{"id":12280,"date":"2026-10-25T14:16:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T18:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/?p=12280"},"modified":"2026-10-25T14:16:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T18:16:21","slug":"the-best-little-hell-house-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/the-best-little-hell-house-in-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Little Hell House in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

by shukyou (\u4e3b\u6559)<\/span><\/p>\n

Read this piece’s entry on the Shousetsu Bang*Bang wiki<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

“Step this way,” the tall man barked at the crowd, “and witness the horrors of the souls lost without Christ in their hearts!”<\/span><\/p>\n

Gavin shifted his weight on his feet and tried to look inconspicuous. That was the best way to survive these things, he’d found. Don’t look bored, don’t look angry, but don’t look to happy to be there either. Don’t look anything. Just don’t let them see you.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Are <\/span>you<\/span><\/i> one of them?” The tall man scanned the two dozen or so assembled teens, shining a flashlight briefly over all their faces as though looking for imposters. “The temptations of Satan are many, and his ways are dark! He tempts you with worldly things! And if you do not have the light of Jesus and the full armor of God guarding your heart, you will fall prey to his snares!”<\/span><\/p>\n

The tall man was one of the pastors from his mom’s latest church. Gavin couldn’t think of his name. They’d only been going there for a couple months, anyway. It was the biggest church they’d gone to so far, big enough that they had all kinds of youth events: Sunday morning Bible study, Sunday evening youth group, Wednesday night Bible study, See You At The Pole every other week, prayer teams, accountability groups, summer camps, faith retreats — and something the other kids in the youth group had excitedly called Hell House.<\/span><\/p>\n

That last one was why Gavin was spending the last night of October standing outside a ratty old building somewhere in a field outside the city limits. He wasn’t mad he was missing trick-or-treating; his mom had stopped him from going back when he was in fourth grade, after she’d seen something on <\/span>Donahue<\/span><\/i> about the Satanic origins of Halloween or something. In past years he’d just holed up in his room and done homework, ignoring the laughter and noises from the rest of their apartment building. He’d asked to do that again this year. He’d even worked up the courage to <\/span>beg<\/span><\/i> his mom to let him. Most parents would love to have their kids beg them to do homework, he’d pointed out. But no, his mom was helping host an all-night prayer vigil with her new church friends, and Gavin had no choice. He was going, and that was that.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Within these walls,” the tall man continued, gesturing to the building behind him, “you will see the true stories of teenagers just like you! Many of them tried to walk the straight path! But without Jesus as your guide, you will not see the stumbling blocks! Without Him as your guiding light, the stories you see tonight … <\/span>may be yours<\/span><\/i>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

It was hokey as hell, Gavin kept his shoulders hunched and didn’t laugh. Neither did anyone else in the crowd, but for different reasons. Gavin recognized most of them from youth group. They all wore t-shirts from various church events and activities. Most of them sported some kind of cross necklace. The girls gripped one another’s arms, their eyes filled with real fright. The boys kept their chins up, looking almost like recruits going off to war. Gavin tried to mimic their posture. He had to be one of them. He had to be invisible.<\/span><\/p>\n

The door to the cheaply constructed structure swung open, revealing lights and sounds inside. The teens were ushered in by the tall man. Gavin did his best to stay in the middle of the group. His hands in his pockets were balled into fists to keep them from shaking.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever. It could be fine. From what the others had said, it’d last <\/span>maybe<\/span><\/i> half an hour, all told. Then there’d be some kind of prayer meeting on the other side, maybe an altar call so the teens could re-re-re-re-rededicate their hearts to Christ, and then the church bus would take him home. It’d be over before he knew it. He just had to hang on.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first room was decorated like a teen party — or at least like what Gavin thought a teen party should look like, as he’d surely never been invited to one. There were colored lights and a song by Madonna played at a volume low enough not to drown out speech. In the background, some partygoers in skimpy outfits danced awkwardly to the beat. The focus, however, was on the trio up front: two girls and a boy, lit in the white hue of a spotlight.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Gee, Candy,” said one of the girls with clearly artificial affect, “I’m having a great time at this party!” She gave a little jump, and her breasts bounced.<\/span><\/p>\n

This was how these things went, Gavin had been told. First they’d get to see those wayward, Satan-tempted youths — <\/span>teenagers just like you!<\/span><\/i> — as they made the wrong decisions, because their souls did not have the protective wisdom of Christ’s unfailing love. Gavin hadn’t really expected the church to go all-out like this for realism, though. The girl who’d just spoken had a shirt cut low enough that Gavin was afraid her ample attributes would bounce right out of it. He could even see the lacy tops of her bra cups just peeking out, the black a sharp contrast to her pale skin.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other girl — Candy, apparently — laughed with delight. “It’s a <\/span>great<\/span><\/i> party, Desiree!” she agreed. By contrast, Candy wasn’t wearing a bra at <\/span>all<\/span><\/i>, and when she leaned forward, her dark nipples showed through the thin pink tank top she was wearing. “I’d sure rather be here than at Sunday School!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Absolutely!” agreed Desiree, all smiles. “Who needs church when we’ve got a party like this?”<\/span><\/p>\n

“But you know what could make this party better?” asked the boy behind them, who held up a little baggie in one hand and something that looked like a cigarette in the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Aw, Jordan!” Candy gasped with glee. “You brought drugs!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“That’s right,” Jordan said with a firm nod. “I bought drugs. Would you beautiful women like to do some drugs with me?”<\/span><\/p>\n

Desiree’s smile faded into an exaggerated pout. “I don’t know, guys. Drugs are illegal and I hear they’re bad for you. I hear they can <\/span>kill<\/span><\/i> you.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Jordan shook his head and laughed. “That’s a lie, Desiree! No one’s ever died of drugs!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Well,” Desiree said, seeming to consider this for a micro-second, “I guess if no one’s ever died of them…”<\/span><\/p>\n

These must have been actors from some other church group, Gavin figured, called in for this event. They’d really gone all-out for their roles. The woman playing Candy had even gone so far as to put some temporary tattoos on her long, bare arms, which she lifted to take the cigarette from Jordan. Doing so revealed a patch of dark hair in her armpit. Gavin had never seen a woman with unshaved armpits before. He almost couldn’t stop staring. The hair was wispy, and it looked soft. He wondered what it felt like. He wondered what it <\/span>smelled<\/span><\/i> like.<\/span><\/p>\n

Okay, so maybe the Hell house <\/span>was<\/span><\/i> making a good point about how insidious the temptations of Satan were. Gavin averted his eyes, focusing instead on how Candy lit the cigarette. He’d been prepared for her to mime it, but no, she actually got it going, then lifted it to her lips and took a deep drag. It must have been some kind of stage cigarette. Gavin had heard about those back when he’d done Theatre Arts in middle school, before his mom had made him stop and do baseball instead. But there <\/span>were <\/span><\/i>stage cigarettes, prop cigarettes you could actually smoke, but weren’t bad for you. He was pretty sure he’d heard about those.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Candy exhaled, smoke poured from her lungs in a strange-smelling cloud. “Smoking pot makes me <\/span>so<\/span><\/i> horny,” she purred, looking Desiree in the eye. “Want to try?”<\/span><\/p>\n

Desiree took the stage cigarette from Candy and did the same inhale and exhale. “God, I’m so horny too,” Desiree moaned in reply. “I’m so horny that I want to have premarital sex <\/span>right now<\/span><\/i>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“That’s good, girls,” Jordan said, putting a hand on each of their backs and pushing them closer together. “Why don’t you start out by giving us a little show?”<\/span><\/p>\n

The crowd gasped as Candy draped her arms around Desiree’s neck and pulled her in for a deep, tonguey kiss. Even Gavin felt his breath catch in his chest. He knew about lesbians, mostly because he’d heard his mom yelling about how shows like <\/span>Murphy Brown<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Roseanne<\/span><\/i> were forcing godless lesbians down the throats of God-fearing Americans. But he’d never actually <\/span>seen<\/span><\/i> lesbians before now. They kissed eagerly, sucking on one another’s lips. Desiree brought her hand to one of Candy’s prominent nipples and caught it between her fingertips, giving it a little pinch in a way that made Candy moan louder. “Smoking pot makes me want to make out with girls <\/span>all the time<\/span><\/i>,” Candy gasped against Desiree’s mouth. “But I’m bisexual. That means I want to have premarital sex with men <\/span>and<\/span><\/i> women.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Do you girls want to come back with me to my car?” Jordan asked. “I’ve got more alcohol in there. Alcohol makes all these drugs <\/span>so<\/span><\/i> much better.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Yes!” Desiree gasped, breaking from the kiss with Candy to kiss Jordan just as hungrily. As she did, Candy got her face down in Desiree’s soft-looking cleavage, hungrily kissing the bare skin of the top of her breasts. “Let’s go do it! Let’s go drink and do drugs!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“A terrifying tale!” cried out a voice from the other end of the room as all the players before them froze mid-tableau and the lights dimmed. The crowd of teenagers turned to see a new figure with a white-painted face standing by the far door. Gavin couldn’t tell if this person was a man or a woman, because he — or she? — maybe actually he — was dressed as a ringmaster, but with beautiful red lipstick and long gold earrings. Even the tone of voice didn’t give anything away. “What will become of these wayward partygoers, who thought that their lives could only be fun and fulfilled if they did drugs and drank alcohol? We’ll have to return to this trio later. But for now … follow me to our next lost soul!”<\/span><\/p>\n

The crowd began to shuffle through the indicated door, leaving the party scene behind them. Gavin fought the urge to glance back. He’d been warned about that habit in particular.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next scene was much simpler and quieter: a teen girl’s bedroom, decked out with covers cut from fashion magazines and Ace of Bass posters. Gavin was hardly up on pop culture, but even he knew those were pretty stale by now. Whoever decorated this probably had done it on whatever they could get for ten bucks from Goodwill. He at least had to respect what they’d done with so little.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the bed sat a young woman with curly red hair and a sea of freckles, looking proper and preppy, down to a sweater tied around her shoulders. Next to her sat a broad, short-haired man in a local college football jersey. “Come on, Brenda,” said the football man as the scene began, “everybody’s doing it.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“I know, Danny,” said Brenda, playing with the ends of the sleeves, “but I promised to wait for marriage. I want my wedding night to be special.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Danny sighed and put a strong hand on her curvy thigh, across the expanse of freckled skin between the hem of her skirt and the top of her high socks. “Your wedding night will be special no matter what. My sister lived with her boyfriend before they got married, and she still said getting married was the best night of her life. She was experienced enough that she wasn’t nervous about losing her virginity. She could just relax and have fun with her new husband.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Honestly, Gavin found that made a lot of sense. But maybe that was just him. He was worried about his wedding night, and he’d never even had a girlfriend. He was worried about everything. His mom said he needed to put all of those worries on Christ, but honestly that just made Gavin worry more about how he couldn’t seem to make that work for him. Maybe Christ just didn’t want <\/span>his<\/span><\/i> worries in particular. He worried about that too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brenda sighed and leaned closer to Danny. “You’re not just saying that because you want to have sex with me, right?”<\/span><\/p>\n

Danny leaned over and kissed her hair. “I want to have sex with you because I love you, Brenda.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Brenda hesitated for about two seconds more, then brightened up. “Let’s do it!” she said. “Let’s have premarital sex together!”<\/span><\/p>\n

Gavin made a curious little noise. That wasn’t how the scenario usually went. Sure, the girl usually gave in to her boyfriend’s constant demands and allowed him to defile her, but in the versions of it they talked about in youth group, the girl was always protesting all the way. By contrast, Brenda was downright eager. She grabbed Danny and pushed him back against the bed, then straddled his waist. Her skirt fell down over the place where their bodies touched, obscuring any point of contact.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking up at Brenda as she wriggled a little on top of him, Danny grinned. “Do you want to use protection?” he asked.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brenda shook her head in a way that tossed her bright red curls around her shoulders. “I’m on the Pill,” she moaned. “My godless atheist big sister showed me how to get a prescription. I told the doctor that my periods were uncomfortable and I needed some medicine for it. But my sister told me that’s just what everybody says. She says that everybody knows the only reason girls get on birth control is to <\/span>fuck<\/span><\/i>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

There was an uncomfortable gasp among the audience at the sound of such a naughty word. Gavin could hardly believe it himself. He wondered which church these actors had come from, that they were willing to go so far with their performances. It was all in the name of saving souls, he guessed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brenda reached beneath her skirt and did something that was hidden by the fabric. A second later, though, she shifted her hips forward — and as she did, both she and Danny let out a noise that sounded a lot like mutual pleasure. “Oh, your cock feels so good inside me!” Brenda moaned as she began to move a little, riding Danny’s lap the same way someone might ride a horse. For a pair of actors, it was <\/span>really<\/span><\/i> convincing. “Everyone told me that sex was naughty and shameful, but it’s really <\/span>so<\/span><\/i> good!”<\/span><\/p>\n

Danny pushing up Brenda’s skirt to bare her thighs, stopping <\/span>just<\/span><\/i> shy of revealing what was going on beneath. “You like having my big, raw cock inside you?” he asked with a grin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gavin could feel the way the teens around him shifted uncomfortably. This was <\/span>really<\/span><\/i> lifelike. Then again, that was the promise of Hell House: real scenarios that had been faced by real teens just like them. Maybe this was what they had meant. Probably this was what they had meant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Grinning down at him, Brenda nodded. “I want to fuck every day! I’m going to cut classes so we can go fuck behind the bleachers!” She sounded breathy, like she was really working up a sweat. “I’m going to tell my parents I’m going over to Nancy and Penny’s, and then I’m going to sneak over to your house instead so we can fuck while your parents are at work! And because of the Pill there will never be any consequences!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“That’s right, Brenda,” Danny agreed, his words equally heavy with exertion. “Because of the Pill, we can fuck whenever you want!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“I want it all the time!” Brenda practically shouted. “I’m not a good girl anymore! I’m going to drop out of school just to be a slut for your big cock!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“One night of passion can lead a good girl astray!” shouted the Ringmaster character, as again the lights dimmed and the actors froze. Or almost froze, really, because when Gavin glanced over, the actress playing Brenda still seemed to be moving her hips a little, a smile wide on her pink-painted lips. “She used to be her parents’ little angel! Now, what will become of this <\/span>fallen<\/span><\/i> angel? We’ll find out later, after our third and final tableau of terror!”<\/span><\/p>\n

The crowd moved on again, obviously more disturbed than they had been after the last scene. The girls gripped one another tighter, and all the boys appeared to be sweating. Maybe this had hit them harder because few of them had ever even been to a drinking-and-drugs-and-lesbian-kissing party, but he knew for a fact that plenty of them had dated, and almost every week it seemed like one girl or another was asking the prayer group for the strength to resist her boyfriend’s pressures to engage in ungodly premarital acts like holding hands and kissing. For this crowd, this second scenario must have hit a lot closer to home.<\/span><\/p>\n

And again, wasn’t that the point of Hell House, to hit close to home? That was what had gotten Gavin’s stomach knotted up so bad before. The way people talked about it, they made it seem like the Hell House was able to see into your soul. Maybe it was, but only for regular souls with regular problems. If the Hell House designers wanted to scare people, they had to scare them with things they were actually in danger of. Things like parties that people got invited to and boyfriends that pressured girlfriends into sex. Normal things. Things like that. So really, for Gavin, this wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t so bad, and it would soon be over.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gavin held on to this thought like a lifeline, until he stepped into the next room and that line snapped, leaving him to drown in the sight of two young men sitting half-naked on a locker room bench.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

~*~<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gavin had one prayer, and that was for God not to make him a homosexual.<\/span><\/p>\n

He didn’t pray this prayer out loud, of course. He’d never told anybody. At the altar calls and the prayer meetings, when asked what was on his heart, Gavin always said generic things like praying for the strength to stay true in his walk with Christ. And that really wasn’t a lie, he supposed. He really did want to stay on the straight and narrow path, <\/span>straight<\/span><\/i> being the operative word.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the matter of other aspects of belief, he was at best agnostic. Whether or not God existed didn’t seem to change things much. So Gavin went through the motions and said his prayers and read his Bible because at best, he was actually saving his soul from eternal damnation, and at worst, he was talking to nobody. Gavin had spent a whole lot of his life <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> talking to <\/span>some<\/span><\/i>body, and he figured it was about the same.<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides, It wasn’t like he didn’t like girls! He liked some girls just fine. They just weren’t the girls he was supposed to like. He liked the ones like Marti, the captain of the soccer team who rolled her t-shirt sleeves up to her shoulders to show off her tanned biceps and didn’t wear makeup. Gavin was pretty sure Marti, who probably didn’t go to <\/span>any<\/span><\/i> church, had no idea he even existed, and he was happy to keep it that way. It was just that whenever he was forced to imagine his future, to talk about his long-term goals for living a Godly life, he got himself through the exercise by picturing a wife like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

What he absolutely was <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> supposed to be picturing was … well, what was right in front of him now, in the third tableau. He forced himself to keep moving. He clenched his fists so tight in his pockets that he felt his nails dig into his palms. He willed himself to keep breathing. He couldn’t let anyone know. They surely already suspected. He couldn’t let them <\/span>know<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The scene was painted up like a locker room. One young man, skinny and pale, sat on one of the benches, ostensibly naked except for the towel around his waist. Another, much broader and more muscular, stood across from him, holding up his own towel around his waist like it might fall at any second. It dipped so low that Gavin could clearly see the line of dark hair that rain from the man’s navel downward, disappearing beneath the terrycloth folds. Gavin bit the inside of his mouth. Despite the cheap air-conditioner hard at work in the sultry autumn night, he could feel sweat starting to soak the back of his shirt.<\/span><\/p>\n

The murmurs from around him now were ones of disgust. His fellow viewers had been mostly quiet before, but now he heard a few grunts of <\/span>fucking fag shit<\/span><\/i> under their breaths. Swearing was okay when it was about faggots, it seemed. What a fun exception to the rule.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then the lights were off, and Gavin felt the Hell House not only see into his soul, but rip it out and put it up for display.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I fucked Lucy in the back of my car last week,” said the larger of the two, his voice a cocky swagger. “They say she’ll put out for anybody. I don’t know about that, but she definitely did for me. What about you, Jimmy? You gotten laid recently?”<\/span><\/p>\n

Jimmy looked down at his bare feet. He shuffled his weight a little on the bench and gave an awkward shrug. “Gee, no, Aaron, I don’t have a girlfriend or anything.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“What, you don’t like girls?” asked Aaron with a smirk.<\/span><\/p>\n

What, you don’t like girls?<\/span><\/i> Gavin’s mom had asked repeatedly, her voice both mocking and frantic. Gavin wasn’t supposed to date, but he was supposed to <\/span>want<\/span><\/i> to date. He was supposed to mention all the pretty girls he had crushes on, and his mother was supposed to remind him that he wasn’t allowed to have them, and that was the way it was supposed to go. Gavin could tell that was the way it was supposed to go. Every time he could see her waiting for his response, just like the actors before him now had to wait on one another. Except he never managed to say the right line. Of all the things he’d never done right in his life, that was somehow the worst.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jimmy shook his head and shrugged again. “Not really,” he said with a sigh.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Oh, so, what, you’re gay?” asked Aaron, who took a step closer, and for a moment, Gavin was braced against some coming violence. But no, there was only tenderness in Aaron’s touch as he reached down to cup Jimmy’s cheek, and how was that <\/span>so<\/span><\/i> much worse? “I mean, it’s cool if you are. Everybody knows that being gay is cool now.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Really?” asked Jimmy, lifting his wide brown eyes for the first time, like little children in paintings beholding the blessed face of Jesus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aaron nodded. “Yeah. All the cool guys are going gay. Hell, <\/span>I<\/span><\/i> go gay sometimes!”<\/span><\/p>\n

A shuffle of discomfort ran through the crowd. Gavin was going to throw up. He was going to throw up and pass out <\/span>well<\/span><\/i> before he was supposed to throw up and pass out, and they were all going to know. He had to keep it together.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jimmy’s expression broadened into a smile. “You do?” he asked, voice full of hope.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Sure I do!” Aaron said, pointedly grabbing the knot of the towel just below his navel. “Girls like Lucy, you can get them in the sack easy. But most girls, it’s not worth the effort. Sometimes a guy just needs to get his rocks off. That’s why all the guys on the football team and me, we get gay with one another all the time!”<\/span><\/p>\n

A few unhappy grunts rose around him. Gavin knew there were more than a couple football players in the group tonight. If they suspected even a <\/span>hint<\/span><\/i> of what was going on in Gavin’s brain right now, they would send him to the hospital.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Wow,” said Jimmy, “I guess being gay is pretty neat!” And Gavin’s entire body seized up as Jimmy reached his hand and put it right over Aaron’s, right on the knot of the towel just above his… um, his…<\/span><\/p>\n

“You want to suck my cock?” Aaron asked. Yes, okay, his cock. That was the word. <\/span>Jesus Christ<\/span><\/i>, Gavin swore internally, before remembering what a sin that was too. Well, he’d add it to his tab tonight.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jimmy nodded. “Please, can I?”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Sure thing, kid!” Aaron said, and dropped his towel.<\/span><\/p>\n

There it was: Aaron’s dick. No dance belt or jock strap under it, just a big dick. A big, hard, <\/span>uncut <\/span><\/i>dick, Gavin’s mind catalogued. The noises around him were now ones of great disgust, even mimicked retching. A few girls shrieked. Gavin couldn’t stop staring. It was so big, and it was just right there in front of Jimmy’s eager face, and now Jimmy was opening his mouth, he was leaning forward, the smallest suggestion of his pink tongue darted out from between his lips, and holy shit, Jesus Christ, was he <\/span>actually<\/span><\/i> going to do it? Was he actually, right here, going to suck–<\/span><\/p>\n

The lights cut out all but completely, leaving the figures in tantalizing shadow, forever frozen just inches from the abominable deed. The Ringmaster laughed and clapped. “What seduction! What horrors! Such easy pleasures! Such forbidden fruit! Whatever will become of our young Jimmy? Whatever will become of <\/span>all<\/span><\/i> of our wayward souls?” The door behind the Ringmaster swung open with an ominous creak. “Only one way to find out!”<\/span><\/p>\n

That was right. There was only one way to find out, because there was only one way out. The building had been constructed exactly for this purpose, like a tunnel with no escape. Gavin didn’t know if there were even any emergency exits around. There <\/span>had <\/span><\/i>to be, if only for the actors to move between rooms, but he didn’t know how to find them. If a fire broke out, he supposed they’d all just have to burn, first here and then in the infernal pits of Hell.<\/span><\/p>\n

He walked robotically, steps firm, face straight — ha ha — forward into the next room. There, he felt the only relief since this whole thing had started, as the room was empty — and on purpose, it seemed. It was a small space with black-painted plywood walls. On an ordinary day, he would be tempting a claustrophobic panic, being so cramped with so many people around him. Now he was just grateful he wasn’t being forced to pretend it wasn’t a colossal effort <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> to stare at another guy’s dick.<\/span><\/p>\n

…It <\/span>couldn’t<\/span><\/i> have been real, right? They made fake ones, didn’t they? For movies and things like that, where you couldn’t <\/span>really<\/span><\/i> film some actor’s dick, not really. Like if Tom Cruise had to be naked sometime, something like that. He couldn’t think of a movie where Tom Cruise had been naked, but he figured there had to be at least one, one of the many his mom wouldn’t let him watch. Besides, Hollywood was full of sex and drugs and all kinds of horrors, so that meant there was probably a movie where Tom Cruise was naked, and they had to get some kind of film prop for it so they didn’t <\/span>actually<\/span><\/i> film his dick. Right? Anyway, the Hell House must have gotten one of those. Gavin figured it was like the stage cigarettes. It was all just fake stuff. It was fake stuff to save a bunch of teenagers’ souls. They’d really gone all out. He was going to be sick. He backed up against one of the walls, feeling the flimsy plywood bend slightly against his weight. He was going to be sick, he was going to throw up and die, he–<\/span><\/p>\n

A young man Gavin had never seen before put a hand on Gavin’s shoulders. He looked around Gavin’s age, maybe a little older, but Gavin had never seen him around before. He was dressed all in black, including a hooded sweatshirt, with the hood pulled up to hide his hair. He must have been one of the stagehands. He reached into the kangaroo pocket of his sweatshirt and pulled out a tiny water bottle, barely the size of his fist, the kind they sometimes had on airplanes. With a smile, he handed it to Gavin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gavin’s manners had abandoned him. Instead of refusing politely, he all but snatched the bottle from the stagehand’s hand, screwed off its plastic cap, and drank it down in what seemed like a single swallow. It felt like God’s own mercy poured down his throat. The water couldn’t have been anything but room temperature, but with how hot Gavin was running right now, it might as well have been ice. He was for a moment afraid that if he opened his mouth again, a cloud of steam would burst out from his lips.<\/span><\/p>\n

The young man grinned and gave Gavin’s shoulder a little squeeze. “You’re doing great, babe,” he said, his voice low enough that no one else could have overheard. And before Gavin could ask what on earth he’d meant by any of that, the stagehand was slipping back into the darkness and the Ringmaster was on.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Such sinners!” bellowed the Ringmaster, whose voice was a thousand times louder in this confined space. “Not a thought for the comforting words of Jesus! Not a moment of fear for their eternal souls! After all, why would they worry? God isn’t watching them, right? God has bigger things to take care of. Surely it doesn’t matter if they do what all their friends do. <\/span>Right<\/span><\/i>?”<\/span><\/p>\n

An uncomfortable murmur of agreement ran through the crowd. Gavin didn’t know what they were agreeing with. He didn’t think they knew what they were agreeing with. This was just how they were supposed to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ringmaster sighed theatrically. “Ah, youth. Young people think they’ll live forever! But sometimes life has other plans! Step this way, if you dare to see what Satan has in store for those who fall into his snares!”<\/span><\/p>\n

Gavin did not dare. Unfortunately, he even <\/span>less<\/span><\/i> dared to attract the attention of others by trying to tap out at this stage. Thus, he numbly followed, feeling the water slosh a little in his gut. He just had to keep walking, just keep breathing. One foot in front of the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

~*~<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gavin couldn’t remember his dad. At least, he couldn’t remember him clearly enough to know if what he had were actual memories, or if he’d just stitched together fragments from commercials of what he thought having a dad <\/span>might<\/span><\/i> have been like. That was, at least, his running theory for why he was a homosexual, or at least it was his <\/span>mom’s<\/span><\/i> running theory for why <\/span>anybody<\/span><\/i> was a homosexual, and he didn’t have a better one.<\/span><\/p>\n

He didn’t think he’d ever asked his mom about his dad. That seemed like the kind of off-limits topic she’d have a memorable explosion about, and because he couldn’t remember her having an explosion about it, he had to believe he’d never asked.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gavin’s life was punctuated by those memorable explosions, which was why he’d learned early that the best way to get along was to keep his head down and go along with whatever she wanted. That was why he was part of this youth group in the first place, though he didn’t know how much longer their time at this church would last. There’d been a dozen, two dozen, some uncountable number of churches they’d attended before this one. Every time, she’d greet it like the perfect place, tell Gavin how good it was going to be for them and their salvation and their walk with Jesus. Gavin knew never to get attached. By that time next year, guaranteed, they’d be somewhere else.<\/span><\/p>\n

So it was fine. It was whatever. He was good at putting one foot in front of the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

As soon as they entered the next room, Gavin realized why they’d all been held for a moment in the little interim space: The next room was not a single, small room, but was a large tableau featuring all three scenarios, side by side. Oh, so they’d needed time to get the actors from the, you know, the, the <\/span>locker room<\/span><\/i>, that one, they’d needed time to get the actors from the locker room from their first stage to this one. Because Gavin had been one of the last members of the group to enter this new space, he was on the side far from where they stood now, stock-still, waiting for their cue. He tried not to look. He knew he’d have to eventually.<\/span><\/p>\n

But first, there were more sinners to hear from. The lights came up on the leftmost scene, which was set up to look like a cross-section of a\u00a0 car. Jordan was in the front seat, smoking as he mimicked driving, while Desiree and Candy were making out in the back. “Hey, Jordan,” said Candy, reaching her hand over into the front seat, “give me another puff of those illegal drugs!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Sure thing, Candy!” said Jordan, taking the cigarette from his mouth and slotting it between her fingers. “The only thing I like better than illegal drugs is underage drinking!” With his newly freed hand, he reached to the seat beside him and grabbed an open alcohol bottle, from which he took a deep drink.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Gee, Jordan,” said Desiree, who may or may not have had her hand up Candy’s tank top, Gavin couldn’t really tell from this angle, “I don’t think you’re supposed to be drinking and driving!”<\/span><\/p>\n

Jordan scoffed and took another drink. “It’s fine, Desiree! My dad drinks and drives all the time, and he never gets into trouble!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Never?” asked Desiree, her eyes wide.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jordan shook his head enthusiastically. “Nope! They let him off with a warning every time! He’s a pastor, and all the cops in town go to our church!”<\/span><\/p>\n

That started a little murmur through the crowd. Gavin thought about how many cars in the parking lot on Sundays had Policemen’s Benevolent Association stickers on their back windows. It wasn’t a small number.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Your dad’s a pastor?” Candy laughed. “Does that mean you believe in <\/span>Jesus<\/span><\/i>?” She spat out the name like it tasted bad.<\/span><\/p>\n

With a scoff, Jordan shook his head. “No, I never went in for any of that religious bullshit. God isn’t real and neither is Hell! People are just– <\/span>JESUS CHRIST<\/span><\/i>!” he bellowed, interrupting himself with the same blasphemy that had run through Gavin’s own head earlier. From the far end of the room, two bright lights flashed to life, pointed at the trio in a way Gavin guessed was meant to mimic the headlights of an oncoming car. Jordan jerked frantically at the steering wheel as the two women in the backseat shrieked and flailed. Over the sound system came the recorded noise of screeching tires and a loud crash. The actors threw themselves over the car seats in their best impressions of grisly death as the spotlight on them changed from neutral white to damnation’s red, and the stereo played the sound of a demonic cackle, leaving no question about what would become of their souls.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before Gavin had a moment to think about what he’d just seen, much less reconcile it with how he did kind of approve of an anti-drunk-driving message, it was time to return to the second scene. Danny was nowhere to be seen now; there was only Brenda, alone with her hands around what appeared to be a full-sized basketball stuffed up under her shirt. “I can’t believe he got me pregnant!” Brenda exclaimed, her voice full of exaggerated woe as she clutched her ostensibly child-full middle. “Just because I didn’t take the Pill right! I wish I’d had actual sex ed in schools to teach me so I didn’t end up an unwed teenage mother! Also my parents kicked me out of my house! What will I do? Should I have this baby and give it up for adoption to a loving Christian couple who can’t have children of their own?”<\/span><\/p>\n

From the shadows behind her stepped a curvy young woman dressed as a doctor, even though her scrubs and stethoscope and even a bit of her hair had been comically drenched with red paint. “I’m sorry,” she said, tapping Brenda on the shoulder, “but I couldn’t help overhearing your struggle. I’m an abortion doctor, and if you’d like to, I can schedule you for an abortion today!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Today!” gasped Brenda with surprise, patting her distended middle. “But my due date is tomorrow!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“That doesn’t matter!” announced the abortion doctor with wicked delight. “Because of <\/span>Roe v. Wade<\/span><\/i>, as long as we kill your baby before it comes out, it’s totally legal in America! Why, sometimes I even do abortions right as the baby’s being born, just for fun! I just love legally murdering babies!”<\/span><\/p>\n

Gavin had to swallow a giggle before it could slip out and give him away. He stole a glance at the other members of the audience to see who else might be muffling laughter along with him, and instead found expressions of genuine horror on their faces. A few of the girls were gripping one another in fright. One was openly weeping, presumably for the lost souls of all those aborted fictional babies. Oh, so they actually found this believable. Huh.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brenda brought her hand to her mouth. “Well, as long as I don’t have to worry about the consequences, I guess I’ll let you kill my baby, Mrs. Lady Doctor!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“That’s the spirit!” The abortion doctor clapped Brenda on the shoulder. “And don’t worry, this procedure’s totally safe!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“It is?” Brenda asked, wide-eyed. “Can I go back to having sex right afterward?”<\/span><\/p>\n

The abortion doctor nodded emphatically. “Sure you can! And if you get pregnant again, just come back! If you get nine abortions, your tenth one’s free!”<\/span><\/p>\n

Brenda clapped her hands excitedly as the doctor led her back to one of those tall reclining chairs Gavin had seen in doctor’s offices, only the chair was as red-soaked as the doctor’s scrubs. Brenda hopped up into the chair as the doctor positioned herself between Brenda’s spread legs. Just as it had before, the spotlight switched from white to red — and Brenda started <\/span>screaming<\/span><\/i>. This was the opposite of her artificial performance, to the point where if Gavin hadn’t seen her acting just a moment ago, he would have thought there might be an actual murder occurring. Her shrieks of terror and pain were so loud in that small plywood room that Gavin had to cover his ears. Then there was silence, followed once more by that demonic cackle as another soul was presumably consigned to Hell.<\/span><\/p>\n

Weirdly, that whole scene had all made Gavin feel … better? He wasn’t feeling <\/span>good<\/span><\/i>, sure, but he no longer felt like he was about to explode and die from it. His breathing was easier, and he didn’t feel the need to clench his fists so tight. It was just all so <\/span>stupid<\/span><\/i>. It had been one thing when he’d thought the other youth group members were all sort of politely accepting the melodramatics. But they were so clearly taking this like it was real, like it was some tear-jerking ripped-from-the-headlines true story, and it just … well, it <\/span>wasn’t<\/span><\/i>. He knew it wasn’t. Anybody who paid half an inch of attention to the world — which was honestly about all Gavin paid sometimes — <\/span>had<\/span><\/i> to know it wasn’t. A girl beside him let out a choked sob, and Gavin had to bite back a newfound urge, this one to tell her to stop being so fucking stupid. He’d never once in his life told someone they were being fucking stupid. Then again, he didn’t know if at any time in his life he’d been in such proximity to someone being so fucking stupid.<\/span><\/p>\n

It wouldn’t be until later, entire years later, that Gavin would look back and realize that the moment he’d felt like laughing at all of it had been the precise moment it had all lost power over him.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the time, though, he was distracted by the inevitable rising of the spotlight on the third tableau. Aaron and Jimmy were there again, this time dressed in fashionable street clothes. A silver earring twinkled from one of Jimmy’s earlobes, and Gavin though he could see some sparkling gloss on his lips. “I’ve got bad news, Jimmy,” Aaron told him.<\/span><\/p>\n

“What’s that, Aaron?” asked Jimmy, not sounding like a person preparing to hear bad news at all. He barely sounded like a person at all. No one here sounded like actual people. They sounded like bad impressions of people. No, they sounded like bad <\/span>ideas<\/span><\/i> of people. Like people you believed existed only if you’d never gone out and met actual people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aaron crossed his arms across his broad chest. “I know going gay was a lot of fun and it made everyone think even a nerd like you was real cool. But what they never warned us about was that going gay would give us gay cancer. You know, AIDS.”<\/span><\/p>\n

What did he mean, they never warned about it? Gavin felt like he got warned about it <\/span>daily<\/span><\/i>, that the <\/span>fucking fag shit<\/span><\/i>, as one of his fellow youth group members had so eloquently put it, would lead to AIDS. But Jimmy just stared at him wide-eyed, like he’d never heard the word before. “What’s AIDS?” he asked innocently.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s a disease you get from gay sex, and it always kills you,” Aaron said with all the authority and gravitas of a kindergarten teacher. “It’s one hundred percent fatal. All the gays have it. Some of them just don’t know it yet.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Wow,” Jimmy said, also like someone trying to humor a kindergartener, which was increasingly how Gavin suspected the performers viewed their audience. Gavin bit the inside of his mouth as Jimmy put his hands on his hips like a mildly irritated old man. “If only someone had told me that going gay would lead to my death!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“The Christians tried to warn us that God would punish us for our unnatural lifestyles, but we just didn’t listen,” Aaron said, shaking his head with exaggerated sadness. It was a joke, it was <\/span>all<\/span><\/i> a joke. The performers were laughing at the audience, while the audience was being too fucking stupid to notice. “But there’s good news too!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“What’s the good news?” asked Jimmy. Gavin saw the rest of the youth group members lean slightly forward like a reflex at the words <\/span>good news<\/span><\/i>. They were primed for a message of salvation. It was like that guy with the dogs and the bells. Nobody here was actually thinking. They were just reacting. They were following a script just as much as the actors were. They knew their lines. They were ready for their cues.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aaron clapped Jimmy on the shoulder. “It means we get to have a lot more gay sex before we die!”<\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone else in the audience jolted like they’d taken a step and missed a stair. Audible grunts of surprised disappointment rose, then doubled as Jimmy literally hopped up into Aaron’s arms. Getting his legs around Aaron’s sturdy waist, he bent down and kissed Aaron hard. Aaron grinned and kissed right back, grabbing Jimmy’s ass as he held him up. The red light and demonic cackle rose a third time, but instead of freezing, Jimmy and Aaron kept making out. This wasn’t a stage kiss, either — there was a lot of tongue involved. The audience sounded sick. Gavin felt giddy.<\/span><\/p>\n

This time, the group didn’t need to be guided out of the room. The second the door opened, the members of the youth group rushed through as though they couldn’t get away fast enough. On the other side they found another bare holding room, this time with the Ringmaster standing in the middle. Once the doors were shut on either side, the Ringmaster stepped atop a small wooden box. “Friends,” she — maybe he, though — said softly, “do you love Jesus?”<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite their obvious lingering discomfort, the other members of the audience nodded. Yes, they loved Jesus. Or at least they knew that when someone asked if they loved Jesus, they were meant to say yes. Gavin was starting to suspect it was the same thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Do you believe that Christ came into this world to die for your sins, for <\/span>you<\/span><\/i>, so that you might be saved from Satan’s wrath?”<\/span><\/p>\n

They all nodded. All, that was, except Gavin, who leaned back against the far wall and didn’t move. He didn’t nod. It wasn’t a question of believing it or not. He just no longer felt like delivering the right lines.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Do you believe that God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever lives and believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life?”<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course they did. They all believed it. Not that a single one of them knew what that meant, not really. But they were supposed to believe it, and so when someone asked if they believed it, they said they believed it, and that was the same as believing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Then I need you to pray right now!” shouted the Ringmaster with sudden urgency. “Pray to Jesus for your salvation! Ask him into your heart as your Lord and Savior! Become born again, baptized not of water, but of Spirit!”<\/span><\/p>\n

They prayed. Loudly, they all prayed, clasping their hands in front of them, shutting their eyes, rocking their heads a little as they spoke words that they probably didn’t mean and more likely just plain didn’t understand. Understanding was not a virtue here. Obedience was.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Confess your sins to Christ!” the Ringmaster commanded them. “Confess your sins, because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him! There is no way to reach salvation on your own, oh no! Those who think they can do it themselves are idolaters, blasphemers, hypocrites! Your only salvation is in Christ! Confess your sins to Him, that you may escape the fate that lies beyond this very door!”<\/span><\/p>\n

They continued to pray, louder this time. Gavin stayed still. He watched them as they all put their whole bodies into it, shaking. A few were crying. Some raised their hands to the heavens, as though God might reach down and high-five them for their efforts. It was the same thing that happened every altar call, when the born-again were born again and again and again. It looked to Gavin exactly as ridiculous as the mock car crash and blood-soaked doctor had. This was as fake as the scary tableaus they’d been forced through that evening. The difference was that at least the actors knew it was all an act.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gavin looked straight at the Ringmaster, who met his gaze and gave him a sly wink. All Gavin could do was stare back, his mouth half-open like a dumb-looking aquarium fish. For the first time that evening, Gavin felt no trepidation about what might be on the other side of the next door. He didn’t know what it would be, but it didn’t matter. Not now that he was in on the joke.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I see a young man here who is bold in the Spirit!” shouted the Ringmaster, and Gavin looked around to see who that young man was, only to find everyone following the Ringmaster’s gaze directly toward him. The Ringmaster hopped down from his — Gavin was pretty sure by now it was a <\/span>his<\/span><\/i> — perch and extended one white-gloved hand. “A young man who can walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil!”<\/span><\/p>\n

Gavin wasn’t too sure about that, and clearly nobody else from the youth group was either. But the Ringmaster stepped closer, still holding his (probably) hand as though he expected Gavin to take it. Gavin’s arms felt like they were made of lead. He planted his feet and squared his shoulders, then put all his concentration and energy into raising his arm up just enough so that their hands met, like that painting of Adam lifting his finger toward God’s outstretched hand. He’d heard a Sunday School teacher talk about that painting once, and she’d called Adam a model for how lazy and selfish humans always were, not even bothering to make the slightest effort for God. Gavin didn’t think she had any idea what effort really was.<\/span><\/p>\n

The second their fingers touched, the Ringmaster had Adam’s hand in a tight grip, bearing the weight for both of them. “If you are sure of your salvation, follow me!” the Ringmaster said, holding on to Gavin, who wasn’t really sure about <\/span>anything<\/span><\/i> right now. “Follow me and walk fearless through the eternal torments of Hell that await all sinners!”<\/span><\/p>\n

The room on the other side was pitch dark, darker even than the room they were already in. Gavin took a deep breath and walked through the door.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

~*~<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hell is, for most children, too complex of a concept for their developing brains. To a toddler, <\/span>forever<\/span><\/i> can be the two-minute span between calling for a busy parent’s undivided attention and getting it. To a seven-year-old, <\/span>forever<\/span><\/i> can be the week before Christmas, when they’re absolutely not allowed to peek in the hall closet or under Mom and Dad’s bed. Even to a twelve-year old, <\/span>forever<\/span><\/i> can be the three-year gap between them and their older sibling, as they are promised that as soon as they’re that sibling’s age, they’ll be allowed whatever privileges that sibling currently holds.<\/span><\/p>\n

But by the time that child is a teenager, staring down an adulthood that suddenly no longer looks so far-off as it once did, <\/span>forever<\/span><\/i> is a much less abstract idea. <\/span>Forever<\/span><\/i> now starts to have a real weight. <\/span>Forever<\/span><\/i> no longer so neatly conveys the too-long feeling of a set time period with a definite end. Suddenly that teenager finds themselves forced into decisions and realizations that they will have to see to their conclusions, and often there is no conclusion but death. <\/span>What are you doing after graduation? Where are you going to college? When are you applying for a job? When are you getting married? When are you having kids?<\/span><\/i> Even the teenager who has not had to answer those questions knows they’re coming. <\/span>Forever<\/span><\/i> finally begins to embody the idea of <\/span>this will be your whole life, all of it<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As such, teenagers are uniquely able to be scared by Hell. Not, of course, that many adults don’t find the concept terrifying, because they do, or else the world would be a very different place. But teenagers are in a place where the <\/span>forever<\/span><\/i> of life and the <\/span>forever<\/span><\/i> of afterlife feel much the same, and the certain threat of the former slips easily into the potential terror of the latter, until for some people they can never again be separated.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gavin didn’t know any of this at the time. He had no idea why that church had considered it so important for so many years now to drag group after group of teenagers out beyond the city limits, to a rickety structure that wasn’t up to <\/span>any<\/span><\/i> building code, to show them exaggerated versions of bad behavior they were hardly likely to engage in anyway.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To be fair, most of the church leadership didn’t know why either, at least not consciously. At best they understood that the fear of Hell was extremely useful for keeping people in pews and dollars in collection plates and, in this particular case, teenagers in line. They didn’t put a lot of thought into the mechanics of salvation. If asked, they wouldn’t have been able to describe the process, beyond perhaps some vague <\/span>give your heart to Jesus<\/span><\/i> platitudes. A religion with almost two thousand years of sophisticated theological, philosophical, mystic, and academic inquiry to it, and they’d boiled it down to a social club and a voter guide.<\/span><\/p>\n

But they hadn’t actually put much thought into teenagers. And they definitely hadn’t put much thought into Hell. Which was why that year, though Gavin also didn’t know this at the time, Pastor Marty — the tall man who greeted them back at the beginning — had outsourced the whole event to his son, Levi. Levi was a junior in college, and when he’d proposed running this year’s Hell House, Pastor Marty had been so overjoyed that he’d said yes without hesitation. For years now, he’d felt his only son pulling away, fearing that the godless college experience was stealing his boy from him forever. Pastor Marty had therefore seen this as a sign that his prayers had been answered. Of course, Levi’s offer to do it all for free had been further music to the church budget’s ears. Pastor Marty had handed Levi full creative control on the spot.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was Levi’s hand Gavin held now as he walked into the final room, though they’d have to exchange names later. Gavin was glad for the glove on Levi’s hand, because his own palm was sweating terribly. He’d expected the room to be as quiet as it was dark, but no, there was a heavy metal song playing at such a distorted, bass-boosted volume that it almost didn’t sound like music. It was just soft enough that it didn’t quiet cover the sounds of hushed speech and moving bodies. There were other people in there with them. Gavin was surprised to realize he indeed wasn’t afraid. The lights would come up, and he’d see.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then the lights <\/span>did<\/span><\/i> come up, and oh, he saw. He saw and so did everyone else in the group with him, their eyes shocked at first by the burst of brightness out of darkness, then by what that brightness revealed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hell was magnificent. Someone had really gone all-out on this final display. This final room’s walls were bright red, with fiery shapes spray-painted up the sides in sinuous tongues. Low platforms had been built up here and there, giving the floor a variety of heights, and all their edges were rimmed with red tinsel. Countless red streamers hung from the ceiling, some opaque and some translucent, waving and swaying with gusts from two fans pointed opposite one another. The whole thing seemed <\/span>alive<\/span><\/i>, wriggling and moving as strobes flashed and red spotlights beamed.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a shame, really, that no one else in the audience fully appreciated the set design, since it wasn’t really what they were looking at. Then again, neither Levi nor his friends had really expected otherwise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course there must have been people running things behind the scenes, like the black-clad stagehand who had given Gavin some water, but to that point, they’d only seen nine performers, the Ringmaster included. Now there were maybe twenty bodies crammed into the stage area, and it became immediately clear why the other players had been hidden until this last room: They were the devils of the final tableau, their exposed skin stained infernal red. Several of them writhed and gyrated against the walls and plywood set pieces, cackling and dancing as they waited along with the audience to see the final fates of the wayward sinners.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gavin couldn’t look away from the spectacle before him, but if he’d been able to, he would have seen that everyone else in the audience was similarly frozen. Horror, confusion, and arousal had crashed down on them all at once, a combination that produced a potent paralysis. A few of the guys were hard. The girls’ cheeks were flushing scarlet. Most of them had been through Hell House in previous years, and as such, they’d been prepared for the final scene of eternal torment. Or at least they thought they’d been prepared. Now that preparation had abandoned them, leaving them at the mercy of … of <\/span>this<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Desiree and Candy were there, only now both of them were on their knees, their hands shackled behind their backs. They looked as though they were going to kiss again, except there was something where their lips would otherwise have met, an enormous ink-black piece strapped to the hips of a topless devil. Sporting a pair of devilish horns and a pierced tongue, she laughed maniacally and grabbed the girls’ hair, forcing them to lick and kiss the artificial erection protruding from her leather-clad lower half. Rings hung from her nipples, and a silver chain swung hypnotically between them.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Oh no, save us!” shouted Desiree over the music as she dragged her tongue up the length of the almost comically oversized shaft. “We were bad girls and we got sent to Hell!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Now all we do all day long is suck demon cock!” wailed Candy, who actually looked quite contented as she nuzzled the demon woman’s thigh.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Shut up!” shouted the demon woman, smacking Candy’s hair into her face. “Lick harder if you know what’s good for you!”<\/span><\/p>\n

On the ground below them, on all fours, was Jordan, who now wore nothing more than a skimpy pair of lacy red panties and high red heels. He knelt before another red-painted devil woman, this one in a halter top and short shorts, carrying something Gavin would later learn was called a flogger. “Aren’t you a pretty little girl,” the demon said, smacking that flogger lightly against her curvy hip. “Say it. Say you’re a pretty little girl.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“I’m a pretty little girl, mistress,” Jordan moaned. He leaned his head back, showing off his full face of gaudy makeup. “I was bad on earth and I didn’t listen to Jesus, and now I have to be a pretty little girl in Hell!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“That’s right!” said the demon lady, getting the toe of her own red-stilettoed foot beneath Jordan’s chin. She laughed as he licked the shiny red leather, then brought down the flogger hard on his back. Bright red welts rose against his skin as Jordan moaned again. “I get to do this <\/span>forever<\/span><\/i>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Forever<\/span><\/i> seemed just fine with Jordan, from the way he arched his back and lifted his ass into the air at her strikes. “Please, mistress,” he begged, though the specifics of the plea were unvoiced. It didn’t matter; anyone who cared to look could see what he wanted.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the center of the room was Brenda, back in her preppy outfit from before, only with her skirt hiked up to her waist and her panties around one of her ankles. She was on her back atop a high table, chained with fuzzy handcuffs to a bar above her head. Between her legs was a hulking red-painted demon, and unlike before, there was no question this time that they were having real sex. Brenda moaned and writhed as the demon’s cock thrust into her again and again, while Danny knelt naked behind them, his cock confined in a metal cage. “Please, stop fucking my girlfriend in front of me!” Danny cried.<\/span><\/p>\n

The demon laughed, his voice low and resonant. He must have been the one who’d done the recorded demon cackles earlier, Gavin thought absently. “In Hell, we get to fuck your girlfriends all day long!” the demon said to Danny. No, not just to Danny — there was another kneeling, naked, caged figure right next to him, and that was Aaron. Which meant that in front of Aaron…<\/span><\/p>\n

Wearing a leather harness across his chest, a pair of thigh-high boots, and absolutely nothing else, Jimmy was bent forward, gripping the same bar Brenda was tied to. Behind him was another red-painted demon man, his hand on Jimmy’s back as he plowing that pert ass with wild abandon. Jimmy clearly loved it. Bent over as he was, his erection was obvious, swinging beneath him. Jimmy gasped with unfeigned pleasure every time his demon thrust into him. This was a performance, sure, but that wasn’t acting.<\/span><\/p>\n

The demon behind Jimmy gave his ass a slap, which made Jimmy moan again. “We fuck your boyfriends all day long too!” the demon said to Aaron. “If you’d been good and listened to Jesus, you could have gone to Heaven where <\/span>nobody<\/span><\/i> has sex!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“But instead you sinned!” said Brenda’s demon. “And so you get fucked! I’m going to fuck you and knock you up with a bunch of demon babies!”<\/span><\/p>\n

Brenda wailed at that, though not to the same bloodcurdling pitch she’d achieved earlier. “No, I don’t want to be pregnant with demon babies!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Shut up!” her demon growled at her. “That’s what bad girls like you deserve!”<\/span><\/p>\n

There was a pause there, small enough that Gavin only caught it because he felt Levi shift his weight on his feet. Gavin glanced at Levi, then followed Levi’s gaze back to Jimmy. Gavin then understood: It was Jimmy’s line. It was just that Jimmy didn’t look in any condition to deliver it. “No, please–” Jimmy managed before the rest of the wind got knocked out out of him with another demonic thrust. “Your cock, fuck, so fucking big, I can’t–“<\/span><\/p>\n

Like a true performer, Aaron picked up only a half-beat later. “Can’t you see how much you’re hurting him?” Aaron gasped, pleading with the demon even as his own caged cock jerked between his legs. “Can’t you see he hates it?”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Of course he hates it!” Jimmy’s demon laughed wickedly. “It’s Hell! He’s going to have to hate it forever!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Oh, Jesus!” cried Danny, looking ostensibly heavenward. “If only I’d listened to your words while I was alive! I would have been saved and in Heaven with you, and not down in Hell where I have to wear this chastity cage while watch my girlfriend get fucked by big-dicked demons all the time!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“If only we’d listened to you!” shouted Candy from the far side of the stage, though she’d had to stop sucking the demon’s pierced nipple long enough to say so. “We could have been in Paradise with you instead of suffering and getting our holes filed in Hell!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“If only I could give a message to the people still living!” Aaron wailed. “I’d tell them all that they need to repent of their sins and follow Jesus! So they don’t make the same mistakes I did and wind up in Hell getting eternally cuckolded by gay demons!”<\/span><\/p>\n

The demon fucking Brenda howled with laughter. “Of course we’re not going to let you tell them!” he said, reaching forward to push up Brenda’s shirt and reveal her pretty breasts. He took her nipple between his red-painted fingers, making her cry out again. “If you tell them, then we won’t have more unsaved souls to come down here for our eternal fucking and sucking party!”<\/span><\/p>\n

“<\/span>But,<\/span><\/i>” Jimmy said, or started to say, because the word turned into a wordless cry. Something splattered on the floor in front of him, and Gavin realized a second later that it was come. Jimmy was coming just like that, cock untouched, from getting fucked like that in front of an audience, which was something Gavin had never considered before but now might actually be burned into his mind, the thought equivalent of staring at the sun. He’d spent so much of his post-pubescent life knotted up in agony and shame about being gay that he’d never actually considered it might be something somebody <\/span>wanted<\/span><\/i>. And if it could be something that somebody wanted, then maybe it could be something that <\/span>he<\/span><\/i> actually wanted too.<\/span><\/p>\n

That was the precise moment the exit door swung wide with a crash that sounded not unlike the Wrath of God itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gavin would later learn some things he hadn’t known while he’d been taking his walk through Hell House. The first was that there were actually twenty-nine total people who had volunteered to join Levi that evening, cast and crew alike, all friends or friends-of-friends from his college theatre program. The second was that they’d decided that the best way to get Pastor Marty out of the way for the performance was to lock him inside the adjacent tornado cellar. And the third was that the length of time it took to go through all of Hell House was approximately the same length of time it took a very determined fifty-year-old man to break out of a tornado cellar.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the frame of the exit door, silhouetted by the building’s bright exterior lights, stood Pastor Marty, looking rather unlike himself. Where he’d been casually dapper and put-together when he’d ushered them into the building, he was now a sweaty mess. His hair stuck out in at least three different directions. He looked like he’d had to crawl out a tiny window, which it turned out he in fact had. “Stop them!” he shouted breathlessly. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to go!”<\/span><\/p>\n

If the rest of the youth group hadn’t known what to make of the Hell House itself, they <\/span>really<\/span><\/i> didn’t know what to make of this most recent development, and as such they stayed as statue-still as they had before, barely daring to breathe, stopping nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

The performers, however, had always known it would end like this. In a flash, everyone who hadn’t been on their feet already was up, and they were all moving toward the back of the room. Brenda slipped out of her fuzzy handcuffs and Jordan shed his high heels as they fled with all speed. Gavin wanted to shout at them, they couldn’t go that way, they would just be trapped, the only real escape was <\/span>this<\/span><\/i> way–<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, as the song went, the walls came a-tumblin’ down. Or, well, <\/span>wall<\/span><\/i>, singular. It seemed that at some point in the preparation for this year’s Hell House, some of the panels that formed the back of the final room had been designated optional. A good hard shove, and they toppled, leaving exit routes clear. In various shades of costuming and undress, leaving everything behind but what they had in their hands already, the cast and crew poured out into the field behind the Hell House, disappearing like giddy ghosts into the darkness beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gavin felt a tug on his hand, and he looked to see a wild grin on Levi’s face. “Come with us,” Levi said, brown eyes sparkling.<\/span><\/p>\n

If he’d had longer to think, he might have said no. He <\/span>would<\/span><\/i> have said no. So Gavin didn’t think. Gripping Levi’s hand, he started toward the makeshift stage, hopping over the uneven platforms that stood between him and the way out. Levi let out a whoop of joy and followed right at his side, picking up speed until they were both running, running with both Heaven and Hell at their backs, out into the cool October night.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read this piece’s entry on the Shousetsu Bang*Bang wiki<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n<\/i>Love2<\/span><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by shukyou (\u4e3b\u6559) Read this piece’s entry on the Shousetsu Bang*Bang wiki “Step this way,” the tall man barked at the crowd, “and witness the horrors of the souls lost without Christ in their hearts!” Gavin shifted his weight on his feet and tried to look inconspicuous. That was the best way to survive these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[847,425],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-12280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bangbang-no-123","category-text","tag-shukyou"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12281,"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12280\/revisions\/12281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shousetsubangbang.com\/mirror\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}