Wrath James White presents Poisoning Eros I & II (20 page)

Gloria licked her lips, letting his words sink in.
What he said was insane. Yet she believed him. She’d seen enough to
know his ridiculous words rang true. “So now what? Where do we go
from here?”

“I’d kill myself if I could. But we’re already dead
so I guess that’s pointless. What are your plans?”

“I have to find my daughter and … someone else.”

“You’re going to just wander around hell by
yourself? You’ll never find her.”

She shrugged. “Probably not. But I have to try. You
could help if you wanted. You seem to know the deal around
here.”

He shrugged. “I could. There’s not much of this
place I haven’t seen. But why would I? I told you. It’s all
pointless. Even your love for your daughter means nothing
here.”

Gloria sighed and shook her head. “I know.”

“But you have to try. Don’t you?”

“It’s all I’ve got.”

“Then you’ve got nothing.” He looked once more out
over the boiling sea of screaming souls. “But I’ll help you. What
else is there for an old fool to do?”

*

Again unmolested during their trek … Gloria suspected
it was more than coincidence, more than good luck. Synchronicity
held no court in hell. If they were being allowed safe passage,
there had to be a reason.

The caves and corridors she’d chosen to explore were
random. Dan, the old man, offered no suggestions, never tried to
sway her in one particular direction, so her suspicions of
him—particularly his eagerness to help—were most likely unfounded,
she started to believe.

The corridor before them was unlike any she had
previously encountered. The walls, although adorned like all others
with sconces fashioned from human body parts, were well-lit, almost
… cheery. Dried blood decorated the walls in a myriad pattern,
brown and burgundy splotches in a Dadaist pattern. Few skulls
littered the ground.

“Maybe we should turn back,” Gloria whispered,
chills tickling her spine for some unexplained reason. If anything,
this quiet hallway should bring her peace, but it was doing the
opposite.

“Why?” He pointed down the hall, as if that gesture
explained what was on his mind.

She didn’t have an answer because she was running on
instinct. A gut feeling was telling her this was too easy, that
something wasn’t quite right. “It’s too quiet.”

“Maybe we got lucky.”

“In all the decades you’ve been here, how ‘lucky’
have you ever been?”

He nodded. “I see your point.”

“No,” she said, more to herself, “this isn’t luck.
This is something else.”

“Fate?”

What an odd response. She waited for the other shoe
to drop. “Fate? You think we follow some sort of force? That we
have some kind of controlled destiny?”

“Without a doubt. Why should anything be different
in hell?”

“Because
everything
is different in hell!”
She’d spoken more loudly than she’d intended and lowered her voice.
“That’s absurd. You’re going on the assumption that I believe in
fate to begin with. You’re telling me everything happens for a
reason, right?”

He nodded again. “Pretty much.”

“What about the Lake of Fire? That’s basically a
crapshoot, isn’t it? Where the righteous end up facing the same
torture as the damned. How is that fate?”

Dan chuckled and scratched his chin. “Chaos
theory.”

“What?”

“It’s a relatively new concept on earth but a very
old one here. The greater the chaos the greater and more immediate
the resultant order. God wants to intensify mayhem in hell and on
earth so that all of it will resolve itself into order. His order.
The perfect civilization on earth, the perfect system of justice
and punishment in hell? Neither of those would equal the perfection
that will come out of this madness. That’s your Judgment Day. All
this insanity collapsing in on itself, imploding into perfect
sublime oblivion. God said ‘Let there be light’ and has regretted
it ever since. Who do you really believe rules hell?”

Gloria rested against the wall, trying to avoid the
severed arm sconce. “Satan?”

Dan laughed and shook his head. “Satan is a paper
tiger.”

“A what?”

Dan ignored her question and grabbed a torch from
the wall. “It gets dark farther down. We’ll need this.” He took a
few steps down the corridor but Gloria refused to follow.

“You know exactly where we’re going. Don’t you? When
you talked of fate or destiny … you knew all along where you were
leading me.”

He glanced back at her and didn’t answer for several
seconds. “I’m just supposed to make sure you get there.”

“Get where?”

“You’ll see.”

“No,” she snapped, “I won’t. I’m not going any
farther.”

“They want to meet you.”

“‘
They who?”

“I’m not allowed to say.”

“This is bullshit.”

“Please. Just come with me.”

“Why not just capture me out there? Why bring me to
them? Why all of this?”

“They never venture into Inferno. It’s beneath them.
They may rule here, but they don’t soil their hands or feet. There
are many corridors of hell and some of them can be quite
comfortable, even seductive. That’s were they live, the place where
all sins are indulged. It’s another blasphemy against heaven, a
mockery of God’s laws. But not all sins are painful, only their
consequences. They instructed me to bring you to them.”

“Why?”

“I’m sure they’ll tell you.”

“I’m going back.”

“Suit yourself. But all roads lead to the same
place. Some just take a little longer.”

“I’ll take my chances.” She turned away from Dan and
took a step in the direction they had come from.

But the passageway was gone, replaced by a solid
wall of rock.

“Fuck,” she mumbled, not entirely surprised by the
sudden appearance of a wall. She turned back toward Dan. “You were
saying?” She pointed down the corridor, indicating he should
lead.

“Told you.”

“Yeah, thanks. That helps.”

They walked a short distance in silence, Gloria
wondering where everyone was. After all, hell was notoriously
overcrowded. So why were no creatures roaming in this section?

She broke the silence. “What happened to your
family? I find it hard to believe God let them all in after
all.”

He shrugged. “The Lord works in mysterious
ways.”

“So now what? You just stay here and work for
them?”

“I’ve worked for them a long time. How do you think
I was able to keep my family together? That was the tradeoff. I
bring them new souls and I get to keep my family. Just like your
buddy Vlad. Though his rewards for service to them were not quite
so noble. All he wanted was power.”

“So what do they want me for? I’m already in hell.
Why would they reward you for bringing me to them here? I can’t be
worth shit to them now.”

“You’d be surprised.” Dan smirked.

As they walked, the corridor darkened, became almost
impenetrable. The light from the torch provided minimal help.
Gloria couldn’t see her own hand when she held it in front of her
face. She cursed herself for not grabbing a torch as well.

“In case anyone ventures this far, there are
safeguards to keep people out. We’re about to cross a chasm. One
that’s virtually endless. Watch your step. You go first.”

“No, that’s not a good idea.”

“Go first so I can catch you if you stumble.”

He reached out and found her waist, and she knew
that if he wanted to he could easily push her into this bottomless
pit. But why would he? She figured he wouldn’t bring her all this
way just to shove her into a hole.

They stood on a narrow crossbeam. On either side,
the ground disappeared. Dan held his torch out but the blackness
was too thick to see more than a couple of feet.

They walked slowly across the beam, Gloria shuffling
her feet, afraid to take a real step.

Dan paused.

“Why did we stop?”

“Listen.”

Gloria heard nothing. “Listen for what?”

“Shhh. Can you hear them?”

“What? I don’t hear—”

“Come with me,” a voice in the darkness said. There
was something androgynous about it, like a woman trying to imitate
a man’s voice or vice versa.

Someone touched her, and Gloria jerked back. Someone
slapped her across the face and she rocked back on her heels,
almost stumbling off the beam.

Hands grabbed her and pulled her forward onto solid
ground. There was something bizarre about the touch, cool and
slippery like latex.

“Fuck off,” she said, shrugging away from that cool,
smooth grasp. She still could see nothing. The darkness was
absolute. Dan and his torch were gone.

A hand touched her back and it had an almost
hypnotic effect. That touch somehow comforted her, though she still
couldn’t see who it was attached to. It was so smooth, so soft. So
unlike everything else she’d experienced in hell. The invisible
contact, so delicate and unexpected, was somehow erotic and sent a
pleasing tingle through Gloria’s body. She imagined what it would
feel like to have those smooth fingers caressing her everywhere. It
had been so long since she’d been lovingly touched by another
living creature. All she knew was hurt and degradation. She
wondered if pleasure here was as raw and intense as the pain. She
tried to shrug off the feelings but they overwhelmed her, and she
couldn’t control them.

The hand on her back pushed her forward. She
stumbled along a few steps, the sensation of that touch still
vibrating along her spine. Gloria was no longer concerned with
where this invisible creature—which she assumed was a female, out
of intuition and not sight—was taking her.

She began to obsess over that touch, imagined those
silken fingertips stroking her everywhere.

She stumbled forward, again felt those slippery
smooth fingers on her back urging her on. This time the hands
lingered, sliding down her spine to her waist before pushing her
forward. Gloria’s body tensed, imagining those fingers traveling
further, down over her ass and up between her thighs. Her legs
began to tremble and a moist throbbing began at her root. She
turned to look but could see nothing in the impenetrable gloom.

“Who are you?” Gloria asked.

“No one.”

“Tell me.”

“Keep walking.”

She stopped abruptly. “Then kiss me.”

Gloria didn’t know why she’d said that. Didn’t know
why she was suddenly overwhelmed with the desire to fuck this
creature. After so long without it, her body now cried out with the
desire for contact, for love. She needed desperately to be held,
caressed, made love to. But more than that she wanted to cum.
Orgasm wasn’t something she’d given much thought to since coming to
hell, but feeling that erotic tingle radiate through her at this
woman’s touch had awakened those long dormant desires. Besides, she
felt entranced, hypnotized, and she wasn’t sure the words coming
out of her mouth were even hers. But she didn’t care right now. She
didn’t fight the feelings.

“Please,” Gloria urged. “Fuck me.”

There was a long pause. Gloria breathed heavily,
despite the lack of true lungs or oxygen to feed them. Her breasts
rose and fell, heaving with each agitated breath as she waited for
those incredibly soft hands to touch her again. She quivered with
anticipation but nothing happened. No movement at all in the
darkness.

“You still there?” Gloria finally asked.

“I’m here.”

“Then come to me.”

“Why?” The voice grew softer, more lyrical, almost
childlike.

“Because I want to touch you. I want you to touch
me. I need to feel you.”

“You’ll hurt me.”

Gloria was surprised by this. Was it afraid of her,
or was it teasing her? “I won’t hurt you if you don’t hurt me.”

“How do you know I won’t?”

“I don’t. You might tear me to pieces. I don’t know
who or what you are. But you can’t be any worse than the things
I’ve already survived.”

“There’s always worse and you always survive. No one
dies here. We wish we could sometimes, but we can’t. No one touches
here except to cause hurt.”

“We can change that. We can be the first lovers in
hell.”

“We wouldn’t be the first. There are plenty of those
and they all hurt each other.”

“I won’t hurt you.” Gloria reached out into the
darkness. She didn’t know how near the woman was and she was
surprised when her hands encountered that same slippery soft skin,
only now she found two enormous breasts. She caressed them, bent
down to suck the large nipples. A milky substance like sweet cream
dripped from the woman’s nipples onto Gloria’s tongue. It seemed
like forever since Gloria had tasted anything sweet. She sucked
harder, greedily gobbling up the nectar.

The woman moaned and suddenly those silky smooth
hands were roaming Gloria’s body. She still couldn’t see the woman,
but what she felt was incredible.

There were so many hands on her, too many, but
Gloria didn’t care. She counted six in all, with that same delicate
smoothness. Gloria figured they belonged to the same woman. She’d
seen such body modifications before. It was no longer shocking.
What was shocking was the realization that the tender kisses and
caresses, the fingers expertly titillating her every erogenous area
belonged to a demon.

Gloria tensed, waiting for the pain, waiting to be
stabbed or whipped or cut or burned. But then she felt the softest
lips she’d ever felt kiss their way down her neck to her cleavage
and begin to suckle Gloria’s breasts and her fear melted into
ecstasy. They fell to the cave floor, licking and sucking. Gloria
was only mildly surprised to find both a penis and a vagina between
the woman’s legs. It was another common body modification. She
lapped at the woman’s engorged clitoris and sucked her swollen cock
until the demoness came in a torrent of that same sweet cream that
flowed from her nipples. Gloria gobbled up every drop of the
woman’s juices, unable to recall when she’d ever been so happy to
swallow cum without getting paid for it.