Post by redsycorax on Dec 13, 2021 2:05:43 GMT
Cassandra. the Green Guardsman and the Streak must find a serial killer who has slaughtered numbers of people at an all-too-familiar Californian hotel...but apprehending this 'psycho' may be difficult...
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PROLOGUE: JUNE 1960:
During a Friday in June 1960 tryst in a Phoenix hotel, struggling real-estate agent Martin Crane and his girlfriend Sandra Loomis discuss their inability to get married because of Sandra's debt as a struggling suburban shopkeeper. Martin returns to work, impulsively steals a cash payment of $40,000 entrusted to him for deposit and drives to Sandra's home in Fairvale, California. En route, Martin hurriedly trades in his car, arousing suspicion from both the used car salesperson and a California Highway Patrol officer.
Martin stops for the night at the Bates Motel, located off the main highway, and hides his stolen money inside a suitcase. Proprietor Norma Bates descends from a large house overlooking the motel, registers Martin under an assumed name, and invites him to dine with her. After Norma returns to her house, Martin overhears Norma arguing with her mother, also named Norma, about Martin's presence at the hotel. Norma returns with a light meal and apologizes for her mother's outbursts and profanity. Norma discusses her hobby as a lepidopterist, her mother's "illness" and how people have a "private hell " from they try to escape. Martin decides to drive back to Phoenix in the morning and return the stolen money to his employer. However, as Martin showers, a shadowy figure appears and stabs him to death. Soon afterward, Norma's horrified voice is audible from the house yelling "Mother! Oh God, Mother! Blood! Blood!" Norma cleans up the murder scene, places Martin's body, belongings and the hidden cash in his car, and drives it into an adjacent swamp.
Martin's brother Luke arrives in Fairvale a week later, tells Sandra about the theft, and demands to know his whereabouts. Sandra denies knowing anything about his disappearance. A private investigator named Slocombe approaches them, saying that she has been hired to retrieve the money. Slocombe learns that Martin spent a night at the Bates Motel. She questions Norma, whose nervous demeanour and contradictory answers arouse her suspicion. When Slocombe learns that Martin had spoken to Norma's mother, Slocombe asks to speak to her, but Norma refuses to allow it. Slocombe updates Sandra and Luke about the outcome of her search, and promises to phone again in an hour. After she enters the Bates house in search of Norma's mother, a shadowy, apparently elderly female figure emerges from the bedroom and stabs her to death.
When Luke and Sandra do not hear from Slocombe, Luke visits the motel. He sees a figure in the house whom he assumes is Norma's mother. Luke and Sandra alert the local sheriff, who tells them that Norma's mother died in a murder-suicide a decade earlier. The sheriff suggests that Slocombe may have lied to Luke and Sandra so she could pursue Martin, apprehend him and claim the reward money. Convinced that something happened to Slocombe, Luke and Sandra drive to the motel. Sandra distracts Norma in the office while Luke creeps into the home. Suspicious, Norma becomes agitated and knocks Sandra unconscious. As she runs to the house, Luke hides in the fruit cellar where he discovers Norma's mother's mummified body. He cries out, and Norma, dressed in her mother's clothes and a grey wig, enters the cellar and tries to stab him. Sandra appears, knocks her out and calls in the local police.
At the police station, a priest explains that Norma had probably murdered her mother and her lover ten years earlier. Norma mummified her mother's corpse,, but in the end, her mother's vengeful spirit wholly possessed her daughter from beyond the grave. The original Norma took over her daughter's body and obliterated her daughter's consciousness from existence. When Norma is attracted to a man, it is the spirit of her mother: She had murdered two other young men before Martin, and Slocombe was killed to hide her mother's crime. The priest concludes that her mother's spirit has now completely taken over her daughter's personality. Norma sits in a jail cell and thinks to herself that the priest won't dare exorcise her, otherwise it would kill her daughter's body outright. Martin's car is then retrieved from the swamp.
POLICE REPORT: SEPTEMBER 1960:
In their brownstone, Cassandra, the Streak and the Green Guardsman heard the ominous news- that convicted mass murder Norma Bates had escaped from a secure psychiatric institution and had gone on to murder an airline stewardess, taking her place on a flight to London. Although the FBI was on her trail, it had gone cold. It would be two years before a CIA liaison in London acted on a tip-off from MI5 and reported a sighting of a woman believed to be Norma Bates in London's Soho entertainment district.
LONDON: FEBRUARY 1962:
His name was Felix Faust. Five thousand years ago, he had battled the archwizard Nommo in the ancient African kingdom of Kor. Nommo defeated him and banished the upstart to a twilight dimension. However, in the nineteen twenties, a magickal adept named Dekan Drache found himself able to enter the dimension and destroyed his soul, occupying his body, only to find his abilities within his new form dramatically compromised. When he crossed paths with Norma Bates at University of California Fairvale where he was serving as an archaeology professor, the two fell for each other and Faust cultivated her fledgeling precognitive powers. He realised that Norma was occupied by her mother's spirit, but also that Norma I was his true heart's desire, as depraved and corrupted as he was.
And then, one day in 1959, Norma woke up screaming. She had foreseen what appeared to be a nuclear war, centred in Cuba, which escalated from a missile crisis there in late October 1962. As he sat and listened to her, Faust raised his hand several times, questioning his lover about what she had foreseen. Then he put a proposition to her- that they would enable the survival of themselves and a handful of willing collaborators within a satanic coven. Human sacrifice would enable the awakening of powerful demonic entities which would enable the "Anointed Hierarchy" not only to survive the impending nuclear holocaust, but seize power amidst the debris, ruins, starvation, famine and radiation deaths that would ensue. When Norma's covert human sacrifices were discovered and she was imprisoned, Faust engineered the prison break and provided the paperwork and subterfuge which enabled her escape to the United Kingdom. Norma Bates was no mere 'psycho,' but a beloved collaborator in their depradations. And thus, the stage was set...
Cassandra downed an aspirin, to deal with the growing tumult in her head. Only the Streak, seated beside her in the JGA hypersonic extraterritorial jet, knew what was wrong with her and kept glancing with concern in her direction:
"I'm fine, Jake."
"Cass, every time you use your powers, it causes neurological damage. You must be in agony."
"We all make sacrifices to fight crime and inhumanity, Jake. But your friendship, yours and Irenes, it means so much to me. No matter how long I've got, I will never forget that."
"It's so unfair, Cass. You deserve someone who loves you for you and what you are, a family, children."
"Thank you, Jake, but seeing you with Irene and the kids and knowing that I've helped to protect them is reward enough. You all mean so much to me."
"You've had another vision, haven't you?"
"Yes. I can confirm what that MI5 agent said. The Norma Bates sighting in Soho was accurate. It is her. So is Lady Dorothy our liaison this time?" The Justice Guilders contacted their British collaborator, Lady Dorothy Crichton-Wright in advance, and made arrangements to meet them at Heathrow Airport.
"Yes. She managed to foil an International Larceny raid on a deep space submersible gold shipment by Battleaxe Four and was in the vicinity."
"It'll be a privilege to meet me. Although I have my suspicions Scott wants to go partying with his new... friend... Mr Chance."
The Streak grinned: "Oh, so that's why he was so eager to join us. Ah well. All work and no play makes for a dull Guardsman."
"It's so hard, flying over a vibrant, thriving, alive city like London, knowing what's going to happen to it and to us in eight months time."
"Don't dwell on it, Cass. You know Irene and I believe you at least. Never doubt that."
"Folks? Heathrow just radioed us. We're on final approach."
HEATHROW:
Once they had received their Interpol-aided rapid passage through British Customs, Lady Dorothy was waiting for them in her mint-green limousine (appropriately named MINT-1), with her trusty chaffeuse MacLean at her side. The Green Guardsman smiled to himself as he once again detected the more-than-professional relationship between the two women and winked at Lady Dorothy, who returned the smile:
"Home, Your Ladyship?" MacLean said in her Liverpudlian accent.
"Home, MacLean." Lady Dorothy confirmed.
As the car accelerated toward Crichton-Wright Manor several miles away, Lady Dorothy turned to face her collaborators:
"I take it this isn't a pleasure journey? Does the Justice Guild have an interest in this MI5 case you told me about?"
"Absolutely, Dorothy. Oh, and this is Cassandra Astriides."
"Goodness. Is it true that you're actually descended from the actual, historical Agamemnon and Princess Cassandra of Troy?"
"Yes, and inherited my foremother's talent, for what it's worth.""
'Which is a great deal when it comes to fighting crime." The Streak said warmly.
"Have you been able to detect anything else, Dorothy?"
"Oh, MacLean and I have been knocking a few heads together in the nightclub district. As one does. The words 'Anointed Hierarchy' were exchanged to us."
"Sounds religious."
"Not our sort of faith, I'm afraid, Scott my dear. Or yours, Jacob. Or yours, for that matter, Cassandra. No, the Anointed Hierarchy is of the satanic variety. Takes one back, doesn't it, Alison?"
"Aye, Your Ladyship. When I was first employed by you, one of the first bad'uns we toppled were a devil worshipper ring in that Cornwall village."
"Unfortunately, Lady Dorothy-"
"Just Dorothy, please, Cassandra dear. Any member of the Justice Guild is a friend of mine."
"Dorothy it is. I caught a precognitive vision of Norma Bates with a dagger, awaiting a street walker in an alleyway. I'm not familiar with the layout of Soho or London in general, otherwise I would have contacted you at once and tried to prevent it."
"Dear God. You mean they're into...human sacrifice? Well, that's a new departure. The satanist ring that Alison and I broke up was strictly into theft of what they regarded as 'dark artefacts. They turned out to be a rather quotidian burglary ring with sophisticated archaeological tastes."
"I only wish the Anointed Hierarchy were fakes. No, they're the real McCoy, or should I say Old Nick?"
SOHO:
Several days later, walking through a Soho sidestreet wearing an outsize bouffant wig, too much makeup and a very short skirt, Cassandra uttered a silent prayer to Artemis the Huntress to protect her honour and aid her in combat if the need arose. In her handbag, a Justice Guild signaller glowed silently. When she activated it, it would lead Scott, Jake, Dorothy and Alison to the satanist ring. Cassandra didn't personally believe in the existence of the Christian Devil, but as a devout grecopagan, she didn't discount the existence of something supernatural and malignant either, be it called Hades, Moloch, Baal or Loki. Abruptly, three burly figures and a woman with dark hair appeared from out of an adjacent alleyway. She noted with interest that this time, Norma Bates wasn't wielding a dagger. However, given the insignia on their robes, they were identifiably members of the Anointed Hierarchy cult. She pretended to try to locate something in her handbag and depressed the activator button on her signaller device. She had to make it seem that she was a simple streetwalker, so she ditched her high heels, screamed and tried to run away from the pursuing men, but her attempted 'escape' was feigned. All too soon, chloroform descended on her mouth and she lost consciousness...
As she awoke, she found she was bound to an obsidian stone. A tall figure in a Phoenician symbol cloak and headwear came into her sight and alongside him, the familiar face of Norma Bates:
"Ah, Miss Astriides. You've awoken. Good."
With dismay, Cassandra realised that they knew her identity and that she was dressed in her accustomed heroic garb. But how? How could they have known? Then she realised:
"Bates? You're a precognitive too?"
"Of course I am, Cassandra. And the Hierarchy knows about you and your abilities. About how you'll die soon, anyway, so why do it? Why throw your life away on pointless assistance to pigswill who are going to die anyway? Oh, yes, we believe you, Felix here and I. I've foreseen the War that will begin in the Carribean off Cuba in late October, too. Shame your adopted country's government doesn't. But you will serve a purpose."
"For the record, I find what you're doing abhorrent. Human sacrifice?!"
Faust sneered: "Isn't that just a little hypocritical, Miss Astriides? After all, your ancestor Agamemnon did exactly that to his daughter Iphigenia, which did, however, ensure his success in the Trojan War."
Cassandra recoiled: "No, that's not the full story and you know it. Agamemnon paid for what he did, shedding his daughter's blood that way. His wife Clytemnestra killed him in his turn when he returned to Argos with my foremother, the original Cassandra."
"Which makes you of royal blood, however diluted. Your sacrifice will be a fitting cap to our offerings to the Dark Lords and Ladies, Miss Astrtiides. It will enable us to become the Anointed Hierarchy and invulnerable and immune to the cleansing fires of the nuclear holocaust that is about to consume the offal around us. The survivors here in England will welcome our offers of security and thr rule of law amidst the fire, pestilence and famine as the Four Horseman ride above this land."
"Don't you understand, you moral illiterates? No matter who they are, human beings are not mere 'offal'! Stop spouting these inane Ayn Rand cliches as if they were eternal verities instead of poisonous nonsense! Human sacrifice always has consequences!" Above her, Cassandra sighted Lady Dorothy and Maclean, readying themselves to descend on the cult members.
"Enough of this! I will put an end to your miserable existence!" Norma Bates snarled, producing an obsidian dagger whose handle was carved in Phoenician sigils. And then, abruptly, her allies were amongst the unhealthy smoke and fumes, laying into the lay members of the Anointed Hierarchy. Green Guardsman took to the air and severed Cassandra's bonds.
As Cassandra sat up, a snarling Norma Bates rushed at her with her sacrificial dagger, but tripped and then fell, impaling herself on it. And because the satanic ritual had required ethically pure individuals untainted by complicity with the Anointed Hierarchy's plans, the infernal powers did not accept her inadvertant sacrifice. Cassandra sighed to herself. Bates had probably had her gift from the time of birth, but had not known what it was, nor the risks involved. Like Cassandra, she had begun to develop neurological damage, but unlike Cassandra, she was reckless with the frequency with which she consulted it. Amongst precognitives, it was called "Oracle Syndrome" and Bates had only had herself to blame for it. It was just a damned shame that Norma Bates had taken over her own daughter's body to secure her objectives. As paramedics wheeled the slain seer's body over to a police morgue and police took the thwarted Anointed Hierarchy membership away to the courts and then prison, Cassandra foresaw what would happen to them.
Those weren't the only consequences. With a banshee scream, Felix Faust cried out as Nommo left his failed acolyte's body and the sigils on his Phoenician robes faded into oblivion. Deserted by the spirit that had long possessed him, Felix Faust was now all too mortal. His impotent fear was a reflection of what he knew would now befall him and his companions, several months from now when the bombs started to fall on the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
And thus, far from being rulers of a post-apocalyptic satanic dictatorship, Felix Faust would perish when the blast wave from a Soviet ICBM obliterated his cell at Wormwood Scrubs, killing him instantly as the prison building disintegrated around him. At the end of his life, all he ruled was a meagre square space only a matter of yards across. The other members of his cult died in similar ways, whether immolated within the collapsing concrete, brick and plaster of their own prisons, falling to their deaths from unravelling balcony floors and stairways, or vaporised out in the open, if they were 'lucky'. One or two perished from third-degree burns or broken legs and spines, pinned beneath debris or burning buildings. After their encounter, Cassandra wished she could see Faust's afterlife and his just infernal reward of demonic retribution for his collusion in Norma Bates' madness and the murders that she had committed in the name of his cankered "Anointed Hierarchy."
But by then, of course, Cassandra had been dead for several months herself...
THE END
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PROLOGUE: JUNE 1960:
During a Friday in June 1960 tryst in a Phoenix hotel, struggling real-estate agent Martin Crane and his girlfriend Sandra Loomis discuss their inability to get married because of Sandra's debt as a struggling suburban shopkeeper. Martin returns to work, impulsively steals a cash payment of $40,000 entrusted to him for deposit and drives to Sandra's home in Fairvale, California. En route, Martin hurriedly trades in his car, arousing suspicion from both the used car salesperson and a California Highway Patrol officer.
Martin stops for the night at the Bates Motel, located off the main highway, and hides his stolen money inside a suitcase. Proprietor Norma Bates descends from a large house overlooking the motel, registers Martin under an assumed name, and invites him to dine with her. After Norma returns to her house, Martin overhears Norma arguing with her mother, also named Norma, about Martin's presence at the hotel. Norma returns with a light meal and apologizes for her mother's outbursts and profanity. Norma discusses her hobby as a lepidopterist, her mother's "illness" and how people have a "private hell " from they try to escape. Martin decides to drive back to Phoenix in the morning and return the stolen money to his employer. However, as Martin showers, a shadowy figure appears and stabs him to death. Soon afterward, Norma's horrified voice is audible from the house yelling "Mother! Oh God, Mother! Blood! Blood!" Norma cleans up the murder scene, places Martin's body, belongings and the hidden cash in his car, and drives it into an adjacent swamp.
Martin's brother Luke arrives in Fairvale a week later, tells Sandra about the theft, and demands to know his whereabouts. Sandra denies knowing anything about his disappearance. A private investigator named Slocombe approaches them, saying that she has been hired to retrieve the money. Slocombe learns that Martin spent a night at the Bates Motel. She questions Norma, whose nervous demeanour and contradictory answers arouse her suspicion. When Slocombe learns that Martin had spoken to Norma's mother, Slocombe asks to speak to her, but Norma refuses to allow it. Slocombe updates Sandra and Luke about the outcome of her search, and promises to phone again in an hour. After she enters the Bates house in search of Norma's mother, a shadowy, apparently elderly female figure emerges from the bedroom and stabs her to death.
When Luke and Sandra do not hear from Slocombe, Luke visits the motel. He sees a figure in the house whom he assumes is Norma's mother. Luke and Sandra alert the local sheriff, who tells them that Norma's mother died in a murder-suicide a decade earlier. The sheriff suggests that Slocombe may have lied to Luke and Sandra so she could pursue Martin, apprehend him and claim the reward money. Convinced that something happened to Slocombe, Luke and Sandra drive to the motel. Sandra distracts Norma in the office while Luke creeps into the home. Suspicious, Norma becomes agitated and knocks Sandra unconscious. As she runs to the house, Luke hides in the fruit cellar where he discovers Norma's mother's mummified body. He cries out, and Norma, dressed in her mother's clothes and a grey wig, enters the cellar and tries to stab him. Sandra appears, knocks her out and calls in the local police.
At the police station, a priest explains that Norma had probably murdered her mother and her lover ten years earlier. Norma mummified her mother's corpse,, but in the end, her mother's vengeful spirit wholly possessed her daughter from beyond the grave. The original Norma took over her daughter's body and obliterated her daughter's consciousness from existence. When Norma is attracted to a man, it is the spirit of her mother: She had murdered two other young men before Martin, and Slocombe was killed to hide her mother's crime. The priest concludes that her mother's spirit has now completely taken over her daughter's personality. Norma sits in a jail cell and thinks to herself that the priest won't dare exorcise her, otherwise it would kill her daughter's body outright. Martin's car is then retrieved from the swamp.
POLICE REPORT: SEPTEMBER 1960:
In their brownstone, Cassandra, the Streak and the Green Guardsman heard the ominous news- that convicted mass murder Norma Bates had escaped from a secure psychiatric institution and had gone on to murder an airline stewardess, taking her place on a flight to London. Although the FBI was on her trail, it had gone cold. It would be two years before a CIA liaison in London acted on a tip-off from MI5 and reported a sighting of a woman believed to be Norma Bates in London's Soho entertainment district.
LONDON: FEBRUARY 1962:
His name was Felix Faust. Five thousand years ago, he had battled the archwizard Nommo in the ancient African kingdom of Kor. Nommo defeated him and banished the upstart to a twilight dimension. However, in the nineteen twenties, a magickal adept named Dekan Drache found himself able to enter the dimension and destroyed his soul, occupying his body, only to find his abilities within his new form dramatically compromised. When he crossed paths with Norma Bates at University of California Fairvale where he was serving as an archaeology professor, the two fell for each other and Faust cultivated her fledgeling precognitive powers. He realised that Norma was occupied by her mother's spirit, but also that Norma I was his true heart's desire, as depraved and corrupted as he was.
And then, one day in 1959, Norma woke up screaming. She had foreseen what appeared to be a nuclear war, centred in Cuba, which escalated from a missile crisis there in late October 1962. As he sat and listened to her, Faust raised his hand several times, questioning his lover about what she had foreseen. Then he put a proposition to her- that they would enable the survival of themselves and a handful of willing collaborators within a satanic coven. Human sacrifice would enable the awakening of powerful demonic entities which would enable the "Anointed Hierarchy" not only to survive the impending nuclear holocaust, but seize power amidst the debris, ruins, starvation, famine and radiation deaths that would ensue. When Norma's covert human sacrifices were discovered and she was imprisoned, Faust engineered the prison break and provided the paperwork and subterfuge which enabled her escape to the United Kingdom. Norma Bates was no mere 'psycho,' but a beloved collaborator in their depradations. And thus, the stage was set...
Cassandra downed an aspirin, to deal with the growing tumult in her head. Only the Streak, seated beside her in the JGA hypersonic extraterritorial jet, knew what was wrong with her and kept glancing with concern in her direction:
"I'm fine, Jake."
"Cass, every time you use your powers, it causes neurological damage. You must be in agony."
"We all make sacrifices to fight crime and inhumanity, Jake. But your friendship, yours and Irenes, it means so much to me. No matter how long I've got, I will never forget that."
"It's so unfair, Cass. You deserve someone who loves you for you and what you are, a family, children."
"Thank you, Jake, but seeing you with Irene and the kids and knowing that I've helped to protect them is reward enough. You all mean so much to me."
"You've had another vision, haven't you?"
"Yes. I can confirm what that MI5 agent said. The Norma Bates sighting in Soho was accurate. It is her. So is Lady Dorothy our liaison this time?" The Justice Guilders contacted their British collaborator, Lady Dorothy Crichton-Wright in advance, and made arrangements to meet them at Heathrow Airport.
"Yes. She managed to foil an International Larceny raid on a deep space submersible gold shipment by Battleaxe Four and was in the vicinity."
"It'll be a privilege to meet me. Although I have my suspicions Scott wants to go partying with his new... friend... Mr Chance."
The Streak grinned: "Oh, so that's why he was so eager to join us. Ah well. All work and no play makes for a dull Guardsman."
"It's so hard, flying over a vibrant, thriving, alive city like London, knowing what's going to happen to it and to us in eight months time."
"Don't dwell on it, Cass. You know Irene and I believe you at least. Never doubt that."
"Folks? Heathrow just radioed us. We're on final approach."
HEATHROW:
Once they had received their Interpol-aided rapid passage through British Customs, Lady Dorothy was waiting for them in her mint-green limousine (appropriately named MINT-1), with her trusty chaffeuse MacLean at her side. The Green Guardsman smiled to himself as he once again detected the more-than-professional relationship between the two women and winked at Lady Dorothy, who returned the smile:
"Home, Your Ladyship?" MacLean said in her Liverpudlian accent.
"Home, MacLean." Lady Dorothy confirmed.
As the car accelerated toward Crichton-Wright Manor several miles away, Lady Dorothy turned to face her collaborators:
"I take it this isn't a pleasure journey? Does the Justice Guild have an interest in this MI5 case you told me about?"
"Absolutely, Dorothy. Oh, and this is Cassandra Astriides."
"Goodness. Is it true that you're actually descended from the actual, historical Agamemnon and Princess Cassandra of Troy?"
"Yes, and inherited my foremother's talent, for what it's worth.""
'Which is a great deal when it comes to fighting crime." The Streak said warmly.
"Have you been able to detect anything else, Dorothy?"
"Oh, MacLean and I have been knocking a few heads together in the nightclub district. As one does. The words 'Anointed Hierarchy' were exchanged to us."
"Sounds religious."
"Not our sort of faith, I'm afraid, Scott my dear. Or yours, Jacob. Or yours, for that matter, Cassandra. No, the Anointed Hierarchy is of the satanic variety. Takes one back, doesn't it, Alison?"
"Aye, Your Ladyship. When I was first employed by you, one of the first bad'uns we toppled were a devil worshipper ring in that Cornwall village."
"Unfortunately, Lady Dorothy-"
"Just Dorothy, please, Cassandra dear. Any member of the Justice Guild is a friend of mine."
"Dorothy it is. I caught a precognitive vision of Norma Bates with a dagger, awaiting a street walker in an alleyway. I'm not familiar with the layout of Soho or London in general, otherwise I would have contacted you at once and tried to prevent it."
"Dear God. You mean they're into...human sacrifice? Well, that's a new departure. The satanist ring that Alison and I broke up was strictly into theft of what they regarded as 'dark artefacts. They turned out to be a rather quotidian burglary ring with sophisticated archaeological tastes."
"I only wish the Anointed Hierarchy were fakes. No, they're the real McCoy, or should I say Old Nick?"
SOHO:
Several days later, walking through a Soho sidestreet wearing an outsize bouffant wig, too much makeup and a very short skirt, Cassandra uttered a silent prayer to Artemis the Huntress to protect her honour and aid her in combat if the need arose. In her handbag, a Justice Guild signaller glowed silently. When she activated it, it would lead Scott, Jake, Dorothy and Alison to the satanist ring. Cassandra didn't personally believe in the existence of the Christian Devil, but as a devout grecopagan, she didn't discount the existence of something supernatural and malignant either, be it called Hades, Moloch, Baal or Loki. Abruptly, three burly figures and a woman with dark hair appeared from out of an adjacent alleyway. She noted with interest that this time, Norma Bates wasn't wielding a dagger. However, given the insignia on their robes, they were identifiably members of the Anointed Hierarchy cult. She pretended to try to locate something in her handbag and depressed the activator button on her signaller device. She had to make it seem that she was a simple streetwalker, so she ditched her high heels, screamed and tried to run away from the pursuing men, but her attempted 'escape' was feigned. All too soon, chloroform descended on her mouth and she lost consciousness...
As she awoke, she found she was bound to an obsidian stone. A tall figure in a Phoenician symbol cloak and headwear came into her sight and alongside him, the familiar face of Norma Bates:
"Ah, Miss Astriides. You've awoken. Good."
With dismay, Cassandra realised that they knew her identity and that she was dressed in her accustomed heroic garb. But how? How could they have known? Then she realised:
"Bates? You're a precognitive too?"
"Of course I am, Cassandra. And the Hierarchy knows about you and your abilities. About how you'll die soon, anyway, so why do it? Why throw your life away on pointless assistance to pigswill who are going to die anyway? Oh, yes, we believe you, Felix here and I. I've foreseen the War that will begin in the Carribean off Cuba in late October, too. Shame your adopted country's government doesn't. But you will serve a purpose."
"For the record, I find what you're doing abhorrent. Human sacrifice?!"
Faust sneered: "Isn't that just a little hypocritical, Miss Astriides? After all, your ancestor Agamemnon did exactly that to his daughter Iphigenia, which did, however, ensure his success in the Trojan War."
Cassandra recoiled: "No, that's not the full story and you know it. Agamemnon paid for what he did, shedding his daughter's blood that way. His wife Clytemnestra killed him in his turn when he returned to Argos with my foremother, the original Cassandra."
"Which makes you of royal blood, however diluted. Your sacrifice will be a fitting cap to our offerings to the Dark Lords and Ladies, Miss Astrtiides. It will enable us to become the Anointed Hierarchy and invulnerable and immune to the cleansing fires of the nuclear holocaust that is about to consume the offal around us. The survivors here in England will welcome our offers of security and thr rule of law amidst the fire, pestilence and famine as the Four Horseman ride above this land."
"Don't you understand, you moral illiterates? No matter who they are, human beings are not mere 'offal'! Stop spouting these inane Ayn Rand cliches as if they were eternal verities instead of poisonous nonsense! Human sacrifice always has consequences!" Above her, Cassandra sighted Lady Dorothy and Maclean, readying themselves to descend on the cult members.
"Enough of this! I will put an end to your miserable existence!" Norma Bates snarled, producing an obsidian dagger whose handle was carved in Phoenician sigils. And then, abruptly, her allies were amongst the unhealthy smoke and fumes, laying into the lay members of the Anointed Hierarchy. Green Guardsman took to the air and severed Cassandra's bonds.
As Cassandra sat up, a snarling Norma Bates rushed at her with her sacrificial dagger, but tripped and then fell, impaling herself on it. And because the satanic ritual had required ethically pure individuals untainted by complicity with the Anointed Hierarchy's plans, the infernal powers did not accept her inadvertant sacrifice. Cassandra sighed to herself. Bates had probably had her gift from the time of birth, but had not known what it was, nor the risks involved. Like Cassandra, she had begun to develop neurological damage, but unlike Cassandra, she was reckless with the frequency with which she consulted it. Amongst precognitives, it was called "Oracle Syndrome" and Bates had only had herself to blame for it. It was just a damned shame that Norma Bates had taken over her own daughter's body to secure her objectives. As paramedics wheeled the slain seer's body over to a police morgue and police took the thwarted Anointed Hierarchy membership away to the courts and then prison, Cassandra foresaw what would happen to them.
Those weren't the only consequences. With a banshee scream, Felix Faust cried out as Nommo left his failed acolyte's body and the sigils on his Phoenician robes faded into oblivion. Deserted by the spirit that had long possessed him, Felix Faust was now all too mortal. His impotent fear was a reflection of what he knew would now befall him and his companions, several months from now when the bombs started to fall on the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
And thus, far from being rulers of a post-apocalyptic satanic dictatorship, Felix Faust would perish when the blast wave from a Soviet ICBM obliterated his cell at Wormwood Scrubs, killing him instantly as the prison building disintegrated around him. At the end of his life, all he ruled was a meagre square space only a matter of yards across. The other members of his cult died in similar ways, whether immolated within the collapsing concrete, brick and plaster of their own prisons, falling to their deaths from unravelling balcony floors and stairways, or vaporised out in the open, if they were 'lucky'. One or two perished from third-degree burns or broken legs and spines, pinned beneath debris or burning buildings. After their encounter, Cassandra wished she could see Faust's afterlife and his just infernal reward of demonic retribution for his collusion in Norma Bates' madness and the murders that she had committed in the name of his cankered "Anointed Hierarchy."
But by then, of course, Cassandra had been dead for several months herself...
THE END