The Symphony of Death

by Matthew Newson

  I felt the demonic poison he had on the edge of his blade as it entered my system. I stumbled under the effects as they began to take hold on my central nervous system. Lucifer quickly turned and saw his strike had found its mark as I struggled to stay on my feet.

  He laughed.

  Lucifer strolled to me as I backed up, trying to keep my focus on him as my vision went in and out. I commanded The Blood of Jesus to flow from my hand as I pressed it against the wound and prayed for the Lord to help me. If I couldn’t get the poison removed fast, I was a goner, and so was the rest of the world.

  Lucifer sadistically smiled as he relished in the moment. “You’re feeling it now, aren’t you? My special poison is now coursing through your body with each beat of your heart. I bet you wished now The One hadn’t given you back your physical body. Oh well, and this time he can’t run in here and save you because he doesn’t even know this place exists.”

  I dropped to one knee and my face twisted in agony as I fought through the pain. Lucifer slowed his pace even more, undoubtedly, to savor the moment as he prepared to deliver his killing strike. “Out of all of the followers of The One I have killed, I’m going to enjoy ending your life the most.”

  I choked. “You know I’ll come back even if you kill me. You know you’ll never be rid of me unless I’m sent to The Pit of Eternal Suffering.”

  “That’s true, but after Death returns and enters the machine, I will have the power to destroy all of Heaven, including you.”

  Lucifer now stood before me and raised his sword to sever my head. “Any last words Man Wrapped in Darkness? Before I send you back to your maker?”

  I nodded yes and looked him dead in the eye.

  I pooled all power and authority within me. “You’re not the only one who can be deceptive.”

  I punched my right fist into the ground and caused my darkness to shoot up from it with spikes all throughout Lucifer’s body. He screamed out in pain from the injury, and then I caused more of my dark spires to impale him where he stood and locked him in place. I rose to my feet and laughed in his face as he struggled to catch his breath.

  “I poisoned you! You should be dead right now and being sent back to Heaven!”

  “Yes, but I’m immune to your poisons now. Jesus gave me something special to counteract your venom. You see, he gave me the ability to release his Blood.” I held up my Blood-covered hands. “I allowed you to cut my side, and as soon as you did, I placed my hand over the wound and released Jesus’s Blood into the infected area. While I rid myself of the poison, you dropped your guard. Honestly, after what I did to your Watchers you should have expected this, but I guess you were blinded by your pride”

  “You lied,” Lucifer said.

  “I didn’t lie. All I did was kneel to the ground, and you saw what you wanted to see.”

  “You’re a deceiver, and you’re no better than me.”

  “I am better than you in every way, and in the end, that more than justifies the means. I find it funny that you, the one who has deceived entire nations of people, was so easily deceived himself. Now I have beaten you. And you know what? It was easy.”

  I passed through my dark spikes unaffected as Lucifer fought to free himself. He cursed me relentlessly as I approached him. Fear had fully consumed him, and he was completely helpless. I placed my sword in its sheath for the moment. Lucifer’s fallen nature of a snake had fully manifested, and as I approached, he tried to bite at me. As he bared his fangs, I quickly grabbed them with my hands that were covered in The Blood of Jesus, and ripped them out of his mouth and stabbed them as deep as I could into his chest. Lucifer released a cry of pain that I knew all of Hell heard.

  “That was for my mother and father,” I said.

  Lucifer convulsed in pain as he tried to free himself and fight back, but he couldn’t because the presence of The Lord in my darkness kept him in place. I rubbed The Blood of Jesus all over my fists as Lucifer coughed up a mouthful of his blackened blood.

  “Now, wait a minute, let’s be reasonable here,” he said.

  He was terrified, and I loved every second of it, because he deserved every bit of it and worse than what I could do to him after all the horrific things he had done. But until he was cast into the Lake of Fire for all eternity, that would have to do.

  I delivered a hard, right punch to his face. The Blood immediately burned and scarred it.

  “That was for my wife.”

  I landed a hard left. “That was for my sons!”

  Another right. “For Alec!”

  Another left. “For Tiffany!”

  Another right. “For my brother!”

  Then I punched him as hard as I could straight in the mouth and shattered his teeth. “And that’s for crossing paths with me!”

  Lucifer’s face looked like a bloody mess of charred hamburger meat because The Blood of Jesus stopped him from making himself whole again. I drew my sword as he mumbled. “I’m the prince of darkness, and you’re just a worm.”

  “Wrong again. I’m The Man Wrapped in Darkness.”

  Lucifer spit out another mouthful of blood. “Go ahead, finish it, but you still haven’t beaten me.”

  “We’ll see about that.” I began to swing my sword and saw what looked like a smile form on his severely beaten face as I severed his head from his body.

  As his head fell to the ground, everything went black for me.

  Chapter Twenty

  Alec Williams

  Williams Point, New York

  The Forgotten Town of Paradise

  I RUSHED TIFFANY INTO the only structure I saw made of stone as Paul and Lucifer went at it. We heard shouts of pain, and I was relieved when I recognized the voice wasn’t Paul’s. I held Tiffany close and reassured her everything was going to be okay, but truth be told, I held her as if it was the last chance I’d ever get to.

  Tiffany’s voice shook. “What in the world is going on?”

  “It’s hard to explain right now, but as soon as Paul takes care of Lucifer, I promise to tell you everything. Right now, we need to pray the Lord strengthens Paul and saves us.”

  “Is that really Lucifer? Like Lucifer from the Bible?”

  Another cry of pain filled our ears as the sound of metal striking metal echoed off the walls. “Yes, now please pray we make it through this, and I’ll explain everything to you as soon as we’re safe.”

  There was a loud explosion which shook the stone room we were in, and then everything went silent. I listened for cries of pain, but all I heard was the humming of The Life Giver machine still operating in the distance. Before I stepped out, I turned to Tiffany. “Stay here, I’m going to check on Paul and make sure he’s okay.”

  “You’re not leaving me alone! I’m going with you.”

  I thought of protesting, but decided against it. She had already been through enough, and I didn’t want her alone if Lucifer and Death hadn’t been defeated yet. As I stepped out of the room, I held Tiffany’s hand to keep her close to me. I looked around for Lucifer, and was grateful when I didn’t see any trace of him, but then again, I didn’t see any signs of Paul either. As I frantically looked all around for him, I saw a pitted place on the ground that was blackened and still smoldered as we walked up to it.

  It had to be the place where that blast happened, and so I prayed to God that Paul was alright as I looked for any sign of him. Up ahead, I saw movement and heard footsteps. It had to be Paul. The blast must have thrown him into the woods, and I was relieved when I saw a darkened figure step out into the open with his back to me.

  “Hey, Paul, did you defeat Lucifer? Have we won?”

  Paul didn’t turn around and face me when I called out to him. He continued to face The Life Giver, not moving a single muscle. Maybe the blast had deafened him for a moment, so Tiffany and I walked toward him as I called out louder. “Hey, Paul, hurry up and destroy the machine, so we can get out of here.”

  “Now, why would I want to do that when I haven’t
even used it yet?”

  Tiffany and I stopped dead in our tracks as the man I thought was Paul turned and faced us. We immediately started to backtrack to keep a safe distance from Death. We watched in horror as the scratches on his face healed, and the cuts and tears in his clothes instantly repaired themselves until he stood in front of us completely made anew.

  “You’re right about one thing, Alec,” Death said. “Lucifer has been defeated and sent back to Hell. I, however, am still very much in this fight, and I plan on ending what he and I started.”

  “Oh no, Alec,” Tiffany cried out.

  “Your champion is gone, and you don’t possess the strength to stop me. Sooner or later I come for everyone, and the only thing you can count on in your life is that one day Death will come for you. I find it amusing how people try and stop me by living a healthy life through diet and exercise, or even giving of yourself in an endless pursuit of The One. But in the end, everyone has to go, and now the time for all has come.”

  “Please, stop! You don’t have to do this,” I said.

  “Oh, but I want to. You cannot buy me off or reason with me. Try as you might to stall, in the end I will fulfill what I was created to do.”

  “Alec, what are we going to do?” Tiffany asked.

  “You’re going to die,” Death said. “Kiss your lover goodbye one last time, for this is the end.” He turned to face The Life Giver and proceeded toward the machine.

  He stopped and turned his head in our direction. “Tiffany, you remind me of her.”

  “What?”

  “Someone who inspired me to be more than I was, but she’s dead now. No matter. Even if she were alive, she would die in this endeavor all the same.”

  Death flashed a smile before he continued to make his way to the machine. He wanted to prolong the moment, but maybe we could use his hubris to our advantage. I had to find Paul. He was the only way we, and all of humanity, was going to make it out alive.

  I frantically looked around for Paul, and I saw movement about thirty feet to my left. As I looked closer, I saw he had been knocked back into a wall of one of the buildings that still stood. His black outfit had blended him into the darkened wall. I practically dragged Tiffany behind me as I raced to him, only to find him unconscious and stuck in the stone. He appeared to be in pretty bad shape, and his body convulsed every few seconds.

  “Oh my God, what happened to him?” Tiffany uttered.

  “He’s banged up pretty bad, but he’s still breathing.”

  Death was getting closer to the machine, so I shook Paul hard to get him to wake up. “Get up, buddy we need you to do your thing! Get up now, Paul, Death is about to enter The Life Giver. This isn’t over yet.”

  Paul didn’t move or make a sound. “Come on, buddy this isn’t funny. Death’s heading into the chamber and will end all life on the planet. Get Up!”

  I grabbed Paul by his black uniform coat, and pulled him out of the wall and he landed on the ground with a thud but didn’t make a sound. I looked over my shoulder and saw Death was about twenty feet away from the machine. “Jesus, please wake him up! Jesus! Please, Paul get up,” but he still didn’t respond.

  I heard the still, small voice of the Lord through my shouts and all the chaos. “This next part of the battle isn’t Paul’s, but yours and yours alone.”

  At that moment I knew what I had to do. I stood and kissed Tiffany as passionately as I could. That kiss was sweeter than anything I had ever tasted, and for the first time ever, I felt peace about what I was supposed to do with my life.

  “I have always loved you, and no matter what happens here we will be together again someday.”

  Before Tiffany had a chance to stop me, I ran toward Death as fast as I could. I heard Tiffany as she yelled out for me to come back, but my mind was made up, and there was no going back. Death stood in front of the chamber, pressed the green button by the door, and stepped inside.

  Instantly, the giant turbines that were pointed toward the sky kicked on and sent a greenish colored smoke into the atmosphere. It started to turn the sky the color of fire.

  That was it. Death had begun to release himself into the atmosphere to bring about The End outside of God’s time. As I reached the door, I didn’t know how I was going to stop him.

  “Jesus, please help me defeat Death. I can’t do it without you.” Then I opened the door and ran inside to do what the Lord made me to do.

  Death had his back to me as I jumped into the chamber.

  He spun around in surprise. “What are you doing in here?”

  I barely heard him due to all the noise. It felt like I was in a giant wind tunnel. “Stopping you!” I yelled.

  It looked as if billions of dots made up his body. They peeled away and flowed out of him and into the ducts that fed into the engines. I became lightheaded, my vision blurred, and my nose began to bleed. I had been infected the moment I entered the chamber, and now I was dying.

  But I still had to try and stop him.

  I fought to stay on my feet as the wind whipped about me in the chamber. As The Blood freely streamed from my nose some of it got caught up in the current and landed on Death’s hand. He screamed out and appeared to be in pain from it, like a potent acid had been poured on him. Then I watched as all the skin on his hand melted away, and left only the bare bones.

  Death stared at his skeletal hand. “What have you done to me? You can’t stop this, no one can stop this, and not even The One himself can get in the way this time. I will finish what I have begun!”

  I felt all the strength being drained from my body, and the longer I stayed in the chamber the weaker I became. I decided to put all my strength into one final attack as I charged at Death. Maybe I could grab him and pull him out of the machine or hurt him somehow at the very least. As I rushed toward him, Death pulled a knife from behind his back. Before I could stop, he thrust it into my stomach and pushed me back across the chamber. I slammed hard into the wall and slid down to the floor as Death stood over me with the knife covered in my blood.

  “Unlike when The Man in White attacked, the blade is real and not a spirit one. You feel it don’t you? As you sit there on the ground taking your final breaths you will pass on from the world knowing that as hard as you tried you still failed. Lucifer should have let me take care of you long ago, but I guess I must thank you because without you, none of this would have happened. You and your friend, The Man Wrapped in Darkness, have come up short I’m afraid. Now I will usher in Hell on Earth. I think I’m going to take your life last, so you can see your lovely fiancée dead. After you have seen her cold, lifeless body, and all the destruction your family company has made possible, only then will I take your life.”

  All my confidence and hope were drained from me as my mouth filled with blood.

  In a final act of defiance, I spit it at Death. The furious air that whipped about the chamber grabbed hold of it and caused it to land on the right side of Death’s face. He screamed out in agony as the skin melted off to reveal his jaw and cheek bones.

  “What have you done?” Death cried out as more of my blood landed on him. Every place it landed it ate away his flesh and exposed the bone underneath. “What are you doing? Stop it, you’re ruining everything! No. No. No. My plague, my beautiful plague is dying!”

  I coughed up more blood, and I knew it was the end for me.

  “That’s funny,” I said. “I didn’t know Death could die.” I began to laugh. After all, it was probably the last time I ever would, and after everything Lucifer and the forces of Hell had taken from me it felt good to finally take something from them.

  As my blood filled the swirling air around us, Death continued to scream in extreme pain and surprise as he watched the flesh from his body melt away to leave only the skeleton. He no longer had eyes in his sockets to see, but he held up his bony hands and cried out in sorrow. “No!”

  “Finally,” I said. “Your true self has been exposed. You can’t hide who you really ar
e any longer, none of us can.”

  Death tried to reply, but his words came out incoherent and jumbled. He attempted several more times to say something, but nothing he said made any sense. As I slowly bled out on the floor of the chamber of The Life Giver, I tried to say one last thing. “Now, in the name of Jesus, to Hell with you.”

  Death released a gargled moan as he appeared to dissolve away and get sucked out into the ducts. As soon as he was gone, the machine turned off and the wind died down.

  The machine was completely silent.

  I sat there for a moment and caught my breath to gather what little strength I could muster as I pulled myself up. In spite of the pain, I was filled with peace and joy, and with a smile on my face, I stepped out of the chamber and into the open air.

  The night sky was black again, and The Life Giver engines had shut down. Even the computer monitor had gone dark. Had I done it? Had I stopped The End from coming before the time? I pressed my hand hard against the wound Death inflicted upon me as I limped out into the open. I knew I was dying, and there was nothing I could do to stop it from happening.

  I was okay with that.

  The loss of blood started to take effect because Tiffany and Paul looked like two blurry blobs as they ran toward me. When they got close, my eyes focused, and I saw the look of pure excitement and joy on their faces.

  “I did it, Paul. I stopped Death in the chamber. He turned into a skeleton before my eyes, and disappeared. Is everyone okay?”

  Paul replied with a smile. “Yes, brother, you did it. Everyone is safe.”

  “Where’s Tiffany?”

  She arrived a few seconds after Paul. “I’m here, and we’re going to have a long talk about you running off and leaving me like that when we get back,” She said somewhat playfully.

  Her happy face turned to concern when she saw my appearance. I tried to say something to her, but the loss of blood had fully taken its hold as the last bit of strength gave out and I collapsed to the ground. Paul and Tiffany immediately knelt beside me.