The Horror Megapack_ 25 Classic and Modern Horror Stories ( PDFDrive )

hear the voice of the damned, O Lucifer, Son of the Morning! Satan, to you we
make our prayer, Just and Logical God…”
Finally, the priest faced about and mocked the caricatured crucifix.
“And You, O Thief of Homage and Deceiver of Mankind, I compel you to
become incarnate in this bread…by the mockery you have ordained, I who am
ordained command you and you will obey…yea, while we draw blood anew
from your wounds…and press fresh thorns of vengeance on your brow…this I
can and this I will do…Accursed Nazarene…Traitor Son of a Traitor God…”
A low rumbling mutter drowned his amen; then with an inverse gesture of his
left hand, the priest blessed the gathering and in mocking accents completed the
blasphemy: “Hoc est enim corpus meum!”
He spat upon the consecrated bread, stolen from some consecrated altar; he
scattered the fragments among the frothing, slavering devotees. They closed in,
maddened with blasphemy and Asiatic drugs. They groveled, clawing and
growling as they fought for the fragments.
Crane joined them. It was too early for a break. He had to outwit the undrugged
acolytes.
First voices, then the tearing of the scarlet robes told him that women were
among those who writhed and panted and grappled on the floor. Hoods and
masks yielded to clawing fingers. Soon they forgot blasphemy. The Asiatic
drugs were biting deep.
In a moment the vault had become an animation of the bestial carvings of a
Tantric temple, Women in jewels and costly gowns, and men in formal evening
dress were clawing each other with a fury that stripped clothing to shreds.
A golden-haired fiend with crazed eyes and hungry red mouth emerged unpaired
from the tangle and twined eager arms about Crane. A few scraps that
glittered with green sequins trailed from her hips and what remained of a brassiere
clung to breasts that throbbed from her fierce, drugged passion. Her legs
were white serpents and her quivering body was a multitude of consuming
flames, and her loose hair blinded and choked Crane as he swallowed his horror
of that uncontrollable madness.
Yet he had to play his part. That black-robed demon’s eyes glittered fiercely
from behind his mask as he circled the arena, watching their ever fouler fancies
cropping out…
That golden-haired woman’s madness was cleaner than what was on every
side. And despite his qualms, Crane’s blood surged in irrepressible response to
her savage frenzy…