“It wasn’t well thought out was it? The odd thing, the one thing that bothers me the most, is Pontius is still alive. I’m sure you thought about killing him…haven’t you?” he asked, he was feeding from my thoughts and at the time I felt is if he had some kind of hold over me.
“Yes, I did. I thought about it plenty, but I’m want to move forward, I don’t ever want to go back to that land or be associated with anyone or anything from that time,” I gave Lucifer a stern look.
“Oh, you won’t be going back to Judea, if you go, if you really want to kill Pontius and not have anything left over from that time in your life, you’ll be going to a place called Rome.”
I remember briefly passing through Rome in my travels with Noemi. I heard a lot about it over the years, all the wars the Roman soldiers were fighting, I stayed away honestly, I should have fought against them, but just about every army that faced them were struck down at the time.
I went to say, “I’d rather not,” but instead I said, “I will do it,” I still swear to this day, it was a hold Lucifer had over me and I didn’t even say it.
“Just kill him, don’t care how, when or where, he’s in the outskirts of Rome in a little run-down hut, nothing like he had before. If you ask around once there, I’m sure people will tell you where exactly.”
I’ll give Lucifer credit, he had a way of getting what he wanted, it was then I posed a question, “Why don’t you just do it?”
“Because I know you enjoy the hunt, it’s something I’ve passed down to all my children,” he said and he was right.
“How many more are there like us?”
“There aren’t many, most don’t survive the birth to be honest. You, Derium and Mylicious were the first three to survive, then Jehovah had to go get involved and punish me for having children.”
“He is an odd fellow, isn’t he?”
“If I could place a curse on him, I would but unlike me or you, he isn’t susceptible to curses, just lack of faith.”
I was enjoying the little bits of insight he was giving me. I thought there would have been more Nephilim out there, but apparently, they don’t survive birth too often. I don’t if I was relieved or disappointed at the thought.
“If I do this, I don’t want to see you again, you understand,” I said suddenly.
Lucifer looked hurt, then smirked, “Fair enough,” he said.
I went to say something else to him, but when I looked up, he was gone. I shook my head, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but I did want to close out the past and for some reason, killing Pontius, I believed, was going to do it.
I waited until later that day to announce to Yura that I was going on a trip, right away she told me I wasn’t by myself, she was going with me, she wanted to see this place called Rome.
“What about our children?” I asked.
“My kind stay pregnant a better part of three seasons, I’m going to be this way until after the cold passes.”
I was reluctant to let her go, but she started asking questions. I was constantly saying I was just worried about her and our offspring, but once her demeanor changed and she took on an attitude with me, I started to back off. Once she pointed out that after the offspring were here, we’d be stuck, so to speak.
The next morning we headed out, taking the horses and dragging our boat to the furthest shoreline from our hut. I didn’t want her rowing any more than what she had to, in fact, I didn’t even let her row. It only took an hour to get to France with just me paddling. From there, it was a seventeen-day travel, would have been less, but we had to spend a whole day, trying to find us some horses to ride on. The vampires left us alone at night and I left them alone during the day.
I remember riding around Rome, Yura was wore out and wanted to rest. I could see Rome, there were a lot of flashes here and there, but I didn’t get too thrilled about entering there, I was worried about Yura. I helped her down off her horse and carefully placed her feet on the ground. She smiled at me, “You’re being highly protective.”
“We’ve tried too hard to have offspring, I don’t want to risk anything,” I said.
She smiled at me softly, she was appreciative, but you could tell she was getting annoyed that I was around her so much. After I helped her down, I left her alone, I let her walk with some distance between us, she seemed happy with me not being so close.
I took notice of some of the massive structures of Rome from where we stood. It looked crowded and hearing about how great Rome was hundreds of years later, I didn’t see what was so magnificent about it. It looked miserable to me, maybe I was just missing my home already. The air there seemed more stagnant, there was definitely and odor, even from where we were.
“Let’s stay here for the night, so you can rest,” I saw a concerned look on her face.
“I’m worried with the way we are dressed, it might cause an issue.”
I looked at our clothes, we had developed our own style of clothing over the years, more common to the style what is now known as France’s style of clothing back before France was France. There wasn’t a lot of colonization back then, it was taking hold though. It was at this point I missed my old facemask. I had made a makeshift one out of deer hide and dyed it black a while ago, I didn’t wear as much as I used to wear mine, but I’ve heard the horror stories of Rome and they didn’t take to kindly to strangers. It was decided, amongst myself, I would go look for Pontius in the dark and would keep myself covered to blend in with the night.
I built a fire, and put the furs down to for Yura and myself to lay on. She always liked having her feet face the fire, so we could lay next to each other while she slept. I always thought laying next the fire was the purpose, but I did what she asked. I laid down next to her, she nuzzled my chest with the side of her face and was soon asleep.
Rome on the other hand, from the sounds of it, was wide awake. There was some kind of celebration going on there. I didn’t want to lurk around long, I just wanted to find a straggler and hoped they knew where Pontius was.
I waited a few more hours before I made my move. I slowly turned myself on my side, as I’ve done a million times before and waited a few more minutes to make sure I didn’t wake her. I slowly got up and walked over to my horse, removed my bow and arrows and then crept away. I waited until I was a few hundred yards away before using my speed to get me the rest of the way there, the best I could in the dark.
I entered through the westside of Rome, it was dark so I didn’t get the best of looks at the buildings, I wasn’t too concerned with being in there, I was told Pontius was on the outskirts of Rome, I just needed to know where, so I could kill him and head home.
There were torches all around, for a time of no electricity, it was well lit. I heard a bunch of commotion coming from in front of me, but it was still a distance away from where I had entered. I made sure my facemask was on and went further into the middle of Rome. The commotion was getting louder and louder and I could hear thunderous footsteps as I got closer.
I was between buildings, looking ahead when I spotted people and spears bouncing up and down in front of them, the slightest glimmer of red bounced above their heads. The closer I got, the more I realized there was parade of sorts going on. I listened to words being spoken and let my brain translate for me I got as close as I could to the crowd and found a man, drunk and staggering around.
“What’s going on here?” I asked, the man, who didn’t even look in my direction. His smell was overpowering, his hair was dark, greasy and slicked over to once side with a little bit of curl. Beyond the many stains, I believe his shirt was once white.
“The Romans are killing off just about everybody, when they do, they come back celebrate.”
“Who did the kill now?”
“I never keep track, I’m just here to drink,” he chuckled.
I thought for a minute and the asked, “Do you know where Pontius Pilate is?”
He stopped, this time he looked at me, he
didn’t seem to care I was dressed up with a face mask on, carrying a bow and arrows, he had a scorned look his face, “I hate that bastard, what do you want him for?”
“I’m going to kill him,” I blurted out without a second thought.
“Go out North,” he pointed, “You’ll come to a hillside, go over the hill and down the other hillside. You will see a path lined with wheat, you’ll find his place at the end of that path. I hope you make him suffer for what he’s done.”
“Are you referring to Jesus?”
“What? No, he took my wife and daughter and made a child with both then left them for me to take care of.”
“Did you?” my curiosity peaked.
“I took care of them alright, but I’m not going to say how,” he smirked and the look in his eyes told me I didn’t want to know.
“Thank you!” I said and disappeared back into the shadows.
I needed to head North, which was the direction the group of soldiers were headed. I kept to the shadows the best I could and soon was on the outskirts of Rome. I walked a few hundred yards before coming to the hillside that was mentioned. I went up and over, being dark and not having a torch made the path hard to find. After many attempts of feeling with my feet and hands, I finally found the path. I walked it, cautiously for it was eerily quiet and my footsteps seemed louder than normal.
The wheat was up to my waist and I found myself gently brushing it with my fingertips as I walked by, but I realized it was making a rustling noise, I stopped. I focused in front of me and I noticed a faint light ahead of me. I got closer and the light got brighter. I was soon facing a hut that was deplorable. It literally looked like someone had gathered random sticks of different sizes and threw this thing together. The light was coming from a torch anchored to a mount on the outside of the building next to a door. The door looked like it was resting next to the frame and not actually hinged to it. I was scared to even breath in its direction.
I heard grumbling and groaning from the inside, I peered through one of the spaces between the sticks and observed a rather robust man, sitting in a chair next to a fireplace, that was better built than the whole hut. He was leaned back, stomach protruding from a shirt, two sizes too small. He raised a goblet to something on the wall I couldn’t quite see at the time and yelled out, “To the better days!” downed what was in the goblet, dropped it and passed out.
I was curious what he was saluting and made my way around the hut to the opposite wall. I was able to peer through even more of bigger gap in the sticks and see a painting hanging on the wall. How the walls didn’t cave in from the size of the painting was truly and act of Jehovah. The painting itself was of a man. He was large, muscular, his biceps rippled. He wore a toga and the part of the chest that was exposed was defined. They painted his hair blonde with short, curls and a full beard, totally opposite of the man that was slopped over in the chair.
It was aparent, they had the same blonde curly hair, the beard was a little longer, but what other reason would he have to salute the painting and yell out what he did. I didn’t even feel bad he let himself go, I simply grabbed the torch from the front of the hut and started walking around to the corners, letting some of the torch oil drip down before igniting it.
I soon had all four corners ignited, then I stepped back and waited. The hut was soon, engulfed in flames. Pontius came running out of the hut, himself engulfed in flames. I pulled my arrow back and took aim at his head and then let go. He dropped like a sack of potatoes and I stood around a while to watch him burn. I couldn’t do anything to stop the death of Jesus, but I felt as if I avenged it somehow.
The stench of burning flesh and wood filled my nose, in which I responded by forcefully blowing the scents out my nose. I stood around a little longer, then decided to head back to my Yura, who was still asleep when I got there. I put my bow and arrows back on my horse, then gently slid next to her, she rolled over just as I had laid my head down and put her arm over me. She stayed that way until the sun came up, she was always an early riser, made most of our time together that way.
We went through Rome, most of the place was still asleep when we passed through. We did garner some stares from those awake, but they appeared to be all talk and no show. Yura looked truly disappointed at the sights. She yawned, mockingly, out of boredom and it was then I noticed someone looking at me.
They had long black hair, with the portion of the back rolled up in a bun of sorts. His skin was a shade darker than beige and his eyes were but mere slits on his face. His fingers lightly tapped something holstered on his hip, it appeared to be a sword handle. He had on black, baggy pants, and a black sleeveless vest. As soon as he saw I was looking, he stepped back in the shadows.
It was few hours later as we road to the other side of Rome to see if it were any better that I caught a glimpse of him again, this time on a roof top, he simply spun around and was gone. Yura noticed something had my attention, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing at all, just keep seeing a glimpse of someone. Who knows? Maybe after all these years of being awake, I’m finally growing mad,” I said, thinking on a how a mortal could move so fast.
“Maybe,” she said and smiled at me, “I do have to say, this place is really boring. I get better satisfaction listening to animals at night than this place.”
“I agree my love; do you want to head back home?”
“I wouldn’t argue that thought.”
After that, we headed back towards home. We were two days in and Yura was fast asleep at the fire. I heard a snap of twig off in the distance and the horses stirred a little. I looked over at Yura and she was still asleep. I got my bow and arrows down, even though I couldn’t see anything to aim at outside the light of the fire.
As I was turning around to look back at Yura, everything went back. I felt a heaviness over me and no matter how hard I fought; I couldn’t budge what had ahold of me. I screamed out to Yura, then felt something pinch my lips together. I couldn’t open my mouth after that, then I couldn’t open my eyes. I was in complete darkness and that’s where I’m going to leave you in this chapter of my life. In darkness.
The Godsend Backfire: The Beginning Page 26
