by Ely Page
The day after the weddings, and for several days to come, nothing out of the ordinary happened in Oni. The only change was that Ben and Hanna moved into their own house, and Leah and Morgan did the same, moving into the house next door.
In a major announcement just before sunset on a Friday, the lead elder Elisabeth told the entire community gathered in the square that the town would immediately be renamed to Hope. Everyone seemed to like the change; it was like bringing in a new beginning.
“Quick, someone come help, Reggie is stabbing Elisabeth!” Jane screamed from behind the library.
Several people came running over as soon as they heard the call for help. Morgan jumped on Reggie’s back, pushing him off of Elisabeth and knocking the knife out of his hand at the same time. A moment later, a couple of the bigger guys took over for Morgan and held Reggie down. A few others picked up the severely wounded Elisabeth and carried her over to the clinic.
“Somebody go get Chris and Hanna, now!” one of the guys carrying Elisabeth shouted.
Morgan ran toward where Chris the only doctor in town lived.
“What is going on?” Porter came running from around the corner of the building.
“Reggie stabbed Elisabeth!” explained George, one of the guys who was holding Reggie down.
Porter looked at Reggie. “I am going to get Frank out here. Don’t let him move.” Porter left in a sprint.
A loud knock at the door startled Frank awake from the unintentional nap he was taking in his living room chair.
“Yes,” Frank said in a sleepy voice.
“Frank, it’s Porter, something bad has just happened!” Frank stood up from the chair and went to the door faster than even he would have thought possible.
The door opened and Frank was in Porter’s face. “What has happened?” Frank asked with great concern.
“Reggie stabbed Elisabeth behind the library,” Porter said point-blank.
Frank’s eyes widened. “Is she OK?” Frank asked, grabbing Porter’s shoulder to indicate he should start walking.
“I was there only briefly before coming to get you. A couple of men took Elisabeth to the clinic, and George and Owen are holding Reggie down right now where it happened.”
Frank and Porter hurried to the library, which was a block away. Frank prayed silently that this wasn’t what he thought it was.
When Frank got to the scene, he saw George and Owen on top of Reggie, who was laying face down on the ground. Frank moved around by Reggie’s head.
“George, could you lift Reggie’s head up just enough so I can see his eyes?” Frank knelt down to get a close look into Reggie’s soul.
George lifted Reggie enough that his face was fully exposed. His eyes were closed.
“Open them now, I command you!” Frank ordered.
An evil grin appeared on Reggie’s face. “You do not command me to do anything, you vile human scum!”
A deep bass voice came from Reggie’s mouth. It was clear to Frank that Reggie was no longer in there.
“OK,” Frank said, getting up and motioning for George to let Reggie back down. “We need to secure a place by the gate. I am going to extract what is now in possession of Reggie’s body. After I extract it, we need to dig a grave outside the walls for I fear Reggie is already dead.” Frank sounded defeated.
“We will need two graves,” Morgan said, appearing from the corner. He was covered in blood.
“What’s wrong with him? What’s wrong with Reggie? Why would he do such a thing?” Hanna screamed as she made it to the scene. Like Morgan, she was covered in Elisabeth’s blood.
“He is possessed by the master of Hell,” Frank said bluntly. “Reggie is dead; his soul was devoured by that which now occupies his body.”
Reggie’s head managed to turn enough to look at Hanna. “Do you want to be next, hot stuff?”
The demon inside sounded even more creepy than before. George slugged Reggie to shut him up, but the demon laughed it off. Frank gave George a look of disapproval.
They tied a rope around Reggie’s body, securing his arms and legs. Then George and Owen carried the demon-possessed body to the city gate. There, they met Frank and Jim a pastor that came with the Texas tribe, who by that time were both in full Christian white ceremonial robes
“Lay him down on the ground face up,” Frank ordered. As he moved toward the head, he knelt down off to one side. Jim knelt down on the other side. “Hold him down again. This is going to get rough.”
George and Owen lay on top of Reggie’s large body.
Frank had ensured that no one else in town was watching what was going on. He told the remaining elders to isolate everyone in the church and that they should have a prayer service for Elisabeth and Reggie.
“Let us begin.” Frank cleared his throat and said a silent prayer. “Open your eyes, agent of evil!” Frank demanded.
Reggie opened his eyes and laughed a very eerie laugh.
“You are forbidden from this body; you are forbidden from this land; you are forbidden from this body; you are forbidden from this land! Go back to Hell where you belong; go to Hell where you belong! I command you; I command you! Leave now; leave now!”
As Frank commanded the demon to leave Reggie’s body, Jim splashed holy water on his hand and made the shape of a cross on Reggie’s forehead. He held his hand in place on Reggie’s forehead until Frank finished speaking.
A loud roar came from Reggie’s body; George and Owen were having a difficult time holding him still. Frank and the possessed Reggie had their eyes locked on one another. Then it all stopped and Reggie’s body became lifeless.
Frank got up off the ground. “It is over. Please go and take Reggie outside, and wait for the rest of the town to show. I will be unable to give a eulogy. I feel weak now. Jim will be performing them. Excuse me.” Frank sounded distant and exhausted, and he quickly ran to his apartment. George and Owen carried Reggie’s body out of the gate and next to the grave that was dug for him.
After the prayer service at the church, the townspeople had a makeshift funeral procession as they carried Elisabeth’s body outside the gate and next to her grave. Once all were there, Jim gave the last rites to both Elisabeth and Reggie, releasing their souls from their bodies once and for all.
“Where is Frank?” was the question that all the town elders had when their meeting started the next morning. It was an important meeting, as they were going to decide who was going to replace Elisabeth as the lead elder.
“I will go to the diner and find out if anybody saw him there,” Jasonfrom the Dakotas and one of the elders, said before getting up from his chair and walking out of town hall.
The feeling all over town was somber. The day after two of their own died, shock and sadness hung over the town like a dark rain cloud.
“Anybody seen Frank this morning?” Jason said out loud when he walked into the diner.
Dylan and Margret stood up and faced Jason at the same, then both spoke at the same time too. “Frank is missing?”
Margret and Dylan raced up to Frank’s apartment, which was right above them. Dylan knocked on the door.
“Frank, you in there?” he called.
No response. Margret moved ahead of Dylan and went to open the door. It was unlocked, like usual, and so she went inside. Dylan and Jason followed her in.
All of Frank’s belongings were there. His bed was made and his kitchen was clean, but there was no sign of Frank.
“Where did he go?” Dylan asked as the three of them stood dumfounded in Frank’s living room.
Frank had left Hope in the middle of the night. He knew when the shifts changed at the gate and up at the crow’s nest, and that was when he made his move. Luckily for him, Stan had showed Frank a way out of town that led him out of an old storm cellar at a nearby abandoned farm.
Frank was
sweating heavily, and it wasn’t because of all the sneaking around or the running. It was because of what was inside of him. Something was trying to burn Frank from the inside out, but Frank was fighting it with all of his strength.
Frank walked about a hundred yards further from the town before he fell down to his knees. He threw up a thick, black, sludge-like substance, and it went on for some time until Frank felt relief as the last bit escaped him.
The sludge started to move and take shape. It grew taller, and Frank watched as it took the shape of some kind of being.
Soon a creature stood before Frank, but not just any creature. This creature had five horns growing out of its head; two came out at the top of its forehead, two came out of its cheeks, and one appeared out of its chin. All five curved toward each other, almost making a face mask. Frank noticed that the points of the horns made a pentagram. Discovering that made him a little more unsettled, but not as much as when he realized who was now staring down at him. Frank had just thrown up Satan himself.
“You are stronger than I thought, old man,” Satan said once he had finished regenerating. His voice was like two stones grinding against each other.
“Why did you come here? What do you want with my people? What do you want with me?” Frank asked with force, but he felt weak on the inside.
Satan laughed a pure evil laugh. It sounded to Frank like a thousand voices screaming in pain. “I come to claim all of ‘your people’ for my army, and to destroy you slowly, and to make it as painful for you as possible.”
“I will fight you till my last breath!” Frank was doing his best to keep calm. He thought of Jesus, and the thought made Frank feel stronger and a little less panicked.
“I could destroy you in an instant!” Satan threatened in a booming, frightening voice.
“If you could, you would have done it by now instead of wasting your time with an old man like me.”
Frank was defiant; he knew there was more to this than the prince of darkness was letting on. Frank started to walk away from Satan, and as far away from Hope as possible.
“Where do you think you are going?” Satan asked, sounding disrespected as Frank turned his back to him.
“For a walk.”
Dylan was very upset, as was everyone in the whole town. In a place where every single person was vital to survival, three people were lost in a matter of twenty-four hours. Leah cried for a while when she got the news about Frank, but after a talk with Morgan, she felt good enough to get back to work on the new arrow that she was developing for use in crossbows. It was one of her jobs. She was working in an old five-and-dime store with Sage from Pennsylvania, who was making the crossbows for the arrows.
“How and why did you take Reggie?” Frank asked once he realized that the Devil was following behind him.
“One of my loyal scouts felt he was a weakness to your cause against my kingdom, so I chose to see how weak he was. He put up more of a fight than I had given him credit for, and . . . ,” Satan hesitated on purpose before continuing. “I never got to take his soul.”
The comment sent chills down to Frank’s very core. Satan had just told Frank that he, not Satan, had taken Reggie’s life.
“You are lying!” Frank said with gravel in his voice.
“Why would I lie to you? It serves me no purpose,” Satan replied, now walking alongside Frank.
Frank did not reply; he kept silent for a long time. He was in thought and prayer, looking for clarification from the lord that he’d done the right thing. He spoke when he got his answer.
“Reggie was indeed alive,” he said. The break in silence seemed to catch the evil one off guard. “However, you had weakened him to the point that he would never be able to recover.” Frank didn’t feel any better about taking a life, but at least he gave back some of the blame.
“So, he told you that, did he? He has always tried to undermine me, ever since I came to his universe.”
Satan sounded like he felt sorry for himself. Frank wasn’t buying it, but he would play along as long as they kept walking away from Hope. Besides, he was curious.
“What do you mean by ‘came to his universe?’” Frank asked.
Satan’s skin went from dark blue to a red so dark it was almost black.
“I created my own universe, just like your God did. It was a magnificent place, and I loved it deeply.” Satan thought back in time to when he ruled all he could see; it was clear to Frank he wanted that feeling again. “I ran it for millennia, but it was destroyed. I came to this universe with the promise of being second in command of the angels of Heaven. Things were going well until he decided to create what you humans call Earth. He made this planet with the intention of creating mankind in the exact likeness of all of us in Heaven.”
Frank didn’t know how much of what Satan was saying to be true. Satan’s version was obviously not in the Bible or any other religious text Frank had ever read.
“That is when the war broke out,” Satan continued. “I and others like me were disgusted with the idea of human beings. We felt betrayed when we realized he loved you as much, if not more, than he loved us. And now after all these years, I have finally gained enough power to fight back, destroy this entire planet, and take my rightful place as the ruler of all the Heavens.”
“Wow,” Frank said, mocking Satan. “Here you are trying to be the most powerful being in all of existence, and you are taking a leisurely stroll with a retired filthy human on a planet that you hate. Lucky me, I feel so honored.”
Satan let out a small roar of anger. “You are protected for now, but believe me, I will squash you and all your friends like a bug. I have already taken several of these little towns on other lands. Why don’t you ask your precious God about what I have done just in the matter of an Earth day?”
Frank didn’t want to know what Satan was talking about and he didn’t ask, but the dark one went on anyway.
“I completely destroyed the humans that remained in what you call South America.”
Frank was devastated by that news, and the presence of God confirmed it.
“Unfortunately for me, I was unable to claim a single body for my army.”
Back in Hope, the elders regrouped and decided that since Frank was missing, they would elect Jane of the Texas tribe as the new town leader. They all wanted Frank to be leader, but they knew that they had to keep moving on. They couldn’t wait to see when he would show up and in what condition he might be in.
Frank had been walking for nearly twenty-four hours when he came upon an old farmhouse. He walked up on the porch and tried the door; it opened. He turned to the Devil, who stayed in the yard.
“I am going inside to get some sleep. I frankly don’t give a damn what you do.” Frank felt comfortable saying that. He felt the full protection of God surrounding him and protecting him. The Devil screamed a frustrated scream and vanished into the mist.
Frank went into the house, laid down on the couch, and immediately fell asleep. As he slept, he knew that his ordeal with Satan wasn’t over yet. In fact, it was only just beginning.
“We need to send out a search party!” Dylan demanded as he talked with Jane.
“We can’t just send out a search party, Dylan. We have responsibilities here.” Jane was trying to be calm and understanding, but Dylan was pushing all of her buttons.
“We need to find Frank and bring him home!” Dylan insisted.
Jane had had enough. It was late, and they’d all had a long day. “Look, Frank is a big boy. He knows what he is doing. He will come back when he is ready to come back. Until then, you and the rest of the town will go about your business! And that is final!” Jane walked away from Dylan, leaving him on the church sidewalk by himself, demoralized.
Frank woke up feeling refreshed but very hungry. He searched the old farmhouse’s kitchen but didn’t find much in the way of f
ood. The can of green beans in a cupboard would hold him over for a while, though. He opened the can with the multitool that he always kept in his jacket pocket, and he ate the green beans one at a time like they were a delicacy, chewing ever so slowly. He washed them down with the water that was in the can.
When he walked outside, he realized that he was all alone for now. Frank recounted what Satan said about “taking several small towns on other lands,” and through the visions he’d had in his sleep, Frank knew Satan had not lied. Frank saw the village in South America was wiped away with only a burned, smoking mess of a single building left. Europe never had a chance, as they all gathered in Bern, Switzerland, which was much too large of a city to protect. A North African tribe was also destroyed simply because they could not find enough in the ways of protecting themselves. They had thought that weapons alone would work instead of building some defensive structures.
From what Frank believed, there had been thirteen tribal communities in the world, but now it looked like there were maybe ten left. That did indeed frighten Frank.
Frank started walking. He didn’t know where he was going, but he knew that he could not go home yet. He felt he had more to do out on the barren plains before he was finished.
As he continued wandering, Frank had constant visions in his head. The visions became so rampant that he didn’t even see his surroundings anymore; all he saw was what God and Satan wanted him to see. There was a battle going on in his head, a fight between Heaven and Hell that was taking its toll on Frank both mentally and physically. He didn’t know how much he could take before he broke down.
In the visions, Frank saw what the Earth would be like if God and Heaven won the war and if Satan and Hell were the victors. They were two extremely different views, and Frank was determined to do what he could not to let Hell on Earth happen.
His visions of Hell were everything he believed about Hell, maybe even worse than what he’d ever imagined. The picture of eternally burning flesh was more than enough to make Frank nauseous. But it wasn’t just a picture in his head; he could smell burning flesh, and it was enough to make him want to vomit.