7:1
When God returned to the battlefield he saw that the killing was over. His people had held and the Philistines had withdrawn. He looked down at the dead giant’s body angrily.
King Saul dropped to his knees, thanking his creator for giving young David the power to kill the demon. God, not wanting to hinder the human’s faith, let him believe that it was he who’d visited David in the forest. He changed Goliath’s carcass into ethereal vapor and took it back into himself. He knew then that something was wrong. A small part was missing.
The blood.
Lucifer was planning something. Of that he was sure. But the mystery of the stolen fluid would remain hidden to God until many years later. By the time he realized his enemy’s intentions it would be too late.
The Philistines had conspired with the devil and God could not let that go unpunished. He waited three days to allow them time to reach Gath, the city of the Philistines. Karradel the scribe was with them. He went to the great temple of Dagon and descended down into the lower chamber. He meant to hide away the dark scripture and talisman where only he could find them.
Just as the afternoon sun sank under the horizon God’s punishment began. Huge blasts of lightning exploded against that ground and buildings. The clay walls crumbled into dust. The people ran, screaming. Fiery chunks of rock fell from the sky. They nearby fields caught fire and the city was surrounded by flame. Karradel knew that there would be no escape. He remained in the lower chamber of the temple, hiding from God.
When the stone crushed the house of idols it shot a thick stream of sparks into the air. The chamber where Karradel was had not been totally destroyed. He was still alive below the rubble, trapped. He cowered in the back corner of the room grasping the talisman.
The center of the rock from the sky was flowing red-hot liquid. A blast of heat filled the small room with twelve hundred degrees of fury in seconds. Karradel’s skin burst into flames. The vial and the book fell from his hands into the clay dust and burning wood. The devil’s magic protected them from the temple’s underground oven.
Outside, the last of the living shrieked in pain at the searing heat. God’s boiling rage washed over the whole city in minutes. As always, it had been swift and devastating.
So would be Lucifer’s punishment. God knew just what to do. He headed for the outer realm, wasting no more time or energy on the Philistine city.
It was left to burn.
7:2
Killien.
A shaking chill went down Sally’s spine. She knew that name. He was the one that had murdered all of those innocent people. He had kept her grandmother trapped in that house and drove the sanity out of her. He was the reason for Linda’s ruined life. Sally had grown up without her grandmother because of him. He had been put to death in the electric chair twenty years earlier, and now, somehow, he’d come back. It was almost unbelievable. No one else would’ve accepted it, but she now knew that anything was possible.
She believed him. It was him. It made sense to her. Out of everything she’d heard in the last few hours, it was the only thing that made any sense. But, what did he want? What did he mean to do? Maybe he wanted to finish off the survivors of his cult. Sally remembered reading the newspaper clippings in the attic. She had read that there were two survivors. Linda and another girl. She couldn’t remember her name. Sally wondered if she was still alive. And if so, was she still in the state hospital? She would have to find out. The two who remained from the cult were the only ones who might have the answers to the questions that were burning her mind. She knew that the talisman the prophecy spoke of was real. She knew that its power was real. Her own grandmother had sold it to Jack. That is how Killien had gotten the opportunity to return. Then it struck her.
Oh my God.
Linda was in on Killien’s plan. She was helping him, she had to be. Sally realized that she didn’t know her grandmother at all. Everything she’d told her the past few months was all bullshit. She was a murderer too, the same as him. She was not a victim. She’d never been a victim. Her grandma had been a killer twenty years ago, and was now trying to start it all over again.
Oh my God, Linda.
She knew what she was doing when she gave the necklace to Jack. She knew that Killien would come back. She had to know. Linda knew the magic was real. Killien really had devoured souls like the prophecy described. And Linda had been his lover and his accomplice, all along.
7:3
Killien was sitting at the kitchen table eating a ham sandwich. His discolored gray fingers were like thick stone wrapped around the bread and meat. His teeth had all fallen out now and his gums were turning black. His facial features were mostly the same except the pale hue of his sick skin. The last of his hair had fallen out days ago.
Tonight’s ritual would make twenty-four souls that he had consumed. His next victim sat up against the wall across the room from him. He smiled at her as he gummed his food. She was tied up at the wrists and ankles with twine. A wide piece of duct tape covered her mouth.
A slight breeze gently moved through the trees outside. Killien watched out the window as a small cloud of dust wafted up from the dirt road. It danced in the air and then settled down onto the leaves on the other side of the gravel, dusting the freshly shined black boots behind the evergreen. The man was dressed all in black, including the military style helmet. The weapon he held was fully automatic. He gripped it tightly against the dark Kevlar vest. When Killien saw him he was motioning for two other agents to move up into position.
There would be no ritual tonight. The frightened girl sitting on the linoleum would live to see another day. He got up slowly from the kitchen table and tried to look calm as he retreated into the basement. At the top of the stairs he closed the door and barricaded it with a long two by eight-inch board. He rushed down into the shadows. Linda was sitting in the library reading. He stopped at the door.
“They’ve found us. You know what to do.”
She opened the top drawer of the desk. Inside lay a nine-millimeter handgun. She handed it to him. Killien checked the clip. It was full.
Linda rushed to the empty cell next to the ritual chamber. She stepped inside and locked the iron bars behind her. With the doors secured he pointed the pistol between the bars and pulled the trigger. The shot echoed deafeningly throughout the darkness. Linda writhed in pain. The bullet had entered her lower leg and snapped the bone.
He could hear them in the kitchen upstairs. He worked quickly going to each cell and sending a bullet inside. When he got to Elizabeth’s cell she was standing at the entrance. She looked him in the eyes. The nightmare was over for her. She was almost free.
A lifetime of anguish and torment ended with a burning hot chunk of lead inside her brain. Blood spattered onto the scratchy green blanket lying on the floor. The thick wool absorbed the fluid quickly. It sucked in the pain of her broken childhood. It was soaked through with unbelievable experience. Those parts of her would stay behind, inside it now. She no longer needed them. Elizabeth’s spirit soared up into the sky.
Killien turned and glared into the cell across the hallway. Lisa sat waiting. She was the last. Her ears were ringing from the six previous shots. The battering ram broke through the wood at the top of the stairs. A deep voice called out from above.
“Federal agents! Put down your weapon!”
In the ten seconds that followed, there would have been plenty of time to shoot Lisa and then himself. But he wanted her left alive. It would look much more convincing to the police if Linda wasn’t the only one.
His work had to continue. It was his destiny. The dark scripture and the necklace were safely hidden away. They would not find them. Only Linda and Killien knew where they were. She was the key to his return.
He gave the trembling girl a smile. He chose to spend the last few moments he had bidding her farewell.
“Goodbye my sweet Lisa. It’s been great fun.”
The FBI was at the bottom of the steps. Killien held the pistol in his mouth. The end of the barrel was hot against his tongue.
A sharp blast tore through his shoulder, sending him reeling to the floor. The pistol disappeared into the shadow of Lisa’s cell. There were three men with rifles over him before he even realized he’d been shot. He was face down on the concrete with a hard boot in the middle of his back.
Others scattered. “Who’s got the weapon? Find the gun now!” a voice called out.
“Secure the area. Get these cells open.”
The handcuffs made a click-click-click sound around the bleeding man’s wrists. The agent looked over from his prisoner. Lisa was pointing the nine-millimeter down at Killien.
“Put the weapon down ma’am. We’re here to help you.”
She kept staring at the monster that had raped and beaten her, the evil man that had forced them to be murderers.
“Please, ma’am. It’s over.”
She lowered the gun and sobbed. Turning it she grasped the barrel and passed it through the bars to the man in the FBI jacket. She sat down and rocked back and forth on her knees until the ambulance came.
She became violent when it was suggested that her and Linda ride together to the hospital. To avoid problems, another ambulance was dispatched.
Killien was taken to the emergency room in an armored van.
The rest were transported in body bags.
7:3
Killien knew that what he’d admitted to Sally would hit her like a train. He knew that she would put the pieces together. He had known that moment he saw her who she was. He’d only been toying with her earlier, forcing her to introduce herself. It had entertained him, seeing if she would lie to him or tell the truth. But that had become boring, and anyway, this was so much better. To watch her eyes as she realized that her own grandmother was part of it. To watch Sally’s world crumble down around her. He smiled watching her faith in goodness pour out of her eyes in salty wet streams.
She saw him glaring at her with that toothy smile, “Fuck you, bastard!”
A howl of laughter escaped him. It was deep and harsh. It filled the whole room. His stare didn’t leave her until she retreated behind the counter, out of his view. She tried hard to cry quietly, in the shadows, so not to provide any more amusement for the demon that had taken over Jack. The rasping laughter continued just the same. She wanted to find to duct tape and cover his mouth. Anything to make him stop. But she was too afraid to approach him. She couldn’t let him see her. She would never let him see her again. If he saw her weakness, she would be forced to see his power. If they were going to have any chance at all of stopping him she was going to have to be very careful.
She hoped he didn’t know too much already. But of course, he did. He knew her and Jack and Linda. He knew everything he needed to know to win the game. He’d had twenty years to ponder it from every angle. He was positive he would soon be the God of men. Looking back into the darkness behind him with a straining neck, he knew exactly who he wanted to consume first.
7:4
Killien’s work for tonight was complete. He could feel it. The body he occupied was no longer giving him any resistance at all. His astral signature was totally changed now. It matched Jack’s perfectly. His right to the flesh now equaled its previous owner. The ritual could now commence. But he knew that there was no time left that night. He knew that even if the body would not expel him, something else was coming for his soul.
He’d been gone too long from his place in the cosmos. It was calling him. He could sense it coming for him. He would have to endure Hell’s punishment one more time. But when its grasp let him go as it always did, his time would come. Tomorrow night he would say a final farewell to the spiraling pain and once again be alive to finish his transcendence.
He grinned up at the spirit floating above, “Thank you Jack, for everything. I’ve got quite a surprise for you tomorrow. You’re gonna love it.”
He managed a crackling laugh before Hell’s grip surrounded him. Jack had a pretty good idea of what Killien meant by a surprise. In one blinding ethereal flash, he was ripped away. Jack followed up through the ceiling and watching him disappear into the sky.
Killien was gone for now. But Jack knew he would be back. They only had one more day to stop him. They only had about twenty hours before the game was over. Jack and Sally both knew that they were losing. Killien now held all of the cards and it would take a miracle for Jack to not only save himself, but the whole world.
copyright ©2002 Brian Holtz
All rights reserved