Chapter 37: Mary Magdalene

Violet Matheson – Tacoma, WA

"Leah, Violet, and Desiree, scatter!" Master shouted. "They're after me, you might get away!"

I looked one last time at Master, drinking in his form, then turned and ran as fast as I could from the wreckage. My heart thudded in terror. Behind me, gunfire erupted and I shrieked loudly. Please be okay, Master! Please! I pumped my legs as hard as I could, my lungs burning with exertion. I had never run so fast, so hard in my life.

But I couldn't keep it up. After running six blocks my legs felt like solid lead and my sides ached. I just had to stop, bending over to grab my knees while I tried to catch my breath. Sweat poured off my forehead, stinging my eyes; I wiped it away with the back of my hand.

"We have to keep moving, Violet!" Desiree panted. I jumped, glancing behind me. I didn't even realize that my slut-sister had been running with me. "They're coming!"

I glanced behind me and saw soldiers in brown camo running down the street. They were still two blocks away and covering the ground fast. We were in a residential neighborhood; old houses, most looking run down, crowded the street while the residents stood on their porches watching both us and the soldiers in confused amusement.

"There!" Desiree pointed at a barely-paved alleyway and took off sprinting.

Fear gave me a second wind and I chased after her. She crashed through a gate in a chain-link fence, the metal rattling, and I was right on her tail. We ran down the side of a house and came out on the next street up. There was a loud, crashing sound of metal splintering wood off in the distance where Master was.

Stay safe, Master, I prayed. Please stay safe!

We cut across the street into another yard, through a gate in the picket fence, the white paint peeling, exposing grayish wood. Running down the side of the house into the backyard, my sides were killing me and I felt like throwing up. My thin top was wet with sweat, sticking to my boobs. Desiree marched up to a clothesline and ripped down a dress.

"We need to change," Desiree panted, her nut-brown skin flushed with exertion. "We stand out too much dressed like this."

I flushed; the tube-top I was wearing was so tight, it was practically a second skin, and my sweat made the red material slightly transparent exposing my nipples and areolas completely. I took the dress from Desiree and pulled it over my head. It was too big for me, the skirt fell down way past my knees. I felt like I wore a tent it was so loose and baggy, so unlike the tight clothes I had grown used to wearing since I met Master.

There was a crashing sound and I turned to see two soldiers walking down the side of the house, aiming their big rifles. Desiree froze for a moment, a second dress in her hand. She glance once at me, smiled, then took off running towards the other side of the house, shouting loudly. The soldiers cursed and chased after her, leaving me frozen in the backyard.

You need to move, Violet. She drew them off so you could escape. So keep moving! Find someplace to hide. There was a back gate that led out into another alley. I ran through it, and looked around the alley, trying to regain my breath. I heard booted footsteps and ducked behind an olive-green, plastic trashcan, trembling as I hid. I curled up into a ball, sobbing silently. My muscles were cramping and I started to shake.

This could not be happening. This was worse then when the SWAT team attacked us last June. I just wanted to stay where I was, hiding behind the trashcan. I didn't ever want to leave. I didn't care that it smelled bad, or that the gravel was sharp and poked my side. It was safe. I was safe. Please, please don't find me!

"Save me, Master," I whispered, clutching at the choker about my neck. "Please come save me, Master."

Gravel crunched and I jumped. Someone was approaching. I curled up as tight as I could, taking only the shallowest of breaths. My heart was hammering loudly in my chest. They're going to hear my heart thundering away, I realized with fear. It's so loud. Fresh terror surged through me, driving my heart to beat louder and louder. Please stop beating so loud! But my heart ignored me and kept hammering away.

The footsteps drew closer; I squeezed my eyes shut. I didn't want to see what was coming. More gravel scraped and crunched as they drew closer; the soldiers were almost to my hiding spot. I'm going to get captured. My heart was beating so hard I thought it was going to burst right out of my chest. The crunching footsteps were right next to me. I was found, they had caught me. I tensed, waiting for the blow to be struck, the bullet to be fired.

Instead it was the lightest of touch.

Cautiously, I cracked my eyes open to see a young woman smiling down at me with warm, blue eyes and a friendly smile. She held out her hand and relief flooded through me. I wasn't caught. I hesitantly uncurled, grasped her hand, and she gently helped me to my feet. I hugged her gratefully, tears running down my face. I wasn't caught!

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," I whispered over and over.

She just held me for a moment, not answering, then led me into her house.

Mary Glassner – Osage Field, Kansas

I sat facing Sam across the hole, the September sun warm on my back as it sank towards the western horizon.

The hole was a few feet deep, dug by Duncan and the other former SWAT officers. We were in a grassy field next to one of the runways at Osage Field, the decommissioned Cold War airbase in the middle of nowhere, Kansas, that Mark and I had purchased. It was our bolthole. Nearby was a Missile Silo, also shut down, converted into a survival bunker. We staffed the airfield with volunteers bound to us with the Zimmah spell: the SWAT Officers who survived the attack last June, their wives and girlfriends, and the Blackwoods. It was nice seeing Belinda and her teenage daughter Cassie again, and I remembered all the fun I had with Mark's jogging sluts last June. Along with Belinda's husband Oscar, the Blackwoods took care of the actual Missile Silo, while the SWAT Officers and their families took care of the airfield and provided security.

All our friends and family paced around the hole or stood in worried knots. Mark's mother and sister looked sick with worry and the sluts all clung around Alison, encouraging the girl that Desiree was safe and she would be reunited with her wife. I saw Rachel and Jacob, our accountants, holding each other. Their wife Leah is our chauffeur and was with Mark when the attack happened. Images of our dead bodyguards were being shown on the news, along with Mark's beating. But there was no news on Leah or Violet. I hoped that meant they escaped, but I feared that they were dead.

"Are we ready," I demanded impatiently of Sam. Every minute we delayed was another minute that my husband was getting beaten.

"Yes," Sam answered. "Light it."

The hole was piled with brush and soaked in gasoline. Duncan lit a rag and tossed it into the pit. The fire had a greasy smell, and a sickly, black smoke that burned my eyes rose up into the sky. Sam closed her eyes, breathing deeply. Her plaything, Candy, sat next to her, holding Sam's olive hand. Sam was our Vizier. She understood all the magic better than anyone, even inventing a few spells and charms all on her own.

I had a plan. I was going to take a Nun's powers and exorcise Brandon. He wanted me. All of his broadcasts contained his threat to beat Mark until I turned myself in. He wanted to make me his slut, just like Mark had made his wife Desiree our slut. All I had to do was submit to his lusts and exorcise him, and then this would all be over.

But I needed to know one important fact—if Brandon had a sister, he could perform the Mowdah spell and be able to recognize my new aura. Right now my aura was red, a Warlock's aura, but after I steal the Nun's Gift of the Spirit, my aura would turn bronze. Just like Mark's had; the aura of a Shaman. The Magicks of the Witch of Endor spoke at great length on aura colors, including the Shaman's. I needed confirmation that my plan would work.

I needed necromancy.

"Spirits of the dead, I beseech you," Sam shouted out, holding her arms above the fire as she began the Naba ritual. It was supposed to be very dangerous. If you conjured the wrong spirit, one filled with violence or hatred, it could lash out and hurt the summoner, and since your life-force sustained the summoning, it placed a great strain on you. If you maintained it too long, you could even die. "Appear before me. Rise once more from the grave and clothe yourself in smoke and fire and give us your counsel!"

The ground groaned in pain and the fire surged upward with a screaming roar. The heat was so intense that it caused me to wince and slam my eyes shut in pain. My skin felt like it was about to blacken beneath the roaring inferno Sam conjured, and my heart hammered in fear. Something had gone wrong, Sam had messed up and unleashed an inferno that is consuming us. Then there was a great, moaning whoosh and the heat vanished.

Everything went still, quiet. Deathly.

The sun no longer felt warm on my back; I felt a growing chill that seemed to seep up from the hole. Cold, clammy air caressed my naked body. I shivered, opening my eyes, to see a figure coalescing out of the thick, black smoke rising up from the depths of the earth. From the depths of Hell.

The smoke was swirling towards the coalescing shape, thickening it. A torso grew, sprouting arms and legs like tendrils from a vine. A dome appeared, swelling up into a head. The smoke kept swirling in and the billowy figure grew more and more solid. The lines of a body started to appear, legs grew firm and slim, hips narrowed, and the hint of a bosom formed. Wispy hair sprouted curly from the head and the features of the face grew more defined, a doll's face with plump lips.

My heart froze, I knew that face.

My eyes watered in grief as Karen spoke, "Hello, Mistress." Her voice was soft, distant. Ethereal. It was like she was shouting from a thousand miles away, a million miles. Farther away than the Moon, the Sun, all the stars in the heavens. It seemed that all of existence lay between us, a vast gulf that her voice was somehow just able to cross.

"Karen," my voice broke; tears rolled wet down my cheeks. "I'm so sorry, Karen."

"Don't be, Mistress," Karen whispered. "It was not your fault. That vile creature tricked you."

"Are you in pain? Does it hurt where you are?"

She smiled softly. "No, Mistress. Chasity and the others wait with me."

"What are you waiting for?"

"Why for you and Master, of course. Even in death, we are yours. Always yours." Her gray, smokey hand reached out and cupped my face, wiping at my tears. "Master needs you. So how can I help?"

"Does Brandon Fitzsimmons have a sister?"

"No, just a brother," Karen answered.

Relief flooded through me. This was going to work! "Is the Mother Superior at Rennes-le-Château?"

"She is, Mistress," Karen answered. "Alone and waiting for you."

My heart skipped a beat. "She's waiting for me?"

"For two thousand years she has waited for you, Mistress," Karen paused. "Momentous things are happening. Lucifer has driven his enemies from the field and now he waits as his prison crumbles about him. Dark days lie ahead of you."

"I don't care, I just need to save Mark!" I cried.

"Sam is nearing the limits of her strength. Ask quickly!" Karen urged.

"Is there anything else I need to know?" I asked. "Something I haven't thought of?"

"Brandon has..." Sam screamed, loud and sudden, drowned out Karen's words. " ... other."

"What did you say?" I asked as the smoke started to drift apart, the form vanishing into a billowing cloud that rose up to the heavens.

Karen was gone.

Sam collapsed on the ground, twitching, blood trickling from her nose. I should be concerned for her, but all I could think about were Karen's words. Brandon has what? An other? That didn't make sense. A mother, maybe? He somehow found the way to bind anyone that heard him speak with the Zimmah spell. Maybe it involved his mother somehow. A male Warlock needs to use his mother to bind someone. I frowned. No, that could not be right? His mother was dead. Our investigation into Brandon revealed that. It's why we didn't think of him as a threat.

"Ma'am, the plane is fueled," Lynda, one of our pilots, said.

"Let's go," I said, pushing aside those questions. Mark was in too much danger to waste a second.

My mom caught my arm as I walked by. "She's a legend, the Mother Superior. You heard Karen, she's waiting for you. Don't do this."

"I have to, Mom," I said, shaking my arm from hers. "There is no other choice."

"Please, Mary," my mom begged.

I hugged her. "It will be okay. She's alone. I will have thirty armed men and women with me. I will be perfectly safe. I love you, Mom."

"I love you too, sweetheart," Mom whispered and kissed my cheek.

Dad gave me a hug and kissed me on my forehead. "You can do it, Mary. I know you can. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, Dad," I whispered, fighting back tears.

Sam was standing up, looking shaky, as Candy held a cloth to her bleeding nose. For a moment I thought I saw anger in Candy's eyes as she helped Sam. I was about to say something when Missy ran up and hugged me fiercely. "Good luck, sis!" she said and kissed me on the lips.

"You watch out for Mom and Dad," I told her and ruffled her strawberry-blonde hair. I glanced back at Candy and I only saw concern for Sam on her face. Did I even see any anger?

"You can count on me, Mary!" Missy exclaimed.

I walked to the 747. I planned on taking all twenty-one of the bodyguards and the nine SWAT officers. It would leave all my loved ones unprotected, but none of that mattered if I couldn't save Mark in time. I took one last look at all our friends and family before the hatch was closed. I walked to my seat and strapped in. My thoughts were full of worry over what Karen had tried to tell me. I focused, trying to remember how her lips were moving, trying to figure out what Sam's scream had drowned out.

I had a long flight to France to ponder it.

Desiree de la Fuentes – Tacoma, WA

Being captured wasn't what I thought it would be.

After being forced to watch my ex-husband order Master's brutal beating, I was taken to the showers in the the jail next-door to the courthouse. Two female soldiers, one tall with a plain face and the other short and stocky, stripped me naked and shoved me in with a bar of soap and shampoo. As the warm water sprayed on my sore body, I wondered if I would ever see my wife again.

I leaned forward against the tiled wall, and my body shook with silent sobs. I desperately wanted to see my slutty Alison again. I pictured her mischievous face framed by her bubblegum hair, her tongue running over her lush lips, silver glinting off her tongue-piercing. Master gave the distress call; Alison should be far away, safe wherever the bolthole was.

Safe with Mistress.

"You're clean," Plain-Face barked. "Let's go. We need to get you ready for Him."

I shuddered; the woman said 'him' with such a worshipful manner. I had heard Brandon's pronouncement—he claimed he was a God now. As if he could even compare to Master, I thought with derision. The women handed me a black dress to wear. It was similar to one Brandon bought me before Mark claimed me, low cut and tight, showing off all of my body's ample assets.

"Take off the choker," Stocky ordered.

"No," I said with defiance. I am Mark's slut!

Stocky just reached out and yanked it off my neck, snapping the clasp. I wanted to cry. Instead, I glared icily at the woman who pocketed my choker. She handed me a jewelry box that contained a pearl necklace and I knocked it to the floor.

"Don't make us hurt you," she threatened as she picked up the box.

Grinding my teeth, I took the necklace and placed it about my throat. They hadn't noticed my wedding ring, and as we walked through the jail, I quickly pulled it off my left hand and slipped it onto my right. They took the symbol of my voluntary slavery and I wasn't about to lose the symbol of my love for Alison.

The soldiers marched me through the jail. We constantly had to stop to let security gates be buzzed open. Everyone manning the prison was a soldier. There were bloodstains dotting the walls and empty shell casings littering the floor. And not all the gates had to be buzzed open, some lay twisted and blackened from explosives. As we walked, I realized there was no-one making cat-calls at me. The cells were empty.

"Where are all the prisoners?" I asked, unnerved by the empty cells.

"Executed," Plain-Face answered. "His orders."

My blood chilled. I wondered what had happened to Brandon. I never loved him, but he wasn't an evil man. Right? He always seemed nice and attentive. He had a temper, sure, but I was having trouble reconciling the man I married and the monster that appeared today. Stocky prodded me and I realized that I had frozen in my tracks. Swallowing, I started walking forward again.

Was he always a monster and I just never saw it in him?

They led me out to the exercise yard, at the center of the jail. A small courtyard with a few basketball hoops, some metal tables lining the side. The both tables and stools were bolted into the concrete. The exercise yard was crowded with women milling about under the hungry eyes of a group of soldiers. All the women were naked, young, and reasonably attractive.

A larger table had been set up with a white tablecloth and mauve candles; a bottle of wine chilled in an ice bucket. A romantic dinner? A naked teen with blonde hair walked up to me, smiling broadly. She bowed to me then dismissed Stocky and Plain-Face with the wave of her arm. The two soldiers saluted and walked off.

"My Lady," the girl said. She had a Midwest twang to her voice. "I am Ashley, your Lord Husband's chief concubine."

"You're his slut," I corrected.

"As you say, my Lady," she replied. "Would you care to sit? Lord Brandon will be here shortly to dine with you."

I was about to refuse, when a woman shouted in a rich, French accent, "Kneel before your God, the Majestic Brandon, the Divine Ruler of the World!"

I snorted with laughter. The Majestic Brandon? The soldiers knelt on one knee while the women in the exercise yard and Ashley fell prostrate. I remained standing, refusing to genuflect before my ex, and turned to see a porcelain-faced woman with long, dark-brown hair, falling naked to worship my ex-husband as he swept in. Behind him walked a bevy of naked women, led by a pair of twins who were almost the spitting image of Mary. Several military men – some sort of high-ranking officers judging by their age and bearing – followed on the heels of the naked women, and the last to enter was the mayor of Tacoma, Colton Bray, and his lovely Korean wife, Yoon.

"My beautiful Desiree," Brandon said warmly, walking up and hugging me; I stiffened in his arms. Brandon frowned and broke the hug. "I see he has warded you from my control."

"And it has nothing to do with the fact that I hate you, picaflor?" I asked bitterly, as he motioned to the seat, indicating that I should sit. I grit me teeth and plopped down on the chair.

"You do not hate me, not deep down inside," Brandon said calmly. "Mark has forced you to hate me. You are under his power."

I snorted a laugh and muttered in Spanish, "Babosa." Brandon was an idiot.

One of the auburn-haired twins popped open the wine and poured two glasses, then she knelt with all the other naked women and looked adoringly up at Brandon. Not even Master made us fawn over him like this.

"No, I hate you for this," I pointed around. "You attacked us. Your damn soldiers almost killed my loved ones. Almost killed me! You are having my Master cruelly beaten and what are you doing with all these women?" I motioned to the scared women crowded in the exercise yard.

"They were candidates for my harem," Brandon calmly answered. "The ones I rejected. My soldiers are rounding-up every attractive woman they find, and I'm keeping the best. Don't looked so shocked; Mark did the same thing. He walked into our house and made you his whore." Heat was rising in his voice. "But don't you worry, my love, I will find a way to free you."

"Mark already freed me, babosa," I answered, putting as much derision into my voice as I could. "I'm his slut willingly. We all are."

Brandon frowned as another naked woman set a salad before the both of us. My stomach rumbled, but I pushed the food aside. Brandon took a forkful, chewed it slowly, face furrowed as he thought. He swallowed, then asked, "What are you talking about?"

"Back in June, after the Miracle, Master and Mistress freed us. Some of us chose to stay as their slaves." Feeling spiteful, I added, "I could have returned to you, but I never loved you, Brandon. I just married you for your money. I was a gold digger. I stayed with Master because I fell in love, and I could have all the wealth I could possibly dream of as his whore, more than I ever could have as your wife."

Anger flashed on his face and I was too surprised to react as he slapped me across the table. "So you love Mark," he spat. "That vile beast that took you away from me. You were mine!"

"¡Tu madre es puta y pendeja!" I shouted back, rubbing my cheek. "No, I am Alison's! I fell in love with their slave and married her. I found true happiness! Something that you never gave me! All I ever got from you was a comfortable life and disappointing sex!"

I blocked his second blow and raked my fingernails down his arm. I smiled at the bloody scratches I gave him. He stood up, rage filling his eyes, and rounded the table at me. I quickly got to my feet and tried to back away, but I stumbled over one of his kneeling whores. His arm caught mine in a steely grip. I snarled at him and slapped him across the face.

My head swam as he backhanded me and I tripped over the kneeling woman and fell hard onto my back. "¡Culero!" I snarled at him. "How could I love a muerdealmohadas like you. You don't even know what to do with a woman! Not with your little dick! ¡Pinche mula!"

He stared down at me, rage burning in his eyes. "I dislike having to chastise you, Desiree, but you will learn to submit to me if I have to beat all the willfulness out of you."

"¡Jode su madre!" I spat. "I chose Alison and I chose Mark over you! Mistress is out there! You think you've won, but she will crush you! And I will be there to see you fall!"

Brandon laughed. "Let the little whore try." I felt his eyes upon me as I lay on the floor; my skirt had ridden up as I fell and I pushed it back down, covering my exposed pussy. "Why so modest now?" he asked with a hungry look in his eyes. "You weren't so bashful this morning with your tits exposed and covered in his cum."

"¡Ve a chuparle el peson ha un chango! I'm his whore, not yours! Never yours."

"Let's see, shall we?" he smiled, unbuckling his belt. "Hold her down."

His harem grabbed me. I thrashed against the women as they pinned my arms to the ground. Others held my legs. I kicked one in the face and she screamed in pain, but others moved in, fingernails biting into my flesh as they held me down. Brandon's pants were off, his cock jutting out at me beneath his fat belly.

"I forgot just how small you were," I said with a bold grin. "After Mark's, I'm not sure I'll even feel your little rope in me!"

He knelt before me, his fat, disgusting body pressed atop me. "You'll feel my cock, whore!"

"I always hated having sex with you, panzon. There is nothing less appealing than a fat whale thrashing about on top of you, gasping for breath as he tries to pump away with his little cock!"

"Cunt!" he snarled and slapped me.

My head rang and everything went hazy for a moment. I shook my head then felt a burning pain in my pussy as his cock forced its way in. I was dry; Brandon didn't seem to care. He just kept pumping away. I suppressed a groan, I wasn't about to let the bastard know just how much he was hurting me. Looking up, his neck was right above me, his throat exposed.

I could bite him, maybe rip out his artery. Then this all would be over. I could save us all! I lunged my head and bit into his neck, hard. I tasted coppery blood and bit harder, driving my teeth deeper into his neck. He pulled away, roaring in pain.

"Goddamn fucking whore!" he shouted, his left hand clutching at his bleeding throat.

There was a bloody bite, but it wasn't deep enough. He raised his right fist up and slammed it into my face. The back of my head hit the hard concrete and everything was fuzzy after that. I was barely aware of Brandon pumping away inside me. The world seemed to swim drunkenly about me. My head lolled to the side and I stared at the knees of one of the women holding me down, a gray pebble stuck to her leg. Then everything just faded away.

It was the pain that brought me back. My head was splitting and there was a burning pain down in my pussy. I could feel a crushing weight on top of me. I struggled to open my eyes and there was Brandon, his neck covered with a white bandage. He was still raping me, I realized. I felt raw and sore inside and every thrust of his cock was agony.

"Umm, you're not a bad fuck when you're unconscious," Brandon told me with glee. "If you want to wiggle about, though, that's alright."

I struggled to speak, but my head ached too much and then darkness fell on me again. I don't think I was out long, Brandon was still pumping away inside me when I woke up the second time. His face contorted in pleasure and then I realized with a disgusted shudder that he was shooting his cum inside me.

"God, I love Viagra! Three times without rest," he smiled. "And I definitely feel like a fourth. What do you say, Desiree. Want to be on top, this time? My knees are killing me."

"I'd rather die, el de atras," I slurred.

"My Lord, sunset approaches," a man said; his voice seemed distant even though I could see him standing right behind Brandon.

I moaned in relief as Brandon pulled out of me. He looked down at me, considering. "I can't have you looking all ugly," Brandon said with a shake of his head. He bent down and muttered a word and heat flashed through me and a scarlet light seemed to envelop my body. The heat banished the pain, and the fuzz clouding my thoughts was burned away as Brandon healed me. "Stand up, Desiree, I want you to see something."

I felt dirty as I stood up, Brandon's cum leaking out of my pussy. I wanted to throw-up, to run and hide, but I wasn't going to give my rapist any more satisfaction than I had to. Holding my head high, I followed Brandon out into the exercise yard. While I had been lying senseless, a large fire had been built in the center, lighting up the courtyard as the sky darkened. The Mayor of Tacoma and his wife, Yoon, waited at the fire.

"You are familiar with the Magicks of the Witch of Endor?" Brandon asked and I nodded my head. "Well, it teaches a variety of ways to summon demons. They all will make Pacts with you. The only problem is the cost. Most demons want your absolute worship and obedience to grant your wishes. While others will have you preform tasks that will seem innocuous, at first, but will actually lead to your downfall. There are only two demons that have fixed prices: Lucifer, whom Mark and I both, have already dealt with, and Molech. Of course, Molech's prices are very demanding." Brandon held out his hand. "General Brooks."

One of the military generals walked up and handed Brandon a long knife. The knife's blade glinted orange and yellow in the firelight as it flashed through the air. I jumped in shock as Brandon drove the knife into Mayor Bray's chest. The Mayor stared dumbfounded at the blade in his chest, the blood blossoming red through his shirt. Then General Brooks shoved the Mayor and he fell into the fire. Yoon screamed and collapsed to her knees, crying as her husband was engulfed in the flames.

"Molech, I give you this offering of noble blood," Brandon intoned at the fire. "Cloak yourself in coals and flames and appear before your humble supplicant!"

The fire popped and crackled and then the flames exploded upward, white hot and screaming. I clapped my hands over my ears, trying to block out the terrible noise, the sound of thousands and tens of thousands of voices crying out in eternal agony. The sound of Damnation itself.

There was something moving in the flames. I flinched and stumbled back as a hulking figure stepped out. His skin was black as soot and covered in angry, red fissures that glowed with the being's inner flames. His eyes were coals that burned with hatred, and the air danced and shimmered about him and smoke poured out of his nostrils and mouth. The fire abruptly died down and the terrible screaming stopped. The figure surveyed the crowed and everyone retreated before his terrible gaze.