MANSTORY
For in the beginning there was nothing...then God created Adam
written and dreamt by: PMH

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Before I could even get to the bedroom door, Harriet was letting him into the room. Like most of his breed, he looked a bit like a vacuum cleaner salesman and Harriet was asking him what he wanted. The next series of events all happened so fast I really acted more on instinct than on any kind of sense of intelligence. The first thing I saw where the pictures on the wall, it didn't take me long to see there was a problem. Next thing I'm turning and pushing Paula out of the way and grabbing at anything. Luckily there was a makeup case right on the vanity by the door. Then Harriet looked at me strangely as I rushed for her, her makeup firmly in tow. My hope was to get Harriet and Paula back into the bedroom before anything happened. As luck would have it, I didn't make it. The servant of HIM looked at me and smiled like a used car salesman and started to open his mouth. I think he though I was going to try something utterly foolish like attacking him. Instead I grabbed Harriet by the arm and jerked her backward. He looked at me strangely and so did Harriet. She turned and said, "What the bloody hell are you doing?" but I didn't have time to explain. For one brief panic stricken second I though Paula and Harriet were going to pull some kind of mutiny on me and try to over power me. Instead Paula went weak as soon as I took her arm and jerked her toward me and Harriet just looked at me like I had lost my mind.
Then it started.
It was barely noticeable at first, just a shadow that started to move in the corner of the room, nothing really. The servant should have noticed it, but he was too busy trying to come over to where we were and I saw a glint of metal, it was a long thin razor he pulled from his pocket. With a smile on his face that sent shivers up my spine, he walked toward us and I quickly started breaking bits of powder from Harriet's makeup bag and making a circle on the floor. Harriet turned to the man and said, "Ok, I'd like to know just what is going on here and why is this man.." then she saw the razor.
I turned and yelled at both Harriet and Paula, "Whatever you do! DON'T STEP OUTSIDE THE CIRCLE!" and they must have heard the seriousness in my voice because neither of them moved a muscle.The servant started to laugh and said, "Now you don't actually think that will protect you do you? My dear children," he said addressing Harriet and Paula, "you are about to witness something most unpleasant but in a few moments, if you stay out of my way, I will make sure you remember none of it and you will be able to go on with your lives as if this abomination never existed." and then he stepped right up to the edge of the circle.
I didn't look at him or pay any attention to his leather pumps that were only an inch from my hand as I drew in the last symbol. Then I reached out and took his wrist, he looked stunned and dismayed. I cut my finger on his razor and dropped a bit of blood onto the makeup powder. Now it was his turn to look at me as if I had lost my mind and he said, "But silly boy, what you are doing isn't even a spell to ward off my kind, that spell is for..."
I watched as his head jerked up and the color left his already pale skin. As he looked about the unnaturally dark room, he began to catch on, but it was too late. I watched as the powder finished turning red and the symbols glowed a pale yellow and then the room became dim. His face turned a shade of pale white and I almost felt sorry for him as he noticed that he was no longer in his world.

I pulled Harriet and Paula closer and Paula had a dim look on her face. I don't think she knew what was going on, but I think she knew it was something serious and Harriet looked from the man to what she believed was her apartment. The paint was peeling off the walls and her couch started to rot right before us. All the floor around us became dark and corroded except inside the circle. The spell was a weak one, but I hoped that it would be enough to protect us. The servant straightened his tie and his grip tightened on his razor. He didn't seem to be concerned with us any more even though I thought he may try to enter or destroy the circle. I honestly didn't know if he had the power to do either. Then the first sound came from behind us. I told Harriet and Paula not to look and I knew exactly who it was. First I saw her legs as she walked past me, they were smooth and muscular and in another situation I probably would have stopped to admire their shape, but now they seemed dark and I fought back the fear. She was completely nude, as always, and her skin seemed to reflect light that wasn't in the room almost as if she were made of rubber, not flesh. My eyes moved up her sleek small body, her ass clinched a little as she stopped and turned to look back down at the circle. Then she walked past us as if we didn't exist and I hoped that she would continue to think we didn't. Paula's eyes were locked on the dark figure of Blithe as she walked toward the servant. He stood trying to look unafraid, but little beads of sweat were dripping form his face. She put a hand around the back of his neck and he didn't move but only looked at her, it looked as if she were going to kiss him. It was almost comical in a way, here was this middle aged man, dressed in a business suit and this completely nude woman leaning forward as if to kiss him. In any other situation it would have been either funny or erotic, here it was a symbol for the difference between the two worlds Blithe and the servant represented.  Then he did something really stupid, he tried to cut her.
The razor was out of his hand and in her's before he even had time to realize he no longer carried it. His hand stupidly moved across her arm as if to cut her, but the razor wasn't there. She held it up to his face and asked, "Is this what you were going to use against me?" and she pressed it into his flesh. He didn't scream as she moved it across his face, probably didn't even feel it at first. But then the skin fell away from his cheek exposing his teeth and he screamed but it came out a weird sort of slur and blood poured from the open wound. Harriet said, "Dear God!" and Blithe's head snapped around and she walked over. I felt an empty weak pit right in my stomach as I watched Blithe walk toward us. The room grew darker and I could hear screams in the distance, the hum of machinery and a distant clanking as if there were a wind blowing chains against old abandoned walls, all the sounds of hopelessness and despair, all the sounds of Hell. Harriet's flat was now a distant memory and all I could do was pray that we would somehow come out of this alive.
Blithe walked like she had all the time in the world, each step curving slowly in front of the other. As she approached our circle, her eyes moved back and forth, she couldn't see us! Her red tongue slowly extended around the razor and then she sucked on the razor, pushing it in and out of her mouth like it was a lollipop. I little dribble of blood feel down across her bottom lip and she licked it off and smiled. She tried to smell us, her large nostrils flaring rapidly, like an animals, but then she gave up. She picked up a discarded scull and started to rub it against her face, closing her eyes and caressing it as if it was the face of an old lover. Then she shot the skull toward us and it cracked as it smashed right in front of my face as if it had hit a glass wall. I flinched all too late, but the circle started to steam and the symbols started to glow. Blithe made her way over to us and kneeled down right in front of me, her eyes weren't focused on me directly but she was right there. I couldn't help but look at how beautiful she was, deadly and beautiful. Her legs were spread wide, her knees out to the side and she took the razor in her fingers and held it up to her face.

"I was wondering where you were hiding, do you have your little whores with you?" She paused, waiting to see if I would answer, then she went on, "come on lover, you know that this pitiful little spell won't protect you. Plus I love you, I'll kill you quickly, it's your bitches that I want to play with. They are like little dolls,  I want to hear them scream over and over." The servant had a bloody hand raised to his cheek and he was backing away, where he thought he could get to, I'm not sure. Blithe didn't look behind her or even acknowledge that he was doing anything until he got close to a ledge that had appeared behind him. I think he was trying to jump off, as if suicide would bring any relief in this place. She simply raised a hand as if to say, 'shhh' and he was surrounded by large iron bars and then his hands were raised high above his head and I saw that in the blink of an eye, she had chained his ankles and hands so that he was suspended inside the cage. The cage started to extend and the chains pulled at his wrists and ankles and he started to stretch. He screamed and all of us but Blithe covered their ears and cringed.
"Trying to protect your little girl friends?" Blithe asked mockingly.

"They are friends and lovers." I said matter of factly. She looked at them and Harriet and Paula wisely said nothing. Then she looked at Harriet, she could see her now! The spell was getting weaker, I saw the symbols were merely little transparent forms, as if someone were erasing them from the floor. Blithe smiled and said, "You look lost, afraid, you know he is playing a trick on you, don't you? Maybe he slipped you a drug or who knows with all that funny magic he does?"

Harriet looked confused. I turned to Blithe and she smiled sending shivers up my spine, then I turned back to Harriet, careful not to insult Blithe but trying to keep Harriet from being taken in by her. "Harriet, you know I would never do any..." but I wasn't able to finish because Blithe interrupted and said, "Harriet, listen, this is all a bad dream. You have to snap out of it! Stop listening to him! You are in your apartment, this is your friend Angela and we need you to come back to us!" Harriet looked confused and I could see that she didn't see Blithe anymore, she saw someone named Angela and so I said, "Harriet, trust yourself. Trust what you know."
I wanted to yell to her to not listen to Blithe, that she was trying to trick her, but unfortunately my world was very closely tied to Blithe's, and to piss off Blithe would be a fatal mistake. But at the same time, all I could do to protect Harriet and Paula was to keep them in the circle. I turned to look at Paula and she was still frozen, as if in shock. She looked right at Blithe, but I wasn't sure if she saw any of this. Harriet started to stand. She was dressed only in a long T-shirt and shorts and as she stood I felt a rush of emotion, desire and love for my Harriet. I couldn't let her be taken by Blithe, that would be a fate worse than death and so I stood. Blithe looked at me and her eyes changed to solid blood red and she bared her long teeth at me and she said, "Sit! Sit or I will make your death slow and painful." But I didn't sit, I touched Harriet's arm and tried to talk to her. "Harriet, don't listen to her! It's not what you think! Harriet, if you step outside this circle, then you will be lost, there will be nothing I can do to save you! Listen to me!"

"Yes, just listen to him Harriet! What a loony! Come on sweetie, just snap out of this and come with me and let's go have a nice cup of tea and the police will take care of him." and Blithe held out her hand, for a second it passed through the circle and then she drew it back again, as if burned. The spell was very weak but it was still working. Harriet started to reach out to take Blithe's hand and she was crying but then Paula surprised all of us and reached out and grabbed Harriet's hand and pulled her back down. Then Paula turned and said, "Fuck off demon BITCH!" and Harriet weeped into Paula's arms. I stood face to face with the rage that consumed Blithe. Then suddenly she opened her mouth and heaved and a flood of worms and maggots poured from her mouth and all over us. I had no time to react and was covered with the creatures, and Harriet and Paula screamed. Then Blithe leaned forward, her shoulders raised high and her mouth black with rot and spit and she cackled a deathly laugh and said, "Fine! Sit in your precious circle now!" and she walked away. She threw her arms down and the bars around the servant flew away then she held the razor above her head and with swift arches she brought the razor across his chest again and again. He screamed and called out to his master but it did no good. Harriet screamed and buried her face in Paula's shoulders and then Blithe turned the razor and started making stabbing jabs at the servant and I heard the most horrible wet crunching sounds as his ribs gave way. Then she threw the razor down on the concret-like floor and it bounced loudly and stopped right in front of me. Like a sick observer of a traffic accident, I stopped to look at the razor, covered in gore and blood. Then I snapped back up as I heard the most horrible wet sucking sound as Blithe ripped the heart from his chest. The servant looked up, his eyes were weak and he watched as she held his still beating heart in her hands. Then she walked back to me and his gaze followed his heart as she came right up next to the circle. She knelt down and held the heart right up to the edge of the circle. "You have the same weakness these pathetic creatures do, you value life. So now I give you his, walk outside the circle and he lives, stay and he dies. His worthless life is now yours! Choose! CHOOSE!"

I looked back to Paula and Harriet and they held each other tight. I turned and looked at the servant, he coughed up blood and I could see his agony, his suffering and she was right. It didn't matter that his kind hated me all because of my mother, it didn't matter that thousands of years of suffering had been placed on my family all because of his kind and the "God" they followed, I couldn't let anyone suffer like this. And if I let her kill him, it would only make my families suffering even more legendary. I had no choice, I had to walk outside the circle. Blithe would probably grow tired of torturing me in a few hundred years, I might even get her to care about me again, of course by that time there might not be much of me left to care about. I got up and Harriet and Paula both screamed "NO!" but I turned to them and said, "No matter what, don't step outside the circle. My sister will..."
Right at that moment a hand reached down and grabbed me and suddenly it was as if waking from a dream! Harriet, Paula and myself were sitting in the middle of Harriet's flat and my sister was standing looking at us with her hands on her hips. She didn't look happy and she snarled at Harriet and said, "So? What the fuck were you doing?" But I was so happy to be back that I threw my arms around my sister and pulled her tight. She felt so good and she hugged me back a little confused but still she was very happy to have me back in her arms, I could feel it. When I turned back Harriet and Paula were still holding each other inside the circle, trembling.

"It's ok, you can come out of the circle now. It's over, we are back." I said reassuringly, but Paula and Harriet looked at me distrustful and Paula said, "What the fuck!? I mean WHAT THE FUCK!!?" and I could see she was on the edge of shock. Harriet reached down and touched the carpet and ran her hands through it to make sure it was real. My sister could tell where we had been and she started laughing and then she turned to me and said, "Fucking with Blithe again, huh?!"

"It wasn't what you think sister, I had no choice..."

"Had no choice?! What? Where you tied to the bed or something?" This got a little uncomfortable laugh from Paula and I said, "Well..." as I walked into the kitchen and poured a couple of glasses of water. When I came back my sister was helping Paula to the couch and she sat down beside her and held her. Harriet was still looking around and touching the carpet and then she said, "Ok! I want to know what the fuck just happened! What did you do to me? Where is Angela?"

"By the great Mother, she really is fighting everything isn't she brother? I honestly don't know why you think this girl is the one, I mean she doesn't even believe that she was just in Hell!" My sister said mockingly. I ignored her and sat down next to Harriet and handed her the water and said, "Here, drink this. It'll help." and I handed the other glass to my sister and she passed it to Paula who held it in both shaking hands. My sister turned and said, "Listen, my first trip to hell was the same way. Blithe is a particularly nasty little succubus, your lover boy here has a weakness for her shapely figure, typical male. That crazy bitch! What the fuck did she do?"

In a quiet whisper I said, "I think she just killed an angel." Harriet looked up and said, "That's who that was? I mean what...I mean! An ANGEL! Great! Just great, now I'm going to hell because..."

"Calm down! She didn't kill anybody. I can't believe you were suckered by that. She was probably in with that stupid angel all the time brother. Listen, you need to leave this place, come back home. It's all over the known worlds that you are trying to open a one worlder and that you are about to succeed. The angels want you dead and they want you dead now! I really can only protect you for so long."

"What do you mean succeed? You heard Harriet, she no more believes anything I've told her than anyone else on this world! By tomorrow she will have told herself it was drugs or a dream and that will be that." I was frustrated, speaking quickly. Harriet looked at us, her arms crossed across her chest and she lookes so cold, I melted just looking at her. I walked over and put my arms around her and she held me and started sobbing.

"My GOD, that was horrible! That man! That poor man, who was he? What is going on Matt? I really don't understand." Harriet weeped into my chest and held me tight.

Then Paula spoke, still rubbing her arm as if I had somehow injured her by grabbing and pulling her like I did, "Something seems odd you guys. I mean it's like I don't feel all that strange, you know? Like this just makes sense to me. Hell, Heaven, Gods and something else, there is something else I just..."

My sister's eyes were huge, as were mine! I was shocked beyond belief! All this time and it was Paula that I was opening, it was Paula that was becoming, not Harriet. Then Harriet pulled away and said, "Is someone going to explain any fucking thing? I am really starting to get to the point where if you don't tell me something I think I am simply going to scream and not stop!"

My sister ignored Harriet and spoke to Paula and said, "What do you think you just saw? What do you think is going on?" I could tell she was excited and her form shifted as she lost concentration.

"I don't know, I mean, it just seems like I've been here before, but that ain't it, ya know? I mean it's like I know you guys, like I've always known you. At first I just thought it was because you were like this really hot brother and sister combo." She said grinning and my sister smiled and I could see she was just about to start crying, "but now it's like you two are something more than that...like you are...like, " My sister and I looked at each other, it was simply too good to be true, we were excited and dismayed and my sister was practically about to blubber before Paula could even get it out, but then Paula said, "Nawww, never mind. It's crazy, I'm just freakin' with all this shit that's been goin' on. Ya know? I really need to be getting back to the States anyway...I think it's just all this stranger in a strange land shit. Sorry you guys."

"No...it's not that. But you do need some rest and don't worry about a thing. I'm not leaving now. We aren't leaving now." and she held Paula tight and tears streamed from her eyes and fell on Paula's dreadlocks and Paula's eyes closed and her arms wrapped around my sister's small waist. I couldn't help the wave of emotion,  I fell next to them and put my arms around both my sister and Paula and hugged them tight. It was so good to have our family back again, so wonderful to be back in their arms. I don't think Harriet knew what was going on, but she threw herself into the mix as well and we all started laughing and hugged her too. It was just a big group hug and we all held each other until finally poor Paula, who was trapped in the middle said, "Hey, I love all this, but I can't breath!" and we all laughed even harder as we let her up. Then Harriet shot up with a bolt and we all turned to look at her and she said, "Those...that...can that, thing, can it get back..." and my sister smiled as she lovingly stroked Paula's hair and said, "No, not as long as I'm here." and this seemed to be enough for Harriet. She sank back down and laid her head in my lap and I laid mine in Paula's and Paula laid her's in my sister's and it was wonderful.