The Devils Harvest: The End of All Flesh. (26 page)

My back tensed, I wasn’t going to give into his baiting.

“So you’re also a walking dictionary, are you?”

He simply gave a rattling laugh that turned into a coughing fit.

I turned to look at him. Blood was running from one of his ears, soaking his blue dirty shirt collar. I either didn’t notice it before, or the laughing and coughing had caused the blood to run forth. Both his eyes – I now noticed – were also bloodshot, and had a glassy look to them – more than normal.

It reminded me of something I had once read. It was believed, even up until the nineteenth century, that when a person dies, the last thing they see is captured on the surface of their eyes. Even to the point, that in one of the Jack the Ripper cases, of 1888, one of his victims had her eyes checked, in case they could ascertain the identity of Nemo, which is Latin for Mr. Nobody, one of the many names, Jack the Ripper gave himself.

I sat on the edge of the bed. He sat in the green bucket chair, one leg crossed over the other; smoke pouring out his nostrils like a smoke stack. It was a non-smoking room, for all he cared. So there was no ashtray, it was simply deposited on the burgundy coloured carpet. A carpet that clashed violently with the chartreuse coloured curtains.

He closed his eyes for a second, before opening them and staring at me with his red-clouded vision.

“Israel I think I got to?” he started to say, but I cut him off.

“I have no tape recorder or writing implements,” I stated, letting him deduce the rest. I was clutching at straws. I didn’t want to hear anymore of his story.

“Trust me, when I say you don’t need them. You will find my words will burn into your very being. Word for word, sentence for sentence. The time will come when you wish you could expunge it from your mind. But you will never find such peace.”

How true those words were. Even now, many years later, every word, every movement he ever made is burned into my memory as if done by a white-hot branding iron.

He continued the story, as if we were still sat beside my fireplace and nothing had happened in-between.

“After the deluge, as I have already said, Nimrod went in opposition to Him. The tower of Babel was raised, causing Him to go down and confuse their tongues.

“Now came Shem, who was one hundred years old when he became father to Arpachshad, two years after the deluge. Arpachshad had children; these had children and so on. You get the drift. Generations passed; Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, and Terah, who gave forth Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran as you know became father to Lot.”

I felt like I was back at boring Sunday school, with the vicar rattling off biblical names.

“Abram was later known as Abraham. His wife was called Sarai later known as Sarah. Confusing I know.” He gave a choking laugh. “Abraham went with his barren wife Sarah and his nephew Lot, as well as Abraham’s father Terah, and went to live in the land of Canaan to dwell in Haran, the country of the Chaldeans.

“Now He proceeded to tell Abraham to leave his country, his relatives, and go where He instructed him to. He said He would make a great nation out of him, and make his name great.” He laughed once again. “He did to, always good for His word. But who would foresee what this great nation would do. Going as far as killing His own son. But everything in its place.

“Abraham now followed where he was led. Leaving his homeland and heading out across Canaan, near the big tree of Moreh, at the site of Shechem. Then to a place with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. Then on to Negeb.”

He looked across at me. “I know, as fucking boring as watching a raped virgin’s blood drying on your cock, but everything has its place.” He scratched at his groin with the hand that had
VIDI
inked across the knuckles.

“It’s building up to when Abraham went into Egypt, because a famine arose in all the land.” He fidgeted.

“See Abraham lied, telling the Pharaoh that Sarah was his sister not his wife. Now Pharaoh’s household was struck with many plagues because of this.

“Now I get kicked out of heaven, called the Father of the Lie, and made to crawl on my belly in this godforsaken shitty, fucked up world, because of my lying. Whereas what happens to Abraham because of his lie? Pharaoh blesses him, giving him countless livestock and escorts him from the land ten times richer, with gold and silver, than when he entered it. Just because He liked him.”

He uncrossed his legs and recrossed them the other way. Smoke continuously pouring from his nostrils, having already gone through one dark red pack of Dunhill.

“Now Lot – his constantly complaining nephew – started to whine that Abraham’s helpers were attacking his workers and that he wanted to split, because they had both got so many possessions and herds.

“Abraham gave Lot the choice of where he wanted to reside. Lot picked the area of the Jordan. Lot dwelt near the cities of the area, pitching his tents near Sodom and Gomorrah.” He paused as if caught in some distant memory.

“Ah yes, Sodom and Gomorrah, great cities, great days. A hive of sin and sexual perversity. How I loved to walked about those cities in the shadows. You think the porn on the internet is fucked up. You should have seen what they were doing in the streets for all to see!”

He gave a loud sigh and licked his lips, leaving his piercing shining.

“Now the kings of the area rose up against another king. King Bera of Sodom, Birsha of Gomorrah, and Shinab king of Zeboiim, and so on and so forth.

“Many rose up, all against king Chedorlaomer, whom they had paid tribute to for twelve years. On the thirteenth year they rebelled.” He gave me a twisted smile. “Thirteen years, nice touch, huh?” He laughed again.

“Now Chedorlaomer had aid from others, it ended up with five kings against four others, in a mighty battle on the Plain of Siddim.

“Now Abraham’s nephew Lot, and all his family and property, were taken by the winning party.

“Abraham heard about this from the brother of Eshcol and Aner. Abraham raised an army of all his family, and three hundred and eighteen of his slaves, and pursued them up to Dan.

“Needless to say he won, chasing them all up to Hobah and north to Damascus. He reclaimed everything that was taken.

“Now, God had promised Abraham a seed, to fill all the lands around about. Abraham was taken outside his tent and told to look up at the heavens, his seed – he was told – would be as countless as the stars of the heavens, and they would conquer all the lands around the Euphrates River.

“But Sarah still carried no child. Here is the twisted bit, and they call me perverse.

“Sarah now took a maid servant she had acquired from Egypt – called Hagar – and told Abraham to sleep with her to produce a male offspring.

“Now when Hagar became pregnant Sarah became jealous, telling Abraham that she was distressed at the sight of her. Abraham then told Sarah that the maid servant was at her disposal, and do what she sees good in her eyes.” He gave a quick cough. “Nice, huh? This was the chosen couple to bring about a perfect people for Him upon the earth, and they were talking about disposing of a woman Sarah had given to her husband for the sole purpose of having sex.

“Hagar became humiliated by Sarah and ran away, while still carrying her unborn child. But an angel appeared to Hagar and convinced her to return, and told her what to call her son Ishmael. Abraham was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

“Now Abraham was ninety-nine years old and Sarah ninety, when another angel appeared, and told them that when he returned the next year Sarah would be heavy in labour. Now Sarah was in the tent while the angel was talking with her husband, and Sarah started to laugh, thinking that she, a woman of ninety, could give birth to a son. Her menstruation periods having run dry many years before. The angel asked her why she had laughed. Sarah lied saying she didn’t.”

He took the cigarette from his mouth. “Am I the only one who sees what is happening? Abraham sleeping with a slave, bearing a son. Sarah lying to His angel, and they still didn’t get punished. Or is it only me, whom He doesn’t like, that gets punished?”

I had no answers for him, and he didn’t seem to want one anyway.

“Now, Lot was living in Sodom at this time, when He decided Sodom was heavy with sin. Two angels were sent to the city. As was the custom of those times, Lot, not realizing they were angels, offered them shelter in his home.

“So they went to Lot’s dwelling.

“But before they could even lie down to sleep, the house was surrounded by a mob of men. You got to remember I had been among these people for decades. I had turned the city into a pit of sin and debauchery.

“The men cried out to Lot saying, ‘
Where are the men who came in to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have intercourse with them
.’ Now see what Lot, the nephew of the man who would bring about a great nation, said: Please, my brothers, do not act badly. ‘
Please, here I have two daughters who have never had intercourse with a man. Please let me bring them out to you. Then do to them as is good in your eyes.’

“Hello…! There seems to be a link forming. Giving his two daughters to a mob, to do as they see fit. This for a supposed godly man.” A smile spread across his face. “Lot’s daughters done much worse.”

I wanted a drink, but didn’t move.

“Please,” he said, as a glass appeared on the carpet next to me, the glass was coated in condensation and full with sparkling ice.

“Don’t be alarmed, I can do many things. Did I not copy the first three plagues of Egypt? A simple glass of water is nothing, but I will not discuss it now though, everything in its place.”

I looked at the glass, but didn’t touch it. If he was offended he didn’t show it.

“Of course Lot was saved along with his two virgin daughters. The two angels struck all the men around the house with blindness, then catching hold of Lot and his family’s hands they pulled them from the city.

“The angels warned them not to look back, not to turn to see what was happening behind them. But Lot’s wife had grown to love the city, its merchandise and its materialistic ways. She looked back longingly over her shoulder and was instantly turned into a pillar of salt.

“Lot and his two daughters continued on to the mountains, to hide out the destruction. Fire and sulphur rained down, wiping all life in the two great cities away. Interestingly they reside there still, under the Dead Sea.

“Now Lot was hiding in the mountains in a cave with his two lovely virgin daughters. These two nymphs decided to take matters into their own hands.

“Their father had yet to produce a male offspring to carry on his name. So in turn each got him drunk and fucked him. Both became pregnant with their father’s sons.” He shook his head in a slow manner.

“Were they punished, as I would have been? No! The first daughter gave birth to Moab, who is father to the Moab nation to this day. And the youngest daughter gave birth to Benammi, who is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day. Punished? No! Given nations of offspring to remember their names.

“I’ve told this part of the long biblical story, because it sheds light on sections that if I had done anything remotely like that, it would’ve been seen as monstrous. But because it was all part of His larger plan,” he opened his arms wide, “then anything can happen and not be punished. Sleeping with slaves, getting them pregnant. Saying dispose of the pregnant slave. Laughing at an angel’s prediction, and then lying about it. Saying rape my daughters. Daughters having incest with their father, producing children whom lived to become large godly nations.” His head lowered as if weary of speaking.

I sat motionless, not even realizing those sections were even in the bible.

“Abraham and Sarah had Isaac. We all know the story where Abraham was ordered to sacrifice his son to Him as a burnt offering. Abraham, good as ever, took his son and done as he was ordered. Of course an angel stepped in, saying it was all just a test. The fact that Abraham would have killed his son doesn’t seem to get mentioned. Now the covenant with Abraham was made.

“Of course, as I’ve already stated, I can manipulate different factors. Instead of denying the facts the Book states, it’s much easier to change people’s perspective of them, add to them.

“Israel is now one of the most unstable and violent regions on your planet. And this very area is where His son walked about spreading the Word.

“Instead of trying to distort what Moses and Jesus said, I simply added another prophet into the arrangement, Muhammad. Muhammad created the Koran in the seventh century. Now almost two million Islamic pilgrims make the pilgrimage to Mecca each year. There are more than one billion Muslims in the world today, that’s almost one-sixth of the world’s population. They believe that Abraham – or Ibrahim – as they call him, and his son Ishmael, was commanded to build the Kaaba by God. Another of one of my subtle ways to guide mankind away from Him.

“Would He have stated in His Book in Exodus chapter twenty and verses four and five:
You shall not make yourself a carved image of any likeness of anything in heaven or on earth. You shall not bow down to them and serve them.
Would he say that and then command them to build a huge shrine? All adult Muslims, who are physically able, must make the pilgrimage to this holy city to see the Kaaba, at least once in their lifetime, the Koran commands it. Would he say one thing, and then ask something completely different?

“In Matthew chapter six and verse seven, it says,
And in your prayer do not make use of the same words again and again.
God hates repetition, over and over, it bores Him. Muslins perform the Salah five times every day. They are the most recited words on your planet.”

He stood in one liquid motion, his legs seemingly curving as he sprang to his feet. Leaving me to decide the answer to his question.