Page 14 of The Secret Shape of Worship
A low sound like a deep purr descended, and the god’s breath dampened the air around him. A campfire on a cool night. Spiced tea on a rainy day. Mina’s eyes fluttered, and his heart relaxed some.
“Do not worry,” the god breathed, lowering himself so the words pooled, warm and wet in Mina’s ear. “I am not a taker of lives. I am a shepherd of souls. Throughout your life, youhave tried to control everything around you. The perceptions of others. Making their contentment your burden, even at the expense of yourself. You have believed this makes you invincible. Invisible. But all it has ever done is to hold you still. To keep you from growth. From change. By taking control from you, we will crack through that exterior. You will bask in the fullness of your wants, blind to preconceptions, ignorant of anything other than all the things contained within yourself. In this way, the spark becomes a flame. The flame becomes a blaze.”
Mina gave one final weak tug against the straps before accepting that he was going nowhere. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen. A euphoric comfort at the unresisting assent of what was to come made him feel almost dizzy. A sigh hissed out of him, flaring his nostrils and easing the ache of the straps across his body.
The god placed two huge, clawed hands on Mina’s chest from behind. “Thoughts have power, son of man. You have always believed you can bring your desires to heel under the power of your will. And while that is true, it comes at a cost greater than you realize. Trap a butterfly in its chrysalis long enough, and its wings will rot. Keep a bird caged long enough, and it will forget it can fly.”
Warmth and calm radiated from the god’s long fingers. And despite the fear that tried to prick its way into his thoughts, Mina found he could push it away as easily as blowing seeds off a dandelion. He had no idea what the god planned, but he didn’t believe he intended to harm him. Still, the cheeky sass that had been overshadowed by fear since he arrived began to peak its head out, and he couldn’t help but ask, “Just to confirm…does any of this involve removing any part of my body, soul, or otherwise?”
Anubis stepped around so that he stood to Mina’s left, between him and the fire, an impermeable shadow, glowing emerald green at the edges, red eyes flaring to life and looking into Mina’s. “Mingled with your fear is your desire. Mingled with your shame is your pleasure.” He raised the flail above his head. “It is time to separate the chaff from the grain.”
The flail came down with a crack across Mina’s thighs, millimeters from his scrotum.
Mina cried out, a high-pitched, desperate wail that made his cheeks blanch. The echoes that bounced around the chamber couldn’t have been his, sounding more like they belonged to some wild animal.
“You are ashamed of your pleasure, son of man?”
With lightning speed, Anubis brought down the flail again.
Again, Mina cried out, softer this time, catching the wail in his throat.
“Do not hold back your gift from me!” thundered the god as he brought down the flail a third time, this time across Mina’s stomach, millimeters from the head of his cock, which had been hanging limp between his legs but was beginning to twitch and pump itself full of blood so that it slowly rolled itself, fat and throbbing, onto his belly.
“Nnngh,” Mina groaned.
Do it again.
“Do it again…” The words escaped his throat like a reflex he tried and failed to catch.
The flail came down.
Mina cried out, “Oh god…” the pleasure and pain pouring freely out of him.
The god sniffed at the air, a long tongue appearing, rolling across his black snout. “Your gift of wild abandon is like honey.” Anubis brought down the flail again across his stomach.
“Fuck yes…” Mina felt his face burn at the swear that shouldn’t have been sitting so close to the surface of his vocabulary, but it fell out of him like a baby tooth long ready to make way for something stronger, sharper.
Anubis brought the flail down again.
Mina wailed. “Again,” he begged.
The flail came down again.
“Again!”
Again, Anubis whipped Mina until his skin was red as the setting sun.
Mina crackled. He felt split open. His whole body like a cold sip of water after a mint candy—an invigorating, white-hot pain touching every single nerve. His groans came out in a pathetic whimper. He was a soaked rag that had been rung dry, empty and ready to be filled. Ready to give in to a power he couldn’t overcome and no longer wanted to.
Anubis ran the top of his claw across Mina’s tender belly. “And now, for your true test of faith.”
As he spoke, Anubis slowly unlatched his ownshendyt,and the garment fell away. What appeared made Mina’s mouth fall open. Hanging between the god’s legs was an anatomical monstrosity fit for a horse. It hung over a foot long and several inches wide, a thick knot at its base.
Anubis wet one hand by running it across his own sweat- and oil-soaked chest, using it as lubricant. He ran his hand down the length of himself, so long that he had to bend down slightly to take all of it as he stroked. Even his own huge hand barely reached around the girth of it.
Mina’s mouth went dry, cold prickling across the back of his neck. Whatever Anubis was planning to do with that thing, there was no way it was fitting into any of his human parts.
Anubis smirked. “Do not worry. I would never damage something so pure and perfect.” As Anubis continued to stroke,he looked up and down Mina’s body. Slowly, his cock began to shrink down, becoming something only slightly inhuman but still substantial. Fully hard and ten inches at least.
