Harry panted heavily. He groaned as he dropped to one knee. He cleared an area of broken clam shells to reveal light brown sand underneath. He pulled out a Bic pen and drew a circle in the sand.
“This is the island. I have sailed around this island thousands of times in a lifetime of fishing these waters. I know every square inch of the place. We stand now about a thousand feet away from the entrance to the lighthouse. The old lightkeeper’s house is adjacent. There is very little low ground to conceal our movements and—”
Sparks dropped the right heel of her tactical boot into the image Harry had drawn and said, “Whoever it is, they know we’re here. We drifted right on through a wall of ghosts for crying out loud. Listen—we head up to the door and we’ll enter the building using stealth, got it? We don’t just storm on in there.”
Ambriel blinked. “What is your plan, detective.” She stuck out her hand and Sparks’ looked at it for a moment. The detective glanced at me, heaved a weary sigh and then shook Ambriel’s hand.
“I’m sorry about what happened to you,” Sparks said quickly. “I’m new to all of this stuff too and it’s scaring the crap out of me. But inside that building is Charlotte. We can’t go in there with guns blazing. There has to be a way to do it without putting that little girl at any more risk.”
That was all I needed to hear. I pulled both Berettas from their holsters and raced around the boulder leaving a wake of crushed clam shells in my wake.
“Damn it, Reaper!” Sparks hissed. “Everybody follow me and get ready for the moment when all hell begins to break loose.”
I made it up to the door of the lighthouse. As I dropped to one knee and reached for the door handle it occurred to me that if whoever had taken Charlotte knew we were here, then why hadn’t they attacked us yet? And while we’re at it, why hadn’t Charlotte manifested another wall of flame and toasted the pricks like she did to the ghouls back at the bible camp?
The rest of the group caught up and stretched shoulder to shoulder; their backs against the exterior of the lighthouse. “Nice move, Reaper. You’re an asshole, did you know that?”
“Something about this whole thing stinks like the inside of a hobo’s jockey shorts, Sparks,” I said.
“No shit. I feel like we’re puppets on a string and have been ever since that social worker was attacked,” she said, catching her breath.
Ambriel stepped over me and raised her golden spear. She grabbed the door handle and glanced down at me. “Yes. And the mere fact that we were not attacked once I set foot on this island tells me that we are invited to open this door. What happens once this door opens is anyone’s guess. But open it we must.”
She looked at each one of us and as a group, we nodded.
“Do it,” I rumbled as I readied my guns.
Ambriel lifted the latch and pulled the door open.
Hell itself manifested before my very eyes.
23
The sound of the abyss was the first thing to hit us.
A wall of despair, terror, anguish and pain from an infinitesimal number of voices. Each one fused to the next, united in their torment and utter rejection from the sight of God. The sound poured through the door with such force that it sent all but Ambriel tumbling backwards across the ground. I gazed up to see a wall of crimson light spilling out through the doorway; a living force comprised of claw-like hands and arms and faces swimming in a stew of eternal suffering. Ambriel took off; her wings beating at the air with loud thumps. The mass stretched out in both directions to encircle the lighthouse; an unstoppable force. I stood up alongside Sparks who was helping Harry get back to his feet. The old man narrowed his eyes and gazed out at the wall of tormented light with a look of grim determination.
“It is going to defend the lighthouse,” he lamented. “How do we kill it?”
I looked over my shoulder at waves crashing against the rocky island shore. A spray of seawater shot high into the air every few seconds. I could tap the ocean, just a little. Just enough to kill whatever the hell we were looking at. I was just about to send Sparks and Harry to the boat so they wouldn’t get caught up in the torrent of death energy I’d be creating when Ambriel called out in the language of her kind. She raised the golden spear over her head and lightning arced across the sky. A great yellow bolt struck the spear and Ambriel thrust it forward with all her might. A bright blue streak of electrified light whistled through the air and struck the mass right in the centre of the doorway itself. The wail of despair we’d heard moments earlier morphed into an unearthly sound like a machine come to life. The air shook as the twisted limbs and tormented faces pushed through the crimson light, each monstrosity emerged to stand before us; dozens upon dozens of them. A circle of creatures four or five deep moved forward from the lighthouse to form an extended line.
Demons.
Each one with murderous yellow-red eyes. Each face with high pointed cheekbones and slick leathery skin pulled back tight over the tops of their skulls into a fleshy bun. Their claws dripped gore onto the ground and each one had the singular ability to kill everything human on the island. I’d survive but my host wouldn’t.
They rushed at us and that’s when all hell broke loose.
Sparks was first to open fire dropping a trio of demons as they lunged ahead. Harry blasted away with his shotgun; spinning a demon like a top and then crushing its skull with the butt of his weapon. Another demon clawed at Harry’s face and he spun around and smashed the butt of his shotgun in the monster’s face before blasting its face clean off its head. I fired round after round at the creatures and they kept on coming. They quickly circled us and that was a huge mistake on their part. Ambriel raised a hand and another golden spear took form. She grasped the shaft with both hands and it glowed electric blue as she swooped down into the circle of demons. She swung the spear back and forth; connecting with demon after demon and sending each one sailing through the air and straight into the twisting and churning surf surrounding the island.
They shrieked in unison as they lashed out at the angel; a sound so foul I could feel it in my fillings. I continued firing round after round into each demon I managed to line up with the barrels of my guns. They fell left and right; the air filled with a fine spray of black ichor as each creature fought to push its way forward. They paid for every step they took. Sparks blasted away and I noticed a crooked grin on the detective’s face. If she’d been terrified by the demon’s presence, she sure as hell wasn’t showing it. Even Harry, an octogenarian, seemed to be holding his own as he bashed the creatures left and right with his aluminium baseball bat. Each swing that connected with a demon’s head let out a sharp clang as the monster dropped at his feet.
I kept on firing until both guns were empty. Realizing that I was now officially out of ammunition, I slipped my still smoking guns back into their holsters and then reached into the pockets of my soggy trench coat that were still dripping salt water at my feet. I slipped the fingers of each hand into my knuckle dusters and that’s when the real hand-to-hand combat began. I swung with both fists and crashed into a pair of creatures. Another dove through the air at me as a shot rang out and took a quarter of its head off. It dropped like a stone at my feet.
“You’re welcome!” shouted Sparks who quickly changed magazines and continued firing.
I gazed up at the doorway to the lighthouse and saw a tiny figure emerge, her hands glowing with Holy power. It was Charlotte.
Wasn’t it?
Her eyes were nothing more than a pair of glowing white spheres set deeply in her skull. Her hair blew in all directions as Holy energy encased her body.
“Charlotte!” I shouted in a near panic. “Stay there and we will get you! Just stay there!”
She looked up at me and tilted her head to the right. All the power, the knowledge of the past and future. Everything that made the girl special and unique and ultimately dangerous had been a celestial target on her back. I noticed another figure emerge from the doorway and for the life o
f me, I had no idea why he was here on the island.
The Archangel Gabriel stepped out through the door to the lighthouse. Standing in front of Charlotte, he raised his hands in a lifting motion, creating bubbling stew of death energy that poured across the ground in front of the lighthouse.
“Is he doing what you can do?” Sparks shouted.
“Hell yes,” I shouted back. “That and more!”
“I thought he was one of the good guys?” she said as she stood next to me, ready for the last stand. Ambriel landed next to Harry and the four of us stood shoulder to shoulder to face whatever Gabriel was about to throw at us.
“You’re a massive cock, Gabriel!” I shouted as channelled my power. “You align yourself with hellspawn to kill a little girl!”
The angel glanced up at me and simply exhaled as he shook his head and flashed me a look of disappointment.
“You failed in protecting the child, death-dealer!” the angel shouted as he pushed the death energy forward until it lapped at the feet of the remaining demons.
And they all dropped dead. Instantly.
One moment the creatures were breathing and the next moment their corpses littered the ground in front of us.
“Stop showing off, Gabriel!” I shouted.
Sparks punched me in the shoulder. “Don’t piss off the angel, please.”
I grabbed Sparks’ hand and said, “You need to get out of here. I’ll try to hold him off long enough for you to get on the boat and get the hell away from this place as fast as you can.”
She snorted. “I’ve got a couple of rounds left. I don’t plan on going out without taking a shot at Gabriel.”
“But he hasn’t killed you. He’s only killed the creatures from the dark place,” Ambriel said quickly as she pointed to the ground. “Look!”
The wave of death energy dissipated as quickly as it formed and Gabriel unfurled his mighty wings and called out, “Now begins the second day. Kneel before the Lord of Hosts!”
The ground began to shake and a pair of angels appeared out of nowhere at Gabriel’s feet. They were bound together by a great golden chain and their wings had been clipped. I recognized their faces immediately. They were two of the three angels who attacked my bunker. The same two who had taken Charlotte.
“What the shit!” Sparks growled. “Demons poured out of that lighthouse. The same lighthouse where Charlotte had been hidden. Gabriel just strolls on out of there after Charlotte does. She’s still alive when demons and angels wanted her dead. None of this makes sense. What the hell is happening here, Reaper?”
I glanced at Ambriel. “You knew what was going on from the start, yeah?”
She shook her head. “Not a clue. Just shut up because He is about to appear. You have been given a great gift.”
“Perfect. I’ll just add this gift to all of His other gifts that have tried to kill me.” I said, angrily.
The sea surrounding the island began to calm as warm sunlight shone gently against our backs casting long shadows across the face of Devil’s Island. I quickly ran through the facts as I knew them. Charlotte had epic powers. Everybody wanted her dead all her short life. Her mother had been murdered by a man who was about to fucking propose to her; all because he made skin-on-skin contact with Charlotte. She’d scrawled my name across her bedroom wall and that’s what got Sparks calling me up for help. Then the crazy social worker went apeshit and killed all the cops at the girl’s house on Victoria Road. I fled with Charlotte while Sparks ran interference to buy us some time. We were attacked on the highway by demons. Angels attacked us at Das Bunker. Gun-toting priests tried to blast us full of holes on a fireguard at Bayer’s Lake. I got my name in Dave Exner’s shit book who directed me to Barbie Ross for help.
The good reverend provided us with a place to hide at her bible camp only to rat us out and Charlotte torched their sorry asses before the two angels now bound together by a golden chain abducted her. Life Anchor Ministries went up in smoke but Barbie Ross was alive and shrouded from my ability to see her immortal soul. And just now, Gabriel had killed every last demon on Devil’s Island and God himself was about to make an appearance.
I nudged Sparks in the ribs and lit up a cigarette. I offered one to Harry who was still clutching his baseball bat tightly and he politely declined.
“I think I know what has happened here, Sparks,” I said, taking a deep haul on my cigarette.
She threw me a sour look. “What … We all get to die on Devil’s Island when a pissed off God shows up in a few minutes?”
I shrugged. “We didn’t know who Barbie Ross ratted us out to back at the bible camp but I have a feeling he is standing right in front of us.”
“Gabriel?” Sparks choked. “You thought an angel was Amy’s abductor too, remember? You thought it was Ezekiel. You were wrong on that one.”
“This is different,” I said quietly.
Sparks had a look of confusion on her face. As did Ambriel and Harry who was, surprisingly, quite calm given this was likely his very first encounter with the divine.
“How?”
No sooner had the word passed her lips when the sound of splashing water from behind us grabbed our attention. I pivoted on my heels to see an old man dressed in a plaid shirt, overalls and hip waders climb out of a boat as it made landfall. He arched his back and groaned as a gust of wind blew his long white beard back into his face.
It was Him. The Man with the Big White Beard.
His eyes shone brightly. Even from fifty feet away, they were the clearest blue I had ever seen. His bushy eyebrows were the colour of freshly fallen snow and He pulsed with Holy power. He glided past us, nodding as He went. Sparks, Harry and Ambriel immediately knelt, but I didn’t. If the big guy was going to wipe all of us out, then I had no intention of kneeling before the being who would be responsible for my end.
Gabriel bowed and took a step behind Charlotte as The Man with the Big White Beard stopped. He turned around to face us and said, “I am here because here is where I must be.”
Nobody said a word and all that we could hear was the sound of waves lapping against the shore and the beating of our own hearts.
Naturally, I decided to say something that would likely be unpopular.
“Ezekiel told me you haven’t been yourself lately,” I called out. “He says the little girl is a safe harbour. Care to let us in on what that means?”
“BE SILENT!” Gabriel snapped. The Man with the Big White Beard motioned for the angel to calm down.
“Step forward, death-dealer,” He said.
And so, I did.
He took Charlotte by the hand and together they walked toward me, stopping when they were little more than an arm’s length away. The air crackled with living energy. It was an ancient power of a kind that could extinguish the sun with little more than a whisper. Here before me was the creator. The alpha and the omega. The architect of life itself.
“There is little time,” He said. His voice carried a calm authority and I wasn’t even a bit surprised by the fact that He sounded a hell of a lot like Gregory Peck.
“For what?” I sneered. “Two days ago, this little girl called out to me after her mother was butchered before her very eyes. Ever since then your people have been trying to kill her. Hell has been trying to kill her. Even a Bishop and some machine gun-toting priests tried to kill her. Now I find that Charlotte has been held in a demon-infested lighthouse and none of the demons thought to kill her even though their kind have been on that list of potential assassins. Then Gabriel strolls out of that same lighthouse, he wipes out all the demons and you show up. Why has Charlotte been marked for death? She has lost everything in her life and she hasn’t even started living yet. How in the world is that something a loving god would even allow to happen?”
He patted the girl’s head like she was a pet.
I’m serious.
Charlotte screwed up her face in a tight knot and threw me what I could have sworn was a knowing look. She clenched h
er fists tightly at her sides and I wondered for a moment if she was going to light up the entire island with fire.
“Gabriel is my most faithful servant. The creatures lying dead before you are redeemed by their deaths — that was the promise made to protect her from anyone or anything that might consider trying to destroy her before my arrival.”
He pointed to the pair of chained angels and made a snatching motion. Holy fire consumed the pair until they were nothing more than two smouldering scorch marks on the ground in front of the lighthouse.
“It did not take me long to find that pair — supporters of that wretched Jael who still has her backers apparently. Nonetheless, it was a just punishment, Lord,” said Gabriel with a hint of disgust in his voice. “It will send a strong message to other usurpers.”
The Man with the Big White Beard nodded and turned his attention back to Charlotte. “Within this child is a part of me,” He said quietly. “Surely you must have suspected it by now death-dealer.”
I lit up a cigarette.
Yeah, in front of God. I really had zero fucks to give anymore.
“I had a feeling there was elemental power inside of Charlotte but I didn’t think it would be you. And now I understand what has happened here and why. You’ve been dropping bread crumbs the entire time, haven’t you?”
He nodded once.
Sparks stood up and tapped my shoulder. “What are you talking about, Reaper? Are you saying that God orchestrated all of this?”
“Charlotte told me right from the start that part of God was inside her because she referred to herself as I am,” I stated, blowing a lung full of smoke His way.
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