Revenge of the Three (Hand of God) (6 page)

Chapter 13

             
We arrived in El Paso a few hours later. It was almost sunrise by the time we reached the city limits. At least Lucifer had done the majority of the driving. I slept off and on as much as I could, but Lucifer never shut up the whole way.  He is rather proud of all the horrible things he thinks he’s responsible for over the last thousand years. I guess being the most evil being in the universe gets lonely. Although I’ve never felt the need to spill my guts about every person I’ve dismembered to anyone either.

             
Once we were in town, we got off the freeway and onto an access road. After several more minutes, we were sitting near a field with crime scene tape set up in a large perimeter. I wasn’t sure why we were there; it was nothing but the charred remains of some building.

             
“Here we go Charlie, this is it,” Lucifer said as he turned off the engine.

             
“What is here?”

             
“This is where the Ghost struck.”

             
“The Ghost has turned to arson now? Jesus.” As I climbed out of the car, the burnt ash and cinders stung my nose. I walked over to the tape and looked at the rubble that once was a church. “What the hell did he do?”

             
“During their last service, the place burst into flames. A few hundred people were burned alive, no survivors.”

             
“What for? Why is he picking on these small churches? He trying to destroy the world one church at a time?”

             
“You still haven’t figured out how these guys work, have you? I thought you’d get it after the Bishop. The world doesn’t end with a bang, but with a whimper. At least that is their plan. All the church folks are expecting some cosmic showdown between mine and God’s armies. They long for raptures and rivers filled with blood. Truth is, they just want to quietly snuff you all out. It’s like a chess game to them, and you are the pieces.”

             
“So what happens if they succeed, like, to you and me?”

             
“He will throw me and my ‘minions’ into the Abyss.  He might do something worse to you. You really pissed him off. .”

             
“Yeah, I seem to have that effect on people.” I still wasn’t sure why we had to come all the way to El Paso just to look at this mess. He could have told me about it; it wasn’t like we would find any clues.

             
“So exactly why are we here?” I asked. “Last time he hit was in Mexico. Then he hits here, He could hit Utah next for all we know.”

             
“Nah, nothing but Mormons in Utah. Besides, there are some people I want you to meet later.”

             
“Are these real people or some kind of demon/spirit/ghost people of some sort?”

             
He laughed as he turned to face me.

             
“Oh they are plenty real. They’re old friends, though they don’t exactly know who I really am.”

             
I couldn’t begin to imagine what he was talking about, but it made me shudder to even guess. Before I could put too much thought into it, a police car rolled up. We stood still as an old officer climbed out of the cruiser and walked toward us.

             
“Can I help you fellas?” he asked.

             
“No sir,” Lucifer said. “We were just looking at the church here. My uncle was here when it happened.” He crossed himself as he spoke. “God rest his soul.” The sight made me want to puke.

             
“I’m sorry to hear that son, this is a crime scene though. You all can’t be here.”

             
We didn’t see anyone around, so we figured we could look around.”

             
“I think they are almost done here. Someone is supposed to be posted here watching things, so I’ll have to call that in. You boys got any ID?”

             
Lucifer and I looked at each other as I reached for my wallet.

             
“Here you go officer,” I said, handing him my license. Lucifer looked confused. It hadn’t occurred to me until then that he wouldn’t have a license since he wasn’t a real person. The underworld apparently didn’t require photo ID.

             
“Officer?” Lucifer said while patting his pockets, “I um, left my wallet at home it seems.”

             
“And where is home?”

             
“San Antonio.”

             
“Well, I guess that might be a problem.”

             
I could feel the tension as the two men sized each other up. The cop knew weren’t just two boys paying respects. Lucifer knew he knew. The last thing we needed was a confrontation with police to further complicate things. No question we could take him out easily; it just wasn’t necessary and would draw too much attention.

             
“Look officer,” I began, “we don’t mean any trouble really.  I realize my friend here looks like a reject from “Sons of Anarchy” but he’s harmless really. We drove all night to pay our respects to his uncle. He’s been a mess ever since we got news of the fire. We just wanted to stop by for a few minutes and we were about to be on our way before you pulled up.”

             
The officer looked back and forth at us for what seemed like an hour, stared at my license and finally handed it back to me.

             
“All right,” he said. “You all should get some rest before you drive anymore. You both look like hell. Then I recommend you not come back here anytime soon.” I wasn’t sure if he could feel the negative vibes coming from the two of us, or if he just decided he wanted to walk away alive today. Either way, I was grateful.

             
“Will do sir, thank you.” I said as I placed my license back into my wallet. The officer climbed back into his car and drove away. I looked over at Lucifer who was still stewing.

             
“You know, if you can fake a body, you should be able to make a fake ID.”

             
He looked at me and shrugged.

             
“Yeah, it’s never come up before.”

             
“So now what?” I asked.

             
“So now we crash for a while, then we go see my friends tonight.”

Chapter 14

             
We found a local motel and crashed for the day. At least Lucifer did. I should have gotten my own room. Who’d have thought the Devil himself snored loud enough to wake the dead.  It was a good thing he didn’t always have to sleep or he’d have started the zombie apocalypse by now. I did manage to sleep for a couple of hours at least. My mind was racing too much to relax anyway. I sat up for a while and watched some reruns of “CHiPs” on the high quality TV in our room until Lucifer woke up.

             
It was evening by the time he finally got up. We headed out to meet his friends just outside the city limits, in a small apartment complex. Once we arrived, we parked along the back of the building and I followed Lucifer into one of the buildings and up the stairs.  There was graffiti on the walls along the stair well, and some of the steps were cracked, so I had to step over them. At the second floor, we walked to one of the apartments and Lucifer knocked in a series of patterns that had to be a code. After a minute the door swung open.

             
The man at the door had on a black robe with a hood. He appeared to have on eyeliner as well. He lowered the hood and revealed his bald head, along with a Fu-man Chu style goatee. It was almost too cliché.

             
“Hello brother,” the man said. “It’s been a long time.”

             
“Yes old friend, it has.” Lucifer replied as the two hugged.

             
“Who is this?” the man asked, nodding in my direction.

             
“This is my friend, Charlie. He’s here to help us.”

             
The man looked me up and down with a look on his face as if he just swallowed something sour.

             
“Well, great,” he said. “Come on in, gentlemen.”

             
We stepped inside the apartment, which was dark and illuminated only by candles. There were several people, men and women, sitting or standing around. Many were wearing black or some kind of robes. They all looked at me with similar expressions to the man at the door. I was wearing a T-shirt and jeans. Lucifer was wearing a black leather jacket and black jeans.

             
“What is this place?” I whispered to Lucifer.

             
“They’re my friends.”

             
“I get that. But who are they?”

             
“They’re Satanists.”

             
I couldn’t believe he just said that. He took me to a group of Satanists. I didn’t know such a thing even existed. Growing up as a Protestant Christian, you hear stories of Satanists and Satanic cults, but no one ever sees them. They are supposed to be out sacrificing goats out in the woods. Instead they are here in an apartment holding some kind of ritual, and hanging with Satan himself.

             
“Oh but we do exist,” the Fu-man Chu guy said as if he could hear my thoughts.  “My name is Armando. Come join us.” He gestured to the couch and Lucifer and I sat down. Armando sat in a chair across from us.

             
“So Lucifer tells us that the Three are up to something again. We’ve felt a great shift in the universe recently.”

             
I looked at Lucifer, who just shrugged. I thought they didn’t know who he was, but who knew at this point.

             
“Yes, the Three. Or one of the three, the Ghost. He’s killed hundreds of folks, seems to be targeting churches.”

             
“So I’ve heard. He’s asked for our help.”

             
“Help? What can you all do?”

             
“We have various spells we can use that will repel the Three. They are not all powerful like many believe.”

             
“Oh really? I didn’t know that. How big is your group?”

             
“We are very small. There are only a few of us who know the truth. Most cannot accept how things really are. Lucifer seems to have close contact with the Dark Father. He’s been very helpful to us.”

             
So they didn’t know exactly who he was.

             
“Yes, I’d say he knows a lot about the Dark Father.” This whole conversation seemed surreal. I couldn’t imagine what kind of spell they could have that would stop the ghost. Lucifer was just sitting there quietly. He seemed to be checking out some girl who was all gothed out in black fishnet with black underwear beneath it. She was talking to another guy in a robe, but was looking at Lucifer out of the corner of her eye.

             
“So when do you all plan to cast this spell or whatever it is?”

             
“Oh, we’ll do it tonight. It will take a few hours, but we’re sure it will work.”

             
“Have you used it before?”

             
“No. It’s not something you do lightly. We first have to invoke their presence. Then we repel them and they will flee from this realm for seven years. I’ve read that our ancestors used it hundreds of years ago and it worked. “

             
That’s when it hit me. Friends of Lucifer’s or not, all of these people were going to die this night. Lucifer planned to use them as bait.

Chapter 15

             
Armando called everyone to gather together. The robed figures all formed a large circle around us and joined hands. Lucifer and I stayed off to the side and watched as Armando began some kind of chant. He lit several more candles on a small table within the circle. He then took out a large knife and cut along the palm of his hand. Blood dripped into the open flame of one of the candles. He passed the knife around, and each took turns cutting their hands and dripping their blood into the candles.

             
“Blood of the flesh, blood of the soul. Show yourself ghost, manifest and be whole.” Armando chanted over and over. I found the knife passing a bit disturbing. Seemed like a good way to get hepatitis or HIV, but maybe there was some kind of Satanic immunity or something. I looked at Lucifer who was grinning ear to ear. Of course he’d eat this up, here was his very own cult worshipping him. That could easily go to one’s head.

             
After several minutes, the rest of the circle began chanting with Armando.

             
“Blood of the flesh, blood of the soul, show yourself ghost, manifest and be whole.” While they chanted, Armando began to chant in what sounded like Aramaic. I’d studied it a bit in college, but not enough to understand what he was saying. This ritual went on for a good twenty minutes or so. I was just starting to get bored when the candles suddenly went out. At first, I thought someone had blown them out.

             
“Keep it going everyone, its working!” Armando said from the dark.

             
They continued chanting as Armando kept giving his incantation of whatever is was. Then I heard a choking sound. Someone in the circle had begun gagging as if they were choking on something. We couldn’t tell who it was, but it didn’t matter. Soon there was a second person choking, then a third. Armando had stopped chanting at this point and tried to turn on the lights. He never made it to the switch though, he grabbed his throat and began gagging as well. Though with him, it didn’t stop at gagging. His throat ripped open; spraying blood all over, as he collapsed to the ground. The rest of the room was loud with the sound of choking and gagging. The sound made me want to throw up. All those people rolling around on the floor, choking and gagging. For some reason, Lucifer and I hadn’t been affected.

             
The lights all came back on at once and we saw everyone lying on the floor. Some had already stopped moving while others were fighting for a final breath that would never come. Suddenly the room began to fill with smoke, as if someone had started a fire. Yet there was no smell. It was more of a thick, foggy mist. The hair on my arms stood on end as I realized I was suddenly in the presence of the Ghost. The Ghost swirled around and surrounded us. I was surprised to see Lucifer hadn’t shriveled up in the presence of holiness. Yet another myth dispelled.

             
The mist swirled around at the center of the room and formed what looked like a funnel cloud and then began to take shape. Slowly I saw the form of a man taking shape. A pair of jeans formed, then arms, then a torso. Next thing I knew, there was a carbon copy of myself standing before me. The Ghost had taken on my appearance, perhaps to unsettle me. If so, it was working. Lucifer stood there, silently watching as the Ghost approached me.

             
“So you’re the great Pastor Charlie,” it said.

             
“I don’t know about great—“

             
“Shut up! I don’t know how you could still be so powerful after so many generations. We thought we had destroyed your kind.”

             
“Guess you thought wrong. Why not destroy me now?” It smiled and pointed in my direction.

             
“Oh, you’re a fast learner. Your pal here has taught you a few things. That’s good, but we can’t let this stand. No sir. You’ve seen behind the curtain. You know how hard it is to run the universe, yet keep ourselves hidden? You think you’re all smart now, don’t you? You sit there and say to yourself, ‘Oh no, they lied to me. The Bible isn’t true, God and Jesus aren’t who I thought they were, it’s all a lie. Boo-freakin’-hoo!’”

             
“Well, isn’t it?”

             
“No! We didn’t write that damn book! Men did. Men wrote it based on their perception of us, and we tried to live up to the hype, to deliver. But it’s gone too far. The Son already told you our plan, and he failed to carry it out. It’s time to start anew. Sometimes you just gotta go back to the drawing board.”

             
“You’re right. I already had this conversation, and my answer is the same. You three are full of yourselves, creators or not. You can’t destroy the whole world because it didn’t turn out the way you wanted. You gave us free will, don’t be mad we didn’t choose the way you wanted,” I said.

             
“Well, aren’t you clever? Giving you brains was the Father’s idea.”

             
“What a shame, that we poor creatures can think for ourselves. What will be next?” He walked up to me and looked me in the eyes. It’s a weird feeling, being stared down by yourself. As he got into my personal space, I decided to make a move. I grabbed him by the neck and placed my hand on his head. Before my fingers could sink in, he disappeared into a cloudy mist once again. The mist swirled around the room as I heard a deep laughter.

             
“You idiot! That won’t work on me!” And then it was gone.

Chapter 16

             
The drive back to Del Rio didn’t seem to take as long as the drive to El Paso did. Perhaps it’s because my mind was elsewhere most of the ride. Lucifer had been unusually quiet most of the trip. I was still rather dumbfounded by what we had just encountered earlier in the night. As if I hadn’t seen enough weird stuff in the past, this one was definitely up there. Finally I had to find out just what we were up against.

             
“Okay, you have to start explaining some of this shit,” I said.

             
“What shit?” Lucifer asked without taking his eyes off the road.

             
“God, the Ghost, the Bishop or whoever he was. I didn’t want to know more than I already did, but now I have to know. Who are they? I already know they are not what I thought they were. What are they? Where did they come from?”

             
“So you really want to know, huh?”

             
“I don’t want to know, but if I’m going head to head with them, I need to. Especially with the Ghost obviously pissed at me.”

             
“Okay, you’re right. You’ve heard of the Big Bang?”

             
“Yeah, the universe created in a big explosion from gases mixing. After the explosion we have matter, or something like that.”

             
“Yeah, something like that. Well the universe wasn’t the only thing that was created then. There were also about a dozen or so other things created. They were powerful masses of energy, these masses developed consciousness, became self-aware. Over time, people worshipped them as gods”

             
“Wow, okay. I thought there were only three. But I remember the Bishop mentioning there were more.”

             
“Right. The Three seemed to stick together for some reason. They all stayed around earth. They can manipulate space and time easily. They can be visible one minute, or invisible the next, or they can just teleport themselves anywhere in the universe.”

             
“I thought they created the universe.”

             
“They didn’t really create anything. They can manipulate matter and turn it into anything. They all stayed on earth and divided it up among different cultures for awhile. That’s how so many places came to have different gods. But over time, the Three decided they wanted the whole place to themselves, so they ran the others off.”

             
“Ran them off to where?”

             
“Different parts of the universe, I guess. No one really knows. I heard they created the Abyss and threw some of them there. The rest got scared and left on their own.”

             
“But aren’t they all super powerful? How could one throw another to the Abyss?”

             
“Legend has it, The Father is more powerful than any of them. It is believed he absorbed some of them into himself and took their energy.”

             
“Holy shit,” I said.

             
“Yeah, no kidding. So over time, they reveal themselves to men on earth as they see fit. As a result, primitive men make them gods, worship them, write religious texts and there you have it.”

             
“What about you all, angels or whatever?”

             
“Oh, yes. We were basically their slaves. Created not quite like men. There were different classes of angels like you may have read about. Messengers, archangels, and so forth; often times the Three would have us battle each other for sport. When they got bored with that, they formulated the creation of humans. Now they can watch you all kill each other all day. The Father created the Abyss to cast away anyone who opposed him, or what he deemed as his mistakes. Some of us got tired of being used for his entertainment or sent to babysit his pet humans, so we fought back.”

             
“How’d you not end up in the Abyss?”

             
“Oh I almost did. Thanks to my talking skills I was able to talk him into a deal. He let me leave and banished me to earth with anyone who wished to follow me. Eventually I know he plans to toss me and my pals in there, though. Trying to put that day off as long as I can.”

             
“Wow.”

             
“Yeah, so this is where we are. The Ghost is the one the Father has sent now. For whatever reason, they really want the world to end, but contrary to your Bible, they can’t just wipe everyone at once. They have to systematically kill everyone off. I’m not sure how it all breaks down, but there are limits to their powers.

             
“So I guess we need to find those limits and exploit them,” I said.

             
“That would be a start.”

             
I nodded and we didn’t say anything for the rest of the trip. Even though I already knew things weren’t what I’d thought, it was still disappointing. It was like the kind of disappointment you feel learning a magician’s secrets. What once seemed magical and mysterious suddenly has a simple explanation. It was a total letdown.

             
When we returned to Del Rio, Lucifer dropped me off at my Explorer. As much as I wanted to sleep, I figured I needed to let Maria know I was back. It was almost ten in the morning, so I headed to the funeral home to check on her. When I arrived, she wasn’t in her office. I walked around the outside and there was no sign of her. I went back inside and toward the back. Slowly, I opened the door to the embalming room, and there she was, finishing up a body.

             
“Charlie!” she said while walking over to me. She was wearing a gown and gloves that had blood and God-knows what else all over them. Holding her hands up to her sides she leaned up and kissed me on the cheek. That was new, but I tried to hide my surprise.

             
“Well hi,” I said. “I told you it would just be a few days.”

             
“I know. I’m just happy to see you I guess. It hasn’t been busy. This guy just came in this morning,” she said gesturing to the body.

             
“Cool. So nothing exciting happen while I was away?”

             
“No, it’s been pretty quiet. I’m just glad you’re ok. How was El Paso? Your friend ok?”

             
“Oh, it was interesting and he’s good for now. Told him I won’t always be there to bail him out,” I lied.

             
“No kidding. I might have to beat his ass if he gets you into trouble. Were you going to work today?”

             
“Well, I was hoping I could get some rest. We drove most of the night.”

             
“Sure. Go get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She smiled as she turned back to finish the body. I headed back to my Explorer thinking over that exchange. I wasn’t sure which was more odd, the experience I just had in El Paso, or seeing Maria acting this way.