End of Days

by J. F. Penn

  As Samael began to unwrap the first body, two figures emerged from the shadows across the cistern. Cerastes and Echis.

  "Welcome, brothers." The Cardinal's confident smile returned. "You're just in time to witness the resurrection."

  27

  The eclipse was almost at its zenith as Morgan and Jake reached the house that Martin had identified. The darkness was nearly complete and the sky was a dull rust.

  "The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." Morgan looked at Jake. "The book of Joel, chapter two."

  "Or, it could just be a lunar eclipse," Jake said. "The earth's shadow on the moon's face appears dark until it covers the moon entirely and then it looks red. The earth's atmosphere changes the light spectrum, filtering out the green to violet, leaving only the red behind."

  Morgan smiled and punched his arm. "Where's your sense of occasion?"

  Suddenly, the door of the house slammed open. A group of men darted out, eyes wide with panic. They ran off down the road as if demons chased them.

  "What the –?"

  Morgan was already running for the door they had left wide open behind them.

  "Come on, we have to find what they were running from."

  They ran into the house and found another door open in the kitchen. A stone staircase led downward, lit by weak lights. A metallic smell of blood and the stench of decay emanated from beyond.

  "This must lead under the Temple Mount," Morgan whispered.

  Jake nodded. "And by that smell, I'd say they've started without us. Let's get going."

  Together, they descended the steps, careful to walk as quietly as they could.

  Morgan heard chanting as they reached the bottom of the staircase. She peeked around the corner to see a vault hollowed out of an ancient stone cistern. A group of people stood around a stone sarcophagus watching something inside. Four bodies lay on the ground next to them.

  Something lifted out from the sarcophagus.

  A green curve of a snake's coil, its body as thick as her own waist.

  Lilith watched as Samael lifted the next body and heaved it into the sarcophagus. A young Arab, his muscles honed from manual labor. She nodded her head in approval at his choice. The man's strength was worthy for the offering.

  She bent with the knife and sliced his throat. Bright blood gushed out over the coils of the serpent, bathing it in gore. She felt the other men's eyes on her, and understood they feared her in some way. But she no longer cared for their opinion. She only had eyes for the serpent.

  It shuddered with a kind of ecstasy as it consumed the sacrifice and began to pulsate as it grew yet again. She reached out with one hand and stroked its skin. The green scales were iridescent and variegated, like the feathers of a tropical bird, like emeralds at the heart of the earth. They were cool and hard, almost metallic to her touch but underneath, she could feel the pulse of its blood.

  She could hear His voice more clearly now. The last of the venom was gone, coursing through her veins but Lilith knew she wouldn't need it again. Now she would commune with Him directly. Her entire life had led her to this moment, to this encounter, and she vibrated with the energy of His resurrection. She thought back to the church where she had first held snakes, her misdirected belief that it was God who wanted her to take hold of them. When really, it had been the Serpent of Serpents, calling her to His side.

  Now she was here. Now she was ready.

  Echis looked at his watch.

  "We have to hurry, the eclipse is at its zenith."

  The Cardinal glanced at the remaining bodies. "If we each lift one, we can finish this."

  He dragged one of the bodies to the other side of the sarcophagus, pulling the man's neck to the edge. Echis took another and Samael helped the old man, Cerastes. They held the final three offerings on the lip of the stone casket.

  Lilith cut each neck in turn, each slash making her sigh with pleasure. The blood rained down on the serpent. It writhed in the gore, bathing itself, coating its scales as it absorbed the fluid and flesh. They pushed the bodies in.

  The coils started to grow faster.

  The sarcophagus creaked and cracked as the serpent's muscular body pushed against the boundaries of the casket. Lilith stepped back as she realized what was about to happen. He could not be contained any longer.

  A loud crack resounded in the cistern.

  The serpent exploded from the sarcophagus. As the stone fragmented, its coils tumbled from the prison it had been held in for a thousand years.

  Lilith felt His exultation at being free. He reared up even as He grew even faster, His massive head turning towards the men below. His eyes were hard emeralds, a shifting intelligence behind an animal physicality.

  The Cardinal fell to his knees in front of the serpent, his hands lifted in supplication. "Great Serpent, we serve –"

  The snake reared back and struck with lighting speed, its fangs like swords piercing straight through the Cardinal's body. His words broke off, his eyes widening in horror as he died.

  Echis darted towards the tunnel but the serpent swung its gigantic tail, knocking the man off his feet and crushing him beneath the writhing coils even as it absorbed the Cardinal's flesh.

  Cerastes stood like a statue, his old frame shaking a little. He smiled, almost with resignation, his eyes wide at the glorious, terrible sight.

  "The thousand years are ended!" he shouted in triumph. The serpent wrapped its coils around him, crushing the air from his lungs and absorbing the man within its ever-growing form.

  Samael darted behind a pillar, crushing himself as far into a corner as he could, making himself small so as not to catch the snake's attention. Lilith could smell his fear even from this distance. These pitiful men. They should have understood that they were only here to be consumed. He needed their blood for His power.

  Come to me.

  She heard Him speak as He had through the venom, but now He was here. Lilith's heart pounded in her chest as she stepped forward in front of the Great Serpent, offering herself to Him. His giant head swung around, His eyes fixed upon her. She thought she saw recognition there. Her blood was mostly venom now, her body already transforming into a serpent.

  This was her fate.

  In a flash, the massive serpent whipped its coils around her and crushed her body to Him. Lilith heard her bones snap as she was broken apart, but the pain was part of another life. The venom took her mind above the agony and she relaxed into His embrace, releasing the air from her lungs as He crushed her ever closer.

  She felt a burning, melting sensation and her skin began to morph and ripple as she was absorbed. The snake pulsated around her and she became a part of it, fusing with its flesh.

  In the last moments, her awareness spread, separating from the pain. She was no longer an empty bag of flesh and bones, no longer a frail woman. She was in the serpent. She was part of Him. She could feel the undulations of His thick musculature, the slip of cool stone underneath. She could sense the vibrations of others nearby.

  Above and around, out there in the city, there were so many more.

  With every sacrifice, she would grow stronger and bigger, more powerful. The city waited. But first …

  The serpent turned back towards the corner where Samael cowered.

  Morgan watched in horror as Lilith was crushed and twisted and then somehow, became a part of the Great Serpent. It grew as her body was absorbed into its skin and suddenly, there seemed an all-too-human glint in its eyes, a female intelligence.

  Its giant head whipped around and stared at Samael cowering in the corner. His face contorted in terror as it slithered across the cistern floor.

  "I am your servant." His hands pushed at the coils of flesh as they pushed against him. "Lilith. No!"

  Morgan watched the snake toy with him a little, its head swaying hypnotically. Then it reared back to strike.

  Samael had killed Ben. He had left th
em to die in Egypt. Morgan felt nothing as the serpent's head darted forward, its gigantic fangs slicing down. Samael's scream echoed in the chamber as he was pierced, crushed and consumed.

  But the serpent would not be occupied for long with Samael's meager body. It would soon want more. Its coils were almost at two meters thick now, hugely powerful, growing with every sacrifice it absorbed.

  "We need to leave," Jake said, heading up a few stairs. "Get a military strike team down here and blow this freak of nature to bits."

  "It's too late." Morgan watched as the snake grew even larger. "It will burst out of the cistern soon. The Temple Mount is above us, the Western Wall is so close. Who knows what power this thing will have once it gets too big and escapes into the city. We have to stop it down here." She stepped out of the tunnel into the cistern.

  "No, Morgan." Jake ran back down and grabbed her arm, but she tugged out of his grip.

  This was her city.

  She could not let this unholy thing destroy the sacred places around them. It would spark a religious war not seen here since the time of the Crusades. Blood would run in the alleyways of Jerusalem again and she would not allow it.

  She took another step into the chamber. The Great Serpent swung its head around, blood dripping from its fangs. It fixed its eyes upon her.

  28

  The Great Serpent hissed and undulated across the stone floor towards Morgan. It grew with every breath, its body expanding with thick muscle and shimmering dark magic. It was magnificent now, with a strange and terrible grace. Its emerald green eyes sparkled in the candlelight and Morgan was hypnotized by the stark beauty of it. Lucifer was said to have been the most beautiful of the angels. Was that dark presence in this creature now? Was anything left of those it had consumed?

  Then she remembered the vial that Ben had found with the seal. Perhaps those ancient protectors had known this day would come.

  "The vial, Jake. Quickly!"

  Morgan feinted in one direction as the snake's giant body slid through the blood left from the sacrifice. Its mouth opened wide, its fangs dripping venom onto the stone where it bubbled as it dissolved the cistern beneath it.

  It reared back and darted forward.

  Morgan commando-rolled away. She felt the rush of air against the back of her neck as the snake barely missed her. She rose to her feet again, glancing over to see Jake rummaging through the pack for the vial.

  "Now would be good." She ran around the perimeter of the cistern and ducked behind what remained of one of the gigantic pillars.

  The serpent curled around, forked tongue flickering as it tasted the air. Then she felt a presence in her mind, pushing into her brain.

  Become part of me and you will see eternity. Jussst rest now.

  Morgan shook her head, trying to wrestle the voice away but it persisted, echoing through her mind, offering her the world if she would just let it consume her.

  But she knew this foe.

  He was the persuader. The liar. The whisper that convinced Eve to eat the fruit of forbidden knowledge. He would be the End of Days, consuming all that was good in creation. But he was also seduction and some part of her wanted to let him take her, to end her last breath here beneath the ancient Holy of Holies. She was so tired.

  "I've got it," Jake called, breaking the spell. He eased out of the tunnel, holding the vial aloft in his hand. He met Morgan's eyes across the stone chamber.

  But the Great Serpent blocked the path between them. Its head whipped around to look at Jake, then it spun and lunged forward towards Morgan.

  She darted left but the serpent's coils slammed into the sarcophagus in front of her, smashing what was left of it into tiny pieces. She zigzagged away but there was nowhere left to go.

  She was trapped. It would be upon her in a second.

  "Throw it!" She held her hands up as the serpent coiled around her lower body.

  Its first embrace was firm but not tight, the pressure like being rolled in a blanket. Immovable and yet somehow comforting.

  Then she felt a burning sensation on her legs and gasped. It didn't want to crush her, but it was dissolving her somehow, consuming her straight into its flesh.

  While its tail end held Morgan tight, the serpent pursued Jake as he tried to get to her across the room. It was like a stone obstacle course, but he kept coming, darting between pillars, leaping over broken masonry.

  Then he tripped.

  His eyes widened. The snake's head darted in, fangs bared.

  In that moment, Jake threw the vial. He rolled to the floor behind the remains of the sarcophagus as the snake bit down into his flesh.

  Morgan reached up and caught the vial in the zenith of its arc. What was it for? Should she drink it? Inject it into the snake somehow? She searched desperately for an answer even as she heard Jake's scream of agony.

  Her friend was dying. There was no time left.

  The scientist in her understood that the serpent must have some kind of membrane on its skin to dissolve and consume flesh that way. As the burning intensified in her legs, she could only think of one thing to do.

  She pulled the top from the vial and poured it between their flesh into the space where its coils consumed her lower body. She wrapped her arms around it and hugged it closer to her, willing the liquid to work.

  The snake's head whipped up, its fangs bloody. It let out a high-pitched squeal of pain. It shook its coils, unraveling from Morgan, trying to shake her off.

  But she held on.

  She pressed her body onto it, keeping the liquid from the vial between them, forcing it onto the serpent's flesh. It was a cool balm to her, softening the flames that burned her lower limbs but the snake thrashed as if it were the fires of Hell itself. She just needed to hold on …

  The serpent reared up on its powerful tail and thrashed in the air, shaking its body as it tried to escape the burning. Morgan spun out of its grip and smashed into the stone wall of the cistern, her body broken and bruised.

  The serpent screamed, a sound that came from the depths of the pit, a bubbling, drowning screech accompanied by the stench of rotting flesh from the depths of the ocean. Morgan looked up to see a deep wound opening up on its side, like a flesh-eating disease that consumed it even as it continued to grow.

  The serpent thrashed and twisted. In its need to escape the pain, it smashed into the great wall of the cistern. It hurled itself against the stone, breaking it apart, and tunneled away, screaming, up towards the Western Wall.

  Morgan laid her head down on the cool stone beneath her, eyes fixed on Jake lying prone by the sarcophagus, his body a mass of blood. The pain of bubbling fire burned her legs and she dared not look down at them. But the serpent was wounded and she could only hope that it would die before it laid waste to the city above.

  She and Jake could do no more.

  As the sun went dark under the full eclipse, crowds gathered at the Western Wall to pray for deliverance. Men in their shawls and curls, women in modest dresses. Children ran around playing, unaware of the devastation that had been foreseen in ancient times.

  The giant stones at the bottom of the Wall suddenly exploded out with the force of the great creature beneath.

  Shards of rock splintered away, raining down on those close by. Screams erupted in the plaza and people ran for the streets beyond as the Great Serpent emerged into the square.

  It thrashed its gigantic tail, propelling it forward, shaking its head as it tried to escape the agony of the burning. It crushed those in its path, wrapping its coils around any it could catch, trying to subsume their corpses even as it plunged its fangs into more bodies. But the wound ate away at its flesh faster than it could replace it with fresh blood.

  The serpent screamed in agony, rising up on its coils to tower above the square, daring these mortals to challenge it.

  But this was not the Israel of thousands of years ago.

  Israeli soldiers stationed permanently in the square opened fire from all sides. Inte
rnational police on the Temple Mount shot down from on high. A military helicopter darted in overhead, soldiers peppering the serpent with bullets from above.

  The Great Serpent felt the sting of the bullets, fighting to repair its wounds, but it weakened as the burning in its flank spread, the hole growing.

  It fell to the ground, writhing in agony as it succumbed to the overwhelming force of destruction. Gunfire tore apart what was left until only chunks of flesh remained. Soon only piles of grey-green dust lay in the square, clouds of it blowing away, scattered by the wind.

  The military moved in to take control of the scene. A group of soldiers approached the massive hole in the Western Wall, aiming flashlights down into the depths.

  "Get the medics," one shouted. "There's people down here."

  29

  Oxford, England. A week later.

  Morgan watched as the coffin was lowered into the ground of the Catholic graveyard. This would be Ben's last resting place and one he would appreciate because he loved this city. Not that Ben was in there. Morgan looked up at the grey sky into the falling drops of rain. She didn't know what happened after death, but Ben had been a man of faith so she hoped he was with the God he'd served for a lifetime.

  Even after death, he had saved her life one more time. The contents of the vial had wounded the serpent enough that the military were able to finish it off. The press was still on fire with speculation about what had happened. Amateur footage of the serpent bursting through the Western Wall shook the international news headlines. Some called it a relic of the dinosaur era that had somehow slept under the Temple Mount. Others called it the Great Serpent from the pit in Revelation heralding the beginning of the End Times.

  Whatever they said, it was gone now but Morgan knew the threats weren't over. The news would always be filled with the next crisis. Such was the drama of human life. But perhaps she didn't have to take part in the next chapter.