Wrath James White presents Poisoning Eros I & II (28 page)

Vlad looked stunned. He wiped his palm across his
face and raised his brows. “Well damn,” he muttered. “I think that
took care of your little humanity issue.”

Gloria climbed off the bed and approached Vlad. She
wiped her last tears from her eyes and flicked them away and with
them, her last connection to humanity. “We have work to do.”

Vlad was obviously aware that a shift had taken
place and he fell easily into this new order. Gloria knew that to
him, this was just a new opportunity to exploit as soon as he could
figure out how. But Gloria was in charge now.

Vlad nodded. “We do. What did you have in mind?”

Gloria smiled.

They were legion; thousands of confused, lost souls
waiting for direction. Over the internet, watching as Vlad filmed
the entire event and broadcast it around the world, hundreds of
thousands more—millions—waited. They sat in their bedrooms alone or
in couples or threesomes. Groups had assembled at parties to watch
it. Across Japan, Russia, Germany, Sweden, and other countries,
stadiums and concert arenas were filled with people watching on
giant screens.

Gloria had become a celebrity thanks to Vlad. Hers
was the world’s fastest growing religion, and she was its spiritual
leader. It had all begun with a young couple broadcasting sex on a
webcam, followed by their joint-suicide in Gloria’s name after
reaching orgasm: slitting each other’s carotid arteries and
bleeding out while still in the act of coitus, all carefully
planned and orchestrated by Vlad. This had spawned copycats.
Couples fucking on camera then shooting each other, stabbing each
other, taking sleeping pills, overdosing on heroin, all in the name
of Gloria, with each death spread in living color on the
internet.

Then Vlad had upped the ante by organizing the first
suicide party. More than a hundred kids had come. A massive orgy
watched by thousands around the world ending in a bloodbath as
knives were passed out among the partiers, and blood was spilled
all for the glory of Gloria.

More followed. Many more. It had become a world-wide
epidemic of sex and death. After each event Gloria would come
online to issue a statement, praising the suicides for their
loyalty and promising them endless rewards in the afterlife, where
she vowed she would soon join them. It had taken on a life of its
own. Soon tapes were popping up from every country showing similar
orgy/suicides for Gloria—just as Vlad had said would happen. And
Gloria praised each one in fiery speeches written by Vlad that she
was getting better and better at delivering, whipping her followers
into a frenzy and inspiring more sex/suicides. It had all
culminated in this, the Mass Exodus as Vlad liked to call it. The
lost and the damned from around the world had heeded her call.
Midnight. Halloween. Corny, but as Vlad, had assured her, humans
like the familiar. They like their rituals and traditions. That’s
why Christmas and Easter were celebrated during the winter and
summer solstices, on Pagan holidays. The familiar. Tradition.

Her followers were everywhere, assembled before her.
Around the world. Waiting. And Gloria was in place to guide them,
instruct them. Lead them. She still felt so lost herself. She
wasn’t sure what would happen when she made it back to hell. Vlad
was acting confident but she wasn’t even sure that he knew what
would happen. She was making it up as she went, following her
instincts and her anger. It didn’t matter. They would follow
blindly. They loved her. They called her a god. She was, at the
least, a good surrogate. At least she was here. At least she had
bothered to show herself. At least they could talk to her, touch
her, fuck her. This made her far greater than the god many of them
had grown up worshipping. God who wasn’t there, who was never
there. Had never been there.

They would follow her to the ends of hell and earth.
And it seemed to Gloria many of them had no idea just how literal
this was going to be.

“You have exceeded the Masters’ wildest
expectations,” Vlad said “They will be delighted.”

“You know I’m not going back there for them.”

“Oh, but you will be rewarded. You will be
handsomely
rewarded for all that you’ve done.” Vlad wasn’t
stupid. Evil, petty, greedy, but not stupid.

She was sure he knew what she was planning. He just
wanted to hear her say it. Once it was spoken aloud there would be
no going back. “I don’t want anything from them. I’m taking it
all.”

Vlad flashed his shark’s grin. “All?”

“I’m not going to be a victim anymore. I’m never
going to let anyone control me again. Not you. Not them. Not even
God. I’m taking all of it. And you’re going to help me.”

“Oh, Gloria. You know that wasn’t the plan.”

“Plans change,” she’d said. “I know what my mission
is supposed to be, but I have to do this. If you aren’t with me
then you know what’ll happen to you if I’m successful. All of those
people who have gone to hell for me already are waiting, and
talking to the others about my coming, making more converts. Just
like I told them to. And when I get there with a million souls
backing me, it’ll be like the second coming. All of hell will bow
before me.”

Vlad was still smiling, still calculating. “Of
course, you have my undying loyalty. I hope it all turns out like
you think it will.”

Vlad’s smile bothered Gloria. There was something
knowing about it, as if he knew something that he wasn’t saying.
Something vital, something that might change everything. But Vlad
was a con-man and there was never any way of knowing when he was
bluffing. This time, Gloria was positive his hand was empty.

Vlad was receptive to her ideas because they
included him. Because they would mean great power for both. And
because he was admittedly an opportunistic fuck, he was willing to
try anything. Of course failure would mean an eternity of misery
and suffering, but hey, what else was new? That perverted fuck had
long ago learned to enjoy the miseries of hell. And she had at
least learned how to endure them.

The crowd had outgrown the small church, and in the
middle of the night Gloria had taken them en masse to the Band
Shell area inside Central Park. There they posted sentries around
the perimeter, welcoming new worshippers and turning away
protesters and those trying to stop the coming massacre. Anyone was
welcome to join, but the few indigent stragglers or hapless
late-night joggers that turned out to be more curious rubberneckers
than loyal followers were sucked in and forced to participate
whether they wanted to or not. Once you were in, there was no
leaving.

Gloria knew the police would be along at any time
but didn’t care. She could handle anything that came along, but she
hated distractions. Cops would definitely be a pain in the ass she
could do without.

Thousand of faces waited for Gloria to speak.
Despite the volume of people it grew deathly quiet as Gloria
stepped up on the Band Shell stage—where Duke Ellington, Irving
Berlin, and The Grateful Dead had once performed—and addressed her
followers.

“We have a mission,” she said, her voice booming
loudly, heard by all without a microphone or speakers. “You know
what you have to do.”

The crowd nodded, muttered yeses, waited for
more.

“Do you love me?”

“Yes!
” was the resounding, thunderous,
overwhelming reply.

“Do you love this world?”

“No!
”

“And what about him?” Gloria pointed up to the
heavens. “Do you love him?’

“No!
”

“Then come with me. It is, as they say, far better
to rule in hell than to serve in heaven. Follow me and I promise
you, you will not suffer. We will rule eternity together and live
forever in paradise! ”

The crowd cheered, some screaming and crying and
calling her name until she raised her hand for silence.

“You will fall into the Lake of Fire. Some will be
snatched away, delivered into heaven. We will come for you. Prepare
those you meet there for our arrival. There will be no more
separation between heaven and hell. The reign of God and Satan has
ended!”

She studied the faces in the crowd for a moment,
looking for doubt, looking for anyone she felt might be considering
heaven as an alternative to doing her bidding. Satisfied, she
continued. “Those of you who fall into the Lake of Fire—and this
will be most of you—climb to the banks and wait for me. Demons will
grab you, but I will save you! I will all save you! You are one of
us now. We are all in this together, and we cannot be stopped. We
cannot be denied!”

The crowd cheered again, unable to help themselves,
unbearably excited . It was a good speech. Vlad had done a great
job writing it. He had a rare talent for manipulation. He had done
an equally impressive job coaching her to read it, like he always
did. Like he had been sent here to do. Gloria looked over at him.
He was still grinning. She wondered if he had known that this was
how it was going to end from the start, if he had somehow planned
it all. Because if it was part of his plan then it was part of the
Masters’ plan and she was once more being used as a pawn in a game
she couldn’t understand. It would mean she was once again a
victim.

Gloria paused. What if this
was
all part of
some demonic divine plan? What should she do? She looked around at
the throngs of teeming humanity, all assembled to follow her to
hell. Was it too late to turn back? She thought about all the
hundreds of people she had already talked into committing suicide
in her name, the deluded fools she’d fucked and murdered in her
little basement temple, and the baby, the whore’s baby, and Nathan.
She looked back out at the crowd.

“We love you, Gloria!”

They had no idea what they were saying. They knew
nothing about love. Neither did Gloria. She had thought she loved
her husband and daughter but then she had left them for drugs and
sex and the ridiculous idea of fame. She had thought that they had
forgiven her, that they had still loved her, but then they had
tricked her and sent her to hell. She had even thought she loved
the Masters … and Madria. But there was no such thing as love in
her world. She knew that now. There was only lust and sex and pain
and deceit. That was the only love she had ever known, the only
love she had to give. It was too late. She had to see this
through.

She leapt from the stage into the crowd, offering
herself to them. And the orgy began.

She was kissed and licked, groped and caressed,
sucked and fucked from one orgasm to the next. Penises of every
size and description were thrust into her, eager to spend
themselves inside of her before she dispatched them with a swipe of
her claws, disemboweling, dismembering, and decapitating her lovers
one at a time, only to have them immediately replaced by another in
an endless series of orgasm and death. All around her, her
followers were enthusiastically fucking in every imaginable
combination: heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual, couples,
threesomes, foursomes, and more. Semen, saliva, blood and vaginal
fluids glistened everywhere on naked flesh as they enjoyed their
final climax on earth.

Sirens surrounded the park along with blue and red
flashing lights. Two helicopters, a police helicopter and one she
assumed was from one of the TV networks, circled above. The sound
of gunshots rang out from all directions, followed by screams.
There were gun battles going on all over the park between the
police and Gloria’s followers. The cops were killing her lovers,
her people. Some of the police were being pulled into the orgy.
Everything was in danger of coming apart.

“Vlad?” she called. “Are you ready?”

Vlad nodded, and signaled groups of people stationed
around the perimeter of the crowd. They guarded large trunks filled
with knives and began passing them out amongst the crowds. Around
the world, the thousands of others watching on the internet got the
message and began pulling out their own knives and guns and pills
and needles. More worshippers stationed at the foot of the stage
guarded vats filled with a grape juice and cyanide mixture, and
they were now carefully pouring the drink into small paper cups and
handing them out as quickly as possible.

Without hesitation people began opening veins and
arteries, cutting through their own throats and wrists, stabbing
each other in the chest. Some opened their femoral arteries,
bleeding out within minutes. Very few of them stopped fucking, even
as they bled to death. Others drank, and lay on the ground
immediately after. One by one they began to die. They were all on
their way to hell.

The ground turned muddy beneath her feet, the earth
saturated with the blood of thousands. Everywhere she looked bodies
littered the park floor. Some lay still, some were still twitching
and convulsing, some moaning and crying out in pain, some still
furiously copulating.

“Go, Vlad,” she yelled. “Wait for them. Gather as
many as you can. I’ll follow when we’re finished here.”

“Don’t keep me waiting” he said and with that, Vlad
raked a claw across his throat, tearing out his esophagus, carotid
artery, and jugular vein in one savage motion.

“I’ll wait for you,” he gurgled through a mouthful
of blood as he collapsed to the muddy earth and disappeared.

“It won’t be long.” Gloria waited for the remaining
followers to die. She began walking among the dying, dispatching
those who remained with quick swipes of her claws.

There was a lesbian couple lying on one of the small
park bridges. Gloria stepped onto the bridge and began making her
way toward them, continuing to dispatch the occasional worshipper
who had not yet found his way to hell. Blood coated her skin in a
fine sheen that made her amphibious complexion glimmer and shine.
The slick ichorous life-fluids dripping from her arms, legs and
torso, dribbling down her face, shimmered in the moonlight.