by Matt Drabble
“He has the book” Gabriel spoke over his shoulder.
“We cannot track him whilst he holds it my liege” Michael offered, “It increases his power and enables an invisibility to us”
“He cannot realise his own potential, not yet” Raphael ventured this more as a question.
Gabriel slammed his fists hard into the solid mahogany instantly breaking both, he fought desperately to swallow his temper, “It is only a matter of time, as long as we are chained to these” he slapped his own chest hard, “He may move beyond us, don’t you understand you dumbfucks”
Michael looked toward Raphael, over the centuries they had moved through this world shedding their meat suits as and when necessary many times over. The 11th Order had provided ample willing recruits only too eager to open themselves up to possession in the holy cause, they were obviously never told that their reward would be intangible and short lived as the Archangels power was significantly diminished, they still burned through the fragile human forms in record time. The seeping of the human emotions had been kept at bay through willpower and concentration but Michael had seen Gabriel’s’ gradual descent over the last few years, he was obviously struggling to contain himself within his latest shell and his nature was bursting at its seams. It seemed that the closer they came to reaching the book the more Gabriel appeared to be slipping. There were growing flashing glimpses of emotions, just the occasional fleeting glance, annoyance here and there, momentary confusions, just split seconds, imperceptible to most but not to Michael. Gabriel had always been their leader, their General, he had commanded their army with calm and serenity, his orders were never questioned and never seconded guessed. Michael was starting to realise that there may come a time when his orders could not be trusted to follow their best interests forward.
CHAPTER VI
GROWING UP
“And if thy right eye offends thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee:
for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish,
and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee,
cut it off and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members
should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell”.
Matthew 5:29-30
McCullum sat lost and lonely, he was a man with a drive and a purpose to pursue life on a predetermined path of career and success, leaving behind a life that he no longer acknowledged, now he found himself spiralling outside of his comfort zone, feeling control wrenched from his grasp and cast asunder. He had the unwanted blood of two young men on his hands and however hard he tried; the stain would not wash off. His colleagues had arrived at the derelict building at his calling, they found him sitting broken on the floor, with the body of Justin Marsh cooling in his crusting blood. There would obviously have to be an internal enquiry, he was a Detective Inspector and the only witness at two suicides inside a matter of days, one a fellow police officer and one a suspect in two serious assaults at a church. He had read Marsh’s journal which instead of clearing his sight had only muddied the waters further, the diary had told of the Knights Templar and their origins and of Father Andrew Jacobs’ real name being one Hugues de Payens who apparently was over 900 years old. It also told of the church holding a sacred book of some kind that gave the priest enhanced powers and abilities and it made mention of Baine, who was some kind of wind up toy that the priest took out of his box any time he felt like offing anyone who pissed him off. One such man apparently was Sinclair who had angered de Payens by making inroads into the property market around the St Paul’s parish, buying up houses and business’ by bullying and threatening those who were not keen on moving. The journal also spoke rather incoherently of Archangels and wars fought on earth and in the heavens, of those who fell and those who rose, unfortunately for McCullum the diary was not a text book and the author was somewhat unbalanced. He had secreted the journal before the paramedics and uniformed officers had shown up at the scene, all of the information contained within the rambling pages seemed on the surface to be the work of an unbalanced and overactive imagination, something at the back of his mind nagged and gnawed. None of this could be true, could it he pondered, he had always possessed an analytical and ordered mind, he should have been able to dismiss these ravings in a heartbeat but the one thing that he could not dismiss was the look in both of the two dead men’s eyes. The journal would have been the source of much mirth and derision amongst his fellow detectives, but they had not seen the fear and fervor in the two sets of shark black eyes in the moment of absolute truthful clarity before death.
He had been taken in a separate ambulance to the hospital suffering from shock, he was not quite of course, his sense of self ran deeper than that, but it just seemed more prudent to play the card whilst he cemented just what he would say and do next. Superintendent Irving had arrived at the hospital in a grandiose show of unity and authority sweeping the press aside who had begun to gather in earnest with a flash of the standardised no comment badge; he headed into the empty chapel where McCullum aptly waited.
“How are you Mac?” the Superintendent gently probed
After everything that he had seen in the last few days McCullum’s bullshit detector was cranked up high and working well, he was not fooled by his bosses tone only curious at the deception.
“I’m alright Sir” he replied, “It’s just been a hell of a week, first Thomas taking a swan dive now this dumbass kid chews through his own wrists and spills his life across the floor”
“Yes, yes it’s a terrible business; I understand that he was a very disturbed young man, quite suicidal for some time by all accounts”
Irving’s tone was sympathetic but McCullum felt that he was being told a back story to fill in the blanks and answer questions before he had even asked them, he knew that in the movies he was supposed to explode in an indignant manner, throw accusations into faces and storm out demanding to seek the truth, unfortunately this was real life and he had a mortgage to pay, he could not very well offer his bank manager good intentions and principles instead of mortgage repayments. For now he had to play his part, on the ambulance drive he had sunk deep into his mind and began the rapid processing of information, whilst he knew that he would forever see the two dead men in the darkest parts of the waking nights he felt sure that he could live with it. He would keep his head down and put in for transfer in a couple of months, he would be exonerated of any culpability in the two deaths and he was not about to start playing a type of off the books Nancy Drew. No-one would blame him for wanting to leave, after all the city was now tainted for him, whatever nagging notions he may harbor, his experiences with the Priest had thrown enough self preservation concern into his works. He had no illusions of his calling in life, he made a damn fine police officer and an even better detective, but he was no selfless hero, he would lock away any suspicions and put a harness on his deductive skills. Despite this promise to himself Irving’s attitude was interesting and suspicious to say the least, the death of DC Arwel Thomas was already on the fast track to being laid to rest, rumors of his mental instability were rife and spreading fast and apparently a suicide note had been found on his desk which McCullum knew for a fact to not have existed, whatever the note was it had not come from Thomas’ own hand. Next in line was the beginnings no doubt of Marsh’s much publisised problems that had suddenly materialized out of thin air, well fuck it though McCullum to himself, whatever all of this was it was certainly not his problem any more.
“Perhaps you should take a little time off Mac, take a little time for yourself, get away, maybe go and sit on a warm beach whilst the old women at the station find someone else to gossip about”
It did not sound to McCullum like the Superintendent was asking,
“Sounds good to me Sir, I’m sure that a little distance while this is all cleared up would be a good idea” he complied. He felt no guilt or embarrassment at
taking the easy way out, whatever was going on here it was way over his head and he already felt like an idiot for getting in this deep. Irving nodded to himself seemingly pleased with the outcome and headed back out into the hospital corridor leaving McCullum alone trying to firmly close the door on his nagging conscience.
The position of the Cardiff Castle in the centre of the city meant that a busy road ran past the entrance, only spitting distance from the heavily populated surrounding area, it was now around a quarter to ten and the people had thinned, either disappearing home or into the bars and clubs. The castle security was little and lax however the main entrance was an impenetrable door of massive proportions that closed when the castle did. The walls were high and encased the entire structure, the North Gate at the rear did however offer a more unobtrusive way in. Baine had moved through Bute Park and the grassland inbetween, to arrive at the rear walls unobserved for he wanted no prying eyes human or otherwise following him this evening. He now carried the Book of Enoch in a small backpack strapped over his shoulders obtained from a local hiking store, after his conversation, or rather the diatribe that Gabriel had submitted him to, he knew that the Archangel would be coming for him and the book. He would have preferred to delay his inevitable betrayal a while longer as Gabriel could yet prove to hold valuable knowledge, but he could not risk losing the book. He could not return home nor to any of his usual haunts he had to remove himself from detection, due to the volatile nature of his business he had always left a bag in a Cardiff railway station locker, the bag contained an alternative set of ID papers including a photo drivers license under a false name and about £100,000 in cash stashed for a quick and easy disappearing act.
Once he was completely sure that he was truly alone Baine broke from his bushy green cover, a large oak tree stood at the corner of the back wall, its branches handily overhung the castles perimeter, Baine quickly scaled the trunk and paused at the top. Carefully he edged his way along a thick and supportive branch, the night was dark and moonless leaving him hidden within the black shadows, he braced himself and leapt from the sturdy branch, the distance and the drop were around six feet, Baine landed squarely on top of the square turret that formed the corner of the great protective wall. Once he was assured that he had not been detected he headed down the ancient stone steps to ground level, he was unsure of the level of security and was not prepared to be stumbled across by some night security guard wandering the grounds, any trail of bodies that he left would be easily spotted by those who now sought him. The castle grounds consisted of a large expanse of neatly kept lawns and gravel pathways, stood proudly in the centre sat a perfectly preserved smallish Norman keep atop an artificial motte and surrounded by a small water filled trench. Baine crossed the grounds hugging close to the exterior wall in order to stay within the shadows, at the far end of the grounds stood the impressive later additions to the castle, the apartment building which based on his research, was erected in the 15th century the gothic building and towers were imposing and striking, they were surrounded by the Bute, Octagon and Guest towers all added on different timelines but were blended together sympathetically by obviously talented architects. It was the largest of the towers that Baine was interested in; the Clock Tower was apparently built between 1869 and 1873 and stood at an remarkable 132ft in height and contained 7 stories with unsurprisingly, a large clock on top which was flanked by statues representing the principle planets with their respective zodiac on the pedestals, the bell itself was a half scale model of the one in the Victoria Tower in Westminster. According to the archaeological studies the tower was built on the Roman land on which his recently discovered brother Marcus had walked upon centuries ago, it was here that he would gather his directions and be handed his future. Baine moved cautiously toward the Clock Tower, the grass here was heavy and wet; he could do little about leaving footprints stretching across the lawned expanse. There were two rooms below the parapet walk that he remembered were originally designed as the gardener’s accommodation, he saw that although the door was locked it was not heavily secured and he could see no electronic contact points around the windows to indicate an alarm of any kind. Presumably the biggest security issue the castle had was to keep out young vandals hell bent on wrecking anything creative that made them feel as useless as they were, Baine carefully picked the lock and eased open the door slipping inside without a sound.
McCullum drifted through the night aimlessly, he knew that it was futile to attempt to outrun his conscience but it did not stop him from trying, it was late and getting later, the streets were almost deserted save for a few last stragglers, he passed through the brightly lit city centre and began to lose the artificial lighting descending into dangerous darkness. At last he picked up on the following footsteps that attempted to remain at a subtle distance behind him, McCullum was fishing for a confrontation, he longed to pound his frustrated fists against a face of flesh and bone one grounded in reality and not myths and fables. By now he walked briskly towards the redeveloped Bay area seeking an undisturbed arena in which to allow his follower to make his move, the new Odeon Multiplex sat within a large isolated car park; its low neon glow shimmered across the wet ground, McCullum moved through the shallow puddles to claim the centre ground. Behind him the footsteps suddenly broke into a run, he braced himself for the turn, the footsteps accelerated closing the gap quickly, the angry pounding echoes rang out from the tarmac, the man was very close now, McCullum span to meet his onrushing attacker, the man was largely built and moving fast, suddenly a flash of movement to his left caused him to turn that way, in the split second it took to look left and then back again the attacker was gone. McCullum stood alone in a large deserted space stretching hundreds of feet on all sides, there was nowhere for his attacker to have gone, he looked around on all sides, he was completely alone and completely bewildered. He started to retrace his steps wondering if all of the stress of the past week was piling up around his ears, perhaps the man following him had never existed at all, he shook off the feelings and started to walk towards the main road to hopefully find a taxi willing to stop this late. He was three quarters of the way back across the car park when a furious force smashed into his back, the blow felt sharp and powerful he heard the fabric of his heavy coat rip apart, he staggered forward onto his knees and looked up to face the mugger only it wasn’t him. He was looking into to the face of something not human, it was around six feet high and seemed mammal in stature, it stood upright on two legs but with long simian arms that hung long past its knees, the lighting was dim but the neon glow of the cinema’s exterior sparkled off of sharp talons that topped its thick and bony hands. Its skin was rippled with scales and ripcord thick with muscle, it was the darkest green in colour with mottled patches, it wore no clothing but possessed no discernable sex organs, it swayed hypnotically from side to side, what looked like fresh blood dripped from a nightmarish face with deep black eyes and a snout full of razor teeth. McCullum rolled back to his feet and stood face to face with the creature, he was taller and broader than his attacker but he felt strangely weaker, the thing suddenly lashed out, its arms swung with incredible speed. McCullum ducked as fast as he could, he had boxed as a teenager and considered himself to have fantastic reflexes, it was these that probably saved his life, as quickly as he ducked he could not avoid the blow entirely, he felt the skin above across his forehead split open blurring his vision with a red haze as his skin split open. He desperately tried to clear his sight wiping away across his eyes, suddenly he was lifted up into the air by powerful arms before being flung seven feet into a concrete parking divider, he crashed down hard, he rolled to his right ignoring the burning pain in his side and regained his feet instinctively knowing that if he remained motionless then he was dead. The creature appeared to be taunting him, enjoying its dominance, it moved slowly now, stalking him, McCullum scanned the car park desperately looking for anything that he could use as a weapon, the creature leapt forward suddenly, it landed on him full bor
e, he fell backwards with the thing on his chest, its snout lunged at him teeth bared and biting, McCullum managed to get one hand under its throat and had to use all of his strength to keep its face from biting his off. It snarled and squirmed on top of him, he managed to use his other hand to ward off its heavy blows that were pounding about him, it continued to thrust its head forward snapping and drooling, McCullum knew that he could not last much longer, his grip was beginning to weaken as his arms grew tired against the tireless creature. He put everything that he had left into forcing all of his strength through his rapidly tiring arms, he twisted his body violently underneath his aggressive assailant and threw the creature back his head whilst rolling over to his left, he managed to breathlessly gain his feet, hands on his knees he turned to face his potential doom unable to summon enough energy to defend himself. When he turned to face the monster what he saw caused his total immobilisation, a tall man had appeared from nowhere and held the thing by its neck, the mans arm was outstretched and he was holding the creature three feet from the ground, his fingers were wrapped firmly around its throat, by the creatures desperately flapping legs it was struggling to breathe, the man somehow managed to hold the heavy thing one handed above the floor with seemingly little effort. The tall man pulled the monster to him and whispered something into its ear, the creature stopped struggling and relaxed, like the worlds greatest illusionist the tall man snapped his arm in a whip cracking motion and the creature was gone. McCullum could only stare on, as his week of increasing impossibilities somehow managed to top itself once again, the tall man radiant smile lit the ground around him in a golden glow and he seemed to glide across the car park towards him, Gabriel reached down warmly to McCullum,