Brandy Black would be fine. He had no idea how she would play into all this, but she had not been a thorn in his side before. Today’s episode was minor, really. He smiled to himself as he replayed the moment in his mind when he told her about the satanic aspects of Frank’s case. He knew she wouldn’t believe it, which was precisely why he’d told her. Her subconscious had already accepted the fact that Frank had relapsed into drug use again; she just didn’t want to accept that emotionally. What he told her had nudged her firmly into that corner of opinion and that was exactly where he wanted her.
Vince moved across the room to the large pane-glass windows and looked out over the parking lot. The visitor’s parking lot lay to his right and five minutes later Brandy exited the lower lobby, walking briskly across the atrium. He smiled as he watched her meander through the parking lot.
Vince Walters watched Brandy Black as she climbed into a white sedan, the corners of his mouth turned upward in a lupine grin. The file he’d swept to the side of his desk lay open, the words Al Azif clearly shown in the waning afternoon sunlight. He thought about the project, thought about all the hard work he’d put in on it, and as he thought he concentrated, pushing himself into that hallucinatory dream world he’d entered over and over again.
His vision blurred through a haze of smoke. He felt the heat rise around him, comforting, warm. Below him he heard screams of horror, but he ignored them. He looked out over the vast city of skyscrapers, the people below resembling tiny ants in a network of veins now growing littered with debris. And then he drifted up through the smoke as a faint rumbling erupted below.
He opened his eyes, the smell of smoke in the back of his throat. His smile grew wider. Al Azif’s funds were going to be well protected.
Al Azif.
Arabic for the Customs of the Dead.
And a great fury will come from the Middle East, the great tribulations will open up, and the Anti-Christ will begin amassing his army in the Battle of Armageddon.
The great fury was coming. Al Azif had funded it. Thanks to Samuel Garrison and his vast network.
Vince Walters—Andrew—was orchestrating it. The stars were closer to being aligned than ever before. When the soul-cracking occurred, it would coincide with a military operation in Iran, an operation that would be conveyed to most of the world as a small-time bombing run to quell rising tensions between Muslim extremists and reformers.
But it would be so much more.
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
But it was what he wanted. Even if most Christians tried to deny the fact, the simple fact of the matter was, it had to happen for their Savior to return.
Otherwise, why call yourself a Christian?
And why was he—the son of the Great Tempter—seen as such a bad guy in the Christian mythos?
Andrew smiled. None of that mattered. Sure, it was all written in the great spiritual texts of old. Sure it was foretold that he and Samuel and the others who had helped set this end of the battle up would be defeated. That wasn’t the point. The point was, it was what He wanted, and Andrew and Samuel, and the rest of the Children who had helped orchestrate this would bask in the glory of the Lord. Was not Judas Iscariot doing the Lord’s bidding when he betrayed Jesus with a kiss? Wasn’t he fulfilling God’s prophecies in the old Hebrew manuscripts?
Of course he was!
And so were Andrew and The Children of the Night.
And while he was at it, he was going to have some fun.
He laughed as he watched Brandy Black’s white sedan rental car recede in the distance.
About J. F. Gonzalez
J. F. Gonzalez is the author of over fifteen novels of horror and dark suspense including Back From the Dead, Primitive, Bully, The Beloved, Survivor, and is co-author of the Clickers series (with Mark Williams and Brian Keene respectively). His short fiction is collected in four volumes, of which the latest, The Summoning and Other Eldritch Tales, is available as an exclusive digital title. He also works in other media including film, the technology sector, and other areas of publishing. He lives with his family in Pennsylvania and is currently working on his next novel. For more information, visit him on the web at www.jfgonzalez.com.
Also by J. F. Gonzalez
Click Click Click Click
Phillipsport, Maine is a quaint and peaceful seaside village. But when hundreds of creatures pour out of the ocean and attack, its residents must take up arms to drive the beasts back.
They are the Clickers, giant venomous blood-thirsty crabs from the depths of the sea. The only warning to their rampage of dismemberment and death is the terrible clicking of their claws. But these monsters aren’t merely here to ravage and pillage. They are being driven onto land by fear. Something is hunting the Clickers. Something ancient and without mercy.
The first wave was just the beginning…
The United States is in ruins. It has just suffered one of the worst hurricanes in history, the people are demoralized, and the president is a religious fanatic. Then things get really bad — the Clickers return.
Thousands of the monsters swarm across the entire nation and march inland, slaughtering anyone and anything they come across. But this time the Clickers aren’t blindly rushing onto land — they are being led by an intelligence older than civilization itself. A force that wants to take dry land away from the mammals.
Those left alive soon realize that they must do everything and anything they can to protect humanity no matter the cost.
This isn’t war, this is extermination.
They thought it was over, but the second wave was only the beginning. In the aftermath of the Clickers and Dark Ones’s siege and a coup against an insane President, America rebuilds. Change has come, and a better future is promised to all. But promises can be broken and there may be no future at all because deep beneath the ocean a new terror awaits. Dagon, god of the Dark Ones, is waking up… and if humanity doesn’t stop him, then mankind will face extinction.
Trapped on a South Pacific Island, the cast of Clickers and Clickers II: The Next Wave join forces with a mysterious group of occult agents to face off against the Clickers, the Dark Ones, Dagon, and an all-new threat — the deadly obsidian Clickers. The stakes have never been higher. Dagon is rising… and humanity will fall.
Before Hostel… before Saw… there was Survivor.
It was supposed to be a romantic weekend getaway. Lisa was looking forward to spending time alone with her husband, Brad, and telling him that they are going to have a baby. Instead, it becomes a nightmare when Brad is arrested and Lisa is kidnapped. But the kidnappers aren’t asking for ransom. They want Lisa herself. They’re going to make her a star — in a snuff film.