Eli's Revenge
A "There Will Be Blood" Fanfic
Eli consulted God, as he always does. Through prayer and through the holy spirit speaking to him the way a schizophrenic hears voices. Sometimes sacrifices must be made. After days of holy intervention and lying low — following a near-death encounter with Daniel — Eli had a revelation.
Daniel was the anti-Christ. He was ravaging their town of Little Boston. He was eating up their sacred land. Capitalizing on every square inch of property with greed akin to sickness. The thought of him spurred a fire in Eli that spread like self-immolation. Daniel was a plague that needed to be stopped.
***
“The lord be with you,” Eli said. “Oh, my congregation. My dear followers. As you know, I truly wish for everyone to be saved. I do. But some are beyond saving. God has spoken to me.”
The congregation fell silent, listening intently.
“There is a sinner among us. But he is an irredeemable sinner. He’s come here with his bad habits as a backslider,” Eli preached. “He’s lusted after women and abandoned his child. But, beyond that, he is scheming to hurt us in unimaginable ways. Scheming to destroy our town and all of the people within it… We must destroy him.”
Eli’s devoted followers erupted in cries of agreement and amens.
***
There were about twenty of them, mostly hardened working class men. They were ready, with their imaginary pitchforks. With Eli at the helm, they busted through Daniel’s door. They headed to the mansion’s bowling alley where Daniel was wasted out of his mind, as if no time had passed since his last interaction with Eli, during which he almost bludgeoned Eli to death with a bowling pin — and Eli narrowly escaped.
“So it’s come to this,” Daniel said, erupting in laughter. “Oh, Eli. You pathetic fool. You always knew you could never take me down alone. But I could take you down alone. You false prophet motherfucker.”
The maniacal laughter continued as the twenty men swarmed Daniel, who suddenly pulled out a pistol from inside his jacket. Without warning, he shot one of the guys square in the head. Jonathan, a sacrificial lamb. Eli said a quick prayer for him.
With the 19 other men and Eli directing them, Daniel was quickly seized and dragged to the door of his home. A gunsmith, Jared, disarmed him, pocketing his gun. Daniel didn’t fight back. Instead, he puked down his suit and tie, passing out from all of the hard liquor he had earlier.
***
When Daniel awoke, he was in the back shed of Eli’s house. It was secluded and completely shuttered. A cross hung on the wall in front of him.
Daniel looked down: his hands were tied with rope and he was weak, almost succumbing to his fate. Eli, along with two burly men at the shed, had strapped Daniel to a board. They forcibly shoved a wet rag in his mouth, as Daniel thrashed his head from side to side. At this point, Daniel began screaming, but not a soul could hear.
“You love oil more than anything else,” Eli crooned, his face an inch away from Daniel’s. “You crave it. It’s your life-source. So I’ll give you all of the oil you’ll ever need in this lifetime.”
Eli started pouring dark, slick oil through the rag, as Daniel continued to silently scream, his face beet red and strained with veins hardening. The oil engulfed his face, which then turned completely black, and Daniel choked and gargled. He opened his eyes, which also quickly disappeared behind the thick, viscous liquid.
More. The gargling was getting weaker. More. Weaker. More. More. More. The gargling eventually quieted.
In that moment, Eli felt the closest to god he had ever felt. In fact, he felt like god himself.