Banquet of Gluttony Prologue

Hey guys, I'm new so I've decided to post the opening to the novel I'm writing: Banquet of Gluttony. I can see by looking at the posts around the forum its a bit longer than some of the other stuff normally posted here. Hope that's OK!

Thanks for reading:

The peaceful music which was playing held a whiff of familiarity from it that Natalie could not quite put her finger on as she opened her eyes. Her daze had been an extremely explicit one, and yet it felt as though she had been sleeping for a long time. The room in front of her was not a familiar one at first glance, but for some reason she was not frightened.

Natalie could see that it was a very nice house. Her vision was still blurry, but the room could have been anything from a parlor to a waiting room. Even with the blurred vision, the paintings on the wall immediately stuck out to her. They depicted elegant men and women dancing with each other, eating a feast, and even on an island. This made Natalie’s stomach growl, and suddenly she thought of her nine year old daughter asking her three or four times a day for something to eat.

“Mama, mama, I’m really hungry from playing. Can I have something to eat?”

“Just a second, hon. Keep on playing, and it’ll be ready soon,”

Although it was usually ten or fifteen minutes later that she started on making the food. And that is when responsibility struck her at that very moment inside this room. Where was Felicia? Where was she, Natalie? Had they been driving? No. Hiking? No. On a vacation? Maybe, but that wasn’t all…

Natalie was suddenly quite worried about where her daughter was - the policemen might send a social worker to her house if she had run away again like last Easter. They had strictly warned her after all.

So as Natalie was about to get up in this strange room, and call out her daughter’s name she was suddenly blinded by the gold, silver, bronze, and grey shapes buzzing and flying about on the other side of the table. They seemed to fly with the music, and yet all the hundreds of shapes did not make a single sound of their own. Natalie was awed at once, staring fixedly at them for a few seconds before noticing a steaming cup of tea on the table. There was only one cup, and just by looks, it had to be her favorite type of tea: black tea.

At once Natalie concluded that the black tea was probably set out for her as she had met few who enjoyed black tea even half as much as she did. Felicia, her nine year old daughter had pretended to have liked it one day where Natalie was generous enough to serve some, but she later had found some spilled on the floor and spat in the sink. Never was Natalie going to make that mistake again.

Natalie turned away from the tea for just a moment to stare back at the hypnotic glow of the dancing shapes and was surprised to have found them completely disappeared. In their place however, stood the most beautiful women Natalie had ever seen. She was immediately jealous.

Natalie wondered if this was even a woman, and not a teenager. Her face had the soft complexion of someone in their mid teens, and her lofty baby blue eyes immediately stuck out to Natalie. She had the shiniest blonde - no - it was golden hair that reached her waist, or maybe further. This golden woman was also wearing the most extravagant dress she had ever seen as well. It was white, stunning, and fit perfectly on her as she stood up in a very womanly style. She was smiling, and, as Natalie just noticed, was pointing up.

Natalie quickly looked up to see the fantastical shapes and colors from before had congregated onto the ceiling. They were once again dancing to the peaceful beat of the music, all the gold, bronze and grey. The silver was nowhere to be seen, and Natalie wondered briefly where it could have disappeared too.

Natalie once again looked at the women in the white, and was for a moment speechless. She thought to ask about her daughter, Felicia, but then decided not to as the women herself opened her mouth.

“You poor, poor thing. How hard your life must have been. Anything you ask shall be granted to you. The scope of topics you may ask for does not have to be within the realm of the possible; however.”

It was a one sided conversation, and she seemed to be talking to Natalie. Her voice was a sweet honey, and its tone, although barely audible due to the music, spoke with certainty. At once the voice seemed so addicting that Natalie decided she would not speak a word of her own until this divine being was completely done talking.

“Be it the passage of time runs slowly in this room. Come, stand up, and sit on the seat across from me. God knows it’s certainly more comfortable than the dreary dastardliness of the floor below. Everybody knows that the floor was certainly not made for sitting or lying down.” She began to giggle slightly for a second, and then burst onto full on laughter. Natalie was confused about what was so funny, but the laughter seemed light hearted so she set her confusions aside. She climbed onto the chair opposite the side of the Golden Women, and for a moment her legs felt wobbly.

And suddenly the laughter stopped as she sat down. It was as if the laughter had been a recording, and suddenly someone put it on mute. Natalie shivered for a second, but the image of the ladies smile in front of her warmed it.

The Golden Women was staring at Natalie, somehow studying her. For a second it was uncomfortable, and she felt that if she stood up and walked around the room then those lush baby blue eyes would be following her like a painting in one of those old horror movies. But the eyes were also endless pools of water, in which it looked like there was only solitude and not an ounce of ineptitude. So Natalie was feeling weird as she was slightly creeped out; yet at the same time completely astonished at the mere concept of this woman.

“You have quite a numb look on your face Natalie. There is no need to have such a devious look. Look, in front of you is a batch of your favorite tea, though surely you’ve noticed as such. Feel free to drink it up to your heart’s content. It just might be the most delicious thing you’ve ever tasted. What? You’re hungry you say?” Natalie hadn’t even opened her mouth since she woke up from the slumber, but there was no mistaking that she was famished. “Well dinner shall be here soon, and I’m quite delighted to hear you have an appetite. There are many matters to discuss before you may sample the delectable and rare food that we have been preparing all day. Look forward to it.”

After this, there was silence, or it would have been silence if not for the peaceful lull of the music that was still playing. The piano solo that was going on in the song gave Natalie as much pleasure as a human has ever felt for music as she felt connected to every beat that went through her ears.

So even though Natalie was hungry, the music and her curiosity made her ignore the rumbling of her small stomach. Obviously the Golden Woman could sense this by looking carefully at Natalie’s face and so she spoke in a less peaceful tone than before.

“The look of wonder on your face is amazing. Undoubtedly, you’re wondering where you are? Of course, of course, I can actually relate this from a point in my life. Well before I make everything clear, could you please answer a question for me?” She said this last sentence with a very aggressive tone. “What is the last thing you remember?”

Natalie thought for a second or two and then opened her mouth, but words did not come out. She tried again, and then immediately got worried and looked around the room for a mirror. There was a window, and it looked as though there was a forest outside, but there was no mirror.

The Golden Women’s face did not falter, but she did make a hand gesture. At once all of the tiny glowing shapes on the ceiling came down into the middle of the table. By the looks of the outside it was nearing dusk, and Natalie was just noticing that the mystical shapes were glowing in the dark. They swarmed into the tea, and at once all the nice, vibrant, pretty shapes were swallowed by the blackness of the liquid.

“M’lady I believe you should drink this tea. It shall restore your speaking capabilities hopefully albeit sooner than latter.”

Natalie had no choice but listen. Because of some storybook she enjoyed when she was younger, whenever Natalie thought of someone offering her a drink out of nowhere she thought of poison. Even in this dreamlike state she thought of that, but put the thought aside after a second considering that if this Golden Woman wanted to do her harm she would have done so while Natalie was sleeping.

The tea tasted good as it always did, but for that Natalie was a bit disappointed. She had expected it to taste better, and if not better at least a little bit different than that black tea she had at least once a day. The shapes had no effect on the taste, and it was as if they had never dived in. Still, it was lukewarm, and she gulped down the whole thing faster than she would have on a normal day.

When Natalie tried to open her mouth again though, she still couldn’t talk. For that she glared at the Golden Woman. The Golden Woman saw her glare, and as in reply smiled at her and spoke.

“Ah, fret not child. Perhaps the tea just takes a bit of time to work. Don’t worry about answering my question though, nobodies in any rush. We’ve all the time in the world.”

Suddenly from the mug where Natalie had finished all of her black tea a colored shape like before flew out. It was shaped like an ‘O’ and there were quite a few remarkable things about it. For one, Natalie finished all the tea so the shape had miraculously appeared out of thin air. For another, the shape was silver, and not a single silver shape had gone into the cup as they had disappeared when all the shapes went up the ceiling. The Golden Woman was surprised by her facial expression, and even though Natalie had just met her she could not believe this beautiful being could be surprised by anything.

The shape flew along the table, much like a bird but seemingly without a center of gravity so it didn’t flap up and down and acted more like a leaf. It went with the music, and then flew behind the Golden Woman’s head. There was a door, and the silver shape was heading right towards it. As the music was building up tiny momentum, so was the shape. With a heated charge, the silver circle ran into the revolving door, and went through.

In that one second timeframe where Natalie was looking through the door she could see straight away that it was a kitchen. All of the many cooks were scrambling about, and there was much noise to be heard. The strange thing that Natalie could not put her finger on was that some of the cooks, or maybe even all of the cooks, didn’t seem to have a face. They all had a black blob as their face, but Natalie thought she was just hallucinating since she did only seem to see for a second.

The Golden Women spoke up.

“Ah, I deeply apologize for the Vink. These things happen from time to time you know. Unfortunate that it occurs on the day of your specific arrival, but if not yours it would have been someone else’s. I’m sure a tool will find and catch the little bugger, and then we may examine this phenomena a bit more. Perhaps if we are still here and not in the middle of something, you may join in the examination. I also dearly hope you did not see more than a glimpse of dinner. The dishes you will surely enjoy are such a surprise that I cannot bear the thought of you hearing them from anyone but myself.”

Suddenly there was a knock behind Natalie.

She turned around, and Natalie saw that there was a door behind her as well. The door suddenly opened, and through it a very handsome man in his mid twenties holding a jar which held the silver circle from before. He was very nervous, and his smile was apologetic as he spoke. “Exceedingly sorry for the interruption. One of our – ah – lower level servants managed to find this while in the kitchen. Shall I dispose of it, or bring it to the lab?”

The Golden Woman studied this man as if she had never seen him before until this very moment. He had the darkest black straight hair that went down to his shoulders, and his attire was the sort of stuff that you would see in the paintings in this room which depicted elegant men and women. It was an old suit, yet again it fit him perfectly. Not like anything you’d see in any regular rich person’s mansion.. Natalie still wasn’t sure where she was. That would have to be one of the first questions she would have to ask when she regained her voice, along with the whereabouts of her daughter.

For all the while the Woman was staring at the servant, Natalie kept her gaze on the silver O in the jar still hypnotically dancing to the fine tune. Finally the Golden Women spoke up. “Yes Fernando, take it to the lab and I shall decide what will become of its fate later.” Then was rage in her eyes. “Now for the remainder of the night could I please require that nobody, not even you, my highest tool, should disturb my visitor and I until the banquet is ready to be served.”

His cheeks flushed a pale cherry as he bowed and left the room. When he was most assuredly out of ears length the Golden Woman giggled incessantly to herself for some reason before she turned back to Natalie.

“Please excuse the unpleasantries and disruptions. I swear by my white beautiful dress that they happen scarcely less than once in a blue moon. Gods give us strength, the only desire I have now is for us to continue our discussion and for you to be anticipating the wonderful dinner and desert.”

Natalie understood the Golden Woman’s intent, and if she could have spoken she would most undoubtedly had said some words of comfort so this Woman would not feel bad. The black teas magical effects seemed not have kicked in yet though, and for that she silently cursed.

Outside, the sun was beginning to set. It was a fixture of beautiful lights, and the Golden Woman and Natalie both stared at it for a few seconds. The Golden Woman got weary of watching the sunset apparently, as she closed the window.

“Although in reality we have an infinite amount of time for our meeting and feast, the day is getting late. Let us finally get straight away down to the fine point of this very fateful meeting Ms. Knils. That is enough of the beating around the bush from myself, my associates, and the setting. The place which you are currently in is most assuredly known in your world as purgatory. In fact there are quite a few names for it, but for this particular instance the name I most prefer is purgatory. Say it with me, pur-ga-tory.”

Her mouth still couldn’t open but even if it could have the shock would have prevented it from doing so. All reason and logic returned to Natalie at that very instant, and her mind screamed a blood curdling scream, even if her mouth couldn’t.

“I can tell by merely your facial expression exactly how you’re feeling right now, and I have to say from all my many years of experience it seems to be a very typical response. You see, the brain normally couples the words ‘purgatory’, ‘heaven,’ and ‘hell,’ all with the word ‘death.’ So you must now assume you’re dead. I can gladly say that this is not the case; however your time of death may not be that distant a trip away. “

She took a pause, and thought a second before speaking again.

“Now for the reason that you are talking to me. I’m here to grant your deepest desire, and that’s all there is too it. Perhaps once the feast comes we can get more into this, but this is all I’m willing to say at this conjecture.”

All of this was going too fast compared to the lulling pace of the talking before. It took Natalie a moment to comprehend all the thoughts that were being sent to her, and all the while the Golden Woman waited. And waited, until Natalie seemed ready to be fed more ridiculous information. She had tried to remember the last time she had been awake, and for some reason she remembered being in a boat, and nothing else. Natalie did not remember the ramifications of why she had been in what looked like a very nice cruise boat, but it actually seemed like a small unpleasant reason. It did not dawn to Natalie that she might be in a bed dreaming this whole thing, but the average Joe would surely think as such.

“When one has been alive for nearly five hundred years, one learns a bit of patience. Aye my memories are vast old things, and I can nearly not remember a quarter of the things that went on then besides certain events.” The Golden Woman smiled as she took a pause, presumably to think. But the next time the Golden Woman opened her mouth, another voice came out of her mouth. It was male, and reminded Natalie of a certain someone who happened to be a very important part of her life.

“But enough about me, let’s talk about you.”

That line slightly stung. They were the same words of her first true love, and the father of her child Felicia. But the odd thing about the voice is that it was undoubtedly the voice of her oldest brother Gus. She shivered.

“That was a choice. Choose the topic you wish to talk about. Him or him.”

Natalie rubbed her head, it was starting to hurt a bit. The hurt was nothing but a mere nuisance compared to all the things that have been going on for the last…half an hour. Come to think of, how much time had passed since she woke up from her daze? It sure felt like a half an hour, maybe less but somehow the room had the illusion that several hours had already gone by.

When faced with the choice of talking about her old boyfriend from ten years ago, or her brother she has hated her entire life Natalie actually felt as if she couldn’t care less. I mean there was a general dislike for both, but Natalie had never been one to get nervous or cry for no reason. She didn’t like to overdramatize things, and that she supposed was one of the reasons she was so hard on Felicia.

“So you don’t care then?” Natalie wasn’t even surprised this time on how the Golden Woman was reading her thoughts anymore. She wanted to know where Felicia was, but this chat seemed so much more interesting on the well being of her life. “I suppose then we shall start with your brother, since the memory of him a bit fresher for me. Do you like your brother? His name is Gus if I recall. I make it a faith of humanity to remember every person of the category I’ve put him in.”

Of course she didn’t. For as long as Natalie remembered her brother had already been a full grown adult and why would Gus want to hang out with a kid? It is not enough that he scarcely knew her, but when he did talk to her he tormented her. It may have been a few times where Gus actually made her scream, and for a time she drew blood. Those were bad memories though, memories that were nearly forgotten unless awakened in a dream. Since Natalie’s mind was all but clear right now she felt as if she could access all of them. It made her realize her true hatred.

It was also true that she hated her other siblings but not as much. Perhaps she could squeeze one or two good memories from them, but they were all tyrannical assholes in the end. She considered herself one too after long deliberation as a teenager. In fact, she considered nearly everyone one, except for those perfect straight A churchgoers.

“Natalie, Natalie, Natalie…”the voice trailed off. The Golden Woman was again speaking in the voice of her most hated sibling. “Why haven’t you come visited me in recent years? I’m rich you know? My little girl is now a full grown adult. And how is your daughter? Is she well…”

It all seemed so familiar, like it had happened very recently. But this was not a specific conversation that Natalie could recall.

“Does any of this seem familiar? Do you remember the conversation?”

Natalie shook her head. It seemed familiar, but she did not remember. Natalie supposed though that the infamous Golden Woman would understand what she meant.

“We haven’t even gotten into the good part yet, and this is already incredibly boring for me. It’s really absolutely no fun if you can’t talk.” Then something dawned on her. Her cheeks brightened. “I believe I have just the remedy that will most definitely get your voice back faster than the tea shall work.”

Natalie was very willing to go along with whatever plan this woman might have thought of just now. She was very annoyed at not having a voice, and although the person she was talking to had a sweet voice there were quite a few questions that needed to be asked.

So as the Woman got up, Natalie followed. They went out through the door behind Natalie, the Golden Woman leading.

This room which the butler from earlier had came from was nearly as plain as the room they had just been in. In fact, it was almost a copy of the room but with different paintings. There was a television and a couch in this one, which made it stand out a bit more than the previous room. Once they were in this room though, the Golden Woman went at an increasing pace. Natalie had no choice but to power walk to keep up.

They went through several other rooms as well as a few hallways. The music also followed them throughout the house, and didn’t become louder nor softer. Natalie stared at the walls and the ceiling for a second to try and spot a speaker if there was one, but there wasn’t.

They seemed to have not run into anyone yet. There were dozens of rooms, which gave Natalie the quick notion that this was not a house but a mansion. Each room seemed more dazzling than the last, yet for the most part they seemed the same. One or two of the rooms had some windows which were open. They showed Natalie that it was indeed night time outside, and the stars were flickering. The stars almost never flickered in Los Angeles, so if Natalie had some time she might have watched them for a bit.

Finally in the middle of hallway they stopped in front of a door which had a paper stuck to it with writing. It said in big bold red letters a simple message that you’d often times see in many public places: All Personal Keep Out.

If that wasn’t enough though, the Golden Woman was thumbing through her white dress pocket for a key. When she found it, she unlocked the wooden door nonchalantly. But before opening it she took a good look at Natalie.

“I believe you should take the offensive my dear Natalie and go in first. It will be easier for me this way. So m’lady, after you.”

The Golden Woman made a hand gesture toward the door, but suddenly started giggling again. Natalie shivered once more.

She was very nervous as to what was on the other side of this door. Her mind was racing but it could come to no real conclusion. So with trembling hands she went toward the door knob, turned it, and took a step inside.

And screamed. The peaceful music stopped at once as well.

Behind her the Golden Woman let out all of the laughter she had been trying the whole night to keep in.

The inside of the room contained the most grotesque scene that Natalie had ever seen in her life, by far. On the table which was closest to her laid the dismantled corpse of her oldest brother Gus. She could only tell by the head, which was more or less in tact but separated by a few inches by his torso. It wasn’t just his head that was disconnected, his arms and legs were a few inches away from the torso as well, and the formation of all these parts were still in a human form. All throughout his body, and even his head little globs here and there were missing. It was as if he was a doll which someone had disassembled and then had taken little bites out of.

The blood that flew down the legs of the table was a lot fresher than the rest of it in the room, but that was a small thing to say. The entire room was soaked in dry blood splashes from head to toe. Somehow some had even gotten into the ceiling, so it had almost seemed that besides near the door the entire room was painted in blood.

Natalie fell to her knees and whimpered as tears welled up in her eyes. Even though Natalie now had the ability to talk, she was at a complete loss for words. She never imagined that she would witness something like this, much less cry over it. It had been many years since her last cry.

The Golden Woman took a few steps toward Natalie and through her laughter choked out a few words that Natalie wouldn’t even pay attention too.

“See! I KNEW it would work! Aren’t I so smart?” She burst into the laughter again, and began to hold her sides.

That was when Natalie noticed that Gus’s dismembered corpse was not the only body in this room. Behind him there were two bodies shackled to the wall with conjoining hands. Natalie’s heart swelled.

No, please no. It can’t be! Please!

But it was. It was the bodies of both of her parents. Their faces were a bit pale, but for the most part completely intact. Their stomachs had been opened, and there were deep slashes all around their bodies, but it was no doubt her loving mom and dad.

Her parents had died three years ago, and while she had gone to their funeral no tears had been shed for their death until now.

“W-why?” she choked out merely a whisper.

Her heart and psyche couldn’t take, and finally she fainted. Her body landed on the floor, and the fresh blood stain from the table was slowly creeping up towards her head.

The Golden Woman stood there in the doorway and laughed at the scene for a long time. The ghastly laughter traveled around the halls.

Finally after nearly fifteen minutes had passed a butler came running down the hall calling ‘MADAM!’ It had been the same handsome one as before.

He came to the doorway after seeing his master, and took a second to catch his breath before speaking. “Madam, all the preparations are ready for the feast. I went to the living room, but it seemed you were not there so I have been searching around the house to inform you.”

The Golden Woman grimaced at him slightly.

“There is no need to play the charade anymore Fernando. If you look inside this room you will see that our guest is happily sleeping.” He looked inside, and saw. “It seems the delicious banquet will have to wait for the moment, but I have no doubt that she will savor it once it comes.”

The servant was utterly shocked at the words he was hearing. “But Madam, you went to all the trouble to find the ingredients!”

“Yes, and it might actually be better this way. This feast is like fine wine; its flavor grows with time. Sorry to say the next time our guest wakes up she will not be anywhere near here.” The Golden Woman paused for a second and rubbed her temples. A deep red smile was on her face as she said the next few words. “But eventually we shall have the feast with her here, and it will be the most delicious thing anyone has ever tasted. I eagerly wait for that glorious day.”

The Golden Woman laughed once more.