The Cannibal Within Read Online Free

In effect, we pledged allegiance to the forces of darkness.
    ‘Our Father, who wert in heaven,’ we murmured, ‘hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in hell....’
As we prayed, Maddalena removed Barabbas from his cage. I, meanwhile, anointed the nine openings of my body with a special mixture of asafetida and dried corpse sperm. To apply this ‘witch’s ointment,’ I used the middle finger of my left hand.
    ‘O vile Lord,’ declared my friend, ‘thy name is Satan. Firebrand of freedom—prototype of all rebels—enemy of all totalitarian gods and all authoritarian creeds—we call upon thee this night. Summoned by the blood we shed, hear the magick of the word.’
    ‘Hail Satan!’ I intoned, reading my part of the ritual. ‘As lord of ecstasy, indulgence, and freedom—as the enemy of toil, abstinence, and conformity—as the foil to the tyrant Jehovah—we call upon thee this night!’
    ‘O Lord Satan,’ my friend cried, as she held Barabbas aloft, ‘bless our violations. O horned, hairy, and goatlike god— arcane master of the abyss below—feed us this night with thy power.’
    ‘O rapist god,’ I declared, ‘come to us. O despoiler of girls— O lustful and proud Lord—we are naked virgins—pure, unexplored forms—and we open for thee. Young, tense, and fragrant—perfumed like fruit—our snow-white thighs ache for thee.
    Maddalena stabbed Barabbas with her black-handled athame, and she cut out his eyes, tongue, and heart. Then, she twisted off the animal’s head, placed the head in her mouth, and swallowed it whole.
‘O horned god,’ continued my friend, ‘a counter-god who craves blood—not vegetable offerings—come to us. O Prince of Darkness—O Beast of DCLXVI—come to us now. Come now, O outlaw god!’
    ‘Master of lecherous delights,’ I shouted, ‘we are wet with sin. Come, make us slimy with fornication!’
    Something Wicked Comes To Us
After some more chanting—more sacrilege, blasphemy, and crime—something dramatic happened. About 3:30 AM, we heard the falsetto baying of stray dogs, and our candle began to burn with a deep blue flame.
    ‘Ad Maiorem Satanae Gloriam,’ shouted my friend. ‘To the Greater Glory of Satan!’
    A cold wind began to blow in from the west. Curiously, the pages of the bible were blown open to Malachi 4:6, the curse that ends the Protestant Old Testament.
    I looked into the wind, and I saw three lights in the black sky—three globular structures—that were shining and beautiful. The lights, which seemed to be watching us, were accompanied by a scent of plum blossoms. The odor was sweet—almost saccharine—in nature.
    ‘Lord Satan is coming,’ whispered my friend. ‘Cold and inhuman—`a beauty fresh from hell’—he comes to us.’
    The intensity of the lights increased, and I began to feel pain in my head. I tried to cover my eyes with my hands, but the lights were so fierce, so luminous, and so paranormal that I could see them through my hands and closed eyelids.
    ‘Ad Maiorem Satanae Gloriam,’ shouted Maddalena, this time with some anxiety. ‘To the Greater Glory of Satan!’
    The lights grew even brighter—still covering my eyes, I could see the actual bones in my hands—and then suddenly there was blackness.
    ‘What is happening?’ I whispered. ‘What is happening?’ ‘Lord Satan,’ replied my friend, who was now ashen-faced. ‘He is here. I sense his evil intelligence.’
    We heard a strange sound—a rustling in the weeds—and then we saw a horde of rats, dragging some fantastic and shapeless object across the forest floor.
    My friend screamed hysterically and began to run. I grabbed a weapon—Maddalena’s ceremonial dagger—and I followed her.
    What We Saw
In a clearing, we unexpectedly encountered three human-like entities—a young woman, a younger man, and an elderly woman—floating above the ground, surrounded by auras of greenish light. The entities appeared solid and