Dark Designs
Chapter 1 – Denial
I am not a pedophile. I know that for a fact. I admit, I am many things, but I have never felt any kinds of urges towards young children. I do not even like children! Also, in my line of work, it is not a good idea to even contemplate a future as a father.
Then why am I here in this shady late-night Internet café browsing this child model site? You know the type. The type where some European preteen girl and her parents are somehow persuaded to allow some perverted photographer to take “innocent” pictures of said girl. The pictures are technically legal under the child pornography laws in almost any given country because the girl is never nude, however, the almost sexually provocative nature of some of the poses leave nothing to the imagination.
The girl’s name is supposedly Shervina. What her actual name is and where she is from, I have absolutely no idea. I was actually doing a search for my job tonight and this window suddenly popped up on my screen. It was a close up facial picture of Shervina. At first glance, she looked like any other preteen girl. She had a bright cheery smile, totally devoid of any guile. But it was her eyes that drew me in. At first, they looked blue, but as I looked deeper, their color seemed to shift to green. My hand clicked on her image almost on its own volition, and the next thing I knew, I was taken to her site.
Again, almost as if on its own volition, my finger kept clicking on the mouse button and I found myself treated to more pictures of this intriguing girl as I flipped through her free tour. There were pictures of her in a bikini, pictures of her in a nightgown, and umpteen more pictures of her in various other states of dress and undress.
At last, I reached the last page and I was prompted to join. I felt my frustration rising within me. I wanted more! I couldn’t understand myself. It was like a pressure that started down towards my stomach and was rising up through my chest, and up into my brain. I was not sexually aroused, that I knew for a fact. But I just couldn’t seem to get enough of this girl. Of course, actually joining the site was out of the question for someone like me. I didn’t have a credit card and I wouldn’t trust it to an on-line transaction even if I did.
I finally shut her site down and proceeded with my original search. I am not a pedophile. I do not get my kicks at looking at pictures of little girls. I am guilty of many things, but pedophilia is not one of them. I blew out a breath of forced air, loud enough to raise some heads from some of the other people in the Internet café. I ignored their questioning looks. I finished my research as fast as I could and logged off the computer. I headed over to the cashier and paid for my time in cash. As I headed out into the chill night air, I pulled my long coat around my body. It wasn’t because I felt cold though. I guess in a way, I was trying to insulate myself from the images I had seen. Obviously it didn’t work. I could not get the image of the girl out of my head.
At this time of night, there weren’t many other people on the street, so I was relatively alone in my thoughts. I crossed the street and didn’t even bother to look both ways for traffic. There was none. I headed to the nearest dark alley and hesitated at the mouth. Focus! I had to focus! With all my mental might, I pushed the image of the girl out of my mind and stepped in the alley. As I blended in with the shadows, I couldn’t help but to think: I’m not a pedophile, am I?
---
My job went well, I suppose. I headed back to my grubby motel room and headed straight for the bathroom. I stripped out of my clothes and tried to ignore the bloodstains on them. I got sloppy tonight. It was that damn girl with the green blue eyes!
I stood under the searing hot flow of water and wished that the images of the girl would wash away as easily as the blood.
On the night table, beside the grungy bed, there was a fat envelop - my payment for tonight’s work. I grabbed, it, along with some clean clothes and headed out of the room.
I paid the drowsy motel clerk with some of the cash from my payment. He didn’t even bother to look at me in the face. I knew I had nothing to worry about. Some cleaning staff would undoubtedly find my bloody clothes, but a place like this will dispose of them quietly rather than call unwanted police attention on themselves. They would wipe the room down much better than I ever could. My getaway was clean.
I got into my rental car and drove off. The night was gradually becoming less dark. I doubted that I would be able to get home before the sun came up. I sighed. It looked like I was going to spend another day in a grungy motel room. I patted the fat envelope in my pocket. Well, I guess I could splurge this time and go for a hotel.
In the end, I compromised. I checked into a Holiday Inn and paid in cash upfront for a one day stay. I let myself into my room and immediately flopped down onto the bed. It had been a long night, and my body always felt drowsy after a job.
Chapter 2 –
Recreation
I woke up some time in the late afternoon. My dreams had been filled with vaguely erotic images of a dirty blonde haired girl with green blue eyes. I shook my head vigorously. I had to stop thinking of her!
I decided to make use of some of the facilities offered by the Holiday Inn before heading home. My jobs forced me to spend way too much time in motels. It was nice to check into a nicer facility every once in a while.
I let out a long deep sigh as I immersed myself into the whirlpool. The jets swirled the water all around me and it was actually quite nice. I didn’t even mind the strong chlorine smell. I must have dozed off for a bit because the next thing I knew, I felt the water being disturbed as a couple of people entered it. The whirlpool, like the adjacent swimming pool, was in the center of the Holiday Inn. It was a very public area that was starting to fill up with weary travelers.
I opened my eyes and gave a small nod to my two new tub-mates. The first was a woman in her mid-thirties. She was attractive in a homely sort of way. She had a pleasant face, and her body was only marginally overweight by today’s anorexic standards. The little girl who accompanied her caught my attention. She bore no resemblance to Shervina – whose site I visited the night before – but I guess my curiosity was piqued because of my recent ill-planned Internet browsing. The little girl, obviously the daughter of the woman, had long brown hair and a cute pixy face. Both the mother and daughter had modest one piece swimming suits on.
The mother acknowledged my nod by asking, “Hello, we didn’t mean to disturb you. Do you mind if we shared the pool with you?”
“Not at all,” I replied. “Help yourselves. Be careful of the jets though. They can be quite powerful.”
The mother smiled and directed her daughter to sit down on the bench. I didn’t fail to notice that the mother seated herself in such a way that she was between her daughter and me. I didn’t blame her. You could never be too careful these days. I didn’t mind. The seating arrangement had the daughter almost directly across from me, giving me ample opportunities to discreetly observe her.
The mother and I struck up a casual conversation. We didn’t offer our names. We were just ships that passed in the night. I found her to be pleasant if a bit dull. She and her family were passing through the area on the way home from visiting her in-laws. Her husband and her son were off in the recreation room playing pool, while she and her daughter would rather sit in a pool.
During our conversation, I kept up my discreet observation of the little girl. She was rapidly becoming bored of the adult conversation and was entertaining herself by playing with the jets. She would maneuver herself so that a jet would hit her rear and push her lower body up to the surface. This of course, had the effect of raising her body so that her feet came within inches of me. My peripheral vision traced an invisible line up her surprisingly long legs, to the barely perceptible bulge where her legs met, and then further up along her body to her flat lycra covered chest.
I felt nothing. Not even a twinge in my nether regions. Besides acknowledging her innocent beauty, my brain seemed to have totally disregarded the little girl as nothing but a little girl, and therefore safe from my rather unusual appetites.
“Mommy, I’m bored!” exclaimed the little girl in a moderately whiny tone.
The woman seemed vexed at being interrupted by her daughter. “Go take a dip in the large pool!”
“Ok!”
The little girl climbed out of the whirlpool. I didn’t even feel the remotest urge to follow her progress with my eyes. The woman took the opportunity to move fractionally closer to me. Most people may not have noticed the change in position, but in my line of work, it pays to notice little minute details.
There was a high pitched squeal from the little girl as she discovered the effects of jumping into a cool pool of water after being submerged in a hot tub. The woman stood up briefly to watch her daughter, and when she ascertained that her daughter was fine, she sat back down. This time, even a blind man would have noticed that she sat even closer to me. I think it was at this point that I started to realize that maybe; just maybe this woman was interested in more than just a casual conversation.
I started to listen intently to everything she had to say. Her topics ranged from her work, to her husband’s work, to all the complexities and difficulties in being a working mom. I nodded my head at all the right times, and made all the appropriate sympathetic noises whenever she seemed frustrated about something.
She stopped at one point in her narrative and cocked her head to the side as she looked at me intently. “You’re a great listener, you know that?”
I gave her a warm smile and shrugged my shoulders. “You have a very nice voice. I could listen to it for hours.” Yup, that’s what came out of my mouth. I guess I could be smooth when I wanted to be - especially when there was some potential gain.
She flushed at the comment. I was beginning to feel that maybe she didn’t hear things like that all that often. What I had said was certainly true. She really did have a nice voice, and since I have nothing planned for the rest of the day, I certainly could listen to it for as long as I wanted. Of course, by now, the kind of sounds I wanted her voice to utter were not words but something else altogether.
We were suddenly interrupted by her daughter once more. It was a rather intense moment that had us staring hard into each other’s eyes, so we were both quite startled.
“Mommy, I’m cold!” wailed the little girl.
The woman rolled her eyes and sighed deeply. “Ok, let’s get you dressed and let’s go find your father and brother.” The woman gave me a look that spoke volumes. I returned the look with equal intensity and gave her my room number.
I quickly returned to my room. The look that the woman gave me said that she intended to do something rather quickly. I spent about ten minutes preparing the room. I drew the heavy window curtains all the way across so that the room became dim. Next, I turned off all the lights so that the only light in the room was whatever seeped in from under the door. I grabbed a long face towel from the bath and folded it diagonally so that it became a long strip of cloth.
There was a gentle knock on the door. I hoped that I had read the woman right. I opened the door and pulled the nameless woman into my room.
She put a hand on my chest and held up a foil packet with her other hand. I gave her a reassuring smile and took it from her. Of course I would use the condom. I had learned from my past mistakes! I did not say a word. Neither did she. The time for words had passed. Now it was time for our bodies to do the talking.
My pulse was racing. It was not often that I had a willing and eager partner. I hoped that she was as eager as I was.
My lips traced lines of fire all along her body. She had found time to throw on a bathrobe. The terry cloth belt was only loosely tied. I pulled the belt from its loops and the robe fell off her body. Her swimsuit melted away from my hands and I rejoiced at the rich bounty that had been hiding underneath.
Her hot lips found mine and I devoured them almost greedily. It had been far too long since I had such a willing partner. I wanted to make the most of this. My hands reached up and pinched two nerves on either side of her neck. She collapsed senselessly into my waiting arms.
I carried her limp form over to the bed and quickly got to work. The first thing I did was to tie the strip of cloth I had made earlier from the face towel around the woman’s mouth. I pried her mouth open briefly to wedge the strip of cloth in. Next, I pulled more belts from other terry cloth bathrobes and put them to good use. That was the nice thing about being in a nicer establishment: there was never a shortage!
I tied her arms to the bedposts at the head of the bed. Then, I tied her feet to her hands with the long cloth belts. This had the effect of spreading her body wide open - an image that I found to be highly erotic. Tied thus, she would be completely unable to lower her legs beyond a certain point. I’m sure the position was uncomfortable, as evidenced by the fact that she was starting to come around. However, I was sure that she would soon forget about uncomfortable she now felt.
Her eyes became alert, and as she became aware of her situation, they reflected the fear she was feeling. She watched me with eyes as large as those of a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck.
“Wuuutt uuu uuu wwann?” With the gag in her mouth, the woman couldn’t properly enunciate her words.
I frowned at the awful sounds her once pretty voice was making. Those were not the sounds I wanted to hear. I had to move quick if I didn’t want to lose this opportunity.
I went to work with my hands first. Her ugly gasping fearful sounds soon turned into screams. Muffled screams to be exact, but they were sweet music to my ears nevertheless.
For the next couple of hours, I didn’t once think of little girls with green blue eyes.
Chapter 3 – Visitors
I left the Holiday Inn soon after nightfall. In my pocket was a bloody face towel. An establishment like the Holiday Inn would not hesitate to call the police so I had to remove it from the premises. Besides, I think I wanted a memento from today’s escapade.
I let myself into my apartment. The blinds were all closed and the lights were all off. It was exactly the way I had left it a couple of days ago. I turned on my TV and powered up my computer.
The TV was showing a newscast of a ghastly quadruple murder that had happened the night before. The victims had not yet been identified because they had literally been torn apart and the body fragments were all intermingled. The police were having a difficult time sorting out what part belonged to which body. So far, the only speculation was that the deed had been done by some perverse cult faction.
I gave a snort of derision at that speculation. My jobs always seemed to be blamed on some sort of obscure satanic cult. As usual, I do all the work and He gets all the credit.
My computer beeped at an incoming email. I opened the email and read a short congratulatory message from my most recent employer.
Great job A. But
did it have to be so gruesome?
I snorted and typed a quick reply back.
You
asked for an example to be made. I made
it.
There were no other emails. Not too many people knew my email address. Besides, I changed it after every job. That reminded me that I had one more little detail to take care of before I could chalk up last night’s work as another job completed. I resolved to change my email address first thing in the morning.
A dark lump in the corner of my living room caught my attention. It had not been there before. When it had appeared, I had no idea. As casually as possible, I glanced directly at the lump and could make out some familiar colors. It looked suspiciously like the long coat I had been wearing the night before. I looked harder and saw several dark red smudges on the coat. Yup, definitely the coat that I thought I had left behind at the grubby motel I stayed in last night.
What was it doing here? More importantly, how did it get here?
I suspected that my questions would soon be answered and tried not to sigh. He’d always liked to try to startle me and he had never truly succeeded. Still, that didn’t stop him from trying whenever he could. He was also a bit of a show off.
The darkness in the far corner of the room became darker. It condensed into a dark, almost inky black form. Like a dark shadowy blob, the dark form moved slowly away from the corner and into the center of the room. There, it slowly took the form of a monster from a child’s nightmare. The beast was over seven feet tall, even though it was hunching its shoulders forward. Giant bat-like wings extended from its back and a long snake-like tail whipped from side to side. The face was hideous. It was vaguely man-like, with thick bushy eyebrows, elfin ears, a bulbous nose and a fang filled mouth.
Oh brother. I barely managed not to roll my eyes.
“I saw the results of your handiwork from last night,” said the beast with a guttural voice.
I ignored him.
“You have not lost your touch, even after all these years.”
Again I ignored him. I knew that if I responded, he would probably make himself comfortable and chat the night away.
“Still trying to ignore me eh? After all that I did for you in the past!” His tone was as indignant as his guttural voice would allow.
That almost got a rise out of me though. What a jack ass!
“My Master wanted to thank you for the four souls you sent His way. They were somewhat torn and tattered but he recognized your delicate touch right away.”
I said nothing to betray my surprise. Usually, my jobs were clean kills, much too quick and painless to catch unwanted attention. I waited. I had a feeling I knew what was coming next.
“He wanted me to extend an invitation.” The beast smiled as I turned to look at him. He had finally gotten a reaction out of me.
“Invitation?” I asked.
“He wants you to join us. The offer is quite generous.”
I arched an eyebrow and looked the beast in his eyes. “How generous?”
The beast looked uncomfortable, almost as if he were biting his tongue. I waited several more seconds before I looked away. That had the effect of loosening his monstrous tongue. “You will have the same rank as me,” he said hastily.
I looked back at him in surprise. It was indeed a generous offer. However, I was not in the least tempted. “Go away Sam.”
The beast laughed with an explosive grunt. “I knew you didn’t have the balls! You’ve lived on the edge too long. My Master took me out of the darkness and made all my dreams come true. He can do the same for you.”
I shook my head, “All your dreams except for one, Sam. You can never go back.”
The beast opened his dark maw and roared. A short jet of flame issued from his mouth. It seemed as if I had touched a nerve!
“I’ll never go back! Why should I when I have everything I’ve ever wanted? Power, prestige and women by the thousands! What do you have? A ratty apartment, street hookers when your urge is too great to ignore, and the occasional bored wife in cheesy trumped up motels!”
“What I have, is what I choose to have Sam. That is something you have never quite understood. Free will means more than choosing what commands to obey.” I looked back to my computer screen, pretending to find something interesting. The beast regarded me and I knew I had to give him a definitive answer. “Tell your Master that the answer is no. I needed no help from him to climb out of the darkness. I didn’t need him then, and I don’t need him now. Now be gone!”
The beast started to fade away.
However, it was just like Sam to always have
to have the last word. “Have it your way
I blew out the air that I had been holding in my lungs. He got to me, and he knew it with that last parting shot. Just the mention of Lilith was enough to make my knees quaver. It was almost enough to make me want to reconsider my decision - almost.
Surprisingly, it was the web page that my hand had unconsciously browsed to that helped settle my nerves. The little girl, whose site I had visited the night before, smiled from my screen. Her smile seemed so innocent and so full of life. I felt myself becoming lost in her eyes and shook myself like a wet dog to get my senses back. What was happening to me? I am not a pedophile! My little adventure with the nameless woman at the Holiday Inn earlier that afternoon was proof of that, wasn’t it?
I closed down the site and refreshed my email client. There were still no emails. I had hoped for another job to take my mind away from my visitor. His visit had called up too many memories that I had tried so hard to bury away. I turned off my computer and got ready for bed. If what the beast had said was true, then it was possible that I would have another visitor soon.
I didn’t wait. Instead, I fell into a restless sleep that was disturbed by dreams and images of a little girl with long dirty blonde hair and green blue eyes.
---
My next visitor came the next morning. When the sun was high in the sky, its light filtered through the gaps left by my heavy curtains. The light moved as if on its own accord until it touched my face. I groaned and slowly opened my eyes. The light touched my face the way an old friend would. I groaned again because I recognized the touch.
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked up at the sphere of light hanging over my bed. “Good morning to you,” I said grumpily to the light. “Couldn’t you have let me sleep in a little more Mike?”
The sphere emitted a warm chuckle that made me think of church bells. “The early bird catches the worm.”
I scowled and said, “I’m not a bird and I don’t eat worms. I’ve had a busy couple of nights.”
“I know. Your last employer was most distraught over how you handled your last job.”
“Yeah well, that’s too bad for him. Hey, can you tone down the light a bit?”
“I am sorry, I forgot about your aversion to light.”
Funny, the sphere didn’t sound sorry, but the light emitting from it dimmed nevertheless. I finally opened my eyes all the way and glared at the sphere. I wasn’t afraid of light per se. I just didn’t like it much. Heck, any creature that had spent as much time in the dark as me would automatically shy away from a megawatt light bulb hanging over their bed!
“Sheesh, what’s with you show offs? First Sam with his hideous Halloween costume and now you, Mr. Lightbulb.”
The sphere bobbed up and down a bit and its voice was humorous as it said, “Does killing always make you so grumpy?”
“Only when I have to wake up to you!”
“Oh Az, you sound rather frustrated. Did you not vent your frustrations upon that poor woman yesterday?”
“What’re you, some kind of peeking tom? First Sam and now you! Can’t you guys just leave me alone? That woman got what she wanted.”
“I am betting that she got more that what she wanted. You have spoiled her. She will never look at sexual intercourse the same way ever again. Every time she reaches for her husband, it will be you with whom she is having intercourse with in her mind.”
“Yeah well, it’s her problem that she came so freaking hard that she pushed the gag out of her mouth and bit her own tongue. You should’ve seen the damage her freaking nails did to my back!”
A bloody cloth floated into my line of sight, along with the bloody clothes I had worn for my job.
“
The cloth and the long coat suddenly burst into flames. The fire consumed them entirely and they burnt down into nothing. Obviously, it wasn’t a normal kind of fire.
“Thanks,” I said. “Saved me the trouble. I would have done that later.”
“Would you have?” The voice sounded almost gentle and caring. “You have not touched the light in a long time.”
“So? What of it?” I was beginning to get annoyed now. Why couldn’t they just all leave me alone?
“You know why we cannot.”
“Get outta my head!”
“I am not in your head. You are just too easy to read.”
I glared at the light and said, “You know, you have a funny way of asking for my help, if that is what you’re here for.”
“Actually, I am here to offer you help and protection,” said the light, still with that damnably amused tone.
“I can take care of myself. Why the sudden interest anyway?”
“Your last job was quite spectacular.”
“You said something along those lines already. What of it?”
“Nothing human could have torn those people apart. You got careless
“So what, now you’re going to offer me protection as long as I join the side of good? Is He going to offer me some sort of equal rank?”
The sphere of light shifted side to side. If possible, its voice sounded somewhat sad. “There is no coming back Az. You know that. However, if you fight for us, fight for Him, He will extend his protection to you.”
Sudden rage filled my entire being. “Forget it! I still remember the last time I fought for you guys. I fought and bled for you, even though I was cast out. What did I get in return? She died anyway. My Rachielle died!”
“The Nephilim were an abomination Azazel. They had to die. The world had to be cleansed.”
“Why? Why were they an abomination? We have free will Michael. We were supposed to be able to do what we wanted.”
“Even with free will, there are rules to be obeyed.”
“For an angel, your Master keeps you chained like a pet dog. Go away Michael. I don’t need your protection or help. I’m sitting this battle out.”
“Very well Azazel,” said Michael sadly. The sphere of light dimmed and shrunk until it was simply a pin prick of light. “Remember, though the Nephilim were abominations and denied entry into Heaven, their souls were immortal. If Rachielle never went to Hell, where did she go?”
When I could no longer feel the archangel’s presence, I curled up into a fetal position and cried my heart out into my bed. Of course I had searched for Rachielle’s soul. I had invaded deep into the heart of Hell and confronted Satan himself. But Rachielle was not there. It was as if the great Flood had washed away any trace of her.
Heaven has no pity for a fallen angel and no one has fallen as far as me.
Chapter 4 – The Job
(Flashback)
I left the late night Internet café and wrapped my long coat around me in an effort to block out the images of the little girl. I was unsuccessful. Damn it! I had to focus! I had a job to do and I didn’t need any distractions.
My search on the Internet had given me the exact address of the warehouse I was looking for. That, combined with the other information I had acquired independent of the Internet told me where my objective was. At the mouth of the alley, I made my decision to travel by using the dark pathways. While requiring more effort on my part, it was stealthier than flying.
The dark pathways have always existed, but only those of us who have experienced the Abyss know how to travel by them. I blended in with the shadows and instantly became as one with them. The world around me disappeared into darkness as I traveled. Once, in my early days in the Abyss, I had been terrified of the dark and had expended much of my celestial light powers to keep the dark at bay. Of course, that had made me a beacon in the darkness for all the predators that lurked in the Abyss. After my first few close calls, I resolved to conquer my fear of the dark. Eventually, I did more than that. Eventually, I learned to make the dark a part of me.
I materialized outside of an old abandoned warehouse. The moon and various street lamps provided minimal illumination. The warehouse was dark, except for a smattering of light that seemed to be deep within the warehouse. I submerged myself once more into the shadows and entered the warehouse.
I moved around the inside of the warehouse until I came upon my objective. In the center of the warehouse was a series of spotlights mounted on high tripods. They were arranged in a circle and in the center of the circle of light was a little boy tied to a chair. He was gagged but not blindfolded. He was awake and sobbing quietly.
I could sense no other human presences nearby. It was possible that the kidnappers were taking a break. That was when I spotted the camera pointing at the boy. That was how they were keeping an eye on him! The lazy cretins couldn’t even bother with a real guard! The camera didn’t give me any cause for concern. I could have the boy in a safe location before the kidnappers responded to my presence. Besides, I needed them here if I were to make an example out of them.
As I stepped out of the shadows, an errant thought distracted me briefly from my mission. The camera reminded me of Shervina, the little girl who had caught my attention at the Internet café. What was it like to stand behind the camera and take pictures of her? Damn it! I needed to focus! I pushed her out of my head as I reached the boy. He raised his head slowly to look at me. Pain and fear were written all over his face. I suppose the rage I was feeling was written all over mine. The kidnappers had tortured the boy – presumably to raise the price of the ransom. Both eyes were bruised, and dried blood caked his face. I couldn’t see any of his wounds under his clothes but from the way he was trying to hunch down into a more comfortable position, I knew that they had to be substantial.
Damn them! I may not like children very much, but that was mainly due to my lack of patience with their endless mindless chatter. No child deserved to suffer this kind of treatment. No child deserved to have their innocence smashed in this way. I started to reach for the boy and that was when the kidnappers sprung the trap.
I felt the bullets impacting on my body almost at the same time I heard the rapid thunder of automatic gunfire. Rather than try to dodge away from the bullets, I spread my body out in an effort to provide cover for the little boy. I knew that if I moved away, the bullets would rip through his small body like a hot knife through butter. I gritted my teeth against the pain and waited the storm out.
After what seemed like an eternity, but was actually only several seconds, the bullet storm stopped as my unseen assailants paused to reload. I forced the bullets out of my body and ignored the blood dripping from my wounds and onto my long coat as I spun around to face my opponents. I could see nothing. Where were they?
I moved away from the boy and stepped beyond the circle of lights. I opened my senses to the darkness and finally found my shadowy opponents. I sensed more than saw four dark figures moving in the shadows. Shadowmen!
I felt a trickle of fear run through me. Shadowmen were once humans who had sold their souls for otherworldly powers. Their presence here meant that the boy and the ransom were not the objective. They were the bait.
The Shadowmen finished with their reloading and opened fire once more. I raised my hands and formed a shield of darkness in front of me. The incoming lead storm was sucked into the dark void. I almost laughed in derision. Whoever set this ambush for me obviously knew something of my abilities. But did they really think that bullets could even slow me down? Maybe it was time to show these pawns just what they were dealing with, before I sent their souls screaming into Hell.
Once, my wings were made of light and served as a bright and beautiful symbol of my creator. By the time I clawed my way out of the Abyss though, they had changed. Like me, they became dark, forbidding, and full of dark powers. My wings usually resided within me, they were a part of me, but hidden away from the world. I spread them out now. They billowed out of my body and spread out to almost full extension on my back. They had no physical substance and I could feel my battle lust rising within me as I lashed them at my enemies.
I impaled two of the Shadowmen with my wings. They dropped their guns and flailed around uselessly with their arms as they tried to free themselves. Their dark viscous blood flowed thickly from their wounds. Their efforts were in vain though. Their arms passed through my wing tips without any resistance. I flexed my dark wings and flung both Shadowmen off to either side.
The two Shadowmen in the center gave up on their futile bullet barrage. As one, they dropped their guns and prepared for another attack. One of them began to make mystic gestures with his hands. The other one pulled a large saw-bladed knife and charged me.
Fool! It was I who taught humans to make weapons. Did this idiot really think he could harm me with one of my own inventions? I dropped my dark shield and grabbed the charging Shadowman with a giant shadowy fist while he was still about ten feet away. He writhed within my grasp and I saw fear in his eyes as he deduced what his fate would be. I clenched my shadow fist and dropped his pulped remains to the floor.
Meanwhile, the last Shadowman finished his incantation and threw his spell at me. Black lightning sizzled the air between us. I caught the lightning in my hands and melded it into a dark ball of mystic energy. The Shadowman saw this and tried to run. The operative word, of course, is tried. I threw his spell back at him and he exploded into a pink and black mist as if hit by a cannon ball.
I sensed some furtive movements off to the sides. The first two Shadowmen that I had attacked were trying to crawl back into the shadows where they could escape via the dark pathways. A Shadowman is created by linking one’s soul to the outer edges of the Abyss, thereby giving the Shadowman access to some of its dark powers. I of course, have long since mastered these dark powers.
I sent out two giant shadow hands and plucked the two hapless Shadowmen just as they started to melt into the shadows. I left them hanging up in the air as I considered their fate. For the crime is abusing the child and for underestimating me, they deserved something special. I started off by spinning them in the air. They were facing each other as a dark vortex formed around them. The vortex grew smaller and smaller as I condensed it into a thin spinning black column. Bloody body parts spurted out of the top of the vortex as the two Shadowmen were mashed up together.
As I released the dark vortex, I became aware of the screaming. I frowned as I realized where the screaming was coming from. In my haste to deal with my ambushers, I had completely forgotten about the little boy. He was screaming in terror at the top of his lungs, and he was writhing and straining in his chair. His face grew even more fearful as I approached his chair. Damn it! I should have drawn a dark veil around him to shield him from the gruesome battle.
I had no choice. I silenced his screaming with a sleep spell and moved quickly to free him from his bindings. Before I left with the boy, I took a few moments to survey my handiwork. Shadowmen were more than a match for normal humans, but only a complete idiot would send them against an angel.
I exited the warehouse and spread my wings. Who sent the Shadowmen? What was their purpose? As I flew towards the drop point where I was supposed to leave the boy, images of a young girl with green blue eyes flashed through my head. Damn it, I had to focus! I am a fallen angel, not a pedophile! I was cast out of Heaven for my crimes. They were many, but they did not include abusing children. I was guilty of abusing my mission, even though there were extenuating circumstances at the time. Heavenly justice though, had no room for excuses. My crime of teaching the art of making weapons to early humans earned me my fall from grace. However, my crime of giving in to the temptations of women and sex earned me my plunge into the Abyss. I’ve paid for my crimes, haven’t I?
Chapter 5 – Rachel Ingrid
Ellis
I finally climbed out of bed several hours after my tantrum. It was late afternoon and I was beginning to feel a sense of urgency. What drove me was a dawning understanding of what the ambush was all about. The Shadowmen were not there to kill or capture me. They and the boy were all part of a plot to make me reveal my celestial powers. I knew who sent the Shadowmen now. Besides finding out that I still had my powers, he probably wanted to make sure I still had it within me to be merciless to my enemies. To be merciless was actually a trait that was applauded by the Light-bringer.
All of this meant that since I refused Samyaza’s offer last night, Hell’s minions would literally be on my heels to make me do with force what persuasion and temptation could not. I had to move fast. I packed the few basic necessities that my human form would need. While in human form, I would be more difficult to track and as long as I refrained from using my powers, I would be impossible to see through mystical means.
As I headed to my door, I noticed a little piece of paper sticking to it at eye level. On it were two lines written by an angelic hand.
Azazel, as a
show of good faith, visit the following
address to find what you seek.
M.
It was just like Michael. Why couldn’t he just give me straight instructions? Why did he have to be so cryptic? I was about to put the paper in my pocket when I noticed writing on the back.
Hurry Azazel.
The Light-bringer knows of what you seek. He
will not hesitate to use her against you.
I refrained from sighing. At least the address was somewhere in this city. Outside, on the street, I thought about flagging down a taxi but decided against it. Michael’s note said to hurry. Contrary to popular belief, I do not actually need shadows to use the dark pathways. I am strong enough to open a door into the dark, even in daylight. Of course, this may reveal my starting position to mystic eyes, but they would have a hard time predicting my exit point. I looked around as I prepared to open a portal. I spotted two street bums who seemed to take an abnormal interest in me. Damn it! They were expecting me!
I opened the portal and the two street bums broke into a run. I could see their human forms waver and shift, as the demons within sought to break free of their human forms. My sense of urgency skyrocketed. I still wasn’t sure why, but I knew I didn’t have time to tangle with low end demons. Black lightning flared from my hands and knocked the two demons disguised as street bums back. It wasn’t enough to kill them, but then I didn’t have time to properly dispatch them. Despite his blind obedience to my former Master, Michael had never steered me wrong. I jumped into my portal and closed it down behind me. I wasn’t afraid of them following. Most low end demons didn’t have the power to open portals into the darkness. Besides, even if they did follow me, they would be in my element and at my mercy.
I zipped along the dark paths and headed to the address that Michael had given me. There was a little kindle of hope in my chest, but I tried to keep it down. There was only one thing that I have searched endlessly for over the last few millennia. Michael knew that. Unfortunately, the Light-bringer knew that too.
After I had climbed out of the Abyss, I emerged into the middle of a full scale war between Heaven and Hell. I and the rest of the Grigori had been careless in our interactions with human women. We had unintentionally created a hybrid race of mutants called the Nephilim. The Nephilim inherited our immortal natures as well as the mortal roots of their human mothers. In short, they had many of our angelic powers and the ability to use them on the mortal plane without owing any kind of allegiance to either good or evil. Giants in every sense of the word, the Nephilim could do what they wanted, whenever they wanted. Imagine a child given access to a room full of red buttons that launched modern day nuclear missiles and simply told to go play. What would the child do? For the most, the Nephilim were like that. They grew up without guidance, with powers on par with the angels. By the time Michael had mobilized the angels to do something about it, the Nephilim had caused massive destruction around the world.
The war against the Nephilim raged for hundreds of years. Michael had found me weak and exhausted from my escape from the Abyss. Michael recruited me and introduced me to the Nephilim who were fighting on the side of the angels. Chief among these Nephilim was Rachielle. She was actually one of the many daughters sired by Samyaza. She and others like her were horrified by the damage caused by the rampant Nephilim and made a conscious decision to help end the war, even though she and her kind were regarded as abominations and could never enter Heaven. Hell, on the other hand, was more than happy to receive these powerful souls. Perhaps it was a blessing, or perhaps a holy curse, but the Nephilim were infertile and could not reproduce. Instead, their souls were immortal, and those who did not willingly enter Hell’s service after their bodies perished, were forced to continuously reincarnate over and over. The end of the war was well documented. The great Flood wiped out most of the remaining Nephilim, both good and evil. Those that survived the war went into hiding, biding their time until the next great battle between Heaven and Hell. Rachielle did not survive the war.
The sun was just beginning to set when I emerged from the darkness. I found myself in a quiet neighborhood in the suburbs. There were few people on the streets and not very many cars in the driveways. I suspected that that would change soon. I located the house numbered 126 and approached the front door. I was just about to ring the doorbell when I noticed that the door was slightly ajar. The feeling of urgency came back and I pushed the door open and charged into the house.
I felt the crackle of mystic energy being expended and then I heard a scream. It had come from the basement of the house!
I rushed in and leapt down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs though, I was confronted with a scene that nearly froze my heart.
The basement was set up like a photography studio. There were lights and other photography equipment all over the place. On the floor, was a dead man. His throat had been ripped open. In the center of the room was a little girl flanked by two Shadowmen. It was the little girl’s face that froze my heart. It was Shervina! The little girl whose site I’d visited and whose smiling face plagued my dreams. Right now, her face was not smiling. She was looking at two headless bodies that were still hanging on the wall. One of the bodies was that of a man, while the other one was that of a woman. The mystic energy I felt as I entered the house came from the spell that had decapitated the man and woman in front of their child.
There was a third Shadowman, and it was him who had cast the deadly spell. He was looking at me and he was smiling. “My master sends his greetings Azazel!”
I studied the Shadowman. He was not showing any fear at confronting a being such as me. I could rip him to shreds in an eye blink and he knew it, but instead of respecting my power, he was giving me a mocking lopsided grin.
“I don’t deal with underlings. Where is your master?” I snarled.
The Shadowman pointed a warning finger at the little girl behind him. “He will be here soon. Don’t get any funny ideas Azazel. I have a death spell primed and ready. Even you could not kill me before I killed this little girl.”
I tried to bluff past the panic I was feeling. “What of it? What is she to me? Go ahead and kill her. I don’t even like children anyway!”
The Shadowman laughed. “My master said that you would say something like that. You have been looking for her for so long that you can’t even recognize her when you see her.” The Shadowman gave a little bow and gestured grandiosely. “Azazel, allow me to introduce you to that which you have searched for. Allow me to introduce Rachel Ingrid Ellis!”
The little girl looked up at the mention of her name. Her eyes met mine and I felt them stab right through my soul. Of course! That was why I was obsessed with her! A part of me had recognized her from the start. What was the saying? Soul meets soul when eye meets eye. My soul recognized hers, and from the flicker of recognition I saw in her eyes, I knew that her soul recognized mine as well. I tried to reassure her with my eyes and I saw her relax a bit. The Shadowman noticed this.
“Enough! My master comes!” he cried.
I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up on end as massive amounts of celestial power were expended. I glanced out through the basement windows and saw a reddish glow outside. Someone had sealed off the house!
Sealing an area into a parallel dimension is actually an angelic power. It involved using huge amounts of light energy to phase a certain area out of normal time. A bystander looking at the area would see nothing out of the ordinary, but the sealed off area was cut off from the rest of the normal world. There was only one angel that I knew of who not only had that kind of power, but also the audacity to use it. Sometimes called the Light-bringer, he had left Heaven before he could be cast out. Once a powerful archangel, his own personal power was far greater than that of the average angel. On his own free will, he had sided with Satan in the never ending eternal war. He was effectively Satan’s second in command and he did his job so well that many humans often confused him with Satan Himself.
A sphere of light formed in the basement. Unlike my earlier visitation by the archangel Michael, this sphere of light quickly formed itself into a tall beautiful man with gigantic wings of light. Even folded, his wings spanned the entire width of the basement. “Hello Azazel. It has been a long time.” Even his voice was beautiful.
“Hello yourself Lucifer!” I said with a snarl.
“Tut, tut! Why the animosity? Are we not the same, you and I?” said Lucifer with a sardonic grin.
“We are not the same! You willingly left what I was cast out of.”
“And yet you still fight for something that refuses to have you back.” Lucifer held his hands out in a placating gesture. “Can you not see the perverse irony of that?”
Old memories that I had buried so long ago surfaced. “It was your fault that I was cast out! You left heaven and tried to corrupt the humans. What were we the Grigori supposed to do? We could not continue in our original mission and simply watch you corrupt the entire human race.”
“And so, you and your fellow Watchers took human form and took it upon yourselves to prepare the humans for my corruption.” Lucifer laughed out loud. “In doing so, you corrupted the humans better than I ever could. You so-called Watchers taught the humans the forbidden knowledge. Armaros taught them magic and you taught them how to make weapons. It kept me amused for many centuries knowing that you Grigori, with your good intentions, corrupted the human race before my own plans even went into action!”
I felt rage at his words. However, with the rage came the shame. What he had said was true - every word of it.
Lucifer wasn’t done with his taunting though. “You, Azazel, went a little further than that, though. How does it feel to know that you contributed to the fall of your brethren?”
“I’ve lived with that knowledge for a long time Lucifer,” I said through gritted teeth. “Each one of us had free will. Just because I made little ornaments and gave them to the women as innocent gifts doesn’t mean that I corrupted my fellow Grigori. They all each made their own decisions to have sex with those human women that they found attractive.”
Lucifer laughed again. “Is that how you have justified it to yourself? Samyaza remembers it a bit differently. He claims that the little ornaments combined with the basic cosmetics you taught the human women made them so attractive that he just could not resist. Many of the other Grigori who have joined me have said the same thing.”
“Samyaza is a snake!” I said with a hiss. “He’s the one who convinced the rest of us that it would be fine to partake in the wanton womanly charms around us. I wouldn’t believe his lies if I were you. But then, you know all about lies don’t you?”
Lucifer stopped his laughing and regarded me carefully. “What lies do you speak of?”
I had to laugh at his sudden interest. He didn’t know! “You think your Master is all powerful, don’t you? You think that He has power over everything that enters His domain, don’t you?”
Lucifer didn’t say anything, but I could see the wheels turning in his head.
I continued with my newest taunt. “Answer me this, oh Light-bringer. How did I survive my confrontation with the mighty Satan? If He were so powerful, why could he not strike a lowly fallen angel down?”
Again Lucifer didn’t say anything. Instead, he prompted me to continue with a slight movement of his chin.
“Have you ever wondered why Hell has so many fires burning at once? Satan is afraid of the dark!”
Lucifer’s face turned red with fury. “You lie!”
“It’s true! Deep down, Satan fears the Abyss. He knows that he is powerless in there and if he were ever cast there, he would perish forever!”
“Again with the lies!” exclaimed Lucifer.
“You know it to be true! Samyaza said that it was Satan who pulled him from the Abyss. I’m betting that Satan didn’t do it alone. You helped him, didn’t you? You held off the darkness with your angelic light and let Satan take all the credit!”
“Lies!” screamed Lucifer. He seemed a little unsure of himself though. “How did you escape the Abyss?”
I gave Lucifer a nasty smile. “Simple. I became one with the darkness!” My dark wings snapped out from behind my back. I was a little surprised that they were almost the same size as Lucifer’s wings of light. I fired off a jet of black lightening at Lucifer, but as I intended, my little display with my wings had alerted him and he dodged the attack. The Shadowman directly behind him didn’t see it coming though. The lightening blasted a hole through his chest and then forked to hit the two Shadowmen flanking little Rachel.
Lucifer fired back with a brilliant burst of light but I deflected it by flinging my wings out in front of me. “Damn you!” he cried. He produced a sword of fiery light and launched himself at me.
I blocked his attack with a sword of darkness and hissed into his face, “You’re the one who’s damned Lucy!”
Lucifer screamed in rage at my little taunt. He always did have a short temper! His attacks became more intense and I barely warded off several of his blows.
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that I could stand up to one of the most powerful archangels of all time. Of course, keeping the house in a parallel dimension was sucking up a lot of his power. It was said that at one time, Lucifer’s power rivaled that of God Himself, but his pride was what led to his downfall. His attacks had me backpedaling continuously. When I sensed the wall at my back, I knew I had to try something drastic. I feinted a low blow to his knees and as Lucifer leapt up to avoid the cut, I hit him with a dark mystic bolt from my left hand.
He flew backward from the impact of the blow. From the pain written on his face, I knew that I had hurt him. I didn’t know how badly though. He put his hands together and unleashed a titanic blast of energy at me. I desperately reached deep down into myself for strength and countered his light with a shield of darkness.
I clenched my teeth in pain. His power was truly awesome! Now that he was through with trying to taunt me, he was hitting me with all his power. As hard as I tried, the blast of light was slowly eating away at my shield of darkness. I knew that the only way to save myself was to assume my own angelic form and counter him strength to strength. However, if I did that, not only would little Rachel Ellis die, but the entire neighborhood would be leveled despite the dimensional shield around the house.
That gave me an idea. I drew upon my link to the Abyss. In response, my body began to shift and grow dark. My hands elongated and my fingers grew talons. I could feel the rest of my body changing as well. The most noticeable change was in my face. My nose and my mouth jutted out from my head and became like the muzzle of an ancient legendary creature. My eyes burned red while my ears blended in with my skull. Re-curved horns grew out of the top of my head. I opened my mouth and roared my defiance at the fallen archangel.
I then reversed the polarity of my dark shield. Rather than trying to meet his light face to face, strength for strength, I drew his power into me and through me. I became a conduit for his power as I channeled his energy blast into the Abyss.
Lucifer felt the change right away. He poured more power into his attack but I only responded by increasing the flow. Slowly, bit by bit, I was draining Lucifer of his power. Not only that, if we kept this up, I would eventually pull Lucifer into the Abyss.
He figured it out though. Damn him, I almost had him! He stopped his attack and looked at me with real fear in his face. I couldn’t taunt him properly in my current dragon form so I cut my link to the Abyss and resumed my human form. “What’s the matter Lucy? Had your first real glimpse of the Abyss? What did you think?”
Lucifer’s face scrunched up in fury. We were stalemated and he knew it. Somehow, over the last several thousand years, I had grown more and more powerful to the point where I now rivaled Lucifer himself in pure raw power. Of course, I had the power of the Abyss behind me and he had nothing behind him but the Master of Lies.
“Damn you Azazel! You will pay for this! You will rue the day you ever decided to stand against me!”
What happened next happened almost in slow motion for me. I somehow knew what he was going to do before he even did it. However, my movements seemed much to slow. About twenty feet separated us, but it may as well have been twenty miles.
Lucifer turned to look at little Rachel Ellis, who had all this time, been observing the battle with wide eyes. He pointed a casual finger at her and blasted a single pencil thin beam of light into her chest.
“NO!!!” The cry came from the deepest part of my soul.
Lucifer gave me a mocking smile and then vanished. I felt a shudder as the house returned to normal but I paid no attention to it. I could only see one thing. Little Rachel Ellis, who had haunted my dreams, who was actually my beloved Rachielle reincarnated, was bleeding her life away into the cold uncaring floor.
I rushed over and cradled her head in my arms. I was crying an endless stream of tears. For over five thousand years I have searched for her, and now that I had found her, I was going to lose her all over again.
She looked up at me with those green blue eyes. I could clearly see the recognition in them. Her current body may not entirely remember me, but her soul did. She tried to say something but blood burbled out of her mouth. I caressed her forehead with a gentle hand and said, “Shhh, hush little one. Don’t be afraid. I’ll find you again. I promise.”
She smiled at me and closed her eyes. I could feel the life slipping away from her. Damn it! With all my powers of darkness, the one thing I could not do is heal. For that, I needed the powers of light. But my time in the Abyss, and my merging with it, had stripped me of those powers.
I may not have powers of the light, but I knew someone who did. I pointed my face to the ceiling and cried, “Michael!”
As if he had been waiting for my summons, the brilliant sphere of light that was the earthly manifestation of the archangel Michael appeared by my side. “Yes, Azazel?”
“Heal her!” I demanded. “You owe me that from last time. Heal her!”
“I owe you nothing Dark Angel. Our deal from the last battle was that Heaven would leave you alone to live your life on Earth as a free angel.”
“Please,” I begged. “Please heal her. I’ll fight in the next battle. I’ll fight for you. I’ll fight for Him. Just heal her!”
“You will fight on the side of Heaven in the upcoming battle? Do you so swear?”
“Yes, damn you! I swear to fight for Heaven in the upcoming battle. I will destroy Hell’s minions and send their souls screaming into Hell, or banish them into the Abyss.”
The sphere of light hovered over Rachel for a moment and then moved away. “It is done!”
The ghastly wound on Rachel’s chest was closed and I could feel her life force growing stronger. Soon, she opened her eyes and gave me a questioning look. I smiled through my tears down at her and said, “Shhh, later my love, I’ll explain later.”
The sphere of light started to fade away but Michael had one last thing to say, “I’ll give you the rest of the day to get reacquainted with your long lost love. I’ll send you an email with details of your next job tomorrow.”
Despite myself, I had to laugh. That Michael! I had been working for him all long by eliminating the various criminals and lowlifes that his jobs directed me to. There were limits to how much angels could interfere on the mortal plane. Sometimes the rules could be bent but never for long. I wondered how long he had been planning this. My ‘reward’ for my participation in the last battle earned me the right to do what I wanted on the mortal plane and to live my life as I wished. Of course, I had been so confused back then that I didn’t realize that after my escape from the Abyss, Heaven no longer had a hold on me. I was already a free angel who owed no allegiance to either Heaven or Hell. I suppose living unmolested by any low ranked righteous angels counted for something though. Now, by saving this little girl, Michael had bound me to Heaven’s cause once more and Heaven now had an agent on the mortal plane that had vast amounts of power at his command and an allegiance to Heaven.
I looked back down at the little girl in my arms. Rachel had fallen asleep. I didn’t look forward to explaining the deaths of her mortal parents to her, but I was looking forward to getting to know her all over again. There were so many shared memories that I just couldn’t wait to unlock. Her current body was around the age of twelve or so. I am not a pedophile, but since I’ve waited over five thousand years, I’m sure I could wait a few more years for her body to grow up.
There was one more thing that I wondered if Michael had considered. The powers of the Nephilim resided in their souls. I was curious to see how those powers would manifest as Rachel grew older and stronger. I laughed with joy once more as I stood up with Rachel in my arms. I opened a dark portal and stepped through it. Life just got a whole hell of a lot more interesting!