The Symphony of Death

by Matthew Newson

  I reached out with my darkness and grabbed Alec and pulled him close to me. “Stay behind me.”

  Then I heard ridiculous violin music as Death appeared on the crate to Lucifer’s left.

  “Hello Paul, I must say I admire your handiwork on the Watchers. The pain and suffering you inflicted was truly a work of art. Have you considered coming over to the winning side?”

  “Have you considered you’re not some great composer, but a total narcissist who already lost over two-thousand years ago? We both know the day will come when you put down that violin and pick back up your favored weapon.”

  Death hit a sour note and growled at me as he lowered his violin. His face flashed to a skull.

  Lucifer put out his hands. “You two calm down. I must admit I was more than a little upset at the loss of my Watchers, but as you know, I always have an alternate plan just in case The One gets in the way.”

  “Enough talking,” I yelled out. “I call The Blood of Jesus to come down in this place.”

  Lucifer and Death looked up, ready to make a break for it, but nothing happened.

  Lucifer and Death laughed as the jokes flew my way. “What’s the matter, Moses? Left your staff at home? I guess you won’t be turning water into blood today. Seems like your new power only works in the spirit realm. Looks like The One let you down again.”

  I should’ve known better and tested it in the natural realm before we got there, but no matter, his Blood still covered my palms. Lucifer and Death continued to mock me.

  “I wouldn’t celebrate just yet.” I sent a ball of my darkness, infused with The Blood of Jesus, and hit Death directly in the chest. I launched it through the air so fast, Death didn’t have time to react as he screamed out in pain, and his body began to smolder.

  “I have to return to my domain immediately to neutralize this or I’m done,” Death said and immediately vanished.

  “You were saying, Lucifer?”

  Lucifer didn’t look surprised or the least bit scared by what just happened. “Well, I wasn’t quite expecting that, but I have something you’re not expecting either. David, would you be so kind as to come out and say hello to your old friends?”

  I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when David Willenski appeared on top of the crate to Lucifer’s right. He was dressed in a long white robe like Lucifer, and I knew it really was him and not a demon pretending to be David. Even in death, David was still letting Lucifer use him like a puppet.

  “Is that really David?” Alec asked.

  “Oh yes,” David spoke up. “It is really me. By the way, your dear old daddy said to tell you that you’re still a horrific disappointment to him.”

  “Don’t listen to him, Alec.”

  Alec didn’t say a word but moved closer behind me as I kept one eye on the two pieces of trash before us.

  “You told Lucifer where to find the engines didn’t you, David?”

  “Oh yes,” David smiled.

  “Did Lucifer promise to give you power and authority in Hell for helping him?”

  “He didn’t promise me anything but gave me what I earned during my life. You are now looking at the crowned prince of Hell, second only to Lucifer.”

  I was suddenly surprised by a punch to the face from Lucifer that knocked be into Alec. We were both sent flying back and crashed hard into a shelf full of boxes. I looked up in time to see Lucifer and David by the crates. Lucifer looked at me. “One more piece to go, and then there will be no stopping me.”

  Then, Lucifer, David, and the three crates disappeared before my eyes.

  I turned and picked Alec up to see if he was hurt. He was a little dazed, and nothing was broken. I grabbed him and transported us back to his office.

  “Stay here. I have to go and try to get the portable reactor before Lucifer does.”

  “No way. I’m coming with you.”

  “I can’t risk you getting hurt, Alec.”

  “You’re afraid I’ll get in the way, but I haven’t so far, and besides we are supposed to be doing this together. As I recall it was you who got sucker-punched by Lucifer and not me. This time at least.”

  His words were true, but still angered me. I should have seen that punch long before it landed.

  “Fine, but listen to me. If Lucifer has released David from his eternal punishment, it can only mean he’s become incredibly desperate. Which makes him more deadly than you and I have ever known, and we have to be extremely careful. Now let’s go.”

  I grabbed Alec’s arm, and tapped into the God portal and transported us to Colorado.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Death

  The Second Heaven

  Death’s Domain

  I BURST THROUGH THE door and collapsed hard against the cold rugged stone wall of my home. I barely made it back to my domain due to my weakened state because The Blood of The One had severely damaged my body. As I struggled to breathe, I gazed down at the damage that had been caused by the attack, and found it had completely eaten away my jacket, vest, tie, shirt, and flesh from my torso, and left my rib cage completely exposed. I figured the only thing that kept the damage from being any worse was The Man Wrapped in Darkness was in the natural realm, and The One’s Blood wasn’t as potent since it was mixed with his darkness. If he’d performed that move in the spirit realm, I’d literally be undone, and I would be nothing more than a skeleton man again.

  As I proceeded down the long stone hallway, I cursed myself for letting The Man Wrapped in Darkness hurt me. I knew I needed to be more careful when I was in the natural realm, and I wouldn’t make that mistake a second time.

  “I’ll make him suffer for this. After all, if you take a shot at the king, you best not miss.”

  As I made my way into my inner chamber, I stumbled from my injuries and knocked open an armoire I swore to never open again. The hinges on the door moaned as the door slowly opened, and the call of my old life pulled at my spirit with an increasing force as the door opened wider.

  I’m coming for you. You can’t run from me forever.

  I gathered my strength to stand as my old black cloak and scythe stared me in the face like a parent who had caught their child in the act of defiance. The very sight of them beckoned for me to pick them up once more, and my mind flashed back to memories of my former life I had tried my best to bury and forget. Back to when I was nothing more than a mindless skeleton who traipsed around in that get-up and killed in any way I could. A rock to the head. A sword to the gut. I had the mental competence of a greedy child back then.

  I hated that form. It was so undignified. I never learned what beauty there was to behold when I ended the life of a human. The suffering was my canvas, and the ended life was my paint. It was art form in and of itself to cherish. I remembered when I was enlightened to that fact. Back then, I had stumbled upon the fact of how a multitude of people could die from something as simple as bacteria.

  At that time, I had been making my way across Europe infecting and killing as many as I could, and as fast as I could, until I came across a group of people in a city having a party one evening in a small house. Everyone feared my name back then. One evening, as I entered a small town, the sound of music caught my ear. When I approached the house it came from, I thought it to be another group of people living it up before I ended their lives. Many during that time had parties to partake in every form of debauchery because they feared their end was coming quickly.

  As I entered the room to infect them, scythe in hand, all I saw were people who were not led by their baser instincts at all. They were of great taste and wealth, and each one was elegantly dressed in the trappings of a higher, more sophisticated society. As I went to strike the first poor soul, I found myself to be the one infected with the elegance of the music they played. It spoke to my being in a way no fallen entity, not even Lucifer himself, had ever before. For the first time in my existence I found myself drawn to these creatures known as man in curiosity and wonder of what they could do. These p
eople weren’t devising methods of war or scheming of ways to destroy those who they considered to be their enemies. But they worked together to create something great instead of devising ways to destroy. All throughout my existence I’d never come across people like them, especially a certain individual in the room.

  I stood entranced by the sound of the sweetest young lady with strawberry blond hair and a simple yet elegant pink dress. With her eyes closed, she played her violin flawlessly as if it were an extension of herself. They all flowed with each other so well, that for a moment, my ravenous bloodlust ceased. I found myself to be in full control of my desires and myself for the first time since I came into being. But the young woman was truly extraordinary. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her, and she possessed a level of skill that none of the others had. The longer I listened, the more I desired to hear her and only her play to me. I’d never known peace in my life, and I knew I never would, due to my evil nature. The music she played that night was the closest to it I would ever be able to get.

  I stood safely hidden from the naked eye in the spirit realm as I was mesmerized by the glory she released into the atmosphere around her. I drank it in like a person would a fine wine, and I wanted to savor every moment of what I experienced. At one point she opened her exquisite green eyes and flashed a smile to a young man to her left who played a cello, and he returned a smile and wink. Anyone could see they were clearly in love, and I found their bond to be off-putting, but I continued to listen and watch the girl. However, the longer I stood there the less I wanted to hear the others play, and the angrier I became over the affections the girl had toward the young man.

  This girl was truly magnificent, and it was a travesty for them to play along with her or to even breathe the same air as her. The methodic melody set my body in motion, and I began to dance to the sound of her violin. I was compelled by the joyous noise to move in ways I had never moved before, and as I danced, I touched the others one by one and released the fullness of my gift into their bodies and ended their lives as quietly as possible. I did not want to distract her from the soothing sounds she released. I spared lover boy for last, and the best part was none of them had known what hit them as I gently laid them on the floor.

  I don’t know when it happened, but the music had pulled me from the spirit realm and into the natural. Never had a human or an event had that kind of power over me before. When she finished her song and opened her eyes, I began to applaud her with my bony hands. She took one look at me and the bodies around my feet and screamed.

  She looked at the young man whom she had such a fondness for and knelt beside him. “Connor! Please wake up. Connor!” But the young man had already breathed his last.

  I held my bony hand up and signaled her to stop. “Shh. Please stop yelling. I’m not going to hurt you.” I spoke so unintelligently back then.

  She stood up shaking, but found herself glued to her place on the floor as she held her violin and bow to keep me back.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “I am Death, young one, please don’t let my appearance frighten you. As I said before, I am not here to hurt you.”

  “You killed all my friends. Why? Why did you do that?”

  “I did, but they were playing over you, and they sounded so bad compared to you. But you my dear one, sounded so sweet. Sweeter than anything I have ever heard in my life.”

  “They weren’t playing over me, they were playing with me,” she said.

  I didn’t understand her comment then, and I still don’t fully understand it to this day. As creative as the humans could be, they still operated on a level lower to any spirit being. But that girl and her level of skill was different.

  I looked at the waste of meat at my feet that she called her friends and felt nothing, but when I looked at her with her violin, I felt something. Like a light had come on in my head, and told me I didn’t have to be mindless anymore, but only if I had her music. As she looked around the room her eyes returned repeatedly to the one she called Connor. She wept soft tears as she stood there mortified. I had to do something to help her to forget her surroundings and play for me once more.

  I stepped over Connor and toward the girl. Maybe if she couldn’t see him, she’d stop crying and go back to playing for me.

  She shuffled backward.

  “Will you play another song for me, please?”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m scared.”

  “I won’t hurt you. I promise. Please play me another song.”

  “Please... I can’t.”

  I slammed the butt end of my scythe into the floor. “Play! Play now,” I shouted.

  I would not be denied by a petty human I had the power to kill with a single touch of my finger no matter how lovely I’d thought them to be.

  With her eyes locked on the floor, she continued to shake as she brought her violin to her shoulder and rested her chin on it and began to play. Immediately, the euphoria I felt rushed back, and my feet began to move as they had before.

  Then she hit a sour note.

  I stopped and glared at her.

  She whimpered. “I’m sorry. I’ll... I’ll keep going now.” She continued.

  As I began to slip back into bliss, she hit another sour note, and then another, and then another. My irritation had grown rapidly with each incorrect note until I had my fill of her inadequacy. How could someone who played with such skill and grace regress in a matter of moments to a talentless hack?

  “What is wrong with you? Play as you did before!”

  Fear had completely gripped her as she sobbed. “I can’t.”

  “You can’t or you won’t?”

  “Please! I’m scared. I just want to go home.”

  I was enraged as she backed up to the door and turned to grab the knob.

  I swung my scythe to scare her—to stop her retreat.

  The blade passed through the flesh and bone like a hot knife through butter. She stood still for a moment, then dropped her violin and bow as her head slid off her neck and fell to the floor.

  I cursed myself for doing that. I would never again get to experience her beautiful music. I had scoured Earth to find another one who could play like her, but sadly I never found one.

  She truly was one of a kind, so I picked up her violin and bow and returned to my home. I had my fill of killing for one night, but I still released the plague over several nearby homes as I departed from the natural world.

  When I was back in the seclusion of my home, I attempted to play the young girl’s instrument as she had. I mimicked the hand movements she used, and at first it was all a series of jarring and scratchy sounds with an on-keynote here and there. I became angered, but I forced myself to calm down. I wanted nothing more than to get back the feelings I had experienced when the lovely instrument sang its siren song.

  I focused on what I had seen her do. How she held the violin, and fluidly moved the bow across the strings as she slid her fingers up and down the neck, and after several hours I began to play what the girl had. I played it over and over again to my heart’s content.

  I dwelt upon my experience in that house while I practiced, and when I was done playing, I looked at myself and saw I had taken on the human form. I had flesh over my bones, hair on my head, and eyes in my skull.

  I learned a valuable lesson that day. The power of the instrument allowed me to focus my power and abilities so I could pass for a human being. From that day on, I had walked amongst man freely at times and observed some of the greatest classical musicians that have ever lived.

  I worked hard since that night to refine myself, and I was proud of where I had come from and I wasn’t about to go back.

  I shut the doors that contained the vestiges of my old life. I had done everything in my great power over the years to distance myself from the past, and built myself up in the form of a great composer, to which I was. I would no longer personify the appearance of a skelet
on man in a long black robe who carried a scythe as a weapon in order to harvest the masses to bring them to their final resting place. I needed help to pull on my inner strength to restore my body, and the music I played on that girl’s violin always brought me back from the brink of dawning that robe and picking up the scythe once more.

  You can’t run forever.

  I ignored the voice as I placed my right arm against the wall to assist me. I limped my way to a hidden room in the back of my cave I had carved out on that night all those years ago. I entered the room that only I had ever set foot in and looked at my most prized possession in front of the statue of my greatest inspiration.

  I stared at the young girl’s violin.

  I had several different violins in my possession, but that one was by far my favorite. I took special care of it. Being that it resided with me in the spirit realm, it didn’t age or decay. Then I looked past the instrument at the effigy I made of her which had inspired me to compose magnificent scores of music over the years with each one being greater than the last. I never learned that young girl’s name, in spite of my furious efforts to search it out. When I departed from her home that evening, I infected the rest of the town, and they were all dead when I returned in my new form to find out who she was. It was at that moment I vowed to never to be so impulsive again. That young girl embodied the beauty of the art form that had brought me so much strength and purpose in my life—other than taking the existence of others from them.

  I picked up the violin, began to play, and shook as she had when we met. With each pass of the bow I felt my strength return, and then I became lost in the melody. After some time, I realized I no longer felt weak and vulnerable. I looked at my chest and saw I had been made completely whole again. Even my clothing had returned to its former glory. I carefully placed the violin and bow back on its stand, and lovingly caressed the right side of the stone that made up the girl’s face. That was the only place I got to see my muse, for she must have been a follower of The One. I had searched all of Hell numerous times for her, but she was nowhere to be found.