Timothy and Emily Campbell were the two lovebirds in Outpost 3 who were nearly killed by Venable for being together – now, even though they were not officially married, they lived as husband and wife. Emily adopted his name when she was registered as a subject of Regnum Infernale, a regime she knew she could only submit to in order to survive. Before the apocalypse, she had been an avid liberal protester, passionate about ending racism and discrimination against people of color as well as the abolition of so-called "white privilege". Yet in the new world, in this kingdom, there was no concept of race, no unjust system for her to fight against. There was no concept of poverty or disparity, either – this satanic utopian kingdom was full of hedonistic, earthly pleasures to be enjoyed. Everything shunned in the old world, save for a few grievous taboos and blasphemies, was welcomed here. Most everyone was equal save for the minor distinctions between the very few in the royal family versus their loyal subjects.
Yet one flaw in this society she bore in mind since that fateful night at the orgy with her Lord and Savior was oppression. She had outright refused to be part of it and was nearly choked to death as a consequence for challenging the King. In the old world, she could have reported him as a leader of some sick satanic cult, and Michael would likely be arrested with any luck; at the very least, a police report and no further investigations. In this brave new world, she could not even speak out against him for fear of losing her life for treason and disloyalty. Was the new world of Regnum Infernale really so different from the old world?
Emily and Timothy were proud parents of three fully human children – Rachel, aged four; Devan, aged three, and Katherine, only eleven months old. However, their firstborn, a daughter, was different in every sense of the word – Ashley. More accurately, she was Emily's firstborn – Timothy stepped in as a father figure for her because her real one was unknowable. She had inherited her mother's dark, Afro-Latina features; dark, kinky curls, a tanned complexion, and dark brown eyes that looked practically black. She stood about average height, five-foot-five, and the most astounding fact about her? She was just five years old. She had the appearance of someone seventeen or eighteen, a full-grown human adult. Ashley was not fully human, though.
She was Emily's shame – she did her best to try and treat her eldest well, but every time she looked in her eyes, she saw the face of the man who nearly killed her but went on to defile her that fateful night before moving onto the others. Yet, she also was satisfied more by Michael than by Timothy – she hated what she had to do but enjoyed it at the same time. It felt so dirty to her, knowing that someone who was not even human had his way with her. Timothy knew of her pain she had to live with, but they could not speak out. They had children, a family. Ashley could be more than capable to raise her younger siblings by herself, but it would not be the same.
Emily had been busy preparing dinner, while Timothy was trying to keep the kids calm as they waited for her to finish. Rachel and Devan were still on soft foods but were treated to small bites of meat of vegetables when they could get them. Baby Katherine was still on breastmilk, and Timothy headed toward the children's shared bedroom to put her in her crib to sleep.
"Timothy?" he heard.
"Yeah?"
"Dinner's ready, come on."
He walked back out to the dining and kitchen area and sat down, gesturing the other two young children to sit in their seat as well. However, Ashley was not there yet. He looked around, and then at Emily, who shook her head indifferently, putting the contents of the pan she was cooking with into bowls. It appeared to be a soup of sorts. Timothy smelled the air and smiled, trying to lighten the mood.
"Smells good," he said.
"Yeah..." she seemed weary. "Better than those jelly cubes we were served."
Once she sat down, the front door of the suite opened. Timothy and Emily looked to see it was Ashley, her kinky black curls wildly hanging over a rather plain outfit, like most of the subjects in Regnum Infernale were clad in. It consisted of a black dolman sweater tucked into a pair of navy-blue pants that resembled slacks. Her shoes were simple, shin-length lace up boots. One could easily see she was wearing black wool socks because there was a gap between the hem of the pants and the top of the boots on the leg.
"It's about time you join us," Emily said. "Are you hungry? I just made some pea soup."
Ashley shook her head: "I'm not that hungry. I need to sleep."
"We'll save you some," Timothy added. "Oh, and be quiet if you can. The baby is sleeping."
As she walked away, she muttered under her breath: "of course, she is."
Walking to the room she shared with her three siblings, she went on her bed and laid back, keeping her boots off the side edge. She took in a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling, trying to find some tranquility. Then, she heard her human baby sister cooing and babbling; she turned her head briskly to her side before getting up off the bed and walking over toward the crib in which Katherine laid, her big dark eyes smiling obliviously up at the ceiling and then at Ashley. She gazed down at her with envy, saying contemptuous words.
"You get to age normally. I don't," she said quietly, annoyed by the baby's unmindful chatter. "I'm supposed to be closer to Rachel's age. A five-year-old... give me a break... in what universe?"
Suddenly, she felt her vision begin to throb, as if a really strong heartbeat was making it do so. Looking down at Katherine's wiggling little body, she could see her torso vibrating through her yellow onesie. Ashley could feel saliva generating behind her lips, and she ran her tongue over the outside of her teeth as if her baby sister was stimulating an appetite she otherwise did not have for her mother's bland pea soup. Her stomach growled like a ferocious lion, feeling hungrier as she began to sense little Katherine's heartbeat without a hand on her.
Why am I suddenly so hungry, she thought to herself as she picked the baby up instinctively from the crib.
The baby started to cry, which drew Emily and Timothy's attention from the dining area near the kitchen. They looked at each other with wide eyes, thinking the exact same thing – Ashley had woken Katherine up. Emily calmly instructed Rachel and Devan to stay seated and continue eating while they went to investigate why she was crying so much. The crying stopped as soon as they got up, but that did not stop them from going into their children's shared bedroom, opening the door to a horrifying sight. Emily's dark skin blanched, while Timothy's white skin got even whiter when they saw Ashley's mouth and shirt covered in fresh blood. There was a bloody folding knife laying on the rug, also soaked with blood and what looked to be fabric and human tissue. Timothy nearly threw up at what he saw her doing – Katherine's little heart had been missing from her open chest cavity, and she was feasting on what looked to be a larger organ, perhaps her liver. Ashley kept feasting until she looked up at her parents in a daze. Tears grew in her eyes when she realized what she'd done – the baby was dead. She had a hankering for her organs to eat.
"Oh no..." she said, shaking, looking down at the baby's lifeless, dissected corpse.
"GET OUT!" her mother screamed, reaching and grabbing Ashley by the hair so hard that she felt her scalp was going to rip from her skull. She felt her body being dragged out of the room, feeling her mother's feet kicking her with such force she felt like a bone was going to break.
"OW! LET ME GO!" Ashley screamed, her mouth, chin and teeth covered in blood. "I DIDN'T MEAN TO!"
"YOU KILLED MY BABY, YOU MONSTER!" Emily said, shouting and growling furiously at her half-demon daughter. The children jerked up to their feet from the dining table when they saw their mother dragging their older sister out of the suite, and once she got the front door with her, she kneed her in the face so hard that Ashley could hear a crunch.
"OW!" she grunted. She felt herself being thrown out into the hallway – her face was in so much pain that she had tears in her eyes not just because of the weight of the situation, but because the pain radiated to the nerves responsible for producing tears.
"DON'T COME BACK!"
SLAM!
She could not believe it – she had killed and eaten the innards of her baby sister, and was beaten severely by her own mother as a consequence, left out in the stark-white hallway of the compound outside the suite, where she heard hysterics behind the door. She could even hear Rachel and Devan screaming and crying, and Timothy was vomiting and retching from what he witnessed. Her face was hurting so badly it started to burn. She blindly felt around her face, feeling for the source of the pain and where she was injured. It was not a cheekbone or an eye socket. She got to her nose and felt the cartilage protruding out, and it was folded in such a way it obstructed her breathing. She kept her mouth open and tried to stand up, using the wall as support. She almost felt faint, her hearing going fuzzy when she heard a voice:
"Is everything alright?"
She couldn't answer, but all she could see was that it was a strikingly beautiful blonde young woman with wild curls that framed her diamond-shaped face, dressed in a black taffeta opera coat-styled top with a pair of black slacks. She looked incredibly familiar – then again, this was the same compound where the royal family resided at the topmost luxury suite. Was this Her Infernal Highness, Melanie?
"I..."
"What the hell," she heard a muttering and a hand on her face, to which she let out a scream of agony.
"AHHH!"
"I'm sorry," said the voice, but her vision was fuzzy. "You're coming to the clinic with me, right now. You're going to tell us everything that happened to you."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Melanie could not believe what she saw in the hallway of the compound – a young, Afro-Latino woman with her nose so badly fractured she couldn't even breathe, causing her to feel faint. Her mouth, teeth, chin, and the front of her clothes were soaked in blood, but she knew that was from a different source. What did she do to get blood all over herself, she wondered. She was sitting in the waiting room at the Clinic, waiting for the doctor to come out and tell her what had gone on, and possibly ask her questions about what she witnessed. It had been close to two hours when the doctor finally came out to summon her.
"Your Infernal Highness," he said, bowing his head. Melanie stood up, her boots making a metallic sound from the chains attached to them, staring into his eyes inquisitively.
"Yes?"
"What exactly did you see when you saw Ashley Campbell?"
That's her name. "I was trying to leave the compound. I heard screaming and went to investigate. Lo and behold, I see here there, trying to stand up but then she collapsed again. She was faint."
"As was she just now," the doctor answered, writing down Melanie's testimony. "Do you possibly have an idea why I could have found human muscle and organ tissue in her teeth?"
Her eyes widened in shock. I didn't know we had cannibals in this sanctuary, she thought. "N-No... I was not actually there to see what happened."
The doctor nodded and continued, putting the pen in his lab coat pocket: "she has a severe nasal fracture. The entire nose will need to be reconstructed. She also has a few broken ribs. Luckily, they are minor fractures compared to what happened to her face."
"May I please see her?"
"You may," he said. "But she will not be very responsive. She is going into surgery in exactly thirty minutes."
Melanie nodded, but had an idea; she had an uncanny gut feeling that Ashley was another one of Michael's offspring: "may I see her file?"
The doctor looked down at her and was silent for a moment, shaking his head: "I apologize, Your Infernal Highness, but that is strictly confidential."
Resorting to concilium, she bent his will to that of her own, effectively and quickly: "you forget who I am. I have unlimited clearance to any one of our subjects' files, genetic or otherwise. You are to hand over her file."
His arm shook, holding the pale-yellow file folder out to the Princess as his gaze was locked onto hers: "y-yes... Y-Your Infernal Highness."
"Good." She tucked it away under her arm and smiled. "I will return tomorrow to check up on my friend. Thank you, doctor."
He bowed his head and walked back into where he came from, back to his work and carrying on with his evening. As she walked down the hallway of the entrance to the Clinic, she saw two very familiar faces that she once knew as a child. It was Emily and Timothy, and they both stared at the Princess with odium and hatred. Melanie saw the former running toward her with an irate growl, and with pure instinct in the face of a possible threat by her charge, she telekinetically launched her against the wall, her back thudding against it as she came back down to the floor. She could feel the outside of her face morph into that of her true form, spectral white eyes and bearing a frightening grin consisting of two rows of pointed teeth. Emily breathed heavily, screaming at the top of her lungs.
"YOUR FAMILY WILL ROT IN HELL, WHERE YOU BELONG! MY BABY IS DEAD! ONE OF YOUR KIND RIPPED HER APART AND ATE HER!" Tears flowed from her eyes as she continued to scream. "I CURSE THE KING AND HIS OPPRESSION! HE DEFILED ME! WHAT KIND OF A KING DO YOU CALL THAT?!"
"Are you fully in your faculties right now, Emily?" Melanie asked rhetorically, eerily calm like her father would in the same situation. "Or do you disregard the fact that you could find yourself dead for blasphemy?"
Emily spat on the floor in front of the Princess' feet: "OFF WITH YOUR HEADS!"
Melanie leaned down, but didn't get on eye level with Emily, her former friend from Outpost 3, speaking to her like she was not the Princess, but just another subject. She knew she would have to kill her herself if she got to eye-level with her subject: "and out with your heart."
The Princess walked toward the door with a smug look on her face, knowing full well history was going to be made. She looked at two Cooperative guards, telling right away that they were of the android variety, as they approached the scene. Their robotic voices and silver faces were directed at her as they bowed.
"Your Infernal Highness, is something the matter?" one of them obediently asked as programmed.
"Yes," Melanie replied, pointing at Emily and Timothy, even though the latter did nothing wrong. "Take both of these blasphemers away, if you please."
"Yes, Your Infernal Highness."
Emily and Timothy quickly got to their feet to try and resist the guards, but they were no match. They were programmed with superior strength and agility, able to trap them effectively in death-eating grips. Timothy shouted at the top of his lungs, proclaiming his innocence.
"IT WASN'T ME! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! SPARE ME!"
"Do not resist..." One android Cooperative guard said.
"LET ME GO!" Emily shouted. "THIS IS OPPRESSION!"
"Do not resist..." There it came again; same robotic voice, as if it were programmed to repeat it. Melanie walked away, hearing the commotion get further and further behind her. There was one more repetition of "Do not resist" before she turned around to see the guards resorted to jabbing tranquilizers into their necks to make them fall asleep. Now, they were deadweight, but they were androids made for the sole purpose or guarding the sanctuary; thus, they could carry this dead weight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later that evening, Melanie was sitting in the living room part of the open concept, a fire whirring in the fireplace as she took a minute to peek into the file of Ashley Campbell. It revealed her name, identification number being AHCL113022. Within were her height, weight, eye and hair color, affiliation to Regnum Infernale as a subject, her date of birth was November 30, 2022, and it revealed that her mother was Emily Campbell and her father was none other than His Infernal Majesty, King Michael. It also disclosed that she was not eligible for the throne by the King's decree. It also said that she had three human siblings – Rachel, Devan and Katherine. Of course, it had not been updated to exclude Katherine, as she was now dead.
"What do you have there?" she heard. Looking back, it was her father standing in the doorway, his silky golden hair tied back in a ponytail as his smoldering gaze looked upon his daughter on the sofa.
She sighed – "a file." She thought for a minute before closing it and setting it on the coffee table, taking her feet off the sofa. "I met another one of your offspring tonight."
"Who?"
"Her name is Ashley Campbell, daughter of Emily, the girl I tried to befriend in Outpost 3," Melanie explained.
"How did you encounter her?" Michael teleported to be closer to the sofa and sat down.
"You saw me leave the suite earlier," she started, "after that I went down the elevator, I heard screaming and found her in the hallway. She was covered in blood. That blood was not hers, though. I could tell and sense it. I took her to the Clinic, where I have been the last two hours, and last I heard, she was in surgery to reconstruct her nose."
She must have eaten someone's organs, Michael though as Melanie read his mind and soul.
"So... she's like us, in that way? She cannot eat normal food like everyone else?" Melanie inquired.
"She must be just discovering her taste for it. I have eaten organs since I was a mere fetus. I was a twin, I ate my brother," Michael disclosed, standing up and pacing with his back erect and his hands behind his back. She looked up at him attentively; he was clad in a wine red dinner jacket and a trademark red scarf over a black dress shirt. "That's why I was so shocked to learn that twins were born that same year."
"Wait..." Melanie said, furrowing her brow, "you didn't know they were yours. How could you..."
"I learned about the others when I looked up Elijah Cross," he told her, looking down at her sternly. "There is a set of identical twin boys, plus another son, and two other daughters. Seven children total that are mine are not royals or in line for the throne, by my decree."
Melanie looked down and nodded – it still disgusted her so much to know that she had other siblings by mere subjects that gathered with an orgy the King himself hosted as an effort to boost the population. It disgusted her even more than her own mother was okay with this, or coerced to think it was okay by Michael.
"All I know," she said. "We are about to make history very soon, dad."
"Why is that?"
Knock-knock-knock!
Michael went to the front door and pressed on the automated communication system attached to the wall. In the old world, they had smartphones. In the new world, they had these, attached to be adjacent to the front door of every suite for the same purpose. It also allowed residents to speak directly to whomever knocked on their door. He pressed the button, and the other side spoke in a familiar robotic voice.
"Your Infernal Majesty, it is the Cooperative. We have urgent news," the android guard said.
He opened the door promptly and both of them bowed to their knees to their King and Master, who looked down at them. When they got to their feet, he let them enter the suite. Misty, who had been taking a bath, was trying to take her clothes to the hamper outside the bathroom and saw the two guards, unnerved.
"W-Who..."
"Your Infernal Majesty," they both said at the same time, bowing in the same way to their Queen before rising to their feet. "We have urgent news."
"Urgent?" she asked.
"What is it?" Michael asked. Melanie turned, peeking from the front of the sofa behind her to see the exact same guards who witnessed the commotion with Emily and Timothy and took them away into custody.
"You have blasphemers in your kingdom you need to execute," said a guard. Michael looked at Melanie, who met his gaze, before looking back at his subjects.
"Who?"
"Emily and Timothy Campbell," they said.
"What did they do?"
"They tried to attack me, Father." Melanie's tone was more formal, as she was taught, in the face of her subjects. She got off the couch and continued, looking at her father. "I was leaving the Clinic with Ashley, and Emily charged at me. I tossed her against the wall, and she said profane things about me and the rest of the family."
"Like what?" Michael asked, coming closer to her and putting his hands on her upper arms.
Melanie looked up into his eyes solemnly, every word coming out like poison to his ears: "that she cursed the King, meaning you, she cursed the family. She also said that the sanctuary is oppression, and the classic 'off with your heads' line."
"Did she?" Michael's voice sounded deliciously deviant.
"She did."
"We have surveillance of what we were able to capture," a guard said. "Would you like to see it, Your Infernal Majesty?"
"Yes. I will visit the quarters of the Cooperative soon. Are they being held?"
"Affirmative."
"Great."
When the Cooperative guards left the suite, Misty looked at her husband and moved forward. She looked at Melanie with sympathy, feeling bad that she was nearly attacked.
"Melanie, you okay?" she asked.
"Yeah, but they won't be," her daughter smirked.
Misty turned to her husband inquisitively: "what're you gonna do to 'em?"
He turned to his wife and smiled down at her, putting his hands on her waist and speaking softly, but she was unnerved by how casual he was: "I have waited so long to do this. I have waited so long for someone to commit treason or blasphemy against their Lord and Savior, just so I could once again experience the pleasure of torturing poor, spiteful souls." He paused, taking in a deep breath; "I will give them their just deserts."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As promised, Melanie visited Ashley in the Clinic the following day as soon as she was able to. She got up from bed, took a shower, dressing in a simple yet elegant outfit consisting of a red fitted satin blouse with a necktie accent at the collar tucked neatly into a black pencil skirt. Her outfit was accessorized with black stockings, pumps, and the dangling ruby earrings gifted to her by her father. Before heading out the suite, she took an empty Mason jar and snuck some raw offal from the refrigerator; she included slices of raw beef tongue, brain and heart into the jar and put it in her bag. She walked to the Clinic and inquired about Ashley's hospital room. She was let in without question to visit her, and as she walked down the hallway in the recovery wing, she heard a boyish, masculine voice coming from the room she was told was Ashley's.
"I'm fine," she heard her say nasally. "I just feel bad for..."
"Don't sweat it," the man's voice said. "No offense, but it was only a matter of time before you were left out on your own."
"Gee, thanks, big shot," Ashley answered. "I have nowhere to go, now."
"You could stay with me," she heard the man say suggestively.
"No. I know exactly what you're doing, John. Not cool," Ashley said.
Melanie stepped into the open room, and looked at Ashley, her kinky black hair messy and framing a face mostly covered in a thick layer of bandages and surgical tape. She looked to be cleaned up of all the blood from the night before, however, which was a good sign. She also was focused on the tall, handsome stranger in the room, who was staring at her grandiosely with his distinctive hazel eyes. His hair was flaxen blond and softly gelled, and his face was chiseled. He was also quite muscular underneath a lightweight gray jacket and black undershirt. Like most of the subjects of Michael, he dressed rather plainly, but something about him got her wondering – another half-sibling, perhaps, she thought. His eyes seemed to widen at the Princess, and he stood up, approaching her confidently with an all-too-familiar gait.
"Oh... you're the Princess, aren't you?" he asked.
"Yes."
"I am John Vanderbilt," he introduced, bowing as he took Melanie's hand and kissed it. "It's quite a pleasure, Your Infernal Highness." The way he said "pleasure" made her want to jump in the shower a second time that day.
"Pleasure is mine." Shut up, she told herself, don't say that. He's a filthy horndog.
"Your Infernal Highness..." Ashley said, sitting up to be more comfortable. "Thank you... for helping me. My apologies for not being very formal like I should have been last night, but..."
"No," Melanie said, going over to the hospital bed and rolling over the overtop table gently, reaching into her bag and pulling out the Mason jar full of raw organ meats. She screwed off the cap and pulled out a slice of beef tongue and chewed it before setting it down for Ashley. "I should apologize. I didn't know you liked organs so much. Please, enjoy."
Ashley's eyes lit up like a little kid on Christmas morning as she reached into the jar and pulled out a slippery, jiggly piece of beef brain, putting it on her tongue and moaning at the gamey taste. John sniffed the air and smiled, trying to reach into the jar, but the patient only slapped his hand away.
"No, they're mine!" she said selfishly. She looked up at Melanie suspiciously: "so, you know what happened?"
"I was hoping you could tell me," the Princess said, sitting down and crossing one leg over the other. "All the doctor said was that you had human muscle and organ tissue stuck between your teeth."
"She ate her baby sister," John cut in bluntly.
"I didn't ask you."
John's eyes just widened – feisty, I fucking LOVE it, he thought as she read every word. She rolled her eyes and let Ashley speak once she swallowed the piece of beef brain she was chewing.
"I didn't even tell him," Ashley said, shaking her head as she pointed at the door. "Big shot, can you get out for a bit?"
"I'll be waiting," he said sarcastically, flipping his hands up in the air as he walked out. Melanie shook her head, annoyed by John's pompous attitude.
"You know him?"
"He's kind of a friend," Ashley said hesitantly. "He's always bragging and causing trouble but, I still try to be nice."
"So, what happened that caused your injury?"
"My mom beat me and kicked me out of the house," Ashley said. "I feel so bad... I did a horrible thing." She started to cry, and Melanie's eyes widened. "Please, don't have me executed!"
"Depends on what you did," the Princess said. "Did you happen to eat a family member?"
"Yeah... that's what happened," Ashley confessed. "I came home from hanging out with two of my friends who are also like me, and... my mom offered me pea soup... smells like pee, too, so I said I wasn't hungry. I went to the room I shared with my siblings, and... baby Katherine was in her crib trying to sleep. I went to check on her, and before I knew it, her heartbeat tempted me. I killed her..." She sobbed, feeling the pain coming to her face where she had surgery performed. "I cut out her heart and liver and ate them."
Melanie shook her head: "unbelievable."
"Please... I know it's bad what I did," Ashley said with shame.
"When did you start to crave organs?"
"I have had temptations for a while now, but up until last night? Never had any, not even animal organ meats. Well, until you brought me some, which I thank you for, Your Infernal Highness."
"You're welcome," smiled the Princess. "You were just doing what you were made to do. When I was a baby, I had goat milk and pureed organs to eat. I couldn't take to formula."
"SAME!" Ashley exclaimed. "I had to be fed goat's milk, but I was never given organs. I don't know why, because that isn't normal baby food."
"Well, enjoy what I have given you. I will be back in a few days," Melanie said, standing up and gathering her bag, "if you would like."
"I'd love that, Your Infernal Highness!"
Melanie walked out of the room and bid her subject farewell. She walked down the hallway, looking down at her feet before she saw none other than John appear in front of her, as if by transmutation. Her eyes widened, and he bowed before her with a cocky smile.
"Ah, Your Infernal Highness," he said. "Leaving so soon?"
"Yes," she said bluntly. "I am." She tried to walk past him, but he resumed to walk by her side, trying desperately get her attention.
"Hey, you got a man, Princess?" he asked.
She was horrified with how he was addressing her: "you are not to address me in such a crude manner, John Vanderbilt." She was purely mocking his name. "I am Melanie Macaria, Her Infernal Highness, Princess of Regnum Infernale, and you are the use the second of these titles! You are not my friend, but my subject. Move along."
"Aw, I'm sorry," he said, desperately trying to keep her interest still even if it was a few words. "I didn't mean to make you mad. Promise."
She continued to walk, moving a little bit faster but he caught up effortlessly, trying to hold her attention: "can you tell me who got nabbed for blasphemy?"
She stopped and looked at him with irritation in her expression: "how did you know?"
"I know things," he said, moving in front of her and looking down at her. "A lot of things. Maybe too much."
Using lectio animo, she was able to read his mind right then and there: I have fucked almost every girl in this sanctuary, except for a few. He licked his lips seductively down at her, prompting her to act against him that did not involve telekinetically tossing him down the hall.
SMACK!
Her hand wrapped right across his face, leaving a red distinctive handprint on his cheek. He groaned and felt his face go numb for a bit as he felt where she hit him.
"OW!"
"I've decided about you," Melanie said. "Watch what you think about around me, because I see through everything. Unless you want to end up in my father, the King's, torture chamber with the blasphemers, I suggest you keep your lascivious thoughts to yourself. Is that understood?"
As if under a spell, he nodded: "perfectly."
She walked out of the Clinic and saw Elijah walking by it. He stopped in his tracks, and his eyes were smiling down at her. He outstretched his arms and took her in a warm embrace, kissing her forehead. He had to whisper the informal way he addressed her as to not attract too much attention.
"Hello, my Princess," his voice cooed. "How come you're coming out of the Clinic? Are you okay?"
"Oh, yes," she replied. "I'm just fine. I've never been sick in all my life save for the sick-to-your-stomach feeling you get when something makes you cringe." She paused. "What are you doing?"
"Just out, clearing my head," Elijah answered with a smile. Yet she knew that there was something there he was not quite telling her.
Both of their eyes diverted to the entrance of the Clinic, where John came out and walked up toward them. He had a very hostile look in his eyes toward Elijah, who looked back at him with a rage and level of protectiveness she had never before seen on anyone except for her father.
"Aw, Elijah, you're with her? Damn shame, I feel sorry for her," he snided.
"Don't," Melanie said like a smart-Alec. "You should be happy for me. He's great."
"You back the fuck away, John. I'll kill you if you ever lay a hand or a gaze on her!" he growled. Melanie was shocked at how possessive he was – how else could he have been?
"She needs a man fit to be King, not a little pussy who runs away when he has a boo-boo!" John exclaimed.
Melanie had to restrain Elijah from acting on his anger in public like this; there were not many people walking out and about, but there were a few. Some had even watched the spectacle as they passed by. Before John could get up in his face, she looked around to see if anyone was actually watching before telekinetically launching him in the air and far away from them enough to buy them time to walk away. They did – but Melanie only wondered why Elijah and John had such an intense beef with each other.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That evening, Michael had arranged for Timothy and Emily to be publicly executed; the event was to be filmed and sent to the Cooperative agencies in the other two sanctuaries so that everyone was able to see it. Viewings were mandatory, but for those lucky enough to be in this sanctuary, they were given dinner and a show. The dining experience was not as lavish as a birthday or the coronation, but it was still sumptuous enough, reflecting the horn of plenty courtesy of Misty and Melanie's labors. It was held in the Grand Hall, and formal wear was encouraged but not imperative. The meal consisted of five courses instead of the usual seven, and about two hours after everyone had finished and had a chance to digest, the main event occurred.
The blasphemers were brought out, their necks and ankles tightly bound in iron shackles and chains, one behind each other. They were also butt naked for added humiliation. Melanie, sitting between Michael and Misty, looked on with trepidation and anticipation for the main event, her eyes widening at the numerous deep cuts, bruises, lesions, and gashes left from what looked like a lengthy torture session. He was nowhere to be seen all day – perhaps that was why. They struggled to stand, but Miriam cracked a whip on their backs to make them keep going before their King, who rose from his throne and raised his arms up to silence his subjects; they were the loudest part of the whole thing, swearing and cursing at the traitors to the kingdom that provided their salvation from nuclear holocaust. When they finally reached the edge of the stage, Michael looked down at them with a vengeful, but blank expression.
"Bow before your King!" Miriam barked. "Perhaps he may show you mercy."
"Mercy is not in the equation," Michael announced to his followers, holding out a knife with a razor-sharp blade of at least nine inches. Timothy and Emily could not even look up at him until the former was grabbed roughly by the shackle on his neck, groaning in agony as Michael's eyes turned a demonic black in front of him, digging the blade into the area just below his rib cage, cutting upward as he watched the life leave his eyes. Emily screamed in horror as she watched her partner's heart being torn out, only to be taken up to the King's mouth. He bit into it like he was holding an apple, and the crowd that watched the brutal execution made sounds of wonder and astonishment.
He then moved onto Emily, taking her up the same way, but he looked back at Melanie, who took it as a signal to rise. Misty felt sick to her stomach, nearly retching from the sight as she watched Michael repeat the same form of punishment for Emily, who screamed and grunted, struggling to hold onto dear life even as she watched her heart being torn from her thoracic cavity. Michael handed it to Melanie and smiled – this was her first consumption of a human heart.
Taking the heart, she looked at Emily: "off with my head? Out with your heart."
She took a big bite as Michael dropped her like a ragdoll onto the floor. She could taste the gamey flavor of human blood and muscle tissue as she bit into the ventricles and arteries that once connected the heart to the rest of her body. She looked at her father, whose piercing blue-green eyes widened; it was almost like the shadow of her true form appeared behind her, and her eyes turned spectral white. Michael finished them off, though they were merely corpses at this point, by using pyrokinesis to set them both aflame until they were nothing more than ashes. As the fires burned, Miriam charged up the followers once again.
"AVE SATANAS!" she exclaimed, inciting the crowd.
There was absolute pandemonium, and Michael raised his arms, inhaling the scent of burning flesh as his followers cried out in a mixture of ecstasy and fear, chanting "ave satanas" over and over at an inconsistent rate. They gawked at how brutally the royals punished the blasphemers before them, and even with the sacrifice of their hearts to the gods on earth they served. History was made for sure.