Lucifer and my daughter stood over me and smiled as I lived my final moments on the earth.
Lucifer looked at me. “David, you have out-lived your usefulness, and I need your daughter now to ensure my plans come to pass. Now rest and enter into your reward. For yours has been a long time coming, and don’t worry, I’ll take good care of your baby girl.”
Lucifer smirked and licked my daughter’s throat with his forked tongue. She quivered at his caress. My vision started to go dark as I heard Lucifer say something about having fun with my daughter later that night. Then, just before the lights went out, Reviler knelt beside me.
“Time to receive your reward, David.”
THE NEXT THING I KNEW, I was falling down a tunnel that reeked of sulfur and decaying flesh. I almost panicked, but I saw Reviler next to me as we slowed down and landed on our feet. The ground looked to be covered in grey dust, and then I looked around and realized it was raining ash. It was extremely hot. Hotter than anything I had experienced before, and for a moment I thought I was going to burst into flames. The air around me began to bake my skin, and I was unable to breathe the painfully scalding air into my lungs. I dropped to my knees and grabbed my throat. I closed my eyes as hard as I could to try and shield them from boiling out of my head. Just when I thought I was about to explode into flames, Reviler placed his hand on my shoulder and the searing pain stopped. I could breathe again. I opened my eyes and looked up at Reviler, oblivious to the pain and extreme heat that ravaged me a moment ago.
This must be part of my reward. After all, a prince of Hell must be able to walk about his kingdom unencumbered by the various weights designed to plague his subjects.
I surveyed the landscape before me, and it was beautiful. A harsh jagged landscape marked by several pits of fire each containing a soul being consumed in the flames. Demonic beings flew all over the place. Some entered while others left Hell to go to earth, I assumed, while others performed torturous acts on the occupants. To my left was a raging lake of fire that churned as if being ravaged by a violent tempest. Every so often, a wave crested and threw various souls into the air. They desperately tried to grab hold of the stalactites above to keep from falling back into the fire, but many failed to even get a grip, let alone a firm hold, and would fall back in with a thunderous splash. There were some that became impaled on spikes and released the most glorious shrieks of pain I have ever heard before they slipped back into the lake. I couldn’t wait to see what my part would be in this glorious hellscape, and I prayed that lake was part of my kingdom.
Reviler’s words pulled me from my thoughts. “Stay close to me, David. The atmosphere can be unforgiving. Come on it’s time to receive your reward. I think you’re going to be pleasantly surprised.”
Images from my death flashed like a disjointed slide show in my mind. Glimpses of Lucifer and my daughter, and then one of her with a knife covered in blood. What happened to me? I faced Reviler. “Did my daughter kill me?”
“She did, but that doesn’t matter anymore. The time has come for you to move on to the next part of your journey. Come with me.”
I walked next to Reviler down a narrow walkway, just barely big enough for the two of us to stand shoulder-to-shoulder. There were deep pits on both sides, illuminated by burning coals that charred skeletons sat on top of with bits of rotting flesh hanging off the bones. Some were reaching out to me, crying for mercy, and others yelled out for forgiveness from The One. Worms crawled in and out of the bones of the skeletons, and it appeared to be causing extreme pain as the people were trying to rid themselves of them. The one thing they all had in common was they all were burning, but none of them could die. As we continued on the path, I saw strange monstrous looking creatures hiding in the shadows with their glowing red eyes giving away their positions. I could hear them murmuring something, but I couldn’t make out the language they spoke, so I turned my attention back to those in the pits.
“Reviler, who are those people burning in the fire?”
“Those are the ones who failed the master. Don’t worry about them.”
“Where are we going?”
“We are going to Lucifer’s throne.”
We walked past unspeakable horrors, and the only comfort I had was the knowledge none of this punishment was meant for me. I had faithfully and unfailingly served Lucifer for decades. It would be my daughter who would suffer this fate for what she did to me. I would see to her punishment myself, the moment she set foot into my kingdom.
Then I saw it, a grand stairway leading to a beautiful horrific throne made entirely of human bones. At the top sat Lucifer.
Reviler’s voice boomed. “Master, I have brought your faithful servant for his reward.”
Reviler stepped away from me and knelt on one knee. Lucifer stood and smiled and sauntered down the stairs toward me.
“David Willenski, my faithful servant, you are here today for your reward for your service to me. I would like to say I have never had a servant as loyal and committed as yourself. Your dedication to me is a thing to be respected and admired. You never questioned your assignments, and you always carried them out to the letter. A lesson I wish all my followers would learn, but now your time on the earth has concluded. What would you like?”
“I want you to kill my daughter for taking my life, and then I would like what you promised me when I gave my life to you. To rule and reign seated next to you on your throne.”
Lucifer chuckled as several demons with razor sharp claws crept from the shadows and encircled me.
“That is a rather large request, don’t you think?”
I stood firm in the face of Lucifer’s question. “It is what you promised me.” He had tested my loyalty before, and that had to be another test. A test I would pass.
“Yes. I gave you my word, David.” Lucifer laughed as his eyes turned red, and he shouted at me. “My word is worthless.”
Fear gripped me as I started to back away, but the demons that encircled me only let me move a few steps before showing their talons. Meanwhile, Lucifer stepped toward me and his elegant appearance morphed into a horrific nightmare. He flashed to that of a snake, and large fangs and forked tongue protruded from his mouth. Long, blackened nails slowly slid from the ends of his fingers, and the perfect skin on his face turned into a scarred disfigured mess. All the while he continued to laugh hysterically.
“Did you think I would share my throne with a worm like you? And, by the way, she sacrificed you as a token of her unwavering devotion to me.”
The demons around me joined in and laughed as well. I was mortified by his words, and the heat started to burn my skin. I choked on the sulfur-filled air.
“Here is your reward!”
The demons with the claws jumped on me and ripped all my clothes off. I tried to struggle but had no strength to resist them. They stabbed me repeatedly with their claws, laughing all the while. The pain was excruciating as I watched my blood pour out on the ground. Some demons held me down while the others cut out my organs one-by-one and ate them in front of me. I screamed for Lucifer to help me as he walked by and ripped out my tongue and threw it to the group. Finally, they pulled off my arms and legs and gouged out my eyes. The next thing I knew, I was whole again, standing naked in front of Lucifer.
“What was that?”
“That was your reward, David. You are to be ripped apart multiple times every day for all eternity for your service to my kingdom. Now take him away. Don’t worry David, you’ll be with your friend Maxwell.”
As the demons dragged me away, Lucifer and Reviler mocked me, and in that moment, I knew I was forever damned to this place. Lucifer had deceived me, and I was doomed to Hell and that torment forever. The demons brought me to the edge of a pit filled with fire, but I didn’t see Maxwell.
I asked a large lizard-looking demon that dragged me. “Where’s my friend?”
“He’s been ripped apart and his body parts have been placed in various areas of Hell to be torment
ed by the ones he deceived into coming here. Once we have our fun, we put him back together so we can do it all over again, and the best part is we never get tired of doing this.”
They dragged me into the pit and started pulling me apart. My screams were added to the rest of the damned. I no longer had any hope or peace.
All I had was an eternity of pain and regret.
Chapter Ten
Alec Williams
Williams Estate – Private Home Office
Williams Point, New York
THE NEXT FEW WEEKS were a complete blur, but I acclimated well to my new role, and I felt like I was coming into my own as the company’s leader. My days consisted of endless meetings, and my nights with reading and answering emails, as well as reviewing every department in detail.
Rachel had been out due to her father’s sudden death.
It was hard not to feel guilty when David dropped dead on the same day I’d demoted him. Rachel said he’d suffered a massive seizure as they prepared dinner that night after work. I didn’t even know David had a seizure disorder. Apparently, it’d been under control with medication his whole life—until it wasn’t. I didn’t like the guy much, but never expected or thought something like that would happen.
I wanted to reach out to Rachel more personally than as her boss, but she asked for her privacy as she mourned. Paul also told me to leave her alone because he was worried I would fall for her again as I tried to comfort her. I told him that would never happen.
“Who are you trying to fool here, me or yourself?” he asked.
He was probably right. I tended not to think clearly in regard to Rachel, especially when she struggled emotionally. I remembered a time when we were teenagers and her boyfriend broke up with her. I was more than happy to be her shoulder to cry on. We talked for hours about how he hurt her, and I would tell her how beautiful and how great of a person she was. It was after one of those long talks she confessed feelings for me. I was beyond excited and my heart pounded in my chest because she had just uttered the words I had longed to hear. She said she didn’t want to get super serious right away, and she wasn’t sure where to go from there. We agreed to take it slow as we got to know each other in a romantic way, but as the week went on, I didn’t hear from her.
No calls, no texts, no answers. How could we start a relationship if there was no communication? Then, all of a sudden, she informed me dating wasn’t a good idea. Her voice sounded colder than usual as she told me she would be settling if we got together. Then she accused me of taking advantage of her vulnerable state. She kept me perpetually tied in knots, especially when she said she was already seeing someone else. What a piece of work.
And yet, I kept falling for her.
Paul was probably right about staying away.
Her cold words had nearly destroyed me back then. It was Paul who’d put me back together that time, but my self-confidence was totaled. He’d seen me emotional before because of my mother and father, but he’d never seen me like that. For months after that phone call I was emotionless and dead inside. It took some time and a new love interest—Tiffany—before I started to feel normal again.
That moment, once again, I shut down the Rachel idea in my mind. I didn’t need to relive memories I preferred to forget.
I forced my thoughts back to more pressing matters as I sat in my office at my house, which had become the place I slept most nights because I passed out from sheer exhaustion. It didn't help I sipped on scotch.
Everything would have been a lot harder if it weren’t for Paul. He attended every meeting with me and took care of the ones I couldn’t because they ran parallel to another commitment. He took detailed notes and gave me a breakdown of what occurred. He got up to speed on his new role quicker than I did mine.
I opened the top desk drawer to look for a notepad, and my eyes fell upon the letter, the red and black leather journal, and the flash drive my father had left me. My father's final message to me laid there in the opened envelope. As I looked at it, the first sentence came rushing back to me. Alec, you were always a disappointment to me.
I didn’t have time for that, so I slammed the drawer and searched elsewhere in the desk until I found what I needed. I had thought about reviewing the contents of the materials my dad left me, but I still could not bring myself to. It was my dad’s final insult to me, and I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. I would be a better leader than he ever was. I could look through the items he left me, or I could throw them away. I reopened the top drawer to do just that, and then stopped. What if they contained pictures or things Dad kept from Mom? I left the items in the drawer, and gently shut it. I would look through it one day.
Memories of my mother came back to me. How she would tuck me into bed every night and pray for me and our family. I missed that throughout the years after her death. Tears came to my eyes as I thought about all of the times when I was a boy and had a bad dream and she would sit with me until I went back to sleep. There were times when the night terrors were particularly disturbing, and she would stay with me all night. In the morning, my father would chastise us both.
One of my fondest and most painful memories of her was my tenth birthday. When I awoke that morning, I discovered she had filled my room with balloons as I slept. I jumped out of bed and began to play with them, tossing them all around, and then she came in as if she was waiting outside the door for me to wake up.
She hugged me. “Happy birthday, my son. You are my amazing gift from God, and I thank him for you every day.”
She wrapped me in another big hug that seemed to last for days, and I relished every moment of it, hugging her back as hard as I could.
“Now, I have a big day planned for my special birthday boy.”
“You do, Mom?”
“You better believe it, now get dressed and come downstairs.”
I was so excited I threw on my clothes as fast as I could and ran to meet her. She had a huge breakfast ready for me with chocolate chip pancakes topped with whipped cream. Then, later that day, she had all of the kids from my class come over for a birthday party. I remembered about halfway through the party she started rubbing her head from time to time.
I asked her if she was okay.
“Yes, my sweet prince. I just have a little headache.”
But by the end of the party, I could tell she was in a great deal of pain.
“Did you enjoy your day, my love?” She asked after everyone left.
“It was awesome. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. I’m going to go lie down and rest for a little while until my head feels better. Why don't you stay here and play with your new toys?”
That was the last time I saw her alive.
I spent the next several hours opening all of my new toys and completely lost track of time. Before I knew it, it was time for dinner, and James asked if I would go get her. I ran up the stairs and down the hall. Typically, I was not allowed in my parents’ room, but that was when my dad was home, and he was on one of his many business trips.
I knocked on the door and slowly opened it. “Mommy,” I said quietly, “it’s time for dinner.”
She didn’t move.
“Mom, come on it’s time to get up, I want to show you all the cool stuff I got.”
I didn’t realize anything was wrong until I stood beside the bed.
“Mom, come on get up. This is not funny.”
Something was very wrong.
“Mommy, please get up.”
I shook her gently, and I kept asking her to get up, and then I noticed that she wasn’t breathing. I screamed for help.
Within moments, James and some other staff ran into the room to see what was going on. One immediately called for the paramedics, while another one performed CPR. Some of them tried to take me out of the room, but I fought and screamed.
When the paramedics got there, they took over and loaded her on to the stretcher to rush her to the hospital.
The house sta
ff had to restrain me because I fought and demanded to go with them, but the paramedics wouldn’t allow it.
She was pronounced dead later that evening. James told me the doctors said they did all they could do to save her, but she was too far gone.
I didn’t sleep for the next two days. I lay on the floor in my room crying and wishing that it was just another bad dream, and she would come in and wake me up and hold me with one of her loving hugs, and tell me everything was alright. That never happened. My father came home from his business trip two days later and found me crying on the floor.
“Get up and be a man,” he said. “Look at my face, son. Do you see me crying? No, you don’t, and she was my wife, and I have known her a lot longer than you have, so if I’m not crying, neither should you.”
Then he walked out of my room.
Two days after that was her funeral. The church was full of the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen. She loved pink roses, and the front of the sanctuary was packed with them from wall to wall. In the middle was her open casket. From that day on, the smell of roses and the color of pink only reminded me of death, and I could not stand to be around either one of them.
There were so many people there I had never met before. They all came up to me and said how sorry they were, and that she had the most handsome son in the world and other kind words.
But nothing they said took the pain away. I felt cold and lifeless inside, and I just wanted to be with my mom, wherever that was.
She looked so pretty lying there in the casket, and I kept hoping she would get up and come over and hug me. I longed for just one more embrace from the most important person in my life.
While the minister conducted the service, he talked about how much Sarah meant to so many people, and how she had touched so many lives. When he got to the part about her being a loving mother, I couldn’t take it any longer, and I ran to the casket and hugged her and cried.
“Mommy, please wake up! Wake up! Don’t leave me. I love you. God, please give my mom back to me. God, please!”
The Man Wrapped in Darkness Page 6
