The Black Room

I knew something was wrong the minute I opened my front door. My alarms were on and all lights were green, but someone was already inside. The little soft-ball cat toy wasn't up against the door like it should have been as I opened the door. Maybe you have to be a little paranoid to always drop a cat toy just behind the door whenever you leave and then look for it against the door after you have slightly opened it, but just because you are paranoid doesn't mean that there aren't people out there trying to get you.

I am a LOT paranoid, and I don't have a cat, but the cat toy had been pushed all the way into the room and I knew absolutely that someone besides me had already opened this door.

I cursed myself for not having taken a weapon with me, but I had been at a neighborhood pool party at the local fitness club and it is pretty hard to hide a significant weapon when you are dressed in just a pair of sweats over a swimsuit.

I kept my back to the wall and continued slowly into the room, my hand moving along the wall to the painting of the surf off the coast of Maine. I noiselessly slid my hand beneath the painting and into the concealment located behind it. I should have retrieved my Beretta 92FS 9mm pistol, one of four weapons I keep stashed around the place, but instead my hand closed on nothing. The concealment was empty.

I was debating between retreating out the door and charging into the living room when a voice called pleasantly from the other room, "You have an impressive array of weaponry, but I assure you we come in peace. Please join us."

With that the lights came on in the next room. As the saying goes, "If they wanted me dead I would be dead already," so I walked into my living room to join whoever it was that had defeated my alarm systems and removed at least one of my defensive weapons from its hiding place. I have to admit I was taken aback by what I saw as I came around the corner. I haven't seen everything, but I have seen quite a bit and it takes a lot to surprise me. This surprised me.

Sitting on my couch were two persons dressed like they had just finished filming the latest sequel to "Men in Black." The one who had been speaking even looked quite a bit like Will Smith. I knew he had been the one who was speaking because the other Man in Black was a woman. The black suit and sunglasses accented her pale skin and shining blond hair, and the obviously tailored suit highlighted her well formed breasts, even as she sat stiffly on the couch. If it was possible to sit at attention, that is what both of them were doing.

Will said, "I hope you enjoyed your party," and gestured for me to take a seat in the chair opposite them.

I prefer to pick my own seating arrangements, so I instead slowly lowered myself into my recliner and pulled the lever to lean back as I asked, "What do you... agents want of me?"

As I moved the recliner back I wobbled the lever slightly side to side and pressed back twice with my heels against the leg support. The motions were intended to look like the normal motions of a male settling into his favorite chair, but the sequence actually activated a special program on the security computer. The TV set mounted on the wall behind the two agents came on at a low light level and began to display the feed from the thermal imaging camera mounted in the vent above me. Neither Agent in Black noticed the image starting to form behind them. When the picture slowly brightened, I would be able to see the heat signatures of their bodies, and more importantly I would be able to see what weaponry they had concealed in their clothing.

"I assume you are agents of some sort?"

As I spoke, my hand slipped into the small slot just above the lever on the side of the chair. I was hoping to find my Baby Browning. The 25 caliber isn't much of a weapon, but it beats throwing pillows at someone. I like it as a last resort because it is small enough to overlook in a quick search, but at close range the seven shot clip allows for a double two-one heart-head tap with one round left in the pistol.

Will smiled and held up the Browning. As he placed it on the table, he said softly, "As I said, you have an impressive array of weaponry for a peaceful man."

I didn't answer. Instead I pushed the two buttons located at the bottom of the area that should have held the Browning. Will winced as the sharp prongs of a taser mechanism punched through the cushion on which he was sitting. Blond in Black screamed and jumped to a standing position.

He smiled wryly and spoke softly, "I guess I should have said that you have a VERY impressive array of weaponry for a peaceful man. I thought that we had neutralized the power source for that, but evidently there was still enough power in the capacitors to trigger the plungers. Lucky for me, there wasn't enough charge for the power surge. May we now discuss why we are here?"

Blond in Black, however, was more ready to cuss than discuss. "You son of a bitch," she screamed at Will. "You said that thing was completely neutralized. Those prongs hit me right between the legs and the shock mechanism was active. It damn near burned my clit off!"

He smiled back at her. It was not a reassuring smile. The last man I saw smile like that put three bullets into my chest at close range. If I hadn't been wearing a vest, I would have been dead. But I was, and so he was... dead that is.

The warm smile and cold eyes had their intended effect, however, and Blonde in Black suddenly regained her composure and sat back down on the couch. Will coldly replied to her, "If the shock system had been active you would be unconscious right now."

Looking over at me, he added, "Correct?" Then, as if we had not been interrupted at all, he repeated, "May we NOW discuss why we are here?"

"Sure, why the hell not," I replied. Actually I was starting to respect whoever this was. He was well trained, well prepared and not easily shaken. Obviously, he was one dangerous son of a bitch.

"We need your help to solve a mystery," began Will. "... an old mystery from ancient Ireland." With that he handed me several sheets of paper. "Do you know what these are?"

"They are rubbings," I replied as I set them on the coffee table between us, "... like you would make from a tombstone."

"Correct, but they are not from a tombstone. They are from the Black Room at Moore's Abby."

"Never heard of it," I replied.

"Very few people have," Will responded. "And those who know of the Abby know nothing of the Black Room. The Black Room isn't actually in the Abby, but is sealed in an underground cavern on the grounds. The Franciscans who built the Abby thought it was a portal to hell, so they sealed it off. Through the centuries, everyone who has tried to unravel the mystery of the Black Room has died or disappeared or been driven totally insane. The local town is called Galbally. The name means, 'The Town of the Alien.' I have always found that name amusing."

He laughed. It was not a reassuring sound. Then he continued. As he spoke, he placed papers on the coffee table in front of me. The first rubbings looked like ancient writings and as the stack grew the writing moved through several renditions of ancient Gaelic, into Old English, and finally into modern English. The top copy read:

..... On the darkest of the darkest nights

..... With blue flame of purest light

..... Within the circle of the morning star

..... Bound and open from afar

..... Sun joins moon and earth joins sky

..... Until comes thunder from on high

..... If the ritual is true and tried

..... The solid door will open wide

..... But if you do not time it well

..... You will see the depths of hell

I picked up the paper and held it up as if to read it. What I was actually doing was examining a little more closely the heat signatures displayed behind my visitors. I leaned back and again levered the recliner into the relaxed position as if I was settling back to examine the papers. As I did so, I once again slid my hand into the pocket on the side of the chair. This time I did not press both buttons, but instead pressed the top button rapidly three times and sat back up. I pretended to examine the paper while I waited for the backup system to cycle.

Mentally I began counting down, "Three, two, one....."

"EEEIIIAAHH!"

Blond in Black screamed loudly and slumped over against Will as the taser charge surged against her nether region. This time there was an extra needle that contained a rather powerful sedative. She would be out for some time. I noted that the mechanism had evidently once again plunged between her legs. The backup had restored it to full power. She would be very sore for quite a while. Will pushed her back over onto the couch and began to reach for the weapon I couldn't identify, but now knew was in an inside pocket of his black suit.

"Not necessary," I said quietly. "I could have triggered both sides, but I thought we needed to talk... privately."

Will continued to move his hand slowly toward the weapon, so I got up from the chair and stood alongside it with my hands held slightly out from my sides and my fingers spread. "Look behind you," I said as I slowly raised my arm and pointed toward the heat camera display. "I don't know what you are or where you are from, but you are definitely not from around here, are you?"

Will looked over his shoulder at the TV screen which displayed a rather explicit heat image of the Woman in Black. She had rather large labia, a piercing in each nipple and apparently another piercing through the hood of her clit. If the taser hit that metal, she would definitely have burns. His own equally explicit image showed not a human heat pattern, but instead an almost reptilian-shaped heat image.

He smiled. This time it was a real smile. "They told me you were good. Over the years, I have always gone to the best. Maybe you are the one who can help me at last." He gestured for me to return to my seat. "First you tell me what you think is going on, and then I will tell you the real story."

I was much more relaxed now. This could still go south, but it didn't appear to be a weapons situation connected to my primary line of work, it was more in line with my "hobby" of supplying technical support to exclusive clients interested in special forms of sexual pleasure.

"Well," I began, "for one thing you enjoyed watching your fellow agent get shocked. Assuming that is your sexual equipment between your legs, there was a significant heat increase when she squealed and jumped up that first time. I assume you aren't screwing her regularly because you are bigger than any man I have ever seen and I don't think she could handle the equipment on a regular basis, if you know what I mean. No woman could, so you probably have to get your jollies by inflicting pain, power or control."

"Even if I tried your normal mating practices," Will replied, "there would be a great deal of pain involved. Some women actually enjoy the mixture of pleasure and pain, but yes, I find that over the years I have begun to enjoy watching a human woman in pain.... or pleasure... or both."

He shrugged his shoulders. "You take what you can get, and it has been a LONG time since I have been with one of my own kind."

"I'd say at least 2000 years, judging by the Celtic runes. The oldest stuff looks Babylonian, so somehow this stone or stones or whatever it is got from Babylonia to Ireland. I would say that somehow one day a Celtic shaman or witch or queen or whatever either figured out how to open the portal or accidentally opened it while doing some other ritual and you got caught on this side of the door when it closed. You've been trying to get back, but you really don't know how it works, do you?"

Will's eyes were almost boring through me as he answered, "Close. You are very, very good. The only thing you got wrong is that it was still in Babylon when I fell through the portal. I arranged for it to be taken to Egypt when the Hittites sacked the city. From there it went to Spain with the Phoenician invasion. When the Celts were raiding the coastal towns of Spain, I saw an opportunity to take it to a place of safety on that relatively small island. I hoped to be able to recreate the events that opened the portal in Babylon, but I have never been successful. I know that it wasn't supposed to open like that, but I don't know for sure what triggered it. I've come close several times, but... "

He again shrugged in what was almost a Mediterranean gesture of resignation. "I know it takes sex - lots of sex. It has to be a fair-skinned woman with red hair." Looking at his unconscious partner he added, "or blonde hair." He smiled again - this time the cold smile - and continued, "It has to be sex with a special kind of woman, and she has to be bound. It doesn't have to be rape, but it has to be rough so that there is a mixture of pain and pleasure... but it can't be unwilling. The woman has to be that special type who needs both the pain and the pleasure to truly become sexually exited by what is happening to her." Another shrug. "And the moment of climax has to be exactly at midnight on what you call Halloween."

He took off his sunglasses and reached up to his eyes. He removed what appeared to be two rather large contact lens and then looked back up at me with yellow, slitted eyes. His face contorted slightly and for a moment I thought that he was going to attack, but then he started to sob, "But it doesn't work. I can't get it right. I thought it had something to do with a 19 year cycle or a 53 year cycle, but regardless of how I try to set it up, it just doesn't work. And sometimes when it almost works, the people in the circle are sometimes pulled through to the other side or they die or they lose their minds but the portal still doesn't open. I've tried everything through the centuries, but the damn door just won't open!"

As he was crying, the black suit slowly dissolved away and so did the outward Will Smith appearance. He stood there naked, his blue reptilian skin glistening softly in the light. The lizard face smiled, if that is what you can call it when there are no lips. "Do you realize how much mental energy it takes to maintain such a strong mental projection for long periods of time?"

He shuddered slightly as if he were loosening his muscles after a great effort. "It helps if I choose a face that is somewhat familiar to the people around me. Then their minds tend to fill in the details and I don't have to be so exact."

Will sat back down and gave me another lizard smile. "I used to do a great Elvis..." He laughed remembering something about those days, "but I really do prefer to project a dark skinned person. If I have to go for really light skin, it can be very hard to maintain for long periods of time unless I am wearing some sort of true clothing that conceals my bodily form. Whenever I can, I try to stay in cultures that accept wearing robes. Then I only have to project the face and hands. I have projected a lot of hands and faces through the centuries."

Will paused and again started laughing but now it was almost in an hysterical way. I thought he was going to lose it, but he quickly composed himself and continued. "The purpose of the portal was to obtain... I think you call them 'slaves,' but that isn't quite the right word. They are willing slaves... sexual slaves. They actually seek the pain of mating with us. I was told that you understand women who are like this. That is one of the reasons I came to you."

I nodded partly in agreement with his statement and partly to show him I was actually listening to him. He was now totally matter of fact, almost like a college professor giving a lecture. "Somehow the portal knows their hearts and minds, and if they are truly willing sexual slaves - male or female - the portal brings them back to our dimension. It isn't just for our pleasure, though that it part of it. Our species has no...." He paused as if trying to think of the correct word and then continued with "...womb bearers. It is possible for us to exchange genetic material between ourselves, but the murias - I think 'embryo' would be your closest equivalent word - must be implanted in a willing womb. If the womb is not willing, the embryo will not... attach."

"You have no women?" I asked.

"Male and female as you know them do not exist for us. In our species, as we approach maturity, we seek out a suitable partner or partners and exchange genetic sequences." He gestured toward an area on his side that looked more like a healed wound more than a opening. I decided that I really didn't want to know the details of how they accomplished exchanging genetic sequences.

"That is only done once in our lifetime. The other's genetic material is stored within us for future combination. We can control when such combination happens, but after the combining occurs, as the murias develop within us, we are driven to find suitable wombs in which to deposit the murias. Somehow, at some time, it was discovered that human females make the best womb bearers. That is why we seek human females - that and the fact that the human female's body seems to most greatly activate our desire to deposit a muria in their womb. Our attraction to human females is so strong we find that it is often quite pleasurable to release the fluid that carries the muria into a willing womb even if a muria is not present."

He looked slightly embarrassed. It was almost like talking to one of the local high school kids about sex. ...... No, it was exactly like that.

Click!!! I was beginning to get the picture. Either time moves very differently wherever Will was from or his species has an unbelievably long life span. In either case, I now understood exactly what was going on. Will was basically a horny teenager who had gone to a peep show, fallen through the glass and couldn't get back into the audience. Now he was asking me to figure out was what caused him to fall through the window and somehow get him back.

"Tell me exactly what happened when you fell through the portal," I asked. His heat signature flushed. Whatever happened was definitely embarrassing to him.

"It was thousands of your years ago in what you call Babylon. The people there worshiped Marduk as god of the sun and Nanna-seun as goddess of the moon. The portals were created in the temples so that we could capture wombs during the fertility festival that celebrated the start of the new solar sequence. Each year at what you call the spring equinox, there would be one or two participants who were chosen by the portal to be womb bearers. Occasionally there would be a male slave or two who were brought through purely for work and pleasure."

I must have looked displeased because Will added, "I told you the portal will only take those who truly desire deeply in their hearts to be a sexual slave. I think you call such people submissives or pain sluts."

Will looked up at the ceiling as if he were envisioning something and then continued with his tale. "Then there came a year in which one of the their priests came up with a new celebration. It wasn't at the equal light and dark times in the spring, but at what you call the autumnal or fall equinox - or it was supposed to be. We can watch and listen through the portals, and we heard what the priest told his people, but he messed up his calculations." Another shrug. Will must have spent a lot of time in Spain or Italy. I expected him to start talking with his hands at any minute. "Maybe the priest didn't make a mistake. Maybe he knew what would happen and intentionally moved the date. In any case, the festival was several days late."

"I don't know what the purpose of the festival was supposed to be, but he somehow convinced them re-enact their creation myth where Marduk shoots an arrow down Tiamat's throat and splits her body to form the heavens and the earth. Eight women were brought into the temple. They were totally naked. Henna had been used to lighten the hair on their heads and all other hair had been removed from their bodies. Each woman was led into the room and made to stand within a wooden frame. Her arms were spread high above her head and tied to the frame. Her legs were also widely spread and tied to the base of the frame."