Demon Hunters (42 page)

“The snake.”

“That’s right. The snake appeared to me and
it said it was God thanking me for saving Heaven, and the whole of
creation. It said that I was destined to usher in a new age for
mankind. I had no choice. I hated leaving you and your mother, but
the world needed me and I couldn’t turn my back on that.”

“Okay. A little nuts for me, but I’m sure
anyone who reads tabloids on a regular basis would find this
thought-provoking.”

“But that wasn’t all it said. I was also
told that when my daughter reaches her twenty-fifth birthday, a
gate would appear and only she will be able to open it.”

“A gate. Okay. And why would I want to open
this gate?”

“When you open this gate, a torrent of
energy will flood the Earth. Energy that will rejuvenate Earth and
give birth to a new world.”

“Why do you even believe this?”

“Because it’s already begun. I was told that
a sign of the gate’s impending arrival would be a great storm. This
storm. This darkness is going to consume the world soon. People
brush it off as just bad weather, but it’s more than that. This is
death itself descending upon mankind and the only hope for saving
us is to release the energy of pure life.”

“So, assuming I believe any of this, tell me
why would I do this? Maybe I think the world’s gone on long enough.
There’s so much death and disease today, maybe it would be best
just to let the clock run out and we can all start over somewhere
else.”

“If this darkness takes us, we all die
forever. This is a test of faith. Of your faith, Larissa.”

“Why mine?”

“That I can’t tell you. I requested you to
come here so that I could ask you, in person, if you would do this.
Will you?”

“So, you drop out of the sky to ask if I’ll
lead your insanity parade down Main Street, and you think there’s a
chance in Hell I’ll say yes?”

“I know it’s a lot to ask, but in my
defense, I have tried to get in contact with you before. You just
haven’t wanted to see me.”

“And can you blame me? You weren’t even
there for mom’s funeral. I thought for sure you’d make time to be
there to say goodbye, but I guess I just had a little too much
faith in you then. That’s not going to happen again.”

“I wanted to be there, but this Church. It’s
like being The Pope. My responsibilities here are just too
staggering.”

“Tell it to mom. I hope you know she never
loved another man. She went to her dying day loving you.”

“I know. I still love her. I still love
you!”

“Thanks, but I’m full up with stories for
now. I can find my own way out.” I get up and turn quickly to the
elevator. As I approach, he calls out to me.

“If you didn’t believe me, even a little,
why did you come here?” I stop. He’s right. That little bit of
doubt in my head pestered me. I turn to face him.

“Maybe there’s a little bit of me that
believes you. Maybe it’s a larger part of me than I care to admit,
but that doesn’t wipe away everything else. You weren’t there for
me or mom so I wonder, why should I be here for you?” I hear the
elevator doors slide open behind me. Perfect. I turn and walk into
it. Dad runs after me. He stops just as the doors close.

“At least think about it. There’s time to
change your mind.” He says. The last words I hear before the
elevator begins to descend.

The Voice Of Reason

I feel my anger lessen the further down I
go. I look up and I only have a few more floors to go before I hit
the lobby. Suddenly, the elevator car stops and the doors slide
open. I see Damon standing before me. I recognize the pale skin. He
has a handsome face and a commanding nature. He looks at me and
smiles.

“Larissa. I heard you had come. Don’t tell
me you’re leaving us already.”

“I’m afraid so. I saw my dad. I’m done.”

“Really? Did he say anything to you?”

“Yes, he asked. Don’t worry.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I overheard you earlier. You seemed pretty
anxious for my father to ask me to be a part of your little
ritual.”

“Oh. And your answer was?”

“No.”

“You said no?”

“I’m sorry, but I just don’t believe in all
of this. I don’t believe my dad is some kind of divine being and I
really don’t believe the world is coming to an end.”

“That’s all right. No need to apologize for
your own beliefs. Given your history with your father, I thought it
was going to be kind of a long shot to begin with.”

“You seem rather calm for hearing your one
chance at stopping the end of the world is flying out the
window.”

“It’s my faith. I have faith that we will
survive. Faith that you will change your mind.”

“I doubt that will happen.” I say. The
elevator doors try to close, but Damon is standing between
them.

“Could I impose on you for just a moment?”
He asks and offers his hand to me. I take it and notice his hand is
as cold as Morgan’s. He leads me into what appears to be a typical
office. People behind desks tapping on keyboards and phones
ringing. “I wish I could offer you some real evidence that
everything we’ve told you is true. I know how hard it is to believe
something purely on faith.”

“I just go by what I can see with my own two
eyes.”

“Most people do.” Damon says as he takes me
further into the office. We pass through the maze of cubicles
seemingly unnoticed. No one even looks up slightly as we pass by.
We stop at a small door at the back of the office marked
‘Restricted’.

“What’s in there?”

“The source of all of our faith. Let me show
you.” He opens the door and prods me on. I walk in and notice there
isn’t any kind of furniture in the room. It’s totally bare save for
a large tapestry hanging on the wall. It has intricate patterns
woven into it that appear to be crude scenarios. I see little men
running from fire on one thread and a great Earthquake on
another.

“What is all this?”

“The Tapestry. This woven cloth has
predicted the course of life on this planet for the last hundred
years. It foresaw the great quake of twenty seventeen. The flooding
of the Grand Canyon. The collapse of Mt. Rushmore.”

“It doesn’t look that old.”

“It isn’t. The real Tapestry is held in a
secret place far away. This particular tapestry was woven by your
father.”

“He wove this?”

“Yes. He labored for six years until it was
complete. Clearly he was receiving messages from another place. He
recreated the original tapestry perfectly. Look at this.” Damon
leads me to the furthest end of the tapestry. I see some crudely
sewn clouds over what looks like some kind of city. “This part
depicts our present. You see the two paths it takes? From here, it
shows what will happen if you do not help us. As you can see the
rain continues and the Earth dies.”

“Look, if you think looking at some piece of
folk art is going to change my mind, you’re as nuts as my old
man.”

“I am only showing you what we have seen.
I’m giving you as much information as I can before you make a
choice that you will never be able to make again. Deciding not to
give money to a church is relatively easier. You don’t give, but
others do so it’s okay. This time ‘round though, if you don’t step
up, no one else will be able to. A heavier price to pay, by far. I
just hope you realize what you could be doing.”

“I do. Thanks. I think the world will be
just fine without me. Bye.” I say and hurry back to the
elevator.

When I reach the lobby, I can feel
everyone’s stares on me again. I feel their eyes burning into my
skin like hot drills. I wonder if they have already been told about
what went on upstairs. Are they mad that I’m not going to join
their crazy cult? Do they think I’ve damned the human race? So what
if they do? They’re all nuts. I breeze through the crowd and out
the door into the pouring rain and I don’t look back. Not even for
an instant.

As I head back home, the anger in me grows.
He claims to want to know me, but when I go to see him, he only
wants me there to ask a favor for his cult! If he really wanted me
in his life, he wouldn’t have left in the first place. That’s the
bottom line. A father who really cares would have made it happen.
He was just too busy with his precious church and his insane
followers. I’m stomping down the sidewalk as I see the subway
terminal. I stop for a second and realize what I need to do to calm
down.

A few transfers later, I’m at Cedar Park
Cemetery. Whenever I have thoughts about dad, I come to see mom.
She had intended to be buried back in Los Angeles, but after we
moved out here, she changed her plans. I walk across the large
field, past all the other graves and find my mom, just as I had
left her. The flowers I brought last time are still looking pretty
good, but not as good as the fresh ones I have with me. I place
them gently at the base of her gravestone. I wipe a small bit of
dust off the top of the stone and sit down on the wet ground. I can
feel the water soaking into my pants, but I don’t care. The
gravestone itself is nothing special, but that’s how she wanted it.
If it had been up to me, I would have gotten her a giant statue of
an angel to sit over her grave, but she was insistent upon a humble
memorial.

“Hi. I know it’s only been a few weeks since
we last talked, but I really needed to see you today. I just saw
him. Dad, I mean. I know you’ve been bugging me about it for years,
but I finally did it. He asked for me actually. He wanted to ask me
to take part in some weird ritual to stop the end of the world. I
tell you, mom. I never really believed all the stories you told me
about him, but now I don’t know. He did claim he was possessed. I
still don’t buy it. There are no such things as demons. It just
isn’t real. It’s kind of sad. He left us because of some mental
illness, and the saddest part is all the millions of people who are
encouraging him. You should see his place. It’s huge. He looks good
too. I guess. It was so long since I saw him last. He seemed so
much smaller than he used to be. I just don’t remember him like
that.”

“Larissa.” I hear a voice come from behind.
I turn and see a large framed man in a heavy looking coat standing
a few feet away.

“Uncle Ivar!” I call out and run over to
him. I throw my arms around him and feel his warmth. Mom used to
tell me how he and dad used to work together. She told me how big
and imposing he used to be and I sort of remember him being more
Hulk-like when I was a kid, but the perspective of time has changed
all that. Just like dad, he’s gotten smaller and less larger than
life than I remember. He’s always been very loyal to our family. He
came out here with us when we moved east and though he and my
father stopped their investigation business, he remained a close
friend to us all. I look up at his face and his eyes are tired and
I see a wisp of gray hair peeking out from under his hat.

“Talking with your mother?”

“Of course.”

“I don’t see a blanket. An unplanned
visit?”

“You could say that.”

“May I ask why?”

“Sure, but first you have to answer the same
question. What are you doing out here?”

“I don’t really know, to be honest. I woke
up this morning with a kind of irksome thought in my head. A voice
somewhere inside was telling me to come to the cemetery today. I
guess now I know why.”

“A psychic flash?”

“If you must call it something, that would
be as good a name as any. Now, what are you doing here?”

“I saw my dad today and I needed to blow off
steam with mom.”

“You saw him?” Ivar asks with a look of
astonishment. I don’t blame him. I’ve been the president of the ‘I
Hate Jake Corba’ fan club for a lot of years of my life. I’m just
about the last person on Earth who would ever voluntarily visit
him.

“It’s a long story.” I assure him.

“Did you talk? What did he say?”

“A lot of crazy old guy stuff. Nothing
important.”

“Clearly it was important enough to send you
to your mother.”

“It just stirred up some old business. I
wanted to talk it out.”

“I see.”

“Don’t give me that tone.”

“What tone would that be?”

“The tone that sounds like you’re just
humoring my mood while in reality you’re analyzing me. Believe me,
I know I’m a field day for any amateur psychiatrist, but that’s
just the way it is.”

“Then we’re agreed.” He says as the rain
begins again in earnest.

“Perhaps we could go somewhere else to
talk?”

“Sure.”

We find a little coffee shop down the
street. It’s pretty quiet so we take the counter. He orders his
tea, as he always does and I, of course, get the coffee. He grills
me a bit more about my meeting with dad. I can’t blame him for
being curious. He and dad used to be really close, from what I
understand, but after dad ran off with his church, they never saw
each other again. He had tried more than a few times over the years
to make contact, but failed each time. He still misses him a lot, I
can see that much. That’s the only reason I humor him and tell him
all about my meeting. He listens quietly, per usual. He absorbs
every word and his eyes begin to click.

“I did the right thing, didn’t I? I mean,
it’s nuts what he’s asking.” I say.

“I believe you did what you perceive as
correct.”

“Doesn’t really answer my question.”

“In my experience, there are very few
questions in our world that have any true answers. The question as
to whether one has taken the correct course of action is top among
them.”

“I just don’t know. After seeing him today,
I kind of realize how long it’s been. Sometimes I wonder if I
should just put all the old garbage away and forgive him. Reconnect
with him. Then he trots out all the old crazy again and I change my
mind again. I think maybe inviting this guy into my life now would
be nothing more than an act of self-destruction.” I say. I notice
Uncle Ivar looking at me oddly. “What?”