Skybound Satanists

by Spark, Luc

  In life there are people who live a simple life but serve no real purpose to the continued survival and evolution of the species, and our accountant was paying the price for that. If he had made another choice when choosing his life path perhaps he would not be in this filth soaked cave with only Harry the tapeworm to accompany him. Paralysis of the senses, a decomposition of sanity and a penchant for random chanting, Thomas was beyond all hope. He thought he was having another crazy mental episode when before him stood a majestic and disgruntled looking horse. Mounted on this muscular horse was what could only be described as a vampire. The vampire came over to Thomas.

  “Bravo sir and what a sight you are… but you are not as worthless as you no doubt have made yourself believe” said the vampire.

  Thomas was blinking faster than a hummingbird flaps its wings, his eyes were bloodshot red from the effort. The vampire looked incredibly youthful and disturbingly handsome and regal. The horse was blowing out hot air from it’s peeved off nose. The vampire offered out a ghostly white hand to Thomas.

  “My name is Viorel and this is my trusty steed Lapis Lazuli, we come from the past to acquire a sacred scroll, we believe you have been guarding this… the scroll lies in this very cave, do you have any knowledge of its existence?”

  Lapis Lazuli was not overly happy with Viorel’s confidence that they were now colleagues, so in good old horse fashion Lapis reared up towards Viorel. This caused Viorel to fall over flat on his back, a smug and arrogant grin was now painted on Lapis’s face. Viorel ripped into him.

  “You goading vegetable eating, excrement firing… bag of mistrusting bottom spark, I should have left you in that boring old field!”

  Thomas for some unknown reason began to perk up at the sight of a riled vampire laying into a cocky horse. Our disheveled accountant suddenly found his voice, the ability to communicate he thought he had lost, had now come back in floods of questions.

  “Mister Vampire and horse, how did you manage to come to know the location of this cave, I found it by being a lifeless wandering flap of skin… so are we part of the same making?”

  Viorel became much insulated at the ridiculously pathetic and mind numbingly inane question… how dare this brain rotted peasant ask such nonsense?

  “My man make no mistake on this, we were guided here by coming from a time of wonderment and magic, and how we came to this cave is simply something you could not comprehend let’s just put it this way shall we … our guides were not of this planet”

  Thomas getting more gritty and reckless by the minute decided that he should ask more.

  “So how did you two characters manage to travel through time… time as we know it cannot be bent or manipulated, time goes in one direction and that’s forwards… so how did you do it?”

  Viorel began to feel a shred of respect for this pulpy wretch, perhaps before coming to this cave, he had been an educated man holding some position of credit in the capital city. Although to look at him now made you just want to snort raw eggs through your nose, perhaps not so long ago he was a respectfully good man. Viorel came to the conclusion to play a bit of mental stimulation with this cave dweller.

  “Okay, cave man, my friend you see before you, the one with the odor problem and even worse attitude problem… his name is Lapis Lazuli and he is a time traveling horse, apparently, this came about from him consuming some exotic matter which fell from the heavens… it played hell with his digestion but gave him the uncanny ability to time travel… do you follow me thus far?”

  To Viorel’s shock horror Thomas was now dry humping a piece of rock, it was shaped like a woman with her fun bags out, proportions wise this would have been a woman to rival any Amazonian warrior. The stony rock did not budge a millimeter as the depraved accountant carried about his sick pelvic thrusting… his face was contorting with gesticulating pleasure. The noise was audible to the point of pant wetting coherency.

  The mere sight of the degraded Thomas’s antics coupled with the pathetic sound effects was really beginning to get Viorel’s dander up.Lapis Lazuli was looking on in sheer bemusement; this was a vintage nigh on outlandish situation the two of them had encountered upon.

  Viorel decided to take matters into his own hands and cut this encounter down into ash.

  The thought that entered his mind was ‘Okay this loathsome and down trodden waste of oxygen may have no clue as to the scrolls whereabouts, if this is so then it is time to scour the area until I find it myself, I cannot waste any more valuable time as the prophecy cannot be allowed to come to pass’

  With this he stepped deeper into the cave, ducking under the stalactite’s that were strewn all about the caves murky interior. Lapis Lazuli wanted no part of this as he was getting a smite anxious about what dwelled deep inside this foreboding and menacing location. Viorel could not afford to be feeble of the heart as he had been charged with this task and it was up to him to see it through to the bitter end.

  The interior was becoming darker with each passing stride, underfoot the squelch of puddles could be heard, tiny insects scurried around going about their business. None of this unnerved the plucky and courageous vampire. The light was barely enough to produce a decent level of visibility now and this would only compound the task of finding this sacred scroll even harder. It was time to use another skill that Viorel had honed during his time at the training facility. This skill was a tricky one to master as it required giving up vital energy to other areas of his persona; he would not be able to sneeze during the usage of this skill as it may cause his eyes to burst. The skill about to be utilized was night vision, one of the most useful of attributes in a vampire’s arsenal.

  Once employed this now gave Viorel the ability to search as deep into the cave as he desired. Would this holy scroll emit some special glow like a beacon to salvation or would he be forever aimlessly combing the area until the end of days?

  Rain Arcane (Дождь тайный) Military Base, Siberia, 1981

  It had been an highly intense and productive few years at the secret base, outside the blighted weather was still as horrendous and freezing cold as per usual. The temperature on the outside thermometers was reading a glacial -20c. With added wind chill factored in the real feel was more akin to -40c.

  Inside the bases command center all was comfy; the Russian government had been generous during the years in keeping the base well heated. Jürgen had taken to his role like a duck takes to water. At his disposal was a small team of scientists comprising of a bio molecular expert, and geneticist and some highly educated and skilled chemical weapons developers. The team had bonded almost instantaneously with their ambitious and egomaniacal ways of thinking. Jürgen being the head of this team was able to decide what projects would be developed and financed the most intently and without deviation. The pride of current development was the deadly and rather unusual bioweapon codenamed Happy Go Lucky (Счастливый идти повезло) or HGL for short.

  This particularly nasty and peculiar air borne virus would be able to infect the entire world’s population within weeks if it was released into major population centers. The details were still sketchy even to the developers; all they knew is any soul that became infected would essentially laugh themselves to death by eventual hemorrhaging of the brain. The release system for spreading the virus could be simply storing it into a spray can like WD-40 handing it over to a suicidal individual or perhaps someone brainwashed by the Kremlin and voila let the festivities of chaos and despair begin.

  Jürgen was so popular among his team they often played Gin Rummy well into the early hours beyond dusk and sometimes into dawn. General Kozlov was not doing too well in terms of his health. Too many years of heavy vodka had begun to take its toll on the once imposing and statuesque military commander. He now spent most of his days wandering the corridors between the facility’s medical room and his own private office.

  Although Jürgen held no military rank as he had simply been hand plucked from university, K
ozlov looked on him as a natural successor to manage the whole facility once he had kicked the proverbial bucket. Jürgen was talking to one of his team

  “Comrade we have achieved an immense victory of creation with the HGL Virus once unleashed we could cripple any foe of mother Russia. Although not finalized we are about 90% complete, we just need some human guinea pigs to test this Virus out on before we can truly announce full development”

  The team member nodded in absolute agreement

  “Comrade Mixope I remember that today is the day we receive letters from the outside world, it takes such a long time for any correspondence to reach us out here, shall I go to the front entrance to retrieve ze mail?”

  Jürgen gave the man his leave to go and fetch the mail, and then he made his way to his desk station. On this sat a phone and a rather smart looking computer with some box files and a pen holder. Above this desk was a loud speaker and a very patriotic Russian flag. From the loud speaker came the announcement ‘COMRADES ZE MAIL HAS ARRIVED AND WE HAVE TONS OF IT’

  The excitement inside this bunker was growing rapidly as each team member pondered on what if any letters they would have. They all were to gather into the cafeteria to begin passing around the mail, once done they were cleared to go and read either at their desks, in the cafeteria or in their own private quarters. Jürgen took his leave and headed for his private quarters, Once inside he grabbed his letter opener and with the care of a heart surgeon he opened the first letter, now opened it read ‘MY DEAR OLD FRIEND AND ROOMMATE , DO NOT STRESS AS TO HOW I FOUND OUT YOUR LOCATION. IT HAS BEEN A FEW YEARS NOW SINCE OUR DAYS AT UNIVERSITY. ALTHOUGH WE DID NOT ALWAYS SEE EYE TO EYE I BELIEVE WE SHARED A COMMON TRAIT AND I COME TO YOU NOW TO ONCE AGAIN ASK FOR YOUR ALLEGIANCE. PLEASE FIND ATTACHED ONE ECONOMY CLASS AEROFLOT FLIGHT TICKET TO MILAN, ONCE ARRIVED I WILL EXPLAIN TO THE FULLEST ANY QUESTIONS YOU HAVE, I SINCERELY HOPE YOU MAKE THE MOST ASTUTE OF DECISIONS… Marcello’

  Reading this produced a feeling of nostalgia in Jürgen’s blackened heart, the words contained inside this letter seemed to do the intended job of stirring up old emotions and although as it had stated the old flatmates did have their differences they also did share equally intellectual minds. The curiosity as to what Marcello was hinting at could not be idly ignored.

  It was time to ask for some well-deserved paid leave from General Kozlov.

  The Frosty Impeller, Moscow, Russia, 1981

  A few months had passed since Dmitri’s breakout of the Telekinesis & Paranormal Research Centre. He had managed to acquire himself a small tenement near to his now favorite watering hole. His new digs were nothing special just simple enough to keep him off the rough and frozen streets. Dmitri was managing to make ends meet as a performing street artist juggling wine bottles, bowling balls and anything else that the paying public desired. Alongside this, he topped up his earnings bar tendering at the Frosty Impeller.

  This sleazy and rewarding profession allowed him to get onto very good speaking terms with the local strippers. He would sometimes ponder on the notion of dating one of these women but then quickly reminded himself that any potential relationship would probably end in disaster.

  As luck and fate were very cruel in this part of the globe his old comrade Fyodor had passed away still detained in the facility, apparently of a heart attack although Dmitri had his suspicions. Dmitri, as usual, was cleaning the bar’s glasses when in walked the local mailman.

  “I have a letter for you comrade”

  “Thank you (Спасибо)” replied Dmitri

  It was highly irregular for him to receive outside communication delivered to his place of work.

  ‘Who on earth could this be from?’ he questioned to himself.

  Dmitri opened up the letter and it read as thus

  COMRADE WORD HAS REACHED MY EARS OF A HIGHLY SKILLED MAN WITH EXCEPTIONAL TELEKINESIS ABILITIES. ONE WHO HAS SUFFERED MUCH TOIL AND GRIEF AT THE HANDS OF SOCIETY AND EVEN THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE BY HIS SIDE TILL DEATH DO THEY PART. I OFFER SALVATION AND REDEMPTION; I OFFER BROTHERHOOD AND THE GIANT BREASTS OF ENLIGHTENMENT. DO NOT CONCERN YOUR MIND WITH HOW I CAME INTO THIS KNOWLEDGE, CONCERN YOURSELF WITH WHO YOU WILL CHOOSE TO SIDE WITH WHEN THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT COMES … I SINCERELY HOPE YOU HAVE THE FORESIGHT AND WISDOM TO CHOOSE ASTUTELY AND JOIN ME AND MY BRETHREN… YOU WILL FIND ATTACHED AN AEROFLOT ONE WAY FLIGHT TICKET FLYING OUT OF DOMODEDOVO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT BOUND FOR MILAN – ITALY. IF YOU TAKE THIS FLIGHT WE WILL BE UNDER THE BELIEF YOU WISH TO JOIN US…MARCELLO’

  A quiver began to encompass Dmitri’s hands, despite the outlandish nature of how he had been tracked down he had to admire the tone contained within the words adorning the letter. Adrenaline began to pump through his anatomy like a sickening crescendo, was this a turning point in his life? Had everything that had been and foregone been leading up to this? The brutality of the facility, the bitterness of a failed marriage and eventual divorce. The failure of his once illustrious lecturing career. Had this all been predetermined to set him up for indoctrination? All he had in his life now was a cheap and substandard rental to hole up in, a meager living flittering between the bar and his street performances. Fyodor was deceased and no longer of this world. What in the name of Stalin was there to keep him here in Moscow? The authorities may still be searching for him albeit on a scaled back level … his mind was made up it was time to throw caution to the wind and catch that flight.

  Marcello’s Apartment, Milan, Italy, 1979

  With the fire of brimstone and hellish damnation to last a thousand millennia the indoctrination had been completed. Our once honorable and just priest was now a servant and soldier of Lucifer. With every fiber of his being he had tried to resist the forces that poisoned him, but it was to no avail he was now just as corrupt and soulless as the group that turned him. Handpicked due to his youth and natural charisma he was now the perfect servant of evil. He was ordered to devise a plan to wipe out all of humanity barring anybody who would denounce God and come over to Satanism. What was needed was something akin to smallpox that could be spread over the population with rapid effect. Nuclear weaponry was highly expensive and the cult did not want to disintegrate any potential new followers. Marcello combed his bookshelves for any literature he could read that may point him in the right direction for world dominance.

  Of course before his turning his literature was chiefly books on Catholicism and theology.

  “How can I find anything of any use amongst these books of blasphemy?” he snarled.

  ‘I cannot believe I used to read and soak up this hogwash!’ he banged into his zombie like brain.

  The numbness was beginning to kick into his psyche when the dominating thought overpowered all others. It was as obvious as the day is long ‘My old flatmate and colleague, the one I always looked down my nose at is the key and the catalyst I’m requiring to complete my mission for our mighty Lucifer, he was a brilliant intellectual mind and unhinged to go with it, I will locate his whereabouts and reach out to him and tug on his loyalty strings, he will provide me with the weapon I crave’

  Marcello got himself seated and began to call upon the power of the cult to aid him in his locating of his old friend.

  An Isolated Black Cave, Northern Mountains Of Romania, 1826

  The search conducted by Viorel had been rather folly; the further into the cave he went the more hope seemed to be vanquished. Even with the added boost of night vision, his scouring of the interior of the cave had only turned up Bat droppings and manky puddles. There had been no special glow lighting up a path to his desired finding. The endeavor had been fruitless and gave Viorel food for thought on his vampirism instincts. As he made his way back out to the exterior of the cave he happened upon Thomas the filth.

  “My hormones have been released my most gracious of Vampires, and now I offer you my loyal and esteemed services as a number cruncher and also a man who knows the seedy workings of Bucharest’s underworld,” said Thomas

  Viorel could not beli
eve the sheer blinking cad like cheekiness and pure audacity of this boil on the bum of humanity. The reckless nerve of this mere human to perform an act of wretched depravity on a rock formation and now … now he had got his rock off literally he wanted to offer his ‘services’ … Viorel was beginning to feel a chuckle coming on.

  “Thomas you are indeed a creature to be sympathized with, I see inside your mind and memories, you wanted the best for your marriage and pet ant eater but life decided to kick you in the gonads… you could have perhaps put up a more gallant fight but you did not have the minerals for the battle… for some reason I am going to put my faith in your words and allow you to join me as my squire and general footman as it were, some would say a toady”

  This induced a wry smile in Thomas and his eyes began to well up.

  “Good Sir I will serve you and whatever faction you belong to”

  With this Lapis Lazuli who was watching on in disbelief decided to interject

  “This is all well and good but did you find the scroll Viorel?”

  Viorel said on in a mellowed tone “I am afraid not, however, I will return to Castle Dracula and seek counsel with Dretore and the coven, I am to make haste there now … saddle up and let’s be off!”

  Lapis Lazuli rolled his eyes and said in a highly sarcastic tone

  “As you wish master, just don’t forget about our little deal”

  “Yes indeed of course… I do not go back on my word… it is my bond … now let’s be off for the love of all things holy”

  Viorel took Thomas by the hand and helped him onto the saddle of the mighty horse, then Viorel followed suit.

  Lapis Lazuli reared up and with the swiftness of bolt lightning and the charge of a thousand Pegasus gallops the three of them were gone.