The Triple Goddess

by Stephanie Hudson

  Opening my eyes granted me a view of the worst part of London. The smell was so bad I felt myself gagging and I wondered if you could be sick in your projected form?

  Human excrement scattered the streets like paper rubbish after a festival and festering in that filth was London’s lowest class. The word poor was not low enough to cut it when describing these people. They were dying and they just didn’t know it yet because they weren’t used to any other conditions. I could imagine the last time some of these people were clean was the day of their birth.

  I found the injustice of it too startling for words. There were so many rich people living each day without knowing what hard labour even meant and yet there they sat, feasting fat and happy, while their fellow human beings were starving on the streets or having to sell their bodies just to feed a child, who would no doubt die from drinking dirty water the following year.

  I knew that places in the world still suffered like this in my time and I was not naive enough that I didn’t know about it, but at least millions of pounds were raised for charities like this every year and in our own streets of London, there was at least places to go for those who deemed it necessary to live on the streets. But this was something else and society today would never have allowed this in their streets. Here, people wallowing in their own filth, littered the streets, not newspapers, sweet wrappers and cigarette butts.

  After gagging again watching a man stagger down the mud path to then stumble and throw up what little he had in his belly over himself I hurried away. I had wished that my last part had not ended on such a foul sight. Walking quickly passed some building slums I saw three people engaged in the carnal, raw sex that looked more animal instinct than the passionate act it could be. This was sickening.

  Finally I came to a section that opened out near the docks and even at night it was a busy place to be. But at least the air was fresher here and I found myself taking in lungs full of the stuff over and over. It was only now that I could feel my nausea clear and when I heard laughter coming from an open door I turned to see an Inn on the corner where people emerged. I was starting to wonder what this vision was supposed to show me until I heard Pip’s voice in the dark streets.

  I walked back towards the Inn but it was coming from around the back. I continued further into the alley way and after stepping round a passed out drunk and a young boy picking his pocket I saw Pip.

  “NO! Stop it!” I screamed but no one could hear me as I called for help. Pip was being man handled by three big guys and they were all trying to get a piece of her. She didn’t even struggle and she lifted her head as if waiting for something. I looked towards the ally way entrance and when a figure came walking past I spun round when Pip started to cry out for help.

  “No! Get off me! Help!” She screamed and I looked back the way I came and saw the figure had run back.

  “Winifred?” Adam shouted and when he ran down the alley Pip and the three guys came into view he stopped dead.

  “Adam...? Oh Adam, please help me!” She was struggling with the three men and without hesitation he ran to her aid completely out matched and unarmed. He threw himself into the man nearest and tackled him to the ground. Punch after punch was thrown and soon Adam’s face was a mass of red bloody hits. This was no doubt the first fight he had ever been in and my heart went out to him when the two men picked him up and held him by his arms.

  “Oh God!” I said seeing his slumped body sagging between the two thugs. The bigger one that had hold of Pip turned and punched Adam in the gut, making him doubled over onto the floor. All three laughed as Adam coughed up blood. They picked him up again and held him for the bigger guy again.

  “So ye thinks of spoiling me bit of fun do ye by taking me whore for thyself?” Adam’s head lifted and something in him shifted and his eyes turned cold. He was staring death in the face but he didn’t seem to care anymore, the determination in his face said one thing…save the girl or die trying. Adam spat out blood at his face and then pulled one of the men holding him to his face and head butted him causing his nose to explode. The other man stumbled with the weight of being pulled down and all three crashed to the floor.

  Adam fisted his hands and with the first taste of rage in his life he hammered away at the other man that had held him, while the one with the broken nose held his face bellowing in pain before passing out. Adam then left punching him and grabbed his head by his hair and smashed it into the ground…once was all it took.

  He got to his feet shaking with rage but keeping a tight enough rein on it to assess the situation. The bigger man had pulled out a dirty blade and held it to Pip’s throat.

  “Let my woman go.” Adam said in a calm voice and it sounded like a different person. As though Adam had been replaced by someone who showed no fear and knew he was at death’s door, waiting for entrance granted but before he went, he had one thing left to do, he had to save the one he loved. I looked down and saw he was bleeding heavily from his side but he didn’t even try to stop the blood, his fists were held tight to his side, waiting to strike. He must have been stabbed in the scuffle and when I looked down at the life he had taken I saw a bloody knife in his hand. I looked back to Adam and knew he was running on pure adrenaline, it was the only explanation to why he was still standing.

  “Adam don’t….just go while you still can.” Pip said, tears streaming down her face and I wondered why she didn’t do something? I mean she could take this guy, she was a demon Imp for Christ’s sake!

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that love.” He said without taking his eyes off the man holding Pip.

  “Adam please, I want you to live, my life isn’t worth you dying over…you don’t know who I am.” She said quietly and more tears fell down her beautiful face and onto the blade that threatened to take that life from her.

  “I don’t care if you were born in the fires of Hell and were made of the damned souls down there, I LOVE YOU!” He shouted making even the big man flinch. Even though Adam was slight and much smaller than the man holding Pip, at this point he was much scarier, emitting raw energy and power as if the beast below could sense his time was near.

  “But you will die!” Pip said in such a heart breaking voice I could feel tears flow down my own face.

  “Yes… but today I die a man, a man saving the woman he loves, today…I die for you.” He said his voice thick with emotion and looked down seeing his own blood drain from his body and hit the streets made from the mud of the earth. He looked back up, seeing his love one last time before making his move at the thug but he was too late.

  “Good, it’s a about bloody time!” Pip said with happiness flooding her veins. She took hold of the man holding her and snapped his neck as though his bones were made from biscuits. She let him go and he fell to the ground, joining the shit beneath him to rot as a rapist’s body deserved. She smoothed her dress down and straightened her little hat that had become askew and stepped over the dead body into a stunned Adam.

  “You love me?” She said but Adam couldn’t tear his eyes away from the body lying on the floor as if trying to process the last few minutes. Pip touched his face and moved it to one side so that his eyes had nothing to meet but hers.

  “You love me?” She asked again.

  “Yes!” He answered without pause this time.

  “You trust me?” He nodded his head and that’s when I noticed another dark figure walking this way. Pip didn’t look bothered at the intrusion but kept her focus on Adam’s face. She pushed his hair back from his face as he had lost his wig long ago in the fight. His hair was still kept long but now had the addition of drying blood to its lighter shade.

  “Yes.” He said again, all the time his eyes locked with hers. She carefully wiped the blood away from his lips and placed her own to them in a passionate embrace. It took Adam a moment but he returned her passion in a heated frenzy and I knew I was witnessing their first kiss. They cared little for the carnage at their feet, of the blood they both stood in. It
was the most symbolic moment in their lives and I felt privileged to witness it. Fresh new tears ran down my face and when their lips finally parted I swallowed the hard lump as I knew before Adam what was surely about to happen.

  Pip cupped his face with both hands and pulled his face down to her level.

  “And do you love me enough to die for me?” Adam took a staggered breath and then with silence in the streets and a lifetime hanging in the air, everything stopped…the world froze in place for a few seconds as if this one moment would change history, not just for two people but for the fate of the world…

  Adam looked up just as the night sky was lit up by a mighty comet dancing across the vast dark space. Pip followed his gaze and then heard her answer.

  “Yes, I would die for you.” As soon as the words left his mouth the dark figure behind closed the distance of the alley way in less than a second and grabbed him by the throat to then plunge deadly fangs into his taut neck. He didn’t even try to fight as Lucius sucked the last shred of life that had been hanging on to him. Pip remained looking up at the comet and without turning to look at her love being sucked dry she said,

  “The time is now Abaddon, the time is now to take your place in the world and be with us…to be with me.” I looked up to see the comet had gotten brighter still and the tail looked as though made from the stars of others joining it, making it longer and longer. It was one of the most incredible things I had ever witnessed.

  “Now, Lucius!” Pip said placing her hand on Adam’s chest as if sensing his fading heartbeat. Lucius pulled his fangs away but kept Adam held up with one arm wrapped around his middle. Adam’s face was slumped forward and he already looked so lifeless. Pip pulled up one of Lucius’ coat sleeves and he placed his jaw around his wrist and tore into himself with a ferocious growl of half man, half beast. He bit straight through the sleeve of his laced white shirt and the blood soaked the material in seconds. Pip ripped the material away and placed Lucius’ wrist first to Adam’s wound and let the blood mix. Pip then let Lucius move it away when she had gathered some up in her palm and both at the same time, with the gathered blood she placed it over the stabbed area and let Lucius place his bleeding wrist to Adam’s mouth.

  “Drink child and become one of us, drink for the woman you love.” Lucius said with such passion it made it beautiful instead of horrifying.

  Adam started to drink and Pip encouraged him, cooing soothing words in a foreign tongue.

  When the first signs of death came to Adam I gasped out, not understanding what was going on. Why did he have to die and why here in the filth of the city?

  “It’s time Imp, he will not be powerful enough to contain the beast if you do not help him, reach into his mind and hold the beast steady until his wounds heal. If you let him loose then we all die, along with all of London.” Lucius didn’t even sound worried as he spoke of such destruction as if he was reading the bloody newspaper!

  “He will listen to me, have no fear about that my Lord.” They had laid Adam down as Pip straddled his torso and held her hands to his forehead. She leaned down and whispered words of love to Adam before closing her eyes to concentrate.

  “He comes now.” She said speaking through a demonic version of herself. I saw her twitch and then she shot a look at Lucius.

  “You might want to hold him my Lord, this is not going to be pretty.” Lucius knelt down and held him down by placing his knees on Adam’s shoulders. Pip then locked her legs over Adam’s thighs and they both braced themselves.

  “Abaddon, follow my voice, I’m here waiting for you. Lucifer will show you the way, follow the bright sky up. Come on big brute,” she said lovingly.

  “That’s it, you’ve found me, you found me at last.” She said again and then Adam’s piercing screams of agony ripped through the night like one of Hell’s demons was tearing him apart. He thrashed around like a fish that was trying to avoid being stepped on. Lucius even looked like he was struggling to hold him as his body became a mass of muscle to try and add to the strength needed. His clothes ripped at the sides and on his arms where pale strong skin could be seen but it still didn’t seem enough to hold Adam.

  Then I watched on in horror as Adam’s skin started to split as if something was trying to tear its way out of him. Adam screamed over and over and I almost prayed for death to take him just to release him from the excruciating pain being inflicted.

  “No, listen to me Abaddon, this is you new host, take him, take care of him and we can be together. NO! Take care of him!” Pip shouted at his forehead as though communicating with the beast inside.

  “LISTEN TO ME!” She screamed when another great slash appeared across Adam’s torso seeping out in a line of crimson in the white linen shirt.

  “I love you both and now you are to become one, take care of my love for me and you will get my love in return,” she said more softly this time. After a minute Adam’s body started to calm from thrashing in the mud and both Lucius and Pip were soon showing signs of the battle nearly lost. Mud splattered each of their faces and blood ran in little rivulets away from Adam’s body.

  “Wake up to your new life my love, wake up to your new birth.” Pip said, her lips against his forehead before moving down to kiss him on the lips. At the first touch of her lips to his he gulped in his first breath and sat up knocking Lucius to the ground as though his strength had been nothing. He grabbed Pip before she fell backwards and it was a motion so fast it was nearly lost to the eye.

  “Turtle Dove?” He asked, voice raw and used from screaming.

  “Yes Adam, I am here…I will always be here.” She said, her voice thick with emotion.

  “I feel…different…stronger, by the Gods I feel strong! I feel…like something is there…something great is waiting, is inside of me.” He sounded both in awe and scared shitless.

  “I know… I know you do but you have to control it. You are the beast now, you have both become one with each other and it is under your command…you have to listen to me Adam…you have to be strong enough to contain it, he is keeping you safe but you have to do the same for him.”

  “I know… I can feel him there. He’s…he’s talking to me, can you hear him?” Pip looked up at him through thick eyelashes and for a minute she looked fearful.

  “No, I can’t hear him anymore but you can and now you must command him to stay there until you are ready.”

  “Ready for what?” Pip looked away as if ready for a backlash of betrayal for what she had done. He gripped her chin and turned her face to his.

  “Winifred, you must tell me,” he said so softly it broke my heart to hear so much love coating those words.

  “Ready for the beast to arise,” she murmured as tears released down her cheeks taking the dirt away with it, leaving lines of white down her skin.

  “Then we have much to do to ready ourselves, for I find myself looking forward to the day.” At this Pip looked at him with the spark flaming back in the green depths of her eyes. He grabbed her by the neck roughly and pulled her lips to his for the deepest kiss I had ever seen two people exchange. I thought if Lucius hadn’t have cleared his throat then they would have done it there and then in the mud and amongst the evidence of Adam’s death and re-birth.

  Adam laughed heartily and got up still holding onto Pip. He looked towards Lucius and bowed his head to show his deepest respect.

  “You are my father!” Adam stated and Lucius nodded once.

  “Then you will lay witness to our marriage and make my world complete. I want this day to mark the beginning in all ways.” Pip jumped up excitedly and Adam caught her in his arms and I watched on as all three walked away from this disgusting alley way which had given birth to the most powerful being on earth.

  Adam the Abaddon, beast number 616.

  Chapter 22

  An Unexpected Demon

  “Open up sleeping beauty.” Pip’s voice penetrated the fog of visions that had played out like a historical movie on fast forward. I opened m
y eyes to find Pip smiling down at me and wiping the tears from my cheeks.

  “Were you crying for me, Toots?” She asked with a mixture of being touched and amused.

  “Maybe,” I said after clearing my throat.

  “Aww shucks Toots, aren’t you a sweetie?” She winked at me as she removed herself from my lap.

  “That was…”

  “Sublime?”

  “Intense.” I corrected trying to get up but I wobbled before falling back in my chair.

  “I would stay put if I were you Champ, I showed you a lot and used a lot of juice…man I’m whipped.” Pip slumped down in the chair opposite dramatically.

  “You mean wiped?”

  “Ahh, potato, tomato, onion either one really.” She said and now she mentioned it she did look a little worn out.

  “I can’t believe that’s how you met…it was incredible, you know… to witness it as if I was really there.”

  “I’m glad you enjoyed, I know I did.” She winked and I laughed at her cheeky ways.

  “So you found Adam and orchestrated the whole thing?” I asked her but she wasn’t the one to reply.

  “She certainly did and played me like a fiddle, didn’t you my little Turtle Dove?” Adam’s easy voice came from behind me and I nearly jumped a mile.

  “You’re back!” She said and jumped up, obviously not as out of energy as I had thought. I watched as she threw herself into his arms and the way he caught her took me back to the alley way.