Faith of the Divine Inferno by Leslie Thompson (e textbook reader txt) 📕

my wrist in a cold, iron grip.
A flood of visions and emotions washed over me, and I felt horror and joy as I saw lush paradises filled to brimming with hideous, cavorting beasts. They ate their screaming human victims and spat out their bones among glorious blooms and fragrant orchards. As soon as the remains touched rich, fertile earth, sinew and flesh grew over the glistening bones in seething waves and the poor humans emerged from their deaths, shrieking their agony as the monsters lunged at them again.
Horrified by the images in my head, I knew then that I was dealing with a man who had left his humanity far behind him. Desperate to get away from him, I twisted and pulled in his grasp. Ryerson merely sneered at me and tightened his grip until he ground my wrist bones painfully together. I cried out in pain, drawing the attention of the people around me. They blinked at me in astonishment as if they didn’t trust what their eyes were showing them. One of the men demanded to know what was going on and insisted that Ryerson calm down and let me go. Ryerson gave the fellow a fierce stare that had enough threat behind it that the fellow took a step back. But he still insisted on reason despite the fear trembling in his voice.
I screamed and struggled to break free of Ryerson’s hand. He held on easily, and pulled me closer to the platform; forcing me off balance and making me stumble. Suddenly I was nose to nose with him and staring into eyes that had gone as deep and black as an abyss. Ryerson was still kneeling at the edge of the platform, but he had lifted me off of my feet and put me even with him. The congregation ceased their frantic entreaty of his favor, and they stood in stunned silence at the power on display before them.
Ryerson hissed in my face, releasing a foul, rotten stench from between his white teeth. His cruel eyes slid from my face and coolly regarded his people. “Behold!” he called in a booming voice that sent a shudder through the gathered crowd. “A devil in our midst!”
The words rang in the stunned silence for a moment and then the church exploded in a fit of rage. Ryerson laughed in my face as the people clawed ferociously at my legs and screamed their desire to rip me to shreds. I fought back, kicking violently at the grasping hands pulling at my jeans and t-shirt. I managed to jam my foot into a few snarling faces and they fell back into the crowd. No matter what I did, more people replaced those I bloodied, making my efforts futile. I finally remembered the batons tucked into my belt and I yanked one free. With a sharp flick of my wrist the baton extended to its full length of eighteen inches. Before Ryerson could anything else, I swung the weapon and slugged the bastard across his cheek and jaw.
His head twisted on his neck from the force of my blow. He slowly turned his face back to me with a thin line of blood trickling from his smiling mouth. I would have cringed if I could, but his hold on me tightened, promising to leave a ring of nasty bruises on my skin. I gasped at the strength of his hand, certain that he was about to break my arm. I struck Ryerson’s face again, putting as much force into the blow as I could manage. Instead of breaking bones as I had intended, I completely pissed him off. He snarled into my face and stood up, dragging me out of the clawing fingers of the people and brought to my knees on the stage. Ryerson wrenched the baton from my hand and offered it to a burly guitarist that appeared from the shadows. As he did so, I got to my feet to continue my fight, but the crowd was already up the stairs and swarming the platform. Before they could reach me, Ryerson punched me hard in the face, making my eyes cross with pain and knocking me to my knees.
“Be calm, brothers and sisters!” Ryerson shouted over the screaming mass. “I have subdued the demon! You have nothing more to fear now. Return to your homes and continue your worship in private, so that your prayers will aid me as I do battle against this evil!” He shook my arm at them for emphasis.
Now that the crowd was riled up, they weren’t as biddable as they had been when the service began. I watched through eyes that refused to stay focused as the congregation growled and threatened to break loose of Ryerson’s hold over them. In the end, they did as they were told, many showing their displeasure by spitting on me as they passed me by.
Ryerson hauled me back to my feet and held me up since my knees refused to lock so that I could stand. Softly, he ordered some lingering men to take me away where he could deal with me properly without bringing harm to his people. I didn’t like the sound of that. His words seemed like code for ‘torture chamber’, and that is no place I wanted to be. Believing in the benevolence of their leader, the men took me from Ryerson to drag me away. As much as I wanted to, I did not fight them. I was waiting for my senses to stop reeling. I probably could have walked if I had tried, but I saw no advantage in letting the men know that I was not completely helpless. Besides, I still had one baton tucked into my belt and I did not want to do anything that might make them search me for it. I would need it when I saw my opportunity to escape.
I heard Ryerson thank his congregation for their obedience as I was taken through a door at the back of the platform and dumped into a leather chair in an office at the end of a hallway. I lay limply in the pale light of a single lamp set upon a small and shabby desk. I looked in vain for implements of torture and found nothing more dangerous than a letter opener and a very thick book. The men who had escorted me into the office took places on either side of the door and grimly waited with their hands folded in front of them.
Just when I had an escape plan worked out in my head, Ryerson came through the flimsy door with five lackeys in tow. Each of the three men wore suits the same cut and color as the Reverend, as if they had all pulled their garments from the same closet. The two women wore black pant suits that were more feminine and had a goofy spill of white ruffles pouring from their collars. All five openly wore the opals I had seen in the congregation, but theirs had more elaborated carvings in the surfaces than the ones worn by ordinary members. These must be the high ranking members who stroked Ryerson’s ego and acted as his inner circle of flunkies.
Ryerson barely acknowledged me as he dismissed my guards and moved to the wall behind his desk. Two of the men hauled me out of my chair while Ryerson pulled open a panel and gestured. He gave me an expression of cold satisfaction as the men brought me forward. I dug my heels in and fought their hands, but it was useless. They were bigger and stronger than me, and from the way they were digging their fingers painfully into my upper arms, they didn’t care very much about how they got me there.
Behind the panel was a hole in the ground with a ladder leading into it. The air above it shimmered slightly, as if gas fumes were pouring out of it. I thought I could see shapes in the wavering air, thin scrawny creatures with spindly arms and hooked fingers. I felt those things see me, and I was consumed by a horror so deep that my sentient mind shut down, leaving me with only my animal instincts to get me through. I fought and screamed to keep from getting closer, clawing viciously at the hands that held me and kicking at anything that got close enough. The men grunted and swore from my violent efforts, but their grip never loosened as they pulled me forward inch by inch. Suddenly I was at the edge, looking down into the hideous abyss seething with terrible evil. I couldn’t see them because of the darkness, but I could feel them down there, waiting to rend me body and soul. I cursed my immortality then, knowing that I would surely survive whatever befell me down there and I would never claw back to the light with my mind intact. I prayed for death, begged for it, but Ryerson laughed at my terror and ordered the men to push me in.
“Reverend, there’s a detective here to talk to you,” came a high breathless voice behind me. The men stopped trying to push me into the deep, dark hole and looked to Ryerson for directions. A young woman in the white and yellow uniform stood in front of the open office door with a frightened look on her homely face. Behind her, Shaw stood in the threshold with his hands clasped politely behind his back and an unpleasant smile on his lips. The Reverend shot me a dirty look as if I was to blame for bringing the law down on him and ground his teeth.
“There you are Miss Calden,” Shaw chastised, stepping into the office. “Can’t you go anywhere without causing trouble?”


Chapter 11

I have never been so happy to see a cop in all of my life. I promised myself that the next chance I got, I was going to throw that gorgeous man down and lick him until he wiggled and his eyeballs rolled back in his head. I all but danced my way across the room and out of the office door in my relief.
“Oh you know me,” I sang cheerfully as I passed him. “My day isn’t complete until I piss someone off.” It was all I could do not to throw my arms around him and babble hysterically into his neck.
“So I see.” Shaw directed his full attention on Ryerson. “Is everything okay here?”
“Everything is fine!” I could have told Shaw about what was going on that moment and enjoyed the sight of Ryerson getting taken away in hand cuffs. But I had just had one of the worst scares of my life, and it was a struggle to keep myself from going fetal and losing bladder control. My brain screamed that I had to run as far away from here as I could, but the nice man had come to my rescue, and it would be worse than cowardice to leave him to face Ryerson alone. I pulled on Shaw’s arm frantically, eager to get both of us away from this awful place.
Unfortunately, Shaw wasn’t interested in leaving. He stepped further into the office, pulling gently out of my grasp to speak with the reverend directly. The room was small enough that Shaw’s invasion of the other man’s personal space was forgivable, but not so small that Ryerson didn’t notice