Author's Notes: Be warned! I consider this story very dark and violent, although the violence is not described in great detail.
Sabbat
The man, the one who used to be known as Jeremy before he gladly gave up his soul and his humanity, stood and stretched his small body. He looked around him in satisfaction. He was particularly pleased with the protection circle that he had drawn around himself. As many times as he had invoked dark gods and demons, he had never himself been inside the circle. This time would be different however. This time would be more than a mere summoning. This time he would be setting something terrible loose in the world, and he would be the only one with the power to control it.
He began to speak, slowly and carefully saying the final words that would complete the incantation that had been begun earlier. There could be no mistakes here. Even a small mispronunciation could mean death.
When the incantation was complete he stood in the dimly lit room and waited with anticipation. He did not wait long. In front of him, the air itself appeared to shift as it became hazy and heavy. The haze intensified as the room became hot, almost unbearably hot. Just as the small man thought that he could take no more and that his skin would surely begin to sizzle from the heat, a figure emerged from the center of the maelstrom. The Dark One stepped forward on massive clawed feet and unfurled its huge black wings.
"Why do you awaken me?" it asked in a deep, rumbling voice.
"I have an errand for you. I want you to bring someone to me," said the small man in a confident voice.
The Dark One looked around the room and saw the circle of protection, saw the lit candles, saw the various other markings on the floor. The incantation had worked. It would do anything the human required it to do.
"Who?" it asked as it fixed its yellow, glittering eyes on the human once again.
"This man here," the small man said as he held up a picture. "His Christian name is Joshua Scott Chasez. I want him alive. And unharmed if possible."
The Dark One stepped forward and stared at the picture in the man’s hand. It studied the face, remembered the name and soon it was opening its mind to the world in order to find him. Once it had found the man, the Dark One turned and vanished, leaving the small one alone in the circle with his excitement.
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The Dark One flew swiftly through the air until it reached a large house situated on a rocky hillside. Its target was inside, it could easily sense him; smell him. There were others inside also. Four that smelled female, five that smelled male. The sounds from inside the house were loud and boisterous. The Dark One allowed itself a small smile; so…it would be interrupting a gathering. The thought rather excited it.
As the smile disappeared from its face, it flew down toward the house, not stopping until its body had broken through one of the large windows. The Dark One stood, unhurt, and quickly scanned the room. It had been correct. Four females. Five males in addition to the one that it had come for. It saw the fear on the humans’ faces and heard their gasps of shock as they stared at him. Allowing itself only a moment to drink in their fear, it lunged forward and grabbed the human in the picture. The human struggled and screamed as the other humans rushed toward their friend to help him. All efforts were futile however. The Dark One and the human in his arms were out in the air before anyone could truly decipher what had happened.
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The Dark One flew into the darkened room of its temporary master and dropped its cargo unceremoniously. Immediately the man tried to crawl away from the horrible thing that had held him with its large, cold claws.
The small man spoke. "Set him there…on that bed in the corner. There are chains and manacles attached to the four posts. Attach him securely."
The man, JC, looked up at the smaller man as if he were insane. "What…?" he started to ask, but his question was cut off by the Dark One as it easily caught him and dragged him to the bed. Once there the Dark One threw him on it and within a few seconds, had fastened the iron manacles to his wrists and ankles.
"Thank you, Great One. You will not be needed anymore tonight. Please return to your slumber," said the small man. The Dark One disappeared with a quick bow of his head and the small man let out a squeal of excitement. Careful to complete the ritual and the banishing incantation, he did not move from the circle until he was certain that there was no longer any danger to him.
He walked slowly over to the bed and stared down at the man lying so helplessly on it. "Hello, JC," he said kindly.
"Who are you? What is this place?" JC asked in a small, frightened voice. His thoughts still lingered on the monstrosity that had carried him through the air as if he were weightless.
"My name is not important. All you need to know is that I have wanted you for some time and that now I have you."
JC shook his head. "I don’t understand, who are you?"
The other man’s face grew stern with frustration. "I said, my name’s not important. Now…you’re here for one reason and one reason only – to amuse me. I should warn you; the things that amuse me have been called sick and cruel by some. But that doesn’t matter to me. Not one bit. Now…shall we begin?" he asked as he reached over to a small table nearby and grabbed a sharp knife.
JC shivered and shook his head in denial. "No, don’t do this…don’t hurt me."
"But that is exactly how you will amuse me," he said as he gently stroked JC’s cheek with one hand while the other manipulated the knife to cut through his clothing. The small man did not mind that he was also cutting through JC’s skin at the same time. In fact, he relished it.
Once JC’s clothes were nothing more than rags and bloody cuts adorned his body; the small man began to touch him in earnest.
JC’s sobs echoed through the room as the small man laughed and played and damaged. The small man had never been so content.
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The small man sat down on the side of the bed and slowly unfastened the manacles. The man who used to be Joshua Chasez barely moved although he had been set free. The pain and exhaustion were far too great to do anything more than moan and shift slightly. The small man looked down at the bruised face and smiled. Joshua Scott Chasez was no longer here, the man that lay beside him had other names now – toy, whore, bitch, and the latest one…the offering.
The small man ran a hand through the damp brown hair and brought his face down to kiss the toy. The kiss was not gentle and the toy moaned and weakly tried to push him away. A sound that could have been interpreted as a "no" came from the toy’s mouth as they parted. The small man smiled. He remembered how powerful he had felt when he had broken the toy’s jaw. Hearing the delicate bones shatter against skin had been an almost religious experience. Of course he had not planned on doing something like that. He only did it because the toy had tried to bite him. After the bones had been broken and the toy had again regained consciousness, the small man had held his jaws open and had forced himself inside the wet mouth and down the tight throat. The memories of this assault were sweet and the small man laughed.
The small man took a few moments to admire the evidence of the other man’s suffering. It had been seven days since he had been brought here; much damage had been done. The toy’s wrists and ankles were chafed and bleeding from rubbing against the unyielding iron of the restraints. Bruises and burns covered his body, as did marks from the small man’s many whips. Some injuries he knew to be present although they could not be seen, such as the broken ribs that only allowed the toy to take in shallow pain-filled breaths. But the crowning glory, his proudest achievement with this body, was the damage done to the toy’s lower torso. His ass was torn and bloody. His inner thighs - bruised to the point that they appeared black. So much damage, done in so little time and the small man was so proud of it all.
But now it was time for the next phase. The small man had done all that he wanted to do with this toy and he no longer had a reason to keep him alive. He lifted up the toy, the offering now, in his arms and walked to the far back of the room where a circle had already been drawn.
The offering looked at him with his crystal blue eyes, the one part of him that the small man would not damage, and shook with fear and cold. The small man set the offering down within the circle and caressed his soft hair one last time. Then he backed away and knelt down on the ground as he began the summoning incantation.
Once it was completed, the Dark One materialized within the circle, only a few short feet from the offering.
"Why do you awaken me?" it asked.
"I have something for you, Great One. I give you this human for you to feast on, to enjoy. All I ask is that you consume him completely and leave no trace of his existence at all."
The offering moaned and began to sob as he heard the words. He had not believed that he had any tears left to shed, and yet here they were, coursing down his damaged face.
The Dark One glanced down at the trembling form of the offering and then lifted its head up to face the small man.
"You humans are so pathetic and predictable," it said as it sneered.
The small man looked at the Dark One in confusion. Something was wrong here.
"From the moment that your kind first appeared on the earth, you have been making the same stupid mistakes. And you shall continue to make the same stupid mistakes until the moment when your kind finally becomes extinct. Humans…thinking that you can control a god."
The small man stood up and glanced quickly at the circle surrounding the Dark One and the offering. As long as the Dark One was inside the circle and as long as he had chanted the incantation correctly, there should be no danger to him. Despite this, he felt the first stirrings of fear. "I don’t understand. I don’t understand why you don’t take your offering," he said.
The Dark One stepped close the edge of the circle. "In your haste, fueled by your lust and your imagined power, you forgot one thing. You made one mistake."
The small man wanted to ask what the mistake had been, but his suddenly dry throat would not cooperate. Instead he stepped backwards and asked the question in his mind.
"You did not complete the circle," the Dark One intoned.
The small man looked to where the Dark One was now pointing and he saw it; the one small, fatal mistake. The circle had not been completely closed. There was a small gap in the line of white chalk.
"Wait," the small man managed to say in desperation before the Dark One was upon him.
"I will take you as my offering," the Dark One said as he sank his fangs into the small man’s arm. "I will take you and your arrogance and your pride and your hatred," it said as it lifted its head and tore a piece of flesh away from the small man’s body.
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It was all over after a few minutes. The man on the floor, JC, for he was an offering no longer, had not been able to watch the attack. He had closed his eyes and prayed silently that the creature would not come for him next. He prayed and wept as he listened to the sounds of another person being torn apart. When the noises finally stopped, JC was certain that the horrible creature would kill him. He kept his eyes closed as he heard footsteps approach him. He had decided that he would not look, that he would rather die blind than to stare at this monstrosity as it took his life.
He was surprised when the footsteps moved past him. He dared to look up and saw that the creature was staring down at him, blood dripping from its fangs and jaws.
"I do not need you," it said as it disappeared.
JC stared in disbelief at the spot where the creature had stood. After a few minutes, his body started to convulse violently. After a few seconds, he vomited all over the concrete floor. A few seconds after that his body gave in to shock and pain and he passed out.
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The candles were burning low by the time that JC regained consciousness. He looked around the room wildly to reassure himself that the creature was truly gone. Then he looked to reassure himself that the human monster that had hurt him so badly was truly gone as well.
The room was now filled with the fetid odor of blood and death. Small bits of bone, muscle, and skin adorned the floor. JC turned his head and vomited yet again. The pain this caused his broken jaw was almost overwhelming, but he managed to hang on to consciousness. After there was nothing left for his stomach to purge and after the dry heaves had finally stopped, he turned towards the doorway that he knew to be the exit.
He began to crawl towards safety, and as he crawled, he began to weep yet again. He was fully aware that he was leaving a portion of his sanity in the dark, concrete hellhole, but he could not seem to make himself care. All that mattered was freedom. Freedom and no longer being the sacrifice.