw slender ebony-colored female feet. Rushing past the ebony feet and with a furious pounding were a pair of something thick, furry, and clawed. Something that could only be described as…a pair of hooves.
Ethan stopped screaming. The room became ominously silent. Then there was a strange and unfamiliar rumbling…like the hoofed animal was growling deep in its throat, ready to attack.
Jen scooted back and slithered under Ethan’s bed, hoping she hadn’t been detected. Trembling, she prayed the boy would start wailing again. His ear-piercing shriek might scare off the barefoot woman and the wild beast she’d brought with her.
“Hello, Xavier. Well, look at you.” The woman’s voice was tinged with amusement.
Holy shit! Xavier! That was the name Ethan had called himself. The urge to get up and run like hell was overpowering, but she shook so badly, she didn’t risk trying to make a half-cocked escape.
“Childhood does not become you, my friend.”
“I agree. Unfortunately, I’m stuck in this tiny human frame and I need your help. That’s why I brought you here. You wanted to get out of your ghastly dwelling and I assisted you.
“Is that your governess, huddling beneath the bed?” the woman asked with a bored sigh.
Shit! She’d been spotted. Jen had hoped for a miracle.
“Not anymore,” Ethan replied ominously.
“Poor thing’s trembling so bad, the bed is quaking. I think she’s afraid.”
“As she should be,” Ethan answered in his raspy voice. “I’m furious that you brought that growling fiend. He wasn’t in the plan.” Ethan changed the subject as if Jen’s terrified presence was of little consequence.
“As I said, he’s my protection,” the woman answered. The growling sound intensified as if the hooved beast was ready to maim on the woman’s behalf.
“Protection?” the boy echoed, outraged. “From what?”
“From you. And anyone else who would seek to harm me.”
“Oh, yea of little faith. Wicked One, you have to learn to trust me. I’m insulted.” Wicked One? What in the name of God is going on? Jen wondered.
“I know you, Xavier. You are the most deceitful spirit I’ve ever encountered. You are the last soul I’d trust,” the woman said. Oddly, her scathing accusation came out sounding like a compliment.
“I’m no more deceitful than you. So, there. It’s out in the open. You and I will put the past behind us and become partners again. We have lots to accomplish. Lots of planning to do. First things first. You can’t go around naked. You need clothing. My mother has an extensive wardrobe. Help yourself.”
“What about Boozer? He’ll need attire as well,” the woman said.
Ethan snorted. “Boozer’s a beast. There’s nothing in this house that will fit him.”
“We’ll hire a tailor.”
There was that awful growl again, scratching through the air like it had emerged from a throat filled with razor blades.
“That ogre is disgusting. Take a good look at what you dragged from the Dark Realm.” Ethan scolded. “It’s barely human. It won’t fit in around here; it needs to return to hell. I’m sending it back.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” the woman said firmly. “I need him.”
“You don’t need that creature. You have me!”
“You’re a child,” she scoffed.
“He’s a beast; the sight of that thing will cause humans to shriek in horror. How can I exact revenge against my parents with that fiend lumbering about? It’s not likely that he’ll go undetected. Did it occur to you that you can’t drag a mortal who has been cast to the Dark Realm back to earth and expect it to retain its human appearance?”
“You were once mortal.”
“I came back through the birth canal and have the appearance of a normal human.”
Eris gave him a sidelong look. “Normal? I wouldn’t go that far. Besides, you didn’t arrive through a typical birth. You slipped inside an unsuspecting fetus and stole its life.”
The boy smirked. “Merely semantics. Unlike that monster you yanked from hell, my natural birth cannot be disputed. Being a goddess and all, I thought you were of superior intelligence. I’m starting to doubt your wisdom and cunning. Didn’t it occur to you that Boozer wouldn’t fit in?”
“I’ll keep him hidden from sight.”
The boy snorted. “Hidden? Where do you propose to hide that thing? Boozer is gigantic—pretty hard to miss.”
Jen could hear the padding of Ethan’s small feet as he paced. “Wicked One, Wicked One,” he said with strained patience. “For someone who claims to be a wise goddess, you repeatedly make foolish choices. Aren’t you weary of getting torched and burned to a crisp every time you return to earth?” He gave a malicious chuckle.
“Don’t remind me. Boozer stays. And I won’t be burned again… not with Boozer protecting me.”
“And where do you suggest we conceal your… uh, security guard?”
“I discovered a false floorboard in the cellar that leads down to a secret dungeon. I doubt if the owners of this home know it’s there.”
Jen groaned inwardly. The conversation between the boy and the scary woman was going from bad to worse. The air was thick with evil. She would have never imagined that evil had an odor. But it did. The stench was so God-awful, Jen fought to hold her breath. She lost the battle when she drew in a strangled burst of air, bringing undesired attention her way.
“Governess!” the woman said sharply. She stalked over to the bed and kicked beneath bed ruffle, jabbing Jen in the side. It wasn’t painful but Jen understood the implied threat. It was time to crawl out and come face-to-face with a trio of monsters— Ethan included.
Cold fingers of terror clutched at Jen. It occurred to her to start banging her head against the hardwood floor and succumb to merciful darkness until help arrived. But the woman kicked her again before she could put her plan in motion. Feeling sick to her stomach, Jen prepared herself for the worst.
Not wanting to rush the inevitable horror that hovered above her, Jen moved in slow motion, raising her head as slowly as possible. What she wouldn’t give to click her heels and be back in her dreary hometown.
She’d give anything to have a lengthy convers
ation with her boring parents; she’d hang on to their every uninteresting word. If only she could escape this horror, she’d rejoin her family and make peace with the humdrum rural life she’d fled.
With that promise to herself, Jen uncovered her head, sat up, and reluctantly opened her eyes. She drew in several startled, deep breaths.
Ethan, with his privates tucked back inside his blue pajamas, stood over her. The coal-black woman from Piper’s Bridge was with him and she was still naked. Jen couldn’t help but notice that she appeared very comfortable in her nudity. The female apparition had the form and substance of a living person. Her cobalt blue eyes flickered in anger.
“What an ill-mannered governess you are. Get up and make yourself useful. Search every closet and storage place until you find something suitable for Boozer to wear!” The woman was accustomed to giving orders. Her tone held more than a hint that a tragic consequence would befall anyone who didn’t adhere to her demands swiftly.
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll look everywhere.” The tremor in Jen’s voice made her words indecipherable. Compensating, she nodded her head, conveying her willingness to cooperate. She did not want any trouble and would do whatever she was asked to do.
Actually, she planned to flee the moment she was out of that scary woman’s eyesight. She’d run screaming all the way down the driveway. Once she got outside the gate, she’d flag down a vehicle; bogart her way inside some unsuspecting motorist’s car. She’d plead with her rescuer to call the police or, better yet, drop her off at the nearest bus depot.
The police would most likely drag her back to the household to identify the perpetrators. And that wasn’t going to happen. Once free, there was no way she was going back inside to rejoin these goons from hell—not even with police protection. She wanted to be safe and sound in her parents’ warm and welcoming home.
She imagined herself living quietly and peacefully with her parents…like, forever. The vision wasn’t that bad. Compared to her current situation, living in a calm, rural community was a very appealing lifestyle.
Jen accidentally cut an eye at Boozer and wished she hadn’t. Boozer was the most grotesque creature she’d ever seen. It turned out that she hadn’t been hallucinating last night. Boozer was the same hideous fiend that had grinned at her from the skylight. It hadn’t been a figment of her imagination.
It was real and was here in the house.
And it was atrociously huge.
Up close, it was even more gross-looking than seeing it in the skylight. The beast named Boozer had a grayish complexion and grizzly tufts of fur jutting out of different parts of its malformed body. It was naked and was like…partially human…and partially beast.
She tried not to look at the thing’s groin, but involuntarily, her eyes wandered in that direction and she gasped. Boozer’s dick was gigantic. And covered with fur…like an animal’s genitals.
Boozer’s tongue slipped in and out of his mouth, vigorously licking at feral lips, while a trail of spittle ran down his chin. Eew! Each tongue flick delivered promises of unspeakable sexual acts.
What had she been thinking? She’d known from the start that Ethan was a weirdo. She should have run for her life the first time she’d witnessed him having one of his ghastly episodes. She could see it all so clearly now. Both Ms. Provost and the senator had used her. They never intended to get her a position on Capitol Hill.
Did the Provosts have a clue that their son was not autistic…that he wasn’t even a child? And very possibly, Ethan or Xavier, or whoever he was, wasn’t really even completely human? No, of course they didn’t know their progeny was a demon out for revenge. Had they known, surely they would have done the right thing and drowned him at birth.
And while the Provosts were out on the stump, smiling and waving to adoring crowds, Jen was trapped in their lunatic son’s bedroom with a couple of his friends—ghouls he’d personally summoned straight from hell.
Jen suddenly inhaled a breath of hope. Ethan’s grudge was against his parents…not her. She was innocent and had nothing to do with any of this. Maybe he’d let her go.
As if reading her mind, Boozer, behaving like an agitated dog, let out a long, low growl. Then he flopped down on the floor, like an ornery child. Sitting on his big, hairy butt, he kicked his hoofed feet out in a tantrum. The soles were thick and grooved with deep, crisscrossing lines. Jen grimaced and looked away from Boozer.
“Be patient, Boozer. After I’ve finished with her, you can keep her as your plaything—she’ll keep you company down in that dungeon beneath the cellar.”
Boozer’s plaything! Kept in a dungeon? Oh, dear God, please help me! The warm splash finally came, but not from Ethan. Petrified of what the beast had in store for her, Jen peed her panties.
THE GODDESS REALM
The time moved differently between the Dark Realm and the Goddess Realm. It seemed to Tara that all communication with her sister had stopped for several weeks. Poor Eris, she believed, was probably so afraid, being held in captivity with those vicious creatures and without the comfort of hearing her sister’s voice.
Several times a day, Tara peered into the pond, trying to make a connection with Eris. To no avail. It was as if Eris’s life force no longer existed on that realm. Had she plummeted to the very lowest realm? Tara gasped. No! Imagining Eris being tormented by Satan himself was a ghastly thought.
Eris didn’t deserve to be in such a depraved place. She was high-spirited, a little mischievous at times, but she couldn’t help herself due to her nature. She wasn’t as wicked to the core as those who dwelled in the fiery, lowest realm.
Tara cried up to the heavens, beseeching her ascended mother to help her find Eris. “Oh, Mother Inanna. Hear my cries. Guide me; tell me what I should do. My sister was sent to earth as a temporary home to teach her a lesson, but she misbehaved and was sent to that dreaded place. Now she’s lost. The goddesses should have never sent her so far away from her home. She was lonely and probably kept company with the bad types.
“Now through no fault of her own, she is made to dwell with those evil beings that slither and screech in the realms deprived of sunlight. Give me a sign, dear mother. Please! My sister… your daughter is lost!”
And every day that Tara sobbed, her winged attendant wiped her eyes, covered her with her wings, and comforted her in the only way she knew how.
Ordered by the woman to wipe up the puddle on the floor, to change her clothing, and to clean herself, all done with the hulking monster overseeing her, Jen, freshly scrubbed and changed, was marched back to Ethan’s bedroom. Red-faced, she stood before her minor charge and the woman named Eris, who was referred to as “Goddess.” To Jen, she seemed more like a witch than a goddess.
The woman sat atop Ethan’s desk. “What should we do about her?”
The boy sat in his swivel chair, stroking his chin in thought. “Punish her,” he remarked casually.
Eris looked at her slender hands. “I can’t. I just acquired these.” She held them out to be admired. “Too lovely to risk damaging.”
“Nanny, we do not tinkle on the floor,” Ethan chastised, throwing Jen’s own words at back at her.
“Talk, talk, talk. Stop all that jabbering and give her thirty and nine and be done with it,” Eris suggested.
“What, pray tell…is thirty and nine?” the boy asked, eyes gleaming with amusement.
“Lashes,” Eris explained, frowning at the boy’s ignorance. “It’s a pity we don’t have the whipping post I was hoisted to during my life on the plantation,” Eris said and gave a grievous sigh.
Red-faced, Jen dropped her head. She felt utterly hopeless. Then she thought about Carmen and her heart lifted. She’d heard the senator speaking with her on his way out, so where was the cook? She probably slipped out undetected and was running down the road to get help, Jen told herself. Carmen would be back with the entire police force and then this nightmare would end.
“You want to reprimand her in the way you were dealt wi
th when you were a rebellious slave?”
Lashes? Whipping posts…and slavery! What the hell are these lunatics talking about? Please hurry…save me, Carmen! Jen’s legs began to wobble. If only she could reach her cell phone. These demons were out for blood. Her blood! Something had to be done. Rome said that the dead can’t hurt you, but these ghouls that Ethan had released from hell were of solid form. The phantom world had merged into the real world and these supernatural beings, mutant as they were, were visible, lifelike, and they could hurt her. Really badly, Jen feared. She gave an involuntary whimper.
“This sniveling governess deserves far worse than what I was given. But I’ll settle for thirty and nine lashes.”
“And who should dispense the lashes? I’m a child. I haven’t the strength,” Ethan rasped in complaint. Jen almost smiled in relief, but caught herself and maintained her terror-stricken look.
“Boozer can do it,” Eris offered.
“No!” Jen yelled. “He’ll kill me.”
Eris and the child exchanged a significant look. “She’s right,” Eris said. “Boozer doesn’t know his own strength. Furthermore, I need her alive. I have no idea how long this physical body is going to last. It seems unwise to risk losing her when I may need to feed on her for my own well-being.”
Feed! On me? A shiver of extreme fear worked its way up her spine. Perhaps she’d stumbled into some sort of alternate universe. Yes, that had to be what was going on here because nothing made sense or seemed real.
Ethan began wheezing. “Are you suggesting the naughty nanny should go unpunished?” The sound of his raspy adult voice was unpleasant and very hard to get used to.
“Of course she should be punished,” Eris said. “But not by Boozer. You should give her the lashes.”
“I can’t.” His voice was low; he sounded depressed. “I’m too small. I’ve been anxiously awaiting your assistance, Wicked One.”
“I’ll assist you,” Eris said brightly. “I’ll coach and guide you.” Then her voice changed to a disapproving low tone. “Really, Xavier…you’re not like your old self. Who would have thought you’d be resisting an opportunity to inflict pain.”
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