The Wishing Well: Part VI
Devil Torturing Jesuits
The Wishing Well: Part VI
Birdie had the specific location of the Art House where she purchased the paintings. But Max wrestled with the anthropological and psychological explanations for Birdie’s belief in Heaven. But then Max dismissed them all as he remembered be believed those fields of study where only pseudo science and not real. And yet Birdie knew of something that had been erased from life as they knew it. In the end he knew there was no plausible scientific hypothesis.
He met the guards out of the outskirts of Soho. It was a bohemian paradise even worse than The Village. The guards were also under the influence of The Wishing Well Therapy. And once they finished their jobs in Soho The Wishing Well Nano Therapy inside their brains would also erase all of their negative memories.
A woman who looked like a “lady of the evening” grabbed Max and kissed him deeply and passionately. She had something in her mouth when she did so. Max pushed her off him and spit out what she can so cleverly placed on his tongue. He bent down to pick it up and it looked as if it were a purple micro dot. He had only seen those in anthropological periodicals. The woman laughed hysterically, “Now you will see Him too.”. Max spared her his quip as he knew she was not well and he continued towards the Art House.
As he entered the Art House he was beginning to feel the effects of the acid which he thought would make him blend in more. He laughed to himself as he thought about how the Admiral had explained his lab to Birdie, “The Kool Aid Factory.”. It was an amusing metaphor. Max was perplexed by the Fashion. Women dressed in animal prints. Did they wish to be animals or animalistic? A waitress came by and offered him a glass of champagne. There was no harm in it as Max was already tripping. So he sat in front of one of the paintings and drank his fill and then gazed at the painting. It seemed to be of a demon or what in the olden days was referred to as the devil in hell. And then the room seemed to get much louder with voices and they were all chanting. And as they chanted the demon in the painting came out of the wall and grabbed Max and dragged back through the painting.
Max woke up inside of the painting in hell. He was slapping his face trying to wake himself up from the drug induced hallucination. But the demon whipped Max with fire. Six lashes brunt across Max’s back and he lied on the ground in agony. “Pain will not free you.”. The demon bellowed. And then he seemed to settled down. He lit a cigarette and smoked it.
In disbelief Max announced. “I don’t believe in you.”.
“Yes you do, Jesuit. And you created The Wishing Well Project to deprive me of all my earthly delights.” He took another drag on his cigarette. “It is God who you don’t believe in.”
Max laughed. “I am tripping and those things are going to kill you.” he answered referring to the cigarettes. “We are all dying even me. You have made certain to that. I am just trying to have a bit of fun before I go.”
Playing into his hallucination hoping to be able to derive sense from it Max continued. “The Art?”.
The Demon laughed. “It is a door to Him that all of them seek. And they are willing to die to see Him. You could erase me from their memories but not Him. He would never be denied.” The demon said as he pointed to Heaven.
“And the originality?” Max asked.
Becoming bored the demon answered. “First sin in Eden all over again. And just to be clear Scientists and Demons are all on the same side of denying miracles of Him.”
“I don’t believe in Demons.”
The Demon put his cigarette out on Max’s wrist which caused Max to scream out. And then the Demon laughed. “Yes, I know! But your wrist sure hurts like hell.”
“Are you keeping me in hell?”
The Demon laughed again. “No, I am sending you back. You are on my side. Originality and Art are just portals to Heaven but they also open up the doors to Hell as well. Besides I need you to try and close the doors to heaven so I will be free to reign over the Earth. The Wishing Well therapy can accomplish this. Where I make house calls,” The demon gestured to the God again. “He does not.”
“Close the portals Max before He flows through them like a plague.”
Max woke up on the sidewalk next to the Art House. The guards picked him up and put him in his car. Max was groggy but checked to see if he had lashes on his back, He felt the pain of them still be there was nothing visible through the back of his shirt.
One of the guards piped up, “Do you want us to start containment protocols?”
Max thought for a moment. “No. We can always come back. But it will spread.” The guard argued. And Max did not respond but thought what, “Human nature, evil or spirituality?”
Related Links
- The Wishing Well: Part V
A short Science Fiction story titled The Wishing Well Part V.
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