David stands in front of a mirror for the first time in months to see the scars for himself. Standing up with the help of a pair of crutches, David gazes at the damage to his body. There are cuts from head to toe with large gashes across his arms. He stands there and wonders how he made it out alive. His ribs are still sensitive to touch. After that horrible day, David knows that his life has changed, but for the better or worse is yet to be determined. David collapses to the floor shaking and crying as he moves into the fetal position, wishing for Merlin.
Chapter 22
David and Marnina are working in the garden, planting some new vegetables before the rain hits. Thunder and lighting dance together in the far distance as they hurry to finish as the large white clouds over them change to dark and angry.
David comes to the end of his last row of planting and realizes that he has finished first. Smiling, he laughs as he watches his aunt work like a penguin digging in the dirt. The closer she gets to him, laughter fills her lungs, and it gets harder to keep a straight face. Marnina tries hard to stand as she slides her dirty, soil-covered hands down the sides of his face. David stops laughing and stares at her stone faced. Marnina stops laughing and stares at David as she waits for his next move. They both breakout in laugher for a couple of minutes then run out of steam and go silent.
“You know, Marnina, there was one man that I heard of when I was just five years old. His name is Merlin. My father told me that he was the greatest man that ever lived. He can do things that no other person can do. Some say that he lives backwards through time, but I don’t think that is true because how could he talk to us?”
“So, you would love to meet Merlin. How about you make a wish on the next shooting star that you see in the midnight sky and maybe that may come true,” Marnina stares up at the dark clouds as they ready to pour buckets of rain on the whole countryside at any minute. “I think that we should be getting in.”
“Do you know how I can meet Merlin? Do you know anyone that would know him? I would do anything so that I could meet him. I think he would be a very interesting person to talk to for hours upon hours. His life, where he has been, what he has seen, and anything else that I have not thought of yet,” David just ignores Marnina as he stares up picturing himself talking to Merlin.
“Come on, it’s starting to rain, and you need to wash off your face before dinner,” holding out her hand, Marnina helps David up off the ground.
David smiles back at her, “You know, I could just stay outside and let the rain rinse off the dirt.”
Marnina musses David’s hair then takes off running towards the house. David laughs as he tries to dodge the raindrops while running after Marnina. They both make it to the house before the heaviest rain hits.
Zebedeo is standing in the kitchen as they barge in laughing about being soaking wet, “I see you two had a good time planting.”
“Yes, but Marnina made my face all dirty and now I have to take a bath before dinner. I’m starving; can’t you see I’m wasting away,” David rubs has stomach and sticks out his tongue.
Marnina and Zebedeo break out in laughter at his face then wave him out of the kitchen and up to the bathroom.
Chapter 23
Dimitri lies on the altar, weeping in fear of what is next on the list. Belial walks over to him and grabs Dimitri’s face.
“Did you enjoy the stabbing and cooking of your bodiless soul? Or would you like to hear the truth behind all of this?” Belial asks as he runs his claws down Dimitri’s chest.
“The truth? There is some kind of sick truth behind all of this?” Dimitri cannot believe what Belial is saying.
“You humans are all alike when it comes to what happens to you in the afterlife. Do you think what just happened to you was real or fake? What would you tell me if I told you that all you had to do to get off that altar was to believe that you could do it and then you could do it?” Belial stares at Dimitri, waiting for an answer.
“You mean everything that just happened to me was a trick? But what about all the pain that I felt?” Dimitri tries to move his hands without success.
“You’re still thinking that you have a body. Your body is long gone, but your mind still thinks that it is there. That is why you still feel the pain. Dimitri, you need to detach your mind and soul from your dead body to be free-to make it to the next and final level,” Belial turns around to sit on his throne.
Dimitri lies there for a short time, absorbing what Belial just told him. It makes perfect sense, but then it doesn’t. He begins to think about the hooks that are sticking through his feet and hands.
‘They are not real’ he says to himself.
He repeats it until he does not feel the pain. He holds his hands in front of his eyes to see that there is no scaring whatsoever. In complete amazement, he leaps off the altar and stands in front of Belial.
“Congratulations, boy, you have made it to the final test. This is the hardest, not just anybody can pass it. If you can make it past this test, you will have a ticket straight to heaven. However, I will warn you about this test. Very few ever pass it, due to its severity.” Belial grins wickedly ear to ear.
“Nothing can hurt me now. Bring it on and try to do your worst,” Dimitri says with immense confidence that it could scare any demon that stood in front of him.
Chapter 24
David walks the burnt ruins of his aunt and uncle's house. He looks through all of the sifted rubble for any clue as to what had happened on that awful afternoon. Standing in the middle of the ash-covered house remains, he can clearly see his aunt’s and uncle’s two graves. David turns his head away, trying not to cry. Then something that should not be there catches his eye. A figure that David has not seen since his birthday appears to the left of him. The vision in David’s left eye is still cloudy and he turns his head to see it better.
'Dear God, its you.’ David thinks.
“I know I should have visited you earlier, but I had many things to do. I also thought that you needed time to heal; so I didn't want you to get all worked up just for nothing,” Merlin replies making David believe that he read his mind.
“Where have you been? I have been thinking to myself that one person that I would love to see would be you. You could solve so many questions that I have in so little time. You are the greatest wizard ever to walk the face of this earth,” David walks towards Merlin trying not to fall over the rubble.
“I cannot solve any of your problems nor help you with them. You are the one that must solve your own problems, not me. I am only here because I heard about the tragedy you experienced. I am very sorry about your loss and send my deepest regards,” Merlin helps David out of the burnt remains of the house.
“So my problems are my problems. What about the fact that nobody has any clue to what had happened to Markus and Wendi?” David tries to hold back the tears for his brother and sister.
“Markus and Wendi are in a good place. I have a good feeling that you will cross paths with them again, but not in this lifetime. Your strong connection with them will guide you to them.” Merlin leads David to his aunt and uncle's grave so they both can pay their respects.
“Merlin, can I ask you a question.”
“Yes. What is it?” Merlin stares at the graves, hoping its not the obvious question so many ask.
“Can you heal me? I don't want to look at myself anymore. I feel like a monster.” David's eyes start to tear up.
Merlin replies in a deep, quiet tone, “No, I cannot,” he is surprised by the question asked.
“If you cannot heal me, then can I become your apprentice so that I may heal myself when the time comes?” David tries a different approach.
“I take on no apprentices, and there is a reasonable answer why I do not.” Merlin tries to quash any come back.
“Why?” David demands. “Don't lie to me either!”
“Because. I am special individual due to who my parents could be and what I might be to the human race. Also, if I t
old you the truth, you would never believe me. Sometimes, I don’t believe it myself,” Merlin becoming a little bit more caring towards David wellbeing.
“Then what are you?”
“I cannot tell you that right now. There will come a time and a place for more answers, but this is neither the time nor the place. The only hint that I can tell you is I am not of this earth,” Merlin turns his head and smiles at David then disappears leaving David to think about all that has happened. A single tear rolls off his cheek and falls resting on a single blade of grass between his aunt and uncle's graves.
Chapter 25
Dimitri stares at Belial, waiting to see what will happen next. Belial signals all the demons to leave then signals Dimitri to follow him. Dimitri nods his head and walks right behind Belial into the abyss. They walk for a while when Dimitri begins to realize that there is nothing around him.
“Where are we going?” Dimitri is becoming more troubled with the way Belial is acting. Everything is too calm.
“We are almost there,” Belial shows no concern for Dimitri's thoughts.
Then Dimitri sees what they have been walking towards all this time. A doorframe stuck in the ground without a door to hold. There are no walls holding it up or even a room to go into, just a doorframe in the ground in the middle of nowhere.
“We are here,” Belial points to the doorframe.
“There is nothing here, but this doorframe. That has no door on it or even a room to go into.”
“Ye of little faith, through that door is your final test,” Belial points to the door that is not there.
“But there is no door!” Dimitri shouts back at Belial.
“Knock and the door shall open.”
Dimitri cannot believe what he is hearing. There is no door. Belial waves his hand for Dimitri to proceed.
Dimitri looks down, shakes his head, and thinks 'I cannot believe that I am going to do this.’
He walks over to the doorframe, peers back at Belial, and proceeds to knock.
Tap… tap… tap...
A grin comes to Belial's face as he sees Dimitri freezes in place.
“Well, go ahead and open it,” Belial walks to Dimitri and starts to put his hand on the knob of the door. Dimitri knocks Belial's hand out of the way to put his own hand on the doorknob. He turns the knob to reveal a room that he could not perceive. Dimitri takes a couple of steps back, looks around the doorframe, and sees nothing. Walking around to the back of the doorframe, Dimitri looks through to see only Belial looking back at him. Belial shakes his head and holds out his hand for Dimitri to take. Dimitri takes Belial's hand as he walks through the open doorframe. Belial turns Dimitri around, and they proceed to walk into the room that was never there.
“Where are we?” Dimitri stands in the middle of the room staring at all the different pictures on the walls. Before Belial could answer, Dimitri sees a picture of his stepmother and father holding him in their arms when he was a baby.
“Are we in my memories?” Dimitri asks.
“How about your soul.” Belial replies.
“My soul? You mean this is my soul?” Dimitri looks around at the other pictures that are on the many walls. He sees pictures of everyone that he has known or touched his life in some way or another. His birth mother's brother, who took his own life the day that Dimitri was born because he thought that he and his father was monsters for doing what they did to his birth mother. Dimitri sees his step uncle that took him in so he could have a safe place to stay. Looking back on his life, he wishes that he never ran away to do those awful acts to those kind people. The boy that he stole from was up on the wall too, but he had seen his face before. Somewhere before but he could not place it.
A picture on the wall replays his birth and Dimitri watches it.
Chapter 26
Across town, at the same time David Turner is being born in a little broken down shack of a house, another child was born. This birth did not go so well or as planned. Archangel Elijah watches on, invisible to the humans within the shack.
A heartbroken father kneels over his wife, sobbing. His eyes, once gushing with tears, are now dried up. Just like the wasteland that he thinks he lives in. His tears have washed away most of the blood that was once covering the baby. The boy reaches for his father’s face, trying to comfort him. His father smiles back at him trying to pull himself together for the sake of the new child.
“James, what are we going to do with Jennie’s body?” his only brother asks him, shaking with fright to what just happened. He sits on the pine floor staring at his sister-in-law in disbelief.
“Dear God, we are animals. We are not fit to live in a normal, civilized world. What is going to happen to us after we die… after we have done this, this horrible act?”
“I’ll tell you what we are going to do. We are going to bury the body. No, better yet, we are going to burn her body to respect her and my new son. Dimitri would not have made it to this hellhole of a world, if Jennie was not willing to die for him,” James tells Dimitri as he tries to smile about what to do with Jennie’s body.
Picking up the bloody knife, Jacques breaks into a crying rage of fear and lowliness. He stands still for a couple of minutes, trying to make sense of what to do next. Looking down at Jennie, he rubs his eyes trying to wipe the tears away but more come to replace themHis hand twitches with unknown direction as if it had a mind of its own. Doing a C-section with a sixteenth century butcher knife is not the art of childbirth.
“I can’t do this. I, I, I c-c-can’t go on living with the kno-kno-wledge that I, I, I j-j-just helped k-k-kill a h-h-human being to save a b-b-baby. I, I, I”
Jacques' stuttering returns, after being conquered for ten years, in full force but it also starts to control his body, too. Uncontrolled jerks within his arm makes his fist fly up to his neck.
“Jacques, no!” James screams out while holding baby Dimitri in one arm and reaches for the knife with the other.
“I’m so sorry, brother,” Jacques cuts his throat from jugular to jugular. His body collapses to the floor, limp, with blood spaying everywhere. Jacques lies in a pool of blood gasping for air as he chokes. James stands over his brother’s body looking down at him as his soul slips away. His eyes become still and hollow.
Standing in horror and disbelief, James is disconnected from what just happen.
He glances down at the baby lying in his arms, “Dimitri, don’t you worry about a thing, little one. I’m going to get us a better life and a better house to live in. I'm going to take good… no… great care of you.”
James picks up everything that he can carry. He takes it outside along with the baby, sets everything on the ground a safe distance away from the shack, picks up a bunch of sticks and brush lying around the outer perimeter, and spreads it all inside of the cabin. James kicks over a lantern as he leaves and walks to get his son. James picks him up and their things off the ground then walks off into the woods towards a better life.
Unknown to the humans, Archangel Elijah looks on and thinks to herself, ‘Maybe, maybe this is the one that God was talking about.’
Chapter 27
David, Markus, and Wendi are out shopping with their stepparents at the local shops in town. The men decide to split up from the women and go their separate ways to see if they can do something exciting. Zebedeo tells Marnina that they will not be terribly far away from them and not to worry.
Marnina replies, “Now you boys don't go getting into any trouble because then I will not know you.”
Zebedeo smiles and leaves to go looking around with David and Markus. Wendi glances up at Marnina to find out where she would like to go next. Marnina winks back at Wendi and points in the opposite direction of the men.
“Let’s go that way and see if we can get into some trouble of our own.”
“Dimitri, where are you going today?” Mr. Quinn asks as he helps Mr. Johnston, his head cook, in the kitchen prepare today's lunch for all of the children at the orphanag
e.
“I thought that I would explore the town. You know, get to know the place a little bit more. Might find a favorite place to hang out at,” Dimitri replies as he picks up an apple to munch on before hitting the road. “You know, I overheard a couple of the other kids talking about a little shop that I might go check out.”
“Okay, just don't be to long. Lunch is almost done. This is going to be a very special lunch because we will be welcoming a new kid to the family,” Mr. Quinn chops up a couple more carrots and puts them into the stew pot.
Dimitri nods as he takes a couple of bites of this apple and then says with a full mouth, “Okay, see you soon.”
Dimitri walks to the back door that lets out to the alleyway to take a small shortcut to the little shop that he wants to check out. He comes across a couple of street vendors on the way there selling food to local town people at a discounted price. One of them has his favorite food; grilled apples. He share this with his father when they walked around his old town together laughing and telling jokes. He wipes away a small tear running down his cheek and then puts on a smile so that no one will see him cry. Dimitri arrives outside of a local shop that specializes in handmade clothes.
David, Markus, and Zebedeo are checking out a local shop where the owner makes everything from scratch. Zebedeo checks out some specially dyed dresses for Marnina, hoping that he can surprise her for her birthday. Markus and David are acting like they are shopping but are ogling at the girls that are shopping. Markus winks at one of them and she waves back. David whispers hello to her dark haired friend standing next to her, making her blush back at him. Zebedeo glances over at the boys to check on them and notices what they are looking at.
Zebedeo thinks, 'That's my boys.’
Dimitri inspects some clothing that might or might not fit him. He looks down at the price of the shirt and knows that he does not have enough money to buy it. Just then, he catches a glimpse of a boy paying for a couple of new outfits. The boy takes the coins and puts them in a little blue change bag hanging off his belt. Dimitri knows that he had to have this little blue change pouch. He had to get it, even if it meant breaking the law. He devised a plan in a split second and knew that it would work because he had seen other people do it back at his old home when they thought that no one was looking.
Enigma of the Soul - Book 1 - Pieces Page 5
