Jonathon started for the crypt when what sounded like a runaway train approached him from behind. CHUGGA-CHUGGA-CHUGGA. A lightning bolt flashed past him at great speed and it stabbed the demon that was approaching Jonathon from behind in the heart. It let out a horrific roar and it thrashed about, reaching for the lightning bolt, trying desperately to pull it from its heart before it was too late but it was too late. The lightning bolt cooked its black heart to a cinder and the demon cried a gut-wrenching cry that woke the dead from their beds of dirt before it turned to dust and was taken away by the powerful wind. The angel turned and threw another bolt of lightning and it stabbed another demon that was approaching Jonathon, this one in the neck and it began to bleed black blood. The demon let out a sickening roar as the souls of a thousand good men were freed from the depths of Hell and made their ways to Heaven. It vanished into a cloud of putrid black smoke and the angel took flight, disappearing into the Heavens that continued to pelt balls of steel at the cemetery below. Jonathon shed tears that stung his skin as they rolled down his cheeks. He looked around the cemetery, hoping for an answer to the question of what in God’s name had just happened.
The Heavens opened again and a ray of light shone down on the cemetery. Jonathon looked up and watched as an angel of extraordinary beauty descended and it came to rest in front of him. He looked into its eyes and could scarcely believe what he was seeing. The angel who was once the girl he loved and who he hoped to marry one day and who died in the other car when his father drifted onto the wrong side of the road smiled. “We have to endure the pain and hurt that comes hand in hand with the privilege of being on Planet Earth for our dreams to come true, Jonathon. And now that your dream has come true, it’s time to forgive your father and move on. God speed my friend, and may good fortune be your guide.” With that the angel took flight and disappeared into the sky which was grey with wet and stormy clouds again, but to Jonathon it was as much the light of the girl who was rewarded with a place in Heaven for enduring the pain and hurt that comes hand in hand with the privilege of being on Planet Earth. Yes his dream had come true, but at what price to those around him?
“Jonathon?”
It was Serena. She had seen everything and heard it too. She had dropped the book called THE BOOK OF DARK DREAMS and written by Jonathon’s father next to the cemetery gate, unable to share it with him because she loved him and because his father was gone now anyway so it didn’t matter. She ran to him and they embraced each other. She held him close and looked over his shoulder at all the headstones that marked the graves of dead men, women, and children, many of whom had gone to Heaven, some of whom were sure to have burnt in Hell. All of a sudden there was a great whooshing sound and a mighty, blood-thirsty roar. Serena screamed and Jonathon turned around. He saw a demon so putrid and dark it made him sick to his stomach and it approached him at a great speed with its jaws open wide and its razor-sharp teeth ready to bite into his flesh and tear his body to pieces. Here was a great writer who had spent much of his time writing stories of horror in the hope it might help him get over the real horror, that his father had killed the girl he loved, and now, a decade later, he found himself facing it all over again. And now, in his heart, he knew this was the moment he had been waiting for all his life and it was a moment that would decide his fate forever. It was time to be a man. It was time to face his father.
Jonathon let go of Serena and stepped toward the demon which was spitting flames of fire now and whose razor-sharp teeth bore the bloody flesh of the men, women, and children it had feasted upon. “I’m not afraid of you, Dad,” he said to the demon that came to a screeching halt in front of him and it roared and writhed in pain before vanishing in a cloud of putrid smoke and into the nether regions of Hell. Sweat dripped from Jonathon’s brow and adrenalin poured through his veins. He looked out of the corners of each eye for any sign of it but the cemetery was quiet now apart from the rain and he found none. When he was sure the demon was gone, he took in a deep breath of fresh air then let it out and with it came ten years of pain and hurt and anger that had welled inside him and he burst into tears as the load was lifted off his shoulders once and for all. He fell to his knees and cupped his face in his hands. Tears streamed down his face and he sobbed uncontrollably. For many years he had been free financially to do whatever he wanted and to go wherever he felt the want to go. It wasn’t until now that his soul was just as free as the man whose body it inhabited. All of a sudden he thought about Serena. He wiped away the tears and looked back at her. She was shivering as the cold air licked her wet skin and cowering from the bullets of rain that were still being pelted from the clouds above. He knew in that one moment he was in love with her and might also probably love her, but deep down he wondered if he could truly love anyone because the man he looked up to and the one who had taken his girlfriend with him one fateful night a decade ago loved no one but himself. The tears came back again as everything about what had just happened became crystal clear to him and the only dream he ever really had and one that had been lost over the last ten years between the dollars and cars and holidays to exotic places, not to mention the horror of losing a loved one let alone losing her in such a violent way, was the dream come true the angel had spoken of, the one in which he would love again, truly and from the heart. But it was more than that even. He knew this was his chance to be more than just a writer of horror. It was his chance to write a love story. One that would touch the hearts of those who read it and one that would be inspired by his own life as much as everything else he had written. He thought of his mother and father and the love they shared, the happiness and laughter too. He thought of his grandparents who in spite of everything they were told was right and wrong by an ignorant and at times arrogant institution still found it in their hearts to smile at each other and in their smiles they each saw the love the other had for them.
Serena watched him watch her. She wanted him and she knew she loved him because of how bad she felt for him, knowing what he had been through but feeling better knowing how strong he had become, so strong that he could stand up to the darkness his father idolized and move on from it. And after everything she had been through, after her own fight with the darkness that was so easily embraced by so many, it amazed her that her heart could be so full of love for a man she had only just met. But in all reality it wasn’t so amazing after all because she had known him for many years through the words he wrote on a page, words that said as much about him as they did about the characters he wrote them for. Perhaps what really amazed her was that he seemed to feel the same way about her as she did about him. At least she hoped he did.
He climbed to his feet and walked toward her in the pouring rain. With each step forward another brick was torn down and with every brick that was torn down there was a growing realization that his heart had found a home. He came to Serena and they threw their arms around each other and pressed their lips together. Their hearts beat as one again and they would for all time, proving once and for all that underneath the layers of life and all the lessons we had to learn from it, there was an energy that is in all of us and it is us and it is an energy that is only one thing. It is only love.
THE END
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69 INCHES OF STEEL
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