by David Skato
“You are resilient my boy. Too bad you chose the wrong side.”
“What’s wrong with her? Dontae’ asks, not taking his eyes off Rochelle.
Roland turns to look at Rochelle also. “Even the strongest has to concentrate to control an army of millions,” Roland explains.
“You can stop this now! Are you really going to let demons take over the world? What the fuck man! This is crazy!”
“Crazy is all subjective. Did you think that the world was going to come together one day and sing Kumbaya? Huh? All of your stupid religions have one thing in common, the fake-believers. Muslim, Jew, Christians, all have your “on the fence” congregations debating faith. All divided! Faith is pure. The believers of Baphomet are pure. Ones that believe in the one true king believe wholeheartedly without doubt. Now, you all will too. He has shown his power, and we will have everlasting peace with our lord and savior at the helm.”
“There’s no peace in hell. He’s using you!” Dontae’ yells.
“Who is your lord and savior? Jehovah? Where is he? When has your God ever showed up and did anything that couldn’t be explained away by science!? Look around Dontae’. This is real. Your God is not. Baphomet is the one true king.”
Dontae’ thinks for a second. “Rochelle is sending shadows across the world. The fucking sky is purple. People are really possessed. This is real. That thing that I killed- It was real. It killed Sandy!” He then looks up at Roland with gut-wrenching anger.
“Fuck you.” Dontae’ retorted, pulling his gun and sending four shots into Roland’s chest. When the man fell to the ground, Dontae’ was surprised. In the back of his mind, he thought that Roland was so deep into this devil shit that he must have been a demon. In the end, he was just a man. A really fucked-up man.
He holsters his gun, turns, and runs over to Rochelle, gently slapping her face to try and wake her.
“Rochelle? Rochelle? Are you in there?” Shadows start to flow back inside of Rochelle, lifting her body about a foot into the air. Her eyes open wide. Dontae steps back.
Rochelle floats to the ground slowly. She looks down at Dontae'
“Rochelle? Are you ok?” he asks.
Baphomet speaks from Rochelle's body with a thunderous, devil, male voice.
“The man that walks between worlds. We finally meet.”
“Where is Rochelle?”
Baphomet ignores the question.
“You are quite interesting. Tell me something. Why do you think heaven would accept the man that you have become?
“I don’t think I’m going to hell if that’s what you’re asking,” Dontae answered.
“Interesting. I wonder how you remained a secret. Hidden in plain sight. I could use you on my team.”
“I would kill you the first chance I get.”
“That doesn't concern me. What could I do to persuade you?”
“Fuck you.”
“What if I brought Sandy back?”
He waves his hand, and one of the monitors illuminates a video of Sandy smiling and enjoying a sunny day.
“Wha-What?” The shock causes the wind to be sucked from his chest and legs to buckle, sending him to his knees. He was shocked at what he was seeing. Could this thing really bring her back? Oh god, how he wanted her back.
“Your lovely Sandy. You and Sandy and immortality. Anything and everything you could possibly want, forever.” ‘Baphomet teases as he strolls around the room. “All you have to do is say yes. And the world is yours.”
Dontae’ thinks for a moment before the anger and rage rise to the surface. His lips begin to quiver, and his fists ball tight.
“No.” He states as he looks the demon in the eyes with a tear streaming from one of his own.
“I like that anger in you Dontae’.”
Dontae’ stands to his feet. He turns and sends a single shot into the computer screen, sending glass shattering across the room. “Let Rochelle go.”
“It amazes me that you think you can stop what I’ve been planning since the dawn of man. This is my world! It was mine long before you showed up.” Baphomet yells, now clearly angry.
Dontae' charges him only to be tossed away, hitting the wall with a hard thud.
Dontae’ laughs. “That’s all you got? Didn’t the bible teach you that the devil never wins?” He says, trying to intimidate and distract Baphomet just enough to get to his bat.
The demon looks at him angrily before charging, grabbing him by his throat and posting him against the wall. “Don’t ever compare me to Satan!” He growls furiously.
Dontae looks into the black abyss, which is the demon’s eyes trying to glimpse anything that vaguely resembles Rochelle. He strikes the monster having zero effect.
“Rochelle. You have to fight him. I can’t do this alone,” he gargles, barely able to breathe.
“Rochelle is dead!” It states thunderously as it lifts him a few inches off the ground, “You could have been a great asset to my army.” The grip was getting tight, and Dontae’ was starting to black out.
He starts seeing random images and lights flickering. It was almost as if he was watching an old film reel. The flashes were filled with moments from his childhood, mixed with meeting the little girls, and finally Angela Coker. He recalls himself saying: “If the devil is real, so is God.” At that moment, he realized that God had been working the entire time. Rochelle, Wilcox, Squirt, Jessi, Angela, Adonis, Doris, Salvita, and even Roland, were all placed where and when they needed to be. Each time Baphomet placed a chess piece on the table, God placed his own. Men make mistakes, and God places people around to help correct them. In the end, it’s up to men to choose the fate of their world. God can only provide the tools; he can’t be the carpenter. For this war, at this point in history, God’s tool was Dontae’.
This thing could be hurt just as any man walking the earth. Roland had said something that was one hundred percent correct. Everything done by God could be explained by science. Roland didn’t realize that he acknowledged the fact that God exists and he created the world. And in God’s world, he created physics. If something can touch you, then you can touch it. Maybe ghosts weren't real, but the Carasaca sure was. Dontae’ had killed it because it was in God’s world. This meant that the thing that called itself Baphomet could die because it had entered man’s domain. And with that, Dontae’ opens his eyes and grabs the demon by the throat. The thing now seems to be affected by Dontae’s strength. Dontae’ head-butts it. Baphomet stagers. Dontae’ gives it a few blows to the face. The creature panics.
“Dontae’ wait.” The monster was now using Rochelle’s voice.
“Rochelle is that you?” He asks.
“Yes. It’s me. He’s gone,” the creature suggests.
As Dontae slowly walks closer, her eyes turn completely black. Using the back of its hand, it effortlessly swipes him across the room into a glass fixture shattering it. Before he could even think of getting up, Baphomet runs and jumps on top of him, screeching at the top of its lungs with a sound that was a blend of Rochelle's feminine voice and Baphomet's demonic one.
“You think you and your God can defeat me?” Baphomet taunts.
“Yes. I do.” Dontae’ states. There was no doubt in his mind that God was with him.
Baphomet goes into a stare, almost as if it can’t believe what it saw inside of Dontae’s eyes. While distracted, Dontae’ wraps his hand around a perfect piece of shattered glass, and without hesitation, he plunges it into the middle of its chest.
Her body starts to go limp as blood drizzles from her mouth. She rolls over onto her back. He stands over her.
“Dontae’? What’s happening?” She asks, honestly confused and barely being able to speak.
Surprised to hear her voice, he kneels, holds her head up, and places it on his knee.
“Rochelle,” he says, brushing the hair from her face.
For a moment, he doesn’t see the grown-up Rochelle; he sees the scared little girl with the large brown
eyes. Calvin had said it must be done. He hesitated so many times, and because of that, the world was in ruins. He cries deeply for her. He weeps as a tear from his eye drips upon her lips.
“Dontae’, I don’t want to die,” she says, looking deep into his eyes.
He wraps his hand around the glass and plunges it deep into her chest cavity while simultaneously letting out a wail of pure pain. The vein in the center of his forehead protruded as his eyes grew increasingly red. The tears were now flowing freely as Dontae’ killed Rochelle. The shadows flow from her body and form in the center of the room, creating the entity, Baphomet. Shadows jolted from the outside to the inside and into the demon. The fully formed Baphomet descends back to hell. Dontae’ watches the demon disappear while holding on tightly to a very dead Rochelle.
CHAPTER XIII
Jessi and the team of officers stand inside of the stairwell, holding the door fighting to prevent a swarm of possessed from entering. The crazed people beat and bang on the door, desperately trying to get to the stairs. The weight and force of the officers are no match for the hundreds outside. Jessie knew this was it.
“Ok fellas,” she said as she stepped back and pulled her weapon from the holster. “It’s time to go out blazing. No guts, no glory, right?”
One officer nodded in response and pulled his weapon. The others followed. Suddenly the banging stopped. The stairwell fell quiet. Each officer looked at each other with confusion. Jessi slowly walks to the door. She ushers the two, holding it to back off. She twists the handle and pulls the door open. The site of bodies lying on the lobby floor was horrifying and relieving at the same time. They all walked out, stepping over bodies as they made their way through the lobby. These were now just people waking from the state that overtook their bodies just a moment ago. Most were groggy, but some were alert but confused. Jessi holstered her weapon and walked outside. The site was closest to the end of an apocalypse that she could have imagined—a quiet burning.
“He did it.” She whispers to herself.
Dontae’ wipes the blood from Rochelle’s face. She was gone. Once again, he’d failed to save someone who’d depended on him. His heart ached more than he thought possible. He gently lies her down and looks around at the death and destruction. He needed to get out of here. He takes a candle from one of the walls and heads out the door looking back one last time at Rochelle.
After descending the stairs, he opens the stairwell door to see officers helping people outside and into ambulances and squad cars. He goes out the door to see Jessi, lost in thought, leaning on the back of a patrol car. He walks over and takes a seat on the trunk. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.
“I guess I'll go try to talk to my dead grandmother now.” She said, glaring into the distance.
Dontae’ smirked, giving her a silent nod.
“What the hell happened up there?” She asks.
“Rochelle is dead. So is her sister.”
“Sister?”
“The one up there. That was her sister.”
Jessi looks around, not that surprised.
“I would have believed she was a pixy after this shit.”
Jessi stammers in frustration. “Man, this was fucked up. I can’t even wrap my head around what the fuck just happened. The world won’t be the same after this shit?”
“I just hope people see what I see. The devil is real.”
“Where the fuck - oops.” She makes the cross on her chest and forehead. “Where was God during this mess?”
“God is within rookie.”
“Hell, we needed him without – I mean, Out- In- You know what I mean.” She stammers.
“Something is still out there,” Dontae’ admits. “It’s hiding in the shadows waiting for another turn.”
“Next time we can skip the bullshit and shoot a motherfucker in the face.” She quips.
“And how do you know who to shoot in the face rookie?”
“I told you when I saw those paintings that that fucker was evil. We should have got him then.”
Dontae’ laughs. “You have no idea.”
“So what do we do?” Jessi asked.
“Keep fighting. I don’t think Baphomet will return as long as I know his weakness.”
“Who is Baphomet? And what’s his weakness?
“I’m not sure of who, but his weakness is belief. As long as people believe there is a God, he will stay in the shadows.”
“That’s easy. There will always be people that believe in God.”
“Don’t be so sure. Look around. This is the world Jessi. This was all created by a song. One simple song. How many people do you think fell for it?”
They both fall silent, looking out at the city still reigning from the night’s chaos. The full moon highlighted burning buildings in the distance. People wandered the streets in a state of confusion as police sirens echoed through the night. No, it wasn’t over, but for now, they were up one.
Ω
The T.V. played a commercial for a new smartphone as Joe sat in the cold cafeteria of Parks Warbell’s Homeless Shelter. He had been watching for a while as he had become accustomed to keeping up with current events. He loved the feeling of knowing what was going on in the world around him. The commercial was over, and the anchor that he liked, Rachel Gonzales, was back on. He hoped, but was in serious doubt, that their paths would ever collide. He was a guy sleeping where he could, and she was a fantastic T.V. Personality. During her broadcast, she said something that highly piqued his interest.
“The Drug Cozitradol, or COZ, for short, is being blamed for the recent zombie-like state of various people around the Globe. COZ is a hallucinogen that was mistakenly added to multiple brands of bottled water. The water companies are claiming not guilty in a class-action suit filed on Tuesday. The CDC confirms that all water is now safe to drink. In other news, the blackout that was reported worldwide was pinned down to a terrorist group known as Lotus. Speculation that they used Quest to infect millions of computers to carry out their plan has been debunked. Roland Walsh, CEO of Quest, has yet to come forward about the incident. However, Quest is offering rewards of up to ten thousand dollars to anyone with video from the night of the blackout in hopes of identifying any perpetrators.
Joe sat back in his chair for a second in thought. He then resumed eating his soup of the day.
END
Afterword
I hoped you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Let's continue this journey together and finish strong. Until next time, thank you for giving me the one thing that I cherish the most in this life. The one commodity that you can share but never receive more of: Your time.
About The Author
David Skato
David Skato is a prolific filmmaker born and raised in Mississippi. Growing up in a family of three boys and a single mother, he used his imagination to escape poverty as he dreamed of visiting other worlds and imagined living the lives of other people.
“I dream to create and create so others can dream.”
Books In This Series
The Soul of the World
Five stories take you on a journey that opens the mind to things that can't be seen with ordinary eyes. Demons walk among men, and all is not well in the house of the devil. This series involves the mystery of Famous, the espionage of Faceless, the action of LIA, the horror of Crimson, and the war of The Seven Day Theory. Each story stands on its own while being entwined all at the same time. Get glimpses of each character in every story as you discover their connection to each other, all leading to something so massive that you won't believe your eyes.
Famous
When Detective Dontae' Wade is called to the suicide of the most famous singer in the world, he realizes that things are not as they seem. After further discovery, he lands in the middle of a massive conspiracy, an advanced cover-up, and a strange cult. Things get really strange when the very dead singer shows up to perform her last show-Live.
Fac
eless
When transient Joe Wells gets word that the city has paid a massive ransom demand for the daughter of a wealthy investor, he decides to see what he's worth by kidnaping himself. He's soon swept into a world of espionage and economic inequality. When the very people he called upon to help is sent to kill him, Joe uses his MIT background in robotics technology to even the odds.
LIA
Out-of-luck-Lia is walking light after her second strike. When an unfortunate accident lands her in jail on Mexico's border, she has to choose between helping the good guys or going to prison for the remaindered of her life. The choice is as simple as the task; Transport a computer chip holding God across the country.
Crimson
In 1975 a 9-year-old prodigy speaks the word from the bible fluently. When the word gets around that he can see visions and also heal the sick, people from all around caravan to his small Mississippi town. Unbeknownst to him, he has attracted more than people. Crimson, a demon that walks among men, shows up, and things will never be the same.
The 7 Day Theory
It's a great day for the apocalypse. Dontae, Jessi, Lia, Joe, and Mel-rel, along with the nine unknown men, must set their differences aside come together to save us all from the return of Crimson.