Legacy of Judas - Book One

by Aragon, Christian

  Journal entry XXXVIII

  Vic saw an actual angel. They sat in the same room and had a conversation. Most people would resign themselves at this point and throw themselves upon the mercies of the best option available. Not Vic. This is her life, not theirs. She knows this. Unfortunately we're not sure about how well she understands this. She's had tastes of Hell via our memories, but she doesn't yet know Hell itself. Still, all of this has generated questions and answers within her. She believes she has options, and considering how much the rules have changed so far, she might.

  Yesterday's meeting with Katrina left Vic a bit shaken. She obviously did not show Katrina her will had been challenged. The important thing is that Vic knows now, no matter what, her life is going to be significantly different from the lives of most other people. The weight of Heaven is bearing down on one shoulder while the weight of Hell rests upon the other.

  Vic has made sure the authorities overseas are searching for Vincent, as well as deploying three of her Purgatory souls to assist with the search. While Katrina was easy to find because of what she is, Vincent is still just a mortal and will most likely take some time to hunt down even with his signature, and especially if another force is at work interfering with Vincent being tracked.

  Vic’s next action is to collect new souls, which will require some serious thought, planning, and a criteria with which to choose the targets, and Vic already has one — The Seven Deadly Sins.

  I should’ve known those would come into play. Pretty obvious. If I had actual eyes I'd roll them in mock disbelief.

  This morning Victoria called before her seven of the eleven souls she had acquired from Purgatory. The eleventh, the female soul Victoria still has not provided clothing for after her arrival here, is also still kept separate from all the others, myself included. Vic also summoned before her the seven young souls, and it seems she is becoming more comfortable with having them around.

  Because Vic embraced this knowledge rather than attempting to shun it, we expected that sooner or later she would resort to hunting mortals for the souls she needs to bolster her stance against whatever might lay ahead. I fear she may make decisions which cause her to taint her own soul, obviously this concern is a continual theme with us at this point, but she could, perhaps to the point of no turning back. If she is to pursue this she must choose very wisely only those who consciously seek out the pleasures of the Seven Deadly Sins with blatant disregard for themselves or those around them. What she must be most careful of is that each of the individuals she chooses is well aware that what they’re doing is causing them great detriment, and none of them has a demon already influencing them. These are not easy tasks.

  Her instructions to the fourteen souls before her were explicit and a bit long-winded if I do say so myself. She reiterated over and over the importance of finding just the right individuals, according to her qualifications, as well as what to look for within their minds and souls to properly determine if each one is ripe for what Victoria needs to do. She went over everything, every last detail her mind, heart, and imagination could conjure up, and then she went over each of those details many times with the group and each one alone. Souls remember far better than brain matter does. There was a lot of overkill in her reiterations.

  “Pride, also known as vanity, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and sloth are what you’re each looking for. You’ve got as much information as I can provide. You each have one week to find as many as you can and bring each individual’s information back to me. None of you yet knows just how important this is to me, or how much I’m going to dread collecting the souls of these people, no matter how much they may deserve it or need it. Please be careful. You may all go now.”

  With that all fourteen souls exited the house as if a wind had carried them off. The hunt was on, and for the first time young Victoria was taking action with a much more conscious and thought out strategy. We’re certain this abeyance is just the beginning.

  But did she consider …?

  Did she stop to think …?

  It doesn’t matter.

  Vic was now doing the Devil’s work.

  The remainder of our day was a quiet one.

  Journal entry XXXIX

  Last night was relatively sleepless for Victoria. Despite her Unity Command, which balances and centers her more completely, her anticipation of what the fourteen searching souls will find for her is far too great to simply block out. She’s already realized any distraction, big or small can become a very costly one. But still, she needed a little distraction before the work began.

  This morning she called before her the eleventh Purgatory soul and asked for her last given name.

  “Evelyn, Mistress Victoria,” she said shyly and with a lovely English accent. She was caught in Purgatory without the reprieve of rebirth for a good couple hundred years. I still don't get why Vic hasn't clothed her yet. Then again it’s not like Vic has asked any of the other seventeen souls to mask their nudity. At least the seven youths don't display genitalia due to having not fully matured into their sexuality during their mortal lives. Just the features in their faces and subtle differences in their physical builds distinguish them as having been males or females during those lives. But I've slid off into an irrelevant tangent here …

  “Evelyn, it is very pleasant seeing you today. Are you prepared for the task I have for you?”

  Evelyn’s eyes lit up in anticipation …

  “I was afraid you had forgotten me, mistress. You sent out all the others and gave them all such important tasks. Here I was starting to think I’m going to be as useless as I had been before you took us from that dreadful place.”

  “No, no, no. I have for you the most important task of all the tasks I gave to the others …” And with that Vic motioned for me to stay where I was while she and Evelyn went behind closed doors. Though I dared not disobey Vic, the curiosity was soon too much. Not to mention with everything we had been through it was a bit off-putting to be set aside in such a manner. Unfortunately, by the time I pressed my ear to the door, which was silly since I could've just put my palm to the door to listen just as well, all I heard was …

  “Do you accept this responsibility, Evelyn?”

  “Oh, goodness, yes! Thank you, Mistress Victoria! I will do all that I can to fulfill your requirements. What do you ask of me first, mistress?”

  Vic was purposely keeping her voice low, so I slowly poked my head through the door in an attempt to hear what she was up to. I damn near scared myself silly as there's a full length mirror on the wall directly across from the bedroom doors, and caught sight of my own wretched mug peering back at me in my warped reality saturating through the door. My eye holes opened wide as I saw my own obscured facial features blending with the grain and stain of the door I was peering through. I managed to not make a sound, but as I turned my gaze toward Vic she was already staring daggers at me. I apologized and backed away, but just before I completely lost sight of the two of them I saw Vic hand a piece of paper to Evelyn with what appeared to be detailed instructions written on it.

  Once again I heard a little mumbling through the door followed promptly by Evelyn’s eager response …

  “Yes, Mistress. I am.”

  Again we heard Victoria mumbling low enough so as to not give away what she was up to. Suddenly the door opened and Vic and I were face to face. I smiled humbly as she just stared at me with an annoyed expression with one eyebrow raised. I stepped back and she exited the room. Evelyn was already gone when I looked inside.

  We can only do as she commands unto us. We can only stand by until told, or asked, to do otherwise. But this is the first time she's kept me truly in the dark about something she's doing.

  Journal entry XL

  It has been one week since the fourteen souls were sent on their quest for the worst perpetrators of the seven deadly sins, and my-oh-my, what a smorgasbord of sinners these seventeen have brought before Victoria on this day. It was saddening t
o see that — despite all the thousands of years humankind has walked this Earth — so many are so willing to squander their personal potential as individuals on these indulgences. By all means, everyone alive should indulge in a controlled manner from time to time, but these individuals have transformed occasional indulgences into full blown, life-long obsessions without satiation. As it just so happens, satiation is what Vic intends to offer.

  Vic began the process of separating the worst of the worst from the so-so’s and eh-whatever’s. She's viewing all this information and seemingly memorizing the info as she goes. This weeding process will take some time. Each of the fourteen souls is standing before her in turn waiting to present their findings via projection into Vic’s mind all they saw of each of the candidates. All of the souls seem giddy and hardly able to contain themselves; like Show-n-Tell in elementary school. One by one Vic views the memories and simultaneously writes the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the candidates on a legal pad. Her eyes are closed throughout this entire process yet her notes stay within the lines in the papers as if she was watching as she writes. A pattern of head twitches and rapid movement emerged as it became discernible as to which candidates she would pursue and which she wouldn't, and which were future possibilities. On the legal pad she'd jot an exclamation point by the positives; a question mark by those to review later, and an X by those who didn't meet her minimum requirements. This process took a few days, a stack of legal pads, and no sleep at all on Vic’s part. By the time she was through sifting she still seemed as spry and awake as when she started.

  From what I’ve gathered from the chatter between the fourteen souls, the potential number of acquisitions for Vic to hunt and collect number somewhere between fifteen-hundred and two thousand. I’m glad she only gave them a week to hunt.

  I’m going to get some tea…

  Journal entry XLI

  Three weeks have passed since Victoria started studying the potential acquisitions from around the world, but she had to slow down dramatically after the first week due to her other worldly responsibilities. School. Paying bills. Eating.

  Vic has narrowed the field of potentials down into categories she can monitor simply by sending one or more of the souls out for updates. The primary group is those she knows for sure to be immediate targets for acquisition she has aptly named, The ones that gotta go! This will be the first group and consists of several hundred individuals.

  Victoria called together her fourteen souls once again to give her plans of acquisition, and how these souls will help her.

  “I am going to give each and every one of you the ability to act in my place. There are simply too many people for me to pursue on my own.”

  Spoken much softer than when demons hold these meetings with their acquired minions …

  “First I’m giving you all the ability to become as physical as your mortal bodies use to be. Accept from me a single drop of my blood and use it to give yourselves form.” With that Victoria pierced her finger and each of the souls held out their hands in turn to receive a drop of her blood. The blood quickly dissipated into the essence of their souls.

  “Each of you should rely on your best judgment as much as possible, and under no circumstances should you do something which will cause harm to anyone aside from the one you're hunting.

  You will present each of these individuals with their heart’s desires. We have a distinct advantage here in that we can make use of what is real as well as what can be created in their minds and hearts. Some will be easier than others, but none of them should be impossible. I’ve chosen the worst of the worst for this first round.

  Remember; their minds and hearts are our playgrounds. Whatever they're experiencing between their ears; make it better! Reach into their minds and exaggerate! Make sure they're immersed in the satisfaction of their sin well over their heads. If they’re genuinely satisfied with what we give them then they’re ours. Whenever possible imbue your targets with the knowledge necessary to accomplish their heart’s desires on their own; this is by far the best way for them to carry out their particular sins and be satisfied with them without you needing to get too involved. Genuine satisfaction is always best! You can look at the world they live in and see the correct courses of action far easier than they can. Give them that information and let them use it. Only use subterfuge in their minds and hearts when no other course of action can be taken.

  Make sure they sign in their own blood. This binds their souls to the contracts. Then sign with my blood, which you now possess, to complete the contract.

  Is everyone clear on these instructions?”

  They all answered Yes …

  “Go!” And with that the Purgatory souls and the seven young souls instantly dispatched to their first targets as Victoria had assigned them. Thankfully she was very careful to assign the seven young souls to only non-sexual sins. Not because nudity or sexuality should be treated as some great secrets, but because they’re too young to know what to do with it anyway. They were never able to mature and learn as mortals do and should. Vic understands they're young. She understands just asking of them the chore of collecting souls is far beyond what their young minds should have to absorb. We suspect she won't be able to shield them forever though.

  Within only hours several new souls were being collected under the realities or guises of ultimate indulgences coming true. As they were each imbued with a drop of Vic’s blood this also created soul strands from Vic to each of her hunters. As such, with some concentration, she could see what they saw as it happened. We watched through the eyes of the fourteen souls as Vic guided them through thought, emotion, and action. This, as with the soldiers of the demons in Hell, was training. It’s nothing we instructed Vic to do, but innately she’s covering this task as if she’d been trained in it herself. Soon her first veneries would take on the task of teaching the next string as Vic has taught them. Again she’s doing the Devil’s work.

  Vic eventually turned to her own list of prey to hunt. This is an unusual circumstance since in Hell the demon who possesses the Book of the Damned typically assigns his collected minion to the hunting. Risking having to open two passages to allow the book to pass through separately was never an option attempted. Being that demons aren't disciplined enough to open one gate to where they wanted, let alone two, they typically did not leave Hell once the book fell into their hands. But Vic isn’t trapped with their shortcomings, nor does she need to open any gateways when so many targets are within driving distance.

  The first was a woman who was desperately and uncontrollably entwined in the sin of Lust. But Vic needed extra souls for this one, she said. I wasn’t sure what she was planning, but we waited to approach her first target.

  Journal entry XLII

  Another week passed since the fourteen went out to start collecting.

  Some of the acquisitions have been a bit more difficult than Vic originally thought they would be. She also hadn’t taken the youthful personalities of a number of the souls she sent out as seriously as she should have. There were some immaturities which had to be dealt with, or the acquisitions would not be successful. She was gentle about it, however. She didn’t handle the situations with all the abusiveness the demons of Hell exercised. She was stern, but understanding, and that’s nothing I had ever thought I would see from someone in possession of the abilities and information found in my pages.

  Eventually Vic had enough souls collected and orientated to start pursuing the first of her own targets. Why let all the souls out on safari have all the fun, right?

  The location Vic set up to meet her quarry at wasn't quaint, nor was it inexpensive or common in any way despite its outward appearances. The G3:5, though seemingly rather oddly named, is the type of place where a man brings a woman and neither menu has prices. Even in Hell we knew of this place, but more importantly, we knew of the place this place is part of.

  Narrow marble columns encased in beautifully carved redwood spiraling from floor
to ceiling, or ceiling to floor, depending of the direction of the depictions of all manner of gods and creatures of the real world, and of myth and legends. The detail of the redwood carvings spiraling each column within the restaurant was stunning and elegant as the artist went a step further and stained the carvings to varying degrees to give greater emphasis to highlights and shadows. From gnats to dragons and bovines to a Kraken, there's no telling how many species were represented here.

  The naves created by the orientation of the columns are framed with softly zigzagging rows of hardwood oval tables with well-cushioned and ornately carved high-back booth seats which seem to conveniently seat anyone at the table no matter their girth.

  The floor is actually difficult to see in the subdued lighting, though I believe it's a dark slate tile with a matte finish. The twelve-foot ceiling is finished entirely in ornately-cut and embossed sheets of copper, brass, and steel all cut into swirls and curvy shapes which interlock, and all polished enough to reflect light but not cast reflections.

  The maître d', waiters, and waitresses are all gorgeous and perfectly quaffed to a degree which is threatening ostentatiousness. What's more is how incredibly on top of every detail of every table they wait upon. OCD is apparently a trait the G3:5 seeks in job applicants. No glass ever falls beyond half full without a server suddenly there to fill it back up. They replace the cloth napkins for each patron as soon as the one in use is used three times, or less should it be used for a greater mess. It's been known to happen that a patron has caused sufficient of a mess as to soil the entire table cloth and ruin whole plates of food, and suddenly the servers swarm the table picking up the plates, drinks, silverware, etcetera, and stripping the table. This provides a very brief view of the fact that every table is covered with a half-inch pane of tempered glass which protects an ornate relief carved into the stained tabletop. Supposedly each tabletop is a completely original piece of art with no two depictions being the same. It almost seems to be a goal to not let anyone see too much of any exposed relief as the swarm of attendants wipe down the glass, dry it, laying out new cloth and reset the table not only with new settings but new plates of freshly prepared food matched perfectly to what each person had prior to the spill — all within brief moments of the mess taking place. Even if the mess includes a body. The servers are then back to their previous duties without missing a beat. Not even a half-filled glass.