Click to here read "Part 1: Haunted"
Click to here read "Part 2: Guardian"
Chapter 1- Genesis
Peter Summers, C. E. O. of Summers Defense Technology, had no knowledge of any apocalyptic prophesies. When he befriended the District Attorney, he could not control the fact that his children would befriend his own children. By the time his daughter was old enough to start a family of her own, he was already dead and no idea she would ask her childhood friend, the D.A.’s son, to be her first child’s godfather. That godfather had political aspirations and in the not too distant future he will rise to become the President of the United States.
Had Peter Summers known any apocalyptic prophesies he would have known that the antichrist would be raised in a position of power. Should his daughter and son-in-law be killed, custody of their child would go to the only godparent and soon to be leader of the free world. Unfortunately, no one told Peter Summers that this was possible and expediting the occurrence were the minions of Hell. The only people who can stop it from happening are a young priest, a worried mother, and a neophyte angel huddled in an empty house.
Peter’s wife, Elizabeth Summers, died while she was giving birth to Helen. The complications of childbirth are sometimes beyond a doctor’s control but Peter needed peace of mind. As luck would have it the same hospital chaplain present when Edmund was born, Father Abraham O’Quinn, was present. Peter grabbed him by the arm and asked him to pray over Elizabeth. The gravelly voiced priest laid his hands on Elizabeth’s head and uttered an incantation in Latin. Unbeknownst to Peter, Elizabeth was infected with a virus. The virus was not biological in origin but demonic and Abe attempted to exorcise it from her body. He did so successfully before any major damage was done to the baby. Elizabeth, however, was a casualty in this battle between good and evil.
Typically, the actual demon being exorcised cannot be seen by the naked human eye. But Abe saw a young two-year-old Edmund stood with his mouth agape in the doorway. The child’s eyes were wide with trauma, swimming in tears, staring at the space above the lifeless body of his mother. The piercing hum of the EKG brought in the nurses and doctors. Peter held Elizabeth’s hand tightly as a nurse wheeled the infant Helen away. Abe dove towards the door and took Edmund to the hallway.
“That’s no place for a little boy to be,” Abe said to him. There was no response. “Did you see something, boy? Answer me, Edmund.” The boy nodded in the affirmative, unable to cry. While the doctors and nurses did all they could it was too late for Elizabeth Summers. Abe offered to help console the family in their time of need; a clever ruse to observe Edmund’s abilities.
Days grew into months, and months into years. Each test that Abe administered just further proved that Edmund was gifted in the way of spell casting. However, the priest realized the potential of connecting this family with apocalyptic prophesy and vowed to protect them. Edmund had taken a liking to Abe who took the boy under his wing. Abe trained him to hone his skills and took him on regular hunting trips in which the game was not deer but demons.
Years later on a warm spring day, Peter Summers died of a cardiac arrest. In the will, he stipulated that Summers Defense Technologies to be run by the board as he felt his children would not want to run the family business. There were two large sums of money that was assumed to go to his two children. One went to Helen, and the other went to Helen’s fiancé, Paul. Edmund was inconsolable and would not listen to Abe who reasoned that this was Peter’s way of accepting his son joining the clergy. The bitter Edmund ran out of the lawyer’s office, his eyes red and wet with tears.
Chapter 2- Ordo Sphaerae Tertius
“I almost forgot that you wanted to be a priest at one time, Ed,” Helen added as she looked slowly around the room. Her breath was shallow as she saw John shuffling the pages of the book and Edmund arranging whatever it was he was arranging. The sounds of rustling paper, the crackling fire, even the subtle fall of drizzling water on the street became deafening to her.
“Can we, please, stop!?! Please!”Helen finally screamed. John and Edmund stood still staring at each other in confusion.
“What’s wrong?” Edmund asked.
“How can any of this be happening? This is impossible!” Helen looked at the others as if they were total strangers. “Why are you not freaked out by any of this, Ed? This doesn’t make any sense!” Edmund sighed knowing that certain secrets had to be revealed.
“I actually finished my training to be a priest, Helen,” Edmund finally said. “It was supposed to be kept under covers. I was supposed to be Abe’s replacement.”
“That doesn’t actually answer anything, Ed,” John commented. Edmund gestured to Abe’s journal.
“All of this goes way back to even before I was born. I was being trained as a member of the Order of the Third Sphere. That’s what Ordo Sphaerae Tertius, the brand on that notebook, means. It’s Latin; a reference to the hierarchy of angels. Legend has it that an Angel started the order so no one’s actually sure how much the papacy knows of our existence. We have been around for centuries. It’s a secret society; a sub-sect of the Vatican and we specialize on the macabre, performing exorcisms and hunting demons and the like.
“Abe was on a hunting mission when he first met dad. He posed as the hospital chaplain and informally baptized me in the nursery to avoid some sort of kidnapping. It was demons, he found out later. Apparently, it was crucial that they take me, particularly not baptized. I’m still not exactly sure why.”
“I don’t believe this,” Helen said.
“I wish I could tell you I’m lying,” Edmund answered, “I really do. I wish I could take all this back and change it to the way things were before. I’m so sorry about Reuben, about Paul, and Abe.”
“Ed, that wasn’t your fault,” Helen tried to comfort him. John refused to let emotion bleed through to his rugged face.
Chapter 3- Edmund the Pharisee
The only luxury of becoming a member of The Order of the Third Sphere was the anonymity. Edmund and Abe travelled to every corner of the globe without appearing to be traditional clergymen. Their last mission together found them in Barbados to follow and closely watch the newlyweds, Paul and Helen. It had been delegated amongst the two priests that young Edmund would be the one to follow the honeymooners, unnoticed of course. Meanwhile, Abe was to keep a watch for any indication of demonic activity. The older priest already had suspicions that an incubus set its eyes on possessing Paul.
The clear sky glowed in the sun baked warmth of the beach for all but one hour when clouds ominously gathered over the Wesson’s hotel. Lightning shot in all directions and a fierce downpour ensued before instantaneously clearing up again. The happy tourists, including Paul and Helen, looked up at the sky laughing at nature’s oddities. Their clothes stuck to them, wet with rainwater and sweat. Abe and Edmund looked at each other sternly, the only two faces in the area without smiles on them.
“Strange weather,” Edmund joked.
“Whatever is here, it isn’t very subtle,” Abe responded.
“It’s definitely coming for Paul and Helen. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a weather omen localize itself like that. I wonder why that is.”
“One possibility is that the incubus that’s after Paul is getting cocky,” Abe chuckled, “as if it’s ever that simple.”
“Or we’re ever that lucky. What’s another explanation?”
“Worst case scenario is that it was marking the hotel with that freak lightning storm of an omen.”
“Why would a sex demon do that?”
“Maybe it’s calling for backup and flagging where their big target is.”
“Perfect,” Edmund sighed in frustration.
Each night Edmund would sit in the stairwell just outside the door that led to the floor leading to the honeymoon suite as Abe patrolled the lobby. He was armed with holy water, a book of exorcism rituals, and other blessed charms ready to use them at a moment’s notice should an incubus be in the same building let alone the same floor. For the first two days nothing happened. It was completely quiet save for the few parties being thrown in the hotel that echoed through the cavernous concrete and steel stairwell. But the air was more humid than usual and somehow the stairs were colder on the third night.
The otherwise dimly lit stairway was bathed in a brilliant light that stirred uneasiness in Edmund more so than fear. An eerie black glow seemed to outline a winged man standing directly in front of Edmund who clutched his bottle of holy water tightly.
“You’ll find that that is of no use to me here,” the voice said. Still Edmund refused to listen and threw some holy water at the mysterious being. There was no affect.
“I’m dreaming?” Edmund asked. “But that means you’re an angel. Who are you?”
“Think about it Father Summers. You’re here hunting demons of the flesh. You know I’m an angel. I think you can figure it out for yourself.”
“Asmodeus? Why are you here? You leave my sister and her husband alone!”
“I’m afraid you’re too late,” Asmodeus answered. “You’ve been asleep for almost an hour now. I’ve already infected Paul.”
“You’re going to kill me!”
“I’m not going to kill you. You might prove useful to me in the future.”
“You’re pretty naïve if you think I’m just going to hand over my body as your vessel!”
“You priests, especially the ones in that silly little Order of the Third Sphere with your bottles of holy water. You think you know what we’re all about. You dedicate yourselves to a God who doesn’t care enough to show up in your time of need.”
“Shut up! I’m going to figure out a way to wake up!” Edmund ran to the door but it was locked.
“You’ve dedicated your life to upholding the laws of the Church. Ever since you were a small child you obediently followed all the rules, never stirred the pot for your selfish gains, even trained with Father O’Quinn to become a demon hunter to protect your little sister. I was like you once. And I was cast out of paradise much like you were cut from your father’s love just like you were cut from his will. It hurts. I understand.”
Edmund leapt down the flight of stairs to the next floor and swung the door open. Instead of a hallway of more hotel rooms, he was in his father’s office. He took a seat in the chair almost by instinct. The leather seat in front of him turned around to reveal his father sitting in it. Tears were in Edmund’s eyes.
“You’re a disappointment, son,” Peter’s voice boomed and echoed, “It’s one thing to be a priest. I can forgive you for robbing me of a grandson bearing the proud Summers name, but… You’re telling me you see ghosts and demons.”
“Dad,” Edmund choked on his words. The words echoed from true memories and took shape in this nightmare that Asmodeus had created. Suddenly Edmund was in a straight jacket. “I trusted you, Dad. I trusted you with my secret abilities and this is how you repay a good son? Your only son?”
The jacket grew tighter and tighter. Edmund couldn’t breathe and began to struggle in his chair. He fell to the floor which crumbled beneath him and fell away into an infinite abyss. As he fell he saw his father hugging Paul and faintly heard his father say, “I’ve always wanted a son like you.” Edmund awoke with a jolt and found himself tucked into the corner of the stairwell, still clutching tightly to his bottle of holy water.
Abe took a seat in the lobby assuring himself that it was too late in the night for anything to make their move. Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, a screeching siren wailed outside and grew louder with each passing second finally stopping in front of the main entrance. Two paramedics filed out of the van, the lights blinking intense reds and whites across Abe’s concerned face. As they ran to the front desk, Edmund came out of the stairway entrance and sat down besides Abe.
“Why aren’t you at your post, son?” Abe asked. The paramedics rushed a gurney up the stairway.
“Something happened.”
“What is it? Was it the incubus?”
“Yes.”
“Did you stop it?”
“I was too late, Abe.”
“I thought you said you stopped it.”
“It won’t hurt anyone anymore. There was something else up there. It was something we never anticipated.”
“So there was something big coming?”
“Asmodeus.”
“An angel? How did you get rid of it?”
“It put me to sleep and that’s when it got to Paul,” Edmund’s breath shivered past his lips.
“Did you exorcise it? Is that how you took care of it?” Abe asked sternly, “Answer me, son.”
“You did the exact same thing to my mother and even that wasn’t enough.”
“How did you take care of Paul, son?” Abe’s eyebrows furrowed a worried wrinkle on his forehead. The elevator doors opened and the paramedics wheeled out the gurney carrying a body. Nobody could see who it was. Helen’s uncontrollable weeping can be heard echoing in the elevator following the paramedics. Abe could feel a chill strike down the length of his spine as he turned towards Edmund.
“Did I ever tell you exactly what happened when I told my father about my abilities? He wanted to have me committed. It ripped my heart out when he said I was a political liability to the family name. You were right, I should have just told him I wanted to be a priest and leave it at that.”
“Son, is this about the will? Are you still angry about that?”
“Did you know he was actually proud of me when I told him I wanted to go into the priesthood? But I had to be greedy and tell him everything and now I’m paying for it.”
“We spent a whole day talking about the vows and the process to becoming a priest. He decided to leave you out of his will because he felt it would interfere with your vow of poverty.”
“Please, Abe!” Edmund said firmly. “Don’t defend him, not anymore. I was the good son and I got screwed over. I get that. I just don’t understand how or why he saw Paul as more of a son than me; his own flesh and blood.”
“Edmund, just have a drink and calm down,” Abe gave him some water. Edmund sipped but didn’t react to the holy water so he wasn’t possessed himself. “Obviously, you went through a lot just now. Walk me through, son. Tell me exactly what happened.”
“I need some air, Abe. It’s the point of no return, and I just need some fresh air,” Edmund stood straight up and walked outside, out of sight of Abe’s wise old eyes. Edmund leaned against the wall in an alley and began to cry.
“Looks like you didn’t even need me,” Asmodeus said startling the young priest.
“Leave me alone.”
“I’ll do you one better. I can make you disappear from the face of the earth. No one will be able to find you no matter what charms or spells the old man digs up.”
“What do you want?”
“You know what I want, Father Summers,” Asmodeus grinned.
“Okay,” Edmund whispered in his quaking breath, “okay.”
Chapter 4- Hidden Talents
“I have to start on this,” Edmund was distant when he took out a board with strange symbols written all over it. Along with the board there was piece of wood crudely carved into the shape of a heart. He laid it out in front of him and took out the leaves in the small nylon bag and arranged them neatly in a row as if he were preparing to bring together some strange recipe. Helen and John watched in wonderment and awe as Edmund seemed to be moving purely on instinct.
“John, if you please,” Edmund said without missing a beat, “Could you keep looking through that journal? I never know how much information this particular method is going to give me. Abe will most likely have new information in there since I’ve last seen it.”
“Sure,” John opened the book, “By the way, I saw notes up on Abe’s wall. One of them had Asmodeus’ name on it along with two others: Leviathan and Berith.”
“Angels,” Edmund answered succinctly, “Fallen angels like Lucifer; each with their own specialties. Leviathan was a seraph who spreads heresies and Berith, a cherub, drives people to commit homicides. Asmodeus, also a seraph, specialized in lust and all do their jobs expertly in the name of corrupting as many innocent souls as possible. If Abe is right about those suspects, and he usually is, then we’ve got one hell of a battle ahead of us.”
“I have a question,” John said as his eyes quickly scanned the notebook, “What’s a cambion? You mentioned it, kept saying that’s what Reuben was, when you were possessed.”
“Well, since you asked,” Edmund paused, “I’m a cambion and so is Helen and in all likelihood, she passed that genetic curse to Reuben. It is a hybrid human and demon, more specifically, a sex demon which happens to be a specialty of Asmodeus. It’s the result of a human woman and an incubus or a human man and a succubus.”
“Paul was an incubus?” Helen asked.
“Abe found out he may have been infected in some way by Asmodeus on the genetic level so Paul would have no idea if he was. But we also know that Asmodeus infected mom’s DNA as well. So Reuben is technically half human and half… whatever a succubus and incubus make. But it’s also possible that he’s just a very powerful cambion.”
“And what does that mean?” John asked.
“Nothing good,” Edmund replied. “Helen can you get me a piece of paper and a pen? It’s funny. All cambions have special abilities. Mine was a penchant for spells and witchcraft, much like Merlin who was also a cambion by the way. But we never found out what Helen’s gift was.” She ran and got the items for her brother trying to pretend her premonition dreams didn’t count as a gift. Edmund took the bottle of water that was in the satchel and sprinkles them on the other items.
“This is a talking board,” Edmund explained, “It works a lot like a Ouija board but a whole lot more effective. This heart shaped slab is a planchette and will literally spell out something, hopefully useful. If random spirits are watching what’s going on, then they may offer some information. John, are you done with that holy fire?”
“By all means, Ed,” John answered as if Edmund were asking to finish his leftovers. Edmund whispered an incantation in some foreign or dead tongue and one by one threw the leaves into the fire. Slowly, the fire consumed them and it created thin white ribbons of smoke dragging orange sparks up the chimney. When all leaves were burnt to ash, Edmund closed his eyes and whispered something to the planchette.
“Get out of the way of the fireplace,” Edmund instructed and they followed. The house began to shake, engulfed by a wind that seemed to isolate itself around the house and none other on the street. The gales grew into a concentrated torrent that charged straight down the chimney blowing the fire out. Wind seemed to hover over the talking board and take control of the planchette which shook violently before darting back and forth on the board. John and Helen were frightened but Edmund was writing down something, keeping track of which characters the heart shaped slap landed. Suddenly the wind calmed and the house was no longer shaking.
“What did it say?” John asked, excited and nervous.
“’Baptized in blood,’” Edmund responded blankly, “Unfortunately, I have no idea what that means.”
“Actually, I think there’s something in here about a sanguine christening ritual but it involves end-of- the-world type stuff. It mentions serpents and beasts, a false prophet, and--”
“The antichrist?” Edmund responded as a question but knew it was the answer. “Abe had been doing research on it the last time I saw him. All of those things are most likely going to be derived from cambions. Go ahead and read it.”
“It says, ‘Original sin is wiped when baptized in holy water and/or chrism (holy oil), but is bolstered when the person is bathed in the blood of their mother. The ritual must be performed on hallowed ground. For it to be fully effective, the ungodly act must be committed by three important beings that specialize in wantonness, bloodlust, and the ritual itself.’ That’s some pretty gruesome stuff.”
“It would explain why Abe suspects those three angels though. This stuff is right up their alley. In fact, I’m pretty sure that Leviathan might be the one possessing Abe now that I think about it. I guess that’s why those demons wanted me and it explains why Abe’s baptism scared them off. Unfortunately, ‘hallowed ground’ can mean anything from a church to a synagogue to a cemetery.” Edmund responded deep in thought.
“I might have an answer,” Helen spoke up, “I didn’t want to say anything when I was younger because everyone would think I was crazy. But I have dreams.”
“Did you have one about the location?” Edmund asked.
“Just before John put that stuff in my eyes I was out cold and I remember dreaming about a church. All of us were just outside a small church with a small steeple, but there was no name. At least, I don’t remember it.” Helen gripped her blouse tightly; nervous and relieved that she was not crazy.
“That’s okay,” Edmund reassured her, “Was there anything off putting about the dream?”
“John took out a bible and started writing in it. I think you, Ed, were in a tree. It looked like an olive tree but I could be wrong. And I was holding some sort of staff. Does that mean anything?”
“If John is becoming an angel, then writing in the bible would mean—Matthew!”
“What?” John was confused.
“Each writer of the four gospels is attributed with a symbol. Saint Matthew’s symbol is the angel. So the vision of you writing in the bible means the church we’re looking for might have to do with the Gospel of Saint Matthew. The olive tree is a bit perplexing. It could mean anything. Unless… of course! Helen’s staff was probably a pilgrim’s staff! And then there’s the olive branch and the Gospel of Matthew!”
“Care to fill us in, Ed?” John asked, still confused.
“John, I need you to look up any churches in the area named after Saint Barnabas! The staff, olive branch and Gospel of Matthew are all attributes of Saint Barnabas! That’s the church where we need to be! They will have taken Reuben there. I know it!”
“How do you know they’re still in the area?” John asked as he took out his cell phone.
“Because they still need Helen and they wouldn’t risk being trapped by someone else in The Order by going somewhere on the other side of the planet.”
“Got it!” John exclaimed as he held out the results displayed on his cell phone. “The only Saint Barnabas church within fifty miles of here is over on Donner Street. What’s the plan?”
No comments:
Post a Comment