“Yet you did not use silver. Why not?” he wondered, lifting me slightly off the floor with the hand around my neck and giving me a little shake.
“I hoped that the dinner knife was silver,” I croaked. I felt somewhat dizzy and started seeing spots.
“So you did not know to come prepared?” he still asked quietly.
“No, I only realized when I was standing next to you.”
“I killed one of my best friends in a fight over a warrior,” he said in shock and disbelief. “I shall have to decide on a suitable punishment for you.” Even though he was looking at me, it was as if he didn’t really see me. I had heard many stories of his ruthlessness and did not look forward to any punishment that he would mete out.
I started struggling, beating at him with my fists. As I struggled in vain, his hand tightened and breathing became more difficult, letting the blackness begin to close in. It was then that I brought my knee up sharply into his groin. The hard, murderous glint re-entered his eyes, and with the knife he had pulled from his back, he stabbed me in the gut.
“I’ll make you suffer more the next time around,” he promised, holding me up by the throat as he watched the light fade from my eyes.
* * * *
The Present
“That was the night that I could have taken your soul and been done with it. But I wanted to see you again,” he sighed. “I told myself it was so that I could punish you for being the cause of my killing Heph, but that wasn’t really it. That day in the cherry orchard, when you first looked at me, I saw the expression in your eyes change until you finally looked down and refused to look at me again. It began as a look of admiration until a spark of recognition lit your face and then disgust filled your eyes. I couldn’t understand why that would be. I was a great leader...a great warrior and general. I had wealth, power, anything that I wanted. But I wanted what could not be demanded or bought, I wanted to see admiration in your eyes again,” he paused remembering.
“I waited to call you to me because I was afraid. I was afraid of your revealing eyes. Eyes that I thought saw into my inner darkness. The night that I stabbed you, that was the night Alexander the Great also died. I couldn’t understand what I was feeling. And that was part of it. I was actually feeling. Oh, I had felt anger before but not with such burning, which was nothing compared to the envy and jealousy I had experienced as you freely smiled at Heph. I was filled with loathing for him—he who was my best friend and confidant. But most of all I was feeling disgust. But what was that? I didn’t understand,” he paused thoughtfully. “Self-loathing I realized later.
“All my talks with Aristotle about philosophy and human nature were percolating through my mind…and love. I was…confused. All I was really sure of was that I had to get away from everything and everyone that I knew. I disfigured Heph and dressed him in my clothing and put your body and his in the bed together. I knew that no one would look closely at him because of the mutilations and Alexander the Great would be proclaimed dead.” He stopped talking, looking at the ceiling as he lay back on the chaise remembering.
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Why would you give up all that wealth and power? You were the ruler of Asia and basically most of the known world.”
“It meant nothing. I realized—your death made me realize—that it wasn’t worth it. I had no one. There was no one that I wanted to share any of it with. No one really knew me. No one who would smile at me as you smiled at Heph. I was utterly alone. Had always been alone. And that made me so angry!” he smiled slightly. “I vowed that the next time around for you, I would find you, and I would punish you for making me realize that I would always be alone.”
“And you did punish me,” I put in softly, looking at the floor for a moment before glancing back up at him.
“Yes, I did,” he said a little sadly closing his eyes. “And in the end I was the one punished the most.”
“Ha, don’t give me ‘this is going to hurt me worse than you’ bit. My dad used to try that on me when he’d spank me as a little kid. I didn’t buy it then, and I certainly don’t now.” I was a little surprised at my outburst.
“You are so very young this time. You can’t appreciate what time can do to you—endless days and endless nights, ceaselessly one after another. I am tired, Diana.”
“Isn’t there something you could do about that?”
Knowing I meant that he could easily die and the endlessness would stop, he smiled, but shook his head. “What makes it so unbearable is to always be alone.”
At that moment, I felt there was a kinship between us, slight maybe, but there. Even though I had close friends, I still stood apart, alone, because of my dreams. I didn’t date, didn’t want to date any of the boys at my school. At some point I would have to share my nightly escapades, and I could picture the true nightmare of being laughed at and scorned. To be known as the freak. Some dreams I remembered had a very lonely, solitary feel to them.
The whole Storming of the Catacombs night took on a surreal quality…from entering the catacombs to the ending at Alex’s apartment. I don’t know at what point I actually fell asleep, but what I remember next was feeling the vibrating buzz of my cell alerting me to an incoming text.
AIRPORT NOW!!!
Wow! It was six o’clock in the morning! I looked around and saw that Alexander was asleep on the chaise across from the sofa. His face looked much younger in the relaxation of sleep. He looked to be about thirty-five, but I knew that he was in reality thousands of years old.
I went into the bathroom and changed into my jeans, carefully getting my boot back on my foot and only loosely fastening it around my injured calf. I kept only the dagger with me, leaving the rest of the weaponry, and went back into the living room and looked at Alex lying peacefully asleep.
He had killed me—over and over through I don’t know how many centuries. I should kill him now while he’s vulnerable, I thought, staring down at him. And I really did think about it. He was lonely. So what? Should it matter that he felt remorse for the pain he had caused me? At what point do you earn forgiveness? Is forgiveness something that is in fact earned? Did he even want forgiveness? Or was I more concerned with trust?
The only people I had ever truly trusted were Sam and Maggie. I was learning to trust my fellow warriors, but even they had seemingly abandoned me at the catacombs. The one who had saved me was a demon! Did I repay that by killing? It would be easy to jab him with the silver dagger I had stashed in my boot. But I had never killed anyone. The demons in that underground room had not looked completely human whereas Alex looked and acted human. Could I push the point of a dagger into his heart? Besides, was it just remorse or was there some other reason he had helped me this time? I thought of the time we had been together in Pompeii. I couldn't do it. I gave up and simply left.
13 David
When I first met Diana, I thought she might be cool. I really liked her boots. The other guys just seemed too old to be doing this anymore, and Helen looked like she’d cry if she broke a nail. I’d never heard of any gathering such as this before, and wondered why we’d all come together. As no one had seemed to know, I’d hoped that Diana would have something to tell us—which, of course, she had.
I’d been in Arizona along the Mexican border after leaving Baja, California, when I felt compelled to head to New York. I was working at a commercial construction site, left for lunch, got on my bike, and never looked back. I’d never felt anything like it, just had to go, and didn’t even know how I knew to go to New York City. It was always that way for me, suddenly I would just know something.
I could always smell the demons, knowing that they were real long before I ever met one. As a child I slept with the light on, fearing the demons could be anywhere, close, in my room! The first time I saw one, I realized my mother had no idea what was going on and couldn't help. No one could help me.
* * * *
1992 CE
Pasadena, California—just another
stop on the road for mom and her biker boyfriends. We moved around, a lot. Looking for an open drug store early one evening, I walked with mom down a mostly vacant sidewalk. I’d cut myself pretty good on some barbwire that had been rolled in some junk I’d been playing with near our mobile home. We needed some antiseptic, and I knew it would hurt more than my cut.
Then I smelled the stench. The word demon just popped into my head. Looking down the alley we were passing, I saw two figures amid the dumpsters pushed against dirty brick walls. They were close to each other, holding each other, swaying like dancers but without the music. Pointing down the alley, I asked in a low voice, "Hey mom, what're those guys doing?"
“I don’t know honey.” She didn’t even look! Grown ups, I thought disgustedly. When she spoke I’d looked up at her, and she tugged at my hand to hurry me along, but when I looked in the alley again, I saw its eyes. The glittering hatred shined at me through the dim light. Demon! I gulped.
“Mom! I told you there were demons!” Even though I was trying to shout, just a whisper came out.
“What dear?”
“Mom look!” I was shaking her hand and pointing towards the alley, but she barely glanced to her left.
“Oh, they’re just hugging hello. Now, come along. We have to get back home before Keith,” she said and pulled me further along the sidewalk towards an Eckerd’s Drug Store. I could see the demon giving me a gleaming hate filled smile as it hunched over the other figure, which had fallen to the ground. The bright lights inside the store were welcoming. It was difficult to head back into the night with my mom that day. I knew that the demon could be anywhere. Could be waiting for us…for me.
* * * *
The Present
Now here I was so many years later heading into the dark once again. I rubbed my sweating palms on my pants, my thighs tense as we entered the basilica.
After we entered, we all went our separate ways. Helen and I had split up too each taking one half of the level. The second level had a total of about three miles, the largest of the levels, which is why both Helen and I had taken it. It was quiet in the dark as I searched, peaceful, almost soothing; except for the whole demon thing.
The hollowed-out tunnel I traveled through was a massive grave. Bones stacked floor to ceiling, several layers deep. Someone had placed the skulls facing outward so it appeared they all stared at whoever walked the tunnel. I didn't think I would tell Sam how much they made my flesh creep, after all I had a rep to maintain with the teen.
I heard a scuffling sound behind me and turned. Several feet away, one set of bones stirred. I saw it was a demon with barely any flesh in a form similar to that of a skeleton. Tendons stretched as it rose to face me. Red eyes glinted from the skull. In the amber glow from the night vision glasses, the skeletal creature grinned, showing what I now saw were fangs. It was so skinny I worried a bullet would go straight through it, if I hit it at all. I didn't have time to hesitate.
As it ran straight at me, I pulled out my silver pocketknife. Its long, skinny arms surrounded me and I grabbed the back of its skull and plunged my knife into its eye socket, holding it there as it grappled with me. Within moments I held nothing but smoke. Then an explosion rocked the tunnel.
“Where’s Diana?” I asked Sol as we emerged from the catacombs and approached the wall to get back out of the compound. I could see Jarret and Helen already waiting. He was covered in ash powder, as was I. When the explosion had first gone off, the wall I had been standing next to had slid downward as if it were a vertical waterfall, sending off billowy sprays of dust. Choking I had headed back the way I’d come, fearful of the roof coming down on me.
I hadn’t seen anything but empty, dark tunnels except for the one demon. What kind of infestation could there be?
“I don’t know. I didn’t see her come out. I had hoped she made it out first,” Sol said, his voice strained with pain.
“Who used the grenades?” I asked as we gathered at the rope ladder along the outer wall. Everyone shook a head in denial.
“It must have been Diana then,” Jarret said.
“It didn’t feel as if the explosion came from above me,” I said.
“It felt as if I were close to it actually,” Sol put in. “Part of the roof came down in a big chunk that nailed my foot.” He’d been on the lowest level, I thought. He’d taken it thinking it would be the most heavily occupied.
“Maybe Diana found a shaft and dropped a grenade in,” Helen said.
“So do we wait or go back in for her?” Jarret wanted to know. He was cradling his left arm, and blood was running down his face from a head wound. Helen had also been hurt, though not as severely, and Sol was limping badly because of his foot.
“You guys go on to the car, and I’ll find her,” I volunteered. I had sustained only some bruises from being knocked around after the explosion, so headed back to the basilica windows. As I bent down to go through, I noticed the rope ladder was missing. Then I saw Diana.
A man had his arm around her shoulders, helping her. She was moving with a hopping limp towards a far door, until the guy simply scooped her up in his arms. She looked like she’d taken quite a beating, and there was blood on both of them. I watched them go out and then headed back to the others. I saw that Sol had waited for me.
“She’s okay. Some guy was helping her out.”
“Maybe another of us felt compelled to be here,” Sol suggested.
“Maybe.” But I felt strangely anxious. “Let’s go.”
Sol made slow but steady progress getting to the top of the wall as his foot seriously impeded his movements.
“I think it’s broken,” he said when we reached the far side.
“Well, let’s get it looked at,” I said and went to join the others at the car. “No offense, but I think I’m in the best shape to drive,” I told them, helping Sol into the front passenger seat. No one argued.
“I just want to go back to the hotel,” Helen said as I slid behind the wheel.
“Where are you going after that?” Jarret wanted to know, but Helen just shrugged.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for any of us to hang out in Rome,” I put in. “There’s a bad vibe going on here, and I think we should all leave…as quickly as possible.” I could feel them all looking at me indecisively.
“Look, this just feels wrong. Something else is going on that we don't know about. We should leave while we still can. Why would so many demons congregate, and where were they? I only saw one, which is not much of an infestation. Okay, Diana tossed a couple of grenades, so she obviously ran into something, but what? Why just her? We need some answers, and we’re not getting them here. We should go home—rethink this, plan some more, and then come back if necessary. That’s all I’m saying.”
I drove them to the Rome American Hospital, which was the closest medical facility to Helen’s hotel.
“I’ve been thinking,” Jarret said. “I’m headed back to the Light House. It’s been my home for years anyway. Let’s gather there. Take some time, heal up, and figure out what happened here.”
“Sounds good to me, but I’m not going back to my hotel. I’m heading out now. I’ll see you guys in New York,” I said. I helped Sol and Jarret get settled in the ER, and then walked Helen back to her hotel.
“You think it will be all right for tonight?” she asked me. She looked around nervously at everyone we passed on the sidewalk. “Our flight leaves first thing in the morning.”
“I think you’ll be fine, but if you want, I’ll stay until you leave.” I didn’t like it, but she did have the teenagers to worry about, and morning was only a couple of hours away.
“Thanks, I would really appreciate it,” she said gratefully.
So we headed up to her suite where Sam and Maggie were waiting to pounce on us.
“Where’s everyone else? Where’s Diana? What happened?” Sam couldn’t get the questions out quick enough. Maggie’s eyes were big and worried, as we sat at
the bar along the wall, which housed a mini-fridge and microwave.
“We left Sol and Jarret at the ER. They’re okay, just banged up a bit. We’re not sure about Diana, but David saw someone helping her. I’m sure she’s fine,” Helen said trying to calm them down.
“We got a text from her saying that she was okay and not to worry,” Maggie put in. “But that was all, nothing more.”
“That’s good, I didn’t get a good look at the guy helping her out. She was limping badly, but other than that, she looked okay,” I told them.
“So what happened when you got there?” Sam wanted details.
Helen started, “Well, when we went in, Sol and Jarret headed to the lowest levels, while David and I went to the second level as planned. I only ran into one demon. It surprised me from an alcove. I just didn’t see it—really stupid. It slammed me into the opposite wall before I could get my gun around. But fortunately, I was just bruised, nothing broken. I actually made it all the way around my section before the explosion occurred.”
“Explosion?” Sam and Maggie chorused.
“Yes, we think Diana used a few grenades,” I told them. “It effectively ended any searching, because we were afraid the roof was going to cave in. So we all got out and met up at the outer wall.”
“Wow, for her to use a grenade, she must have been dealing with more than one demon,” Sam stated. He and Maggie looked worried. But Sam patted Maggie’s shoulder and added, “At least she sent us a text. We’ll hear all the details on the flight home. If she doesn’t make it here before we leave, she wants us to bring her stuff to the airport.”
It was about three in the morning, so I suggested everyone try to get a little shuteye. I yawned stretching my arms at the same time.
“If you’re staying and want to clean up, I think I have some clothes that might fit you,” Sam offered.
“Sounds great. I’d love a shower,” I said. I could still taste the gritty feel of dirt and ash on my tongue.
Helen smiled, “That sounds good to me too. I’ll set the alarm for five-thirty. We need to be on the way to the airport by six. Night everyone.”