And on the seventh day she awoke. Seven days of slumber as Patience stayed by Vic’s side, dripping water into her mouth once or twice an hour every night and day. As Vic stirs and wakes she realizes she's nude, but still feels the grasp of the book fashioned as wings on her body. Vic cleared her throat and yawns.
“Book of the Damned …” the entire command is barely a whisper. Finally, after seven days, the book disengages from Vic’s body and we can move about freely.
“Patience,” Vic whispers with a bit of cottonmouth, “Why am I naked?”
“Your mortal bodily functions, Victoria. You've been so sound asleep for so long we had to clean up after you to prevent bed sores and feminine infections. Only we three; Chastity, Humility and myself have been present in your room since the first time you needed to be cleansed. Though your mortal nudity is neither a secret nor a mystery, we felt privacy was better than onlookers during this time.”
“Thank you. How long?”
“Since our return? Seven days and some hours.”
“How much time did we lose?”
“Victoria, we were gone for nearly fifteen days in mortal terms. The news reports have had stories about you missing.”
“It shouldn't have been hard for them to find me here. Just because I paid cash for the flight they had me on camera buying the ticket. Not hard detective work.”
“No, Vic, you're very right about that. As best as we can tell the authorities were here at least twice while we were away. Since they were here while we were in Hell they only found an empty home with no one answering the door.”
“Good! We don't need their interference.”
Vic slowly stood with the help of Patience. It took her a few moments to get her legs back, and as usual Evelyn is within her doing what she can to help. This weakness Vic is experiencing is typical after such a long rest the muscles are groggy, even atrophied just a bit without nourishment. Vic gazed out the window for a few moments. No doubt she’s pausing to just remember her parents and Vincent. Patience holds up a robe and Vic steps into it and ties it shut as she leaves the bedroom for the living room.
Standing in the middle of the living room Vic calls before her all of the Virtues and Valkyries. The Valkyries overflowed from the house as before, but Vic’s voice carries equally to all of them when she addresses them, no matter where they are.
“I've kept a secret which to me was necessary because of something I did years ago. I contracted and collected the souls … of seven innocent children. Then I learned about demons, angels, the games they play with the minds of men, women, and children, and I thought I could use a tool created by evil to do good. I quickly lost control, and sight, of what I was doing. I thought I was an every-girl with … I don’t know. I don’t know what I thought.
I lost my parents and the love of my life, and I put all of you in danger trying to get them back, and I failed horribly. I lit a fire just to watch the flames.
You all heard me call out to the Book of the Damned. It’s the source of this terrible ability to collect and manipulate souls … and obviously a lot more. The book is made up of souls and their flesh and blood, collected, and assembled by Judas Iscariot under the direction of Satan.
“You all have the right to know these things. You all have the right to see the book as I see it all the time and know its presence in some way as I do. The book stands before me now in the most mortal appearance it's capable of taking. Its face is a wonderful old woman, and friend, named Azeeza.”
This was all very much so to our surprise. Not only did Vic introduce me by my name, but also the names of every single soul tied to the book, including Leila and Judas. Upon finishing the introduction of all these names Vic told the Virtues and Valkyries how I am able to reach into her mind and show her things she cannot otherwise see, as well as seeing things I could not see, such as Katrina. Then, starting with the Virtues, Vic asked them to do as I have done so many times before so they could know the Book of the Damned in their minds. One by one they each gently reached into Vic’s mind without Evelyn blocking entrance or the pathways to what Vic sees.
Not only did they see me, us, as the book standing exposed to them for the first time, but they greeted us and even said it was a good to meet us. They accepted us as one of them.
Journal entry LXXX
“Well, is a round of Kumbaya My Victoria next?” From a back bedroom at the end of the hall Judas stepped out and confidently stepped through the crowd of souls and into the living room with Vic, myself, and Vic’s legion.
“What the fuck are you doing here?!”
“Victoria, I am still holding Malus through sheer will, perhaps you'd be wiser to ask more important questions as I don't have to be here at all.”
With a heavy heart, and very begrudgingly, Vic knows she should take advantage of this moment however fleeting.
“How did you stop him?”
“The Book of the Damned contains everything one could want to know about the obtainment and manipulation of the soul and the body and mind containing it. But I held information back when I created the book. There are pages on the use of sin itself, and pages on the entire spectrum of uses for the Book of the Damned itself. Somehow Malus worked out a number of the secrets pertaining to sin, which is how he used it to augment his form.”
“You evened the playing field a bit, didn't you? You don't like Malus working out how useful sin could be.”
“You're very correct, Victoria. Bravo. I made the armor command materialize on the skins of the book for you to see, and then once you were wearing the book as armor I used the connection it had with you to convey the proper imagery I believed you'd need, but then, you didn't need it, did you? You used it against Hell itself because you didn't like me telling you the truth. Isn't that a bitch?! The greatest betrayer in Biblical history tells the truth and you attempt to punish him for it.”
“You're using the sin Malus pulled from the exterior of Hell to jail him, yes?
“Yes.”
“How long”
“Not sure.”
“You're not here just to warn me about him getting loose, are you?”
“No.”
“Are you going to make me pull teeth here?”
“Remember the dinner you had with a certain deity?”
“Yes. What of it? How do you know about that?!
“I'm a demon wrought from mortal sin. A former Devil as much as any entity can be. But Malus? Malus is a … Divinity.”
“What do you mean? How can that be?!”
“My knowledge is limited on this subject. I'm fairly certain I'm not even supposed to know, but my adoptive father may have slipped once or twice.”
“Adoptive fa… Satan?!”
“Victoria, you are in a very unique position. I was put into a very unique position some millennia ago, but it yielded me only a piece of a puzzle I never thought I'd see the entirety of, until you.”
“What the fuck are you talking about, Judas?!”
“I'm needed back in Hell, but please listen carefully, Victoria. For most people the secrets of life are little more than places they’ve never been to and pleasures they've never tried. Others devote themselves to gods they'll spend the rest of their lives making excuses for; God works in mysterious ways, or some such nonsense. You, however, have a unique perspective you’re just not aware of it yet. It’s affording you an unusual journey, should you choose to travel that path. I'll be watching with tremendous anticipation for the unknown to become known.
Leila, let's take our leave.”
Leila stepped from the kitchen in all her perfect, nude feminine glory, which was suddenly very macabre as she clung to Judas in all his grotesquery. Leila is one of the greatest enigmas we know of in our happenstance. Somehow I doubt this is a priority for Vic though. We also now suspect, due to what Judas just shared, Leila is far from the greatest enigma we’re to become knowledgeable of.
Judas and Leila have opened new scars back to Hell. L
eila has stepped through and stands patiently awaiting Judas.
“Victoria, one last note for you to dwell on. I sincerely believe you can free your three loved ones. I'm not honestly positive how, but I believe it can be done.” And with that Judas stepped through his scar and we saw him and Leila take one another's hands and walk away. Their backdrop is a fractured Hell; a horror show in the form of a nonagonic helix spiraling within the Shadow of God. The scars close and we’re once again left wondering what Vic might be thinking. Vic turns to her Virtues with an inquisitive expression.
“Why do you look so human?”
“Our forms are prototypical versions of the mortal form. They were created too durable and would last far too long for what was needed, so they were given to the angels. In different times these forms made mortals more comfortable to gaze upon us, and thus we could interact with them as necessary unfettered.”
“Two of you have souls from genders different than they're now contained in …”
“The gender of the physical form is irrelevant to the soul it contains. But keep in mind that just because the souls you’re referring to were previously within specific genders, it doesn’t mean the souls were made into those genders. Souls can choose. Sometimes there’s a miss-match and the physical body will attempt to adjust. Otherwise gender starts in the womb, and then is solidified in mortals during maturation. It's one of the imperfections built into the mortal forms. Angels’ divinity doesn't harbor gender identity either way except by their own choice.”
“From our previous conversation, when the seven of you took your new names, you left me with the impression you know greater secrets than how genders work between bodies and souls. Was that impression correct?”
There’s an unexpected knock on the front door.
“Everyone out of sight, please.” Vic asks kindly though she could command it. The Virtues and Valkyries all conceal their essences and become invisible where they stand. Fortunately I haven't any such thing to do, so I choose to step out through the font wall for a look. Immediately we notice we can't see who's on the doorstep, which means Katrina is here. Vic had her watching over Vic’s parent’s house and Vic’s college home as a lookout for anymore would-be surprises. Vic didn’t want to walk into something like she did in California again. Katrina must have something to report.
We pop back inside knowing who Vic is about to greet. Vic cracks the door open and peeks out as we tap into her mind to see what's going on.
“Katrina?” At first Katrina looks at Vic as though she was about to say something, but then Katrina’s eyes suddenly averted past Vic. It seemed as though she was looking directly at me as her eyes widened and her mouth fell agape. I realized she was looking at the Virtues behind me. Then she blurted out just a single name as though she hadn't seen him in a millennium.
“Raziel?!”
Why does this suddenly feel like the prom queen just caught her prom king at another girl’s house?
… to be continued…
Legacy of Judas - Book One Page 41