Skybound Satanists

by Spark, Luc

  Milan-Malpensa Airport, Italy, 1981

  ‘Thank the saints that flight is over I have never been so cramped and uncomfortable, and those bleeding kids staring at me through the chair I could have wrung their necks!’

  Jürgen was steaming with discontent at his economy class flight.

  Regardless of his inconvenience, he had arrived as instructed in the balmy Italian heat of Terminal one, which was quite a severe contrast from his working post in Siberia.

  Once through customs, Jürgen made his way over to Terminal 2 and decided to take a gander in the Swatch store. On display, a huge variety of high-quality watches were available to purchase. Whilst looking at one of the display cases Jürgen noticed a stocky pinned stripe suited man standing behind him. The unbelievable scene was confirmed with the man holding a copy of How to smoke electrical flex for kicks. This was the clarification that he was about to be led somewhere else probably to a waiting vehicle.

  “Signor Mixope we have been expecting you, please if you will follow me outside we have a car ready to transport you,” said the suited man.

  “How did you get a copy of my favorite literature?” asked Jürgen

  The suited man gave a smirk

  “Signor this is child’s play and besides you were flatmate of Marcello yes?”

  Jürgen decided not to bother asking any more questions and simply go with the flow and so made his way to the outside taxi area; sure enough there with the engine ticking over at idle was a gleaming DeLorean DMC-12. The bodywork was immaculate with the stainless steel catching the sunlight in glorious fashion. The windows had been blacked out so the driver could not be seen.

  “Signor welcome to Milan and the movement of Lucifer I wish you a pleasant onward journey,” said the suited man.

  Our twisted and slightly pudgier scientist from platefuls of stodgy Russian food gave a nod and entered the vehicle. Once the door had opened he caught sight of another suited man this one with full dark sunglasses and a pentagram hanging from his neck.

  This man gave no welcoming speech instead he gave off an outlook of indifference to the German scientist’s presence. Presently seated with his hand luggage on the back seats, he tugged on the pull strap an addition DeLorean made to allow shorter folk to close the doors easily.

  With that, the driver engaged the five-speed manual gearbox and they rolled away from the airport to a destination unknown to Jürgen. He was eager to discover the whereabouts of Marcello. Impetuously he grilled the driver for information.

  “Signor where are we headed to please?”

  The driver gave no reaction and continued with his indifference, this was making Jürgen slightly alarmed.

  ‘Marcello is my irrefutable friend I certainly should not worry too much about this disinterested driver and just focus on what it is impending once I arrive. All I can fathom of all this is my bio weaponry skills are of some use to him. Marcello seemingly has significance in this area of Italy so I shall just try to relax and keep a poker face’

  After about fifty minutes of traveling the car pulled into a side street, the engine was switched off and the driver finally spoke.

  “Signor you have arrived at your destination, will you now please grab your luggage and make your way to the south end of the street. You will see a sign for the Palazzo Reale; you shall stand in front of it and await contact”

  ‘I hope not all of Marcello’s associates are as abrupt or bossy as this guy, but I won’t rock the boat I just want to get to the bottom of all this’ Jürgen thought.

  His hand luggage was collected and he made his way as ordered to the street sign.

  The area was packed out with locals and tourists alike, how anybody would spot him in such a metropolitan environment was foremost of his concerns. He had only a small amount of money to acquire accommodation if things went not according to plan.

  The back of his neck was beginning to sunburn from the intense heat, and he was getting thirsty as there had been no refreshments on offer during the car journey.

  Suddenly a voice coming from his left shouted out.

  “My friend what a pleasant sight you are!”

  As clear as crystal it was his old flatmate no longer kitted out in sweat pants and a grubby t-shirt, now he had fine silk adorning his chiseled frame. Despite this, there was something slightly peculiar about his demeanor, not in the apparel he wore but it was something in the eyes that just did not appear very godly for a supposed man of the cloth. A mere mortal would not have been able to spot it but Jürgen being the ever clinical and precise being he was could not help himself.

  “As indeed are you it has been some time and many lands have separated us, how by the gods did you find me.And more to the finer point why did you seek me out?” Jürgen questioned.

  “Straight to business my old pal, that’s what I always remembered about you…you do not beat around the bush. Let us partake of some coffee… There is a treasure trove of cafes around here and I will explain everything to you. Just be provident because what I am about to disclose to you may shock you rigid or it may fill you with excitement. Come let’s go a find a café”

  With this, they headed down the bustling street and came across a café that was not too heaving with customers. Dmitri was already there waiting for them and gave a forced nod to Jürgen. The two entering men each pulled up a red wooden chair and gave a cappuccino order to the smartly dressed waiter. This did not go down well as cappuccino is only meant to be served during the morning and seeing as it was early afternoon the waiter walked off with a miffed remark

  “Sei una fava”

  Marcello and Jürgen did not let this trouble them and the introductions began.

  “You guys will not know each other I am sure, so allow me to introduce you both,” said Marcello.

  With the introductions over and done it was time to reveal what Marcello wanted from both men.

  “My friends some time ago I was transported to another place from here, in this place I became enlightened by I suppose what you would call a cult. At first, I tried to resist the message they tried to impress upon me. After a while, I became aware of the presence and power of Beelzebub and then I was sent back to this time in reality to do his bidding and to rid the world of all non-believers. I come to you both to ask for your allegiance and friendships and together we can achieve most prosperous wonders for the lord of darkness. I will understand your reservations and concerns but I implore you to join with me and my movement as we move towards our goal. The dark lord is non-discriminate Catholics, Christians, Hindus, Muslims … whatever faith does not represent his interests must be eliminated and that is why I especially come to you Jürgen… you are a genius of bio weaponry are you not ?”

  This revelation made even Jürgen feel a tad uneasy and he became lost for words momentarily. His mouth had dried up and his tongue was stuck, his stomach was tight and his heart rate was doing a drumming session.

  Dmitri, however, did not appear to be too fazed by this satanic outburst perhaps his telekinesis was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to his mental prowess. He also did possess a form of telepathy as well so he had already steadied himself for Marcello’s declaration.

  Marcello wanted to gauge some kind of response from both men.

  “So my friends this is the state of things and the sole reason I tracked you both, you are of course both of free will and can turn down my offer. Although I sincerely hope you see the benefits of my proposal”

  Dmitri was the first to give his verdict on the proceedings.

  “Father this world has not been very just and kind to me, and despite the repercussion that I may suffer an eternity in the fires of hell for playing my part in your cause, I am willing to take the chance. You can count me in just show me to the lovely hellish women you no doubt have at your beck and call yes?”

  Now the focus was on Jürgen, was he truly as twisted and deplorable as the image he gave off at university or had he become more compassionate an
d likable during his time in Siberia?

  He looked Marcello straight into the devil rendered eyes and declared himself to once again be allied to his old flatmate, a leopard more often than not does not change its spots.

  “I am your trusty and loyal servant and confidant. I have knowledge that you will drool over. Back in Siberia, I have a very able team at my disposal that I will need to call in for this unless you can provide me with an equally suitable team. It takes time to build a quality group that can trust each other’s actions, I’m sure you understand what I am implying” said Jürgen.

  Marcello’s instincts on these two had been absolutely accurate and now he could disclose the next part of his plan.

  “My friends you have both made well-judged decisions and have proven to me that my instincts were correct I welcome you both to the Lucifer cult. Now we must move on over to the cathedral so I can smother you with more information. There are a sizeable group of followers I would like to acquaint you with” he said

  The three men settled the bill and walked out of the café and out into the crowded streets. Marcello gave some hand gesture and within seconds a big black luxury car rolled up. All three stepped into the vehicle and off it sped towards the cathedral.

  Parthenon, Acropolis of Athens, Greece, 1460

  Two men and a grumpy horse had managed to survive the long journey to the Parthenon, this being due to our dark matter ingesting steed being able to bend time and space. It was not really that much of a hardship for Viorel or Thomas only the constant moaning of Lapis was enough to generate any form of fatigue. Once arrived they needed to find someone who could guide them around the area, with its many stone pillars and the fact it was built atop a substantial rocky outcrop. Viorel elected Thomas to go and search for an informed guide but then had to slap himself as it just dawned on him that Thomas would more than likely scare off any would be counsellor. The principal thing to do was to take the lead himself and leave Thomas and Lapis at one of the local stables.

  Viorel’s mind was made up this was his elected task so he must take responsibility

  “Thomas would you be so kind as to take Lapis to the nearest available stables and await my return?”

  Thomas, the steadfast footman was more than happy to accommodate Viorel’s request and he took Lapis the fervent horse’s reins and lead him back into Athens main town to locate a stables, and a watering hole to down a few pints of ale in and add onto that have a good old fashioned ogle at some of the tavern wenches operating the bar pumps. Viorel gingerly made his way through the entrance and into the middle of the great pillars.

  “Hello there can anybody help me, I am need of a guide!” he cried out.

  For what seemed like a few minutes there was no response the only sound was of the birds chirping and the wind blowing. But then over in the distance, a man could be seen coming up the other side of the hill. He was a spindly built curly blonde haired man of about forty who approached Viorel with a beaming smile.

  “Greetings good sir my name is Xuthos, welcome to the Parthenon, how may I be of assistance?”

  Viorel waited no time in coming straight to the point, after all, it didn’t matter if he caused offense he could charm a bee out of a hive if things went sour, it was all thanks to his vampirism he knew how to read peoples body language.

  “The pleasure is all mine Xuthos, I come here in search of a scroll that I believe can only be deciphered by my eyes… it’s a very elaborate and bold claim I know but I swear to you this scroll is destined to be read by me it has been proclaimed by the ‘gods’. If you were to guide me to its location I would reward you handsomely”

  Xuthos was visibly taken aback by this preposterous declaration, this young looking ‘man’ was clearly delusional. Was it time to alert the two bumbling guards on the site?

  The scroll was not on public display and would require a serious breach of security in order to allow this potential imposter access to it. This impudence had to be addressed and put straight but in a calming and professional manner of course.

  Xuthos decided to break it to the visitor gently

  “Sir this I simply cannot entertain, let’s be clear on this even if for the sake of argument and this is by no means written in stone. If there was to be some sacred scroll on this site it would be worth more than my job to merely lead you to it. My life itself could be at stake, those two guards over yonder may be a bit lumpy in the head but they also carry spears and knives. They are not to be trifled with and I would have some serious explaining to do. The Emperor would not be very pleased no sir not at all. So I must with all courtesy spurn your request”

  Viorel could sense some reservation in the guides argument… reading between the lines it was clear that he would have to make this man an offer he could not refuse, it was either that or knock the man out cold and go off and retrieve it anyway. A simple savage may opt for option number two but Viorel wanted to play the diplomacy card and use brains as opposed to brawn. Our vampire in his peripheral vision began to notice that the two guards had taken an interest in his conversation with the guide and were walking over to possibly interject on proceedings.

  The way in which the statesman Pericles of Athens had designed the Parthenon it was set incredibly high atop the hill which itself rose 490 feet skyward with complete views of the surrounding city. Viorel would be able to see any approaching Authority’s intent on staging an ambush. The Parthenon had contained within it many sculptures; some had been removed during various sieges in history. The most notable being the statue of Athena which had been taken possibly in the 5th century CE. Logic dictated that the scroll must be underground somewhere buried into the hill. This was purely logical reasoning and by no means a guarantee; this was a huge area to comb so this confirmed that the notion of bludgeoning the guide and the two guards was not going to bring Viorel any closer to the scroll. Tactile manipulation was what was required here … although popping off the guards might not be too atrocious giving the fact that they were now within a few feet and a swift choice must be made. The shorter of the two guards blared out.

  “What in the name of Zeus is going on here?”

  The guide did his best to defuse the situation.

  “Hello Cylon I was just telling this man that the Parthenon is closed to the public at present”

  This did not wash terribly well with the shorter of the two guards. He was the officious one and the taller was not too furnished in terms of rules and regulations. The taller guard was too busy giving his nose a jolly old rake with his fingers; he produced a few good snot balls and flicked them onto the marble ground.

  “That’s charming that is, you know some poor fellow will have to clean that up,” said the guide.

  “Ugh whens it break time, I want some grub,” said the taller guard.

  The shorter guard decided to get to the bottom of this contravention.

  “Sir this landmark is off limits currently so I must ask you to vacate the area or face actions of force!”

  It was now or never the shorter guard had made his bed so now he was going to have to lay in it. Like a bolt of lightning, Viorel spun around the shorter guard and grabbed him in a sleeper hold. The taller guard stood with a confused look and then snapped into action lunging with his spear. The spear impaled the shorter guard making Viorel’s sleeper hold surplus to requirements. As the shorter guard began to bleed out with blood that was more alcoholically toxic than Alexander the Greats, the taller guard fell to his knees in shock of what was transpiring in front of him. That’s when it happened… the taller guard had indeed urinated himself.

  Xuthos the guide was stood with his jaw almost to the ground and quivering with adrenaline, his adrenal cortex began to flood his body with stress hormones. His already over active thyroid gland was jump starting his metabolism into a frenzy. He began to make a run for it, sprinting his way rather clumsily to the west doorway of the Parthenon.

  Viorel had no more time to waste and left the two guards on
his way to intercept the guide. Inside a minute and he had managed to catch the guide and wrestle him to the ground. Time was nigh to employ one of the primary vampire abilities, the art of thought manipulation. Xuthos was whimpering and mumbling something about the Greek god Dionysus having mercy on his soul. Our vampire put his hands to the temples of Xuthos and began to read his thoughts. Almost instantaneously the guide had given up the location of the scroll in an unsolicited fashion. Amongst his thoughts were his penchants for bath houses and olives, but none of that was of any use just merely filler. Viorel had the information he needed the scroll was located under the marble floor where the statue of Athena had been previously erected.

  He would require some form of digging tool in order to chip away the marble floor covering and expose the scroll. There was no need to end the life of Xuthos as he was now unconscious on the ground, it would be hours before he came round and could raise any alarm down to the city below. As for the taller guard, he had also passed out in a pool of urine.

  In what would turn out to be a pleasant turn of fate Viorel happened across a little storeroom which contained a plethora of digging tools and building equipment. These items may have been left over by the ransacking Turks of the current year; they had turned the Parthenon into a mosque. This gave Viorel thought that Xuthos was a slave to some Ottoman masters. Amongst the tools was a rather weather worn and dusted up pickaxe.

  ‘This will do the job hopefully. If not then what other options are there?’ Viorel pondered.

  Assuredly Viorel tracked back to where the statue of Athena was once standing with a majestic pose and began to chip away at the marble floor.

  Whack, ting and ding this was going to be a time-consuming process that could take hours.

  ‘At this rate, the taller guard and Xuthos will awaken and could run to get reinforcements and even with my enhanced attributes I won’t be able to fend off a bloodthirsty Ottoman legion. It’s time for a rethink there has to be a way to break through this more efficiently but what if I damage the scroll?’