The Incubus, Succubus and Son of Perdition Box Set: The Len du Randt Bundle

by Len du Randt

  ‘What can I do to help?’

  ‘Pray,’ she said as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. ‘Pray and believe.’

  * - - - *

  The five-star luxury bus came to an abrupt stop, jerking Rebecca from her dream. She opened her eyes and scanned it across the station. Only one more stop to go before Kelwick. She sat upright and smiled at the boy sitting opposite her. He had a plastic gun in one hand; his mother’s hand in the other.

  A few moments later, the bus pulled away. They should reach Kelwick in about half an hour or so. Rebecca’s thoughts drifted to the past as trees and open fields rushed by the window. For a split second she was back in Kelwick, thirty years younger, and pregnant with Jared. The feeling sent a cold shiver running down her spine.

  The bus pulled into Kelwick Station and Rebecca took her bag from the overhead compartment. She then carefully made her way down the steps and walked around to the side of the bus where she collected the rest of her baggage.

  The doors closed with a hiss and the bus drove off, rapidly picking up pace as it left the station. Rebecca watched it become smaller and smaller in the distance. There was no turning back now. She was in Kelwick and would stay for as long as she had to.

  When the bus had completely disappeared, Rebecca turned and breathed in deeply through her nose, inhaling memories of lazy Friday afternoons after work, inhaling the moment when she first heard that she was pregnant, inhaling the scent of the demonic young man who had tried to tear her and Justin apart. A cold shiver rippled down her spine as she recollected memories about the charismatic gentleman and his supernatural hold over her.

  ‘Becks?’

  Rebecca closed her eyes and smiled. She turned around slowly to face her friend. ‘Tanya.’

  Tanya nodded.

  The women embraced, and Rebecca brushed away a tear with the back of her hand. ‘It’s so good to see you again.’

  ‘You haven’t aged a bit,’ Tanya said. ‘It’s hard to believe that it’s been nine years, isn’t it?’

  Rebecca held her hand to her mouth. ‘Has it been nine years already?’

  Tanya nodded. ‘Jared’s twenty first, remember?’

  ‘Oh my, it feels like only yesterday.’

  A young woman around Jared’s age took her place next to Tanya, and Rebecca was struck by her intense beauty. ‘Becks, this is Natasha,’ Tanya said and turned slightly so that the two women could face one another. ‘Natasha, this is Jared’s mother, Rebecca.’

  ‘Hi Rebecca,’ Natasha said and extended her hand towards the older woman. They shook briefly. ‘Jared has told me so much about you.’

  ‘You’re Tanya’s niece, right?’ Rebecca asked.

  Tanya nodded.

  ‘Amy mentioned you.’

  Natasha glanced at Tanya.

  ‘Where is she, by the way?’

  ‘She’s...’

  ‘She went to California for business,’ Natasha interjected. ‘She should be gone for a few weeks.’

  Rebecca nodded. She couldn’t take her eyes off Natasha. Something about the young woman’s cold and lifeless eyes chilled Rebecca’s blood. She feigned a smile. ‘Well, that’s nice. Must probably be a bookseller’s convention or something going on there.’

  Tanya merely shrugged. She didn’t like the awkward route this conversation was headed. ‘Are you hungry?’ she asked. ‘I’m so starved that I could eat a horse. So why don’t we make a quick stop at the hospital and then go find us a nice spot where we can grab us some dinner?’

  Rebecca nodded and smiled warmly. Her friend had not changed one bit over the years.

  ‘I’ll catch up with you two later,’ Natasha said. ‘I have a few personal matters to attend to.’ She helped carry the bags to Tanya’s car and then waved them off as they pulled out of the station’s parking lot. Once the two older women had driven off, Natasha made her way back to the station. As she neared the entrance to the train section, she glanced from side to side, and then disappeared.

  * - - - *

  Rebecca’s strength left her legs when she saw her son. He lay motionless on the bed, bandaged from head to toe. The cardio monitor was going strong, but other than the machinery, there was no indication that her son was alive. She fought back the tears and lightly wrapped both her hands around his. ‘Jared...’

  ‘The doctors are still running tests,’ Tanya said. ‘They should be able to give us an assessment in a couple of days.’

  Rebecca nodded. She wished that she could see his face. She wished that she could talk to him and hear his voice.

  ‘Come,’ Tanya said. ‘Let’s go.’

  ‘I’ll be back soon,’ Rebecca promised and gently stroked the side of Jared’s head. She then wiped the corners of her eyes as she left the room with Tanya.

  * - - - *

  ‘You never told me that you had a niece,’ Rebecca said after they ordered their drinks. Tanya was having a Choc Mint Latte. Rebecca ordered herbal tea.

  Tanya frowned. ‘I guess it never came up.’

  It never came up? Rebecca wondered. In over thirty years?

  ‘But she’s about Jared’s age, so I think you were gone by the time that she was born. Besides, it’s not like I’m that close to my sister anyway, so I never heard about Natasha until she was about sixteen or so.’

  ‘That must have come as a surprise.’

  ‘It sure did,’ Tanya said and threw in a subtle topic changer. ‘So what have you been up to since I last saw you? Are you still teaching at that school?’

  Rebecca shook her head. When she and Justin left Kelwick, she corresponded with Tanya on a daily basis. Dailies became weeklies which became monthlies. Soon after, the two of them would only send one another the occasional e-mail and a pleasant greeting through Jared. ‘Retired,’ she said. ‘Jared made it possible for both me and Justin to retire early and enjoy what time we still have left with each other and Monique.’

  ‘That’s nice,’ Tanya said. ‘How old is she now?’

  ‘Seventeen.’

  Tanya whistled softly. ‘How they grow, eh?’

  ‘Too fast,’ Rebecca said. A memory of Jared as a baby flashed through her mind and she flinched. ‘People today grow up faster and die younger. It’s a whole other world we live in, Tanya.’

  There was a moment of silence where neither of them said anything. Tanya took Rebecca’s hands in hers. ‘He’s not dead, Becks,’ she said. ‘He’s going to pull through; you’ll see.’

  ‘I know,’ Rebecca said softly, not sure if she actually agreed with what she was saying. ‘It’s just...he’s my boy.’

  Tanya wiped the tear from Rebecca’s check. ‘There are too many things that he still has to do. Trust me.’

  Rebecca couldn’t help but smile. If Tanya only knew what she knew. Simon said the same thing. Should she hold on to that hope? That one small glimmer that there really was something planned for Jared’s life? She had to change the topic, lest she cry at the table. ‘Are you still working at Kelso?’

  Tanya laughed and shook her head. ‘Left them shortly after you left Kelwick and started working at a firm called Sole Food.’

  ‘Soul food?’

  ‘It’s a shoe manufacturer. I started in sales and quickly worked my way up into management. I’m now the regional manager and oversee most of the stores in Gauteng.’

  ‘Oh, sole,’ Rebecca said when she caught the pun. ‘Why didn’t you just ask Jared for a managerial position at Whyte & Greene International?’

  ‘Nah,’ Tanya said and shook her head. ‘I advised him in the background though; still do from time to time. In return for my services, he got me a nice car, a house, and a whole lot of spending money.’

  ‘That’s Jared,’ Rebecca said and smiled warmly. ‘Always helping where he can.’

  ‘He’s a great kid, Becks. You should be proud.’

  ‘I am,’ Rebecca said. ‘We both are. Justin just had a hard time showing it when he was a boy.’

  ‘Speaking of the old rag,’
Tanya said and smirked. ‘How’s his book doing?’

  * - - - *

  The darkness was everywhere.

  Amy was pregnant.

  The blackness was all around him, consuming him from every direction.

  You are the one, Jared Greene.

  The endless nothing grew thicker in texture, suffocating anything it could wrap itself around.

  All power goes to you.

  ‘Hello?’

  Jared’s words echoed into eternity.

  ‘Is anybody out there?’

  Is anybody out there?

  Jared held his hand to his face.

  Nothing.

  ‘Where am I?’

  Where am I?

  He tried to walk, but found himself stumbling over legs he couldn’t feel or see. He hunched down and tried to touch the ground, but his hand passed right through the spot where it should have met hard soil. He placed his two hands together. They passed through one another as though they weren’t there at all.

  A sudden flash of a car on its roof.

  Pain stabbed through Jared’s mind.

  Jared screamed.

  Eternity screamed back.

  Shut up!

  Jared froze. ‘Who said that?’

  I said, shut up!

  ‘Who are you?’

  No answer.

  Jared strained to hear. ‘Am I blind?’

  Blind? another voice asked from behind him somewhere. He thinks he’s blind!

  Laughter all around. Hundreds of voices laughing, their laughter echoing back, vibrating into the very core of his existence.

  ‘Who are you people?’

  The laughter grew louder and more intense. More echoes led to more laughter.

  ‘Answer me!’

  The mocking laughter was the only answer he received.

  ‘Where am I?’

  Like the darkness, the laughter overwhelmed him until he felt numb to it.

  ‘Answer me!’

  The laughter stopped suddenly and abruptly. Silence followed thick and fast.

  ‘Where am I?’

  Where am I? a voice mocked in the distance.

  Isn’t it obvious? another voice growled almost right in front of Jared. You’re in hell!

  * - - - *

  Not much had changed in the twenty nine years since Rebecca had been in Kelwick. Except for a few shopping malls, a restaurant or two, a series of corporate buildings, and an extended industrial section, everything still seemed exactly the same as when she last saw it. The air was still the same. Fresh with just a hint of spring. The late afternoon sun cast the same copper ambient glow around everything.

  Rebecca sat in Tanya’s car, looking at the same old apartment where she and Justin lived so many summers ago. She remembered the miscarriage she had shortly before falling pregnant with Jared. She remembered the strange happenings at the apartment. But most of all, she remembered Dominic.

  A tingling sensation crept down her spine as images long buried played in her mind like a home-made movie. ‘Justin,’ she breathed as a young man opened the door at the apartment where they used to live. He locked the door before walking to a parking bay near hers and got into a car. She longed to be with her husband and wished that he could be there with her right now. Seeing this man drive off instilled a sense of loneliness and dread that she hadn’t felt in a very long time. He might as well have been Justin. She might as well have been twenty one again.

  Alone again.

  She wrapped her fingers around the steering wheel. ‘Full circle,’ she breathed. If Jared was conceived here, is this where he should die?

  Her hands tightened around the wheel.

  So much for Simon’s great vision.

  A single tear streaked down her cheek as more welled in her eyes.

  Save my child, Lord, she prayed. Please save Jared. She broke down and cried. For a long time she just sat in the car, shaking as she wept and pleaded with God to save her son. When she was done, she rubbed at her sticky cheeks with a tissue. She fixed her hair in the rear-view mirror and after taking a final look at the apartment, drove away and left the past behind her.

  * - - - *

  ‘In hell?’

  Shut up!

  ‘But how...?’

  A flash of a car on its roof. Sparks shooting off in all directions.

  Jared tried closing his eyes. The darkness remained exactly the same. He felt where his eyes should be, but his hand passed right through his own head. ‘This can’t be happening,’ he said. ‘This isn’t real.’

  Amy was pregnant.

  ‘Amy...’

  She’s not here. Fool!

  ‘Who are you?’

  Shut up!

  Jared tried to move. It felt like he did, but after a while he felt no closer to anything or anyone else. The darkness spread on forever and ever. It had no beginning and no end. Jared turned. Or did he? He couldn’t tell anymore. Up felt like down. Down spread into endless black, and from the darkness people spoke. Or could he hear their thoughts? Could they hear his?

  Shut up, fool!

  A car on its roof. Sparks flying. A tree racing closer. Then darkness. Absolute darkness.

  ‘God?’

  Laughter.

  He’s calling on God!

  Thousands of voices echoed in laughter all around him.

  God can’t hear you in this place. He doesn’t care about you anymore. You blew your only chance, fool!

  ‘No. You’re lying!’

  You are the one, Jared Greene. All power goes to you.

  ‘It’s all a big mistake!’

  Amy was pregnant. ‘No.’ You are the one, Jared Greene. All power goes to you. ‘No!’ Amy was pregnant.

  ‘NO!’

  The voices stopped instantly.

  ‘Lord,’ Jared whispered, his voice broken down to a pathetic whimper. ‘If you’re out there, please help me. I beg You.’

  No one is going to save you. You’re stuck here for eternity.

  ‘God,’ Jared said, ignoring the taunts. ‘If You can hear me; I’m really sorry. Please forgive me.’

  There is no forgiveness for you, sinner!

  ‘Please give me another chance; a chance to make things right.’

  * - - - *

  ‘Lord,’ Rebecca prayed softly at Jared’s side. ‘Please give him another chance,’ she pleaded. ‘A chance to make things right.’ She didn’t know what he might have done wrong or why she felt compelled to pray those words, but she obeyed her gut feeling. ‘Please save my son.’

  Jared’s rasp rhythmic breathing was her only reply.

  A tear snaked down her cheek and she wiped at it with the back of her hand. She looked up at the steady heartbeat on the cardio monitor and wondered how many hours, days, or years she would have to look at it. Time didn’t matter to her. She would stay until he recovered or finally gave up fighting. If he didn’t recover in a month or two, she would have him moved to a local hospital near Justin and her. Either way, she wouldn’t leave her son’s side.

  ‘Simon said that You had plans for Jared, Lord,’ she whispered. ‘Something that will involve millions of people.’

  She looked up when the curtains blew inward, but the gust of wind left as quickly as it had come.

  ‘I can’t bring myself to believe that this is the plan Simon was talking about, my Lord. How could he die if You have plans for him?’

  She bit her lip.

  ‘Unless his dying is part of Your plan,’ she said. ‘That his death will trigger whatever event You have in mind and that his greatness would come as a result of it? Perhaps he has a good deed planned in his will, a use for his money that could benefit many people?’

  She took Jared’s hand and squeezed it.

  ‘I don’t know your plan, my Lord,’ she prayed as another tear crept down her cheek. ‘But I’ll accept Your decision. I don’t have to like it, but I’ll accept it.’

  She leaned over and kissed Jared on the forehead before she stood up. �
�I’ll see you tomorrow,’ she said and left the room feeling alone and vulnerable. She took the elevator to the bottom floor and after a brief scan over the parking lot, spotted Tanya’s car and made her way towards it.

  ‘Could you spare some change?’ a homeless man asked as Rebecca unlocked the car. She looked at the man and immediately broke eye contact. Despite his torn and dirty clothes, his grin was wide and toothless. He looked at her expectantly, but made no suggestion that she was under any obligation to help him. ‘Anything would be appreciated.’

  Rebecca thought of dismissing the man at first, but her heart cried out to help him. She nodded and searched her purse for some small change. When she found none, she pulled out two crumpled notes and held it out towards him.

  ‘Thank you, Ma’am,’ the man said and smiled his best toothless smile. ‘May the Lord bless you.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘May He bless you too.’ She turned to open the door.

  ‘Jared will be fine,’ the man’s voice croaked behind her. ‘But you must make him see.’

  Rebecca froze. What? She spun around but the man was gone. She took a few steps back from the car and looked around. He was nowhere in sight. She walked around the car and even looked underneath it to see if she could spot movement anywhere in the parking lot. She couldn’t. Once inside the car, she allowed a moment for one last glance around the parking lot after which—with shaking hands—she started the car.

  * - - - *

  A car on its roof. Sparks shooting every which way. A tree nearing at breakneck speed. Jared tried to turn away from the force of impact. In an instant, everything went black.

  You’re in hell!

  ‘Please God,’ Jared pleaded. ‘Please get me out of here.’

  All power goes to you.

  ‘I don’t want power...’