Divinity: The Gathering: Book One

by Susan Reid

  I then turned to look back at Professor Phillips, wondering if he had seen it yet.

  He had and an even bigger look of alarm and confusion came over his face.

  “How in the world?” he asked. His expression turned to shock as he stood up, about to round his desk in order to investigate the reasoning behind why his ruler was sticking out of the wall.

  “I got it.” I said as I reached up and grabbed the end of it. I grunted in my attempt at trying to pull and wriggle it free. It was in there good. I twisted and pulled backwards, all the way up on my tip-toes with all my strength to try to remove it, but it wouldn’t even budge.

  “No, no I’ve got it; you’ll hurt yourself. How bizarre…” He said as he came over to stand beside me. I moved aside to let him take it while rubbing the pinched indentations in my palms that had been imprinted by my grip on the ruler.

  It took him a small amount of effort too, and once he removed it; he stood and turned it over in his hands as if it were some foreign object and then gaped at the gash in the wall, stupefied. I wasn’t about to offer any explanation, unless he thought I did it.

  I hoped he didn’t think I did it.

  I couldn’t have.

  He finally snapped out of his silent wonder, “Why are you here Miss Roberts?” he ultimately asked me then as if he had even forgotten I had been standing next to him too.

  Huh? He didn’t remember anything?

  “You said you wanted to talk to me about what we discussed in class and my paper.” I replied with a raised brow.

  He looked confused as he examined the deep gash in the wall again and then ran a finger over it, still perplexed.

  “Um, yes but perhaps you can come back by tomorrow. I’m feeling a little tired right now.” He sounded winded as he pinched the bridge of his nose and sniffed.

  “Do you want me to get or call someone for you?” I asked.

  “No, no, I’ll be alright. It’s just a sudden migraine is all,” He waved off with a sigh as he moved awkwardly back over to his desk.

  He looked lost and distraught as he sucked in a ragged breath and sat back down in his chair.

  “Okay, well rest and relax and take care then.” I finally said, and I wasted no time gathering my things again and making for the door.

  “Miss Roberts...” Professor Phillips blurted out as if he suddenly remembered something.

  I tensed and turned my head around to face him with wide eyes, my hand firmly gripping on the knob.

  He was smiling, a genuinely real expression of gratitude, and I wasn’t sure if I should go ahead and bolt or grab something for a makeshift weapon.

  “Yes?” I replied.

  “Thank you for asking.” He then said with a curt nod.

  That was both weird and unexpected, but his face held sincerity to match his tone.

  “Sure.” I said quickly while turning the doorknob once again.

  I took note that it had turned with ease this time, apparently having never been locked in the first place.

  I found an empty concrete bench, still in shock. I needed to take a moment to think while I waited for Joel in the smaller courtyard facing the parking lot next to an oversized street clock.

  I was early, but that was fine because it allowed me more time to digest and ruminate over what had just happened. I was still in disbelief and encumbered by what felt like a heavy weight of dread settling over me. In some ways, it was closely connected to my dream last night, which further had me spooked and terrified.

  This hadn’t been a dream though.

  I had actually been attacked— physically by a dark shadow, and it could have easily hurt me or worse. I wondered why the shadow hadn’t tried to possess me though. Instead, it spoke to me.

  I never thought they could do that either until now. What had it been talking about in regard to ‘Him having no patience or mercy'? Who and why did the shadows want me? How come they were never this bold before? Was it because all of those dreams really were trying to tell me something after all? Maybe they were just trying to put fear in me since nothing else had worked up to this point. I had managed to survive, endure and escape all of their attempts in the past, so they were trying a different more direct tactic and so far, it was working.

  The notification melody beeped on my phone, and I glanced at it not even realizing earlier when I had looked at it, that there had been an apparent missed call and a voicemail left from the Hospice too.

  It was Joel, texting me that he was on his way. There were several other notifications, that friends had posted statuses on their face book pages. I hadn’t logged on in ages let alone wondered why I even signed up for a page anyway.

  I tapped the voicemail icon on my screen as it dialed into my voicemail box, and I waited for the automated voice to prompt me to enter my password followed by the pound sign.

  It was Lenell voice. She was the head of administration at the Hospice where I volunteered three days a week. It was located about ten miles outside of the city limits.

  I had started doing volunteer work after spending my grandmothers last few weeks with her at a Hospice back in Florida. It was an amazing and humbling experience to know that even simply sitting with someone, reading a book or talking to them brought them the peace and comfort they needed in their final days or hours.

  No one should ever have to die alone.

  I know that with barely any family left myself; it was my own biggest fear.

  It meant so much not just to the people who were dying, but it gave solace to me as well. So once I moved to Indiana and started college, I sought out the closest Hospice I could find and signed up to volunteer.

  Between the hospice and spending weekends as an assistant gymnastics coach at the local YMCA, my schedule remained pretty full and busy, and it was just the way I liked it. It prevented me from dwelling too much on myself and keeping me from picking up and carrying around the pity pot filled with my own worries and fears.

  Lenell’s hearty voice came through asking if I could call her back to see if I could come in an hour earlier this evening at four instead of five because two of the regular staff nurses were out sick today.

  I started to dial the number of the hospice after hanging up from voicemail. I had my phone to my ear, listening to it ring twice, before someone other than Lenell picked up. That’s when I got an eerie static electric sensation prickling across my skin again, and I instantly stiffened and looked up, scanning the area around me. There was no one and nothing pertinent that I could see next to or even near me. A handful of students were passing back and forth, but that was it.

  “Serenity Lake Hospice this is Terrie can I help you?” The voice came through— sounding distant to me at first.

  “Uh…hi Terrie, is Lenell there?” I asked as I panned the entire courtyard and the vicinity around me again.

  The sensation was growing more prominent. I could even feel the soft charge of static near my ears now that had my hair standing and floating on end.

  “She’s away from the desk at the moment may I take a message?”

  “If you could just let her know Star called her back, and that I got her message. I can and will be there at about four.” I told her.

  “Star? Hi honey, I didn’t recognize your voice for a minute there. I sure will let her know, and we’ll see you tonight. Thank you for helping out.” Terrie replied.

  “Sure no problem, see you then, bye.” I said.

  I didn’t even hear Terrie say good-bye before tapping the call end icon.

  The static in the air was strongest to my right, so I turned to search for the source or cause near the set of curving stone steps that led up to the entrance to the Eastern Hall’s metal double doors--- and it was then that I could see…something.

  It was a definite form, a human shape I think, but I wasn’t so sure because it was big…taller than a normal person, and it was outlined by a shimmery almost gossamer lining.

  My mouth fell open slightly as I stood
up and squinted…trying to make out exactly what I was seeing. The outline shifted just as I took a step towards it. I raised a brow and glanced around, wondering if anyone else was seeing this, wondering if it were a trick of sunlight or something like a mirage. No, no one noticed it, but they did steal glances at me as if I was some sort of weirdo or simply crazy…the usual looks I got at times.

  Though it was a chilly morning, the sun still shone brightly in a cloudless sky creating prisms of light when it hit the windows, the glistening bushes and patches of wet areas along the pavement from the overnight lingering dew.

  I held the gossamer outlined figure with my eyes for a long time where it stood until it finally began to move again…this time towards the left. I followed it with my eyes.

  “Hey, sorry I’m running late. I’m starving, are you ready?” Joel’s voice pulled me away from my entranced gaze.

  I didn’t even hear him walk up.

  I reluctantly tore my gaze from the mysterious anomaly to look at him and then smiled with relief. Seeing his handsome face made me feel normal again, despite my momentary perplexing vision and what happened not long ago in Professor Phillips office.

  Joel wasn’t wearing his glasses now, and though he was always cute to me, he was even more of a hottie without them on. I often wondered why he didn’t bother putting his contacts in all the time. He was average in build and not that tall though taller than me, and he had smooth skin the perfect tanned color of light caramel. He was of mixed races like me too, but he was both Asian and black; Korean to be more exact. His exotic look, along with his silky black, curly hair and dark-brown almond-shaped eyes under his dark brows and lashes— made him absolutely gorgeous.

  We met in during our freshman year at new student orientation. Being unknown to this city without any friends was bad enough, and I had gotten lost not long after the tour had ended. He had been part of the tour too, and he immediately volunteered to be my guide. I thought he was just hitting on me at the time, as several guys had already tried earlier, but there was something personable about Joel that I gravitated towards without question. We went out for lunch later that afternoon, ended up exchanging numbers and then discovered that we would both be staying on campus. We established our friendship from the very beginning on that day.

  I was probably an idiot for not taking the friendship to the next level because being the intellectual type and so considerate and caring, he had a lot of friends who were female and girls asking him out all the time. Somehow we ended up in the friend range, and I’m sure it was because of me so that’s where we stayed. I mean, he never brought it up but sometimes in the back of my mind, I did wonder if he was content with just being friends too.

  “You weren’t late; I was early, and I’m ready to eat.” I nodded with a smile as I turned back to the where the gossamer outline had been, but it was gone now. I scanned the parking lot and the immediate area around us, but it was out of sight as if it had never been there to begin with.

  I chalked it up to be nothing…at least nothing meaning any harm.

  IV: Cam’ael:

  Out of habit, I traced a finger where the recent cut that I had inflicted upon myself had been without much thought even though it had long since healed over completely. The perfect flesh was once again smooth and brand new just like it always remained. This time though, I added extra ferocity, cutting through layers of muscle in order to both receive and release the maximum amount of pain. Flesh, though perfect in the form that was given to me had taken thousands upon thousands of centuries for me to get used to.

  I hadn’t done this to myself in a while, but it was warranted this time. I was cold and calloused; giving into the darkest part of me that was steadily becoming reanimated within because it had been the only part I had been feeding for a while now.

  The four human women I had finished having my way with all left spent, silent, bewildered and empty emotionally. I had defiled them with every sexual deviance, image and sensation that they knew of, some of which they had no idea was even possible, except for actual physical intercourse. The experience had fused the black sin that was a permanent part of me, from my being into theirs. As demons, we could still breed with humans, and I was not about to allow that to happen.

  Sexual depravity was never by force. The women, both mortal and immortal, gave themselves willingly, and I eagerly accepted them. They were drunk with their own desires like addicts not even aware of what was overtaking them beyond their personal carnal desires.

  For me, it was simply the power of intimidation and conquest. I filtered out the dark, lust into them and in return, I absorbed the resulting pleasure and passion into my being like a dry sponge, to satisfy my own. In mortal street slang terminology— humans could classify me as a sophisticated Incubus, I supposed, but I was a lot more discerning than the majority of the other fallen and Incubus’ here. My anger, frustration and pain could only be vented in the very sin that attributed to my sentence and fate. It sounds ironic but past violence and fighting others of my kind; it was the only outlet that I’ve had the liberty of indulging in for many, many millennia.

  Though there was never any reasoning against it, a hand to stop me or even a stipulation that I had to punish myself afterwards, there were times that I did it anyway. It was simply because I could not destroy myself; it was not allowed as part of my condemnation. It pained me but it was nothing to mask or compare to the hurt my spirit would forever endure having been banished and marked to suffer for eternity. I was ashamed, disgraced, indignant…and now— a demon.

  After this last encounter and my own personal punishment, I had to leave Morning Star’s domain quickly. I had to get apart from and rid myself of the vileness that the darkness of my actions managed to interweave into my soul whenever I was there too long. That is until I could bathe in the Infinite waters, and continue to pray to a being that no longer knew or heard me, and then completely rinse it all away.

  There had been an open rift that still remained active since the last major catastrophe which had claimed many human lives— and it was a devastating one. I wasted no time venturing through it, especially when I saw the other shadows darting in and out in mass. That was never a good sign, so I had followed them and sure enough it led me straight her, to this school…the school she was now attending as a college student to my own stunned shock and renewed interest.

  This place, this mid-western city in what is called Indiana, was a place I hadn’t really been before. It was new to me and of all other places, it was the last place I expected to track her down after having briefly been distracted before losing her signature altogether.

  I had first taken notice of her when she was a child of about maybe seven years of age. There was no masking or mistaking her aura, which confounded me as to why I’d never taken notice of her before. It was extremely bright, perplexing and more powerful than all the other divine chosen that we had ever seen from this realm. That observation automatically piqued my own curiosity in trying to understand why. Unfortunately, my attention hadn’t been the only one she had acquired from the spirit realm. There was no way any of us could deny or not notice the intensity of her light; not even Morning Star himself.

  Whenever a divine warrior or chosen is born, it’s like a sparkling diamond just beneath the surface of shallow, murky water to us in comparison to regular mortals. Some sparkle brighter than others but hers…completely bewildered me. Even in the sea of many other divine chosen marked all over the world she shimmers, like a beacon on a pitch-black night. I don’t remember another with that type of aura in all the history of mankind outright.

  For that reason and since then, she had my attention and curiosity, so I continued to monitor and keep watch over her from the movement of her family from Florida to New Orleans Louisiana; all the while watching over and protecting her from other countless, ruthless demons who were nothing more than sycophants of Morning Star until the time of the massive hurricane.

  Thinking she p
erished in that devastating storm; I turned my attention back to my previous bad habits and sins in despair, but I had never forgotten about her. That catastrophe alone was a group effort on the part of the dark ones, playing against and manipulating the state of the earth and nature itself in order to tear open a massive hole between the planes that had affected the natural elements of the oceans, temperatures and plate shifting. Once in, they passed through with ease in order to play, gather, recruit and leech.

  In the here and now— though years later, it didn’t take long to find and home in on that same unique, dominate aura again, and I immediately crossed over the planes without hesitation.

  Once I had entered the mortal realm, I was breathless…she was still alive, and she was even more beautiful than she had been before. She was now a young woman, a sophomore in college to be exact. The scent of her womanhood was still untouched and pure and that alone was both alluring and intoxicating to me…possibly dangerous for her.

  I vowed this time that I would never leave my watch over her no matter what the cost or circumstance. Though I wasn’t sure what I expected the outcome to be because I already knew what it would be in regard to her being a divine chosen. She intrigued me far beyond any mortal or immortal woman during my existence ever had, and it wasn’t because she was a chosen either. I didn’t understand the why actually past her beauty but for now; I really didn’t care.

  Though I didn’t believe in fate let alone Elohim’s assistance since I was shut out from his realm of heaven, and all direct telepathic communication with him so very long ago, it was something short of a miracle that had apparently allowed me to get to her just in time. I ghosted into the room in my spirit form and remained cloaked. The shadow instantly recognized me and took off in fear. Though we were kin, it knew exactly who I was and what I would do to it if it didn’t flee.