The Incubus, Succubus and Son of Perdition Box Set: The Len du Randt Bundle (40 page)

His father had told him that when he
was only five years old. He never forgot those words.

Jared tried to move toward the dot
in the distance. After what felt like an eternity, he was no closer than he was
when he started. The pin prick of light still seemed an eternity away.

He was still thinking about the dot
of light when it suddenly grew larger in size, until it was as large as his
fist. Minutes later it was as large as his head. All of a sudden the light
expanded and pulled Jared in as it washed away the blackness.

White.

Everywhere.

As with the black, Jared couldn’t
see anything other than white. But the white didn’t suffocate him like the
darkness did. It didn’t hurt his eyes either.

‘Hello?’ The voices were gone. Jared
could sense it. They weren’t merely quiet. They weren’t there at all. ‘Is
anybody here?’

No one answered, but Jared didn’t
feel alone. He heard a faint buzzing sound that grew gradually louder. He could
feel himself moving forward at a tremendous speed. The buzzing grew louder.

He moved faster.

A flash of gold and the white
vanished.

Jared stood still for a moment,
closing his eyes. He slowly opened them and looked around. He was standing in
the middle of Ridge street. Other than the buildings on the side of the road
and the cars parked on the street, Kelwick appeared completely deserted.

‘Hello?’ Jared yelled. ‘Is anyone
here?’

Jared entered a shop nearby. Despite
the schmaltzy elevator music playing softly over the speakers, there was no
sign of life. He left the shop and entered the cinema complex. Again, there was
no one.

Jared stepped out into the street
again. He could see his arms, torso and legs. He could feel his clothes and
flesh, the breeze playing with his hair. He hunched down and rubbed the palm of
his hand on the concrete sidewalk. Sure enough, he was real.

Where is everyone?
he thought as he walked
to the middle of the road. He looked up and down the street but still saw no
one. As he walked he noticed that there weren’t even birds.

Nothing.

Just him and a deserted Kelwick.

Where on earth is everyone?
Jared thought.
Where
the hell am I?

A car on its roof.

Sparks.

A tree.

Jared jerked as if waking from a bad
dream. He was standing in the middle of Ridge street, looking down Kelwick’s
main road to where it abruptly stopped in the distance. The cars alongside the
road were charred and rusted. Where just a moment ago, all the vehicles were
fine, they were now somehow burnt-out and desolate. The tires appeared melted,
and so did the interiors. The windows were missing, the metal framework twisted
and dented. Not a single car down the road was intact.

‘What on earth...?’ Jared asked as
he neared one of the wrecks. It smelled of burnt rubber and still radiated a
substantial amount of heat.

All the grass next to the sidewalk
also appeared scorched by whatever had melted the metallic beasts alongside the
road. Jared walked to a patch of grass and rubbed his fingers over it. What
should have been soft was hard and brittle, and when Jared brought his hand to
his face, soot covered his fingertips. He wiped it off on his pants and
surveyed the rest of the surrounding terrain.

Store windows had been blown out.
Fires raged inside the shops along Ridge street. The trees that were once a
prominent feature of Kelwick were burnt down. Jared noticed various carcasses
of animals lying around. A charred dog lay next to one of the cars. A few birds
on the sidewalk. Flies buzzed relentlessly around the dead animals.

That was when Jared first became
aware of the smell. Rotted flesh and burnt hair. He choked, and used the sleeve
of his shirt to filter out some of the pungent air. Half-running, half-tripping
over his own feet, Jared made his way down one of the side streets. The rancid
stench of death and burnt hair followed thick and fast. There was no escape.

Jared searched for a place where he
could hide, somewhere he could go. It was then that he saw a distinct orange
glow on the horizon in the distance.
Yes
, Jared thought.
That’s where
I’ll go.
Somewhere not too far off something howled. The sound was one of
anguish, long and guttural and made the tiny hairs at the back of Jared’s neck
stand up.
It’s only a dog,
Jared tried to reassure himself. He wasted no
time finding out and started his journey towards the orange glow. His mind
raced as he tried to figure out what had happened to Kelwick and where on earth
everyone had disappeared to. Flames crackled from within homes as he cautiously
manoeuvred through the desolate side street. Finally he came to an intersection
and walked to the middle. He looked down each road for as far as he could see.
Nothing but burning homes, burnt-out cars, and scorched trees.

Crack!

Jared froze.

Someone or something was in the
house at the corner. Jared looked at the house. A thin trail of smoke rose from
the windows, but there were no visible flames.

Snap!

Jared took a step closer to the
house. He could hear something moving inside. ‘Hello?’

No answer.

Crunch!

‘Is…Is anyone there?’

Again, no answer.

Jared walked up the path to the
broken-down door and peered inside. The stench coming from within was even
worse than outside and Jared had to breathe through his mouth to prevent
himself from succumbing to the overwhelming nausea that attacked his senses.
‘Hello?’

Someone moved in the room at the far
end of the house.

Jared stepped inside and took a few
careful steps towards the room that the sounds were originating from.

‘My name is Jared Greene, and I’m
coming in to help you. I mean you no harm.’

Jared carefully walked down the
hallway to the door and slowly stretched his hand out towards the handle. Now
and again Jared accidentally breathed through his nose and was sent reeling.
Something fell on the other side and hit the ground with a loud
thud!

‘Hello...?’

Glass shattered.

Jared touched the handle and wrapped
his fingers around it. The growl at the other end made him freeze. Jared
listened. Was it a dog?

Another growl, low and threatening
this time.

Jared jerked his hand back. What was
behind this door sounded much larger than a dog, and he had no intention of
finding out what it was.

There was a sniff from the small
space beneath the door followed by a bloodcurdling howl.

Jared realised that whatever was
behind the door had better not see him. He bolted for the front door, but it
was too late. The closed door behind him exploded into many fragments of
splintered wood as the beast broke through it. Jared stopped dead in his tracks
and as slowly and non-threatening as he could; turned around to face two
glowing eyes and drool-covered fangs.

*   
-    -    -    *

 ‘How is he?’

Rebecca sighed. ‘No change yet,’ she
said. ‘The doctors say that it’s still too early to tell.’

‘It’s been over a week now,’ Justin
said. ‘How much longer do they need in order to figure out what’s going on?’

Rebecca clutched the receiver.
‘These comas can go on for years. It’s simply just too early to give an
accurate assessment at this moment,’ she echoed the doctor’s words. ‘They’re
still waiting for test results to come back from the labs.’

For a long moment Justin didn’t say
anything. ‘When are you coming back?’

‘As soon as I hear something
tangible.’

‘It’s way too quiet here without
you,’ he said and forced a chuckle. ‘I don’t like it and neither does Monique.’

Rebecca smiled. ‘You’ll both
survive. I’ll be home before you know it.’

‘Promise?’

‘Promise.’

Justin didn’t want to hang up. He
probed his mind for topics. ‘How’s Tanya?’

‘Oh, she’s fine. She’s changed a lot
since you last saw her. She’s more...mature now, if you know what I mean?’

‘So she’s a more mature witch now?’

Rebecca laughed. ‘Now, now, Justin
Greene. Play nice.’

Justin merely laughed quietly.

‘So how’s your book coming along?’

‘Other than the rejection slips
piling up, not much.’

‘Keep the faith, honey. Whatever
must happen will happen at its appointed time. At least you finished the novel
and that is already much more than most people have accomplished who had tried
taking on the task.’

‘Thanks, baby,’ Justin said, ‘but I
never would have been able to finish it without you. That’s for sure.’

‘
You
did it, alone,’ she
said, ‘and I’m so very proud of you.’

‘I love you, Becky.’

‘I love you too,’ she said. After
both hung up, Rebecca picked up a vase filled with flowers and took it to the
basin where she filled it with water. She placed the vase on the bed stand next
to Jared and sat down beside him. ‘And I do love you too, Jared,’ she said and
softly sang to him while she held his hand and stroked his hair.

*   
-    -    -    *

The growling beast that stood not
too far from Jared reeked of scorched flesh and hair and Jared retched when he
breathed in some of the rotten stench. Whatever it was, was as big as a
Canadian grizzly, yet it had no fur. It had a stub tail and its face resembled
something half-bear, half-human. It pulled its lip back into a snarl that
revealed razor sharp teeth, and its eyes lit up as it crouched, ready to charge
and pounce.

Jared spun around and sprinted as
fast as he could. The movement was all that the animal needed for instinct to
kick in. It charged towards Jared in short, jump-like movements with one
objective: to kill.

‘Oh hell!’ Jared yelled as he bolted
for the front door. ‘
Get away from me!
’ The thumping sound behind him
told him the beast had no intention of listening to him. Jared broke free from
the house and ran down the street as fast as he could manage, but the beast
stayed right behind him, breathing its foul breath down the back of his neck as
it snapped its jaws open and shut.

What the hell is that thing?
Jared’s mind screamed as
he ran into another house. He didn’t have much energy left to continue this type
of running for much longer. If he didn’t lose the beast soon, he would surely
be done for.

Jared’s nostrils flared. His lungs
felt like they had been dipped in acid. His mind raced. He needed rest. He
craved sitting and resting for just a moment. He would get no such opportunity.
The stairs!
Jared bolted up the wooden steps to the first floor just as
the beast crashed through the front door. It sniffed and looked up, catching a
fleeting glimpse of Jared’s foot as he reached the landing on the second storey.

The beast pursued. The wooden
railing cracked and shattered as it forced itself up the narrow flight of
steps. Jared knew that he had to act fast. He looked out of the window at the
street below and flipped the latch. He tried to pry the window open, but to no
avail. It was stuck. The steps crunched under the weight of the huge beast as
it clawed its way up. It would be upon Jared within seconds. He was cornered.
There was no way out. The bear-like creature stuck its ugly head out of the
staircase, growling and snapping at Jared with its massive jaw.

Jared ran to the end of the hallway.
He cursed when he realised that the only way out would be through the window or
down the stairs. He looked at the massive charred head at the top of the
staircase. The beast was crazed, relentless to get its prey regardless of what
stood in its way.
Now!
Jared ran for the window as fast as his aching
legs would allow.

With a jerk, the beast broke through
the final constraining pieces of railing.

Oh no!

The monster shook itself.

Jared ran.

It looked up at him and bared its
fangs.

Jared ran.

It snapped its jaws at him.

Had the side-step been a fraction of
a second later, the hairless Grizzly-like beast would have clamped its razor
sharp teeth into Jared’s leg.

It barely missed.

Jared tucked in his head and dove
through the thin sheet of glass that separated him from freedom.

The beast lashed out with a powerful
claw. It missed.

Glass sliced into his arms and back
as Jared landed on the roof with a sickening crunch. He rolled down the roof
and dropped over the edge, falling onto the grass one storey down.

Wood cracked and splintered as the
creature forced itself out of the window. It made its way to the edge of the
roof, but didn’t jump off. It merely growled as it observed the man lying on
the grass below.

Jared had to force himself not to
look. He flinched as pain shot up through his arm and into the nerve centre of
his brain. As a reflex, he cried out.

The beast threw its head back and
howled. It sniffed twice and then made its way back into the house.

Get up!
Jared rolled over. He wanted to
close his eyes and let it all end here.
Get up now, Jared Greene!
He
stumbled to his feet and ran, huffing for breath as he made his way down the
deserted road.

*   
-    -    -    *

Jared will be fine, but you must
make him see.

Rebecca whispered the words softly.

Just who was the homeless man? What
did Jared have to see? How did the stranger know about Jared?

You must make him see.

She sighed and looked at the cardio
monitor next to the bed. It beeped in a steady rhythm. The line on the monitor
joined in the rhythmic tune. Up and down, up and down. Jared inhaled and
exhaled, as if joining in the opus of rhythms. The respirator also pumped up
and down in the same steady motion. Everything was a steady rhythm in the
symphony of death.

‘Oh, Lord,’ Rebecca prayed. ‘What am
I to do? What is Jared supposed to see? How can I make him see if I fail to see
myself?’

Jared’s finger twitched.

Rebecca looked up at the cardio
monitor. The lines remained the same. There was no spike in activity. Did she
see right? She leaned forward. ‘Jared?’ she asked. ‘Can you hear me?’

Jared’s raspy respiration was the
only answer she received.

Rebecca sat back in the chair.
Disappointment flushed out all hope that she had left. She didn’t know how much
more of this she would be able to take. ‘Please help him, Jesus. Please give me
back my son.’

She squeezed Jared’s hand and stood
up. ‘I’ll be back tomorrow,’ she said and kissed him on the forehead. ‘Know
that the Lord is with you.’