Malevolent

by David Risen

  He zipped it back up and looped the right strap over his shoulder, and then he looked back at the pile of clothes and ash that had been Amelia Long.

  “I’m so sorry I brought you here.”

  Amelia splashed through a brook, and stopped so suddenly upon seeing the building before her that she almost fell forward.

  It rose three floors from the ground with a basement level below the three above-ground floors that she only noticed because of the half-circle shaped windows peeking just above the ground level.

  Though she was looking upon the back side of the house, she recognized it instantly.

  A pang of joy rang through her chest as she realized that she’d stumbled upon her home.

  Ten thick, squarish pillars supported the shed on the back side of the house. This was where her father once stored the unperishable crops like indigo before the slaves loaded it to the barge to sail down the river on the way to Savannah and eventually to the broker in London, England.

  The thick walls of the house were comprised of rock which had been smoothed over by the skilled hands of the carpenters who built it – carpenters who worked for the ranch owned by her father’s friend. The friend whose name she could not yet recall, but his face was forever burned into the archives of her memory as the face of a murderer and rapist – a man with long salt and pepper hair and a regal face who had proved invaluable to her father following the untimely death of her mother – an older man who had taken an unseemly interest in her.

  And her name was not Amelia Long.

  Just as Lucifer had asserted, her name was Anna Belton.

  And Her spiritual mate – her husband – Emil Ledbetter.

  Emil called the house “The Old Rock House.”

  She walked slowly around the right side of the house.

  Her eyes found one of the multiple half-circle shaped windows halfway down the right side of the house.

  For years, it was through this window that the moonlight cascaded through into her bedroom as she slept, and later the warm morning sun peeked through and warmed her quilts.

  This very window finally betrayed her giving way to the murderous fiend who stole into her basement bedroom in the middle of the night and took her honor and dignity – an act that almost immediately led to her demise.

  She reached the end of the right façade of the old rock house and looked out onto the front lawn.

  A Silver Mercedes GL class sat in the driveway just before the four steps that led up to the oak double doors. Amelia looked up at the large, multi-pane picture window above the archway leading to the entry doors.

  She stood staring for an indeterminate amount of time the large H like structure at the front of the house. The tall dormers on the top of the roof covered by orange ceramic tiles.

  A pang of terror and excitement shot through her chest when she heard the rattling of the door latch of the left front door.

  She sucked in a breath and held it.

  The front door opened.

  A tall and lanky older man stepped outside with a sad and pensive look in his eyes.

  The man had a regal look to him.

  Dark brown hair with wings of gray wrapping around his temples.

  Kind lips.

  Imperially slim.

  Hunter gray suit with a black dress shirt and green tie.

  And she knew him. Though he was much older now, the years had been kind. With the youth washed away, Emil Ledbetter had a distinguished look about him.

  As he turned and face the door to lock up the house, Amelia approached him not daring to take her eyes away for fear that he would dissipate like smoke.

  Memories flooded back.

  She lived with this man for thirty years in the spirit world as his wife. Those thirty years were the happiest of her existence.

  Then one day, she awoke to find his side of the bed in the master’s bedroom empty. She searched all over the house for him, but he was nowhere to be found. Three days later, she began to worry that something bad had come of him.

  A month later, and her mother and father returned to the house to be with her in her grief.

  Then....

  She woke up in a field naked with bruises all over her.

  It was 1932, and she could remember nothing.

  Until just this moment.

  Emil Ledbetter turned back around, and as he caught sight of her, his eyes bulged. He covered his mouth with his hand.

  “Could it be?” she said.

  He dropped his hand away from his mouth, and he transformed into the youthful man she once knew before her eyes.

  He opened his mouth to say something to her. His mouth worked as though he were trying to form words but no sound escaped him.

  His eyes glistened with the onset of tears – tears created by years of sorrow and longing.

  Amelia sprang for him and hugged him hard.

  Lauren Fields-Rider ripped the driver’s side door of Amelia Long’s black 1991 Nissan Pathfinder open, and touched the ignition to find no keys.

  She threw the door on the center console open so hard that the cover broke off, and she batted around through the contents.

  A receipt for gas from Savannah, Georgia.

  A wadded cheeseburger wrapper from McDonald’s.

  Lipstick.

  Eyeshadow.

  An auto insurance card inside a plastic sleeve announcing that Juan Flores was the primary driver of a 1991 Nissan Pathfinder.

  No keys.

  No cell phone.

  She leaned across the driver’s seat and opened the glove box.

  A short and curly wig of dark hair.

  Another plastic sleeve with an insurance card. This one stated that Amelia Longstreet and William Wilson were the insured drivers of a 1991 Nissan Pathfinder.

  An Atlas.

  A bottle of Tylenol.

  No keys.

  No cell phones.

  She flipped both sun visors down.

  Nothing.

  She backed out of the Pathfinder slamming the door.

  She turned and faced the gate, looking back up the old, broken access road that led up the mountain, and she froze.

  Just up the hill, standing as still as stone with an unamused look on his face, Blake Rider gaped down at her.

  “Blake? Oh, thank God you’re still alive!”

  Rider smirked at her and sauntered toward her.

  “I need your help. Lucifer has gotten loose, and he’s killing all the sisters. If we don’t stop him....”

  Rider reached the gate and stopped, giving her a look of disbelief.

  “Are you serious?”

  She looked down at the dead leaves on the ground.

  “You fuckin threw everything at me but the kitchen sink. You even sent the devil himself down here to get me, and now you’ve lost control of him. You want me to help you fix it?”

  She shook her head in disgust. “I wouldn’t ask if I could fix it myself.”

  She risked a peek at him just in time to see him roll his eyes and climb over the fence.

  “What the hell were you doing in the car? It isn’t yours.”

  She shook her head and gave him an innocent look. “I was looking for a phone or keys. I was either going to call for help, or go and get some. I thought you were dead.”

  Rider held up a finger as if to signal her to stop, and then he slipped the strap of the black backpack he wore off his shoulder, unzipped it, and pulled out a cell phone. He gave her a wry grin and passed it over.

  “Anything else you can bother me for?”

  “Thank you,” she said genuinely.

  Rider nodded and brushed her out of the way as she dialed the emergency number for Tennessee. He opened the driver’s side door and sat down.

  “This thing wouldn’t start the other day, and I don’t think that phone works here.”

  She shook her head.

  “You broke the barrier. Everything should work fine now.”

  He nodded and slippe
d the key into the ignition, pressed the brake and clutch pedals and turned the engine over.

  The old Pathfinder coughed and rumbled to life.

  Rider nodded with satisfaction.

  “Will you help me with Lucifer?”

  Rider glared at her. The intensity of the anger on his face frightened her. For a moment, she thought he might hit her.

  “You’re a real piece of work.”

  He pointed up the mountain. “All of that carnage is because of you! And that ghost town? In what totally fucked up parallel dimension is it okay to do that to people?”

  She took a step back away from him and shook her head.

  “They’re all malevolent spirits,” she pleaded. “In the spirit world they’re helpful and powerful, but here, they’re dangerous.”

  He leaned close to her. “What gives you the fucking right, and what in God’s name made you think it was okay to do to me what you did? I would think an ancient order such as yours would know that every spirit created and placed here was for some divine purpose.”

  She shook her head and looked away. “We were trying to save the world.”

  Rider laughed humorlessly. “You were trying to control it. Clean up your own goddamn mess, and so help me if I ever....”

  She shook her head. “The Sisters of Divinity will never act that way again as long as I’m the Grand Arch Sorceress.”

  “I have to go save our daughter, now,” he sighed.

  Rider nodded and shifted the old SUV into reverse, and then he pushed her out of the way and shut the door.

  “Rider?” she said.

  He gave her an amused look and rolled down the window.

  “All of the terrible spirits that were inside the Skitts Mountain Prison are now freely roaming mortality. You let them out. I need your help to stop them from killing thousands of people.”

  Something changed in his mien. A deep, red glow emanated from his eyes. His expression hardened into a stone cold and dispassionate gaze, and this is the moment that Lauren realized that Rider was not the same and never would be again.

  “You did this. And you have about one more chance to not do something totally fucked up before I ruin all your days for the next ten thousand years. Stay away from me!”

  He started to roll up the window.

  “Rider?”

  The red glow in his eyes intensified. He looked at her like a cop might look at a known offender. She stepped back away from him. Something about the tone of his scrutiny made her skin crawl.

  “Be good,” Rider warned.

  What I made up and what I didn’t:

  Adam: According to the Abrahamic works with versions found in the Torah, The Bible, and in the Koran, Adam was the original man fashioned from dust by God himself. Depending on which religion one studies, the actual events that led to Adam and Eve’s fall from the Garden of Eden vary, and in some Jewish works, (not related to the Torah), Adam is supposed to have a first wife named Lilith. According to some branches of Christianity, particularly the Mormons, Adam went on to become the Archangel Michael in death. For this work, I threw all of that in a pot, heated it and stirred.

  Aphrodite: In Roman Mythology she was also called Venus. In the ancient religion, she was considered the Goddess of love. According to most accounts, Aphrodite was born when Kronos castrated Uranus and threw his testicles in the ocean. She rose from the waters inside a giant sea shell. She’s often pictured wearing an enchanted girdle made by her husband, Hephaestus. The girdle causes any mortal or God who looks upon her to fall in love with her. Aphrodite’s relationship with Hermes is a plot device I created.

  Asterion: Asterion in Ancient Greek Mythology was the given name for the bull of Minos or the Minotaur. Everything I wrote about him is pretty accurate, although I made his appearance a little more grotesque.

  Baal: Baal was an ancient God worshiped by the Phoenicians and Canaanites. According to Biblical sources, he was a demon masquerading as a God. Those who worshiped him worshiped him as a Sun God. He was supposedly the son of El, the chief God, and Asherah – their version of the sea Goddess, but in the book of Matthew, Jesus referred to the devil as Beelzebub which comes from the term Baalzebub which is how Baal became a demon. My version of Baal is in keeping with his status as a demon who simply enjoys creating bloody chaos.

  Belial: Is an angel of Darkness and the ruler of all demons. Sometimes his name is synonymous with Satan. According to a few religious texts, he is the demon responsible for the fall of Israel. My version of Belial is a little muddier. In my version of events, he’s an angel of darkness and light.

  Braselton, Georgia: Is a small town in rural North Georgia. It has the distinction of not belonging to one county as it lies in Jackson, Hall, Barrow, and Gwinnett. It is a real town, but the hotel “The Raven’s Rest” is not.

  Bridgeton, Georgia: Is a fictitious town I created in the mid-1990s. Over the years it has been the setting of several tales starting with Hell Within in 1993, Saving Autumn in 1994, and various other works of fiction I haven’t published, but will soon.

  Cain: In the Bible, the Torah, and the Koran, Cain was the eldest son of Adam and Eve – a farmer. He became jealous of his brother Abel when God asked both brothers to make a sacrifice and God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and not Cain’s. Accordingly, Cain murdered his brother and God cursed Cain placing a mark upon him. Cain went on to create the land of Nod and took a wife. Cain’s immortality in this story is an area where I took license and with the mark. No one knows what it really was – if it was a physical mark at all. According on a few accounts, the woman that Cain took as his wife was Lilith. I liked that idea and decided to use it.

  Celestial Shards: A plot device I created for this story, and a few others to come.

  Cerberus: In Ancient Greek Mythology, Cerberus was the three-headed hell hound that guarded the gates of Hades. His job was to keep living people out of the underworld, and keep posthumous spirits inside. My depiction of this beast is fairly accurate compared to descriptions of him in ancient myths.

  Clarkesville, Georgia: In the North Georgia Mountains, about 35 miles shy of the Georgia-South Carolina line lies this sleepy little jewel – still mostly frozen in time. Clarkesville is a real city, and it has played host to two stories now. Cycle of Torment is almost exclusively set in this town, and the house within it – the Old Rock House – fictitiously the home of Paul Ambrose – existed all the way up until 2000, when developers imploded it. The Old Rock House itself was built in the late 1700s and was the seat of a plantation before the city of Clarkesville became a predominantly white town. Legend has it that three rich men went broke building the plantation. The story of Anna Belton and her family is all fiction as is Hoyt Farmer and his family. Clarkesville remains one of my favorite small towns.

  Darien, Georgia: Is a real town located in deep Southern Georgia. I had the occasion in the summer of 2015 to spend about a month in the town with my sons, and had fate and circumstances been different, I would not have come back. My description of the city and the roads and buildings within it are 100% accurate based on my short experience.

  Gainesville, Georgia: Is completely not a work of fiction, nor is Hall County Library, nor is the shopping center, or the courthouse parking deck where Rider and Amelia were abducted. I should know.

  Georgia Crawler: A fictitious news magazine I created for the purposes of part two of this story.

  Greenville, South Carolina: Is a very real city, although I highly doubt that Jesus Christ lives there masquerading as a Native American named Ben Viracocha.

  Hades: Hades was the son of Kronos and Rhea. Before he was born, Kronos defeated his father, Ouranos or Uranus, with the help of his mother Gaea. Upon becoming a father, himself, he worried that his own children would someday revolt and put him down just as he did his own father. Following the birth of each of his children, Rhea offered them to her husband, and he swallowed them. When Zeus was born, Rhea hid him and raised him in secret, and once Zeus was of ag
e, he revolted against Kronos and freed his ingested brothers and sisters. Where my work diverts is in the introduction of the Christian God. This is the kind of thing that happens when you take a bunch of religions, throw them in a pot and stir.

  Kronos: The youngest Titan and the son of Uranus and Gaea. He defeated his father with extreme prejudice, castrating him and stripping him of power. To save himself from suffering the same fate, Kronos swallowed all his children at birth. He was eventually put down anyway by his son Zeus.

  Lilith: Is a figure from Jewish Mythology and Folklore. It has been said that she originated from an ancient demon, but in Jewish Folklore, she was Adam’s first wife, created simultaneously with him. According to the legend, she left the garden of Eden when she refused to submit to Adam and later coupled with Samael – a demon. The part about her being Lucifer’s mated soul is all mine.

  Lucifer: According to Christian Lore, Lucifer was one of the brightest archangels in heaven. His name meant: Light-bringer, morning star. For the purposes of this story I chose to use a more – protestant view of the fallen angel. Lucifer fell when he attempted to take free will away from man. Hell, he’s the devil. Everyone knows the story.

  Medraut: I called a previous incarnation of Father Fury by this name. Medraut is also Mordred, or the chief bad guy in the tales of King Author. Insert Mona Lisa smile here. (I swear there’s nothing cooking there).

  Miriam: The real given name of the woman commonly known in Christendom as “The Virgin Mary.”

  Profezia Apocalittica: As far as I know, this doesn’t really exist. This term in my fiction refers to something prophesied by a man named Ilar to the Sisterhood of the Divine Coven – the ancient version of the sisters of divinity. Fiction.