Abush chuckled. “Very funny. I am Abush, and I’m the leader of the Watchers, for my name means father of multitudes. I answer directly to none other than Lucifer himself, and all of these men are under my command.”
I interrupted his tedious self-aggrandizing. “Well, that’s good for you, but I must say I’m a little surprised to hear you go by your given Hebrew name.”
I was amazed that a being made completely of all eyeballs could still have a humanoid form. God had a wild imagination, but I pushed that from my mind and focused on the task at hand.
Abush became annoyed with me as his tone and body language gave away his frustration. “Tread lightly, boy, and you may just make it out of here alive. What exactly do you mean our time is up? Are you the harbinger of The End?” Abush laughed as he looked around the room at his underlings who seconded his sentiments.
“I’m not here to announce the end of the world to all of you today, but I’m here to end your meddling in the affairs of man.”
“What an ambitious goal for The Man Wrapped in Darkness, but you will fail like the others before you,” Abush said.
As he finished, one of the Watchers tried to sideswipe me, but I stepped aside and ran my open palms with The Blood of Jesus all across his head. The Watcher screamed out in sheer pain as the room looked on in horror and the Blood seared all the eyes on his head shut. The Watcher flew to the ground and instinctively grabbed his face to wipe off the Blood, but as he did, the Blood dissolved his gloves and burned out the eyes that made up his hands.
I pointed at the once proud Watcher as he cried out in pain on the floor. “That’s how I’m going to do it. I have placed a barrier around this fortress, and none are leaving here until I have permanently taken your sight from you.”
“Ever since that day all of Hell found out who The Man Wrapped in Darkness was, I knew The One would send you after me,” Abush said with a terrified look on his face.
The Blood of Jesus flowed freely from my hands and dripped on the floor in pools by my feet. “What are you talking about?”
“It doesn’t matter because you won’t survive this. Get him!” Abush shouted.
All of the Watchers quickly and carefully jumped at me as I grabbed the first one and threw him into the group in front of me. He screeched in pain as the Blood ate through his armor and began to burn him. But it didn’t stop the Watchers, as many of them jumped in the air to attack me from all sides. As fast as I was, it would take me a long time to fight them head on, and there was no guarantee they wouldn’t get the best of me in a rush. After all, numbers were on their side in the fight. The other plaguing question I had was what did Abush mean by he knew the Lord would send me after him? He was legitimately terrified of me, and I had to know what he meant by that. I had to save him for last, and then something clicked inside of me, and I knew what to do. If the Watchers were going to rain down upon me, then I would rain down my new weapon upon them.
“Jesus!” I yelled out. “Let your Blood pour forth upon all my enemies except for Abush!”
Instantly, The Blood of Jesus descended in a violent downpour, and all the Watchers immediately crashed down hard to the stone floor around me. Jesus’s Blood ate their armor and burned all of their eyes shut. They could no longer see in all directions. Their excruciating cries of pain terrified Abush as The Blood of Jesus kept him trapped on the stage in about four feet of space.
My eyes were fixed on him as I walked through the torrential storm which had turned my black clothes to red. The Blood of Jesus ran down my face and clothes as I marched up the stairs to interrogate the last Watcher.
Abush backed up to the wall and began to plead for his life. “That’s enough now. You don’t have to do this. Please don’t come any closer!”
I paused at the edge where the Blood rained down and smiled. “Stop.”
The Blood of Jesus relented, but still covered the floor, which ended any chance Abush had of escape.
The multitude of Watchers moaned on the floor. “Quiet, or I’ll make you suffer a fate far worse than the one your experiencing now.”
They deserved to suffer more than being blinded, but they were now a shadow of their former selves. They would never be made whole again. As the Blood stopped coming down, my uniform absorbed it and turned black again. I glared at my prey. I wanted... No, I needed to know what he meant. I wasn’t going to leave until I found out. Now, let’s have a little talk, shall we?”
Abush pressed himself harder against the wall. “Wha... Wha...,” he stuttered. “What do you want to know?”
I stepped forward. “You knew who I was before I became The Man Wrapped in Darkness, didn’t you? Tell me how?”
Abush’s back was pressed hard against the only part of the wall that wasn’t covered in The Blood. His head twitched. “No. No,” he pleaded. “Please.”
“Take a good long look at your comrades behind me. Now, I will ask you one more time, how do you know me. If you refuse again, I will do to you what I just did to your underlings.”
“Just go ahead and cover me in The Blood of The One and get it over with. What more can you do to me than that?”
I slowly moved closer and held up my right hand as Abush was paralyzed with fear. I leisurely slid my hand down the right side of his face. He let out a deafening scream as The Blood of Jesus melted the side of his face into a blob of nothingness. He sunk to the floor and curled up in a ball and wailed in agony.
I knelt next to him. “That’s where you’re wrong, you see. I can make you know pain and suffering like you have never known them before. Now start talking!”
“Okay. Okay, but promise me first you won’t hurt me anymore,” whimpered Abush.
“I promise you won’t suffer any more than your companions behind me have.”
Abush sobbed as he slowly pushed himself up and sat against the wall. “Lucifer assigned me to monitor you and your family when you all were alive on Earth. I had to report to Lucifer everything you did and everyone you talked to.”
As he stated the last line I knew where the story was going “You told Lucifer of my repeated attempts to lead Frederick to give his life to Jesus, didn’t you?”
Abush tried to choke back sobs as he nodded. “I had to. It was my job. I didn’t have a choice.”
I drove my fist into the wall by the left side of his face so hard it cracked. “No choice? You always have a choice! Tell me this, were you there the night when my family died?”
He nodded again.
“Did you know I wasn’t there when Fredrick and his men killed them?”
Again, he nodded.
“Demonic beings aren’t allowed to kill humans outright. Tell me right now why you were there, or you will suffer more than you can imagine.”
Abush was quiet for a moment as he breathed in deep, seemingly to contemplate his next words. I watched as he relived the memory in his mind, and twisted smile slid across what was left of his mangled face. “Because I wanted to hurt them and hurt you more by having you walk in on the scene. I wanted to gain favor with Lucifer by having Frederick get you to deny The One before he killed you as well.”
Every muscle in my body tensed as the reality of Abush’s words set in. I knew he was telling the truth. “My family died without me there to protect them because of you and your selfish ambition!”
I stood Abush up and mercilessly rained down blow after blow upon him. Every punch and kick found its proper place as I worked him over. When I stopped, he slid down the wall to the floor and convulsed continuously. I felt joy as I watched him suffer. Served him right.
I focused on the Lord to calm my soul. I wasn’t about to make the mistake I made in The Arena against Winston.
“You know, when I leave Heaven to be about the Father’s work on Earth, I still feel the pain at times from when Frederick shot me in the head. I feel the agony of losing my family, and the heartache of not being there to try and protect them like a good, loving husband and father should. I feel the s
orrow of knowing that they died alone, scared, and without me there to protect them, or to die alongside them at the very least. I reached down and grabbed Abush by his armor and held him up in the air. His body was broken, and his spirit was crushed.
“You said you wouldn’t hurt me anymore, and that book you follow says let your yeses be yes and your no’s be no. I was there when The One first decreed that before he cast me out.”
I lowered Abush to the floor and gently leaned him up against the wall as he chuckled quietly to himself. “Yeah that’s right. What a good boy you are. I know you are bound by The One’s word.”
He laughed again to himself as he pulled on his demonic powers to heal his broken body. Within moments he was back on his feet and whole again. Well, almost whole. The right side of his face was permanently destroyed by The Blood. He could never fix that.
Abush seemed not to mind at the moment. “All of you followers of The One need a lesson in wisdom. I got you to give your word that you wouldn’t hurt me anymore, and now you cannot ever destroy me. I really must thank you because you just made me Lucifer’s most valuable servant now that I am the only Watcher left that can see. This group of Watchers always was pathetic. You really should have destroyed me when you had the chance.” He laughed in my face uncontrollably.
My face of anger turned to one of joy as I began to smile and laugh with him as he took his metaphorical victory lap. Within moments, Abush noticed my face and asked, “What has you so happy? Don’t tell me you find my ease of manipulating you as funny as I do.”
“No, I don’t find anything you’ve done funny, but what I do find funny is your lack of understanding of the situation. I never promised I wouldn’t hurt you. I said you wouldn’t suffer any more than your underlings. Tell your boss his days of spying on the masses are over.”
“Wait! You gave me your word, and you are bound by it!”
“I did, and I fully intend to honor it.”
I smiled as panic set in on Abush as I called forth The Blood of Jesus to pour down upon him, immediately melting away his armor and forever blinding every eye that made up his body. He collapsed on the floor and wailed out in agony like the rest of the Watchers. I had successfully fulfilled the plan the Lord had sent me out to do.
I walked through the mass of twisted and broken spirits and turned to take one last look before I left The Watchers Citadel.
“Thy will be done, Lord.”
Chapter Eleven
Alec Williams
Baron’s Italian Restaurant
AFTER PAUL DISAPPEARED before my eyes, I looked at my watch and realized we had been gone for most of the day, and I had about ten minutes to meet Tiffany at Baron’s for dinner. Fortunately, the restaurant wasn’t too far away, so I gathered up my things, and secured a ride. I was only a few minutes late to the dinner when I sat down at the table. “I’m sorry I’m late. The meeting Paul and I had taken longer than I had hoped, but you look amazing in that dress. I must say, babe, that ring looks so good on your finger. Like it was specifically made for you. Have I told you that lately?”
Tiffany looked slightly annoyed and amazing at the same time in her purple dress, but when she looked down at her ring, all the irritation melted away into a smile. “I know, I haven’t been able to stop looking at it all day. I don’t think I got much work done.”
“Well, rumor has it the head guy at the company is sweet on you, so I’m thinking he’ll let you slide this time. But I wouldn’t make a habit out of it I hear he can be pretty tough at times.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“It’s true. I mean, I might be able to protect you the first couple of times, but then it will be out of my hands at that point.”
She flashed a sarcastic smile. “Ha. Ha. Ha. Very funny. So how was the meeting you and Paul had? It must have been an important one since you were in it for hours. Did the two of you even take a break? Also, no one was able to get a hold of you all day. What was your meeting about?”
I tried to hide my panic as the images of the battle Paul had with Lucifer and Death, and how that demon appeared out of nowhere almost killed me. What I hated the most was how totally and utterly useless I was in the fight. I was completely helpless to aid Paul or even defend myself. What would I do if one of those demons ever came after Tiffany, and Paul wasn’t there? On top of that, I saw Paul do things I never knew he could do or that were even possible.
I stumbled over my words as my mind raced for some sort of plausible excuse. “It was ah, it was um. It was good. We met with some very powerful people who are not easy to deal with in the slightest. Although, we got a lot of things done in the meeting. Made a lot of good headway. Both parties know now where the other stands. But we are not out of the woods yet. Far.... Far from that.”
Tiffany gave me a puzzled look “Are you okay? You’re acting weird.”
I wanted to tell her everything that happened, and everything that had transpired just before she came back into my life. I didn’t want to scare her away, but didn’t she have a right to know what she was getting into? It was far more than dealing with crazy in-laws. Just as I was about to break, Paul’s words rang in my ear of not telling her about him or the situation we now faced. I couldn’t put her life in jeopardy any more than it already was due to her closeness to me. Maybe if she didn’t know, Lucifer would leave her out of it.
I reached across the table and took her hand and forced a smile. “I can’t share anything about the deal Paul and I are working on right now. Paul made us all sign a non-disclosure agreement until the deal is complete. You know how cautious he can be, but I assure you everything is fine. Especially now that you will soon be Mrs. Williams. That sounds so nice. Mrs. Williams. What do you think?”
“I think it’s presumptuous of you to think that as a woman in business in this day and age I would automatically drop my name and take yours just because you’ve asked me to marry you.”
I choked. First, a literal fight with the devil and now this? For a second, I didn’t know which was scarier. “You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s your name. You should do what’s best for you.”
She blushed and pushed back her stunning brown hair. Then she laughed. “I didn’t say I didn’t want to be Mrs. Williams. I just said it was presumptuous of you to assume.”
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to say now,” I said, clearly out of my league.
“You’re off the hook,” she said. “If you must know, I actually practiced saying Tiffany Williams, and I liked it. I can’t wait to marry you, Alec. I love you so much, and I’m so happy God brought us back together.”
“Me too, and this time nothing is going to break us apart.”
I leaned across the table for two and gave her a kiss. She glanced past me. “Hey, is that, Paul over there?”
I turned my head and saw the hostess hand a thin box to Paul. He must have called in a pizza to go, and it didn’t appear he noticed we were there.
Tiffany didn’t let him get away. “Hey, Paul!”
Paul turned and smiled when he saw us and walked over to the table with his pizza in hand. “Hey guys, I didn’t know you were going to be here tonight, or I would have totally joined you on your obvious date.”
“The funny thing is I know you would have probably done that,” I said.
“Congratulations again on your engagement. I’m very happy for you. I hope I’m invited.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “You’re going to be right there next to me as my best man.”
“You got it, bro. I’m honored, and I’ll take care of everything. Just let me know what you need.”
“Speaking of taking care of everything,” Tiffany chimed in. “Alec told me you guys are working on something big. Do you need any help from my department with any reports or support staff?”
Paul flashed a concerned face at me. “Oh, he did, did he? What did he tell you?”
“He didn’t tell me really anything about it other than it was a
big deal. He said you made all the parties sign a non-disclosure agreement, and nothing can be shared until after the deal is finalized. Which, by the way, is great discernment on your part, Paul. I can see why Alec trusts you so much.”
Paul’s face quickly changed to a smile. “Yes well, you can’t ever be too careful when you’re working on major deals that have the potential to impact a lot of people’s lives.”
Tiffany perked up after Paul’s last comment. “Oh, I just remembered, speaking of lives. Do either one of you know about a machine made by the company called The Life Giver?”
I choked on my glass of water as she said those words and coughed repeatedly.
Paul set down his pizza and slapped me on the back a few times. “Easy now buddy. Are you okay?”
Tiffany grabbed her phone like she was going to call 911 over a simple water went down the wrong way incident. That heart attack and coma scare sure had her on guard. I liked how she was concerned for me.
“Yeah thanks, Paul, I’m fine. Just went down the wrong pipe.”
But it wasn’t fine. How did Tiffany know about The Life Giver machine? I had to get to the bottom of it, but I had to be careful not to make her suspicious at the same time.
I wiped water off my mouth and took a couple of short breaths. “I’ve never heard of that machine before. Are you sure we make it?”
“Well, the reason I ask is I got a phone call today. It was from a guy who said his name was Louis Bails from inventory, and he needed to locate the machine for a physical inventory audit he was conducting. He said we showed record of it, but he couldn’t find where it was located. I also didn’t see any record of a physical audit being conducted by the company. Do either of you know about this?”
“What did you tell him?” Paul asked.
“First, I ran a search in the company database for Louis Bails, and when I didn’t see any record of him, I asked him what department he was with again. He insisted he was just hired with the inventory department, and his credentials hadn’t been uploaded yet. I told him until they do, I can’t share any information with him. Then he hung up on me.”
The Symphony of Death Page 8
