The Tapestry (21 page)

    He thought he could no longer be shocked at
the depravity of this man Saul, not after the terrible deeds he had taught him, not after everything he had witnessed and the acts of pure evil he had committed himself since knowing this... this demon man, and he wasn’t wrong, but when Saul explained his plan to him, he was shocked. Not in the sense any normal being would be shocked, he was just shocked at the enormity of the plan and genius behind it. Saul really was the master of all evil and he was still in awe at this man/ demon.

    Once they knew it was a pub somewhere
(they hoped
) in the English countryside it didn’t take much searching on her trusty little lappy as she liked to call it, to find the pub called
“The Trident”.
As soon as the image was displayed on the screen she knew it to be the one.

   
‘That’s it, that’s the one, that’s the one the dragons showed me,’ she exclaimed rather hurriedly as she stood up from the swivel chair and clasping her hands together before motioning Seb to take a look.

   
‘Mmmm well that’s ok then, not too far, nice little drive too’ Clara hadn’t even thought to look at the blurb surrounding the picture describing where it was or anything, she was too amazed about actually finding the very same pub that the dragons showed her in her visions. She stopped pacing round and leaned back over towards the screen again for a more detailed inspection of the page in front of her,

   
‘Oh I’m such an idiot, didn’t even think... so where is it then? She enquired as she toyed with the mouse. She hated computers as they were meant to speed things up, but all they ever seemed to do was either crash or infect themselves with viruses. She couldn’t fault them now though otherwise they would never have found
The Trident
.

    ‘Well it looks to me, to be in the middle of bloody nowhere’ cut in Seb as he shifted her hand from the mouse, knowing her weaknesses with technology, he thoug
ht it best to search himself
or they would be there all day
he thought without voicing. Clara happily relinquished the mouse but sat down in front of the screen, Seb leaning over her shoulder.     ‘Here... see. It looks like its set back in the hills above some place in The Peaks, above some little village called Wirksworth’ He scrolled down to show her more images of the pub, it really was secluded. She didn’t see how it could stay open,
but then it must get a lot of walkers and tourists throughout the holiday season
she thought. The next image was of the far side of the pub and they both drew in a short gasp at what they saw. There it was, fixed to the side of the exterior wall. Black as night against the bright white of the stone wall...
The Trident.
It looked to be maybe six or seven feet long and made of heavy duty iron.

    ‘And just what in the blue blazes am I going to do with that, I’ll never as much lift it, never mind wield it like some crazy jousting stick?’ Seb tried to control his laughter which only made it worse; he expelled a spray of it all over Clara before having to rest on the arm of the sofa. Ju
st the thought of her not being able to fulfil her destiny and defeat “The evil one” because her weapon was too heavy was just a little too much for him to bear. He pictured her stood there lamely holding “The Trident” while some demonic beast pranced mockingly around in front of her. He just couldn’t hold it in any longer, he slapped his leg as the raucous laughter expelled itself from within.

   
‘Excuse me... excuse me.. Mr Demon, would you mind awfully jumping on the pointy end of my Trident thingy. It’s just that it’s a tad heavy for me to lift you see’ the tears were streaming down his face so much so that he had to brush them from his eyes as he got up from the arm and leant a hand on the back of the swivel chair. His laughing stopped as soon as he looked into those usually bright blue eyes that were now a darker blue, he felt the wind in the room begin to stir.

   
‘Ok...ok I get it, not amused’ he said, lifting his hand to placate her.

   
‘When you’ve quite finished.’ at that moment she reminded him so much of an old school ma’am and he felt like a chided schoolboy, ‘We’ve got packing to do.’.

 
                                            
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

    Both demon and apprentice had been reciting the little school verse over and over now since Saul had invoked the demonic spirit known to be Lilith, a former lover and worshipper of Satan himself who infected the blood coursing from both their fingers now into a large goblet type glass with a metal stand, large enough to hold a full half a bottle of wine
(or blood for that matter)
. She had come to them in a storm of fire, demanding to know who dare to call upon her. She was dressed in nothing but long dark cascading curls of thick dark hair that wrapped itself around her like a cloak. The marks of Satan still etched into her once beautiful skin like cattle brandings, red welts angrily etched into her otherwise plague white skin. This was hallowed ground that she had been called to, protected by angels and only Satan himself was immune to these holy grounds, but she had the blood of her former lover and brother coursing through her own veins, so for a short while was also immune to the Angels. But she could feel them, the memories of the long ago fallen warriors trying to touch her in her their delicate little ways, the music she could hear was that of the angels guarding this hallowed ground. It made her want to vomit up the remains of the last newborn she had eaten.

   
‘I am the mother of all Succubae, wife and sister of Satan and first wife of Adam, what authority has called upon me?’ she demanded to know as the flames around her leapt higher and her cloak like hair flew back, revealing her nakedness to them both. As she saw them both she made towards Gavin in a flying fit of madness, her feet left the ground and she flew though the air between them, emitting a banshee like cry, her face contorted with anger at this weasel like man, but before her hands met his throat, Saul shook off the facade of human form and rose steadily from his chair, grabbing the outstretched arm of Lilith. She looked upon the demon that he truly was. His body was now a full fifteen feet high, his talons clicked together around her wrist and she saw into those deep purple eyes and his tongue which looked to Gavin to resemble that of a snake flicked in and out of his mouth between such a set of teeth it would gain the envy of any crocodile skulking in the reeds.

   
‘You forgot to mention me, my little whore for hire’. The flames died down and she was notably shocked to see another of her former lovers. She fell weak at the recognition inside of herself. Saul had been Satan’s greatest enemy all those eons ago and she had lain with him to incite anger into her brother. Lilith was still a virgin though when she had lain with Saul. Not in the biblical sense, but in the sense that she had never felt any affection for another being, she had only laid with Satan to anger God after she left Adam and ran to the red sea, but Saul...she had felt some sort of kinship with and she had been searching for him all over the planes of hell and purgatory trying to avoid Satan and his legions for many a lifetime since and now here she was again with Gods prodigal son that will never return, holding him in her gaze as he lowered her to the floor softly like a child.

   
‘I still need him right now, do not lay your hands upon him’ he said with a steely voice that would not be challenged, but she had already forgotten all about the little half demon.

   
‘I’ll leave your little pet alone if you make love to me now, in fact no don’t make love to me’ she purred at him as she jumped into his waiting arms ‘no lets not do that, I want you to take me and take me now as I have been searching for you for so long and I have lain with so many
boring
men, and goats for that matter... no don’t make love to me, make me feel like the whore you know I am, make me alive again like you have before, lets fuck till Satan cries for the quietening of my screams’ And they did but before the two demonic souls joined together again Saul sat down with Gavin and explained how Lilith would help them in their plan to make Gavin the ruler of the world. Lilith, and Lilith alone knew the incantation to bring the words of the old nursery rhyme to fruition and that is why he had called upon her. Saul explained the meaning of the old school rhyme, and the words of the nursery rhyme now made perfect sense to Gavin. He was happy to know that Saul had just been preparing him for this moment;
the piece de resistance
Saul called it.
“After this, all of mankind will bow to you, they will kneel and kiss the very ground you tread on if you so wish. This will sincerely be your crowning glory, you will hold the world to ransom, and rightly so. The world has shown you no love, since you were a child...you owe them nothing”
Gavin’s mind momentarily took him back to “the bad place” and even now the anger and hatred that he still held began to simmer in the pit of his stomach.

    Saul could see
Gavin’s mind begin to wander, he also knew Gavin would never truly be able to fight the battle that he and he alone knew would be upon them very soon unless he rid himself of this demon inside once and for all. He lifted his hand from the glass, blood trickling towards the curvature at the bottom from himself and his protégé. It met in the middle and pooled together, it was like a meeting of minds between the two of them, blood, body and soul.

    ‘Go, go now and do what must be done as we have work to do and tomorrow a new dawn begins...And it will be
OURSSSS,
the blood of Lilith now runs through you, If I knew such a thing then I would pity those who met with you this night. You have till dawn breaks to return... Go now.

    And he did, he left the two of them to their demonic desires and went in search of his childhood tormentor.
He shook off his physical form and became a flying consciousness soaring through the air, it made for much quicker travelling without the hindrances of modern day transport. It didn’t take long for him to pick up the scent of “
the man”.
All he had to do was look back into the twisted corridors of his own mind and find him there. Keeping that image open was like creating a physical link between the two of them. He was on cruise control now, headed straight for him.

    Sleep did not come easily to Clara that night; her dreams were full of dragons and demons. She envisioned macabre scenes of children lying in gutters and playgrounds. Their bodies were everywhere she turned, just lying motionless on the ground, hundreds of them as far as she could see. She was at St Michaels’, the school that Seb would hopefully return to. She walked over to one of the
children; she looked to be about twelve years of age with strawberry blonde hair, shoulder length, although it was pasted to the side of her face. Clara chose to ignore the red marks on her otherwise milk bottle legs for now as she couldn’t get a clear view of the girls face. She knelt down beside her and put her hand out to turn her over. As she did so she felt she felt an almost imperceptible change in the environment or the air around her. It was like the warm breath of someone close by on her neck, so she turned to see what had caused the change and found nothing there. Just a playground full of what looked to be dead schoolchildren, her heart tried to beat its way out of her chest as she saw the sky growing darker. The trees bordering the school playing field began to sway with violent intent, the wind ripping away the last of the dead, stubborn leaves from their branches. The air around her became warmer yet again, heavier even, making it difficult for her to breathe.

    She had two choices, run or stay, although running wasn’t ever really an option for her as she wasn’t the sort to run and hide, coupled with the fact that there were children here that may need her help. No
, that just wasn’t going to happen and if she ran now, she feared that she would be running for the rest of what would be a very short life. She held out a very shaky hand and turned the child over to see a face covered in red lesions. The eyes of the girl opened in a snap and stared straight back at her which literally sent Clara sprawling across the ground in fright. She scrabbled to get away as the girl stood up and held her death coloured arms towards her. Her school blazer hung off her in rags and Clara saw what appeared to be a rat, fall from one of the arms and scurry away over the field.

    ‘I’m.. I’m here to help you’ she stammered at the girl. Every other child had risen to their feet now, and they all had the same red lesions, some of them black. Their bodies looked wasted and their clothes were in tatters. She noticed rats falling from the bodies of some of them, but to her utter dismay, some of the children had rats still clinging to their bodies. There was a small boy, he looked only to be about seven or eight years of age about four or five paces behind strawberry blonde girl and he had a rat perched atop his head, happily nibbling a
way at the boy’s ear. The boy didn’t seem to notice. Another girl to her left had one with its little rodent teeth dug into the top of her kneecap, busily chomping and burrowing away. Likewise the girl didn’t seem to notice or care as the rat bumped against her leg with each step she took closer to Clara, arms outstretched like the rest of them. She had backed herself up against the school building when she realised they had all begun chanting the same song that had been playing over and over in her head recently.