Eyes of the Watchers (Codex Grigori Book 1)

by Howe, Jennifer

“So nothing can come out of it, but things can go in?” She asked.

  “Indeed,” Suriel examined her more carefully. “You are a little young but you look like you could produce healthy offspring.”

  “Here we go again.” Gerard grimaced. “Professor…”

  “…would you be interested in intercourse with my student for the purpose of procreation?”

  “Um, I’m sixteen so I’m pretty sure that’d be illegal.” She was blushing profusely.

  “Are you finished professor?”

  “Oh relax, it never hurts to ask after all.”

  “It really does, professor.”

  “You’re always so resistant. You aren’t confusing what I’m suggesting with something else. I’m quite sure I used the right words.”

  “I understand perfectly, professor. I’m just waiting for the right girl is all.”

  “That’s hardly scientific. Whatever happened to trusting in numbers and math to solve problems?”

  “You can’t measure taste, professor.”

  “Finally you are beginning to make sense, my boy.”

  The old doors burst open and a drenched Variel strode in carrying something over his shoulder. Lightning flashed in the sky. He went strait for the design on the floor, ignoring all but Suriel.

  “Is it ready?”

  “It is.” The professor answered.

  “Good. Open it.”

  “If you two children would follow my lead.” The professor placed his hands on two circular points on the periphery of the design. There were similar spots in two other places so the humans complied. “I want you to think of the word ‘Sheol.’ Ignore anything else.”

  The symbols glowed brighter and a loud wind began to blow throughout the church. In the center, a dark spherical shape formed that grew as each moment passed. The larger it became, the more clearly Julia could see within it. While an expanding sphere, it gave her the distinct impression of being a cavernous hole. She could see a landscape, brown and gray and mostly barren. Strange trees and a faintly yellow sky with mountains in the distance filled the view. Variel moved closer to it.

  The thing Variel carried was apparently a young woman but her voice was unnaturally mature and calm. “If you think something like this will be anything but a nuisance, you deserve what’s coming for all of you.”

  “It will be enough. Whatever deal you made only applies to this world.” As Variel spoke, the woman’s face became one of horror. “There are always consequences, Hecate. I’d have thought you would have learned that by now.”

  Without waiting for her response, he threw her in.

  She screamed and with a flash, her figure became visible in the landscape.

  “Did he just say Hecate?” Gerard asked.

  “Focus, Mr. Donne!” Suriel ordered.

  Variel spoke to those not present. “I’m sorry, brothers. That should have been done a long time ago,”

  Just then, a shadow moved behind him with two burning points of light.

  “Variel!” Julia shouted.

  Before he could dodge it, a muscular arm struck him down. The dark form stepped over his frame and advanced on the other three.

  “What’s going on?” Gerard’s voice shook. “What is that thing?”

  “Pay attention!” Suriel commanded as he rose to face the beast.

  It swung at him and he dodged the blow. A focused orb of light grew in his hand and he hit the creature with it. Whatever was meant to happen did not. The monster threw him aside into the wall. When his body fell, cracks in his skin from the impact became visible. The thing turned to the humans. A line across its pitch face split open and a hideous smile revealed rows of hooked teeth.

  Julia was adamant. “Gerard, don’t look at it!”

  “Shouldn’t we run?”

  “We’d never outrun it!”

  Gerard resigned himself. “So this is it, is it?” The sphere’s surface shivered and the image began to change.

  “I’ve lived almost a week longer than I thought I would,” she replied. “I guess that’s better than some people get.” The earlier wind had become a tempest, the sphere flashed and was losing its shape. “Keep thinking about Sheol!”

  “Are you mad? That thing is getting closer and I’m supposed to think clearly?”

  “Your professor said that…”

  “…My professor is lying on the floor over there, he needs my help!”

  The beast was only two steps away from them. Suddenly a force pushed it toward the portal.

  It was Variel.

  His jacket was slick and a streak of bright liquid light ran across his face, obscuring a closed eye. He held the creature’s arms while it snarled.

  “Think of the Abyss!” He shouted.

  “Why?” Gerard asked.

  “There’s no time!”

  The sphere convulsed and the view changed to one of utter darkness accented by bright bouts of red and purple flame. With a yell he thrust it into the opening. He fell to a knee with the effort and didn’t notice until it was too late. A dark, elongated arm reached out and clamped around his leg.

  “NO!” Julia screamed and removed a hand from the ground to take his.

  The thing was partway into the portal when the image became unstable. Seemingly random landscapes of every kind conceivable flashed rapidly while the room was filled with a roaring gale. The beast howled as it was torn apart by the energy shear but its hold on Variel pulled the Watcher closer to the opening.

  The only thing holding him in this world was Julia’s hand.

  “You have to let me go!” He pleaded.

  “I can’t!”

  “You have to!”

  The force drawing him in became too strong. Gerard closed his eyes and tried to focus his mind. The portal’s image became unclear but it stopped flashing. The wind did not stop. In a last attempt to maintain her hold, Julia tried to use her other hand as well. Unfortunately, removing it from the symbol threw the room and the sphere into chaos. The vortex became stronger and she was pulled from her feet.

  Both were lost to the portal.

  It flashed again with such force that Gerard was flung back from the circle. Suddenly the wind died down. The room was silent but for the rain and Gerard’s breathing. He stood and walked back to the center of the design, putting his hand where the sphere had been. Nothing but normal air remained.

  He looked around frantically and found the professor. The old man was in poor shape. He would not survive without medical attention.

  Not knowing what else to do, Gerard pulled out his cell-phone and dialed 911.

  Chapter 14

  Julia felt like she was falling down an impossibly deep cavern. Everything was dark and the wind ripped into her, cold and unforgiving. It felt like it would never stop. The only thing she knew, the only thing that was certain was his hand. The further they fell, the weaker his hold became. A sharp terror began to grow in her heart.

  It slipped from her grasp and was gone.

  She could not restrain her tears. She was alone. There was nothing but a howling emptiness, cold and painful. Her mind tried to understand how she had reached this place. Time held no meaning, she could have been falling for hours or years. She started to fear that she might go insane. Maybe she was already insane…

  Eventually, the howling darkness became a howling grayness and then a light. The light became yellow and then orange. Her feet touched something solid softly. The howling slowly died down, and she stood alone on a barren land. She looked up to see two dull suns and a large unfamiliar moon in the sky. The sensation of falling stopped abruptly and her head swam. She almost vomited. This new world swirled in her vision. She couldn’t help it.

  She passed out.

  On a nearby hilltop, a figure moved towards her.

  * * *

  Suriel awoke in a soft bed with machines and buttons all around. It was a small room that also held Gerard sleeping in a chair next to the window. A female nurse was monitoring a s
creen.

  “Where am I?” He asked.

  “You’re in the hospital. You were hit by a car.”

  “Oh.”

  “The doctors want to keep you around for a couple of days. Your heartbeat is irregular and you’re running a fever.”

  “Ah, yes. Indeed.”

  “I’ll tell them you’re awake, do you want me to nudge him or something?” She indicated a disheveled heap of man that was Gerard.

  “If you’d please.”

  The nurse shook him gently.

  “Hey there, time to get up,” she said softly.

  “No!” Gerard mumbled. “Get off!” He was not fully awake.

  “Don’t mind him.” Suriel spoke to the nurse. “He’s rather slow sometimes.”

  “Oh, all right then. If you need anything just push this button.” She indicated the proper control on the device attached to the bed.

  “I’m sure I’ll be quite alright.” As she left, Suriel looked to his student, still rubbing his eyes. The realization of their surroundings hit Gerard all at once.

  “Professor!”

  “So you survived, Mr. Donne.”

  “Yes, I don’t even know how.”

  “Then things went to plan.”

  Gerard looked away. “Not exactly.”

  “Explain.”

  “That thing, whatever it was, your brother, he…”

  “Spit it out, boy!”

  Gerard didn’t know how to say it any other way. “Your brother pushed it into the portal, but it grabbed his leg.”

  “Where did you send them? Please tell me it wasn’t to Sheol.”

  “No, Variel told us to think of the Abyss.”

  “Did you?”

  “Yes. The creature couldn’t have survived the change. I think I’ll hear that scream in my nightmares for the rest of my days. He said there was no time to explain why we couldn’t just send it to the same place as the witch.”

  “Well he was right. She could have used it. Regardless of the personal consequences, he was right… He never deserved to end up so far from the light.”

  “He didn’t. At least I don’t think he did.”

  “What?”

  “Before the creature could pull him in, Julia took his hand. I lost my concentration and…”

  “…and sent them somewhere else.” Suriel finished for him.

  “I think so.”

  “Where did you send them?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know?”

  “I couldn’t think strait, the portal kept changing.”

  “Focus boy, what was the last thought you remember?”

  “I thought, anywhere in one piece.”

  Suriel sighed. “Then that is where they are.”

  “I’m sorry, where?”

  “Anywhere.”

  * * *

  When Variel landed, it was not gently. His already weak frame hit dark stone and rolled until landing in a relatively soft bed of ash. For how long he lay there, he could not tell. His body was filled with pain even in places that had not been injured. Eventually he woke and looked to the sky.

  His eyes were met by what appeared to be stars everywhere but directly above and arranged in a circular pattern. No, not stars but flames. The heat and wind were unbearable, but it was the least of his problems. To his left lay parts of the Emim’s torso. Before him lay a landscape of nightmares with rivers of fire and countless forms impaled on jagged metal spikes jutting from the ground. What he had first thought to be the sound of the wind, he discovered, was in fact the anguished screams of untold masses.

  He stumbled as he tried to stand and landed on his side. He felt pain in his left wing. A bout of horror struck him. He turned and looked to his side. His wings were back, and they were not white. The base of the feathers were black and they faded to a rusted red at their tips.

  He had not seen them since the Jarad.

  He stretched them out and they ached. Retracting them closer to his body, he stumbled to the edge of the cliff he had landed near. Beneath him, mountains of bodies moaned. Around him several shapes rose from the ashes, the local denizens. For the first time, he truly understood what it was to be fallen.

  He was in Hell.

  MMXI

  XXX