The Dark Messenger

by Milo Spires

  Only for a moment back there in the cells he had thought he had ruined his chances for escape.

  Hoidrious had said ‘ok what don’t I know about Raffious.’ And then he had told him, but the evil bastard hadn’t batted an eyelid, or even had one slight bit of anger pass across his ugly face. Instead he had looked scared because Mietioc had arrived.

  Longinus also appreciated how lucky he had been that Mietiocs’ mind was filled with his own hatred thoughts towards Hoidrious, because had he been a loyal goon of his instead, Raffious might have been killed as a result, and then there would have been too many for him to fight. So the cell door would have been opened and his number one card would have been used but ruined. If that had happened, he felt sure he would have never get another chance to escape, or at least not whilst he still had his feet attached to his legs, that is.

  So when Hoidrious had asked him if he wanted to help fight Mietioc, and then promised him afterwards he would grant him his freedom, just as Longinus was deeming it a completely farcical thought and was going to refuse, suddenly he had remembered the idea of stealing the fuckers robes.

  And with the idea his plans for escape suddenly got their second green light for go.

  ----------

  Now walking up the stairs dressed in Hoidrious’ attire, Longinus made sure he kept his head extremely low, and that his face was covered by the hood.

  Floor after floor he ascended and hundreds of vampires he past without any of them looking at him even once.

  Then as he drew closer to the top floor, suddenly a deeply harrowing thought passed through his mind. What if his dripping clock he had been listening too was out somehow, the sound of the dripping he had kept the time by from the cell next door. If it was out, or somehow he had mistaken it repeating itself every 8 seconds, when really it had dripped every ten seconds? Scanning his brain he tried to calculate fast what that could mean, and how much it could have altered the time by if it had been so.

  Longinus was fully aware when he got up to the exit and then threw open the secret door, if he found the land basking in murderous and deeply oppressive sunshine, then his escape plans had failed and he would be buggered. There would be no way for him to leave the coven, and in turn also no way he would be able to turn around either. If the sun was baring down its deathly rays or even if first light was just appearing, shafting itself through the canopy of trees, then in his mind he decided rather than turn around for more cell time on death row, he would bravely step out into it anyway.

  His reasoning being to die free this day with his mind full of visions of pastures wide and plentiful, remote rambling cottages and a myriad of flowers and bee’s, would be better than being locked up in solitary awaiting a heinous death. OK death would come and it would be with much pain but not by their fucking hands, and as he died he would smile knowing that too.

  There would be no way he was going back down to those heinous cells, ever again.

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  When he finally reached the secret door leading out though, a pleasant sight caught him. The guards were still standing there with their long spears. This undoubtedly meant that it was night, as if it wasn’t they would have already retired from their posts.

  As he approached them, he kept his mind focused on his slow and laborious walk, making sure he was walking like Hoidrious would have. Then as he stood in front of the secret door with a guard either side of him, the worst thing happened.

  Suddenly from behind him, the stairwell filled with horrific demonic screams, and he could hear hordes of vampires charging up towards him. Their wings were beating and crashing against the walls as they ascended the stairwell.

  They were screaming out don’t let anyone leave, Longinus is free and has escaped, lock the main doors, don’t let anyone leave.

  The two guards believing he was Hoidrious then spun around and stood with their spears out between the back of him and the stairs. The fools he thought as he turned the handle and then gritted his teeth before muttering, ‘Please god, don’t let there be sunshine.’

  As he threw the door back, he was met by a blast of undeniably gorgeous night air. The moon was high in the sky and gently masked by gathering clouds, whilst the land was covered in dark shadows diving here and there.

  Then without waiting a moment longer, he leapt into the sky and beat his rusty wings as he flew away to freedom.

  Chapter 41 – A Message from the future?

  It was one hour later now and Kaine had been walking up and down the beach thinking about different possibilities. He considered the various ways that the meeting with Vius could go, so that he could try to be prepared for all possibilities. He had only one purpose in mind: to save his family at all costs.

  Glancing up at the sky, he thought for a moment about the angel coming to his house with the offer for him to join Heaven as their Truth Messenger. Did Heaven really want me to be their truth messenger? He wondered. Then he thought about Jenny again, and the sad memory made him drop to his knees.

  If only he hadn’t gone back for the damn iPad. He thought as he also realized how things had turned out, that he never even used the damn thing anyway. She had died for nothing. He thought.

  After a few minutes doubled over and staring lifelessly down at a piece of seaweed, he slowly stood up. Kaine was racked with sadness and felt completely lost, he had never in his life felt this way before, but then apart from Regina’s father, he hadn’t lost anyone close to him before either.

  Turning to look out to see, he found himself walking out into the water and he kept walking until the water was splashing up wildly against his chest. He was so cut up inside that he hadn’t even realized that the murderously oppressive sun would be up soon, and that he only had about thirty minutes left until he would be savagely killed by it, as the deathly rays chased across the land again.

  Looking up, he held his arms out level either side of himself, with his palms facing upwards, and begged God to help him.

  ‘Please father, I am so confused. I want to understand, I thank you for the offer to join you, but I love my wife too much to leave her. Please save her.’ He cried with tears flowing down his cheeks.

  At that moment, Vius and a few of his guards flew towards him.

  Vius laughed when he saw Kaine in the water and then roared with laughter as he saw the tears on his cheeks.

  ‘You killed my warriors, and have established quite a myth for yourself,’ he sneered. ‘Some say you are strong and invincible, but now I see by your tears that you are just pathetic! You are turning to Heaven? What are you hoping for, some kind of divine alliance or something with them?’

  Vius flew over Kaine’s head and landed hard on the beach behind him. He landed so hard that as he touched down and tucked his wings in behind himself, his boots had sunk deep into the wet sand. ‘We are vampires, you imbecile. Lucifer made us. Heaven does not care about you and your stupid prayers!’

  Kaine’s body was tingling all over and it had nothing to do with the freezing cold water either. He was so torn up inside over Jenny that he didn’t know what to do or say really. He expected that anything he said to this vampire would just be turned around on him.

  ‘So you say Rex is alive and you can get him. How?’ Vius emitted a feral growl and said, ‘If you are lying, I will kill your pathetic little family.’

  ‘KILL MY FAMILY??’ Kaine thought as the tingling was replaced with wild rage. Turning around he began to wade out of the water towards him. Suddenly it crossed his mind that maybe he should forget diplomacy and just attack him. It would be easy enough to grab him from behind, and then threaten to his warriors that he would kill him. He was reasonably sure that would save his family.

  Kaine tossed the idea as soon as it had been born though. The consequences to Regina if somehow it all went horribly wrong, was more than he could bear.

  No, he would stick to the angel’s plan, the one he felt so sure that had been placed it in his mind as he had handed over Jenny�
�s lifeless corpse. He had no doubt that the usual thoughts of diplomacy he was experiencing were nothing more than a divine gift, and that the angel was trying to guide him them.

  ‘I know where your leader is. Yes, it is true. I would not risk my wife’s life on a lie. Your warriors know I am friends with the angels,’ Kaine retorted.

  Vius looked at one of the warriors standing beside him for verification. He nodded back at Vius in agreement.

  Kaine then took a few steps towards Vius, and his warriors pulled out their swords and stormed towards him. Vius held his hand up for them to stop and they did. Kaine held his hands up with his palms facing forwards to prove he was no threat. Then he told him everything he knew about Raffious from the angel and also his vision, and that he was on a path for revenge.

  It was clear when he was finished explaining, that Vius didn’t believe him. Instead, he laughed harshly and said, ‘I don’t believe you. You say this time shifter guy did everything to have his revenge for the death of that whore. Yes I remember her, I remember sleeping with her and also I remember killing her too, but I doubt this guy you speak of did everything you say. You are lying!’

  Vius then crossed his arms and had a deeply hot tempered, choleric look across his face. ‘Rex alive…You must think I am stupid,’ he shouted, as he looked at his own vampires for support. They were grinning back at him, suggesting they thought Kaine was lying too.

  ‘I saw him die!’ Vius screamed at him, as he firmly tightened his grip around the handle of his massive sword. The blade had been reflecting a glimmer of moonlight coming of the sea but now a new light streaked across it, a light that as it then reflected onto one of his warriors standing opposite him, the light severely burnt him.

  ‘Sir the sun, sir.’ Another warrior screamed as Vius spun around to look up into the sky. There above him, through the thick dark clouds was the first glimpse of the early morning sunrise.

  The warrior who had just been blasted by the reflection had a massive slice running across his face, and his right eye was completely frazzled. He also had a huge gash running from front to back across his skull, that was several inches deep.

  Vius swung his archaic razor sharp sword around in one swift movement and decapitated the warrior as he was screaming in agony. Then turning around to Kaine he laughed as he said ‘It appears your Heavenly friends have just saved you and your pathetic family.’

  Messaging all of his warriors as one to flee, he then leapt up into the sky and flew as fast as he could to find shelter. As his warriors took to the air, just by the sheer amount of them, it looked like a massive black cloud.

  Then something attracted his eye and Kaine couldn’t believe what he saw as he looked up.

  The gap in the clouds that was pouring through the murderous rays was suddenly blocked by another dark cloud as it slid into place. Then the cloud changed to white and there, looking back down at him and smiling was Jenny. She had wings now and was an angel in Heaven.

  Then suddenly a woman’s voice echoed out all around him. At first it started of really faint and then grew louder and louder.

  ‘John! John, wake up! You are going to be late.’

  Chapter 42 - The Priest

  ‘John? John, are you awake, darling? You are going to be late if you don't get up,’ he heard a woman’s voice saying softly.

  ‘Er…yes. Um, hang on. Where am I?’ he asked, in a slightly startled, but muffled, voice. His face was planted firmly in his pillow and his eyes were locked shut, demanding to be left alone.

  The woman prodded him again.

  ‘Um yes, okay.’ A couple more brain cells snapped on. ‘Wow I…yum…so um so tired,’ he mumbled. He began to open his eyes slightly.

  Speaking more clearly as his brain started to wake up, he said, ‘I just had a really weird dream. What time is it please, baby?’

  ‘It’s 7.30am. You had better hurry, because you have your Saturday Sermon in little over an hour,’ his girlfriend, Sister Ursula, said to him.

  ‘Right…what, it’s Saturday?’ John panicked. He thrust himself upright in his bed as he fully connected with the reality of who and where he actually was. He quickly remembered that today he was going to be giving a sermon at his local Cathedral. The choir was going to be there, along with a new guest speaker.

  Jane, the lady who organized the hymns on Saturdays, was also going to be there with them. She had kindly, and at very short notice, somehow managed to arrange a replacement guest speaker for the Cathedral, for which he had been extremely grateful. He couldn’t afford to be late this morning; too many people were counting on him.

  John just couldn’t believe that he had overslept, and on such an important day. He’d snored straight through his 7:00am alarm. He glanced across quickly at the bedside digital clock to double-check the time, hoping somehow that his girlfriend had been wrong about the time. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been—it was 7.34 am.

  ‘I had the strangest dream last night, and was tossing and turning nonstop. It was about vampires and werewolves, would you believe? It was so clear though, so very clear.’ He paused to think before saying, ‘I can still vividly remember it in every detail. I do hope it was not a message from the Father,’ he said, feeling guilty. He looked over at Ursula’.

  She didn’t know what to say for a second, extremely shocked that a man of his position should have had such a dream. Instinctively, she placed a protective hand on her belly, where their baby nestled safe from such harmful things.

  ‘Oh!’ she said, for a second utterly lost for words. Then, ‘Will you be okay? You look very tired, darling.’

  ‘Thank you, I will be. I just need to get myself up and take a quick shower I think, then I will be fine. Could you prepare my robes please?’ he asked, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

  ‘Of course,’ Ursula replied. Turning she walked across to their walk-in Venetian wardrobe as John quickly pulled the sheets back and stood up.

  ‘How is my baby this morning, by the way?’ he asked, walking over to give her a kiss.

  ‘She is fine,’ Ursula said. She took his hand and placed it on her hugely pregnant belly for him to feel.

  ‘So you have decided it’s a girl then, I hear?’ he said to her. He smiled as he kissed her on the forehead.

  ‘Yes darling, and if it is a girl I want to name her Jenny,’ she replied.

  John froze at her words; it was the very same name from his dream, and for a second he wondered if it wasn't just a strange coincidence.

  It had to be, he thought.

  ‘What’s wrong? You look like you have seen a ghost,’ she said, smiling at him.

  ‘Er, nothing, I just remembered something that I had to do this morning, that’s all,’ he replied. He pulled his hand back, then turned to walk into their en-suite bathroom. He knew he could hardly tell her that the dream was about vampires chasing after a woman called Jenny who was born to a priest and a nun, could he? He felt sure that such a story would only freak her out, and she didn’t need that right now. Or ever.

  Arriving at the Cathedral, which was only a short drive from his home, he was horrified to see that Jane and the choir had in fact already got there and were standing in the car park waiting.

  He wound down the window on his new Datsun Cherry car before he had even properly parked it.

  ‘Good morning,’ he called to Jane. ‘I am so sorry, I do hope so very much that I haven’t kept you waiting for long.’

  ‘No, not at all. We have only just arrived ourselves,’ she replied, smiling at him.