Underbelly (7 page)

“
Show me your diary and I’ll help you find an opening,” she said sharply.

“
Come back to me in a week’s time and I might have some answers.”

Laura superficially accepted this and as he walked her to his door she grabbed his tie and pulled him towards her forcefully, enough to affect his composure, only in the eyes, but enough for her to know he was scared. “Don’t presume so much. I am not the guardian angel of your family; all you are to me is the descendant of my husband’s underling. We can have an alliance, which could prove useful, if you do as I say. Do I make myself understood?”

“
Loud and clear,” he said, adjusting his tie as she let go of him. “I’ll find out what I can but the world that you associate in is not my arena.”

“
Give me the excuses after you fail to find out anything, not before,” she said as she took her leave, certain that he’d now try his best. She gave him three days after which she returned to his office for a progress report. He seemed calm, which pleased her, as even though she’d ruffled his feathers to stir him into action, she didn’t want to terrify him (while the ties between them were very slight, they were not completely insignificant), and he told her what he knew. While the mission of the two priests was top secret, he deduced from the questions that they had been asking that they were conducting a witch hunt. They had spent a month in Maramont questioning the locals there about her before spending a month in the northeast of England before they ventured to Ravensbeck. He gave her the brief background information he had on the priests – both had entered the priesthood at a very early age, and Father Rossi had a history of involvement in the odder cases, exorcisms of people and property, and he had travelled extensively doing this. Father Sciali by contrast had never left Italy before and the only noteworthy information Harry Donald had been able to find out about him was that he was highly proficient in several martial arts disciplines, said to be among the ten best such fighters in Italy.

Laura thanked him and left to consider his words. Within an hour she had boarded a train to Liverpool and two hours after that she was westward bound on a ship to America. If they were studying her past they would learn that she disliked travelling to distant places and would, hopefully, not look for her across the ocean. Being forced to flee bothered her a little, but not as much as the illness the priests had brought on in her. She had been unable to beat Inge on her own and now two mortal men had damaged her. It was time to improve by whatever means necessary.

Laura stayed in her cabin for most of the journey, unwilling to mix with the other passengers, mostly gleeful soldiers returning home. For many it would have been the first time they left their home country and it made Laura think back to the first time she had crossed water, an adventure she had not thought of in a long time. She was the same back then, averse to travelling, and she had only gone to France for the sake of a friend who it transpired had been executed the day before she arrived. Those that she had travelled with, also her friends, had planned to raise hell in France from the start and after Ilsegarde’s death she decided to join them.

The Turners were there: her close friends Wykeham and Alice, husband and wife in their late 40s along with their 26 year old son, Layne, and his wife, Mildburgh. Wykeham was a dark, bearded giant of a man, Se’irim in the form of flesh, while Alice was a withered blonde whose beauty had long faded while her sex appeal had increased. Layne and Mildburgh were very dull by comparison, Layne a nervously grinning fool and his universally submissive wife would have been beautiful but for the overly round shape of her head.

Ioshua was there too. Ioshua Laurent Fevre, a 24 year old Anglo-Norman subversive, who was neither serf nor lord, occupying the middle ground. She remembered his beauty, and how strange it seemed that he was conventionally handsome when he should have been exotic. He had shaved his long golden locks, having briefly gone for a tonsured style when he masqueraded as a mad monk, defrauding the public for donations, which he would receive and then try to damage the church’s reputations by seducing women in his robes or masturbating as he walked the streets, making sure to ejaculate onto a passer-by. He had generated a lot of trouble for himself this way and had completely shaved his head now that that game was over, a thin layer of stubble starting to grow on top. She had sex with him occasionally, as she did with many in the group, as did Darlynn who was also there with them. Darlynn was a 23 year old Anglo-Norman with shoulder length straw-like wild yellow hair and was visibly mad, the strange expressions that she constantly pulled testament to her insanity. Her young baby boy was with her, her sacrifice.

And lastly there was ‘Aolfa’s’ (as Laura was known at the time) closest friend out of the group, Acca Ord. Acca was the second oldest out of the group at 80 years old though she only looked to be 20, having learnt like Aolfa before her how to cheat death and the ageing process. Her family was a melting pot, mostly Anglo-Saxon though there were Roman ancestors too and this reflected in her appearance, her black frizzy hair that framed her face very dark and her large eyes a rich chestnut. She was the most beautiful out of them all, even more so than Ioshua, and Aolfa’s fling with Acca was certainly more meaningful than her time with him.

After they had learned of Ilsegarde’s death they had decided to act and at midnight they broke into a large church in the centre of town. Ioshua and Wykeham looked for men or women of God to use as sacrifices, taunting them as they called out to them, listening closely to hear if they were hiding somewhere. When they were content that they were alone they joined the others at the altar where Darlynn plunged the knife into her crying baby as Alice touched his head and made him an offering to the demon of her choice, trying to make the killing into a meaningful act. Darlynn chopped him up as Wykeham prepared a fire to cook the pieces over, Layne gagging and struggling to swallow the offering, earning him scathing looks from all save Acca. Aolfa chose to smoke her portion rather than eat it and cooked the bone to ash while Ioshua ate his raw, opening his mouth widely as he chewed so everyone got a good look at what he was eating.

While Aolfa burnt the bones to ash Acca came over to her, clearly giddy from the atmosphere, and kissed her lips passionately. Aolfa felt aroused herself, Acca’s bosom straining against a strapless dress, and she left her bones for a moment and wrapped her arms around Acca and pulled her to the ground and thrust her head under Acca’s skirt. While they cavorted Ioshua had already masturbated himself to a climax and wiped his semen on the altar, the Eucharist, and the font, and he followed this up by smearing the same areas with his excrement. Alice Turner came to him, also naked, and she knelt behind him and repeatedly kissed his dirty anus as he looked for his next feat. Spotting two nails he had an idea and he went to Aolfa, who had finished with Acca for now and handed her the nails and said (in Old English), “Crucify me.”

Acca laughed at the outrageous suggestion and, while Aolfa took the nails, she hesitated, unsure if he was serious. “At the top there, that’s where I want to be crucified,” he said, pointing up to behind the altar, close to the high ceiling.

She thrust one of the nails through his stained palm to show him how much it would hurt. His body flinched at the pain while his face defied it – he accepted it and she was exhilarated by the idea and took him by his palm to the base of the wall and concentrated until she was able to use winds to lift them high above the others, levitation a tricky spell, especially for two. She already had one nail in his left palm and she used her own clenched fist as a hammer to force it into the wall before she nailed his right palm to the wall and left him with a parting kiss. He grinned manically, euphoric at the act and admired greatly by Alice for what he had done.

Alice looked across to see what her son was doing to compete with Ioshua. Layne was her son, and yet he was not her son. If he had truly been the son of her heart he would have done what was required with enthusiasm and not been so damned reluctant and inhibited. Boundaries were there to be exceeded. He had been taught to believe this and despite all of their teachings, the restrictive world seemed to influence his behaviour more than they did. He would commit the blasphemous and profane acts, and he would enjoy them, but he would not want others to know of it. She wished Ioshua had been her son instead, as much of a disappointment to his conventional parents as Layne was to her.

Layne had thought that performing cunnilingus on his wife as she flogged herself vigorously in the house of God was daring and he was averse to his mother’s demanding touch as she pulled him from his wife and atop of her. He had already eaten human flesh, another taboo he had never broken before, and, while he recognised that what he was doing was abhorrent, he responded to her ministrations, thrusting along with her on the floor of the aisle as his wife watched intently, continuing to flog herself.

Layne saw his mother smile gleefully and thought that she was close to orgasm until he saw that her eyes were looking past him. He turned his head fractionally and saw a naked male figure behind him peripherally, his father. This was not an unusual sight to him, his father regularly cavorting naked at rites, but as he felt his weight on top of him and he made attempts to enter him, he balked.

His father was too strong and quickly forced his member inside of him, Alice helping to trap her son. “Enjoy it, Layne,” Wykeham said as he thrust. “A man leaves his parents to be with his wife and become one flesh. A man can return to his parents and become one flesh,” Wykeham said loudly in his usual ministerial style.

The scene greatly excited Mildburgh who thrashed herself so hard that blood streamed down her bare back. She looked for a way of joining the scene, laughing hysterically as Layne looked up at her with tears in his eyes.

Acca heard Wykeham grunting loudly as Alice also began moaning in pleasure and she stumbled along, falling over, delirious with pleasure and laughing as crazily as Mildburgh, who she put a hand on to steady herself. Mildburgh had built up a rhythm and would not stop flagellating herself and Acca moved from her after her hand had been struck twice and put her hand on a pew as she looked down at the family, which seemed to be perfect to her – how could a family ever be closer than that?

Layne realised that he was stuck between them until they were done with him and he quickly ceased trying to escape and tried to enjoy it. They had all experienced some form of bisexuality at previous orgies; it was the incest and element of force that disturbed him, and which he would ask them not to do again to him. Wykeham had one more surprise for Layne as he pulled a knife to his throat and began to cut into him.

Layne protested violently as he tried to escape while his mother pulled his head down, keeping him in position as his father cut his head off. His blood saturated Alice, who lapped it up, licking at his neck as the blood continued to pour over her and congealed in her hair. Wykeham kept fucking his son, as did Alice, the erection still sustaining after death, and they continued the intercourse for a protracted session. Mildburgh fell to her knees as his head was cut off and crawled over to it and she brought it to her lips and drank from the base of his head, refusing to be left out.

Aolfa heard the commotion, standing next to Darlynn at the altar as she smoked her baby’s bones and she looked across and saw what they had done. Darlynn peered across and shouted, “There’s still some more flesh here to be eaten.” She wanted more attention to be paid to her offering. “Try eating it, Aolfa, It’s better than smoking it,” she said, demonstrating by chewing on his intestines.

Aolfa shook her head. “I used to eat human flesh every week long before you were born. It’s overrated.”

“
This one is special. He’s so succulent.”

Acca stumbled back to Aolfa, feeling a sprinkling on her head as she made her way and she looked up and saw that Ioshua was urinating on her, as ecstatic as the rest of them, smiling down at her as she wiped her eyes.

“
You’ll have some more, won’t you, Acca?” Darlynn said.

“
Of course,” Acca said, taking what was offered. “Imagine their faces when they come here tomorrow!”

“
Today. They’ll be here in a few hours. I don’t want to break up the party, but I think we should leave soon.” Aolfa said

“
If we aren’t going to finish our meal, should we crucify him too?” Darlynn suggested keenly to Aolfa.

“
He hasn’t got any arms or legs.”

“
We could still nail him up. Nail him to Ioshua.”

“
No. That’ll kill him and Ioshua wants to see their reaction tomorrow,” Aolfa said, though she did consider the idea and found it a little tempting. Darlynn, Wykeham, Alice and even Ioshua were ahead of her when it came to the extremity of their actions in the course of the night and she did want to do something to stand out, but she refrained, refusing to let her euphoria make her do something she’d regret.