Spanner 17.4: Pray Away the Gay

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Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 17: Power, Corruption, and Lies
Part 4: Pray Away the Gay (Final Revision)

10 october 2014.
shira’s apartment. Shira wakes up sandwiched between her nameless lovers. She can feel their worry; they know at once she’s feeling worse.

In the living room, Hope puts on her robe and calls Thurston Wilder. “Hey cousin,” he says, “how’s Shira feeling?”

“Not so good. I’m afraid we’ll need Dr. Whistler’s help sooner than later.”

“Em?”

The city intelligence’s face appears in a corner of the screen. “You called?”

“Yes, sweetheart. We need to get in contact with Dr. Whistler as soon as we can. Shira needs him now.”

Hope says, “While you’re at it, please call Zac Finney too.”

Em smiles sweetly. “I’m doing it now.”

“Thanks!”

“You’re welcome.” Em disappears in a cloud of hearts.

Thurston says, “Right now, the Teachers Gu meeting going on in the CPMC boardroom. Would you like to listen in?”

“I would,” Hope replies, “if I didn’t know all about it.”

“I’ll keep you posted nonetheless.”

“And I’ll do the same.” She ends the call and goes to the bedroom to check on her daughter.

The nameless girls help Shira out of bed, then hold her close and cry.

1 may 2011...
After the death of Carlos O’Riordan, Amanda Currie reports from the hospital where Leila is being held under sedation, listing the names of all the men linked romantically to her who died and all but calling her a serial killer:

Amanda: Eight men alleged to have carried on affairs with teen model and nude beauty queen Leila Shelley have died in the past two years. Is it a coincidence, or is Leila Shelley a “lethal Lolita”?

10 may 2011...
When Leila is finally released to her parents, she finds out about the character assassination Amanda has been pulling on her, now joined by media vigilantes Ann Rule and Nancy Grace. Realizes to her horror that someone has launched a conspiracy to destroy her, she vows to destroy the conspirators, or at least survive them, and bring down the unknown person using them against her...

Three young beauties share the bath. The nameless girls caress Shira’s body all over with their hands and with soft sponges. The brown-haired girl asks her, “How are you feeling?”

Shira softly replies, “Both hot and cold. It’s like being pregnant with a monster.” The black-haired girl kisses her and gently caresses her breasts. She sobs, “I need you two so much.” They take turns kissing her again.

23 july 2007...
red house. Shira and Kira bathe together in the upstairs bathtub with their gorgeous babysitter Amanda. They beg her to pleasure them. She kisses them one by one, turns them around so she can embrace them from behind, and gently rubs their clits to send them into the sweet ecstasy they crave for what seems an eternity...

Shira lies on the bed; the nameless girls lie on her and caress her. The brown-haired girl says, “It’s not Dr. Whistler, but we’ll give you the best sexual healing we can.”

They suck her breasts and gently bite her nipples until she explodes into orgasm. She silently transmits her desire for the black-haired girl to put her cunt in her mouth and the brown-haired girl to mount her hips, lock cunts, and stick a finger up each; she bites the hard clit, sticks her tongue up her slit, drinks deeply of her nectar; the other rubs their clits together in sweet mutual torture; together they struggle and fight to achieve the greatest ecstasy in the shortest time...

ferry terminal. Team Bremelo huddle at the end of the terminal and wait for Shira. Jennifer says for the benefit of the non-newtypes, “We need it distributed. We can’t afford to have a single point of vulnerability.” Shira arrives on the #26 with the Shelley twins and their nameless friend.

They all wear smartwatches. They switch to the same encrypted channel. Shira copies the contents of Arvid’s card to their solid-state storage.

bus. They remain silent on the long #11 trip to Bangor High. A thick-bearded Caliphate suicider with a Mexican accent and prison-gang tattoos stands up and tries to detonate himself. Shira stands up in the seat behind him grinning mischievously and slips her phone into his face to interrupt him mid-Shahada with the image of Rebel Styles. “Holá, amante,” says Rebel. The suicider dies screaming and does not explode. The passengers applaud. Shira gives them a sheepish smile and shrugs.

school lobby. Now that every surviving student, tutor, and teacher has returned to the city, the adscreens push their products louder than ever till they merge into mush. The Tachibanas meet the Bremeloes past the monitors. Seika asks, “Are they really going to extend the school year?”

“They’ll have to,” Jennifer replies, “and of course we’ll have to pay extra for it.”

“It’s a wonder anybody even bothers to come back,” says Polly.

Shira frowns. “Sooner or later, somebody’s gonna break.”

When the Bremeloes leave, Liz McPhail and Radica Maxx enter in full hoverboard gear. Radica asks, “How come we gotta hang around this hellhole?”

“Shira’s here, spud, and we gotta be ready for an emergency.”

“If you say so,” she scornfully whines.

“Now let’s get to the clinic. Charlie’s waiting for us.”

homeroom. She’s beautiful, cool, stylish, and sexy. She wears low-slung tight jeans, cleavage-exposing midriff-bearing sleeveless vest, brown leather ankle boots, and a smile that lights up the room. Sylvia Plame is the antithesis of Rexelle Steele. All the tutors and foreign students adore her. At 24, she’s young enough to understand them as an equal. Even Dorian, Charmian, and Debbie relax in her presence. She has gathered all the foreign students together at last. “Please call me Sylvia,” she says in an Australian accent. “I don’t believe in ‘tall poppy syndrome.’”

“Patriots sure do,” says Shira. “Nonconformists remind ’em of Yankees.” Everybody laughs, even Debbie.

Sylvia comes up to Debbie. “Can I give you a hug?”

Without hesitation, Debbie stands up into Sylvia’s waiting arms and cries on her shoulder. The whole class cheers. Debbie sobs, “You smell so nice.” Sylvia laughs gently and kisses her on the cheek.

library. Team Bremelo hold an emergency meeting during first period. Shira turns to the GSA members. “You guys need to get out immediately if y’all don’t wanna get ex-gay faith-healed.”

“Back entrance!” says Chuck.

Lyssa, her girlfriend, says “Front door’s off limits.”

Shira shoos them out. “Now go! Hurry!” Lorelei leads the GSA quickly out the door. “Okay now. Brandi, you take Cory, Kio, and the Tachibanas out with you, same way.” Brandi nods and leads them out.

Polly joins them at the door. “I gotta go too!”

“How come you’re leaving?” asks Mimi.

“Witches don’t like to get burned!” She comes back to grab Mimi’s hand, then drags her out with her. “Later!”

Along with Colette, Team Bremelo’s hardcore fighters remain: the Shelleys, Blairs, and Richter-Thomases. Schuyler asks, “How come you’re staying, Shira?”

Shira grins wickedly. “Somebody’s gotta jinx this.” She shares a sinister conspiratorial smile with her nameless girlfriend.

cafeteria. Debbie paces around, tortured by anticipation and fear. Dorian comes to offer her an apple, but she turns her eyes away. “What’s wrong, cousin?”

“Nothing,” Debbie snaps.

“Are you worrying about the assembly?”

“No!”

Dorian sighs, takes a bite out of the apple, and walks away.

hallway. On the Bangor Crusaders football team, Bart’s only a linebacker. The linemen are so huge that they make him look merely human in contrast. Bart the Tournament fighter is relatively calm; they are violent, especially now that there’s only three left alive.

Defensive end Ned Jovanovich is particularly agitated today. He yells at any student or teacher that gets within his hypersensitive aura and threatens to beat them up. Shira gets in his face and refuses to move. “I know something you don’t,” she sings.

“What the fuck is it, bitch?”

“Joe Fisk’s laughing at you behind your back. He knows he’ll always be bigger than you. He calls you a runt.”

He explodes in rage. “That motherfuckin’ bitch! I’ll kill him!” He runs down the hall in a screaming fury, knocking over anyone unlucky enough to get in his path. He finds his locker room rival, defensive guard Fisk, and attacks him.

Jovanovich and Fisk battle like two enraged bulls. Unlike a formal Tournament challenge, they fight by no rules and try to kill each other. People flee to the distance that seems safe to them for now, far enough away to avoid becoming collateral damage but close enough to watch in horror. They dent lockers, knock holes into the walls, break windows; they fight and fight and fight till they both drop from exhaustion.

library. “You’re not supposed to get ’em to kill each other, Shira,” Colette says angrily, “I’m surprised you even survived!”

Shira shrugs. “Anything to keep them from killing us.”

Jennifer complains, “I wish we didn’t have to go to that stupid assembly.”

“I’m going regardless,” says Shira. “Rexelle’s gonna preach, and I’m sticking around for the fireworks.”

Polly holds her hands out. “I’m going home to get as far away as possible.”

Shira puts her arm around her shoulders. “I don’t blame you. It is true she doesn’t like witches.”

The girl with the violet eyes puts down her book. “I don’t get how she thinks she can cure Debbie’s lesbianism.”

“Demons, love.”

Leila rolls her eyes. “Oh, right. She’s possessed by demons just ’cos she loves me.”

“Always blame the demons.”

Sally stops by their table. “Ever heard the legend of Rexelle Steele?”

“Like who hasn’t.”

Kitty asks, “So how’s Frank taking it?”

parking lot. Several guards stand between Frank Becket’s baseball bat and his mother’s gaudily red-white-and-blue Hummer. “Get outta my way, you idiots!” he screams. “This is personal!”

The guard leader doesn’t listen. “Put the bat down and leave, Mr. Treece. We do not want an incident.”

Charmian calmly walks toward him. “Do what he says, cousin.”

He turns around and stares at her incredulously. “What are you doing, Charmian?”

She puts his arm around his shoulder and whispers, “Wouldn’t you rather smash her face with your fist?”

He answers her smile with his. “You have a point.” He throws the bat high in the air and walks away with Charmian. The guards sigh in relief. Then the bat lands on the windshield, shattering it and triggering the car alarm.

band room. Karen presides over an impromptu meeting of the Peace Committee. “There’s been too much violence lately. We need to find a way to put a stop to it.”

“Stop the steroid trade,” says Shira. “They must be upping the juice extra since last Sunday.”

“They’re preparing for war,” says Connor. “Let’s make sure we can defend ourselves and protect those who can’t.”

“We can’t afford to be pacifists,” says the girl with the violet eyes.

“Leila,” Karen says, “nonviolent action brought down Jim Crow. Remember?”

“It didn’t bring down the Old Confederacy. You don’t know the Beckets like I do. They’re killers. Against these people, nonviolence is suicide. We need to hit the enemy hard. That requires weapons.”

“We can’t fight their way and still win.”

“They don’t know that.”

Colette says, “That’s why we’ll win.”

Shira puts her arm around the nameless girl’s shoulder. “Darling, we’ve got weapons more devastating than any that shoot or cut.”

“What kind of weapons?”

“Mind bombs, mind viruses, scandals, controversies, junk debt, and their own magical thinking.”

Karen adds, “But most of all, nonviolent mass resistance.”

The nameless girl looks at her in disbelief. “Against even terrorists?”

“Even supervillains.” Karen winks.

nike arena. The burly armoured guards herd the students in, willing or unwilling. A few other determined (or just plain lucky) ones escape on the city bus before the guards can catch them. The rest take their seats in the bleachers and chairs. The bleachers are folded up on one side for a stage set up in the manner of a tent revival meeting.

Deborah Steele Becket sits front and center alongside her cousins the Fleer sisters and her fiancé Barry Longmuir; the rest of the Student Council and Team Valiant fill the rest of the front row. Team Bremelo take the second row, with Shira right behind Debbie. She blushes and sweats nervously, not because she’s afraid that her mother will use her as a prop yet again (though she is), but because Shira’s gaydar is on full power and Debbie can feel it. Barry looks at Shira suspiciously and whispers into her ear, “Say nothing.” She smiles and mimes zipping her lips shut.

The last students are seated. The guards close and lock the doors. The lights go dark to signal silence. The spotlights turn on and shine onto the stage. Falconer announces with thinly disguised fangirl squee, “Let’s welcome, Shepherd Rexelle! Praise Jesus America!” Rexelle Steele is average height, diet-slim, bleached blond to match the Beckets’ natural color, showing obvious signs of plastic surgery short of a full Resculpt, wearing expensive clothes and jewelry worthy of a High Corporate. She looks every bit the celebrity. Shepherd Rexelle receives a standing ovation, though much of it is less than enthusiastic or feigns enthusiasm out of fear of punishment.

When Rexelle notices Shira, she nearly panics. Shira smiles sweetly and waves. Rexelle shoots an angry look at her. Shira pretends to zip up her lips.

Rexelle takes the microphone and yells into it, “Praise Jesus America! God thank y’all for coming!” Amidst a barrage of cheers faked like orgasms, she looks down and spots her daughter right in front of her. A feeling of dread comes over Debbie: it’s clear to everyone in the front row, or otherwise in the know, what Rexelle plans to do to her.

While Rexelle preaches, Shira quietly explains to the Shelleys, “Remember to remind the clueless foreigners that all diseases are caused by demons, not germs.” The Shelleys nod. “How the faith healer heals is by casting out demons.” They nod again. “AIDS? Caused by demons. Cancer? Demons. TB? Scoliosis? OCD? Liberalism? Guess.” More nods. “Now guess why we’re here.” The Shelleys groan and roll their eyes. Kelly and Christian shush them. The siblings take deep breaths.

The altar call. Kelly rushes up, wails at her inability to resist the demons, begs Rexelle to cast them out. With a flourish, Rexelle casts the demons out. Kelly is now free of the demons that cause homosexuality! Half the crowd cheers. Debbie leans toward Shira and quietly snarls, “It’s your fault, Shira.”

“Really?” whispers Shira back. “I didn’t even out her.”

Then Rexelle turns toward her daughter. (Shira to the Shelleys: “Now here’s where it gets...interesting.” Barry: “Shhh!”) “Oh my darling little daughter! I can feel the demons that have come over you again. They’re trying to lead you back into the sin of lesbianism! By the power of Jesus America, I shall cast out those demons and cure you so you can be the obedient wife and mother God made you to be!”

Debbie holds her hands up in front of her, gestures wildly for her mother to stop, and pleads, “Mother, please don’t! Don’t do it!” Rexelle, blinded by her own self-importance, doesn’t even notice her. As she prattles on about her daughter’s need for Ex-Gay Faith Therapy, Debbie’s terror turns to rage, and her rage turns murderous, until Rexelle can no longer even pretend to not notice. She stands up, trembling with fury, fists clenched.

“Mother!” she shrieks.

She pulls herself onto the stage and rushes her mother. Rexelle’s face shows a flash expression of shock before settling into fury at her impertinent child. Debbie takes a wild swing at Rexelle’s jaw. Rexelle lunges forward, puts her hands around Debbie’s neck, and starts to squeeze. The Fleer sisters scream in horror, and the horror spreads contagiously throughout the assembled student body. Guards and acolytes swarm the stage to pull mother and daughter apart before they kill each other.

“You monster! I hate you!” screams Debbie.

“I’ll kill you, you evil little bitch!” yells Rexelle.

As they struggle to keep the two apart, the assembled students rush to the doors, attack the guards, unlock the doors, and swarm out.

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Copyright © 2013 Dennis Jernberg. Some rights reserved.

[Revision 4 Final, date: Scenes from the R2 version and other parts of this chapter heavily revised for Fourth Revision continuity; new scenes added.]