Battle of the Soul

by Carl Alves

  Lucas patted him on the shoulder. “Hey, good work.”

  Andy frowned. This didn’t add up.

  They walked toward Monsignor Curran. His face was covered in blood. He had gaping wounds in his chest and abdomen. Although mangled, he looked more alive than he had earlier. He tilted his head toward Andy. “You did well. Kate…has been…exorcised.”

  Andy shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. You don’t look so hot.”

  “I’ll live.”

  Andy helped Monsignor Curran to his feet. “You’re going to need to go to the hospital once we get topside. Asmodeus really worked you over good.”

  “It was necessary…to help Kate.”

  Andy leaned in close to the priest. “Listen, I don’t know what’s happening. My father just disappeared. I never even laid a hand on him.”

  “It’s your good fortune then.”

  Andy sighed in frustration. It certainly didn’t feel like good fortune.

  Lucas helped support Monsignor Curran as they walked toward Kate and Holly.

  Holly went to Andy, hugged him, and kissed him on the cheek. “It’s all over, Andy. I can never thank you enough for helping Kate. I’ll owe you for the rest of my life. Nothing I ever do can repay you for helping her.”

  “You don’t owe me a thing. I would do it all over again without giving it a second thought. The only thing I would do differently is not abandoning your daughter the first time around.”

  Holly shook her head. “Everybody makes mistakes. You’ve more than made up for yours.”

  Andy looked past Holly and locked eyes with Kate. She was not smiling, as if sharing his unease. It was because they shared this bond of possessed and exorcist. The others couldn’t understand what was really happening.

  Andy knelt, and she walked into his arms.

  Kate whispered in his ears. “It’s not over yet. Your father’s still here.”

  Andy nodded. “I know. I can feel his presence.”

  “You have to fight him.”

  “I know.”

  Kate put her arms around his neck. “I hurt all over, but I’ll stay with you so you can finish this. You have to.”

  “Are you sure?” Andy asked.

  Kate nodded.

  “Well, I guess it’s time to leave, my friend,” Lucas said. “How exactly do we go about doing that?”

  Andy lifted Kate into his arms. “What I’ve always done is concentrate on the place I was at before zooming down here, so you need to picture yourself sitting at the kitchen table, holding hands as we had been. Close your eyes and picture it.”

  The three of them closed their eyes. Only he and Kate remained with their eyes open. Slowly Lucas, Holly, and Monsignor Curran dematerialized from the world of Kate’s soul.

  Chapter XXXVIII

  Holly opened her eyes. The room was just as it had been before they left, as if that crazy, unreal battle had never happened.

  Lucas was the next to open his eyes. He smiled. “We’re back.” He glanced at the others. “Well, I guess not all of us.”

  When Monsignor Curran awoke from his slumber, he began coughing violently. Blood spilled from his mouth, running down his chin, and staining his collar.

  Holly gasped. “Oh my God!” This reminded her of what had happened the last time Andy emerged from Kate’s soul, except that Monsignor Curran’s reaction was less extreme, and he seemed more coherent.

  Lucas led him to the bathroom, where he continued to cough up blood.

  Holly rose from the table to check on Monsignor Curran. She glanced at Andy and Kate, who still had their eyes closed, sitting at the table. Why hadn’t they come back yet? The rest of them had awoken within seconds of each other. She frowned, caught in between staying at the table to see what was going on with her daughter and going to the bathroom to make sure Monsignor Curran wasn’t hemorrhaging to death. Hating her indecision, she called out to Lucas. “Kate and Andy still haven’t joined us.”

  “Excuse me?” Lucas asked.

  “My daughter. She’s still with Andy. They haven’t returned. How’s Monsignor Curran holding up?”

  Lucas yelled back at her, “Not well. He needs to go the hospital. He’s spitting up blood. Must have suffered internal injuries.”

  “What should we do?” Holly said.

  “Stay here with them. I’ll take Monsignor Curran to the hospital.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t know where the closest hospital is.”

  “I have a GPS and a computer in the car,” Lucas said. “I’ll bring Elijah. We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry. I don’t think his injuries are nearly as grave as Andy’s. He’ll be fine with some medical treatment.”

  Lucas carried Monsignor Curran out of the bathroom to the front door. “Keep me posted on what happens, okay?”

  Holly nodded. “Sure.”

  After they left, Holly sat at the table and stared at her daughter and the man who had saved her from her misery.

  ***

  Andy carried Kate in his arms. “I’m sorry I had to drag you through this. You should be home.”

  Kate tried to smile as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I know, but you have to fight him. The other monsters were bad, but he’s much worse. I know he’s your father, but you need to kill him.”

  Kate’s frankness spurred him forward. Burn marks covered her body. Her face and torso had been sliced open in too many places to count. He had already replaced her clothes, which looked like rags, but could do nothing about her wounds until they got out of this place. She was the toughest person he had ever met. He owed it to her to see this to the end even though he felt miserable. The last thing he wanted to do was to confront his father. Yeah, he defeated the unholy trio with help from his friends, but his father was a whole different matter.

  Andy wasn’t sure where to go. As it turned out, Andy did not have to go very far. After a few minutes of walking, his father’s massive frame loomed in front of him at a distance like the Berlin Wall.

  Andy gently landed Kate on her feet. “I want you to wait here for me.”

  She began to tremble. “I’m scared. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  “I know, baby. I’m going to do the best I can. I don’t know if it will be good enough, but what choice do I have?”

  Kate hugged him. “I love you, Andy.”

  “I love you too. I gotta go.”

  Kate released him from her grip.

  He felt like a Wild West gunslinger as he approached his father, who appeared downright gleeful.

  His father’s voice was so loud it resonated in his head. “Andy, I’m glad you did not leave, but, then again, I knew you would stay. Today, you have truly become my son.”

  Andy tried to keep his cool, but anger was building inside of him. “Wrong. You might be my father, but I’ll never call you dad. It makes me sick to think that you actually produced me.”

  Andy shot out blasts of blue energy, which his father easily deflected.

  His father put his hands together. “I knew this would not be easy, since your mind has been poisoned by that priest.” He shook his head. “I should have killed him the day you were born. Sometimes mercy is my undoing. But you must realize your purpose, who you are, what you’re meant to accomplish. All that I have been working toward has been for this reunion, for the time that we could work together and dominate both the world below and the world above as father and son.”

  Andy laughed, but it had no humor. “You sure got a funny way of showing it. You tried to have me killed, what, a half dozen times?”

  His father shook his head. “No, no, no. You have it all wrong, my son. I never intended to kill you. That was a test to prove that you are prepared to accept your destiny, that you are ready for greatness. I knew you would prevail as you did, each and every time. You have conquered every obstacle I put in front of you. You have more than shown me your worthiness.”

  Andy shot more blue energy blasts at him, only to see them repelled. His father could spin th
is any way he chose. The bastard had wanted him dead. Andy circled around him, looking for an opening.

  “When you were battling the three demons just now, I could easily have joined the fray and made the situation impossible for you to win, but I had no intention of doing so. I don’t care about Malachai, Baphomet, and Asmodeus. They’re merely pawns. They mean nothing to me. You’re the only one that matters. You are my son. I wanted you to kill them, and feel the power and thirst for vengeance course through your veins.”

  Andy glanced back at Kate, who stood watching, a pained expression on her face.

  “The world is yours for the taking. What you fail to understand is that you are just as powerful in the world above as the world below. You lament that you are weak and useless in what you consider to be the real world yet are so powerful in what you think of as the world of the soul. What you don’t realize is that you are just as powerful in either world. You don’t know this because nobody has taught you. I will teach you. I will show you how to harness your abilities. And when you have harnessed them, how to unleash them. I am limited by my inability to live in your world. You have no such inabilities. Together, we can dominate and change the world as you know it. But we can only accomplish these great things by working together, as father and son. Let’s be honest, your world is a mess. It needs to be recreated through fire and ash. It needs a new order, one that we will provide. I can give you immortality. I can give you everything you have ever wanted. All you must do is join me.”

  Andy nodded, weighing the merits of this offer. “I don’t even know your name?”

  “I’ve had many names. The Prince of Darkness, The Father of Lies, Satan, Lucifer if you please. But for you I have only one that matters to you—father.”

  “That’s a mighty tempting offer. You promise some interesting things, but there’s only one thing I want. To destroy you.” To emphasize his point, Andy conjured a spear and hurled it as his father at lightning speed. He looked in dismay as Lucifer moved with speed that belied his massive frame and easily sidestepped it.

  “Don’t choose this course, my son. I can and will kill you if you leave me no other choice.”

  “I don’t want anything to do with you.” Andy pointed at Kate. “See that little girl. She means more to me than you ever will, and she would be mighty disappointed if I joined you.”

  Andy took three steps and leaped in the air, straight at his father. Lucifer held up his hand just as he did the first time Andy tried to attack him. This time, it didn’t work. Andy felt an initial resistance as if he were swimming in mud. Fighting through it, he was able to connect with a flying knee to Lucifer’s face. His father’s head rocked back.

  Landing on his feet, Andy looked to capture the momentum. He landed numerous punches to Lucifer’s abdomen and a well-placed uppercut to his jaw, staggering him, the first sign that Andy had inflicted some real damage. Andy attempted a spinning back kick on his old man, but he caught Andy’s leg, turned him around, and struck him with an open hand strike that sent Andy flying backward. He landed hard to the ground. It felt like he had just been smashed with a sledgehammer. He tried to regain his footing, but his legs buckled.

  Lucifer wiggled his fingers and sent a shockwave that made Andy flip head over heels several times before landing on the ground, not far from where Kate was standing.

  She ran over to him and cradled his head in her hands. “Anything he can do, you can do better. Believe in yourself just like I believe in you.”

  Andy nodded, stood, and wiggled his fingers. He attempted to send his own shockwave. The air rippled in front of him as a force of great magnitude formed. He directed this to his father. It swept the area, took Lucifer in its grip, and blasted him forward.

  Andy bounded toward him, thought of fire, and formed a heap of flaming rock in his hand. He hurled it, and the molten rock landed on his father’s leg. Lucifer cried in pain and clutched his leg. It was good to see the demonic bastard on the receiving end of some serious discomfort. He conjured another molten clump of rock and threw it at his father. It burned Andy’s hand but he didn’t care. His aim was better this time and it landed on Lucifer’s chest.

  Lucifer howled in pain, got to his feet, and swept it aside, but was still burning. Lucifer then sent a multitude of green blasts from his fingertips. They came too fast, and Andy didn’t have enough time to create a shield. He tried to run to avoid them but wasn’t fast enough. One of the green blasts hit him in the back, paralyzing him instantly. He could not feel his limbs and felt separated from his body. He collapsed into a heap.

  In a daze, he tried to lift his head, but could not even manage that. Andy’s face was firmly planted into the dirt.

  “Andy!” Kate cried. He heard small footsteps. She tugged at his arm. “Andy, you have to get up. Please.”

  He wanted to, but no matter how much he willed his body to move, it would not respond to his command.

  Denser footsteps sounded. When he was finally able to move his head, he saw Lucifer’s massive form towering above him.

  “Leave, Kate,” Andy tried to say, but his voice was barely audible.

  “Leave him alone,” Kate said.

  “And what will you do, little girl?” Lucifer gave her a backhand slap that sent her reeling.

  “No!” Andy cried.

  “Don’t show pity for that girl. It’s a sign of weakness.” Lucifer lifted Andy’s head so that he could see him clearly. “You will join me, my son, or she will die. I will make her death as excruciating as possible. Is that what you want?”

  Andy shook his head. He was starting to gain sensation throughout his body, but would it be enough to launch an attack?

  “I want your answer now, or I will kill her. What will it be?”

  He glanced at Kate, who was unconscious. He told Kate and Holly that if it came to it, he would sacrifice himself for Kate. He was fully prepared to do so, and now was the time.

  “Don’t kill her.” Now that sensation was returning to his body, he only could feel pain. “I’ll join you. I’ll do what you want. Just leave her alone.”

  Lucifer smiled. “You made the right choice, my son. I know that it will take time for you to accept my wisdom and vision. That priest twisted your mind. I have your best interest at heart. After all, I am your father.”

  Andy was able to get to his knees. “Just let me explain this to her.” He crawled over to Kate. “Give me a minute.”

  Lucifer smiled. “Son, we have all of eternity.”

  “Thank you.” On his hands and knees, Andy reached Kate. “Are you awake?”

  Still with her eyes closed, Kate nodded.

  “Have you been awake the whole time?”

  Once more, Kate nodded.

  “Good girl.”

  “Don’t let him win,” Kate whispered, fighting tears. “You can beat your father.”

  “But if I don’t join him, he’ll kill you. I can’t let you die. I’m sorry, Kate. I wish there was another way, but I have to give him what he wants. I tried, baby. I really did.”

  “Please, Andy. You have to beat him.” Kate’s voice held such fervor that it startled him.

  “But I’m not strong enough,” Andy protested.

  “Please, Andy, don’t give up.” Kate broke into a full sob.

  When Kate’s tears landed on his cheek, he felt a rush of adrenaline unlike anything he had ever experienced in his life. He had never felt this alive, this strong. He clenched his fists, feeling more powerful than ever. He could crush anything in his path. Just then he remembered what Lucas had told him earlier. He had a weapon in his arsenal that Lucifer couldn’t match. Love. The love he felt for this little girl and what she felt for him could move mountains.

  Andy leaped to his feet and turned to face his father.

  “Have you made your peace?”

  Andy nodded. “I have. I hope you’ve made your own peace. You’re dead, Lucifer. You just don’t know it yet.” Andy removed the sword he had been keeping in his si
de scabbard. He took a two-handed swing at Lucifer that grazed his massive left bicep.

  Lucifer raised his left palm. Andy felt his father’s massive force lift him off the ground. This time he gained control of himself, did a midair flip, and landed on his feet. Andy sent a wave of fire at Lucifer, ran forward, and kicked him in the jaw just as the flames reached his father. Surrounded in fire that was scorching Andy’s skin, he jumped, landed a front kick that connected to Lucifer’s chin, and then a roundhouse kick while still in mid-air. The combination sent Lucifer falling backward to the ground.

  Not wasting this opportunity and knowing he might not have another chance, he brandished his sword, took two steps, leaped, and plunged it into Lucifer’s mid-section. The result was a howl that could have reverberated through the depths of hell. Removing his sword, he sliced his father from abdomen to breastbone. He then thrust his sword into Lucifer’s black heart.

  Blood came out of his mouth, and smoke billowed from his nose and ears, his body enshrouded in flames. Andy thrust his sword further into Lucifer so that it penetrated his back. Using his sword as leverage, he lifted Lucifer into the air. Lucifer tried to pull out the sword, but Andy smashed the side of Lucifer’s head with his free hand. Lucifer’s body slowly inched its way down the sword, white blood gushing out of his mouth and from the wound created by the sword. Lucifer continued to attempt to wrench himself away from the sword.

  Andy let go of the sword, took a deep breath, and pictured the double bladed axe that Baphomet always favored as his weapon of choice. Moments later, he felt the heavy weight of the axe in his hands. He raised it overhead and roared with a combination of fatigue, rage, bitterness, and hatred, then brought the axe down, cleaving Lucifer’s head with a single swipe.

  Andy sank to his knees. It was over. He actually managed to defeat his father. More importantly, they could never harm Kate again.

  He turned and stared at Kate standing a few feet behind him. She had never left his side. When he was half-way to death and out of hope, she had rescued him from that mental abyss. She walked over and sat next to him cross-legged.