by R L Delaney
"What?"
"They seem strange… at least one of them is."
"Why? What's wrong with him?"
Poppy licked her lips. "He… well, he looks odd."
Uncle Harry tilted his head and stared for a moment at Justin who shrugged his shoulders, but said nothing. Uncle Harry considered the matter for a moment, pressed his lips together and said, "I've seen so much weird stuff these days, and so many strange people… I suppose one more couldn't hurt." He nodded at Poppy Alberts. "Let them in, Poppy."
Poppy turned, made a welcoming sign with her hand and stepped away from the door. Seconds later Father Gálvez stepped in, followed by a giant of a man, who was huge in every way. He barely fit through the door and was wide and tall, with arms and legs the size of small children and yet, you could not properly describe him as fat. Was he a wrestler maybe?
The man was dressed in a white judogi with a shiny, blue belt that was carefully tied around his waist, apparently to keep his flowing, loose outfit in place. But more impressive were the piercing, yet friendly warm eyes in the round, jolly face with the shiny scalp that was lined with tufts of grey hair on the sides. These eyes reflected an inner light and wisdom that Justin had never seen before.
Uncle Harry seemed speechless and fell back in his chair. It was then that Justin noticed the man was barefoot.
"Father Gálvez," Amy was the first to speak. "So nice to see you."
Father Gálvez nodded and gave Amy a smile. "Glad to see you all too. I told you I had a friend who is more knowledgeable in the area of the things we have encountered. May I introduce you to Brother Perpetiël…"
He stretched out his hand, and Brother Perpetiël stepped forward and nodded in greeting.
"G-Good to meet you, Mr. Perpetiël," Uncle Harry said, and he cast Justin a helpless glance. "My name is… eh… Detective Ames. W-What can I do for you?"
Brother Perpetiël opened his mouth and spoke, his voice was deep and low, and reminded Justin of a remote thunderstorm. "I came to see if I can do something for you," he replied. "My dear friend Father Gálvez told me you have a few spiritual problems." He squeezed his eyes shut when he spoke the last word.
Uncle Harry shifted a little uncertainly on his chair and began to rub his nose. "I-I don't think I have spiritual problems myself, at least, not that I am aware of… it's more our town. We've got some strange individuals that seem to possess strange powers and at times have glowing, red eyes. It's most frightening."
Perpetiël squeezed his eyes again and grunted. "I was afraid of that."
"You were?" Justin piped up.
Brother Perpetiël turned to Justin. "And you are?"
Justin's eyes widened as he stared into the deep blue eyes of Brother Perpetiël. "My name is Justin Ames, Sir. I am Detective Ames' nephew." He pointed to Amy. "And this is—"
"—Amy Stenson, I presume," Brother Perpetiël interrupted as he turned to Amy and gave her a warm smile. "You are Justin's girlfriend. Father Gálvez told me all about you." Both Justin and Amy blushed.
Father Gálvez cleared his throat. "I understand it's hard for you to comprehend, but my friend Brother Perpetiël is a member of the order of Custodes de sacris literis adducuntur."
Uncle Harry veered forward on his chair again. "Excuse me? The customers of what?"
Father Gálvez chuckled. "That too is Latin, Harrison. It means the Guardians of the Sacred Tome."
Uncle Harry narrowed his eyes. "What's with all that Latin stuff? Can't we speak normal English for once?"
Father Gálvez did not react to Uncle Harry's scornful remark, but gave him a wide smile. “The Order of the Eternal Light is an order of warrior monks and they possess some very specific talents."
Justin stared wide-eyed at Brother Perpetiël. He had never heard of such a thing as a warrior monk, let alone of an order with a weird Latin name, and if someone had told him such a thing existed he would have laughed and dismissed the notion as an urban myth. But seeing the impressive, muscled and barefooted monk standing right before them he knew it was anything but a fairy tale, and he had the feeling his life was about to change in a deep and lasting way.
Uncle Harry licked his lips. "And…what does the Order do?"
"Demons, Harrison," Father Gálvez replied. "They are fighting demons."
Chapter Two
Rodeo was sitting behind bars on the coarse grayish blanket on the bunk in his cell and was not about to cooperate. After Harrison had asked him once more if he would tell him what was going on, he gave the detective a blank stare and leaned back on his sagging bunk until his shoulders found support on the grimy stone wall of the cell. The crook took off his silver-rimmed glasses and held them up against the light to inspect them for dirt. When he spotted dirt on them he heaved out a sigh, wrinkled his nose and began to clean them with a corner of his shirt. "It's a dirty place here, Detective."
"Well it serves you right," Harrison replied, not knowing what else to say. "Why don't you just tell us what happened and what's going on?"
Rodeo let out a chuckle. "You folks don't understand. I'll be out soon anyway, and then you'll wish you had treated me better." He held up his glasses again and when he was satisfied they were truly clean he put them back on his nose and began to study his nails.
"Talk to me Rodeo." Harrison was tempted to open the cell and grab the man by his collar so he could shake him around good and hard, but knowing how violent the man could become and remembering those weird, glowing eyes, made him decide against it. Seeing how Rodeo did not seem to be in the least perturbed by the fact that he was locked up in a tiny cell with only a bed, a three legged stool and a chemical toilet was unsettling at best. It almost appeared as if Rodeo was experiencing the world from an entirely different planet. Even the dinner plate with the Swedish meatballs and green beans that Poppy Alberts had been ordered to serve him stood untouched and cold on the cement floor.
Rodeo grinned some more and pointed a finger at Father Gálvez who stood next to Harrison. "Ask your church friend what can happen if someone is sticking his nose into our business… He knows." He leaned forward, raised both of his hands and while a dark look flashed over his face, he hissed to Father Gálvez, "Booo…"
Father Gálvez let out a yelp, jumped back and crashed into the wall while crossing himself. A loud, sinister sounding laugh escaped from Rodeo's mouth. When he was done laughing he licked his lips and said with another scowl, "The ultimate power lies in fear, Detective… but that is something you will still need to learn."
Harrison bit his lower lip, suppressing his anger. There was only one thing left to do, and although Harrison was a little skeptical it would have a positive outcome, it sure did not hurt to try.
"This is your last chance, Rodeo," the detective said while he wrinkled his nose. "Either you talk to me or I will call in someone who knows what to do with characters like you."
Rodeo looked up for a moment, but was not impressed. "You do, huh? I'll gladly meet him." After he said it, he turned his attention back to his nails.
"Call Perpetiël," Harrison said, as he turned to Father Gálvez. "And you may call Justin and Amy too."
Father Gálvez nodded and walked off, only to return seconds later with Perpetiël, closely followed by Justin and Amy.
Perpetiël stopped at the cell and peered through the bars. "So… this is the man."
Uncle Harry nodded and stepped back to give Perpetiël some room. "He's all yours."
Rodeo looked up… and froze. As soon as he saw the giant monk in his judogi outfit he began to stammer and stutter and he jumped up from his bunk, causing his mattress to fall on the grimy floor. No longer was there a grin on his face. His confident expression changed to a fearful grimace, and he pushed himself against the wall in the corner as far away from Perpetiël as he could. "You should not be here," he cried. "Go away… I have nothing to do with you."
The others stared in amazement at what was happening. Justin who had followed right after Perpetiël narrowed
his eyes and stared in bewilderment at Rodeo. The man seemed terrified.
"I've seen you before," Perpetiël spoke with a voice that rumbled like the thunder in a storm. "You were the one I bumped into last night."
Rodeo just kept howling. "Go away… You are not to torment me before the time."
But Perpetiël did not answer. He just stood there and did not say another word, while he kept his eyes glued on the disturbed prisoner who now began to pant heavily.
"What's going on?" Justin whispered to Amy as he saw how Rodeo's face turned purple and seemed bloated. "It looks like Rodeo is about to explode."
"Don't know," Amy whispered back, "but I sure don't like the looks of it."
Uncle Harry had seen it before. He stepped back and hissed, "Move back guys. Move back."
Then it happened.
Right before everyone's eyes, Alfred Rodeo's face morphed into what appeared to be the leathery, scaly head of a lizard, and while his eyes began to glow with a deep, red fiery light, his mouth flapped open and he let out a loud curse that echoed throughout the cell. Almost instantly Justin detected a sharp, penetrating scent of sulphur. and he pushed himself as far away from the scene as possible.
Rodeo was no longer Rodeo but had changed into a foul creature from the Netherworld.
At that moment Rodeo jumped forward, his arms outstretched with hands that appeared more like bony claws.
Father Gálvez whispered a prayer and sank to his knees, while Amy collapsed into Justin's arms. Justin, his face as white as a sheet let out a yelp and tried to cover Amy like a shield. Even Uncle Harry jumped back and grabbed his pistol while he looked with enlarged, fearful eyes at the scene before him.
But not Perpetiël.
The warrior monk stood his ground and did not move an inch while he stared at the creature with a determined look. Before anyone knew what happened the apparition grabbed the iron bars of the cell and began to pull them aside with his claws, as if he were opening a lace curtain in a baby's room. They did not seem to faze him in the least. While white foam had formed around his busted lips, a garbled sentenced welled up from deep within his throat and an unfamiliar voice echoed throughout the holding cell. "Ad infernum cum omnibus vobis."
Perpetiël' jaws tightened, his eyes narrowed and he lifted one hand in the air. Then he hissed in decisive tones: "Stop it, you foul beast, Get thee behind me in the name of the King of Heaven."
If Justin had not seen it with his own eyes he would not have believed what followed.
At the very moment Perpetiël spoke the word, the whole cell lit up with a brilliant, bright light. It was brighter than any light Justin had ever seen, and yet it did not hurt his eyes. Instantly, Rodeo, or whoever it was that had manifested itself in the man, fell to the floor and was lying motionless on the cement floor of the cell, and seemed every bit as normal as he had before. The strange lizard-like appearance was gone. Perpetiël, still standing at the exact same spot, had his left index-finger outstretched and kept it pointed at Rodeo.
Justin hardly dared to look up, but he could sense that a benevolent rest hung over the cell and at last he lifted up his eyes and stared at the monk, whose impressive bulk was standing before him as a strong and mighty wall of protection.
Never before had he witnessed such a show of power. He bit his lower lip and gently touched Amy. "It's over, Amy… You can look now."
Uncle Harry lowered his gun and stared at the monk. "Perpetiël… w-what did you just do?"
For a long moment Perpetiël did not answer but kept on staring at Rodeo who was still not moving. At last he looked up, his face carrying a timid smile. "It's over now."
Uncle Harry frowned. "Is-Is he dead?"
Perpetiël shook his head. "No, he just needs to recover, but for right now he is in his right mind and completely harmless."
"I told you so," Father Gálvez piped up. New color had flooded his face and he carried a victorious smile. "That's what Perpetiël and his fellow monks do… They fight demons."
Uncle Harry shook his head. "I never believed in such things before, but… well… I can't deny what I saw."
Perpetiël chuckled. "A lot of people only believe in what they see, but there's a lot more going on in this world than people can see with their natural eyes."
Uncle Harry pressed his lips together and nodded. "I’d like to hear about it someday, Perpetiël. But first things first… what do we do now?"
Perpetiël shrugged his big shoulders and chuckled. "You may need a different place to guard this man. This cell is no longer any good. He can walk right out, so you might want to lock him up somewhere else."
Uncle Harry looked distraught. "We don't have another cell, and it seems whenever this fellow gets angry there is no cell that will hold him down anyway. So where do you suggest we will lock this man up?"
As he asked the question Justin let his fingers slide over the bars that were completely bent out of shape and shook his head. He never had liked Billy Bratmeyer's comic books about the Tarantula Heroes, but that was nothing compared to what he had just witnessed himself. He looked up into the eyes of Perpetiël and nodded. "My uncle is right, Mr. Perpetiël… We cannot hold this man down. Is it even safe now?"
Perpetiël placed his hand on Justin's shoulder in a fatherly fashion. "It's safe for now, Justin. You could see it as if this man had an unwanted guest, but we kicked the intruder out. We cleansed this man's house and it is all clean now. But…," he hesitated, "…that's no guarantee for the future. Everyone has a free will, including this man. He somehow invited this so-called guest in in the first place, and if he opens his heart for this type of evil again, the end will be worse than the beginning."
Amy did not particularly like the answer and cast Perpetiël a painful stare. "So… what do we do?"
"We can take him." Perpetiël licked his lips and cast her a tender smile. "If you trust us." After he said it he noticed his outfit needed some straightening out and he brushed with his hand over his sleeves and readjusted his belt.
Uncle Harry curled his lips and stared in wonderment at Perpetiël. "You take him? But he is a murder suspect. And where would you take him?"
"We've got a monastery up in the Wintervale Mountains," Brother Perpetiël replied. "Not only do we have small, little cells up there, but most of all, we can keep an eye on him. And…" his voice trailed off, "…who knows, he might even see the light once we have taught him how to keep his house clean."
Father Gálvez nodded enthusiastically. "That's a great idea, Detective. It will set you free to solve the mysteries in Dewsbury."
"But I need to question this man."
"There's no problem there," Brother Perpetiël said. He turned to Rodeo who was still lying on the floor and pointed at him. "Talk to him all you want. I can help you with the questioning and then, when you are done, I'll take him to the brotherhood where he can wait until you know what to do with him or when he needs to go to court."
Uncle Harry nodded. "Thank you. I must say it's a wonderful offer. After seeing what you just did, I think Rodeo might be in good hands at your monastery."
The monk gave him a gentle smile. "It wasn't me, Detective. All power belongs to the King of Heaven."
Alfred Rodeo sat on a stool in the corner of his cell. He stared unfocused and with drooping shoulders at some cracks in the cement, while his hands were resting in his lap. It had not taken long before he regained consciousness. As soon as he let out a faint moan, Brother Perpetiël had gently helped him up and placed him on the three legged stool near his bunk. The color in his face had drained and he looked utterly confused.
Justin had never seen someone so dazed, and marveled. What a difference with the proud and self-confident owner of the local Gym he had seen before, and as he studied the helpless man, he almost felt sorry for him.
Uncle Harry seemed to think the same way as Justin noticed a soft glance in the eyes of the detective and as soon as Rodeo seemed approachable he cleared his throat and asked, "Do yo
u need some water?"
Rodeo looked up and gave the detective a timid nod. "Please… My throat is as dry as a cracker in the desert."
Justin sprang into action and walked back to the main office, only to return seconds later with a pitcher of water and a glass.
The small, Asian fellow with his short cropped, spiky black hair even showed some signs of gratitude when Perpetiël handed him the glass and he emptied it in one big gulp.
"C-Can we talk now?" Uncle Harry asked, still keeping a safe distance.
Alfred Rodeo looked up and handed the empty glass back to Perpetiël. "What do you want to know?"
"Well," Uncle Harry asked eager to get some answers, "tell me what happened last night."
"Last night?" Rodeo narrowed his eyes and looked down again. "I-I don't know."
"Sure you do," Uncle Harry took a step closer to Rodeo. "There was a shoot-out. One police man got killed and I was chasing you through the forest…"
Rodeo looked up, confusion painted on his face. "I-I really don't remember anything." He spread out his hands and shook his head. "I’m really trying to remember but everything is dark and a blur."
Uncle Harry wrinkled his nose, and looked up at Perpetiël, hoping the giant monk would be able to help him, but Perpetiël kept his eyes riveted on Rodeo. Was this just one more trick of Rodeo?
"What were you doing in that old abandoned farmhouse last night and why were you speaking Latin?"
Rodeo grunted and shook his head.
"What is Richard Sternfoot's role in all of this?"
Rodeo did not answer and from the expression on his face it was clear he did not know.
"Who put a dagger on my nephew's door?" Uncle Harry pointed at Justin.
"I don't know about daggers," Rodeo replied in a low voice.
Now it was Justin's turn to say something and he cried out, "What are the Shadow Walkers?"
Again, Rodeo could not answer. He genuinely seemed at a loss for words and just shrugged his shoulders.
