The Chardon Chronicles: Season One -- The Harvest Festival

by Kevin Kimmich

  She searched and laughed, “Oh man, how did you do that? The fake me even exists.”

  “I have my secrets. I’ll tell you later. So listen, we need to be a little serious here. I feel a little uneasy about these people, so let’s go over some worst case scenarios.”

  “Worst case? It’s a church!” She said.

  “Well, Jim Jones was just a preacher.”

  “If they offer me Kool-Aid, I’ll decline.” she deadpanned.

  “First thing, I’m not going to take a gun inside… But, there will be a gun in the glove compartment.”

  “Of Tracy’s car…” she added.

  He rubbed his bald head, “Yeah, of your 17 year old friend’s car. Omelettes and eggs.” he shrugged. “We’ll also leave the keys on the driver’s side wheel. If something weird happens and you need to take off without me, wait at BagelCo for an hour. If I don’t show, go to the Wells farm.”

  “Whoa! Sounds heavy. Well, what if something happens to me?” She asked nonchalantly.

  “I’ll move heaven and earth, Hon.” He said. “But… I don’t think anything weird will happen. It is a church after all. What, maybe some singing? Cookies?”

  “Hailing Satan?” she laughed.

  Chloe drove the car down to the Hall. The front doors were closed, but several cars were in the driveway. Chloe parked on the street and put the keys on the tire. Keith opened the glove compartment and showed her the gun. She winked conspicuously and they walked toward the side doors.

  Keith noticed Judge Ralph and Sheriff Chuck. They were talking with Reichstaff. “Oh that’s interesting…” he said out loud.

  “What is?” Chloe asked.

  “I’ll tell you later, get in character. Mz. Vandevaal.” Let me take your picture. He snapped photos of the church and the Sheriff and Ralph.

  They started up the steps into the building. It was dark inside. The interior was stone with old hand-hewn rafters and simple bench like pews. Keith couldn’t see the altar. Several people were inside, but it was too dim to make out any faces. A muscular man in a sport coat stopped them and said, “There’s a reception in the garden for aspirants.”

  “That’s us, I guess.” Keith forced a smile. His mouth went a little dry.

  Chloe took a step toward the back of the building. Reichstaff trotted down the stairs. “Mr. Vandevaal?”

  Keith smiled, “Yes, and this is my daughter Chloe.”

  Reichstaff nodded and looked her up and down. He backed up a step to take her all in. Chloe was about 5’ 9” and feminine, but her arms and legs were taut and powerful. Her black hair was shoulder length, and she’d curled it for the occasion, but she usually wore it straight. Her eyes were dark brown and fiery and expressive. Reichstaff nodded curtly and beckoned Chloe, “She should come with me and meet the others.”

  Chloe slightly raised her eyebrow and looked at her father. Keith hesitated a moment, then nodded. Chloe said, “Pleased to meet you…”

  Reichstaff looked at her and motioned toward the door. After they went inside, Keith wandered around to the back. Several people were gathered there, a few men about his age were standing together and were obviously new. The other families disregarded them and chatted and laughed.

  A waiter approached them. He was a tall thin man in his twenties. His long hair was slicked back and pulled into a tight ponytail.

  “Here,” the waiter said, “You must drink these.” he handed each of the new men a glass. One of the glasses had been set aside for Keith. “Here you drink this one.”

  Keith sniffed the wine. It was a dark red pinot noir. He swirled it in the glass and held it up to the sun. He sipped it.

  “No, they said drink.” The other men drained their glass. Keith waited a few seconds then drank it, too. They put the glasses back on the tray.

  “That was odd.” he said to the others. They smiled nervously.

  One of the men laughed, “Reminds me of a frat initiation. They just tell you what to do, and you do it.”

  “Have you been here before?” Keith asked.

  “This is our fourth time.” He nodded.

  “You here with your family?”

  “Yeah, my wife’s in the congregation already. Guess her blood’s bluer than mine. My daughter’s inside with the other girls.”

  Keith’s lips started to go numb. “Wow, that’s weird.” he said and smacked them together. “Holy shit, that was strong, I guess.” he took a step, then collapsed to the ground. The other new men rolled him onto his back.

  “Is there a doctor?!” one of them called out.

  The burly guard at the door walked back, “Leave him.” he waved them off. He hoisted Keith off the ground and threw him in the Austin Healey. He put a note on his chest. It said, “don’t call us again. We will notify you.”

  Chapter Five

  Chloe was led into the building. She glimpsed a simple stone altar in the front of the pews. A coffin was sitting on top of the altar. There was a black pole mounted in the stone floor a few feet beyond the coffin. An articulated bronze snake sculpture was mounted to the pole. The room was full of men in dark suits, women in dark dresses, and a girl in a white gown who was the center of attention.

  “Follow.” Reichstaff pointed at Chloe, “Go down the stairs.”

  She followed a few men down into the basement of the building. It was dimly lit from small copper sconces mounted to the walls.

  “Creepy…” she whispered. The men went into a room where five other girls were sitting on a couple of couches. The girls were all wearing red dresses, too. They were nervous, but attentive. One of the men closed the door behind her, and high school aged boy dressed all in black gave her a white rose.

  She sat next to a pretty blonde girl who had her hair up in an elaborate style. “Oh I love that!” Chloe said. The girl smiled nervously. She had big blue eyes, and full pouty lips. Her face was soft and feminine and more childlike than womanly.

  One of the men walked to a table in the center of the room. He wore a sport coat with leather elbow patches, a black turtleneck, and tweed pants. The man was a little older than her father, but was remarkably fit and healthy. His hair was thick, black and slicked back away from his shiny forehead. He knelt one knee on a table and leaned back in a studied pose.

  “Girls, young women, please stand.” he gestured to them. The girls all got up from the couches. He smiled and gestured around the room. “It’s like a bouquet,” he said in a voice fit for a theater. “It even smells flowery.” He breathed in. Chloe suppressed the desire to guffaw.

  “For those of you who are new, I want to welcome you, when you speak to me call me John. You are at the beginning of a long road. If you are worthy, have the right strength of body and mind, a whole new world of possibility will open up for you. For a special few,” he pointed up, “like Stephanie, there is a possibility of gaining immortality. She is garbed all in white, preparing, now with her true family to make the crossing.”

  Chloe looked around the room. The other girls were hanging on every word. The man gestured casually and the nervous young man walked around behind them. He kept his eyes cast down at the floor.

  John stood up away from the table and walked in front of the girls. He stopped in front of the blonde girl. He moved a curl out of her face and made a slight gesture with his right hand. The nervous boy unzipped her dress and pulled it down. The girl made an effort not to flinch.

  Chloe stepped aside and said, “What the fuck?!” She was shocked when John wound up and slapped her hard across the cheek. Tears welled up in her eyes. In spite of all her Judo training, she’d never been struck in anger by someone who meant to hurt her. It took her out of herself for a moment.

  John stared at her with malice. “Silence! Who are you to speak.” She regained her composure and started assessing the man. John returned his gaze to the blonde girl. She was standing at attention. The man was inspecting her like she was an animal. She wore black lace undergarments. Her panties hugged her hips, which w
ere a bit wide for his taste and he tutted and touched the skin. He said, “As you mature, your shoulders and hips might come into proper proportion. Pull your shoulders back?” She had soft, full breasts that were cupped in a black lace bra. He frowned and rubbed a finger on stretch marks on the sides of her breasts. “A shame… You grew too fast for your skin.”

  Chloe heard a droning chant come from the altar room. Above her head, all of the people in the congregation were fixated on the bronze serpent, which undulated hypnotically. They all stared at it and chanted nonsense syllables.

  Oh-wannnnn. Bahhh Ruuu. Oh-wannnnn. Bahhh Ruuu.

  Stephanie was in the coffin. She was meditating and letting the voices carry her away to meet with her friend on the other side. She opened her eyes and was in a grassy meadow that was encircled with trees. Crows looked at her and cawed in excitement.

  Her friend was next to her in an instant. “Stephanie! You blessed child! You special girl, you made it.”

  She embraced the woman and felt nothing but warmth and affection. “I’m ready, my Mother Demetria.”

  “Close your eyes and repeat, say ‘I am ready. I am ready. I am ready.”

  “I am ready. I am ready.” Stephanie felt the warmth wash over her again for a moment, then cold, and the light in the meadow faded to a dim gray. The crows flew past. Demetria was gone and she was alone.

  The coffin lid flung open. Demetria jumped out. She felt her body, her breasts, and fingered her pussy.

  “Yes!! Yes!!!!!!!!” She screamed. “I am alive! I am alive!”

  Chloe heard the congregation cheering, “She lives, she lives, she lives!”

  Chloe made a measure of each of the men in the room. John was fit and violent, but he was no fighter. He moved with no sense of balance and no power. The other men looked like business men, they were soft. They were ogling the girls and joking with each other.

  Chloe started to walk toward the door, “How about you take this rose and shove it up your ass... John.” She threw the rose on the floor. “I’m outta this freak show.”

  John tried to grab her arm, but she twisted out of it and pointed at him, “Don’t touch me.” The two business men stepped in front of the door and folded their arms. They smiled and laughed.

  “She’s a live wire!” One of them said to John.

  “She’ll know her place soon enough.” John said. He gestured to the young man. He tried to maneuver behind her. The other girls watched the scene and remained at attention. They weren’t sure if it was some kind of test. Chloe knew she needed to act quickly. Surprise was on her side, but she gave them one last chance, “just let me walk out of here and nobody will regret it.”

  John nodded to the boy, he clumsily tried to tackle her. She moved aside and he lost balance over her outstretched leg. As he stumbled forward, Chloe punched him hard transferring her body weight through her legs and hips onto the small bone behind his ear. The blow was like a flash bulb exploded in his brain. The boy went to the ground on all fours. She stomped on his forearm and felt the bones snap. He yelled and cradled the arm and she kicked him in the side of his neck. He went to the floor.

  John rushed her with a hand raised to slap her. From her perspective, he seemed to be moving in slow motion. She could see all his vulnerable spots. She easily stepped aside and punched him hard in his floating rib, and drove the force through the bone, which cracked, as he bent over to protect his midriff, she hit him square in the kidney with the butt of her hand. He spasmodically fell to a knee and she kicked him hard in the back of the skull. John’s brain rattled hard against the bone and he went out and crumpled forward to the floor. For good measure she stomped the hand he slapped her with. It felt like stepping on a box of pasta.

  She turned to face the businessmen at the door. One of them was laughing at the spectacle and opened the door with one hand. He said, “I got no argument! Go!” He sipped a wine glass.

  She sprinted up the stairs. The congregation was surrounding Demetria who was now sitting on a golden throne that had purple upholstery. They all hoped for her to speak with them or to touch them. Judge Ralph was bowing on the floor saying, “The gods walk among us! they walk among us!!”

  The burly man was still at the side door, so she shoved the heavy front doors open and sprinted toward the car. Some of the congregation noticed the door open, but it barely registered with them.

  Keith was unconscious in the seat. Chloe shouted, “Dad!!!” and shook him. He was out cold. She grabbed the keys and started the Healey and sped away. The burly guard trotted out after her, waited a few moments, then went back into the building and shut the doors.

  Chapter Six

  The burly guard went down into the basement. The businessmen were standing out in the hall. One of them asked, “Did she leave?”

  The guard responded, “Yes.” He walked into the room and took a look around. John was still out cold laying awkwardly on the floor. The young man was on his back cradling his broken arm. Something was wrong with his neck and he was afraid to move. “She did this?” he asked incredulously.

  “Yeah, it was something else! She was very well trained. She hit these two like a truck!” the man said with admiration.

  The guard just grunted. He knelt down by the boy. “You’ll have to wait for Demetria to leave, then we’ll get you an ambulance, OK. You just fell down the stairs, and landed on John. Right?”

  “Yes.” the boy said. He didn’t move his head. He stared at the ceiling.

  The guard felt the boy’s neck. “I think you’re going to be fine. Just soft tissue damage. Can you wiggle your toes?” The boy’s foot moved. “The other foot?” he moved the other foot. “Good.”

  He knelt at John’s side. The business man stood over them. He was sipping on another glass of wine. “She fucked him up but good. He slapped her. Bad idea!” John’s fingers looked like a jenga tower that collapsed in a pile.

  The guard felt for a pulse. “He’s alive. How long has he been out?”

  “Just a minute or two. She kicked the back of his head.”

  The guard looked at the other girls. They were sitting on the couches, still not sure what happened. He stood up. He spoke to the room, “Dustin fell down the stairs and broke his arm. He landed on John. Got it?” The girls nodded.

  He walked back out into the hall. The two business men stopped him. One said, “These girls are wrecked, right? I mean, how will they obey after that?”

  The guard stifled his sense of disgust at the two vultures, and nodded slightly. “Yes, most likely, but we can’t make that call.”

  He trotted back up the stairs. Demetria was strolling around the interior of the hall drinking in every detail. An entourage followed her around the building. She stopped and turned to face her admirers.

  “I am very bored.” She announced curtly. “Is there something to do?”

  “There will be a reception in the garden.” Reichstaff said. His voice quivered. It was the first time in years that his gathering had brought one of the gods over. Their mere presence electrified and almost hypnotized some people. She tweaked his nose. He gasped.

  “Boring…”

  Yuri, Saul, Judge Ralph and the Sheriff were at the back of the group. Yuri glided through the crowd like he was a snake moving through tall grass. The other three watched with a sense of shock. Yuri was not in awe of Demetria. He wasn’t sure what the spectacle was all about. His parents had been part of the Brotherhood in Russia, then Israel. That’s the only reason he was initiated into the organization. He ignored the religious ceremonies, the different cults, and the mythology that was attached to the group. He found it annoying.

  Yuri told her, “We have an operation in progress. A young girl would be a perfect cover. It could be an interesting thing to do.”

  She paused a moment and regarded Yuri. He was slender, with a tubular, small body, slightly shorter than her and about the same weight. He wore thick, gold rimmed glasses and his clothes were shabby compared to the rest of the
crowd who wore their wealth on every square inch of cloth, leather, and jewelry that covered their bodies. But he looked at her like she was just a normal human. She smiled broadly and put an arm around him. Her new body was a half a head taller than Yuri. Stephanie had been avid in several outdoors sports, and the body was fit and toned.

  She walked with him to the front of the hall and the entourage followed them a few paces behind, “I feel completely ridiculous in this outfit.” It was an elaborately brocaded white gown that shimmered in the soft light of the building. A master seamstress had labored long hours every day over the course of three months to make it. “Undress me,” she said to Yuri.

  “Here?” He raised an eyebrow.

  “Of course!” she said. She turned slowly and pulled her hair aside. He fumbled with a zipper for a moment and pulled it down to the center of her back. “Well?” she asked. He peeled the gown forward. She pulled her arms free and the gown slipped down her back. The material was a bit stiff and had a plastic corset inside. Yuri took a good look at her back. The skin was white and flawless except for a small birthmark on her left shoulder. The round globes of her young breasts were visible from behind, curving away from the graceful arc of her chest. She leaned forward on the altar and waggled her ass in his face. “Keep going!” she said and smiled.