| |
––––––––
I briefly heard the echoing of destruction behind me as Lucius’ demonic fury hit new heights. But then, as soon as the three hands touched my head, everything else in the reality of my world was lost. And what it started with was the most horrific start to a life I could ever imagine, for it started with,
The death of Judas.
The body that hung from the tree was barely recognisable as even being a human body, as it had clearly been tortured. This started with being left to hang still alive in the burning sun for days. His bloodied face hung down, and he was clearly now dead for the others stood around him checking that the deed was done.
The glint of silver sticking out of his torn and bloody mouth, told me exactly what other tortures had taken place. How many pieces of silver had they forced him to swallow, was it thirty as the story was told? It made me want to cry and for all I knew I could have been, because when I looked down at myself all I found was the ghost of a body. I looked more like a distant memory stepping through time and my faint figure of a body had only been granted to me just so my mind felt safer in this place. Because, in reality, I knew I wasn’t really here. No, I was still back in the Temple of the Tree of Souls and Lucius was being forced to witness my crime against him.
However, just because I forced myself to watch this, it didn’t mean that it was exactly easier on me than him. But then, doing things for love, never was. I was just relieved to see that the dead man hanging didn’t look like the Lucius I knew. Although, the most shocking thing was that one of the men who stood nearby, did look like Lucius!
There were two men in robes that stood in front of the dead body along with two more who looked as if they could have been servants of some kind, one of whom held such a startling resemblance to Lucius, it took my breath away.
I frowned, wondering what was happening, was this how his rebirth started, was this to become his new vessel and if so, how? Obviously, my mind bombarded itself with these questions, despite being here now to witness the answers for myself.
“We will cut him open, retrieve the silver we forced him to swallow and buy a field somewhere, maybe south of Mount Sion, before dumping the body there,” one of the robed men said. He had a trimmed beard and beady, cruel eyes. Just the sight of him made me question if he was one of the disciples responsible for this as he seemed to be the one making plans on how to get rid of the body.
“Let the people believe he took his own life by placing this in his hand.” The same man pulled a sharp weapon from beneath his robe and another flash of an image hit me, as if coming from somewhere else.
It was of Judas, the man who looked nothing like the Vampire King I knew and loved. As it was only his mind, his memories and that of his soul that had passed on, as he was the same man, just not the same outer shell.
An angry Judas grabbed the spear from a soldier after he had pushed his way through the crowd that had been there to witness the death of Jesus Christ. The sight had me gasping back a startled breath that hitched at the blinding historical moment I was being gifted to witness. A single moment in time that changed the world forevermore. It was a sight no one ever got to see and the significance of this moment most certainly wasn’t lost on me, nor would it ever be.
But I knew the story without this scene being added to it. A Roman soldier named Longinus had been ordered to make sure that Jesus was dead. He had taken his weapon and stabbed Jesus in the side too hard which meant that when he removed the spear from Jesus’ side, the tip had snapped off, still embedded in his side.
However, the part I hadn’t known, was of Judas’ angry reaction to this when pushing those aside so he could wrench the spear from its owner before he snapped the pole in rage. This all happened before he was captured by the disciples whom he had classed as his brothers in faith, dragging him away with the crowd cheering them on...the word for traitor of God chanted from their unholy lips.
For God had well and truly,
Forsaken him.
“The broken spear that pierced Jesus, how did you get that, my brother?” the disciple next to him asked, who looked younger with longer, darker hair. He had asked this to the one who seemed to be in charge, and the one who now held the weapon in his hands. His answer came as he nodded towards the now dead Judas and said,
“From our Lord’s betrayer.” Then he quickly used it to slice open Judas’ guts, making me want to gag even though it was just a vision and I knew that I wasn’t really there. But it just felt all too real. The crimson coins spilled from within the contents of his stomach and his organs followed them.
Then the furious actions of the disciple ended this by stabbing the remaining spear up into his insides. This was just as the world started to go dark as the hushed words of the younger disciple uttered in fear,
“Look brother, God is angry with what we have done, for the sky darkens just as it did at the crucifixion on the ninth hour that the Son of God died.” I looked to see that he was right, a great eclipse started to happen as the sun was overtaken by the moon, only this time it created a blinding crimson ring, bathing the sky in a dark hellish glow and covering the world in a bloody haze. The other man looked to the sky and hissed as the sight burned his eyes, covering his face with his arm.
“Let us leave this place immediately,” the young one hissed in fear before he looked back to Judas and nodded in question,
“What about the body?”
“Gather the silver but leave enough for the men we hired to dispose of the body. Like I said, there is a field I know of, once purchased under Judas’ name, we will have them dump him there,” the bearded one said before I watched as some of the blood money was gathered and half left for what I assumed was the hired clean-up crew, being the two men who had remained close to the horses. Then, once the disciples walked away after first conversing with the other two, no doubt issuing their orders, that was when the image of Lucius appeared once more. Naturally, the sight of him again struck something deep within me, making me take in a quick breath. It was strange, as it was him, but yet it wasn’t. As if something was missing, but of course I was right, something was missing,
The right soul.
But he also looked different as his hair wasn’t blonde and his eyes weren’t their stunning bluish steel grey but instead very dark like his hair. Of course, this made sense seeing as he was first born from an ancient Jewish ancestry.
“I don’t like this, look at the sky, what if they were right? What if God is angry at them and therefore punishes us?” The man with the body of Lucius asked, making the other man scoff,
“It is merely an early darkness.”
“Early darkness! Are you a fool, brother? Look at the sky, for that is no early darkness, for the sky turned to blood just as those men spilled it upon the ground,” the vessel of Lucius said and the moment he said the word ‘brother’, I could see the slight resemblance, although he was not as handsome and was obviously older than Lucius’ early thirties.
“Well, as long as it offers enough light for us to find the payment, that is all that matters to me, now you retrieve the silver first and then get the body down whilst I get our horses,” the brother said making Lucius sneer at him, muttering,
“Glad I get the easy job.” Then the man I knew would soon become one with Judas’ soul reached down and picked out the silver, cursing under his breath as he did so. But it was after he rose to his feet that my utter shock hit me once more when he lifted the battered face of Judas and after brushing back his bloodied matted hair whispered,
“I am sorry, my friend, for I didn’t know they planned death for you...life is sacrifice and in death peace is never found for the guilty, for this I am sure to learn one day.” I sucked in a startled breath once more, feeling my heart hammering in my chest as the man’s confession was heard. It was obvious that he had been a friend of Judas and had betrayed him, unknowingly causing his death. Gods, but how the circle of betrayal and sacrifice was about to come full circle.
I knew this when suddenly the body of Judas started to lift, moving ever so slowly at first making the traitorous friend jerk back a little before shaking his head as if he was seeing things. However, there was no mistaking the sight of the spear being sucked deeper and deeper inside Judas’ body until it vanished completely from sight.
“By the Son of God, what is...?!” Lucius said before he looked over to his brother by the horses, who had his back to him. He was about to speak when suddenly a demonic hand burst out of Judas’ sliced gaping flesh and in its clawed grasp was the spear. It lunged forward so quickly that Lucius didn’t have a chance before it was suddenly being embedded into his gut. This stabbed in so deep that he doubled over the hand that still had hold of the weapon.
Then the sky above started to clear making his brother shout from by the horses,
“See, for there was nothing to fear, it is clearing now.” Meanwhile Lucius was reaching out a shaky hand towards him in a desperate attempt to get to him, when he was clearly too far away. A croaked sound trembled from his lips,
“Br...brother.” Then the demonic hand withdrew and suddenly the earth opened up beneath him, just as it had done with me when my blood had spilled and seeped into the ground like an offering. Lucius’ body disappeared, falling to what I knew was the cavern below, although this time he didn’t have anyone to save him from the deadly fall as I had done. And with it, my vision quickly changed and soon I was to understand the strange dreams Lucius told me about when first finding ourselves in the Temple. The dreams he had experienced but didn’t know whether or not they had been real. That was because they hadn’t belonged to him but to that of his stolen vessel.
The one the Devil himself had chosen.
I knew this for certain because my next image was the sight of the Keepers of Three dragging the half dead man along the floor of the cave and each time they went out of view, my vision of the past changed.
This continued until eventually they came to a portal and it was one that looked to have been summoned on a gigantic stone tablet that stood upright, reminding me of an unbroken version of the Rosetta Stone. It was one that was surrounded by colossal pillars, all carved and decorated with the history of man. This quickly told me that this was what the Temple had looked like before the tree had grown around it, consuming the tablet so only the gateway into Hell remained to this day. As this was the same opening that was glowing crimson inside the Tree of Souls.
And as I continued to watch the Keepers of Three drag Judas’ new vessel along the floor, one not broken yet by the roots of time, it didn’t take a genius to know where they were heading. This also meant that, with a sickening fascination, I couldn’t take my eyes from the sight as they reached the ominous opening. Then, without so much as a single word spoken, they tossed his body inside until it disappeared from view, doing so as though it had been nothing more than disposable garbage.
I was truly sickened by the sight because this may not have yet been the Lucius, I knew being treated this way, but it was still a piece of him. However, I wasn’t granted too long to dwell on it as another vision quickly took its place. First a looming darkness filled my senses and a feeling of overwhelming dread filled my non-existent body. As, instead of a continuous flow from one vision to the next, this time it felt more as though something was fighting with me, tugging at my soul, as if I was being pulled in too many directions.
Then suddenly, the only way to describe the feeling was that I had been plunged into time instead of being guided through it, simply stepping into it like the few times before. Which made me feel as if I was not only unwelcome here but more like... forbidden.
Now it was time for my first taste of Hell, as Lucius’ soul and new vessel were now in the hands of...
The Devil.