The Day of Legion

by Craig Taylor

  “The same darkness that left you here for eternity?” he asked. “The darkness that used you to get what it wanted and now couldn’t give a damn about you? Wake up Clara! You’re here, and will be forever. Even when the darkness comes and Legion rules, do you really think you’ll be given anything? If you think so, you are as stupid as you are evil!”

  Clara knew he had brought her down there for something, but couldn’t figure it out. She knew she had to play this right; if he was offering her something, she might just get out of this hell.

  “What do you want from me?” she hissed at him.

  David disappeared off her and slipped back into his body. He was sore and his back hurt like hell. He knew that was because she had bitten his ethereal cord. He rolled off the table to his feet, and watched as she stood and looked at him.

  “There is something here that I need to use to stop Legion, but I can’t figure it out. My mind is blank, but I know it’s here. If you help me, I will release you from this place.”

  Clara tried to pretend that she didn’t care about his offer, but he saw a slight shift in her posture and gaze.

  “You have no power to get me out of this shithole.”

  David smiled. “No, but I know people who can; Elizabeth for instance.”

  “Elizabeth’s dead!” Clara shouted. “Legion slaughtered her.”

  “Is she?” David asked calmly. “Or can the light play deceptive games like the darkness?”

  Clara studied him, looking for any sign of weakness, but couldn’t read him.

  “Go on,” she said.

  “We both know that if Legion wins, you’ll still be here. They won’t even bother with you. You will be trapped here in a small pocket of light, while the rest of the world is in darkness.”

  Clara visibly grimaced.

  “If the light wins, you’ll be laid to rest...”

  “The light won’t win,” she interrupted.

  “Are you willing to bet your soul on that?”

  Clara just stared.

  “If the light wins without your help, you’ll be laid to rest in a manner that will keep you trapped in the light. You will never infest the world again. If you help me, you will be set free from here. The darkness will never take you back for helping me, and the light will never want you, but at least you’ll be out of here to wander where you choose.”

  “What’s the catch?” she asked suspiciously.

  “There’s no catch. Help me and I’ll help you.”

  She thought about it. From the moment she had been left there, she had wondered if she would ever leave. She knew the darkness had abandoned her, and there would be no place for her in the new kingdom. She also found the idea of being a free agent somewhat appealing.

  She knew her only chance of survival in either the dark world or the light was to get out of there. She looked around the room.

  “What you want is not here. Show me the rest of the place.”

  David smiled and led her to the next room. As soon as Clara entered, her eyes opened wide and she smiled.

  “It’s there,” she whispered, pointing to the table and chairs that David had seen a hundred times before.

  “What?” he asked. “The battle will be fought with a table and chairs?” he asked sarcastically.

  “Don’t mock me, asshole!” she retorted. “It has been under your nose the whole time, but I guess you were never trusted enough to be told.”

  “What is it, you old hag? I’m tired of you already!”

  Clara stood with her back to the table and facing David.

  “Don’t you think it’s strange, that there are thirteen chairs and thirteen books, yet there have never been more than twelve light-bearers gathered here at any one time?”

  David didn’t understand.

  Clara rolled her eyes.

  “The thirteenth chair belongs to the darkness. It was taken from a demon by the light-bearers thousands of years ago and placed at your table, in the hope that the darkness would one day join the light in leading mankind in peace and love. The light seems to think it is possible for man to live free of evil. The twelve books in front of the other chairs are filled with ancient text, but the book in front of the thirteenth chair is nothing but blank pages, waiting for history to be written. Obviously it never has.

  “Darkness has always refused to bow to the light’s command, and the chair has always remained empty. Now, the darkness will place its new-found member in that chair and corrupt it. When it does, that book will begin the new chapters of mankind’s history.”

  Clara raised her arms and shrieked a squeal that sent a shiver down David’s spine. Twelve chairs and twelve books flew up and back, slamming into the walls.

  The chairs crashed to the floor haphazardly, but the books all landed on chairs, regardless of where the chair fell and how it landed.

  David knew that each of the books had been in front of each of the chairs since the light-bearers had begun, and every light-bearer who had sat in that chair had added to it. The messages in those books were so powerful, he knew he would have to destroy them all if the darkness won.

  He looked at Clara. She had an arrogant smirk on her face.

  “How do I stop them?” he asked.

  Clara laughed loudly. “You want me to do everything? I have told you what you were looking for, now it’s your turn, light-bearer.”

  David understood she didn’t actually know what to do. The arrogance had leached from her voice and posture, but he was one step closer to understanding the plans of the darkness.

  “Set me free,” Clara said, interrupting his thoughts. He saw her weakness, but she quickly regained her arrogance when she saw him looking at her with compassion.

  “We will set you free when this is over, Clara,” he replied. “We have an agreement and I will stick to it. You will walk free from the sanctuary; you have my word.”

  Clara sank back into the shadows in the corner of the room where she could watch David die in comfort when Legion appeared. She could sense it getting closer. That familiar feeling of dread that accompanied Legion draped itself over her shoulders and even now, she was comforted by it.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  He had been driving for hours; only adrenalin kept him going. He had never been here before. He could feel the heavy, thick evilness drawing him from miles away, but this was the strongest he had ever felt it. He had been on the verge of nausea ever since he first felt the change.

  So far, he had driven for two days and nights. He got the call when he was sitting in front of the slot machines in a sleazy, illegal casino where he spent most of his time. He was either there or in a gang-run strip club or illegal race track or adult theater, all places no one would think to look for him.

  He had spent his life hiding from the darkness, within its own grasp. His life had consisted of one sleazy hole after another, but no one ever suspected. He was a master at slipping into shadows and never being caught. He saw beatings, drug deals, cheating, but never got heroic about it.

  He knew more about what was happening than anyone. For as long as he could remember, he had been bursting at the seams to tell someone, anyone. There was no one to tell. In the world he inhabited, the only people he met were those on the edge of the darkness.

  He had been forbidden to have dealings with women, make any friendships, and was denied all contact with loved ones. This had taken its toll on him. Many times he had fought the urge to embrace the darkness.

  Often he had nearly fallen into the arms of a prostitute he found attractive, or accepted whiskey offered to him by another in one of the countless sleazy bars.

  Now his strength and patience was rewarded. It was all coming together and he was the key. He had sought support from his guiding spirit many times, and was always led to do wh
atever was right.

  He stopped his car on the side of the road amid a great forest and got out. Pulling on a large bush revealed a driveway he knew he had to follow. He eventually came to a large clearing. He saw the cabin and the outbuildings, and knew he was in the right place. The ancient stones scattered around where the monastery once stood comforted him. He knew this was where he had always longed to be.

  It had the feel of home, but he kept pushing away the urge to turn from the light and run to the darkness. He ignored it and called out.

  “Hello?”

  There was no reply.

  “Hello, anybody there?”

  He heard a noise to his left and spun around. A man carrying a shotgun walked toward him. He was trying to look aggressive, but he looked into his soul; this man was calm, gifted and kind–and confused. He was expecting a messenger of the darkness, but couldn’t tell why there was the aura of darkness around this man, but not within him.

  “Who are you?” David asked.

  He showed David his palms to prove he carried no weapons and that he came in peace. He smiled and put his hands in the air. David didn’t relax.

  “Hello David,” he said quietly.

  “How do you know who I am?” David asked.

  “It’s a long story, but I’m here to help.”

  “Help with what?” David asked, betraying his lowering vigilance by slightly dipping the shotgun.

  “To stop Legion,” he replied.

  David was confused and desperate, but he wasn’t going to be tricked. He raised the gun again and studied the man. He was wearing a faded pair of jeans, black boots and a leather jacket. His hair was shoulder-length and untidy.

  The man continued to smile.

  “Please, lower the gun and listen. We don’t have much time. Elizabeth sent me. She has been my life-long guide and it’s important you trust me.”

  David stared.

  “David, look into me. See my connection with Elizabeth. Ignore the covering of darkness, that’s to keep me safe. Look past it. You will see.”

  David looked hard, then lowered the gun. He could see Elizabeth’s love in his heart, something no angel of the darkness could fake. He saw the light in the man, hidden on purpose, emerging from within a battle-scarred soul.

  “I...I don’t understand,” David said, lowering the gun completely.

  “You’re not meant to,” the man replied. “Elizabeth and Albert planned it so that if you were killed, I could take your place. I’m surprised you’re alive, but also glad. It’s going to take us both to defeat Legion; they’re stronger than anyone imagined.

  “You knew my father?” David asked.

  “Yes. Is there somewhere we can sit down? There is a lot to say, and only a short time.”

  David showed the man into the cabin. They sat at the kitchen table and drank coffee.

  “I’m sorry, this is all we have left,” David told him, as he offered a can of tuna in spring water.

  The man nearly inhaled the food, obviously starving. He then cleared his throat.

  “My name is Luke. I was born years before you. My father is Albert. I... “

  “Wait!” David interrupted. “We’re brothers?”

  “No,” Luke replied. “Only half-brothers. Albert is my father, but my mother is not yours.”

  David shook his head. “My father would have told me about you.”

  Luke smiled. “Let me finish and then judge. You will see why I was kept a secret.”

  David nodded slowly.

  “There was a time when our father was seduced by a foul wench named Clara. They had an affair that was intense but short-lived. Clara got pregnant by our father, but she killed her child–or thought she had.”

  “You’re Clara’s son?” David asked.

  Luke nodded. “Yes, and Albert’s. She gave birth to me, alone in a seedy hotel room, and threw me in the dumpster outside. It was winter; she assumed I would die quickly. When she left the next morning, she didn’t even bother to look in the dumpster. If she had looked she would have realized that I was no longer there. Elizabeth rescued me as soon as my mother threw me away. She raised me, provided for me.”

  “Why did I never see you here?” David asked. “We were all kept here in the sanctuary.”

  “Although you were in the safety of the sanctuary, you were being watched by the darkness. They knew all about you and planned things which included you. They studied their enemy. I remained unknown to them and never included in their plans.”

  “My father knew about you?” David asked.

  “Yes. He knew our plans and kept them secret.”

  “How have you hidden from the darkness all this time?” David asked. “I would have thought they’d find you, given you’re Clara’s child.”

  Luke smiled painfully. “I lived in all of the places of darkness, so they never saw me. I inhabited sleazy strip clubs, places where drug deals took place, dirty bars, illicit casinos and dingy houses inhabited by dingy people. I stayed out of sight of the darkness under its nose, knowing I would be needed some day.”

  “Must have been hard,” David said, instantly regretting his understatement.

  Luke smiled.

  “You say you’re needed,” David said. “What is going on? All I know is a woman named Patricia and I were fleeing from Legion, and we crashed. I woke up in a hospital, and the soul of an old man told me to get here and ...”

  Luke held up his hand. “Do you know what happened to Patricia?”

  David shook his head.

  “She died at the scene of the crash. She is being held by the darkness until her baby—your baby—is strong enough.”

  “My baby!?” David shouted. “She was pregnant with my baby?”

  Luke nodded. “Yes, she was. When you two were together, she conceived a baby boy. The darkness knows this, has known it for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. They have manipulated fate to get you two together. When her spirit left her body at the crash, they took her. She is still carrying your child’s life force, and it is powerful. They want to corrupt it. No light-bearer has ever been this strong and they want him on their side. They know it will tip the balance, making them strong enough to wipe the light from mankind’s lives forever.”

  David started weeping as he realized what it meant. “My God!” he whispered.

  “Yes,” Luke replied. “They aim to put your son on the thirteenth chair, in all of his corrupted glory, and rule man. Men will be as oblivious to the battle as they are now. Over a period of years, violence will increase; more men and women will become evil; morals will collapse; churches, mosques and temples will be deserted and ‘conscience’ will be a thing of the past. Anarchy will ensue as man’s sense of right and wrong disappears. Slowly and certainly, the darkness will slaughter those who attempt to retain their humanity. And then the darkness will be complete.”

  David didn’t say anything as the magnitude of it hit him. All of the twists and turns of hundreds of years, to reach the point where he and Patricia would conceive, was beyond his ability to comprehend.

  Luke stood up. “Now, take me to my mother.”

  David looked surprised.

  “You know she’s here?”

  Luke nodded. “Yes. I know everything about her from conception to the present.”

  As they walked through the ruins toward the trapdoor, Luke looked at the beauty surrounding him. Huge pine trees reached toward the sky, deep green foliage extending to brilliant, cloudless blue, for as far as he could see.

  “It’s hard to imagine,” he said so quietly that he may have been speaking to himself.

  “What?” David asked.

  “If Legion succeeds in their plans, a hundred thousand angry demons will take flight from the bowels of hell within minu
tes and start corrupting the world.”

  David shivered.

  As they got to the entrance, Luke asked David to call out to Clara.

  “She can’t cross the threshold unless I go into her dimension and push her through. It’s a failsafe the light-bearers made when they created this place.”

  Luke just smiled. “Please call her.”

  David called out Clara’s name. Within seconds, she was at the entrance. She saw Luke standing there. She had no idea who he was, but could sense incredible power in him. He was righteous and that intimidated her.

  “Who’s this piece of shit?” she asked.

  Luke chuckled quietly. “Well, well, Clara. Funny to think we are of the same flesh. Then again, it gave me the unique ability to hide among the dark all this time.”

  Clara stared at him, then at David.

  “Two idiots,” she replied. “I know you from somewhere.”

  “Think back years, Clara,” Luke said. “Think back to a small motel in the middle of nowhere. It was about 11 p.m. and you had given birth to a baby boy. You ran outside and tossed him in the dumpster without even looking at him, and walked away.”

  Clara frowned deeply.

  “How do you know this?” she asked. “Who the hell are you?”

  Clara’s eyes opened wide. She had been digging into Luke’s mind from the time she saw him there; it suddenly clicked into place. She saw Elizabeth pull her child from the dumpster, cover him and take him home. She saw him living in squalor and pain all of his life as a service to the light, gathering strength as the years turned to memories.

  She screamed loudly. “You bastard! You were supposed to die that night! I did as the darkness told me. I don’t regret it. Look at you; a bearer of light. You’re an abomination!”

  She turned her back and tried to run down the stairs, but Luke pointed in her direction. She stopped and was dragged back, through the door and outside, by an invisible force.

  David couldn’t believe it. No one had the ability to do that. The original light-bearers had placed a spell on that door so powerful even they couldn’t have done what Luke just did. David realized it was from having both dark and light inside him, and was a little frightened himself. If Luke was on the side of the darkness, he would be a formidable opponent.