Mid Season Shakeup

Cast meeting on the balcony, what fun. Olympias had just gotten into the shower, and washed that awful yellow dye out of her hair. She’d been planning on turning in for the night, but if you want to see Skylar laugh, make plans. So downstairs she went, bathrobe and slippers on. Did the cool air cut into her skin? Sure, but that body could handle the chill.

“We love Oly, she’s the strongest!” The rest of the cast shouted, and began to clap for Olympias as she came into the room. “What the… oh right.” She smiled, and brougth out her phone. They were all still stuck on the setting for her clown performance. “This trait is the best.” She needed to think of something else more suited to her tastes now that the performance was over. “Am I late?”

Erica shook her head. “Helen’s not here, but I think we should just get this over with.” The girl had always been terribly grave, but this was to such a degree that the other competitors sobered up. Even the new girls mass murderers both, sensed this was abnormal situation.

“What’s up?” Cleopatra crossed her arms. Maybe it was Erica’s imagination but she seemed calmer than she had all week. Serene even.

Boudica raised her voice. “Skylar snuggled up. Morgan wasn’t our real master, she just put a spell on all of us.”

Erica nodded. “Now that she’s gone, you should be able to remember our true master…”

“Satan.” Cleopatra spat, the memories rushing in. Sucking his cock, masturbating for him on the floor, not to mention centuries of **** before that.

“Exactly.”

“That’s where the snuggle up comes into play, ah hell, I should just give up on cursing I sound like a loon. Anyway, Skylar lost him. He’s gone, we have no master, and the show is pretty much..snu…. In the toilet.”

Elizabetth smiled, though it was the cruel smile of Elizabeth after sundown. “How sad, I’d had such fun plans for this week.” She brushed her nails against her chest, almost bored by the news.

“”So we’re done?” Olympias asked.

“It’s over.” Erica confirmed. “Joan is taking me out, I just thought you all should know in case Skylar tries to pull something.”

“You’re leaving?” Cleo cocked an eyebrow.

Mary chuckled. “And you’re just going to leave us all behind?”

Erica shrugged. “You’re all dead…”

“So’s joan.” Elizabeth argued.

“Fine.” Erica huffed. “Do you all repent for your past deeds, and lifes of sin? Do you hate your sins and wish to live and bask in the love, light, and forgiveness of our lord and savior Jesus Christ, The Lord God Almighty?”

“Meh.” Was the collective response of the other six women.

“Then yeah.” Erica chuckled. “Back to hell with the lot of you.” Cruel as those words might have been it brought smiles to everyone. These were cruel woman.

The only two competitors who’d seen previous seasons of Harem Hotel, and would have known the fate of the contestants on canceled seasons were gone. Both Nzinga and Diaochan’s Posse, no longer players in this game. So they thought they were faced with the familiar tortures of damnation, and not the eternal slavery of Harem Hotel.

So, most of them mentally prepared to go home. Back to the hurricane, the fields of blood, and so on. In a way this hotel really had been a vacation. A pause in their eternal ****. Only Helen’s arrival broke them out of these thoughts.

“Hey guys, look who I found!” Outside she came, freezing in her cocktail dress, but happy to bring some good news. Satan was walking arm in arm with her.

“Who’s that Chad?” Mary asked, with a cocked eyebrow. Surveyed the dark-skinned man in the snazzy suit. His feathery hair, awkward smile.

“Don’t reconize the old boss?” Boudica said with a laugh.

“No…” Cleopatra said. “Look at his walk.” The man on Helen’s arm was not walking with the undaunted confidence of the prince of darkness. This was a shyier, more gentle gait… Cleopatra gasped. “Master!” She ran over the snow-covered boards, and hugged the man. “You’re back!”

“Stan!” Erica cried and went in for her own hug. “How? Why? You were…”

“Stan will be taking over Lucifer’s role as master for the rest of the season.” Skylar appeared, layered in hoodies, and cut up jeans. Her body may have been a shell, but it it was any hint at the being within she was in trouble. Eliminations, transformations, and now resurrections? She was running on empty, gaunt, pale, and moving at a crawl. Already services around the lodge were turning off their lights, and shutting down until she could maintain them.

“Hey girls.” The kind man, laughed and returned any hugs that were offered to him. “It’s good to exist again, I gotta say.” He looked around the deck for the familiar faces, Boudica’s scowl, Olympias’ disinterested side-eyed, and two new girls. “Wow… that’s a red woman.”

“Staring off strong buddy.” Mary laughed, and held out her hand. “Queen of England.”

“Rich kid.” Stan returned the shake. “Looks like Nzinga and Diaochan are gone.”

Elizabeth nodded. “We’re they’re replacements. I took out Nzinga, if that earns me any points.”

He smirked. “There was no love lost between us, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I’m asking.” The sinister woman took a step forward. “How vigoriously you’ll thank me for getting rid of her for you.”

“Heh.” He blushed and looked away. “I almost forgot what this game was like.”

Though those that knew him were happy to see Stan return, that changed very little for those engaged in spiritual warfare. “No.” Joan shook her head. “This changes nothing. Erica, we go.”

“Of course.” Erica pecked Stan on the cheek. “I gotta get out of here, but I’m so glad I got to see you again. Say high to Slutty Erica for me!”

“Wait!” Skylar ran forward. “You’re not going anywhere, the game is still on! We have our master.”

Joan snorted. “The game is over, we’re gone.” The angel held her hand out to Erica, and to the side of Joan the world seemed to shimmer. It was like seeing a mirage in reverse, the only real thing in a world of illusions.

“No!” Skylar yelled. “You signed a contract, no exit clause! If Erica leaves, she’s eliminated.” The host stared down at the young woman. “So unless you want to spend the rest of your life as jail bait, you stay put!”

“Skylar, you’re not being very nice.” Boudica sung. The pleasure she received from seeing Skylar finally crack was borderline sadistic,

“Shut up! No one’s leaving.” A sheet of snow collapsed on a distant mountain.

Erica grabbed Joan’s hand. “My contract says Satan will become my new master, not Stan, not Morgan. You’ve got nothing, on any of us.”

The host looked around in a panic at the other women. That was the trouble of gathering up history’s most evil bitches. Their hungry eyes were ready to rip her limb from limb. “There’s still the wish. The winner still gets their wish.” She looked around to see if that touched any of their greed, a few perked up, but none were moved.

“A wish don’t do us much good if we’re still stuck in Hell.” Boudica snorted. “An end to the **** was the biggest draw for most of us.”

“I’ll stay.” Eve said, though none had asked. “I still need that wish.”

Cleo shook her head. “Not me, I got mine. If you can’t save us from the hurricane, I have no reason to go on, Mark Anthony and me will still be seperated…” Her voice seemed to hitch at that.

Stan watched this all go by, as the aruging and screaming started to take hold. None of them were happy with this result. As much as they all hated the show, almost everyone had something to gain from playing. Boudica, ever the arsonist, was the only one happy to see it all come crumbling down. Even Erica and Joan seemed dissapointed, the two of them clearly with their own aims for the grand prize, not tarnished, or soiled by the events of the day. “I’ll become the new king of hell.” He said simply, his voice washed over by the yelling, and anguish. “I said I’ll become the new Devil!”

The yell got them to stop and stare at him. Most didn’t know what to say, and Erica only shook her head sadly at him. “There you go.” Skylar nodded. “Problem solved, the show must go on.”

Ah, see how the pendulum moves? This news moved the fickle queens. To sit at the feet of Hell’s throne was a prize. To sit upon it, a grand one. Beyond wishing, beyond cheap pleasures, this is the **** that made the sign on the line dotted.

Stan brought that hope with him. A new master, a new king, a new Devil.

“She can’t promise that.” Joan grunted. “You may play god with mortals, but if you try to sit a new king on the throne of Hell, you and your pencil necked producers will find nothing but **** and misery. “

Though her words were grave, and promised woe, they did not move the crowd. These were women of greed and ambition, not satisfied to listen to others and live their lives according to a plan. Skylar had some incredible powers, and the promise of immense gifts. “But Joan, he is Satan.”

“He’s a shell.” Joan growled.

“Yes.” Skylar agreed. “Empty of the substance of The Devil, Evil, Cruelty, Chaos. He’s a good man, per Eve’s wishes, why wouldn’t you want him ruling Hell?”

Joan was having none of it. “No. Erica this is bad, come. We have to go before this entertainer rips the universe in half.”

“No.” Erica pulled her hand back. “Our plan still works if Stan becomes The New Devil.”

“He won’t! Erica he won’t, she’s luring you in with false hopes. She has nothing! Her producers will reduce everyone in this hotel to ruin when we leave. I refuse to let you lose your soul on hope!”

Erica sighed, and drew further away from The Saint. “When you came to me, you said I had the chance to end Evil forever, and that the risks was my body, my soul, and my life. Nothing has changed for me Joan. I’m still willing to risk it all. It’s a gamble, maybe even a big fucking gamble, but I’m taking it if it means saving the world.” Boudica placed a hand around Erica’s shoulder in a show of solidarity.

“Aww!” Eve cried and ran over to Erica to hug her. “You get that from me!” She squeed and put her arm around Erica as well. “We’re with her Joan, we’re going to save mankind.”

The three nodded their head, apparently of one mind on the issue, quite the faction.

Joan sighed, surley Erica was the only person to have ever lived that could bend the burning will of Joan of Arc. “Why did God make girls so brave?” Her golden shine vanished, and her causal form walked up to Erica and kissed her on the forehead.

Eve beamed at this, her own great soul burning with pride. Olympias and Atossa both went on about the pride of a mother, but what did they know? This was pride. So she looked to her daughter Joan, and said, “We didn’t give him a choice.”