Rise of the Beast (13 page)

As she and Chris prepared for bed that night, he spoke of his experience with the crew at the oil well. He had a really good time, yet Serena was already focused on something else.

“I wonder what Satan is up to,” she pondered. “I wonder where he is right now.”

“At the very heart of the storm,” replied Chris.

“If we only knew where that was,” lamented Serena, “maybe we could do something.”

“I think we already have,” said Chris.

“He’ll know where we are,” continued Serena. “We have a Web site, a revival, and book signings scheduled; he’ll know right where to find us, and he’ll come.”

“Then we’ll know where he is,” observed Chris. “Stop the turning wheels in your head for the night. Let go and let God.”

As the lights went out, it was tough for Serena to fall asleep. Yes, God was in control. He would protect them, but still, she was troubled. She felt certain that she would soon have to face the Prince of Darkness again. Only this time, it would be on her turf, not his.

c
HAPTER
5

Serena found herself standing barefoot atop the precipice of a high and very sheer cliff. Before her, all the way to the amber horizon, a stormy sea heaved and swirled, with the violence of a great tempest. Its waves crashed upon the base of the cliff 50 feet below her. She could feel the force of every wave as it echoed through the bedrock. The hot, arid sea wind hit her squarely in the face, carrying with it the aroma of vitriol and raw sulfur.

But this was no sea like those along the coast of Oregon. No birds soared upon the thermals, and no greenery graced the land around her. This was a slick, turbulent sea of black oil, reflecting the roaring flames that danced across its surface. This was Hell’s Great Sea of Fire.

She looked down to find herself dressed in a ragged gray top and skirt, the terrible garb of one of the damned. She had worn such an outfit once, during her time in Hell.

“Not real,” she whispered. “Wake up, Serena, it’s not real.”

“Are you so sure?” said a voice from behind.

Serena spun around to see a middle-aged man draped in a long, black robe. Oh, she recognized him all right. He was the author of the worst time of her life. He was the master of Hell, Satan. For a moment, her heart was full of terror.

“Remember this place?” he asked with a twinkle in his eye. “You should.” He pointed off to a crumbling peninsula of land, a section of the cliff that jutted out into the sea. “It was just over there that you took the plunge into the Great Sea of Fire so as to begin your eternal service of pain to me. This place was and shall again be your destiny. It is in your blood, what little of it that shall remain once the heat boils away the rest. You can’t fight me, Serena, so don’t even think of trying. Cooperate, and I might feel disposed to go easy on you.”

Was this a dream, a manifestation of her subconscious, or an ethereal visit from Satan himself? Serena wasn’t quite sure.

“I might feel compelled to bring you here every night,” continued Satan. “You’re dressed for it. You could experience anew the sights and sensations of being deep fried within this sea, my greatest creation here in Hell, my greatest work of art.”

Up to this point Satan had been playing on her fears. Serena had tried to wake up, though in vain. If this was but a dream, she was, nonetheless stuck here. It was time to play hardball. She prayed that she had the strength.

“I really wish that you’d shut up!” said Serena, her tone both confident and firm.

“No one talks to me that way!” roared Satan. “I’ve put you in that sea once, and I’ll do it again if it so pleases me. Therefore, I command you to jump from this precipice and into the fiery cauldron below. It is my will, and you dare not disobey.”

Serena could feel the power of Satan’s will, but even now she focused her mind and soul elsewhere, and as she did, the force of the Holy Spirit welled up within her. In but a second her clothing had changed from gray rags to the nice blue dress that she often wore to her revival meetings. The change seemed to anger Satan, even as it gave Serena renewed confidence.

“Jump in! I command you!”

“Oh, you’d like that!” retorted Serena. “I’ve stood here and listened to you rant on like the megalomaniac you are long enough. Now, listen to me. I’m not jumping in there. In fact, I’m putting you on notice. I know what you’ve been up to, that you’re here on Earth, and I’m going to find you. You were defeated in Heaven, and you will be defeated here. Your reign is over, you pathetic excuse for an angel.”

Satan screamed out in rage. He lunged at her, yet his hands met with nothing but empty air. He was as inconsequential as vapor. “This isn’t over, Serena!” he yelled.

“No, it isn’t,” confirmed Serena, “at least not yet. But the day is coming when you’ll be cast into a pit to be chained up for a thousand years. And I hope that pit is hot and unpleasant for you. Your days are numbered.”

Before her, Satan dissolved away into vapors as did the dream. She awoke in bed, Chris at her side. It was nearly five in the morning. No, she wouldn’t wake him up. There was no need. She’d tell him about her adventure later. They had another hour to sleep. The plane didn’t depart until after 11
A.M
.

On the far side of the world, Lusan arose from his contemplative state, his eyes full of rage. He gazed out from his 32nd floor window. “You will pay for your insolence, Serena,” he cursed. “Make no mistake about it. You will pay.”

Serena had cast a shadow across what would otherwise have been a productive day. He had been here now for nearly a month. In the offices below, their ministry had already begun. His 58 employees had flooded the Internet and filled the papers of the world with their message of peace, of a new age of faith that borrowed from so many different religions. It was as appealing as it was generic, a new faith for a new century. Tonight, in a rented Harlem auditorium, he would make his début. He himself would preach it to a downtrodden humanity. The event would begin with a rich, but completely free, meal for the hungry masses and climax with his message. He would have some surprises for them too, oh such wonderful surprises.

And across the world, his minions were making progress as well. They too had found humans who opened the door for them into the cultural, financial, and political world of humanity. They had slit the arteries wide open to allow Satan’s own brand of poison to flow into humanity’s veins. Sure, they had faced opposition, but tonight, they would deal it a decisive blow.

The scattered forces that had retreated from the battle in Heaven in defeat less than three months ago had networked through the World Wide Web. They held financial stakes in dozens of international businesses and had taken possession of so many humans that had been ripe for the harvest.

Lusan’s thoughts returned to Serena. He was tired of her meddling. She was the fly in the ointment; she had been for years. Perhaps, after today, that would change.

“Thank you for all of your help,” said Will as Chris and Serena prepared to board the plane for the trip to Hamburg.

“I think we sort of added to your problems,” noted Chris, almost jokingly.

“No, I think you just gave my Christian walk meaning,” said Will. “If I ever had doubts, lapses in faith, they are all gone after what I saw last night. I’ll guard that well with my life, I promise. Nothing gets into our world while I’m on duty.”

Serena gave Will a hug. “I think we’re in good hands.”

A few minutes saw them back on that venerable, twin-engine, flying boxcar, and on the way down the taxiway. They had the same flight crew they had on the trip out. Serena wondered if her experience in Hell would become a topic of conversation on the long flight to Hamburg.

Serena couldn’t help but notice that, amidst a stack of core samples and packages for the folks back home were three metal drums containing a mysterious liquid marked with a hazard label. It made Serena a bit nervous, though not overly so. The captain’s warning about some rough weather along the route didn’t help much, either.

Nonetheless, half an hour saw them at their cruising altitude of 15,000 feet above the mountains of southern Turkey. Amidst the occasional chitchat with the crew, Chris and Serena were examining their options. Serena’s tale of the previous night’s dream both interested and concerned Chris.

“You know, Chris, something else has me confused,” continued Serena. “The things that tried to enter our world through the well, where did they come from? Aaron said that Sheol was destroyed, that demonic spirits could no longer make the trip back and forth between Hell and Earth. The spirits that are already here on Earth are stuck here as disembodied spirits. So where did these things come from?”

Chris shrugged. “Maybe they’re spirits of demons that were destroyed
during the war in Heaven.”

Serena leaned back in her chair. “But still, that doesn’t seem quite right,” she replied. “How would they make the trip from Heaven to Earth and emerge from underground? If I’m understanding it right, they would be coming in from a higher plane, wouldn’t they?”

“Oh yeah,” said Chris. “Maybe they were caught in transit, neither here nor there when sheol was destroyed. Maybe they were spirits sucked into that vortex in Hell that your mother wrote about, remember? That would also explain the human voices that Will and the others heard. It would explain the sea oil, or whatever you want to call it, sucked up from the Sea of Fire and into the vortex. Somehow, it ended up here, two miles down.”

“That makes more sense,” noted Serena. “But why here?”

Chris shook his head. “There are a lot of unanswered questions, aren’t there?”

“How did it go over at well 14?” asked the engineer, sitting down across the aisle from Serena.

“How did you know we were at well 14?” asked Serena.

“It wasn’t hard to figure out,” said the engineer. “That is the haunted well, the place where all the weird stuff is happening. There’s a lot of disturbing stories coming out of there.” He motioned to the drums near the back of the plane, “And some really strange material, too.”

Serena only nodded.

“And lastly, that is the well where Will is the foreman. If you were visiting him, you were at well 14.”

Chris couldn’t help but chuckle just a bit.

“A real Sherlock Holmes, that one,” said the pilot.

Quite suddenly, the engineer’s expression became quite serious. “That stuff, that oil no one seems to be able to identify, it’s from the Great Sea of Fire, isn’t it?”

Serena looked incredulously into the man’s eyes. She could discern that he was dead serious. “Yes, it is.”

“What are we doing out there at well 14, drilling into the heart of Hell?”

“We’re not sure,” admitted Serena. “We only know that it is a doorway into our world that Satan’s minions are taking advantage of.”

“Oh boy,” said the engineer, who seemed genuinely concerned. “I was listening to what you two were talking about. Sorry to be eavesdropping. Look, I’m not religious, never have been, but your explanation, well, it all makes sense. It’s about the only one that does. There is the stuff in the drums for one thing. How else can you explain that crazy stuff? It still has our chemists scratching their heads.”