Rapture Falls (18 page)

             
McCullum
pushed away the weaker man, “Ah
Houston
,
we have leverage” he shoved Marsh hard back to the floor, “I will burn this fucking thing if you do not tell me everything right now, and I do mean now
, don’t you get it kid, you’re alone here, nobody’s coming for you, take a look around you are abandoned here
”
Marsh had the appearance of an addict, one gripped in the middle of bad withdrawal, his face was sweating profusely, his eyes beady
and he looked petrified.
“Why don’t we start with the name Baine, does that ring any bells in your batshit belfry?”

             
Marsh looked on helplessly, his eyes darted around the room nervously, he looked trapped, his voice was cracked and broken, “
Baine is a weapon of God, he is a sword to be used by the Knights Templar, by our
saviour
, our leader, Hugues de Payens, I am but a servant and I follow where my master leads me, but now I have failed my God and I am not worthy and I have brought shame upon our family”.

             
“Who the hell is this de Payens, is he something to do with the church, with Jacobs?” McCullum demanded of the obviously disturbed youth, he was now thinking that the sooner he got the kid into a pysch ward the better, the book
did seem
to hold some sort of power over him, he looked down to study it closer. The
large
bible was heavy and coarse, the leather was rough and dark brown, he flipped it open,
a smaller book was hidden within the pages, it appeared to be journal of some kind belonging to Marsh
. He turned back to question Marsh further with about a million questions that were rattling around his head, blood was
already flowing
heavily from the kid’s left wrist, in the brief time that he been lost within his own thoughts the teenager had somehow managed to silently bite through the flesh of his own wrist, he dropped the book
and torch
and rushed to the spouting Marsh.

“Jesus Christ, what did you do, what did you do” he tried desperately to stem the pumping blood that was darkening the floor and pooling around his knees as he knelt over the fading youth, he pulled off his own jumper and attempted to tie it around the torn opened wrist of the fading youth. Marsh now looked every inch the lost child that he clearly was, crimson blood trickled from his rapidly paling face, his skin had now become porcelain and almost translucent as his life ebbed from him, his expression became almost serene as he drifted away. McCullum frantically tried to resuscitate him but it seemed as though Marsh had made his decision and wanted to leave more than McCullum was unable to make him stay.

“FUCK!!!” McCullum screamed into the deserted building
,
never before in his life
had he felt
quite so isolated, this was now the second kid to die in front of him
this week
and
he had failed to prevent either. H
e pushed himself away from the cooling Marsh and sat back heavily, his elbows on his knees and his head in hands. He had spent his entire life maintaining a distance from everyone around him, subconsciously burning bridges whenever they
had been rashly
constructed, he had always been alone but never lonely and he now had the responsibility of two corpses to carry on his shoulders, he was burning with rage with now direction for his anger. His stomach churned viciously and he feared that if he started vomiting he would be unable to stop until his body cleansed itself of every dark and guilty thought he had ever had leaving nothing but an empty hollow
bitter
husk behind.
The dropped flashlight was still rolling from side to side, its strong beam passed slowly across the room intermittently lighting Marsh’s body as it
rolled on the uneven floorboards, it came to rest aimed at the
dropped journal
now residing next to McCullum, he looked down at the illuminated book that had been so important, in the coming days he would never quite know why but he picked it up and started to read.

             
Hughes de Payens sat
upon
his
throne;
St Paul’s now housed its master once more
.
T
he hospital had been extremely draining on his abilities, especially in his
already
weakened state. Maintaining a sense of serenity during such a fractious time had been particularly difficult, the hovering masses had swarmed around his bedside whilst inside he was incandescent with rage at his scandalous predicament.
He had burned and seethed with the audacity of a
mindless
peon such as Baine having gaine
d such an outrageous upper hand. I
t had been centuries since he had tasted his own blood and it was not an occu
rrence that he wished to repeat, his healing powers were strong and fast but he was not completely invulnerable nor was he immortal, he could die if the wounds inflected were sustained and severe enough. He sat and pondered upon his chair in his office,
despite the morning sun the building was cold
, the stone
was
porous
and
the heat seeped outward despite the roaring fi
re constantly roasting the room. H
e had returned to the church
first thing
,
only to find the housekeeper had passed him going the other way to take his hospital bed
, he was forced again to play his part and wear the face of the concerned father of his parish and his people.
Upon finding the missing Book of Enoch he had screamed and raged to the heavens, he had thrown and smashed furniture
, flinging heavy oak as though it were paper,
caring not who heard him and wishing that someone would
indeed
enter the room so that he could take out his frustration on flesh and bone
,
to
feel them ground
beneath
his pounding fists
. E
ventually he had calmed enough to sit amidst the wreckage
,
to
slow his thoughts
and steady his raging mind
. Now he sat and pondered, his senses were dulled by the missing book, it had been so very long since he had to rely
solely
on his own
unaided
abilities, the book had acted as a booster greatly enhancing his already increased strength and speed as well as his healing capacity, he was still far in excess of the humans that he walked amongst, but without the book he was
already becoming
ever more
venerable
.
The door creaked open slowly, de Payens looked up angry at being disturbed despite his strict instruction
s
to the contrary, the woman was tall, dark haired and beautiful, she walked with an animals grace and exuded confidence with every stride, she wore a tailored blue suit and despite her sleekly heeled shoes she emitted no clacks on the stone floor to herald her approach.

             
Lucy looked down at the priest, “de Payens, we have much to discuss”

             
He looked up slowly, severely weakened
as he was
without the book he
felt himself crumble under her stare and slowly
surrendered
into her
soulless
black eyes “Indeed we do Lucifer
, indeed we do
”.

             
Baine had slept
for a day and a night
, when he finally awoke he found himself in a
Travelodge
room still, the Book of Enoch lay alongside him, the book had drained and then refilled his energy, his splitting migraine had now departed along with his aches and pains. He sat and then stood, he stretched his body from all angles surprised at a seeming increased flexibility, the book had his own energy that had
been
added to his own, he checked his watch and was surprised at the
time
passed, he opened the room’s curtains to be faced with
a
dark
once
night again. Although he had only partly read through the book
,
during his slumber the entire contents had
somehow
seeped through into his mind, he now knew the
stories and
secrets contained within its pages, he now knew the beginnings of his path to
his ultimate goal, the Cube.
The book had been written by his true father, the man once known as Enoch
and scribed in his own blood.
Enoch was a direct descendant of Adam, Gods first son, and an ancestor of Noah, Enoch had been a prophet granted a life of 365 years by God in order to spread his word to the world and preach the teachings of his lord.
Enoch had been appointed a ruler and as a teacher to the people by God and had ruled over a time of peace and fair justice.
He
had been
taken to heaven on the same month, day and hour that he wa
s born, i
t was not the first time
that
he had been
taken to heaven. Enoch was to be the scribe of God
,
copying down everything that he saw in heaven
and
eventually managing to fill three hundred and sixty six books, when his work had been toiled fully he
had been
called to Gods side once again where he had been transformed into the Archangel Metatron and placed at the top table ahead of all angels.
Upon his transformation into Metatron his soul had formed the Metatron Cube, the 366 books containing all of Gods secrets of creation and beyond had been bound and place within the Cube, sealed forever
and
unavailable to mankind.
His placement at Gods hand had caused terrible unrest and eventually led to a rebellion amongst the other Archangels angry at their displacement
, the Archangels had stolen the Cube in order to create their own world in which to rule
. Baine had learnt though that unbeknownst to God Enoch had scribed a secret 367
^th
in his own blood
,
the
book
,
known simply as T
he Book of Enoch. Once
written, the book had been handed down secretly through his descendants until it was discovered by Hugues de Payens during a particularly torturous interrogation back in
1123 after the formation of the Knights Templar, de Payens had kept the book for his own ends immediately recognising its power and being corrupted by it. The book was written by a direct servant of God who was embedded with the Holy Spirit to serve and would later be reborn as an
Archangel
, it only stood to reason that the book would hold a singular power of its own. Baine knew all of this
upon
awakening;
the book was
the story
of the 366 works
and a key to finding the Cube,
created by Enoch in his own sin of pride to show his importance at Gods side and command
to his own descendants.
The book however powerful was only truly accessible to a direct descendant of Enoch, only a descendant could truly unlock the key to finding the Cube, Baine now had the book in his hands and the book was back with its rightful owner.