The Prime had revealed his backup plan to Topp with some reluctance. Throwing his cards out there for a lackey to see left him anxious. But he had a Demon watching the General for signs of reluctance. Time. He needed time for the game to unfold. And he had little patience. It was all too much, and he was afraid that obsessing about it would micromanage it into the ground.
To distract himself he had continued with the job interview:
“ Do you have hot tubs in all the offices, Prime?” the pretty brunette joked, and crossed her legs. He couldn’t believe it, but he was actually drooling. That’s throwing her off. Wait till she has a look at my…
Her body floated a few feet away from him. The round lumps of her buttocks protruded from the frothing water. Even her death had not stemmed his passion. He and the Demon organ had taken her three times since. He didn’t mind the oily feel of her blood against his skin.
“ Get in the tub and I’ll pay you well,” he said and when she shook her head, he grabbed her legs and pulled her screaming toward the water. Raping her with the Demon organ was good; raping her with the Demon organ and his own had been… Heavenly.
His mind played to the events at 232 Towerview Terrace. His Operatives had nothing new to report. He tried to use his sated calm certainty to draw upon his intuitive resources. The evidence at the crime scene suggested something big had transpired there: unexplainable elements that encouraged the Prime to suspect an Infernal or Divine link. He checked himself, reined in his suspicions. The unknown still existed, after all. No sense being paranoid. But events were happening too quickly for the unexplained. An instinctive part of him knew that nothing was happening by chance now. Damn Vanguard give me facts!
The Prime looked at the wall clock, saw that 18 hours remained until a demonstration of power would be dropped on the southern army. The Prime made fists of his hands, punched them whistling into the swirling red water then: Ka-boom! A surprising tingle and heaviness returned to his groin. He looked at the woman’s body.
Something nudged his knee. Over the pale hump of his belly he saw that a jet of water had pushed her hand into him-he imagined making a circle of the lifeless fingers and… The Prime casually kicked her away.
He remembered the scene: at first her terror-screaming. That got both of him harder. Down she went into the tub and he was on her. Then she was screaming in pain. The Prime knew that since he had joined the Demon in Union, that something vital had changed about him. Not only had he been altered physically, something changed inside. Because the Union had added a second penis, it was easy to overlook the mental changes. But where he liked dominating people before he loved killing them now.
Before the woman died he discovered that the second penis behaved like a prehensile limb-impossible to control as his dark passions were released. It tore at her insides like an iron rake until something broke-answering his sexual grunts with a fount of dark blood. Amazed at first, but sated, the Prime had allowed her to slowly sink beneath the water, before resuming his bath.
It was unfortunate because she was pretty. And yet, who knew, after Blacktime she might be more open to his desires? If he truly believed he could become a god, he had to dismiss the sentimentality of ethics-he shouldn’t worry about loss or beauty. As he watched his secretary’s body a weight throbbed that needed release. He gasped- I’m a monster -tearing at his lower lip with his teeth. The Prime reached for the corpse. Perfect!
54 – The Doctor’s Office
The doctor had a round head with very little hair on it and an oval body. He wore a soiled tie and yellowed dress shirt. His short thick legs protruded from black pants and stained lab coat. He wore scuffed leather shoes. They stuck out to the side of his desk at an uncomfortable angle. A tarnished watchband played at the edge of his sleeve. He was lost in thought, looking over a pile of papers as Dawn was shown in. He tapped a pencil on the desk with thick dirty fingers.
“Scruples,” he whispered. “Scruples.”
The floor squeaked and he snapped out of his personal reflection, turned his face to the door.
Dawn was terrified. Her experience with the Principal left her wits scattered. Her new childcare worker, a tall dead man named Tony, was a nice fellow but she was afraid to even look at him. She didn’t want to accidentally involve him in anything horrible like poor Frances. The dead man seemed unaware of her feelings or any events surrounding her visit to the Principal and simply announced her arrival in a lifeless voice. He handed her a file and left.
She barely remembered the day, with her mind still caught up with Frances. Dawn was not yet allowed into lessons with the other kids, so she spent the time answering questionnaires that were set out at a little desk by the Dormitory doors. Just as the other kids were lining up for supper, Tony had walked up and…
The Doctor took some time composing himself, spending a good five minutes shuffling and then re-piling the stack of papers and files on the desk in front of him. Throughout, his eyes kept flicking over at her, enormous, blinking through thick glasses. He wore a stethoscope around his neck that he played with after pushing the files untidily away from him.
The walls behind him were covered with charts and dark wooden bookcases. The paint that showed at intervals was a murky cream color. Cracks ran from the corners of the room outward, weaving their way behind furniture and displays.
Great sheets of painted plaster bulged, ready to collapse onto the floor. There were other things on other shelves, beakers and bottles, medical instruments of brass and metal. Other things too, containers with pickled organs or animals floating in each. And plastic things too, models of bones and skeletons. File folders were piled and crumpled one atop the other. Dawn saw that a good number had fallen in heaps on the floor.
Finally, the Doctor reached out, eyes staring at the folder in her hands, and he snapped his fingers peevishly until Dawn handed it to him. He took it, flipped it open on the desk and hung his chin over it, his chair sideways to the forever girl. The note from the Principal was paper clipped on the inside of the folder. The Doctor took an unusually long time to read it.
“Dawn,” he said finally, and then asked: “Do you have a last name?”
The forever girl just shook her head solemnly. Mr. Jay had always told her to say as little as possible if something like this ever happened. He also said that he’d come running at such a time, but she couldn’t imagine how he could help her now.
The Doctor sighed, threw the file away from him. “Nobody does any more.” He cleared his throat. “Nobody admits it. A tie to the past-that has passed.” Then he looked the forever girl up and down.
“Well, Dawn, we have rules here,” he said and then cleared his throat until his eyes turned red. “Forgive me, yes.” He coughed. “Rules, that are simple.”
Dawn stood by a chair beside the Doctor’s desk. She kept her hands folded behind her back and her chin pointed to the floor. She had not been told to sit, and she wouldn’t.
“Follow the rules,” he murmured, nodded, and then slapped around on the desk for her file. He dragged it onto his lap. “If you know what’s good for you you’ll do exactly as Nursie says. She’s my -medical assistant-and I don’t suppose it would hurt you to know that she’s not right up here.”
He shook his head and pointed at it. “Not at all, but she assists with you children and answers only to the Prime. And for that matter, you’d do well to obey the Principal. He’s been known to lose his temper.” The Doctor threw the file back on the desk. “And I’ve had to treat the results of such displays of emotion.” He stood up then, and walked behind his desk.
Dawn felt the hair stand up on the back of her neck. The Doctor’s eyes flashed and his chin dipped. “Don’t- don’t be, or rather you’d be wise to do as I say also. Because, I’ll, I’ll give you an operation or something-hmm? How would you like that?” He tapped his knuckles on the desk and smiled when Dawn shivered. “I didn’t think you would.”
The Doctor chuckled to himself, but the humor sounded strained and broken. He looked at her over the top of his glasses. “Now, why…why would I say that? I shouldn’t say that!” He held his hands in front of his face- mystified.
“I wasn’t always like this.” He looked up. “He…” The Doctor lowered his voice. “ He made me this way. To die-with, by the Prime’s friends-worse, much worse than these cankers on my soul.”
Then he flipped the file open and snatched his pencil off the desk. He started writing as he spoke, “I will
