and you shall be forgiven,” she cited, kneeling. “Forgive me, Father!”
“I bless you, my child, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Father Frank crossed the girl. “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”
Feeling happy, Mary got up and headed out the office. She was smiling, imagining the faces of her trainees, when she told them finally that they were all going to travel to the competition in some sort of style. She was just about to leave when she was struck by a thought. Oh, the missing funds! She stopped by the door, thinking.
Ah, whatever, she decided at last. I won’t let anything get in the way of the team. As long as Father Frank agrees to my suggestions, it’ll be fine. A compromise has to be better than a lawsuit, surely? At the end of the day, he does do a great job. And he’s not a bad person, I have to admit. All right, he is a leech, but he is responsible for the whole orphanage, for God’s sake! The Bible says “thou shall not judge” and I don’t want to judge him either.
Mary left, feeling like a huge weight had been dragged off her back.
***
In the evening, Mary was taking a shower. She turned the faucet until the water was so hot she could barely stand. The lukewarm mist filled the cabin, clouded her mind, relaxed her muscles. Mary felt herself dissolving in the murky fog that enveloped her like a thick blanket.
She slowly stroked her wet skin, so silky with shower gel. Her glorious hair was hidden under a shower cap, and she positioned herself so that her back was directly in line with the whipping stream of scalding water. She curled her upper body up, stretching with giddy dreams.
The torrent of water tickled her perfect skin, and when the physical pleasure of near pain mixed with some inappropriate thoughts of her and Robert together, Mary moaned audibly, shivering under the combined effect of such pleasant feelings.
What if Robert is watching me right now? she suddenly thought in a guilty panic. He gave me this apartment; maybe he placed some video cameras around?
She went on a thorough search of the bathroom.
Finally she got bored of that.
“If he wants to,” she mumbled. “Let him watch!” She made a few more suggestive stretching exercises, like a tigress preparing for a manhunt. She pulled the cap from her head and laughed at herself in the mirror as she ruffled her hair and posed. Mary finally left the bathroom, intensely rubbing her tingling, excited body with a huge green terry towel.
In contrast to the steamy bathroom, her bedroom was positively ice-cold.
“Oh my, what an empty head!” Mary scolded herself. Why did I set the air conditioner on maximum?
She turned off the offending cooler, and practically dived into her silky pajamas, a stunning emerald color that complemented her skin tone perfectly.
Finally she sat on the edge of her bed, and played some more with her hair. She shook her head, taking enormous pleasure in the feeling of freedom it gave her, and the gold cascade flowed extravagantly down onto the bed sheets. She stared at the phone on the bedside table.
Why hasn’t Robert called? she thought, annoyed. I hope it’s not too late for me to call him?
Hesitant, she lifted the receiver and dialed the number.
“Yes!” Mary heard Robert answer, and her heart stopped beating for a second.
“Mary, my birdie, is everything all right?”
“Hah… How did you know, it was me?” she asked, puzzled.
“The caller ID, honey?” Robert said with a smile in his voice. Mary felt stupid.
“Agh… I just want to be sure that your plans are unchanged for tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. If there was anything different, I’d call you.”
“Thanks. Well, good night then.”
“Before you go, tell me, my dear, what are you going to dream about tonight?” he asked with his tender yet alluring voice.
Mary’s eyes widened with excitement and she brushed her fingertip over an excited breast.
“I don’t know!” she teased him. “Good night!”
She quickly hung up, crossed her arms to hug herself tight, and smirked. She did not know that the same self-satisfied grin was on Robert’s lips too, as he looked at his own now silent phone.
Jerry
Nineteen years old, Jerry was simply an awesome specimen. Well over six feet, he was every woman’s dream and a jealous nightmare for quite a few men. He had such a great body for his age, already gaining the hard solidity of full manhood, whilst in contrast his clean-shaven face was tender and girl-like.
When his thick wavy mane, the color of fallen leaves, was loose and flowed down below his shoulders, it gave him the appearance of a Viking, or some kind of deity from a Scandinavian saga. The big dark blue eyes shaded with long eyelashes, and his plum, refined lips made him even more attractive, and his natural, wild masculine beauty impressed all he encountered.
But this angelic-looking guy had a police record unlike that of even the most unpleasant and experienced criminal elements out there. His rap would have included robberies and burglaries; gun- and drug-running; suspicion of aggravated rapes and even a few murders thrown in. The cold-blooded, cruel demeanor Jerry showed when fulfilling the orders of his boss was legendary, even among his most hardened peers.
His luck couldn’t last for much longer, however. The police finally tracked his gang down, and despite determined resistance, a policeman shot him point-blank in the ensuing skirmish.
***
He was Beyond. And he saw numerous awful things that living human beings could not even imagine. Many, many times he went close to those horrifying events and felt intolerable despair and terror.
The worst aspect of this experience was that just as he seemed to win the fight to return to goodness, just as he felt a sense of peace at getting over the horror, a strong hand would guide him back forcibly towards new and boundless nightmares.
***
Jerry opened his eyes, and in his groggy state did not understand at first where he was. Suddenly he sensed pain again. He felt bandages and catheters and realized he was in a hospital.
An unknown man was sitting close to him and looking at him very attentively.
“My name is Robert Noirson, Jerry,” the man introduced himself in a deep low voice. “How do you like the place that you just visited?”
“Which place?” Jerry asked. It took a lot of effort.
The man smiled. “It was Hell, Jerry. And you’re going to that place. And all those
