The Trilogy of the Void: The Complete Boxed Set

by Peter Meredith

  It was an amazing sensation just to breathe and he felt the intriguing pain of the cold air sting his lungs. Looking around, he noticed that everything in the room was tremendously magnified and with fascination, he could see the individual hairs that made up Talitha's eyelashes. They were black and thick, round at the base, but tapering to a point at the end. However, in the next second, his mind shifted interpretation of the light striking his retina and everything came to back to focus. His hearing too felt modified, and he recognized the red shifting of the sound waves, caused by his proximity to the void. All sound was being pulled, elongated, and slowed and this was accounting for the muffled quality to words.

  His mind, discovering the cause, simply translated the sound to its common form and then he heard quite clearly Adrina say, "I will fear no evil, for thou Lord art with me."

  Will looked at the tiny lady and saw her body trembling like a newborn in the snow.

  She stood a few feet in front of him and slightly to his right. He could reach out and touch her if he wished and he could see just enough of her face to know that she was afraid but also enough to see that she was clear eyed and deliberate. Taking another step forward, the scrawny woman challenged the horrendous demon, "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."

  "Kill her!" It was William. Commander Jern sagged in the doorway, looking close to death.

  Brian shouted back and for a second Will wondered why they were shouting so loudly in the quiet room, but then he realized they were both hearing things differently than he did.

  "No! The stole!" Brian had not killed Henny, as he should have but instead had dragged the two girls together and stood over them with the broken blade in his hands.

  The sound of a pencil snapping drew Will's attention back to Adrina. In the short time he had looked away, she had lost the battle of wills and now she was shrieking with untold anguish. Another snap followed the first, and more followed that. Her right arm was being rolled up from her wrist. The bones of her forearm went first, snapping repeatedly in quick succession and then the larger Humerus popped instead of snapped. Pop! Pop! Pop! Her arm was being rolled up like a garden hose, and through it all, she screamed in fantastic soul rending misery.

  This wasn't an illusion, or a mental aberration like the flames on his arms had been. This was real.

  The left arm was next and it went so fast the noise was a long crunching sound, overlaying her screams. Her dentures flew from her mouth, exploding on contact with the hardwood floors and large fake teeth bounced in all directions.

  "The stole!" Brian yelled again and Will realized it was just within reach; Adrina had it about her neck. He was half-laying, half-sitting and he stretched out his arm to take it from her, but suddenly she started to move, her body began twisting away from him. Her head however remained fixed, staring into the gaping maw of the demon's gate and, even as he watched, the skin of her neck began to appear stretched and braided. Still her body twisted and finally there was a gruesome "twuck" from beneath her skin.

  It was the sound of one of her vertebrae breaking.

  Nothing was more sickening to hear and even as Will felt his stomach lurch, more vertebrae broke, one after another. Somehow, she stood through it all, but now there were no more screams.

  In the demon's vengeance, in its need to cause pain Will saw his chance. Leaping up, he snatched the stole from her shoulders and with a quick movement, he backhanded it toward Brian.

  However, he got more than he realized when he took the stole from the dying Adrina, and the second the white cloth left his hand, he knew he'd made a mistake. The air swirling around the demon was not a random thing, and the demon knowing the significance of the stole, sucked it toward the void quickly.

  But Will was also quick. His body reacted with the speed of his youth, and even as one end of the stole slipped into the endless black pit, he had a grip on the other. He pulled back mightily, but the void was greater still, and he slid inch by inch toward the swirling chaos. The stole was half swallowed before the corrosive effect of the void blackened the leading edge of it and Will tumbled backward when it tore.

  Time became everything. Seconds became as important as decades and Will knew he was almost out of time and so as he fell away from the gate and the beast beyond it he swung his arm back in an exaggerated motion and the stole came down in Brian's outstretched hand. The boy tugged it away.

  Will laid there for only the smallest fraction of a second before his father bellowed his own challenge and rushed at the fiend. Will couldn't watch what would happen to the Commander—that would take moments he didn't have, instead he twisted like a cat, scrambling to get to Brian before it was too late.

  For his part, Brian was desperately winding the remains of the stole around the hands of the two women; his face was a visage of terror. He finished wrapping the cloth before Will could get to him and was just picking up the sword when they heard the sad sound of the Commander falling heavily to the floor.

  Will knew Brian was going to be too late. The demon blasted him as he knelt with the sword poised above Henny's breast. Pain twisted his pleasant features into a nasty mask and the sword fell from his hands.

  And Will knew he would be next.

  He saw the pain coming. It would be greater by far than anything he had yet suffered and he knew as well that he wouldn't have time to plunge the blade into the witch's breast. Instead, he grabbed the gilded hilt as it fell and pressed it to his body. A fraction of a second later the demon's mind entered his own, unleashing a furious attack. Will's body convulsed as he knew it would and he fell forward onto Henny, the blade driving deep into her.

  6

  Will became a part of the connection.

  He was a part of Talitha, and of Henny, and the Demon, but most of all he knew the eternal void.

  His soul and everything that made him Will crossed through the black spinning smoke of the gate and into the void. He found himself on the path to the world, surrounded by absolute darkness. The utter blackness held a crushing fear. He could perceive the fear, not just as a mental state but with his other senses as well and he knew that the fear was almost a living thing in its own right. He could feel it demanding and lusting after him, wanting to corrupt him and yet the fear didn't affect him but seemed to slide off him in an oily manner

  Wondering if this was how his father must feel, he ignored the fear and looked about, discovering that despite the dark he could see after a fashion. His vision was taken up with an insanity that was almost too immense for his mind to cope with. It was as if the walls of hell had been peeled back and all its misery lay about him.

  He had to turn his eyes away.

  When he did he discovered a dazzling brilliance below him. The Commander's blade—that charred piece of steel—had become a part of the void and part of the connection as well.

  Except for the one moment when his father had attacked the demon with it, the sword had always seemed weak and pathetic to Will, but to the souls of the void it was nothing short of miraculous. It was a great shining beacon and all of the tortured raced to it. But the way was narrow and a great tumultuous battle broke out all around Will. It was a desperate fight that filled the darkness and it was between the shadows that the individuals fought and as soon as one was victorious, another cast him down.

  However, the winner of this immense nearly infinite battle was foreordained.

  The demon that had so plagued the Jerns had never left its terrible realm. It had only been able to drink through the gate, to see the world beyond, and to put forth only the smallest part of its power through it. Now, however it was going to occupy a body—Talitha's still living body— something it had waited eons for, ever since its own had ceased to live. It raced almost gleefully up the broken sword, happily destroying any of the appalling creatures that came before it. Its power in its own realm could not be denied and was absolute.

  Will stood along its path, and despite whatever heroics he had performed, he was still j
ust a boy while the demon had become a giant, a horror of shadows that dwarfed him. However, the crown of Will's head was still anointed with the chrism of his Baptism and his soul, recently purified in the baptismal waters was clean and virtuous, and Will denied the demon the body of his sister.

  His mouth opened and he meant to say: No! However, something else came out instead. It was the Word, or the tiniest fraction of it.

  "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God..."

  That was the first line from the Gospel of John and when Will had read it in church holding Lisa's hand, he hadn't understood. But now his entire being was suffused with it and he felt God's love—the animating force that gave him life—it was in him and around him, it was a gift, but not an infinite one. It was something that shouldn't be squandered or given up lightly and Will had to choose between hoarding it and fleeing from the demon, or using the essence of his life to fight the demon and save his sister.

  He hesitated not at all, and the Word rolled out of his mouth with the light of many stars and shone brightly, exposing the deception and piercing the shadows. Its intensity seemed to bring with it a wind that laid back the enveloping darkness of the demon, revealing its wretched soul, a gnarled and wizened thing. The demon fled from the light and the intense reality of God's love. It fled into the darkness and hid in its own nothingness.

  With the light of the Word all about him, Will saw that the lesser creatures of the void were still battling in a tremendous swirling melee. Talitha stood out among them, shedding a dim light of her own. She was struggling with a great hellish brute and the combat was fierce and her light became faint.

  Will tried to go to her, but he was drained and he could feel himself on the verge of dissipating, becoming nothing. He had nearly given too much of the force that binds us together in life. However his sister was still in a desperate situation and he called out to her, but there was nothing of the Word left in his voice.

  His voice carried no light or even sound, but his breath was still hot with life and it billowed out from him. The heat of it stoked the embers of her soul, her spirit was infused by it, and her strength grew in proportion so that she was able to throw down the creature that challenged her.

  But Will saw that his Talitha had changed. She had become hard and menacing, and when her opponent lay prostrate before her, she tread cruelly upon its neck and gloated over it in triumph.

  It was then that a sound reached into the void from the world beyond:

  "Talitha."

  It was their father's voice, warm and strong with life. It echoed down the length of the sword and she looked up. With the last light of the Word, she saw herself as Will saw her. She knew shame at this, and she knew shame at things that were never witnessed outside the void.

  Things done to her and worse...things she had done. She almost fled, even as the demon had, but fear and desire held her in uncertainty, until Will reached out his hand. And where once she stood far from edge of the sword, now she could stretch her arm out to it easily. And she did this, and took his warm hand in her cold dead one.

  She smiled, and her love, a vague, distant memory that she had somehow held onto, crept shyly from within her. It came to him through her touch, and reminded him of life and he was eager to get back to it. And so pulling gently on her hand, he drew her forth from the void.

  The End.

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  The Story continues. Book Two: An Illusion of Hell:

  The Demon is Back...and Will Jern, the man who banished it eight years ago is called upon again to pit himself against the fiend.

  With the lives of five children at stake, and time running out to save them, Will must find Luke, the man responsible for bringing the demon back, all the while battling a foe that is quite beyond him, not the demon, but his own sister.

  Despite all the sacrifices to save her from the demon, 8 years previously, Talitha Jern came back from her time in hell, changed. At once, she is the sweet innocent sister that he has always loved, but she is also a diabolical beauty, cruel, devious, and powerful as well, with physical capabilities that are unmatched.

  Talitha is also after Luke, not to save any useless children, but to further her own ends and Will must kill her first if he is going to have any chance against the demon.

  An Illusion of Hell

  The Trilogy of the Void Book Two

  Chapter 1

  12 Shots of Whiskey

  "Did we ever kiss or, you know, fool around?" Talitha asked her brother.

  "No," Will responded warily.

  "What about dad? We did it, right?" She shifted in bed, rolling over to look up at him. In the dim light her brown eyes looked like deep black pits. This was heading into dangerous territory. He kept his face carefully composed—even though it was full night out, Talitha could see him as if he were under a spotlight.

  "No, not dad either," Will said, then changed the subject, "Hey, it's bedtime and I'm getting pretty sleepy." Will was thankful it was at least partially the truth; now would be a bad time to lie. However, it was no lie that it was exhausting being in her presence.

  She ran her hands through her long brown hair and stretched. "Am I sleepy?" She was not at all sleepy. Talitha never became sleepy, hungry, or thirsty.

  "No Tal, but your body needs it's rest anyways, so roll on over..." That was a mistake, and he knew it right away.

  Talitha had been on that verge between personalities and sometimes just a word would awaken the wrong one.

  She'd been lying in her bed, with the silk of her sheets tucked sweetly up to her chin, then in an impossible blur of motion she was up. Her naked body, tan, lean, yet sleek with muscle, was a dreadful weapon. She advanced on Will with the speed of a striking snake.

  He knew the blow was coming—a right hook that would level him, and he saw his options were limited to either fighting or lying back as submissively as possible. As usual he chose not to fight and took the heaviest part of the strike on his left forearm. Still there was plenty of force remaining and he was sent sprawling on the old orange and brown shag carpet. Immediately he went to his back, his hands up protecting his face.

  To someone peering in through the window of the cabin, the scene would've been ludicrous. Will was tall, strong, and thick with muscle as well as fully clothed. He dwarfed the nude woman, who seemed exposed and unprotected in contrast. In reality it was she who held the upper hand and she jumped full upon the man cowering before her.

  "Who the hell do you think you are?" Talitha screamed into his ear. "Insect! You are nothing."

  She raked his left hand away from his face and slapped him hard on the side of the head, with her right. Will's head cranked hard over and went deep into the shag. He saw weird orange and brown spots in his vision, and blinked his blue eyes trying to clear them. His face felt as if it had been burned by the force of the blow, but despite that he was happy with the results. He knew it would get no worse than being screamed at.

  "You don't tell me what to do, damn it! I tell you!" Her anger was real, perhaps the most real thing about her and she unleashed it on him.

  "Roll over? You think I'll roll over for you, insect. You're not the Veeerdi...you're not even Ghushkaz! Roll over? Do you think you can make me? What a joke! You can't..." Talitha stopped yelling. With a sudden smirk on her face, she reached out and stroked his thick brown hair from his forehead.

  Straightening his head in the carpet, so he could look full up at her, she continued, "Ok, I see now you were not fool enough to challenge me. It was this body you're after. Interesting..."

  Talitha had been straddling him. Now she got up, hauling him to his feet as though he weighed no more than a child. Throwing him on the bed, she then crawled up on to him, rubbing her breasts along the length of his body.

  He hated this about her.

  She had become a creature with a strong sexual appetite and when she was in one of her moods, she no longer cared about social constructs. The terms brother and sis
ter had no meaning for her, and if it had been possible, she would've raped him many times already. She'd tried in the past, but he had fought her to a standstill each time.

  Tonight, thankfully, it wouldn't go that way. Will saw it ending soon and helped it along, "I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to presume. I beg your forgiveness."

  "I don't like it when you beg. Stop it! You sound like such a fag when you do that." The idea that he was gay seemed to come over her, and she looked down at him with disgust and contempt. "Get the hell out of my bed! Jeez, how does Lisa put up with you?"

  Will slipped from her bed, trying not to touch her as he got up. He wobbled slightly as the room pitched first to the left and then way over to the right, and he grabbed her dresser for support. The slap had been harder than he'd thought and his head still rang with it.

  It took a moment for the room to steady itself and he almost waited too long to answer her, "She's even weaker that I am; she has to put up with me." This was of course only partly true; Lisa didn't have to put up with him at all, but it was the answer Talitha was looking for.

  "Yes, I suppose she's just a girl."

  Will felt clear headed enough and he turned to face Talitha knowing it would be disrespectful as well as dangerous to keep his back to her. She sat up in the bed with her sheets lying just below her breasts. With her left hand she made gentle patterns in the silk but it was far too dark to see what they were, and with her right hand she was beginning to stroke herself.

  "May I retire, please?" he asked and knew she would allow it. He knew many things.

  "Yeah, get out of here...MMmmhhh." He started to leave quickly but hesitated at the door, knowing what was coming, "Are you going to make French toast in the morning?" she asked sweetly. He hated her sweet voice, it was like icing on dog crap.