2
Her wiry white hair fixed in a ponytail on the top of her head. Her eyes set back deep in her protruding brow. She looked favored a Neanderthal. I lifted my head and glanced around. I saw I was indeed tied down to a stone slab. I looked up and surveyed the room. People in red hooded robes circled around me. Then I saw him; the Man in Black, standing at my feet. That fucker. The one who killed Alex. The one who…I remembered now. I ran through the woods and came upon a house. The old lady. She let me in. And her cats! Yes, her cats! They started to dive bomb me like a fleet of kamikazes. I remembered trying to run away. I remembered being greeted by the Man in Black as I attempted to run out the front door. He punched the shit out of me and knocked me cold.
I shook the thoughts off then glanced around the room again. The light in the came only from candles; black and red ones. Some sat on stands and others on tables. Still trying to take in my surroundings, I laid my head back down on the stone slab. On the ceiling, a portrait stared back at me. The creature in the painting resembled nothing I’d ever seen. Its head was one of a black goat with thick, brownish horns. The body was one of a cat, but with a viper for a tail. In the mouth of the serpent laid a dead, naked woman, and her blood dripped down its mouth. The creature climbed up a mountain to a fire that burned on top.
I lifted my head up again. The room had a circular shape to it. Through the candlelight, I could see symbols painted on the wall. They looked so familiar…holy shit! They were the same symbols that were on the trestle at the end of the road. My eyes made their way to the Man in Black again. He moved closer to me. As he did, I saw a stain glass window behind him, with a mural in it. I couldn’t quite tell what it was, because the Man in Black obscured my sight. From what I could see, it resembled a Baphomet. Dread drilled its way into my heart. My breathing picked up and sweat leaked out my skin. Fear gyrated through me, as cold and immobilizing at the stone slab.
The old lady began to walk in a circling motion around the slab, uttering in a language I couldn’t understand. She placed her crinkly hand over my face and dragged her yellow finger nails from my forehead down to my chest. It felt like goosebumps the size of golf balls crawled all over me. I got nauseated and wanted to puke.
“Get your nasty-ass hands off me, cat fucker!" I hollered at her, voice shaking and tears forming in my eyes.
The old lady belted out a howling laugh, then leaped upon the stone slab and straddled me. She leaned in until we were almost nose to nose. Her cat like eyes gleamed an emerald green in the flickering candle light. Her breath smelt of fish and rotting teeth. She licked her lips and chanted,
“All ye who breathe,
Who walk in the night.
Away from the sun,
And beyond the light.
In the realm of darkness you go,
Descending into the pain below.
In here you’ll find suffering and fear,
As your life is taken and your blood is smeared.
Down here you’ll face the Tetromet,
Who will draw from you, your dying breath.
Goat, feline, and serpent, all three.
He is our god, our trinity.
So close your eyes,
And hear our epithet.
As you prepare to meet,
The entity called Tetromet."
The old lady reached her noodle like fingers down between my legs. I could feel her pruned, icy hands on my thigh. “Need to check and see if she’s a virgin or a dirty little whore." She said, as she began to slide her fingers close to my crotch.
I grew angry. So angry I couldn’t breathe, but I did managed to fling some words out anyway. “You…you fucking dirty ole bitch pervert you put your dirty cat fingers in me and I’ll…"
