Heaven's Lies

by Daniel Caet

  Once we were all in position the doors opened, and the guests began to enter and place themselves in the couches, in many cases sharing space. In a few moments, the number of people in the room exceeded one hundred. It was obvious that this party was not small. Velio told us to start distributing wine among the guests and I thought that would be the best opportunity to find Gaius, but after a long time filling cups, it was obvious that he was not there. The guests didn't even notice me, for them I was nobody, just one more slave without any importance, and that made it much easier for me to move between them. The general atmosphere was of excitement and anticipation. The comment in the groups was always the same, what would the emperor offer them this time, with many of them indicating that they expected it to be as exciting as the last time.

  Suddenly, the sound of trumpets caused all conversations to cease and all guests to look at the same point, a large double door located next to the throne. When the doors opened, the first figure that entered through it was not, as I expected, the emperor, but a face that I knew well, Michael. His square face, with marked features and dark skin had not changed an iota since my expulsion from the heavens. His electric blue eyes seemed to glow on his skin in contrast to his black hair like a raven's wing. Behind him, an older man, not very tall, with a broad nose and small mouth, entered the room with the help of two boys. It took me a moment to recognise Gaius in one of those boys. He looked different, serious, almost sad, and it was as if his face as a child had aged several years in the time I had been absent. The older man, no doubt the emperor, sat on the throne, and the boys moved away to occupy two nearby couches. Michael on the other hand, was placed behind the throne as if guarding the back of the emperor or perhaps whispering in his ear like the snake he was. With a gesture of the emperor, some musicians entered the room and began to play a happy music that filled the room giving rise to the conversations begin again.

  During the following moments everything seemed to pass calmly, the guests ate, drank and laughed equally. While fulfilling my obligations as a cup filler I did not take away my eyes form Gaius that seemed to enjoy the conversations that took place around him without noticing who was watching him from the opposite corner of the room. I knew that I should exercise caution and stay away from him to avoid attracting Michael's attention, although he seemed absent, looking at the room but not really seeing anything. Suddenly, the emperor rose from his seat and the music ceased.

  “Dear friends!” he said raising his voice. “What a great pleasure to have you here tonight! There is only one way in which a poor old man like me can reciprocate this pleasure.” he continued to bow his head in mock humility. “With even greater pleasure, of course!”

  The guests roared their excitement in response and the emperor was forced to raise his hands to calm them down while smiling openly.

  “It won't be easy to exceed our previous nights, but I promise you that I will do my best.” And he beat his palms causing the living room doors to open. A group of boys and girls who have just entered puberty, completely naked, entered through those doors and placed themselves behind the couches. That seemed to be the signal that everyone was waiting for. Suddenly, the guests began to undress and surrender to all kinds of sexual practices not only among themselves but with the youngsters who had just arrived. I could see how the supposedly caste Roman matrons opened their legs for the young while their members were brought to their mouths. Worthy members of Roman society sodomised boys and girls equally without them having the chance to say no. Those young people, possibly born into slavery or torn from the arms of their fathers and mothers to satisfy the perversions of those with more luck, were passed from hand to hand like soulless toys. In the distance I could see how Gaius himself gloated at the member of one of those boys. Frequently the emperor's guests lost control and those acts became horrific violations. I could see how one of the girls was screaming in pain as two old men penetrated her at the same time each through a hole. The sex seemed endless, just when they had satiated with one, the guests began with the next or embarked on group sex between them. The only ones who did not participate in that depravity were Michael and the emperor himself. The old man watched what was happening around him laughing like a madman with that demonstration of the wildest side of human nature. After all, the comments of the people of Rome had a lot of truth. This man was a poor madman who had lost the ability to resist his lowest instincts and now enjoyed them through others. But if for a moment I thought that it could not fall lower, Tiberius was about to show me how wrong I was.

  Rising again Tiberius raised his arms and silence filled the room again.

  “It's time for our central show!” And beating his palms made one of the doors open again. Two soldiers of the imperial guard whom I immediately recognised as angels entered the room, dragging a man in his fifties and a girl in his mid-teens to the central stage. “This man owns the goats that were part of our little meeting last week. It turns out that apparently a couple of them died because of so much fun, and he showed up at the palace to claim their price.” The noise of the recrimination from the audience was thunderous. “Come on, my friends! Calm down! In my infinite wisdom I immediately understood that this poor man could not understand our way of having fun because he had never been part of it, so I decided to invite him and his lovely daughter along.”

  The guests laughed out loud and a shiver ran down my back, thinking about what that crazy old man might have in mind.

  “Well, this is what is going to happen,” he continued this time very seriously and staring at the man. “You dared to claim to your emperor the price of bullshit goats when you should be honoured that we have returned them full of the seed of Rome. That deserves a lesson. In payment for your insolence, I want you to rape your daughter in front of all of us.” The girl's face became an expression of real panic, and I could not give credit to what I heard. Did this man's perversion have no end? The guests for their part roared in approval like hyenas at the smell of blood.

  “If you refused,” Tiberius continued, “my soldiers will cut your head right here and your daughter will leave freely. So, what will it be?”

  The man's face changed with the mention of his own death from terror to determination, for my horror. Without hesitation, he grabbed the little girl who started screaming and shaking, trying to get rid of the man who was her father. The man mercilessly struck her with a clenched fist until he knocked her down on the floor and without losing a second, he turned her around, lifted her robe and penetrated her in the middle of her screams of pain. The emperor, sitting on the edge of his throne, watched intently with an upset smile on his face as the guests went mad with euphoria at what they were seeing. Fortunately, the scene was short lived. When the man withdrew, the body of the little girl remained lying on the floor of the stage without anyone paying attention.

  “Take the girl and give her back to her mother,” Tiberius said, and two soldiers took the girl's broken body and left the room. The father threatened to leave with her, but two other soldiers prevented him. “Just a moment. You just showed us clearly that you are no better than your goats. You could have chosen to give your life for your daughter, but you preferred to subject her to this torture in order to live. Since you are nothing more than an animal, we will have to treat you as such, don't you think?” Tiberius turned to talk to Michael who nodded and headed to the place where the man was. Two soldiers grabbed the man and forced him to stand on all fours while he, finding out what was going to happen, screamed and struggled. Michael placed himself behind the man, and without losing a second, he broke open his robe and penetrated him with all his strength causing the man to shriek loudly. This time it was not fast. With each onslaught more blood fell between the man's legs due to the tear. When Michael finally reached orgasm, a silver glow rose as if from nowhere. Michael's sword had severed the head of that wretched man and blood now flowed from the place where his neck had been as if it were a fountain, once again causing the roars of the
audience. Tiberius rose from his seat to applaud like the madman he was. The guests continued with their feast of depravity and lust revived by the show they had just seen until almost dawn without remembering for a second of the little girl or her father. When Tiberius finally retired, followed by Gaius and the other young man, I wanted to follow them to talk to Gaius, but I knew I had no choice. If I wanted to meet him alone, I had to wait until all the guests had left the party and the slaves had retired to look for him in their rooms.

  I had to wait several hours before everyone had disappeared, and it was safe to venture through the halls of the palace. My ignorance of the palace layout was a problem when it came to finding Gaius, but I had found the solution in Velio's mind that, besides being extremely easy to read, turned out to have a thorough knowledge of all the corridors, halls and passageways of the palace, including some that were supposed to be secret. So, when I finally was alone, I didn't lose a moment and headed for Gaius' chambers.

  The halls of the palace had an almost dark air illuminated only by the poor burners placed in the corners and intersections. I knew that Tiberius would have made sure that all the corridors were regularly patrolled, and that I should not waste time, so I found myself almost running as if I were a mouse in a maze. When I finally reached the doors of Gaius’ rooms, I was surprised to find no guard, but I was glad because I hadn't thought about how I was going to solve that problem. I opened the doors carefully and found myself in a kind of anteroom without any furniture separated from the rest of the rooms by a dense curtain of dark blue colour. From the other side of the curtain I could hear a distant noise that betrayed the presence of people. I removed the curtains with my hands and found another large room with dark marble walls and floors, lit only by a couple of strategically placed burners and in whose centre was a large bed. On the bed, Gaius’ naked body, placed on his back and with his legs apart while his equally naked playmate penetrated him deeply. Gaius’ moans of pleasure were almost choked by the quasi-guttural sounds of the man with dark hair and muscular body who was taking care of making him enjoy. Michael. Neither of them noticed my presence at first until, suddenly, Michael's face turned to look at me with a wicked smile while still fornicating with the boy.

  “You took a long time, sparrow,” he said, using the derogatory name he had assigned me when he was my instructor in the angelic forces.

  That phrase made Gaius turn his head towards me and his face disengaged due to the surprise of finding me there. As if he had suddenly realised the situation in which he had just found him, he separated his body from Michael's and rose from the bed, covering himself with a silk robe that was on the floor.

  “Oh, I guess the fun is over!” Michael said getting out of bed on the other side.

  “What are you doing here?” asked Gaius. “How did you get to my rooms?”

  “Oh, he's been in the palace for several hours, Gaius!” Michael replied. “In fact, he has been present at our little party tonight.”

  “But I don't understand, what do you want? You left without saying a word, you have been missing for months and now suddenly you appear in my rooms. What is all this, Kashir?”

  “This, pathetic boy, is called basic strategy. Earn the enemy's confidence to, at the time he least expects it, achieve your goals. Translated into your case, put it in his ass as many times as necessary until you get what you want and need, the sword.”

  “How?” said Gaius, half shrieking, just beginning to understand what Michael had meant. “What does Barcio mean, Kashir? What sword? It won't be one that …”

  “You are a pathetic creature. If you were just as skilled with the brain as with the ass, you might have some value. Obviously, it is the same sword you promised me a few days ago. You see, Helel, because that is his real name and not Kashir, is not the only one who has been fucking you to get something from you.”

  From my position I could see not only how Gaius's face twitched, but how his whole body began to tremble as if he were going to suffer some form of seizure. I knew he was not understanding anything Michael told him. The only idea that was germinating in his brain was that he had been betrayed twice by someone he had trusted, someone to whom he had given his privacy, and at least in my case, someone to whom he had shown a small part of his soul. Suddenly, as if driven by a spring, Gaius ran out screaming like a mad man, calling the guard without realising that the guard's head was in the room with him. Michael did not hesitate a second and moving with a supernatural speed got in his way, hitting him with an excessive force that threw him backwards knocking him down on the floor of the room and making him travel several meters before losing consciousness.

  “The only thing I liked about fucking him was that at least during that time he was quiet,” he said without even looking at Gaius' body unconscious in front of him. “Well, where were we? Oh yeah! We talked about your pathetic plan to try to recover your sword. But didn't you learn anything by my side, Helel?”

  “I learned many things, the first of all that you are an upset and self-centered bastard who has believed himself to be above the world and our own father. What the hell have you done with him?”

  Laughter echoed in the room as he paced the room in front of me with his hands stroking his naked body.

  “You were always fonder of words than acts, Helel. However, I prefer the action, I prefer the things that I can achieve with my own hands, such as when I ripped the head off that aberration of our father’s who was Enoch, annoying old man. But not without forcing him to tell me everything he had told you before. I think for a moment he even thought he could save his life. Pathetic!”

  “You are a shame for everything our father created,” I said without hiding my disgust. “You were supposed to be an example of the culmination of creation, the living example of our own father’s power.”

  “Oh, please, Helel, don't start with that, will you? Did you really believe that thing about being in his image and likeness? That we were his favourite children? Let me tell you a secret, dear little brother,” he continued raising his voice, “our dear father is nothing more than a damn selfish old man who in his solitude decided to devote himself to playing creation and gave rise to these aberrations that you have tried so hard to protect and that were always his favourites. Yes, Helel, they are his favourite children, not us! We were created to be their shepherds, their caretakers, and in the end, what happened was inevitable. The shepherds got tired of being less than the sheep, and we decided to become what we should have always been the masters and lords of everything around us. And I won't let you or anyone else get in our way!” Almost without being able to realise the brightness of his sword, it preceded the intense blow that threw me across the room. I could tell how the blow had torn the skin of my chest that was now beginning to bleed profusely. As I could, I gathered the strength to lift the aching body off the ground and face Michael again who was preparing to strike a new blow.

  “Do you really think men will willingly submit to you? In that case you don't know them at all.”

  “Save the talk about his willpower and everything else. It is you who does not understand them despite all the time you have spent between them and all that you have lost for them. Obviously, they will not submit voluntarily to my government, but I do not need them to do so. Unlike our father's sick ego, it is enough for me to be the one who runs his world in the shadow. I will let it be men who govern each other, but I will be the hand that handles the threads of my puppets. And, do you know what is the biggest advantage of my plan? That governments come and go, kings are born and die, but I am eternal.”

  “And all this for what? What do you gain by controlling humans? That will not give you the power you crave over creation. You know that not all angels are on your side, and that demons will never do it at all. Humans are only a small part of our father's work.”

  “Save the lessons, Helel, have you already forgotten that it was I who taught you everything you know? Those of our brothers who oppose my p
ower will suffer the same fate as you, their extinction and oblivion, and as for the demons, they will no longer be a problem when I definitively seal the access doors to this world and they are confined in hell where they must devour each other to survive until there is no memory of them. And if you're wondering how I'm going to get it done, it's quite simple really. I'm going to become the next lord of hell as soon as I cut off your head.”

  With those words accompanied a movement of his arm that launched a blow so hard that I was embedded in the opposite wall. I tried to move my arms and legs, but it was not possible, it was as if a huge force held me in the position where I was two meters from the ground. I knew it was Michael who caused that. An old trick that he had taught me during my training, to accompany the sword blows with a wave of energy that blocked any possible response.

  “I never thought it would be so easy. You have forgotten everything I taught you. It is clear that so much time spent between humans and demons has made you soft and careless like them. There is nothing left of what you were, Helel.” As he spoke, he approached me slowly with the low sword, but with the defiant face of who feels winner. Just what I expected. In a second, I pushed myself from the wall with arms and legs and in the middle of my jump, from the advantage that gave me the height, I launched a wave of energy like the one he had used. Caught by surprise, Michael could not stop the impact that threw him several meters away through the room making him release the sword. When my feet touched the ground, I threw myself in the direction of my former teacher, not with the intention of hitting him, but to hug his body with all my strength while transporting us thousands of leagues from Villa Jovis.

  Our bodies hit the ground hard and cold and darkness filled our eyes. As soon as I felt the rock on my back I separated from Michael's body. The echo of his aching laugh echoed through the interior of the cave.

  “Where have you brought me, Helel? Don't tell me you've brought me to the cave of the madman of Enoch. This is going to be fun.”