The Dark Messenger (36 page)

‘Eye,’ Jenny said, somewhat alarmed. ‘Yes he
had an eye in his pocket that he cut out of his warriors head in
France, but that story is for another day. So I will continue.’

‘A little time passed and as the moment
happened and the meeting was taking place, Installis looking like
the priest, then spoke with Rex for a short time before using his
dark magic to imprison the heinous beast on his raft in the center
of the reservoir. He then said to him that it was going to be for
eternity and walked off across the waters surface. His warriors
never actually saw the priest as Raffious had summoned an illusion
spell. All they saw was their leader rambling on to thin air as if
he was crazy, which he is, but still. Then the warriors saw him
fall backwards into the waters and he vanished. Only he never fell
in, because the illusion spell had masked that from view too.’

‘Then without Rex in his way, he felt sure
that the third vampire Longinus, who Rex had foolishly allowed to
join his coven some years previously, would then be able to enter
Rex’s chambers without concern of being caught. When inside he
would steal the last piece of the vase and Satan wouldn’t ever know
about it, as magic was never used inside the coven.’

‘Raffious had an arrangement with Longinus
but he never intended upon keeping it, instead he always knew in
his deranged mind that the not so smart vampire, would then, when
he had fulfilled his role, simply succumb brutally to his wrath—he
was going to kill him.’

Whilst all this was going on, Raffious was
also ruining the planet so that it completely matched with the
story that Rex had been told. He started wars, damaged factories
causing vast pollution everywhere. He broke into labs and released
their deadly diseases from frozen states. He travelled around the
world intent on destroying it, and over many years achieved just
that. Soon there were thick dark clouds pluming everywhere.
Radiation was in the skies, sickness worldwide, high winds and
destruction on a global scale. All this and the deaths to millions
of humans, manipulated by Raffious, or as we in Heaven refer to him
as, The Dark Messenger.’

‘After his long plan worked and he caught
Rex, he ignored saving the planet and continued to harass Longinus
into getting the last piece of the vase. Only sadly for him, even
without Rex, the coven were still very much guarding their fallen
leaders chambers, and entry inside was still impossible. Raffious
had no choice but to wait and give Longinus more time. Every day
Raffious waited, he was furious hanging on.’

‘The planet will, if its not saved in fact
die and then with it every living thing will die too. Raffious may
try to fix it after making the vampires extinct, but that is
doubtable, and anyway by then it will be too late. It is actually
believed he will jump into another world somewhere, a parallel
dimension and seek refuge. He knows we are hunting him, and that it
will only be a matter of time until we catch him. He doesn’t care
though, he just demands retribution for Adina’s death and nothing
more.’

Regina then said ‘So Installis or Raffious as
we know him has done all of this because of revenge? I cant believe
it?’ she said, with immense rage building within.

‘How dare he do what he's doing? Ruining
innocent people’s lives, destroying the planet and medalling with
the future. He wants revenge for his woman but what about all the
people he is killing to get it.’ she added.

Becky then interrupted, ‘I have a question?
How if you couldn’t find Installis or Raffious when you were
ordered to take him back to heaven, do you know all of this
anyway?’

‘My darling, it is true I could not find him,
the information I told you came to me when Jonivac was found to be
helping Installis, it was then that we learnt the other parts, and
by pieces things together, I was able to make up the whole
story.’

‘So Kaine you are needed to stop Installis,
he has truly lost his ways and our heavenly father demands he is
caught and taken there to pay for his crimes. Installis is a very
evil, disturbed man. Now as I said when I arrived, I have come here
with an offer for you.’

‘It was decided some time ago and I have been
watching you too, how you deal with situations, your loving heart,
the care and compassion you have for all things living, your kind
ways and immense generosity. It would be a pleasure if you accepted
what I as a messenger from Heaven am about to offer you, I and our
Heavenly father, truly believe you are perfect for the role.’

‘Heaven has offered you to be become my next
truth messenger’

Kaine looked absolutely shocked as did
everyone in the room, he turned to the angel and said ‘but you must
have made a mistake, I am a vampire and I have killed in my life,
not that I wanted too that is, but the situations where I did,
there were no other alternatives.’

‘Heaven makes few mistakes Kaine, everything
you have done in your life we know about. It was not your fault
that you were transformed into a vampire, it did not have any
affect on whether you were suitable or not for this position?’ he
said as he then walked forwards and placed his hands upon Kaine’s
forehead.’

‘Please have a day to fully consider this
offer, it is a great position that you will thoroughly enjoy, only
it would come at a high price to test your sincerity should you
consider accepting.’ Kaine and his wife both looked at each other
thinking the same thing, ‘a high price?’

‘Yes unfortunately if you accept, you and
your friends here will wake up in another time as humans, living a
normal life, never remembering this life nor that you ever existed
and your dogs will be with them too. You will then join us and your
memories of Regina, your friends and the dogs will be permanently
erased, you will be my new truth messenger, starting with a
completely clean mind.’

‘If I don't accept.’ Kaine said trying to
pick up his voice to make it sound quite authoritative but he
couldn’t, his words came out softly and it shocked him.

‘
I know it will be an
extremely difficult decision for you all to make this evening but
please bare in mind, your first role will be to track down
Installis and bring him to me, I will then take him to Heaven to
answer for his actions. Afterwards, you must find the two pieces of
the vase and bring them back to Heaven so that they can finally be
destroyed.’

‘If Installis is NOT stopped, as I have
previously said, he will take the Trucale vase and jump back into
the past. When there he will pour the holy waters into the first
vampires drinking water and all vampires will cease to exist.’

Everyone looked absolutely shocked and Kaine
then said, ‘Basically what you are saying is that if I reject the
position to be with my wife, we will cease to exist anyway. So I
have no choice really. There must be another way. If you were to
drop me in the future I will happily kill Installis, then get the
pieces of the vase and everyone wins.’

The angel slowly shook his head from side to
side as he said, ‘Sorry it is not as easy as that, Installis is
very powerful now, and your fighting skills would be useless
against his black magic, he would most certainly kill you as a
vampire. As my truth messenger though, his powers would be useless
against you.’

Regina then had something she wanted to add,
‘Regarding us, having time to consider your offer? We don't think
we have longer than a few hours maximum before Rex’s warriors below
us, break through. We need more time to deliberate over it, else we
cannot decide either way.’

Kaine was shocked hearing his wife say what
she had just said, and for a moment truly believed she wanted to
think about it. Was his wife seriously considering accepting the
offer? Would she be happy to never see him again, just to save her
own life? Then he reminded himself that she truly loved him with
all her heart, and that she was obviously just keeping their
options open. At least until they could be alone to discuss it
properly that is.’

Regina smiled and winked at him as she read
his mind. The angel smiled at them both too.

‘I can sense that you both love each other so
very much and I am truly sorry that I cannot offer you another
alternative, my hands are tied. Installis must be stopped from
affecting the future, it is for mankind to control its own destiny
and not for one man to guide it the way he wants it to go.’

‘Suddenly the digging noise from beneath them
became oppressively loud. It was so loud that it even sounded like
it was starting to come up through the walls.’

The Angel held his left hand up and closed
his eyes. A moment passed and he muttered a few words. Suddenly
like a machine had been running and someone had flicked the switch,
the noise beneath them and the vibrations ceased instantly. The
vampires below, froze in their spot, and outside the humans, cars,
planes, even the birds in the sky did too.

‘Time is frozen for you now so that you can
make your decision between yourselves. You have a day until
everything is reset and time starts again. When this happens they
will resume their attack beneath you. There are no exits available
as they are locked. If you do decide not to accept our offer before
the day is fully passed, Heaven will know and time will re-start
immediately.’

‘I must leave now, please
remember though that should you not accept, it does not mean Heaven
is leaving you here to a certain death,
Think, but think wisely
.’ he said.
Then the angel said good bye and vanished!

Back in the cells – One hundred and fifty
three floors below The Tower of London.

After the jailers had left,
and Longinus
had
heard them beginning to make
their way back up the stairwell, to add insult to injury he
had
also heard them rip off their masks and apart
from spitting they also begin to gasp violently.

Damn he thought
as he realized
that
even though they had
their
masks on, they could
still
smell
the putrid stench that he was now tasting as it crawled past his
vomit covered fingers and
then
climbed
up
into his mouth.

He gazed over at Raffious. He was lying,
still paralysed, where he had collapsed when they had thrown him
into the cell. He was face down and his lips were flat against the
filthy floor. His long beard was splayed out in all directions, and
he still had that ominous green arrow shaft sticking out from his
knee.

Longinus laughed at his now helpless, fallen
comrade-in-arms, who up until half an hour ago had been quite the
opposite. A man with unbelievable powers who seemed to be able to
do anything he chose, like create bars around Rex or time travel in
any direction. Now though, because of that arrow he could see
emanating strange gases in the old fools leg, he was powerless and
reduced to a pathetic mess who couldn’t even stand.

Crouching by his head, Longinus could hear
him uttering, gentle, piteous, almost childlike moans.

‘You see what being an evil
bastard got you?’ he said as he gently prodded him with his index
finger, just to be sure he
was
really paralysed,
and
that it
wasn’t all just some tortuous and elaborate hoax.

Still the
unintelligible
and grossly indecipherable
moans
came.

Standing back up and leaving him in that
posture with his drooling mouth building puddles on the dark, blood
stained floor, Longinus turned around to take in the grim details
of his deeply forlorn cell. With nothing else to do, he considered
his unpropitious chances of escape.

The cell was seven feet wide and about 12
feet in length. At the back there was a bench that took up the
whole 12 feet, which was bolted to the wall by some strange rust
covered archaic fixings, that he had never seen before. The three
walls that made up the back and sides were simply nothing but solid
rock, which apart from also being covered in blood, had splattered
remains of predecessors who had succumbed to some heinous
punishment before.

Walking over to a lump of something that was
looking somewhat ominous on the floor. As he slowly bent down to
examine it, the gravity of what it was, as it dawned on him that it
was part of an eyebrow, made his insides curl. Bending down further
to see if there were any clues as to how it had become detached
from the head, he realized under the congealed blood, there was
even a slither of rotting bone.

He flicked it away, shuddering. Resisting the
urge to vomit was easier now, since his insides were empty, but the
urge was there nonetheless. A welcome distraction came when he saw
where the grisly thing had landed. It had bounced off the wall,
rolled over, and gotten stuck in Raffious’ hair.

‘What just hit me, Longinus?’ Raffious
mumbled.

Longinus had been startled
to see the eyebrow, but
now
to hear Raffious
talking
again, had
shocked him even more.
After the arrow had hit him, apart from a few failed spells he’d
tried to summon, he hadn’t said a word.
Longinus also partly wished he never
spoke again, owing to the ominous threats from his jailers who had
said, that when he gets his voice back, if he refused to tell them
where Rex was, they would amputate limbs and not just the old boys
too.