Susan

By Jackie Myre

Susan is a devout and dutiful Christian, but it hasn't panned out as expected. Her fiance was unmasked as a paedophile, her life cut short by terminal illness, her afterlife assigned to a decadent club in a strange, morbid plane.
At least she's been given a job to do.

A prequel novellette mapping the origins of the Mortal Masquerade through to the events of the first two novels, from the point of view of Morior's office manager and deliverer. This novellette contains religious references throughout with the potential to offend those of particularly set views. Please note that this is a speculative work of fiction not intended to disrespect or attack any particular faith (or lack thereof). At various points there are references to substance abuse, masochism, sati and honour killing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jackie Myre
• Release date: Jul 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9780463774991

Jackie Myre

Habitually weird, cheerily dark and proudly genderfluid (male at birth), the pseudonymous Jackie Myre followed an early obsession with cartoonishly bizarre perils into experiments in stage magic, escapology and messy performance art, usually appearing in drag. When middle aged adulthood caught up, Jackie began transferring his experiences in both online fantasy and the Northern UK goth and fetish scene into the Mortal Masquerade series of novels and novellas.Jackie is married with many cats in central England.

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Susan

by Jackie Yaga

Copyright © 2020 Jackie Yaga All rights reserved

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

​Warning/Disclaimer

All games and deathplays described in this book are presented entirely as fictional fantasy scenarios, most of which could not be safely carried out in real life. Please do not attempt any of the stunts described and always keep kink and fetish play within the boundaries of Safe, Sane, Consensual.

As this series teaches in its own quirky way, fantasizing about death in goofy games where you can get up and do it all again is fun precisely because real death is no fun at all. Real death is final, tragic, messy and painful.

Don't die, choose life!

Best wishes,

Jackie Yaga

Chapter 1: Faith

This is how I became a shepherdess of lost souls. Or, as some might put it, an angel of death.

I had a Protestant religious upbringing. I went to church and Sunday school every week, read my bible and said my prayers like a good girl. My faith might have lapsed from time to time regarding the details and I was certainly aware of my moments of sin, but I felt comfortable within the structured environment of organised religion and never imagined that there wasn't an afterlife, or that God didn't have a purpose for us. I was dutiful and faithful but never a literal Bible reader - I wanted to look deeper for guidance and knew there was a good reason Jesus spoke in parables.

I worked hard at school, got my qualifications and set about building an office career, starting with data entry and filing, moving on to general duties and eventually entering lower level management. I was never a party girl - the way I was brought up was to put work first, then when I became a mother my family would become my work. My friends were either work colleagues, who I would see at lunch or do gym classes with, or women I went to church with and met with on Wednesday evenings for Bible study.

I came close to marrying in my mid twenties. Clive, an area manager from a respectable family, took me out for dinner and we began courting. He was a leader at our church youth group, respected my desire to not have sex before marriage and proposed to me besides the sea at sunset. We were engaged for almost a year and were all set for a dream wedding and honeymoon when the police came to raid his home office. There they discovered a hidden drawer filled with indecent images of minors, including members of his youth group who he'd made dress up and act out lewd scenes for him. They'd thought it was a game until it wasn't, and then it was too late.

I broke off the engagement at once and told him I never wanted to see him again. I know he went to prison, but by then I was past caring what happened to him. I prayed for his forgiveness but he'd never get it from me, I just wanted him out of my life.

All of my plans about starting a family had been destroyed and I was distraught for the poor children he had abused - even though I'd had no part I felt complicit, that I should have recognised the signs and stopped him, that I had done something to influence and enable him, that it was my fault that the man I had built my dreams around had turned out to be a monster. His victims and their families certainly thought me guilty by association; hate mail came to my house for months after his conviction and I was shunned by my former friends, at work and at church. In the end I had to leave, I found a job in another town and concentrated on starting over.

The whole experience put me off of men for a long time, so I focused on work and running an efficient office department. I found a new church and renewed my baptism by total immersion, which really helped me in turning a new page. In my bible study I came upon a verse which became my mantra, from Jeremiah 29:11:

'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

I had that verse written up and framed above my mantle. I had no idea how much my faith in it would be tested.

I was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer when I was 35. I'd first noticed symptoms about six months before but kept putting off going to the doctor, when I eventually did the cancer had spread and was no longer operable. I tried to put a brave face on it - despite all that had happened to me I had faith in Christ and believed in heavenly life eternal - but it was obviously a huge shock to be given a death sentence at such a young age. My family and work colleagues gave their support and I dedicated myself to doing all I could with the time I had left, until the cancer finally claimed me a year later.

When I awoke on this plane, I was at home alone, not knowing what to expect. It certainly didn't look like the pearly gates, apparently there was something I needed to do first.

I saw that framed bible verse, then looked down to see my study bible on the table in front of me, open at 1 Peter 2. I read through the chapter again and again; it spoke of building up a spiritual house, of offering sacrifices and doing good by example within the structures you find, even if you doubt them. It spoke of the sacrifice of Christ, taking the sins of man in suffering upon a tree, then ended with a reference to the Shepherd and Overseer of souls.

I closed my eyes and prayed. As I did, five words came into my mind, a pledge of submission and willingness to fulfill whatever purpose God now had for me in whatever plane of the afterlife I had been delivered to.

Five words I had known since Sunday school, and had sung in hymns many