The Programme

CHAPTER NINE-2

Laughing, he steps aside and bows with arm outstretched towards Caleb. She crosses him to kneel before Caleb. Though the others cannot see it, he makes a twirling gesture for her to turn around to face them, her back to him. With a bare foot he pushes her down until she is on all fours. He slides off his throne of hay and silk, scoops oil from the bowl onto his erect p***s and enters her from behind, just the once, gripping her hips to hold her still and firm, her cheeks flat against him, her breasts hanging down like honours, before he withdraws, waving his glossy wet erection triumphantly at the gathering as he hops back up to his pedestal.

“I am one,” he says.

“We are many,” she replies.

“Together we shall be whole,” they chant in unison.

The Seer beckons. Diana strides through the gathering, kneels on the big cushion, The Seer strokes her hair, strokes her breasts, kisses her lightly on the forehead, whispers in her ear:

“Christopher.”

Christopher is still seated against the wall. As she walks towards him, he lifts his robe. She lowers herself onto him. She is wet and he slides easily into her. She rises and falls lightly until she feels him come inside of her. As she pulls off him, she covers herself with her hand so that it does not drip away: blessed seed. She scoops to pick up her dress from where it had fallen, placing it beneath her to sit on as she lowers herself to the floor between her sisters.

The Seer says:

“Love is not s*x. s*x is not love. Yet s*x evokes love where love does not evoke s*x. s*x is dominant. s*x is powerful. s****l union between two people can create love; love between two people does not create s*x. s****l union between many people creates love for them all; love between many people does not create s*x. We are using s*x to create love, and with that love we shall heal all of us, we shall heal Anthony.”

“Anthony,” says Paimon, “before tonight is over you will be free of the devils which have beset you all these long years.”

“I am one, Paimon,” comes the voice from behind the closed door.

Christopher speaks next:

“Our Father who art in Heaven, hallow’ed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Paimon is still standing beside the gong which he strikes once but hard to stop Christopher short of the plea not to be led into temptation.

Caleb commands:

“Bring her out.”

Leah is already naked. She emerges from her cell radiant, looking around for Caleb. Without any hesitation, she moves through them to kneel with her back to him, bending down to all fours without needing to be told. As he did with Diana, he splashes warm oil on himself and enters her the once, holds her still, withdraws and resumes his throne.

He whispers to Leah. The girl starts to advance across the basement, still on all fours, like a dog. As she pushes against the members, they push back at her, push her over onto her side, onto her back, grabbing and touching until she rolls full circle and rises again to her knees to continue her journey. Each time she falls, Paimon strikes the gong. When he, in his turn, kicks her off balance, he strikes it several times. It takes her forever, though the depth of the basement - and of the house - is only about forty feet.

Finally, she reaches the bed where The Seer is stretched out luxuriously. The Seer places her palm against the girl’s forehead, grips it, twists hard until Leah understands that this is the final roll, she lies now with her back on the large cushion, head resting against the bed, looks around at the hungry gathering, opens her legs in readiness.

They take it in turns, the men pulling up their robes in order to enter her - just enough to establish possession - before withdrawing, the women sliding fingers into her briefly. Finally, Paimon kneels between her legs, enters her and brings himself to orgasm, his eyes relentlessly locked into The Seer’s. As he comes, he hisses:

“Cassandra.”

“Mr Crane, tell me exactly what ’the fire beyond’ means?”

“Exactly? Mr Kennedy, if I knew I wouldn’t be here. I can tell you what I think it is, what we mean by it, though. The fire beyond is the fire beyond all our knowledge and experience. The fire beyond is the step beyond the end.”

“And this? That God and Satan are two sides of the same coin?”

“Good and evil are opposites, hardly an original idea.”

“Okay, and this: ’The fundamental union of God and Satan’?”

“I don’t know what your question is, Mr Kennedy,” Matthew replied calmly but quickly, before Trask entered the same objection: he was The Teacher, he did not want to be seen to need the protection of a lawyer. “It says in the Bible that Satan came down from Heaven -’I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven’ - Luke, Chapter 10, Verse 18. ’And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him’ - Zechariah, Chapter 3, Verse 1 .”

“Let’s get right down to it, this is black magic, isn’t it? Pure Satanism, right? Union of God and Satan,” Kennedy snorted.

“You’re reading material from our Website, aren’t you?”

“Don’t you know your own words, Mr Crane?” Kennedy could not help goading.

“If you’ve pored over them all, you’ll know there’s quite a lot of them, Mr Kennedy. And, like everything else, it all depends on the context. If this comes from where I think it does, on the Web...”

“That’s correct.”

“If memory serves, I was discussing the use of language. Would that be right, Mr Kennedy?”

“You answer the questions, Mr Crane.”

“Your Honour,” Trask rose. “Mr Crane is entitled to know where the passage comes from, what the context is; absolutely.”

Kennedy shrugged as if he couldn’t care less, but knew he had been wrong-footed by Matthew.

“Yes. You were discussing language.”

“Does Mr Kennedy have the passage there?”

Trask smelled blood.

Silently, Kennedy handed him a copy.

Still on his feet and out of his turn, Trask read aloud triumphantly:

“’We use some of the language of religion: the fundamental union of God and Satan; good and evil. It is useful, because it is familiar, it makes a point without needing to develop it entirely anew; but it can also be misleading, because we do not believe in God and Satan in themselves, we do not believe in them as gods or anti-gods, we do not believe in them as people or images of people.’ Thank you, Mr Kennedy.” Trask sat down grinning broadly.

Carey too smiled with relief: it’s just an idea; it’s just words. She has nothing to do with Satan, black magic, absurd rituals, obscene orgies.

“Let’s look at some more, Mr Crane. How about this - ’Is it not time to acknowledge that all of your feelings - all of your demons within - have an equal claim to represent you, an equal validity in themselves?’ Demons are valid, Mr Crane?”

“You either acknowledge them and deal with them, or they take you over. Again, it’s not an especially original idea. All religions use the imagery of demons; psychology has other names, but it’s the same point; you cannot control what you cannot see.”

“Control, Mr Crane, that’s what we’re talking about here, isn’t it? You’re telling people they’re out of control, aren’t you? You’re offering them control, aren’t you?”

“Mr Kennedy, if I call out - right now - that people in this room are hungry, it’ll strike a chord with a lot of them.”

“Including the bench,” the judge said. “Let’s resume at one thirty, shall we?”

“Cassandra,” Paimon hissed.

She strokes her brother’s face, drawing it towards her, they touch lips, mouths ajar, jerk back before their tongues can connect; they do this once, twice, a third time - please lead us into temptation, let us wallow in it. The other members are taut with anticipation: this is ultimate. The siblings kiss again; that is all for now.

Paimon rises. He tucks himself away, buttons up his jeans. He goes and sits with his back to Christopher, between his legs, leaning against him. Christopher kneads Paimon’s shoulders. Caleb gestures Leah back into her cell, but her door is left open. It is Anthony’s turn. He is terrified, cowering in the cell. He has been here since Caleb locked him in, after Matthew left Hammer Reach, it has been days and days of stooped isolation, unable to pull himself fully erect or stretch the defeat out of his limbs. The stock-whip hung still where Caleb threaded it. Daily, he has been given water and pitta bread, with a slice of vegetable pâté and a solitary orange: standard cell-fare. He was given a bucket to urinate and defecate into, nothing to clean himself up with.

Tonight, for the first time, he was taken out by Reuben and Ehud, sprayed with liquid soap and hosed down in the back of the house, flailing his arms as he desperately tried to clean himself.

He has no clue what is to happen to him. He can barely remember where he is. He knows that he has finally been defeated by a more powerful force than father, teachers, psychologists and prescription drugs combined. During the last days, he has hopped from fear to fury, from hatred of his father for putting him into the hell-hole to screaming pleas for him to come and get him, from self-loathing beyond anything he has ever experienced to the clear understanding that if he was suffering so much torment he must be the Messiah, from abject belief in The Programme to plans for ultimate revenge, its total annihilation. His mind is at sea, bucked and tossed in a furious storm; he cannot hang onto it; there is nothing with which to lash it down.

Like Leah, he is naked. He will not come out of the safe cave that is the cell. He is no longer shy: he understands that nakedness is a return to innocence. He is physically frightened. He can smell the s*x that has taken place in the basement but which he has not seen. He fears buggery: Caleb has raped him many times; Lemuel, too. It hurts not just at the time but for hours after. He senses - smells - what happened to Leah, is terrified it will happen to him. They are going to hurt him, beat him, rape him - they are going to kill him. His imagination is raging, disordered, he wants to scream, even merely to cry, but there are no tears left and his throat is rigid with fear.

The two black men enter his cell bent over, drag him from it, fling him into the middle of the room. He falls hard to the rough matted floor, struggles to pull himself into a less vulnerable position, huddles his legs into his chest, buries his head between his knees, sobs silently - what do you want from me?

Christopher rises for the first time. He has to extricate himself from Paimon, almost trips on his own robe: it is done with good humour, mutual smiles, much laughter. He crosses to the boy, reaches down for Anthony to take his hand and allow himself to be pulled to his feet. The flickering lights distress the boy, he uses his free hand to cover his eyes. Christopher leads him to The Seer.

She has moved into a sitting position, her legs splayed open either side of the big cushion. She gathers Anthony in her arms, pulls him towards her, tells him not to be scared, rocks him to and fro until, finally, a few residual tears find their way from his eyes. She dries them with her dress, reckless that it causes her to expose herself, pressing herself against the boy’s chest, finally she pushes him away, straightens out her dress and leans back nodding at Christopher that she is done.

Now Christopher leads him to Paimon, seated in Christopher’s own place, his back against the wall as Christopher had earlier leaned. Again, he motions Anthony to kneel. Paimon strokes the boy’s head, tells him:

“This is the end of the hurting, Anthony. No more pain; just love.”

He kisses him warmly on the cheek and gestures to Christopher to move him on.