by Adam Rushing
These late nights alone at the office were the only times he felt safe enough to satiate his curiosity over these abnormalities. He pushed his chair away from his current project, rolled over to an adjacent workstation and keyed in a query for any additional news of recent odd electrical activity within reach of the NSA’s network. He searched through a sea of mundane data to glean anything that matched what he was studying. Reports of isolated odd electrical glitches and blowouts around the world that couldn’t be explained by weather abounded. He quickly skimmed over a story summarizing an unexplained power surge in some slum in northeast Rome a couple of days ago, before he logged off and returned to his real work.
* * *
Jude woke up to a white light shining into his eyes from overhead and a pain that blanketed his entire body. He groaned, fighting the stiffness in his joints from being motionless for so long and stretched out as best he could. As his mind sharpened, he realized he was lying in a hospital bed between a sunlit window and a drawn green privacy curtain.
“He’s awake!” He heard Father Gallo yell down the hallway. “Welcome back to the world of the living, Jude.” Gallo exclaimed smilingly, as he drew back the curtain.
“What the hell happened, Father? How did I get here?” he asked. The memory of what Emily did came rushing back to him, but it was too surreal to be true. He decided not to talk to Gallo about it.
“You and Contri had quite a brawl, Jude,” Gallo explained. “He locked the door on me before I could get inside, and by the time I was able to force it open, you had both knocked each other out.”
“Yeah…. That’s right…,” Jude muttered absently.
“Jude, I hope you can forgive me,” the priest said, on the verge of tears. “I wasn’t cautious enough, and I put you in danger. It seems I am becoming nothing more than a burden on those around me.”
“No need to ask forgiveness, Antonio,” Jude assuaged his friend. “I’m just glad everything is okay now. What happened to Contri? Did he make it?”
Gallo nodded through his tears. “Contri woke up back in his right mind. Whatever happened between you two managed to force out the spirit. The medico on duty when you arrived said you had no serious damage besides a concussion and a generous amount of bruising.”
“I didn’t need a doctor to tell me that,” Jude laughed softly, wincing at the pain.
“Emily is waiting for you outside too,” Gallo said. “She hasn’t left the hospital the entire time you have been unconscious. Shall I send her in?”
Jude hesitated. Gallo mistook it for shyness.
“Come now, Jude. If she’s waited this long, she won’t care how you look. I’ll leave you two alone. I have some other business to attend to anyway.”
Before Jude could stop him, the priest had left the room. A mix of curiosity and fear overcame him. The anticipation slowed the time it took for her to enter the room to a crawl. When she finally arrived, she closed the door behind her and smiled at him. “Hello, handsome. You’re looking much better than you did two days ago. Before long you’ll be your regular, dashing self!”
Jude suppressed his nerves and tried to convince himself that what he had witnessed back at the apartment was nothing more than a hallucination from the concussion.
“I’ll definitely work on making the recovery as quick as possible. How are you doing, Emily?”
“I’m much better now that you are awake and talking, thank you for asking,” she replied and sat down next to him. She attempted to hold his hand, but he jerked it away instinctively, blushing once he realized what he had done. She did not look offended or surprised. She merely pursed her lips and said, “I suppose we have some things to talk about?”
“What you did back there…” he whispered. “What are you?”
“All in due time,” she deflected, as she sat back in the chair. “First, you need to get better. After that, I will be willing to have a discussion. For now, I will tell you that I am on your side, and I have no intention of harming you. I really have grown quite fond of you, after all.” She gave him a playful wink.
Jude was filled with a mixture of longing and fear, but he managed to gain control of himself enough to say, “Good to know. You have to understand that this is hard for me until I know the truth, though.”
“I understand,” she respectfully agreed. “Allow me one more kiss for now?”
He found himself nodding before he was aware he was doing so. She leaned in and lingered over him, her piercing blue eyes staring into his, as if she was looking deep into his soul. She gave him a slow, deep kiss, and he felt himself melt inside.
She pulled away and turned to leave.
“This doesn’t mean I’m going to stay away, though. The least I can do is play bed nurse until you are up and about.”
“I can live with that,” accepted Jude.
She disappeared out of the doorway for a split second before leaning back in, sporting a mischievous smile. “….and maybe when this is all cleared up, you and I can play ‘doctor’ on our own.”
Then he was alone.
Damn. He thought to himself.
Chapter Twelve
Jude was discharged a few days later and headed back to his hotel to shower and gather himself together. He had requested that Gallo and Emily meet him there around eight o’clock that evening. He tried to imagine exactly what she would say. He still feared her to some degree, even if she acted as if nothing had happened and continued to be her seemingly normal chipper self. She had not even protested when he insisted that Gallo be present when she explained what had happened. If Emily was somehow possessed, he didn’t want to take any chances. She seemed confident in herself, though.
He ordered room service for dinner – he was still too sore to go too far – and began recording the events of the past two weeks in his field journal. In all his years of research and study, he had never seen anything like he had in the past week! He was determined to inscribe every detail in case he was ever allowed to publish any of this.
Eventually, he heard a knock at his door. He rose from the hotel desk and peered through the peephole to spy Father Gallo shuffling in front of it.
“Hey there, Antonio,” he greeted, after he had opened the door. “Come on in and take a seat.”
“Hello, Jude,” Gallo replied, as he walked in and positioned himself on the room’s love seat. “Glad to see you moving around again.”
“I’m in regular marathon shape,” Jude joked glibly. He opened the mini bar and poured himself a whiskey on ice. He motioned his glass toward Gallo. “Any requests?”
“I’ll have the same, thank you,” accepted Gallo. “I must say I’m confused as to why you called this meeting tonight.”
Jude remained vague. “I have my reasons. Let’s just wait until Emily arrives.”
The two men engaged in small talk over local sports and politics and had both finished their first glass by the time Emily knocked on the door. She walked in dressed in a simple green blouse and khakis looking comfortable as always.
“Sorry I’m late, boys. I was caught up in sight-seeing. I really do love this city.”
She sat herself on the bed and looked expectantly at Jude. He offered her a glass of Chardonnay and began.
“I guess we should start with telling Father Gallo the truth about what happened at the apartment.”
Father Gallo looked confused. Jude recounted the details of what happened in the bedroom with Contri. As the story unfolded, he became increasingly alarmed and stared at Emily as if he was stuck in a room with a feral animal.
“It’s okay, Antonio,” Jude said in an attempt to calm his agitation. “She did save my life, after all. Whatever was possessing Contri probably would have killed everyone in that apartment otherwise.” He looked at Emily, “What I want to know is… are you a demon too? What are you doing here?”
Emily closed her eyes and paused for a few moments to gather her thoughts.
“Everything I have told you is true to
some degree. There are some… intricacies I haven’t mentioned. This woman is indeed Emily Cooper, and all of the details I’ve given you about her life are true. I am merely borrowing her body - please calm down, dear Father – for the time being. I am not the same as those you have encountered. I do not wish you or her any harm.
I am actually operating with Emily’s full permission and she is still aware of what is happening. She has an equal say in the things we do, Jude, so please don’t feel as if I have been using the both of you for any nefarious ends. In fact, you may simply refer to the both of us as Emily for simplicity’s sake, although Inanna was the name given to me long ago.”
Jude replied, “Thank you for addressing that. Please continue.”
Emily/Inanna nodded, “In your realm of belief, you have angels and demons. I guess you could call me one of the angels.”
Gallo snorted his nose at this remark and opened his mouth to make a comment.
“Please, Father let me continue,” interjected Emily, as she raised her hand. “We have been known by many names throughout your history. We have been called Annunaki, Elohim, Angels, and Ir. We prefer the word Grigori, ourselves. It suits our nature. Our own name for our species is not pronounceable with your human anatomy.”
“Grigori, Greek for the Watchers…,” mused Jude.
“Yes. We Grigori are the caretakers of this world, tasked with guiding mankind to enlightenment.”
“Tasked to guide humanity by God?” Gallo chimed in almost hopefully.
Emily shook her head, “By the Architects. We were like you many millennia ago, beings of flesh and blood. We were an old civilization that had already thrown off the shackles of our own world and were travelling the stars. Even with such technology, though, the universe is too big, and our life spans were too short. Our scientists experimented with ways to make ourselves immortal. We began by copying our consciousness into clones, but the organic matter needed to maintain a burgeoning population such as ours was too great for the resources we could muster. We then turned to uploading ourselves into machines, but machines break and corrode. The Architects eventually discovered how to leverage our technology and imprint our psyches into the very fabric of the universe. We became our own gods, existing outside of time, with the Architects as our supreme leaders.
Unfortunately, existing forever had unforeseen consequences. At first we contented ourselves with exploring the galaxy, unbound by the limitation of aging and able to travel great distances at light speed, not caring whether the journey took ten years or ten thousand.
What does a civilization do when it has reached the pinnacle of evolution, however? Some of us went mad and committed suicide by travelling into the event horizon of the nearest black hole. Appalled by the thought of falling into this type of dementia, the Architects decided the best way to keep our sanity was to find sentient species on other planets and quietly nurture their own evolutions. We ultimately divided ourselves into thousands of expeditionary groups to settle any worlds we found containing life. Our group arrived on Earth while it was still dominated by Neanderthals, some three hundred thousand of your years ago. Unfortunately, we discovered another devastating problem after our arrival.
Some of our peers found we could inhabit and manipulate the minds of other creatures, an ability unknown to the Architects at the time of our ascension. Not only that, we could feel their emotions, something we lost in our new state. After centuries of experiencing pure, objective consciousness, physical sensations were reported to be like an exquisite delicacy. The majority of us objected to the manipulation of the local ecosystem in such a way and forbade further interference. It was in direct opposition to the Architects’ mission. It also turned out to be addictive to those who pioneered it.
The matter seemed decided, until a splinter group led by a heretic named Azazel rejected the teachings of the holy Architects and began to live as humans with the intent to take dominion over them. A remnant of the event is mentioned in your own Bible, Father.”
“The Nephilim,” Gallo interjected faintly.
“Indeed,” Emily said. “These so-called Nephilim eventually became violent and ravenous in their thirst for pleasure and power, feeding off of their human hosts. Many of these revelries led to the death of the hosts, like what happened to Danny.”
Gallo shot Jude a hurt look at the realization his friend had not kept their secret. Jude shrugged. It seemed moot at this point.
He pressed forward. “How do you move in? What determines who lives and who dies?”
Emily fielded his questions in turn, “Consciousness arises from a critical density of brain processing ability. Neurons process information in a more complex way than just in ones and zeroes. The sentient brain excels in fuzzy calculations and performing multiple operations without disrupting the body’s essential functions for survival. The brain is, essentially, a biological quantum computer. Our own quantum existence allows us to move in and coexist with relative ease, if the conditions are ideal. Think of it as akin to installing a new program onto a computer hard drive.
Sentient species are much more complicated than animals, however. Animals are easy to dominate because they are, for the most part, pure emotion and instinct. An existing consciousness fights for survival. It takes much more effort to suppress it. Some of the baser elements of your society are easier to control, though, which makes them easier prey for those simply seeking a thrill. For those of you with a stronger will, your mental defenses have to be broken down or we could be ejected.
The Nephilim have found many ways to dominate the minds of their victims over the years to do this. You humans have inadvertently made it easier by embellishing history and creating your own legends of gods and monsters. The Fallen use those fears as a weapon to break down the mental barriers that prevent their intrusion.
There is a cost to such an attachment, unfortunately. If we occupy our host for too long, we risk becoming anchored. This means if our host dies, then so do we. Likewise, any attempt to force us out results in the death of both Grigori and host.
“Why does the exorcism ritual work?” Jude asked.
“Your species possesses a bond that creates a connection even the strongest of us cannot sever, if it is performed before an anchor is established. That connection gives the entrapped person leverage to force out an oppressor. We have our own similar bond that allows us to detect one another across vast distances.”
“It sounds almost like Emerson’s Over-soul” Jude mused.
Gallo stood up from the love seat, rubbing his temples. He was fighting to process what Emily was saying.
“I think I need another drink,” Jude said sympathetically, looking over the scant inventory of the mini bar. “So why possess Emily, if it’s so taboo to inhabit sentient beings? Why come to us?”
“I was once a female of our species, so it seemed apropos to choose Emily. I was attracted to her personality the moment I encountered her. I talked to her in dreams until she accepted that I was not a threat, so that we could co-exist and established a strong link. It was an added bonus that she was interested in your work, as well. I must say, though, we have both enjoyed your company,” she giggled suggestively. “I had forgotten just how nice it is to feel again! I finally understand the dangerous allure that has caused so many of our kind to turn from their mission.
We are getting off topic, though. The group I am affiliated with knows what you are trying to accomplish. The situation is direr than either you or my own people choose to believe. Azazel only cares that his followers do as he bids without question. The majority of them are nothing more than addicts. Some eventually stop caring enough to even leave their host before the damage kills them both, but his true believers… they view the Earth as their birthright, their plaything. They have perfected the art of jumping from person to person just before their time is up. If they are able to rule with impunity, they will have an inexhaustible supply of bodies to enslave.
The Nephilim have at
tempted empire building in the past to achieve that purpose, but you have always managed to deflect their smaller numbers. Modern technology has made it easier for Azazel and his followers to leverage this disadvantage, though. We fear he may be planning another gambit very soon.”
Jude glanced at Gallo. “That’s what Danny meant, then, about the coming harvest, right?”
Emily nodded, “I imagine so. I’m afraid if you aren’t prepared, then the Nephilim may win next time.”
“How many Grigori are there? Why don’t they help?” Jude asked incredulously. “You obviously understand the stakes.”
Emily let out a sigh. “Five thousand of us came to Earth. We lost a few hundred to the first rebellion, and many more after that. Those who still follow the way of the Architects number only about half our original number now. Oh Jude, I wish it was as simple as just raising an army. Our elders remain adamant that we follow the teachings of the Architects. It’s funny, in a way. The founding fathers of our own scientific progress have become our gods.
Our philosophy hasn’t stopped us from exerting some influence. Some of us have guided the teachings of your prophets and wise men, in order to train their followers in ways to reject the Nephilim. If Azazel grows any bolder, however, the time will have to come for my brothers and sisters to cast aside our scruples and act, regardless of our original mandate. I’m already risking excommunication simply by revealing all of this to you. Will you help make my efforts worthwhile?”
Gallo had been sitting quietly brooding to this point. He suddenly jumped up and pointed his finger at Emily. He screamed, “And why should we believe you? How do we know Jude was hallucinating and you aren’t trying to take advantage of us? How do we know you aren’t a demon spinning a pretty web to lead us astray? Even if what you’re saying is true, how do we know you aren’t one of the Nephilim trying to sabotage the church?”
Emily/Inanna sat on the edge of the hotel desk, far opposite Gallo, to reduce any hostility directed toward her. “I completely understand your concern, Father. This is a lot to take in. I could offer to let you try to exorcise me, but let’s not waste our time. Emily wants me here, so here I will stay. Would you like me to stick my hand in holy water? Let me hold your rosary. Your idea of a traditional demon wouldn’t be able to do that, right? You have to trust me. You want proof that I’m more than a charlatan? I can prove I’m telling the truth and Jude wasn’t hallucinating. Watch this.”