Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 16:57:51 +1000 (EST)
From: "[iso-8859-1] Wombat" <bungala_wombat@yahoo.com.au>
Subject: 'The Old Valley Road Hotel #10' {Wombat} ( MM SciFi Anal Size Biker )
    [ 10 ! 50 ]

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The Old Valley Road Hotel.

By Wombat.
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Part 10 - The Hotel of Horrors
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He strode back down into the kitchen and looked around.  It was dark
in there because of the boards on the windows.  Derek could barely
see but he could see it was a large room with dusty stainless steel
surfaces everywhere.  It was obviously equipped to cater for a large
hotel.  There were two large six-burner stoves that he could see in
the faint light.  There were sinks, bowls, mixers and culinary
equipment everywhere.  It looked as though everything had been just
left there.  Everything was covered in gritty dust.  Derek found the
light switch on the door to the main part of the hotel but of course
it did not work.  The electricity had never been reconnected after it
was cut off in 1993.

Derek prowled out into the ground floor corridor.  He scanned around
with his telepathic sense but did not pick up a thing.  He was on
high alert.  He decided to explore all over the hotel.  He was not
going to sit around like a dummy waiting for something to happen.  He
investigated the ground floor of the back of the hotel first.  He
remembered seeing from the plans when he bought the property that the
hotel was basically square in shape with a courtyard in the middle.
There were two stories and an extensive basement that extended the
whole area of the hotel around the four sides of the courtyard.  At
the back of the hotel the basement was of two levels where the
property sloped down away from the road.

Derek looked into some of the rooms near the kitchen.  They were
storerooms full of all sorts of things.  Derek could not see clearly
in the darkness.  Despite it being noon outside, the hotel was very
dark inside throughout because of the boards over the windows.
Further along were small bedrooms for staff.  Derek reached the
corner of the corridor and turned towards the road frontage.  The
bedrooms were bigger than before but still fairly small.  They were
clearly for guests paying the cheap rate.  Dust was everywhere.
Every surface Derek touched was gritty with dust.  Derek remembered
from before that the big luxurious rooms were upstairs.  He had spent
those frightening first two nights in one of those upstairs room.  He
became aware of a foetid smell in the air as though there was a dead
animal somewhere.  Probably a dead rat, Derek thought.  On high alert
he prowled the corridor, passing a staircase up to the first floor.
His thick muscular arms hung loosely and wide ready for action.
Sweat ran down his neck and chest.  As he approached the next corner
he thought he heard footsteps behind him.  He kept walking and
reached out with his telepathy but nothing registered.  The footsteps
behind him continued.  He whirled around but the corridor behind him
appeared empty.  However it was difficult to see in the darkness.
There could easily be something lurking in the shadows.  His eyes
were not a lot of use.  He wished Hal was with him and pushed the
thought aside.  He had to be alone for this mission to succeed.  He
was the bait.  The thought made his skin crawl.  What the hell was
Hal going to do?  There was no sign of him anywhere that Derek's
telepathy could tell.  Had Hal gone to up Heaven to call up the holy
cavalry?  He found the thought funny and oddly comforting.  He was
tense and getting a bit bored.

He walked stiff-leggedly around the corner and into the corridor that
ran along the front of the hotel parallel to Valley Road.  Something
small and invisible in the darkness scuttled past him.  A mouse?  A
rat?  Derek had no idea.  If it were a small rodent, it probably
thought it saw the Terminator prowling the corridor.  He realised he
was about 40 pounds heavier than Arnold Schwarzenegger with bigger
muscles.  He would be the Heavy Terminator.  Derek smiled grimly to
himself at the thought.  He heard distant laughter.  His neck
prickled.  It was most likely a kookaburra outside sitting in a gum
tree in the forest surrounding the hotel.  It was out there in the
midday sunshine in the friendly forest.  How Derek wished he was
outside in the sunshine too.  Instead he was locked inside this
bloody hotel like a guard dog prowling the corridors.  The simile
appealed to Derek.  He saw himself as a big, deep-chested, powerful
German Shepherd Dog with big sharp fangs on guard in this dismal
hotel.  This big dog was dangerous.  He could fight.  Derek gave an
experimental growl.  It sounded satisfactorily deep and throaty.  He
growled again.  It felt good.

The rooms along this corridor were mainly bars, lounges and reception
rooms.  They were big rooms which would be light and airy once the
boards were removed.  In the bars Derek thought he could detect a
very faint smell of stale beer and cigarette smoke.  There were a few
bedrooms as well.  In one of the bars on the courtyard side of the
corridor, Derek saw a bright light that looked like daylight.  He
walked quickly across the room and stumbled over a chair in the
darkness.  Fighting down an impulse to kick it across the room, he
put the chair aside and approached more carefully.  The light was
streaming in from a hole in one of the boards covering the windows.
He peered through the hole and saw part of the courtyard brightly lit
in the sunshine.  The part he could see was overgrown with weeds.  He
could see part of a sickly looking tree.  The courtyard was going to
need work, he thought.

Something brushed against his bare upper arm.  Derek whirled around
in fright.  He could not see a thing.  The room was in inky blackness
as Derek's eyes were still used to the sunlight outside.  He was
effectively blinded.  Fighting down a stab of panic, Derek took a
deep breath and calmed himself down.  He scanned around with his
telepathy.  There was nothing.  He groped his way cautiously back
across the room, stumbling into several chairs on the way.  He wished
his eyes would hurry up and readjust to the darkness.  He fetched up
against the opposite and groped along it for the door.  He could not
find it.  Where was the fucking door?  Derek became agitated.
Something touched his bare biceps muscle and Derek felt a sharp sting
shoot into it.  Anxiously Derek brushed whatever it was off his arm.
His biceps muscle kept on stinging.  Something else touched the back
of his bare neck.  Derek brushed it away frantically.  Other things
came at his bare muscular chest, touching it and making it sting and
tingle.  Derek swung wildly in a rising panic and ran into the wall
with a heavy thump.  Keep calm, he told himself.  He remembered Hal's
words.  No matter what, do not panic.  He fought to regain his calm
and his fear turned to anger.  He was the big black panther and no
damned evil spirits were going to mess with him.  He snarled angrily.
These filthy things had no business contaminating his place, this
earth.  He owned this place and he was not going to play host to
things that destroyed the happiness of his race.  Yes, to the evil
spirits, he was a big fat oil tanker loaded with goodies.  These
spirits swirling around him probably missed out on a feed the last
time he was in here and were absolutely desperate to get to his
energy, so desperate that they were hurting him.  They were craving
the energy in his big muscles.  If they missed out again, they
probably faced extinction soon.  Good fucking riddance!  The sooner
these fucking pirates and parasites were got rid of, the better!  His
anger scared them off but the room was full of rustling.  His eyes
adjusted to the darkness again.  He found the door and stalked out
into the gloomy corridor.  It was actually darker that in the
reception room he had just left.  Why did they congregate there?  He
had better be careful.  The evil spirits had already drawn blood,
metaphorically speaking.  They had already tapped some of his energy.
It was a good thing he had plenty.  He thanked God that Hal had given
him an energy charge before he came in here.  He reached out with his
telepathy towards God wanting release from this prison.  He could
just detect a distant warm fuzziness.  A mind glyph came back.

<+ You are doing a good job.  Please continue with your task.  I love
you, Derek.  I am with you always.  Remember that.  +>

Derek stood in the dark corridor and sighed gustily.  He was hot,
sweaty and angry.  God had just spoken to him, but he was far from
overjoyed.  He wanted out.  If he were to go down, he would go down
fighting.  However, he was thankful that he was being watched over.
He would put up a hell of a fight.  He was Big Derek now.  But these
fucking spirits were so damned intangible.  He clenched his teeth in
determination.  The big powerful man squared his shoulders and
stomped along the corridor.  His heavy boots thumped heavily along
the wooden corridor floor.  He arrived at the main entrance where the
main staircase ascended upstairs.  A dark carved wooden counter stood
in front of the door to the manager's office.  Derek ran his finger
through the thick layer of dust on the counter top and wiped his hand
on his overalls.  He walked into the manager's office.  The room was
large and spacious but even darker than the main hall inside.  The
boarded up windows faced onto Valley Road.  Near the window Derek
could just see a large wooden desk with a chair behind it.  He could
sense something in the room with him.  He could just make out an
indistinct form sitting in the manager's chair.  Curious, he walked
over closer to the desk but the chair was empty.  His skin crawled.
He turned and walked out of the room into the main entrance hall
again.  The main entrance was dark.  The stout wooden door was
surrounded by fine stained glass windows that Derek had not noticed
before.  The whole entrance had been covered over with boards to
protect these works of art.  He tapped a panel experimentally.  The
hollow knocking noise seemed to echo around the hotel.  He looked up
at the dim form of the main staircase looming in the darkness.  So
this was where the hotel owner had hanged himself in 1933 according
to Hal.  He half expected to see the owner's form swinging from the
upper balcony.  The thought made the back of his neck prickle.  It
would have quite a sight to greet the staff and guests, he thought
with grim humour.  Something small brushed against his face.  He
brushed it away irritably.  Derek was not sure whether it was an
insect or something else.

He walked heavily into the corridor running parallel to Valley Road
and turned towards the car park side to the building.  On the other
side of that car park lay the garage where he had lived for the past
two years.  This hotel was all new territory to him.

Behind the manager's office was what looked like another bar and next
to that were two fine large dining rooms.  Derek could see in the dim
light the faint forms of tables and chairs spaced regularly around
both rooms.  The one next to the kitchen on the car park side of the
hotel looked to be better appointed than the front dining room as far
as Derek could tell in the faint light.  Through a door in the end
wall of the better was some kind of scullery or serving room.  As he
walked though in the gloom, he kicked a large metal pot lying on the
floor in the middle of the room.  The noise it made as it went
crashing across the concrete floor echoed deafeningly around the
hotel.  Derek startled.  He took a deep breath to calm himself and
thought grimly that he was certainly drawing attention to himself.
He reached out with his telepathic sense and could detect nothing.
He opened the door on the other side and found himself back in the
darkened kitchen after a complete circuit of the ground floor.  He
stood still and listened intently when he heard a faint scuttling in
an obscure corner.  He could detect telepathically the indistinct
presence of something or some things in the vicinity.  He did not
like being in the dark.  He heard distant laughter and sighed with
relief when he recognised the laugh of the pair of kookaburras
nesting in a gum tree in the forest not far from the garage.  They
reminded him of the good clean world outside.  He wanted very much to
be outside in the sunlight in instead of locked inside this dark and
gloomy hotel.  He squared his shoulders and steeled himself with
determination.  He was not going to fail Hal.

He stalked out through the kitchen door out into the corridor and
turned towards the front of the hotel.  Here the corridor formed a
wide gallery with windows opening onto the central courtyard.  The
windows were all boarded up here too so it was dark here as well.
There was a foetid smell here as well as if some animal had died and
was rotting.  Daylight showed faintly through chinks between the
boards.  On the other side were the kitchen and dining rooms.  The
feeling of other presences grew a little stronger.  Halfway along the
inside wall Derek found the staircase leading upstairs to the first
floor.  He remembered from the plans that there were staff stairs at
each corner of the building and guests' stairs halfway along each
side.

Derek ascended the darkened stairs and found himself in the first
floor corridor running parallel to the car park.  There were doors to
rooms on each side.  It was dark here and the offensive foetid smell
was stronger.  Derek could feel distinctly the presence of nameless
things.  His telepathy registered quite strongly.  His skin crawled.
Whatever they were, they were not nice.  He found the room where he
had spent the first two ghastly nights here two years ago when he was
Little Derek.  He was Big Derek now but still his skin prickled all
over at the memory.  He felt a constant background fear now.  It was
certainly not overwhelming but it was there nonetheless.  The room
was large and grand but it was quite dark because he had screwed the
boards back over the windows back then.  The bed and other furniture
were still there and covered in dust.  In the tiny amount of daylight
shining through the chinks in the board he could see the crack in the
glass from before when he had flung the window open in his panic-
stricken flight from the things in the room.  He could clearly sense
something else in the room with him.  It was utterly evil.  He tensed
his muscles ready for action.  Something touched his back and brushed
against his bare arm.  His triceps muscle stung as the thing drew
energy from him.  Derek whirled, his teeth bared in an angry snarl.
He growled throatily and grabbed vainly at what had stung him.  He
was the big black panther and he was not going to be intimidated.
With all the dignity he could muster he stalked from the room into
the corridor.  Behind him he heard a low evil laugh.  That was no
kookaburra.  He felt something invisible rush past his head with a
flutter down the corridor.  At first he thought it might have been a
bat but it had an evil intelligence.  There were faint knocking
noises in the walls around him.  He had goose-bumps permanently now.
His bare muscular arms tingled.  He could feel the tiny bumps in his
smooth skin.

He walked into a room on the courtyard side and his nostrils were
assailed by a strong and horridly repulsive odour of rotting flesh.
In the dimness he could see something lying on the bed.  It got up
from the bed and walked towards him with arms outstretched.  Rotten
flesh phosphorescent with decay was falling off its face and the
bones of the skull were visible.  The empty eye sockets regarded
Derek blankly.  Long hair floated around the rotting head.  It was
wearing a tattered dress from the late nineteenth century.  Once upon
a time it might have been a woman.  It was truly a ghastly
apparition.  Derek's eyes widened.  He gasped in horror despite the
foul stench.  His scalp prickled and he broke out into a sweat.  He
kept his fear under rigid control.  Some part of him marvelled at his
self-control but he knew that if he slid over into panic, he was
doomed.  This was one hell of a test he had to undergo, if that what
it was!

"Shit a brick, you're ugly!" he muttered and hurriedly left the room.

The foul stench was making him nauseous.

"Come back, my darling," screeched the apparition inside.  "Come back
to me, my beautiful man.  Come back to me, my Adonis."

Derek was appalled by the echo of Hal's words.  No fucking way on
earth, he thought grimly to himself as he strode off down the
corridor.  An evil laugh cackled behind him.  It was warm in the
hotel and Derek was hot and sweaty now.  Runnels of sweat ran from
his neck down the cleft between his pectoral muscles.  He could smell
his own musky man's body odour.  As he walked the corridor he heard
the patter of many feet behind him.  He stopped and whirled around.
There was complete silence.  Nothing stirred.  The silence was
absolute until it was broken by the sweet liquid warbling of a magpie
in the courtyard outside.  His eyes could detect nothing in the
darkness but his telepathy was strongly registering evil minds
nearby.  They were cowards, he thought angrily, they won't come at me
directly.  Unbidden, an image popped into his mind of a big, heavily
muscled bull loaded with good meat being stalked by a pack of wolves
who were slowly but surely wearing him down.  That made him feel very
uncomfortable.  But he was not going to give in without a fight.  He
pushed the image away.

He strode along the corridor.  The patter of feet and scuttle of
claws from invisible things came on behind him.  His skin was
crawling.  That sensation combined with the sweat trickling down his
body under his overalls made him feel very uncomfortable.  He wished
for release from this but he knew there was no easy way out.  He had
to go through with this to the end.  Please God, look after me, he
prayed.  His mind steadied.  His courage became firmer.  He
maintained his steady stride and turned the corner into the front
corridor parallel to Valley Road.  There were more bedrooms each side
of the dark corridor.  He continued on until he reached a big space
where the top of the main staircase was.  He slowed his pace.  It was
darker here than before, as if cloud had come over the sun outside.
Something was moving between the banister rungs.  He went over for a
closer look and saw a rope tied to the banister.  He looked down over
the banister and saw a body swaying on the end of the rope.  Oh, the
hotel owner, he thought.  He was not surprised.

"Oi!  What are you doing here?"  A voice with a rough Irish accent
sounded behind him.

Derek whirled around, tensed for action.  He could just make out a
human-like form in front of him.  At first he thought it was a
vagrant who was squatting in the hotel but his telepathic sense told
him the figure before him was far more sinister.  In the dimness he
could just make out a strongly built man shorter than Derek and with
red curly hair.

"Thomas O'Leary, I presume?" purred Derek in a smooth deep voice.

Derek thought he would try and befriend this ghost of the famous
bushranger.  It would be interesting.

"What's that to you?"  was the reply.

"If you are Mad Dog O'Leary, I just wanted to tell you that your
exploits are legendary.  People are still talking about you more than
130 years after you've died."

"Is that a fact?  130 years now, is it?"

"Yes indeed!  You're still famous."

Derek surprised himself with his coolness.  Here he was talking to
the ghost of an evil bushranger as if he were a minor celebrity he
had met at a party.  He thought he would see how far he could get
with flattery.

"Fancy that.  How would you like to be a dead man?"

"No, thank you.  I much prefer to be alive."

Derek heard the banisters rattle behind him.  He whipped around to
see the body of the hanged hotel owner clambering over the rail still
with the rope around its neck.  It jumped off and ran towards him
with hands outstretched.  The rope came free from the banister and
trailed behind the apparition.  It stopped and gathered up the rope
quickly, then advanced towards Derek menacingly with the rope in its
hands.  O'Leary rushed at Derek and grabbed his throat, trying to
choke him.  Simultaneously the hotel owner came up behind him and
wrapped the rope around his neck.  Derek fought like a cornered
panther.  It's on, he thought grimly.  He swung his fists wildly but
connected with nothing but thin air.  The rope felt real and so did
O'Leary's hands around his neck but the rest of O'Leary was as
insubstantial as smoke.  That's not fair, Derek thought wildly to
himself as he snarled furiously.  He pulled furiously at the rope
around his neck.  Derek swung a mighty punch at the hotel owner's
ghost but his fist went straight through.  It connected with nothing
but thin air.  Derek thought angrily if the owner is not real, then
neither is the rope.  The owner leapt at him and sank his teeth like
a vampire into the base of Derek's muscular neck.  The pain was
terrific and Derek yelled in fury as he tried in vain to get the
insubstantial wraith off him.  O'Leary rushed in and sank his teeth
into Derek's pectoral muscle just over his heart.  Derek struggled
ferociously with the two wraiths but could gain no purchase.  The
pain was tremendous as the ghosts greedily sucked the life force from
him like lampreys feeding on a salmon.  Beyond his two attackers
Derek could see a platoon of ghosts and what looked like huge horde
of thousands of foul, indescribably hideous and monstrous demons
rapidly advancing on him from the dark spaces of the corridor.  This
sure is a real plague of demons, Derek thought.

<< Dear God, I am in really deep shit now.  Help me now please, dear
God. >>  Derek sent a frantic prayer.

A mind glyph returned from a distant warm fuzziness.

<+ Keep faith.  Be of good courage.  You will have eternal life. +>

Bugger it, does that mean I'm going to die here, Derek thought to
himself angrily as he struggled with the ghosts.

"Oh well, it's been a good life.  I suppose it was worth it spending
those few beautiful days with Hal to go down fighting these fucking
demons and ghosts," he thought grimly to himself.

The first of the horde to reach him was something that looked like a
woman in a Victorian dress.  Her face was dead white and her wide
staring eyes had black circles around as if they were in a skull.
Her teeth were greatly elongated like those of a movie vampire.  She
rushed up and ripped open the press-studs of Derek's overalls all the
way down until his penis was fully exposed.  Then she sank her
vampire fangs into the thick muscles of Derek's belly.  He screamed
in pain.  Almost immediately behind the vampire woman, the rest of
the huge horde rushed in and each one of those myriad foul beings
sank their teeth or fangs into Derek's body.  The rotting cadaver
woman that Derek had seen in the bedroom was in the front of horde
and sank her skull's teeth into his side near his liver.  The rest of
the horde rushed in to Derek passing through one another to get at
his energy laden body.  Derek thrashed and struggled furiously.  The
things came in through the material of his overall as battening onto
his exposed flesh.  Every square millimetre of his skin seemed to
have teeth piercing it as each member of the evil horde sucked the
life energy from his body.  The pain was immense.  It was absolutely
terrific.  His whole body was being tortured horribly.  Every cell in
his body was being damaged.  Derek screamed in anguish and fury.  He
struggled with extreme violence as he realised that he was in the
middle of a feeding frenzy, just the wrong place to be.  He was in
the centre of a huge pulsating mass of unnatural things all eager to
get their fill of energy from his body.

Just when he thought that things could not get any worse a huge
ghastly pale thing appeared from the darkness of the corridor.  It
floated towards the furiously struggling Derek and the seething mass
around him, regarding him with baleful eyes more soulless that those
of a white pointer shark.  Its head was fringed with slimy looking
tentacles.  Its whole body was pale and slimy like something from the
depths of a putrid pool in a foul dark cave far underground.  Its
slit-like mouth opened wide revealing a circular array of sharp
pointed triangular teeth like those of a giant white pointer shark.
It looked like a giant shark-toothed lamprey crossed with an octopus.
Derek's eyes widened in horror.  It pushed through the seething press
of things already battened onto Derek's body and fastened its
horrific teeth onto Derek's chest over his furiously pounding heart,
covering the beings already sucking the energy from him there
including O'Leary.  His consciousness dimmed as the energy circuits
supplying his brain suffered a serious overload.  The huge
monstrosity was draining vast amounts of life energy from the already
badly depleted stores of Derek's powerful body.  The pain was
horrific.  Derek's knees buckled.  His body started to go limp.  He
fell to his knees but still he fought and struggled.

He was dimly aware of an exultant cry circulating through the
creatures feeding on him.

<+ He's down! +>

A sudden brilliant flash illuminated the entire space with white
light.  To Derek's dimming awareness, it seemed that a large portal
had opened in the hotel corridor through to somewhere else.  Through
it poured a host of bright shining beings that looked like angels.
They chased down the foul things that had been feeding on him.  As
Derek rocked unsteadily on his knees with his sight fading, he felt a
familiar pair of powerful arms wrap around him.  He felt the
comforting awareness of Hal's mind next to him.  Hal was very
distressed but was remaining calm with a stern effort on his part.
Hal gently lifted Derek to his feet, quickly stripped the overalls
from Derek's torso and wrapped his arms around Derek's chest,
clasping Derek to the front of his naked body.  Huge amounts of
healing and life energy rushed like a torrent from his body into
Derek through the bare skin.  The blast of energies was painful but
it was a blessed relief for Derek's pain-wracked body.  Derek was
vaguely conscious of the torrent of energy pouring in from somewhere
else through Hal's body into his own.

<< Oh, Derek.  My dear beautiful Derek, what did those foul creatures
do to you? >>

Hal was still quite distressed.  Derek was shocked to see Hal's eyes
brimming with tears.  His consciousness cleared rapidly.  He felt
considerably better now.  He felt he was about back to what he was
before he walked into this hotel.  Hal hugged him fervently.

<< God be thanked that you're still alive!  Oh, Derek, you were just
so brave.  You are so full of courage.  You are the bravest man I
know.  You are a real hero.  You just stood there and fought with
those foul things of darkness all by yourself until you could fight
no more.  You were so alone and stood your ground so bravely and
fought those horrid monsters almost to your last breath.  You are
just so incredibly brave and courageous.  You thought you were going
to die but still you fought.  And those things hurt you so much.
They inflicted such horrible torture on you.  You suffered so cruelly
and you were so terribly alone.  Oh, Derek, you are such a
marvellously, wonderfully brave man facing up to those hideous things
alone.  And you fought so valiantly.  You defied them so heroically.
Oh, my dear, beautiful, brave, courageous, wonderful Derek! >>

Tears ran freely down Hal's face.  Derek hugged him back.  Hal wept
into Derek's neck.  His tears trickled through his beard down Derek's
chest.

Derek's curiosity returned.  He looked around and saw a horde of
small angels chasing down the remnant of the demons.  They would
skewer them with some kind of spear and thrust them into an
iridescent silver sack, close the sack and then the sack vanished
from view.  Those little angels were cherubim, he realised.  And they
were making short work of the demons.  To Derek they looked like an
army of children running around gleefully squashing a plague of
spiders.  A squad of them had caught the huge hideous monster like a
giant lamprey that had been the last to attack Derek.  They had
impaled it on their spears and it was struggling feebly.  In this
supernaturally bright light it looked like an enormous giant axolotl.
The cherubim were chanting "We've got the big one, we've got the big
one".  Two cherubim flew over with a big silver sack.  The others
lifted up the monster on their spears, tossed it in and closed the
sack.  The silver sack vanished.  That monstrous thing was no more.
Very soon, all the demons had been mopped up and disposed of like so
much rubbish.

<< The cherubim use the silver sacks to toss the demons into the
Outer Darkness.  They will never bother us again. >> Hal explained.

Hal had recovered his emotional equilibrium.  He held Derek in a
tight bear hug.  Derek was awed by much Hal loved him.  He wondered
if he was worth all that love.

<< Dear silly big brave fella.  Of course you are worth it.  You are
worth every bit of my love.  You are a most wonderful, valiant and
courageous hero.  >>

He kissed Derek fervently on the lips.  Derek responded eagerly.  It
was really good to have Hal back again.  He kissed Hal with rising
passion, hugging Hal's rock hard body with all his strength.  His
cock started to stiffen as they kissed.

He felt a vast warm kindly intelligence behind him, a great
intelligence indeed.  It felt like a god.  Hal became a little
embarrassed at the gaze of the great being upon them and broke the
kiss.  He turned Derek around and Derek saw in front of him a great
being shining with a supernaturally bright light.  It, or rather, he
had the form of a big powerfully built naked human male and he stood
approximately 3 metres (10 feet) tall.  He was very obviously male
with a large penis that hung more than halfway to his knees.  His
skin looked like shining liquid gold.  His muscles, veins and sinews
seemed fashioned from liquid gold.  His curly hair seemed wrought
from spun strands of gold.  His eyes were a surprising agate blue.
>From his back sprouted two enormous wings that spread over a span of
about 6 or 7 metres and were covered with pale golden feathers.  It
appeared that the fabric of the hotel had been distorted and expanded
to accommodate such a splendid and magnificent being.

Hal presented Derek to the great and splendid being.  << Sir, this is
my student Derek.>>

Hal to Derek: << Derek, this is my mentor, the Archangel Michael. >>

The great archangel took Derek's hand and shook it.  Derek felt a bit
foolish with his overalls trailing backwards from the tops of his
thighs but the archangel was not the least bit concerned.  Hal was
like an eager young officer in front of a great high noble.

Michael: << It is good to see two men who love each other so much and
who are happy to show it openly. >>

Both the men grinned.

Michael went on:  << Derek, I am very impressed with your valiant
bravery in resisting the demons and ghosts.  It is rare indeed to see
such a high quality of courage in a normal human being.  It is easy
to be brave when you are invulnerable to both physical and psychic
attack. >>

Here the archangel winked slyly at Hal and continued.

<< It is clear that Hal has taught you well and for that I praise
him.  A person with any invulnerability would not have been able to
function at all as the bait for the evil spirits.  Due to your heroic
efforts, our mission in cleansing the evil spirits out of this
edifice has been completely successful.  Every demon has been cast
into the Outer Darkness and every ghost is detained to be dealt with.
No ghosts or other evil spirits shall remain here on this earth.  As
we speak now, my angels are removing all the negative energies that
have accumulated over the years from all the fabric of the entire
building.  To do what you did in resisting the attack without the
benefit of any invulnerability at all shows a rare and splendid
courage.  Derek, I praise and commend you highly. >>

Derek basked in the archangel's praise and Hal's admiration.

Michael went on:  << I must apologise to you for Hal not telling you
the whole story.  He did so on my explicit instructions.  I wanted
particularly to get rid of the Chluruthuu, the huge spirit monster
that attacked you at the end.  It is very old and very cunning which
makes it hard to capture.  It was brought into the Earth plane
hundreds of years ago by a powerful and very foolish Aboriginal
sorcerer who greatly overestimated his power.  That sorcerer paid for
his foolishness with his life and soul.  We had to wait and let your
energy get down to dangerously low levels in order to attract the
monster from its hiding place.  From its viewpoint, the other demons
and ghosts were already draining a huge amount of life energy from
you.  You already were well stocked with a vast amount of energy but
the other demons had left little energy in you.  If the Chluruthuu
had waited any longer, you would have died and there would have been
no energy left for it.  It wants lots of energy.  Therefore it came
out and was draining you completely of energy.  We let them drain you
almost to point of complete exhaustion and death in order to attract
out any more evil spirits who wanted to get energy from you.  When
they cried 'He's down', it meant that you were almost finished.  Many
had fed very well from you.  You were within seconds of
unconsciousness and less than a minute from death when we arrived.
It is all thanks to you that the mission was a complete success.  I
regret very much that you suffered so horribly and that we had to
leave your rescue so late.  I am sorry that Hal was not able to be
fully frank and open with you.  I take full responsibility for that.
I thank you very much indeed for the part you played as bait and the
most extraordinary courage you displayed today.  Thank you indeed. >>

Derek smiled.  << That's O.K. >>

The great archangel clasped Derek on the shoulder affectionately.

<< Well done, soldier.  Well done indeed. >>

He winked and released Derek's hand.

To both of them he sent:  << We had better deal with these
unfortunates captured by my angels. >>

Derek turned his head and saw all the ghosts lined up in the grip of
powerful seraphim.  There was Tom O'Leary, the hotel owner, the
vampire woman, the rotting cadaver woman and about two dozen other
ghosts that had once been human beings.  Each of the seraphim holding
the ghosts looked like members of a football team all tall, strong,
powerfully built and male.  Each had wide spreading wings covered
with white feathers.  The great archangel walked down the line of
ghosts like a victorious general inspecting his prisoners.  His great
wings almost brushed the floor.

Hal: << Derek, mate, you don't need your overalls any more.  Shall I
put them away for you? >>

<< Yep. >>

Derek felt his overalls disappear from around his thighs.  He was
naked except for his black work boots.  He folded his arms across his
chest and watched the great archangel.  Hal put his arm
affectionately around Derek's shoulders.

As the archangel Michael walked down the line of captive ghosts, one
of the female ghosts flung herself down on the floor and prostrated
herself before the great archangel.

"Mercy, oh please, mercy!" she cried.  "Please have mercy on me.  I
know I am the wickedest of sinners and I know I deserve eternal
punishment for my sins but mercy, please have mercy upon me.  I am so
terribly sorry for my sins.  I will never sin again.  I will always
be a good girl.  Please get me out of this horrible place.  Please,
oh please, take me from here."

Derek pricked up his senses.

Hal: << That's the woman I was telling you about who fell pregnant to
the American airman and stabbed herself in her bed here.  Her name is
Janice. >>

Michael spoke to her: "Janice, you are in error when you say you are
the most wicked of sinners.  You are merely a silly girl who went too
far with a handsome young airman and you compounded your silliness by
killing yourself.  You got yourself into a dreadful pickle but you
are most certainly not the most wicked of sinners.  I am pleased to
see your sincere repentance and your determination to sin no more.  I
will send you to the Lord God for His merciful decision about you."

He nodded to the seraph who had been holding her.  The seraph picked
Janice up gently and led her through the portal away to the great
Heavenly light on the other side.  Janice turned and thanked the
archangel with tearful sincerity.  Another female ghost prostrated
herself before the archangel, begged for mercy and declared her
sincere repentance.  She too was led away through the portal by her
seraph.  Then the majority of ghosts prostrated themselves on the
floor before Michael, begging for mercy and declaring their
repentance.  They were all desperately eager to get out of the hotel.
One by one they were led away through the portal.  Soon there were
only six ghosts left.  Tom O'Leary stood at the end of the line
nearest to Derek and Hal.  The hotel owner stood near him.

Michael stood in front of the vampire woman and looked at her with a
steady gaze for a second or so.  She hissed and spat at him.
Instantly two cherubim appeared carrying an iridescent silver bag.
They threw the bag over her and closed it.  The bag vanished with her
inside.  A dozen more cherubim carrying bags appeared behind the
Archangel Michael.

Hal: << She's been banished to the Outer Darkness. >>

Michael looked at Hal with an indulgent smile.

Hal: << Sir, I was just telling Derek. >>  He was a little sheepish.

Michael: << Good.  You may keep on educating Derek. >>

The archangel stood in front of the cadaver woman who cackled
insanely.  Michael held out his hand and gave her the thumbs down.
The cherubim bagged her and posted her off to the Outer Darkness.

Michael stood in front of a male ghost who said, "Get fucked."  He
got bagged by the cherubim.

Derek snorted with derision.  << What an idiot! >>

Hal: << When they have become sufficiently demonised, they don't know
any better. >>

The next ghost, also a male, looked anxiously about him.  He trembled
before the archangel's steady gaze.  He was terrified.  He fell to
his knees and begged Michael not to throw him away.  He prostrated
himself on the floor before Michael and with tears running down his
face, begged forgiveness for his sins and declared his repentance.
The archangel nodded curtly and the seraph picked the man up.  The
man fell down before Michael again and kissed his feet in gratitude.
The seraph tapped the man on the shoulder and inclined his head
towards the portal.  The man got up and meekly followed his seraph
through to the other side.

Michael stood in front of the hotel owner's ghost and fixed it with a
steady gaze.

The wild-eyed ghost burst out with:  "You bastard.  You filthy
bastard.  I have suffered terribly at evil peoples' hands.  How dare
you..."

The cherubim bagged him in mid tirade.

Derek: << The guy is as mad as a cut snake. >>

Hal snickered.  Derek stood as steady as a rock with his legs apart
and his arms folded across his chest.  Hal had his arm around Derek's
shoulders.

Tom O'Leary was the only ghost left.  The Archangel Michael fixed him
with a steady gaze.  The bushranger looked everywhere but at the
archangel.  He caught Derek's eyes.  He recognised Derek.

"Well?" asked Michael after a while.

"That fellow over there," said O'Leary to the archangel.  "The dark-
haired fellow with the huge muscles and the big work boots.  He's got
a real nerve.  You know, he tried to make friends with me.  He's a
living man and he tried to make friends with a ghost.  Have you ever
heard of such a thing?  I tell you, he's got nerves of steel, that
man."

"I know," said the archangel dryly.  "He's a man of uncommon
courage."

"Yeah.  And he's real good looking too".  O'Leary rattled on
nervously.  "Is he an angel in training?"

"No.  Better than that."

"Can I be an angel in training?"

Michael smiled ironically.

"You would have to be very good even to do that," he said.  "Humans
can do better than that though, but you would have to be very good
and learn your lessons well."

"Sounds a bit hard to me."

"Tom, you do have the opportunity to do this."

O'Leary looked slyly over at Derek and Hal.

"Those two fellows with the huge muscles.  They're good mates.  Do
they, um, er, sleep together."

"They are indeed lovers.  Isn't manly love a beautiful thing."

The bushranger gawped stupidly at the archangel.

"Oh!" he said after a while in a small voice.

The cherubim shifted impatiently behind the Archangel Michael.
Michael held up two fingers in front of O'Leary's face.

"Tom O'Leary," the archangel said.  "You have two choices, only two
choices.  Either be thrown away into the Outer Darkness or come into
the Heavenly Light.  You cannot stay here."

"Don't want to stay here."

"Fine.  Which alternative do you choose then?  You have been avoiding
the issue for rather a long time.  Would you like me to make the
choice for you?  I may just choose to send you to the Outer
Darkness."

"If I go to Heaven, will I have to be good?"

"Yes."

"Very good?"

"Yes."

"Trouble is," said O'Leary.  "I don't know how to be good.  I never
been good in my whole life.  The nuns at the school in Ireland said I
was bad all the way through and I'd go straight to Hell when I die.
I got transported here to Australia because I was bad.  If Hell's
worse that this here hotel that I've been stuck in all these years, I
want to go to Heaven.  I like to go to Heaven but I don't know how to
be good."

"Tom," said Michael gently.  "The Lord God has just sent me a message
and given you a third choice.  He is most merciful.  If you choose
this alternative, He will send you back to Earth again where you will
be born again as a baby and grow up learning to be good.  You will
have another chance at life and perhaps a better chance than you had
in your previous life."

Derek suddenly had an image of O'Leary in a priest's dog collar and a
black suit ministering to the faithful of his parish.  Hal picked up
the image, gasped and sniggered.  The idea was outrageous, that of
the bad bushranger becoming a priest.

Michael looked over at the two men and smiled indulgently.  Hal was
desperately trying to stifle his giggles.

The archangel turned to O'Leary.

"My young friend, the one you have met before, has had the idea that
you should become a priest."

O'Leary gaped at Michael stupidly.  "Me!  A priest!"

"Yes.  The life of a humble country priest ministering devotedly to
the faithful in his pastoral care has much to recommend it.  It will
be an excellent opportunity to atone for your past misdeeds and to
let your goodness shine through from your soul.  That is only a
recommendation.  How you choose to live your next human life is
essentially up to you.  Don't forget though that the reason you would
go to a new life is to learn how to be good.  That should be your
overriding intention."

O'Leary stood a second and thought.

"Alright, then," he said.  "I'll take that alternative.  I'll take
the third alternative and become a person again.  This time I'll be
good.  I promise."

"Good!" said Michael.  "That's settled.  Tom, you need to see the
Lord God and He will set you up for sending you back to Earth."

He nodded to the seraph who started to lead O'Leary away to the
portal.  O'Leary turned and came up to Derek and shook his hand.
Surprisingly, O'Leary's hand had some substance.

"I'm sorry I hurt you the way I did before," he said to Derek.  "I
really am.  You're a stout fellow."

He shook Hal's hand as well then scampered off with the seraph
through the portal.

The archangel dusted his hands together.

"That's that done," he said to the two men.  "Now for the fun part."


---------------------
Continued in Part 11.
---------------------