The Influence (Supernatural Thriller)

by Matthew John Slick

  Mark felt movement, then a throbbing, paralyzing pain in his stomach. He opened his eyes. Kathy was staring at him, eyes red and swollen. She gasped and shouted, “He’s alive!” then she lunged to grab his hand.

  Dazed and disoriented, Mark reached out for her. “I love you.” he said weakly.

  Kathy burst into tears, moaning loudly. Then she turned her head to one side and shouted again, “He’s alive!”

  Mark smiled. “I love you.”

  There was a commotion of movement behind him as personnel rushed into the room.

  “I love you.” he said again.

  “I love you too,” she said between sobs.

  Then he passed out.

  Chapter 13

  MARK WAS LYING IN a hospital bed, eyes staring at the ceiling, thinking about his death experience. Machines silently recorded his heart and oxygen-saturation rates. The contents of an IV bag were slowly dripping into his arm. He moved a leg and felt his stomach muscles seize with pain. The room had the typical stale, antiseptic hospital smell.

  The door opened. It was Kathy. Her hair was slightly disheveled. She moved slowly, as though she were carrying something heavy. Her eyes were not fully open. “How you feeling?” she asked tenderly.

  Mark was so glad to be alive. The sight of Kathy was almost unbearably good and he was tempted to start crying. He held out his hand. She leaned against the bed as she grabbed it and bent down and kissed him, rubbing his hand on her cheek.

  “I love you so much,” he said. With his other hand he reached to the back of her head and mingled his fingers in her hair. He pressed her close to him.

  She put both arms around him best she could, paying attention to the tubes and wires attached to him. After a bit she pulled back and looked lovingly into Mark’s eyes.

  “I love you,” she said. “I’m so glad you’re going to be okay.”

  With a subtle smile, Mark said, “Looks like you could use some sleep.”

  She leaned over, gave him a kiss and then plopped down in the chair next to his bed.

  Mark had been rushed to surgery upon arriving at the hospital. They had worked on him for quite a while, but couldn’t save him. After they pronounced him dead, they let Kathy and John in to see him. She was inconsolable, of course, and John was holding his daughter as she wept, when Mark unexpectedly opened his eyes. When she screamed that he was alive, the emergency room personal responded, stabilized him, and he was rushed into surgery.

  The surgeons had removed his spleen, as well as the bullet. His stomach muscles were very sore. The large surgical incision burned slightly and the sutures itched.

  The first two days of recovery were masked by a fog of painkillers mixed with the remnants of anesthesia. He couldn’t do much more than sleep. But today was different. He finally felt clearheaded. He squeezed Kathy’s hand.

  “I’m so glad you’re here,” he said.

  She looked into his eyes. She was tender, loving, and fiercely dedicated to him.

  “You look exhausted,” he said.

  She chuckled once, automatically. “Are you saying I look bad?”

  “You’re the most beautiful woman in the world.”

  “Good answer.” She yawned once. “I’m okay. I’ve just been worried and haven’t slept much. The doctor said you’re going to be fine, so I guess I will be too.” She yawned again.

  Mark had been awake for a couple of hours before she arrived. He’d spent the morning reviewing his journey to hell and wondered how crazy she would think he was if he told her about it and about Sotare, his visions of angels and demons. She would probably assume that the narcotics he was on were causing him to hallucinate. Although he knew he would tell her eventually, now was not the time. Besides, he didn’t have the energy to convince her.

  “Honey?”

  “Yes?” said Mark.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you and I hope you don’t mind, but if you are too tired to answer, you don’t have to.” She gently squeezed his hand.

  “What is it?”

  “What were you doing at the church? I mean, why did you go there? Dad and I are completely baffled. I mean, you appeared out of nowhere and saved our lives.”

  Mark knew that the answer would be complicated. He looked up at the ceiling to that familiar spot on which he had been focusing while contemplating his own mortality.

  “Kathy,” he said, turning back to her. “I want to tell you everything, but I can’t now. I have to say something first and I need you to believe me. Promise me. Promise me that you will believe what I tell you.”

  Kathy could tell by the tone of his voice that he was very serious. “Yes, of course. I’ll believe you.”

  He slowly clutched a cup of water from the table next to him. Kathy intercepted him and retrieved it. She placed the straw to his lips and he took a refreshing sip. She returned the cup to the table.

  Mark took a breath and winced slightly. The memory of the fire, the darkness, and the stench came back to him. The cardiac monitor beat just a little faster. He turned to Kathy.

  “The doctor told me that I died in the emergency room.”

  Kathy nodded somberly, obviously aware of and still disturbed by that truth.

  He didn’t know where to begin, so he decided to just blurt it out. “I died and while I was dead I went to a green field. It was beautiful. There was wonderful music and such a sensation of peace.” He looked at Kathy’s face to see her reaction. She was attentive but obviously unsure. Her eyes narrowed slightly.

  “You mean you had a near-death experience?” she asked.

  “I wouldn’t call it a near-death experience. I was dead.”

  She cocked her head at a slight angle, still holding his hand. “I know,” she said. Tears filled her eyes as she reached for tissue paper.

  He waited for her to dab her eyes.

  “It was a beautiful place. It was the most wonderful thing I’ve ever experienced. And the best part of it was that I saw Jesus.” His tone was sincere and forceful.

  She froze, looked at him squarely in the eyes, furrowing her brow. Mark wasn’t sure if she believed him. But he decided to continue anyway.

  “I don’t know how I knew it was him, I just knew. It was…it was the most humbling experience I’ve ever had in my entire life. Yet, at the same time it was wonderful.”

  His eyes were filling with tears.

  “Kathy,” he said as he squeezed her hand, holding it closer to him. She leaned forward on the chair just a bit. “Jesus took me to hell.”

  Kathy’s eyes widened and she lifted her head. “What?” she said calmly.

  “I know it’s hard to accept. But you have to believe me. You have to.”

  Kathy was obviously taken aback. Though she had her doubts, she knew that he needed her to believe him. “I believe you,” she offered through her uncertainty.

  He weighed her statement.

  “Kathy, I have to say something…something I learned while I was there. There is a hell, a place of fire, torment, and agony where all who have sinned against God and have not trusted in Jesus and escaped God’s judgment will go for eternity.”

  The TV preacher flashed into her mind. Mark almost repeated his message verbatim.

  She sat up. “Tell me more,” she said in a serious tone.

  He tried to shift his body and paid a painful price for the effort. “I went there. I went to the place of fire and torment and I saw people being tormented. It was horrible. Kathy, I actually went to hell and smelled the awful stench. I heard people screaming. I saw their bodies writhing in agony. It was awful. It was the most frightening thing I’ve ever experienced. Nothing I can say comes close to describing it at all.” He was gently shaking her hand with each word.

  His voice trembled as he continued and a tear ran down his temple. “…and I knew, I knew I was going to be thrown in. I knew that I belonged there because—because…”

  Tears began to fill his eyes. “…because I am a sinner.” He forced the str
ained words out in a trembling rhythm and closed his eyes. Tears ran down the sides of his face and over his ears. She handed him a tissue.

  Kathy didn’t know what to do. Mark rarely cried and he seemed so desperately sincere. She squeezed his hand and examined his face. She knew his tone, his look. He was telling the truth, at least what he believed to be the truth. She could see it. But, it was too incredible, too strange.

  They both remained quiet for a couple of minutes while he regained his composure. He opened his eyes and blinked away the last of the tears. In a slightly trembling voice he continued. “When I was there, ready to be thrown in, I was so afraid.” His voice trailed off again.

  Kathy felt his strain and intense emotional trauma and knew to keep listening.

  “I was terrified.”

  He stopped talking.

  The only sound in the room was Mark’s labored breathing. She waited, hurting for her husband.

  “Kathy, I’ve never felt anything like it. You don’t have to believe me and I wouldn’t be upset with you if…”

  “I believe you, Mark,” she interrupted. Her tone was firm and she looked into his eyes as she squeezed his hand again and said, “I believe you.”

  Mark pulled her hand to his lips and firmly pressed it to them as he kissed her soft skin. More tears fell down his cheeks. He lowered her hand to his chest and pressed it close to him as if trying to press it into his heart.

  “But,” he said, “Jesus turned around and led me away from that horrible place. He spoke to me. He told me that he loved me.” Mark was struggling to get the words out.

  Tears were filling Kathy’s eyes.

  “After Jesus said those words, the words I didn’t deserve to hear, everything went black. That’s when I opened my eyes and saw you.” He was still straining as he spoke. More tears streamed down his temples. She lovingly wiped them away with the back of her fingers. “I came back from hell. I saw it. I saw it.” He squeezed his eyes shut and more tears were set free. Kathy blinked, wiping away her own.

  The door to the hospital room opened and a nurse walked in. She could see that they had been crying.

  “Is everything okay?” She walked over to the monitor and then checked the diodes on his chest. “Looks like you’re getting a little excited.”

  Kathy smiled and so did Mark as he choked out, “I’m fine.”

  The nurse was satisfied. “Well, I’ll just leave you two alone. But try not to get too excited. No jumping jacks.” She dismissed herself quickly.

  Mark looked at Kathy. She was feeling the cumulative weight of her own fatigue, her father’s surgery, Mark’s shooting, and now this. It was bearing down on her hard. She absentmindedly rubbed her forehead with her fingertips. She hadn’t slept much since the shooting.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  She looked at him and in a monotone voice said that she was fine. But she didn’t fool him. He knew that she was exhausted. He looked at her and rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb.

  They remained quiet for a while. She had to absorb what he had said and he needed to recover emotionally. She gently squeezed his hand. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

  “Me, too.”

  She leaned over and kissed him.

  The air was thick with emotion. Mark closed his eyes and let himself relax and an unexpected wave of fatigue hit him hard. The strain was exhausting.

  He exhaled loudly. Kathy wasn’t faring much better.

  “Looks like we’re both a mess, huh?” he said with a smile, eyes still closed.

  She chuckled. “Yeah.”

  He brought her hand to his mouth and pressed it to his lips. Then fatigue hit him again, this time almost overwhelmingly. He knew he’d be falling asleep any minute.

  “Honey?” he said as he looked at her, “I’m tired. I’m fading fast. I want to tell you more but I need some rest and so do you.”

  “I’m okay,” she said. “Please finish.”

  Mark smiled. He wanted to close his eyes and fall into a deep sleep.

  “Please. We both need rest. Go to your dad’s. And when you come back later, could you please bring him here? I’d like to tell you both the rest of the story. Okay?” He squeezed her hand gently.

  “All right.” She exhaled audibly. “Sounds good. Now that I’ve talked to you and I know you’re okay, I can rest.”

  She stood up from the chair, leaned over the bed, and gave him a kiss.

  “Do you believe me? Do you really believe me?” he asked.

  She looked into his eyes and asked herself if she did. She knew him to be an honest and good man who never lied to her. Besides, he had quoted exactly what the preacher had said. It was all so bizarre, but true. She believed him. “Yes, I do.”

  “Good,” he said as he closed his eyes. He sighed heavily and let the tension seep from his body. It felt good, especially before the relentless urge to sleep. “This hospital stuff isn’t easy. I’m awake one minute and ready to go to sleep the next.”

  She studied his face and smiled. “I’ll see you later.”

  “Sounds good. Love you.”

  “Love you,” she said.

  Mark closed his eyes, mumbled something unintelligible, and fell quickly asleep.

  Kathy slowly released his hand, slipped away from the bed, and left the room. As the door closed, she looked down the hallway at the nurses clad in their colorful scrubs, busily going about their business. She headed for the elevator.

  Back in Mark’s room, Sotare and Nomos stood on either side of the bed. Their wings were slightly open and they were on guard for any demons that might be in the vicinity. Mark was vulnerable but they were there and ready for battle. Through the walls, they could see Kathy. They could also see other angels in the hospital guarding other people who were completely unrelated to their charge. Sometimes the angels would see each other across the spiritual distance in the hospital and nod in recognition of one another.

  Kathy approached the elevator and hit the down button. The door opened quickly and a doctor stepped out. He had a clipboard with papers. He hurried down the hallway and disappeared into a room. She stepped in and pressed the button for the bottom floor. The doors swished closed. The floor fell downward.

  Something entered from below.

  She did not see it, nor could she feel its evil presence. It had two backward-tilting horns sticking out of its skull. One was broken near the end. It had a large jaw with teeth protruding between its jagged lips. Green leathery skin stretched tightly across its bones and, here and there upon its body, an open wound oozed fluid. It reached a clawed hand towards Kathy’s chest, holding it flat against her body. She was still one of theirs. It moved behind her and smelled her perfume. Drool was running down the corner of its mouth and onto its chin. The creature leaned close behind her neck and let it spill down through her back.

  Kathy felt a fleeting wave of nausea. She grabbed the rail in the elevator with one hand and her stomach with the other. She closed her eyes and whimpered slightly. It must have been the motion and fatigue, she thought.

  The creature leaned close to her ear and whispered, “You are going to die and go to hell.”

  Kathy suddenly had a mental impression of death and fire. The nausea was subsiding but it still fluttered in her stomach. Unexpectedly, she remembered the face of the creature that had appeared at her dad’s place. She opened her eyes.

  “It’s all real,” she said in sudden realization. “What Mark said was true.”

  The demon stepped back, leaned forward, opened its jaws and hissed.

  The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors opened. Kathy stepped out. The sunlight came flooding in through the ground-floor windows of the lobby. She knew what she needed to do.

  The demon followed.

  Outside the hospital, a host of evil creatures was circling in the sky. As Kathy walked to her car, they would occasionally swoop low. One after another, like birds, they darted up and down, spitting at her.

 
; ***

  Down in the darkness of The Cavern, the soul of Leech writhed in agony as the creatures fed upon his carcass. The seconds seemed like millennia and the sheer pulsing terror of being torn, bitten, bones breaking and healing, was unbearably brutal. Leech’s cries were constant and each tormented scream brought an evil pleasure to the horde of demons that crawled on him and in him.

  Nabal entered through a cave with the slave demon following at a safe distance. The creatures moved away from the mangled human form as Nabal approached. Leech lay in a heap of broken bones and torn flesh, barely able to moan through the terrifying agony, which was followed by another inevitable healing with its own searing pain. His groans gradually escalated into piercing howls.

  Nabal towered over him. Leech looked up and saw the hideous creature reach down and grab him. “Judgment has not yet come to you. Until then, you belong to us.” Nabal squeezed and let its talons sink into his soul, throwing the broken man into the crowd of demons that quickly converged on him.

  Above The Cavern, a rift in space opened. Nabal quickly spread its wings and, with rhythmic force, raised its huge body upward. Only its slave demon dared to join it in its ascent.

  ***

  Pastor Tim enjoyed cleaning up the church. He liked to walk through all the rooms, straightening and putting things in order, while he thought about sermons and the needs of the people.

  He meandered back to his office when the door to the church opened. Kathy walked in.

  “Hi, Kathy, I’m so glad to see you. How is Mark doing?”

  “He’s fine. In fact…” she thought about what to say. “Can we go to your office?”

  Tim paused for a moment then apologetically said, “Well, the secretary isn’t in today. You and I are the only ones here and, I mean no disrespect, but I don’t feel comfortable being in my office alone with you. Would it be okay if we stepped outside and sat on the steps?”

  Kathy understood. He was an honorable man. “Sure, that’s fine.”

  He held the church door open for her and they both went outside. It was a beautiful day.

  He smiled politely as they sat. “Okay, how can I help?”

  Kathy looked at him and he noticed that she was struggling for the right words. So, trying to be helpful, he thought he’d kick-start the conversation.