1:10
Journal entry- November 12, 1971 AD
The group is almost complete. One more member will make seven, not including myself of course. Linda has someone she is going to bring to the ritual tonight. It is a young girl, twenty or so, named Elizabeth. She is the product of an unfortunate childhood involving physical and sexual abuse. She suffers from chronic depression and has attempted suicide on numerous occasions. She sounds perfect.
A confused and tortured mind always leads to a weakened spirit. In that state they are so controllable.
Just so long as we don't get another Robert. What a fiasco that was. I told her his soul was too healthy for it. But, we live and learn.
There shall be no problems such as that tonight. I will make sure of it.
Now it truly begins. Everything up until now has been practice, just rehearsal for the real show. The forbidden scripture tells us that with a circle of seven it can commence. Their pain is a necessary step in my evolution.
I alone hold the secrets of the fallen ones. I am the master of their energy now. God does not stop me. He cannot. He shall sit by helplessly watching as I myself, become him. I will be the ruler that mankind kneels before. The transformation starts in just a few short hours. The ritual, the black communion. This is your body, eat of it. This is your blood, drink of it. This is your soul, I shall swallow it. Not in remembrance of God, but to become God.
Those that would condemn me are fools. Good and evil do not apply here. They are obsolete concepts for the weak. Let them damn me if they will. They shall all die before me. I will consume them. Their eternal power will be mine, and they will cease to exist. Where will their morality be then? It will disappear into the same darkness of nonbeing that they themselves shall occupy.
So come now, my sweet Elizabeth. Come share in the glory of my eternal feast. You play a very important part in my ascendance. You finish the circle. And in the end, you too will become a part of me. But don't worry dear, when that time comes, you'll be dying to go. Few can stomach what you�re about to take part in. Power can be such messy business.
Soon it will be complete. I will then destroy the old god and a new genesis shall unfold.
In the new beginning, God consumed the heavens and the earth.
And it was good.
Oh yes, very good.
1:11
Sally was lying down on the hood of John�s faded Pontiac Firebird. With her back against the windshield, she stared up into the night sky. The low cloud cover only allowed a few stars to be seen. Shivering in the breezy chill of less than twenty degrees she pulled the fuzzy hood of her thick coat over her ears.
Cindy sat on the hood also, with her legs crossed in front of her. The sour look on her reddened face was telling her friend that she was ready to go. Bobby and John were inside the car with the heater on full blast. They�d been ready to go for nearly twenty minutes.
Cindy leaned over, �This cold air is going to dry out my face, Sal. You ready to leave yet?�
Sally�s vision was tightly focused on the brightest star she could find.
�Just a few more minutes,� she grinned, �I like it here.�
Cindy slid over and stepped down to the ground.
�Well I�m fucking freezing,� she chattered out, �I�ll be in the car.�
The vehicle jolted at Cindy�s slammed door. Sally didn�t notice; her mind was a million miles away.
Inside the flittered dot of light in the sky, she imagined her father�s eyes. She remembered what a good man he�d been, when she was very young. They used to have so much fun together. Going to the park, homemade ice cream afternoons, he even played Barbies with her in her room. (Although he told her never to tell anyone about that. He said he had an image to uphold.)
But that was all before her uncle died. His tragedy became her father�s tragedy. The sadness led to the depression. The depression led to the drinking. The drinking led to�well, Sally didn�t like to think about that. She still spent many nights trying not to think about that. Sometimes she was successful, sometimes she wasn�t. But at least she didn�t blame herself anymore. Her self-loathing days were over.
It had been a little girl in fuzzy pink pajamas that had saved her. Sally smiled, remembering the sheet she used to tie around her neck for a cape, pretending that she was a Jedi Knight, master of the force.
Her parents fought frequently, making her feel angry and sad. She spent a lot of evenings at the top of the stairs listening to them yell at each other. At the time she wished she really was a Jedi and could make them stop.
She expected them to get a divorce and they probably would have if her dad hadn�t done what he�d done.
A single tear found its way down Sally�s cheek as a cloud drifted in-between her and her star. She raised a hand and waved goodbye to her father for tonight. It twinkled slightly before fading away completely.
She slid down the cold hood and her feet met the ground. She no longer felt like a ten-year-old at the top of the stars. She could feel the shivering ache in her lower back from lying against the windshield wiper. As the years since her father�s death fell back into her she opened the car door. She leaned down, looking at her friends huddled around the heater vent. She grinned at them, �You guys ready to go or what?�
1:12
Jack found himself awake with the sheet twisted around his legs. Looking up at the ceiling, he noticed a shadow stretched out across the plaster. It looked just like the silhouette of a person. He imagined a face in the darkness. A tree outside the window shook in the breeze, and the shadow man came apart at the waist.
He rolled over onto his side and squinted at the little red numbers shining on top of the dresser. The clock read 12:28 AM. He got up slowly, and went to the bathroom. As he stood at the toilet, the dream he had been having came back to him. It was pretty hazy. He recalled strange images of people running, terrified. He saw a boy, and of course, a giant. He wondered how the woman�s story could have affected him so much.
�Now I�m dreaming about this shit. This is ridiculous.�
He couldn�t get her words out of his head.
The offspring of an angel.
He walked through the darkness down the hallway. He stepped into the spare bedroom and ran his hand down the wall until it came to the light switch. He clicked the light on and closed the door behind him. Squinting in the light, he scanned the room. Everything was just as he had left it a few hours before. Scattered papers on the desk. The computer fan was humming. He and his wife smiled in a picture that hung on the far wall. The closet door was shut, and a large velvet jewelry box lay inside.
He opened the door carefully, tying to make as little noise as possible. He didn�t want Stacey waking up and seeing her present before her birthday. A big cardboard box with a Marlboro logo on the side sat full of books. He kneeled down, felt around the back of the closet, and pulled out the velvet box. Looking at it for a moment, he thought about the lady�s story.
Crazy old bat.
Reaching down, Jack turned the lid open. The stone necklace felt cold in his hands as he lifted it out, but as he placed it around his neck, he decided it was even colder against his bare chest.
It�s so big and gaudy.
He wondered where his wife would ever wear it. But she would love it. Especially after he told her the tale that came with it. The liquid inside swam just as it had done at the store.
A buzzing sound filled Jack�s ears, faint at first, and then louder and louder.
What the hell is that?
He couldn�t tell where it was coming from. It seemed to be all around him. He began to feel hot. His whole body raised in temperature so fast it felt like he might burn up. He could feel the sweat running down his face.
And then the panic.
Jesus Christ.
He was shaking uncontrollably.
Fuck. Got to get out�
And then it started to move. His fingers and toes were feeling cooler and his arms and legs felt hotter. It made its way through him getting hotter as it went, until it all centralized in the middle of his chest.
Jack tried to stand up, but his body was too heavy. He could barely move his fingers.
Oh, god. I can�t�
The heat pushed out of his chest. It felt like swirling water pouring through his skin.
Looking down with wide eyes, he could actually see it escaping him. It was forming into a small silver cloud. Very dim at first, and then it grew slowly brighter until it glowed as if a light bulb were floating in the center of it. Small shimmering bubbles began appearing and then popping inside of it.
This isn�t real. It�s not happening. This is no�
Jack�s vision faded into a dark blur. The warmth was gone from him completely. He was no longer shaking. He felt groggy.
I feel�
Nothing.
His mind, like his sight, drifted into blackness. But the unconsciousness only lasted for a moment. When he awoke, he felt strange. He couldn�t feel the carpet under his knees. The pumping of his heart wasn�t moving his chest. No air was entering his lungs. And yet, he was feeling something. A tingling, a vibration, a�
Something started to come into view. Hazy light, and then a shape, a figure of someone. He watched, as it became clear. In that moment, many things became clear.
The old woman wasn�t crazy after all. Her story was true. What he saw in front of him was the most amazing thing he had ever seen. It was himself, kneeling in front of the open closet, motionless, wearing a stone necklace.
It was his body, and he was no longer inside it.
