XIX: Rabbits:

Temple of Love:

Simone’s Notes:

Religious prostitution, sacred prostitution, temple prostitution or harlotry is the practice of having sexual intercourse for a religious or sacred purpose. A woman engaged in such practices is sometimes called a temple prostitute or hierodule, though modern connotations of the term prostitute render the signification of these phrases opaque.

Envy sat on the roof of the abandoned church. The Red Jasmine was slowly evolving. Ai-Oni wanted it to go a little faster. Viruses of the non-human kind needed to start on consummated ground. This church was opening tomorrow and made a nice little place to start. The instructions were simple like this: drop a sample of the virus in the holy water and wait for twelve hours. Envy smirked to himself. “This is too easy! A little child can do this!” he thought. He twisted the cap open and dumped the virus straight in the water. The beautiful thing about the Red Jasmine virus was that it could easily spread. It could travel just as easily as two people talking to each other face to face. Envy grew to love this disease quickly. “This plan to bring back the ‘glory days’ is getting better by the minute!” he thought. Then, the homunculus sat back and watched act three unfold.

Coralie was back to her tricks again. Today, she was opening a new church. St. Lily’s Church was its name. This was said to be Heaven on earth. Many people were curious and wanted to check it out. The soldiers weren’t too up to this idea. (After the Jez-scandal, who can blame them?) Madeline was completely against the idea because of who was founding it.

“Hypocrite!” she barked. “She’s planning something I just know it!”

Daniel looked up at her from ironing his shirt. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

Madeline looked back at him suspiciously. “Coralie is a fake!” she reasoned. “She’s probably trying to con people out of their money!” Her boyfriend just smiled and shook his head.

“Jealous much?” he asked. Maddie looked away red with embarrassment.

“Yes,” she replied. “But you said that she’s an atheist! You said so yourself, remember?”

“Uh…” he said uneasily. “Yeah…” His baby girl looked at him in more suspicion.

“She invited you out, didn’t she?” she asked in jealousy. Daniel leaned in close and lightly kissed his girlfriend on the lips. Maddie was caught off guard by this. She relaxed and kissed back a little bit. Danny lightly broke away. Madeline looked at him in light happiness. The lt. col. smiled at her kindly.

“I won’t go, I promise!” he replied. Maddie smiled at him like a little child.

“Okay!” she called. Danny kept smiling at him. Then he headed up the stairs. Anything to keep Maddie happy. Anything to keep her happy.

Coralie’s church opened in the afternoon. She had a full house. (They were here out of curiosity.) The false priestess walked out to her congregation. The woman smiled to herself boldly. “Everyone is here!” she thought happily.

“Good morning!” Coralie greeted everyone. Everyone remained quiet. The priestess kept smiling to herself proudly. She continued on with her preaching. While she talked, the virus was in its second stage and spreading on to its victims. These were to be the first victims of the new Red Jasmine virus.

The only problem with phase two of the virus was that it would take weeks for the symptoms to show in its victims. Ai-Oni and her crew didn’t worry. Tons of people were going to St. Lily’s Church. It’s pretty much the more the merrier in a twisted sense.

“So how long before we see anything?” Envy asked Nyious as they were watching the people in the church from above.

“Two weeks, my friend,” the soldier replied. “Two weeks!”

“I see!” the homunculus replied with a grin. This was one task he didn’t mind waiting to see the results to. He was enjoying the coming results already.

The two weeks flew by quickly. The second phase of the virus began to rear its ugly head. Lust, desire, and adultery began to increase rapidly. The virus was spreading faster than any other normal virus. The love deities at Aizen Myo-o Academy almost ripping out their hair trying to up their work to cancel out the nasty love bug.

“How did this happen?!?” one of them asked Mother Superior. The headmistress herself was searching for the source on her computer. The nightmare was getting worse and worse. How could a tiny virus evolve so quickly within days? That only meant one thing…

“She has the book, doesn’t she?” Mother Superior asked aloud. Everyone in the office looked up in shock. Silence was dead everywhere.

“Really?” another one asked. The headmistress nodded.

“But how?” a third one asked. Mother Superior shook her head. At last, the screen beeped. Everyone in the office looked up.

“I have found the source!” the headmistress yelled out. They all crowded around quickly.

“St. Lily’s Church?” one asked.

“Isn’t that the new church that priestess lady opened up?” another asked. Mother Superior nodded. This wasn’t a good sign.

Meanwhile below, St. Lily’s Church was anything but saintly. It had turned into Sodom and Gomorra. People were always coming in for a snog. Many people were looking for dates in the church. Coralie herself had no idea. (Or rather she did know and pretended not to.) The priestess was busy welcoming more in. Her congregations were always full. Many people were coming in to check things out. Madeline was really worried now. Her worry got really worse this evening.

She had just come in from shopping when she saw it. Daniel had an invitation to St. Lily’s church in his lap. Curious, Maddie read it quietly to herself from behind. Her eyes grew wide when she saw what it was.

“Danny!” the WAG wailed out in misery. The lt. col. jerked around quickly. He noticed that his girlfriend looked as if she would cry.

“Baby girl,” he replied. “What’s wrong?”

“You said you wouldn’t go!” she wailed out. Dan looked at her confused.

“What do you mean?” he asked harmlessly. The lt. col. looked down at his invitation. “Oh…” he said sheepishly. This didn’t look good for him at all. Madeline fell to her knees at his feet.

“Please don’t go!” she pleaded out. “She’s just a hypocrite! She’s only trying to take you away from me! Please don’t go, Danny!” The lt. col. looked at her with pure sincerity. At first he thought this was an insecure issue that she had ever since she learned the truth about him and Coralie in the past. But now, he was starting to share her worries as well. This afternoon, he ran into the priestess while getting back home from lunch. The whole time, she kept hitting on him. This all made the Lt. Col. pretty uncomfortable, but he couldn’t tell her off nicely. Dan tried to but to no avail. Coralie just kept flirting with him and trying to “rekindle” their relationship. She must have slipped this invitation in his jacket before she left.

Right then, Daniel made up his mind. He lightly pet Madeline on the head.

“There, there.” he told her. “I promise I won’t go to her church.” His girl looked at him with big eyes.

“You really mean?” she asked in surprise. Danny didn’t say a word. He just lightly kissed her on the lips as a promise. This was a true sign of genuine truth. Madeline was overjoyed by this kiss. Her heart quickly skipped a beat. She kissed him back happily. They let go after a few seconds that felt like forever. Daniel looked gently in her eyes. He leaned in close to her ear.

“You have my word on that!” Daniel said softly to her. Madeline couldn’t help but to smile at that.

Meanwhile, Coralie wasn’t having it so good. An angry man stormed up to St. Lily’s Church. He was a burly man with meaty muscles to him. He was only dressed in dirty jeans, muddy boots, and a raggedy old wife-beater. The man looked like he needed to shave really soon. He was looking for his wife. The story was this: Mr. Charles’ wife was always jumping onto different new age type religions to escape her mid-life crisis. He was a little suspicious about her doing so. This one really had him worried. His wife was constantly talking about all of the men she had met at the church. One was a little bit annoying. But constantly had become a major problem in the Charles household.

Coralie greeted him at the door with a smile on his face.

“Good evening and welcome to St. Lily’s Church!” she greeted in a Stepford wife tone. “Will you be joining our service tonight?” That was really the wrong thing to say to this man. He grabbed the priestess violently by the shoulders.

“WHERE IS SHE?!?” he roared in her ears in full rage.

Coralie tried her best not to scream out. “I don’t know what you are talking about sir!” she whimpered out.

“DON’T LIE TO ME, BITCH!!!” he yelled out to her. “WHERE THE HELL IS MY WIFE?!?” Coralie found herself trapped now. This was supposed to be an easy church. How did it all get out of hand? This was the eighth angry husband to come straight to the priestess. She was running out of things to do. The same excuse she had been using didn’t work on the last man. She highly doubted it was going to work on this one. The poor false woman was trapped!

Then they heard giggle from one of the back bathrooms. Mr. Charles quickly recognized the voice. He dropped the priestess straight to the floor.

“Ow!” Coralie yelped out. The man didn’t hear her. He just stormed all the way down the hall. He followed the noise all the way down to the last bathroom on the right next to the exit. The sounds were loud from here. Mr. Charles bust the door open wide. The man found his wife in the arms of another man! They were embracing passionately. Her skirt was up around her waist and her panties were down on the floor. The couple was clearly shocked beyond words.

“Honey!” the wife yelled out. “What are you doing here?!?” That really didn’t help either. Mr. Charles came rushing forward in complete rage.

Needless to say, the end wasn’t a pretty sight. The other man was badly beaten and needed some medical attention. Mr. Charles took his wife home and banned her from coming back to St. Lily’s Church ever again. Coralie was just left red-faced with embarrassment. All services ended canceled for the rest of the night and week. Oh Daniel was lucky he didn’t go tonight!