'Til Death Do Us Part

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Eliza and Tomas

Eliza and Tomas walked among the gravestones of the long interred residents of the Rue Morgue, as calm in their surroundings as new parents would be in their infant’s bedroom. Eliza strode with a purpose, Tomas kept up if only to try and keep her from her own insanity.

“There it is,” Eliza said with an edge of excitement as she gazed upon the mortuary doorway.

“Abaddon?” Tomas asked, looking at the name engraved at the top of the tomb.

“It means ‘The Destroyer’,” Eliza said as she pulled the rusted gate open.

“The evilness of this place surpasses even you, Eliza. I beg of you one last time, let us be gone from this place.”

“It does have a certain charm doesn’t it?” she asked as a large cobweb bathed her face and head much like a wedding veil.

Eliza took the candles from Tomas. She placed them in the form of a pentagram. Latin verse flowed from her mouth as she began her incantations. She stopped long enough to open one eye. “You may want to be in the center with me,” she told her brother. He reluctantly got in the circle. “Do not step out of here, no matter what the Deceiver says. Do you understand me, Tomas?” Eliza asked.

Tomas nodded his head. He had been close to God once and did not want to taint that experience with what he was about to bear witness to.

“Tomas, answer me. I am about to complete my invocation.”

Tomas nodded numbly.

“Good,” Eliza said as she started back up.

The air got heavy with the smell of burnt cordite and sulfur. The room took on a dull reddish glow as the walls themselves seemed to burn with the light.

“Eliza my pet, why do you call me forward?” a voice borne along the vocal chords of a thousand snakes issued forth.

“I have never been your pet.”

The snake hissed in laughter. “You are evil borne from evil, you have always been my pet.”

“I seek advice,” Eliza said, changing the subject from something she did not want to hear.

“When did I become a psychologist? You want advice, I will give it to you, but not freely. Give me willingly what lies between your breasts.”

Eliza clutched at the blood stone she wore. “Jehovah has broken covenant.”

“What?” The snake roared. The walls glowed brighter.

“He is directly helping a human,” Eliza said.

“You have proof of this?” An image of a snake head appeared and hovered close to the edge of the protective circle.

Eliza laid out every detail she thought led to divine intervention up to and including his death and rebirth.

“This is all very interesting, and I would not put it past him, but I fail to see how this affects me?”

“He has broken the laws of nature and you fail to see how this affects you?” Eliza asked with vehemence.

“I loathe the zombies, my child.”

Eliza winced at his use of ‘my child.’ He sounded too much like a father she had spent five centuries trying to forget.

“They are dim-witted and dull, they are not easily led astray. I have never had so much fun as when I twist a Catholic priest into a world of perversion. To twist God’s messengers, ahh, now those are the moments I yearn for. This human creature which He loves so much is so fallible I would have thought he would have scrapped the entire failed experiment of them by now.” The snake head turned into a priest regaled in a black suit with a white collar, his eyelids half closed as he enjoyed some unseen sexual ministrations. “This might be one time where I would be on His side.”

Eliza was beside herself. “You cannot be serious?”

“If He is trying to turn the tide so that man can once again be the dominant species, then yes. Before His creation came into being, I only controlled the lower animals—snakes, spiders, rats and cats. Man is so malleable and will do almost anything to anyone to get ahead. They are so wrapped up in themselves that they fail to realize just how little time they will walk the earth. And an eternity in my domain? Well that’s just a bonus for me. He gets so upset when He loses one of His children to me.”

“This was a waste of time,” Eliza said as she prepared to revoke her incantation.

“You desire this Michael Talbot and his family to stay safe?” the priest asked Tomas.

“More than anything.” Tomas spoke up.

“I can make that happen.”

“I have no soul with which to bargain, Great Deceiver,” Tomas said.

“Purgatory is a realm in which I have full access.”

“He lies,” Eliza said. “He can only go there if given permission.”

The priest hissed. “Yes…with your permission I can retrieve your soul and we can make a bargain.”

Tomas was looking like he was weighing his options.

“You cannot be serious, Tomas. You would give up eternity for a mortal and his family?”

“You will have a seat next to mine,” the priest said. As he waved his hand, an image of Tomas sitting next to him atop the tortured souls of the damned showed on the far wall.

“You are a fool, Tomas!” Eliza shouted.

“Is he, my daughter?” The priest turned into Eliza’s father. “I offer him true immortality, to rule alongside me.”

“We are immortal, Deceiver!” Eliza spat.

“Ah, now you lie, my child. To be immortal implies that you do not have the ability to die…which I most assuredly guarantee you that you do. I have waited patiently for you to join me. I have set aside such wondrous things for the two of us. If He is helping to facilitate that, then I may have to thank Him.” Eliza’s father turned back into the form of the priest.

The echoes of the Destroyer’s laughter could still be heard as Eliza recanted her invocation.

“Did that go as planned, dear sister?” Tomas asked as he stepped out of the tomb. Her response was icy silence as they got back in the car.