Prophecies of a False God

Chapter Four

When Jules awoke, the first thing he noticed was the throbbing pain in the back of his head and neck and his vision was blurry. However, he pushed through the pain, while fighting to clear the fogginess and after he finally did, he focused on his surroundings. He discovered that he was lying on the ground in front of a chair connected to some kind of contraption, which somehow looked oddly familiar to him, his wrists still bound by the shackles that had been put on him earlier by the city's lawmen.

The writer tried to move and got as far as sitting up when the same three men that had entered his prison earlier, walked into what he saw was a fiery lit cavern and stopped in front of him with grins on their faces, while one of them spoke up saying, "I must have hit you harder than I thought. You've been out for more than a few hours now. How do you feel?"

Jules responded sarcastically, "How do you think I feel? What is this place and what do you want with me? Who are you?"

"So many questions, Jules Verne," a deep, dark, and always recognizable voice that sent chills down the young writer's spine when he spoke, sounded from the shadowed corner of the room. "But then, that was how you always have been, allowing your inquisitive mind to become the most brilliant I have ever known."

"Count Gregory?" Jules asked fearfully. "But how is it possible? You died. Fogg and I pushed you off a cliff through a waterfall. No one could have survived that."

The count replied, "Perhaps no ordinary man could have survived that, no, but then again, I am no ordinary man, am I Mister Verne; a man, who was torn apart by the Turks in the fourteenth century and then revived by the monks hidden in the catacombs beneath Constantinople?"

Jules slowly and painfully made his way onto his feet in hope of trying to show more courage than what he was feeling and then answered, "You are no man at all, but a monstrosity with a second rate mind, just as I said the last time we met. Come out from the shadows and stop hiding like a coward!"

"If there is anyone of us here, who should be afraid, it is you, Verne," the count responded as two of the men suddenly grabbed a hold of him once again, roughly shoved him back into the chair behind him, then began to work on attaching the device around his head that was attached to the chair, as well as a group of wires leading to other machines surrounding him, and worked on chaining his wrists and legs to the chair, while Gregory moved out from the shadows, again in his rickety wheel chair. "Does any of this seem familiar to you, Jules?"

"Arago said it was just a nightmare, but I think deep down he had only said that so that I wouldn't give up in trying to use my imagination and vision of the future to help mankind," Jules answered as he thought back to the night before he had met Phileas, Rebecca, and Passepartout for the first time. "I would have given up if it weren't for my friends and no doubt you would have killed me a long time ago."

Gregory replied, "No, I would have had you on my side, working for the League of Darkness if it weren't for Phileas Fogg, his beautiful cousin, Rebecca, and that fool of a valet of theirs."

The writer responded firmly, "You're wrong. I never would have joined you even under the threat of death and I never will."

"I know, but you see, Jules Verne, I no longer need you, as I once again have a this machine that my men are currently strapping you into, which will allow me to take from you all that I need before I dispose of what will be left of you when we are finished," the count replied smugly. "Arago is not here to save you this time."

"No matter what happens to me, you will fail and the Foggs and Passepartout will stop you once and for all," Jules answered with strong conviction, despite the increased fear he was feeling every minute he sat with this device around his head. "They will not allow you to continue playing God over these people here in Catania."

Gregory just chuckled and then responded, "Get some rest now, young Verne. You will need your strength for what is in store for you. I have to deal with your friends, then I will be back, and we can begin."

Meanwhile…

After Phileas, Rebecca, and Passepartout left the prison where their friend had been held, they made their way back to the building Mateo the prophet had gone into as they followed him earlier. However, after storming through the entire place, they found no one was there any longer, making Phileas even more on edge than he already was and itching for a fight. Both Rebecca and Passepartout couldn't help, but feel the same, as Jules meant the world to each of them.

Passepartout spoke up as he asked, "Where we search now, Master?"

"You can try looking for Mateo, or whatever his name is, down at the church near the outside of town," a man replied as he slowly walked into the building behind them, while both Fogg and Rebecca raised their guns and pointed them straight at him.

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?" Phileas asked firmly as he moved forward toward the stranger.

The man slowly raised his hands up in the air as he answered, "I have been looking for you and your friend, who spoke out against Mateo this morning. I promise you, I mean you no harm."

Phileas continued, "Then, what are you doing here? Speak fast; we are in no mood for games and we do not have time to waste."

"I have always been unsure of Mateo's teachings and so called prophecies, as well as the intentions of this god that no one around here have ever seen before, except for statues of his likeness, or so we have been told, but it wasn't until today when your friend bravely spoke outright against him that I knew I was right to doubt them," the man responded. "Despite your new arrival here in our city, your friend appeared to understand a lot more in a morning than any one of us could in a lifetime."

"Yes, Verne has a very special mind with a keen understanding of much more than any other men we know or could hope to know," Phileas replied as he lowered his gun, as did Rebecca and Passepartout. "My name is Phileas Fogg, this is my cousin, Miss. Rebecca Fogg, and my valet, Passepartout. You are?"

The man answered, "I am Tom Nelson, a physician around our city. Are you here at Mateo's home to get to the bottom of whatever it is they're hiding from us? Are you here to help us?"

Rebecca nodded and responded, "That and to find out where they have taken our friend. He has been kidnapped and we fear he is in great danger."

"I am sorry," Tom replied. "Mateo should be at the church right now, as he always is at this time, but you must be careful. If Mateo is indeed a false prophet as your friend has said, then so is whoever is posing to be our god. Whoever he is, he is a very powerful man. I hope you find your friend in time. I would very much like to meet him."

"Thank you, Tom," Rebecca answered kindly as Phileas and Passepartout walked back out of the home, and then she followed suit as the three of them made their way toward the edge of town in search of the church, hoping that the physician was right.