Her Halo Rests on Horns

Angel plopped herself onto the bed in a childlike manner; like a schoolgirl with report card in hand, coming home to proudly announce to her parents she got straight A's, and with the Cheshire cat smile still crazy glued on her face, pulled a cigarette out of the pack to place between Doug's lips. Still smiling, she took the lighter and lit the end of the cigarette, as Doug vacuumed in the much desired tar and nicotine. Although the cigarette calmed his beyond frayed nerves a little, the silence for those few minutes nearly drove him mad; as each second's delay to know what this grinning spider had in mind for him only made him think the worse. She continued the smiled silence; holding the cigarette for Doug to inhale, and then flicked the ashes into a marble ashtray, as she finally broke that silence with a synopsis of the night's final deed that Doug would perform. She placed the cigarette once more into his mouth as she began.

"Dougie, this 'blind faith' thing that you insist is your whole constitution is something you will now be able to conclusively prove to me. And since you have complete blind faith in yourself, you should be more than willing to participate in a symbolic gesture of what you live by." The demented smile eclipsed her face again.

Doug's lower jaw now dropped; dangling the half smoked cigarette from his dry lips, as Angel once again reached into the niche in the wall and drew out two coins. Turning to look at Doug, she realized the cigarette was about to fall from his ever widening mouth, and caught it just in time; extinguishing it in the ashtray. His mouth was still agape when she turned back to continue.

She held each of the coins up now; one in each palm; as she went on to explain what she had in mind. "I am going to place each of these coins onto your eyelids, and while I am putting you through the last of the "Orion Tests", as I have dubbed them, I expect you will be able to keep these coins on your eyelids. If you succeed in doing that, I will reward you justly. If not... " Her voice trailed off as if they were to be her very last words to him in this night from Hell.

"Angel, what are you going to do to me?" Doug was now paralyzed with terror awaiting her reply, as his worse fear was to believe that she was going to tell him what he thought to be the truth; that he was going to die at her hands tonight; bound; chained – and all due to the tragic fact that he allowed her to do it. He despised himself this moment; as the stark reality check made him realize it was all because of wanting to shove his greedy dick into this vampire devil spider's pussy that wrote him his own death warrant. If he was able at that very moment; he would have taken his own life just to avoid what he thought was going to befall him now. Suicide would be kinder than what she had in mind for his demise; that he was certain.

"Here, take a drink of this wine" she offered, as the immeasurable panic emanating from the two eye openings of the hood gave Angel a clear understanding he needed more than just a cigarette to calm him down. "I hope you like burgundy wine, Doug. I think it will be more tranquilizing in its effect than beer."

Doug disliked wine, but if she were offering hemlock, he would have eagerly accepted that, too. He felt like this was his last supper; his last minutes of drawing breath. He drank about half the contents of the large wineglass before she took it away.

"Shall we?" she asked, as she returned the glass to the tray, and gently pushed Doug's shoulders flat back on the bed. He rested his head again on the pillow, waiting for the poisonous spider to make her final sting. Instead, she knelt alongside of him on the bed, and continued where she had left off; now describing the coins to Doug before placing them on his eyes.

"These are old, gold coins; authentic Spanish doubloons actually, dating back to the early 1600's. They have been in my family since then; passed down from generation to generation, and now they have been passed down to me. And I have chosen them to use tonight for our use; our purpose. Consider it an honor that I have bestowed on you, Doug. They, and you, will be noticed by many, I hope, when all is said and done."

He wanted to ask her what the story was behind the half riddle she just told, but decided against it. 'I hope when all is said and done that I'm just still around- period'. He pondered her last statement; quizzically; looking about the room as if to find the answer within it.

And just before Angel placed the doubloons on Doug's eyes, he looked upward; at the ceiling; at the shield; the family crest; the medallion with the letter "Z" fanning out on all four sides as if a compass, and thus began to piece the border of Angel's puzzle together. The clues shook awake his weary brain now, as he remembered the initials, "AZA" on the guest towels, and how even she referred to a nap as a "siesta" at the bar. 'Why shouldn't she use this terminology? She loves Spanish/ Mexican ANYTHING – look at this house, for Chrissakes!'

The spider had lured the fly to her web. This was Angel's home.

Doug made a pact with himself as this frightening revelation assailed him. He vowed to do everything in his power; use every ounce of courage, strength, and determination to get through this final part of her "test" successfully, and use his other talent- his gift for gab- to get him out of here and back to the hotel - and back to safety. There was some purpose; some driving force in Angel that made her resort to such drastic; near criminal measures; he wasn't sure what could possibly be so very crucial, but he wasn't going to think about that now. He needed to focus on getting out of Angel's house in one piece –alive.

The coins were thick and heavy enough to sit upon Doug's eye sockets with not too much worry about shifting on their own and falling off. He felt Angel's long nails again on his body as she slid the Orion tie off his chest and to his left side and gently caressed his nipples playing; pulling; encircling them with the tips of her fingers until Doug felt them harden like two little chunks of gravel. Both to his shock and delight, the tongue that aroused him so much at the hotel's bar licking the rim of the glass, was now doing the same to his erect nipples. He was wary however and quickly checked himself. The last time he got swept up in the heat of the moment he found being caught off guard had its very harsh consequences. He refrained, as difficult as it was, from any moans or groans of arousal, as it might signal he was vulnerable and wide open to her masochistic kinks again. His determination to not reveal his rising passion was working, but he also discovered, that while his cock and balls were willing; they were unable to express anything while confined in their chastity belt prison. His cock leaned heavily on the metal; each tooth impression still felt on his sore shaft as it stretched within its own skin; stretching even more as it responded to the pain and pleasure behind its prison bars. His balls; while also still hurting from Angel's bites, now also ached to rid themselves of their heavy content of cum. It was a sensually distorted catch 22. 'She's still teasing my cock and balls after all- as if she doesn't know that, the bitch!' he thought, as he succumbed to the feelings of the torturous titillation of the restraint, and slowly began to move his lower body up and down; very carefully so as not to jar the coins from his eye sockets; as he fucked a phantom pussy in his mind.

Angel's sudden removal of herself from the bed had alarmed Doug; as he then thought she knew what he had been just fantasizing. But evidently, her third battery of deranged oral manipulation was simply over. As his ears strained to understand what was going on around him, he heard her use his lighter again, as the rapid succession of the sound, chitic, chitic, chitic, chitic, was recognized by its owner as to how many attempts were always needed to light it. He now heard some shuffling of something to the right of him; from the tray perhaps; and then the soft rustle of satin and the snapping sound indicating to Doug that Angel was putting the crotch of her corset back together. He now wondered if this was a sign that she was preparing herself for the next scene of the porno movie. He could smell a pungent odor of cinnamon wafting passed his blanketed nostrils; very close; coming closer; as Angel mounted the bed again off to Doug's right side.

He thought of the red pillar candle that she had brought in on the tray. That was probably what she used his lighter to light a few minutes ago, and what he most likely smelled now. Why she needed another candle when she had nine lit right behind the bed, and that enormous fireplace casting a burnt amber glow to the large room, seemed redundant to him even in the pitch darkness he resided in now beneath the hood. For what purpose she had this candle he really hadn't thought about until now.

Until now. And later, he would have many nightmares about that candle. Many.

The first drops of the melted wax that hit Doug's chest were not at first instantly felt. And because of the non reaction of her captive, Angel was too bold in the subsequent anointment. She tipped the liquid candlewax onto his chest with uncaring abandon, as Doug began to scream when the sudden shock of the viscous fire showered onto him in particular pattern. Even in the agonizing shock waves, he managed to keep his head steady and the coins in place. He bit down on his bottom lip as this dark demon of fire continued pouring what he thought was a pressure hose dousing him with the candlewax; when in reality it was again being dripped; still methodically, onto Doug's scalding hide. Although the wax cooled quickly and began to harden, the instantaneous fusion of melted paraffin to bare skin left Doug's lungs pole vaulting within his ribcage. His lips trembled with pain and rage; as he repeated to himself over and over that he mustn't fail; mustn't weaken. He was going to survive this horrific assault, and get out of this place a little less for wear; but get out of there ALIVE.

"Almost done, Dougie; just one more letter" she crooned, as if all she was doing was coaxing a child to finish his homework assignment.

'What the hell is she rambling about-'one more letter'?' he demanded to know; yelling in outrage within his own skull the question, as the seemingly molten candle wax continued to sear the top layers of skin etching an unknown message across his chest. Doug tasted blood now; his own, as his teeth invaded his bottom lip in combatant fury for what he was being put through. He wailed in pitiful agonizing pitch one final time; as the last letter of the carnal message was poured onto his torso.

*******

An eternity later, the lava- like cascade of wax ceased. It was all over. Doug, in his broken state of mind and body, may have failed the test; this Orion theory test; but his spirit was not broken; nor was his determination to walk out of here safely tonight even minutely diminished. He may have been damaged perhaps; but he was not dead.

He heard the whirrrrr of the one camera's mechanisms, as Angel's voice, oddly; but obviously to herself, and spoken from the area of the same camera murmur, "This is the brass ring, Daddy; the one you won't refuse to grab."

Doug wondered if she, too, had ridden on sanity's edge and had fallen off into the abyss of a mindless world. He knew he had come dangerously close himself tonight, but had clawed and clung to the edge. Maybe Angel – the Devil's concubine – had won only the sordid skirmishes, but not the entire wretched war. Doug breathed steadier now knowing this; amidst the humming and clicking sounds of the cameras as they captured the aftermath of the debauched holocaust the vile vixen had wrought.

He laid there- the Spanish doubloons still covering his eyes- waiting for his owed release.

>Z< >Z< >Z<

***EVERY WEB HAS ITS OWN DESIGN***

He awoke from a fitful, disturbed sleep; shaking; dripping with sweat although the air conditioning in his condo was on and operating. It had been this same scenario for two months now; since the very first night he had gotten home from Chicago.

God, Chicago... The seminar... The hotel's bar... The Devil whom he met in that bar and who was unrecognizable behind libido lavender eyes and burgundy hair and full, red lips that encompassed an alluring smile... The Devil that introduced itself by another name... "Angel".

A cold shiver now tobogganed down his spine as his thoughts ventured deeper into no man's land; the land of a secluded house, bad decisions, bondage, bared teeth, Spanish doubloons and... hot candle wax.

He looked over to the clock radio on his bed's end table. The soft green glow of its face announced it was only 2am; still hours before he needed to get up to go to work. He turned his damp pillow over and made a determined effort to lie down and fall back to sleep. Determined. That word- and his belief behind its meaning- was what saved him that night. He knew that, and that thought alone sent another ice floe down his back.

Again, his dark memories forced him to relive the night of the jackal; how she took endless pictures of his tortured and helpless state; how once the dirty deeds of her filmmaking were accomplished, she removed the gold coins from his eyes; placing them so gently and carefully back into their niche in the wall. 'So damn careful with an inanimate object; yet so cold and cruel in her handling of me' he thought to himself, as he turned over onto his side; still feeling the tightness of the skin where the initial drops of candle wax had made contact and superficially scarred. His memory now continued its grim recollection; where she ripped the then hardened candle wax off of his chest causing another type of pain to emerge from the sautéed skin beneath.

And how, then, she removed his own tie baffling him with, 'I'm keeping your Orion tie as a souvenir, Dougie. I told you I have a tie fetish, but this one means more to me than any of the others; much, much more than the nondescript, unimportant others. This one will be part of something big; I'm sure of it; a legend in its own right very soon.' The red flecks in her eyes had continued to glow; as if tiny fireworks set off in strobe like repetition. Or, more appropriately; like fire and brimstone. And the too false Cheshire cat smile that eclipsed her face before that had then returned. He shuddered at the graphic memory of her face at that moment.

His mind opened up further now, and fast forwarded to the ride back to the hotel; still blindfolded, shackled and now handcuffed to the back door handle of the SUV. He had been positioned to lay prostrate on the backseat while listening in surprise to Angel speak her views about the seminar they had both been attending. She had told him she felt the whole concept of innovative advertising of oneself was the new, one- way path to the stars; fame and fortune all there for the taking. She went on to explain about the positives of the whole idea of confident and clever self sell, and the seminar's speaker being the guru of personal promo advertising; all this as she drove into the city's limits in those early morning hours. And then she began to disclose her plan of how attending that very first day of the seminar, she was not only sold on that idea, but was determined to put the wheels of success into motion immediately. Doug began to realize then that he had become at least a cog in that wheel; somehow a relevant piece to the newfound ideas of her devious project.

His head began to throb again; an all too often occurrence now, as he got up to take a pain reliever in the hopes that it would mute out the sound echoing in the caverns of his mind. It was Angel's voice from the driver's seat on the ride back to the hotel he wished to muffle; that bubbly, enthusiastic "Rah! Rah! Rah! You-go- get'um!" voice that had thrown all these curves and fastballs of that fateful night at him. But his mind ignored the effects of the meds apparently, as it continued to torment itself - and Doug – as it unfolded still more of the shocking events.

He relived again with harrowing thoughts, the moment she pulled the SUV over; instructing him to not attempt to ever find her, as while she had been retrieving his cigarettes that night, she had gone through his wallet; had learned of his place of employment; his address; his phone number; his parent's address and phone number; any and all vital information she could use - and would use - if he sought to locate her. She would send all the pictures of the night's "kink show" to his agency and- to his parents. The she devil had shown her horns proudly at that moment.

When all threats had been covered, she unlocked the one cuff from the doorhandle, and with blindfold and shackles still on him, guided him up onto the curb and informed him that he was about a block away from his hotel; on a sidestreet; and that once she unlocked the other handcuff, he would find the key to the shackles on the sidewalk at his feet inside his suit jacket pocket. The squeal of the tires told Doug it was useless to look back, even after quickly removing the blindfold, but then again- he really never wanted to look back. All he wanted to do was get home; back to California; back to where he was born, raised, and looking forward to eventually dying. There- not here. Not here in the throes of a demented satanic creature like Angel.

He had run- not walked back to the hotel, and from his room, called the airlines for any available seat on any available plane destined for Los Angeles at any available time that day. He would tell his boss that he thought he had a touch of food poisoning, and had missed the last day of a very fascinating and worthwhile seminar just so he could get home and see his own doctor. He didn't care if the excuse would be bought or not. He wasn't going to the last day's session and risk seeing the horns bearing she devil again.

The medication began to take effect; dulling his troubled memory now; as he drifted back into a light, fitful sleep; but sleep nonetheless; and did not wake up again until the radio station he had his alarm set to jolted him out of the disturbed slumber. It was now one more day further away from the vividness of that hellacious night. At least, this is what he willed himself to believe as he showered and headed off to the safe and sound environment of his job.

*******

It was nearly one in the afternoon when Bill, another artist/advertising agent of the same firm, came into Doug's office to ask if he would like to join him at a newly opened Portuguese and seafood restaurant for lunch. He sauntered over to where Doug was sitting at his desk working on a slogan for a popular soft drink campaign.

Doug politely declined; saying he needed to present a few advertising options to his client the following morning and that he really wasn't very hungry, anyway. 'Shit, I haven't had much sleep or much of an appetite since that night!' Upon hearing Doug's decline to his invitation, Bill unfolded a magazine he had in his hand, and spreading a specific page out for display on Doug's desk, he turned it around for Doug to view.

"I was going to bring this along to show you over lunch, but since you've become a major workaholic lately, I'll just leave it here for you to look at in your free time. That is, if you allow yourself any free time. Wait until you see it. Dammit to all hell it's good!! I know it's nothing I would've ever thought to do in creating this campaign. I'm just jealous that I don't have such imagination." Bill said, pointing to the selected magazine page. As he turned to walk out of the office, he paused at the door, and added, "It's no wonder we haven't gotten that account. And after seeing that gimmick, I doubt we'll ever get to offer to wash his car; let alone ask for his time to sit through a presentation to win him over to our agency." Bill exhaled an exaggerated sigh of regret. "Well, I think I'm going to try the paella with green sauce. I hear it's their specialty. See you later." He then walked out of Doug's office shutting the door after him.