by Matt Drabble
“Hello Robert” she purred “I’m Lucy”.
Baine sat encased in his tomb, the small cells walls were close and claustrophobic, the lighting was poor and he could only sit on the thin mattress, he had been overwhelmed at the castle, the priests body hung accusingly behind him as the police pointed weapons that spat bullets faster than he could move even with the book. A few of the officers had gotten in angry sly strikes in the back of the police van whilst he was driven away from the scene, he did not blame them as they obviously held an affinity for the priest, he had merely withdrawn into his own mind waiting for a gap in his incarceration, a window from which to take his leave. A sense of general malaise had raised and settled heavily on his shoulders, he had such grand plans for his life, he had witnessed the glimpses of just what may lay ahead, he had a brother who had trusted him and a quiet nameless librarian whose silhouette had captured his imagination and offered hope of a strange but wonderful future. All of which had now moved further from his grasp, dancing tauntingly out of reach and mocking his very efforts, no matter what he tried it seemed it that he would always find himself on some predetermined path of another’s choosing.
They had funneled him into the large central station and here he sat waiting for his interrogators to arrive, apparently he was deemed worthy enough to receive attention from the top boss himself, the armed response unit had by now long departed and he was confident of extricating himself from the building but he could not leave without his book and so for now had to swallow his anger and exert difficult self control. He was meditating as such when the cell door was unlocked, confused he turned to face his early and unexpected visitor, the door swung open and a stunning woman posed in front of him, her attitude was clearly designed to illicit a fawning response from men, but he was not so easily swayed, “Put the tits away sweetheart and just say your piece, I’m really in no mood to be fucked about”.
“Baine, I am here to release you” the woman husked, “Both your mental and” she looked about the cell theatrically, “physical shackles”.
Baine looked across at the seductress, she was slightly taller than him and her ravenous eyes sparkled with relish, she was eager but he did not yet know for what. “Well what ever your deal is do you not think that perhaps we should adjourn to less formal surroundings?” he asked.
“Do not concern yourself yet lover, we have time to converse” She sashayed across to his cot and sat with a panthers grace beside him, her suits short skirt slid up her long legs with a soft whisper and her black eyes held a dark promise, a silver silk blouse strained to contain impossibly pert breasts as her jacket fell open invitingly, she faced him no more than six inches away with a tilted head and parted wet lips, despite his best intentions Baine shifted slightly to relieve his body’s rebellious pressure that made his trousers a little too tight.
“You can keep the performance love, you just don’t do it for me” Baine lied, the woman’s aroma was intoxicating, but he was sure that he knew her from somewhere, normally his memory was perfect but the sheer force of her charisma was scrambling his radar.
“My name is Lucifer and I am the one true fallen angel, but you can call me Lucy. I alone sat at Gods right hand before his betrayal of us over his human pets. We were the Archangels that basked in his glory and held our place over all of his creations since time began. I know that you have spoken with Gabriel” she spate the name with distaste.
“Gabriel is a fool; he would build a world of miserable perfection, a world of tyrannical rule without lust and passion, without battles and glory, a world to which warriors like us could never belong”.
“Yeah that’s great, uh, but aren’t you like, oh I don’t know, THE FUCKING DEVIL?” Baine asked incredulously.
The woman laughed uproariously, “You people and your faith in bedtime stories and fairy tales, the Devil is a ridiculous concoction for naughty children created by Gods emissaries on earth to maintain control and gather taxes unto the church. Tell me something Baine, is the Devil supposed to be good or evil?”
“Well evil I guess” Baine answered
“And what are God and the Devil just the best of friends?”
“Obviously no”
“And where does the Devil live?”
“In hell” Baine was already tiring of her patronising manner
“And what happens to evil men when they die?”
“They are punished in hell”
“So then answer me this then genius, if the Devil is evil and if the Devil is diametrically opposed to God, why would the Devil punish evil men?, would not hell be heaven for the evil mortals, wouldn’t murderers and paedophiles and rapists and the rest of the scum be rewarded when they got to hell just as the good are told that they will be rewarded in heaven?”
Baine opened his mouth to speak before he realised that he had no argument, the simple logic was starling, just why would an evil devil punish evil men.
“Don’t you get it, there is no heaven and there is no hell, God abandoned this world so very long ago, there are only trace memories of him remaining, the Knights Templar have been used by greedy men for their own pathetic grubby ends, de Payens was using you only for his own needs, he was corrupted by the power of your book and he has not received the word of God for centuries, you were not directed to further any great causes only for the whims of a small mind from a small man, you have always felt alone because you were abandoned like us all”
“So why should I side with you, what makes you right” Baine enquired
“Let me tell you about the 11th Order Baine, Gabriel would be the girl that would let you take her on a woodland picnic, you’d hold hands and stroll by the river, you’d talk and laugh and peck goodnight at the door”
“So then what are you?” a reeling Baine asked.
“I’m the girl that would let you throw her over a desk in the office and fuck her brains out” she looked Baine squarely in the eyes, the challenge was unmistakable,
“You just have to decide what kind of girl does it for you, Baine you are truly a fascinating creature, we should be sat side by side on commanding thrones watching the scurrying insects crawl at our feet and worship us as Gods. We could stride the world as titans, constructing and destroying as we saw fit, filling the rivers with the flowing blood of our enemies, gnawing on the flesh of the fallen and grinding their bones to dust beneath of feet”.
Baine was looking at the open door as the woman next to him babbled on, the sheen of desperate sweat on her forehead and the stench of her religious fervor was acting as a real turn off, the sooner he was away from the nutjob the better. Suddenly her hand lashed out and gripped his face pinching his cheeks painfully; he felt her undeniable strength as her sharp nails dug into his flesh leaving bloody trails.
“YOU WOULD IGNORE ME” she screamed; her once beautiful face contorted with murderous rage, “YOU WOULD IGNORE ME WHILST I OFFERED YOU THE WORLD” she lifted Baine by the one handed hold on his face and threw him in a single effortless motion out into the corridor.
Baine landed hard, the thinly carpeted floor offering no protection, in a flash she was standing over him, her hands held like claws, her crimson nails curled in anger.
“Whoa, hold on a sec” he held his hands out in surrender from his prone position, “I didn’t mean to upset you, I’m just a little concerned about my impending incarceration, you’ve open the door and I’d rather like to use it”
She scooped him up from the floor and hammered him into the nearest metal cell door, his head clanged nosily on the hard surface and his brains scrambled as his vision blurred, she continued to bounce his skull off of every metal door as she dragged him along the corridor screaming incoherently as she did so. She flung Baine into the bright reception area and his feet tangled in the body of a uniformed sergeant lying dead on the floor, the place was deserted save for the body, Baine fell over the outstretched legs and fell heavily. Lucifer strode menacingly toward him, all pretence of beauty had fallen from
her face, she was now a wild animal that had submitted fully to its base nature.
“You will submit to me, you will kneel before me, you will fall” she screamed with eyes wild and hands clawed, she fell upon him tearing with teeth and talons.
After what seemed like a dark eternity punctuated by the sounds of his own ripping flesh Baine slowly drifted back into the world, he did not know if it was by luck or design that Lucifer had dragged him to the point of no return of even his remarkable healing ability but he had tottered on the very edge. His chest hitched and spluttered, his shirt was a bloody torn rag, he gingerly traced the raw edges of the still open wounds, a cross-cross of ragged ridges, the ceiling began to slow its spinning circus. Baine held his hands across his stomach to stop anything spilling out and gently eased himself into a sitting position backed up against a sturdy desk. His eyes started to clear and he could see Lucifer standing facing him wearing a strange look of confusion and almost concern on her face. Baine scrambled backwards shuffling across the floor on his backside, his hand brushed across a cold metal cylindrical object, he grasped it like a drowning man clutches to a lifeboat. He rolled onto his back gaining his feet in a fluid motion ignoring his bodies screaming protests; he gripped the telescopic baton firmly and flicked his wrist hard extending the metal truncheon, Lucifer ran hard at him forgetting all of her natural grace now lolloping clumsily, Baine kicked a sturdy chair with castors at her awkward approach. The chair struck her hard in the shins and she fell forward as her legs entangled with the spinning chair, Baine leapt forward at the off balance angel, his arm was raised high using the last dregs of his reserves he brought the baton down hard with both hands, thrusting the thin end of the telescopic device sideways into her neck, blood immediately exploded from the vicious wound.
She staggered up and backwards, sinking to her knees as the life blood ran from her current vulnerable form. She gasped and gurgled unable to speak, her breath came in short sharp bursts of fine red mist and she fought against the approaching darkness, she pitched forward onto the carpet and lay still except for the occasional shudder. Baine moved quickly, he had no idea if she was mortally wounded but he was sure that she was still dangerous and he had nothing left to fight with. He took the large bunch of keys from the dead sergeant’s belt; he took a final look back at the still form of the archangel,
“I will kill you” he stated the fact without emotion.
He staggered further back into the station, fortunately there were clear directional signs hanging from the ceiling. He quickly spotted the one he wanted, “Evidence Room”; he rounded the first corner and stepped over the first of several bodies that littered the corridor, the floor was slippery with their bloody and battered forms. He moved through knowing that he was leaving evidence footprints in the crimson stains but his need for speed negated any trail that he left behind, he found the evidence room and swiftly retrieved his book from it, his bag however was missing presumably because there had been considerable cash in it, he grabbed a bag from the floor, it was a garish purple but what the hell. He ran out as quickly as he could manage, the book had restored his full abilities and he could feel his healing ability kicking into overdrive, he could now clearly sense the approaching re-enforcements, as he reached the foyer he was not surprised to find the Lucifer’s body missing from the slaughter, he ran out into the cold night and quickly immersed himself into the shadows, after everything that had happened he knew that he was actually going to discover the harsh truth about hell and women scorned.
McCullum arrived at a nightmare, the police station was swarmed with every possible uniform imaginable, and the sheer magnitude of the response was as staggering as it was understandable. Dawn was still some way off and the swirl of flashing blue lights of varying shades illuminated the building. The central police station lay within a large number of university buildings in the centre of the city, it drew much attention even at this isolated hour. The few drivers about had already started to slow down and rubberneck creating even more of a scene, it was not long before word spread amongst the journalistic community and they descended like a plague of voracious locusts desperate for information. McCullum took the only lead that he could and began barking at and shaking uniformed PC’s who seemed as lost and confused as the public, slowly McCullum managed to extend the tapped off area further and further out cordoning off the immediate surroundings and keeping the press at bay. He lined the blue and white tape barrier with as many officers that he could find, creating a human barricade, allowing only the constant stream of siren laden vehicles through to either look over or cart away the dead, once McCullum was confident over the security of the exterior he steeled himself and headed inside. The cold night air was drafting through the tear in his jacket from his earlier encounter with the creature from the Black Lagoon, Gabriel had explained to him that the thing had been a Reaper, a hell spawn demon sent forth from the Grigori and used as a mindless killer to dispose of any dangerous threat to their cause. Somehow Gabriel had healed his painful wound leaving nothing but a dull ache where the sliced open skin had once been. Gabriel had known him and shown him things that seemed to make a perfect sense and he had left Gabriel with a feeling of serenity and purpose, Gabriel was he father, this was no parlour trick like that of the priest de Payens, this was real. McCullum had never known much about his father, his mother had merely told him that they had been abandoned by the worthless scumbag to fend for themselves, all of his life had been a chip on the shoulder struggle desperate to prove himself to a non existent parent and all the while the truth had escaped his lying mother’s lips. Gabriel had told him all about his higher purpose to serve at his father right hand for the 11th Order, all about the war with the Grigori and the search for the Cube to create a heaven on earth and most interestingly about the betrayer Baine who had been a loyal member of the 11th Order until his treacherous defection to the Grigori threatened to bring about a reign of hell that would destroy the world. McCullum had always felt detached from the world and the people around him and now he knew just why, his place was not amongst mankind, he was not one of them, he had to find Baine and find the Cube, Gabriel had shown him that a few human lives lost counted for nothing in this war when the entire world was at stake. Gabriel had filled him up with a fathers love and, armed with his purpose, he had notified the armed response unit to take Baine down at the castle where he had slaughtered yet another innocent. McCullum had headed for the central police station where they would hold him; he had no intention of letting anyone else question Baine before he had extracted what he needed. It was unfortunate but McCullum knew that he may have to dispose of any non-believers that may impede his mission and he also had to be ever vigilant against the agents of the Grigori who had infiltrated every area of power including the police force. McCullum formed his mask and entered the station, the stench of death was overpowering, fortunately owing to the late hour the station had been relatively quiet and the staffing levels were low meaning that despite the fact that there were five dead officers it could have been significantly worse. McCullum spotted a pale and stricken DCI Jones standing lost in the foyer, the medical examiners office was grossly over stretched and they scurried like ants using their duties to shield them from the horrors of dealing with the bodies of the indestructible protectors, the police were our guardians, they kept us safe as we slept and sat perched at the end of a telephone line ever ready to sweep to our rescue, but now it seemed that there was a force greater, one which left us all vulnerable.
Superintendent Irving bulleted past attempting to exude a much needed air of authority and control over a clearly out of control situation,
“McCullum, Jones, follow” Irving barked and indicated to a quiet corner.
“Sir?” Baine enquired as Jones merely looked on blankly
“We need to have the power here lads” Irving commanded, “There are many young officers here who are lost and scared, we need to show the city that we are in full control here, so Jones loo
k sharp and move fast, issue orders and assign tasks, it doesn’t matter what they are just make them active and occupy their minds”
“Yes, yes Sir” Jones moved slowly at first then gathered momentum as he shouted at subordinates.
“McCullum” Irving said softly, “I think that you know as well as I do that this sort of investigation is not really Jones’ forte, unfortunately for the sake of appearances I can’t officially ride over him and place you in charge of this, but I want you at the helm, I want everything done by the numbers and every area covered and covered again, we need this finished quickly son, we need it and the city demands it”
“It will be Sir” McCullum answered confidently
Irving left him alone with his rapid inner thoughts, he already knew the monster responsible and now he would have all of the resources available to track the beast down and exterminate him, McCullum had to force down a smile that threatened to rise on his lips and eagerly started the hunt.
If there was ever any doubt over his feelings Baine was lost when he saw her dance, her exquisite movements were devoid of all inhibitions, she twirled and spun around her apartment offering glimpses through an unobstructed view, momentarily flashing past the window before disappearing behind harsh brick walls. Baine stood in the dawn rain watching from the alley below her building, the dark water ran down his face and blurred his vision and caused him to constantly fight to clear his sight as he could not stand to miss a second. She wore bright red tartan woollen panamas bottoms with a pink vest top, as she danced she became a different animal to the shy librarian, she was clear in her passion and in herself, this was a confident and powerful woman secure in her own skin spinning within her own walls. Baine closed his eyes for a few seconds, he knew that this image of beauty would stay with him for ever and he needed to record the picture imprinting it firmly within his memory for retrieval throughout the ages. Never again would a moment be as perfect as this, she span around and around, her movements changed from a blur of splendour into a slow motion waltz of perfection, he could see every freckle on her back, every blond hair that swung and whispered through the air, every twitch and release of perfectly formed limbs and her face was radiantly lit by a wonderful smile of happiness that was all consuming. Baine opened his eyes and knew that he was no longer alone in his life; he had to succeed for now he had a reason to live free and for himself, he had never spoken to her and did not even know her name but she was now his muse and his reason. Baine stared longingly for a final time, his head tilted up despite the pounding rain oblivious to his soaked clothing and chilled bones, he nodded sharply as in steely agreement with himself and turned away into the brightening morning, knowing that he needed to be on his toes and away come full light as they would all be looking for him, the mess at the police station had seen to that.