The Incubus, Succubus and Son of Perdition Box Set: The Len du Randt Bundle (39 page)

‘He’s a great kid, Becks. You should
be proud.’

‘I am,’ Rebecca said. ‘We both are.
Justin just had a hard time showing it when he was a boy.’

‘Speaking of the old rag,’ Tanya
said and smirked. ‘How’s his book doing?’

*   
-    -    -    *

The darkness was everywhere.

Amy was pregnant.

The blackness was all around him,
consuming him from every direction.

You are the one, Jared Greene.

The endless nothing grew thicker in
texture, suffocating anything it could wrap itself around.

All power goes to you.

‘Hello?’

Jared’s words echoed into eternity.

‘Is anybody out there?’

Is anybody out there?

Jared held his hand to his face.

Nothing.

‘Where am I?’

Where am I?

He tried to walk, but found himself
stumbling over legs he couldn’t feel or see. He hunched down and tried to touch
the ground, but his hand passed right through the spot where it should have met
hard soil. He placed his two hands together. They passed through one another as
though they weren’t there at all.

A sudden flash of a car on its roof.

Pain stabbed through Jared’s mind.

Jared screamed.

Eternity screamed back.

Shut up!

Jared froze. ‘Who said that?’

I said, shut up!

‘Who are you?’

No answer.

Jared strained to hear. ‘Am I
blind?’

Blind?
another voice asked from behind him
somewhere.
He thinks he’s blind!

Laughter all around. Hundreds of
voices laughing, their laughter echoing back, vibrating into the very core of
his existence.

‘Who are you people?’

The laughter grew louder and more
intense. More echoes led to more laughter.

‘Answer me!’

The mocking laughter was the only
answer he received.

‘Where am I?’

Like the darkness, the laughter
overwhelmed him until he felt numb to it.

‘
Answer me!
’

The laughter stopped suddenly and
abruptly. Silence followed thick and fast.

‘Where am I?’

Where am I?
a voice mocked in the
distance.

Isn’t it obvious?
another voice growled
almost right in front of Jared.
You’re in hell!

*   
-    -    -    *

Not much had changed in the twenty
nine years since Rebecca had been in Kelwick. Except for a few shopping malls,
a restaurant or two, a series of corporate buildings, and an extended
industrial section, everything still seemed exactly the same as when she last
saw it. The air was still the same. Fresh with just a hint of spring. The late
afternoon sun cast the same copper ambient glow around everything.

Rebecca sat in Tanya’s car, looking
at the same old apartment where she and Justin lived so many summers ago. She
remembered the miscarriage she had shortly before falling pregnant with Jared.
She remembered the strange happenings at the apartment. But most of all, she
remembered Dominic.

A tingling sensation crept down her
spine as images long buried played in her mind like a home-made movie.
‘Justin,’ she breathed as a young man opened the door at the apartment where
they used to live. He locked the door before walking to a parking bay near hers
and got into a car. She longed to be with her husband and wished that he could
be there with her right now. Seeing this man drive off instilled a sense of
loneliness and dread that she hadn’t felt in a very long time. He might as well
have been Justin. She might as well have been twenty one again.

Alone again.

She wrapped her fingers around the
steering wheel. ‘Full circle,’ she breathed.
If Jared was conceived here, is
this where he should die?

Her hands tightened around the
wheel.

So much for Simon’s great vision.

A single tear streaked down her
cheek as more welled in her eyes.

Save my child, Lord,
she prayed.
Please
save Jared.
She broke down and cried. For a long time she just sat in the
car, shaking as she wept and pleaded with God to save her son. When she was
done, she rubbed at her sticky cheeks with a tissue. She fixed her hair in the
rear-view mirror and after taking a final look at the apartment, drove away and
left the past behind her.

*   
-    -    -    *

 ‘In hell?’

Shut up!

‘But how...?’

A flash of a car on its roof. Sparks
shooting off in all directions.

Jared tried closing his eyes. The
darkness remained exactly the same. He felt where his eyes should be, but his
hand passed right through his own head. ‘This can’t be happening,’ he said.
‘This isn’t real.’

Amy was pregnant.

‘Amy...’

She’s not here. Fool!

‘Who are you?’

Shut up!

Jared tried to move. It felt like he
did, but after a while he felt no closer to anything or anyone else. The
darkness spread on forever and ever. It had no beginning and no end. Jared
turned. Or did he? He couldn’t tell anymore. Up felt like down. Down spread
into endless black, and from the darkness people spoke. Or could he hear their
thoughts? Could they hear his?

Shut up, fool!

A car on its roof. Sparks flying. A
tree racing closer. Then darkness. Absolute darkness.

‘God?’

Laughter.

He’s calling on God!

Thousands of voices echoed in
laughter all around him.

God can’t hear you in this place. He
doesn’t care about you anymore. You blew your only chance, fool!

‘No. You’re lying!’

You are the one, Jared Greene.
All power goes to
you.

‘It’s all a big mistake!’

Amy was pregnant.
‘No.’
You are the
one, Jared Greene. All power goes to you.
‘No!’
Amy was pregnant.

‘
NO!
’

The voices stopped instantly.

‘Lord,’ Jared whispered, his voice
broken down to a pathetic whimper. ‘If you’re out there, please help me. I beg
You.’

No one is going to save you. You’re
stuck here for eternity.

‘God,’ Jared said, ignoring the
taunts. ‘If You can hear me; I’m really sorry. Please forgive me.’

There is no forgiveness for you,
sinner!

‘Please give me another chance; a
chance to make things right.’

*   
-    -    -    *

 ‘Lord,’ Rebecca prayed softly
at Jared’s side. ‘Please give him another chance,’ she pleaded. ‘A chance to
make things right.’ She didn’t know what he might have done wrong or why she
felt compelled to pray those words, but she obeyed her gut feeling. ‘Please
save my son.’

Jared’s rasp rhythmic breathing was
her only reply.

A tear snaked down her cheek and she
wiped at it with the back of her hand. She looked up at the steady heartbeat on
the cardio monitor and wondered how many hours, days, or years she would have
to look at it. Time didn’t matter to her. She would stay until he recovered or
finally gave up fighting. If he didn’t recover in a month or two, she would
have him moved to a local hospital near Justin and her. Either way, she
wouldn’t leave her son’s side.

‘Simon said that You had plans for
Jared, Lord,’ she whispered. ‘Something that will involve millions of people.’

She looked up when the curtains blew
inward, but the gust of wind left as quickly as it had come.

‘I can’t bring myself to believe
that this is the plan Simon was talking about, my Lord. How could he die if You
have plans for him?’

She bit her lip.

‘Unless his dying
is
part of
Your plan,’ she said. ‘That his death will trigger whatever event You have in
mind and that his greatness would come as a result of it? Perhaps he has a good
deed planned in his will, a use for his money that could benefit many people?’

She took Jared’s hand and squeezed
it.

‘I don’t know your plan, my Lord,’
she prayed as another tear crept down her cheek. ‘But I’ll accept Your
decision. I don’t have to like it, but I’ll accept it.’

She leaned over and kissed Jared on
the forehead before she stood up. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ she said and left
the room feeling alone and vulnerable. She took the elevator to the bottom
floor and after a brief scan over the parking lot, spotted Tanya’s car and made
her way towards it.

‘Could you spare some change?’ a
homeless man asked as Rebecca unlocked the car. She looked at the man and
immediately broke eye contact. Despite his torn and dirty clothes, his grin was
wide and toothless. He looked at her expectantly, but made no suggestion that she
was under any obligation to help him. ‘Anything would be appreciated.’

Rebecca thought of dismissing the
man at first, but her heart cried out to help him. She nodded and searched her
purse for some small change. When she found none, she pulled out two crumpled
notes and held it out towards him.

‘Thank you, Ma’am,’ the man said and
smiled his best toothless smile. ‘May the Lord bless you.’

‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘May He bless
you too.’ She turned to open the door.

‘Jared will be fine,’ the man’s
voice croaked behind her. ‘But you must make him see.’

Rebecca froze.
What?
She spun
around but the man was gone. She took a few steps back from the car and looked
around. He was nowhere in sight. She walked around the car and even looked
underneath it to see if she could spot movement anywhere in the parking lot.
She couldn’t. Once inside the car, she allowed a moment for one last glance
around the parking lot after which—with shaking hands—she started the car.

*   
-    -    -    *

A car on its roof. Sparks shooting
every which way. A tree nearing at breakneck speed. Jared tried to turn away
from the force of impact. In an instant, everything went black.

You’re in hell!

‘Please God,’ Jared pleaded. ‘Please
get me out of here.’

All power goes to you.

‘I don’t want power...’

You’re in hell, and you’re not
getting out. Ever!

Jared tumbled and turned in all
directions. He could feel himself move and float around, but the darkness
around him stayed static. The voices and taunts increased; millions of
invisible accusers, hurtling accusations at him from all around.

You killed Amy!

‘No I didn’t.’

You killed the baby!

‘I didn’t even know...’

You’re the one, Jared Greene.

‘No, I’m not.’

All power goes to you.

The accusations became a steady
chanting. The more Jared resisted and denied, the louder and more involved the
chanting became.
You killed Amy. You’re in hell. You killed the baby. You’re
in hell.

Jared tried to move away, but the
voices moved with him, growing louder and more intense. The voices vibrated
into his being, speaking into his mind.

You killed the baby! You’re in hell!

Jared screamed. Invisible hands
tried to cover invisible ears, but passed right through. The accusations grew
louder. It buzzed around him like a hornet’s nest. Jared screamed again, his voice
swallowed by the darkness.

‘
Jesus, help me!
’

The voices stopped at once.

Jared looked around.

Nothing but thick darkness in every
direction.

From far away in the distance, Jared
saw a tiny speck of light, no larger than a pin prick. Was he seeing things?
Did he finally lose his mind? He turned away, and when he turned back, the
white dot was still clearly visible in the overwhelming darkness.

All the darkness in the universe
cannot engulf the tiny light of a single candle.