Author's note:
This is an erotic horror story in which most characters don't make it out alive. If that isn't something you want to read, please feel free to read something else.
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Ida held a glowing crystal to light her way as she walked down the tight circular stairs to the catacombs, paying attention to the moss growing on them to avoid falling.
As she reached the bottom, the landing opened into a small, dimly lit room with several narrow tunnels fanning out like the arms of a starfish. Each tunnel led to a different location. That night, she chose the leftmost one—the path to the summoning circle.
She heard voices and knew it was time to put the crystal away. She walked on in the darkness, the route nevertheless easy to follow with her hand trailing down the wall to the right.
"I don't know why we must do all the hard work," Henrietta grumbled, "while she gets all the glory."
"Do you really think you could directly serve the master?" Charlotte questioned.
Ida rounded the last corner and could see the two women working to prepare the tithe: four young women stolen from a city twenty miles to the east.
Two bathtubs had been set up, and one victim was already in each. The harvesters—a title Ida had given Charlotte and Henrietta—were each busy scrubbing one. They were talking freely, as yet unaware that their mistress was listening.
"I think I could do as well as she does," Henrietta boasted, pulling the unfortunate young woman she was cleaning out of the tub by her hair. The young woman didn't react as small clumps of her hair were ripped out by the roots. Since each woman was under the complete control of an entity, she didn't respond to the pain.
The next woman to be cleaned stepped into the water and silently sat as Henrietta scrubbed her skin to remove the dirt and filth of her old life.
Maybe it's time to feed Henrietta to the demon
, Ida thought. Henrietta clearly had the idea she was better suited to lead than Ida. If it came to fighting for control, Ida wasn't worried Henrietta would win, not by herself. If she decided to use the demon, though- Ida remembered how she had used the demon to remove her mentor. After tonight, it would be another year before another tithe would be required, so there was time to train a replacement for Henrietta.
Remembering that she had recently accepted an orphan with a troubled past into the school, Ida thought she had the perfect replacement. The church had demanded the young woman's imprisonment because of a scandal they were trying to cover up. The judge had felt sorry for her—even more so after spending time alone with her—and had thought Ida's school might be the perfect place to turn her life around.
"You can barely control your shard," Charlotte scoffed, looking meaningfully at the half-hidden ruby pendant hanging between Henrietta's breasts. How do you think you would manage to control a demon?"
"Bah. The demon is confined to the circle. Any idiot can manage that spell." Henrietta then dropped her voice. "I heard the mistress couldn't even light a fire the first time she summoned the demon. If she could do it, well, so can I." She puffed up her chest and held her hand, showing Charlotte a small glowing fire floating above her palm.
Charlotte wasn't impressed with the glowing ball. She made a three-tier fire snowman in hers before closing her fist and snuffing it out.
Henrietta's demonstration sealed her fate. Wrapping her hand around her shard, Ida sent a command to one of the entities floating around her.
"
Fetch me, Agatha Shoemaker. I want her awake and aware but unable to resist the summons
,"
Ida commanded.
Ida felt one of the entities flash down the tunnel, back the way she had come, on its way to bring Agatha to the summoning room. Several other entities flowed in and out of the shard, eager to be used. All of them had been human; their souls were ripped from their bodies and transformed using demonic power and witchcraft into something between a banshee and a poltergeist. Any good in them twisted until their only desire was to control, corrupt, and destroy.
Ignoring the entities, Ida turned her attention back to the other coven members, noticing they had finished cleaning the sacrifices.
Ida stepped into the light and walked the short distance into the room. Charlotte was the first to notice her. She dropped to one knee and bowed her head. Henrietta was slower to follow, clearly thinking it beneath her.
"Rise, sisters," Ida said, walking by them to inspect the women who would soon be fed to the demon.
The first was maybe twenty, tall and blonde, with small breasts and a slim body. The woman looked well-fed, and her hair and nails suggested she hadn't been someone living on the street.
"Who was she?" Ida asked her sisters, and the entity that controlled the sacrifice.
"Just a silly girl who wanted something bigger and better than being a banker's wife," Charlotte said.
The entity showed Ida a spoiled and pampered woman from a minor merchant's household who had wanted to see the world and be someone important. False memories of her getting into a coach and heading to a city thirty miles away had been fed to several key would-be witnesses. Anyone looking for her would learn she'd gotten off the coach and disappeared. Those false memories would have long since leeched out into the other city's field of rumors, but there would be nothing to contradict them.
Perfect.
The next woman was the opposite of the first. Her dark, poorly maintained hair and skinny, malnourished body told a simple and common tale.
"Just a gutter rat," Henrietta volunteered without being asked.
The entity showed Ida more. The woman was from the streets but had been taken in by the church, raised to fear God and all things evil. The only detail that surprised Ida was that the woman was still a virgin.
The third woman looked like she had seen better times. Her body sagged, her large breasts hung flat and long, and her flesh looked dirty even after having been scrubbed.
Walking around her, Ida saw whip marks on her back. She ran her fingers over the ridges, the pattern sparking a memory.
The entity showed her the woman's life: living in a dark basement for what must have been years; beaten and broken until an act of carelessness on the man's part had allowed her to escape; only to be taken by Henrietta, who had grabbed her as easy prey.
"She's someone's toy," Ida said, looking at Henrietta. "You should have left her and picked someone else." Her annoyance was evident in her voice.
"The tithe was tonight," Henrietta replied, "and we didn't have better options."
Ida looked at Charlotte, who looked down rather than answer.
"We weren't followed," Henrietta insisted. "I made sure of it."
"Just like he made a mistake assuming she was secure," Ida countered, referencing the woman's former kidnapper, "and she happened to get free? How do you know he didn't let her go so he could track her down?"
Ida checked the last woman, but she was another street rat and wouldn't be missed. Charlotte had done well. Henrietta had once again been careless.
A noise from one of the tunnels on the right caused everyone to turn. Henrietta and Charlotte reached for daggers hidden in their clothes, while Ida smiled, knowing it was Henrietta's replacement.
"Relax," Ida said. "It's just a new postulant." Agatha, dressed in a thin nightshirt, walked into the light.
