Soul
Copyright © 2016, 2018-2020 by VeryWellAged
Author's note: This chapter is NOT a stand-alone...The story starts here.
Let me introduce myself
I really do rarely eat out. Maybe it happens two or three times a year. But today I need to run a number of errands and decided to grab lunch at a Yellow Cab Pizza while at a mall. I order a NY Classic ten inch and a bottle of beer. There is a table outside and am sitting there when a cute, college age girl approaches me and hands me a piece of paper. It is a bill she tells me she can’t pay, but she must or she will not be allowed to take her next exam.
Maybe, it’s not too much for you Sir? Will you help me?
It isn’t too much, but I don’t like cons and by now I knew that it is just that.
What’s your name?
Amelae, Sir. May I know yours?
Yes you may, but for now you should just call me Ninong1.
Why I call you that Sir?
Because you are asking me for money Amelae. And if you are still asking for money, that is what you will call me. Clear?
Opo2, Ninong.
Good. Now, Amelae, let us only say true things. You are not a student. You are collecting for your church. I know this, so do not lie to me. Understood?
Why you mean to me? If you not want to give, why not just say it.
Amelae, did I say I would not give?
No, Ninong. It true what you say about the church. You will give to the church, Ninong?
Maybe. We will see. How important is this church to you, Amelae?
Very, Ninong. The church must be helped. It is doing God’s work!
So, is your life as important as the needs of the church?
No! How can that be? The church is the only thing that is important. It saves souls!
Yes, I see. So your life is not as important as the church. Is that right? Is that why you collect money for the church?
Yes! Of course yes.
Amelae, how much is your soul worth?
Sir?
You heard me. How much is your soul worth?
I don’t understand.
Well, if you were to sell your soul to help your church, how much is it worth?
Sir, why you ask such a question?
Is your soul worth the same as another soul?
Maybe.
Is it worth the same as two other souls?
Why you ask that?
Your church wants to save souls, right?
Opo, Ninong.
How many souls can you help your church save now, without selling your soul?
I not think I can save a soul alone.
So if your soul can save two souls by you selling your soul, is that a good thing?
I guess, maybe.
What if it could save three souls? If the best way for you to help your church is to sell your soul, will you do it?
How can that be?
Answer the question, Amelae, or leave.
You will help if I answer?
Maybe, but I will not help if you do not answer.
I not know how much my soul is worth.
If you can do the best for the church you are able to do by selling your soul, will you?
What you mean, sell my soul?
Amelae, what did you mean when you said the church is saving souls?
Saved! They go to God, of course!
And where do they go if they are not saved?
That is a silly question! The devil takes them! All know this. Why you ask?
I asked because you asked me what I mean by selling your soul. You think you already know the answer. Why did you ask?
I do not think you are the devil! You are crazy, I think!
You are right, I am not the devil. No, I am just a field agent. I work for someone who collects souls.
I don’t believe you. You are crazy!
Tell me, Amelae? Do you like Assistant Pastor Manoj?
How you know him?
Answer the question, Amelae.
Yes! He is the best at saving souls!
Well, Amelae, because you did not sell your soul today, you will be the reason for what happens next. Here is my cell phone number. Call me if you decide that your soul is available. You should go now.
It isn’t hard. With a nasty little tool I have stored away on my PC, I create an email that the good pastor will open that will slide a bot into his PC. The bot will download a raft of child porn. It will also kick out, once the right amount of porn is on his PC, enough info to the PNP that they will come knocking on his door.
It really doesn’t take much to destroy a guy who works exclusively with teens, if you desire to do that. As this whole operation seems unacceptable to me, I have no qualms. The email is sent in afternoon when I get back home. I wait.
Five days later I get a text from Amelae.
Please, what did you do?
Are you ready to sell your soul?
You undo what you do?
Your Pastor cannot be saved now. The question you need to ask yourself is, do I allow the entire church to be destroyed, or do I sell my soul?
If I not sell, more will happen?
Of course.
Don’t, please don’t.
Meet me for pizza at Yellow Cab in an hour. No more texts.
‡ ‡ ‡
Nice to see you again, Amelae. How about the NY Classic? OK?
Opo, Ninong.
What would you like to drink?
Royal3. … Po, why are you being nice to me?
Why not, Amelae? We are not enemies. I think you are a nice girl.
But, Po, you threaten me by destroying the Pastor! Why you nice?
Well, Amelae, you just thought I was a crazy man, Right?
Opo.
You still think I am crazy?
You really do that to him?
Do I have to do something to someone else, for you to believe?
Why you want my soul? You just took the Pastor’s soul.
Oh, but I didn’t take his soul. I made his life worse, here on earth, but I did not do anything to his soul. Think of Job. He can think of this as a test. No, souls are something else. The question you need to answer is if your soul is more important than the church that sent you out to scam money.
Po, it is not more important, but I do not want to burn in hell for eternity. I am too scared.
Relax, Amelae. No one burns in Hell. That is just God’s propaganda nonsense.
Po? What you mean by that?
There is no heaven. There is no hell. Doesn’t exist. All that is, is the Fat Bastard’s marketing to collect more souls for his side.
Fat bastard? Who?
God, child. The one you call God. He is a lazy fat bastard. My boss is a hard worker. We are retail collectors of souls. We go out and work the job. His Fat and Laziness, depends on marketing to do his collecting.
Collecting souls? I do not understand.
What do you think happens when you die?
I go to heaven! I meet Jesus!
Amelae, there is no Heaven and Jesus, well Jesus that’s an interesting story.
Why, Po?
Well, Jesus was ours. He was walking around making fun of God’s well-ordered world. Turning water into wine… yes, that was fun. We created a drunken bacchanal. Walking on water? We were busy causing folks to understand that this place was just a stage prop and that religion was just for suckers. We had Jesus walking around saying that if there really was a divine, it existed in each one of us, not in any divine being. It does you know. It exists in us and us alone. Oh the big guys play their game collecting our souls, but there really isn’t anything divine about them. … We were having a great time, screwing with his Lardness Bullroar. We got the folks so pissed off that, much to our amazement, the powers that be, had to kill our boy off; he was so disruptive. We figured, well that worked OK. But Lardass, played us and created a second Jesus who did a ‘Rise from the Dead’ bit and then vanished. It was a cool trick. As he just floated away, Lardass’s Jesus didn’t have to hold it together as he was gone in a flash. No one was going to figure out the switch that he pulled. That one trick really set us back quite a bit this time. We thought the whole thing would be over again very soon. … We tried to pull it back by having Thomas write a gospel, but it didn’t work. His Great Lardness, had that schizo John write a crazy book and we lost that little trick.
Po, what you mean when you say it would be over again? What that mean?
It’s a competition, Amelae. Best two out of three. We won the first time, hands down and walking away. But the Fat One pitched a fit, washed the board clean and demanded a rematch. So we agreed, best two out of three.
What you mean, washed the board clean?
The flood, Amelae. You know, the flood. We won just about all the souls and His Great Ass-wipeness had a majestic, and super wet, shitfit. ... So my Boss agrees to the best two out of three and we start again with Noah. Ha! As soon as the flood is over we score with Noah and his son! Right now it’s pretty even. Of course we get most of the preachers and priests, getting those is easy picking. Nuns are hard for us. They just sort of go catatonic when it all becomes clear. So their souls can’t be collected by either side.
What happens to me, to my soul when I die?
A soul is an essence, but not a consciousness. Just as perfume contains the essence of lilac, or lavender or roses, but does not contain the lives of them, a soul is not you. You die and are gone. But the essence, the aroma, of you, lingers. That is all.
If you are opposed to what my church teaches, why you not destroy it?
Because that does not win us any souls. … Let’s eat before this pizza gets totally cold!
The pizza has been just placed on the table and is actually a bit too hot, but we have already consumed our drinks. I order two more drinks as we dig into a fourteen inch pizza that will clearly be too much for us.
She really is a cute kid. I wonder how much it will take to break her down and seal the deal.
Why you tell me this? Why you have to ask for my soul and God does not?
You have already given your soul to his Laziness. Through baptism and confirmation, he has tacitly bound your soul to him. You have asked that your soul be in his care in churches and at dinner prayer. For us to win it, you have to formally renounce it and sign up with us.
How do I know I won’t burn in hell?
How do you know you won’t burn in hell with his Slovenliness? All you have ever heard is his propaganda machine. However, because you do have to formally signup with us, we will put it in writing that you will not burn in hell and if we are lying, your soul is released from our hold. OK?
What if I don’t sign up?
I get to have fun with another of your pastors. Shall we see how that goes? Or maybe you would be more convinced if something happened to your mother?
No! No! Don’t! OK if you do something to Pastor Dodong this week. Maybe I do this. But you ask me to sell my soul to you, not give it. What I get for that?
You don’t like him! Ha! OK let’s do it. What I will give you is the freedom to sin without consequences. How’s the pizza, Amelae?
Hmmm. Good. What you mean freedom to sin?
Morality, my sweet Amelia only matters if you are on his Lazy-Ass’s list. It was part of the deal between the two of them. His High and Mighty Laziness can get you passively, but he cannot keep you if you don’t follow the rules. If you break the rules, you become ours. Many folks break the rules and so we get them anyway. But you don’t break them, so you, we have to contact directly.
You mean I can kill someone?
Well, yes and no. It doesn’t stop you from getting arrested. So, immoral things: adultery, sodomy, greed, avarice, slovenliness, prostitution, those sorts of things are safer bets. And if you play your cards right, you end up living a very good life here on earth.
But I can do that without signing up, right?
Yes, that is true, but my job is to make sure you stay at it long enough that there can’t be any backsliding. And so if you don’t sign up, I take down your Church and mess with your mother. If you are OK with that, then we are done here.
OK you prove it is true by hurting Dodong. If true, I sign up.
Fair enough. Which do you prefer? You want him accused of molesting little boys or plotting to plant a bomb?
I get to choose?
Sure why not?
The bomb.
It isn’t hard. I use a bot to allow me to run some chats through his laptop. Via the bot I also contact some folks to purchase chemicals, and gee, what do you know, he gets arrested on terrorism charges.
It isn’t four hours later that Amelae texts,
OK. Leave the church alone. Maybe there is no hell, maybe there is. I not want to see my mother hurt next.
It really is that simple. When you are dealing with people who believe in fairy tales, getting them to do what you want is not hard. If she hadn’t ‘believed,’ she might have gone to the PNP and told them that the pastors were set up and who the real bad guy was. But she didn’t because she is a believer of fairy tales.
She is about to be mine. What will I do with her? Have fun of course! I might as well play it out as far as I can. I can’t allow her to have second thoughts and go to the PNP. I have to cement in the belief that I have given her.
Oh what fun!
1 - Godfather / Sponsor
2 - Yes, Sir.
3 - Orange flavored soft drink.