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by Charles W Jones

  Cody had never experienced passion the way he had tonight. The lovers he had in the past were more interested in being pleasured.

  Tonight, marked how all future partners were judged. He laid on the bed, trying to keep every caress and movement in his mind as clearly as it had happened.

  Belphegor had stayed with him in the bed afterward, longer than Cody had expected. His fingers combed the loose curls of hair on Belphegor’s chest as he laid on his side, looking at the enigma next to him. His hand moved farther down the exquisite physique, under the sheet to the manhood.

  Belphegor’s eyes opened washing the room with blue, a smile brightening his face. Tonight had strengthened the bond between them, keeping Cody at his side, preaching God’s love to the masses around the world.

  He rolled on his side, facing Cody. Their breaths mingled, lips touched. The electricity of their bodies pressed together erupted another fire. However, Belphegor had a service to attend, so he eased away from him.

  Cody’s brow knitted together, wondering why the man was pulling away. His hand desperately grabbed his, squeezing, begging for him not to leave. Belphegor put it to his mouth, kissing it.

  Releasing his hand, Cody slumped back, exhaustion filling him. While dressing, the Fallen Angel watched Cody sleep without worrying about finding an empty bed when he returned. His body became a column of mist tumbling to the floor.

  Hector stood in the hall. Seeing tendrils of smoke snake from under the door, she stepped back, watching it move to the fire escape at the end of the short hallway, then disappear into the night. When it had gone, she returned to the door, pressing her hand against its surface.

  Closing her eyes, she willed herself into the room. Relief and excitement filled her as she opened them, standing inside. She raced to the bed. Cody was in a deep sleep, and matter how she tried to wake him, and he slept on.

  It occurred to her he was an illusion like the night he miraculously had left his apartment to get the tattoo, and he had traveled in the mist with Belphegor; she hadn’t touched him, but now she did, confirming he was real.

  She could enter him, but the idea made her uncomfortable. She had the power to do so, but she’d be doing something so vile to him, and the thought kept her from going forward with it.

  She prayed. I need some help here. I don’t know what to do. Belphegor has succeeded in seducing Cody. I know Cody made a choice, but he was tricked.

  Lucifer was there. A smooth male voice replied.

  Yeah, so. It was only a matter of time. I heard what he told Belphegor. Is it His will?

  You will know when it is time.

  Hector rolled her eyes behind closed lids. What am I supposed to do now?

  “Leave my room if you know what’s good for you, Watcher,” Belphegor’s voice burst from Cody.

  Before Hector had time to react, pressure surrounded her, pushing her away from Cody toward the window. The force turned her to face them, shoving her toward the panes of glass.

  A scream erupted from her, loud and shrill like a siren alerting the world there was danger amok. The momentum quit, stopping her three inches from the window.

  Cody sat up gasping for air. He scanned the pale room. A figure stood near the window, but it wasn’t Belphegor. His teeth clattered with fear. Another ghoul had come, this time not in the theater.

  “Stay away. Mr. Bel will be back any second.”

  The form turned toward him. Brightness poured from the cracks in the creature’s façade. Clumps of hair fell away from its scalp, producing illumination excruciating to see.

  It sputtered from its disintegrating mouth. His brain whirred with what he was viewing. Nothing made sense, he wanted to hide his face, but he had to see everything and try to understand.

  The light made everything in the room look like a black-and-white negative. Shapes drooped, melting together. Air sucked into Cody’s lungs, but he expelled none.

  Nausea brought bile and the few pieces of undigested food in his stomach into his mouth — the breaths he had taken, exhaled with the vomit, shooting it across the room.

  Cody fell backward onto the floor with a thump. Hector rushed to his side; she knew he wasn’t dead as she hadn’t been recalled to Heaven. However, she didn’t know whether he was injured. The human flesh she’d worn had melted, and her true form filled the room. The others with her matched her glory.

  They had to leave the room before Belphegor returned. Unfortunately, the only way to take Cody out of the room was…she shook her head.

  Now that she knew the little part of Belphegor was awakened inside Cody, she had less desire to enter him. Besides, she’d be able to talk with him in the morning and stop him from making the horrible decision; she hopped.

  For now, she’d let him sleep. In the hallway, she stepped back to the wall where Tyler had decided to open the wall to connect the next building, watching the room door and the fire exit.

  * * * *

  “I’ll go,” Jen said. “We need to know what they discussed. Cason can get the information from Hector, and I’ll check on Cody.”

  “Bad idea,” Eli replied. “You’ll be sucked in again before you can bat your eye.”

  Tyler still had a hard time with the fact that an actual Guardian Angel was with him always, and because he didn’t see his, relied on Jen’s description. It weirded him out when Jen spoke of them so freely.

  “You have a better idea?” she said on the verge of shouting. “And wait and see isn’t an option for me.”

  “I agree,” Bergen added. “But you need to be cautious.” A pause, then the child continued, “It’s not only Belphegor you need to worry about. His creation has a nose for you.” Another pause as though Bergen were contemplating whether it was a good idea after all. “Use the side fire escape to get in. It is the safest way in and out if any of them notice.”

  “But the door is locked on the outside. And I didn’t take any keys with me.”

  “Becki will open it for you.”

  “Well it’s settled,” Jen said with a faint smile. Her legs quivered as she stood like they weren’t going along with the plan.

  “I’m going with you,” Tyler spoke up. “You can’t seriously think that going in there alone is a good idea. I can be the lookout.”

  “No!” Bergen said. “He’ll notice you, and you won’t see him coming.”

  Tyler blushed and returned to sit on the sofa.

  “I’ll take her. He hates me anyway, but I have a reason to be there. I run the restaurant, after all.” He glanced at Tyler. “You don’t remember me from school?” His thick mustache bounced up with his boyish grin. Tyler shook his head, and Eli shrugged, continuing, “Let’s get going if we’re gonna do this.”

  “Don’t dawdle,” Nathan said. “I don’t unlock the doors after three.”

  “Me, either,” Eli replied. “We have plenty of time to get her in and out of there. Don’t worry.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof.

  Job 26:5, KJV

  Eli parked under the light attached to the side of the Top Hat above the drive-thru window, providing a circle of cool brightness for the parking lot.

  As she watched cross the street, the beating of her heart quickened while she waited at the corner of the restaurant. The plan was for him to keep watch from across the street, and to be sure Belphegor wasn’t standing vigil at the window; Eli knew the ceremony in his honor hadn’t ended yet but hadn’t shared that information with anyone.

  Once he was on the other side, a slight nod told her to start walking, so they reached the end of the block together.

  She wished he walked at her side, giving her some comfort before she embarked on her task. As they walked deliberately down the street, her eye caught the tavern, and she wanted to do nothing but run inside and get drunk. No one would think her a coward if she aborted the plan with the unknown elements at play inside the Shanley.

 
At the corner, she glanced at Eli who nodded the all clear. The voice screaming danger on her arrival in Shoshoni, once again, was vocal, nagging her to take flight.

  Taking a deep breath, and she willed herself to see this through. Passing the three-foot-high, iron mesh fence circling the stairwell, she surveyed the murk at the basement door.

  A shiver laid its fingers on her, and she had to force her eyes away and keep out of her mind what lurked beyond the aged door.

  Firmly grabbing the rail, she took the first step. Air didn’t want to move from her as she stood, listening for any sign the inhabitants of the basement knew of her presence.

  For the next twelve steps, she paused, and listened, watching the shadowy stairs below; the shadow of the fence stretched web-like lines across them. Not even a breeze brushed trash or dust along the street.

  Once at the top, she searched for Eli across the street. Her heart banged in her chest from the exertion and from panic caused when she didn’t immediately find him pressed against the wall outside the cone of streetlight’s glow. He made no signal Belphegor stood at the window or anything else to make her flee.

  Turning the knob, she was relieved to find Becki had come through and had unlocked the door. She pushed it open with unsteady hands.

  Across the short hall, Hector waited. A hard frown pressed her lips together into a thin white line. Her green radiance was darker than usual, not the bright emerald Jen had seen when she had first met the Angel, streaming across the hall to Jen. Immediately, the Angel’s expression changed; her mouth opened in question but said nothing as Jen placed her finger to her lips.

  The second floor was quiet, giving Jen a chilly welcome. Had it always been this quiet? She had never ventured from the apartment after the guests were settled in their rooms for the night.

  Peering down the long hallway to the left, the door to room three opened a crack. The light in the room angled toward her, but she couldn’t see who or what watched her from inside. Opening more, she saw the open door to the adjoining room.

  Shadows crossed into Wayne’s room, though she saw no one move in the other room. The door pulled open. From her position, there was no more to see than she had seconds before.

  “Hello, Jen,” the cowboy’s drawl said. “Come on in. I’ve missed you.”

  He came into view, standing in front of the adjoining door, wearing his boots, hat, and bolo tie. His erection pointed toward her, a glisten on moisture bubbling from its tip.

  She felt herself smile, wishing she wasn’t enamored. Her nipples tightened with the memory of their encounter, replaying the pleasure and passion they had had.

  His hand beckoned for her to come to him; her attempted resistance was futile. She wanted to feel his cool hands on her warm skin, have him inside her, filling her, taking her to places no man had taken her before. Forgetting why she had returned to the Shanley, she moved toward the open door, watching him rub his hand gently on his manhood.

  “Jen!?” a familiar voice called out, but who was it? “Jen, why are you here?” She tried to turn but remained inanimate. He had heard the voice, too. Both hands fell to his side, no longer reaching for her or fondling his erection.

  The light color of his eyes turned black, and a scowl removed the enticing grin from his lips. Dark veins, below the surface of his skin, ruined his face. The voice continued, “You shouldn’t have come back.”

  Looking over her shoulder, she saw a red-haired woman staring at her. She was familiar. A thin man standing next to her was someone she knew, too.

  In seconds the strange man was next to her, placing his hand on her shoulder. A wave of nausea passed through her. Wayne glared into the hallway. He was no longer the sexy cowboy; his features had become rigid. Darkness filled him. His strong hands had become gnarled joints and long-ragged nails. He took a step toward the door.

  Jen’s heart raced. Turning around, she stumbled, almost falling. Her head swiveled to look behind her; he was crossing the threshold. The sinews beneath his taught flesh writhed with the movement.

  Catching the knob of the door to room four, she found her balance and returned the short distance she’d come. Without glancing back again, she was out the door and clamoring down the metal stairs, a scream ready to dislodge from her throat.

  Before she was halfway down the stairs, Eli had rushed out of the shadow and into the street. When he reached the corner, her feet connected with the sidewalk.

  Howls raged from below. Hands slapped and pounded the door. The residents of the basement were awake and aware of her visit, demanding payment for her trespass; a taste of her flesh for the pleasure she had received for the mere remembrance of laying with Wayne. She had escaped, dissatisfying them. They shrieked their displeasure and desire to have her.

  The melee increased as she ran along the low fence to Eli a short distance away. He grabbed her arm, pulling her to the center of the street and toward the other end of the block.

  Rumbling inside the row of buildings followed their trek; explosions of sounds erupted from the interior. Behind them, glass shattered from the windows of the storefronts, glittering the pavement. Eli increased his speed and was relieved Jen matched his stride.

  The closer they came to his car, the louder the cackles and growls became. The cacophony of destruction mixed with the roar of the denizens, their voices melding into one.

  The small drive-thru window, watching the parking lot, rattled in its frame as Jen and Eli skimmed across the gravel to the car. Both flung open one of the suicide doors on the driver’s side of the car. She plunged into the back, reaching out, once inside, to catch the door and pull it closed.

  Without closing his door, Eli jammed the clutch to the floor and turned the ignition; the old car had always been difficult to start, and he muttered a prayer, hoping to change its record.

  The glass of the drive-thru bowed toward them, stretching beyond what it should. Eli grinned thankfully as the car started at the same moment the bar window vomited shards of glass toward them.

  Eli popped the clutch, the car lurched back, then in a spray of gravel, flung forward to the street. Darkness, darker than the night, reached for the car, trying to take hold of its worn surface. The shrieks and howls turned to a deep growl as they sped onto the unpaved street.

  Wind blasted the car from behind with sand and gravel and trash. In the rearview mirror, Eli watched the cloud of darkness mixing with the debris stirred by the wind.

  Jen had turned to look through the back window. The intensity of what stalked them was incredible. It pushed itself together into a form neither expected; it was taller than the electric poles and wider than the car it chased.

  Eli pressed the gas pedal to the floor, hoping nothing or no one jumped in front of him as he raced down First Street. The car shook with the battering the ground took from beast’s steps. The gap between them closed.

  Three blocks from their destination, he saw the lights through the windows of the house they raced toward. He zoomed past another block, seeing someone standing in the open doorway; it had to be Bergen, no one else inside was as short. In another block, the sparkle of the child’s eyes would glitter the air between them.

  “I’m not stopping,” he yelled back at her, making her look through the mirror. “I’ll slow enough so you won’t get hurt. Run as fast as you can, and don’t look back.”

  A vision of turning to salt popped into Jen’s mind. “What about you?” She choked back tears.

  “It doesn’t want me, not now anyway.”

  Panic permeated her as she realized whatever was after them wasn’t the angry ghosts. Eli slammed on the brakes. She braced her arms against the back of his seat, waiting for the moment she must run into the arms of the dire world outside the car to the safety of the old house on the corner. The ground bounced with the beast’s swift approach. She heard Eli yell ‘Now!’ and the door swung open.

  Before another thought came to her mind, her feet were on the ground, pushing the gravel belo
w them as she moved faster than she imagined ever doing. The storm door opened, inviting her into the safety of the house. Her head pounded with stars flashing behind her skull; she’d never run this hard before.

  Her foot slipped on damp grass, launching her forward. A cry escaped her, expecting her end. On her back, spots of warmth blossomed, spreading toward her legs. The moment she expected to fall, her body righted itself and propelled her through the door.

  The door banged shut behind her as the house moaned and creaked with the tumultuous storm attacking it. Jen fell to the floor, gasping for breath, sobs vibrated the air coming and going from her lungs. She’d made it. She sat up. But what about Eli?

  Chapter Forty

  After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

  Daniel 7:7, KJV

  No one in the house slept the rest of the night; the sounds outside didn’t give them a second of respite. In the morning, the neighbors and the rest of the town would think a thunderstorm had exploded in the night, unaware of the beast who lurked under their noses.

  Bergen looked up from the puzzle on the coffee table with a message from Eli: he’d return after sunrise when the beast had retreated to its lair under the hotel. It wasn’t strong enough to withstand the light of day. Jen was relieved he had made it back to the ranch without incident.

  Doing her best to tell them what she’d seen from the rear window of the car, Jen wasn’t sure her description began to do it justice—it was large, dark and oppressive like a shadow too dense no one was able to see through it.