Read Online Divine_Scream by Benjamin Kane Ethridge - Free Book Online
Authors: Benjamin Kane Ethridge
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on the beige tile floor. “Give us the address.”
The woman gulped and sealed her eyes shut.
“Rose!” called a bald man, standing stock still at the side of the desk.
“Bill…” she whispered, opening her eyes partway.
“Jared Kare, his address,” we insisted. “Or we will fill her womb with enough darkness to bring a litter of devil dogs.”
The Sixth forced Rose to the wall, ran his hand down his bare stomach until it reached the buckle in his right suspender. He unfastened it and his pants slid sideways, revealing the side of one of his bloodstained buttocks.
“No,” cried Bill. “I can get his personnel file. Just don’t hurt her.”
“Hurry,” we whispered. The Sixth nudged his seeping scarlet lips against Rose’s cheek as he said this with us and the movement left a violent flower of color on her.
Bill almost slipped as he tore away to a file cabinet down the hall. He crashed into the water cooler and it gurgled loudly.
The Sixth grabbed Rose under her knee and hefted up her leg. He brought his hips closer to her and softly nipped at her pale neck. We watched with fascination, enjoying the shared excitement and need surging at the two bodies.
“Here! Jared’s stuff.” Bill waved a paper overhead and charged back to us, his loafers clapping on the tile. “It’s here, please let her go. I’ll… I’ll give this to you.”
The Fourth intercepted him, swiped the page away, and pushed him into the desk so hard he took a seat on top of it.
The Fourth read the Human Resources profile and it filled all of our minds. We’d memorized this city before leaving the fortress, so we knew this particular residence was a few miles east.
“And now we leave—”
But noticed one of our number had remained silent. One of our voices had gone missing.
“Sixth?” we hissed.
The Sixth pressed the woman Rose harder into the wall and made a framed motivational poster SUCCESS go sideways at the fierce motion.
“There is no time to lose,” we said. “She is not the Gift. Remember our purpose.”
With a quivering gasp, the Sixth pushed down his pants to pull free his sex. His left suspender fell askew over his dense deltoid muscle.
“Sixth!” we warned. “You have forgotten us.”
“It’s a matter of moments, comrades!” he rasped.
That was it. He wasn’t within us. He had broken away, become separate, no longer within the Assembly.
The Tenth caught him at the back of his neck.
“Oh!” He laughed out at first and then screamed, realizing where his brain had derailed from us. “I beg mercy! Please! I just wanted someone while here. We shall all feel it. Let me have this.”
“There is no me ,” we told him.
The Tenth hoisted him off the ground.
“MERCY!” he shrieked.
With the loss of connection from the floor, the Sixth’s skull caught fire and his skin peeled back like a wind tossed tarp. The exposed skull radiated white amid the flames. The skin shredded and the ends caught with hot embers like thousands of funeral incense sticks. They glowed hotter, slipped down, and surged with red electricity and black smoke. The Sixth’s body exploded into spinning silver particles that expanded and pulled inward, into nothing.
There was only silence then. But it was momentary.
With a tremendous ripping sound, a wash of red stretched over the wall. The new Sixth emerged from the corridor shadow. The male body that appeared was larger, with African skin, though no less bloody than the Sixth before him. His gore-oiled handlebar mustache and untamed afro looked reminiscent of the Third Precocious Age, but this one’s past was no matter.
We were him.
He was us.
For as long as he could ever dream to be.
* * *
The banshee’s scent was stronger coming from another apartment, not the apartment of our Gift, but instead lingering at a stranger’s threshold. There was also a dangerous smell, one that bled through all dimensions at once. It would make us lose connection not only
The woman gulped and sealed her eyes shut.
“Rose!” called a bald man, standing stock still at the side of the desk.
“Bill…” she whispered, opening her eyes partway.
“Jared Kare, his address,” we insisted. “Or we will fill her womb with enough darkness to bring a litter of devil dogs.”
The Sixth forced Rose to the wall, ran his hand down his bare stomach until it reached the buckle in his right suspender. He unfastened it and his pants slid sideways, revealing the side of one of his bloodstained buttocks.
“No,” cried Bill. “I can get his personnel file. Just don’t hurt her.”
“Hurry,” we whispered. The Sixth nudged his seeping scarlet lips against Rose’s cheek as he said this with us and the movement left a violent flower of color on her.
Bill almost slipped as he tore away to a file cabinet down the hall. He crashed into the water cooler and it gurgled loudly.
The Sixth grabbed Rose under her knee and hefted up her leg. He brought his hips closer to her and softly nipped at her pale neck. We watched with fascination, enjoying the shared excitement and need surging at the two bodies.
“Here! Jared’s stuff.” Bill waved a paper overhead and charged back to us, his loafers clapping on the tile. “It’s here, please let her go. I’ll… I’ll give this to you.”
The Fourth intercepted him, swiped the page away, and pushed him into the desk so hard he took a seat on top of it.
The Fourth read the Human Resources profile and it filled all of our minds. We’d memorized this city before leaving the fortress, so we knew this particular residence was a few miles east.
“And now we leave—”
But noticed one of our number had remained silent. One of our voices had gone missing.
“Sixth?” we hissed.
The Sixth pressed the woman Rose harder into the wall and made a framed motivational poster SUCCESS go sideways at the fierce motion.
“There is no time to lose,” we said. “She is not the Gift. Remember our purpose.”
With a quivering gasp, the Sixth pushed down his pants to pull free his sex. His left suspender fell askew over his dense deltoid muscle.
“Sixth!” we warned. “You have forgotten us.”
“It’s a matter of moments, comrades!” he rasped.
That was it. He wasn’t within us. He had broken away, become separate, no longer within the Assembly.
The Tenth caught him at the back of his neck.
“Oh!” He laughed out at first and then screamed, realizing where his brain had derailed from us. “I beg mercy! Please! I just wanted someone while here. We shall all feel it. Let me have this.”
“There is no me ,” we told him.
The Tenth hoisted him off the ground.
“MERCY!” he shrieked.
With the loss of connection from the floor, the Sixth’s skull caught fire and his skin peeled back like a wind tossed tarp. The exposed skull radiated white amid the flames. The skin shredded and the ends caught with hot embers like thousands of funeral incense sticks. They glowed hotter, slipped down, and surged with red electricity and black smoke. The Sixth’s body exploded into spinning silver particles that expanded and pulled inward, into nothing.
There was only silence then. But it was momentary.
With a tremendous ripping sound, a wash of red stretched over the wall. The new Sixth emerged from the corridor shadow. The male body that appeared was larger, with African skin, though no less bloody than the Sixth before him. His gore-oiled handlebar mustache and untamed afro looked reminiscent of the Third Precocious Age, but this one’s past was no matter.
We were him.
He was us.
For as long as he could ever dream to be.
* * *
The banshee’s scent was stronger coming from another apartment, not the apartment of our Gift, but instead lingering at a stranger’s threshold. There was also a dangerous smell, one that bled through all dimensions at once. It would make us lose connection not only
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