The Palmer Legacy

Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. All characters in sexual situations are 18 or older. Thanks for reading!

"She said she'd meet you at ten?" Kathy leaned against a lightpost, tapping her foot on the ground.

"Yeah." Noah had his arm around Samantha's waist. He watched his girlfriend pull out her phone. He couldn't see the screen in the morning glare. "Anything from your family?"

"Nothing." Samantha shook her head. "And nothing from Ella." She raised an eyebrow at Kathy. "It's only 9:58."

"She could have been early." Kathy shrugged.

"I could not have been early." Eloise stepped up to them out of nowhere. She wore a bustled dress, and her hair was pinned up with a tiny hat on top. "I was fully engaged all night and much of the morning. Quite a charming town you have." She looked at the three eighteen-year-olds. "No other Readers cared to join us?"

"They slept in." Noah breathed in the fresh morning air and smiled. His breath misted in front of him.

"He wore them out." Kathy smirked.

"I'm surprised you aren't enervated after the yeoman's effort you put forth yesterday." Eloise booped Noah's nose with the tip of an icy finger. "Shall we go in?" She turned, opened the door to The Belle Dame, and ushered the teenagers inside. She followed them under the ringing bell. Her pink lips puckered in a sour expression when her eyes fell on the two men waiting for them.

"Two of yours, Mr. Luci." Mr. El-Kanna pointed at Eloise and Noah, smiled pleasantly, and sipped tea. He sat with Mr. Luci at a table near the back of the store. The walls around them were bare. There was no merchandise left in The Belle Dame. Mr. El-Kanna pointed at Kathy and Samantha. "And two of mine. All things balanced between us, as they ever were."

Eloise marched up to the table, her gloved hands balled into neat little fists by her sides. She glared balefully at Mr. El-Kanna and then turned a woeful stare at Mr. Luci. "I want my freedom."

"You've earned it, my dear." Mr. Luci chuckled and adjusted his spectacles. He held his mug in front of his face, the steam obscuring his features.

"I want to be severed from the painting. Thomas and I are not pawns in a game." Eloise's brow furrowed with anger.

Mr. El-Kanna sighed. "And I could wish I wasn't El-Kanna. But we are what we are, Mrs. Palmer." He gave her an avuncular smile and dismissed her with a glance. He turned his attention to the teenagers. "What do you want?"

Eloise tried to speak again, but found she couldn't open her lips. "Mmmmmppppphhhhh," she said. She intended to step closer to Mr. El-Kanna but couldn't move her legs.

"We... um..." Noah watched Eloise stand perfectly still and murmur through closed lips. He could see panic in her eyes. He licked his lips. "We want answers."

"Oh, I'm sure the perspicacious Readers have figured it out already." Mr. Luci cocked his head. "Or has all your recent fornicating dulled your intellect? Your mother and sisters do seem insatiable."

Noah's face turned beet red.

Samantha stepped forward. "My family is suffering. You owe me explanations."

"We owe you nothing." Mr. El-Kanna's face darkened. He looked across the table at Mr. Luci. "They are always so demanding. How do you put up with it?"

"I grant you, humans are an entitled bunch." Mr. Luci held up his mug in a gesture of a toast. "But I love them all the same. They are more than their parts. It's the emergent quality that -"

"I made them. I know what they are." Mr. El-Kanna's temper continued to deteriorate. Little storm clouds circled his white hair, raining and tossing out tiny bolts of lightning.

"You did not make them." Mr. Luci rolled his eyes in exasperation. He glanced back at the teenagers. "He is sooooo boastful."

"Are you giving us answers or not?" Kathy moved closer to the table, her posture full of menace.

The force of Mr. Luci's laughter blew away Mr. El-Kanna's storm clouds. And suddenly, El-Kanna's smile returned. He joined in the laughter.

"Please? We need to know what we're up against. I have to save my family." Samantha wiped away tears of frustration.

"Since you said 'please,' I will answer your query." Mr. Luci nodded his head modestly. "The two of us, me and Him, have a bit of a rivalry going." He hitched a thumb at Mr. El-Kanna. "One day, it got heated between us. He said, 'Mr. Luci, you love only death.'" He made a perfect imitation of Mr. El-Kanna. "But of course, everyone knows that He is the wrathful, murderous one. I love life and all of its questions."

"I am not wrathful or murderous." El-Kanna chuckled with an affable smile, his dark mood seemingly past him.

"Have you even read your own book?" Mr. Luci raised his eyebrows at Mr. El-Kanna, but turned his attention back to the teenagers. "A competition was born to see who could create the most life. We created paintings to breathe something new into this sleepy town. The subjects of our artworks were borrowed from our respective creations." He winked at Eloise. "You knew you were a shade of the original Mrs. Palmer, I hope." When her lips remained sealed, he continued. "The game was set. Early in the game, our subjects were tied to their canvases to avoid chaos. But we allowed the bond to weaken as each subject created more life. That way they wouldn't be trapped in conquered lands, as it were, and the game could progress."

"We had plenty of rules." Mr. El-Kanna's voice was slow and plain, as if the conversation bored him. "Rules about entering the paintings. Rules about the windows in each."

"One of us loves rules and kept coming up with more of them." Mr. Luci sipped his tea.

"Like destroying the paintings," Noah said.

"Indeed." Mr. Luci adjusted his bow tie and grinned.

Silence filled The Belle Dame as the teenagers processed what they'd learned. The only sound was Eloise's indecipherable words, muffled by her own lips.

"Who won?" Kathy looked genuinely curious.

"Ah, see, Mr. El-Kanna, humans never cease to surprise. I did not expect that question." Mr. Luci put down his mug and gave Kathy a polite clap. "Bravo for that question. We set the end of the game for Christmas."

"The game is over?" Noah pulled Samantha tightly to his side, their hips pressing together. He didn't like any of this.

"Quite so." Mr. El-Kanna nodded. "And I won."

"If you'll remember, we decided it was a draw." Mr. Luci shook a finger at his partner. "One of the problems we ran into was a severe lack of impartial judges. What is a game without a referee?"

"So... why is all this still happening?" Samantha pointed at Eloise and then waved her hands at the town that surrounded them. "It's a tie. So, it's over. End it."

"Newton's first law, Ms. Owens," Mr. Luci said.

"Demanding. They are always so demanding." Mr. El-Kanna knocked over his tea mug with a swipe of his hand. "She doesn't celebrate me, and then she orders me about like a maid." His avuncular air faded again and the storm clouds returned, swirling about his head. He stood, his face reddening in anger. "I should smite you, Ms. Owens." He raised a fist in the air and paused. His eyes were full of malevolence.

"Peace... peace... Mr. El-Kanna." Mr. Luci stood with his hands spread in appeal.

"I don't care if you do. You've destroyed my family. You don't seem to give a... give a..."

Is it wise to curse a deity?

"You don't give a

fuck

what happens to good people."

"Your brother is not a good person!" Mr. El-Kanna boomed. The store reverberated with his voice.

Noah pulled on Samantha's shoulder, but she brushed him away.

"And my mom and dad?" Samantha yelled back.

"Both riddled with sins. Every person a sinner!" Mr. El-Kanna started to drop his hand, but Mr. Luci leapt across the table and grabbed his fist.

Kathy tried to lunge to her friend's defense, but her feet were stuck to the floor. She screamed in rage, but it came out muffled. Her lips were sealed.

Noah stared at the spectacle with a pale face.

"While in The Belle Dame, you are bound by the rules we agreed upon. I should not have to remind you...

again

." Mr. Luci looked sternly at Mr. El-Kanna.

"Fine... fine..." Mr. El-Kanna turned and strode toward the back of the store. He opened a door and disappeared, slamming it behind him.

Samantha stood shaking with rage. When she felt Noah's hand on her shoulder again, she didn't brush him away. "My... family?" She spoke through clenched teeth, staring at Mr. Luci.

"Very well." Mr. Luci straightened his suit and retrieved his tea mug. "They are part of Paul Botti's entourage. I believe you know him. You may retrieve them. His hold upon them should fade after a few days of fresh air."

"Destroy all the paintings. Otherwise, even if we rescue them, it'll just happen again with some other abomination." Noah stepped up next to Samantha. He stood tall. "Some orc will come along and..." He didn't want to finish that thought.

"I cannot. There are rules." Mr. Luci shrugged. "Objects in motion tend to stay in motion."

"Unless acted upon by an opposing force. For fuck's sake, oppose this." Samantha was very close to losing her temper with a second deity.

"Rules." Mr. Luci smiled apologetically and sat back in his chair. "Besides, if I ended the paintings, Mrs. Palmer would cease. And so would Ms. Bly's wild side, which I happen to know she has grown attached to." He sipped his tea and thought. "You know, there are no rules about sharing our ledger. You would see the names of our customers, their addresses, and which paintings they bought. I have a soft spot for do-it-yourselfers like yourselves. And I'm tickled by the way you stood up to Mr. El-Kanna. Would that suffice?"

"Yes... please," Samantha said through gritted teeth.

"Very well." Mr. Luci put down his tea and moved to the desk against the far wall. He pulled out a drawer and rummaged through it.

"Mmmmmpppppphhhhhhh." Eloise's noises grew louder.

Noah locked eyes with Eloise. He saw her pain. "How can Mrs. Palmer free herself of the painting and... um... go back to being herself?"

"She is a shadow of the true Mrs. Palmer. That woman is still a good friend of mine, by the way," Mr. Luci said without looking up from the drawer. "Mr. El-Kanna is right. She is part of the painting. She can no more be the actual Mrs. Palmer than I can be a tree."

Tears collected in Eloise's eyes and fell silently down her freckled cheeks.

"So, how can we help her?" Samantha understood that she would need all the strength Eloise had given her for the work that lay ahead.

"Protect her painting." Mr. Luci found what he was looking for and pulled out an old file folder with letters, invoices, bills of lading, and receipts crammed inside. "Here it is." He ambled over to Samantha and handed it to her.

"You're giving me this?" Samantha looked down at the file. It was faded green with stains from age and use.

"Oh, don't worry. I'll keep the originals. Mr. El-Kanna would insist on it. That's a copy I just made for you." Mr. Luci shooed them with his hands. "Now, on your way."

Eloise and Kathy marched to the door without meaning to. They quickly exited the store, the bell ringing their departure. Noah and Samantha stood for a moment, looking at each other with doubt.

"Why can't you end all the paintings but our two?" Noah rubbed the back of his neck. "And don't say 'rules.'"

"Mr. El-Kanna's rules." He smiled and leaned close to them. "Between you and me, Mr. El-Kanna is a bit sadistic." Mr. Luci raised his eyebrows. "Yes, I get the irony, but it's true. This may have been a draw, but he will continue to watch Clover Falls as it's tossed by throes of agony and ecstasy." He shooed them again. "Now, out you go. Best of luck reuniting the Owens family. Be careful with Mr. Botti; he is sanctimonious. And we all know the pietistic are the most dangerous. Now off with you."

Noah and Samantha found themselves gliding out of the store. Before they knew it, they were on the sidewalk. Eloise was gone, but Kathy stood there with a scowl on her face.

"Well, I guess we have work to do." Samantha held the file folder tightly to her chest.

"Yeah, let's visit Paul." Noah gave Samantha's shoulder a squeeze and the three friends walked down the sidewalk toward the Botti house.

~~

"Something's wrong." Paul pulled out of Mara, watching her face twitch and convulse. He stood and gazed down at her trembling body. His seed gushed out of her vagina. He really was a never-ending fountain of cum. He had now mated every woman in the church, but he still produced what felt like a gallon of semen with each climax.

"Nothing's wrong, dear." Shannon sat in the first pew, a short distance from her eighteen-year-old son:

the Messiah

. "All women respond with that sort of apoplexy when you till their fields under. Mrs. Rizzuto looks and sounds very much like all the rest. Even I do something similar." Admitting that she lost herself in coital bliss in front of a full church wasn't the embarrassment it would have been not long ago. She smiled, picked up a towel, and stood. She walked over to him, aware that he watched her naked boobs dance with each of her steps. She stopped in front of him and toweled off his sweaty, lithe body.

"No... something else is wrong." Paul clutched at the necklace made of wedding rings. He now had over twenty looped on a string. Some of the women had been hiding their symbols of fidelity to their old lives. But as they felt the ecstasy of joining with Him, they were learning that their only fidelity was to Paul. "Mother Mary hasn't come to the church. Wasn't she supposed to meet us here?" He stretched his upper body and listened to the sounds in the nave. Mara was still making odd, snorting ululations. She wasn't so loud as she'd been when she first felt his warmth inside her. Other women were grunting as they masturbated in the pews. But the majority snored or breathed heavily as they slept on the floor or in the pews.

"She was supposed to meet us here. I think?" Shannon thought back. "Actually, I'm not sure. Maybe she's waiting for us at home?"

"We need to go home." Paul yawned. "How late is it?"

Shannon checked the wristwatch. It was the only thing she wore beside the cross around her neck. "It's almost noon." She rubbed her chin in thought, surveying the room full of dazed and sleeping women. "Our work is done for now. We can go home."

"And the congregation?" Paul let her finish toweling him off. When she offered him his vestments, he slipped into them. His penis disappeared behind the fabric, finally finding its own slumber. He watched Ella help her mother to her feet and guide her to an open pew. Mara leaked a trail of cum on the floor. No... Paul did a double take. Both mother and daughter were leaking. He smiled.

"How long do you think they'll feel the bond? Mary said it was your scent. But it's also your stuff in their wombs... I think." Shannon couldn't find her own clothes, so she picked up a bloody, tattered dress from the floor that seemed about the right size and pulled it on. "Will their loyalty stray if we send them home?"

"Mother Mary didn't seem worried about that, Mom. At least not for a day or two. They'll probably bond with me the more time we spend together." He shrugged.

"You there, attendant." Shannon pointed to Eddie huddled in the far corner. "Bring a car around, we're leaving."

Eddie stood immediately. He looked desperate to comply. "Which one is your car?"

"It doesn't matter. Find keys, find a car, and bring it to the front of the church." Shannon sighed. When Eddie left, she turned to Paul. "We shouldn't risk it. We should have everyone come to the house soon."

"I need everyone's attention." Paul's confident voice echoed in the nave. "You will all come to my house this afternoon. Bring your attendants. Let's call it a founding party."

Debra raised her hand. "I don't know where you live."

"Ask one of the ladies and they will tell you." Paul smiled with magnanimity. "Any other questions?"

Zoe Haberle raised her hand. "What if we know someone who might want to join the congregation?" She saw people staring at her and her cheeks reddened. "I have a friend." She looked at Paul and became even more unsure of herself. "She's pretty. Really pretty. And I've been trying to get her to join the church for years. I think she might... um... be willing once she meets you."

Paul looked to his mother for guidance.

"This is why we need Mother Mary. I don't know if now is the right time." Shannon shook her head.

"Now is not the right time," Paul said. "We are establishing a new congregation. The church leaders will let you all know when you can bring new people. Only current members of the congregation and attendants at the founding party." He hoped that was wise. He supposed he'd run it by Mary when they saw her.

Eddie came back in the front door and held it open. "Your ride's ready... um..." He looked to Paul. "... sir..." His eyes turned to Shannon. "... Ma'am."

"That will do." Shannon dismissed him with a wave of her hand. She leaned over to Paul and whispered in his ear. "Tell them they can stay here for now, but they must return to their homes and get presentable for the party."

Paul repeated his mother's words to the crowd. He put his arm around her waist and squeezed. Together they walked out of the church.

Joanna stood and clapped her hands. "You heard the Messiah. Time to go home, rest, and get presentable."

"That wasn't what we said," Paul whispered to his mother.

"Close enough." His mother got in the driver's seat of the minivan idling right outside. It wasn't their car, but that didn't matter. It occurred to her that the church should own all that the congregation owned. That seemed fair in the eyes of God. She would have to ask Mary about that. When her son climbed in, she sped toward home.

~~

I know you're with Paul Botti. We just left Paul's house and there was no one there. Where are you? Are Mom and Dad with you? Are you all okay?

Samantha sent the text to her brother and prayed he would answer.

"I just got off the phone with Antonio... Mr. Rizzuto, and he hasn't seen Mara or Ella. I told him to call the police." Jessica wrung her hands, worried for her friend. "Any news from your family, Samantha?"

"None, Mrs. Reader." Samantha shook her head.

Noah rubbed his forehead, trying to come up with a plan. "They could be anywhere."

Kathy was sitting on the sofa with Hailey on her lap. They both wore pensive frowns.

Paget walked into the Reader living room loaded down with shopping bags. "Hello, everyone. Clive and I have been shopping." She turned to her fiancé as he followed her into the room, carrying more bags. "You can put those down right there, honey." She smiled at him and put her own bags down. "Now, I need you to get that other thing we talked about."

"We just got home. I have to go now?" Clive dropped his bags and frowned.

"Remember what I said, dear?" Paget smiled sweetly.

"Yes... yes... okay." Clive waved hello and goodbye to everyone. "See you all later." He turned and left the house.

"So, who would like to see what we got?" Paget looked around the room with excitement.

"Normally, I'd love to, Paget, but we've got a bit of a crisis here." Jessica put her red hair back in a ponytail. It helped her feel like she was handling things.

"Did you even listen to what we told you yesterday?" Noah grimaced at his sister.

"Yes, I did, little brother." Paget put her hands on her hips and gave Noah a stern look. "I listened very, very closely. Which is why I went shopping." Her hair was already in a ponytail, and she wore jeans and a practical sweater.

Why haven't they noticed that I'm all business?

She bent over and pulled a respirator mask out of one of the bags. "After what happened at Sam's house, I figured we'd all need to have these on any... missions."