It took me the rest of the evening, but by daybreak I had finished telling them the unvarnished truth. Surprisingly, after hearing the monumental mistake I made that fucked over all our lives, the women didn't see fit to draw and quarter me out of righteous vengeance. Instead, they left me alone and locked themselves in the master bedroom for the rest of the day, leaving me with only my battered conscience to keep me company. Sick with guilt, I left them alone.
Besides the insurmountable guilt that I felt, I was beginning to drown in fear and hopelessness. The weight of it all, knowing that I had doomed not only my wife and friends, but most of the known world, was rendering me incapable of doing anything but give in, curl up into a fetal position and wait for the world's ending. However, I couldn't allow myself the indulgence of self-pity. As long as I was still breathing and thinking, I needed to at least try and find a solution out of the deep, dark pit I put everyone into.
So as the women wept, I set about examining the only clue I had, the old client list I stole from Beetlesmith. He told me all but two on the list would die. So, I took to the list and took to the web, and as the hours ticked by, I ticked off, one by one, the names of the patrons who had been murdered ten years earlier.
It was around midnight when the women emerged from the bedroom. I was just finishing my research when they found me in the study. Their eyes were red and swollen and their cheeks were encrusted with the tell-tail signs of dried tears.
I tried to tell them again how remorseful I was, but Karen raised a hand, stopping me from adding shabby insult to injury.
"What's done is done, Will. We don't need to hear any more apologies." She took a deep breath before continuing, "We were going to leave. Go someplace away from you...away from here...and hide from this Beetlesmith character and all the shit you brought down on our heads. But we realized we're all tied at the hip. The way you say it, there is no hiding. Not anymore. So, either we're all going to escape or all of us are going to..." Fighting through the tears, she couldn't finish her morbid thought, and instead, said, "So we need to figure a way out of this. Tell us you have something."
I asked Gloria and Denise, "Do you all agree to this decision? I would understand if you left, but like Karen says, I don't think leaving and hiding are an option."
Gloria nodded her head.
Denise, on the other hand, said, "I don't understand. Why don't we just... I can't believe I'm even suggesting this... why don't we just kill the asshole? If what you say is true and he means us harm, we have every right to stick it up his ass first. I say find him and kill the bastard before he does the same to us!"
Denise never believed the supernatural part of my tale. She was too rational a person to accept, sight unseen, the existence of creatures from another dimension that act as proxies for God and the Devil, or that Hell does exist, and it was our destination because of some trivial sins involving consensual sex.
I answered her, "Nothing would give me greater pleasure, but Beetlesmith is just a middleman. I know it's hard for you to believe, but there is something more powerful and malignant at work behind him. Besides, I already tried killing the prick and failed. He's too well protected."
Karen asked, "Before we left the club last night you said there may be someone who knows a way out of this. Who is it and will they help?"
"This is the old client list of Beetlesmith's that I mentioned," I answered, handing her the list of names, "You'll notice that two of the names are not crossed off. You probably recognize one of them."
Karen's face went purple with rage. "Gareth! It figures that greasy cocksucker would be involved in this shit"
"You mean that creep who runs that bondage club on sixth?" Gloria asked, rhetorically.
"The very same," I answered, "Up until about ten years ago, Sean Gareth was a successful stockbroker. Then suddenly, he opens The Cage near mid-town, catering almost exclusively to the S and M crowd. It was a very profitable and popular place with the devotees. That is until Roman Wilderness. Competition from us sent his business into a slide."
"What about this Francis Kahelane?" Denise asked, as she scanned the list.
"Almost the same history as Gareth. Ten years ago, he was a corporate lawyer for a brokerage firm. But unlike Gareth, he's dropped off the face of the earth. I still haven't been able to locate him. I'm hoping he's still alive and that Gareth knows something of his whereabouts. I'm also hoping Gareth can tell us something about a solution to our situation."
Karen asked the million-dollar question, "What about these other names? Why are they crossed off?"
"It's best you don't know."
"No more secrets, Will. No more lies."
I still hesitated to tell her, but she was right. No more secrets. "They are not among the living."
It took a few moments for that realization to sink in, and then she blurted, "What?! All of them?! There must be over a hundred names!"
"They all died around the same time, ten years ago."
Karen's voice shuddered and cracked, as she vocalized what was on all their minds, "Oh Will, what the fuck have you gotten us into?"
I didn't have the heart, or wherewithal, to tell them that even death was the least of our problems now.
"I'm sorry. I didn't find out about any of this until it was too late. I kept trusting the wrong person."
Denise asked, "Okay, so what can these two men do for us?"
"I don't know yet, but they've been through what we are going through and lived. They may know something that can help us." Seeing Denise cock an eyebrow in disbelief, I added, "As I see it, it's the only chance we have."
Gloria broke in, frustrated, "And what if they don't know anything? As far as I can see, what they did or didn't know, didn't really help them. From what you say it certainly didn't help anyone else on this list."
"I just know they're alive. At least Gareth is, and I'm hoping this Kahelane is as well. Remember, these two guys were probably just like me. They were being lied to and manipulated the whole time. And at the time it was happening to them, they didn't see the clues that may have gotten them out of their predicament. But now, in hindsight, they may know of something they could have done but didn't recognize it until it was too late. That's what I'm hoping for. It's a start, at least."
Karen asked, "Okay, so what do we do?"
"I'm going to have a talk with Gareth. Pick his brain and find out all he knows."
"We're going too!"
"I think that's a bad idea..."
Karen interrupted with dripping sarcasm, "Worse than you getting us cursed and condemned?"
"I see your point."
"Like I said, we're all in this together, joined at the hip. We're going with!" Karen finished, emphatically.
I sighed, deeply, "All right. It's about one in the morning. I suggest we get some sleep and then go to Gareth's club at closing. That should be around four. There'll be fewer people milling around by then."
One thing I didn't tell them because I saw no point, there was one other option that I was prepared to do. The idea hit me during my last conversation with Beetlesmith, but it was extreme. So extreme that there would be no turning back once tried, at least for me. However, I thought there was a chance to set matters to right if I succeeded, or, at the very least, keep the rest of the world from plunging into darkness and horror.
**
There were no doormen outside Gareth's establishment, but the lights above the door were still on, suggesting 'The Cage,' as it was called, was still open. When I opened the door to go in, I was greeted by a muscular young fellow in leather garb. A tazer hung from his belt at the ready.
Rudely putting his hand on my chest to stop me, he said, "Sorry pal, we're closing. Besides, I don't recognize you as a member. Take your sluts and go. And next time, sign up and pay membership fees before coming back."
"I'm Will Henry. You should recognize my name, at least. I want to talk to your boss."
"I don't care who the fuck you are, we're closing. Sean doesn't see anyone after hours. Come back when you've joined the club."
"He'll see me. Tell him I'm here about Beetlesmith."
He started moving his hand toward the tazer, but I stopped him with a glare and said with quiet malice, "Tell him. Will Henry. Beetlesmith."
Dropping his hand, he looked me up and down one last time before saying, "Wait here."
He was back a few minutes later, this time absent the tazer. "Follow me."
The main floor of the club was in the basement of a large brownstone, where the upper two floors were converted into individual and specialized play areas for the members. As he led us down concrete stairs, the pervasive odor of old blood and stale sex became overpowering.
Karen commented under her breath, "Jesus, does Wilderness smell this bad after an evening of fun?"
"No," I whispered, "The first thing that goes when a business falls on hard times is personnel. The second is sanitation and standards."
When we hit the bottom of the stairs, a spacious room opened in front of us. A few patrons were still dressing and getting ready to leave, while various male and female staff, dressed in the traditional garb of the sadomasochist, mingled about or sat at the bar smoking and drinking. They all took long, curious glances in our direction. Dimly lit corridors extended left and right, going further into the bowels of the substructure--probably leading to more extreme specialty rooms than those of the upper floors.
I saw the sigil of Asmodeus stamped on every forehead--patron and professional alike. Karen noticed it too, and out of fear, squeezed my hand for comfort.
I caught sight of a small fellow, impeccably dressed, standing by an open door on the other side of the room. I knew Sean Gareth by name but not by sight--until now. I recognized him as an occasional guest of Wilderness when he was spying on his competition.
He loudly clapped his hands in mock celebration, "As I live and breathe, Tiberius the great and his lovely wife Vipsania, and all followed by their dutiful court courtesans, no less." Putting a well-manicured finger across his lips, he continued slyly, "Now don't tell me. It's been a while. Ah, yes, the exquisitely lush Domina Gloria and the very talented Domina Denise. It's such an honor to finally have the great family as my guests. It's too bad big tits Jackie isn't with you. We could have had a real party."
"Interesting place you have here, Gareth. A bit gloomy, though."
"Ha. Interesting indeed, but gloomy? More like bankrupt. The gloom spreads from my financial woes like a virus. Yet, I see sunshine on the horizon. There's a wonderful rumor I've just heard that you're shuttering the doors to Wilderness."
"That was quick. Ill news travels fast. Where did you hear that?"
