Chapter 15: Angelic Passion Unlocked

Steve Davies

I stared at the army of anime girls rushing at city hall. They were all armed with assault rifles, sleek, deadly weapons. They swept in from the right and the left, their gunshots cracking through the afternoon. The few people who were still lurking around city hall after my inauguration were fleeing into the building.

Bullets slammed into the building. I could hear them cracking into the stone facade. How was this possible. How could these women, who looked like they were spilling out of that Anime convention held in Seattle around Easter, attack us? I had warded this place to keep anyone wanting to do harm from approaching.

“Steve!” my wife gasped, her voice full of fear.

“Sir, sir, the tunnel,” Imogene said. My secretary, pulling off one of her hoop earrings, rushed up to me. She threw her earring to the side as she grabbed me. “We have to get out of here.”

“Tunnel...” I said, my mind reeling from the shock of this moment. I couldn’t believe this was happening. It was insane.

“To the utility building,” Imogene said, grabbing my hand and leading me towards the side door.

My mind struggled to think as she pulled me towards the door. My wife rushed after me, grabbing my other arm, pressing her naked breasts against it. There was a tunnel. Memories were spilling through my mind as my brain started to function. The tunnel led to a nearby utility building on the other side of the street. A building those strange girls were ignoring. I had edited that building to be a safe place, too.

A place where people couldn’t come near if they wanted to hurt me or others.

“This can’t be happening,” I muttered as Imogene, her brown hair sweeping about her shoulders, opened the door. “I made this place safe. You saw that, Linda.”

“I know,” she said. “We’ll figure this out later. We just have to get to safety. Get to our children.”

My stomach tightened. I wrenched my hand from Imogene’s and shoved it into my pockets, my pants just managing to hang on to my hips. I pulled out my phone as we headed forward. There was a flight of narrow stairs before us. This tunnel was a byproduct of prohibition. For some reason, city hall had occupied a building that had built a tunnel for smuggling booze.

I scrolled through my contacts, found Sam’s number, and hit the call button as we headed down the wooden stairs. There was a dusty smell in the air. Bullets cracked into the building outside. My heart hammered. My Sam had to be safe. The phone rang and rang and rang.

“Hey, you’ve reached my phone, leave a message!” said Sam’s voice.

I groaned and hung up. I shook my head, glancing at my wife. “She didn’t pick up.”

“Oh, god,” she moaned as we reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Sir, let’s go,” Imogene moaned, opening the door that led to the tunnel reaching beneath the streets. I had gone down through here once. There were lights that still worked. Imogene found the switch, flipped it on.

Lights flickered on down the long tunnel. It was narrow, lined in brick.

I opened the editing app, not bothering to pause reality as we hurried down the hallway. My wife still cluing to me while naked Imogene rushed down the hallway before me, her rump swaying while she hugged herself.

“I wish I had my clothes on,” she muttered. “Why am I naked?”

“Don’t worry about that,” I said. I typed in the app’s search bar one-handed, putting in my daughter’s name.

“This is getting crazy, huh?” Anael said, the blonde angel asked as she pranced beside me. “Upstairs, people are getting interesting.”

“That’s one way to put it,” I growled. I found my daughter and hit her. The phone displayed a view of my living room. Sam, her three friends, James, and his two girlfriends were all in the living room cheering and shouting. My daughter and son held Nintendo Switch controllers, staring at the TV intently as they played one of their dumb games.

“Sam and James are fine,” I said as we rushed forward.

“Oh, good,” moaned my wife as I looked up Becky.

I found my daughter upstairs in her room with Tonya and Tonya’s mother, the three writhing in lesbian passion.

“Becky, too,” I said, some of the tension around my heart bleeding out of me.

Imogene reached the door to the other side, opening it with a heavy groan. It was iron, thick and hard. She stood there, her youthful face nervous. She waved us on. My wife and I passed through it. Anael swept through Imogene, the angel incorporeal. My secretary closed it and there was a loud boom, plunging us into darkness.

“Where’s the other door?” my wife gasped as the only light came from my phone. “Shouldn’t it be right here.”

My wife pointed at the far wall. I could see only the old bricks that made up the room. I frowned, nodding. “Yeah, there should be. This isn’t a dead end.”

I waved my phone before me, the screen shining the blue light on the phone. This tension swelled in my stomach. My heart squeezed as this growing panic rose in me as I circled the walls. Imogene trembled by the iron door. The small room we were in, right below the other building now only had one way in and out.

It had been changed. Edited.

My panic swelled. It rose in me. My breathing quickened. Fear squeezed about my chest. I trembled as I turned around. There had to be a door here. There had to be. This was our escape route. It had to be here.

“Steve,” my wife said, her voice cracking. “What’s going on, Steve?”

I swallowed. My body shook. I struggled not to drown in this rising fear and—

My phone rang.

I didn’t recognize the number. My phone buzzed in my hand as the ringer echoed through the small room. My wife gasped, staring at me, her face lit by the bluish glow of my phone. I shook as my thumb hovered over the screen.

Who was calling me?

I swiped the screen and brought it to my ear. “Hello.”

“Mr. Davies,” the confident, smooth voice of Seth Parish said. “I believe this is what we call checkmate.”

The floor fell out of my stomach. I staggered, my free hand planting against the wall.

“As you’re starting to realize, you’re trapped in this room,” Seth said. “The door behind you won’t open any longer. I’ve edited it and the walls, floor, and ceiling to be impervious to any damage. My cell phone is the only one that can call into this room, all other signals are blocked.”

“Okay,” I said, my mind reeling. What could I do to get help? What could I use to get me out of here? I had my clothing. What could I do with them? “What do you want.”

“When you play chess,” Seth said, such gloating glee in his young voice, “you don’t win by just defeating your opponent. No, you make your opponent defeat themselves. You lead them to the right place where they have no choice but to lose. Where all their moves lead to your victory. There is no way out of the room you’re in unless I free you. No way for you to pull out any surprises. No way to escape. You’re trapped.”

“What is it?” my wife asked.

I shook my head at her and focused on my phone. “What do you want?”

“We’ll get to that,” Seth said. He was having such joy. “I could have defeated you in so many different ways. I could have just put a gun to your head, but I’m not that sort of guy. I don’t want to hurt you, I just want you to surrender. So I came up with a plan to have you in the right place at the right time. Where you would have no moves left but surrendering to me.

“Your greed for power was the first thing I noticed. How you were manipulating not just the girls at our school, but the mayor himself. When I realized you wanted to control things, I knew you couldn’t resist accepting being mayor even when you knew that I had arranged it. You had to accept the role. You had to impose your will on Rainier.”

I ground my teeth as my wife and Imogene hugged each other.

“So I had you in a place at the right time, but I needed an army to maneuver you. I grew my minions while you were wholly distracted by the gun sale. I hid my girls from you, making sure no one would be able to tell you about them. I knew you would notice the tunnel running from City Hall. You would see the potential of it. You never thought to check it out after you first found it. So you had no idea that I had tampered with this room.”

“You sound very proud of yourself,” I said. “How did you get around my protection? Your girls are attacking the building. They shouldn’t be able to. Are they not human?”

“Oh, they’re not trying to kill anyone,” he said. “They’re just shooting at the building, having fun. It’s a game to them. In fact, they’re already fleeing before the police can regroup and come back.”

My heart sank.

“Yes, you could have walked out to them, and they wouldn’t have done a thing to you. I just needed to force you to move. And you did with a little nudge from Imogene. That little hoop earring she’s wearing. You were scared and didn’t think when she offered you an avenue of escape.”

My eyes flicked to my secretary. She wore only one, the only thing she had on.

“Now there’s a way out,” Seth said. “You can give up your power. You can surrender it. I have it under good authority that this will reset every change you ever made. All the people you’ve modified will be free of the edits you’ve made to them. Becky will be free.”

“That’s what you want, right?” I growled. “Becky? You want her badly.”

“My daughter?” gasped my wife. Her face swelled with anger. “Let me speak to him!”

“I want her to love me,” Seth snarled. “But you ... You twisted her. Your own daughter. You made her love you, to submit to your lust.” Anger burned in his voice. “You twisted her. I couldn’t even get her to act on her attraction to me. You made her love you so much that she’s lost.”

This wild laughter burst from me. I couldn’t help it. He thought I made my daughter love me?

“What?” Seth demanded.

“I didn’t make my daughter love me,” I growled. “She loved me all on her own. She always did before I ever had these powers. She never even thought of you. You were nothing to my Becky! Nothing!”

“Doesn’t matter,” Seth said. “Once she’s free, I can make her believe she always loved me. We’ll be happy. And you can go back to your life. Be a teacher. I don’t hold a grudge.” I could hear him draw in a deep breath. “Once I have Becky, we’re good, Mr. Davies. I will treat her well. She’ll be my queen. I’ve always loved her. I only hung out with your son to get her to notice me. She will notice me now.”

I ground my teeth.

“So, I’m going to call you back in a minute. That will give you more than enough time to play around on your phone. Be methodical. Explore all your options in the app. I want you to know that I have defeated you. I want you to see that you have no options. If you don’t surrender your power, you, your wife, and Imogene will never escape. You won’t run out of air, but you’ll die of dehydration. I don’t want to be that cruel to you, but I need you to end your edits.”

“Because if I die, everything I did will stay the same,” I growled. “Becky will never love you.”

“True,” Seth said. “We’ll both lose, but I will keep living. A stalemate is better than nothing. Your choice, Mr. Davies. You, your wife, and Imogene’s lives are all waiting on your choice. Have a good day, sir.”

The phone went dead.

“Steve,” My wife said, stepping up to me. “What are we going to do.”

“I don’t know,” I muttered, opening my phone.

“Mr. Davies, what is going on?” she asked, trembling.

“A pissing contest.” I hit EDIT on my app. I had one more change left just for any curve balls. One way out. There had to be something in here that I could use.

“This doesn’t look good,” Anael said, her voice muted. “I think you’ve lost.”

“Game’s not over yet,” I said. Reality was paused around me, my wife frozen in terror, Imogene hugging herself, her tears frozen on her cheeks.

I opened up the editing menu on the walls.

Sub-Basement EDITED BY PLAYER TWO Physical Quality Spiritual Quality

I went to the Physical Quality Menu. I opened it.

Physical Quality State Mass Strength Material Shape Temperature Location

I went to the Material Sub-Menu, studying the concrete. It was edited to be impervious to all tools. All damage. No radio waves can penetrate save for Seth Meyer’s cell phone signal. He had changed the right wall to get rid of the door, hacking it out of existence, and the ceiling to get rid of the light fixtures. The door into here was equally modified.

Clothing.

My wife had only her wedding ring on, which I had already edited, but I had my suit. A jacket, tie, two shoes, a pair of socks, underwear, pants, a belt, a shirt, and ... I had nothing in my pockets. I frowned. My wallet wasn’t here. Where were my car keys?

I opened the menu to my jacket and...

EDITED BY PLAYER TWO

“Fuck me,” I muttered.

“He’s edited your clothing?” asked Anael as I navigated to the Spiritual Quality Menu and then hit the Aura Sub-Menu.

Linda Davies will select this article of clothing for her husband to wear for his mayoral inauguration. Steve Davies will wear it. Steve Davies will put nothing in his pocket, including car keys and a wallet. When he arrives at city hall, he will leave his key in his cars and not realize it.

“Goddamn,” I muttered, trembling. I went through all the clothes I wore. It was all edited like that, my pants a similar set of nothing in the pockets. “He spent so many edits on my clothing. He made sure I’d only wear what he’d modify. No watch. No other accessories but my wedding ring, which is already edited. I only did that yesterday!”

“He must have seen you editing your wife’s ring,” said Anael.

“Fuck,” I muttered, panic flitting through me.

There had to be something I could edit. My clothing was no good, my wife and Imogene were naked. I went to my phone. I selected it from the menu.

EDITED BY MOST HIGH

My stomach clenched. I couldn’t edit myself, either. There had to be something in this room I could do. This couldn’t be over. I didn’t want to give this all up. There had to be a way out of this mess. Something I could do.

“Just uninstall the program to give up your power,” Anael said. “He is correct. It will reset everything. You will probably find yourself in your home like you would on any normal Saturday unaware that any of this happened. I’m sorry.”

Anael touched me. Her hand stroked my face. She rubbed her hand up and down my cheek, stroking me. This heat rippled through my body. Her fingers were comforting. Pain filled her eyes. I stared into her eyes, seeing how badly she wanted to save me.

“It was fun,” she said. “I’m sorry I didn’t guide you better.”

“There has to be something,” I said, such desperation in my voice. I had fought so hard to keep from abusing my powers, but I had come to enjoy this life. I looked at my wife. She would go back to being a closeted lesbian. Becky would be shy. No, worse, she would be edited to be Seth’s lover, to forget she ever had feelings for me.

I was sacrificing my daughter to save my life. My wife’s life.

“Please,” I said, staring at Anael. Her purple eyes were so wide. So liquid. “There has to be something I can do.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. Her fingers stroked my cheeks. Heat shot through me. Her fingers were so warm. She leaned closer. “Just uninstall. It’s over. You lost.”

“It’s not over,” I insisted. My eldest daughter appeared in my mind, her auburn hair gathered in a braid. She looked so shy and innocent. She was such a wonderful girl. I would be giving her up to Seth. It was a terrible thing to do. I couldn’t just do that. Not without exhausting every option.

I stared into Anael’s eyes. Could I ... edit her?

I had never even considered the angel. She wasn’t part of this world. I pulled away from her and looked at the screen. The image of this room was on there. There were only three dots. Anael didn’t even appear on here, but...

“What are you doing?” Anael asked. “What have you thought up?”

I typed her name into the search bar. The program didn’t find her right away, but those swirling circles appeared in the middle of the screen as it chugged along. I swallowed, my heart racing. This had to do something. It was my only option and...

Anael’s profile appeared.

Anael (PASSWORD PROTECTED) Physical Mental Spiritual Unlock New Editing Features

I blinked at that. “You’re not edited?”

Anael’s eyes widened. She stepped back. “Steve...”

“But it says you’re password protected.” I stared at Anael as she pressed back into the brick wall. The naked angel trembled, her small breasts quivering. “I can edit you if I know your password?”

She gave a short nod of her head.

“Why can I do that?” I asked.

“Because I exist,” she said. “Like you. But I’m protected. The Most High doesn’t want his angels edited by you or Seth.”

I stared down at her menu and then I noticed at the very bottom was an option. Unlock New Editing Features. It wasn’t a menu. I clicked on it and saw that it was an upgrade. I glanced at her, trembling. “Are you connected to my phone?”

She bit her lip.

“You are. You’re connected to my phone.” I took a step towards her. “If I edit you, I can unlock something new in my phone.”

She nodded her head, her cheeks going pink. “I’m the connection. You work through me.” She swallowed. “It’s why I’m always around. The app is just ... an interface for you to manipulate the power that’s flowing through me from the Most High.”

“And if I unlock it, I can get us out of here.”

She swallowed.

“Anael!” I grabbed her shoulder with my free hand. I stared into her purple eyes. “Will I be able to get out of here if I edit you?”

She nodded.

“Then what’s the password?” My heart raced. My blood howled through my veins.

“It’s my real name,” she said. She swallowed. “If you can figure it out, then you can unlock me.”

“Your real name?” I asked, frowning.

“Real names hold power for us,” she said. “That’s what is beyond this universe, a place of will. And the Word shapes the Will. Creation. You put your Words into the app, and your Will unlocks it. If you know my true Word, you can edit me.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“I can’t tell you!”

My brow furrowed. “Can’t or won’t?”

“Won’t.” She stared up at me. “Please, you have to understand. It’s not my place to tell you.”

“You have to,” I told her. “Please, not just to save my wife and Imogene, but to save Becky from Seth. She doesn’t care for him. She doesn’t love him. He’ll make her his whore.”

“Haven’t you done that to all those girls?” she asked.

“I didn’t make them love me,” I said. “I didn’t ruin their lives. I didn’t break up their relationships. Okay, I enjoyed them, but I didn’t harm them.”

“You don’t know he’ll harm them.” Anael smiled at me. “I bet he’ll make her happy. To Becky, it will be like she loved him. She will love him. Remember, that’s how this works. Her life’s circumstances will have changed to lead to a worldline where she fell in love with him.”

“Not good enough,” I sad. “You’re going to have to go back to heaven. No more hanging around with me. No more having fun with me.”

She bit her lip and I felt something. A vulnerability.

“No more getting to watch me having sex. No more getting to have sex with me or kissing paused women or playing with their tits.” My hand on her shoulder slid down to her breast. “You’re the angel of sexuality. You love it. And you won’t get to play any longer.”

“Steve,” she groaned, shaking her head. “I won’t tell you. If you can’t figure it out on your own, it’s over”

“I don’t need to,” I said, squeezing her breast. My thumb swiped over her nipple. “You’re going to tell me.”

“I’m not,” she said. “You know it. I’m immortal. I will have other chances to play.”

“You don’t know the future,” I said. “You don’t know the future that Seth will cause.”

“You can’t convince me,” she said. “I’m sorry. I like you, Steve. I do. I want you to win. I really, really do. But ... There’s nothing I can do.”

I loosened my tie. I pulled it through the collar. It whisked as it flowed around me. I threw it to the ground. Then I slipped off my jacket. She frowned at me as I set it down on the ground along with my phone. I undid the buttons on my cuff and the buttons of my shirt.

“What are you doing?” Anael asked.

“Well, if this is it,” Steve said, “if it’s over, I figured you’d like one last time with me. That you’d be eager for this. One last chance to have sex with a mortal before you head back to heaven. I think you mentioned it was boring up there. That was why the Most High gave me this power. To stir things up.”