The Incubus

by Len du Randt

  ‘Again?’

  ‘Well...I wasn’t pushed like the previous time, but that same invisible thing pushed my head under water while I was taking a bath.’

  ‘Are you serious?’

  ‘I thought I was going to drown.’

  ‘Did you tell Justin?’

  Rebecca almost laughed out loud. ‘What do you think?’

  Tanya frowned. ‘Good point.’

  ‘But I’m okay,’ Rebecca said. ‘When someone’s around, nothing ever really happens.’

  ‘But now with Justin being away...’

  ‘Dominic is there to keep the ghosts at bay,’ Rebecca finished Tanya’s sentence.

  Tanya giggled. ‘Speaking of which,’ she said. ‘Tell me more about this mystery man.’

  Rebecca’s face lit up. ‘He’s handsome,’ she said. ‘Really handsome. And he has the most charming smile.’

  ‘Is this something you would say in front of Justin?’

  Rebecca shook her head. ‘Of course not, but it’s not like he’d care anyway.’

  ‘Why? What do you mean?’

  ‘Can you remember when you said that he was having an affair?’

  ‘I implied that he might be having one, given the evidence. I never actually said that he was having one.’

  ‘Well, I’m starting to believe that he is.’

  Tanya scooped the chopped vegetables into a bowl and looked up. She wiped her forehead with the back of her wrist and then wiped her hands with a damp cloth. ‘Really? What makes you think so?’

  ‘For one,’ Rebecca said. ‘His inability to say “no” when sent to a site. How sure can I be sure that he really does go to a site? Where does he live when he’s there? Who does he have to keep him company?’

  ‘My sentiments exactly,’ Tanya said.

  ‘Last week he came home from one of these so-called sites without his wedding ring. He claims that it disappeared into fresh air while he was sleeping or something.’

  ‘And you haven’t considered that he might actually be telling you the truth?’

  Rebecca laughed. ‘Are you running a fever?’ she asked. ‘You of all people, defending Justin?’

  ‘I’m not defending him,’ Tanya said. ‘But this is a serious accusation. It’s good to have all the facts before taking something like this to court. Don’t get me wrong, Becks, I’m behind you one hundred percent on this. What does he have to say to his defence?’

  ‘I haven’t spoken to him about it yet,’ Rebecca said. ‘I’m waiting for the right moment. We don’t talk as much as we used to since the...’

  ‘The miscarriage?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well, I think that you should confront the man.’

  ‘It’s not that simple.’

  ‘Of course it is. How hard could it be to grab the cheating scum by the collar and insist on decent conversation?’

  Rebecca giggled at the thought. ‘Well, maybe you can help me,’ she said.

  Tanya raised an eyebrow. ‘Oh? How?’

  ‘Next Friday evening, when we’re having dinner, you could bring up topics that Justin and I could discuss afterward in private.’

  ‘Like the ring thing?’

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘I don’t know...’

  ‘Come on,’ Rebecca pleaded. ‘You’re the only one I have that can help.’

  Tanya mixed the vegetables with the stew and turned down the heat to let it simmer. ‘Okay,’ she finally agreed. ‘I’ll do it.’

   

   

  *    -    -    -    *

   

   

  Dinner was good. It was better than Rebecca thought it would be. She needed the chat more than she realized, and was grateful that she decided to finally give in and visit Tanya. Between Dominic and her colleague, she figured she would have the perfect balance of quality time she needed so desperately while Justin was away. All she wanted was a little bit of attention and someone to pamper her every now and again. Sometimes she wondered if Justin still remembered that she was pregnant. The thought of Justin immediately made her wish that he was there with her.

  The dark and twisty back roads from the plot where Tanya leased her shoddy three-room apartment was the last place on earth a woman should be alone on in the late hours of the night.

  The car sputtered and jerked forward.

  No! Rebecca pumped the gas pedal furiously. Not here! Not now!

  ‘Oh no,’ she said and pumped the gas pedal again. ‘This isn’t happening!’

  The car didn’t care about her concerns and promptly cut the engine.

  ‘No, no, no!’ Rebecca cried out as she pulled the car over to the side of the road. Her legs felt unresponsive and her heart beat around wildly in her chest. The car finally came to a complete stop. The back roads in this area had no street lights, which left Rebecca alone and engulfed in total darkness. The only source of light came from the car itself. She tried to start the car again. It merely huffed once or twice and then died. She turned the key again, but this time she didn’t even get a half-hearted huff.

  Justin, I need you!

  Rebecca took her cell phone from the glove compartment and searched for Tanya’s number. She hit the dial button but immediately received an error tone. She looked at the screen and the words No Reception made her stomach twist into knots.

  ‘Stupid cell phone!’ She shouted and threw the phone down on the seat next to her. She tried to look at the surroundings outside, but the interior roof light inside the car blinded her.

  Rebecca switched off the roof light and the headlights, and for a moment, was totally blind. As her eyes grew accustomed to the dark, she could barely make out the silhouettes of trees and electricity poles against the cool blue night sky.

  Rebecca shifted in the seat. Something was wrong. The feeling started as a faint tingle crawling down her spine, but soon grew into spasms of fear. She tried the key again, but again, nothing happened. Rebecca could sense that something of pure evil was lurking out in the darkness. Eventually it felt as if whatever it was, was coming closer; moving in for the kill. She could feel it and the feeling intensified as whatever it was closed in on her. She felt nauseous. She tried the key again, but fumbled and it took a moment before she could turn it in the ignition.

  Nothing.

  ‘Please help,’ she said and almost lost it. ‘Anyone. Please!’

  She tried the keys again.

  Still nothing.

  A silhouette somewhere in front of the car made her freeze. Was someone there? There! She was sure of it. It moved! Someone or something was approaching the car.

  ‘Start, you stupid thing!’

  The car still didn’t respond.

  Rebecca felt useless and powerless as the fear inside her clutched her heart and numbed her legs. She flicked on the headlights and screamed when she saw someone standing in front of the car. The person moved to the side and around to her window. Rebecca screamed like she hadn’t done in her life up to that point.

  ‘Calm down,’ a muffled voice spoke from outside the car. ‘I’m here to help you.’

  It took a while for Rebecca to regain control of her emotions. When she finally did manage to calm herself, she took deep panic breaths until her heartbeat returned to more or less a normal pace. She turned her head slowly and cried out with relief when she saw Dominic standing there. She turned down her window.

  ‘Looks like this whole saving you business is becoming a habit,’ he said with a smile.

  ‘You...’ she said and took a deep breath. ‘You scared me.’

  ‘I scared you?’ he asked. ‘Your screaming scared the hell out of me!’

  Rebecca chuckled. She was relieved that someone she knew turned up to help her in the middle of nowhere. ‘Wait,’ she said. ‘What are you doing here? How did you know where I was?’

  ‘I didn’t,’ he said. ‘It’s quite an embarrassing story. Really.’

  ‘Oh? How so?’

  ‘Well, I
drove around the neighbourhood to try and get to know the area. Before long, I was lost. I tried to back-track, but only managed to mess things up even more and eventually ended up here.’

  ‘Where’s your car?’

  ‘Oh, just down the road,’ Dominic said. ‘I mistook the lights of your car for that of a house and began walking to save what little fuel I had left. When the lights went out, I tried to follow the road blindly in the dark until I almost walked right into your car. Imagine the fright I had when your lights went on right in front of me, followed by the screams of a banshee.’

  Rebecca laughed, but her hands still shook. ‘What are the odds? You really are a miracle sent from above.’

  Dominic smiled. ‘You got car problems?’

  ‘You might say that,’ she said.

  ‘Pop the hood. I’ll check it out for you.’

  ‘Are you sure you know what you’re doing?’

  ‘Pretty much,’ Dominic said. ‘I’m no mechanic, but I know my way around.’ He raised the hood of the car so that she couldn’t see him anymore. She could only see his hands through the tiny gap, working here and there; pulling something and then turning something else. ‘Okay,’ he shouted. ‘Give it a try.’

  Rebecca turned the key and the car sputtered and whined before the engine growled to life. ‘It’s working!’

  Dominic slammed the hood shut and pushed his chest out triumphantly. ‘Mind if I catch a ride with you to my car?’ He asked.

  Does the sun rise in the mornings? ‘Not at all,’ she said, almost too enthusiastically. ‘I can’t thank you enough. You’re a Godsend.’ She dropped him at his car and he followed her home. After a quick cup of coffee that turned into an hour’s worth of conversation, Dominic said goodnight, kissed the back of her hand, and left.

   

   

  *    -    -    -    *

   

   

  There was a knock at Simon’s door. He took a bite from his dinner and stared at the door in dismay. He wasn’t expecting anyone and was also not in the mood to make small talk with strangers today. Someone knocked again and Simon sighed.

  ‘Coming,’ he shouted down the hallway as he made his way to the door. ‘Who is it?’

  No answer.

  Simon unlocked the door and opened it a crack.

  ‘Could I interest you in some Bibles?’ a man asked. It was the same man that was in his apartment only two days ago.

  Simon flung open the door and pulled the man inside. ‘Who are you?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m here to tell you what you’ve been yearning to hear. I’m here to give you the answers that you’ve been looking for.’

  ‘Fine,’ Simon said as he led the man to the living room. ‘Let’s hear what you have to say.’

   

   

  *    -    -    -    *

   

   

  ‘This looks delicious,’ the man said as he passed the table with Simon’s dinner on it. ‘Mind if I have some?’

  Simon shrugged.

  The man took a slice of bread and dipped it in some gravy that Simon prepared for the beef. ‘This is lovely,’ he said after swallowing the last piece of the slice.

  Get to the point. ‘How did you do that the other night?’ Simon asked.

  The man sat down on a couch. ‘This is comfortable,’ he said.

  Simon clenched his teeth, and nodded. ‘So answer my question and stop stalling. Who are you, and how did you do it?’ he asked again.

  ‘Do what?’

  ‘Heal my hand,’ Simon said. ‘Before you vanished into thin air.’

  The man smiled. ‘The same way you brought that boy back from the dead, Simon.’

  Simon’s heart skipped a beat. ‘How do you know about that...?’

  ‘The same way I know about everything you’ve done to date.’

  ‘This is insane,’ Simon said. How can he possibly know everything? Does he also have a gift from God?

  ‘You can call it a gift if you like,’ the man said. ‘But it’s actually the power of the Holy Spirit. The gift, as you like to call it, is being used as a vessel for the Holy Spirit to work through.’

  ‘You know my thoughts?’

  ‘When I’m allowed to,’ the man said. ‘There is very little that I don’t know about you, Simon.’

  Simon probed his memory. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew the stranger from somewhere, but couldn’t for the life of him remember from where.

  ‘Have you ever wondered why you are so different from everyone else?’

  Simon pondered the question. ‘Only recently.’

  ‘Did you grow up with religious parents?’

  ‘Not really, no. But I don’t see...’

  ‘And yet you’ve had a close relationship with the Lord from a very young age, right?’

  Simon nodded.

  ‘There has never been a single doubt in your mind that God exists, even though no one formally told you about Him.’

  ‘Who...Who are you?’ Simon asked.

  ‘You’re focussing on the wrong questions, Simon. The question is not who I am, but who you are.’

  ‘Me...?’

  The man nodded.

  ‘I’m...Simon...’

  ‘Perhaps in this realm you are known as Simon.’

  ‘This realm?’ Simon would have asked him to leave by now; but this man had intimate knowledge about him and seemed to have the answers to the questions that have plagued him for years; so he took a deep breath and tried to keep calm while the stranger steered the conversation.’

  ‘You wanted to know.’

  Simon’s mind raced. This realm? Who was this man? He closed his eyes and visualized the stranger’s face. Nothing came up. ‘I don’t...’ Images flashed through his mind and suddenly he remembered. ‘You! You’re that angel I saw in the parking lot; the one that stood next to the truck.’

  ‘His heart is open,’ the man said. ‘Now we just need the eyes.’

  ‘You’re an angel...’

  ‘Once again, the focus should not be on who I am, old friend.’

  ‘Old friend?’ Simon asked. He closed his eyes again. More images flashed; images from his dreams. This man was the angel that fought next to him in his dreams. Simon shook his head to try and clear his thoughts. ‘Are you telling me...?’

  The stranger said nothing. He merely smiled.

  ‘Are you telling me that I’m...an angel?’

  Satisfied, the stranger nodded. ‘That’s right.’

  Simon’s head spun. It felt like all strength had left his arms and legs. ‘It can’t be,’ he said. Memories of his childhood flashed through his mind. ‘I was born. I had parents. I have a job; a home. I bleed when I accidentally cut myself.’

  ‘You’re right about everything except being born. You weren’t. Your parents adopted you as a baby from an orphanage that found you “abandoned” at its front door. That was all part of the ruse,’ the man said. ‘For the mission to be a success, the enemy could not know about you.’

  ‘Ruse?’ Simon asked. ‘What mission? What enemy?’

  The man stood up and entered Simon’s kitchen. A moment later he appeared with two glasses of water. He handed one to Simon and then sat down on the couch again. ‘A baby will soon be born into this world. When he is older, he will lead millions of people to Christ.’

  Simon drank some of the water. His throat was parched and his mind still raced.

  ‘A conspiracy was conceived in hell to kill the child and a very powerful demon was sent to complete the task. But there was a plan to misguide the demon into thinking that it had succeeded.’

  ‘And did the plan work?’

  The man shook his head. ‘Somehow the evil one found out and the plan changed. Instead of trying to kill the baby, the demon now seeks to divide and conquer the parents, driving them apart so that it can take possession of the child. The evil one believes that he can use the child to serve his purposes and if
he succeeds, instead of leading millions to Christ, this child will grow up to lead millions to their slaughter.’

  ‘Would it be possible?’ Simon asked.

  The man nodded. ‘Because of free will, it would; yes.’

  ‘Assuming that what you’re telling me is true, why didn’t God just blind the forces of darkness until the child fulfilled his destiny? How did they find out about the plan to misguide the demon in the first place? Wouldn’t God have known that the original plan wouldn’t work?’

  The man smiled. ‘You have a lot on your mind,’ he said. ‘You of all people know that we don’t always understand why the Father does what He does. We don’t see the entire picture like He does. I’m sure that everything eventually turns out the way it’s meant to. Remember that the Lord’s plan to misguide the demon did not just affect the demon itself, but the parents of the child as well. Who knows how many people’s lives were influenced in ways we can’t possibly know or see? Who knows what happened to the hardened heart of a doctor in the Radiology department in that split second in time that her eyes locked onto those of a terrified mother?’

  ‘None of this makes sense,’ Simon said. ‘What do I have to do with all of this?’

  ‘To catch the enemy unaware and save the child, an angel was required to give up his life in the Kingdom and spend life on earth as a human being. Only one volunteered for the responsibility.’

  ‘Me...?’

  The man nodded. ‘It was the perfect cover. The demons suspected nothing. They still don’t. Simon, you are to use your gifts discreetly to avoid attention, for the time of your encounter is near.’

  ‘This isn’t real,’ Simon said. ‘None of this is real. You are not real.’

  The man didn’t say anything.

  ‘This is ludicrous! You’re lying!’

  ‘I am incapable of doing so, Simon.’

  Simon stood up. ‘Get out of my house!’

  ‘You wanted to know the truth...’

  ‘Get out!’

  The man stood up. ‘Nine weeks and two days. We’ll show you the pictures once we’re finished with dinner.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I’m sure that he will make you both very proud,’ the stranger said, and with that, disappeared.

  Simon fell back into the couch, wondering if anything that just happened was real. The two glasses of water that they were drinking from were still there, both very real.

  ‘Why God?’ He asked. ‘Why me?’

  No answer.

  His mind reeled. No! This can’t be happening! Simon kicked off his shoes and lay down on the couch. This is insane...

      Minutes later, he was fast asleep.