TABOO TALES(erotica)

“Then you have nothing to fear. In the meantime, the guidelines contained in the Holy Father’s apostolic letter will be followed. You are familiar with those?”

“A little, your Eminence.”

“Then read them carefully.” There was a moment of silence and Tobias thought the conversation had ended, but the voice continued. “I suggest you remain in your home, out of sight. Do not speak to anybody about this matter, and especially members of the media. I expect they will be at your door as we speak.”

“And if there is a miscarriage of justice and these accusations are upheld?”

“Then you will be excommunicated from the Church.”

Tobias set the phone down and walked in a daze to the front of the house. There was a sharp knock on the door and without thinking he opened it to be confronted by a young woman with a microphone in her hand. For a moment he stared at her. She was young, clad in a dress that displayed her cleavage, and her eyes were bold.

She thrust the microphone towards his face. “Bishop Tobias?” she asked, “what do you have to say about the allegations in the papers this morning? Are they true? Do you know Marie Sheldon?” Behind her were a dozen others and he shrank from the flash of their cameras and the clamour of their questions.

He slammed the door and stood back, his heart hammering. God Jesus, it was a nightmare. The face of the reporter was etched in his brain like a strobe in a darkened room, her mouth twisted as she hurled vile questions into his face. And the pack behind her, baying like rapid dogs, screaming out his name, shoving their cameras forward to intimidate him, to capture anything they could use against him. These were not normal people – they were godless barbarians, uncaring of the truth or of his moral righteousness. These were people who stop at nothing to tear down his life. He thought of all that he had amassed: the beautiful cars, the house he now stood in, the secret bank accounts. All that would go, and he would have nothing.

He scurried to the lounge and flicked on the television, cringing as his face appeared. A newsreader was mouthing something, her scarlet lips moving she spoke. The image cut to historical footage of himself as a young priest and then forward to his ordination as a Bishop in the cathedral, dressed in liturgical vestments and smiling to the congregation as he led a procession through the Nave; and then it cut to Marie being interviewed outside her shabby house.

Tobias turned up the volume just in time to hear the question. “And do you think you are the only woman he has done this to?”

“No. He often spoke of others, when we were… doing it. He liked to boast, to show that he had power over people.” Her voice choked and was silent for a few moments, her face stricken. “Uh, you know, women like me, who had trusted him.”

“And what did he make you do?”

“Everything. He said it would be a mortal sin if I didn’t do what he wanted.”

“So he had sex with you?”

“Yes,” Marie whispered, “when the baby asleep in his crib next to the bed.”

The camera cut to a close up of her face, the red-rimmed eyes, the shattered expression, and Tobias was filled with a scalding flood of loathing. The bitch! Hadn’t he given her succour when others would not? Hadn’t he ordered the catholic primary school to take her snotty kids for nothing? And to give her a sense of worth he’d even endured her flabby body – but this was what she did in return.

The television image switched to the room where he’d fucked Millie Cardoza, showing two bodies writhing naked on the bed. Their faces were obscured but the context was clear, and Tobias’ anger flared to white-hot incandescence. It was her – the other whore who had set out to trap him, to take away everything he had earned, to bring him to nothing.

He crossed quickly to the hallway and unlocked the corner cupboard to lift out the shotgun, tearing open a box of cartridges with frantic fingers to stuff them in his pocket. In his mind he could see the twisted, painted faces of the two whores who sought to bring him down and he was filled with resolve to smite them. “It is mine to avenge, Lord,’ he whispered and broke open the gun, the empty breeches like two dead eyes staring up at him. “… and I will repay.” The shells slid in smoothly, blood red against the cold black metal, and he snapped the gun shut with a metallic click and giggled as he competed the quote: “And their doom rushes upon them.”

Through the curtained windows he could see the cameras, the lights, the paparazzi spilling over his driveway and lawn. It reminded him of a pack of hungry sharks and his anger blazed like a wildfire in a gale. These were godless men and women uninterested in the truth, and they deserved to fall.

The Jaguar was in his garage and he climbed behind the wheel, starting the engine and engaging gear. He waited until the door was just open and floored the accelerator, scattering people like broken puppets as he burst through them. The car screamed into the road and he laughed shrilly at the bodies littering the driveway behind him, correcting the oversteer and roaring through the street. It was good. It was right they should suffer. What had the Lord God said? ‘Vengeance is mine’… but He was not here and so it must fall to his agent, and he was doing it well.

The lock of Marie Sheldon’s door burst open at the blast, and she cowered in the kitchen as he faced her. She saw his pale, sweating face and his lips moving, cursing; spittle on his chin and his eyes wild with madness. The muzzles of the gun seemed huge as he thrust it towards her… and then there was nothing.

Tobias dipped his fingers in the pool of blood and wiped them on the doorframe, left and right and above. “And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses,” he whispered, and laughed at how cleverly the bible guided him. He broke open the gun to reload it and strode to the car scowling at the neighbours peering over the fence, and a picture of Millie Cardoza entered his mind. And I shall burn thine house with fire and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou shalt give no hire any more.

The car shot forward and he giggled, a little high pitched sound as he contemplated what he would do to her.This belongs to NôvelDrama.Org: ©.

*

David Griffiths was in his kitchen when the telephone rang. He glanced at the screen and smiled.

“Hi Rose.”

“Get out of the house, David! Get Jennifer and get out!”

“What? Why? What’s hap-”

“Tobias might be coming for you with a gun. Ring me when you’re clear.”

“All right. Call the police.”

David raced upstairs to the bedroom and flung open the door. Jen was sitting at her dressing table naked, and she turned in alarm as he burst in. “We have to leave, right now,” he said.

“But I don’t have any -”

“Now, Jen! We are in danger.” He seized her shoulders and shook her. “Now! Get dressed, quickly – shorts and top only. Meet me in the garage in one minute.”

The engine of the Mercedes GLE Coupe was already running and David watched as she flung open the door and climbed in. She glanced at him. “What’s happening?”

David pressed the garage remote and spoke quickly as the door began to open. “Tobias might be on the way here. He’s armed.”

“How do you know?”

“Rose called. She said to get out if we want to live, so I guess it’s -” His eyes fell on the driveway ahead. “Oh, Jesus!”

A cream Jaguar had appeared at the far end of the driveway, travelling fast, and in a moment of absolute certainty David knew it was him. “Get out!” he shouted. “Hide in the cellar and call the cops. I’ll hold him off.” He waited until Jen had scrambled free and floored the accelerator.

In the moment before the collision David saw his face. He was grinning, his lips drawn back, teeth bared and eyes wide and staring – black, lifeless orbs that bridged the narrowing gap as the two cars roared towards each other. The collision was immense and David was flung forward, the air bag punching him hard in the face and chest, and the car was filled with white vapour. He heard the hammer blow of the impact, and then silence save for the ticking of cooling metal, and his hands scrabbled for the seat belt release to get out, to get to the other car before Tobias could pick up the gun.

The bag had deflated now and through the windshield he saw Tobias moving, mirroring his own efforts to escape. His door was jammed and David saw him struggling to open it but it was hopelessly twisted. I’m safe, he thought. He can’t get out, and the police will be here soon.

For a few moments the two men stared at each other only a few feet apart, and then Tobias reached beside him and raised the shotgun. The first shot punched a hole through the Jaguar’s windscreen and frosted his own, and he knew the second would follow. He flung himself sideways as it struck, showering him with glass and plastic, and the car rocked with the impact of the shot as it tore through the structure.

In the sudden silence he heard the snick of the opening gun, and Tobias’ high pitched giggle as he fed two new shells into the breech, and he wriggled though the gap between the two shredded seats to fall into the floor well as he fired again.

“You are an abomination,” the Bishop shouted. “A fornicator, who must be sent to hell.” He giggled again, and broke the gun to reload.

David felt pain in his back where ricocheting pellets had struck him, and he knew he must get out. He reached up and flung open the back door, waiting for the impact of the next two rounds before wriggling forwards over the lip and onto the ground. He glanced quickly at the Jaguar, seeing the barrels emerge though the shattered windscreen, and he ducked and ran, travelling sideways to afford a moving target as the shotgun boomed again.

The impact was immense and it flung David sideways across the driveway and into the flower bed. He lay there for a moment staring up at the two cars, watching the barrels try to seek him out – but Tobias could not traverse the weapon far enough. A monstrous pain seized him and he screamed, his fingers clutching at the shredded flesh of his leg, but he knew he must move and so dragged himself away from the vehicle to leave a scarlet smear of blood on the earth below.