Chapter V

At first, there was only silence in the old moldered torture chamber, darkness and nothingness, no light to shine upon the abysmal artifacts there. Marideth was left to her mind, to sort out the evil dwelling within it. A constant chain of prayer muttered out from her mouth, her lips barely parting enough to expel sound. “O Divine Eternal Father, in union with Thy Divine Son and the Holy Spirit and through the Immaculate Heart of Mary--”

“The God thou knowst does not exissst heeeeer, my chiiiild.”

The girl opened her eyes to perceive only the ever ebony. Trembling, she was frightened to let the silence last. She knew what she had heard, that it was something in the shadows. “I beseech Thee to destroy the power of Thy greatest enemy, the evil spirits. Cast them into the deepest recesses of Hell and chain them there forever…”

“He is not your God. He is Your adversaryyyy.”

The deep, daunting voice resonated, rumbling the chains and causing the cages to creak.

Sights sealed shut, unable to open out of trepidation, Marideth continued with all her childish heart, “Take possession of Thy kingdom which thou hast created and is rightfully Thine. O Heavenly Father, grant us the reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary--”

“The world no longer belongs to They you seek. It is finally our turn to reeeeign. I have waited a thousand yeeeeears for theeeeee.”

“I repeat this prayer out of pure love for Thee, with every beat of my heart, and with every breath I take--”

“AMEN.”

As the voice erupted into dark, diabolical laughter, Belfort opened her eyes to find that suddenly, the chamber was bright, burning, and vivid. Each of the horrific devices were occupied by some screaming sufferer. 

The gallows swayed to the jerk and jolt of three hanged Irish immigrants, bloody, bloated, bruised and bare. 

Carved cadavers, spilling substance into sanguine pools, wailed on the tables, arteries removed, staring up at the three snapped neck danglers of the ropes. 

A head separate its seizing body begged mercy by the guillotine, staring straight through to Marideth’s timorous soul. 

A young Native American woman was perpetually drowning in the dunking tank, bubbles billowing as she thrashed, her long sable hair swirling, weightless in the water. Bloodshot eyes strained through the sights of the iron maiden, jittering and tormented, a woman wailing within. 

Demons and devils soared around in flight, scaling the walls, screeching; those grounded were administering the anguish of the tortured. 

Beside her and in all the cages surrounding the lair were the dismembered condemned, nude men and women, starved, stabbed, scraped, mutilated and unloading gore, some without eyes, some without limbs, some stripped of skin altogether, exposing muscular structure and ruptured bone; a weak, bleeding, meatless, weeping, bereaved, beaten species, covered in crusted crimson and foul feces. 

Directly to the side of Marideth was a man whose top portion of skull was removed, bright brains breathing the open air; beyond was a woman cut completely in half, struggling to scoop up her intestines, to pull them back with her hands and replenish her hollowed torso.

Belfort let out a shriek, a six year old scream, howling out in absolute dread. When this cry rang out, again was the circular den motionless and dark, any trace of what she had just seen vanished in an instant. Her sounding anxiety, her wheezing heaves, generated the only dimension that was not oblivion. 

“What did I just see?” thought she, “Is my mind playing tricks on me? Perhaps this is God’s way of cleansing me.”

Craven, listening to the quiet for an answer, she shook tremendously and attempted again to speak to her revered idols. Stuttering, fumbling her words, the poor girl resumed another prayer. It was hard for her to sustain, for in the chamber she certainly was not alone. The lair resounded with the rumble of the deep voice.

“Marrrrideeeeth, thine reeesissstance is in vaaain. Whaaat thou hath seen is profound truth, thou hath witnessed the dimension of which sooooon thee shall call hooooome. Thou hath seen a glimpse of Hell.”

“NO!” the child howled, “Mother warned me of this… that the darkness will play tricks on me…”

“That old foooool knows nothing. There is a war, Marideth, the waaaar of all waaaars. Thou art the key!”

“I will not be misguided by a demon! My God will protect me!”

“Open your eeeeeyes.”

When she did, her nerves surged. The voice had a visage, a formidable, towering shadow, great horns curling upward, ascending diagonally. Upon his countenance, only were the eyes visible, giant glowing rubies gleaming, captivating the child.

“I am thine God now, my daughter. We are one in the same, as was Christ to Yahweh. Thou art the one Christians have long feared; the dark messiah.”

“I am not! I will never join thee! Father Erickson and Mother Madeline will save me. And they will banish thee!”

The devil cackled monstrously and underlying his rampaging voice there was the sound of a billion sufferers, yowling in eternal torment. “You mean, they who condemned thee here? Dost thou think they assumed it was thine untrialed disposition Marideth?”

“Because I sleep walk, and during an episode, I kidnapped Mary Thorne!”

“They sennnt thee heeere because they feeear thine potential. They know there is something special, something GREAT about thee. They curse thy sleeping glory.”

“They sense an evil about me! That is why Madeline sent me here! To cleanse that evil!”

“To them, it is evil, to us, it is our natuuuuure. It cannot be cleansed from thee child, for thou art me and thine spirit spawned as the demon’s does in the netherworld. I shall show theeeee.”

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

A very good chapter. You create place, decision to be made and strong ending. I will add to favorite and finish in a few days. The story is well written and entertaining. Thank you for sharing the excellent chapter.
Coyote

[Justin Littlefield]

Coyote, I am truly grateful that you'd take the time to read this story and review. This book is important to me, in the light that I am testing myself and my skill. The fact I can hold your attention and that you are enjoying the unfolding plot and character development is a good feeling, because I'm putting my whole head into this. Do you think there is potential for publication? I am still writing the novel, I will post chapters as I finish. As of now, I'm working on chapter 18. The finished product, according to my outline, will be 28 chapters. I'm very excited to have someone actually reading and acknowledging its existence. I owe you a few dozen reviews and a virtual beer. Haha thank you my friend

[Coyote Poetry]

Was my pleasure to read your work. I will come back tomorrow and read whole story.