by P. K. Tyler
"No bars. I have no idea what's going on, Adel, but I can't get a line out and I can't leave her alone."
Delphina screamed, her eyes popping open and staring in front of her at nothing. "No. No!"
Delphina leaned forward, straining all the muscles in her neck and face.
"The baby's coming," Adel announced.
"That's not possible. She can't be pregnant!" Zeph paced near the door trying not to look at the horror going on in front of him.
Adel took Delphina's hand and held on while propping the nun's body up. "It doesn't really matter now, does it Zeph? You're going to have to deliver the baby."
"No, no way." He stepped back.
"Stop being a prude, you have to help her."
"You do it. I'll hold her head." Zeph felt bad as soon as he said it, knowing he was being ridiculous. It was just birth. There was no reason for him to be such a wimp about it. He looked to Delphina's swollen middle, then down to the bloody mess between her legs.
He stammered, clenching and unclenching his fists before swearing under his breath and kneeling on the ground.
He could feel the blood and fluids from the carpet soak his sleeping pants and the smell almost made him gag.
“Oh for fuck’s sake…”
"Aren't you the one who keeps giving me a hard time about talking like that in the church?" Adel joked, but before he could respond Delphina began to moan.
She rocked side to side. Her head rested on Adel's lap while her knees bent up. She cried out in a deep voice, low and guttural and full of pain.
The electric bees buzzed louder in Zeph's ears.
He placed a hand on her abdomen, feeling the contractions that squeezed her body.
She let out a long scream, barely forming the word help, stretching it out like a beacon to God, then lay still. Her legs dropped flat to either side, leaving her completely exposed.
"Delphina?" Adel whispered, patting the nun's face and feeling for a pulse. "Sister, please!"
"Oh fuck, oh man, shit, this isn't happening." Zeph watched as Delphina's body oozed a thick black liquid. It globbed out of her, just as a baby should have, but instead, this was evil. He knew this substance, had seen Nik expel and banish it back to Hell countless times.
Like a baby's head crowning, the black ooze pulsed and stretched her wide open. Whatever pushed its way out of her pressed out, distorting her body as it came. Her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears dripped the thick black, as though she were giving birth through every opening available.
"What's going on?" Adel asked.
Zeph looked up and her hands were coated in the blackness. She held them up in front of her, terror in her eyes. He wanted to scream at her to get it off her skin, to wipe it away, to cleanse her flesh before God, but before he could, Delphina's lifeless body seized and a slick black creature fell from her womb and into the world.
“Don't just stare at it, pick him up." Adel placed her fingertips on Delphina's neck, searching for a pulse.
Zeph stared at the slimy creature on the ground before him. It looked like it had been dipped in black wax. The scent of sulfur and shit filled the room. "I have to call the police. There are two dead bodies here."
"Pick up the baby," Adel directed as the newborn infant mewled.
With a shudder, Zeph grabbed the throw blanket off his couch and bent down. The baby squirmed, wriggling in the black goo still oozing from Sister Delphina. He thought of the amphibians he and Adel used to catch when the visited the lake as a child. Mud Puppies. Disgusting bottom feeders that burrowed in their own filth.
Its mouth opened and a tiny tongue darted out just before the thing began to cry.
"Shhh, shhh," he soothed as he picked it up. He held the baby out from his body, staring at its slime covered face, searching for the secrets of its existence.
"Oh, give him to me." Adel held her arms out and Zeph practically shoved the infant at her, happy to be rid of the responsibility.
She cradled it in her arms, wiping away the thick slime with a corner of the blanket. "You're okay aren't you? Yeah, you're fine now. No one's going to hurt you here."
Under layers of black sludge, the fresh pink skin of a human newborn was revealed.
"See Zeph, nothing to be afraid of. He's just a baby."
"No, he's not."
"What are you talking about?" Adel hugged the infant to her chest tightly, wrapping a protective arm around it.
"There's no umbilical cord. We should have had to cut an umbilical cord. And Sister Delphina wasn't pregnant yesterday."
"How would you even know under all those robes?"
"I would have noticed that." Zeph gestured to the horror show spread out on his floor. The black goo from between Delphina's legs had stopped flowing but now bubbled as if generating its own heat. He crossed himself and took a step away from the spreading black puddle.
"A baby has no responsibility for the sins of its parents. You of anyone should understand that."
"But what if it's not a baby?"
Adel frowned and refused to meet her brother's gaze. Instead she gazed down at the babe batting its eyelashes at her innocently. "We need to get him something to eat."
"This isn't The Babysitter's Club, Adel!" Zeph was losing his tenuous hold on his temper. It burned under his skin, seeking an exit. He called to mind his favorite verse from Ephesians: Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.
He took a deep breath and focused on his heartbeat, calming himself in the same way he did when tempted by other, more carnal sins.
In his bedroom, his cell phone rang. The sound startled him, it felt out of place, like he were living in a time before electricity and suddenly someone showed up with a flashlight.
"Shit." He slipped on the black goo as he rushed to get the phone but caught himself in time so he didn't end up splayed across Delphina's corpse.
"Zeph? Are you okay?" Nik's urgent voice hit him as soon as he answered the phone.
"Not even a little. Things here are... things here are hard to explain." He looked back at the scene in his office. Delphina's body lay on the floor while Adel cradled the impossible infant in her arms.
"Something's not right. I can feel it. Things here have gone sideways in such mammoth proportions I don't even know where to start."
"Here too."
"Something big is coming," Nik said without any of his usual drama, which scared Zeph more than anything else.
"I think something big might already be here." Zeph closed his bedroom door and filled Nik in on the two dead nuns and the oil slicked baby who had come into the world without preamble or the necessity of an umbilical cord.
CHAPTER TWO
Adel held the beautiful infant in her arms. It gurgled and played with her hair, reaching out with a smile in a way a newborn shouldn't yet be capable of.
"You're smart, aren't you? Smart and special."
The demon within her, Asmodeus, swelled with pride. This was his doing. He brought Lucifer's child into being. As his pride and Adel's love grew in direct proportion, their goals aligned once again.
"We'll need to get you something to eat, sweet boy."
Belial, Asmodeus whispered in her ear.
"Belial, what a lovely name." She stroked the baby's face, wiping away any lingering stains from its birth. A miracle birth. A perfect baby to replace the one she'd had to sacrifice, the one she'd cut out of that whore's stomach. This was her reward.
"Mama," Belial responded, staring into Adel's eyes with an awareness that should have frightened her.
Adel's smile would have shone for miles if they were outside. So bright, it would have been a spotlight to the heavens. This was the life she should have always had.
Her baby whimpered and she frowned. "I know, my love. You're hungry."
The whimper turned into a pitiful cry.
He needs sustenance, he needs the ichor of God.
Adel didn't know what it meant,
the voice in her head. She couldn't remember exactly when it had begun speaking to her or why she listened, but she knew in her bones that he was right. The voice had been right at every turn. Even when she was unsure, when she listened to the voice things worked out for her. The longer it whispered in her ear, the less she resisted. Sometimes, she felt like a spectator, watching herself do things she couldn't imagine, but always he protected her.
She'd come to think of the voice as her own guardian angel.
And now, it whispered for her to feed her child. And so she would.
Adel scooped some of the bubbling black afterbirth pooling beneath the nun into her hand. Its thick consistency glommed to her skin, wrapping around her fingers in a slippery embrace.
Belial reached out for her hand. He pulled it to his mouth and latched on. He suckled, his tongue curling to match the curve of her finger, and closed his eyes. The black goo flowed along Adel's skin, slipping down her hand as he sucked.
When he finished, Adel scooped up more. The sludge seemed to flow toward her, attracted to her flesh when she reached for it. Like Mercury, like was attracted to like.
Belial drank every drop, burped and stretched in his makeshift swaddle. As his tiny body reached up, it elongated, growing before Adel's eyes.
"You're getting strong," she cooed, running her fingers through his soft, downy hair. Black as night to match his deep-set eyes.
Belial tilted his baby head and smiled. Two teeth gleamed in the dim lamp light.
He needs more, the voice inside her said.
Adel looked around the room, searching for something more substantial to feed her growing boy. Such a miraculous birth must have taken so much out of him. She imagined he must be starving, his growing body needing nourishment the way plants need the sun.
"Mama," Belial reached out for her face. His tiny palm laid flat against her cheek. "Mama." This time, he said her name as a mournful wail.
Her baby was hungry. It was her job to feed him.
Her gaze fell upon Delphine's cooling corpse. If the afterbirth had helped him grow so fast and she had been his incubator while he prepared to come to Adel, perhaps what he needed was more from his birth mother.
Flesh of my flesh...
Adel would never be able to express how thankful she felt toward Delphina. The nun had given so much, had given her very life, only to bring Belial into the world. She was a holy vessel.
The baby's cries grew loud and desperate and the sound sent pain through her body. Her stomach clenched and her breasts ached, but she had no milk to give.
Holding Belial in one arm, Adel knelt down and palpated Delphina's breast. Perhaps she had started to produce milk before she died.
Belial squirmed in her embrace, reaching for his dead mother's body. He wiggled and cried, straining to get to the body.
Adel set him on her chest. Maybe the contact would soothe him. She hated not being able to give him what he needed herself.
You gave him life, you ushered him into existence. You and I together, we are one. We are his mother and father on Earth.
A memory filled her mind, a flash of Delphina on her hands and knees while a hulking beast of a man with a glint of fire in his black eyes plunged deep inside her. She remembered watching as he released his seed deep within the nun's body. The vision terrified her and sent a thrill of erotic passion through her veins. She had been there at Belial’s conception.
"Mama," the baby whined, pawing at Delphina's breast. He lifted his head and looked at Adel with inky black tears welling in his eyes.
"Yes, my baby." Adel pulled Delphina's collar down, exposing her breast.
Belial crawled up her body and latched onto a nipple with a contented moan.
Adel knew there couldn't be anything in there for him to drink, and yet he suckled and mewled like a contented kitten nursing at the warm breast of its mother.
When Belial looked up, his mouth dripped blood and Delphina's nipple had been bitten off.
"Was that what you needed, sweet boy?" She pulled the dress sideways, exposing the other breast for her baby to enjoy.
In the back room, she could hear Zeph’s voice rising. Her brother, the perfect priest. The image of sacrifice and self-congratulatory judgment. She loved him just as much as she hated him, but she knew he'd never love her enough. He'd never understand the things she'd done, never understand why this baby had to be protected.
Because he isn't like us, he doesn't see things clearly. The voice in her head egged her on. It spoke of her brother's sins, both real and imagined. Of the things she suffered because of him. If he hadn't been with Nik, if he hadn't left her alone... She longed for his approval but could never forgive him.
Together, we need no one. We need nothing but our mission. We require no one but Belial.
Yes, she thought. Together, we are whole.
She opened her mind and felt the life within her swell, filling her heart and soul, overshadowing her sense of self until she couldn't tell where she began and he ended.
Now, she knew what her baby needed. She grabbed scissors from Zeph's desk and opened Delphina's slack jaw. It would harden soon, Rigor Mortis would set in and then the body would begin to decay. She still had time, though.
She reached inside the nun's mouth and pulled her tongue out as far as she could before cutting it off at the base. She expected it to bleed, to stain her clothes. A part of her even expected Delphina to resist, to fight back or scream. Instead, the tongue came out easily, barely dripping from its postmortem wound.
The tongue, warm and squishy to the touch, fit into Adel's purse easily. She proceeded to cut off toes, and one ear, even a pinky finger. Anything she could that Zeph wouldn't notice missing.
Belial finished his meal and sat up. His belly plump and full, his middle a pile of rolling fat, he made a picture perfect baby but for the tissue stuck between his now full set of teeth.
"You are so strong!" Adel marveled and clapped.
Belial laughed a sweet baby giggle and clapped his hands back.
Adel reached for him, her son, and lifted him into the air. "Zeph will never understand, we have to keep this a secret." She pulled Delphina's shirt closed and tipped her chin up to shut her tongueless mouth, wiping away the coagulated blood that squeezed through her lips like jelly.
She dipped a corner of the blanket into a glass of water on the table next to the couch. How long had that been there? Adel briefly wondered if it was the same glass she'd drunk from after first hearing Asmodeus. How little she'd understood then. She could have never guessed she had been selected out of a world of women to care for Belial. She could have never imagined she would be so lucky.
The moist cloth of the blanket easily removed the blood from Belial’s skin. The black tears dried and wiped away. With her fingernail, she pulled a hunk of flesh from between the baby's teeth and fed it to him with a light heart.
Behind them, Zeph's voice had stopped and she looked around to make sure there was no evidence of Belial’s meal. He would think the baby evil or unholy when really the child was simply unique. So unique there had never been one like him before. The soul of an angel born into human form.
"Adel, I called the police, they'll be here soon, but we have to go."
"Where?" She asked, turning to her brother with a now toddler sized Belial in her arms.
"What... How did..."
"He grew." She shrugged, offering no more information.
"What did you feed it?"
"Him, not it."
"Adel, that thing is unnatural. It is evil sent to walk among us. I'm sure of it now. This isn't a part of God's plan."
"God has nothing to do with this."
Shhh, Asmodeus cautioned, he'll never understand.
Zeph stared at her, eyes wide with disbelief.
"I just mean, you're right, this isn't the normal way of things. We need help." She gritted her teeth as she lied.
"Nik has some ideas and he's with people he trusts."
"Then we should go to him."
"Let me throw on some clothes and then we'll go. We'll take the parish car."
Adel nodded and tried not to smile. Yes, take us to the Sin Eater, she and Asmodeus thought as one. Take us so we can burn him alive and stomp on his ashen bones until they turn to dust.
Belial giggled and wrapped his arms around her neck in a loving embrace.
CHAPTER THREE
Ma rested on the small, floral sofa with her feet up.
"Dika, gather the implements."
Vai glared at her grandmother. “There’s a demon in the Crypt of Relics and all Hell has broken loose. What exactly are you two up to?"
“We’re going to summon angels.”
“Angels. Right, because they have a reputation for swooping in and saving the day.” Vai rolled her eyes. “Well, while you two are spinning your wheels, Nik and I will need to fight that demon somehow.”
Ma stubbornly shook her head.
Dika came back into the room carrying a small wooden box. “Not without the angels, you aren’t.”
“Ugh!” Vai threw her hands up. “Can’t we at least discuss another plan? Let’s try anything else before you two start that. I mean, what do you expect us to do when that fails?”
Nik felt dizzy, like he'd been watching a tennis match in mid-July and drinking a case of beer. The three gypsy women left his mind reeling.
“You mean if it fails, Vai? Oh, come on. Don’t look at me like that. I exorcise demons, consume their essence and send them back to Hell. I like to think I’m a fairly open-minded guy. Besides, they have access to an alternate realm. Maybe they can do this.”
Vai glared at him, hands on her hips. “And how do you suppose that works, Nik? Angels, like demons, can’t do shit in this realm without a human body.” She thrust a finger in the direction of their elders. The two women sat calmly on the sofa with their eyes closed. Vai’s lip curled, her nostrils flared. Her face flushed a dark red. “Their bodies.”
She spun around to face Ma and Dika, who opened their eyes simultaneously as though Vai’s fury was a physical force slamming into them.
