The Tapestry

by Wigmore, Paul

  ‘I am so sorry my love’ whimpered Gavin, for apologise was all he could do now.

  Over the next half hour he witnessed the three of them beat, abuse, rape and bugger his girl right before his eyes and all he did was watch. He knew she would never be the same.

  They had ravaged her body. But still she turned her head towards him as Phil pulled out of her and buttoned himself up.

  ‘It’s not your fault baby. I will always love you’, upon hearing these words he hung his head in shame. Even now after everything. She knew he wasn’t to blame. She was the only one who ever believed in him. He swore if he made it through this, they would all die for what they had done to her.

  Now that they had had their fun Craig sent Phil out to the van parked down the road. He ordered him to bring it up to the drive and bring the cans in. While they waited, Pinky knelt next to Michelle who was lying on the floor motionless apart from the occasional shudder.

  ‘Did the earth move for ya honey?’ He said ‘What was it like bein’ with a real man?’

  ‘Don’t you think you’ve done enough?’ shouted Gavin through tears of pain and hatred. He felt a splitting pain in his face as his teeth dissolved into broken tombstones. It was Craig that had side swiped him with the gun again.

  ‘Done enough? Are you kidding me? We’ve just got started pal. Do you really think you’re getting out of here alive? No chance matey’

  At that point Phil came back in with four cans of petrol. Gavin knew now that this was it. He really was a dead man, yet strangely enough he began to find solace in the fact that he and his beloved would soon be together again without the weights of this world holding them back.

  The three men began to douse the whole house in petrol. Pinky took great delight in pouring it all over Michelle’s naked body. It looked to Gavin as if he were trying to drown her in the stuff. She was choking and trying to break free, for they had also bound her now.

  Once they were both soaked in petrol along with the rest of the house, Craig ordered Phil and Pinky to go and get in the van but to be sure their faces weren’t seen. Craig once more knelt before Gavin. He pulled his head up and looked into his eyes.

  ‘Look at me you little freak, I want my face to be the last one you ever see’. Gavin looked into those eyes of madness and realised that Craig wasn’t doing this because he had upset someone’s girlfriend, no...That was just an excuse; if anyone was the freak... it was Craig.

  Craig...satisfied that his face was the last one that the freak would ever lay eyes on dropped Gavin's head and stood up. He then lit a match and threw it onto Michelle before he left and jumped into the waiting van.

  CHAPTER THREE

  I feel at this point I must interject and introduce you to another integral character in this tale of woe. Don't worry about Gavin we will come back to him shortly for things are just hotting up for him. (You will have to excuse my humour, it is a little dark.)

  Have you ever wondered about ghosts, the whys and wherefores? You have no doubt watched a myriad of shows on your little magic box at home theorising as to how they come to be. Yet nobody really gives you any answers. You may have seen a ghost yourself, (although to be polite they do prefer to be called spirits) if you are lucky enough.

  A spirit is obviously the lost soul of someone that has passed away but has not yet passed on. I think we can all agree on that. However, to actually pass on to the place you are destined to be, then your soul must move away from the proximity of the human body’s demise within a short period of time or forever be trapped there. This is then what is commonly known as a haunting begins, some spirits don’t even realise they are dead; they just forever go through a continuous loop repeating the same set of events that brought about their demise for eternity. Then there are other spirits that are aware they have been trapped and once they realise what has become of them, they become angry. They begin to learn how to move objects with their...? With their what...? Would a spirit have a mind you ask? Well no, not exactly, it is like a floating consciousness is all, but it gets angry as you or I would. It begins smashing things, even hurting people. This as I'm sure you know is what we call a poltergeist.

  And of course there are your friendly spirits. These spirits you will usually find died at home peacefully. They just don’t know how to move on, too attached to their homes and family, so they stay to watch over their loved ones.

  Who I'm about to introduce you to is none of the above, nothing as nice as that. His name is Saul; some say he was the “Bringer of the Black Plague.” Now obviously I wouldn’t normally refer to him as a spirit, for when he was alive, he would have been called a demon. Now he is a demon spirit. Demons don’t suffer from such human ailments as old age or sickness, so it isn’t normal for there to be demon spirits. After all, they don’t have souls do they? So how is this one not alive? Well he isn’t technically alive, (but then I don’t think any demons are really. It could be a matter for debate, but another time). He also isn’t really dead.

  For you see...a demon can only really be killed by the hand of another demon or a more celestial being, such as an angel. Yes they too exist.. But when demons die... they just die, they don’t go on to some other plane as heaven wont have them and they have come from hell and proven themselves to be of no worth if they have been killed. So they just cease to exist...... up until now that is.

  You see, Saul was a powerful demon in his own right many thousands of years ago. He has been the catalyst to many of mankind’s disasters and setbacks. Saul was one of the right hands of God until The Great War in the heavens. He fought against the other angels along with Lucifer, (I’m sure he needs no introduction.) So for their betrayal they were sent below.

  It is Lucifer (incidentally, he is also known as Beelzebub, Satan, Moloch, Adramalech and many other names. “For we are Legion, and we are many.”) who has ruled over the dominion of Hell or Hades or whatever you prefer to call it for many thousands of years now. However Saul was a great demon and he was becoming jealous. Satan had millions of followers; he even had his own bible nowadays. (If that wasn’t a slap in the face to the big man upstairs, I don’t know what was?)

  Saul prepared to overthrow Satan, but he had to be strong. He spent no less than a thousand years preparing for battle. He gained more powers. He could walk amongst us as a human and not be noticed. He could make you cry tears of gold or stone. He could become invisible to you if he so wished. He even acquired a soul for himself. Some may see this as a weakness but not he. You see this is what the Great War was about. God had put us mere mortals above his angels when he gave us souls. This made us divine beings as well as mortals. (The first man was made of the dust of the earth; the second man is from heaven.) This passage from the bible refers to man being made of body and soul. One of them being Adam, the earthbound man and the second was the representation of God inside each human, their soul. This made some of the angels envious of us...”God’s children”, which sparked the war.

  Saul purely saw it as giving himself a second chance were he to be defeated. He knew he would be able to reincarnate himself, not a bad safety net.

  So, over the many years he gained himself an army of demons, incubuses, furies, and succubae etc. He had a loyal following.

  It was on the last night of April 1966 which is more commonly known as “Walpurgisnacht”, (An important festival for witchcraft followers) that Saul and his armies invaded Agartha. This is the original, or one of the first names given to Hades, The Kingdom of The World, and The domain of the source of all evil. The battle raged on for over forty years. The stench of the hatred between the two opposing armies was breathed in by the likes of you and I like the air we breathe today. It was the smell of sin and anger and utter bloodlust. And we thrived on it didn’t we, yes we did because we are all born from sin and we know it like an old friend that we like to cozey up to now and again. At one point towards the end we all saw the two demons in battle, causing as much destruction as they could, whether we would admit
to it now or not is a different matter, but I know you saw the faces of those two demons pouring forth from the dust clouds that reigned over Manhattan on that fateful day when the towers fell to their very knees...for I was there you see... I know you saw them. It was an awesome battle which caused earthquakes above, it caused volcanoes to erupt, mountains began sinking and the ice caps were melting and the towers fell. If it went on longer it would have brought about the destruction of the earth, from the lava of melting rocks and fire straight from the depths of hell itself.

  Satan's confidence was ebbing away with every day that passed. He created monsters and demons to fight for him only for them to be added to the great battlefield of bodies. He realised that Saul had possibly become too powerful even for him. Saul could be twenty storeys high like himself or he could be so small he was naked to the eye. His armies had laid waste to his own. Saul was coming for him, but you don’t get to be king of the world and reign over Hades without having a little bit of guile.

  He had a plan. There are many sacred places on Earth that will hold the essence of an evil spirit so that it may not leave for all eternity once it had entered that space. Only Satan himself knew where each and every one could be found.

  They were formed thousands of years ago by disciples of God placing holy talismans in the ground around an area that an angel fell to his death during the Great War. Or sometimes the actual burial plot of a saint or a disciple. This was done so that the followers of God could actually carry on their battle against evil, even in death.

  Any evil spirit that entered the hallowed ground would never be free to leave without losing its dark powers, or it could just stay there, powerful but impotent, (sort of like an unearthly man trap.)

  Many spirits, once they had a dull acceptance of the predicament they were in would resign to leave. Better to die than live forever, (especially if forever was in a cage.)

  Satan was a master of cunning as I'm sure you already know. Unlike Saul who was just a demonic brute at the time. He challenged Saul to appear above ground in the human realm in spirit form, which he did. Satan gave the false impression that he was running scared which only added to Saul’s confidence and led to cockiness. The chase was on from city to city. There were terrible hurricanes and hailstone showers. Mysterious fires erupted which could not be explained as the chase snaked its way across the globe, until the day came for it to end.

  It was at an old disused warehouse in Manchester that Satan suddenly came to a stop. He obviously couldn’t be seen by mere mortals but if you were there that night you would have noticed the air felt as if it were electrically charged. There was a foul pungent odour in the air. You would not have known why but you would have ran home as fast as your little legs could have carried you, thanking God that you were alive. (You would also double check the dead bolts before you tucked yourself in for a restless night of sleep filled with harrowing dreams the like of such you will have never experienced before.)

  He waited behind the warehouse which was on a derelict industrial estate. He could have carried on running for years but he had no need. He knew Saul, in his haste would come hurtling through the warehouse straight for him which is exactly what he did.

  There was a thunderous roar accompanied by brilliant white bolts of lightning. Cars leapt into the air by some invisible force. Then the perimeter wall of the industrial estate seemed to blow a hole in itself as bricks and clay flew into the air. The timing had to be just right. Satan waited behind the building and then made as if he were about to disappear down below once again.

  Saul had no time to think, he had to catch him before he was safe back in his own domain. He rushed headlong straight through the front wall of the building towards Satan behind. As he went towards the rear wall he felt a depletion of energy, his powers were waning. He didn't feel as if he could make it to the other side. He pulled back and glared at Satan behind the building. (Walls do not stop demons from seeing what is behind them).

  ‘If you’re gonna dance with the devil, you'd better put your dancing shoes on’ cackled Satan before he disappeared below to reign once more.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Once Saul had realised his mistake he couldn’t believe it was true. A thousand years in preparation. He had become the most powerful demon of all. Strong enough to be a threat to the crown of Moloch, a twenty year battle ended with a stupid childish feign that he....The Great Saul had just walked right into, or more accurately ran into.

  He had heard of these so called grounds that were hallowed, but had only ever expressed nonchalance towards them. All he was ever interested in was gaining more and more power. Over the centuries it’s hard to catalogue the powers he had obtained or from whom. But he had stolen so many spells from witches and wizards. He had even squeezed the life blood from a faerie,(they are out there, but you really do have to believe in them) as the blood of a faerie really is the most magical of them all.

  Once it had been drunk then Saul was able to grant life itself to any mortal with just a thought if and he so wished. Thus far he had only ever granted death.

  He felt cheated, and rightly so I suppose. He tried a number of times to just leave and venture beyond the mystical confines of the building, in the vain hope every time that this time would be different.

  Each time as he began to pass the walls he could feel his life quickly draining from him and his powers being sucked out of him so he had to draw back once again. Even though he had a soul, were he to die... he felt sure he would be able to come back. Reincarnate himself maybe... maybe; but it wasn’t worth the risk.

  And so that is the story of how it came to be that Saul...”The Bringer Of The Black Plague”, the most feared demon ever to roam the wastelands of hell was defeated by a childish prank. Even now, a few years later is still entombed in the sepulchre of a warehouse.

  The strange thing is that in those few years, there has never been any development on the site. Not one single company has expressed an interest in purchasing the land for development, which in this day and age is an anomaly in itself. (Of course you and I know what kept the realtors away, but let’s keep it our secret.)

  Those years haven’t been wasted though, oh no. I don’t know if you have a friend that has been to prison, or maybe you have been yourself, but the majority of men that have, take to using the gym. They have nothing better to do you see. Apart from keeping the mind active for as long as possible during the short breaks they get.

  Although Saul had no physical body to speak of, unless he wanted to that is. He decided to hone his powers. He spent every single rotten day learning every skill that he hadn’t already mastered. He became adept at metamorphosing from a man to a woman, or even to beast. He could send his consciousness out into the night and he could hitch a ride with a crow. He could look out of the crow’s eyes but he couldn’t give it direction. He knew how to but the moment he tried, he would begin to feel weak, his powers would deplete so he had to cease.

  He even mastered leaping into human minds which he did quite often. He would leap into some unsuspecting young mans mind and then journey home with him. The man would sometimes go home after a hard days work; he would have his tea and would later make love to his wife or girlfriend, completely unaware that Saul, master of voyeurism was with him. Strangely enough, it was these occasions of carnal pleasure that frustrated the demon more than anything, as he could only watch. He could see what his ride was seeing but he couldn’t take the lead... which for a lustful demon like Saul, was really too much to take... he liked to bite.

  Of course, he learned to conjure up images of women in fancy surroundings (if he was pretending to be a man that day) that he could have his way with.

  And his thirst for revenge was growing and needed to be quenched. One way or another he would have his revenge.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  As soon as the match landed onto Michelle’s body she was engulfed in flames. Gavin heard her cries but could do nothing. She struggled for a matter of
minutes but then it was all over. He knew he would be joining her soon, which was the only consolation he could find.

  The flames were all around him now; they had crept up the walls and across the ceiling. The smoke was becoming very dense and thick. It reminded Gavin of Draculas cloak, and the flames were his fangs moving ever closer to suck the life out of him.

  The pain was too much for him to bear as the flames licked at his legs and crept up his arms. His head had become a torch as the flames caught his hair. He passed out from shock only to hear a voice in his head. It began as a nonsensical rambling... but then he heard his name.

  It was as he heard his name called that he awoke, but he was no longer on the floor at the foot of his stairs. He couldn’t quite make out where he was at first. He was very disorientated, thirty seconds ago he was in a world of pain burning alive but now... now, he was floating above. Watching from the corner of his room as his body was eaten by the flames. He could see Michelle was now just a charred black form.

  It didn't take long for Gavin to figure out what had happened to him. He had become a ghost... or spirit, or what? He wasn’t really sure of the correct terminology. Or had he simply gone mad, that seemed much easier to accept. Yes that must be it surely. He would wake up in a minute and it would all be over, he thought.

  The pain in his head which followed that last thought was excruciating. It felt as if his head had been ripped open from his left temple to his jaw. At least I must still be alive, he thought. Ghosts can’t feel pain can they?

  The very next second he was outside his house travelling across the city at a speed that seemed impossible. The city went by in a blur of light trails.