The Purging

Supernatural Terrorism 101

“You start the day with your pseudo biblical mumbling, now you're threatening me? It's always a pleasure when I come to visit Ra.” The sun god lowers his arm. For now, his point has been made. Slowly but steadily, the ambient heat dissipates.

Ra continues his eschatological raving, “Those that came before shape what comes after. It was ordained long ago. All will become ash as it has so many times before and from the ashes the new world shall rise.”

Skin scalded and losing more patience by the second, Esteban lashes out, “For fuck's sake, you never stop, do you? Enough with all the cryptic nonsense. Just show me where they are.”

Ra points back down into the temple, “I have sequestered the chosen deeper inside. You will make them understand their calling Esteban. Make them know the glory they have been selected for.” Ra needs as many willing participants as possible for his holy work. The first group of specially selected candidates performed so well for the most part. Only a few needed Esteban's special brand of coercion. The new batch is different, so many refused to accept their calling.

“Yeah, yeah. Brainwash your suicide bombers just like the last time. I know the drill. Just give me the relevant information and take me to them.”

Arriving at the inner sanctum, Ra stops in his tracks. He motions at the next room over, “The chosen lie beyond this threshold. The flickering demon device right here contains the information you seek.”

A single dusty laptop sits idle in a recess within the temple wall. Esteban snaps it up, “You mean the computer, idiot? Yeah, thanks. I guess I'll start now.” He shakes his head at the ancient's superstitious musings. Ra referred to most technology this way. It would make Esteban laugh if he didn't find it so pathetic.

Across the threshold, Esteban sees the sheer scope of what the channel is planning. More than a hundred various men and women sit strapped to chairs all over the massive chamber. Bound and gagged, the terrified captives struggle against their restraints and beg incoherently for Esteban to release them, “Holy shit! I thought it would be the same as the last time. There's at least three times the amount of people in here than there was before. This could take me fucking weeks.” Properly breaking the will of a single person was no joke. The prospect of doing it to all of the people in front of him sent his mind reeling.

“Then I suggest you make haste Esteban. I require at least fifty more prepared to accept the mantle of the chosen by the end of the week.”

“You're dreaming. At best, I can give you ten in that time. Turning an unwilling participant into a suicidal extremist takes time and focus. I have to get to know them so I know what buttons to push. It's more than just pheromone saturation. The pheromones wear off, the conditioning is what sticks.”

Ra was expecting immediate and absolute obedience. Most would not dare even imply deviation from his edicts. His previous display of power had not frightened the incubus as much as he originally assumed, “You will expedite the process or pay the consequences incubus. The will of the holy shall be obeyed. Your laziness will not impede the new age.” Molten insides boil over. Scorch marks appear under the soles of Ra's calloused feet. The entire temple's structure acts as a giant heat conductor. A cloak of flame spreads out over the sun god's form as the temperature climbs ever higher.

After all the threats and intimidation he's been party to over the past few months, Esteban is at his wits end. Vampires, animi, and now channels all thinking they can tell him what to do. Enough is enough. Esteban Medina will be nobody's bitch, “Let me make something abundantly clear to you. While a vampire or animi may cower in fear from you, I will not.” The veins in his body push up against the skin as muscles flex. Pheromone glands engorge and inflate the neck like a bullfrog. Sweat pouring from his body shifts from translucent liquid to a viscous, sickly green sludge. His barbed tongue swings back and forth dripping a waterfall of sticky fluid onto the floor, “You see, the apex predators rely on actually touching their prey to harm it. Scratching, biting and all that shit. I do not. I only have to breathe on you to make my fucking point.”