The shadowy outline of the thin man leaned back against the edge of the bank roof, and a match was struck on the concrete. Pungent sulfur filled the air as the tiny blaze banished the cloak of darkness from the man revealing a pair of ripped jeans and a faded, red, long-sleeved shirt that hung on his lanky frame. The man's blank face was long and narrow with a patchy beard. His eyes were raging infernos, and they told of the hate the rest of his features held back. The man's unspoken anger was interrupted by a silent breeze that held his sour odor at bay. Trembling, his left hand moved the end of a cigarette to the flame. When it lit, he flicked the match off the rooftop. Again Jeb's form became a dark outline. The burning end of the cigarette brightened as he inhaled deeply. His exhale was loud and drawn out. "God," he said aloud, "these liberals have perverted your word for long enough." He took another drag. "I'm gonna put a stop to all the blasphemy." His words began falling among heavy breaths. "The new-age paganism that destroys the sacred, blessed, baby Jesus will end." His voice began to shake. "God, the mind control failed. I'm not under the control of the evil Father O'Reily." Jeb's voice hardened as he picked something up beside him. "Tonight, I am the guardian angel of mankind." He came up on one knee and extended the assault rifle. "Thank you, God, for choosing me." Through the scope, he fixed his gaze on the church's large wooden front door. When he comes out this heathen is goin' straight to hell! An hour and a half later the sky was pale blue, and the fire of the sun was beginning to spread its wings across the city. The wooden door opened, and the faith-traitor stepped out of the sacred building. Jeb waited until the man started down the steps before he lined up the crosshairs on the black-haired priest's head. Jeb felt his heart pound in unison
with the sound of the priest's hard-soled shoes. He pulled the trigger. His breathing was steady as he recalled the recent moments. The sound was tremendous, so close. Then there had been the brief intense burning pain. But now he was fine, as far as he could tell. Thank God. Finally, Father O'Reily opened his eyes and stood. The stimuli that flooded his senses were beyond anything he had expected. Overhead, black clouds rolled angrily through the heavens. Swirling nebulous forms of blackness raced like phantoms. Sean was standing on a smooth gray stone piece of land, and in front of him about a hundred yards, the hard smooth land ended. Spanning the horizon in both directions as far as he could see was calm murky water. It would have been easiest to call the water black, but the consuming twilight of the strange place made it difficult to make out the actual color. He turned to look behind him, and as he moved, he became aware of a thick silence broken by his footsteps scuffing the hard ground. A cold wind blew. It brought with it a lonely howl..Lord, where have you led me? An uneasy feeling came over him as he examined his last memory, the steps of St. Michael's. Now he stood on completely alien terrain, confused and bewildered. "Come," a cold voice, surely uttered from dead lips whispered on the wind. "I await in the depths." Father O'Reily was suddenly afraid. The echo of the voice in his head chilled him to the core. He faced the dark water but could not make himself move. "Resist me," the harsh tone sounded like a rusty dungeon door slamming shut, "and your torment will be unimaginable!" "God have mercy upon my soul." The father slowly walked towards the black sea. As he approached, he could feel a bitter cold radiating from it. With each step closer the intensity grew. He stopped at the edge of the ebony liquid. The water was motionless, smooth as black glass. His body was shaking from the intense cold. "Come, Father O'Reily, I have been waiting for a very long time." The black whisper assaulted him from every direction. With a final act of devotion to God Almighty, he crossed himself and stepped into the frigid midnight water. The cold was incredible, and it bit into his foot like a dagger and twisted painfully. He winced as he moved further into the water, unable to tell now if the water was burning or freezing. ~~~~ Jeb sat in his late-model red Ford pickup parked behind the "Lucky Lady" bar. It was a redneck dive on the east side of town. As he sat with hands on the steering wheel, the twang of a steel guitar and a shrill female vocalist filled the cab of the truck. He had made it from the church without being seen by anyone as far as he could tell. Something outside caught his attention, and he turned down the volume of the radio. Sirens could be heard screaming down a nearby street. Jeb smiled a wicked gap-tooth grin, satisfied that God's work had been done. "With God, all things are possible." The man got out of his truck and entered the 24-hour bar. Inside, tables were scattered around the room, and neon domestic beer signs hung on all the walls. A long bar with square-seated stools stretched along the back wall. Behind it was a mounted catfish. A large-gutted man with severe male pattern baldness and a wrinkled suit sat on one of the stools draining a can of beer. At one of the tables two men sat quietly drinking. Another supported the unconscious form of a man in a denim jacket and a rebel flag hat who had obviously had too much to drink. Dried vomit was still on his lips, and his head rested next to a sickening puddle. A woman behind the bar looked up when Jeb entered the desolate establishment. She smiled as she cleaned a glass with her towel. With satisfaction in his step Jeb walked up to one of the stools and took a seat. The woman's upper body was barely contained by her tight sleeveless crop-top. Make-up was caked on her face, and the thick red lipstick and heavy eye shadow accentuated by entirely too much rouge turned the newcomer on. Maybe I'll get lucky. His carnal thought inspired a drag of his tongue across his upper lip in a crude flirtatious manner. She gave him an unmistakable look of disgust. Curtly, she asked, "What ya havin'?" "Pabst, sugar." ~~~~ The painful touch of the dark water was now up to the center of Sean's chest. He could no longer feel his lower body, but since he was still moving, he figured everything was all right, at least for the moment. His movement was the only disturbance in the smooth liquid blackness. Terrifying images of what lurked below the surface leaked from the far corners of his imagination into his consciousness. Panic clutched him, and the man stopped. He could not make himself go any further. "Father, come, where else is there to go?" Sean turned a complete circle, sending out tiny waves in every direction, but he saw nothing, no one. Reluctantly he moved onward. The water came up to his chin. Fear filled him. The pain was numbing, and slowly, the water reached his mouth. In a final act of righteous defiance, he pressed his lips together. Sean closed his eyes before the dark liquid could enter. His final step completely submerged him. Now there was no question; the water was icy, almost beyond comprehension. He stepped again. Suddenly, Father O'Reily was falling. Reflex caused him to open his eyes to see what had happened. Sean's sight was flooded with impenetrable darkness and blazing pain as he fell at an amazing speed, flailing madly to slow himself. His lungs tightened, and he depleted his meager amount of oxygen. Falling... It felt like a weight had settled on his chest. Painful pressure rose inside his lungs as every cell screamed for air. He had to hold his breath. Why, he could not say, but the primitive drive for life within him would not relent. Sean couldn't resist any longer. He knew there was no air, but his body forced him to release and take in a breath. Chilling acid ripped down his throat. Where his eyes and skin had become numb his soft mucus insides blistered and swelled. Screams of torment gurgled in the all-present murky water. The death throws slowed as his body continued to fall. There was no more energy left to die with. Blackness total and consuming... Father O'Reily's descent was halted by a hard hit to a solid ground. Gradually, the water lost its painful sting. Crumpled on the ground like a dog struck by a truck, Father O'Reily lay in a fetal position. He could see nothing, but he heard sound. It approached him in the murkiness. Muttering the Lord's Prayer, his gaze moved the direction of what he knew would be his doom. Sean was only able to make out dim details, as though he were seeing by a single candle, but the sight caused his stomach to turn in horror. The grizzly image caused him to vomit. Since he was filled with the icy black liquid, his emittance stayed in his mouth, its acidic taste further revolting him. A tall thin woman, wearing what he
believed was a tattered white wedding dress moved towards him. Beneath the opaque veil he
could see white-gray skin in varying states of decay. Worms and maggots danced through her
rib The woman halted before Father O'Reily. Every fiber of his body convulsed in fear. The fright of being helpless before total evil ran through him, but he could not move. The creature reached out with a bony hand and touched his forehead. "No! No! No!" The monster howled. Its face twisted with rage. "That fool has sent me the wrong one!" Overwhelmed with sheer terror, Father O'Reily waited for the abomination to snuff him out. The creature clenched its left hand into a fist. The massive force cracked bone and tore flesh. Fragments of phalanges pierced the loose skin like broken wood. ~~~~ Jeb gawked at the woman's breasts pressing against her tight top. She was at least a D cup. As she moved up and down the bar cleaning up for the breakfast rush, they jiggled in what he perceived as a lusty manner. All the other able patrons had left. The drunk collapsed on the tabletop had fallen to the floor. Jeb, on the other hand had stayed. There was nothing like drinking himself silly on Pabst Blue Ribbon, the finest beer on Earth. After all, he had saved the world. No one could understand what it was like to be a vessel of God's will. He stayed around for another reason though. Enough beer would give him the courage to ask this tavern angel for sex. He fumbled for a can of beer sitting next to the ashtray he had used for the past two hours of chain smoking, and he brought it to his shaggy face, took a drink of the warm beer. "Hey baby." The point where self talk and booze collide and explode into false courage erupted inside him. Turning around, the woman eyed him coldly. "Your done drinking here for tonight. Why don't you go home?" Her voice was even. She had dealt with losers like this a thousand times before. Flushed with anger, Jeb staggered up from his stool. "You wanna real man?" He barely managed to push the cottony words off his tongue. The bartender reached for a shelf below the cash register and withdrew a revolver, pulling back the hammer. With a dumb look on his face, Jeb stared at her. He yelled in agony and staggered backwards three steps before falling to the floor. His sudden motion frightened the bartender, and she jumped, dropping her pistol. From his position on the dirty bar floor, Jeb writhed like a fish plucked from the sea. His eyes rolled back in his head, and spittle frothed at the corners of his mouth. The woman looked on in shock at the
spittle, reddened from blood entering his contorted mouth. Strange grunts uttered by his
twitching body filled the air as dark blood poured from his ears and pooled beside him.
His flopping Pressing her hands to her face, the bartender stepped away, but she kept her eyes glued on the dying man. Suddenly, his sternum exploded upward, tearing his chest violently. Ribs snapped and broke from his body. His sounds rose to crazed shrieking, and his writhing doubled. Jeb's back lashed wildly carrying his limbs with it. Mysteriously, flames filled his open mouth and empty eye sockets. Then the fire sprang from his open torso. The screams lost their human sound. ~~~~~ The hideous creature in the murky waters before Sean grabbed him with her remaining hand and lifted the fear-stricken from the stony sea bottom. as a purple glow awakened in the decayed woman's eye sockets. The eerie light pulsed. "Mortal, my minion failed me." The creature's grip was tight on Father O'Reily's shoulder. "His mistake has spared you from a grave ending." Sean was too shocked to speak. He just waited. Being so close to the vile monster revolted him. A black worm crawled from an opening in her throat. "You have a second chance at life, Father. Close your eyes." He obeyed. Then he heard the creature's
haunting cackle. Only this time it sounded very distant. Realizing the body he inhabited was bound by a straight jacket, he knew had to speak with someone. Whatever was going on had to be corrected. Sean called for help calmly. His confusion was furthered by what happened next. His calm voice came out in a raving yell, and the man shook his head wildly and fought against his bonds. God what is happening? He stopped trying to speak, and his new body quieted. He tried again. Is anyone out there? Hello, can anyone here me? "Let me out! The devil in the dress is trying to eat my brain just like she did to the minion that failed her!" What is coming out of my mouth? I'm not yelling that nonsense. Why can't anyone understand me? The solitary figure calmed down. Again Sean tried to speak. "The spiders are tearing out my insides! Someone save me from the Jesus virus!" God, what have I done to deserve such? Sean panicked and called for help. "I will kill you all! Die! Die! Die!" Please! Someone... ©2000 Everette Bell
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