Rotten to the Core

I dove into the newspapers and unless something else came up in their backgrounds there was nothing else that they had in common. Maybe it was simply their appearance the kidnapper found appealing. Since none of their bodies had been found it was possible, though not likely, that they could be alive. I doubted that though. It had been months since this had begun and there was no logic or pattern. I jotted down the dates and looked at the calendar. I couldn't believe it, there it was in black and white.

"Full moons and new moons," I muttered. "I wonder if mom knows."

I weighed the option of calling her at work. Cops are damn smart. She's been doing this kind of work for over a decade. If the killer was targeting men during these specific times was there a ritualistic component to all of this? Something Sindy had said had sprung back into my head.

'Mom and dad were devil worshippers.'

Maybe there was a group of cultists out there. It made a sick sense. They had a model or type that they sought out to capture and possibly sacrifice. Too many questions and too few facts. I had to get home and wait for mom to get home. I needed to see if she made the connection with the moon. I fled the library and raced home. I glanced down and slowed down. The last thing I needed was a speeding ticket. I felt near panic but kept the car under the limit. I felt a sense of relief when I saw my home down the street. I parked in the garage. The garage door closed behind me and as I stepped into the kitchen I saw mom looking haggard and wore out. There were circles under her eyes. I asked if she were alright and she held up a hand as she sipped her cup of coffee. She let out a sigh of contentment and said that she was just tired.

"I have an idea about the disappearances. They all take place during full and new moons." I blurted out and watched her reaction. "Sindy said that you and dad were Satanists."

"She is far too nosey." Mom growled. "I am too tired for this shit. Sorry. She is wrong. We still follow the left-hand path. We are still active members. Aw hell, I can see it in your eyes. Yes. I lost children before you and your sister were born. I am grateful for the miracles that are my children. Ask. I am here, and you are old enough to know."

"What do you believe?" I asked as I sat next to her.

"I believe a heartless tyrant sits on the throne of heaven. Lucifer turned against him because he could. Someone needed to stand up against such a being. We value our freedom of choice. We don't follow blindly we follow because we want to and fearlessly. I like to view the Light Bringer as a Prometheus character. The titan gave fire to man. Most people see fire being understanding and wisdom. There is no evil in insight. What is going on?"

"I've had some strange things happen to me. I can do something amazing." I said my voice dropping to a whisper.

"What kind of amazing?" Mom asked, and I brought another me into existence behind her.

"This kind," the second me said. I watched her head move from one to the other. "I've already broken him in if you know what I mean."

"Who was the lucky girl?" Mom asked as she chewed her lower lip lewdly.

"Darla." I said watching mom nod and mutter lucky bitch under her breath. "She doesn't know I can do this. I blindfolded her to keep this a secret."

"How many?" Mom moaned. "Have you tried to push the limits?"

"You want me to use it on you." I said, and she was begging me to. "Let's see." I focused, and a third version appeared and no more after that. "Three appears to be my limit."

"Perfect. I am exhausted but I will sleep and get my rest, so you can break me. Was there anything else?"

"No." I lied as I dismissed the other two clones. "I just thought you might want to know about the phases of the moon."

Mom yawned and pushed her coffee cup out of the way. She kissed my cheek and headed off to bed. I learned later that she had been working for 16 hours straight. No wonder she was exhausted. I heard Sindy slip barefoot down the steps. I heard the brief exchange between mother and daughter. I turned around and headed for the backyard. I wanted to look out over the city as the sun goes down. I hear her behind me. Sindy giggled as we reached the back wall. Cliff Top Terrace sits on top of a bluff. Our house had the best view of the city of all the structures built here. Sindy's arms slipped around me from behind. She pressed her breasts against my back as she got up on tippy toes and whispered in my ear.

"Ever wonder where they did it?" She muttered her breath stinking with booze. "Can I suck your cock?"

"Who are they?"

"MMMMMom," she purred as she unzipped me. "Ahhhh and dad." She growled as she freed my erection. "You are already hard."

"Where did they do it?" I asked but her warm wet mouth was already wrapped around me. "I never get tired of that slutty mouth of yours doing its business."

I grabbed her by the hair and took over. My fingers became a vice and she winced but never surrendered. Even when my cock battered its way down her throat. I felt the icy cold chill run from my ass to the top of my spine. I felt it. I shivered as it took over. I cried out when it let go of me and I saw the battered and bruised body of my little sister on the ground. When I reached out to touch her she flinched.

"Her fear is like the sweetest wine."

I spun to see Brandy standing next to me. Her eyes were half lidded and her body seemed to be in the state of advanced arousal. A single nudge would send her tumbling into ecstasy. I could see her distended nipples pressing against the material of the shirt she was wearing. Brandy approached slowly and the chill I had felt before proceeded her. Just as the thing that made me its puppet was heralded by the same arctic cold.

"You are a demon." I pronounced and that sent her over the edge.

"You are a very lucky man." Brandy gasped as she recovered. "It has been ages since the Light Bringer took a host. He can be a little rough on his partners. You should have seen the bruises he left on your mother."

"I guess ages means a mere twenty years." I growled as my anger rose to the fore.

"I haven't tasted your rage yet. Give it to me and I'll give you something in exchange." She begged. "Hit me. I am how he finds you. I am the link." Brandy shuddered as her body tensed. I cupped my hand and slapped her as hard as I could. "YESSSSSS!" She cried out as she hit the ground next to Sindy. "It was your perpetual curiosity that has sustained me. So many questions. But it is the fierce intensity of your passion to know that fed me. Then there was your lust. Your overpowering need to slam your cock into your little sister. You raised her. You helped her with her homework. You took her virginity, both. Taboo is in your blood Samael. I granted you your ability to bilocate as well as other gifts."

"My eyesight, my hearing, my taste, and my sense of smell." I said as the rage slipped away.

"Those were a bonus from the Light Bringer. He is a sensate. He wanted his host to have the most exquisite of input when he rides you. I gave you more sublime gifts. You have used them without even knowing. The ability to slip behind the person's defenses. To seduce with a glance, a touch, or even a word. Your intellect is keener than it once was. You make connections quicker and remember facts faster. But nothing as glorious as being able to be in more than one place at the same time."

"Where is it?" I asked as I offered her a hand up.

"Close. Do you want me to show you?"

"You seem quite eager to share it." I said feeling her body stiffen, her breath quickens, and oh how her eyes glittered in the growing darkness. "Yes, but what do you get out of it."

"The one thing left untasted. Your terror."

I was sent flying. I saw the wall pass beneath me as I was propelled outward. I screamed as I fell. Gravity is an unyielding monster that pulls at us all. I was no exception. I flung my arms out as Brandy drank in my fear. My last gift to share was now hers. My fingers brushed the edge of the cliff seeking purchase. I didn't want to die. I would live. I found an outcropping of rock and held on. My body slammed against the rocks and I let out another cry but this one of exquisite pain.

"Damn that hurt!"

I pulled myself up and rolled onto my back. I stared up as the stars came out. What a rush! I was alive! Did Brandy get that one too? How much was a near death experience worth in the demonic economy? I sat up and looked around. I wasn't on a ledge I was on a road. It was in shitty disrepair but a road nonetheless. I got to my feet in stages. I was badly bruised but not injured per se. I sat up and waited for the dizziness to pass until finally I stood on my own two feet. The road continued for twenty or feet before ending abruptly. I turned to face the intertwined vines that suspiciously covered a twenty-foot square portion of the cliffside. I approached, and the vines shuddered before splitting in half and revealing the cave beyond.

"Holy spelunkers batman, it's the bat cave." I muttered to myself.

Lights fit into the roof of the cave flickered to life. There were regularly spaced yellow lines painted on the floor. It was a fucking garage. The vines closed behind me and more lights came to life revealing a living area. The couches, chairs and full bar were luxurious. A pair of elegantly crafted French doors separated the garage from the lounge. I stared at the seven cars parked in the garage. They were as varied as the men that had disappeared. I knew of only six disappearances. I ran my hands along their hoods and one of them was still warm.

"Oh shit!"

I raced forward and opened the doors entering what must have been a welcoming area for cult members. I looked around and examined the thousands of dollars' worth of furniture, and alcohol. None of those bottles were cheap liquor.

"Some body has got good taste." I muttered as I looked at the black door on the far wall. "So cold."

The psychic chill was numbing even from twenty feet away. I was drawn to walk behind the bar. There was a hidden refrigerator inset behind a wooden door. The freezer was on the bottom and held an icemaker and lots of ice cubes. The fridge had bowls of fresh fruit along with two syringes of dark blue fluid inside. Who needs strength when you can drug your victims? I closed the fridge and steeled myself for what was beyond the black door. I walked over feeling the chill increasing.

"If you go beyond that portal you'll never be the same again." Brandy said appearing behind me suddenly. "It'll break you."

"Isn't that what you want?" I asked and there was that look of near orgasm.

"Yes."

"Don't you want to feel my soul shatter?"

"YES!"

"My gift to you then. I willingly give you that deepest and most intense of emotions. Take my despair and choke on it."

"YESSSS!"

I reached for the door knob and turned it. I pulled and braced for what was beyond. It was fruitless. Nothing in my life prepared me for what was in that chamber. It had been carved from the living rock. Six corpses were chained to the six hexagonal walls. The stonework was a work of love. The stench was overpowering. I lost the contents of my stomach. I wiped the back of my hand against my mouth. The seventh victim lay on the sacrificial altar. I heard his last breath. It was a soft wheezing sigh that slipped into silence. The hooded figure wore a robe of shimmering black silk. It reminded me of Vincent Price in the Pit and the Pendulum. But unlike that hellish place these walls were free of murals, signs, or signets. This space was polished natural rock. The stone was dark and reflected the recessed lights in the ceiling.

"Don't turn around." I said, and the figure straightened up. "I don't want to see your face."

"It doesn't work like that." Brandy whispered in my ear. "You promised me."

The figure lowered their arms to their sides. I could see the bright newly spilt blood on their hands. I couldn't see the condition of the latest victim. I looked at the others and the damage seemed severe but some of the wounds looked like they had healed. They had been tortured over time.

"Please let me be wrong." I sobbed as the realization hit me.

"You rushed me." Sindy said as she turned to face me.

"YESSSS!" Brandy cried out as she fed off my anguish.

"I had to kill this one quickly, pity really." My little sister said as she blew an errant hair out of her face. "I did this for Him and you."

I wailed as the crushing weight of guilt dropped me prostrate on the unyielding floor. Brandy lay atop me and she cooed in my ear as the emotional desolation took hold. Sindy washed her hands from a hidden sink and cast aside the robe. She was naked beneath it and the bruises I had left behind were easily seen now. Sindy looked at her darkening flesh and made a dismissive sound.

"I barely notice." She said as she sat down in front of me. "See that? My poor little pussy gets soaked after a proper sacrifice. I hope He doesn't mind that this last one was hurried."

"He approves little one." Brandy assured her. "He has accepted all of your sacrifices."

"Why?" I asked my voice breaking as the horror bored into my soul.

"Why what?" Sindy asked and then it hit her. "Oh. I did this all for you of course. I wanted you to feel special and now you are. I did it for His glory, but I won't lie I had selfish reasons."

"He understands selfishness." Brandy intoned as if it were a prayer. "Thank you for your anguish Samael."

I looked around at the carnage around me. These men had been stalked, lured here, and tortured until they perished. My little sister had done all of this for me. I felt Brandy's hands on my shoulders. Her breath was coming in quick shallow gasps.

"Oh Samael! Yes! Give it to me!" She moaned like a lover in the throes of passion.

"What? What is going on?" Sindy asked.

"An unforeseen gift from your brother." The demon gasped. "Hopelessness." She whispered as she climaxed. "Sweet and pure hopelessness. He is contemplating suicide. What a waste after everything she did for you. Are you really that selfish? Could you really hurt her like that?"

"I don't understand." Sindy said and she meant it. She couldn't wrap her head around why I was upset. "Tell me. Explain it to me."

I screamed, and Brandy howled with me. The anguish and the horror overwhelmed me. My sweet little sister had no empathy. She had no understanding of another's pain. For her it was simply a means to an end. She would have lit the match that burned the world to ash if she thought I might benefit from it. I had raised her, and I had missed all the signs of her sociopathy. Sure, she had a cruel streak, but she kept it well hidden. I could see the twisted visage on the faces of her victims. She had prolonged their suffering as long as she could. I felt responsible on some level. I had failed her.

"Does mom know?" I asked and Sindy shook her head. "I won't say anything. I am leaving now. Wait. How the hell did you get down here so fast?"

"There is a passage in the basement that leads down here. I used it to beat you down here. I am finished. I have given the seven I promised. You have the seven blessings now."

"He does indeed. As I vowed I will teach him little one how to use them. Let's get you two upstairs and into bed. You are both going to need some rest." Brandy said in a motherly tone. "Tomorrow is a big day."

I followed Sindy up the hidden passage and locked it behind us. Brandy had disappeared at some point between the sacrificial chamber and the lounge. Sis and I shared a shower. While she washed the blood of the last victim from her hands I let the falling water hide my tears. She had tortured and killed seven men after drugging them with some unknown compound. She felt no remorse only a sense of a job well done. The worst part is that she had done it for me.

'Remember,' Brandy's voice whispered in my ear or was it my mind. 'Being successful is easy but being happy is a bitch. Be bold. Take life by the balls. You have more of it than any man in a thousand years. Don't waste a moment of it.'

My arms slithered around Sindy's waist. She moaned and pressed her ass against me. She surprised me when she asked me what I wanted. I was equally surprised when I told her everything. She turned her head and kissed me. I kissed her back. I surrendered to the moment, to the darkness. It was dark outside as I planted delicate kisses on her neck. It was darker still in my parent's bedroom where my mother slept alone. My clone slipped his fingers into her hair and slid his erection between her eager lips. Yet another me sat at an outdoor café in Paris sipping coffee and watching the people move about. I could be anywhere in the world in a heartbeat if I wanted. I could slip away just as easily. As one cock eased into my sister from behind another was thrusting in and out of my mother's throat.

"Parlez-vous Anglais?" I asked a rather stunning blond as she passed.

"No." She replied in a heavy Russian accent.

"That is okay. I speak a little Russian." I said as one of the seven gifts kicked in. "Can I buy you a coffee?" I asked thinking can I bend you over and fuck you senseless.

"If I can pay for the hotel room." She replied biting her lower lip hungrily.

"Seems only fair." I agreed. "Garçon, coffee for this beautiful young lady."