Shadows eyes snapped open wide as every stored image of his family flashed before him, “What have you done!” he cried.
Chris withdrew his hand, “I have shown you that which you once lived for. They still await you in limbo.”
Shadow cried out again, “They have not ascended?”
Chris shook his head, “Not until they see you one final time. You will either travel with them or not. It is up to you.”
Shadow grew insubstantial , “Too late.” He wailed.
Judgement answered, “I think you will be able to find your family again if you redeem your self before God and tell us where to find the others?”
Shadow stared into Chris’s eyes with renewed hope, “If only that were true.”
Judgements voice deep and soft responded, “God can grant absolution for past sins. Tell us where to find Coffee and The Dark and before God I shall judge thee.”
Shadow whirled around the room to stop before Chris, “For the sake of my family I am truly sorry for all my sins. You will find those you seek at the cemetery for the fallen women and those who died of the great sickness in the place which is no more.”
Anvil thought it through for a second or two, “Is it here in London?”
Shadow nodded, so Anvil added, “The old Cross Bones graveyard.”
Shadow sighed, “I knew another woman once. She took my money when I had form. I allowed her to live and in her own way she showed me love. I was sorry when the great illness took her.”
Judgement allowed Chris to say the final words, “I find you judged, go now and rest.”
Shadow sighed and simply faded away to nothing. No other sound or movement, he just vanished.
Chris turned to look at his father. Anvil was surprised to see his son crying. Without saying a word, Anvil checked the prone figure lying on the bed, Jenkins was dead.
Anvil straightened up, he had to ask, “Shadow did you kill him?”
Chris wiped away a tear, “Only his body. God allowed his soul to find his family. “
Anvil grunted and turned to Jennings, “You’ll need a clean up crew.”
Jennings was staring at Chris, “Who the hell are you?”
Chris smiled, “You can call me Chris.”
Jennings was only just starting to gather his wits about him and remembered what Anvil had just said, “And the police! With all that gunfire someone will have called the boys in blue.”
Chris took a deep breath, “No Judgement arranged it so nothing would be heard outside of these four walls. Of course someone may notice the smashed in front door downstairs.”
Anvil took Chris by the arm, “We have to go. What you have done will have a massive impact on what is to follow.”
Jennings held up a hand, not the one with the pistol it in, “Care to explain what the hell’s just happened?”
Anvil looked him square in the eyes, “No.”
Jennings stood his ground for a moment, before re-holstering his weapon and removing the shoulder holster. He held it out to Anvil, “You’d better leave. I’ll call some people to clear this up. Best not call the police, there’s no way I can explain what the hell happened and forensically bullets from my gun are all over the bloody place. We know who or what the murderer is but no way would the police understand. Hell I don’t understand and I wont accept a simple ‘No’ from you Mister Smith. Jenkins was one of my own and I just watched him rise from the fucking dead and blew him away again. I deserve to be told.”
Anvil considered it for a fraction of a second before giving him the warehouses address. Jenkins recognised it of course. Anvil told him to meet him there tomorrow at twelve noon.
“As for this,” Anvil indicted the hallway full of ash and bullet riddled walls plus the dead body.
Jennings shrugged, “my people will clear it up.”
Chris looked at the body, “Is it that easy to hide a murder?”
Anvil pushed him gently towards the door, “I’ve found that over the years money can by almost anything.”
Anvil was impressed with the way Jenkins was handling the situation. He knew the man must be totally shaken by what happened but outwardly he was all professional.
He shook Jennings hand,” Thank you for your help and I’m sorry it led to this mans death. Does he have any family?”
“An ex wife and two teenage children, he used to send them money from time to time.”
Anvil nodded, “See to it that they get a big lump sum, a widows pension and a good funeral. Tell his ex wife that his death saved lives. Tell her you can’t go into details. Top secret and such, but he died a hero.”
Jennings looked at the body, “Yes I can’t really tell her he died with a ghosts hand sticking out of his head now can I.”
It was obvious the man was very upset and angry. Anvil shook his hand and again promised him a full explanation tomorrow.
As Anvil and Chris walked down the flight of stairs, Jennings stage whispered over the balcony,” See you at noon then”
Anvil looked up and just gave a quick nod and was gone. Jennings turned back to the apartment, “Right better start phoning.”
Chapter Thirteen
To say that Anvil was angry was an understatement! He paced back and forth across the living area, his eyes daring anyone to get in his way. But his friends had been with him for a long time and knew when to stay out of his way. All that is except for Chris who pushed off the kitchen counter he’s been leaning against and walked over to block Anvils pacing.
The others rolled there eyes or let out shocked gasps or whistles of amazement. Anvil found him self almost nose to nose with his son. The boy had grown unnaturally fast over the last few weeks and was now almost as tall as he was and as Anvil noticed, filled out across the shoulders. He guessed this was Judgements work.
“Best move.” He growled.
Chris stood his ground, “I’ll explain it one more time. It was Shadows time. I judged him and allowed him to ascend.”
Anvil took a step to the left as if to carry on pacing but Chris moved to block him again. Rage growled softly, Priest blessed himself.
Heartless allowed himself a cackle of delight, “Good job he’s not carrying that bloody hammer kid.”
Anvil took a deep breath, folded his arms across his chest and asked, “Why ascend for Gods sake?”
Priest started to say don’t blaspheme but Anvil told him to shut up. Chris shrugged, “Judgement saw his past and found something that was worth saving. He allowed Shadow to re-join his wife and children.”
“Have you any idea how many people Shadow has killed?” Anvil shouted. “He’s one of The Dark!” He bellowed at the top of his lungs.
“Only because of what the Ellish and Edge made him believe. It wasn’t his fault!” Chris shouted back.
“Not his fault then who…” Anvil roared.
Chris raised his hand to cut off his father’s wraith, “The death of his family changed him! It led him down the dark path of revenge. You should have helped him with his re-birth and he would have been one of us but you missed the opportunity thinking Slash was the only one you were there for that day. The Ellish didn’t.”
Anvil drew in a deep breath, held it for a second before visibly deflating. He had no answer for that.
Priest realised there was a chance to calm things down, “We’ve always believed this has been our fight and ours alone but now with Jennings due here, I’m starting to wonder.”
Chris remembered thinking something along those lines ages ago about it being wrong that people didn’t know what was happening around them.
Anvil moved over to the fridge and poured himself a can of stout, “Go on.”
Priest cleared his throat, I’ve thought for some time now that it’s not right that….normal people don’t know that they are being killed and harvested by The Dark.”
Slash added, “Sometimes I think that as well.”
Huntress looked towards Hot Cross, “Remember when that woman’s child was
taken and you said it’s a pity she couldn’t be told. Remember when we watched her at the funeral, knowing the coffin was empty and we saw Edge laughing from the crowd but couldn’t do anything about it?”
Hot Cross sparked with an electrical discharge, “It stunk!” he snarled.
Heartless shrugged, “Dead is dead what does it matter!”
He dived quickly over the back of the armchair as an electrical arc flashed very close past his metal hands.
Rage added,” I remember you when you weren’t so nasty Heartless.”
“Shut the hell up!”
Chris asked, “When was that Rage?”
Heartlesses face went from anger to sadness, all in a split second. “He means when my wife died.”
Rage finished explaining, “He was married before he died. Kept going back to his wife in the In Between, couldn’t let her see him. Not allowed or so Anvil said. He watched her grow old and die. Change then.”
Heartless looked crest fallen, “Here we are doing this fantastic job for God, making all these sacrifices and no one is supposed to know about it. That stinks!”
Anvil looked around the room, “You all feel that way?”
No one answered, so he drank his beer in silence, deep in thought.
Chris spoke to his father, “Getting back to Jennings. Remember when I asked why you hadn’t killed Hitler and you told me that The Twelve didn’t get involved in human affairs. That God gave mankind the choice to make his or her own decisions?”
“Yes so what of it?”
“Well you said nothing about humans helping us.”
Anvil just stared at him so Chris continued, “Bring him into the warehouse introduce him to us. Let him know what’s really going on. He saw it with his own eyes anyhow, so my guess is he’ll absorb the truth a lot easier than being lied to. “
Heartless laughed, “Why not just broadcast to the bloody world who we are!”
Chris sighed, “I would love to tell everyone what’s going on but on reflection I think all we’d do is cause mass panic. But Jennings and his men can all handle themselves. With blessed ammo they can take care of the Shades and Ghouls. Leave the Dark to us.”
Anvil still said nothing so Chris turned to Heartless, “Seeing your wife grow old and die must have been terrible. But imagine of you’d shown yourself to her, allowed her back into your life? What do you think she would have felt if she watched you stay young whilst she grew old?”
Heartless didn’t answer but after a moments hesitation he simply nodded.
Chris turned to Priest, “The people go about there daily business not knowing that The Dark is playing Russian roulette with them. At any moment of any day, a Shade can butcher at will. Imagine of the people where made aware of this. Imagine the panic!”
Chris stood and addressed them all, “Think on this, for every Shade you destroy, they gather ten more. So in a way aren’t you all partially responsible for all those deaths.”
Speed snapped to his feet, before clutching his side in pain, gasping he collapsed back down onto the settee,” Our fault! How can you say that?”
Bulls Eye remained seated but drew and a gun and started to twirl the chamber, “ At least with Russian roulette I know that there is only one bullet in the chamber and I get the choice whether or not to play and I know the odds. The people have no choice at all.”
Rage who was as usual standing rock still muttered. “People get scared if they know. Long time ago, a group of border guards took shelter from the coming winter in one of our outlying villages. I was one of them. There were just eight of us, all hard fighting men, Kings Men. Well by chance a woodsman came across a raiding party of forty warriors crossing our border with Finland, heading our way. Well me and the lads were happy. We could make plans of our own. That way we could surprise our attackers, turn the table on them, and kill them all.”
Slash pulled free one of his knives and threw it hard across the room to stick in a free standing wooden target he used for practice. It just so happened that Rage was standing right next to it, “What’s your point?” He demanded.
Rage glanced at the knife and smiled, “My point is the villagers knew as well. They all panicked, ran around like headless chickens. Some of the families ran off into the surrounding forest. Found there bodies came the spring. Fools got turned around in their panic and had run blindly into our attackers and were the first to die. The rest of the villagers wanted us to surrender, hoping they would be spared. The headsman talked up a storm, all of it treason. MY King expected all of his people to fight all and every one of our enemies. I cut off his head to show the people they were wrong.”
Patch licked her lips, “So if we tell the people you’re saying their will be blind panic and many will die needlessly?”
Rage nodded, “Damage limitations.” He retrieved Slashes knife and threw it back under hand. Slash snatched it out of the air.
“Thanks. So we don’t tell the people. Is that it?” Slash asked.
Priest looked over to Rage, “You’re wise beyond your size my friend.”
Chris had to ask,” What happened to the raiding party. You were outnumbered.”
Rage grinned, “Glad you asked. That’s my other point. Ten of the villagers were hunters of wolves and could handle bows. Four were woodsmen and could use our single bladed axes with expertise. We joined forces and slew every last one of the devils.” Rage crossed himself. “God have mercy on there rotten souls.”
Priest glared at Rage for a second before his face softened, “I see your logic my old warrior friend.”
Anvil addressed Chris, “So I bring in Jennings and his people?”
“Are they all ex army?” Chris asked.
“Yes, the very best of the best.”
“Then the answer is yes.” Judgement added, “We need help from mortal man in order that the Twelve can defeat The Dark.”
Chris coughed once to clear his throat, “I was he’d stop that!”
Patch had a question, “But if we can’t use the In Between and Jennings and his men certainly can’t. Where do we choose to fight without the normal folk seeing us?”
Anvil looked towards Priest, “I think I know the place but leave it with me. ”
Chris asked, “Do you think Jennings will be okay back there?”
Anvil was holding a disposable mobile phone, “I’ll phone some people I know.”
Chris stood and yawned, “Before I turn in where is this Cross Bones Graveyard Shadow mentioned?”
Priest answered, “In the twelve century the stretch of London called Bankside was notoriously famous for its brothels, bear fighting pits theatres and taverns. It was London’s pleasure quarter. I remember a young talented playwright called William he enjoyed the fleshpots as much as anyone else. But I digress, the life expectancy of a whore was short lived, the church denied them a Christian burial so they were dumped in un-consecrated ground near Bankside itself. Over the years hundreds ended up here. Then in 1665, The Great Plague struck and thousands more where buried in mass graves on top of the bones of the whores. The land once owned by the church was passed down from hand to hand. In the 18th century a survey was conducted of London poverty but they were to scared to walk anywhere near this Cholera over crowded slum. Years passed, it was sold as a building plot but that was rescinded after I had words, very strong words with those concerned. In the 1990’s London underground dug up part of the area for the Jubilee extension. Those skeletons removed where blessed and some are now interned in the British museum. The rest of the land was left untouched. Eventually rubbish that had gathered over the years was removed, the ground levelled and wild flower seeds sowed. The locals hold a vigil there once every year. Chris this is the Cross Bones Graveyard and according to Shadow, It’s where The Dark are to be found.”
Chris thanked Priest, nodded and whispered, ”Un- consecrated, a sad and fitting place for The Dark.”
Yawning he excused himself, “Tomorrow promises to be interesting.”
<
br /> Anvil looked around the room,” Yes tomorrow will be….interesting.”
Chapter Fourteen
Jennings arrived at twelve noon sharp. He’d spent the rest of yesterday and last night thinking about the things he seen. One point was absolutely one hundred percent clear. There was a lot more to Mr Smith than meets the eye, of that he was certain.
What in heavens name were those creatures? What was the thing that had killed one of his men and what had the boy done to it? He could think of a hundred or so questions but no rational explanations to any of them.
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