Orpheus's Fallen Angel Ch. 15

"You fucked my girl." Orpheus exclaims, holding the gun with both hands while sidestepping from Moth.

"She was never your girl." Moth states, still smug and not intimidated.

The gun gives a flash and a loud bang, the left of Moth's chest is hit, leaving a wound the size of an orange for a quart of blood to spatter on the bed. Another shoot hits below the right shoulder, more blood spatters. The gun continues firing until the bullets run out and only makes clicking sounds, by then the whole bed is stained with Moth's blood. Orpheus backs away from the bloody bed, keeping the gun is his grip. He sees Angel, horrified of what she just seen.

"What have you done?" Angel gasps, backing away.

"I had to kill him, Angel." Orpheus says. "He was going to take you away from me."

"I know. That's why I came to him." Angel informs. "I wanted to get away from you."

"No, you don't mean that." Orpheus slowly moves to Angel. "Let's just go back to Lakeside and everything will be fine again."

"And how many more will die if I don't?" Angel steps back from the oddly limited range of the lamp's light, disappearing in the darkness.

Orpheus quickens his pace to the dark side of the room, but stops as someone steps out of the darkness and stands in front of Orpheus. It's the strange man with the goatee and ponytail, this time wearing a white coat, like a doctor's coat.

"I take it that this wasn't the post-rescue reunion you imagined when you found her?" The goateed man in the white coat inquires.

"Ah...no." A confused and uncertain Orpheus answers.

"You probably thought you would find her and she would tell the reasons she left, then she says she loves you and comes back to you, which would lead to sex before the two of you return to Lakeside to spend the rest of your lives together." The white coat man postulates.

"I...I just don't understand why...why everything's ...wrong." Orpheus says.

"You're beginning to see the damage you've done for what it truly is."

"So...you're a doctor?"

"That's right, Orpheus. I am a doctor. You were sent to me when the police stopped you from your killing spree."

"Killing spree? I killed Moth but that's it."

"What about your uncle Rembrandt?"

"Moth killed Rembrandt."

"No, you killed Rembrandt."

Orpheus is shocked into silence before turning away from the doctor as he feels his head spinning.

"No, I couldn't have. Not Uncle Rembrandt." Orpheus refuses to believe.

"But you did." The doctor affirms. "Rembrandt wanted to stop you after what you did at the Comin'/Going store and Boudreaux Street, but you killed him. Then you raped his wife and burned the place down with both of them inside."

"No, Magga's alive. I know that." Orpheus insists.

"Magga's dead." The doctor assertively states. "Along with Topaz, Superstar, Gemini and anyone else unfortunate enough to get into your wake of destruction."

"That's not true." Orpheus claps his free hand on his head, spinning faster. "NONE OF IT'S TRUE!"

"Listen to me." The doctor grabs Orpheus's head with both hands to force his patient to look at him. "Since you come to Plutopolis, you have murdered, raped and destroyed whoever and whatever got in your way in your mad search for a woman who DOESN'T LOVE YOU."

"Get away from me!" Orpheus yells, pushing the doctor away. "You're wrong, Doctor Love! All this is wrong!"

"You remember my name now." Doctor Love says. "Why don't we increase your treatment? Nurse, if you please."

A sharp string on Orpheus's neck causes him to clap his hand over the source of the second-long pain and look to his side to find a nurse standing next to him, holding a syringe. The nurse is a slender woman in her thirties whose uniform is white with a short and tight skirt, puffy short sleeves and a neckline going down to her sternum to show her black lace bra, a nurse's cap keeping her above shoulder-length purple hair neaten, white stocking over her long shapely legs and black flocking upper spool heel shoes.

"Where the fuck did you come from?" Orpheus rudely questions, stumbling away.

"Nurse Hazy is trying to help you. We all are." Dr. Love assures as he flips a light switch, conveniently within his reach.

Orpheus is blinded by the sudden burst of light above him, causing him to see blobs and streaks in different colors. The first thing he sees as his vision adjusts is Moth, still dead in the blood-stained bed...in the middle of the spacious lobby of the Carmen.

Confusion takes a new level for Orpheus, trying not to panic and walks to the front desk. Sitting on the surface of one end of the front desk is Magga, in her blue tube top and low-cut jeans taking with Natalia the Polish maid sitting behind the desk, while Gemini sits at the opposite end of the desk. At the old orange couch near the desk sits Superstar in her zebra-print jacket and black short skirt, watching Topaz in her white satin minidress passionately making out with the black bikini top/green leather pants wearing Matilda.

Looking around the area near the front desk, Orpheus discovers more familiar face, spotting Cupcake and Mitsou at a small table in the corner, going over their homework, Soo in her blue silk kimono playing scrabble on the floor with Lin-Ling in her black t-shirt and red satin thong and SpiderBat leaning his back against a wall, reading a comic book.

Orpheus is in the center of his friends and acquaintances when he remembers about Magga being dead. He turns to the front desk but Dr. Love stands in front of him again, blocking his view.

"What's going on?" Orpheus asks. "You said Magga was dead."

"Of course, I did." Dr. Love says.

"But she's right there on the front desk." Orpheus tries to look pass the doctor but can't.

"Are you sure about that?" Dr. Love asks before sidestepping out of Orpheus's view.

Focusing on the front desk, Orpheus first sees the woman sitting behind not Natalia but Angel in Natalia's uniform. He sets his sights to where he last saw Magga at the end of the desk, only to find...Angel wearing Magga's tube top and jeans??? At the other end of the desk sits Angel in Gemini's dichotomous biker/good girl clothes. He scans the lobby again to perceive Angel in Superstar's jacket and skirt sitting on the orange couch with Angel in Topaz's minidress getting hot and heavy with Angel, not only in Matilda's clothes but with a cybernetic right arm. Angel in a Willowbrook school uniform sharing a table with Angel in the same uniform, only with a shorter skirt. At the scrabble game, Angel in Lin-Ling t-shirt and thong argues with Angel in Soo's kimono why she earned a triple-word score. SpiderBat stands up off the wall, tossing the comic book aside and pulls of his mask, revealing the super-vigilante to be...Angel.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!?!" Orpheus yells, grabbing his head in the hope to prevent it from exploding.

"Don't you see, Orpheus?" Dr. Love inquires. "Because of your obsession with Angel, you have put her on such a high pedestal that no one else matters to you, and given your propensity for violence and your fear of abandonment issues, you have become a living time bomb, leaving death and destruction to everyone around you...including Angel."

"No, I would never hurt her." Orpheus objects. "I love her."

"Even if she doesn't love you?" Dr. Love questions.

Before Orpheus could answer, the double-doors of the lobby dramatically swings opens, letting Angel enter the lobby wearing her white cotton blouse and blue jeans with her black pumps, carrying her purse. The sight of his lover brings Orpheus an overwhelming joy that washes over the confusion and frustration, prompting him to walk pass Dr. Love in order to meet and greet her with a hug. But instead of a smile and open arms, Angel gives only a scowl and open palm to gesture Orpheus to stop and not get any close.

"Why are you doing this?" Angel asks. "Why can't you let me be?"

"But I came back for you." Orpheus pleads. "To take you home."

"I left Lakeside, Orpheus." Angel states. "And I left you."

Like a movie camera, Orpheus centers and focuses on Angel's beautiful face, mesmerized by her enchanting green eyes as she speaks.

"I don't love you."

Whatever hope or joy Orpheus had comes crashing down, leaving a devastating, soul-crushing affliction of despair that Orpheus never felt before. Everything he did, everything he endured, all for nothing. Was Dr. Love right? Has Orpheus turned into a maniac? Did he really kill those people? Orpheus tries to find the clarity for the answers despite the maelstrom of emotions plaguing him, but he manages to conclude that the only sensible and sane thing to do is let Angel go and surrender to the cops.

BANG!

The gunshot forces Orpheus to focus back on Angel, noticing a strange black spot on her upper abdomen. Blood seeps around the material of the blouse, showing it to be a gunshot wound. Angel looks down at the wound, then to Orpheus.

"I guess I'm finally rid of you." Angel says as a tear rolls down her face.

As horrifying as it is for Orpheus to helplessly watch Angel crouching down, it become more so when he discovers the literal smoking gun in his hand.

"NO!" Orpheus drops the gun. "I didn't do it! I wasn't me!"

Orpheus pans the lobby to any cooperating witnesses like Dr. Love, who is nowhere to be seen. At first thought, he checks the front desk, hoping Magga, Gemini and Natalia saw what really happened but to his continuing horror sees Magga lying still on the desk with blood rolling from her mouth, Natalia lying on her front across the desk, just as still as Magga, Gemini lays on her back on the floor after apparently falling off the desk. Orpheus notices a bloody bullet hole on Gemini's abdomen. Same place as Angel's.

Superstar, Topaz and Matilda sprawl over dead on the couch, each with the same wound. Cupcake and Mitsou leaning back on their chairs, dead with the same wound. Soo and Lin-Ling dead on the floor, bleeding on the scrabble board. SpiderBat slumped on the floor with his back on the wall, stained by a downward trail of blood.

Seeing so much death around her, Orpheus is about to hurry to be with Angel in her final moments but the girlfriend he probably shot is already in a glass coffin, carried away by three hula girl waitresses of Leis on one side and three Willowbrook girls on the other. He follows the pallbearers of the glass coffin through the hotel's double-doors to hurry down the aisle of St. Vincent's Cathedral.

Like the last time Orpheus was at the church, there are a few people scattered at the pews, this time all dressed in black. The coffin was placed before the altar where Father Milton stands, the priest garb he wears is red leather with a obsidian black collar. At the altar is Sister Felicity, wearing a red papal tiara with her red velvet wimple along with a red leather half cup corset with a silver ring at the bottom attached to long strip of red velvet going down her bare thighs, covering her hallowed hollow, with red latex arm-length gloves and thigh-high boots with stiletto heels.

Orpheus cautiously nears the coffin and the altar while the grass skirt wearing waitresses and schoolgirls leaves the coffin to stand in line on opposite sides of the altar. Father Milton moves himself between the coffin and the front pews, blocking Orpheus's way. Orpheus is uncertain if he wants another confrontation with the red leathered priest, so he sits down at the front pew.

"We are here to mourn to passing, the pointless, tragic death of Angel." Father Milton announces. "Though, we know nothing of her past, we do know for certain...is that she had a great pair of tits."

Orpheus is shocked what he heard from Father Milton's vulgar and grossly disrespectful sermon in his lover's funeral but chooses to stay seated and quiet, allowing the priest to continue.

"She also had a wicked gift in the art of seduction and sexual manipulation that could only be matched by the Whore of Babylon."

As much as Orpheus wants to tear off the head of the second priest who made the same biblical comparison, he remains inaction for the sake of Angel's rising to the afterlife.

"So, without any further ado, we shall commit Angel to her final reward...IN HELL!"

"What?" Orpheus jumps up from his seat to walk. "Why does she have to go the hell? She's done nothing wrong."

"Orpheus Jones," Sister Felicity's voice surprisingly carries through the entire church without a microphone. "because of the atrocities you recklessly caused in the name of Angel, she will sent to burn in the fires of hell for all of eternity."

"Because of what I did?" Orpheus questions. "No, you can't do that to her! I won't let you!"

A ring of fire sporadically takes form around the Angel's coffin. The flames rapidly grows.

"No, not her!" Orpheus pleads, rushing to the fire. "Take me! I did those crimes! Take me instead of her!"

As if they had superhuman speed, the hula girls and the schoolgirls intercept Orpheus to prevent him from getting any closer to the coffin by grabbing his legs to stop him from running, his arms so he can't punch or pull off the girls restraining his legs, one hula girl bear hugs torso from behind as a Willowbrook girl hugs his waist from the front, making Orpheus immobile.

"ANGEL!" A helpless Orpheus yells, watching the ring of fire grow. "ANGEEEEEEEEELLLLLL!!!!"

* * * * * *

"What should we do with these two, Doctor?" Nurse Hazy asks, puffing her cigarette.

Doctor Love walks to the purple-haired nurse's side so both can look down to Huntrix and Fifi lying unconscious on the floor.

"Should we send them both to ward D?" Nurse Hazy suggests.

"Just the black one." Dr. Love says. "I'm not sure what Lady J wants me to do with the infamous Huntrix. Have Klaus shackle her up in this room."

"angel..." A broken voice from the other side of the room murmurs.

Dr. Love and Nurse Hazy turn to see Orpheus Jones restrained to a gurney, his eyes half rolled up, rocking his head side to side.

"You sure Lady J wants you giving your special crazy juice to Jones?" Nurse Hazy inquires.

"She was very specific of what to do with him." Dr. Love informs. "With the psychotropic I concocted and the verbal seeds I planted in his head, everything he's experienced in the last hour has been a medically enhanced super-hallucination, twisting his hopes, his dreams, his desire, his entire psyche until he eventually falls in a downward spiral until his mind collapses in on itself."

"Giving him that second shot will speed things up." Nurse Hazy says. "I think he was getting wise."

"No matter." Dr. Love dismisses. "Soon, Orpheus Jones's mind will cease to exist."