:: The god fearing men::
prologue
When I was very young I was enrolled in a Methodist school for boys, it was a small school set on the outside of the city; some three hundred boys were enrolled there. It was an old yet grand place, perched high up on a hill like its own little secluded town, its own gardens, and kitchens, and living quarters.
I was very set in religion back then, or at least I was too young to question possibilities and going to such a strict school had never learned anything about how to say otherwise. I thought it odd back then to even question belief, to question God. Which is why when a boy in my class named Matthew stood up in the middle of morning sermon and began spatting blasphemes profanities at the priest and his lying ways, I couldn't understand how he could do such a thing.
I can't forget that cool fall day when that quite troubled boy finally snapped, sat only one pew behind me. Blood from his slit wrists ran down onto the rosary he held before snapping the cord letting all the little sins fall to the ground.
The nuns came out of shock grabbing the riled boy trying to stop the wounds from bleeding him out. Sister Rose ran to grab the phone from behind one of the chapels many back rooms to call for an ambulance. The priest ran to assist the sisters by attempting to pick the boy up to carry him outside, Matthew fought back wildly for a boy who looked like he might die of blood loss at any moment, no one knew how long he had been bleeding but we were an hour or so into mass. One swift kick was dealt to the priest's side and Matthew went crashing to the marble chapel floor landing hard on his back. I was positive that would have killed him, but he shot back up looking right at me. He was so pale and shaking violently as spasms of shock ripped though is little body. I griped the back of the pew and stood, never breaking eye contact.
"Catalina …" he said in a quite tone.
"M-Matthew," I didn't know what I was going to say, but I was cut off before I could say it.
"Do you see Catalina!" he yelled at me, fisting his hands on my shoulders, yelling at someone who wasn't there "So you see... I'm just like you then….back then. Do you remember that night on the veranda at your fathers, when you told me- do you remember what you told me!" He was frantic like a dying man trying to give his last fatal massage.
"I-I d-" I was too scared to move but I had to look away from the wide eyes that seemed to see me and see someone completely different in one.
"Look at me…" he voice was a whisper now "can you see? There is no fear in me just like you said," I think he tried to smile but in just looked like pained grins.
"What did I say!" I don't know why I said it, maybe I was just caught up in the moment, or maybe it was morbid curiosity. Or both I don't know but either way I said it and his answer would keep me awake for many nights after.
"Even the most god fearing men have a look of horror in the last moments, but I won't, and you know what? You didn't! I was so glad you didn't… your father did and now I don't," he was rambling.
His blood was running down my arms from his, the hot, sticky life running down my sleeve before pooling at my fingertips and dripping into little dots on the floor. I looked down at the blood and started to feel light headed. "Look at me Catalina; I'll be with you soon, okay? We don't have to be alone anymore," He smiled. A small hand came up to run lovingly across my cheek; I felt the blood smudged on my face from his cuts. Then in an instant he leaned over the pew and kissed me so quickly and softly the only proof I had it happen was the blood now smeared across my cheeks and lips. It was a quick kiss, the kind that little boy give a girl after they have had fun at the park. A wholly innocent kiss of a fallen angel or in my case, a dying child. He pulled back and his eyes began to close. I could feel his grip on me loosen and watched as his legs gave out beneath him.
I didn't move to grab him when he fell. The nun that had called for the help had come out from the back at the same time that the priest had recovered from Matthew's assault. They grabbed him, and whisked him out quicker now that he wasn't fighting anymore.
I just sat there on the floor for some time in the puddle of blood that Matthew had left; I didn't know people had so much blood. More nuns including the principle had come in to quiet the boys who had started to cry in sheer horror. I had moved to sit on one of the pews while one of the nuns insisted on cleaning off my face. I felt numb and scared I wanted to know that Matthew was alright and I wanted them to tell me he was dead all at the same time. It was too much for me, but then something caught my eye from the floor. It was one of the rosary beads that he had snapped. I pushed the nun away and went for the small glass ball under the pew. Then I saw more, the whole broken rosary scattered about the floor. I franticly gathered them up, some were covered in blood but I grabbed them regardless. I don't know how long I was on the floor before one of the sisters helped me up and took me to the infirmary. I woke up a day later in my bed, my favorite maid dusting the windows and the beads from the rosary on my night stand. There were only about thirteen of them there. I stayed home the rest of the week.
After I came back the priests told me that Matthew was a much disturbed sinner and that we should pray for him. Everyone bowed their heads and knelt in silent payer, all but me. Things he had shouted had never before graced my mind. The whole experience had shook me but most of all it shook my belief. Before it happened God was not a concept but a fact.
A month later I waited for Matthew to return to school from the suspension. I really wanted to ask him about why he had said the horrible things, what did he know that I didn't? I had to give back his beads too. One month slowly turned to three then to five.
The day of the confession came. It was only for the older grades but I snuck in during recess. I sat in that dark confessional and openly asked the priest, "Where had Matthew gone?"
A heavy sigh came from the other side; I could see through the grating of the compartment that the father was looking at me. He asked what I was doing in there; I hadn't had my first holy communion. He told me to step out and called over Mother Rose the nun present at the 'incident' they were calling it. She was always my favorite teacher. She took me over to the pews in the back of the chapel and asked what had made me ask that.
But I asked her the same question, "What has happened to Matthew?"
She sighed the same as the father, I knew then that something was wrong. "Vincent," she said "Matthew was punished by God for his lack of faith," I didn't like Mother Rose much after that.
I never did find out what happened to Mathew.
Chapter one
Later that month I was taken out of that school, lost and confused, having the crises of religion and identity at the tender age of eight. My parents had us pack up and move to Bizengasht then, there we settled down or should I say I did because right after moving my parents were up for promotions and had to start traveling. At first it wasn't too bad, just two days in London or an overnight to a bigger town only a little away, they would leave me with a nanny and things were okay. I had mulled over religions and philosophies in my spare time. Learning as much as I could about belief and the people always looking of answers.
On my fifteenth birthday I had become totally self-sufficient, my parents were gone almost all the time now and I had refused to have a nanny anymore, so they just sent me money every month and called on occasion just to make sure I was still alive and the house was still standing. For a child I think I kept the house pretty clean. Well not really… and I guess that's why that night a disgruntled Dinah (after having a fight with her aunt) wandered into an 'abandoned' house.
I was in my atrium reading when I heard someone in the garden; I walked out to see who was in my yard at a late hour, figuring that it was just another drunken villager there on a dare to steel another of my garden gnomes, I had that happen before. That's when I first saw her, Dinah, a girl only a little younger than me. Her uncommon style was not lost on me, I found her fascinating. She was crying so I invited her in for tea and in the end she called her aunt to come and get her. She told me all about herself while we waited, she said that even though she didn't know me I made her feel safe, I feel happy that I could have that effect on someone.
From then on out I visited Dinah every day after school. I would tell her about local things going on, I would tell her about all the stories I had read. Very quickly we took to one another. She was like a little sister to me and I had the un-stoppable need to protect her, from her aunt, from the doctors and from herself.
But in the end it looks like someone should have protected her from me. It was then one night I took her out on a little walk that we found the mausoleum. Dinah begged me not to go in but I dragged us in there and that was the end of it, the mausoleum had her. I don't think I will ever overcome the guilt of dragging her in there in the first place.
That's where we were going to now, the mausoleum. I showed up at her house with my bike at ten. I stopped outside her window, through the blinds I could see her brushing her hair in one of her Lolita dresses that she loved so much. I tapped two times before I got her attention; she looked back at me and nodded. She was so accustomed to this now, these nightly trips. She had come a long way from that emotionally crippled and terrified girl that I met her as. She was self-reliant now and so much more confident in herself, I couldn't help but feel a little pride for being a self-proclaimed surrogate father for her.
She pushed open the window and smiled; her eyes so bright. But then the smile faded and in a low whisper she said, "You're early." It wasn't said in a mean way but purely curiously.
I smiled back, resting my arms on the window sill, "I know, I just want to get this over with. I'm so tired." I nestled my head deep into my arms.
"Vincent," she said bending down to pat my shoulder, "I told you, you don't have to come any more if you don't want to," she tried to sound comforting but she had been telling me that for a while. My answer was always the same.
"No," I shot back frantically, there was no way I was going to let her go it alone. It was my fault in the first place and even if I could only make the experience just a little more bearable for her then I would.
"Vincent," she tried again, "you have bags under your eyes, you look awful, come on I'll be fine knowing you're resting easy."
"Gee thanks, you look like crap too," that was a lie, she always looked stunning, and, "Now come on." She shrugged, giving in. I started back to the bike while Dinah flung her legs over the window sill. I dragged the bike to the road and waited, watching her sit on the sill unmoving. "Are you coming?" I said in a tone of a whisper.
"I'm stuck," she hissed when I put down the kick stand on the bike and walked back over to her. She was tugging at the crinoline from a protruding nail.
"Just rip it," I muttered just wanting to lie down on the grass and sleep for eternity, but karma had other plans.
"No!" Dinah yelped as I gave the dress a light tug, the fabric coming free. She looked down at me from the window sill with the intent to harm in her eyes. "I can't believe you did that!" she hopped off the window sill and started for the forest line without me.
I sighed and followed after her leaving the bike on the lawn.
We were far into the forest now, not a single word had been exchanged since the dress incident. Dinah had that pout on her face that meant she wasn't going to be happy again until I begged for forgiveness or got hit by a bus, I think that would make her smile right about now. The forest started to thin as we came to the opening of the meadow of the mausoleum.
I turned to ask Dinah if she needed help down the hill, but she had started down on her own. Even without her anger she never was very fond of my chivalry. So I just headed after her, careful not to trip on the underbrush that was on the valley wall.
We neared the huge stone mausoleum, something seemed different tonight. There was a lot of sound emanating from the building, from a distance I could see what looked like small Ewalks from star wars bustling around the grounds. The mausoleum looked very alive tonight for a place that housed so many dead.
"Dinah, welcome," Edrear said from behind one of the larger stone statues of an angel weeping.
"Wow, Edrear this place is really full tonight!" Dinah said looking out over the field of small gray gremlin like workers busying this way and that, carrying glass and other construction ware. Edrear gave a sweet, charming boy smile. His smile faded when he looked past her at me, who was dramatically making gagging sounds behind Dinah's back. "Are you alright there Vincent? You look positively under par."
"Yeah? So do you!" Now you can call me childish for that but Edrear and I never really liked each other, well maybe hated with a passion would have been more of an in-depth explanation. I just hated people like him, always flirting when he didn't mean to and being good looking. I scoffed and looked away.
Edrear turned his attention back at Dinah, "It is nice to have this place less dead, I only wish it were on better terms." He looked off at the small furry Ewalks.
"What are they?" Dinah motioned to the beasts. I jerked as two of them carting a sink pushed past me, bad move, because a few steps back and I bumped into something large and warm. Arms from the something behind me reached around and squished me back.
"That," Edaniel's voice said from behind me "Is a Tokoloashe1," I pulled out of his grip and turned on him ready to explode on him but was cut off.
"Brother," the second guardian spoke, Edaniel looked up at Edrear with a grin.
"Yes Brother?" The first guardian said back to his older brother.
There was a pause and for a moment and I thought that the ground would crack from some odd tension. Edrear seemed just a little more pissed at Edaniel than normal.
"What's a Tokoloashe?," Dinah asked, being the ever vigilant peace keeper. I pushed away from Edaniel's death hug.
"More importantly what are you wearing…" I mumbled under my breath, I had only just had the un-pleasure of seeing Edaniel's rather interesting outfit. It was his normal tight vest along with his mid crotch level pants with the only thing obstructing the view of his um… well- was two belts but the leather had been swapped for two tool belts. His blonde curly hair wrapped close to his head due to yellow hardhat that he had on. "You look like the village people…"
"The Tokoloashe are lower level demons, they work for the big shots. They're a cheap labor force too, and we only pay them in old moldy milk!" Dinah's face twisted at the last part.
"But what could they want with old milk?"
"Beats the shit out of me," he said back triumphantly. Somewhere in the background Edrear said something about them drinking it as an African delicacy but was ignored.
"Wait why you are here!" Edaniel snapped with realization.
"Oh dear," Edrear chimed in like he had forgotten something also. "Didn't you get the message spider?" Edaniel asked referring to the small spider with human heads that the mausoleum used to send messages.
"I killed it," Dinah answered simply leaning down to play with one of the little Tokoloashe's brown, bear-like ears. It started to purr at her, its large black eyes becoming little slits.
The brother demons sent worried looks at one another." Bali Lali will not be pleased," Edrear said, referring to the "security guard" of the mausoleum, a big spider demon with the head of a woman.
"Why is something wrong?" I asked.
"You shouldn't have come tonight," The elder brother spoke taking Dinah by the arm and pulling her up to look at him firmly in the eyes.
"Why?" I asked again refusing to be ignored.
"We had a cave in, in the mausoleum so we have some remolding going on. We can't send you down tonight, much to busy here,tokoloshi are great little workers but they're little kleptomaniacs. They take just about anything if you're not careful." Edaniel leaned down on my shoulder, maybe it was the evil grin plastered on his face or the fact that he had been in human form more and more lately but something about Edaniel that night looked truly devilish.
"What does that have to do with us? Just let Vincent and I go in the crypt tonight, we'll be ok," Dinah pulled away from Edrear calmly.
"We can't do that Dinah." Edrear said firmly, "we can't afford to lose another agent. I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you," he looked down pensively.
"Well okay looks like we're going home then, come on Dinah!" I felt relief for the first time that day. Soon I would be home in my fluffy bed. I started to walk off toward the gate when I realized that Dinah wasn't following me and all was very still I turned. Edrear had a stiff hand on Dinah's shoulder, Dinah looked like she was ready to be sick and, well Edaniel was standing as if he was still leaning on my shoulder.
"We can't let her do that…" Edrear spoke up.
"Why the hell not!" I asked getting impatient.
"She's already here," Edaniel explained, "she can't leave the grounds without freeing a soul or the mausoleum rules kick in."
"What are you saying?"Dinah asked Edaniel's testing.
"He's saying that we can't let you go home without freeing a soul which you can't do tonight so-"
"Then what the hell to you expect her to do!" I was beyond impatient now.
SLEEP OVER!" Edaniel yelled spinning and grabbing Dinah from his brother, spinning her around, "Maybe we can do each other's hair," he giggled madly at her, but she just looked over at me. We were both paled considerably.
"Vincent…" Dinah's brave face melted away "I-I want to go home…" her eyes where wide. I turned to Edrear and Edaniel who both looked apologetic but unwavering. I knew that there was nothing I could say at this point. It was too dangerous to take her home. I could remember the rules with sickening clarity. I tried to imagine the prospect of sleeping in a crypt; it was not a happy one.
"Please try to understand Miss Dinah," Edrear tried to touch her shoulder but she rebelled.
"NO! I don't want to understand! I want to go home!" She ran over to me crying, I became the only thing supporting her from falling.
"Come on Dinah, I'll be here with you okay?" I said while trying to stay vertical.
"What? Vincent you can't! You have school and-"
"No, it's my fault you're here and I'll be here with you no matter what," she looked up hopefully.
"Thank you Vincent," we stood with her still clinging like a child to my arm as we moved forward reluctantly.
"Well come on, we're tired so let's go!" I yelled back at the brothers as we headed to the imposing entrance of the dark building.
Inside the mausoleum it had a dark and unwelcoming main hall, full of dark side halls, cobwebs, and odd sounds that emanated from the buildings underbelly. Further down into what could be called the living area, we walked. Dinah and I had not been down here much, only once when Dinah had been allotted to rest before coming home one night after a particularly nasty ghost. It was much like the rest of the: mausoleum dark stone walls, some crumbling. The only source of light was the candles elevating off the wall each about three feet apart from the next one down the hall. The only difference was the badly installed white shag carpeting that looked as if it had been added in the 80's as an attempt to make it homier, it however did not.
Some while down the hall was an opening where low hanging ceilings gave way to a grand main hall. It was a dark majestic room of immense proportion. There in the middle sat a small statue of a tall noble looking man with bird wings. Behind that was a large staircase that spanned up into a second level. The whole room was a dazzling mix of roman gothic and Celtic masonry. The only thing to dull the ambiance of the room was the bad shag carpeting that covered the floor before ascending up the stair way. It was a TLC channel stars nightmare.
"Wow…" Dinah whispered next to me.
"Yep, it's really something," I said mindlessly, imagining the reactions of several famous designers to the horribly abused space.
"Don't act like you're not impressed," Edaniel spun around, "just look at the hip interior, the art, the masonry!" he flung his arms around my shoulder, "Take this artfully crafted statue for instance."
I felt him wiggle excitedly next to me like he could somehow communicate his point by standing there and waiting. Edaniel waited patiently for me to have some kind of epiphany, his arm still snuggly fit itself on my neck playing with my shirt.
"Yeah," I said, looking up at the statue of the warrior looking down for some kind of engraving, but I found none, "but who is he?"
Edaniel though for a moment, "Eh? You know, I don't know… he must be important or something though."
"It's our grandfather brother…!" Edrear gaped at his brother's forgetfulness or sheer stupidity.
"He looks like a nice man…"Dinah said, slowly trying to dissipate the raw aggression in the room.
"No, I remember him being a dick..." Edaniel looked at Edrear pointedly. I could slowly feel the elephant in the room becoming more and more visible, that or maybe my vision was getting fuzzy.
"You know another thing Edaniel!-?" Edrear swiftly grabbed for his brother's shirt collar. Dinah ran over to my side shocked by Edrear's abnormal lack of composure. I on the other hand felt like laughing. So I did, a deep sleep deprived chuckle. The kind of near madness chuckle brought on by Edrear finally haling off and looking like he was about to deck his brother, Edaniel's look of disbelief at being near moments from eating crazed demon fist.
"Stop…." Dinah whispered gripping my arm harder.
"Haha, Edrear snapped," I giggled drunkenly.
"What the hell's wrong with you, I said I was sorry!" Edaniel cursed, angrily grabbing Edrear's collar right back. I was starting to feel as it this wasn't about insulting the elderly.
"PLEASE STOP!"
Everyone fell silent; Dinah had my arm in a near death lock. I suddenly felt my head swimming and the room gave a sickening lurch. Her little outburst had had an effect on the brothers as well. Edrear loosened his hold on the now relieved blonde. Edrear looked exceptionallyembarrassed. "You know what Edaniel…" he started again in a more deflated tone "This carpet is very unpleasant…"
Edrear turned to Dinah, who met his eyes with a new fearlessness, "Please forgive me Miss Dinah, I was acting prudish. It's been a very long day, perhaps you could understand if I just showed you the damage my dear brother had caused." He led her by the forearm up the long grand staircase.
That left me and a disgruntled younger demon that was at the moment cursing and adjusting his shirt back to perfection. "What?" Edaniel asked when he noticed that I was staring, not bothering to chase after Dinah.
"I'm goanna pass out…"
"What?" he asked again as if I was telling a funny joke he didn't get.
"I said, I'm going to pass out," the room began to spin as it had only a few moments prior.
"Right that's what I thought you said…" he turned back to the statue and gave it a good kick.
I could feel the last couple nights catch up with me. Edaniel became yellow and red fuzz moving at me. "Vincent?" was the last thing I heard before being true to my word and passing out.
Never in my life would I be more appreciativeof that horrible white shag carpeting.
1 Tokoloshe or Tikoloshe. From the Xhosa word uthikoloshe.
The tokoloshe is a short, hairy, dwarf-like creature from Bantu folklore. It is a mischievous and evil spirit that can become invisible by swallowing a pebble. Tokoloshes are called upon by malevolent people to cause trouble for others. At it's least harmful a tokoloshe can be used to scare children, but it's power extends to causing illness and even death upon the victim.