What would he find?
His heart thrashed wildly as his eyes penetrated the shadows. In a far corner he saw the pallet, the snack tray, and clothes saturated with blood. He made his way toward it cautiously and looked down.
Lupercus lay in a pool of blood and ripped flesh.
Judas couldn’t help but feel proud of Sugar’s strength. Lupercus had underestimated her simply because she was a woman and ended up paying with his life.
He quickly turned and walked toward the door, down the stairs, turned, and continued down the hall where he found the back door of the mansion. It took only minutes to stumble on what he was looking for.
Now, as he once again stood over Lupercus’s body, he steeled himself for the task and then lifted the ax and brought it down.
Whack!
Bits of flesh flew, what blood was left splattered, bones made a sickening cracking sound, and the head, now severed from the body, bounced sickeningly and rolled away.
Chapter 28
The Black Heavens…
Judas stood tall and foreboding in his battle dress of armor, spear, and warrior braids. As he waited, the familiar hot, stinging wind of Hell whipped around his shoulders.
“The Circle is waiting, my brother.”
Judas’s eyes glared at the chiseled face of the Gatekeeper. “I am not your brother, so do not address me as such.”
“But I am your brother. Illegitimate and unrecognized though I may be, I have your blood flowing through my veins.”
“You lie!” Judas spat. “If you were my father’s son, you would live in the Royal Palace.”
“No, my brother. My mother lives. I have been assigned to this lowly place because she is only a servant. Your…our father felt the need for a woman, and he took her and then threw her away. I was the result of a lewd sexual encounter that your father seems to be expert at. Like you, I am strong and fierce. When you are gone, I will take your place in his heart and on the battlefield. I will be the leader of the wars. I will be the triumphant one who is hailed with accolades along the streets of Hell. Not you, my brother. No. You choose to step out of this royal house and go to a place where you are nothing but a face in a crowd. I am the loyal one. I will stay and fill your shoes. See if I don’t! I’ll—”
“Take it with my blessing,” Judas spat as his eyes raked down his robed shape. His hair was curly and dark, as his father’s, his manly physique large and sturdy beneath the loose robe. He had a square chin and a wide mouth, and the tensing of his jaw reflected a deep frustration. Judas could see a slight resemblance to his father, who wore the same look many times. “What is your name?”
“Tyrannus.”
“Well, Tyrannus, you say you’re my brother. It’s possible, I suppose. It’s also possible that you are only one of many. But I’m not gone yet, and as long as I am here, you will show the proper deference to my position. Now move away, and do not address me again in any way except that of royalty. Is that clear?”
His marble-like lips thinned in anger, and his face hardened into a mask of stone. “I must first ask what you have in the bag.”
“It is a gift for Satan.”
The bitter youth reluctantly bowed his head, his voice a deep and angry rasp. “The Old Ones await within—Sir Judas.”
Judas walked in and approached the dais where the Circle sat. They were called the Old Ones because they roamed the earth in the beginning, and his father was among them. He then glanced at other robed figures placed at strategic places in the room, their heads respectfully bowed. They schooled their features into somber lines.
He spoke softly, yet his voice carried like an echo around the cavernous chamber. “I request audience.”
“Of course, Judas,” Satan said, his deep voice like grains of sand grating against each other.
“A present, Lucifer,” Judas said while retrieving the head of Lupercus from the bag and holding it up by the hair.
A gasp sounded throughout the chamber, but Satan looked beyond the severed head and narrowed his eyes on Judas. “You dare to call me by my given name?”
“For you I have faced many enemies on many battlefields, and won. Would you now repay me by taking my life simply because I call you by your given name? If you do kill me, it will not be for that. It will be for my change of loyalties. It will be for leaving Hades behind me. It will be for so many reasons, but not for calling the Master of Hell by his given name. That will only be an excuse.”
Satan’s voice boomed. “Do you think I need an excuse for killing you?”
“No, not you, but remember who you will have to answer to when you do.”
Satan’s face became etched in anger. “And now you dare to throw a threat in my face?”
“Tell me it isn’t true.”
Satan was silent, his stare fiery and wicked.
Judas indicated toward the head. “Since I have done as you commanded, you are now bound to restore my father’s place among the lords.” With that he thrust his hand forward and released the hair of the head, causing it to make a bloody trail as it rolled toward the feet of Satan. Candle flames flickered, the sputtering light painted the gaunt features with horror and caused a nightmarish flash to leap out of the sunken eyes as they stared out at them.
“If you leave, your powers will be taken from you and your wings confiscated.”
“Yes, I know.”
“How, then, will you get back?”
“Do you intend to keep me here as a prisoner, or will you allow me to use the services of Divinian?” A heavy silence seemed to stretch into infinity. At last Judas spoke again. “Will you add broken promises to your tower of sins?”
“I invented sins,” Satan spat as his eyes bored into Judas. “And I am the Father of Lies!”
“Yes, a worthy occupation. You should be proud.”
Judas’s sarcastic words caused Satan’s teeth to grate against each other. Instead of answering Judas, a silence hung heavy in the spacious chamber while Satan’s evil thoughts formed a plan. He finally spoke. “You may as well go. With your heart elsewhere, you will be no more use to me here. You may use Divinian.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you? Thank you?” Satan repeated. “You’re thanking me nicely like some well-mannered little boy who attends Sunday school? What a waste of your talents, Judas! This God of yours will have you spouting proverbs in no time. He requires his followers to love each other! Bah! Such a word leaves a bad taste in my mouth. How can that compare to the lustful nights you’ll have here with the most beautiful women—”
“I want no woman but Sugar.”
“Sugar? The one who is moon-cursed?”
“No longer. She has been released from the curse.”
“Have you lain with her?”
“Yes…even though I knew it was against the rules.”
“What do you mean, against the rules? Only the immortal race is forbidden. Why did you think you couldn’t?”
“Maybe because I thought I was immortal!” he shouted as his face clouded with anger and his eyes sought out his father.
Gathering his voluminous raiment around himself, the Demon Lord rose and rushed to the edge of the dais. “My son, I only wanted to make sure you did not make the same mistake I did.”
“Now you are calling me a mistake, Father?”
“Judas, please understand. Your mind had to be on the task at hand.”
“I understand only one thing. You’ve been lying to me since the day I was born.” His eyes narrowed to slits as he shifted them back toward Satan. “You have what you asked for, so I tell you now, do not call for me again. I am through fighting your battles. I will not be back. I am going where the air is cool and sweet, not filled with soot and the hot touch of crimson showers.” Without waiting to be dismissed, he turned and made his way toward the arched doorway and the Gatekeeper who called himself brother. “Call for Divinian,” he ordered.
Within minutes the great fallen angel was there. Before he and
Judas left, Satan called him to the side and gave him instructions. Judas noticed that, as they spoke, each of them looked over at him and then back again quickly. It left him with an uneasy feeling. What were the two of them cooking up? He decided that as long as it didn’t affect him returning to Earth he didn’t care, so he turned away, letting their discussion go on.
While Judas paced restlessly, the discussion finally broke up, and both he and Divinian left. Out in the courtyard of the Royal Palace, Judas climbed on Divinian’s back and felt the two of them being lifted higher and higher until they at last reached the dark galaxies of the Black Heavens. Even though they passed many remarkable sights, Judas kept his eyes forward, but when they came to the place where the invisible veil separated Earth’s crust from the Black Heavens, Judas couldn’t resist looking back. There through the mist, he saw the circle that resembled a black bubble-like cave that formed the Black Heavens. Leaping flames and lava grew smaller and smaller until the cave shrank away, and what he had known as his home for so long vanished before his eyes. The tunnel appeared, and he felt Divinian continue upward, sliding smoothly into an endless night where the wind grew cool. As he flew higher and higher, even the beauty of the stars couldn’t smother the haunted sound of the plaintive cries of lost souls and dying children.
At last Divinian landed on a high spot that few people knew about. It jutted out over the ocean and was called the Devil’s Doorway. It was a place where brutal, gusting winds blew from all directions. As Judas climbed down from Divinian’s broad back, he bade him goodbye, noticing that Divinian hesitated to leave. Giving his strange actions little thought, Judas turned away, hurriedly left the high spot, and walked toward the mansion. As he walked, he tried to keep a feeling called pride from entering into his heart, but it was hard. How could he not be proud? He had beaten Satan. He had risked death just like he did on the battlefields of the Black Heavens, and the enemy, Satan, had backed down.
But why?
No one had ever defeated Satan, except God, of course. And then it occurred to him that it must have been because he threatened him with God’s wrath. Now he was here, back in the world where God ruled, and he was here to stay. Surely it was some kind of victory.
He sprinted up the steps of the mansion’s portico and opened the door. It creaked, and Judas frowned. Had it ever done that before? He looked around. Something wasn’t quite right. Did the mansion seem older? Decrepit even? He turned and looked out toward the ocean. It still raged as before, but the highway was wider, busier, and had twists and turns he had never seen before. He looked down the path toward Gypsy Reef and saw the church in the distance. He ran toward it, hurrying through the stone jungle of gravestones and mausoleums. His eyes widened when he saw a familiar name and felt a sudden jolt in the stomach.
Father Jonathan Becker’s gravestone!
When had this happened? He looked toward the church and saw that nothing had changed, only a few windows had been boarded up. It didn’t surprise Judas. He knew the church was poor and might not have the funds to fix those things. Curious, he crept toward a window and looked into the darkness. He gasped when he saw a chapel full of cobwebs, threadbare pews, and faded carpet.
Judas knew something was wrong.
Leaving the church he walked toward the Reef’s promenade. New businesses seemed to have sprung up overnight, while others were gone. Where was the Rock Candy Club? In its place was a casino with moving lights as bright as day.
He ran back to the mansion and broke open the front door. He ran up to the landing and down the hall to Sugar’s room. When he burst in, his hands grasping each side of the frame, he saw a room that had been changed from how he remembered it. Furniture had been moved slightly to make space for, what was it? Realization dawned, and his eyes widened. Pushing himself away from the door frame, he rushed forward and looked down and gasped.
It was Sugar! Her face filled with wrinkles, hair white with age, and she was lying in a coffin.
Dead!
His face crumpled in tears. Desperate, he began to search the room for some kind of clue as to what had happened and saw a calendar on the bedside table.
The year was 2048!
Sugar was seventy-six years old, and dead!
A feeling of loss settled on him when he realized the truth. It was a trick of Satan! He should have realized something like this would happen. No one ever beat Satan, no one! In order to get his sick revenge, he had viciously instructed Divinian to deliver him to a world forty years into the future!
Chapter 29
Waves, cold and black, lashed at the shore. The minister’s words of comfort became lost in the whipping wind, but Judas, who stood silently beneath a tree, wasn’t here for words. He didn’t know why he was here. Because he couldn’t let her go, because he couldn’t believe what had happened, because he knew this whole thing had to be some kind of cruel joke.
She can’t be dead! She can’t!
When he left her she was young, beautiful, in the prime of her life, and now she was gone. Dear God, how could he live without her? Why had God, in all His wisdom and mercy, allowed this awful thing to happen? He looked up and saw several people staring curiously at him, among them an old man who seemed familiar. Had he cried out in his misery? Had he begged God to give her back to him? He lowered his head, discouraging anyone from speaking to him.
Finally, when the minister was saying the last amen, Judas turned and crept silently away and went to the stream in the woods that he loved so much. It had always been his place of solace, and it was the place he wanted to say his last good-byes. There, while kneeling at the great waterfall, he mumbled gently to Sugar and told her how much he loved her.
Her beautiful face hovered in his memory, and it seemed only hours ago that he held her in his arms. With the tears of loss flowing down his cheeks, he turned back and once again walked toward the mansion. As soon as he had reached it, he found something new had been added. Someone had stabbed a For Sale sign deeply into the heart of the earth. The sight devastated him. It felt as if the stake had been cruelly stabbed into his own heart.
For the first time in his life, Judas was helpless. No powers, no wings, and no idea how to get back to Sugar. He looked up at the blank windows of the mansion and saw a kind of death within, but what Judas didn’t see was a slight movement of the curtain at an upstairs window. To him the structure seemed like an empty shell, a skeleton of bones and mortar. Still he felt drawn to the house and began to slowly amble up the walk. Somehow he wanted to be a part of it again, to touch those things that were hers, to be where she had been the night he left, to remember their night of love and hold it close to his heart. To his surprise, when he reached for the doorknob, the door was standing open, so he soundlessly slipped in.
It felt strange inside, cold and empty, like a corpse. The life she brought to the house had died with her. He knew he no longer belonged there, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave. Night after night he roamed the dark rooms like a ghost. More than the blood, the torment, and the unhappiness that had been part of the house, he thought of the good times. He could still see her smile, hear her gentle words and the ring of her laughter as it lifted on the gentle breeze that swept down from the rafters.
As each day turned to darkness, he went to a pallet he had made for himself and lay down, his eyes closing slowly. Within only moments he was lifted and ushered into a dreamless sleep. It was then, when the mansion was dark and empty, when whispers of a chilling wind sounded in the rafters that the ghost came out of the shadows and whispered in his ear. A quiet voice, a raspy voice that droned on and on, night after night after night.
One evening when he was in the study, he remembered something about a Book of Shadows. How did he know that? He turned and looked at the bar, at the shelves where bottles, glasses, and an ice chest were kept. There was a hidden drawer that few people knew about, and it was where the book could be found, but somehow he knew it wasn’t there. Still, he hurried over to it and pu
lled the drawer open. As he expected, it was empty. Where could it be, and why was that book so important to him? He looked up. Of course, it must be packed away in the attic with most of the other things.
Turning on his heels, Judas ran upstairs and looked around. There had to be a stairwell, but he couldn’t seem to find it. He heard a noise and looked toward it. There he spied an old stairwell built into a corner at one end of the landing as if it were trying to hide. He turned toward it and followed it upward, finding a collection of limp, swaying cobwebs that dangled eerily from out of the darkness. Ignoring the evidence of age, he grasped the dusty banister and put his foot on the first step. As he climbed, a serenade of ghostly creaks accompanied each step he took until he finally arrived at the attic door.
Judas spent hours, it seemed, looking for a book that meant nothing to him. Still, he needed to find it. He rummaged around in an old trunk with many of Sugar’s things that yesterday were new and beautiful, but today were worn and old. Forty years of his life had been cruelly stolen in a single night.
He saw it.
The Book of Shadows.
Grabbing it, he flipped through the pages, taking note of how old and yellowed they were. What would he find there? A spell, a potion he could use to somehow get back to her? He knew he was blindly grasping, but if his powers were gone, he had to find some way, any way, to make contact with the gods. The only sound in the room came from the pages crackling in his hands as he turned them, paper scraping against paper. His fumbling, impatient fingers made tears and rips as they traced down page after page of spells, magic potions, and names of moon cycles and dates.
Sugar and Spice Page 20