May those "things" haunt your dreams…ha-ha! This story was born out of a dream which I can still recall in photographic detail. The elements of fantasy in this story are further expressed in this chapter, when Miley bore witness to a horrific scene unfolding right before her eyes. Enjoy…ha-ha! (If you think this chapter is suckish, or are bothered by the fact that for the most part, Miley was just an observer, or even that it was too long, come and talk to me. If you just blatantly hate it, don't flame me.)
Disclaimer: For the record, I shan't put any more of these disclaimers in the way. I don't own this show.
Diabolus Ritus (The Demonic Ritual)
All of the sudden, there was a flash of red light. Though momentarily blinded, I quickly opened my eyes; loss of sight was synonymous to defenselessness. It took a few seconds for my eyes to recover, but I made out the shapes of seven tall cloaked figures pulling me across the cold stone floor. Almost as quickly as their mottled cold hands grabbed the different parts of my body, the Reaper-like men dropped me. I curled up into a defensive ball by instinct as my eyes took in as much of the place I was in as possible.
It was a colossal stone chamber, with tall walls and pillars stretching up into the ceiling a far distance above. Hundreds of flaming torches were fixed into the walls, bathing the room with an ominous red glow. At the back of the room was a high dais, flanked with rows of torches on its perimeter. In front of it was a giant stone table, stained with a grotesquely dark red liquid. There were more of those cloaked men standing around the place, half of them forming a circle around a large star, drawn with blood, on the floor. And in the middle of the circle, a small girl sat, cowering and quaking, awaiting her impending doom with utmost fear.
There was a robed man standing on the high dais, holding his arms out in a crucifix position. He gazed upon the little girl from the height and suddenly boomed with his sonorous yet raspy and bone-chilling voice:
"Let the summoning rituals begin!"
The men standing outside the circle began to stomp the ground and beat out a driving rhythm as they chanted an incantation. The atmosphere in the chamber suddenly became all the more unholy and intimidating. The circle of cloaked men standing around the pentagram suddenly joined hands and chanted the same sinister incantation, walking slowing around the five-point star to the rhythm. The girl began to cry and whimper, staring wildly at the encircling figures, as if trying to find a gap which she could slip out.
I cowered in my corner and watched, transfixed in horror. There was a slight wind picking up speed in the room, until it began to howl with fury, adding to the terrifying feel of the ritual. The satanic leader standing on the dais spoke once more.
"The raping of the virgin! Let the maiden be defiled and despoiled, and deemed unclean enough and worthy to be in the presence of Beelzebub!"
A gap appeared in the circle, letting through a rugged man with the hairy and bloody features of a crazy wolf. The werewolf leapt before the girl, growling maliciously and licking his chops. The girl screamed and cried but was rooted to the ground. The men chanted faster, and the rhythm accelerated and intensified as the werewolf encircled the pathetic girl, preparing to strike. I moaned, half in fear for myself, half in pity for the girl, my brain still unable to digest the horrible fantastic scene.
Suddenly, the werewolf pounced onto the girl. A blood-curdling scream of sheer terror rose into the air, piercing through the haze of noise made of the unholy chanting, the gruesome growling and snarling of the werewolf, and the driving quick rhythm beating out by feet and sticks. The werewolf savaged the girl with his wicked teeth and claws, raping her wholesale and tearing her apart with inhuman strength. Within thirty seconds, it was over. Two stocky cloaked men broke into the circle through the gap and wrestled the werewolf down and dragged him out of the star, leaving the half-conscious girl bleeding and trembling on the floor.
"The calling of the Great Demon! May Beelzebub omnipotent rule supreme as Lord of the Universe!" the satanic arch-mage roared, answered by a deafening battle cry from the black-robed men from below.
The circle of chanting men broke apart and formed a line facing the dais, repeatedly bellowing, "Ablocare Havoc ac Sceleris annihilare universum! Quin Beelzebub detrimentum Domine!" The two men who took away and chained the werewolf now dragged the girl, crying in agony, up the stone steps leading to the high dais and the blood-stained table. A trail of blood was left behind the girl as she was pulled up the stairs and finally thrown down on the stone table.
"Tremble before the great Beelzebub! At this minute, at this hour, the blood sacrifice of the virgin will shatter the bonds and free the mighty demon!"
As the wicked leader spoke, he raised his hand, and in it he held an obsidian dagger. The girl, lying before him, could only whimper in resistance. I stopped myself from screaming in horror, and instead covered my mouth and waited in bated breath, still sitting and watching from my corner.
"May the apocalypse begin! DIE!!"
The last word resounded through the chamber so mightily that the reverberations rattled my bones and blasted my eardrums. The dagger sliced through the air with a swish, and plunged itself right into the heart of the bloody girl. Too enervated to scream, she gasped and let the last breaths of life escape her. With a final sigh, the girl's life drained away with her blood, painting the table a sickening dark scarlet.
The girl was dead.
I could no longer stop the torrent of tears flowing out of my eyes. An innocent life was devoured by these terrible people. There was a brief moment of silence; the men stood still, and the leader hovered over the body of the girl, gazing at the glistening knife. All of them seemed to be waiting for something.
It was then when my senses came back to me. Questions began to flood my mind: how did these people get here? How did I get here? Where am I? Where did this room come from? How can this place possibly be in my school? Am I dreaming?
Nothing made sense. Could this place have been in the basement of my school since it was built, or did it only exist in my mind?
Before any thought of pinching myself came swimming in, a terrible roar shook the room. This roar was much louder, much more guttural, furious, and evil. Its sheer power rocked the very foundations of the chamber. On the dais, tongues of flames shot towards the ceiling through the stones of the floor. An explosion of hellish fire suddenly blew the dais into smithereens, and the inferno engulfed the Satanist leader and the corpse of the girl within an instant. Suddenly the entire place was burning with crimson flames. Intense heat radiated from the crater where the dais once was, and the unholy inferno bathed the chamber with orange light. The place shook; I thought it was an earthquake, but then a massive head of a monster emerged from the crater and roared once more.
A gargantuan beast climbed out of the crater. Its skin and features were covered with flames, the red flesh dripping with blood grotesquely. It had a thousand monstrous limbs on its irregularly shaped body, each tipped with a large clawed hand that could knock down a building with one blow. Seven large dragon-like wings unfolded on its back, and the tip of its long tail was shaped like a two-pronged pitchfork. But it was its head that was most terrifying. Two giant flaming eyes sat malevolently on the top of its face, glowing with evil. Most of the monstrosity's face was taken up by its huge mouth, which was oval-shaped, bloody, and lined with rows of dagger-sharp teeth like that of the Kraken's. The mouth was always open, resembling a tube which led into a forbidding abyss that was the throat of the creature.
God, help me! I thought numbly. Again, all faculty of sense was knocked out of me within an instant. I felt like I was in the middle of some twisted fantasy, or a horror movie.
Sitting in the middle of the piping hot furnace, the creature thundered, "I need blood! I desire a feast of souls! Where is the second virgin sacrifice?"
My stomach turned into ice. It dawned upon me now. I was next.
"My followers! WHERE IS THE VIRGIN SACRIFICE!!"
Suddenly, as if by telepathy, a giant invisible hand wrapped around me and hurled me into the middle of the pentagram, now glowing orange. I landed on my elbows, tearing the sweatshirt through and grazing the skin badly. Paralysing fear once more took over my body; I was about to come to harm and most likely suffer damnation as food for the beast. My mind now frozen, I could only crawl up on my knees, hug myself in defense, and cry uncontrollably as death drew close.
"Let her be raped! Let the virgin be befouled to be in my presence!" Beelzebub, the gargantuan monster, commanded. Instantly, his followers obeyed, and I found myself being assaulted by more than four men. As I was being violated, my screams for mercy were unheard, smothered by the sound of the raging inferno.
"No! No! No! Stop! Please! Have mercy! MERCY!! AAAAAAHHH!"
Oh pain. It was unbearable pain, having so many men tear at my vulnerable body, beating every inch of me they could reach. The agony was even more terrible down there, where one of the robed men robbed me of my virginity and defiled me forever. Sadistic laughter rang in my ears and above my head. After what felt like an eternity of pain, my vision grew blurred.
Then, as suddenly as I was attacked, I was released. The men left my side, and I saw the demonic monstrosity bear down on me. Sheer will to live powered me to get on my knees. I did a second-long body check while my lingering consciousness still remained. Every part of me was battered and bruised, and the area between my legs was bleeding profusely.
I looked up, and found myself face to face with the demon. Its flaming eyes, forty times the size of my head, burned into my eyes and filled me with dread I had never felt, even during the time I was trapped in the chamber.
"And now, young girl, thou be my second blood sacrifice! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!"
The thunderous laughter brought a surge of energy into my body. No longer was my vision fuzzy, and my head heavy. All faculties of sense flooded back into my mind, and with it, finally, the desire to escape this nightmare. Without giving a second thought, I whirled around and flew down the path leading to the exit of the chamber, so fast it was as if wings sprouted at my feet, carrying me through the air as light as a feather. I had never run so fast in my life.
Perhaps the beast was still partially unmovable in his position, but he did not come after me immediately after I began tearing of like a bullet towards the exit. Instead, he roared furiously at his followers to pursue. I did not hear clearly anymore; my ears seemed to have ceased functioning.
"NO! NO! CEASE HER! CEASE HER!!"
They were miles behind me, and none of them could run as fast as I. As I was just twenty paces away from the large exiting gateway, however, there was a sound of exploding stone and shattering gravel; the beast had freed itself. Its heavy footsteps as it chased me shook the floor so hard I was in danger of tripping.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
Finally, I could touch the gateway to freedom with my fingertips…
"WRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!"
He was too late. I charged across the gateway at last…
Terrorking Tragedian
