Murmurs shifted among the spirits, giving the child a roll call of sorts. Not all were present. Bergen stared at the ceiling as though looking through it to find the missing members. The one who had seduced Bergen’s mother hid in his room, defying the invitation to join the others in the basement. Knowing he couldn’t disobey, he opened the door.
Sitting up in the tub, Dorothy stared at the door, then flung herself out of the water in a spray of pink disappearing the moment it touched a solid surface. The woman in the room overlooking the alley went immediately, as did the one in the apartment’s hallway.
Becki filled with excitement, skipped down the hall toward the room she and her mother had slept in so many nights ago.
The door across the hall stood open, Wayne glared out from his room; he didn’t want to go, he was having more fun than he’d had in years. But conceding to Becki’s out held hand, they traveled to the boiler room.
The floor stood empty for the first time since the hotel had been erected, Belphegor didn’t even wait at his window; he’d already gone to the theater.
The beast had moved to Bergen’s side, watching the souls in attendance with thirty-eight sparkling eyes. The soft growl from its throat had stopped, changing into a purr. The spirits, now that all were convened gazed at the hybrid, waiting to hear the reason for the visit.
The words between them no longer came from their mouths, leaving the room silent except the blaze of fire heating the water. The child’s explanation wasn’t expected but taken happily. The one wish the deviant souls wanted, after much delay, was in their reach. Without further instruction, the man with the nail in his penis passed through the door holding the store of offerings to Belphegor; two others joined him to destroy the contents.
Fear forced a pathetic bleat from the beast, and Bergen’s fingers stroked its mane to give it comfort and assurance to expect no harm. The three returned through the closed door, confirming all offerings had been spilled to soak into the floor. The woman with the oozing wounds, took the lead to the tunnel, once the door was open, the end of their journey began.
* * * *
As he returned to this world, words rang in Cody’s mind, “Fear not, I am with you always.” Cody pulled in a breath, filling his lungs with life as though during the internal cleansing his body had not taken air.
He wasn’t sure how long he had been in a catatonic state, but since Eli didn’t seem to notice anything had changed with Cody, he was sure no more than a minute had passed. The shadow of the theater stretched farther across the alley, touching the edge of the yards on the opposite side.
“Did it work?” Eli asked, his voice quavered as though sobs wanted to erupt from his throat instead of words.
“Yes,” he answered, and opened the door to the dark backstage.
Belphegor stood near the spiral staircase leading into the tunnel. He’d never seen Cody glow with the radiance he did right now. His stare burned into Belphegor’s blue beams, not wavering or allowing entry to his soul. A large smile stretched across the Fallen Angel’s face, and it had happened. God had come as he had thought.
“What did He say?” he cried, tears flowed down his beautiful face. “Am I forgiven? Can I go home?”
“Not even close,” Cody replied, noticing Hector at his side.
Belphegor beheld Hector, and his humor turned into a snarl. “This is your fault.”
She moved to stand between him and Cody. No words came from her as she stared back at him. Though she was a Watcher, she showed no fear of the Throne.
The green beams pushed back with defiance the blue from the Fallen Angel. She was on the side of God, and however he twisted his words, Belphegor was not.
Cody came to her side. A scowl deeply grooved into her face. If he hadn’t known her, he wouldn’t have known she was not a Fallen Angel. For the first time since her appearance, he feared her.
The human form she had taken began to crack. A bright light blazed from the gashes in her façade. Cody watched the transformation in awe. When she had told him of her true appearance, he hadn’t expected what he saw now—vague memories from the previous night mixed in his mind with what stood in front of him—He traced the endless lines of light.
The little amount of contrast had no way of producing a form he recognized. The moment he thought he had a grasp of what stood with him, the details changed, challenging his mind to find an answer to the riddle now displayed.
Belphegor sneered, watching the transformation, he wasn’t impressed, and virtually bored with the theatrics this lowly Angel performed. He didn’t need anyone to see his true form to destroy the annoyance before him. She merely was buying time for something, what had they planned? Again, he tried to probe Cody’s mind, but entrance was denied.
* * * *
The beast roared, stamping its hooves on the concrete floor. The room shook with the frenzy of its wings fluttering rapidly. Dust flew into the air with the odor of aged feces wafting from under the closed door of Belphegor’s destroyed treasure room. Another roar shattered the painted glass keeping light from the lair, now pouring into the room. Above came cries of alarm as the large windows in the lobby exploded into the street. Bergen glanced again to the ceiling looking for Leona. Finding her unharmed, a sigh of relief expelled from the child’s mouth.
Rumbling from the bowels of the block vibrate the floor. The audience, waiting for Cody, glanced around uncomfortably. The tiny hairs on their necks rose in warning. A woman whispered to the man sitting next to her, and they stood, glancing at the closed red-velvet curtain before scurrying up the incline to the exit.
Eli stepped back from the door, he had intended to join Cody, but the shaking earth took his attention. Trying the door again, it still wouldn’t budge no matter how many times he twisted the knob and pulled.
At the front of the building, Nathan, Tyler, and Jen were ready to enter the theater, but shattering glass from the diner on the first level of the hotel changed their plans. Memories of the beast bolting through the collection of buildings caused Jen’s panic to rise. She turned from the entrance, running across the street, her companions raced after her.
The moment they reached the small park, a man and woman burst from the theater, determination propelling them outside. Moments passed before the doors were flung open again as the other members of the audience flooded the street. They didn’t know where they were going but ran in all directions to be away from the theater.
Bergen watched the swirl of souls twist through the tunnel before the beast. As it ran, it grew as it had the night before, using the powerful glamour Belphegor had given it. The buildings shook with each groaning step, blowing out windows, knocking over shelves, leaving nothing untouched inside.
“Cody, it doesn’t have to be this way,” Belphegor said. For the first time, Cody heard the Fallen Angel’s voice shake.
“You have nothing left to bargain,” Hector’s voice rang through the blaze of light.
“Really?” Belphegor snarled. A blue, flaming sword appeared in his hand. His other hand moved, joining above the other on the hilt. In a fluid movement, he slashed forward, and yelled, “Know your place!”
A blazing storm of light and wind shook the street, blasting through the buildings. A chorus of wails shrieked around them as the tempest raged.
Awestruck, Jen found Wayne’s face blast from the theater windows. Pieces of asphalt wiggled loose from the street swirling with the wind.
Low growls added to the cacophony, as did more debris from the street. Cody didn’t move from the stage; his heart raced with the glimpses of spirits destroying the room.
The wall separating the theater from the lobby disintegrated, adding to the debris flying through the air; somehow through the destruction, he found Tyler standing safely in the park across the street. The wind lifted Jen’s hair. Nathan held his hat firmly on his head.
The light, which had been Hector, intensified, becoming brighter than the sun. Cody found her at the crux of the bl
aze. He had discovered trying to understand what he saw in the spray of light caused his head to ache.
Allowing his eyes to see without judgment gave him the vision of her, the glory of her. No wound impeded her, but joy flowed from every part of her being. The smile he’d become used to seeing as she taunted him was there, larger and brighter than ever. Her laughter etched through the disturbing noises of the disaster around them.
Darkness mingled with the light of her as the collection of spirits from Belphegor’s keep shot from the spiral staircase opening. Similar to how Cody had been cleansed, the darkness of the angry spirits once touched with the light, paled, brightening the air.
The beast stood at stage left, tapping its hooves on the polished hardwood floor. It wasn’t as large as Jen had described, but it was still big to Cody. He froze in place, forgetting for a moment about the maelstrom around him. On the beast’s back sat Bergen. The sparkling eyes of each being fixed on Belphegor.
Epilogue
Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to fight the armies of the aliens.
Hebrews 11:34, KJV
Differing explanations of what had happened on Main Street buzzed across the county. Some said a gas explosion caused the destruction, while others were convinced a tornado ripped across the section of the block.
Either way, no one had been seriously injured on or around the street on the night of the event; scratches and minor bruises from the flying debris.
In the days following, Shoshoni’s Mayor hired a crew to clear away the wreckage. Although the buildings stood, their roofs and interiors had been stripped clean. In places, the floors had been ripped apart, leaving gaping holes. The crew boarded up all windows and doors until a decision had been made as to what to do with remaining structure.
During the evacuation of the block, some visitors had wandered toward City Park, discovering the contents of the church’s backyard. A few nights after the disturbing findings, mysteriously the building had been leveled by an unknown person and a bulldozer.
While not many in town had heavy equipment at their disposal, no investigation was conducted. Volunteers hauled away what was left of the structure, and three feet of soil from the lot.
Three days after the destruction on Main Street, Mark La’mar was found hanging from the rafters of his auto repair shop across the street from the Shanley Hotel. No funeral service was held for him as no one cared. He had been a bully all his life, and most were relieved his days of stalking the streets had ended.
Jen returned to Boston, but after a few days decided to return to the area. The three months she had lived in Shoshoni had shown her city life wasn’t what she wanted, and went to work for Eli on the ranch. Tyler asked her to stay with him, but she declined. Anywhere inside Shoshoni was too close to the Shanley Hotel and Main Street for her comfort.
The day after the east side of Main Street had been destroyed. The Sheriff came to Nathan’s and Leona’s house with a large, yellow envelope for Tyler.
Keys and the deed to the house at the opposite end of Maple Street from Nathan’s and Leona’s house were inside. The Sheriff didn’t know who had left the package at his office, and had glanced inside to learn what it was, and whom it belonged. Tyler whooped his excitement.
Connie went to Eli’s ranch to help him destroy his father’s journals. Standing under the bright stars, sparks from the fire rose to join them. She chanted, and shook beads, binding whatever might lurk in the pages to not return to the land until summonsed by God.
Nathan agreed with Leona that the time had come for them to see something else of the world besides Shoshoni.
After Tyler had moved into his new house, they packed a few clothes and were on the road to anywhere. Bergen worried Darcy (the name the child had given the beast) might get lonely without someone to talk to it. Eli allowed the creature to stay in his barn, but he warned if it harmed any of his livestock, he wouldn’t be kind to it.
The child conveyed Darcy’s vow to only eat from the wild, and not bother his or animals from neighboring farms and ranches.
After everything that had happened to Cody in the last six months and three days, Eli wanted him to stay at the ranch to allow him to get his bearings, but he never gave Cody the offer; the man needed to make his own path, and if it meant Eli was or wasn’t part of it, he understood.
Cody had stayed at the ranch the night Connie, and he had burned the journals. Though he didn’t join them in the ceremony, Eli knew Cody had watched in the shadows with Darcy—had anyone told him a week ago a pre-apocalyptic beast would be friendly, he wouldn’t have believed them; Bergen had changed the creature’s demeanor, giving it a dog-like quality.
The morning after Eli had destroyed his father’s writings, Cody left before Eli woke without saying a word. He didn’t stop to say goodbye to Tyler, or anyone else who had helped him in Shoshoni—the mystery of where his car had been was answered when Mark’s body was discovered swinging in his garage.
He drove home, stopping once to stretch his legs and fill the gas tank. For the whole trip, he wondered whether he was indeed safe from the Fallen Angel.
The last time he saw Hector, she had returned to her chubby, red-haired façade, and told him there was nothing to worry about from the man in the blue suit.
She made no mention of where Belphegor was, but Cody knew he had returned his suite to the way it had been and stood at the window (though it was covered with plywood), watching the town. The souls he had collected had escaped his custody, leaving him alone inside the Shanley’s shell.
Belphegor wasn’t upset as he sipped his wine by the window. He had nothing better to do than watch the world go around. If he became bored, traveling to anywhere he desired to collect a soul or two was easy enough. He smirked, thinking it was worth the try.
Note from the Author
Thank you for reading HOME A Novel. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I want to hear your thoughts. Please, leave a review on Amazon on the HOME A Novel page.
While you’re there, check out my other books; Dreamwalker: The Second Plain, Hunger, Hydrangeas on the Lanai, An Unnamed Acquaintance, Circus Tarot, and Page of Buckets; World Circus, the finale of the Circus Tarot Trilogy is coming soon.
I was born and raised in rural Wyoming, and have been drawn to the horror genre since I was a child. For more information about me, check out my website at https://charleswjonesauthor.com, sign-up for my Newsletter, or follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ChuckWesJ.
Acknowledments
Special thanks to Diane Brink for the pictures you took for me, I appreciate it, they made the cover what it is. I also want to thank Blessing Tran for allowing me to bounce ideas off him and answering my questions about things Catholic. To the City of Shoshoni, WY, thank you for being the best place to grow up. As always, thank you, Wendy Ely, my editor, for pushing for more. And, finally, Harold for standing by me through these journeys I take when I’m writing; you might not realize you’re doing anything, but just being there keeps me grounded.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the shard work of this author.
This novel depicts scenes of graphic violence and adult situations. This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.
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