Candle Light Vigil

Melissa stood in the mall walkway and took pictures of the mess left behind by the paramedics. She knew it was morbid, but it was also her first time doing an actual breaking news report. The local police had taped off the area, but no one had made her leave. Aside for a vitamin shot by one of the paramedics, everyone left her alone. It never occurred to her that as the property of a Stretcher King, they couldn’t make her do anything. The only two people in the world that could tell her what to do had left in the ambulance.

She looked down at herself. Her jeans were stained with blood. Kathy’s blood. She sat down in the middle of the discarded medical supplies, picked up the remains of Kathy’s blouse and bra, hugged them to her body, and wept.

Ramona walked over to her and knelt down. “Come on, I’m done here. I've got you a change of clothes. You can put them on in the van. Tina is waiting to take us to the hospital. The rest of the family will meet us there.”

She pulled Melissa to her feet. A pair of Lotus Sisters, now armed with **** rifles, had remained behind to keep an eye on them. They followed the pair at a discreet distance, though it was clear to everyone around them that the marshal and weather girl were not to be bothered. As they crossed the police tape, a mother and child set a bouquet of flowers on the ground just outside the cordoned off area.

High Priestess Phong stepped outside of the Sisterhood office building, a pair of Lotus Sisters leading the way. She hugged Priestess Emma and asked, “Have you heard anything new yet?”

Emma gave her a quick peck on the cheek. No one was in the mood for a kiss and grope today. “I just spoke with Priestess Sonia. Kathy is still in critical condition, but stable for now. Her blood pressure is still low but her heart rate is back to normal. They are giving her more blood but she still hasn’t woken up.”

“Is the vigil prepared?” Phong asked.

Emma walked with her to one of the Sisterhood’s vans and said, “Yes High Priestess, we will march from the new church to the hospital. We will pass out the candles just before we walk the route. There is already a crowd gathering at the church. I had our sisters set up a table with a framed picture of Kathy for her well wishers to leave their flowers. Kathy’s favorite are African violets. I asked the groundskeeper at the church to plant some by the front walkway after this is all over.”

“Good. You did good Emma. Let’s go.” High Priestess Phong held her hand over her womb as she rode to the church, and worried. There was still a danger that Kathy could miscarry, though it was slight. The worst should be over.

Her phone rang. She looked at the touch screen. It was early morning in Delhi. She answered, “Mother Superior. I wish I could say good morning, but I can’t.”

“Excuse me, but you can’t have those here.”

June turned to the nervous security guard standing in the doorway to the waiting room. He was indicating to the weapons the heavily armed Lotus Sisters were carrying. Four of them carried submachine-guns, three carried **** rifles, and one held a riot shotgun.

June wanted to laugh in his face. She wasn’t about to take any shit from a rent-a-cop. Instead, she got up in his personal space and growled, “Are you trying to tell us that the Stretcher King's harem guard is not allowed to have any weapons?”

She stared him down until he backed away. Megumi pulled June back into the waiting room and said, “Tone it down a bit June. The man was only doing his job. And ‘harem guard’. Really?”

June patted Megumi’s hand and said, “I sorry, but I really don’t care what his job is. We nearly lost one of our daughters today. That will never happen again. And I'm calling them the harem guard because it’s easier than explaining who they really are. But after today, they might well be. I meant what I said, this will never happen again.”

Mary stood and said, “I’m going to check the nurses station again and find out when we can go see my baby. Cora, try calling Brandy again.”

June pointed to a pair of Lotus Sisters. They moved away from the wall they stood against and flanked Mary as she left the room.

Lu Zhao chuckled and said, “Holy Mother, did you serve in the army in a previous life? You’ve taken command like you were born to it.” The maid carried a submachine gun of her own, which looked very odd contrasted against her maids uniform.

June sat in the seat Mary vacated and put her arm around Cora. “No, I’m just a mother that isn’t going to lose one of her children. Not now, not ever.”

Cora left another voicemail for her sister Brandy and then they sat in silence, only speaking to greet Melissa, Tina, and Ramona when they arrived. Ramona asked where April was, only to be told she hadn’t left Caleb and Kathy’s side.

When Mary returned all she said was, “They won’t let us go back until Kathy’s blood pressure is back to normal. It should be soon.”

Caleb felt like hell. This was all his fault. He fucked with the world and the world fucked back. He held Kathy’s hand and stared at the floor. He couldn’t look at her like this. There was still blood in her hair, and her ruined makeup and paler than usual skin made her look dead. When they put the gown on her, he had seen the huge scar on her boob, the wound closed but still red and angry.

He had dried blood under his finger nails. He had it on his pants. He had it on his shirt. Kathy's blood. He felt like he would never be clean again.

April put her hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. She didn’t say anything, not yet. He needed time to process, and nothing April said would comfort him right now. Survivors guilt was a hard pill to swallow. He wouldn’t begin to feel better until Kathy woke up.

Her other hand squeezed the handle of the pistol tucked into her belt when a doctor and nurse entered the room. She was jumpy, even with the pair of Lotus Sisters guarding the door. She’d start looking for a therapist for the family first thing in the morning.

They took Kathy’s vitals and switched the IV from blood to saline. Then the doctor told them, “She can have visitors now. But no more than three at a time please.”

Caleb squeezed Kathy’s hand and said, “April, would you go tell Mary and Cora please? Chris will want to be next, send her with my mom after Mary and Cora leave.”

The nurse set some scrubs, a towel, and a plastic bag on the corner of the bed and said, “Mr. Anders, if you’d like, you can take a shower in the bathroom over there. Change into these when you are done. You can put your soiled clothes in this bag.”

It was just getting dark when the group began their march. A growing number of candles lit the evening as the church’s newly formed choir began to sing. The choir had less than a dozen members, and they had only practiced a few songs, but they sang what they knew. Their lead singer was a recently converted black woman named Lottie. She seemed to have a special affection for the Harem Queen, possibly because their breasts were a similar size.

Hastily drawn banners with offerings of hope and wishes for the harem queen’s wellbeing were waved as they marched. It was only a couple of blocks from the church to the hospital, but before long hundreds of people walked with the congregation. High Priestess Phong led the group. Cars pulled over to let them pass. Some drivers even parked and joined the march.

All across the city, flags were being lowered to half mast. Already all over the internet, the story quickly hit the national and international news. Everyone everywhere began talking about the humble harem queen. They talked about and picked apart her recent social media posts. How she posted a simple ‘Visited some sick women in the hospital. Hope they get better soon’ with a hashtag of ‘Doing what we can’.

That was from the day the harem queen turned a single one of the Stretcher King's ejaculations into a cure for nearly forty serious or terminally ill women. At the time, it had been acknowledged as a feat that had never been done before, an entirely new miracle, and one performed by a Harem Queen to boot.

Some noticed that she used the 'doing what we can' hashtag on other posts going back a few years as well. From rebuilding the school flower garden after their school's football team destroyed it, to volunteering at a tree planting event, to cleaning up a local park, to volunteering at a soup kitchen. The ‘Doing what we can’ hashtag rapidly became the number one trend. The world seemed to decide the pretty young Harem Queen wasn’t humble bragging, she was encouraging others. Her message of love for one another became wildly popular over the next several hours.

But underneath the togetherness and love, a growing sense of anger stirred. Imperceptible to most at first, the question of how, and why, and who began to be asked. How could this happen to such a lovely young woman? Why did it happen? And who was the monster responsible?

An interview from the previous week once again began trending on social media. In it, one of Kathy's classmates told a reporter that Kathy was bullied by the cheerleaders and other popular students.

The anger grew a bit more as social cliques received some of the blame for the harm done to the Harem Queen.

And then a recently uploaded video began to trend. One that would become known as ‘The Demon Spawn video’.

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