Amorous Goods: The Pendulum

Prologue:

A lifelong collector of goods and objects from far and wide has passed and left the entire collection and the business built around them to the only remaining relative, a niece on a career path of her own. Vikki has taken on the task of administering the estate and liquidating the business and collection. However, she has come to find out that many of the goods have been cursed or enchanted with amorous powers that affect those who encounter them. These are the stories of some of those encounters with objects found at Amorous Goods.

########

The dreams had been getting intense since Jack returned from Canada. He always awoke with flashes of imagery: torchlight against stone pillars, the reek of incense smoke, a pair of inhuman green eyes. Also, a word ringing in his ears: "Rozrael".

Jack didn't immediately make the connection between his dreams and the obsidian pendulum he bought from a store in Toronto.

It was the weirdest pawn shop he had ever seen: a red brick mansion that seemed curiously out of place within the shopping district. It was called Amorous Goods, which sounded like a sex shop.

When he entered, it looked more like a shabby antiques store. Its items were a curious mix of the mundane and erotic. Lamps and pill-boxes sat beside bizarre pieces of erotic artwork -- statues of nude women, early twentieth century paintings of orgies.

Jack really wanted the antique erotic art, but he couldn't afford it. The owner didn't seem open to haggling. But he had to get a memento of the weirdest shop in Canada.

So, he picked up this obsidian pendulum, with a metal chain. It was cheap and interesting. The pendulum looked like a pyramid with a hexagonal base. He paid for it, chucked it in his satchel and left. The owner looked like he couldn't wait to see the back of him.

Days later, he was back in the UK, and the life from which he had fled for a week. He returned on Saturday night, and was expected back in the office on Monday.

Jack wondered if the money spent on the flight should have gone into something that could have improved his career prospects. Or if he should have spent that time doing something to get out of that job.

But he had been down that path too long, and it led him straight back to where he was now -- in his thirties, doing data entry, and living with his parents. He needed that holiday.

Sunday night, the dreams came again. The exotic, torchlit temple. And that word: "Rozrael".

He woke to see the pendulum, previously in his satchel, now on his bedside table beside his alarm clock.

"The fuck!"

He jolted upwards. Did he put it there? He was tired last night, maybe he forgot. He looked over at his satchel, which was still in the corner of his bedroom where he dumped it yesterday.

Sitting on the bed, he picked up the pendulum, examining it in his hands.

"Take me with you."

Jack dropped the pendulum. He heard a voice. A female voice. Was he dreaming?

He wondered if this was a side-effect of jetlag. He put the pendulum back on the table, took out a notepad and biro and wrote down "Rozrael".

#

Amorous Goods, Toronto. One year later.

Dylan entered the shop floor holding a ledger open in front of him. Behind the counter was a young woman with red shoulder-length hair, peering at a laptop.

"Vikki, look at this."

"Mm-hmm?"

"You know anything about a pendulum that uncle sold?"

"Ask Marshall,' she replied, 'he knows about this stuff."

"This one might be tricky," said Dylan.

"What do you mean?"

"Uncle sold it to someone in England."

"England?" asked Vikki. "Someone came all the way from England to shop here?"

"Ever heard of tourism?"

Vikki slammed the laptop shut.

"Goddamn it," she exclaimed. "Does this mean we'll have to pay for a flight to fucking England to get this thing back?"

"Hey, relax," said Dylan. "This thing was just a cheap trinket. Could be nothing."

"I hope so."

They turned to see a middle-aged man with a stack of papers under his arm. Marshall seemed unremarkable in khaki chinos and a button-down shirt. He was big-built, but had developed a paunch with age. Once, he would have been physically intimidating, but he still moved with youthful energy.

"I heard my name," said Marshall.

"You know anything about this pendulum in the ledger?" Dylan asked.

"Oh, the pendulum of Rozrael? That item has quite a history behind it."

"I knew it," exclaimed Vikki. "It's cursed, isn't it?"

"You could say that," said Marshall. "It houses a powerful demon."

"Okay, tell us about this demon," said Dylan.

#

Plymouth, UK.

Jack had a whole morning to kill before work. He wanted to see if this pendulum was an antique, if it was worth anything. He sat before his PC with a coffee.

First, he wanted to google this word he kept hearing for the past two days.

Google turned up results, but they were scarce. All he could find was the name of a demon from some grimoire called Liber Virtute. There was an online archive of historical grimoires, scanned from public and private libraries across the world.

This demon seemed to be on the lower end of a demonic hierarchy, nothing else to be read besides a name and a seal. While other demons had descriptions of their office and their position in the hierarchy, this one didn't seem to be worthy of description.

So, he was being contacted by a demon. Or he was losing his mind. There was only one way to find out.

Jack signed up to web forums frequented by occultists, people who actually practiced this stuff.

He made his intro post to several of them, and then posted his request for information, along with a quick photo of the pendulum.

Then he packed his rucksack and left for work.

#

"The pendulum was created in sixteenth century Venice," Marshall explained, "on commission by an occultist named Marcilio Cellini for a merchant called Filipo d'Este. Filipo married into the family who became the Hapsburgs that ruled England since the British Empire. Filipo did not simply want money. He wanted power.

"To get that kind of power, one must be a commanding presence. Filipo was simply a merchant who rode on the tails of his ancestors."

"So, the only way he could get that kind of power was through magic," Vikki interjected.

"Precisely. He hired Marcilio to create a talisman for this purpose. Unfortunately, he did his job a little too well. This thing housed a demon of immense power, giving her a foothold in this world. She piggy-backed on Filipo's earthly desires to establish her own kingdom."

"And this demon was Rozrael?" asked Dylan.

"Correct. When the she unites with the owner, her power shines through them, making them charismatic and unstoppable. She eventually was stopped when the pendulum was passed on to his eldest son. He made too many enemies in business and politics. And he slept with the wives of powerful men. One of whom had him assassinated, ending his reign, and ending Rozrael's influence."

#

Jack's day at work was the same underpaid monotony he tolerated for years. He got off the bus at the local depot, where he worked in data entry for a communications company. Every day, for seven hours, he sat at a desk and typed in postal addresses.

It was an open plan office. Thousands of black and white address labels passed his screen every day. Nearby, a huge window opened out onto an industrial landscape, where he glanced at the sun as it set each evening.

Jack's attempts at leaving this job in the past had been met with a wall of silence: job applications, the occasional "informal chat" over the phone, a half-assed LinkedIn profile. All of which no one cared about.

Every day Jack started his shift with this thought, which he kept to himself. Until he opened his rucksack, and found the pendulum at the top of the pile.

He dropped the rucksack. Did he put it in there without thinking? He must have put it in there by accident. Somehow.

Jack took the pendulum out, looking at it. He noticed the cluster of desks on the other side of the office where the managers carried out administrative tasks at their own computers.

Among them was Sadie, striding between desks with papers in her hand, obviously busy.

Sadie would have been plain and unnoticeable. However, she knew what she was doing with her hair, clothes and make-up, making the most of what she had. She had long, dark voluminous hair that framed mousy features, although her lips were full and luscious. She would flash a beautiful smile at him as he passed her in the corridors.

Sadie was slim, but curvy in the right places, and she dressed in a way that accentuated her figure.

Jack never forgot the Christmas Eve when the managers wore casual clothes. Sadie's tight jeans made a lasting impression on him. When she bent over the desk in front of him, his erection got so big, he had to spend his break sat at his desk.

Jack absent-mindedly fingered the pendulum, thinking about that ass as Sadie walked towards his desk, a mound of papers clutched against her chest. He let the pendulum drop between his fingers, watching it swing back and forth, always in the direction of Sadie walking past. Jack looked at it, then put it back on his desk.

#

"So, the pendulum," Vikki asked. "What's so sinister about it?"

"It houses Rozrael and is used to communicate with the user," Marshall explained. "It answers simple yes or no questions. It points him in the direction of business opportunities. Sometimes, it will point to sexual opportunities. Filipo used it to judge which ladies in the Venetian courts would be open to sleeping with him."

"Are you saying," asked Dylan, "that this pendulum dowses for pussy?"

"Correct," Marshall smiled. "But to Rozrael, sex is a means to an end. Any domain she establishes won't be in the interests of humanity. It may be a portal between whatever hellish dimension she comes from into our world."

#

During quiet moments, Jack would pick up the pendulum from his desk and let it swing. He noticed a pattern in its movements, always swinging in the direction of certain women.

Perhaps he was just horny. Perhaps it was his imagination. He had not had sex in years.

The pendulum swung in the direction of Donna, sat nearby. A Goth back in the day, she still wore band T-shirts in her thirties. Dark hair, pale skin, and impressive breasts that Jack struggled not to stare at. Her big tits jutted through a black T-shirt with some obscure metal band print.

Donna never showed him much attention. They never spoke. Jack never knew what to say to her.

The pendulum was interested in her though. It swung in her direction, not wavering until Sadie walked past. Then it would follow Sadie, until her fine ass had sauntered around the corner. Then it would go back towards Donna, until Jack put it back on the desk, before someone noticed.

His shift ended. He packed his rucksack, got up and caught the bus home.

An hour later, sat at his PC desk, he logged on to see the responses to his queries that morning.

Responses were few, but revealing. It turned out that the Liber Virtute had a small but dedicated following of experienced occultists, who had been experimenting with it for years. And they were happy to share their advice.

#

"What else do we need to know?" asked Dylan.

"She appears to the magician in a way that is sexually enticing. She appears as a woman, with certain features exaggerated."

"Certain features?" asked Vikki.

"Tits and ass, usually" Marshall replied.

"Thanks for clarifying."

"When she fully unites with the operator, she guides them, and her sexual power shines through them into all they meet."

"How do we stop her?" asked Vikki.

"You probably won't have to. In fact, I would classify this task low priority."

"Low priority?" exclaimed Dylan. "A demon is trying to take over the world, and this is low priority?"

"Our customer is highly unlikely to accomplish anything with the pendulum alone. He needs the grimoire containing Marcilio's notes. It tells us how to wake that demon back to life, and it tells us how to put her back down again. And it's in our vaults."

"So, we're safe?" asked Dylan.

"For now," responded Marshall. "We should get it back at some point, but let's focus on the real dangerous ones, the ones bought locally. Save this one for a vacation abroad."

Vikki frowned and pulled out her laptop.

"What did you say his name is?"

#

Jack sat on his cheap office chair in semi-darkness. His bedroom was lit by a single beeswax candle on top of his cupboard. Illuminated by this candle was a piece of paper, on which Jack had scrawled the seal of Rozrael.

In his hand was the pendulum, hanging between his fingers as he gazed at the seal.

His online friends had given him a simple ritual to contact Rozrael, who was largely unknown and lacking established contact protocols. Jack was glad he didn't need the complicated, near-impossible tools that more established entities in the Liber Virtute required.

Jack gazed at the seal and chanted the name over and over. He lost of count of how long this took. His eyelids drooped, blurring his view of the seal.

The pendulum clattered to the fibre glass surface of the cupboard, jolting him upright. The room seemed to be lit by a golden glow.

Jack swung around slowly in his office chair, and saw a light behind him. The other side of his bedroom opened out onto a bizarre scene. Where his bedroom ended was now a vast room, lit by flaming torches ensconced on huge stone pillars.

A tall figure emerged from between the pillars, into the torchlight. A woman, slightly taller than Jack. She was clad in black latex, buckled and strapped across the front. She resembled a stereotypical dominatrix, her boots resounding across the stone floor.

She appeared human, although unearthly. She gazed at him with bright green eyes, in a face that was inhumanly beautiful. Her should-length hair was blonde, shining with a fiery aura.

Her fingers were a little too long to be human, slender with claw-like nails.

She seemed too perfect, like a photoshopped pornstar come to life. Her breasts were huge, straining to break free from the buckled latex. And yet she had the body of an athlete, slim, with long legs.

"Rozrael?" Jack said.

"Of course."

She strode into his bedroom, standing a metre away. Jack stood, but remained silent.

"What do you want?" she spoke in an echoing voice.

"Are you the one who calls me in my dreams?" he asked.

"Yes."

Jack kept glancing at her breasts, the cleavage behind the straps.

"Why?"

"I think we can work to each other's benefit. I can make you powerful."

"How?"

"When we unite, nobody will be able to resist you. Women will desire you. Men will fear you. This way, your status on Earth will rise."

"What do you want from me?"

She reached forward with a long, slender hand and brushed it down his chest, down to his crotch. Her touch was cool, electric. He let out a sharp intake of breath as she gently reached for his balls over his jeans, holding them.

"Give of yourself to me," she said. "And I will give of myself to you."

With her other hand, she unbuckled her top, revealing her magnificent cleavage. Huge breasts burst out almost to the nipple, as her top opened down to her midriff, casting a shadow over her toned stomach.

Jack was transfixed, as she ran her fingers up underneath his T-shirt, back towards his chest. His cock was hardening already, straining beneath his jeans.

He needed no instruction.

"It's a deal."

Jack unbuckled his belt and pulled his jeans down, revealing a semi-erection in his black boxer shorts. Still with a hand on his chest, she pulled his boxers down with the other hand, releasing his cock and gazing at it with a smile, as she cradled his exposed balls with her other cold hand. He went fully erect immediately.

She pushed him towards the bed behind him.

"Sit."

Jack lay back on his bed, his erect penis between him and the busty demoness.

Her other hand reached down to the shaft of his penis, and she bent forward, swallowing his cock. She cradled his balls as she ran her mouth up and down his shaft, engulfing it right down to the base. He had never received a blowjob this deep before. His entire groin felt charged with a cold, fiery energy.

Jack expected to shoot his load in seconds. Strangely, this blowjob was prolonged, like he wasn't allowed to cum, not just yet. He lay back as this energy engulfed his body from his groin.

When he exploded in her mouth, he convulsed a few times. It felt like more than just semen leaving his body. The energy left too, and he felt empty.

Jack lay back and watched her stand up from his body, releasing his spent cock from her mouth, to his thigh. She knelt between his parted legs and unbuckled her latex top further, pulling her top apart to allow her huge breasts to fall out in the torchlight.

Her breasts were round and firm; large pink nipples with areolas that seemed stretched out by the size of her breasts. Her nipples were thick and erect. The desire in him was strong, but he was tired and weak.

She took his hands, pressing them to her breasts. He squeezed and fondled them, feeling their weight, their smoothness. His thumbs went over her hard nipples, and they seemed oddly moist.

She reached behind his head with one hand, pulling his head towards her breast. His mouth clamped eagerly over her tit, his tongue flicking against her hard nipple. It tasted faintly salty. He sucked harder, and more fluid trickled into his mouth, down his throat. He felt it build in his body. More fluid came out, and he felt his lust return.

Eventually, he didn't need her to hold him. He sucked eagerly on her tit until she wrapped her arms around his head and pulled his face down between them. For a second it seemed as though he breathed in her entire body into his, before everything went dark.

Jack woke up on his bed in darkness, his pants around his ankles, his stomach and chest wet with semen. The temple scene was gone.

He got up from the bed, pulled his pants up and walked to the bathroom. Wincing when he turned on the light, he washed his hands. He splashed water on his face and looked in the mirror, running his hands over his forehead, his cheekbones, his jaw, like he had never seen them properly before. He liked what he saw. And he felt powerful.

The next day, Jack walked into the office, as usual. But this time, things seemed different. People looked up from their desks as he walked in.

Maybe it was the way he carried himself. He didn't know. He looked at the world around him with new eyes, and he saw a world ripe for the taking.

Jack sat at his desk, got out his iPod and water bottle, and then the pendulum. When no one looked, he let it hang between his fingers. It swung towards the stairwell nearby. He watched the glass doors to see who it might be pointing towards.

Sadie came up the stairwell towards the doors, and they made eye contact. She seemed to meet his gaze with fascination, slightly startled, before heading off to her desk. The pendulum followed her fine ass as she walked past.

"I sense hesitation." Rozreal's voice spoke in his mind.

"She has a boyfriend," Jack said, under his breath.

"She likes you."

Jack knew. Before she got with Tony, who used to work in the same office, they would exchange flirtatious glances in the corridor. He would catch her checking him out in window reflections. But he never did anything about it.

"Hitting on attached women at work is a dangerous game," he replied.

"Trust me. There's nothing to fear."

Jack wasn't afraid of Tony, who had no power over him, physically or otherwise. But they work in the same place.