Religious Fangs, a novel Read online

  Dark Revolution – Religious Fangs, a novel

  By Roberto Luengo

  Disclaimer

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

  Prologue

  Guillem and all his family were profoundly catholic, going to church frequently, participating in all their events, sometimes giving religion classes in the private school his family owned and basically doing anything that was required to make the world a bit of a better place.

  He had known his best friends for all his life, all of them lived in the same block, all of them studied in the same high school and now most of them stayed together through college. For him it was not hard finding friends, but it was tough to keep them, most people found hard to understand his devotion to God. That is why he loved so much the few friends he had, each one was so different, but still all of them loved him back unconditionally, it was always hard to find someone that would respect his catholic faith.

  Their friendship grew the most in college, because that is when they started having the same hobby of collecting and playing collectible cards.

  The first to grow as a close friend was Tom. He was a quiet and friendly guy, a bit on the fat side, with short and curly hair and a dark skin tone. He was always around and would talk with anyone he found interesting without any problem. He used to practise a lot of karate when he was younger and would never allow anyone to disrespect him or his friends, he was always the first to go and defend them. Tom was the only one in the group studying biology but worked as a program developer and hardware service.

  Through Tom he learned to love both Xavier and Roberto. They had made a very small and weird little society by pooling resources to buy and collect cards, it was weird because of how different the three of them were emotionally and physically. Xavier was way older than both of them, in fact, he is the oldest of the whole group but still managed to look way younger than the others. He was very pale and thin with blond soft hair. He had that feeling of security to his personality that comes with age, but it was strangely mixed with a lot of stubbornness and he always behaved in an extremely agile and energetic way. Roberto on the other hand was very pale as well, but he was as fat as Tom and slightly taller. He was always very direct and honest in his approach to everything he did, never quitted anything until he saw it to the end and always behaved very stubbornly. He was the laziest and most out of shape of them all, but still had a lot of natural strength. Both of them would always leave behind anything they were doing or thinking in order to help their friends and both studied computer science.

  Cristobal was a behemoth of a man. They got closer to him through playing cards as well, but he did not study in the same college. Being in a different college never stop him from being there playing and sharing with them all the time he could spare. People usually misunderstood his character because he always seemed to be slow, but that was not the case, he just enjoyed playing dumb. What he did have was the heart of a lion when it came to helping his friends. Slowly he managed to make their friendship stronger even though he always drove Guillem mad with his childish comments.

  Last but not least were Edward, Lucio and Maria. The three of them came to his best friends group the last. Edward was a very close friend to Cristobal because they had always being next door neighbours. Very easy to overlook anywhere he went since he had a very unassuming look and enjoyed using suits and other formal clothes. He had dark hair and fair skin colour as well. Very evenly tempered and mildly fit, his was their first option when they needed financial advise to do the taxes. He started working very early in his life and had many contacts everywhere. Lucio was very close to Cristobal as well being his other next door neighbour. Dark skinned and of very short stature, he enjoyed reading anything he could find around and then talking and teaching them all he could to the point of annoying Cristobal all the time, sometimes he made everyone wonder if he was not getting a bit crazier every day with all the weird stuff he spoke about. Finally Maria, another computer science student, she was a tiny girl with dark coloured skin and with the body of a model and big beautifully shaped breasts as well. She enjoyed dressing in a very feminine way that would highlight all her great attributes. Because of the many abusive men and women she met over her life, she had learned to defend herself quite well, having a very quick and acid mind and being extremely fast and nimble. Her interests were drastically different from those of everyone else in the group, she loved dancing and exercising but loved spending time with the group nonetheless, they made her feel understood and in return she gave them her friendship and convinced them sometimes of going out and doing something different.

  Every day his friends would pick him up using both Cristobal and Roberto's cars to go to college, from there some would go study while others would go directly to play or work. But during the day they would always find a way to get together to play and share. The play group included many other people that loved the game as much as they did, but as it happens with most of these games, most of them were very weird in their own way.

  There was a very fat guy named Francisco with very weathered skin and rotten teeth always playing cards, he would always try and hit on every women he saw, but would always get refused and then go back into the game. He started to slowly fantasise that he had crazy powers and did all sorts of weird stuff, it was a lot of fun listening to him how he beat groups of people or seduced many women in his life. As of lately he had somehow gained a small group of young people that followed him everywhere, they probably believed his stories. He even manage to convince one of his female followers to become his girlfriend, she looked like a child and was probably his first girl friend ever.

  There was as well a group of guys that always loved hitting on women, they were not bad looking, but their behaviour was always disgusting making most serious women around them uncomfortable. Having said that they managed to weed out all the crazier girls in the science faculty and always had a few of those girls close to them. They kept asking those girls to try to convince Maria to have a date with them, even going so far as to tell her she should have a relationship with them because they were great fun, but she always saw past their lies and kept refusing to date them or even be seen too close to them.

  There were always a lot of other people, mainly teenagers that became excited with the game and would go all the time to play and believe they were something else, like a wizard or the master of some crazy creatures. There were as well some guys that had lost their girlfriends and lives to the game, looking more like soulless bodies.

  It was always a weird and sometimes pathetic spectacle, but something they all enjoyed sharing anyway.

  His life plans only went as far as finishing his history degree in college and then dedicating himself to helping his family and friends to improve themselves spiritually and maybe get more involved in church if that was possible. A lot of people always spoke about leaving Great Colombia, but that was never an option to him. This was his country, where his family and friends lived, so he would never be able to go and leave them behind.

  Why did people want to leave the country? Well, that is one of the things that happen when you have many decades of corruption as happens in every third world country, but Gre
at Colombia was more stable than most, the country started as an experiment made by Simon Bolivar back in 1819 by merging a few of the countries of old, the country was divided in three territories or departments which were Venezuela, Cundinamarca and Quito. There have always been a power struggle between all the territories, but the recent presidents managed to achieve a tense state of peace, the capital of the country was Caracas in the Venezuelan territory. The other territories had their capital cities, but every city other than Caracas felt very underdeveloped, to the point that most people travelled to Caracas to work and live there even if that meant living in inhuman conditions. The Cundinamarcan territory had a lot of internal struggle because of a big drug problem and some revel armies that kept the territory in a constant war state. Although underdeveloped, the Quito territory was relatively peaceful. Despite all these problems the country really felt as if it was going to grow into a developed country some day, there were many natural resources, great education at least in the capital and wonderful happy people or so Guillem thought. Life was respected, at least more than in most third world countries, the oil income was so large that the country managed to survive almost exclusively on the income it produced. It should have been more than enough for the country to grow, but somehow the politicians always managed to channel all the excess resources to their little greedy pockets.

  There always was a rather large population composed of poor people as well. But at least the education was not all that bad, most of them worked hard and one out of every ten would manage to progress in live. The rest at least managed to live. Having said that, there was a growing anger and resentment in the younger generation and steadily growing crime. But everything was under control or at least that is how it felt to him. Guillem would go frequently to help people in need and share with them a meal, hear their problems and would be usually able to find a way to help them.

  The Event

  It was a Thursday like any other for Guillem or at least that is what he thought. He woke up at around 6am and prepared to go to college as usual. While getting ready he heard what seemed like a lot of people in the living room talking and it seemed as well that the television was turned on. Intrigued, he finished getting dressed and went out of his bedroom. The voices were coming out of the living room, to get there he just had to walk a very short corridor which connected the bedrooms with the living room and kitchen.

  In the living room he found a rather large group of people. He recognised all of them as members of his religious group, having met most of them when he was a child, they were practically his family. There were his ex girlfriend and her family, many that were neighbours and a lot that lived far away. All of them were looking at the morning news very worried.

  As soon as his mother saw him get into the living room, she came running to him and gave him a very strong hug, he felt how her mother's arms surrounded him completely. Guillem had always been very thin, even though he measured 172 centimetres of height he looked a lot smaller due to his very weak complexion.

  “What is happening mother?”

  “They are giving last night's election results. We heard the rumour that if Jesus Cabrera wins, things will get very ugly.” Jesus Cabrera was a candidate to the presidency who had just got out of jail. He looked like any thug you found on the streets of the Great Colombia, skinny, weathered skin with a slight dark tone, brownish hair and of average height. He was famous for kidnapping a group of business men after a very poor career as a policeman.

  “Well, but it is always like that. Every time something important like this happens there are rumours that everything is going to go to hell. I do not thing we should worry. God has always been with us and I do not think things will change so drastically with the new president whoever he might be.”

  “I do not know son. It is always better to prevent. I would prefer if you stayed today here at home, with us. Remember what our friends told us, Cabrera's people have been recruiting them, giving them stuff to gain their support. He has been inflaming their resentment toward everyone and most people believe he is preparing to take over the country.”

  “I would love to stay with you mother. But I have a test today at college and I cannot fail to assist. Besides, have more faith in our people, Great Colombians are nice and love to party and have fun. They are not fighters or haters.”

  “Today? Why do you have a test today? Are your teachers crazy? And you too, there is a growing darkness in the Great Colombia, the reality of this country is now different and I cannot believe you do not see it. I believe in people sweety, but things are looking very bad and when things get bad people do things they never thought they would ever do.”

  “What can you do then? Stay at home all the time? Do not worry, I will take care of myself. If anything happen I will find a way to come back. And have a little faith mother, this country is not like that.”

  “Fine.” She said and gave him an even stronger hug. “God be with you and take care of you. Call me every once in a while to know you are still fine.”

  “Of course mother.” Answered Guillem.

  After he finished talking with his mother, he went to his room to finish getting dressed. It was already too late for college and his friends must be about to go and pick him up.

  The street was very quiet, nothing out of the ordinary and hopefully it would stay that way. He waited in front of his house a couple of minutes for his friends until they finally arrived. As usual Roberto was driving his old rusty brown Toyota Land Cruiser from 1986 which he had modified to be slightly more raised from the floor than usual and had a huge bull bar, behind him was Cristobal in his red Suzuki Swift from 1992.

  He boarded Cristobal's Suzuki, there was Edward and Lucio as well. In Roberto's Toyota was travelling Xavier, Maria and Tom.

  After the usual salutations they went to college, they studied in the Central University of the Great Colombia which was probably the best of the country's colleges. It was government financed and open to everyone who wanted to get a career. It was one of those few, but wonderful things the previous governments had done for their country. Obviously there were a lot of people abusing the institution, some of them having already spent up to 15 years in there, but it was a great place nonetheless which gave a lot of low income people an opportunity at education which they would not have had otherwise.

  “Hey kiddos, can you believe people voting for Jesus Cabrera?” Said Lucio.

  “There will always be idiots around, I insist that we must have faith in Great Colombian people. I want to believe that after so many years of corruption our people would give some thought about who to put as a president.” Said Guillem.

  “I do not like Cabrera, but why should he be any worst than the usual idiots?” Asked Cristobal.

  “For once he kidnapped a group of business men a few years ago where he almost caused the death of many people, he is an ex police man and is as ignorant as it gets. Nobody wants to put in the most powerful job in Great Colombia a person like that. You know what that will do to Great Colombia's image to the world? No one will want to come in here and invest money. In fact, I am afraid for my job at the chocolate company.” Said Edward.

  “Not only that, but I was studying his career in the police and it could not be worst, the guy has been investigated multiple times by Internal Affairs and has been found guilty of multiple minor crimes on top of that there is a warning in his record regarding his laziness and lack of respect for his superiors. But the problem is that he has managed to link with the poorest people in Great Colombia. I found out as well that he keeps close contact with a few Caribbean islands' leaders and some other people from different countries, there is the rumour that they have plans to take over South America and convert it to communism. You will see, if he gets to power he will start financing his people in other neighbouring countries, the plan is already on its way.” Said Lucio.

  “Oh my god Lucio, is that like the stories about vampires, werewolves and other crazy things
you follow? Stop with the conspiracy theories.” Said Guillem laughing.

  “They are not stories, they are real. You will see. Not only that, there are other worlds and the people from those places is always looking at us and kidnapping people to experiment with them. I am afraid that will happen to me one of these days.”

  “Come on, this is too much for the morning. Why don't we talk about cards? Women? Women playing cards? There are a few nice new ladies in the faculty of science now, but they always stay away from us and our game. We should find one for Guillem, she might be able to take away the burning summer he must have down there after all this years without being with a lady.” Said Cristobal smiling. “What about Maria? She is hot.”

  “Maria? Tell her anything and she might take your eyes out. Besides, everyone know there is heart between Roberto and her, what we do not understand is what are they waiting for to get together.”

  They kept talking all the way to college, but kept trying to avoid any more political matters, it was always a sticky issue to talk about, there were too many rumours everywhere and talking about it would usually make Lucio start going through all of his conspiracy theories. They parked both cars as usual in the baseball stadium and from there each one of them went to their faculties and work places.

  The day went by in complete normality. Many people had failed to come into college that day, most probably scared about the election results.

  At noon he had finally had a few minutes free and went to a close coffee shop to study for the test he had that afternoon. There were the usual groups around, one of the most notorious of them was a group of three sisters, Viviana, Veba and Vohemia. They together with their mother were usually called the 'Four Horsewomen of the Apocalypse' within the college, he knew them because Viviana, the younger sister used to study in the faculty of sciences where she caused a lot of conflict by dating multiple people at the same time and making them fight each other, so far she had not been very successful, but some day she was going to cause a tragedy, out of the three she was the tallest with dark hair and slightly brownish skin. The medium sister Veba, studied psychology and it was his understanding she used to do the same there, she was a lot shorter than Viviana, but otherwise they looked almost the same and finally the older sister, Vohemia, was working for POTGC where it was rumoured she escalated positions by doing sexual favours to her superiors, she was about the same size as Viviana, but a lot fatter and the bad life she was leading was showing in her physique, all the three sisters were kind of pretty and had a very aboriginal look to their face and body features. Finally the mother was always backing them up in all the did and took care of the two kids the older sister had in her adventures, she looked like a very old and crinkly hag and had a fairer than thou attitude all the time. The kids looked like a younger version of the sisters. He managed to sit in a far away table to avoid the bad sisters.