The Creators: Epilogue

I just turned to Julia. "Somewhere comfortable, please."

In the blink of an eye, we were standing beneath a gazebo in a secluded valley. Comfortable armchairs were arranged in a circle, fine cigars were placed neatly on tables, and wine was already in the glasses beside them. Everyone simultaneously lurched for the nearest source of liquor like they were dying of thirst and guzzled until they realized the goblets were bottomless. Only Diamond and I didn't touch our glasses. I was surprised to see that Julia drank more than anyone. She had seemed so composed.

"Alright," she took a deep breath, her face notably flushed, "this is your show, Petra."

"Sit, my friends," I said, and they all pensively did so. I also did so, though I was very upright in my chair. Now that the moment had come, it would be a near-impossible juggling act to keep it going. "You all know me," I started. "There's no need to recount how complicated the past is between all of us. The past is... well, it was my entire purpose for so long. To return the world to what it was. Once Justina and you all showed me the error of my ways, I never looked back. I am always here in the present, but I am also not so foolish as to realize what course the present can take if left unchecked." I looked to Brandon, then Julia. "The afterlife is eternal, but the present is already gone. It slips away even as I speak of it. You cannot remain frozen within it, for it is a river that flows persistently, and if you stand like a rock, it will erode you."

"How elegiac," Lucilla slurred, her chin and breasts dripping with spilled wine.

I gave her a pointed look. "It will erode you and leave you quite dull. All the people who flow with it will pass you by and never look back at the frozen fool trying to defy the current."

Lucilla's sneer faded.

"I know that it is so tempting to think you've found yourself," I said, turning now to Willowbud. "That after all this time, you can stop searching, but you can't. You can never stop searching, or you'll be lost."

She rolled her eyes. "I thought you hated metaphors."

"Then I'll be more direct." I looked at Justina now. "None of you have any idea how to live anymore. Your mortal lives were so full of pain, euphoria, suffering, ecstasy; life. You became tired of it. You wanted a break. Well, you've had it. You've had ten extra lifetimes to center yourselves, and now you're all caricatures of yourselves."

Diamond raised her hand. "Are you talking about me too?"

"Yes, but you're not in denial like the rest of them."

"Hey, I just broke up with Brandon today!" Angela yelled indignantly.

"You would've spent a year here, then gone crawling back to him. This was a vacation for you, not a journey."

Angela opened her mouth to crack wise but wisely shut it instead.

I turned back to Julia. "You have made Heaven, but very few people stay here for long. Why is that?"

She shrugged. "Having every desire met becomes unfulfilling without people to challenge you. That's why they go to Freedom."

I turned to Brandon. "Your realm used to be the most populous in the afterlife, filled with revelers seeking spirituality in each other. Where did they go?"

"I guess they found it. No need to keep looking."

I turned to Willowbud. "And so they go to Chaos and try to find a darker understanding of humanity. It's understandable why they don't stay for long, but why don't they ever come back?"

She twiddled her thumbs. "Because... I suck?"

"Yes, that's precisely it," I smiled at the trio of them. "You all suck. Julia, you give everyone what they want, but not what they need. Brandon, your vision of Freedom is a college freshman's wet dream. Willowbud, there's more to Chaos than just brutal anarchy! When people go to your realms, it is because they are looking for something. You think you give it to them, and at first, so do they, but they come to realize that all you've provided is a surface representation of it. You do not have the depth to give them more. That might be fine for the newcomers, but you owe it to the people who have been here as long as you have to grow with them!" I glanced over at Justina. "All of you."

"And you have a solution?" Brandon asked.

"Let's hear it," Willowbud added.

Julia just nodded in agreement.

I took a steeling breath. "We rotate. For the next millennium, each of you is going to rule a different realm. Julia, you'll rule Freedom. Brandon will rule Chaos, Willowbud will rule Hell, and Diamond will rule Heaven. Then--"

"Fuck everything about that!" Brandon shouted with uncharacteristic ferocity. "You think I'm gonna take charge of Chaos?! Are you out of your fucking MIND?!"

"What would I do in Freedom?" Julia asked. "Sit idly by with my hands in my lap for a thousand years?"

"Where do you get off thinking I wanna babysit a million masochists?!" Willowbud snarled.

Diamond raised her hand. "Petra, I would be a very terrible host of Heaven."

"Do you know how hard I worked to make Freedom what it is?" Brandon barked. "Now Julia's gonna come in and turn the goddamned place into a sultan's bathhouse!"

"Is that what you think of my realm?!" she snapped at Brandon. "Well, you can leave then!"

"Not to mention you don't have the balls to rule Chaos," Willowbud growled at Brandon. "Gonna turn my home into a fucking hippy shithole."

"And you will be quite neglectful of my lovers," Diamond scowled at Willowbud, then looked at me. "If I knew this was going to be the plan, I would never have agreed to it!"

I slid my eyes to Lucilla and Angela. "And what do the two of you think?"

They looked at each other, then nodded and sighed incongruence. "You're right," they said as one.

"What?!" Brandon and Julia yelled in harmony.

"If Astrid were here, she'd agree with me too," I turned to Willowbud, and then to Diamond. "The same goes for Leveria."

"You don't know--"

"I do."

Angela stood up and looked at her brother. "Brandon, the last thousand years were pure bliss for me, but... I don't know..." she twisted her lips cutely, "...I always wanted a bad-boy boyfriend."

Brandon blinked at her, then glared at me. "This is so fucking low. Even for you."

I smiled gently back. "Did you forget who I am?"

Lucilla knitted her fingers into Julia's trembling hand. "It would be good for us," she said softly. "I'd finally have to get out and meet new people. It was what you wanted."

"It wasn't what I wanted!"

Lucilla squeezed Julia's hand tightly. "But it's what you need, and you know it."

"Welp," Willowbud slapped her knees and stood up, "Astrid isn't here to tell me how great I'd be at torturing her--not that she doesn't already know that--so I'm just gonna say, fuck you, Petra. I like you, but I made myself a promise never to listen to you again."

"You also made me a promise, Willowbud," Justina finally spoke, looking up from her mane of white hair. "You always had all the answers, but we never listened to you. Now I'm listening. That's what you said to me."

"Yeah, and you told me you only had questions."

She smiled back. "But I always had the right questions."

Willowbud chewed on her lip, then nodded. "Fine."

I looked over at Diamond. "And you?"

She looked around at the realm we were in and sighed. "I always thought it could use more cupcakes."

I grinned. "With sparkled sprinkles."

She snorted and shook her head. "You are a wonder, Petranumen." She looked levelly at me. "But this isn't the end, is it?"

"No," I said, and the gazebo went tense again. "After a thousand years, you'll switch again. Julia will rule Chaos, Brandon will rule Hell, Willowbud will rule Heaven, and you will rule Freedom. Then Julia rules Hell, Brandon rules Heaven, Willowbud rules Freedom, and you rule Chaos. Then... back to the beginning. Then around again. Again, and again, and again; always adding a new perspective, always building upon the same four ideas."

They were all very silent. I understood why. The prospect of a millennium was daunting but temporary; what I was proposing was permanent. This was me taking away their identities, their homes. Their cages. They didn't yet know the horror of being resigned to one idea for an eternity. They never would. It was my gift to them.

It was Willowbud who finally broke the silence. "So... should I just... leave for Hell now or...?"

Julia took a deep glug of wine and wiped her lips. "You're not going anywhere."

The rest of the day went rather splendidly. Everyone expected Willowbud and Julia to steal the show, and they made for a strong opening act. They circled each other, gaging each other much like they had when they met in Drastin, but the wickedness that had ignited their competitiveness before was gone. They seemed wary of each other--or rather, warry of how they saw themselves with the other. When they finally came together in the middle, there was none of the hair-pulling, ass-slapping, back-scratching rage that had made their first encounter so delightful. They simply hovered before each other and began caressing the other gently. Willowbud placed her lips on Julia's breasts and kissed each nipple sweetly. Julia ran her finger through Willowbud's white hair, then stroked her down the spine. Neither of them wanted to be masculine, and so they tenderly grazed the other with their lips and fingertips as though recognizing and touching the scars they had made. I supposed they were very familiar, and they would never fully heal, but that didn't mean that the scars couldn't be a gateway to love. It would take a long time.

Their sapphic joining devolved gracefully into the grass, and they rotated side-by-side to feed upon the other's lust. Entwining thighs with faces between buttocks, their wet smacks and soft moans created an inviting undercurrent for the spectators. Angela moved first. She became hermaphroditic and positioned herself behind Julia. Lucilla moved second and did the same with Willowbud. They were much less gentle than the old enemies in the center, and they exacted their playful vengeance with a sudden and synchronized reaming of the anuses. Willowbud howled into Julia's cloven depths; Julia squealed in delight. The lusting Bound Ones pulled their murderers away from each other and began making themselves the center of attention. Side by side, Julia and Willowbud held hands as they were cruelly bounced from vengeful laps, their breasts groped into handfuls of fat, their moans and cries silenced by sadistic sucking kisses. They both enjoyed the flavor of the sardonic tongues, and they bowed their necks in surrender as their bodies wilted willingly into the violation.

It was far too much for poor Brandon to stare at a flushed and unattended pussy. What could he do when both women were rubbing their fingers through the nectarous petals, forking the digits to show the ruby depths being bulged from the wrong side? He had lain with Willowbud countless times in the Afterlife, but the last time he'd tasted Julia had left a foul flavor in his mouth. Brandon wasn't scared of foul flavors. He joined his sister between Julia's legs and met her in the middle. As Julia's muffled squeals sounded, as her milky body squirmed and her red hair flailed, Diamond eyed the vacant spot in Willowbud and joined Aunt Lucilla. Brandon could be hard and forceful, for he was a man. It was what Julia wanted from him, but he wasn't cruel to her. Diamond, on the other hand, was graceful and refined, but she knew just how to touch Willowbud to exact the perfect harmony of agony and ecstasy. By the look in Willowbud's awestruck eyes, I think something might've been awakened in her.

"Which one do you want?" I asked my beloved. On one side, were Diamond's enticing plump little cheeks clapping to show the delicious options between them. On the other, was Brandon's sculpted backside ramming away like a boorish beast.

Justina tapped her lips in a show of contemplation, but I knew she'd never do that to Brandon. Not yet, anyway. She had some years to grow. Thankfully, she had finally mastered her propensity for self-consumption when becoming masculine, for she grew a modest organ between her legs, and shimmied sensually over to the awaiting Diamond. My organ was far from modest, and I was not sensual with it. I grabbed the bucking bronco by his broad shoulders and plunged myself into his tight clenching depths. Poor Julia was nearly split in half with the force of his reaction, but after what she'd done to him in Drastin, I supposed she knew how Brandon would behave when this side of him was awoken. Angela cackled in delight, and the three of us drove together, all converging into the soft squishy redhead in the center.

When Julia and Willowbud were spent, we left them leaking and gaping in the grass to recover. They managed to get their mouths back on each other, and attempted to simultaneously clean and reinvigorate themselves. We didn't have time to wait for them. I pulled Brandon into my lap and enjoyed the way he ground against me. Lucilla and Angela took their turns sucking Julia's sheen from his manhood, and before long, they were competing in a grand show of oral technique. Lucilla could take Brandon's pumping drives down her throat with a symphony of glugs, but Angela knew how to swirl her tongue in all the right places. I didn't know who would win, and I'd never find out, for the competitors were rudely interrupted by the pair of slender-bodied hermaphrodites behind them. Diamond slid elegantly into her aunt's familiar slit, while Justina took uncouth delight in the shock that crossed Angela's face when she buried her shaft into her best friend's anus. The thrusting began, the two consuming Bound Ones suddenly lost their appetite, and poor Brandon was left unattended to while Diamond rolled Aunt Lucilla onto her back, and Justina unceremoniously dropped Angela atop her.

Lucilla and Angela jostled their smearing throbbing organs for a stabbing blow, but they could not dictate their own thrusts in the jiggling rhythm of their masters. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for Lucilla, Justina wanted her dear friend to win, and Diamond had no prerogative to be kind. Lucilla's eyes bulged as she was penetrated by the sneering Angela, nestled alongside Diamond in the same stretched hole. Angela took her victory kiss upon Lucilla's exalting lips, and the foursome devolved to the grass. But Brandon wasn't feeling too sorry for himself. I'd grown my extra limbs to pin him in my sensuous arachnid hold, and as we exchanged tongues over his shoulder, I plunged into his sucking hole until the udder within was forced to give up its milk. His back arched against me, his strong chest striated in my cupping hands, and he stretched his body into a bow as I loosed his arrow with a stroking hand.

Like cumhounds, Julia and Willowbud crawled through the grass to the scent of fresh seed. They licked their way up Brandon's quivering body and joined their kiss upon his shaft before it could wilt. With their eyes for each other, they danced their tongues along him, then turned their gaze upon me like territorial lionesses. I knew when to give up my prey. Pulling out with a wet shlock, I left Brandon at the mercy of those merciless whores. Julia mounted his organ with her favorite hole, Willowbud mounted his face and made him service both, and when his hands came up to lovingly peel her cheeks apart, her body stooped down to sensually suckle upon the curved shaft of the ginger who murdered her. I lingered for a while, watching Willowbud suck Julia to completion, then watching Julia compel Willowbud's masculinity forth only to do the same. Brandon got sick of being the victim and rolled the pair of them off him, and in a fit of giggles, the two angels clasped their hands together and bent over as Brandon took turns exacting his vengeance.

The aforementioned foursome had become barely a loose orgy. Justina and Diamond were paired up, with Diamond gracefully riding my beloved's crotch, taking a slickened shaft into each hole, for Justina was no longer satisfied with having just one. Lucilla apparently held the same sentiment, though poor Angela wasn't quite as graceful as Diamond. I supposed it was because Diamond had split her meal between two mouths, and Lucilla was making a point of double-stuffing Angela's stretched slit. The Life Giver's twin sister was reduced to smeared makeup, disheveled strawberry hair and semen splattering her belly, jiggling breasts and face. Though we were beneath a gazebo, she squinted up at me from her back as though the sun was in her eyes, and she couldn't recognize my profile. She certainly recognized the taste on me when I slid myself down her throat. Yes, she was very familiar with that flavor. As she rapaciously sucked her brother from my shaft, I enjoyed the texture of her face on my testicles and locked eyes with Lucilla across from her. Before I could humiliate my dearest friend with a rematch, her loyal little niece came up behind me and reminded me with one thrust of all the hellish things she'd done to me in the darkness. I wilted with a whimper into her gentle evil embrace, and she guided me to my back. There, Justina was waiting for me with a crooked smirk.

"You think you get to just fuck all of us without getting yours in return?" She asked with a raised brow. I looked around and was suddenly surrounded by everyone. I gulped in fear and anticipation. Justina thought I planned everything out in advance, but it was true that I just studied the dominoes as they fell and took advantage of their lie. This, however... I'd been waiting for this. With a pathetic whimper, I receded into myself, my extra limbs vanishing, my proud manhood shrinking into a pathetic little sprout. Show me your darkness, my mothers and fathers, I thought as I quelled beneath them. Show me all of it.

The things they did to me were rather banal considering where I liked to spend my time, but they were made so much more visceral by who was doing them. Diamond wouldn't show the others what she and I did in private, but she orchestrated them to do things they normally wouldn't. All I had to do was remind them each in subtle ways of all that I had taken from them, and the shield of friendship I'd built with each shattered. Oh, there was still love; they couldn't not love me, but that didn't mean they couldn't hate me too.

I was a pig on a spit, my body jiggling with such violence that it was a blur, but it wasn't my body anyway. It was everyone else's, a sacrament for their feasting, and they used me like the meat I was. My mouth was stuffed, my throat was clogged, my nethers were jammed with throbbing organs that thrust together as one. My anus unsheathed and gripped the reaming shafts like a fleshy condom, and those who weren't inside of me were beating me, spitting on me, pissing on me. My scalp seared with such delicious agony as they pulled my hair back to see their faces leering at me. They were demons, their silhouettes cut like diamonds behind the raging light of the spiritual plane, beckoning me, whispering to me as I gagged and choked, bucked and heaved, drove my pelvis down to fill myself with their wonderful torture. They were just eyes before the light, and the light was getting brighter. Their conjoined shafts pummeled into me, making my back bow and arch, compelling the fluids from my body to squirt and spill with each spine-numbing ascension. And the light was getting brighter, but it wasn't whispering to me anymore. It wasn't making a sound. Their silhouettes were thinning until I couldn't even discern their profiles. I was screaming soundlessly, trapped in the gripping hold of so many hands. Clawing at me, tearing at me, making me suffer as they delivered their terrible pleasure deep into my core. And through my tearful eyes, I barely saw them at all. They were just thinning lines before the light, and the light was all-consuming. There it was at the end of the bridge, and we all pretended not to see it. The only evil there ever was no longer shrouded itself in black but was the very source of all light. I always knew it to be true. Show me your darkness, for your darkness is a shadow against infinity. Your darkness is life, and the light that shines at your back is nothing. Don't turn around. Don't look to the end of this great tunnel we have made--this passageway, this purgatory. Do not see it for what it is.