Battle Hymn
"Live from Aztec Stadium, home of the Aztecs, it's the Sacred Scary Clown Show! Here's your sacred scary host, Deeeean Browner!" The announcer's voice rolled smoothly up out of the ground.
"Hot as Lightning! More than three billion viewers have logged in!" The scary clown-man's familiar voice erupted out of the ground as he kept at his lewd gyrations.
Lydia never heard of the singer Elvis Presley, but a handful of very ancient viewers now recalled when that obese singer had mocked his adoring fans during his last concert tour nearly one hundred years ago. It reminded Lydia of an old television news program about late-twentieth-century drug addicts that Dan had showed to the older kids one Sunday after church. She vividly remembered a young prostitute who looked old, a "crack" addict, mockingly flaunting her emaciated body to male passersby even though she was covered with open sores. This repulsive clown-man was mocking his audience too and they seemed to relish the mockery.
"Veronica is dead." Yolanda's numb voice somehow penetrated the din rising up from beneath their feet. "They made us watch as they abused her for hours and then they devoured her while she was still alive. Her beauty cursed her. We are doomed and there is no God of love."
Maria Elena reached out and embraced Yolanda. "I'm sorry I brought you to this living nightmare. It's all my fault."
The theme music stopped. The giant projection of the scary clown-man walked around the field and stood over each cage, the hideous face leering down at each one in turn. The stadium audience cheered each time the captives inside screamed. Although he never watched netcast entertainment, let alone worked in show business, for many years now Dean Browner had practiced this act on helpless orphans around the world. He perfected his malevolent clown character to terrify children into submission and now he was making it work on adult women too. When the last cage full of captives stopped screaming, the giant projection vanished. Everyone's attention turned to the eleven stories tall, high-definition screen on the front side of the pyramid.
