Dave's Anatomy: My History as a Writer #55: New Testament Horror: The Prophetess

Drusilla

This is a double entry. The work I'm going to talk about was published as a story but then as a novella. It based on is one of the oddest narratives found in the New Testament. It is the only work of fiction I've ever written that was inspired by a sermon. The story is The Prophetess, a novelette-length text. It first appeared in the now-defunct journal Fantasy World Geographic. After the journal folded, I let the story sit for a few years but didn't want it to be lost forever, so I began submitting it and also marketing it as a book-length story. Two years ago it was published by eLectio Press and is currently on the market. The book is The Prophetess.

I've marketed it as a New Testament horror story. You may not think the New Testament has any scary stuff, but it does, especially when Jesus Christ encounters demons—evil supernatural creatures who can, in various ways, take control of human beings. One man who is insane has thousands of demons living in him; Jesus casts them out and they go into a herd of pigs; he encounters these beings at other times as well. The encounters are always a little creepy—and sometimes a lot creepy. In the Book of Acts, the Christian preacher Paul comes across a young girl who is possessed by demonic forces. The text says several things about her. First, she is a "young girl," the original language suggesting 10-15 years old. She is a slave and a successful fortune teller who makes a lot of money for her owners. When Paul and his team comes to town, she starts following them and shouting out, "These men are servants of the Most High God and have come to bring you the message of salvation." Paul eventually orders the demon to leave her body—it does, but her owners don't like it and cause trouble for him.

Drusilla shouts after Paul

Now some things puzzled me about that story. First, how did a young teenager get possessed by a demon? In The Exorcist the little girl is fooling around with a ouija board where a demon lurks. No explanation in this story. Secondly, I wondered: if the girl is controlled by a demon, and if demons are evil and always do wrong, why is this demon telling the truth? It was true, at least in the New Testament text, that Paul was a servant of God and had indeed come to give the message of salvation. If a demon, who would be prone to lie (Satan is called "the father of all lies" in the Bible) tells the truth, what's up? This got my imagination working and The Prophetess began to take shape.

The girl in the story I named Drusilla. She is sold to pay a debt and her owner takes her Delphi in Greece. Delphi was where the temple of Apollo stood and people from all over the ancient world went there to receive prophecies. The priestesses, who were like nuns and lived secluded lives, would go into a trance induced by drugs (or, some think, the gas fumes that drifted into the temple) and utter prophecies, predictions of the future. Marius, her owner, pays a large sum of money for her to enter the enclosure where the virgin prophetesses live and be possessed by

Priestess of Apollo

one of the spirits who give them the gift of prophesy. He tortures her and warns her that if she refuses the daemon (he calls it this) he will torture her even more and then sell her as a whore. Drusilla obeys. She is possessed and begins to tell fortunes. Marius grows rich.

The story goes on from there. She meets Lydia, who is also mentioned in the Bible and begins to have a fascinating relation to (not with) the daemon. One of my friends said he was her favorite character in the book; I wouldn't call him a character, he is more of a presence, but his behavior is fascinating. When Drusilla sees Paul and his party of evangelists, the daemon in her reacts in the manner described above. I won't go into the particulars (you can read these for yourself) but the plot thickens with violence, danger, and hard choices.

 

You can get a copy of The Prophetess through Amazon. It is a story of the ancient world, of slavery, and of the New Testament culture represented in the book of Acts in the Bible.

For additional titles check out my

Writer's Page. 

I would suggest too, my newest
novella, The Sorceress of Time.
The key to the future lies in the past.


I would love to hear your comments.