Hell: A Planned Community

Chapter Three: Bureaucracy and Blood-Magic

The AOCS escorted a lot of people away from the smoldering wreck that used to be the church. They gave the frightened children, blood-soaked parents and the elderly in denial rides home and made them sign pieces of paper before sending them on their way in tears.

Poor fucking bastards. I’m pretty sure I’m now legally responsible for all of these people’s therapy bills or at least I would be in a fair world, probably funeral bills too. It’s all nightmare shit, unforgettable, unfathomable tragedy… and it’s all my fault.

Kids after today are gonna grow up looking towards the sky, waiting for it to turn red again. The parents will probably take this opportunity to buy a gun and etch a cross into every bullet, waiting with foreboding fright just like their kids. The elderly… well, if they didn’t have heart problems before today they sure as fuck do now. That’s not even touching on the bloodshed I’m directly responsible for.

So… God, Hell, the Devil… all real things apparently. If my dad were here right now instead of I assume six countries away on a speeding bus he’d probably take great pleasure in that fact. It still hasn’t sunk in, not sure how something like that could ever sink in. I don’t know what the fuck even happened, the Shroud Realm, the second voice, the strange words, none of it was really making sense.

I was a little surprised that the AOCS didn’t just ‘purge’ these people or something. Then again I wasn’t even sure what their ultimate goal was, just that they apparently foster apocalyptic little shits like me all the time, or maybe they don’t and all these people they’re treating are due for a special visit from the men in black in the coming weeks.

Whatever; us to the point; me and my mom all got treated to some sort of ‘special’ transport, real black van sort of special transport. Hidy went in one of those dark vans too, but that one seemed to head in a different direction than mine.

In the van they’d shine lights on me, ask me to read gibberish into a microphone… or at least they tried to. Never signed any papers, never said any words, my mom made sure of that.

She was quiet throughout the whole trip, that special sort of ‘thousand yard trauma stare’ sort of quiet. The only times she’d pipe up was when some suited goon shoved a paper and pen in my face. She’d slap it out of his hand, hug me tight and claimed that she ‘wanted to speak to her attorney first’. Did we even have an attorney?

Didn’t take long for the van to finally stop. We didn’t have to go with them, one of the goons even offered to ‘email us the nondisclosure agreement forms’ right before we arrived at the building but for some reason my mother was insistent on going with them, and I followed her.

I swore I was going to wind up in an empty grave two states away when I stepped out that door but instead they just took me and my mother to a dull, colorless government building downtown.

I wondered if I’d ever see Hidy again as I entered the unremarkable building, didn’t take long before she alleviated my worries though. ‘Made it, pretty boring building though :/, gonna talk 2 some dudes, tell U what happens later’ she sent a text message.

Strange that these people let her keep her phone, strange that they let me keep my phone the more I thought about it. I decided to start texting Hidy back as I wasted away in a dull waiting room. My mom entered a small office alone at the request of some doctor as I buried myself in the indiglow light of my smart-phone for the next half-hour.

…‘R U sure U don’t want 2 tag along with me after this?’ Hidy texted me. ‘Nope, even if I did I’m not sure they’d let me out of this place prematurely” I texted back.

‘Couple of shaved gorillas in white shirts are giving me quite the glare every time I glance at the exit’ I continued. ‘LOL’ Hidy texted back after a few silent seconds. ‘Well… R U at least gonna consider their offer?’ she asked. ‘I don’t know, my brain’s still in a really weird place right now’ I texted back.

‘Mine’s not :)’ Hidy continued. ‘I’m exactly where I need 2 be, I’ve never felt more excited about education before in my life :0’. ‘I knew that good things were gonna come to me after that idiot priest got his throat torn out, LOL’.

It was slightly creepy, no… incredibly creepy that Hidy got any joy out of that… ‘whatever the fuck it was’ display back at the church. I thought about calling her out on this, bringing a verbal hurricane of a downpour onto that parade of hers but I wasn’t sure if that would even accomplish anything at this point.

‘Have you even talked to them yet?’ I asked. ‘Yeah, couple guys, say I have real potential’ she explained. ‘What did they do, or ask, or whatever?’ I asked. ‘Had me say a few words, kill a few rats, drink some blood’ she answered. ‘It feels like I’m joining a really kickass sorority or something LOL ;)’.

‘Killing rats, drinking blood?’ I simply had to ask as my stomach churned a little. ‘IDK, they said it was just a simple test and everyone had to do it, but after that I got 2 perform a spell, my 1st spell !!!!!! she responded. I think that last thing was supposed to be a wizard hat, who knows with her.

‘Wasn’t much though, just made a floating ball of light fly up into the ceiling, gotta start somewhere I guess :/’ she continued. ‘Jake, I’m telling you, this place sounds amazing’. ‘I’m still not very comfortable with this’ I sighed after typing.

‘Oh, you’ll be fine, still just a bit shell-shocked, that’s all LOL’ I could practically hear her dismissive chuckling through the phone. ‘Look, they’re probably gonna ask U if U wanna join the school too’. ‘If U say yes then text me back tomorrow, but I already know what my answer’s gonna be ;)’.

‘Anyway, my phone’s dying and another dude in a suit wants 2 talk 2 me, gotta go she finally put an end to the back and forth. I got halfway through a response text, my thumbs shaking over the send button. ‘Please don’t leave me…’ it said right before I deleted it and sank deeper into my chair.

“…Jake, come on in” the doctor suddenly poked his head out from the open door. “Hello, my name is Doctor Branson, I’m a psychoanalytical classification specialist for the AOCS” he introduced himself. I nodded my head as he escorted me into a small room with blank, earth-tone walls and cheap furniture. The doctor was fairly unremarkable looking, no strange tattoos or dead looking eyes, just a balding, middle-aged white guy in a grey suit.

“Sweetie, the doctor is here to help you…” my mom talked to me like a six year old. “Please, take a seat” he requested as I sat myself next to my mother in a small, plastic chair. The doctor slowly walked over towards a cheap, old CD player on a desk in the corner. I noticed also the book that started this whole mess resting right next to it but the doctor paid it little mind as he brushed it aside.

“Now, your mother is still convinced that you’ve displayed no extranormal eccentricities today so we’ve agreed to initiate a small test to put things to rest” the doctor said. “What kind of test?” I asked. “Oh, nothing painful, I assure you” somehow that didn’t make me feel all that comfortable.

He grabbed a small remote from one of the drawers after inserting a disc into the tray. “This will only take a moment” he said before grabbing a plastic bucket from behind the desk and placing it in front of me. “What’s this?” I felt compelled to ask. “A bucket” Branson responded as he fiddled with the remote. “I know that…” I angrily sighed. “I meant…” I tried to say only for music to suddenly start playing. It was church music, those annoying choirs and hymns getting louder and louder and… fuck…

All of a sudden I felt sick. I could hear a voice in my head start to scream only to be drowned out by the music. My head felt light, my body numb and my blood was on fire. I couldn’t help but cover my ears but the doctor put a stop to that almost immediately. He grabbed my hands and kept them away from my ears.

I tried to fight back but I couldn’t. My brain and my body simply did not want to exchange words anymore, I couldn’t move at all. My eyes widened as the music grew louder and louder, my vision going black and my stomach growling audibly.

Suddenly the music stopped and the second it did I leaned into the bucket and vomited like a freshman with a designated driver. My lunges were burning, my tongue was swimming in the bile and some of the meatier chunks got flung into my hair.

I felt dizzy afterwards, possessing only enough basic coordination to keep myself from falling face-first into the nasty bucket. “As the AOCS first catalogued; he’s a Demon” the doctor stated as ‘matter of fact-ley’ as humanly possible. “No, this doesn’t prove anything …” my mom came over to my side in a panic, holding my shoulders as I coughed.

“He’s just sick is all, it’s flu season and he hasn’t…” my mom suddenly stopped herself as the vomit leapt at her. It hopped out of the bucket, black, crawling like some sort of cut-rate blob monster. She jumped back in terror, the evil, sentient vomit puddle crawling towards her all the while.

“Pious Plandon” the doctor suddenly said. ‘Expel The Lesser Evil’ I heard echo afterwards. The vomit monster soon shrieked with a glass-shattering wail as it contorted itself into a painful looking tube shape. It spun around towards the doctor, deciding to exact its nonspecific wrath on him only to break into tinier and tinier chunks as it crawled.

It finally broke into snack size fragments before dissolving into pure nothingness with only an ugly stain on the carpet to mark its grave. The doctor held out a hundred dollar bill from his wallet afterwards, holding it up towards the escaping sunlight of the window. The light shinned brightly against the flimsy currency before fading into dust. “Don’t worry, this spell is covered by AOCS personal insurance policies” he stated before wiping the dust on his jacket. “What the fuck was that!?” I asked as I noticed my mother still shaking with fear.

The doctor took a moment to answer me. He walked over towards my bucket, peering inside and tilting his head to the side. “Pure Darkness” he answered before putting the bucket away. “Every Demon can’t stand church music, they get sick, that is what it looked like, also happens with prayers too” he explained. “It’s a hold over from the Shroud Realm, once self-actualization occurs for a Bright Realm born extranormal they become much more sensitive to their other half’s weakness”. “Now that both sides of you have been awoken each soul experiences slight leaks from one realm to another”. “You can still hear voices in your head, can you not?” he asked.

I reluctantly nodded my head. “Yes, that sort of inter-dimensional coexistence has a few nasty repercussions and one of the AOCS’s many goals is to reduce said repercussions wherever possible” he continued. “No… this… this isn’t proof” my mom objected. “I’m afraid it is, your son was never in doubt, Ms. Goodhill…” the doctor responded. “Now, if you’ll excuse me I need to run these results to the headmaster as well as the AOCS first representative before we continue” the doctor began walking out the door. “I’ll just be a moment” he said. “Don’t worry; I’ll be reporting a glowing recommendation to the ministry of Bureaucracy and Blood-magic”.