by R. Twine
‘Don’t worry about him, my little daughter,’ Mom said reassuringly.
‘And Samuel… I hope our relationship will improve in time. He told me about how Agella had wanted to use me for her own profit,’ I said quietly. ‘It’s too late to deliberate whether things might or might not have gone the other way. Maybe the child I’m carrying under my heart should have been conceived by Samuel, not by Michael – who knows. I do hope this boy won’t have to pay for the sin I committed.’
‘Miriam, this boy has been conceived by Satanail – just as Cain was. We can only hope that he will not suffer Cain’s fate,’ Laura said. ‘Could it be avoided? Provided nothing happens without the Creator’s consent…’
‘I’ll pray every day to make sure the essence given to him by the Creator takes the upper hand over the essence given to him by Satanail.’
‘So will I, my darling daughter,’ Laura said. ‘I see that you don’t wear our familial ring any more, do you?’
‘It’s being kept in a strong box, Mom.’
‘And the vial?’ she enquired.
‘It disappeared.’ I paused for a moment and added. ‘It’s so strange, Mom… All these years I cherished my desire to find the one responsible for my woes and take my revenge on him. But when I found him, emptiness filled my heart. I feel nothing towards Michael but pity.’
‘Beware of Satanail, Miriam. The story isn’t over yet. Take care, my little girl,’ my mother warned me.
She disappeared, leaving me alone in the fragrant garden. I looked around and extended my hand to pick a flower.
‘Take care, young lady!’ a male’s voice stopped me. ‘Look, you’ve burnt your hand! Why have you been holding your palm over a burning candle?!’ the man asked in bewilderment.
‘I don’t know, really…’ I replied.
The flame of the candle was trembling slightly in a barely perceptible draught.
Samuel lived between America and France, shuttling back and forth from the Old World to the New World by plane. He’d been gradually reestablishing his credibility in my eyes. I felt as though I were awakening from a bad sleep; I felt much better and happier than several months before. Samuel reminded me of the time I was eager to live and love. Our past kept us together. My grandparents often came to visit me, and so did Elian with her new-born son.
Samuel was openly joyous about our future baby.
‘Oh, Miriam, just because I’m not the baby’s biological father doesn’t change the way I feel about you. I promise I will love him as if he were my own son,’ he would say. ‘I’ll always be with you, Miriam. You’re my one and only wife till the end of my days. I love you.’
I was grateful to him – both for these words and for his constant support and care.
My pregnancy went on well. I had almost no morning sickness, I felt no fatigue, in fact, I felt surprisingly well. Now I spent a lot of time writing and even more time strolling and sleeping.
I’d been constantly thinking about my baby. I was worried about his fate, and this worry was tearing my heart apart, but I tried to chase the dark thoughts away. I sat in the nursery hours on end, turning over the tiny things and toys I’d prepared for my son. I looked forward to his coming into the world.
Someone shook me by the shoulder waking me up in the dead of night. A voice whispered right in my ear. ‘Get ready, the labor pains are about to begin…’
Unbearable pain shot through my lower back.
‘Sam, wake up! Sam!’ I said shaking him awake.
We got up and began getting hastily ready to set out for the hospital.
A strong wind started howling outside, the windowpanes rattled, the window-shutters clattered. The high wind turned into a storm which hit the house. All the telephones went dead, cutting us off from the outside world. The lights would go on and off, plunging the house into total darkness.
‘Goddamn it, what the hell is going on – yet again?’ Samuel shouted as he went upstairs from the garage. He was beyond himself with fury. ‘The garage door is jammed, I can’t open it!’
Acute pain shot through me again, and I curled up. Labor pains became increasingly intense. I felt the invisible hand in my womb pushing the fetus outside, and I realized that it wouldn’t be long before I gave birth to a baby.
‘Sam, there’s a doctor living in a neighboring house, her name’s Edith. Call her in…Ask her to help me… Come on, hurry up!’ I whispered, curling up again. Small droplets of sweat appeared on my forehead.
‘Wait a minute, I’ll be back soon,’ Samuel said anxiously and dashed out of the house.
Shortly afterwards I heard the door slam and an elderly woman appeared in the doorway with a doctor’s bag in her hands. Indeed, why must everything repeat itself? I caught myself thinking.
‘It hurts so much… I want it to be over as soon as possible…’ I whispered and broke out crying.
‘Darling, everything’s going to be all right… I love you, Miriam… Hold on just a little bit longer…’ Samuel said reassuringly.
The storm was raging outside, its howling sound chilling the blood in my veins. The roof of the house was groaning under the pressure of the elements. The pain was so intense that it started hammering in my ears – it felt as if someone was trying to crack my skull open with a heavy hammer from within.
‘Some days ago the weathermen said we were in for a strong wind… But I didn’t expect it to be that strong! I’ve never seen anything of the kind!’ Edith lamented. ‘Well, never mind… Things do happen. You’ll have to deliver right here. You’re not the first and clearly not the last to do it. The main thing is to avoid complications,’ she spoke optimistically, trying to assuage our fears.
‘I’m not worried about myself, I’m worried about the baby,’ I said in a whisper.
‘Don’t worry and don’t aggravate the situation!’ the doctor ordered. ‘In old times all women delivered at home, and everything was all right. Things will turn out well. As soon as this wild storm calms down we’ll phone the ambulance. Incidentally, all of my phones have gone dead, too,’ she said in bewilderment.
The pain was tearing my body apart. I tried to recollect my yoga exercises and breathe in the correct way, but it wouldn’t work. I screamed, horribly. The baby was moving slowly down the birth canal. Inhale…Exhale…Inhale…Exhale…
I tossed my head back and saw the two angels. Michael the Archangel and Satanail stood on either side of me, watching silently.
‘Stick it out a little longer, Miriam…Come on, girl…’ Edith kept on saying under her breath.
Samuel was stroking my head and kissing my sweaty forehead from time to time.
‘I’m with you, my dear…Everything’s going to be all right…’ he whispered incessantly.
The voices entwined into one thread wrapping me up like a cocoon, trying to protect me from the excruciating pain. The angels stood silently like statues without interfering with what was going on.
Suddenly the course of time accelerated, the air became kind of foggy, and my pain merged into darkness. Everything started looking to me like a dream.
‘Push, Miriam! Push!’ Edith shouted.
Samuel squeezed my shoulders; I wriggled and screamed at the top of my lungs, pushing the baby out of my body. Down below it felt wet and warm… I heard the baby screaming… Through the haze that hindered my vision, I saw my son smeared in blood and mucus. There were little horns on his head… The Angels, in turn, sprinkled his body with their tears, and the baby’s tender skin absorbed the moisture immediately. Satanail and the Archangel disappeared without saying a single word.
Edith gave me an injection, and I passed out.
When I came to, I saw myself lying in a hospital bed. Standing beside me was a transparent tub where the baby slept, snuffling slightly. Samuel slept in an armchair nearby, his chin on his chest.
With an effort, I sat up and looked at my son. He was the most beautiful baby in the world! Wavy dark hair framed his angelic face. The little horns had disappeared without the
slightest trace.
‘Miriam, honey, you shouldn’t get up.’ Samuel woke up with a start and came running up to me. ‘You lost a lot of blood and have to lie still and rest.’ He kissed me on the cheek and looked lovingly at the baby. ‘The baby’s fine. The doctor said you’ll have to take care of yourself: it’ll be awhile before you get your strength back.’
‘Thank you, darling. I’m very grateful to you,’ I said, crawling under the blanket again. ‘How did we get there? I don’t remember anything at all…’
‘Edith gave you a shot of a sedative to make sure you had some rest. After a while the storm slowed down enough for the ambulance to come and bring us here,’ Samuel explained.
We exchanged telling glances but none of us dared articulate the weird circumstances of the baby’s birth. We understood each other without words.
When evening came, the hospital ward was full of flowers and gifts. Relatives and friends kept coming to have a look at our first-born.
‘He looks like a beautiful little angel!’ everybody said in admiration.
‘Miriam, my dear girl, you look awful,’ my granny lamented.
‘Don’t worry,’ I would say reassuringly. ‘I’ll soon be up and running – as before!’
We were released from the hospital in a week.
Shortly afterwards Samuel told me the news.
‘Edith was found dead in her bedroom this morning. I have no idea who keeps on playing this game with us…’
Chapter 51
I’d been recovering my strength, if gradually. My son Karl was the main motivation for me to return to normal life. But the past wouldn’t let me go, still holding me in its tenacious grip: over and over again thoughts about Michael kept spinning around in my head. Every time I looked at my son, memories of him would come back to me. A lot of things remained unclear.
Samuel constantly stayed with me and Karl – caring, attentive and loving.
‘Miriam, soon the time will come when the past won’t matter anymore and we’ll be able to become really happy,’ he would say. ‘Please consider me as the Karl’s real father!’
Our son bore Samuel’s surname, and nobody but us knew he was Michael’s son. Nobody but us and the invisible world.
Karl grew up, changing with every new day, while I tried to cherish every moment I spent with him.
My son was the sense of my life, he was my mission. I loved him with all my maternal heart and was ready to protect him against all troubles and all the worlds – both visible and invisible ones. I won’t let anybody manipulate him the way they’d been manipulating me! I won’t let anybody turn his life into a nightmare! I’ll take out anybody who will stand in his way! And I’ll do it personally! I won’t let anybody harm him, I thought, looking into the baby’s little eyes.
Sometimes I analyzed Michael’s behavior trying to somehow explain his conduct. I wanted to vindicate him. Satanail couldn’t possibly have been manipulating Michael all the time. Over the years, the latter had developed an inner strength to oppose the Prince of Darkness’s influence. There were periods of time when Michael’s soul was left to its own devices. What kind of a person was he at the moments when the devil would loosen his grip over Michael’s soul? How did his divinity gene manifest itself then? That I didn’t know.
Michael had left a will. Everything he had he bequeathed to the boy I was destined to have by him. He knew everything well in advance… Karl became his heir.
Samuel left for the US again, while Karl and I were to move there shortly afterwards.
‘Miriam, I’ve got everything ready in the house for when you get here,’ Sam told me over the phone. ‘I’ll be flying to Paris pretty soon: I have to meet with Agella’s lawyer to sign some important papers.’
‘Sam, what are you going to do with the Book of Shadows you’ve inherited from Agella?’ I asked.
‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘I may as well ask you that question, because Karl has inherited Michael’s book, hasn’t he? There are two Books in our family! I hope you do understand the kind of responsibility it means.’
‘Yes, I do, Sam. And this is something that scares me most of all. I sense there’s a new trap lying in wait for us,’ I said worriedly.
‘Agella’s dead, but I feel like she’s still here,’ Samuel said in a frustrated tone of voice. ‘Robert’s ghost is somewhere around, too. Many of those who disappeared will be back soon. They are, in fact, demons; they are going to chase me forever because I refused to take the Master’s chair and because of the Book of Shadows – until Karl is grown-up. I’m not going to have a son of my own, therefore my Book of Shadows will finally go to Karl. It is for the first time in the history of mankind that both Books are so close, to one and the same master. By inheriting both Books of Shadows he will become the Master of Earth, second only to Satanail! Now that he’s been born, we’re in for colossal changes. These changes will originate from the son of the first-ever woman, not from her personally. You’ve only come to this world to give him life. Karl is the one who’s going to change the present and lay the foundation for a new civilization!’ I heard Samuel sigh heavily and then say with a kind of desperation in his voice. ‘Miriam, this lull seems very strange to me…and ominous.’
‘Sam, you’re scaring me.’
‘I’ve opened the Book of Shadows…’
‘I thought so. Now it’s going to attract you like a magnet all the time.’
‘When I opened the Book, Agella’s demon flew out of it. She bared her teeth in a repulsive grin. To speak frankly, that was an ominous sign. I put the Book back and haven’t returned to it ever since,’ Samuel said. ‘But now at night I hear the voice calling to me from the Book. I’m sorry I ever looked in the Book for possible answers. I’m afraid I may pay dearly for my curiosity.’
‘Samuel, now I don’t want to look for anything any more either.’
‘After I touched the Book I started having hallucinations. Every night when the silvery Moon looks down at Earth from faraway I can see very clearly the demons’ festival beginning in Agella’s castle. They celebrate the birth…’ Samuel stammered and went silent.
‘Whose birth are they celebrating?’ I asked quietly.
‘I have an idea,’ he said – and suddenly stopped short abruptly.
‘Sam, it appears that everything’s just beginning, isn’t it?’ I asked in a trembling voice.
‘I don’t know. I can’t say,’ he said nervously and hung up immediately.
But I knew without further explanation what he meant. My fears had proved right. I broke out crying, bitterly.
The first anniversary of our wedding came. Michael had died the very same day the year before.
In the morning, the delivery service brought me a huge box. I was surprised when I saw neither the name of the sender nor the return address, but I put my signature confirming the receipt anyway; it was with great difficulty that I dragged the parcel into the house.
I slit the scotch tape with a knife and found a wooden box on whose lid there was a letter glued.
I tore the envelope open and began reading.
‘‘Dear Miriam, so now you’re on Earth again. You’re as beautiful as you were before. I fell in love with you the moment I saw you; I have been in love with you ever since. Living without you was unbearable: time and again I recollected holding your body in my arms; my craving to meet you again helped me carry on living.
In order to hold you in my arms again and give you the key to the secrets your soul had been striving to know, I had to surpass myself. Everything that could bring us together had been emerging in my way quite naturally and spontaneously. The past keeps us together. As for the future, the pledge of our love – our son – is going to lay the foundation of the new civilization I’ve been dreaming so much about! I reunited with you, as I did before, and every day we spent together was a day of absolute happiness in my immortal existence.
You are a rare pearl! You are a rare creature blessed with endless love and
compassion for the entire world around you. You’re the one The Heavenly Father Himself was reluctant to part with. In the course of centuries you’ve been transforming yourself and becoming wiser. The Creator realized that the essence inherent in you is something that can be regarded as perfect. It was thanks to you only that mankind, to whom you’d given life, escaped destruction.
And it was through knowing you that I, the Prince of Darkness, came to know all the fascination of earthly enjoyments and the great mystery of the human spirit and love. Love can go on for centuries. Love is capable of transforming the life of any creature. Human love can work wonders; it knows no boundaries. Even our father doesn’t have what you have. In you, He surpassed Himself!
I, Satanail, came to know the Love which your human heart discovered for me. For me, who’s not worthy of this love! To possess you, I had to lay traps, skillfully. You had to become mine again! And you did. In order to possess you forever, I was ready to abandon mankind.’
You’ve got the key; you can use it to open this wooden chest whose contents will now belong to you by right.
Michael.’’
With trembling hands, I fished out the key which I’d found in Sean’s abandoned house and opened the chest. Its lid opened up with a screeching sound: there was a dark golden tome lying inside. Its cover had a title inlaid with black diamonds: The Book of Shadows. Burning in the center there was the All-Seeing Eye. The Book was sighing quietly as if waking up from a years-long sleep. The Eye began to open up, gradually. The massive relic started jumping slightly, shaken from within by the stirring of the pages that came to life…
I touched it warily with the tips of my fingers. The warmth coming from the Book spread across my body; I felt its vibrations and its readiness to accompany me to an inexorable end. Carefully, I took the relic out of the chest, held it in my hands for a while and then put it on the table.
Suddenly, thunderbolts and bolts of lightning shook the house. Its walls started to tremble, windowpanes exploded with a loud bang, breaking into thousands of shards. I almost fell but managed to maintain my foothold. Horrified, I looked out the window: the hundred-year-old tree that stood in the yard had been split in half by the bolt of lightning; burning beside it was my car which had apparently been set afire by the discharge of electricity.