2:15
Footsteps were coming down the hallway. The click clack of hard soled boots echoed off of the crumbling walls. The two girls had been sitting in silence across from each other. The little cloth plugs were in place now. She had stuffed them as deep inside her ears as they would go. She was shaking in terror.
Elizabeth quickly slid back into a blackened corner.
Oh God, please make them go away.
She heard a whisper. Her neighbor had taken an earplug out so she could hear herself.
“It's happening now. Just try to find a place in the back of your mind, and stay there. It's all you can do.”
She quickly replaced the plug and rocked back and forth, nervously crying. Elizabeth had no idea what was going to happen.
God, please...
The loud boots stopped in front of her cell. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe.
“My sweet Elizabeth, You are about to witness the power of Azazyel,” His yellowing teeth were clenched together in a horrific grin, “Be proud, tonight you get the honors.”
He turned and walked further down the corridor in a stride of confidence. She closed her eyes tightly.
Go away go away go away...
A strong loud voice sounded out from a distant room. It was female. It was Linda.
“Hail to the dark ones, once divine, now condemned!”
Why Linda? Why?
“We call to thee and ask thy presence. Ready thy receivers and bring them unto you!”
The stone bird was vibrating in her hands. The fluid swam faster with every word she spoke.
What's happening?
“Let thy power be known!”
Elizabeth stood up. The dirty green blanket fell from her shoulders. She walked over to the door. The girl with no name stood silently at her entrance also. They did not want to be standing there. Given the choice, they would've been hiding in the pitch black at the back of their cells. But they had no choice. Free will had been taken from them. They were being controlled.
Elizabeth tried to cry out. She could not. She tried to turn around, it wouldn't let her. She could feel it inside of her, in her body.
Oh god, oh god, oh shit...
They stood there together, perfectly still, waiting.
Linda walked to each cell, unlocked it, and went on to the next one. Something, some force, had taken them all. All six prisoners were now completely helpless inside themselves. They had been possessed by the fallen ones. While their bodies performed the ritual, their minds would scream in defiance.
Please God. Make it stop.
Elizabeth was going to see, hear, and feel everything that was about to happen.
No no no...
Her cell was unlocked. Her body stepped out into the hallway.
I...can't... stop...
She was walking now, following the others. They were on their way.
Please...
It was time for the Black Communion.
2:16
After everything Jack had seen and felt that night, he just wanted to get back. He descended down through the starlight into the street light of home. Everything looked so quiet and peaceful. As he neared his house the dog in the neighbor's yard sprang alive and barked. It watched him closely as he floated across the street and up the driveway. Its energy boiled and popped in excitement.
Doesn't that thing ever sleep?
He entered through the wall and found himself floating in the hallway. He passed through the closed bedroom door. The computer fan was humming like always. The screen saver shined multi-colored reflections on the opposite wall. He drifted down to the floor where he had left his body. He wasn't there.
What the...
Jack looked around frantically. Nothing.
Oh, god.
He shot out through the house, searching. He wasn't in bed. Not in the bathroom.
How could this have happened?
He stopped in the living room. His body was lying on its side on the couch. It looked completely comfortable, like it had fallen asleep watching television.
I wasn't here. How could I...it, have moved?
Jack needed answers and he knew where to get them. She hadn't told him everything. She had left out some very important information that he had to know. He couldn't have his soulless body traipsing around the house when he was gone. What if his family woke up? What if it hurt itself? Without a consciousness, how could it move in the first place? He wondered if his brain alone could control his body without him. And if so, what the hell was it doing? Jack thought that maybe, when he re-entered himself he would have access to the body's memories. He'd know what had happened.
Gently lowering down into the flesh, he was once again part of the material world. His vision narrowed, and centered in front of him. Everything behind disappeared. The immortal became mortal, and he sat up.
Concentrating hard, he tried to find the memories of the past few hours. He searched for an image, a feeling, anything that might be a clue to what he had been doing. But there was nothing.
Not a goddamn thing.
It took him a few minutes to realize that what he was looking for wasn't in his head, but on his hands. He leaned over and clicked on the lamp. It was dry, crusting. It was blood.
Shit.
He was sure that what he had feared had come true. He’d hurt himself somehow. He quietly hurried to the bathroom. He wasn't in any pain but there had to be something. A cut, or scratches, something. He closed the door carefully, so not to make any noise. Standing in front of the large mirror, he started to remove his clothes. The T-shirt.
I wasn't wearing this earlier.
And the jeans.
I didn't have these on either.
Fear was setting in.
What the hell happened to me? What did I do?
Jack was totally naked now. He looked himself over thoroughly. Other than the dried blood on his hands and arms, he appeared normal. There were no cuts, not even a bruise. He felt through his hair, running his hand over his scalp.
Nothing.
If this isn't my blood, then who...
He turned off the light, opened the door and headed down the hall. His son's room was illuminated with the soft glow of a yellow night-light. Jack stood over Chris for a moment, examining him. He was fine. He slept quietly with the covers pushed down around his ankles. When he was satisfied, he took off down the hall, toward his bedroom. Stacey slept unharmed also. Relief came over him as he sat down on the edge of the bed. He was completely baffled. Had his body possibly gone outside? Had he gotten into it with that barking dog? Maybe. He'd have a good look at it in the morning.
The old lady had kept things from him and he wanted to know why.
If my soulless body is going to wander around where it likes while I'm gone, wouldn't she think that was an important piece of information to include?
He would take a sick day tomorrow and ask her that question.
He went back to the bathroom to wash up.
2:17
Elizabeth’s body continued, following the others. At the end of the hallway it opened up into a large room. Tall, slender candles lined the walls along the floor. A thick concrete platform stood table height in the center of the chamber. It was littered with dark stains. The dried designs covered almost the entire top surface. There was a symbol painted onto the concrete in thick black lines. From where she was standing she couldn't make it out.
Her eyes were elsewhere now. She could only watch as her hands lifted a long garment off the rack. Swinging it around, she pulled it over her shoulders and laced the front.
Each scratchy brown robe had a symbol on the back, stitched with black thread. It was a circle with an inverted star crossing over it. At each intersecting point of the star was a smaller symbol carefully embroidered into the fabric.
All of the garments had dark stains splashed across the front. The putrid odor from them filled the whole room. It smelled like rotting meat. If Elizabeth had been in control of herself she would have gagged, and possibly vomited. But the power over her kept her rigidly still. She appeared to be calm and emotionless. Just underneath it all, she was screaming.
She tried desperately to turn around and run. She could not. For the next hour, she would be free only in her mind.
Free to pray. Free to silently cry out for help.
Free to watch herself participate in unspeakable horror.
2:18
“Jack?”
Stacey shook him awake. It took a moment for him to realize where he was.
“What? What's going on?”
She was looking at the clock. She had an annoyed tone in her voice.
“Jack, you're late for work. Get up.”
He sat up, rubbing his eyes.
“I called in.”
He had left a message on the Royal Gorge answering machine hours earlier.
“Are you sick?”
“Well, no not really...”
She stopped him, "What's going on with you Jack? This isn't like you.”
He put his hand on hers, "I'm just going through something right now. I need some time to figure it out.”
“Come on, that's been your story for six months, and I've gotta say I'm getting pretty sick of it.”
“No, you don't understand. This is different.”
“No Jack, you don't understand. It's always the same. Always.”
“Look honey, listen to me. I'll tell you everything...”
She got up from the bed, Where were you last night, huh?”
“What? I...”
“This is the second time in a row that you took off in the middle of the night. I'm not stupid Jack.”
She knew he had been gone. He wondered what else she knew. He couldn't hide it any longer. He had to tell her.
“Stacey, if you'll just sit down I'll tell you everything.”
She was on the other side of the room digging clothes out of a drawer.
“You know, I'd love to stay, but I don't have time. I'm meeting my mother this morning, and I'm already late,” she was steaming with frustration and anger, “But when I get back we are going to have a talk, and you'd better have a damn good explanation of where you were.”
She walked out of the room and slammed the door. Jack laid back down. He stayed in bed for another half-hour. He listened to the shower running. He waited until he heard her leave to get up.
He walked out to the living room and sat down in the recliner. Out the window he saw his neighbors outside in their yard. Tom was kneeling down beside the dark haired dog. Sheila was standing on the porch.
Jack jumped up and went outside wearing only his boxer shorts. He shivered in the bitter cold. It couldn't have been more than twenty degrees. He walked over to the chain link fence that separated the two yards. The bleeding dog immediately growled and barked at jack.
“Hey Tom, what's going on?”
Tom looked up, and over at him, “It looks like my dog got into a fight last night. He's scraped up pretty bad.”
A feeling of relief came over Jack.
That's where the blood came from. I must've tried to stop the fight.
“We're gonna take him to the vet. I'll see you later Jack.” He led the animal into the house.
“Ok, see ya.” Jack hurried back inside. He was freezing.
The origin of the blood had been discovered. It still didn't explain how or why his body was able to move while he was gone.
He was trembling from the cold. It was time for a hot shower. Stacey would be gone with her mother for two or three hours. That would give him enough time to go into town and find the old woman. She wouldn't be back to work until tomorrow but surely he could get someone there to call her at home. He would tell them that it was an emergency.
She knows about the necklace's power. That means she knows about its side effects, and what happened to my body. She'll have to see me.
Jack had to hurry. He needed to be back when Stacey got there. He had an awful feeling that his marriage depended on it. She was mad. Really mad. He was sure that she would calm down when he told her. She'd have to believe him after she saw what the necklace could do.
He turned on the radio in the bathroom and stepped into the shower. As the hot water flowed over him he remembered the colors caressing his astral body. They had been so comforting and calm. He had done what no living being had ever done before. He had touched Heaven and returned to the material world.
His thoughts easily drowned out the weather report that was playing on the radio. They were calling for a storm. The three-day forecast expected lower temperatures and snow toward the weekend. The voice was staticy due to poor reception.
“Break out those scarves and mittens, it's gonna be cold!”
Jack was in and out of the shower in five minutes. He padded into the bedroom to find some clothes.
Out the window he could see the darkening sky. The storm was coming. The cold gray clouds had taken over the domination the sun once held.
It was a warning. The overcast sky was telling him to stay inside tonight.
He wasn’t listening.
