Chapter 8 – Love and War
The evening sky arrives over the setting sun birthing shadows rise to the darkness, the school is quiet like a tomb on a frosty out lying patch of unattended grass for a relative, one who killed their family over a flame never extinguished from a lovers wrath; near the theatre. a mouse scurrying along the broken pavement is looking for a tasty morsel, he finds some crumbs on the pavement and starts to nibble. In one fell swoosh, a night owl grabs the unsuspecting mouse and rises off into the moonlight.
Henry throws the blanket off revealing Olivia, underneath. She is half dressed, and she giggles,” Henry Milles, there are people!” She rolls over accidentally falling off and onto the floor, she laughs as Henry peeks over the edge of the futon with a somewhat serious face,” Why are you on the floor?” She looks up as they both exchange loving laughs, she reaches for her shirt, sprawls, and grabs her jeans that were scattered in the heat of celebration. Henry helps her with her jeans passing them to her then turns over to greet his friends,
“Olivia and I are getting married.”
Gabriella responds, “Well, that’s great but it will have to wait, I think there is something big coming our way, and I don’ t mean in a good way.”
Henry asks Olivia if she has everything. She nods while she places one leg into her jeans followed by the other leg, she jumps up into the air zipping the jeans in the front, she lands on the floor and looks to Gabriella,
“What is it, Gaby?”
Erica jump’s in, “We heard a voice from the basketball gym followed by some music, then we saw something across the way, lots of little things and no not my brothers and his annoying friends, small like a doll or something.”
Jude is eager to join the conversation, “It was the puppets, Supe. They seem to be alive. I heard someone scream so we went to check it out, then the door wedged open, I saw hundreds of little wooden arms poking through. They looked like” He swallows, “Marionettes. “Gabriella adds,
“It’s the puppets, they have been, I don’t know, all I know is I heard someone or something say a name, a voice just before whatever it is; entered the gymnasium, it said it was Beleth.”
“Who’ s Beleth?” Olivia now dressed asks.
Gabriella looks to Olivia, then to a bookshelf, she walks over to the shelf looking for something, searching. She has seen this somewhere before the name resonates with her.
“Where is it, I know it’s here, I was researching for a creative writing project in class.” She scans the shelves until she finds an old leather ripped book. it is titled ‘The Encyclopedic History of the Demonic World.’
“Ah, here it is.”
Shivon is annoyed, a common trait of hers when she is scared, “What the hell is going on? I was with Jude and then we, I, I …this is all too much, this can’t be for real?”
Gabriella speaks to the students, “I think this will explain everything or at least give us a clue, I hope you guys are spiritual because this is going to get, Real.” She dictates, turning to Shivon.
She continues,
“Okay, Beleth, spelled B-E-L…here it is, Beleth. A demon from a king of Hell who has eighty-five legions of demons under his command.” She looks up.
“Well, that’s comforting, great start.” She continues,
“According to Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, Noah‘s son Ham was the first in invoking him after the flood, and wrote a book on mathematics with his help.” She takes a breath,
“When appearing, he looks fierce to frighten the conjurer or to see if he is courageous. The conjurer must be brave and place a triangle in his hand, he must strike it towards the south, east, and upwards, then commanding Beleth into it.
The Dictionnaire Infernal states that to summon Beleth, the person should hold a silver ring on the middle finger of the left hand against his face, to pay respect to Beleth’s rank as king.”
Henry questions, “A conjurer? That means someone brought him into this world?”
Gabriella,”I suppose so? How else can he just appear, here and now out of all the years he’s here this very moment.”
Jude interrupts her as she continues to read,” It’s your creations, Henry. Did you conjure this?”
“Did you conjure this!” Jude is maddening.
Henry steps back, “Never, I don’t know anything, Jude, stay calm.“
Gabriella continues to scan the book looking for ways to defeat Beleth,” Look it says here that to defeat him one has to find the ring that was used, place it on the left ring finger, and sing, a new song provided by the lyrics of the…” She is it erupted.
Shivon defends Jude, “That’s right…It’s all Henry, he’s the conjurer!”
Gabriella yells, “Past! The songs heard before he kills someone.”
“IT’S NOT ME!”
Henry’s face grows angered, he steps forward as the veins in his forearms extrude from the skin, His heart races as the warmth flows through him.
“Step, away both of you! I have NOT AND WILL NOT be accused of this!” Henry’s anger fills his bones, he is conditioned to defend himself, conditioned enough in the ways of Aikido as a Second-degree black belt starting at the young age of 5. Most of the theatre students already know this as they have had conversations and demonstrations throughout the school year. Shivon backs away,
“We we’re just…you know…making sure.”
Gabriella asserts, “Henry, we have to find the ring.”
Erica watching the tension quickly adds, “Henry, can you sing?“
Henry nods, “Well I was in the school choir in grade four.”
Erica responds, ”Good enough, okay where do we find this ring?”
Gabriella adds, “We have to find out where he was conjured and who conjured him.”
Erica starts to laugh, ”Well that’s easy enough, A school of 1200 students and 100 or so teachers, we’ll find them in no time, not to mention it’s Sunday!”
Shivon leads in, ”It’s the music room, that’s where we saw the, whatever they are, escaping.”
Jude backs her statement, “Ya, Supe, ya that’s it, that’s the place, it has to be, man.”
VIVEK ABHISHEK https://www.youtube.com/user/VivEKhsihbA
Gabriella answers, “Okay we go there and look for it.”
Just as Gabriella finishes her explanation, the lights in the school go off. Then like a wind-up toy a song is heard off into the distance:
The students can hear a mass of growling screams and tiny footsteps outside the door, somewhere down the long gothic hall, leading right to the theatre, the noises engulf the empty hallways. Jude stands firmly in front of the group protecting them, as they look at the door where the noises can be heard they are faint but as they charge down the hall, the noises become louder and louder. Henry speaks,”
“The loading door, let’s go.”
Henry leads the group through the winding back hallway into the loading area where the chest still remains. The noises reach the green room door, they crash through it and scatter the theatre, this is no audience Henry wishes to perform for, at least not yet.
Jude grabs the chain and releases the door to the back entrance as some students are arriving. For an early morning jog. They yell to the students to leave, and just as they do an army helicopter flies directly overhead.
The helicopter hovers over the grassy area directly above Henry. Ropes flash down from it for a total of 20 or so as special forces slide down the ropes together in unison. They are wearing headgear, carrying assault rifles, and full army protective gear.
“Vector one, get behind us Now.”
Henry and the group acknowledge as the wind from the helicopter blasts the students. They look up and scatter to the parkade, they duck down and continue to watch as the special force officers enter the building.
The group meets other students arriving and explains what is happening or to the best of their knowledge, Henry is sitting on the grass as Olivia and the rest join him.
Shivon asks.”Well, all that and the military will take them out I am sure,”
Gabriella responds,”This demon, he cannot be stopped with material forces, we have to find the conjurer, they turn to Henry.”
“I’ll do it, it’s my fault these are here If I hadn’t made them.”
“It’s not your fault.” Erica concludes then extends,” I’ll help any way I can.”
Jude and Shivon add,” We will too…Supe.” Jude exclaims.
Henry looks at Olivia, she is worried.”Okay, you go with the military and get a ride out of here.” They look at a military man standing guard in the grass. She agrees. The group walks over to the military man, he looks at them and acknowledges them. As they do multiple trucks enter with a full battalion of tanks and other such vehicles.
“You’ll be safe here,” Henry comforts.
“You come back. We have a life to share.”
Henry agrees hugs her and continues,” Don’t go anywhere Infinity?”
“Infinity”
Henry, and the rest gather themselves and run off around the military through the parking lot and to the pathway that leads around the complex. Just as they do multiple machine guns fire, then screaming from inside.
Suddenly a barrage of snarling puppets run out through the loading doors, the puppets charge with cheetah like speed rushing through the wide doors and onto the tundra of the grasses of a darkened landscape.
The unsuspecting battalion is surrounded by two hundred thousand mixed snarling puppets. With another 2 million ready to spread their paws out onto the grass filling the school, They pause, looking for their next prey and then attack like a swarm of army ants covering a piece of forgotten fruit, anything in their path. They finish quickly and begin to move swiftly through the grasses…
The mass of hungry snarling puppets close in on Olivia, as they approach, Olivia realises this will be her last day to see the sun shine, to have the heat fill her face turning skin slightly tan. This is unlike her journey escaping to London to start a new life from nothing, bettering herself for a bright future that is no more; there is no escaping, this no tipping hope to endure…
…her eyes spring like the lonely waters of a glacial melt, with longing tears, wishing to have longer on this earth to watch as her children grow, celebrating birthdays over a picnic table dressed in bright colour’ s over green parkways or with her family dancing, singing, making sand castles on a hot summers beach with the warm breeze flowing through her golden hair, admiring her husband, Henry the father he would become, playing like one of the children she would never know in the morning sand…
Olivia turns to Henry, as she reaches for him,
“Infinity.”
Henry Reaches for her, she is surrounded by hundreds of thousands of unrelenting puppets, she falls back as they rip her to pieces.
“Olivia, NOOOOOOOO!..Nooooo, nooooooo….
Henry continues his screams for her as Jude and the rest of the students struggle to grab him, he forces himself through, they finally grab him dragging him off into a treed area around the campus and out of sight.
To be concluded
Written by Colin R. Mah
Proofed by CJ Wolfe
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- Remote
- The spark. A gathering of friends, One gone from end of life, light turns into day and day into night, along the tree line gorillas crawl under the dark shadowy brush, Red lit eyes look down upon a sullen man, filling his veins with a dead pan hand, struck with a foggy cloud of Euphoric Eros, Until eyes close the lingering smell quells the nose. Wave after wave sunder under sandy beaches, a stage is set, The edged kite drifts through the open sky light night like a dragon from a lingering distant past poised to strike. Starring through the smoky glass to a shadow in an outward hidden path, strangers creeping through rocky gardens below , lights wired to dance on the dreamy candle light lamp glow, floating lights scan wide pan targets in sights, mattress loaded with defensive knife, Sent to biasedly rupture body mind and sound, An electric spark dancing through the hazy air, lamps light up inside like a carnival ground. As the dose begins to fade waves coming again to a crews delight, a spark is what we made to the struggles of life.
Ham 