Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. All characters in sexual situations are 18 or older. Thanks for reading!
"It's getting in!" Samantha could hear wood shattering in the vestibule. It sounded like it had gotten through the outer doors. Now only the inner doors, barricaded with pews, protected them. It wouldn't be long until the abomination was in the church with them.
"I know." Patrick looked back at the doors between the nave and the vestibule. He wondered how long it would take the thing to break through their barricade. "Pick a window and let's go through."
"You're coming with me?" Samantha glanced at him. The thought of Patrick in her world gave her some hope. She prayed Noah wouldn't mind.
There was a crash in the vestibule. A heavy thump sounded on the inner doors. The thing was close.
"Well, I can't stay here." Patrick waved his arm at the church.
"There's no other exit?" Samantha looked around. "What sort of fire codes do you have here?"
"Fire codes?" Patrick jumped when another thump rattled the doors. "Okay, pick a window." Above them, where the church's stained-glass windows had been, there were portals into other worlds.
"This one." Samantha jogged over to the window looking into the Rizzuto house. She could see Ella's father napping in a recliner next to the Christmas tree. There was no sign of Ella and Mara. "How do we get up there?" She scanned the room fruitlessly for anything that could serve as a ladder.
"Ummmm." Patrick took a deep breath, trying to think. The whole church shook with the assault on the inner doors. "I'll prop you up on my shoulders. You can climb halfway into the window and then pull me up. Deal?" He knelt in front of her.
"Deal." Samantha climbed onto his shoulders. She glanced back at the doors as the wood splintered. She could see a cold, black eye regarding them through the crack. "Hurry."
~~
"Wilderness... Wilderness... Wilderness." Despite his mask, Paul was in a stupor. He stood in the corner of the living room, vacantly staring into nothingness. His naked mother guarded him, swinging a heavy Bible at anyone who tried to mess with her son.
"Get away... you godless b..." Shannon's Bible connected with the shoulder of a rabid brunette woman and sent her tumbling backward. Shannon scanned the room. The hideous boy, Eddie, was crouched in the opposite corner, covering his head like a coward. She stared at him. "He's not hideous... he's..." Shannon shook her head and dispelled the lurid thoughts that tried to worm their way into her brain.
"We're winning. Don't give up." Mary watched one of the church ladies crawl to Eddie and embrace him. "Don't go to him!" The woman ignored Mary. The intensity of fighting had diminished, as women were tugged in two directions at once. They needed to destroy the painting before things ground to a halt. "Attack the creature. Everyone, focus on the creature." A few bloodied church ladies turned toward Mary, confused expressions on their faces. Other ladies were too busy fighting or masturbating to notice her command.
"Do it!" Joanna shrieked. "Destroy the beast." She charged at the great ball of metal, grabbing one of its uncannily soft biomechanical tentacles, and holding on as it flopped her around.
"Eeeeeiiiiiiiiii!" The war cry filled the living room. Eight more women charged Axcix.
Mary did not join in. She watched them assault the false prophet and turned toward the painting. She grabbed hold of the cross around her neck and with a jerk of her arm, broke its chain.
"No... no... my daughter is in the painting." Lindsey held her arms protectively in front of the frame hanging on her wall. She could clearly see Mary's intent. But the woman strode relentlessly toward Lindsey.
"Out of my way!" Mary tried shoving Lindsey aside, but found that she wasn't easy to move.
"Eddie! Eddie! Help me!" Lindsey looked for her son, but he didn't move from the protection of the strange woman who hugged him close. She held her hands out to Mary to ward off the next attack. "If you destroy the painting, you'll kill my daughter. Just leave. Please."
"I'm sorry about your daughter." Mary swung her leg under Lindsey, taking the woman's legs out from under her.
With a thump, Lindsey hit the floor. The fall knocked the breath out of her. "No... Sam..." Her voice was little more than a rasp. She reached up weakly and the woman in the black and white uniform pushed her hand away.
"Soon you'll understand why this is right." Mary glanced at the false prophet and held her platinum cross up in the air.
"Wait... we can both be free." Axcix watched in horror as the subject from another painting prepared to destroy the Owens's canvas. "We can work together and create more life." She tried to roll, but there was broken furniture blocking her way. She struggled to free her tentacles, but multiple women weighed each one down.
"Kill the false prophet." Mary slashed at the painting with the sharp edge of her cross. The canvas tore, revealing inky blackness underneath. "Tame the heathens." She slashed again.
"Noooooooooooo!" In despair, Lindsey watched her painting shred. She tried to rise, but Mary pushed her back to the floor between slashes. "Samantha!"
Eddie heard his mother's screams and pushed the hugging woman away. He saw the gaping maw of nothingness where his beloved painting had been. Pure dread filled him. Rather than race to help his mother, he curled up in the corner of the living room, hiding his eyes from the destruction. Had he just watched his sister die? Regret swirled inside him.
"There now." Mary stepped back. The metal ball no longer seemed solid. It wavered, like a mirage on the horizon. The women who had been attacking it, fell to the floor. There was nothing left to hold onto.
"Mistaaaaaaaaakkkkke." Axcix's voice was drawn thin. She surged through the air, her ball now more like a shimmering oval. Her tentacles turned translucent. The empty frame sucked her in, and then folded in on itself. Every part of the painting collapsed into nothingness, until all that was left was the bare wall.
