“He’s gone insane, you know?”
I’d kinda thought that already. I just nodded, letting her go on.
“Though he didn’t say it directly, I think he believes God will come back if he wipes out the world. He blames the humans for so exhausting God’s patience He was driven to abandon us.” A saw a shiver run through her. “He’s not going to stop until we’re all gone, Frank.”
Hours earlier I might have argued with her, enough of my confidence still alive to make a case for hope. I’d have told her we had a chance of stopping Gabriel and Asmoday and we could still win out. But now, I couldn’t even lie to her, let alone to myself. I sank down in my seat, worn out both mentally and physically. Scarlett saw my resignation and went back to pacing.
It seemed to me as though there was little else to do but sit back and wait for the big bang. It came two seconds later.
Katon burst into the waiting room, kicking the door off its hinges. It flew across the room and landed in a broken heap of splintered wood against the furthest wall. Furious, his fangs glistening under the fluorescent lighting, he screamed epithets that made even me blush. Had I been brave enough to take my eyes off him and spare Scarlett a glance, I’m sure the color of her face would have matched her name. Rather than do anything to draw his attention to me, I sat back and watched as he gave a row of metal chairs the worst beating of their inanimate lives, thrashing them into tiny pieces and stomping them into the carpeted floor. Even Scarlett took a few steps back, not wanting to get caught up in his tantrum. It was a sight to behold, let me tell you. Once the chairs succumbed to his rage, he whirled to face me. My heart stopped mid beat. I didn’t want to end up like them. I started to sweat.
“I’m going to rip Asmoday’s entrails out through his throat and feast on his treacherous heart.” He stepped in front of me and leaned in to be sure I heard him, his face a wrinkled mess of ferocity. I sat still, like a cornered rabbit, afraid to move for fear he’d take his anger out on me. “I’m going to tear his testicles off and use his seed to write his epitaph. I’ll use his dick as my pen.”
I sensed an opening to remind him I was on his side. “Uh…I’m with you, brother,” I muttered, nodding Page 251 like a bobblehead doll.
My heart started up again when he spun around and put his foot through the wall several feet away. I was more than glad it wasn’t my head. Not satisfied with that small destruction, he began tearing madly at the plasterboard. Clouds of white dust filled the room, settling thick around us. After a few minutes of frenzied tearing, his shoulders slumped and he leaned against what was left of the ravaged wall for support.
“That was our last chance and we blew it.” He turned around and dropped to a seat on the floor, his sad eyes looking up at me. Seems Scarlett and I weren’t the only ones feeling doubt. “Armageddon is coming and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.”
Though unable to cry, Katon’s eyes had no problem expressing his overwhelming sadness. It was heart-rending. Scarlett went to his side and knelt down to comfort him. She was braver than me. His head drooped as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close.
“We have failed,” he whispered, his voice breaking as he said it.
My mind, spurred to life by the adrenaline Katon had stirred up, started clearing the fog of gloom that had stifled its function. I thought back to our encounter with Asmoday as he left to prepare Glorius. Something he’d said rang a bell, but I’d been too distracted, too afraid to recognize it for what it was. It was right there, lurking at the hazy edge of the shadows in my head, but I couldn’t remember.
Grumbling to myself, I leaned forward, looking at the embracing pair as I tried to kick-start my brain. My eyes, as they did every opportunity they got, wandered to Scarlett’s boobs. Katon’s head was nestled between them, safe and secure in the sanctuary of her ample bosom. I watched as her chest rose and fell in steady rhythm, his head drifting along with it, eyes closed. Though I knew he was suffering, Rahim terribly injured, the world about to end, his face had settled into a calm mask. However unlikely it was, he seemed at peace.
A light bulb exploded in my head as I thought that last part. At that moment, I realized something I’d always suspected.
Boobs were the answer for everything.
“There may still be a chance,” I whispered, unable to believe even myself we might still be in the fight.
Katon lifted his head to stare up at me. His eyes were narrow and unfocused as though he’d only halfheard what I said. “What was that?”
I took a second to nail down my train of thought before answering, “I think I know where they are.”
Both of them sat up straight, twin towers of rigid surprise. “Where?” They asked the question in unison. I stood up, dredging through the drift of words Page 253 to find the right ones. “Back when Lucifer was still around, he and I spent a lot of time together in the Ninth Plane going over things. Intending me to take up the mantle of the Anti-Christ, he had confided in me.”
Katon and Scarlett hung on every word.
“After the Fall, when things had settled somewhat, God felt remorse for how he’d handled the situation. He couldn’t take it back though because it would make Him look fallible, so He let the war between Heaven and Hell continue, doing nothing to end it.”
“Where is all this going?” Katon asked.
“I’m getting there.” I waved off any further questions. “Thinking it unfair that He was omnipotent and Lucifer wasn’t, the odds forever skewed in His favor, God gifted a sanctuary to my uncle. Within its walls no one, not even God himself, could see or hear what went on.”
Scarlett gasped, probably finding it hard to believe any such place could exist, let alone that God would provide it for the Devil.
Katon, more logical than my cousin, simply wanted facts. “What makes you think Asmoday is there?”
“Something he said before he ran off. He mentioned he’d be waiting in his sanctum of peace. I didn’t catch it then, but once I had a chance to think, and the proper motivation to get my blood flowing, it all clicked. Thanks, Scarlett.”
Oblivious to why I was thanking her, she just looked at me, one eyebrow raised.
“So this sanctum of peace is your uncle’s hideaway?”
“Yes, I believe so. Inscribed upon the wall just inside the sanctuary was a poem God had written. He’d had a thing for engraving, like the Ten Commandments thing and all that, so He’d weaved the spell into the poem and carved it into the wall himself. Lucifer showed it to me the first time I was there. It read: A boon to thee once Morning Star; Where I and eye cast no sight to mar; A sanctum of peace, carved between; Hell and Earth, thy heart unseen.”
Katon repeated the poem in a whisper, seeming to agree with my logic, however fanciful it all seemed.
“How many other people know of this room?”
“Not many. Baalth, Asmoday of course, Duke Forcalor, and maybe another one or two of Lucifer’s top lieutenants from the old days. My uncle kept it to himself save for his closest allies…and me.”
Katon rubbed his jaw. “What makes you think Asmoday would go there now? It’s not much of a hideout if you know about it. He’d have to presume you’d find him there. It doesn’t make sense.”
“That’s just it. Asmoday thinks I don’t know about it. Lucifer understood I wasn’t a popular choice for Anti-Christ amongst most of the lieutenants. As such, he was very careful to keep what he shared with me, between us.”
“Wouldn’t Baalth realize he’d gone there, making it less attractive to Asmoday?” Scarlett interjected.
“It’s possible, but I doubt it. You didn’t know Uncle like I did. He was a very private man. No one, and I mean no one, entered his chambers without an invitation. You didn’t even cast a glance in their direction without permission. It was second nature in Hell to go out of your way to avoid his quarters. When he left, the lieutenants sealed his chambers out of respect.”