To this he blatantly refused an answer, brushing an icy finger across the flesh of my cheek, “This is the one great mystery that I shall never share—and that you must discover on your own. A blessing and a tragedy that Marlowe had long sought—but in centuries never found….”
Touching the place where his finger had brushed against the flesh of my face, I was horrified with the revelation. The slow passage of centuries to gather the acquired wisdom of the world and the great beyond, I would have the opportunity to share everything through my writing. But as the years slipped past, I would lose all that I had ever loved. Alone and with nothing but their memories, I would have an eternity to suffer their loss….
I had looked to my grim and pale companion as he, perched silently, stared back at me. I wondered and feared the possibility of what kind of nightmare now truly gazed back at me.
“Is this your true form—shape in the dimension from where you come?” I swallowed hard, suddenly fearing the answer, “Or just how you appear before me?”
“I have been many things--,” An enormous raven now stood atop the desk and stared back with red and burning eyes, “Some that would defy the human imagination and are better left unseen, unknown.” The boy suddenly returned as tilting his head slightly, looked down in apparent defiance. It was a silent challenge to defy his warning, one that I would not dare accept.
“And with the passing of time, stealing all that I have ever known or loved…” I contemplated the curse, “Only you shall remain as a reminder, holding the key to a secret that might set me free.”
“Alone with the ghosts of past memories—,” He whispered in the darkness, “Alone, alone….”
The light suddenly came back on as Caitlin appeared in the open doorway,” Honey—are you alright?”
“Yes—it might have been a power problem--,” I shrugged, “I’ll call an electrician to check the wiring in the morning.”
“Where on earth did you get that thing?” She pointed while slowly approaching my desk, and I had gasped while turning to look! A perched and mounted raven now sat where the demon had once been! It was larger than any that I had ever seen and its feathers were blacker than night! It solemnly gazed as though dreaming, through gleaming and blood red, jeweled eyes….
“It’s the nastiest thing that I have ever seen--,” She grimaced while looking it over, “I hope that you’ll be keeping it in the new building, and not leaving it in here.”
“It was a gift from an old friend--,” Shrugging, I gently took hold of her hand, “Something to inspire my work—and keep me company through the night.” Without realizing what I was doing, I had petted its feathers in silent admiration, withdrawing the hand as a bitter cold bit into my fingers, numbing my arm.
“I’m going back to bed, darling--,” She softly kissed me. Peering back at the bird, she shuddered, “You should name him, something suitable for such a big and ugly old bird.”
“I’ll call him something--,” I thought briefly, “Possibly even give him the name of a demon that I have been working into book four.”
“Are you sure that you should be fooling with things like that?” She was obviously disturbed with the thought, “I mean—just the other day you were explaining the power of names and sound concerning invocation. And although it may be nothing—do you feel as though you should take the chance?”
Oddly enough, the topic had come up just recently and over our evening tea. Rather than trouble her thoughts and dreams with the possibilities, I had shrugged and innocently said, “No, my love—you are absolutely right. I’ll think of something else.”
“Please don’t push yourself too hard—you know what the doctor said about getting more rest.”
“I’ll be coming to bed in a few minutes--,” I promised, “I just have something that I wanted to finish up.”
She had given me that all-knowing look and then, rolling her eyes, smiled, “Sweet dreams, my love—I won’t be holding my breath.”
Blowing her a kiss, I had just laughed, while actually feeling quite bad. With everything that had happened, the construction project and the new book, I had been seriously neglecting her. It had not been anything intentional. I just had a tendency to become utterly lost in my work.
No sooner had she departed and I heard her door close, did the lights flicker, fade and go back out. I knew without looking that the bird had become a demon, which, now silently sitting, peered curiously down.
“How long have you been following me--,” I looked to the thing in the night, “How many times have you appeared in my life, as a boy, some other thing, or that bird?”
“I was once something wet that crawled in the depths of a cave--,” His words were barely audible, “A thing that turned a small boy away from an edge, moments before he dropped into the pit. I was also the bird when a young man tried to drown his woes in spirits. I was an apparition of his beloved by lightning that caused him to abandon self-sympathy, and learn to live again.”
Horrified with the revelation and struggling with doubt, I could only listen. Moving closer, it whispered. Its words, though uttered almost inaudibly, rang like thunder in my heart!
“I called to you when your loved ones departed this world--,” His features softened, the fire in his eyes fading as he spoke, “And came to you when you were truly alone and utterly lost….”
“Demon or angel--,” I choked on my own words, covering my mouth with a trembling hand, “What purpose—for what reason were you always there?”
“We are all instruments of balance in the universe—and even the cursed can become a blessing in time. Singularly we bare little significance, but united present opportunity for change. We were destined to whatever ends, and that is the meaning and purpose of all things….”
There was fear, a hindrance to accept and believe the demon’s claims as sincere as they might sound. I wondered, dreaded that through intricate deception and ulterior motive, he was leading me into a trap. But, as though having through intimate connection heard my thoughts, he drew the linen from the golden globe, and pointing, said, “Place your hands near the stone and to its sides. Do not touch it—gaze deeply, concentrate and seek your own truths.”
I had done this without question. Slowly moving and raising my trembling hands, I peered into the shimmering orb. Even in the darkness it reflected like stars drifting through a golden universe. And then, the sphere became clear and colorless and all else faded. There was a darkness that I had not seen previously, as an image slowly appeared.
The snow fell heavily on a late afternoon upon a vaguely familiar street. The traffic was busy as people did holiday shopping and my heart suddenly grew cold! For there, hurrying along, was Leigh, carrying parcels, as she turned and looked to quickly cross the street!
I had spun toward the demon, but he forced my gaze, “Be still and bear witness to the answers that you seek.”
I watched in absolute horror, with tears flowing, as she stepped from off the walk and into the snow-covered street. As she moved to cross, something had startled her from behind, and turning to look, she had failed to see the oncoming truck! But to my horror, I had not seen the accident, but what had come up from behind her in that final moment!
It was like a shadow darker than all others around, the shape of a woman whom I could not quite make out. There was a crash and screams as people filled the street, circling around what had remained of my beloved Leigh, forever lost ….
“What is this you are showing me?” I was solemnly silenced again. My attention intently focused as the smoke swirled, the globe shimmered and another image formed within. But this time, I had immediately recognized the place. It was the McCreary house and the Duff Glenn… I had seen a vision of two figures running from a hideous, gathering and decaying mass! Being pursued down a darkened hallway, they had narrowly escaped! And then, the pale stones of a marble mausoleum in the full moon light! The expulsion of a demon through a dark portal, and something far older in the depths, angered w
ith the interference. “It was not the demon Amelia that we had awakened and disturbed in that place….”
“You begin to see, understand what comes now--,” The demon whispered, “Witness the truth, the answers to all that you have truly suffered and feared…”
The sphere shimmered in the darkness as though the crystals tuned a frequency from beyond. The smoke clearing once again as the shadows departed and I saw brightness from within. Beneath the dim glow of lights several men worked feverishly in some secret laboratory. In the background were secured aquariums, strange things that moved about in colored liquids. Once more I saw that shadow, bigger than life. Lingering in a dark corner, it had moved forward, slipping into an aquarium, and dissolved into one of those hideous things. Then there was a scene as seen through deep snow and a blinding blizzard. I could make out the forms of several men. They entered the mouth of a cave, depositing several large canisters from out of their backpacks, and released what was within…
“Oh my God—the Hedley mine, it really was some kind of horrible experiment. But there was something else—a dark presence involved….”
The demon had remained silent, motioning for me to continue without a word. As I witnessed the final moments of Sergeant Steve Harris with the insect, there was an explosion and the shadow once more escaped! For reasons unknown, I could feel its hatred for those who had interfered. A silent and overwhelming rage now chilled me to the very bone!
I had intended to turn away, but was once more halted and forced to continue. The shadows dancing, churning like smoke in the crystal, as there appeared another scene. It was a dimly lit kitchen in an old farm house. My heart leaping into my throat as I now recognized the elderly man! It was my uncle Walter as he prepared his evening tea, placing the kettle upon the stove and turning up the flame.
“This simply can’t be….” The words had slipped from my trembling lips, but the demon had only silenced and directed me to observe.
Struggling to watch, as old Walter had sat down on a kitchen chair and prepared to wait as the water boiled, I suddenly became aware of that same shadow which had pursued Leigh on that fateful day. My blood chilled as I stared, almost unable to watch. The vague figure of a woman veiled in shadow, silently slipping up behind the old man, as a hand reached out! This she had passed into his back, bursting from out of his chest! She held a vaporous image of his still-beating heart, which she closed clawed fingers upon, and slowly crushed within her palm! Yet this was no random murder, but a much relished vendetta, revenge for my intrusion and interference at the Duff Glenn and Hedley!
“This has all been intricately tied together the entire time--,” I had whispered more in thought than speaking to anyone, “Right from my first being lost in that cave, to Leigh’s death and my endless pursuit for answers to everything.”
“The web of time can be deceiving--,” The demon agreed, “But becoming aware of the threads is never enough, you must seek to find where they are joined.” And motioning with a finger, he once more pointed to the globe.
As I turned my attention back into the shimmering crystal, I felt my hearth thunder with what I now saw. For there, preparing a dinner for two and setting the table for a guest who would never arrive, was my mother. “Oh God in heaven—please no…..” The tears began flowing as I stared in horror and utter suspension of disbelief.
But the demon never flinching, pointing, insisted that I continue watching, and so I sorrowfully did.
My mother had adjusted her apron, humming a happy tune from her childhood as she had looked up at the kitchen wall clock. I was due to arrive at six, but having forgotten was already on my way into Hedley….
With my heart pounding like a hammer in my breast and the tears freely flowing, I silently watched. She had checked something in the oven and adjusting the temperature on the stove, set things to simmer as she awaited her son… I had watched as she poured hot water into her usual mug and brewed the coffee directly in the glass. Sitting down, she took a freshly baked cookie from a plate, and sighed while looking back up at the clock.
And then the image flashed to a shadow in a telephone booth at a road-side diner on some dark highway. As the figure turned and was caught in the dim light, it was obviously me calling home on that fateful night. Then the scene changed as something like a dark mist had crept from across a darkening street. Like venom it had drifted, a vaporous tentacle that had traveled up the steps to my mother’s home, and slipped beneath the door. I stared aghast as she had moved back to the stove, and unaware of this strange presence, simply checked on her roast.
“Look behind you—mom—oh God, no……” I choked on my own whispered words between the streaming tears, “Get out of there….” I knew that the words had been uttered towards deafened ears, but had suffered to speak them all the same.
The demon, seemingly unmoved by the sentiment, had just silently looked over at me. But there was something within his dimly glowing eyes that suggested a reflection of sympathy.
My eyes firmly fixed upon the globe, I had swallowed my heart back down into my throat, as the vaporous mist had crept down her hall and made its way through the house. Still she sat and innocently nibbled at her cookie, while watching the clock. I should have been there earlier, but oblivious as usual was already far away….
And then it came up from behind her, manifesting into the spectral and barely visible form of a woman. She had no face or figure to speak of, but bore a presence of malice that caused my entire body to suddenly become ice cold. An unspeakable evil, a vengeful nightmare that now stalked and destroyed all that I had ever loved.
And as my mother had sat there while silently watching the old wall clock, that hideous thing had slipped a claw into her back and forever silenced her heart. She stared in wide-eyed disbelief, her glasses falling from off her face. I heard her final breath and saw those loving eyes close for the very last time….
Trembling uncontrollably, I struggled to keep my hands held about the shimmering globe. Somehow sensing, feeling, that this had not been the final event! To my utter horror I now saw a blue Chrysler 300 pull up in front of Scott and Carrie’s rented house! I watched helplessly as Caitlin hurried up the steps, and distracted by a shadow behind her, tripped and stumbled back! I saw the look of terror in Carrie and Scott’s eyes as he had desperately reached out, wailing as she fell!
Caitlin had gone down in slow motion, a shadow passing through her form as it carried away the life of my unborn child!
“God in heaven, have mercy!” I choked, bowing my head while blinded by a flood of tears. But the demon’s bitter cold hand forced my face upward, to look upon the globe once again. As through a burning river of insurmountable grief, I struggled to silently watch.
“The child’s soul was spared and went into grace--,” Mercy now shone in the demon’s pale face, “Though its mortal loss, you will suffer in memory, forever.”
The forms swirled and as I saw my mother’s grave on a cold and dreary day. A great raven had landed upon her headstone, calling a warning that I had not understood. And yet, somehow when that malicious shadow had blinded me during the ensuing storm, something had safely pulled me free of the car.
“It came to you as the beast on the mountain--,” The demon whispered, “And the murdered souls of a thing that came out of the bottom of a lake. It has appeared in many forms and been cast down in every attempt. And it shall never cease from hunting you, or claiming all that you love.”
The crystal now rose into the air and spun faster and faster, as though caught in a magnetic storm! The images coming in flashes of lightning, and then a blizzard of unrelenting snow! In the darkness of an old farm house I witnessed a recent nightmare. As seeing myself kneeling while casting blood from a sliced open palm, pleaded for mercy before God and even the Lords of Hell! It was a prayer in self-sacrifice to save the life and soul of a dear friend.
The shadow had been present there also and had attempted to take my life. It had used a demon and an anc
ient entity as a ruse to confuse all those involved.
But as she had reached out, intending to take my life and very soul, Marlowe and the raven had reappeared in that final moment! As joining together, the evil had been forced back, and we had vanquished her demon and its unspeakable fiend!
The globe now settled slowly back into its place, the lights fading like some distant and swiftly fading dream.
“You are insignificant as are all singular things in this physical life--,” The demon reached out and gently touched my tearful face, “But united we affect the balance of the universe, the positive and negative flows in time. Do you finally see now, understand why she seeks to destroy all that you love?”
“To break my spirit and the trinity that we have formed--,” I slowly nodded, casting my eyes away from the demon and crystal globe, as I quietly said, “It fears the connection that we share, and whatever power this might have over her.”
“Know this--,” He leaned even closer, speaking very quietly and almost nose to nose, “If she should find a weakness—break your will to fight. Not only shall she take your life and all involved, but condemn us all too eternal Hell…..”
“What have I done to deserve this endless punishment and suffering? What unforgiveable sin have I committed as a child, inducing such evil simply by going into that cave?”
“It was not sin or something that you have done--,” The demon grew solemn once again, and staring blankly, said, “But what you shall do and what we have together now become….”
“Tell me, please--,” I turned and clenching my hands together in desperation, pleaded, “Are you a demon or an angel—tell me the truth, please.”
A strange stillness now came over the demon. Thinking quietly, he had gazed deeply into my eyes and whispered in a voice colder than ice, “There is little difference—the defining factor existing only between on whose side you stand…. So, ask yourself this: In accepting our pact, do you fight now out of revenge or righteous intent?”
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