“Since the fall from the Garden man was left with free will. Free will led to infinite possibilities. The power to see these possibilities resided in the kaleidoscope. He that controls the kaleidoscope can see all, know all, and control all.”
The Kaleidoscope is a series of 8 books that deal with the creation and destruction of the world. The books transcend traditional boundaries such as race and genre and are sure to be a favorite of all readers. Each book takes place in a different location and is a different genre. The characters vary from black attorneys to samurai. The books deal with themes from Genesis to Revelations and everything in between. In all the books there is the constant villain looming, the larger-than-life Jade Emperor.
The books of the Kaleidoscope are as follows:
Negro in Nam: My Father’s Tale
Twenty Virgins in Heaven
A Taste of Love
Jasmine and Jada
Beauty in the Eyes of a Killer
A Wailing Moon
Black Dawn
The Kaleidoscope
Excerpt from Twenty Virgins in Heaven:
The dark-haired Asian Cyclops stood over the body. The wind from the riverfront blew the patch that covered his empty-eyed socket, as well as his black ponytail. The man knelt down to get a closer look. A single gash decorated the corpse’s neck, smiling like a pair of open red lips. There was no sign of struggle and no look of terror on the decedent’s face. One clean gash across the neck. The victim died before he even knew he was cut. This made victim number four. Four dead port authority officers, four cities. The man had followed the bodies from Seattle, to Panama, to Houston, and now to The Big Easy. Would the trail of bodies stop in New Orleans, or would they travel to another port in another part of the country?
Excerpt from A Taste of Love:
Even with all the pain he had put her through Kyvonne was not sure she was a killer. The man was after all her husband and the father of her child. She looked around the room at the pictures on the wall that reflected the past 12 years of her life. For better or worse Tyrone was a part of it.
She then looked to the picture of Elizabeth. The “one time” accident that was the result of an affair Tyrone had when they were supposedly separated. Next her mind went to the lipstick on the collar of Tyrone’s shirt in the laundry basket. He’d probably give her another excuse like the many he had before. “Oh it was one of my sorority sisters I ran into and she gave me a hug and must’ve gotten lipstick on me.” Or, “I ran into so and so and you know she’s always hugging and kissing folks.”
The one constant in Kyvonne’s life was that Tyrone was a cheater and he never would change. Kyvonne took another sip from the wine glass that sat on the nightstand. She stripped her clothes off and looked in the mirror. She had aged since her days of dancing for money but she still was an attractive woman. She gave herself a hard look and decided that she had had enough. The woman went into the bathroom and took a long, hot bath.
While in the tub Kyvonne shaved every speck of hair from her body. She knew that Tyrone found a clean shaved vagina irresistible. When she had gotten herself clean, she returned to the bedroom. She lit very strong-smelling incense. The aroma was so strong that Kyvonne felt somewhat dizzy. She then reached into her purse and found the container she had been given. Tasteless, odorless, completely safe for external use, but instantly deadly if swallowed. These words rang through Kyvonne’s head as she smeared the cream over every inch of her body. She took special care to rub her neck, breasts, inner thighs, and her freshly shaved private areas. All the places years with Tyrone told her he would kiss and taste whenever he felt the urge to come home.
Kyvonne then opened her lingerie drawer. She imagined cobwebs would be on the inside. It had been so long since she had had a reason to dress sexy at her home. She grabbed for the sexiest most offering thing she had. She looked at herself in the mirror as the cherry red G-string eased into her ass crack. She then sat on the bed and put on a pair of six-inch stilettos. Kyvonne gave herself a look in the mirror. No matter how many women Tyrone had cheated with while he was out “running errands”, even he could not come home and ignore her that night.
Since his high school days Tyrone had bedded dozens of women to R. Kelly’s first CD, “Twelve Play”. Kyvone put Tyrone’s favorite love making CD in the CD player and placed it on repeat. Kyvonne then walked over to where she had set up the video camera and tripod. She had everything set. All she would have to do is push “play” on the video recorder’s remote to record the entire scene.
The scene had been set. For all the years of false love making. For all the years of broken promises. For all the STD’s he had brought home. For all the lies. For all the times she went unappreciated. For the little girl living in her house that was not her own. For all these things Kyvonne would give Tyrone Jarreaux one final, fatal, taste of love.
Excerpt from Jasmine and Jada:
No knows for sure whether or not the Muga Mugas kidnap children who are innately able to sense the areas where the barriers between worlds are thin, or does their experience with the Muga Mugas leave children with that ability. Too few children are ever retrieved, once the Muga Mugas have them, to ever know for certain. One thing that was certain, was that Jada Jarreaux definitely could sense these spots. All the strange occurrences that were happening in her life all went back to this fact.
Initially it started with simple things. Jada would walk by a door and it would be open when she knew she had left it closed. A light was on when it shouldn’t be. Then more serious occurrences would happen. The first of these were when Jada was walking on the left-hand side of the street towards after school care. The bus always let her out on the left-hand side of the street which was where the building was located. One day the bus let her out on the right-hand side.
The next thing she notice was the Easter pictures of her and her sister. She remembered last Easter very well. She wore a blue dress with orange polka dots and her sister wore a pink dress with white ones. However, sometimes the picture in her room would show her sister in the white dress and she in orange. What was worse was that the picture was not always the same.
One day in her social studies class she raised her hand to answer a question. Somehow, within the blink of an eye, she was in math class without any idea as to how she went from one subject to the other, without moving.
Jada was not sure whether or not she was going crazy, or was she failing to pay attention to detail, the way her father always accused her of. Whatever the case, something strange was going on in her life, whether it was actual or purely mental.
The next thing to happen, before the major event, dealt with her awards and certificates on the wall. Whether she was observant or not, she couldn’t make up things that weren’t there. As clear as day, when she got to her dad’s house after school one day, she looked at one of her various achievement awards. Instead of reading Jada Jarreaux it read: Jasmine Bernoudy.
There was a period towards the end of the school year when things began to slow down. Things had become normal again. Jada was home one day watching TV with Liz in their room. She had become thirsty and decided to go to the kitchen to get a drink for her and her sister. The girls were home alone at the time. When she entered the kitchen standing by the refrigerator, pouring juice into a glass and a sippy cup, was a girl dressed in her exact same clothes. The girl looked exactly like Jada as well. Hearing Jada, the girl looked up. The girl then let out a scream and dropped the sippy cup she was filling.
“Stop it. Stop it. Please don’t scream?” Jada pled with the girl.
“What are you?” The girl asked.
“I’m a girl like you?”
“Why do you look like me?” The girl asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Are you real or imaginary?”
“I’m real. Are you?”
“Yes.” The girl said calming down some.
“I’m Jada.”
“I’m Jasmine.” The girl said.
At that moment Jada hear Elizabeth cry in the distance. She turned in the direction of her and her sister’s room.
“Coming Liz!” She yelled.
When Jada turned back towards the kitchen, Jasmine was gone.
Excerpt from Beauty in the Eyes of a Killer:
This was the part that she hated most about the process. Long ago she had gotten over the killing and the blood. She had gotten to the point where she closed out the screams of her victims. She was long past the point of feeling pity. Her hatred and longing were enough to make her gladly take up her blade and perform the first of these slayings.
She looked at the girl lying on the bed clutching the gaping the wound in her jugular. The screams were being drowned out by the blood the girl was choking on. Death was near.
The woman slipped out of her tight-fitting black dress. She now stood completely naked over the dying girl. It was getting harder and harder for her to sniff out virgins in the world. Sex was so rampant nowadays. Perhaps she would have to start searching for younger victims.
This particular victim really amused her. A Sunday School teacher. A pillar of the community. One who taught God’s word and was against premarital sex. How easy it was for her to talk this woman into the motel room with the promises of a lesbian encounter. Now look at her, scared and confused.
The woman got on the bed and rested on her hands and knees. She spread apart the legs of the dying woman. For all her religious piety, she would not die a virgin.
The woman then laid her chest against that of the bleeding woman. She loathed the feel of another woman’s breast much more than the blood that was being smeared onto her. She then took one last deep breath and pushed her penis inside the vagina of the dying woman.
It never ceased to amaze this particular killer, that dying women always had wet vaginas. Maybe something about dying turned them on sexually.
It was a very tight fit. However, after so many victims, she had become an expert at taking the virginity of other women. There was no love involved here so she forcefully pushed in. The dying woman attempted to scream but choked some more. She only had about one or two gulps left in her, before she passed from this life.
The killer looked down at that wretched thing hanging between her legs. She pushed even harder. Yes! It never failed. She finally saw the first specks of blood from the woman’s freshly popped cherry. As she continued to push, there was more blood.
Slowly the thing between her legs began to fade. It tingled and shivered. Just as it was about to climax, it vanished and a fresh vagina appeared between the killer’s legs. At that moment the other woman died.
The killer rose to her feet and went into the bathroom to take a shower. She lit a cigarette and stood in front of the mirror smoking. She looked at the beautiful organ between her legs. It pained her that it would only be there for another 72 hours. But this was her life now. This was the Emperor’s bargain. The blood of the living to give her life, the blood of the untouched woman to make her a whole woman.
Excerpt from A Wailing Moon:
The great black wolf had seen many of them in his travels across the various where’s and when’s. He avoided them whenever he could. He didn’t feel any kinship to them. He was a wolf born from the claw of Jasmine Fang. What was before him was an insane beast that was a slave to the moon. It could not control its transformations nor could it think intelligently when in wolf form.
The crazed beast circled the clearing looking at the black wolf. The black wolf was rather upset that it was about to get into a fight with a wolf, over territory he could give a damn about. The beast was wasting his time. He needed to get moving. He had hoped that he could keep the beast running long enough, that the sun would rise, and it could regain human form. Unfortunately, the beast had him cornered, and it appeared that they would have to fight.
The drooling wolf growled at him. It barked a couple of times then charged. Lone Wolf swung one of his mighty forepaws and knocked the smaller wolf to the side. He really wanted to end this battle without hurting the poor creature. While the smaller wolf was stunned, the great black wolf began running again.
Lone Wolf however misjudged the speed and agility of the smaller wolf and how hard he had hit it. Before he knew what hit him, the other wolf had sprung up, and jumped onto his back clawing and biting. Soon the two beasts were in a deadly wrestling match, both trying to land crippling or deadly blows, onto the other.
In the end, the battle proved to be one-sided. The great black wolf was far too large, and had seen far too many battles, to be bested by a dumb beast. The victorious wolf stood over the other beast, using his paws and weight to pin it down. It was never his intention to slay the other wolf, but it seemed that the only way he could be on his way, was to put the beast out of its misery.
Just as the black wolf was opening its jaws to render a death blow, to the other wolf’s neck, he felt the first rays of sun hit his back. Slowly, and very painfully, the wolf beneath him began to change back into human form.
When the transformation was finished, Lone Wolf was shocked. He had traveled many places and seen many things. Few things could catch him by surprise. However, the woman that lay underneath him was a complete surprise.
It had been years since he and his brethren had had their faithful battle against the Jade Emperor. So many of his comrades had fallen. He and the survivors had grieved for each of them. Now, after all these years, here was his long-lost companion Sparrow Hawk….
Copyright © 2022 Michael L. Bernoudy, Jr - All Rights Reserved.