The Man of Sin: The Series_(0)

Chapter 1:



Berlin, Germany:

The young man climbed up out of the bed, leaving the naked woman to silently cry. He looked out the window at the rainy city, chuckling to himself in both satisfaction and anticipation.

“What in God’s name are you?” the woman hissed as she curled up in the fetal position.

She was beautiful in body but broken in spirit, her inner thighs red from the blood of her torn hymen. Her virginity had been taken from her to the ssephound of her twisted cries of pain and lust, caught in both sexual humiliation and fulfillment. The young man’s smirk gained a bloodthirsty curl and he flicked his finger as if to say that there was something he needed to show her. The woman was dragged out of the bed as if an invisible hand had grabbed her by the throat. She hit the wall beside the man and crumpled to the floor, gasping for air with a welt worn into her neck from an unseen force. He grabbed her chin as if to steal a kiss, forcing her to look up at him.

She had spoken to him in German, so he answered in kind. His voice was deep and commanding, undeserving of someone so young, yet the power he wielded and the twisted depths of his soul were unlike any other human.

“In God’s name you ask? In this room, I am God. To you, I am God. As of now, you are a broken toy. I’m leaving tomorrow, and while you’ll never see me again, you’ll never be free of me. You will spend the rest of your life with a heart filled with both fear and love, terrified of my touch but also longing for it. What man could ever want this impure body of yours after the things I have done to it? What man could ever fall in love with your soul after I’ve bent it to my will? Once I’m gone, you’ll think you are free, but the cage I’ve put you in will never disappear. Until the day you die, you are my property. But now it’s time for me to find something new to play with. I’ve become bored with you and this city and it’s time for me to move on once again. I need some new feeding grounds.”



Rome, Italy:

The book bag hit the delinquent’s head like a flail, knocking him to the ground while his friends watched in shock. Standing over him was a seventeen-year-old girl, her face flushed with rage in a red as bright as her hair, the skirt of her school uniform gently swaying in the breeze, and the crucifix hanging around her neck gleaming in the morning sunlight.

“Wretched punks! You do not deserve the mercy of God!” she shouted, pointing to the graffiti being spray-painted onto the alley wall.

The boy got to his feet with blood pouring from his nose. “You damn bitch!”

He charged towards her with his fist rocketing towards her face, but she caught his arm and twisted it, forcing him to bend back and letting her knock him in the Adam’s Apple. As he fell back to the ground, one of his friends lunged with a knife in his hand. Forsaking her pride and hoping nobody would see under her skirt, she spun around and delivered a kick to his temple, knocking him out into the street like he was a soccer ball. The last delinquent stood, shaking like a leaf and holding out two cans of spray paint like they were mace.

The girl shot him a dirty look. “If you even think of getting a single drop of paint on my uniform, I swear in the name of Heaven that not even God will be able to find your remains.” His small flicker of courage extinguished like a candle, he turned around and ran away. “Oh no you don’t!”

Tossing her book bag aside, she sprinted after him. Down the winding streets of Rome, she chased him while trying to ignore the building pain in her ankles from the uneven cobblestone ground. It didn’t help that her school shoes weren’t meant for running. Regardless of this, she zeroed in on him like a missile, following him around every turn and across every open street. She saw him swerve into an alley and skidded past it, grabbing a piece of a brick jutting out of the ground. Getting back to her feat, she took careful aim and hurled the square stone at the fleeing vandal, striking him in the back of the head and sending him tumbling.

“Just goes to show that you can’t escape your sins. You’d better pray for your immortal soul when you wake up…”

Catching her breath, she looked at her watch and swore. She had gone out to get breakfast off campus but she had wasted what little time she had and her first class would be starting in a few minutes.



“Helena, have you been fighting again?”

The redhead looked up at her blonde roommate, Sophie, standing by her desk. The classroom was filled with students all the same age, male and female. The girls were all dressed in plaid skirts with white blouses and knee socks, the boys wearing black pants and white clergy shirts with student clerical collars. Everyone carried a cross with them, either around their necks or on rosary chains. Helena had just managed to get back to school before class started and now all the students were waiting for the teacher to arrive.

“How can you tell?”

“Because you’re wearing that unmistakable face of self-righteousness.”

“I was just putting some sinners in their place.”

“Ephesians 4:32, you must remember to forgive.”

“And I did forgive them, after I gave them a taste of the torment that awaits them in Hell if they do not open themselves up to Jesus Christ and renounce their sinful ways,” she shot back.

“Well I certainly hope you’ll remember to go to Confessions when you get the chance.”

“Don’t worry, Sophie. I will. Or at least the Disciplinary Committee will force me to before I can on my own.”

The door opened and a nun stepped in, sending all of the students scurrying to their desks in fear. Their teacher, Sister Olivia, was strict beyond measure. She was nicknamed the Sphinx, as in the Sphinx that the enslaved Jews made while being whipped and yelled at. She had short blonde hair and glasses, a woman in her late twenties who would be very beautiful if she wasn’t always scowling.

“Now class, we will continue where we left off yesterday in translating Leviticus. Marcus, we had stopped at Book 6, Verse 1. You may begin.”

She spoke sternly, as if hungry for something to be mad about. One of the male students nervously stood up, holding his bible and reading off the verse in Latin. If he got a single word wrong, she would assail him like locusts. One by one, the students took turns reading off verses from the bible, translating them from English to Latin. Whenever someone made a mistake, they would be ordered to make the death march to Sister Olivia’s desk, outstretch their hands, and let her slap her trusty meter stick against their knuckles, each audible slash of the wood making everyone shudder.

Against her better judgment, Helena allowed her eyes to wander and look out the window at the sunny campus of Rosewood University. The school had originally been developed to help deal with Italy’s high orphan rate while spreading the Christian faith, starting out as a Christian academy for children. Eventually, other countries began shipping in their orphans after seeing the great results, and then families started sending in their kids. It was now the largest and one of the most prestigious Catholic schools in the world, boasting a student body ranging from preschoolers to college students and with armies of new priests and nuns being marched out every year, ready to spread the word of Jesus Christ. Joining the clergy wasn’t any kind of requisite for the school, but after 12 years, it became engrained in the souls of most of the students.

“O’Connor!”

Helena’s head perked up at the sound of her last name being called and her face became red in embarrassment. It was her turn to translate but she had been too busy daydreaming to pay attention to the class. She had no idea which verse she had to translate, and if she asked… Sister Olivia would practically crucify her.

“Helena O’Connor, come to the Disciplinary Committee’s office immediately.”

The announcement from the PA system let her release a sigh of relief. Punishment had saved her from punishment. All the students shrugged, well used to hearing this commandment.

“Sorry, Sister Olivia, but I must leave,” she said sheepishly.

The teacher scowled at her, knowing that Helena hadn’t been paying attention. “Go, but I still expect you to translate when you get back.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Taking her book bag with her, Helena stepped out of the classroom and began walking as fast as she could down the hall. Running was against the rules, but with how large the school was, she needed to put in some speed and reach the committee before they sent out another announcement. Stepping out into the open campus, she allowed herself a moment to enjoy the sunlight, breeze, and smell of grass, and then took off in a run. She passed by many other students in her rapid dash, both male and female. Normally Catholic schools like these had gender segregation, but with how many students were joining the clergy, Rosewood Academy used the coed population as a way to help the students prepare for their vows of celibacy. By having all these teenagers learning side-by-side in this holy school, it was simply a matter of teaching them to ignore temptation. Dating was strictly forbidden, and if they could graduate without ever giving in to their sinful desires, they would be ready for the clergy.

She at last reached the building with the Discipline Committee, and after climbing two flights of stairs, arrived at the entrance to their office. As she approached the door, she took a moment of catch her breath and straighten her hair. She stepped through an open doorway into a waiting room, with an assistant behind a desk, a corridor lined with doors, and several chairs and a couch in the corner of the room. Sitting in one of the chairs was a young man, though from the very brief glimpse she gave him, she couldn’t quite tell his age. He looked to be as old as she was, but he could have older, since unlike the other male students in this school, he was dressed in the black clerical jacket of an ordained minister. Though he lacked the official collar.

She strode past him to the assistant’s desk.

“Hello, Helena. Same as usual?” the woman asked with a wry grin.

This was FAR from Helena’s first meeting with the Disciplinary Committee. She sighed with a tired smile.

“Hello, Mary. I guess they’re waiting for me?”

“Go right in.”

Helena nodded and walked down the corridor, reaching the second door. She entered a conference room, where five teachers sat behind a long table, glaring at her with judgmental eyes. Two of them were priests and another two were nuns.

“Ms. O’Connor, I’m sure you know why we called you here,” the oldest teacher grumbled.

“I have an idea.”

A female teacher cleared her throat. “Three young men are being treated at the hospital, one coughing up blood with a broken nose and the other two suffering from concussions. When speaking to the police, they described you in clear detail. What do you have to say for yourself?”

Helena straightened her posture and her eyes became steely. “I was doing God’s work, helping to cure this city of its sin. Why should I have gone easy on them when they will face far worse in Hell?”

One of the priests slammed his hand on the table. “That is not your decision to make! That is the job of the police, not a student of this school. Every time you act up like this, you give us a bad name. We cannot condone your actions, violence can never be tolerated from someone who claims to fight in the name of Jesus Christ!”

“I will repent for what I did and ask God for forgiveness,” she said defiantly, as if to tell them that she did not recognize their authority.

“You’ll do more than that. On top of fifteen Apostle’s Creeds and ten Hail Marys, you are going to go and apologize to those boys before the end of the day, understood?”

He handed her a sheet of paper with their addresses and Helena bit her tongue, working to keep her temper in check.

“Yes, Father Brian.”

“Good, and to lighten your soul with a good deed, we have something else for you to do…” The old priest pressed down on the button of a nearby intercom. “Mary, please send him in.”

The student Helena had seen before stepped into the room, letting her at last get a good look at him. He was quite tall and very handsome, with a square jaw, blue eyes, and brown hair cut very short but still kind of spiky. She actually felt her heart flutter at the sight of him but shook the sensation away with a retightening of her moral corset.

“This is Xavier Michaels, he just transferred in. Show him around and help him get settled. The two of you will be sharing several classes together. Xavier, this is Helena O’Connor. If you need anything, ask her.”

‘Great, just what I needed. Now Sister Olivia is going to beat me like a mule because I have to miss class and show this guy the ropes. No, no, it’s not his fault. I shouldn’t be mad at him.’

Forcing herself to wear a smile, she held out her hand to shake his. “Nice to meet you.”

He took her hand and looked at her with confident eyes. For a moment, she thought he was going to lean down and kiss her hand. “The pleasure is mine.”

Helena suddenly felt her face go red, but she had no idea why. “Ok, follow me and I’ll give you a tour.”

About to step into the hall, she was stopped by one of the teachers calling her name. “Helena, remember: every time you cause trouble, you make it harder for yourself to achieve your goal. You’re facing a monumental task already. Don’t ruin things for yourself.”

She nodded and departed with Xavier trailing after her. Leaving the waiting room, they started down the hall.

“I’ve never met a Catholic school girl who could fight.”

“Huh?”

“My apologies, but I could hear the conversation you and the teachers were having. You sent three people to the hospital and called it “God’s work”, meaning that you were engaged in a combative situation with them. Considering that I don’t see any scratches on you or even a mark on your uniform, you’re clearly skilled enough to not get touched. Impressive.”

People normally condemned her for fighting, but there was no judgment in his voice. She tried not to blush at the praise, never expecting him to just reveal her true self with such intuition. “As the teachers will tell you, it is not one of my best features. I’ve been training myself since I was a child in martial arts and other fighting styles. They come in handy when I find an unapologetic sinner.”

“I take it those skills are for the goal that Father Thomas mentioned?”

Helena giggled. “You catch on pretty quick.”

“I hope I’m not intruding.”

“No, it’s ok. The truth is that my goal is to join the Swiss Guard and serve His Holiness.”

“I thought the Swiss Guard didn’t allow female members.”

“They don’t, but I’m going to be the first. If I can prove myself, then I’m sure the Holy Father will allow me to serve him. What about you, do you plan to become a priest or do you have other goals?”

“As it so happens, it’s my dream to become Pope.”

They both stopped at the top of a staircase, Helena looking at him in shock. “Really? You intend to go that far?”

“Indeed,” he said as he brought up his hand and lifted her chin. “So maybe someday, you’ll serve me.”

Helena again felt her face go red and for a moment she couldn’t move. She stared into his eyes, confident and ambitions, with her own eyes suddenly trembling and meek.

He then stepped back and moved down onto the first step. “Shall we continue on?”

She nearly jumped from the question, as if awoken from a trance. “Oh, y-yes. Of course.”

She hurried down the stairs past him, and as she walked, he watched her and licked his lips. “And that day will be soon,” he said under his breath.



Helena pushed that strange moment out of her mind as she showed Xavier around the campus. She found herself curious about this newcomer. “So where are you from? You speak English clearly as a first language but I can’t place your accent. You certainly aren’t British, but you don’t quite sound American.”

“I’m from a little bit of everywhere. I’ve been traveling since I was born, so while English is my first language, I’ve picked up accents and mixed them all together. I can certainly tell that you are Irish, from that hair and name, but I can also tell that you’ve worked to try and hide your accent. So why would a ruby beauty from the emerald isle try to hide her heritage?”

She turned around quickly, her face flushed both in annoyance and undeniable pride from the flattery. “Now you listen here, relationships among students are forbidden, both by this school and God himself. Don’t go thinking that some compliments will win me over.”

Xavier stepped back, shocked by her outburst but still maintaining that small smirk. “You misunderstand, this is how I talk to everyone. I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable, I just find honestly and politeness to be the best policy.”

Helena’s face paled and she turned away from him. ‘Why did I get so worked up right then? Something is wrong with me today…’ “A-anyway, let’s keep going. I’ll show you the cafeteria now.”

She brought him to a large brick building, the sides caked with ivy and moss that were basking in the sunlight. Through the large oak doors, they stepped into an expansive cafeteria. Long tables were set out with enough seats for hundreds of students, but now all were empty, save for the few kids who came to study during their free period.

“This is where we come for our meals at 9:00 am, 3:00 pm, and 9:00 pm. Because of how many students we have, there are three shifts for each meal. The older you are, the later you eat. The school does it to accommodate with the students’ circadian rhythms. Come on, we’ll cross over through here to the science wing.”

Marching past the empty tables, they made their way to the back of the dining coliseum. Halfway through the room, they came across a girl sitting alone, nobody on either side or across from her. She looked about fifteen but was small for her age, with brown hair cut short and her head low as if someone had just tried to tickle her neck. She didn’t have any books or even food with her. She looked very forlorn, very fragile. As they passed by her, she looked up at Helena and Xavier. He smiled and winked at her, making her tense up nervously but with sparkling eyes. She had caught his interest.

Reaching the exit, they stepped back outside. Just as the door closed behind them, Helena’s stomach let out a loud grumble. She quickly turned away, knowing that Xavier would chuckle. “I… uh… I missed breakfast this morning.”

“Why didn’t you grab something to eat in there?”

“Because I’m trying to get us to our homeroom before our next class starts. At lunch, I’ll have to go and apologize to the three punks I beat up. Hopefully I can get something in the city.”

“Would you like me to come with you?”

“Thanks, but it’s not needed. Let’s just get to class.”



“You’re late. Detention, both of you.”

Helena tried with everything she had not to curse at the sound of Sister Olivia’s voice. She and Xavier had just entered the classroom, barely a second after the bell for the next period sounded. She put on a brave face and turned to the nun. “Sister, this is Xavier Michaels, the new—”

“I know who this is, do not talk to me like I am an ignorant fool!” She then turned to him. “Being new to this class is no excuse for tardiness. You two will be here at 10:00 tonight. You’ll need to wear some short pants for what I have planned.”

The whole class watched, praying for God to have mercy on the truants’ souls. Helena watched Xavier, waiting to see his reaction, and to her shock, she thought for a moment that he was actually smirking. “Spare the rod, spoil the child,” he simply hummed, stepping away and making his way to one of the few empty seats in the classroom.

“And Helena, I still expect you to translate that verse.”

‘Damn it.’



The following classes continued on without anything out of order. As usual, multiple students got a hard smack from Sister Olivia’s meter stick for small infractions. Helena got it twice when her stomach growled. Both times, she held a defiant scowl on her face, refusing to show any pain. Several times, the teacher directed the hardest questions to Xavier, but with his usual confident smirk, he answered everything with perfect accuracy and detail. Luckily they got a reprieve when the class had to a different building for Biology Class.



“Are you sure you don’t want me to come along? I could help you keep your temper in check.”

Xavier and Helena were standing at the entrance to the cafeteria with students from grades 9 through 12 streaming past them to eat.

“I’ll be fine. You go eat. I’m more worried about the time. There is no way this will take less than an hour, meaning of course that I’m going to once again be late for class.”

“Well maybe there is something I can do to convince Sister Olivia to give you a pass this one time.”

Helena laughed and began walking away. “Nice try, but that won’t work. You’ll probably just anger her even more. Relax; I’ll be fine. She can’t break me.”



Helena looked at the address above the door and then back at the list the Discipline Committee had given her. This was supposedly the home of the guy that she had knocked out with a strike to the neck. After the injuries he had received, he would be home, but considering the graffiti she had found him doing, it probably wasn’t like he had school to go to anyway. The house wasn’t much, or at least any better or worse than the other pale brick houses lining the street. Above the door was the window to a bedroom, currently open.

Back at the university cafeteria, Xavier sat alone. There was a tray of food in front of him, but he wasn’t eating. He was merely spinning his fork around his thumb, smiling.

Sighing and resigning herself to her fate, Helena stepped off the sidewalk and knocked on the door. She just had to be polite, apologize, and get out of there without snapping. How hard could it be?

Xavier continued to spin his fork, while under his breath, he whispered something in a continuous prayer. Throughout the room, students grimaced as their food lost all taste and became like ashes in their mouth.

No one came to the door, so Helena knocked again. Damn it, could someone please answer?! A hiss drew her eyes downward, where a stray cat stepped out of the nearby alley and hissed at her. Rome was full of them, considered by many a nuisance. Helena normally would try to pet them whenever she could, but the way this cat was staring at her sent a shiver up her spine. It looked both fearful and enraged, crouched with its hair on end and a low growl in its throat. Without her hearing, there was the sound of wood creaking above her.

Xavier began to chuckle to himself, his small laughs interrupting the white noise he was seemingly muttering, but not stopping it. Across the cafeteria, random students were standing up, claiming that they were feeling sick and needed to go the infirmary. Finally, the fork he had been spinning around his thumb slipped free of his fingers and fell with a loud clatter.

About to knock a third time, Helena was sent tumbling the ground by something heavy slamming down onto the top of her head with tremendous force. She fell on her back, her vision blurred, her mind spinning, and her skull somehow both numb and racked with pain. As she hit the ground, something else landed on her, something hot and wet, like a giant pot of spaghetti had just been dumped on her. At her feet, the sound of something metal striking the stone ground rang out. Wincing in pain, Helena slowly sat up, waiting for the throbbing in her head to dull before opening her eyes. At last, she gazed around to see whatever it was that had struck her. The sight that met her pierced her heart like the Lance of Longinus stabbing Christ.

The young man from that morning was hanging above her, having jumped from the second story with a noose around his neck and hit her. It was more than that; there was a massive cut going down his torso with most of innards missing, as if he had undergone an autopsy. The sound of metal on stone she had heard was the knife he used to cut himself open slipping out of his hand when he reached the end of the line. With a waterfall of blood pouring from his open chest, realization struck Helena and she looked down at herself. The young man’s organs had spilled out of him when the rope snapped tight, either ripped free from the inertia or severed when he gutted himself. Her white blouse was completely red with the boy’s blood, sitting in her lap were his stomach and liver, and draped across her head like cobwebs were his intestines.

At that moment, everything became white for Helena, as if she had buried her face in flour. Her mind and all thoughts blurred after that. The only thing she remembered was screaming louder than ever in her life.



The police questioned Helena for several hours after that, but it took time for her to even become responsive, having been completely petrified from what happened to her. Only after she was cleaned off and given a fresh change of clothes did she start talking. The boy who hung himself was not the only casualty. The police found the young man she had kicked propped up in a chair at his stove, having drowned himself in a pot of boiling water. By the time they got there, his face had melted off. As for the boy she had hit with a brick, they were still counting how many times he had stabbed himself, turning his body into a dish sponge and bleeding himself dry.

No foul play was suspected in the deaths; at least no evidence could support it. Everything pointed to suicide, regardless of how outrageous it was. Once they were certain they had gotten everything out of her, they released Helena into the custody of the school. As expected, she didn’t attend any classes for the rest of the day, merely going to her room and never leaving her bed. At least she was protected from Sister Olivia. No one but the staff knew anything about her presence at the scene, and she prayed it would stay that way.



“Hey, where were you today? You disappeared before lunch and I never saw you again.” Helena’s roommate, Sophie, had just stepped through the door. Helena was pretending to be asleep, keeping her back to her friend. Sophie shrugged and began to get ready for bed. “Hmm, must be sick…”



Back in the homeroom, Xavier was kneeling with his nose two inches from the wall, enduring his detention. As Sister Olivia had ordered him, he was wearing short pants. His punishment was to kneel for an hour with frozen peas beneath him, digging into his skin until he bled. It was one of the favorite methods of punishment by nuns. Regardless of the ticks of the clock, he showed no pain, and unbeknownst to Sister Olivia, he felt none.

“So, have you learned your lesson yet? Rule breaking will not be tolerated in this school, especially by me. If you are late, you will suffer.”

“Suffer?” Xavier turned his head to her, a gleam to his eyes that she had never seen to before. His lips curled back, revealing his bleach-white teeth. “You have no idea what suffering is,” he laughed.



In the hours that passed, Helena waited for sleep to come, but it never did. She didn’t quite expect it to, of course, after the day she had. She had gone the whole day without eating, but she wasn’t sure she would ever have an appetite for the rest of her life. She swore she could still smell it on her hair, the smell of blood and entrails, no matter how hard she had scrubbed in the shower. At 1:00 am, she finally sat up, unable to stay in that bed any longer. On the other side of the room, Sophie was sleeping peacefully, even snoring.

Being as quiet as she could, Helena got dressed and left their room. Students weren’t allowed to wander the dorms at night unless they had to go to the bathroom, but at this hour, who was going to stop her? With her eyes long-since adjusted to the dark, she made her way out of the dorms and into the cool night. Crossing the campus and sneaking through two other buildings, she at last reached the place she wanted to go: the university church. It had been built when the school first came to be, and since then, had gone through renovation after renovation to try and accommodate the always-growing student body. Every Sunday, students had to be organized in shifts with sermons going on late into the night.

Reaching the front door, she silently thanked God when she pulled on the handle and felt no restraints. Trying to keep the hinges from squeaking, she opened it just wide enough to slide in and closed it behind her. The vast church was dead silent and still, barely lit by the moon and stars shining through the glass, though in a way, that made it even more beautiful. The air rich with the smell of bible pages and incense long-since burned, she wiped some holy water on her forehead from the nearby basin and walked down the long aisle.

Coming out past the pews, she knelt before the giant cross on the back wall, the statue of Jesus looking down at her while she clutched her own crucifix. “Lord, please, if you can hear me, I need your help now more than ever. I… I don’t what to do. I thought I had prepared myself for violence in order to join the Swiss Guard, but after today… please… give me strength.”

“He won’t answer you.”

For the second time, Helena felt a blade pierce her heart, this one colder than the icicles that would hang outside her window in Ireland during the winter. She turned around, seeing Xavier moving down the aisle towards her.

“Xavier, what are you doing here?”

“Following you. It seems I went a little too far when I crushed those three insects.”

His voice was different from before. It was much deeper but very dry and even soft with certain words. It barely sounded human, and there was a force behind it, one that weighed down on Helena in way she had never before experienced. She wanted to step back but found her feet seemingly glued to the floor.

“You? You killed them?! H-how? Why?!”

“I told you, didn’t I? I wanted to do something to convince Sister Olivia to spare you punishment. I’d say I did better than expected, considering I was alone at detention tonight.

Tell me, how does feel to pray for something and be ignored? How does it feel to beg for something from God and have your desperation go unanswered? I just don’t understand why you humans cling to hope when you have no reason to have it in the first place.” He reached out and caressed her cheek. “I guarantee you, here in this “house of God”, there is no one else here but me. God is not listening to you.”

Breaking free of the weights holding her to that spot, Helena stepped back and held out her cross. “I don’t know what you are, but no enemy of God will speak such blasphemy in front of me and in this holy place! I’ve accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and I know he will protect me!”

“Oh please, look at that foolish token you’re holding, at the broken man nailed to that cross. Does he look like he is in any condition to help you? To protect you from me? You foolish humans think that those crosses will keep you safe, but it’s the opposite. What you carry is the symbol of the pathetic and defeated Son of God, dying like an animal in the wilderness with a broken leg. I saw him go up on the cross, I heard his cries of agony, and I saw the spear blade pierce his chest. You carry with you a reminder of the darkest day of mankind, the day when even the power of God was helpless against human madness. You think that crucifix will protect you, but really…” Xavier reached out and touched the rosary, causing it to melt away and fall to the ground as squirming centipedes. “It just makes me stronger.”

“You… you’re the Devil, aren’t you?”

“Bless dear old Dad, but no. I’ll give you a hint.”

Xavier opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue, and even with only the moonlight shining through the church windows, the circle of three sixes was clear as day, like a brand.

“You’re the Antichrist…”

“In the flesh, and I’ve decided it’s time to make my move. These last two thousand years have been fun, but I’m ready to start thinking about my future. There is a whole wide world just waiting to be conquered.”

He stepped towards her and Helena yelped as she felt an invisible force grab her wrists and hold them behind her like handcuffs. She was then spun around and pulled to Xavier, pressed with her back to his chest. He embraced her, running his hands across her supple body. She whimpered as she felt him fondle her breasts with one hand and move south with the other.

“Feel free to scream all you want, your voice won’t reach anyone. You know, I lied to you when I said I wanted to become Pope. That’s too small, I’m ready to become the king of this world. Of course, I’ll need a queen…”

He snapped his fingers and Helena gasped as she was suddenly basked in flames, her uniform being burned off her body like flash cotton. It didn’t hurt; it felt more like a hot bath than actual fire. Had she been exposed to those same flames under natural circumstances, she would have suffered severe burns across her entire body. But while the flames hadn’t hurt her, they had touched her, not only destroying her uniform, but also burning away every hair on her body. From the neck down, she was essentially porcelain. Xavier never let go of her, not a single singe being left on his clothes.

“And I must say, I’ve come to taking a liking to you. I find that fire in your eyes rather charming, that fighting spirit. Not to mention this beautiful body of yours.”

She shivered in humiliation, now feeling his palms on her bare flesh. He had one hand on her breast, squeezing her tightly but also using his fingers to probe the most sensitive nerve endings. Whether it was his experience with women or his unholy powers, he was intentionally trying to arouse her and expose her to as much focused pleasure as possible. He moved his other hand down her flat belly, admiring her smooth skin. She clamped her thighs together, but with the slightest touch of his fingers, he wrenched them apart as if there were shackles on her ankles. He traced the entrance to her womanhood with his middle finger, savoring what was to come.

“As my queen, you’ll live a life of luxury. You’ll rule the world at my side, with your every desire being satisfied. You’ll eat the finest food, wear the most elegant clothes, and practically bathe in gold in jewels. At night, I’ll make you moan like an opera singer as you have orgasm, after orgasm… after orgasm. All you have to do is swear your loyalty to me.”

She cried out as he ran his finger between the lips of her pussy, lightly stirring the soft flesh before entering her. Helena had been taught that self-pleasure was one of the greatest sins. She had never touched herself the way Xavier was touching her now, never probed her insides the way he was. She stood, completely helpless as violated her, working his fingers in and out of her ripe, adolescent flower. She could feel it, the intrusion of his fingers stimulating her and making her wet. But this wasn’t the first time she had felt this, and it was that familiarity that made her sick with dread.

‘No! Not again!’ “No! I won’t do it! I’ll never turn my back on God! I’ll never join you!”

While she tried to sound strong, her voice cracked and she whimpered from the undeniable pleasure being felt from him molesting her. His hand was slick with her wetness and she could feel drops running down her inner thighs.

“Are you sure? This is you last chance; become my queen or suffer the consequences.”

“I’d rather die than be your queen!”

Hearing her resolute voice, Xavier at first sighed in annoyance, but then began to laugh. Helena screamed in agony as she felt something burningly hot sear her skin. He had his tongue pressed to her neck, and after a few moments he pulled away, with the same circle of sixes branded onto her with her flesh smoking. Glowing red lines stretched from the brand, encircling her before all disappearing into her skin.

Xavier released Helena and she fell to her knees, but before she could try to crawl away, he outstretched his hand and closed it. From his clenched fingers, a coil of light seemingly materialized, stretching down to her with a glowing ring appearing around her neck. The two lights joined and she gasped as she felt Xavier’s power weigh down on her. She wanted to scream, but couldn’t, as she felt like she was at the bottom of the ocean, being crushed from every angle with incomprehensible force. She looked up at him, realizing what he had just done. The coil of light was a leash and the ring around her neck was a collar. He had just made her his property.

“You think that by denying me, I’ll just let you go? Oh no, things are not that simple. The moment I set my eyes on you, you lost your freedom. You lost the right to run away or to even die. If you will not be my queen, you will be my slave. Every inch of your body now belongs to me. Your entire existence is nothing more than a toy in the palm of my hand. At this very moment, I could rape you with savagery never before seen and there would be nothing you could do to stop me. But don’t worry, I won’t take you like that. No, I’ll bend you to my will until you beg me to rip away your virginity.” He then pulled on her leash, forcing her up onto her knees with her mouth open. He lifted her chin, moving his thumb across her pursed lips and then pressing down on her tongue. She wanted to pull away, to push him back, but her whole body had gone limp. “This collar will keep you from telling anyone about who I really am. Even if you try to write it down, that seal will stop you.”

“I’ll never give in to you,” she hissed with tears streaming down her face.

“Oh, you will. But please continue to resist, that makes it all the more fun for me.”





Chapter 2



Helena woke up with a scream, reaching up to the ceiling as if to grab a lifeline thrown to her. She was back in her bed but looked around fearfully for Xavier, finding only her concerned roommate.

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah… I’m ok, just a bad dream.” ‘After the day I had, it’s no surprise that I would have some kind of nightmare.’

Seeking comfort, she turned to her bedside table to retrieve her crucifix, but did not find it. Had it fallen in the night? She reached under the bed and table but felt only the carpet. As she continued to lean over, she felt something that made her feel like an ice sculpture. She had woken up in both bra and panties, so she was certain that the encounter with Xavier had been a dream (considering he had burned them off her), but as she shifted her legs, she could feel the soft cotton pressed to her virgin flower. That’s right… those flames had shaved her like a lamb.

She tried to swallow the lump in her throat but something made it difficult, a pressure holding her on all sides of her neck, like a hand… or a collar. She could feel it under her skin, that invisible restraint that Xavier had put on her. It didn’t feel like any kind of material, but it was THERE. It was real. Everything that had happened last night was real. Helena began to hyperventilate, feeling like she was still in his embrace, one of his hands being used to fondle her breasts and the other penetrating her slit.

“Sophie, there’s something I need to tell you. Last night, I—”

Helena gagged as her throat closed with a stinging burn appearing on her tongue. She was unable to breathe and Sophie rushed over to see what was wrong. Her throat cleared after several seconds and Helena gasped for breath.

“What in God’s name is going on with you lately?! And what were you saying about last night?”

Helena turned to her, having never felt so helpless in all her life. She couldn’t tell her friend anything, and when she went to class, or even just breakfast, HE would be there.

“I… I, uh… lost my crucifix last night.”

“Oh… well… I’m sorry to hear that. I could help you look for it.”

“No, I’ll just look for it myself later. Let’s go get breakfast.”



Even with all of her fear and anxiety, Helena’s appetite had returned with a vengeance and she shoveled down her breakfast like she was in an eating contest. Her friends all watched her, wondering what had happened to make her so ravenous. After returning from the kitchen with seconds, her face paled as she heard her friends mentioning the suicides from the previous day.

“What do you mean “unnatural”?” one of her friends asked Sophie.

“Well from what I heard, they all killed themselves in horribly gruesome ways. Supposedly, one them drowned himself in boiling water, another stabbed himself to death, and the third gutted and then hanged himself.”

All the girls gasped in revulsion and crossed themselves, praying to God to protect them from whatever evil might have influenced the boys’ deaths and to have mercy on their souls. Helena stared at her food, no longer able to eat. If Xavier had really killed them, or made them kill themselves, then what else was he capable of? Could he really be the Antichrist? Was his coming a sign of the Apocalypse? And could he really be in this room with her?

‘I need to be strong and have my faith in God. I’ve spent my whole life training to join the Swiss Guard and protect His Holiness. I won’t let this Devil-spawn scare me. With God on my side, he will never beat me. Lord, please grant me the strength to fight this evil, to purge him from this holy city. Let me be the shield for this school, let me be an instrument for your divine will.’

Repeating those words over and over again to herself, she regained her confidence. She could do it. She could stand against this threat. She would not give in.



Of course, the closer she got to the classroom, the more nervous she felt. Xavier would surely be there. Would he arrive there before her? After? Or would they end up walking side by side down the same hallway? She didn’t know if she had the strength to face him. She arrived at class, and stepping through the front door, she felt her heart stop. Xavier was at his desk, eyes closed and chin rested on his hand, as if asleep. Just like before, he wore the black coat of a priest but without the collar, standing out from the other male students. She moved slowly past him, like a mouse trying to avoid waking a snoozing lion.

“Good morning, Helena.”

He spoke the words, his voice sounding normal to everyone else in the room, but to her, it was different, having that same commanding depth from the night before. There was more to it, though. It was as if in the microsecond between the words being vocalized and reaching her ears, time seemed to come to a sudden crawl. She felt Xavier come up from behind her and grab her by the arms with her clothes vanishing off her body. He ran his tongue up the length of her back, making her shiver as he sampled the taste of her smooth skin. He came up to her neck and then the back of her ear, and just when she thought he was going to whisper something to her, the illusion vanished and his words reached her.

A few people looked over, wondering what her reaction would be. Helena’s zealotry and affinity for stirring up trouble made her an uneasy person to get close to.

“G-good morning…” she mumbled, unable to even turn and face him.

Her heart beating wildly, she reached her desk and sat down, resting her head and quietly praying for strength.



The day continued on without anything strange occurring. All of the classes were normal and went by simply. Sister Olivia was brutal as usual, though she did let Helena off with a warning when she caught her daydreaming. She had to wonder if Olivia was doing to out of the goodness of her heart or if the Headmaster had told her to go easy. Either way, the reprieve was nice. Xavier didn’t say anything to her for the rest of the day, never even looked at her. What was going to happen?



Helena stood in the university school supplies store, looking at the plastic jewelry box with nervousness. Along with notebooks, pencils, and all manner of tools a student would need, the store sold rosaries and other religious talismans. The one that Helena was looking at was a medallion with the Triquetra symbol¬–the circle entwined into a three-sided loop, also known as the trinity knot. It was a Celtic take on the Holy Trinity, with the three corners representing the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Normally she would have gotten another crucifix for the one that Xavier destroyed, but she had to believe what he told her about it. It did make sense, the Antichrist would only grow stronger against the symbol of his enemy tortured and executed. If she was going to fend off this monster, she couldn’t give him anything to use.

The only reason why she was hesitating to buy it was because of its origins. It was Celtic, deriving from her homeland and still popular there. She had long since abandoned her culture and her past. If she were to wear this, it would mean giving in to everything she had turned her back on when she left home.

‘No, I can’t let my feelings of home get in the way of this.’

She stormed over to the cashier and slammed the transparent box on the counter. “I’ll take it.”



Helena was lying in bed, reading the bible. She felt safe, each turn of the pages acting as like an audible pulse that shook away her worries. Hanging around her neck was her trinity necklace, the weight and shape it new to her when compared to her old crucifix, but comforting nonetheless. Nearby, Sophie was sitting at her dorm room desk, working on homework. A loud slam of her textbook told her that she had gotten it all done.

“Praise Christ, it’s finished. Ugh, that was brutal!” she groaned while stretching.

“Yeah, Father Samuel doesn’t make algebra any easier for us.”

“I can’t wait for the weekend, I need to decompress after all of this work.”

For the first time since yesterday, Helena laughed. “You say that every week.”

Their teeth brushed and alarm clock set, the two girls said their evening prayers and went to bed.



Of all things, it was an attempt to yawn that woke up Helena, and the realization that she couldn’t open her mouth. Her eyes bolted open and she tried to sit up, but she couldn’t move from her spot. Her entire body was paralyzed, as if she were under anesthesia. She was incapable of even flexing the muscles in her body or moving her tongue. With tears in her eyes, she tried to call out to Sophie, but her roommate ignored her. That pathetic whimper was all she could do. An ominous shadow appeared in the corner of the room and from it appeared Xavier. He wasn’t wearing any clothes and he was erect. He slowly stepped towards Sophie, licking his lips in lustful hunger. Helena tried to scream, but only produced a shrill hum.

“Helena, can you keep it down?” her friend grumbled.

Leaning over her bed, Xavier grabbed Sophie by the throat and squeezed. Shaken awake, Sophie screamed and flailed her limbs, but he held her tightly and climbed on top of her. Releasing her throat, he grabbed her wrists and held them up to the headboard. Appearing out of thin air, a pair of shackles locked on and cuffed her to the bed. Her throat free, Sophie screamed as loud as she could, but her voice merely bounced off the walls of the room, as if they were inside a bank vault.

‘Is he using he powers to keep her voice from escaping? Will anyone be able to hear her?’

“I just love that sound. Go ahead and keep screaming.”

“Helena! Save me!”

“Oh, she can’t help you. She’s just here to watch as I turn you into a broken toy!”

Xavier then placed his hand on her legs and lines of black thread appeared as if growing from his palm. The threads wrapped around her ankles and bound them to the back of her thighs, then wrapped around her knees and pulled them apart, putting her on display. Xavier laughed to himself as he ran his hand across her body.

“I know this is Europe, but this “all natural” thing is a turn off.”

He snapped his fingers and Helena closed her eyes, momentarily blinded by a bonfire of flames erupting from Sophie’s bed. It was the same flames Xavier had used on her, but for some reason, Sophie gave a bloodcurdling scream as if she was being burned at the stake. Why did it hurt Sophie so much more than Helena? The flames vanished, revealing the bed and Sophie completely unharmed. Her clothes and every hair from the neck down had been burned away. While her skin was undamaged, she cried and moaned in pain, feeling like she had suffered third-degree burns.

“Why are you doing this?” she whimpered.

“Because it’s just so easy.”

Xavier held out his hand behind him and a large cross flew into his hand, having originally hung above the door. Cackling, he turned it around in his hand, holding the short end so it was like a dagger. He pressed the other end against her vagina and Sophie began thrashing.

“No! Please! Anything but that!”

Ignoring her pleading and the resulting screams, Xavier forced the cross deep inside her, violating her with the symbol of her faith. Helena had never heard anyone cry like that, that mix of pain and humiliation. Oh God, was Xavier going to do that to her as well? There had to be something she could do, some way to help her friend! She put all her strength into moving, but it was like she was trapped in concrete. She wanted to at least open her mouth, but it was like she had used superglue for mouthwash.

Xavier pulled the cross out and crouched down, watching the blood of her torn hymen dribble out. He ran his tongue between the lips of her pussy, lapping up the blood as if it were honey. Helena watched in revulsion, sickened by this monster’s depravity but not surprised. He was the Antichrist; of course he would have a thirst for her virgin blood. As he continued licking, Sophie’s reaction changed. What Helena had thought to be sobs of pain were becoming pants of arousal, with tears continuing to pour from her eyes as she whimpered with each flick of his tongue. Between her legs, Xavier was playing her like a saxophone, licking up every sweet drop of her nectar and teasing her lips with his own, while his tongue slithered back and forth inside her. He moved up an inch and put all of his focus on her erect clitoris, stimulating her in ways she never thought possible. Sophie’s small whimpers became shameful moans as he sucked on the small nub and twirled his tongue around it. He even began fingering her, sliding back and forth effortlessly with her sleeve becoming more and more slippery by the second.

Without even realizing it, Helena was no longer watching in just horror, but also in interest. She had heard about this kind of thing, “oral sex” as it was called. Did it really feel that good? No, no! She couldn’t let herself be enticed by such horrific sins! How could she even think of such things while her friend was being raped! But she again relapsed as another scream was released, this one making her shiver. She had heard it before as a child, coming from her mom’s room when she had visitors over. Had Sophie… just had an orgasm? Sophie certainly thought so, as she was trying to cover her face while crying fresh tears.

Xavier sat up and laughed. “Why are you crying? You have no need to feel shame. You are nothing more than an animal after all; a lowly, pathetic creature that spends its existence searching for pleasure. God isn’t here to judge you, so reveal your true nature and enjoy this.”

He leaned down and began sucking on her breasts, again making her whimper from unwanted sexual bliss. He moved back and forth, painting the succulent hills with his tongue, then securing his lips around her nipples and pulling upwards.

“You’re skin is so soft, Sophie. It’s only right that I taste it.”

His head then darted forward and he joined his lips with hers. She tried to resist him, squirming and turning her face from side to side, but he grabbed the back of her head and stopped her. He infiltrated her with his tongue, licking every corner of her mouth. This was her first kiss, and it was French. When she didn’t reciprocate, Xavier grabbed one of her breasts and squeezed brutally hard, making her scream until at last giving in. It was a half-assed attempt, but she began kissing him back, even sending her tongue into his mouth. All the while Helena watched them, and once or twice, she shuddered as he would look directly at her, staring into her eyes.

He sat back up and kneeled between her spread legs, resting his cock on the lips of her pussy.

“Please, God…” she cried.

“You think God will help you? You’re wrong. Nobody can help you. Nobody can save you. I am going to take you now and nothing will stop me. Your God isn’t here.”

Guiding the head between the lips, he grabbed her waist and forced himself into her. Sophie cried out in physical and emotional agony, but not as loud as when he violated her with the cross. She could feel him inside her, his manhood barreling inside her untouched slit. He buried himself inside her up to the base, pulled out, and then slammed into her again. With centuries of practice, he got into his well-used rhythm and began thrusting like a rodeo bull, slamming against the entrance to her womb with enough force to make her cry. He leaned over, supporting himself with arms.

Sophie refused to look at him, feeling his hot breath on her face. “Helena…” she begged, turning to her friend.

Helena could do nothing but watch as her friend was raped without mercy, Xavier using her body as his own personal sex toy. She cried with her, unable to even open her mouth and say something. It went on like that for another fifteen minutes, Xavier never having to catch his breath. At last he stopped, shivering with a savage grin on his face and making Sophie whimper in shame.

“Can you feel it? Feel all of the seed I just sprayed into your womb? You’re nothing but a pathetic cum dumpster, a rag for me to wipe off my cock with after I fill you up with my semen.”

Both women thought that he would stop then, but the torment continued. For another two hours, he raped her almost nonstop, hammering her with brutal force and ejaculating into her over and over again with reserves beyond the limits of normal humans. Several times, Sophie would give a tearful moan from a forcefully induced orgasm, which would make Xavier give a booming laugh of conquest. The only times he really stopped was to climb up to her face and force his cock into her mouth, making her drink up the mix of his semen and her pussy juice.

At last, with an hour before dawn, he climbed up off her. Sophie’s pussy was bruised and battered with a huge puddle of semen beneath her. Her insides had been pumped full of his cum, slowly draining out of her. Her legs were bloody and lined with cuts from the bite of the wires he restrained her with. Her face was red and swollen from all the tears she had cried, her voice hoarse from the hours of screaming.

Stretching, Xavier gave one final laugh. “That was fun, I’ll see you both later.”

He snapped his fingers and the wires binding Sophie disappeared and Helena felt her paralysis wane. Even while free, she couldn’t move. Her body was devoid of strength, as if she were drugged. She and Sophie did nothing but close their eyes and drift to sleep.



“Sophie! Sophie! Wake up!”

“Huh? What’s going on?”

The alarm was ringing, and as soon as she heard it, Helena woke up and bolted to her friend’s bed.

“Are you ok? Are you hurt? Come on, we have to get you to the hospital!”

“What are you talking about? I’m fine!”

“Fine?! Don’t you remember what happened last night?!”

Sophie looked at her, a look of annoyance mixed with a total lack of patience. “Helena, did you have another nightmare?”

Helena stared at her, wide eyed. Standing there, she realized that Sophie didn’t have any scars or signs of her assault. She staggered back, falling onto her bed. “Yeah, I guess I did…”

“For the love of God, you need to speak with one of priests and confess something.”

“I don’t know if any priest can help me with what I have…”



Helena stood in a hallway overlooking the school sports field. She had a free period, while outside Sophie and several other students were running laps in gym class. Nothing Helena had seen since waking up told her that her friend had been harmed in any way, even any signs that she had noticed what Xavier’s flames… had done to her body. Had it really just been a nightmare? Was her fear blurring her sense of reality?

“Did you enjoy the show?”

The whisper in her ear sent Helena spinning around, finding herself staring at Xavier with that same evil smirk on his face.

“So that was real? You really did that to Sophie?!”

“Oh, the way I’ve been limping all morning should tell you that. I’m still completely drained.”

“You’re pure evil,” she hissed.

A savage gleam to his eye, Xavier grabbed her wrists and slammed her against the window, his lips again to her ear. “Now that’s not true, even I have a drop of decency. After all, I did erase her memories and restore her body to its original condition. I even gave her back her virginity. There is absolutely no proof in the world that I raped her.”

Biting her lip, Helena brought up her knee to try and slam him in the groin, but before the strike could connect, she felt her strength vanish as if all of her tendons had been severed. Around her neck, her collar was glowing and the end of the ethereal leash was wrapped around his fingers.

“Oh, bad girl. I’ll have to punish you for that.”

He turned her around, making her look out the window. She could see Sophie down below, sitting on the grass with her friends, all of them panting and laughing while emptying their water bottles.

“Look at her, so innocent. She remembers nothing of how I brutalized her, how I tore away her virginity with that cross, how I raped her for hours and emptied myself into her womanhood. I said to her last night that she had become my personal cum dumpster, well I’ve decided I’m going to keep her around. When I get bored and long to feel the flesh of a woman, I think I’ll creep into your room and put on a show for you. I wonder which would be more entertaining, to let her remember every scene so that she can spend the days dreading my arrival, or to heal her and wipe her memory whenever I’m done with her, so that every night, she gets to experience the horror of some stranger coming into her room and taking her Christian chastity, to lose her virginity to her rapist over… and over… and over again.”

“I won’t let you hurt her, I’ll find a way to stop you!”

“Oh, you’ve done enough already. Don’t you realize why I’m doing this? It’s because she’s YOUR roommate. You dragged her into this by being a part of her world.”

“You’re just trying to trick me, I won’t give in!”

Xavier yanked on her leash, pulling her back against him. She clawed at her throat, gasping for air.

“I honestly prefer you don’t, that would be too boring. That fire in your eyes, that rebellious spirit… that is what drew me to you. Pray to God to protect you, try and shield your friends. I want you to rebel against me. I want you to keep hope alive and dream of a day when this collar with be broken. Hope is the belief that things will change, that even the most horrible situation will come to an end. People cling to hope because they have no choice but to believe that they can outlast their Hell or that something will happen to change all the rules of the game. But every time the sun rises on their bleak world, every time they feel the strike of the whip or club when someone was supposed to catch their tormentor’s hand, that hope turns on them.

I want you to keep hoping, because that will make your suffering all the more terrible. Every time I crush your hope, you will be overwhelmed by heartbreak, by disappointment, by abandonment and even betrayal by God and the world around you. Reach for the sun, my little flower, so that I may clip you and send you falling back to Earth. Wait for someone to come and rescue you, so that every time you feel my touch, you realize that you are all alone. Make this a glorious and eternal battle of wills, make me fight to win your heart.” He grasped her trinity necklace and held it up to her face. “Keep this close, so that you can learn again and again how useless it is.”

He then vanished, leaving Helena to fall to her knees, her throat sore and her body weak.

‘Don’t cry, don’t you dare cry,’ she told herself, feeling tears hanging from her lashes.



Having left Helena, Xavier was in a sinister mood. He was looking for someone, using his powers to track her, and as luck would have it, she was alone. Timing it perfectly, he rounded a corner just as a girl did. She was fifteen, small for her age, with short brown hair and a fragile look to her. She had been carrying several books and papers, and bumping into him, she fell and everything dropped into a mess.

“I’m sorry!” she squeaked, getting down and frantically trying to pull everything together.

“No, no, it’s my fault. I should have watched where I was going better.” Getting down on one knee, he helped her gather her books and papers. “Oh, I recognize you! I saw you in the cafeteria the day before yesterday,” he said cheerfully.

She looked up at him and her face turned red. The last time she had seen him, he smiled and winked at her. “You… remember me?”

“Of course. How could I forget those pretty eyes of yours?”

Not used to flattery, she ducked her head and tried to contain her nervousness. She wasn’t even picking up papers anymore.

“I’ve Xavier Michaels, and I see you are…” he picked up a homework assignment. “Lily Traiton, a beautiful name.” The worksheet he had retrieved had already been graded and it was dotted with red marks. “Having trouble with stoichiometry?” he asked, looking down through the problems.

“Give that back!” she cried out in embarrassment. He gave it to her and she stood up, all of her possessions in a messy pile in her arms. “Thank you,” she said nervously with her face downcast.

“I could help you.”

She looked up at him. “What?”

“I remember stoichiometry being the worst part about chemistry, but it’s not too bad once you figure it out. I could tutor you if you’d like.”

She averted her gaze, less nervous than before, but now feeling shame. “Why would someone like you help someone like me?”

Xavier put his hand on the top of her head, making her look up at him with eyes full of wonder. His smile was warm and kind. “Because something tells me you’ve always been afraid to ask for help. Listen, I’ll be in the library today at 6:00. If you’d like some help, come find me.”



Just as Xavier had planned, Lily came to find him in the library. They were sitting at an isolated table in the corner of the library, where no one would bother them. They had finished Lily’s chemistry homework and now he was checking it over.

“Very good, I can’t see any problems. You did a great job with this.”

Lily was trying to hide a bashful smile while she squirmed in her seat, unsure of what to do when complimented. “T-thank you.”

“I’m happy to help you. I’ve definitely found that the work at this school is difficult. Do you like it here?”

She lost her smile and turned away. “I don’t know.”

“Well we get to go home for a few weeks for summer break, just hold out for a month and you can spend some time at home.”

Lily brought her hand up to her mouth as if to chew her nails, but was really hiding away behind it. “This school is my home.”

A moment of silence passed between them.

“I understand.” She looked up at him and saw the same kind smile as when they met in the hall, but with sadness mixed in. “I know that this school still acts as a home for kids to have no other home to go to. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

“It’s ok, my parents left me here when I was nine.”
She covered her mouth in the hope she could stop the words from coming out, but they had already been spoken. Why would she say that? She had never told anyone that!

Xavier held his hand out to her. “I’m sorry. Nobody, especially a girl as sweet as you, deserves to be abandoned like that. I won’t make the same mistake they did.”

“Do you really mean that?” He nodded and Lily slowly outstretched her small hand and rested it on Xavier’s palm. “Thank you.”



Helena stood before the doors of the university church, trying to work up the courage to touch the handles. It was in here that Xavier had revealed himself as the Antichrist and placed that collar on her. To her, this church had lost the feel of protection, as well perhaps as all churches. But there was someone here, someone who may be able to help. Pushing aside her fears, she opened the doors and stepped inside. At the end of the church, by the podium, a priest stood while facing a group of elementary school students, pointing out different aspects of the structure and giving them a mechanical understanding. He was Father Hauser, a young priest, early thirties, and at this school he was a professor of architecture, namely churches as to be expected. He was also a good friend of Helena.

Seeing her step into the church, he grinned and waved her over. A nervous smile, she approached and stood next to him in front of the young children.

“Boys and girls, this is one of my best students, Helena O’Connor. She has a noble path before her, one that was handed to her by God, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. You always had brilliant imagination for cathedrals, you could have been one of the greatest architects in Catholic history,” he beamed. He then looked at the children. “Now that I think about it, on a day as beautiful as today, not even a church is good place to keep you all. We’ll end this lesson, go out and enjoy the greatest architecture in the universe: the world that God created for us.”

The young students cheered at the prospect of getting out early, and as they swarmed out into the sun, Hauser turned to Helena and hugged her. “It’s been too long since we last spoke, how have you been?”

“Oh, uh… I’ve been ok,” she mumbled, suddenly more nervous than before, but comforted to have the care of someone she so respected.

“Come, take a seat. Normally when you come to me, it’s because you did something bad and need a Confession. Tell me, how many sinners did you punish this time?”

He sat down on the pew and Helena sat with him, but she couldn’t make eye contact. Her palms were sweaty and she was wringing her skirt.

“Uh, none. It’s not about that. It’s… it’s something different.”

“What is it?”

She looked at him, her eyes trembling with fear. “Everyone in this school is in danger.”

The calmness on Father Hauser’s face vanished. “What do you mean?”

Helena could feel the collar beginning to awaken. If she was right, then if she tried to reveal Xavier’s secret like she had with Sophie, the seal would close her throat and stop her from speaking. But perhaps, if she chose her words very carefully, it wouldn’t be triggered.

“Someone¬—”

Helena’s throat tightened, cutting her off. She broke out into a coughing fit, struggling to breath.

“Helena!” Hauser exclaimed, trying to keep her from falling over.

Her throat relaxed but she could tell the brand could have done worse. That was a warning. She couldn’t mention Xavier even ambiguously.

“I’m ok, just allergies.”

“Helena, what were you saying about everyone in school being in danger?”

She took a moment to think, trying to come up with a way to fool the brand. ‘Maybe I don’t have to tell him, maybe I can tell the truth by lying.’ “Last night, I had a dream. It was more than a dream, I’m certain beyond doubt that it was sent to me by God. There is going to be a war.”

“What kind of war?”

Helena glanced up at the large crucifix on the back wall of the church. “A war that will… show… the truth. Father Hauser, everyone in the school is in danger.”

She then got to her feet and began hurriedly walking down the aisle.

“Helena, wait!” She stopped and looked back at Hauser. “Don’t go, we need to talk about this.”

“I’m sorry, Father, but my next class is about to start. If I say anything more, I’ll be late. Do you understand? I can’t tell you anything else right now because of class.”

Leaving the priest bewildered but concerned, she rushed out of the church.



The student stared at the entrance to the school, deep in thought. He was a senior, but he had been gone for a while. His hair was long and unkempt, his shirt was undone with rolled up sleeves, and he even had a tattoo on his neck. To strangers, he looked like nothing more than a punk that didn’t belong in a strict Catholic school, but above all, he was a man of faith, and the scowl he wore was one of stoicism. He had finally come back to school after taking care of business back home, but now he was hesitant to step onto the premises.

“There’s something evil here.”





Chapter 3



“Your teachers sure weren’t happy about you not coming in. You were supposed to be back for class yesterday. Did things back home take longer than expected?”

Father Hauser was in his office, pouring a cup of tea for a student. He was a senior, taller and more muscular than others in his grade, and while he had high grades, he was often punished for his disregard of dress code and proper appearance. His long hair was unkempt, his shirt a mess, and he had a bandana around his head. He took the cup of tea but sat it down on the table beside him.

“Not exactly, I just didn’t quite feel comfortable coming back to school. I still don’t feel comfortable here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Father, has… has anything strange been going on?”

“Such as…?”

“I’m not sure, but when I came here yesterday… something felt wrong to me. I stood at the entrance to the campus and I had the feeling that I had to turn around and leave.”

Sitting behind his desk, Father Hauser leaned back in his chair. “Was this like the other times? Did it feel like the investigations?”

“Much worse. Normally when I come to a scene, I can feel something watching me, always one or at most a handful. I can feel their presence and their desire to keep me out. Here, it’s like I’m being ignored but I still feel the evil. There is something in this school, and while it isn’t aware of who I am, the weight of its presence is more intense than anything I’ve ever felt.”

“Thane, do you really believe there is something at this school? A spirit? A poltergeist? A demon?”

“None of those. This is something new.”

“And you’re sure?”

“Absolutely.”

Once again, Hauser leaned back in his chair, deep in thought.

“You know something, don’t you?” Thane asked.

“A few days ago, there were three suicides in the city. They weren’t our students, but it was very unusual. They were performed simultaneously at different locations and in very gruesome ways. Then yesterday, a student came and told me about a dream she had of a coming war. She told me that everyone in school was in danger.”

“Who was she? What was her name?”

“Thane, do you really think I can tell you that? I don’t want you bothering her. She’s clearly stressed and I want her to be able to put this whole matter behind her. I don’t know what kind of dream she had, but if it really was just a dream, then it’s better that she forget it.”

The anxious student sighed. “All right, I understand. Just please keep a lookout for anything unusual.”

“I will, as soon as you get to class.”



“What did you want to talk to me about?”

Xavier was facing Lily, the two of them standing in the shade behind the school gymnasium. The small girl was even more nervous than before, but she seemed less mournful.

“You said you wouldn’t abandon me, right?”

He gave her a bright smile, one that warmed her heart. “Of course I would never abandon you. You’re too precious to me to ever leave you behind.”

“There’s something I really need to tell you. Xavier… I… I l-lo…”

She turned away from him with her hands over her face, overwhelmed with embarrassment. He stepped forward and lifted her chin, forcing her to look up at him. “Relax, you can tell me anything.”

He put his other arm against the wall behind her, sealing her in.

“Xavier, I l-love you,” she murmured with a blush of fear on her cute face.

Xavier worked to suppress a wicked grin. ‘She’s even easier than I thought. I originally figured it would take at least two weeks for her to progress this far. Hell, I probably won’t even need to use any powers to shape her into the perfect little slave.’

Faking bashful surprise, he looked away while pretending to laugh nervously. “Wow, really? No girl has ever told me that before, especially one as pretty as you.”

That compliment sealed the deal.

“Yes, I really love you. You’re the first person who’s ever been nice to me. When I was with you, I felt for the first time in my life that I wasn’t being a burden to anyone.”

“Well, to be honest, I love you too. I fell for you the moment I looked at you and saw those bright, beautiful eyes. You have such a soft and gentle soul. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Lily wiped away tears of joy. “Really? Then we can be together?”

“Of course, but we’ll have to be careful. Dating is strictly forbidden here and we can’t get caught. It will be a secret love, understand?”

In his mind, Xavier was cackling at the look of happiness on her face. A secret love? Even to him it sounded ridiculous.

“Yes, I understand! I’ll keep it secret!”

“Ok, but if we’re going to be together, we need to set some rules. They’ll help protect us and make sure we can be together forever.”

She nodded eagerly, as if not even hearing what he said.

“First rule: You have do everything I tell you without question. We can’t be in a relationship if I don’t have your complete and total trust. You do trust me, don’t you?”

“Of course I trust you! I’ll do anything you ask me!”

He rubbed the top of her head. “I know you will, because you’re such a good girl. The second rule is that you can’t talk to anyone unless I give you permission. Other people won’t understand our special bond, so we can’t let them get close. Do you understand? If anyone were to find out about us, we wouldn’t be allowed to be together. At this school, all we have is each other, nobody else.”

She ate it up, willing to agree to anything in return for some scraps of affection. He then got down on one knee, but never dropping below her eye level. Reaching out, he placed his hands on her cheeks.

“The third rule is simple, we have to love each other more anyone else possibly could. Nobody on this earth will ever love you as much as I do, just like I know nobody could ever love me as much as you do, understand?”

She nodded and he took a moment to wipe away more tears of joy. He then changed his tone, putting on the façade of desperation. “And the fourth rule is that if you break any of the other rules, you’ll need to be disciplined. You have to follow the rules, no matter what, so if you break them, I’ll be forced to punish you. I don’t want to have to punish you; it would break my heart. Please, I beg you, don’t force me to do it. Do you understand?”

She again nodded, the slightest twitch of unease in her eyes at the mention of punishment, but her heart easily convinced. She had to never break the rules. She couldn’t allow herself to be so cruel as to make Xavier punish her.

“Good, then how about we consummate the relationship?”

Shock flashed across her face. “What?”

“Well we know that we’re going to get married someday, so we might as well make love now.”

She looked around nervously. “You mean… here?”

“Well we can’t do it in your room or mine, not with our roommates always around. We have to be clever about where we do it so that we’re not discovered. Besides, wouldn’t it just be so lovely? To fulfill our bond outside, the fresh air to our skin? We’re doing what nature intended us to do, so doesn’t it seem the most fitting that our first time be out in nature instead of in some dark bedroom? We could do it here in the cool shade or out in the light and feel the warmth of the sun on our entwined bodies.”

He could tell he had won her over, but she was still very hesitant. She was wringing her skirt, unable to look at him. “I… I don’t know how to make love,” she soft softly.

Xavier smiled and again rubbed the top of her head. “Don’t worry, I know how it’s supposed to be done. I’ll show you the way; just do whatever I tell you and don’t resist anything. First thing’s first, take off your clothes and let me see that beautiful body of yours.”

Trembling like a leaf but desperate to keep Xavier happy, she unbuttoned her blouse and pulled off her skirt. He then took the next step for her, sliding her panties down her smooth legs and unfastening her bra. While she was scrawny for her age, she was showing signs of development, with a small patch of pubic hair above her slit and modest B-cup breasts. Her skin was like the flesh of a ripe peach, porcelain white and as soft as flower petals. She tried to hide herself, not from Xavier, but from the world around them.

“You are so gorgeous,” he said as he kissed her hand.

The touch of his lips to her soft skin relaxed her and she allowed her muscles to untwist. Down on one knee, he traced his fingers around her bright pink areolas, making her shiver.

“Your nipples are very sensitive erogenous zones. Do you know what that means? It means that they provide sexual pleasure when stimulated.”

He then began to kiss her breasts, taking time to tease her small buds with his tongue. Lily leaned against the brick wall behind her, panting from the blissful sensation of such intimate contact. Whichever nipple he wasn’t sucking on, he pinched with his fingers to make her whine. He came up and started kissing her, showing her how to move her lips and touching her tongue with his. With their tongues wrapped around each other, he placed his hand between her legs and rubbed her virgin gate with his thumb. She wanted to push his hand away, suddenly feeling scared as things progressed, but she obeyed Xavier and allowed him to tease the tight lips. He inserted his thumb into her, making her whimper with the alien experience. He moved back and forth inside her, loosening her up and making her whole body flare with a fever of arousal. It was when he started rubbing her clit that her voice really began to leak out.

“This is your clitoris. It’s incredibly sensitive, and if I touch it enough, it’ll make you have an orgasm, otherwise known as “cumming”. Are you ready?”

“Ready for what?”

Instead of answering, Xavier slipped his index and middle finger into her, struggling to fit them in so tight a slit. Lily released a stifled moan and Xavier’s movements changed, now becoming rapid and indifferent. He was jamming his fingers deep inside her at frantic speeds while using his thumb to work her clit like the action button of a videogame controller. She leaned on him, gagging from the overwhelming sensations. With all of her willpower, she held onto Xavier’s collar with her teeth, trying not to let her uncontrollable moaning escape. Xavier continued his assault on her pussy, fingering her so hard and fast that she raised one leg to try and lesson the extreme sensations. He grabbed her other leg and lifted her off the ground, putting her whole weight on his hand as he pumped his fingers in her like the firing pin of an uzi. Her body was trembling from the force of his thrusts, her tiny ass jiggling with her inner thighs wet from her spilling wetness.

At last, she gave the signifying moan that she had achieved her first orgasm. Waves of pleasure swept through her, filling her mind with fireworks while every muscle simultaneously convulsed. She collapsed on his shoulder, panting like a marathon runner. He sat her down on the ground, leaning her against the brick wall. While he waited for her to catch her breath, he licked his fingers clean.

“Your fingers are so big,” she whined as he kissed her neck.

“Oh, you are in for a big surprise.”

He then stood up and unbuckled his pants, letting his cock jump out like a springboard. She stared at it with wide eyes, having never seen an actual penis in her life. To her it was terrifyingly large. What was he going to do with it?

“Now for the next lesson, oral sex. This is my cock and I want you to suck on it. Think of it as a big lollipop. Can you do that for me?” She stared at it in uncertainty, unable to answer. “Put your hand on it and stroke it first, just to get used to it.”

Her small hand trembling, she slowly reached up and wrapped her fingers around his member. The feel of it was almost scary to her, both the incredible heat it seemed to give off and the pulsating muscles beneath the skin. She moved her hand back and forth, using that touch to familiarize herself with it.

“Ok, now bring your face up close to it.”

Looking up him for confirmation, she leaned forward and he rubbed the head against her lips, smearing them with precum. It felt so hot to her, like it would actually burn her. He put it between her lips, letting her kiss it.

“Open your mouth and take in as much as you can. Whatever you do, don’t let your teeth touch it.”

She opened her mouth wide and he slid it in, taking his time to rub the head against her tongue. She closed her lips around it and he slowly pushed it in until she started to gag.

“There you go. Doesn’t it feel good to have that in your mouth? Now start moving your head back and forth. Suck on it like a vacuum, use your tongue and cheeks.”

Desperate to obey, she began bobbing her head while using the softest parts of her mouth to pleasure him. He sighed with a smile as she diligently worked, her confidence and skill rising with each passing second. He put his hand on her head, breathing heavily from the efforts of the young woman.

“You’re such a good girl. Now let’s see just how deep we can get it in.”

Holding the sides of her head, he pushed himself in to her throat. Immediately she tried to push him off her, feeling her gag reflex firing up and trying to expel the mass.

“No, don’t fight it. You’re supposed to choke on it. Just relax your throat and let it happen.”

Tears were streaming down her face and saliva was pouring from her lower lip and making a mess on her breasts. He managed to bury himself in all the way, with his testicles resting on her chin. Lily looked like she was about to pass out, wordlessly whining that she couldn’t breath. He at last pulled out of her, letting her take a desperate breath of air, then smeared his cock across her face and put it back in her mouth. Knowing that she couldn’t disobey him, she powered through with the tears and saliva drying off her face.

“Ok, I think I’m about to cum. Open your mouth and stick your tongue out.”

Glad to have it out of her throat, she opened wide while he stroked himself, breaking the seal of his orgasm. The first shot of semen went across her face, shocking her, and the second and third covered her tongue. The second she closed her mouth, she shuddered in revulsion and tried to spit it out, but Xavier stopped her.

“No, swallow it all. Do you know what is? That’s the liquid form of my love for you. Are you really going to just spit it out?”

Her eyes watering, she gave in and forced it down her throat, feeling like she had just swallowed a spoonful of salty honey. He then wiped the semen off her face and held her hand out to her. Having developed an instinct for obedience, she started licking his hand clean like a cat, making sure that every last sperm ended up in her mouth.

“You’re doing perfect, just to be expected from the world’s best girlfriend. Now onto the main dish: intercourse.”

“What’s that?”

Xavier motioned to his re-hardening manhood. “I’m going to put this inside of you. What I did with my fingers, that was just practice.”

Fear filled her at the prospect of such an act. That big thing was going to go inside her?! “I can’t do it, it’s too big! I’m sorry, but it just won’t be able to fit.”

Xavier turned away from her and sighed. “I shouldn’t be surprised. This kind of thing is for mature adults and you’re just a little kid. I guess you and I can’t be together after all. I’ll just have to wait four or five years until you can handle it.”

Lily scrambled to her feet. “No! Please! I can do it! Please don’t go!”

Xavier smiled. “That’s my girl. Ok, turn to the wall and bend over with your legs spread. Put your hands on the wall.

Getting into position, she shivered as Xavier stood behind her and picked her up by her hips, needing to do so due to the difference in their heights. With one arm wrapped around her, he used his free hand to penetrate her. Lily whined as the muscular mass pushed through her lips and entered her body. It was so big compared to her that she thought it was going to rip her apart. Xavier didn’t hesitate to rupture her hymen, simply pushing himself until he was buried inside her up to the base. She was so tight around him, her tiny body struggling to accommodate his cock. Lily was pushing against the wall with tears running down her face. She couldn’t show Xavier any weakness. She had to prove she loved him.

Loving the feel of wearing yet another deflowered girl like a condom, Xavier chuckled to himself and pulled out, letting her virgin blood drip off the shaft of his dick. Then thrust back into her, making her yelp, and then just as quickly pulled out. He began pumping her with a steady but building rhythm, slamming his manhood against the entrance to her womb, pulling out, and then repeating. With every thrust, Lily gave a small cry of pain, but with the passing seconds, that pain became mixed with pleasure. Their position was awkward and soon had to be reworked.

Xavier had Lily pressed against the wall like he was arresting her, holding her off the ground with one of her legs raised so that he had easy access. She could smell the mortar in the wall, and her nipples were chaffing against the cold brick. Was this was love was supposed to feel like? Did everyone do it this way? Getting mounted from behind with their face against a wall? No, she couldn’t let herself think like that. Xavier loved her, he told her so. Besides, he was the only one that loved her; she had to remember that. She had no one but him.

Eventually the position further devolved, Xavier now holding Lily like a wheelbarrow, continuing to violate her small body with her trying to hold herself off the ground. An increase in the roughness of Xavier’s thrusts told her that he was cumming again, and proving her right, he suddenly stopped and she could feel jets of hot sperm being emptied into her womanhood. The white syrup overflowed from her tiny pussy, running down her belly, between her small breasts, and dripping off her chin. Xavier lowered her to the ground, the young woman curled up and panting. He picked up her discarded panties and used them to wipe off his deflating manhood.

“Can you feel that? Can you feel how much love I just shot into you?” She silently nodded, not trusting her voice. “Good, you and I are going to be spending a lot of time together. Your body belongs to me now, got it?” She nodded again. “Good, and make sure you shave yourself down there before our next meet. Hair is a real turnoff for me.”



The pages were flipped with anger and impatience, but refused to give up the secrets Helena was after. She was in the library, looking for any information she could get on the Antichrist. She couldn’t find much; every mentioning was about what would happen with the Apocalypse and told her nothing that she didn’t already know from reading the bible: a charismatic guy would appear, a genius of politics and economics, who would use fake miracles and lies to turn people away from Christ. Then Jesus would show up and the Apocalypse would happen.

But nothing told her how to beat him herself, or how to at least fight him. What really concerned her was that he wasn’t following the biblical prophecy. He claimed he witnessed Christ’s crucifixion and had been wandering the globe ever since. So why hadn’t he made his move yet? Why was he still pretending to just be a high school student? Had he always had his current appearance? Or could he change the way he looked so that he could better assume identities and positions of power? He had mentioned earlier that he was thinking about his future, that there was a whole world just waiting to be conquered. What was he really planning?

She closed the book she had been reading and leaned back in her chair. ‘This isn’t getting me anywhere. If I’m going to find his weakness, then I’ll need to do some investigation.’



Father Hauser sat in his small office, deep in thought. The things Helena and Thane had told him were very concerning. He had known Helena since she first came to Rosewood University and regarded her as a very brave and spirited young woman. She often came to him for help when she did something bad, both in search of guidance and for help escaping the Discipline Committee’s wrath. But when she spoke to him in the church… that was the first time he had seen her truly frightened. Why would she say the entire school was in danger and then just run off?

He thought back to what she said, searching for clues. ‘She said that there was going to be a war that would show the truth. Show… the truth… What truth? What was she talking about? If there were a war, why would everyone in the school be in danger? Would it happen here? If it did, then that would mean everyone in Rome is in danger. Thane said that there was something dark in the school as well, something different from the other cases. Maybe… Helena is a victim of possession and what she saw was a nightmare brought on by whatever is haunting her? Thane told me to keep a lookout for any strange phenomena, maybe I should try looking at Helena…’



“Excuse me, are you Chad?”

The pudgy student, studying at a sunlit table on the grassy campus, looked up. “Yes, can I help you?”

“My name is Helena, and I was hoping I could ask you something.”

“Ok, shoot.”

She sat down next to him at the picnic table, setting her book bag beside her. “You’re Xavier’s roommate, right?”

“Uh… yeah.”

“Is there anything you could tell me about him? Anything weird you might have noticed about him?”

Chad looked around in confusion. “Why are you asking? You do know that dating is forbidden in this school, right?”

Helena groaned in annoyance. “I’m not curious in that way. I met him the day he first came here and he seems like kind of a weird guy. I’m just wondering if it’s something only I’m noticing or if he just seems quirky to everyone.”

“He doesn’t seem weird to me. He’s quiet, doesn’t talk to me much, but he’s always very polite.”

“Does he have any weird stuff in your room? Anything that might give a clue as to where he’s from?”

“Nope, or at least I haven’t seen anything. He did have a duffle bag with him that he keeps under his bed, but I don’t think there is anything weird in there.”

‘A duffle bag? There may be some clues in there.’ “Ok, well I guess it was just a strange first impression he gave me. I should get going. Thank you.”

Hooking her arm around the straps of her book bag, she stood up but intentionally threw herself off balance and into a fall. “Whoa!”

Swinging her arm, she “accidentally” struck Chad in the face with her book bag, breaking his nose and sending him to the ground, howling in pain.

‘Lord, please forgive me for that. I’m only doing what I must.’ “Oh my god, Chad! I’m so sorry, are you alright?!” He only gave a muffled cry, trying to stop the blood pouring to his nose. “It’s ok, I’ll help get you to the infirmary.” Taking advantage of his pain, she pulled him to his feet while sneaking her hand into his pocket and taking his dorm room key. ‘And please forgive me for that too.’



There was hushed muttering in the cafeteria as Thane made his way to the kitchen with an empty tray for dinner. He was well-known in this school, more than just for his untidy appearance.

“Who is that guy?” a sixteen-year-old girl asked her friend, the two of them watching from their table.

“That’s Alexander Thane, he’s a senior. From what I’ve heard, priests will ask him for help from time to time.”

“Help? Help for what?”

“Exorcisms. Supposedly he’s got some really sharp sixth sense and is able to free people from possession faster than any other priest. I think he once said that he was going to become a priest and just do exorcisms as a specialist. He’ll probably be recruited into the Vatican pretty soon.”

Thane got in line in the kitchen, moving his tray down the metal slide. Someone got behind him. At that moment, his entire body froze and became suddenly drenched with a cold sweat. Around him, the paint peeled off the walls, the food became rotten, the metal rusted, and everyone in the kitchen turned to skeletons and crumbled. The ceiling above his head was ripped away, revealing a hurricane of fire overhead. Feeling a blaring heat on his back, he turned around. The school was gone, all of Rome swept aside as if by a nuclear explosion. In its place was a literal mountain of skeletons, with flames streaming up through the eye sockets of the skulls and between the bones. At the top of the mountain sat a figure on an obsidian throne, surrounded by naked women with collars on their necks, swooning at his feet and clambering for his attention.

The figure was twenty feet in height with a very muscular build. In the literal blink of an eye, the figure disappeared and reappeared in front of Thane, their faces so close that he could see nothing but the bloody flames churning in his eyes. A colossal hand closed around his throat and a monstrous roar slammed into his eardrums, making him nearly pass out in agony.

“Hey, are you ok?”

Thane was shaken from the hallucination, finding Xavier standing in front of him. The hand that had been around his throat was instead on his shoulder. Everyone in the kitchen was staring at the two of them.

“Can you hear me? Are you alright?”

Thane nodded and Xavier stepped by. The senior stared at him as he walked away, picking up food laid out by the cafeteria workers and setting it on his tray.

‘What in God’s name was that?’

Xavier was thinking the same thing, while on his face, his lips had curled into an insidious smirk. ‘Interesting, very interesting.’



Helena looked down the hallway both ways for the umpteenth time, scared out of her mind. Completely ignoring the fact that girls were forbidden to enter the boys’ dormitory and she was essentially breaking into a dorm room after stealing a key from a student she assaulted, she was entering the Antichrist’s bedroom. She was sure he would be at dinner, but for all she knew, he could be lying in his bed, waiting for her. All of the dorm rooms in this corridor were empty, but the clicking of the key seemed louder than it should have been. She opened the door and stepped inside, feeling her heart beating in her ears. The room was empty, prompting a deep sigh of relief.

‘Ok, the first thing I have to do is figure out which is his bed.’

There weren’t any pictures or anything on the bedside tables and no posters on the walls. She crouched down beside the bed on the right, about to reach under and see if there was a duffle bag underneath. She stopped, suddenly realizing that it was in fact his bed. It smelled like him. For some reason, she found herself enjoying the scent.

Feeling her heart flutter, she slapped herself. “What the hell are you thinking?!”

Reaching under the bed, she grabbed his duffle bag and pulled it out. Unzipping the bag, she opened it wide but found only spare clothes. She dug through them, having to be careful and make sure that anything she touched was put back in its rightful place. Her patience wore thin though, and she merely emptied the contents on the floor. Moving aside the clothes, she found his wallet and passport, but found nothing of importance inside. According to his ID, he was from New Zealand, but considering his age, she knew that to be a lie. Underneath a discarded coat, she found a small photo album, about the size of a pocketbook. She was scared to open it, having a good idea of what was inside. They were probably pictures of women, either before or after he raped them, but they might also offer a clue as to his origins. She opened it up, feeling the knot in her stomach immediately unraveling.

The first picture was the Pyramids of Giza, taken from what looked like the balcony of a hotel room. The next one was a selfie, with Xavier standing… no… it couldn’t be… at the summit of Everest?! He was looking at the camera, not wearing any winter gear, completely unaffected by the cold. He was smiling. The third picture was very old, black and white even, and it showed the Eifel Tower. The fourth looked like it was from an old Polaroid camera. It showed Xavier, sitting on the grass at Stonehenge, with a big St. Bernard sitting next to him. Was that his dog? Or had the owners allowed him to take a picture with it? He wasn’t the one holding the camera, and like at Everest, he was smiling.

Helena slowly flipped through the photo album, keeping her eye on the clock but also taking her time on every picture. There was no telling what he had been doing before the creation of cameras, no kind of documentation of his actions, but could it be possible that he had always been like this? Traveling from place to place like a tourist? Had he really spent these last two thousand years like a college student backpacking around the globe? He was never with people in these pictures, never in a group photo, but there were plenty of pictures of him with dogs. She had seen Xavier smile, such as the fake one he wore when around people, and the sadistic smirk he had when he showed his true colors, like when he raped Sophie. These were different. He looked… happy. Was it possible for even the Antichrist to feel something so innocent as happiness without hurting someone? Was his appearance not his only human quality?

These pictures proved his age, some of them looking like they dated back to the nineteenth century. If she showed them to someone, she could convince them of what he was. She put his clothes back in his bag, arranging everything the way they had been before, but kept the photo album with her. About to leave with it, she pulled her hand off the doorknob as she felt her collar activate. It seemed that Xavier had predicted something like this and made rules regarding certain possessions. She finally had what she needed to break free of Xavier’s control and save Sophie and the rest of the school, but it was out of her reach.

She looked at the small leather book in her hand. It was the seal that had stopped her from taking it, but for some reason, a small part of her felt glad that she couldn’t. She had been so desperate for proof of what he was, proof that she could use to reveal him and free herself, but this wasn’t the kind of proof that she wanted. She wanted to use his evil against him, to reveal his crimes to the world so that he could be stopped and hopefully even destroyed. As much as she hated him and as much as she wanted him dead, it didn’t feel right to use his one piece of innocence as a weapon. She wanted the smoking gun that would show the world that he was a monster, not the one cherished possession that proved that even a monster like him was capable of joy.

She pulled his duffle bag back out from under his bed and returned to photo album. Xavier may have won this round, but she would find something she could use against him, something that would end his reign. With everything just as it had been since before she arrived, she made her escape from the dorm. She kept the key with her, hoping she could use it again sometime.



That night, Xavier came to her room to have his way with Sophie again. This time, he had her on her knees, bent over with her wrists bound to the headboard like before. He laughed as he raped her, thrusting into her deflowered pussy like a jackhammer. Every time he pushed in, his thighs would clap against her ass and make it jiggle. Sophie was crying nonstop, her anguish heightened when he would reach down and strangle her bouncing breasts. Paralyzed in her bed like before, Helena could do nothing but watch, crying tears of her own. The second time around was no less awful, the pain of watching her best friend being brutalized feeling like an icicle going through her heart. She just had to hope that Xavier would again erase Sophie’s memory and restore her body.

‘Just hang on, Sophie. I’ll find a way to save you.’





Chapter 4



Lily whimpered with her face to the ground, feeling more humiliated than ever in her life. She felt like she was doing something wrong, something dangerous and unwholesome. She was with Xavier behind the university gym, enjoying the privacy. Buzzing inside her were two large vibrators, one in her ass and one in her pussy, with Xavier stirring them to further intensify the tidal wave of sensations sweeping through her. He was training her in anal play, having convinced her that it would be a great method of bringing her joy and physical pleasure, as well as let them break down the physical and emotional barriers between them.

In reality, he was doing this to weaken whatever resistance she might have to his will. The more he humiliated her like this, the more accustomed she would be to following his orders. But this covert abuse wasn’t all that was in their relationship. Over the weekend, he had taken her off campus for a couple of dates, the first being lunch and walk around the park and the second being dinner and a movie. Never in her life had Lily smiled so much and been so happy as when she clung to Xavier’s arm, and her love for him only grew stronger. This concoction of affection and abuse was turning her into the perfect slave.

“So how does your ass feel?” he asked while licking his lips.

“I-it f-feels… really… w-weird!” she whined.

“But you must enjoy it, don’t you? The feel the toys buzzing in your naughty parts? I bet it’ll really feel good if I do this…”

He revealed another vibrator, about the size of a dime and worn on his finger with a small strap. He pressed it to her clitoris, making Lily’s voice jump in volume. The expression on her face, it was like she was melting. She couldn’t take it anymore; the three toys were too much. Covering her mouth with her hand, she cried out as she had orgasm after orgasm, cumming so hard that the toy in her pussy was pushed out with a splash of her liquid arousal. Her small body heaving from her desperate panting, she shivered as she felt Xavier’s tongue replace the dildo in her ass. After all the time with the vibrators inside her, her interior was incredibly sensitive, but that didn’t stop him from licking every corner. He moved back and forth between the two orifices, sending his tongue so deep inside her that should have almost sworn that he was part snake.

“I can still smell the soap from how hard you scrubbed down here in the shower. You’re such a good girl. I love going down on you, you have a delicious and beautiful body.”

“Really?”

“Oh course, you’re the most beautiful girl in the entire world.”

He pulled away and got to his feet, proceeding to unbuckle his pants and let his manhood break free. “Make sure you get it good and wet so that it will slide in easy.”

Sitting up, Lily took his cock in her mouth as if it had become second nature. They hadn’t been dating long, but Xavier had quickly taught her what her duty was as his woman. Several times during their dates, and every time they were able to meet up during the school day, he would have her suck him off until she had mastered it. She had even learned how to deep-throat him without nearly throwing up or suffocating. Her head bobbed back and forth with the end of his cock rubbing against the back of her throat. He made sure to stroke her hair and give her a loving smile, as well as tell her what a good girl she was and what a perfect job she was doing.

After a few minutes, he had her stop and then sat down on the ground, motioning for her to get on. Knowing what he wanted, she crouched over his lap and spread her cheeks, letting him set her down on his cock. She yelped as she felt him enter her, his member being larger than the dildo he had used on her.

“Can you feel it? Our bodies are joined together, just as they should be.”

“Yeah,” she murmured, “I can feel it.”

With her back to him, Xavier had her put her feet on his knees and started bucking his hips, thrusting up into her with centuries of experience. Lily had to work to keep her voice contained, feeling her body wanting to convulse from the sensation of Xavier’s manhood slamming into her back door. She often wished he could be more merciful with how hard he fucked her, especially since this was her first time being sodomized, but as long as he loved her and as long as she got to cum, she could hold in her complaints. Besides, she was beginning to enjoy it.

“Your asshole feels so nice around my cock, it’s so warm and soft. Do you feel good?”

“Yes! It feels good!”

“Then I’ll make you feel even better.”

He wrapped one arm around her legs and lifted them, curling her up with her knees to his chest. While continuing to send his cock deep into her asshole, he used his other hand to finger her dripping pussy. It took less than a minute for them to both cum, Lily soaking Xavier’s fingers and Xavier sending spurt after spurt of semen into her asshole.

“Can you feel it? Feel how much love I pumped into you?”

“I can feel it, it’s so hot inside me,” she whimpered.

Xavier had engraved this into her mind: semen equaled affection. He had brainwashed her into thinking that it was the physical manifestation of his love for her. She would lick it off the floor if any drops were to fall and would beg him to pour it into her.

“Ok, time to suck it clean.”

“B-but it was in my…”

“I still have more semen, don’t you want to drink it up? Besides, you have to clean me off.”

She wordlessly obeyed, getting off his lap and turning around. She winced at the taste but did as she was told and began sucking on his cock. As she stirred his manhood around in her mouth, she suddenly shuddered. Xavier had just inserted a small butt plug in her rear end.

“There. That way it won’t leak out and go to waste. I want you to keep it inside you until we can meet up tomorrow. Do not take it out, got it?”

She gave a sad nod and crawled over to her pile of clothes. Xavier quickly stopped her and kissed her on the cheek. “You’re beautiful, you know that? You’re as beautiful as you are sweet.”

She smiled, her unease removed.



Thane crouched down in the hallway, duct-taping a battery to the wall. He had done this well over a hundred times already, taking advantage of his free period to try and shed some light on what was going on. He had to be quiet when he moved around like this, as while the school did give him some allowances, there were classes going on all around him. Making sure he couldn’t be seen through the small window in the door of the classroom at his side, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a compass. The needle jiggled from the movement, but did not spin, something that would normally occur in an area of paranormal activity. What was going on? He was sure there was something evil in these halls, but if the compass wasn’t showing any signs, then this really was something different.

He put the compass back in his pocket and replaced it with a voice recorder.

“Elementary School Building, Wing 5. April 17th, 2015.
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever. Amen.”

He stopped the recorder and moved to the end of the all. With a camera in hand, he snapped a picture of the empty corridor.



Likewise, Father Hauser was doing research as well. Hearing Thane’s words had made him curious about something. He had told the student about the three suicides, but now he couldn’t help but wonder if maybe there was a connection between them and whatever it was that Thane was sensing. He was in his office, looking over every newspaper and tabloid he could get his hands on. The three suicides had made the news with their unusual and gruesome behavior, but the information he was able to glean was limited. He knew their names and what school they went to, but nothing personal. There was plenty of speculation of course; different sources claiming that they had been on drugs, that it was a Satanic ritual, or that they had done it simply to get their fifteen minutes of fame.

He had considered speaking to the parents of the victims, but that wouldn’t work. He was a priest, not a detective. He wasn’t even the priest from their church. They had no reason to answer his questions and were probably sick of the inquirers, not to mention that as a Catholic priest, he had to keep a distance from the families since the boys had committed the sin of suicide.

Wait, there was something. On one of the tabloids, he saw that the boys had been admitted to and released from a hospital that very day. Why did they all go to the hospital? Did it have something to do with their deaths?



Helena watched Xavier have his way with the crying Sophie, as he had done time and time again. She had lost count of how many times she had been forced to watch. She had no idea how many hours he had spent raping her best friend in front of her. These long, restless nights were sapping her strength, making it difficult to stay awake during class. When she did sleep, she had nightmares of Xavier. He would be in her bed, fondling her, whispering in her ear. Some nights, he wouldn’t show up, and she would lie awake, waiting for him out of dread. She wasn’t sure why he’d skip, thinking that maybe he was doing it just to mess with her. The other possibility was that he had gotten his fill of the flesh of a woman, finding some other poor girl to use.

Hours later, he stood up, panting with semen dribbling out of Sophie’s pussy and asshole. He then turned to Helena, still paralyzed. A small smile, he strode over to her, making her heart race with each step he took. What was he going to do to her? Was she next?

He sat down on the bed, licking his lips while he stroked her hair. “What do you think? By now, you must have developed a taste for it.” He reached under the covers and Helena struggled against her paralysis, feeling his fingers reach her moist panties. “My, my, you’re so wet. Are you aware of how horny you are? What goes through your mind while I violate Sophie? Is it the fact that I’m brutalizing her that turns you on? Do you enjoy seeing her suffer? Do her screams of pain and humiliation make you shiver? Or do you feel left out? Do you envy her for being able to feel the manhood of her master thrusting deep into her slit?”

With her lips stuck together, she could only give a muffled rejection.

“Ah, I love that wrathful fire in your eyes. Let’s put it to the test, shall we?”

With a flick of his hand, he drew a notecard from nonexistence, holding it between his fingers. He slipped it under her pillow. “Time for things to start moving between you and I. Goodnight.”

He then kissed her on the forehead and disappeared.



Helena slowly stirred to the sound of her alarm clock. The events of last night were blurred to her. She remembered Xavier brutalizing Sophie… then coming over to her. Wait, the notecard! About to look for it under her pillow, she realized it was clutched tightly in her hands, the way she would clutch her medallion in prayer. Making sure Sophie didn’t see it, she faced the wall and read the card.

IF YOU WANT TO PROTECT SOPHIE FROM ME TONIGHT, WAIT FOR HER TO LEAVE THE ROOM AND SAY THE WORDS “PUNISH ME”. YOUR TASK FOR THE DAY WILL BEGIN.

Helena’s heart dropped into her stomach. Oh God, what in the world was he going to have her do?!

“Helena, aren’t you getting up?” Sophie asked as she got dressed.

She took a deep breath. “I really just want to lie in bed for a little while longer. Go on to breakfast without me, I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Ok, but please don’t fall back to sleep. You don’t want to miss breakfast AND be late for class.”

“I’ll be fine, just go on ahead.”

Sophie left and Helena immediately sat up in bed. She looked over the card again, studying every millimeter. There was no fine print she could find, no other instructions or clarifications. If she said the words “punish me”, then she would be given some kind of task for the day, and in exchange, Sophie would be free from torment for that night. But could she believe Xavier? Would he keep his word? Would this task really only last for a day or would this be the submission he claimed he would win from her? She knew… she had to do it. What kind of friend would she be if she allowed that monster to have his way with Sophie when she had the chance to protect her? And if Christ was willing to give his life for the sins of all mankind, she could put up with Xavier’s cruelty for the sake of her friend’s safety.

She stood up out of bed and took a deep breath. “Lord, give me strength.” She looked down at the card. “Punish me.”

Her collar immediately activated, turning into a ring of light around her neck. From the ring stretched black ribbons, wrapping around her torso over and over again in complex knots. Known as the tortoise shell formation, they formed a net across her body like a spider web. She didn’t feel anything from the ribbons; they were fairly loose. It was awkward and embarrassing, sure, but not painful or even very unpleasant. About to think that she had lucked out, she gagged as the ribbons merged with her skin, turning into tattoos. It wasn’t the sensation of them merging with her that had nearly brought her to her knees, but what happened on those lines. Invisible ropes bound her, following the pattern of the lines etched into her skin. They were so tight, digging into her skin and making it hard to take full breaths. Her breasts were being squeezed as if with zip ties, while one segment of the rope went between her legs. Not only was had it settled in her ass like a thong, but there was a knot right against her clitoris.

She fell to her knees, blushing from the sensation of the bonds rubbing against her most sensitive spots. No matter how she moved, she felt the rope slide between her legs and around her breasts. She moved her hands across her body, feeling real invisible ropes tied around her, as if she could cut them off and them use them for mountain climbing. Or was it the lines on her skin making her feel like they were real? What was the point of this? To make her feel helpless? To inflict pain? It was certainly working. She had heard that people liked to be tied up like this for sexual pleasure, but she just failed to grasp how anyone could enjoy it. Though with the way the ropes were touching her, she could definitely feel stimulation…

She looked down at the card. The words had changed.

HAVE A NICE DAY AT SCHOOL

That son of a bitch.



“Good morning, Helena. Oh… wow, are you ok?”

Helena had arrived at the usual spot where she ate with her friends, and they immediately noticed how flushed her face was. It had taken a lot of courage to leave her room. Her clothes didn’t show the invisible ropes on her body, confirming for her that it was really the black lines on her skin that were binding her. Getting dressed had been difficult and going down the stairs had been even worse. The ropes weren’t chafing or leaving any marks. It was more like she was feeling intangible pressure and her nerve endings were being tricked into thinking they were really there.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

She sat down at the table, trying not to wince from the feeling of the rope grinding against her slit. The longer she was bound, the more sensitive she was becoming.

“Hey, look over there. It’s Thane. I heard he’s been missing a lot of classes.”

Helena looked to where her friend was pointing, spotting the disheveled student. “So what?”

“If Thane is missing class, it means he’s busy, and considering the work he does with the priests, it’s important. He’s an exorcist after all. Rumors say he’s been snooping around the school, looking for some kind of demon or something.”

Helena stared at him with wide eyes. ‘Wait, he’s looking for a demon? Is it possible that he knows Xavier is here? Maybe he can help me!’



Father Hauser sat in the waiting area by the entrance to the tabloid building. He had managed to convince the chief of the magazine to see him, and hopefully he could get more information on the suicides. Behind her desk, a receptionist got a call through her intercom.

“Father, he’ll see you know.”

He nodded in gratitude and walked over to the closed office door, which had a window of blurred glass with the chief’s name and title. He stepped into the office, the walls lined with framed headlines from the magazine. Working at his computer was the chief, an overweight balding man.

He stood up and shook Hauser’s hand. “Ah, Father Hauser, what can I do for you?”

“Thank you for meeting with me, Mr. Elan. I’m here because I wanted to ask you about the story you posted last week, about the three boys who killed themselves.”

“Father, I’m sure you know I can’t give up my sources, even to a man of the church.”

Hauser sighed. “Well then I was hoping you could tell me any other pieces of information you might have. I’m worried that there may be something going on with these deaths.”

“Oh please, you think you’re the only one? We weren’t the first paper to say they were doing Devil worship. Every media outlet is being hounded by zealots.”

“Well what I’m curious about is the fact that they were coming from a hospital. Can you at least tell me what you know about that?”

“Well from what we heard, they got assaulted that morning.”

“Wait, do you know by who?”

“Now I certainly can’t just give you that information. I do have—”

“I hereby absolve you of all your sins.”

“There we go. Supposedly it was a girl from Rosewood University.”



“Come on, O’Connor! Try to keep up!”

Regardless of the coach’s barking, Helena struggled to keep up with the other girls. It was gym class and she was swimming in the university pool. With the invisible ropes binding her, any kind of physical activity was a nightmare. She never realized how much she moved her torso when swimming, and every time she gasped for air, she felt her breath being halved from the tightness of the restraints. Then there was the humiliation she was feeling. Everything she had seen and experienced so far today told her that the ropes were invisible, but when wearing nothing but a school swimsuit, she felt like the whole world could see her in this shameful straightjacket. Then there were the lines, the black lines on her skin, as wide as her fingers and clear as day. Luckily, swimsuits at a Catholic school were as modest they could be. They were more like wetsuits but with shorter sleeves and pants legs and covering her throat like a turtleneck, so her collar and the binds around her shoulders were covered.

The class was supposed to do five laps, but by the time all the other girls were done, she had only accomplished two. She was more tired than any of them, feeling the ropes sap her strength. The sensation was different in the water. They felt almost like fingers brushing up against her flesh, like a full-body massage. It wasn’t nearly as blissful as a real massage, but the stimulation was just as potent. The tightness around her breasts like they were being fondled, the friction of the rope between her legs, and the grip on her shoulders and stomach left her a blushing wreck, clinging to the edge of the pool with the other girls and gasping for air. The water was cool but she felt so damn hot. Her classmates all looked back at her and whispered amongst themselves, wondering what was wrong with her.

No surprise, the coach stormed over. “O’Connor, what’s the matter with you? Normally you would have been the first to make the fifth lap, but now you look like a half-dead dog out there.”

“Sorry, Ms. Edwards. I’m feeling sick today.”

“Well you can’t do much if you’re sick. Go hit the showers and wait for class to end.”

Nodding in gratitude, Helena slowly climbed out of the pool and made her way to the locker room. This was actually the best possibility for her. She had been forced to change into her swimsuit before class in the privacy of the bathroom, wearing it under her uniform so that no one would see the tattoos. Now, she could shower and get dressed without anyone seeing her. She stepped into the showers and turned the hot water on, panting as she removed her swimsuit. She looked at the tattoos, feeling them pressing down on her. They looked so strange on her, but also seemed to compliment her figure. Now that she thought about it, the look was kind of cool. Perverted, sure, but ignoring that, the bible forbidding tattoos, the pain of getting them, and the cost, this wouldn’t be half bad to get permanently. She’d just need a less sinful version.

She released a gasp of euphoria as she stepped under the shower, feeling the hot water wash away the chill and the chlorine of the pool and ease her muscles. She ran her hands across her naked body, rubbing the tattoos to try and ease the tension of her binds. Why did this feel so good? She leaned against the wall, letting the water pour down her unclothed frame while she massaged herself. Her eyes bolted open when she realized what she was doing, discovering that she had started squeezing her breasts and was sliding her fingers between her legs. She held her arms out to her sides and shook her head like a dog, trying to free herself of these sinful sensations.

About to turn off the shower, she stopped and nearly fell to her knees. Her breathing became haggard and she clutched herself. The bonds, they were… changing! The tattoos rearranged themselves on her body taking a new pattern. Originally, amongst the different knots and webs on her chest and stomach, she had had a rope going between her legs like a thong, tucked into her ass with a knot against her clitoris, as well as two choking bonds around her breasts, as if they each had collars of their own. Now, she had two spider webs on her breasts, the arranged binds converging on what felt like two rings, pressing down on her areolas with her nipples poking through, making them swell and stand erect. The rope between her legs had now become two, but they were wrapped around her thighs like a harness. They had settled right in the creases, between the sides of her pussy and her inner thighs, squeezing the plump lips and making them pucker as if expecting a kiss.

Helena could barely stay on her feet. With how sensitive the first pattern had made her body, the changing on the bonds had almost invoked an orgasm, the first orgasm she had ever had. Catching her breath, she at last turned off the shower and staggered out. She sat down on one of the benches amongst the lockers, nearly yelping as the bonds tightened from the movements.

‘Oh God, how much longer am I going to have to suffer through this?’

Once her heartbeat had slowed, she dried herself off and changed back into her uniform. Just as she finished buttoning the top of her blouse, the door to the locker room swung open and her classmates strolled in. How long had she been in the shower? As she got her things together, her classmates all cleaned themselves off and came to the lockers to get dressed.

“Hey, loser!”

Helena rolled her eyes at the sound of the shrill voice. It belonged to someone she hated more than anyone else in the world, second only to Xavier: Daphne Brooke, one of the bitchiest girls in the school, and before the Antichrist’s arrival, she had been Helena’s nemesis. Their mutual hatred was understandable: Helena was an uptight child of God with a pure heart and soul (minus her violent temper and affinity for violence against heathens), and Daphne was a sinful delinquent with a hobby of “convincing” priests in training to break their vows of celibacy. In order to get her off drugs and put the fear of God in her, her parents had dumped her at Rosewood University. From day one, the two women had been at each other’s throats, always snitching on each other and badmouthing each other.

“What do you want, harlot?”

Helena’s rule was to never swear and she wasn’t going to break it because of Daphne. The worst she would ever call her was a whore, and even then it was only because it was a word used in the bible.

“I’m just enjoying the sight of the high and mighty “Saint Helena” falling behind everyone else. Let me guess, you’re still sick from throwing up this morning? Do you know who the father is?”

All the other girls watched and whispered amongst themselves, while Helena, having yet to even face Daphne, gave an annoyed sigh.

“I’m not pregnant, but knowing you, I’d be surprised if you could say the same. And even if I was, I would go through with childbirth and give that baby a wonderful life, unlike you with your trusty coat hanger and favorite dumpster.”

The other students all covered their mouths and silently laughed in shock from the brutality of Helena’s response.

Daphne just gave a smug sneer, tying her wiry black hair back into pigtails. “As if any man would be willing to put up with a girl who’s on her period 24/7.”

“Yeah, well, I at least I still get mine.”

Shutting her locker, Helena strode past Daphne, drunk on prideful triumph for getting the last word and making it perfect. Even the invisible binds couldn’t dampen her spirits after that righteous beating.



Xavier glared at Lily, cowering in shame before him.

“You took it out, didn’t you?”

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t sleep with it inside me. But I have it in me now!”

“That’s not the point! I trusted you with this task and you betrayed me! How am I supposed to believe in you?”

Lily kneeled down in front of him, her eyes filled with terror. “You can trust me! Please! I’m sorry! Please don’t leave me!”

Xavier put his hand on her head. “I’m not going to leave you, but you clearly don’t respect the rules and understand how important they are. You have to be punished. I don’t want to, but you’re forcing me to do this.”

“What do I have to do?”

“Follow me.”

With Lily behind him, Xavier entered the gymnasium and made his way to the storage room. There weren’t any classes going on, and while the teacher was in his office, Xavier was using his powers to put him in a brief coma. While he walked, it took all of Xavier’s willpower to keep from grinning. It was time to see just how devoted this stupid girl was. Would she leave him after this, or would her submissiveness only become more deeply rooted in her soul? Plus it would let him quench his thirst for malice.

He brought her into the dark storeroom and closed the door behind them. “Ok, take off your clothes.”

Lily did as she was told and Xavier had her stand under a low-hanging pipe. Taking her blouse, he looped it over the pipe and then tied the sleeves around her wrists, keeping her bound like shackles with her arms raised. Standing naked while tied up, Lily shivered with embarrassment and fear. This was different from all her other moments with Xavier, there would be no fun or pleasure. She had broken the rules and now she had to be punished. He was standing behind her, what was he doing?

The whiplash of a belt across her lower back made her cry out in pain unmatched by anything in her life. She could feel a red welt forming on her vanilla skin and she tried to hold back her tears.

“What are you doing?!”

“I’m punishing you. You broke the rules and brought this on yourself.”

He whipped her again, this time on her thighs. She screamed and pulled at the blouse binding her wrists. A third strike was delivered, landing across her rear end.

“I’m sorry! Please stop!” she sobbed.

“I thought you loved me,” he scolded while whipping her across the back three times.

“I do! I love you!”

He whipped her several more times, crisscrossing her back and ass with long bruises. He then had her turn around and face him, her eyes puffy and red from crying. But when she saw him, her eyes widened. He was crying as well, crocodile tears of course, but she didn’t know that.

‘He’s suffering too, this probably hurts him more than it does me! He really does love me!’

A strike to her flat belly robbed her of the smile that was about to appear.

“Every choice has consequences, this is how the world works. I gave you love and the promise of a beautiful future, but apparently that didn’t mean anything to you.” His belt slashed her inner thigh, just inches from her pussy, then twice more. “I thought you were a good girl. That was what made me love you.” She continued to cry, trying to lean back to lesson the pain when he whipped her between the legs. “Bad girls get punished because they hurt the people that care about them. Are you a bad girl? Good girls do whatever they’re told and follow the rules. Are you a good girl?”

Lily’s scream reached new heights of volume once he started whipping her breasts. Her nipples stung as if wasps had stung them and the nerves felt like they were on fire.

“I’ll never break the rules again! I’m a good girl! I’m a good girl! I’ll never disobey you again!”

“Good, then it seems the punishment did what it was supposed to.”

Xavier untied her and she collapsed to the cold concrete floor, her body lined with bruises. She looked up at him, her head shaking slightly as if she were drunk.

“I’m sorry I made you punish me. Can you forgive me?”

He got down and kissed her. “Yes, I forgive you.”

Lily then lied back and spread her legs. “Please give me your love, put it in all my holes.”

Xavier grinned and took out his cock, not hesitating to penetrate her tiny pussy and mount her like an animal.

‘It’s just so easy!’



Helena walked down the hallway in between class periods. She was exhausted, unable to ever get comfortable with the invisible binds stimulating her flesh every second. She was counting down the minutes until the end of the day, wondering when this curse would finally be lifted. Her panties were soaked, the rubbing of the rope between her legs made her vagina feel like a runny nose. Looking through the crowds of students, she came to a sudden stop and felt her heart drop. Walking towards her was Xavier, that usual smirk on his face, like he had the whole world in the palm of his hand. In his presence, she could swear that her binds tightened, leaving her gasping for breath. He passed by her, and in that fraction of a second, their eyes met. His gaze was piercing, inhuman, peering into her soul. With a lazy swish of his hand, he reached around to her lower back. His fingers passed through her blouse as if it was a hologram and he pulled up on one of the ropes and let it snap back. She shuddered, feeling like he might as well have just sodomized her in front of everyone. The hallway was full of people, but no one had seen the movement. He walked away, leaving her to stand there with people passing by like spawning salmon.

“Ah, Helena, there you are.”

She spun around, finding Father Hauser behind her. He immediately noticed the frantic look on her pretty face. “Are you all right, dear?”

“Y-yes, I’m fine.”

“Good, then I was hoping we could have little talk.”

“I’m sorry, Father, but I’ll be late for class.”

“I’ll tell your teacher that I held you back, you won’t get into any trouble.”

He then grasped her wrist and led her into an empty hallway. This was strange; he was never this forceful before. He was being polite and gentle, but he had never laid a hand on a student like this. Away from prying ears, he turned to her, a cautious look on his face. “On the 10th, did you get into a fight with three boys in the city?”

The image of the dead boy flashed across her mind, his body hanging from a noose with his organs spilled out.

“What? Why do you ask?”

“I’ll take that as a yes. Helena, did they do anything to you? Something that you might have thought silly or just shrugged off? Did they say anything that you didn’t understand? What were they doing when you found them?”

“They were just spraying some graffiti on the wall of a building! No, they didn’t do anything! I saw them, I punished them for their sins, and then I left! Please tell me why you’re asking me this.”

“I’ll tell you if you tell me more about that dream you had. You said that there would be a war that would show the truth. What did you mean?”

Helena bit her lip, knowing her collar would activate if she used the wrong words. “I saw a valley where the fighting would take place. But it would all start in the school.”

“And what is the truth that will be shown?”

“I don’t know. I wish I could tell you, but I can’t. I really wish I could, but I just can’t.

Hauser’s brow furrowed. “One more thing. What made you think God sent you this dream?”

She looked up at him, hoping he would understand what she was trying to tell him. “Because we need His protection. I’m sorry, Father. I really need to go.”

She turned around and ran off, leaving Hauser to ponder over what she had told him. He was now certain from that desperate look in her eye that she was holding something back, probably even lying. She repeatedly told him that while she wished she could tell him more, she was unable. What if it wasn’t because of a lack of information on her part? Maybe someone was keeping her quiet. The police? The school? Or maybe something evil had had actually latched itself onto her and was trying to stop her from spilling its secret. It was time to consult someone on this matter, should the worst be true.



The day at last came to an end, and once Helena went to bed, she felt the invisible bonds disappear. The black lines on her skin vanished, and last, she could breathe and stretch fully. If Xavier kept his word, then he would not come into their room and Sophie would be safe tonight. She still had the card with her. She’d have to see if the deal would continue on the following day. If it did, what would happen? Would it be the ropes again? Or would it be something else? It didn’t matter; she had won this round. Her pride remained intact. She and Sophie said their evening prayers and went to bed, and finally, Helena got a good night’s sleep.





Chapter 5



The red-haired lass took a deep breath, holding the card in her hand. She was alone in her bedroom, just like before.
“Punish me.”
Nothing happened to her body, no ribbons or ropes sprouting from her collar. However, the text on the card changed.
GO SKINNY-DIPPING IN THE POOL TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT. ALL THE DOORS WILL BE UNLOCKED.
She stared at the card, waiting for some horrible detail to emerge. Really? That was it? She just had to go skinny-dipping in the pool? Hell, that was barely even a trial. That was more like a summer camp dare. Sure, it would be awful if she got caught and being up so late on a school night wasn’t very appealing, but screw that. This would be easy! It seemed she had finally caught a break.



For once in what felt like ages, school seemed to pass by without dread or worry. Sure, Xavier was using Sophie as a hostage against her, but all she had to do was just go swim naked in the school pool. As long as she did that, Sophie would be fine, and hopefully, Xavier wouldn’t do anything to mess with her. That certainty was a huge weight off her shoulders. As the day wore on, she found herself imagining the night to come more and more and even thinking that maybe, just maybe, it would be a little fun.



Helena thought it would be difficult to keep from falling asleep, but instead she was incredibly restless. She hated the idea of breaking the rules and getting caught, but she was actually kind of excited. At quarter to 12:00 with Sophie out like a log, Helena put on some spare clothes and snuck out of her dorm room. Strange, the last time she had done something like this was when she went to the church and Xavier revealed himself as the Antichrist. She made her way across campus, being as quiet as possible and avoiding any signs of staff or students awake like her.

She reached the gym, and as the card had promised, all the doors were unlocked. She entered the poolroom and smiled. The sides of the pool were lined with lights that she had never noticed before, creating shifting hues that painted the dark ceiling while the air itself was heavy with night’s shadow. It was beautiful, stunningly even. The chlorine pool that she had swam in hundreds of times before now looked like a glimmering spring from the Garden of Eden, or some crystalline oasis deep beneath the earth.

Standing at the edge, she slowly took off her clothes. She felt incredibly nervous, unable to stop imagining the bleachers being lined with spectators. It took a dozen looks around the room for her to gain the confidence to slip out of her bra and panties. Completely naked and shivering in anticipation, she looked to the clock up on the wall. Both hands struck 12 and her collar activated, telling her that the time had come. Taking a deep breath, she took a step back and then jumped. She hit the water in a perfect dive, sliding in like a dagger. The feel of the water against her naked body shocked her like a bolt of lightning and she writhed beneath the surface, overcome with this new, blissful sensation.

Surfacing, she gasped for air and clutched her naked form. After all the time she had spent in this pool, the water had never felt so good. The freshening chill shocked her system like peppermint, and unlike a bath, she was able to stretch and move. She began swimming to the other end of the pool, relishing the sensation of the cool water kissing her breasts, tickling her stomach and back, and licking between her legs like a paintbrush. She moved at her own pace, her speed decided only by how fast she wanted the water to roll over her skin.

Reaching the shallow end, she rested her chin on the edge of the railing below the surface and let her body float up. Her eyes bolted open as she heard someone enter the water nearby. Covering herself, she looked back to see Xavier, settling in the pool like it was a hot tub. Like her, he was naked, and she was almost tempted to look down.

“What are you doing here?!” she hissed.

“I wanted to join you. You were having so much fun.”

She blushed and looked away, embarrassed from the joy she had felt just a moment ago. She readjusted her arm across her breasts and Xavier sighed.

“Honey, we’re a little past that.