Fueled by his own fervor, Pastor Baker draws his hands into the air. He shakes his fingers at the trembling audience, yelps and stomps; he snorts hellfire and sweats holy water; he spits venom like the cobras on Noah’s Ark and farts brimstone.

Harmon Cooper, Dear NSA: A Collection of Politically Incorrect Short Stories

Hermetic quote Cooper NSA hellfire

Consider also:

  1. “Graham switched on the lights and bloodstains shouted at him from the walls, from the mattress and the floor. The very air had screams smeared on it. He flinched from the noise in this silent room full of dark stains drying.”
  2. “The endless job of packing so exhausted me that I almost burst into something between a scream and insane laughter.”
  3. “I lifted up my eyes. What soul stood there, Fronting my path? Tall, stately, delicate, A woman fairer than a pomegranate. A silver spear her hands of lotus bear, One shaft of moonlight quivering and straight. She pointed to the East with flashing eyes: ‘Thou canst not see her–but my Queen shall rise.’ Bowed head and beating heart, with feet unsure I passed her, trembling, for she was too pure. I could have loved her. No: she was too wise. Her presence was to gracious to endure. ‘She did not bid me go and chain me to her,’ I cried, comparing.”
  4. “He gladdened then. I would not slip again, And baulk the death of half its shame and pain. I, his best sword, must fall, in earnest fight. The old despair was coward–he was right. Now, king, I pay your debt. A purple stain Hides his laced throat–I sober at the sight.”
  5. “it is human nature to seek simple solutions to complex problems”