by Tom Clarke
I took another step back, settling into a fighting stance. I could hear Keith and Darrel grabbing Abegg and pulling him out of the way as I brought my hands up inside the Deacons arms.
As the Deacon moved towards me I struck him with my right hand with an upward blow impacting at the base of his jaw just below his ear. The Deacon stumbled under the impact of my strike, I hit him again, this time with the ridge of my open left hand right on his throat.
I rolled my right arm under the Deacon’s left, stepped into his body so my right hip was in contact with his left hip. I rotated hard, throwing the Deacon over my hip and driving him into the ground. He hit hard, letting out a gasp as the wind got knocked out of his body.
As I followed the Deacon’s body to the ground Keith jumped in and put his knee on the Deacon’s back. Keith then grabbed the Deacon’s right wrist and put a handcuff on it. Using the handcuffs as a point of control and leverage for the Deacon’s right hand, Keith grabbed his left hand, brought it behind his back and finished the cuffing technique.
“Mark that Bitch!” Keith yelled as he stepped off of the Deacon.
“Wow” I said looking at Keith, “Where did you get the bracelets?”
“They were in Darrel’s ride” Keith replied.
“I want those back….and sanitized! You thieving punk, you” Darrel chirped.
Keith and I turned to look at Darrel and saw that he had Abegg back on the ground and was covering him with his handgun. Abegg still had a look of confusion and terror on his face.
“Bro I think he’s cool, let’s get him cut loose” I said to. Darrel looked at me, and then at Abegg and said, “Well what do you say pretty boy, are you with us?”
Abegg didn’t answer right away, he was still trying to process what he had just seen. “Hey!” Darrel yelled. “Are you cool or not?”
“Yes” Abegg replied, “I am okay.”
Darrel helped Abegg up off the ground and then cut his hands free. I walked over to Abegg, who was still visibly shaken. “Are you okay?” I asked in a much calmer and polite tone.
“I thought that you were going to murder us” Abegg replied as he massaged his wrists and tried to roll the kinks out of his shoulders.
“Murder you?” I looked back at Keith, and then said, “were Police Officers, we don’t murder people.” I smiled and winked at Abegg, Darrel and Keith both started laughing as they helped brush the dirt off of Abegg.
“Hey, where does that butt nugget think he’s going” Keith said motioning towards Deacon Grergedes.
I looked over and saw the Deacon was almost slithering across the ground towards the old hospital. Darrel walked over and grabbed the Deacon by the handcuffs and stopped his forward motion, he then rolled the Deacon over so he was now in a seated position.
“I am going to enjoy watching them feast on your souls” the Deacon said in an almost guttural tone. I could hear the metallic undertones in his voice that I had heard from the man I had shot in the basement. His tone, it was almost familiar, but at the same time a little unsettling. It must have been unsettling for Darrel as well because he reached down and slapped the Deacon across the back of the head.
I looked back at Abegg and said, “Nico, had you ever seen this guy before you met up with him in New York?”
Abegg took a deep breath and replied, “No I had not, I knew the name, but I had never met him face to face.”
“In fact I did not know what he looked like, until we met at a coffee shop where he was waiting for me with the other two men.”
“So, it’s possible that this is not even the real Deacon Grergedes?” I asked. Abegg could see where I was going with this, and the very idea made him almost physically ill.
“You see Nico” I said, not taking my eyes off the Decan. “We, Keith, Darrel and I, we do undercover work. If there was an organization that we wanted to target and disrupt we would, if possible, insert UC officers into, or at least have them dealing with the organization.”
“Oh God” Abegg muttered as he looked up to the sky. “It’s not possible! It is just not possible that they have followers of theirs in the church!” Abegg said as he started to walk in a circle.
“Why not?” Keith asked. “I mean think about it, they got at least three members of federal law enforcement on their side here in our area, and that’s just the ones we know of! Not to mention that one of them is not just a follower, but one of those things.”
We all turned and looked at the Deacon who was just sitting there smiling at us. “What about this guy?” Darrel said, “is he just a follower, or is he one of those demons?”
Abegg looked at the ground and in an almost defeated tone of voice said, “He said that he had been marked, that means that he is a follower under the influence of a master, if you will. He will have an actual mark, almost like a brand, or a large raised rash on his back between his shoulder blades if he is.”
Darrel leaned over and pulled the back of the Deacon’s shirt open, “Yup, he’s got a shape on his back.”
“Oh my God” Abegg said again as he looked up.
The Deacon started laughing, and then he started yelling, ‘Your God is dead! Your God is dead! We are here and he is coming!”
“Shut that fucker up!” I yelled. Keith reached into Darrel’s SUV and from a gym bag he produced a pair of socks. He then grabbed a role of tape and walked over to the Deacon.
Keith shoved the socks into the Deacon’s mouth and then ran tape over it. The Deacon’s screams became a muffled, garbled, indiscernible noise that slowly dropped off until all we could hear was him trying to breathe through his nose.
“Nico” I said, “we need to know what it is that we are dealing with here, I mean, it’s obvious that plans have been in motion for some time to get their people where they are, but seriously, what the fuck is going on?”
Abegg looked at Keith, Darrel, and I. Then at the Deacon sitting on the ground handcuffed with a sock stuffed in his mouth. Abegg took a deep breath and said, “We are not supposed to talk about this, but circumstances being what they are, I think it is warranted.”
“I think so too” Darrel said.
Abegg started by saying, “We, the church, have been at war, I guess you could say, with these demons, and others for as long as the church has been in existence, before that too I would imagine.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You see Jim, these ‘things’ as you call them are only interested in one thing, power! Power over man, they are evil. They are brought into our plane of existence through rituals involving what we best know as Satan and Devil worship, often by people looking to make a deal for their own power.”
“When they cross over they have no form, as we know it, so they need a host, someone they can possess.”
“How long has this shit been going on?” Keith asked.
“The earliest event that I know of happened in 1527, but I am sure it has been going on much longer than that” Abegg replied.
All three of us just looked at Abegg with a serious look of confusion and disbelief on our faces. Abegg looked at us and said, “You see in 1527 a French ruler with the help of mercenaries sacked Rome. History teaches that this was done in the pursuit of treasure, but that is not the case. You see the French ruler had made a deal with one of these demons and it crossed over, immediately taking control of his body and mind. The demon then using his powers of influence, and the credentials of his new-found body and put together the fighting force and attacked Rome with the intention of killing Pope Clement the 7th.”
“How do you know this?” I asked.
Abegg replied, “It was during this battle to save the Pope that the majority of my order, the Swiss Guard were killed. They gave their lives so the Pope could escape.”
Abegg looked at the Deacon, I could see the disappointment on his face, “They have been among us ever since, moving through our cultures, waging a war against mankind in the only way that they can.”
“Okay” I
said, “Tell me about this ritual to have these things cross over, I understand that it involves a circular spiral pattern.”
“Yes” Abegg answered. “The glyph is used almost as a gateway, it allows them to move from their reality into ours and provides them with power, almost like recharging a battery.”
“What about the protection symbol?” Keith asked.
“It is similar in appearance” Abegg said. “It works in the opposite, it drains their power, makes them weak, it however does not provide a gateway for them to leave through.”
“Wait a second” Darrel asked, “You mean that once one of these things is in our reality they are here for good?”
Abegg replied, “It is my understanding that they need a body to possess in order to interact with us, and in order for them to inhabit a body they must be invited in by the person. You see they can exert influence, but without a body they are formless and their power fades very quickly, what happens to them after that I don’t know.”
Abegg became very serious, “Please understand me when I tell you that they are evil! They manipulate their followers, who are in fact their prey. They feed off of their fears, their emotions like hate and anger, they do everything that they can to bring these emotions out.”
“And when they have taken all they can, they release you from their influence only long enough for you to realize that you are about to be executed in a ritual fashion. They then enjoy that last burst of fear as your head is cut from your body.”
I looked over at the Deacon, he was just smiling, as best as he could with a sock stuffed in his mouth.
“What about these jokers that are under their influence?” I asked.
Abegg took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh, “There is a way to treat them, once the connection between them and the demon is broken. Much like someone who is being fed upon, they need to be closely monitored until their minds have had a chance to recover.”
My thoughts drifted to Danny, and how he had killed himself after we rescued him from the basement. My thoughts then drifted to Stevie, “Nico, what about people that have been possessed?” I asked.
“I am sorry to say that once a demon has taken hold of a person for any length of time there is no saving them. Usually in a last attempt to feed themselves they will destroy the hosts mind, their very soul, as they are leaving the body.”
I looked at Keith and Darrel, I could tell that they both were thinking the same thing that I was, Stevie….SHIT! I suddenly found myself having to come to grips with the fact that this event was now going to cost the lives of two of my friends, Danny and Stevie. Deep down I was hoping that there was going to be a way that we were going to be able to at least try and save Stevie.
I looked back at Keith and Darrel, Keith was walking away with his hands on his head. He and Stevie had been friends, not best friends, but friends and in the law enforcement community that means a lot.
“I am sorry my friends, but the truth is not always easy” Nico said.
“So, what do we do now?” Darrel asked as he put a consoling hand on Keith’s shoulder, “Seriously, what do we do now?”
Nico replied, “If it is true that there are two of these demons working together, then this is something we have never seen before. They must be planning something big.”
I looked at Nico and replied, “Fellas there is something that Cowley said that’s kind of sitting a little odd with me. He said that if there were two of these things then they would first fight it out to settle who’s going to be in charge, get their house in order, and then start moving against anyone who opposed them.”
Darrel looked at me and replied, “Okay, makes sense to me, kind of like a wolf pack, determine the alpha male and go from there.”
“True” I said, “But let’s look at what we are dealing with, infiltrations into not only the DEA, FBI, and DSS, but also apparently into the Vatican.”
“Let’s not forget the LW’s, Desie, and God knows how many other shitheads” Keith said.
“Damn right, look at those idiots at Sylvia’s house” I said.
“Jim what’s your point?” Nico asked.
“I am saying that this shit did not happen overnight! We are looking at some big-time logistics, planning, and the strategic placement of people! This is a larger plan that I’m thinking is past its initial stages and well into the operational phase. I’m saying that they have already worked out who’s going to be in charge, probably some time ago. What we’re seeing is the pieces being put into place for an end game!”
Nico started walking in a circle, mumbling something other than English, Darrel and Keith looked at me, Darrel said, “Well that shit figures, so what do we do?”
“I don’t know” I replied, “Nico what do you think?” Nico looked at me for a second and then said in broken English, “I don’t know.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Keith barked, “You just said that you guys knew all about these fuckers! I mean shit Nico, why does the church keep this shit a secret anyway?”
Nico looked at the three of us and said, “Can you imagine what would happen if we suddenly told the world that demons existed, and that there was a way to summon them into our world. We can barely keep them at bay as it is.”
“He’s right” Darrel said. “If that got out every unstable goofy bastard with a Ouija board would be ordering up their own little friend, we would be over run.”
“Okay, look I have an idea” Keith said. We all stopped and looked at Keith, “Jim, that joker King called you and said that he wanted to meet, right? We are set to go with an undercover, let’s go with an undercover. We just go to put it in motion.”
“Correct” I said.
Keith went on, “Well let’s do the meet. You, me, and Darrel for good measure. We’ll get inside, tank the undercover portion, instigate a gunfight and kill them! If we do it right then the cover element will come storming the place and we can get some extra firepower into the mix.”
“I like that!” Darrel replied.
“Yeah” I said. “That’s not too bad of an idea, maybe we can get close to both of them, King and LW Ripper, maybe even Stevie.”
Nico spoke up, “If you do this it is important that you find the glyph, their power symbol and destroy it! take away their energy source, one of them anyway.”
“Now what do we do with this guy” I said motioning towards the Deacon, who had stopped laughing and was just trying to breath.
“I can call my people, they can email me a picture of Deacon Grergedes and then we can go from there” Nico said.
We all nodded in agreement, knowing if this idiot was the real Deacon Grergedes, it was going to be a solid piece of intelligence. If he was the real Deacon then we could start working on him and see what we could find out about others working not just in the church, but in other venues as well.
As Nico started looking for his phone I walked over and kicked some dirt in the face of the Deacon, “Darrel, you got some pliers in your rig?” I asked.
“Yes, why?” Darrel replied.
“Why don’t you get them, we may have to pull a few teeth, maybe a fingernail or two to get some answers out of laughing Jack here.”
“Jim” Nico said, “I apparently dropped my phone when you guys kidnapped me from the church, can you grab the one from the Deacon so I can call in.”
I looked over at Nico, “What did you just say?”
“The Deacon has his cell phone stuffed into his shirt, can you grab it for me.”
“Oh shit!” Darrel said, “Jim didn’t you search him!”
“I did!” I replied as I pushed the Deacon to the ground and pulled his shirt open.
There it was stuffed into his shirt right near his belt line. I grabbed the cellphone and tossed it to Keith, “Is it on?” I asked.
Keith looked at the phone, “Yeah it’s on, SHIT!” Nico walked over, he could see the concern on our faces, “What’s wrong, here let me have the phone so I call in.”
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nbsp; Keith didn’t give Nico the chance to call, he quickly powered the phone off and then looked at Darrel and I. “I’m sorry fellas, I should have found that, SHIT!” I said.
“What’s wrong?” Nico asked.
“They can ping the phone” I said.
“What does that mean, ping the phone?” Nico asked.
Darrel replied, “It means they can trace the phone to the nearest cell tower it’s communicating with.”
Nico, Darrel, Keith, and I all walked around the corner of the hospital and looked across the street “SHIT!” I yelled as I looked at the large cell tower right across the street from the hospital.
“Come on!” Keith said as he shoved the Deacons phone into his pocket. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”