Title: Epic
Author: HMC
Pairing: Duh.
Rated: R for horror, coming at the end
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. Blah, blah, blah.
Summary: Jay and Silent Bob are put to the ultimate test.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Abuse

This time, Bob had steeled himself for what he anticipated to be a 
flashback from sometime during his adolescent life. It seemed to make 
sense; Azrael was showing him all the reasons and instances in which 
God had abandoned him. But Bob knew better, he'd met God, she'd 
touched his shoulder, brought Bethany back from the dead and even shut 
Jay up by kissing him on the cheek.... So where was she now? 
Couldn't she see what was happening to him? To Jay?

In the midst of all his thinking, he'd forgotten to pay attention to 
his surroundings. He looked up to find himself in a bedroom he didn't 
recognize. He tried to recall the bedrooms he'd been privy to all 
throughout his life, but none of them even remotely resembled this 
one. He looked down and checked himself. No, he was still in his own 
body, present day. So what was going on here?

The sound of glass shattering from outside the bedroom door alerted 
him to another human being's presence. There were shouts, incoherent 
at first, but they eventually grew louder and louder as they neared 
the bedroom. They were voices he didn't recognize.... three of them. 
One sounded like a middle-aged man, one like a woman about the same 
age, and a younger voice.... soft and feminine, but definitely a boy. 
They were arguing.

Bob was afraid to move, or make a sound. He didn't even know who 
these people were.... how would they react to seeing a strange fat man 
in a trench coat lurking around in their bedroom? Instead of making 
any move to escape or hide, he quieted his breathing, listening 
intently to the voices on the other side of the door.

"Billy, please, just send him to bed, we'll talk about this tomorrow, 
when we're all feeling better!" The woman.

"Shut the fuck up! I'm tired of *discussing*! No words are gettin' 
through to this queer! I'll handle this my own way!" The man. His 
voice was strong and deep, and by the vibrations from his footsteps 
outside the door, Bob estimated him to be even bigger than himself. 

"Billy, DON'T!!" The woman again, screaming this time.

And the bedroom door burst open, a young teenager, probably around 17, 
black, skinny as all fuck came stumbling through as if he'd been 
pushed. His skin was the color of milk chocolate, a gentle color that 
matched what appeared to be a gentle boy. He couldn't have been 
anything else with that wire-frame. The boy was panicked, whirling 
around and cringing at the sight of the open door. At first, Bob 
panicked, looking desperately for a hiding place, but as the seconds 
dragged on and the boy did not react to his presence, he realized he 
was invisible to him. Of course.... Azrael.... this was a flashback, 
just not his. But then, whose was it?

The man, Billy, lumbered into the room and slammed the door behind 
him, shaking the picture frames on the wall. Indeed, this man was 
huge; 6 foot 4 at the very least, and heavy set, but with definite 
muscle. With his coffee dark skin and shaved head he looked like a 
hit man, or an undercover agent for the government. A sharp contrast 
to the shivering skinny boy with the feminine voice, who was at this 
moment, backing up against the wall.

He looked very familiar, this boy. But Bob couldn't quite put his 
finger on it until he spoke. "Dad, I'm sorry! I am, but I can't do 
anything to change! This is just me!" His voice grew progressively 
weaker as he father neared. He continued to spout out apologies. 

It dawned on Bob.

Hooper.

He wanted to say something, to do something to get Billy away from 
Hooper, but he realized with an infinite sadness, that this had 
already happened, and there was nothing he could do to change that. 
He was meant to stand there and watch.

When Billy's palm came down it came down hard and fast, taking Hooper 
off his balance and sending him sprawling against the wall, awkwardly. 
Bob winced. It felt like he was being torn up on the inside. Never 
had he wanted to intercept a fight so much. 

The beat down that followed was expected. Billy fell into a rhythm of 
smacking Hooper, pulling him back and smacking him again, all the 
while spouting insults that mostly consisted of slurs for homosexuals. 


"You fuckin' queer! You fuckin', fuckin' QUEER! Good for nothing 
fag; you're a disgrace to Negroes everywhere!! You've insulted 
everything that the black man stands for!" Billy paused to grab a 
book from the shelf. From its thickness, Bob guessed it could only be 
the Bible. Billy hit Hooper on the head with it, dropping it in the 
poor boy's lap. "Read that! Read that you fuckin' fairy! Romans 1! 
Read it!!"

Hooper sobbingly opened the book to the correct page, reading through 
a bleeding lip. "For this cause God gave them up unto vile 
affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that 
which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the 
natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men 
with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves 
that recompense of their error which was meet." A fresh wave of tears 
started to fall. 

"You see that!" Billy shouted. "It's right there! God hates fags, 
Hooper! It's a sin! A vile, dirty, disgusting sin!" He 
straightened, heading for the door. "You keep reading that. You read 
it till your brain comes out your ears. Until you understand, you 
ain't never coming out of this room!" Billy slammed the door behind 
him, and Bob heard the sound of a key in the lock.

There were a few moments of silence; the only sounds being the sobs 
coming from Hooper. Bob gazed at him with sad eyes. He had no idea 
Hooper had to endure this as a child. That poor kid. Sure, he'd been 
friends with Hooper for a while, but he'd never really talked about 
his childhood with him. Neither of them liked to talk about it, and 
that was generally understood between the two. 

"Out loud, boy! Out loud!" Came a bellow from behind the locked 
door.

Hooper sniffed and wiped away some blood dribbling down his lip. "In 
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth...." He spoke 
just loud enough so that his father could hear.

And the scene began to fade away before him, the sounds dulled and the 
colors blurred into nothingness, until he was standing in front of the 
doors again. His head bowed, Bob wavered between a seething hatred 
for Billy and a profound sadness for Hooper. 

Azrael was standing in front of him, his hat gone, leaving his two 
horns visible. The expression on his face was solemn. "He was locked 
in that room for three days. No food. He just kept reading from that 
book. That fucking book that was supposed to contain all truths.... 
The book written for a God that allows men like Billy to exist. 
Abusing the messages of the Bible just as they abuse their children." 
He took a great shuddering sigh. "I feel for Hooper. I do."

It was bullshit. Bob could see that a mile away. Azrael was a good 
actor, but not good enough. Azrael could have cared less. In the 
back of his mind, he knew that Azrael was just trying to get on Bob's 
good side and that he shouldn't be fooled.... but there was that part 
of him that insisted the demon knew what he was talking about; that it 
all rang true. 

No. Bob shook that thought out of his head. Azrael's a demon. This 
is all a test. 

With his eyes still focused intently on the ground, he murmured, "I 
wanna see Jay."

"Sorry, Prophet. Can't do it. He's being held until you're 
finished."

"Held?? Fuck you!" Bob cried, turning on the demon. "When I saw him 
he was barely breathing!!" He shook with fear and desperation, ready 
to attack if something didn't happen to calm him down soon. In his 
mind's eye, the image of a broken Jay on the floor kept popping up.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, just co-operate and I guarantee you he'll be 
fine! We're not allowed to kill him, so just focus on your task!"

"I hope to God you're telling the truth." Bob snarled, suddenly 
feeling rage like nothing else well up inside him. 

"God can't hear you now, Prophet." He sneered, turning sideways and 
motioning to the third door. 

Bob clenched and unclenched his fists. Straightening, he stalked past 
the embodiment of pure evil and passed through the third door.

Hate

....tbc....