New art by @marty-art with many thanks! @marty-art on Steemit is a fine artist, I suggest checking out his page. This original is for sale on this post: @paolobeneforti/steemarket-is-online-buy-sell-your-artwork-for-steem. When searching for the art to go with this story, I settled for the fine piece by Joyner... but what I had in mind was almost exactly what @marty-art has generously allowed me to use. Please give him your support!
[If you haven't read The Night Gods (original) I suggest doing so to get the full impact of this chapter. If not at least read this chapter, you will understand why after. @richq11/the-night-gods-chapter-i-forms-without-form]
It was nearly election time and the race was tight... too tight for Denning's liking. Lockhart and his pals had assured victory but Alan was having his doubts. he was suspicious by nature and had been suspecting that his new mentors were playing both ends to the middle- hedging their bets, so that no matter who eventually took the election, they would win in the long run. His opponent was a lackluster senator from some backwater... Pimpledick, Idaho, or some place like that who shouldn't even be in the running at this point. The pollsters said it was still too close to call- anybody's race. Denning needed an edge, something to sway public opinion in his favor. Something his pal Lockhart seemed unable or unwilling to provide.
The electorate didn't particularly like the senator, he was boring- boring but trustworthy. There was absolutely no chance of a scandal involving this hayseed- no October Surprise. That was out- Denning decided to call Lockhart's man, Przybysz. he would have prefered a meeting with Lockhart himself, but that was out of the question. Przybysz hadn't been around for a couple of days- not since giving Denning a phone number of a local madam who specialized in certain types of activities... Denning was feeling more than a little betrayed.
He had moved his national headquarters to Washington DC and taken a suite at the the Hilton where his wife Maureen had reluctantly joined him... as far as Denning was concerned, she was received just as reluctantly. If it weren't for the election and keeping up appearances, he would much prefer being on his own to pursue other avenues of entertainment. Like tonight- Denning knew that Maureen had acquired tickets to the opening of Levant's Carnival at the Center for Performing Arts. He was more interested in the number he had obtained from Przybysz and the stable of willing victims to his perversity. Denning had made the call earlier in anticipation of his wife's departure... he would leave shortly after. maureen came into the living room of the suite... it was time for the scenario to play itself out.
"I've got tickets to Carnival at the Kennedy Center tonight. I don't suppose you'd care to accompany me?" She asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.
"You know I can't stand those things, Mo... I wouldn't get caught dead at one." This was going according to plan.
An enticing image, Maureen thought. "There's a new bistro in Georgetown. I'm going there first for dinner. I don't suppose you want to get caught dead eating with me in public either?" The tone unchanged.
"I fucking hate that new French food... nouveaux cuisine- fag shit if you ask me. Three peas and a carrot stick perfectly arranged next to a half ounce of fish drenched in fucking turd sauce." It was Denning's turn to be sarcastic. "Why don't you get one of the Secret Service guys to go. That's what they're around here for," he suggested.
"That's alright. I'll go alone," she said. "I'm taking the Mercedes, I'll drive myself."
"You don't to take one of the Secret Service guys, just in case?" He asked.
"I don't need protection, I'm not the asshole." She turned to go.
"Make sure you leave your itinerary... just in case," he said.
"It's on the pad next to the phone. good night." The door slammed before he had a chance to respond.
When she was gone, Denning picked up the phone and called another number. Then he got ready to go out himself.
Maureen didn't mind eating alone... It was better that being around Alan. Besides, she was used to it. The Chez Nous, although pretentious sounding, had a very good menu and the food was really quite good. She ordered a salmon fillet in a blood orange reduction- it was delicious, the salmon was done to perfection. After coffee, she paid the bill, left a generous tip- it was Alan's money and the service was excellent and began the block and a half or so to the car. She was upset and rightfully so- this sham marriage needed to end. It was becoming more and more difficult to hold up her end of the bargain. In reality, she had never in her wildest dreams believed that Denning would make it past the primary. Deep in thought, she made her way down the dimly lit street to the waiting Mercedes. As she got there, she reached into her purse for the key, not seeing a man who had been waiting emerge from the shadows.
Eddie Phillips was a convicted serial killer who, having become a model prisoner, had his sentence commuted after sixteen years in prison. He had publicly received a pardon from the governor of the state where he lived. Phillips was responsible for a string of gruesome homicides involving the rape and mutilation. One victim, after being brutally raped and sodomized, was hung with her own intestines while still conscious. However, while in prison, Eddie found religion and at the persuasion of the prison priest, was released. The governor had remarked that there had been such a transformation in Eddie's character, that to keep a man who was no longer a threat to society incarcerated, was in effect punishing an innocent man. Such a travesty of justice would fly in the face of civilized behavior... the purpose of the penal system was rehabilitation, not punishment and Eddie Phillips had been rehabilitated.
The speech had been made at the Annual Convention of Governors, with both Eddie and Denning present. It turned out to be the biggest mistake of his political career. Eddie had been a model citizen for all the years since his release... up until this very night when he had received a familiar call. he was getting on in years now, but the lust for blood and carnage made him feel suddenly rejuvenated.
He grabbed Maureen's arm, spinning her sideways. His hand covered her mouth before she had a chance to scream. In the semi-darkness she could see the light glint off the steel blade just before it entered her abdomen just above the pubic bone, finding its way upward to her diaphragm. As she began to slump forward, Eddie reached his hand inside and pulled, spilling her entrails onto the sidewalk at her feet. her eyes opened wide with surprise and then went blank. When he removed his hand from her mouth she uttered a weak "it" before falling frontwards onto her face. Eddie disappeared into the night as silently as he had appeared. There would be no carnival for Maureen Denning tonight.
The Night Gods were jubilant... it had been a wonderful reunion.
@richq11/the-night-gods-ii-prologue
@richq11/the-night-gods-ii-let-the-games-begin
@richq11/the-night-gods-ii-melissa
@richq11/the-night-gods-ii-chapter-iii-melissa-s-revenge
@richq11/the-night-gods-chapter-iv-a-tearful-farewell
@richq11/the-night-gods-ii-chapter-v-the-king-maker
@richq11/the-night-gods-ii-chapter-vi-initiation
GIF by @papa-pepper
