Enigma of the Soul - Book 1 - Pieces

by Cassidy LionHeart

  Gale waves his hand in whirling gesture and walks away.

  Joanne, Sara, and Wendi come up to Dave to tell him that it is time for the wedding to start and to start seating everyone. The four of them get everything in order, and the music starts to play.

  One by one Frederick and Zebedeo stride to the front greeting people as they take their place next to Pastor Horus. The first of the wedding party to come down the aisle is Vartouhi, the maid of honor. Next is Markus carrying the rings tied together in a delicate lace bow. After him is Wendi, the flower girl, sprinkles rose petals as she skips up to the front smiling at everyone. Finally, Marnina turns the corner so that everyone can notice the radiant young lady that is about to say, I do. Her dress, a handmade nontraditional of imported plum purple for the fabric outer layer with royal blue middle inserts on the front skirt and a stripe down the middle of the back with blood red strips lining the edges of the dress. There is white sheer veil fabric covering the royal blue middle sections that match the veil draping her head from a single brass crown. As Marnina glides down the aisle on a cloud of air, she pretends that she was a princess. Zebedeo’s jaw drops as he gazes at his new bride. Frederick gently closes Zebedeo's jaw and tells him that he is such a child when it comes to Marnina. Marnina takes her place next to Zebedeo. The music stops to let the wedding begin.

  Pastor Horus greets Marnina and Zebedeo as he goes into the opening prayer and then the definition of marriage. Marnina and Zebedeo exchange vows as they giggle and beam with happiness. They exchange their wedding rings that Frederick and Vartouhi bought for them as an early wedding gift. Vartouhi comes forward to read a poem dedicated to the bride and groom.

  Pastor Horus tells everyone declaration of marriage and ends with “I now present to you Mr. and Mrs. Lardeo.”

  Everyone seated stands up and starts clapping, cheering, and whistling for the new couple as they walk down the aisle together.

  The party started right afterwards with the cutting of the cake and lots of dancing, singing, and food to be eaten. People took turns dancing with the bride and groom. Gale dances with the pretty young lady that he met earlier as Dave dances with one of her friends that she drug to the wedding. Sara meets a charming younger gentleman that sweeps her off her feet. Joanne sits in the corner with the rest of the children laughing and playing games when a stranger asks her for a dance. David, Markus, and Wendi are puzzled; why did Joanne leave with that stranger? They are all to young to understand true love and what it can do to people that are seeking it. Night comes and people leave saying good-bye and best wishes to the bride and groom. David, Markus, and Wendi all turn in for the night.

  As night turns into day, the sun peeks through a couple of clouds greeting everyone that is still at the party. Zebedeo and Marnina announce to everyone that it is time to go home and thanks for everything. David, Markus, and Wendi wake up to watch people stumble down the road to town to go to their homes.

  Zebedeo kisses Marnina’s hand, then her lips, and says to her, “I think that we could clean this up later.”

  She replies “I think I hear the bed calling me to it.”

  Dave, Gale, Joanne, and Sara are nowhere to be found. Frederick and Vartouhi tell Zebedeo and Marnina to go to bed, and they will clean up all the mess with the kid’s help. Zebedeo and Marnina thank them and head off to bed. Frederick, Vartouhi, David, Markus, and Wendi spend the rest of the morning and afternoon cleaning up from the wedding and reception. After this big event, their lives have gone back to the same uninteresting and tiresome pattern as the years pass.

  Five years pass before David, Markus, and Wendi hear from their sisters and brothers since the wedding. They finally receive a long letter from all of their brothers and sisters one hot summer day. Dave wrote about each one of the brothers and sisters in a letter telling what has been happening to them.

  Dear David, Markus, and Wendi,

  How have you been doing? We all have been doing fantastic, and a lot has been happening in our lives. It all has been happening so fast that we all have not had much time to write back to you three. We are truly sorry that you have been keeping up on sending us updated information, and we have not. So here we go.

  Gale has met a kind and generous young lady that has swept him off his feet. Do you remember the young lady that was at Zebedeo and Marnina wedding he could not stop dancing with? Well, this is that girl. Her name is Victoria, and they are going to be getting married May 5.

  Sara is married now, but she is living a couple of towns away and is planning to visit you some day. She is working on a family of her own. Sara and her husband are trying to have a baby of their own. They live in a cozy little house not far from the Crimson River that runs a half-mile away from Bahitle town. They will be writing to you in the next couple of weeks to let you know when they will come to visit you.

  Joanne has been dating a lot lately because she feels that she might become a lonely old woman if she does not find a partner. But if you ask me she should just let Mother Nature do her part. Joanne has been such a silly little thing this last couple of weeks that all I can do is to laugh at her for the entire crazy thing that she is doing to get a man. Other than that she is wonderful. She has a new job working at a local bakery making sweets, and she loves it. She doesn’t know it yet, but a regular customer has an immense crush on her. Sometime I think that she is just too dense to realize something good in front of her.

  As for me, I am terrific. I have a family of my own and my own farm. I am keeping up the tradition that our father showed us when he first started farming. If you would like to visit, just let me know, and I will make the preparations. One last thing and then I’ll have to let you go. Congratulations! You are going to be aunts and uncles. My wife and I are proud parents of a new baby boy. His name is Thomas and he is two-weeks-old.

  I hope everything is going well with you, too. You will always be in our hearts and dreams.

  God bless,

  Dave

  Chapter 15

  Dimitri follows Death to his judgment as he looks around to see something that no one he has known has seen. Blue stone was everywhere the eyes could see, the floor, the walls; the ceiling was made out of this blue stone. Symbols carved into the walls were foreign to him. Doorway appeared out of nowhere and seemed to lead to nowhere. There were no windows down this corridor. There was enough light being emitted from the red lantern floating in front of Death and Dimitri. The lantern leads the way down the corridor while Dimitri searches for an end that was nowhere insight. It seamed as if they have been walking for days but getting nowhere.

  “Where are we?” Dimitri asks.

  “We are going to the highest court,” Death replies.

  “And where is that?” Dimitri asks.

  “Straight ahead. Please don’t talk.”

  “It just seems like we have been walking forever,” Dimitri smirks back to Death. “And why the blue lantern? Why not yellow or white lantern? Wouldn’t that help to light the way better?”

  “The blue lantern helps me find who I am to find and bring back. The color makes your blood glow for me,” Death grows quiet. “I will say this only once more. Do not talk,” Death quickens her stepping to make Dimitri jog.

  Dimitri tries to keep up with Death but quickly falls behind. Death stops and lets Dimitri catch up to her then starts to run again. Dimitri is getting frustrated at Death decides to stop and challenge her. Death stops to see why Dimitri has stopped.

  Dimitri yells back to Death. “I am not going to play your silly games anymore.”

  “Then you will die,” Death pulls out an aged emaciated wooden stick from her robe and holds it to her side. The stick grows in her hand as she grips it. The bark part on the far end and a long, shiny, blade emerges.

  “This blade is as old as the earth itself. It helped create and destroy many people far greater than you. Now it’s going to get a little workout slicing you into tiny pieces.”

  Death charges at Dimitri as he sta
nds waiting for her. She gets within four feet of Dimitri then disappears leaving him to stand in total darkness.

  Dimitri puts his hands out to feel around, hoping that there is a wall nearby. He finds not a wall but a strange stone altar for which light begins to shine down upon. As he walks around the altar, he notices that it is made from the same stone that the walls are made out of. A loud booming voice rings in his skull as it commands him to sit down on the blue stone altar. The light becomes more focused on the altar as it shows him the way.

  “No, not until I know who is giving the orders,” Dimitri yells into the darkness.

  “My name is Belial and I will be judging you. Please, sit down,” a light shows Belial location to be sitting ten feet in front of Dimitri on a high throne made of white-gray stone. Belial points to the blue stone altar and then signals downward to Dimitri. Dimitri does what he commands and awaits his judgment.

  “I am going to made this as fast and as painless as possible. You were on a one-way ticket to hell until you said the words; ‘What have I done? God, Please forgive me.’ After that, everything changed for you and that is why we are in this very room right now. I am a giving kind of Demon. So what I am going to offer you is a deal,” Belial says taking a drink from his goblet.

  “A deal… what kind of deal?” Dimitri looks deep into Belial’s eyes to only find the black nothingness of a void.

  “See, you’re special, due to that fact that you repented just before Death brought you here. I am going to offer you a deal that does not come around often. If you make it through the crime and punishment plane then I am going to let you go to heaven,” Belial replies taking another drink from his goblet.

  “Okay, I accept your deal. I was just wondering what is in your goblet that you keep sipping on?”

  “The sweet blood of the damned souls that couldn’t make it out alive of the crime and punishment plane that you, Dimitri, are going to face in the next couple of seconds,” Belial replies laughing back at Dimitri as he takes another sip.

  “I’ll be back to take that sip myself,” Dimitri begins to stand up but notices that he cannot. “What is going on here?”

  “The punishment has already begun,” Belial chuckles.

  Chapter 16

  David wakes up in the middle of the night to realize he passed out while talking to Suezy. He tries to cry for his family but nothing will come out. Lying in the bed, David begins to think-talk to himself.

  ‘Why am I alive? Why did I survive? Where are Markus and Wendi? I hoped that they did not die in the fire. Why was that boy trying to kill my aunt and uncle? What did they ever do to that boy? I don’t think that I’m not going to have a home to go to. I have nothing. No home, no clothes, my family is dead.’

  David bursts into tears as he screams so everyone within a fifty-foot radius could hear him. Not being able to move David is bedridden until the pain of his past passes. He cries himself to sleep once more, wanting to see his younger brother and sister again.

  Chapter 17

  Markus and Wendi grew up to become inseparable because she is the baby of the family.

  Markus, a stout, dark-haired, and chubby boy with a birthmark on his right inner ankle due to a difficult birth was never as tall as his sisters and brothers, but he was built like an ox, strong and proud. Nicklaus would joke with the rest of the family how one day Markus would be pulling the buggy of the horses instead.

  Wendi, with golden, bluish-black hair, was the smallest of the seven children. To this day everyone questioned where she got that hair. Her hair color and skin tone resembles none of her brothers or sisters. They have a creamy color to their skin while her skin has a darker golden brown color. Some people whisper in the shadows that she is of a different race and not that of her family. In the end, she calls Nicklaus and Halie Turner, mother and father.

  Chapter 18

  Dimitri lies on the cold damp blue stone altar with his hands and feet bound by chains made from giant fish hooks over one foot in length piercing his hands and feet through the center. Helpless, he listens to the demons talk amongst themselves. Only understanding what Belial, says he beings to believe that he might make it out alive after all.

  Belial lets out a giant roar that quiets everyone in the room. “Now, since you have stabbed a person to death, you shall be stabbed to death. Then, after that, you shall be burnt to death. Last, but not least, if you can survive all of that, we have something special planned out for you,” Belial takes another sip.

  “I can take whatever you can throw at me!” Dimitri taunts Belial to do all this himself. “Wait, are you frightened of me?”

  “I am not frightened of a little boy that has no idea of pain. In fact, if you want me to do this to you, all you have to do is ask,” Belial puts down his goblet and awaits his answer.

  “Bring it on,”

  “As you wish,” Belial appears over Dimitri with the same knife that he used to kill David’s aunt and uncle. Belial looks deep into Dimitri's eyes and sees a little boy cowering behind a glass sculpture of Dimitri.

  ‘This is going to be easy and fun.’ Belial thinks to himself.

  Chapter 19

  David awakes to a damp cloth wiping across his head, cleaning off the dried on sweet from last night. He turns his head to look at Suezy; she smiles back at him.

  “Me and Jasp, which is short for Jasper, have always wanted children, but we have had no luck. I think that it was an act of God that we had found you that day. Sometimes God works in mysterious ways. He does that you know. He sends out, His Angels, and they do His bidding whatever it maybe. I am just so happy that we have found you.”

  David remembers his mother and how she used to take care of him when he was sick. Suezy is so much like his mother; it is as if his guarding angel was his mother looking over him at all times. Even now, while being nursed back to health by Suezy, he wonders if his guarding angel needs him to see Suezy in a different light or even a guiding light. A guiding light, like a mother figure, that is always looking out for him wherever he may go. David peers at Suezy with love in his heart because he knows now that everything will work out for the better.

  Chapter 20

  Belial, savoring every moment as he stabs Dimitri, making sure the blade hits against the blue stone altar after each thrust. Dimitri cries as Belial licks the blade to savior the pure goodness of Dimitri's blood. Dimitri realizes that he has not made it to the halfway point in the first of three tests he must past to get into heaven.

  “Did you think that you would not pay for the wrong that you have done? I hope that you are sorry for the people you killed. If not, you will be after I am through with you,” Belial shouts into Dimitri's ears as he holds the knife to Dimitri's throat. “Do you remember what you said to the nice young lady whose life you took away? I think that it was something along the lines of ‘you have to pay for his sins’ as well,” Belial slits Dimitri's throat from side to side letting him choke on his own blood.

  Belial climbs down off the altar and walks to his seat to get a slip from his goblet. He toasts Dimitri as he dies on the altar, “This is the part that I love.”

  Dimitri's body begins to heal itself, becoming complete once again. His head and back arches as he gulps in the largest breath of air that he has ever taken. Dimitri turns his head to look at Belial. He sees Belial smiling and raising a toasting to him for making it this far.

  “Congratulations, my dear boy! You have just passed the first test. Now, on to the second test!” Belial snaps his fingers and Dimitri's body is set ablaze. “This is why I never get tried of this job.”

  Dimitri cries out in agony as he thinks, 'Being burnt to death is far worse than being stabbed to death.'

  Feeling the flames burning his skin off his body as it tries to get at his muscles is a feeling that he never wanted to know. Now he gets to experience it first hand. His ears, nose, and lips are melting off him like hot butter being spread over steak. His eyes hurt the most, cooking in his skull, and tu
rning into hard boiled eggs. Dimitri's bones begin to cook, turning his muscles into meat. Lying there, wishing for it to stop, he realizes that the flames are starting to die down but he cannot move.

  “Who's hungry for ribs? How about a nice thigh? It is as juicy as it ever going to get,” Belial says to the other watching demons. Belial walks over to Dimitri and breaks off a rib to nibble on.

  Dimitri cannot see or hear, but he can feel everything. Screaming with excruciating pain, Dimitri lies motionless while demons devour his cooked body for their mid-morning lunch. Some of the demons fight over the pieces so they can relish the bittersweet meat of Dimitri's body. Belial jokes with his’ leg bones and uses them as swords to play fight with another demon. After a couple of minutes, his body has become a few bones on an altar. One of the smaller demons is chewing on one of Dimitri's rib bones when Belial orders all of the bones to be put back on the altar. The little demon pays no attention to Belial orders. All the other demons do as they are told. Belial strides over to the little demon and holds out his hand. The little demon turns his back to Belial and continues to chew. Belial punches straight through the little demon's head and retrieves the remaining rib. Belial puts it on the altar and watches Dimitri's body regenerate.

  Chapter 21

  Weeks pass as David body heals, but his soul does not. The agony of not knowing what had happened to Wendi and Markus is tearing at him. Search parties combed through the burnt house to find any evidence that could lead them in the right direction. The remains of the boy who killed David’s aunt and uncle were found, but the knife that he used to kill them was never recovered. Nobody in the surrounding towns saw or heard any news of Markus or Wendi whereabouts. It is as if they just disappeared off the face of the earth.