“Let us eat!” Abakanazar said and clapped his hands once. Everyone starting eating, the slapping noises of them eating were horrible, everyone ate with their mouths open. I looked at my food for the longest time, then picked up a piece of meat. I put it in my mouth and followed their process of chewing, minus having my mouth open. The flavor was great, the meat was moist and seasoned, so I took another piece and put it in my mouth. I chewed and chewed, and the meat dissolved in my mouth, or if I swallowed, absorbed into my body.
Then when my meat and fish were gone, I picked up the round vegetable I had placed on my plate and bit into it. I stopped, the taste was magnificent, I bit into again and savored the joy all over again, “What are these?” I asked Al Hubarb.
“Those are potatoes, it’s about the only thing that grows in Gomorrah. You like them?”
“Yes, I want more,” I said and looked around the table for them, there was big plate of them across from me, but the table was too wide for me to reach, “Can you hand me those please!” I pointed to the person who had the potatoes in front of them.
She picked the plate up and handed it to me, I took the whole plate and dumped the whole plate onto my mine. I got stares from people, but I didn’t care, I liked them, “I will get them more, twice as much!” I said aloud, not realizing at the time, I knew nothing about farming, just from what I watched from here and there over the last couple of days.
“I will hold you to that,” Abakanazar said.
I ate the potatoes with joy, not caring about the stares of people. I shoveled them in, feeling them just absorb. They, like the other food, offered me no nutritional value, I didn’t get any type of strength with them, just loved the way they tasted. They way they mushed up in my mouth before they disappeared, or I half-swallowed them.
“I hope you stay true to your word or he will go back on his,” Al Hubarb said.
“I will, I will stay the night if I have to and get started in the morning,” I shoveled more scrumptious potatoes in my mouth, soon the plate was empty, but I never felt full, so I looked up to see if there were anymore.
“Do you not feel full?” Al Hubarb asked.
“The food just disappears in me; I don’t think I will ever feel “full” as you put it.”
“You truly are an odd one, aren’t you?”
“More than I even know,” I said, disappointed there weren’t any more potatoes to eat.
The day turned into night and before I knew it, Al Hubarb was packing up his donkey, “I’m going to head home, you’re safe, Abakanazar is man of his word, just remember to be a man, so to speak, of yours.”
“I will,” I said and true to my word I did. I stayed up all night, guarding the place, hearing screams and in the next village miles away. I wanted to go help, but I figured it was, once again, to lure me away, so they could attack Sodom and Gomorrah again. I know Al Hubarb told me not to use my speed but the people around there new who I was, so I didn’t think using my strength and speed would be an issue.
I looked around for Wretch and couldn’t find him, so I called for him, “WRETCH!” It wasn’t a matter of seconds later, he came running around the corner, making that awful noise.
“Where have you been Wretch?” I asked and all he did was neigh. I walked up to the lake and it just felt different there. There was an eeriness to that part of the lake and I didn’t understand why.
A gentle wind blew, and I thought I heard a voice call out to me. Wretch’s ears perked up, the wind blew again, and I heard the breeze sound like a voice again.
“HHHHHHEEEELLLLLPPPPP MMEEEE!” I heard clear as day, then again, “HEEEELLLLLP MEEEE!” I was confused, because I didn’t hear it when the wind stopped. I thought maybe I was feeling some odd effects from the food, but Wretch was hearing it as well. The wind died down for the rest of night and I stared off, once more into the cosmos.
The sun peaked up and the people of Gomorrah were up earlier than the people of Sodom. I watched was they hooked plows up to their donkeys. I looked over at Wretch and he was fast asleep. I knew what I had to do. I walked over and hooked the harness that led to the plow around my waist and took two straps that would usually hook up in the donkey’s mouth and threw them over my shoulder and held them in each hand. I looked and one of the villagers walked over and placed a plow in the ground for me and told me to walk forward a little bit. I walked until I felt resistance, then stopped. I wanted to use my speed, but I knew better, I used my strength instead.
The farther I walked, the more looks I got from the villagers, some of them stopped and stared in disbelief. It wasn’t long before I had my first strip done, it was then I realized I didn’t know how big of an area to plow.
“How far should I go?” I asked a villager.
“Can you do two-hundred strips, that length?” he asked.
“I’m sure, I can,” I said.
“If you get tired, you can rest, we have water and food.”
“Will you have potatoes?” I asked and all he did was smile.
So, I got to work, working slow, making sure the ground was upturned well. I made about thirty strips before I stopped and noticed more people were looking at me, they were all resting and here I was, a marbled-skinned man, wearing a donkey plow. I felt something drop by my foot and I looked down, there was a wooden plate, with two potatoes and wooden cup of water. Wretch was there looking at me, so I scratched between his eyes as I picked up the potatoes and ate them like an apple, skin and all. I took the water and looked at it, the night before I didn’t drink anything, but I remember they brought the cup up to their lips and swallowed, so I done the same. The water was oddly refreshing even though I wasn’t hot. I could feel the sun, it was hot that day, but I wasn’t affected by it.
It took me a couple of hours, but I got the two-hundred vertical strips done and oddly I wasn’t satisfied. I took that plow and went horizontal with it and done two-hundred strips that way. People were already planting by time I was done. I dropped the straps from my hands, undone the harness around my waste and was met with applause. I looked, and it was coming from Abakanazar.
“Well done my friend, well done!” he said as he walked to me, “You kept your word, that makes you a friend in my book. Would like to stay another night?”
“I think I will head back to Sodom tonight, but can I come back tomorrow?”
He looked offended at first, but then his facial expression changed, “Yes that would be good, how long are you planning on staying around?”
“Until I get my brothers, who knows where they are now, I hear screams here and there, but I think they are trying to lure me away, even if one was to attack Sodom and one was to attack here I could race back and forth and fight but if one leads me off while one attacks, that’s a different story, it’s a cluster of thought let me tell you,” I said.
“Good, may you never catch them,” he smiled and patted my back, and have me an odd look, “Your skin feels like stone, I’ll have to pat you softer next time.” I felt accepted, appreciated, something I didn’t feel with my brothers.
I whistled for Wretch and he came running, he was loaded down with two large sacks on each side of him. I looked, but when he walked by, I smelled the earthy, glorious smells of potatoes. Abakanazar simply nodded and smiled and I headed back towards Sodom. With it being so late in the afternoon, I knew it would be dark before I would get there. I didn’t care, I enjoyed the scenery and the sounds of the lake along the way. I felt like Wretch was a good luck charm, Derium and Mylicious had stayed away ever since he came into my life.
I could see the fires of Sodom, when I heard a blood curdling scream fill the air. It was coming from the direction of Al Hubarb’s hut. I looked back at Wretch, “Hurry the fastest you can,” I told him like he would understand. I used my speed and raced towards the hut. I burst through the door to see Arlenius, in a bed in the corner of the hut. One lady had a hold of one leg, while another had the other leg. She was naked and I could see their baby crowning.
“ROLDIAN, COME, COME!” Al Hubarb waved me in. he was at the side of a bed. I walked, briskly, over to him, “Its time, my baby boy is on his way. If it is a boy, I’m going to name Alrol Hubarb, what do you think?”
“It’s a boy,” I said and found myself leaning back and looking as Arlenius screamed out and pushed. The baby’s head inched forward, then one of the ladies holding Arlenius leg fell over.
“Quick, take her leg,” the lady holding the other leg said. She had a look of love and hate in her eyes, she was petite and wore an all-black dress. She had her hair in a pony-tail and I was lost in her beauty when she looked back at me, “Are you deaf or dumb, grab her damn leg,” she pointed.
I done as I was told and watched both with intrigue and with horror as with each push the baby came forward. To my horror, its head popped out and being I had never seen a baby delivered before, I didn’t see a face, because it was facing down, which I didn’t know.
“It doesn’t have a face,” I said out loud.
“What?” Arlenius and Al Hubarb said at the same time.
“I guess you are stupid,” the lady next to me said and moved her chair over to where she was in front of the baby. She positioned her hands on top and under the baby’s head, “Push!” she said, anger in her voice.
I grabbed the lady that had passed out and crudely shoved her off to the side. I stepped back and let the lady do her work. Soon the baby was out, and she turned him around, he had a face after all.
“It’s a boy!” she said.
“YOU WERE RIGHT ROLDIAN!”
“What? He was right? I was right,” the lady said and gave me a hateful look.
“Oh Mer-Alz-Azkiban! Don’t take offense to it, it was the same day you predicted it,” Arlenius said.
They wrapped up the baby boy, the abominable little creature it was, and put it in Arlenius’s arms. It cried out a sound that was equivalent to that of Wretch’s. Mer-Alz-Azkiban gave me another hateful look.
“Can I talk to you outside, now!” she said and practically pulled outside, “You come here and save the day, that’s great, but when you impose on my work, that’s not right. How did you know it was boy?”
“I touched her stomach and saw it. How did you know it was a boy?” I asked.
“I’m a witch,” she said.
“That explains why you don’t like me, that old hag in Gomorrah didn’t like me either,” I said.
“That old hag,” she brought her finger up to my face, “Is my mom,” she then poked my chest and her finger popped. Her eyes widened, and she shoved me out of the way. As she passed, I noticed her pointer finger, from the middle knuckle to the tip, was bent upwards.
“Have a nice night!” I said and laughed as I went back in.
“Where did Mer-Alz-Azkiban go?” Al Hubarb asked.
“She had another birth, I guess,” I said.
It was then I heard a knock on the door and no sooner I had turned to look the door burst open and there stood Derium, rubbing his hands together, a deranged look on his face, his eyes glowing red.
“Baby blood is best,” he said and stepped forward, but I blocked him.
“I don’t think so Derium,” I said the smell of death was thick on him.
“Brother I will fight you over this,” he said.
“Then fight we shall,” I said, and he threw the first punch. I flew back and through the hut and landed hard on the ground. A few of bones broke and it was the first time I felt intense pain, but by the time I stopped rolling I was healed. I ran back in the hut and Derium had his back to me, but I could tell he had the baby. Al Hubarb was unconscious and Arlenius was sprawling on the ground towards Derium.
Derium brought his head back and opened his mouth and I acted. I came up behind him, placed two fingers from each hand in his mouth and placed my thumbs on the curve of his jaw and pulled down and forward. His jaw popped out and he spun around. The baby went flying, I jumped and caught the him just before he hit the floor. Derium stood there, his jaw dislocated, looking at me. His jaw popped back in place and he started to come towards me. Arlenius grabbed onto his leg, she tried to stop him, but he kicked her off like she was as light as a feather.
She cried out as she flew over the bed and crashed into the side of the wall. It gave me enough time to set the baby down and go running as hard as I could into Derium. I took us up into the air, through the roof of the hut down to the ground, right next to a fire. I forced him down to the ground so hard, that blood spewed out of his mouth. I got up and not too far from the fire was a pitchfork in a bale of grass. I walked over and picked it up and heard Derium scream out. I turned around with the pitchfork and Derium flew himself into it.
He screamed out as the tines slid into his mid-section, his black blood spewed down the handle onto my hands and clothes. He swiped at me and hissed, spitting blood all over my face. It didn’t stop me from running and putting him in the fire and pinning him to the middle of the firepit. He burst into flames. His screaming stopped, and I started to turn back to the hut to check on the baby, who I heard crying, as well as Arlenius and Al Hubarb. Suddenly, a screech hit my ears and I saw a fire ball fly over my head and land in the lake. I grabbed another pitchfork and took guard.
The villagers, awakened by the noise, I suppose, started to gather around me, all armed. We all watched as Derium started to surface, but stopped with just his nose and eyes above the water. He stayed there looking at us then I felt him enter my mind.
“How dare you brother, father will not be to happy about this. That baby will be mine.”
“You’ll have to kill me first,” I said back to him, “I don’t care if your father isn’t happy, he isn’t my father.”
“Are you sure? Why else would you call us brothers?”
“I don’t have time for this.” I said and shut him out.
After a couple of minutes, Arlenius and Al Hubarb showed up with the creature I wanted to protect so badly. It was shrieking again, part of me wanted to toss it to my brother but I knew that wasn’t the right thing to do. We stood ground for hours and the sun started to peak. The light moved over slowly towards Derium. He backed up slowly and when the sun reached his face, he just let it sizzle a little bit before he retreated to the water, which smoldered and smoked as it extinguished the flames on Derium’s face.
“Will we be safe?” Arlenius asked.
“I have kept you safe thus far have I not?” I asked.
“He got close to getting our baby.”
“You won’t have to worry about it,” I heard a voice say behind me that I hadn’t heard in a long time.
I turned around and there stood man who looked like Lucifer minus his wings and long hair. His hair was short, faded on the sides and a combover on top. He had a goat-tee that came to an insanely sharp point, “Lucifer?”
The crowd gasped and stepped away, “Yes Roldian, it is I,” he said.
“It’s been so long, you look so different,” I said.
“Better I hope,” he laughed, showing a slight fanged mouth, “I see Derium has been causing trouble?”
“He seems to like baby blood,” I said, “I fought him off, something I seem to know how to do naturally.”
“Well, if you knew who your father was,” he smiled.
“Well, I’m starting to wonder,” I said being truthful. I always thought it was Jehovah, but the things Derium and Lucifer were saying, I started to think otherwise.
“He still hasn’t told you the truth. In time, I will tell you, but now isn’t the time. I will get rid of Derium for you and in return I need you to do something for me.”
“Anything, you know that,” I said, ignoring his words.
I felt him in my mind, “Someone around here knows about Lilith. She’s buried somewhere around here, ask around for me, she’s my daughter and I miss her so.”
Without a second thought, I nodded my head and watched as Lucifer entered the water and then a couple of seconds later and farther out from wh
ere Derium first entered, I saw Lucifer shoot up out of the water with Derium in tow. Lucifer was in winged form, but I noticed his wings looked black instead of white and I could hear Derium screaming, as smoke trail filled the air. I watched as they disappeared to into Mount Sodom. I looked back at the crowd who no longer looked at me with praise but concern.
“What seems to be the problem?” I asked.
“You called him Lucifer? The Devil? But he didn’t bring death or destruction,” one of them said.
“You guys thought I was bad and how has that turned out? If you’re going to be judgmental, then maybe I should leave you to the wolves and vampires,” I said and started making my way through the crowd.
“Please don’t, even though it’s against our beliefs, you saved our son and we owe you greatly,” Al Hubarb said, “If you say he is good then he his good,” there was some chatter among the crowd, “I said, if he said, Lucifer is good than Lucifer is good and that is the final word.”
“Then, I need to ask while you are all here, you’ve heard of Lilith correct?” I asked, there was some more chatter amongst the crowd, “Well have you?”
An elderly man spoke up, his face was wrinkle-ridden, but he just as upright as a twenty-year-old man, “I’ve heard rumors she was the first wife of Adam and betrayed Jehovah and for that he buried her, but that was story growing up, so long ago.”
“That story is not all the way true people,” I was about to hit these people with a heavy dose of truth, “Adam and Eve were not the first humans, you are not all brothers and sisters, you are all not related. Jehovah wanted Adam and Eve to love you like you were their brothers and sisters. Somewhere down the line the wording got lost. Adam and Eve were the first Nephilim, I’m sure you’ve heard the of them, offspring of the fallen angels. At some point in time, Lilith came into play. She married Adam but tempted Eve. She showed Eve the same love she showed Adam, she was the “apple” that Eve ate, thus betraying Jehovah. Lilith was the one the paid the price. I know this to be true because I am Nephilim myself.” I said, they done their normal gasp and chatter, it was almost like they were incapable of anything else that night, chattering and gasping, gasping and chattering.
The Godsend Backfire: The Beginning Page 3
