Dark Fall 2: The Devil's Harbinger

by ATGS

Zack's wife Maya stormed out one night after a fight and vanished without a trace. His search leads him to a bizarre little town out in the middle of nowhere that's not on any map. He's also been having unusual dreams, of a strange lighthouse out in the ocean, beckoning something demonic from the skies... what of the strange, abandoned lighthouse in this town?

14. Ghost Town

Dark Fall II

Part II - Conspiracy

Chapter 13: Ghost Town

(1)

Zack cracked open the door to Archimedes' house. He was surprised to find it unlocked. He felt that if the people of this town had left everything unlocked, it would make things a heck of a lot easier.

Zack had expected Archimedes' house to be a treasure trove of information about the man, which was why he'd come here first. But as he proceeded to search the house from top to bottom, he could find nothing of interest whatsoever.

He found an office with more bookshelves and a desk with nothing in it but papers pertaining to running the town. Nothing tell-tale or notable at all.

Well, should he have been surprised? The ghost hunters had found nothing. What made him think he was going to find anything they hadn't, just because he was by himself? This place as a whole wasn't the same supernatural weirdness as the lighthouse, as far as he knew. Was he really sure he was going to find anything significant around here?

He left Archimedes' house reluctantly and went for a brisk walk towards the other side of town where the church was.

City Hall was closer, but Zack wanted to check the church first. He wanted the temple to be his last stop.

The air was just about as chilled as when he went into the lighthouse. The town gave off the unearthly silence of the dead all around him. He moved quickly and alertly.

(2)

Zack opened the door of the church and stepped once again into the unholy feeling sanctuary, which was, in fact, what it most certainly felt like. There was a presence here, it felt. Zack hadn't really noticed it when he'd first been here, but he felt it strongly now. Foreboding darkness.

Of course, such feelings were possibly just in his head. The fact that he was alone in this place only made it all the creepier.

He headed up towards the pulpit. He was not surprised to find that the Bible Archimedes had been teaching out of was missing. Of course it was. Surely, if such a thing had been lying out, someone would have already discovered it.

Had the cult taken it with them when they'd left?

But Zack had to consider one thing: exactly how thorough would those ghost hunters have been? They would have been here with only one thing in mind: figuring out what they could from a perspective of discovering supernatural activity. They would have been less interested in uncovering the actual secrets of what made this town tick. Or would they have been?

Was it possible that what Zack really wanted to peruse through, in fact, hidden somewhere here where it could have already been found had someone been looking for it?

Zack thought it unlikely. Surely the cult had taken it with them when they'd left.

Zack looked the pulpit up and down. And then he saw something odd. At the bottom, where it touched the ground, there seemed a small crack in the ground, an opening.

Zack suddenly got the strangest idea.

Zack pushed on the pulpit. It started to move. Zack couldn't believe his blind luck. The pulpit started to move revealing an opening in the ground underneath. And inside the hole was a very large, odd looking leather bound book.

Could it be...? Could it be...?

Zack pushed the pulpit as far as he could and took it out of the hole. He sat down on the floor and opened it up.

No freaking way! He thought to himself. They had actually left it behind! He was holding in his hands what he could have only guessed what was the cult's Bible!

He opened it up randomly to a page in the middle and started reading. He flipped through and found the town's version of 'The Lord's Prayer' that Archimedes had been reading. No difference there.

Zack noted as he perused through it that the book was actually arranged like a type of Bible. It was separated by books and literary styles. He found toward the beginning what was apparently the cult's creation story.

'The world was formed in light. The universe was light, and the light was God. The universe was in disorder and chaos. In order to bring order and stability to the universe, the light created a divine son. This Son was borne out of the darkness, and he is the other son, the one who will stand against the sun. It was through him that all things were created. He was also the vessel through whom the universe created order. God was borne of this light. It was through God that all planets and stars were formed. But lo, God saw it fit that He should not right the chaos of the universe to order through himself alone. And so God said to himself - "Behold, I will create lesser beings, bearing an image of the divine, and I shall reconcile them to myself, and through communion with the divine, shall then come order to chaos, and they shall be Gods like me." So He spoke and formed the Earth and everything in it. He also made man, male and female, and breathed into them an image of the divine. And he spoke unto them, saying: "Be fruitful and multiply. Embrace your divinehood. Be like God, and become God."'

Zack flipped ahead a few pages.

'And God came down and saw the Tower of Babel. And He said to Himself: "These images of the divine I created would extend their throne even above mine, if possible! They have rebelled against the divine that has created them, by their own selfish nature." So God visited a plague of confusion, and He stripped away their knowledge of the divine language. So now it became thus that man can no longer have divine control over the world, and thus it fell under a curse. Man was forced to create new languages for themselves, but could never again recover the language of the divine, for it had been taken away from them. Man had desired to overthrow God, and God had said of this: "Behold, man could not overthrow that from which they came, and through attempting to do so, they have come to understand the greater darkness. Behold, I have created a great deception! They continue the path to godhood, though they know it not, yet most are lost in ignorance!" For it shall come to pass that every man shall call evil good, and good evil, and it shall be in their own knowledge that evil is good, and good is evil, for it is through the nature of the false, that is, that which is actually is the true light. Though the world perceives it not, so shall the path of godhood be attained by the Elect. And the Elect shall know this and perceive this, but most shall be ignorant, and the same shall be spoken of knowledge, though in fact the knowledge is spoken of as if in ignorance. For it is through this that their souls may be saved and they shall pursue the path of the divine through ignorance, which is in fact true knowledge. And God looked upon the state of the world and the bloodshed and strife therein, and He said: "Behold, it IS good."

This whole thing was very confusing. Zack didn't know what to make of it at all. He could have sworn that the things written in this book were confusing because they were deliberately intended to be confusing.

Zack flipped through the book some more. He flipped past the parts telling about the creation of the universe. He flipped through a few sections telling of God setting up the rituals by which the Elect would live by. He continued to skim through these, stopping to read random parts every so often before skimming again, hoping to get at least some minor overview as to what this religion was all about:

'The Elect shall live by separation from the outside world. The outside shall be considered corrupt and evil, and it will taint the election to godhood. Believers shall not fraternize not with the world nor the things of the world, lest they be led astray to neverending perdition in the next life.'

Flip.

'You shall not be dishonest among thy bretheren. You shall obey your leaders in all they proclaim, no matter what is being asked. The secrets of God are imparted to them, but they are not imparted to ordinary mortal man. Therefore, listen to your leaders. It is repeated again, you shall not bring harm to your brethren unless they turn their backs on God and embrace the world. Only then are you allowed to treat them coldly and have no compassion on them. There are no rules against inhospitality against outsiders, for they come from the corrupted world, and are corrupted by the world. Therefore be inhospitable to them. But listen to the words of your leaders, for they are like Gods to you. Do not permit outsiders to stay indefinitely in your community, and do not speak with them nor fraternize with them in any way beyond what you must do to get them to leave.'

Flip.

'There are to be no poor and needy among you. Each must take care of each's own. But the poor and needy of the outside world are of no concern to you. They are destined for perdition along with the rest of the outside world. Therefore, have no compassion on them. Care not about their plights.'

Zack felt a tinge of anger at reading something like that. Zack was not a person who was very familiar with general religion, but he was certain that compassion toward the poor in the world was a basic tenet of most religions. He flipped the page.

'To leave the community for the outside world, for any reason, is tantamount to turning thy back on God. They shall not be welcomed back. Shun them as you would any outsider. Let them not back into thy community. Only leaders of the community may journey to the outside world for any reason. The leaders are like Gods and are unable to be corrupted. They are allowed and have the strength to journey into the outside world safely. Listen to what they tell you in all things.'

Zack flipped a few more pages and stopped on one particular gem:

'And the Priest shall cut his hand, and his blood shall be splashed down upon the bread and into the wine. And the people shall thenceforth drink of the blood-soaked wine and partake of the blood-soaked bread. It is through this that sanctification shall be received, for the Priest is like God to the people, and therefore the priest's blood is sanctification to the people. And it is through the eating and drinking of the divine blood of the leader, who is God to the people, that the people will be viewed as sanctified before God. Once a month thy must do this, and then God shall look down upon the people, see the blood they have partaken, and be pleased.'

As far as Zack could tell from looking through the book, the religion of Fetch Rock was designed to make people obey and keep them in line, and it was specifically designed so they would never dare chance leaving the town and experiencing what the outside world was like. The town leader was revered as God, and he had the only say in all things. The part of this book that had commanded the townspeople to obey to the letter anything the leader said was chilling to him. He thought of some of the famous cult leaders he'd seen documentaries about on television such as David Koresh and Jim Jones.

The purpose of this religion claimed to be about attaining godhood through separation and obedience. But what type of godhood? He had to wonder. And why, for that matter? Had this religion actually started as a good-intentioned way of drawing closer to 'God?' Or was there some other hidden purpose behind it? Zack couldn't shake the uneasy feeling there was more to all this than what was observable simply from the outside.

Zack closed the book. He was reliving the memory of the church service he had experienced on his first visit to Fetch Rock, and it was making him sick again. He wanted to take a look at this book more thoroughly, but he also didn't have time to sit here and read all day. There was much more to still check out and investigate.

Zack really wanted to take the book with him, but it was quite a tome, and it was pretty heavy. He knew he wouldn't be able to lug it with him all over town. He would have to come back for it. He turned it over in his hands and was shocked at what was on the back.

There was a key embedded in the back. A large, ornate key. Zack reached his hand for the back of the book and carefully pulled it out. He had no clue what the key went to. His first thought was that the key was meant for the lock in the book, but as Zack tried to insert it, it didn't fit. Clearly it went to something else. Zack pocketed it, just in case he came across something that had an obvious keyhole.

Zack carefully placed the book back into the hole. He didn't bother moving the podium back. He sincerely doubted anyone was going to be popping by to take it.

He stood up from where he had been sitting. It was time to see what other secrets this church held.

(3)

Zack began his search throughout the sanctuary, keeping his eyes peeled for any place a key might be used, but his search turned up nothing else of interest. Zack then went next to Archimedes' office and poked around in it. He looked in desk drawers, cabinets, and all the obvious places as well as not-so-obvious places. The stuff he turned up was just as boring and unhelpful as Archimedes' other office in his own home. The papers and stuff here pertained only to matters of the church, and there was nothing tell-tale that might give a clue as to the inner workings of the religion itself.

Zack could only wish his brother were actually with him. Cody had a better mind for this kind of sleuthing. He'd probably be able to see a million different solutions and notice certain things he couldn't

Zack spent some time poking around the rest of the church. Mostly it was nothing but other offices that turned up no particular information whatsoever. Zack was even thorough enough to check the bathrooms, to no avail. Zack did have to make note that there was no parish hall nor kitchen of any sort in this church. He was fairly certain most churches, if not all, were usually equipped with such facilities.

The only conclusion Zack could come up with for his lack of turning up information was that the cult had been careful. They hadn't just left information lying around that the average person could just stumble across.

The fact that he'd been able to find the religion's 'Bible,' however, gave support to Maddie's theory that everyone had vanished unexpectedly. But did that mean Archimedes had vanished into thin air as well? Zack wasn't really buying it. He just couldn't shake the feeling that Archimedes was probably just fine, probably even had orchestrated the disappearances! So had Archimedes left the book there? Was Archimedes perhaps even somewhere in town? Was he watching Zack?

Zack had by this point looked everywhere in the church, and poked around in every possible place whatsoever. He searched through the church two more times just to be certain he hadn't missed anything. He was particularly looking for somewhere to use that key. But he could not find anything else of interest in the church. He was a little frustrated. But he also had to consider the theory that they key could go somewhere else in the town.

For purposes of efficiency, Zack decided to continue his search throughout the town and return here if need be.

(5)

The city hall was one of the only buildings in town, save for the church, who's actually looked like what its function was intended to be.

Directly inside, two large double doors stood before Zack that led into another room. He could see there were hallways leading down either side. At least Zack knew there was something definitely here to discover. And since none of the other people who had ventured into this town had been able to find the temple, Zack knew that his chances of finding it were probably going to be a little tricky.

Zack didn't feel like wasting his time poking around the probably more unimpressive offices in this building. But when he entered the double doors before him, he figured that this room was probably his best bet. It was a large, wide open space. Directly in front of him, he could see a booth like the kind a judge would sit at in court. There was a point on the wall that jutted out with some kind of coat of arms upon it directly behind where the judge sat, but on the left and right there were benches for sitting that were not unlike what you would see a jury sitting in. These extended from left or right, starting out where the portion of the wall sticking out was, and continuing on until hitting the corner of each other's respective walls, then turning and going down a short ways ending with small waist-high wooden doors that didn't touch the floor and swung open to let the judge or jury members in.

This place was certainly served the obvious functions that it would have in any other town, but what other secrets did this particular room hold?

Zack walked across the tiled floor toward where the judge's both sat. The place had the smell of a neatly preserved, office type of building.

Zack walked around the judge's booth, examining it. There was nothing of note. But Zack turned and his eye was immediately drawn to the coat of arms.

It was a shield, with two swords cutting through it diagonally. There were two rather demonic looking serpents encircling the blades, their heads coming out from being wrapped around the handles of the blades, mouths opened menacingly, baring forth their fangs and forked tongues shooting out of their mouths.

But what drew Zack's attention the most was the keyhole in the middle.

Zack put his hand on the coat of arms and looked close at the hole. Then he fished the key he had found on the cult's 'Bible' out of his pocket, stuck it in, and turned it.

It fit perfectly, and with the click, a rumbling noise sounded in the middle of the room.

Zack looked over and saw that a giant section of the middle of the floor was now rising. It was rising open right in front of him, the key apparently having activating some type of apparatus where the part of the floor had rods attached to it and some mechanical device was pushing it up. There were stairs descending down below.

Bingo. Zack had found his temple!

Walking over and standing before the entrance into the darkness down below, Zack could only imagine what could possibly be down there. He fished out his flashlight, clicked it on, and descended.

(6)

Descending into the darkness, the stairs ended in a short stone hallway that opened up into a very large, circular room. Directly across was an opening leading to somewhere else. In this particular room, where the stone changed suddenly from a dull gray to a lime like green, the main attraction that stood out were the huge, stone statues of demons, also green, that circled the room.

There were actually six of them in all, one on each side near the entrance Zack had come in, two towards the middle, and two near the exit across. Horrible abominations. All of the statues were holding bowls in their hands. If they were symbolic of something, it was completely lost on Zack. On the floor below was drawn in white some sort of giant circular symbol. There was another circle on the inside, just within inches of the first, and many sorts of symbols all around that Zack would have had no way of knowing what they meant. Lines crisscrossed all throughout the entirety of the thing, connecting in odd ways, and there were symbols placed at specific points all throughout. It looked like some sort of magic symbol you might see in a book of witchcraft, to be sure, but again, Zack had no way of knowing what it meant.

In front of and behind the demonic statues in the middle there were also pedestals. There were four in all, set up like podiums. Each podium had an open book sitting on it.

When Zack walked up to one, the one opposite the entrance on the left, and flipped through it, he could see that apparently it pertained to rules for running the town. As Zack examined the books one at a time, he found that each one focused on one specific theme.

Bingo! Zack was finally about to get a look at the real inner workings of this town.

The first book he examined pertained to things of a Spiritual nature:

'All those who abide in our community must assert the existence of the divine Lord that we serve and the doctrines and teachings handed down to us. Those who do not abide by these tenants must be cut off from our people. They will not abide in our community, and they will not be welcome in our community any longer. Those who have been excommunicated for reasons of rejecting the divine truth are not to even be spoken to. Upon returning to the town or refusing to remove themselves from the presence of the community of Fetch Rock, they will be charged with trespass of private property and turned over to the Quincy police.

However, if the offender does come once again to begin to sincerely seek the knowledge of the truth, and if they do wish to return to their people, and they show that their desire is truthful and worthy, then they may return and perform acts of penance. They will be placed in isolation and not allowed interaction with anyone nor to do any work or take part in any sort of pleasure for a period of three and a half weeks. The holding place(s) are in a special cell block located underneath the police station. There is no light, sound, nor any communication of any kind. Food is served discretely through a special slot in the door, but food shall be rationed sparingly. The time of isolation is a time of being alone with God and very little else. It is for the transgressor to think upon their sins and mistakes and find reconciliation.'

Zack felt a chill. The police station. He knew where his search was going to be leading him next. Had Maya been put in one of these cells? He was going to have to take a look at these for himself.

'One who abandons the process of penance before the three and a half weeks are up shall never again be able to seek penance. They shall be cut off from the community indefinitely. Neither shall anyone who turns their back on the faith a second time be allowed to go through penance ever again. By continuing to leave that which they once held to be truth and changing their minds over and over again, they are blaspheming the divine and spitting in the face of our God. They shall not be allowed in our town nor take part with our people.'

Zack flipped several pages.

'All services of church in the worship of our Lord must be attended by all people, always. Consideration will be given to those who are ill or infirm. The Priest and leaders of the community may pay them separate visits to hold services in private. If it is revealed that the infirmary is a fake or not inhibiting to the function of the individual to attend services physically, he has then committed an abomination. See Citizenship laws for guidelines for what constitutes acceptable degrees of illnesses as well as punishments for transgressions of this nature.'

Flip.

'No blasphemy of God is tolerated, ever. Blasphemy of the divine is a willful choice and will not be forgiven. Blasphemers will never be given a chance of penance, nor shall there ever be a chance of returning to the community ever again. Blasphemy is not defined as a falling away from the faith. It is any word or phrase that comes out of ones mouth in direct defiance against the God we serve and His precepts He has laid down before us. Such things shall not be tolerated among us. They shall be cast off from the community indefinitely.'

Zack walked over to the next book and began looking through it. This one appeared to pertain to laws of citizenship:

'Each citizen shall abide by the schedules set before them by the governing leaders of Fetch Rock according to occupation and other considering factors. Every man or woman shall do the work assigned to them by following a strictly crafted schedule. Laws shall vary depending on whether the individual is married, single, disabled, aged, or by other varying factors.'

Flip.

'Each person is to be married, and each person is to have their own spouse so long as they are not disabled nor incapable of having children. Each eligible individual must find a wife for themselves by the age of 18. Typically, these marriages will be arranged. If for reasons of choosing to remain single, either because of desire to give themselves more wholly to God, or if they are disabled, or if they do not wish to get married for the simple reason of not desiring marriage, then male individuals must be castrated, and the female individuals must endure the burning off of the clitoris. There will be no anesthesia nor drugs administered for lessening of pain. They have chosen their path before God and will face the consequences. By this, they shall be purified.'

Zack felt sick to his stomach. He would have to seriously rethink his earlier thoughts of moving to this town and becoming a citizen.

He flipped a page.

'There is to be no use of contraception. There must be at all times enough children for each new generation, of equal amounts in both genders, for us to thrive and survive. It is the duty of citizens to procreate and often. However, in necessity of population control, since it is not the desire of our God that we exceed a specific maximum population specifically because our community must remain small and closed off, and since there must be an equal amount of males and females for each to have their own spouse given in marriage, excessive male babies or excessive female babies that would take the population past its limit and/or create and unequal amount of males and females to be available to be given in marriage must be aborted. Nevertheless, it is the duty of every citizen of this town to continue procreation until the desired gender is acquired.'

Zack was feeling the need to retch. He was having a hard time holding the contents of his stomach down. He didn't care if he was some outsider 'incapable of understanding.' This stuff was just plain sick.

'If necessary, each couple will be given a mandate of the gender they need to acquire, and they must keep trying to have a child until a child of the preferred gender is received. All others must be terminated in utero. If the couple is unable to produce the assigned gender, it will be considered that they may be under a curse from our Lord. A council shall be called together, and lots shall be cast. If the lots determine the female is under a curse, the marriage shall be annulled, her clitoris shall be burned off, and she shall be sent to isolation for three and a half weeks and then be brought out and entered into a more wholesome service to our Lord. A new wife will be assigned to the husband. If the lots are cast and it is determined that the male is the one under a curse from our Lord, then he shall be castrated, the marriage shall be annulled, and he shall be sent to isolation for three and a half weeks, and then he shall be brought out and entered into a more wholesome service to our Lord. A new husband shall then be assigned to the husband. If the lots are cast and it is determined that both the husband and wife are under a curse, then the male shall be castrated, the female shall endure burning off of the clitoris, the marriage shall be annulled, and they shall be sent to isolation for three and a half week. Then they shall be brought out and entered into a more wholesome service to our Lord.'

Zack could feel his feelings of anger growing even stronger now. He flipped a few more pages.

'If it turns out that one of the spouses is infertile, the one who is infertile shall be terminated from the marriage, and shall be castrated, or have the clitoris burned off, and they shall be entered into the service of serving our Lord in a fuller way. A new partner shall be arranged for the one who is fertile.'

Flip.

'Homosexuality is not permitted at any time. If it comes to light that a man or woman has an uncontrollable attraction to the same sex, and not the opposite of that which is good and wholesome for childbearing, the male shall be castrated, or the female shall have the clitoris burned off, and they shall be sent to isolation for three and a half weeks, then they shall be brought out, and then they shall be entered into a more wholesome service to our God. If one actually engages in a homosexual act and is caught, it will be considered unforgivable. They will, if they desire to keep in with the faith and not be cast out from the community indefinitely, be punished by mutilation of the genitals and placed in isolation for three and a half weeks in hopes of finding repentance for their souls and coming back into the community of faith. No anesthesia nor drugs shall be given to lessen the pain.'

Zack was so angry he grabbed the book and threw it onto the ground. He was seething. He wanted nothing more by this point than to tear this town apart with his own two hands. He was starting to feel more and more an intense sadness for the people who'd lived here and all they'd been subjected to. He knew now that the common people here were innocent. It was Archimedes, the town leaders, and those above them, who were responsible for all this. But why? And to what end? Zack couldn't figure it out. It made him even more frustrated and angry thinking about it. Especially since he and his wife had somehow gotten mixed up in all of this!

Very cautiously, he made his way to the third book. He was almost afraid to read it. This one seemed to consist of laws pertaining to performing work. Mostly, it listed all the different necessary jobs that existed in Fetch Rock, along with laws and regulations concerning each of them. Also listed were codes of conduct pertaining to appropriate work ethics. As Zack skimmed through it briefly, he was relieved to find that this one was thankfully far more boring than the last one.

He made his way over to the fourth book. A quick perusal revealed that this book pertained to regulations for rules of conduct when dealing with visitors:

'No guest or tourist is ever welcome in our town. They come from the faithless outside world and are not given the wisdom of God to understand our ways. They are, in a literal sense, the deadwood of God, the kindling for the fires of judgment to come. They are worth nothing further in the divine plan of God. They must be treated coldly, and with contempt, so that they will leave and not want to come back, lest they poke around too much into the secrets of our religion and/or corrupt the people here. God's wisdom is not intended for the likes of them, unless God speaks to the priest directly and wills it. (See below for regulations pertaining to divinely approved converts to the faith.) There may come times that some visitors to Fetch Rock will have legitimate business here. This is not concerning law enforcement specifically. Such codes for dealing with outside law enforcement and the like is covered elsewhere in these laws. Those outsiders who have legitimate business in Fetch Rock must take care of their business as soon as possible and then move on. The town leader and heads of the town must do everything they can to speed up this process. Because our land is private, we do have the right to call in external law enforcement and have them removed; however, we also must not act so secretive as to arouse great suspicion above the norm. But it is the duty of every citizen to ensure that every visitor be made as uncomfortable as possible. But they must also leave wholly unable to prove anything related to anything that might be considered lacking in the standards set by the faithless outside world. Visitors may be allowed to witness our church service at the discretion of the appointed town leader. This is for purposes of discomfort, and to increase the desire of the intruder to vacate the town, but also to alleviate suspicion that we are anything more than a type of 'strange' cult variation of Christianity.'

Flip.

'External law enforcement will always be necessary to deal with certain visitors from time to time. We must always cooperate to the fullest with them in order to maintain our integrity and alleviate suspicion as to the inner workings of our town. It is for this purpose that tenants of our faith must never be written down except for within these laws and our safeguarded, hidden sacred texts. No citizen of Fetch Rock is to ever otherwise write down anything related to our faith, ever where it can be found by a nosy, faithless outsider.'

Flip. Flip. Flip.

'The sacred text that is used by the Priest is for the Priest's eyes only and for those enlightened within the governing body of the town as chosen by our God. The sacred texts contain knowledge that is not to be publicly known by the majority of those in the faith. The spiritual evolution of the average human being who has not been chosen by God would not be able to handle the revelations contained within the sacred texts. For the unchosen to violate this law and read the sacred texts is to be afflicted with a delusion of total ignorance by God, so that they can never achieve salvation nor penance. They must be placed in isolation for three and a half months along with sessions with the Priest/head of the community to try and recover them from their insanity. This therapy will not save them, only make them suitable to function within the outside world. At the end of their 'recovery,' they shall be cast off from the community and sent into the outside world where they shall live out the rest of their days. There is no salvation for the soul that gains knowledge too early. Their minds are unable to handle the revelation of the divine, and they will instantly revert to being one of the cursed faithless.'

So in other words, Zack thought, the religion is designed so that the 'higher knowledge' is only known and interpreted by a select few, which is likely essentially so they can make the townspeople do whatever they want, and if anyone gets even a peak of the so-called 'higher knowledge,' then they are arrested, put in maddening isolation, and given brainwashing therapy sessions by Archimedes or whoever until they become confused and disillusioned enough, and then they harshly excommunicate them to the outside world to fend for themselves.

This town was no Mickey Mouse operation. This was very elaborate, and everything here was carefully done. Most of those who lived here and grew up under this stuff were nothing more than innocent victims. It was all about control and power. But to what end? Exactly what were they trying to accomplish with all this?

The people running this town were twisted. Zack had only scratched the surface of these laws. The books individually looked like they took up several hundred pages each! Zack could be kept for several weeks reading through all of these. He didn't want to. He couldn't take that much more. He couldn't imagine what more pressing on would reveal.

He'd been hoping to find something in his investigation of the town. He'd gotten more than he bargained for. He was finding too much.

He pressed on through the exit to the next room which was, in fact, a narrow hall. It led down quite a ways, then turned a corner.

The hall continued down a short ways and then stopped at an iron door.

Zack tried it. It was locked. There was a keyhole with an ornate design in contrast to the rest of the door. Crap.

Zack didn't think it would work, but he pulled out his key and tried anyways. He was surprised when the key slipped in easily and turned.

This must be some sort of master key which only people like Archimedes had that could get him into special secret places that had a certain lock.

The room Zack entered was pretty small. There were stone walls all around in a very enclosed space. Four pillars stood in each corner of the room. At the tops and bottoms of each pillar, a multitude of carved grotesque demonic heads leered out.

The main attraction was the altar at the center on top of which was a black, leather bound book.

Zack went up to it and opened it up to take a look.

Zack was horrified at what he found in the book from the moment he opened it. What he was looking at right now only intensified the mystery even further and brought it to greater disturbing ends. It was a bizarre tome filled with Satanic rites, black magic spells, dark rituals, pages of information on demons and summoning them to do your bidding, and loads of other horrifying things. Zack stopped on one page:

'Our Lord Abaddon, who art in Hell

Hallowed be Thy Name

Thy Kingdom come

Thy depravity be done

On Earth as it is in Hell

Give us today our daily vengeance

As we carry out Thine will

Allow us to inflict torment, evil, and darkness upon those who trespass against us

For they trespass not just against us, but against Thine unholy name

Let us give ourselves in to all lust and depravity of the flesh

And let us not resist the Evil One

But let us give into Him and be merged with Him wholly and eternally

Let us become One in Flesh and Spirit

For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, the Principality, and the Demonic Glory

For Ever and Ever

Amen'

It gave Zack a chill reading it. He especially noted – or was he imagining it? – the seeming similarity between this and Archimedes' version of the Lord's prayer. But the two couldn't possibly be related. Could they? Them again, what exactly what was this book doing here and why?

Zack flipped a few more pages, and came upon one that caught his eye.

'And the Priest shall cut his hand before the congregation, and his blood shall be splashed down upon the bread and into the wine. And the congregation shall thenceforth drink of the bloody wine and of the bloody bread. It is through this that empowerment shall be received by the whole congregation. The Priest is the mediator between the highest demon, Abaddon, and through his blood, he transfers a portion of his own power to the people. Thus Abaddon looks down with favor upon the participants. He may grant them power. He is less likely to slay them. The people gain greater communion with the king of demons.'

There was a section underneath titled: Explanation/Explicatus.

'This ritual is done in blasphemy and defiance of the sacred communion in all Christian churches. The blood of Christ saves through weakness. The blood of demons brings power. We believe that 'salvation' in Christian terms leads to 'servitude' and indebted slavery. Compassion is not a virtue. Being kind and letting others trample over oneself is weakness. El is a weak God who created a weak world and weaker beings. The demonic essence of power is the only true salvation in the world. The demons do not have to give us power, but to a great extent, they understand the war against El and what he has done to the universe. We are a part of this war just as much as they. They give us power as a form of salvation – we believe, real salvation – and our goal is the worship of Abaddon in the form of perversion of all mainstream faiths – the Christian faith, in particular – in anticipation of the day when Abaddon will come into our world and stand against the Son, specifically, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. This ritual also has its roots in 'The Ritual of the Pig.' See page VII-VI of the Necronomicon.'

Zack thought back to the communion service he had witnessed. He was now thoroughly confused. Something was way off. He felt like he was looking at a similar religion as the religion of Fetch Rock, but taken in a heavily more demonic direction. Zack was not the logical person his brother was, but his mind was piecing a few things together, and these things were creating more questions than answers.

Or—

Zack suddenly had a chill.

What if this book was about the original form of the religion, and the religion of Fetch Rock was an altered version used to control the townspeople?

So did this mean that the town leaders worshipped demons, and the people didn't realize the religion they were practicing had its roots in worshipping demons?

Again, Zack had to ask the question, which was becoming more horrifying in its implications by the moment: Why? What the hell were they trying to accomplish with this town and the people here?

Zack flipped to the aforementioned page to find 'The Ritual of the Pig':

'And the Priest shall enter into the Holy of Holies, and so shall the pig be brought therein, and the Priest shall hold the pig aloft over the bowl while saying these words:

'O, Holy is thy name, Abaddon!

True ruler of all the heavens and the Earth!

Chosen one of the darkness to reign forever and ever!

Bless this, this demonic sacrament, and let us not give into the lie of the ignorance of light!

Let all ignorance be washed clean with the purification of this unholy blood!

For THINE is the Kingdom, the Principality, and the demonic Glory forever and ever!

Amen!'

Then the Priest shall slice the throat of the pig, letting its blood spill into the bowl. And then it shall be mixed with the wine, and in front of the people, shall the Priest slice his own hand and mix his own blood in with the Sacrament, and it shall become the essence of the divine.'

Zack remembered his dream, how he'd seen a similar version of the ritual he had actually witnessed, but how a pig had been brought in instead. He looked down to the Explanation/Expilcatus section:

'The ritual above is ancient, and is generally no longer in practice, though it is still used sometimes, primarily in the Middle East. The Ritual of the Pig was originally created as a parody of the ritual sacrifices in Judaism. Through its practice, demonic energies can be transferred to the Priest and to the congregation.'

Zack closed the book hard. He'd had enough for the time being. He decided he was going to come back later for all these books, take them, and study them at his leisure. Actually, he was planning on showing up on Cody's doorstep with all of this stuff and going over it all with him. For now, he left the demonic tome sitting on its pedestal, trying to settle the whirling thoughts in his head.

He saw there was another door opposite the one he came in. He walked over and opened it. The door opened into a slightly larger room, this one with no more doors of which to progress through. It had normal stone walls, and the same claustrophobic feel. The room was in a narrow, rectangular shape, not square like the last. There was a desk sitting on the left side, with a wooden chair, and right above it, a very large map of the United States with multiple red pins dotting it in various places. Zack could see that next to each pin a name was written. On closer look, he realized he was looking at the names of towns. He could see a pin located on Massachusetts with 'Fetch Rock' written next to it.

At the end of the room, there was a painted portrait of Archimedes Demarion, and underneath, a small, simple bed. All along the rest of the walls were bookshelves. Glancing through them, Zack saw tons of occult literature.

The desk itself had a computer. There was a stack of empty pieces of paper on the desk as well as several ink pens sitting neatly next to it. A candle holder held an unlit candle.

There was a single lightbulb with a switch at the center of the room. Zack flicked it on and switched off his flashlight. The first thing Zack tried was booting up the PC, but it required a password, and he had no clue. If Cody was here, maybe he could have hacked past it. But he wasn't, and Zack couldn't do anything else about it. But he could have a good poke around in Archimedes' desk.

Zack opened up the top drawer on the right side of the desk. What he saw inside was disturbing and confusing. It was some kind of elaborate, grotesque, golden demon mask. It was interesting, but it meant nothing to Zack, so after a brief glance over, he sat it back in the drawer and closed it. He would forget about it until much later.

The much larger bottom right drawer turned out to be some kind of filing cabinet. Each folder inside appeared to be the name of a different city. There was one for Fetch Rock. Zack took it out.

His disturbing theory proved true. The folder contained papers giving a profile for the city of Fetch Rock. Town population, leader, chief exports...

As Zack looked through many different files, he found that Fetch Rock was just a small speck in one very much larger picture. Fetch Rock was apparently only one of twenty one towns in the U.S. that were connected to this bizarre religion and just as secluded, secretive, and out of the way as this one was.

That raised an interesting question. Why was this town abandoned? Were the others abandoned? And why was all this sensitive information just lying around for someone to come out here and find? If they'd simply left, why hadn't they taken all this stuff with them?

Zack was going to take all this stuff back with him. This was evidence. This was evidence that could potentially bring whatever was going on with these fucked up towns to their knees.

A particular file caught Zack's eye.

Pt. Pleasant.

No freaking way!

Zack snatched it up in a hurry.

He already had a feeling what he was going to find. And he was right. When he opened it up he was immediately facing a report that said:

'The Mothman Conspiracy Report'

Zack had always been a bit of a geek when it came to urban legends and monster sightings, which was why this particular file interested him considerably.

The Mothman was a creature that had allegedly been spotted many times in Pt. Pleasant, New Jersey, in between the period of November 15, 1966 to December 15, 1967.

On November 15, two young couples from the city reported to police that they had seen a strange, large glowing white creature whose eyes had grown red when car headlights had picked it up. They had described it as a "large flying man with wings" that had pursued their car while driving through an area of the town at night. There had been many more sightings of the Mothman up to December 15, 1967.

The report, Zack was shocked to find out, had a more detailed story of the incident then he had ever heard on any TV show documentary:

'The incident which spawned the urban legend of the creature known as 'Mothman' originally started in one of our more secluded towns known as 'Bended Arrow,' located in a deep forest area 30 miles away from the town known as 'Pt. Pleasant.' We had set up a town in Bended Arrow due to the surprise discovery of an unusual hole.

This hole was not a mega hole, but it was also not a standard hole either. It was the size of which, for reasons most curious, is not mentioned anywhere in the Necronomicon. Of course, it should be noted that the Necronomicon has alluded to other types of holes which would be abnormal and must be treated with as much extreme caution as the larger holes.

It does occur now that things might have been safer if Bended Arrow had not been put there and if the location had remained overall a secret to those only within our higher ranks.

The Priest of that town was perhaps a fool. Or, perhaps he simply bended to the overwhelming curiosity of the people. Such disorganized stupidity would never taken place in Fetch Rock, of that, one can be most assured.

The higher ups in the town held a summoning ritual. Of all the stupid things to do. Naturally, there was no consensus of permission granted from higher up, not even an indication of knowledge given beforehand. This was Father Williams' experiment, and his alone.

Was it curiosity? Or just plain stupidity? The human mind can indeed often get the best of fallible humans and lead to resorting to the lowest levels of stupidity, though we often justify these things in our minds making them sound as if a worthwhile pursuits no matter how much they might become our undoing.

As I've stated, they held a summoning ritual there. They wanted to see what would come out of the hole. Something did come out of it. It was a lesser demon. It had the appearance of a giant moth as described by the two couples with four huge wings like those of flies on its back and red eyes that glowered should they be shined upon with any sort of man-made light.

When it came out it was energized by the ritual, and imbued with the powers given it, it slaughtered everyone who was present in the chamber. It found its way outside the temple and fed upon some of those in the town, too. But when the metaphysical connection between this world and the underworld broke, it stopped receiving the transference of energy that empowered it to do so much damage.

Very curious thing. It was a lesser demon to be sure, but at the same time it was the most near completely animal that has ever emerged from one of the holes.

It became much more 'docile,' if you could call it that, when it stopped receiving energy from the other realm, but it still remained dangerous.

It did kill some more - but typically only when some unwary person stepped into its lair. It nested in various places around the Pt. Pleasant area for over a year. Many of us were sent to hunt it, but it was damn good at keeping itself secluded and out of sight.

The Mothman legend started the very night it had been summoned out of the hole, November 15th, when it found its way to the town of Pt. Pleasant. It was seen by two couples, tourists, who were driving in a part of town known as the 'TNT area,' which was the site of a former World War II munitions plant. The demon tailed their car, no doubt still hungering for the taste of mortal human flesh.

One note about demons: the only reason that they kill is an unquenchable hatred for humanity. The Mothman killed not out of necessity for food, but simply because its demonic nature desired slaughter. But, it had already been disconnected from the metaphysical realms for some time, and its own demonic nature began to weaken. Many lesser demons are not capable of cognition or thought or planning, they are driven only by instinct that comes from the nature of the particular realm they come from.

The lesser demons have an illusion of intelligence. If you speak to one, you will find that it appears to have knowledge, understanding, and the ability to plot and plan and reason. But it is an illusion. They have no powers whatsoever to speak of. They draw upon the metaphysical knowledge of that which is closest to them, and they use this for the basic mechanism of function that is required to them at that point in time. But these lesser beings truly know nothing. All they are comes from the higher form from whom they are spawned. They are, at best, nothing more than servants of the Most High of all. Only higher level demons have any true wisdom or intelligence.

Demons give us power. But, demons are also dangerous, because they still come from the darkness that is the innate nature of the universe, the demonic transfiguration we all are longing for. Abaddon has control over them, but Abaddon is a just God, and He allows things to happen of that which is a result of our own free will and stupidity. Thus, it is up to us to hunt down and stop the demonic entities whenever one of us gets stupid enough to dabble and release something. The matter did not personally interest me much - I cared not about the Mothman. There was too much else going on that was more important for my attention.

The possible discovery of Bended Arrow, for instance. To make sure the town was not discovered, we made it a ghost town overnight. I had the people discreetly moved to Fetch Rock. Not to assimilate into the Fetch Rock community. The purpose was to take this opportunity and not look a gift horse in the mouth. Malakai made good use of them. After all, we don't create these towns, these communities, the faux religion, for simply sport and nothing else.

But our underestimation of the Mothman proved to be a near costly mistake. The Silver Bridge collapse during rush hour on December 15, 1967, in which 46 people plummeted to their deaths, was rightly attributed in urban legend to the 'Mothman' demon.

Perhaps its separation from the realm from whence it came was eventually too much for it to bear, but whatever the reason, it was clear Mothman had done an about face and turned much bolder and bloodthirsty than we might have ever intended.

Thanks to our higher connections, the accident was covered up and blamed on faulty suspension. But Mothman sightings started becoming more prominent, even in broad daylight! We had to do something. It was then that I took it upon myself to head up to Pt. Pleasant to deal with the demon myself.

I knew that it was a test upon myself. What seemed like eons of doing this sort of work has effectively desensitized me to dealing with matters of the demonic nature, but nevertheless, the familiar sense of excitement welled up within me. I think it is a feeling that will truly never go away. I felt nervous despite the promised protection from a long time ago, even with all the experiences I've had from long periods of time spent inside the very core of the darkness. The dual mark was still burned onto me as ever.

When I arrived in Pt. Pleasant, I had a very short search. I didn't actually search, technically. I just knew inwardly from the moment I arrived where exactly to head, which specific route to take. My innate knowledge directed me to a forest area where I came upon a clearing. I knew at once I had been correct when I heard the screech above me and looked up to see that awesome apparition, wings beating fast, demonic red eyes full hatred, fangs sticking out of its mouth, drops of drool sliding down out of its mouth.

The breeze from his wings struck me with a violent gust. I was instantly struck with paralysis, despite the fact I knew I had special protection from Our Lord. I steadied myself. At this time, more than ever, I knew: I must stand strong and have faith!

After all, how could I be the Chosen One, if I did not have faith to stand up against even this, especially considering the ages of experience I'd already had dealing with this stuff. Certainly, I, more than any others who have ever lived, was no novice.

But a sudden, brief sharp fear at the back of my mind struck me. What if it had all been a joke, an amusement? Abaddon was certainly not beyond such a thing. I know this more than anyone else. It would certainly not be beyond Abaddon to allow it to tear into my flesh and devour me whole just for the sport of it all. After all, who am I that He should be so mindful of me? He could have just as easily chosen another had he so wished! It mattered not how long I had been doing the work, or that I had been doing it long before anyone else. Such things are of no particular concern to Abaddon, He could just as easily have chosen anyone else to do the work. Surely, there are those who are as ever committed to the darkness as I always have been. But even though I could see the malice in the creature's eyes, could see the wonderfully evil gaze that wanted nothing more than to rip me to shreds, in the most excruciatingly painful way possible, it recognized me.

It knew who I was.

It couldn't touch me.

It let out a shriek. Of rage, maybe.

It knew its time had come. It was time to return to the underworld. It spoke to me - actually spoke, using that fake illusion of intelligence that lesser demons are known to have.

It knew what I had come for. It knew what I must do. It knew of the power that dwelled within me, the power of what had been given to me.

I spoke unto it and told it to follow me. I told it to head to Bended Arrow and wait for me. I also told it that it was not to harm anyone whatsoever - not to even disturb the hairs on someone's head.

It growled in anger at this, but it had no choice but to consent.

What an amazing miraculous feeling of power this was! To be untouchable - to wield power over that which is above myself yet under the greatest power in the universe imaginable! Truly, I had felt this power before, but not to the extent I felt it that day.

I walked to Bended Arrow - which at this location was 40 miles away. Yet I did not tire once, I even seemed to have a much greater energy than I ever felt! I walked very fast, not even stopping, I must have made it in less than half the time I should have.

I walked into the ghost town. The Mothman was circling above. I bade it to follow me. I led it begrudgingly through the town, into the town hall, down to the temple underneath where the hole was kept, where all of this had begun.

I sent the Mothman demon back down the hole. I spoke the incantation. My Lord gave me the right words to say. I opened the connection between realms, sent it down the hole, and finally sealed it.

So that was the end of that, and the truth about a situation that people in the outside world have been speculating about for years.

That experience taught me much. About myself, reassured my future, and when I returned to Fetch Rock, I surmise that I was very much not the same man as I had left.

The legend of the Mothman returned to being myth. The towns nearby now celebrate what they call 'The Mothman Festival.' Fine by me. Let them all have their fun.

A very curious thing happened, though, which shocked and disturbed me at first. The Mothman is still seen around the area! Usually this precedes some sort of tragedy. I have come through meditation to divine that the Mothman is not actually in the physical realm anymore, but can still be seen whenever negative energies are gathering, much in the same way that demons can be seen on occasion in our realm when they are not actually present in the physical realm at all. Of course, demons can still, to an extent, depending on a number of different variables, phase into the physical realm every now and then. I think this is what is happening. The spirit of the Mothman still haunts the area. It is drawn to the area that was its home for so long. It still thirsts for blood. It's angry that I took that away from it. So, whenever something great and terrible is destined to occur, the Mothman haunts the area, lusting a great and terrible lust, and it can be seen, usually for just a few instances, by those who have eyes to see and take notice.

It only goes to show that despite my many, many years as a black occultist, there are still a great many things even I do not know about. It continues to be very humbling in many ways.

- Report to myself, Archimedes Demarion

Things just kept getting more and more surreal, Zack was thinking. One of the most famous urban legend monsters in history was a result of demon summoning ritual gone wrong? Not to mention that Archimedes had some sort of major power over these forces of the demonic realm? Just how much, and where did it come from?

He was finding all of this very hard to believe. If not for all the other things he'd already seen, he would have doubted it outright.

Zack replaced the report in the file drawer.

He fished out the report for Bended Arrow. It contained nothing particularly significant. It mostly gave general information of what the town had been. The last page was a report done up by Archimedes giving the official go-ahead to abandon the town. Which brought up an interesting question. Just how high up was Archimedes in all of this? Was he perhaps the leader of this entire operation? The very thought was chilling, but Zack was having a harder time coming to any other conclusion. Zack returned the file.

Zack flipped through the files a bit more until he saw one that made his heart nearly stop and leap into his throat.

Tipton Hotel

With shaking hands, Zack quickly pulled the file out and opened it up.

As he took the file out with shaking hands and opened it, he couldn't have been any more completely unnerved as when he saw that the first page was a profile of the Boston Tipton Hotel.

No way! No fucking way!

Boston. The exact location he had lived in from 11-14 years of age. The place where he held many of his dearest memories. Growing up there as a teenager. Mr. Moseby. Arwin. Maddie. London. Everything. All the memories.

The very thought that the place he had called his home growing up could be involved in this chain of bizarre was more than he could fathom.

Zack briefly wondered if maybe all of this might just happen to be some sort of dream? Some long-going hallucination? Maybe he was actually in a coma somewhere right now.

The profile showed a picture of the hotel, and had written underneath in huge, bold red letters.

'LOCATION OF ONE OF THE MEGA-HOLES'

Zack's heart was beating ninety-to-nothing.

In smaller bold font right below, it read:

'Classification: Extremely Dangerous'

The normal text on the rest of the page gave more detail:

'Once the site in the ancient past where some ancient travelers who migrated here after what is known as the Tower of Babel incident chose to dwell after Pangaea was split into pieces by controlling forces outside this universe.

These people were trying to make sense of their world and what had occurred. They were rightly angry with El, and these descendants of Noah sought the forbidden things they had been warned about, passed down from their mutual great-great-grandfather. Thus, it was at several points of the world during this time that the cult(s) of Belial, our ancestors, began to rise again.

It goes without saying that the separation of the peoples of the world by El was to prevent the cult from spreading throughout all the people of the world at once. El effectively separated the groups whose heart belonged to him from those whose hearts did not. The cult(s) of El would rise again. It was El's intent to, through the free will of those whose hearts were bound to him, mobilize the forces of El against the cult(s) of Belial and continue the attempt(s) of the never ceasing purge.

Nevermind that El's refusal to use all power to purge all those against him immediately and indefinitely is his greatest weakness. 'Justness' and 'fairness' he calls it, while nevertheless imposing weakness and slavery upon those following him, and it is the reason we shall defeat him in the end, as he shall by his own misguided "virtues" allow us to do.

But returning to the uniqueness of this location: the ancients who arrived here came across one of the mega holes, one of the great rips caused by the destruction(s) of the pre-Adamic civilization(s). They began putting their newly revitalizing dark crafts into practice. There was a minor remnant that began to catch on and incite a revolt, but they were few, and they made great sacrifices for the rituals.

They did not slaughter all of the remnant, however, but a few remained, pretending to be going along with the main group. Perhaps it was for the best. The demon that came out was of a rare soul vampire type. It immediately absorbed the souls of those closest to the hole. The others who were pretending to be going along with the cult immediately sprang into action. A prepared sealing incantation was uttered. The demon went back into the hole, and the Sons of El slaughtered the remaining Sons of Belial. They then took action, using what little magic they had left (for it took some time after the Babel incident before true magic completely disappeared from the world) to sink the temple underneath the ground.

And so it was that in 1948 that George Tipton broke ground on what was to be the location of the Boston Tipton hotel and discovered the temple. By an unusual coincidence, he possessed a copy of the Necronomicon, and immediately knew exactly what he had found.

He nearly summoned the demon, but managed to stop it in time. He had an inkling of the truth - and subsequently murdered one of our higher ranking members, Jack Cochran.

No action was taken upon Mr. Tipton in retaliation. The location of this hole is classified except for the knowledge of higher ranking leaders. This hole is extremely dangerous and must have an eye kept on the location at all times.

We must be clear that the aim of our group(s) throughout history is power. Power is ultimately our religion, and Abaddon is the most powerful. Abaddon gives us energy and salvation from the slavery of misguided ideals such as "compassion" and "love," but he will not nor allow anyone to be spared simply for following him. Indeed, all followers of all sects in all places and all times play a somewhat dangerous game when dealing with him. And indeed, though it be our religion(s), it is very much a game. Abaddon gives us power only if we deserve it. Acting with intelligence is one of the most important virtues the follower(s) must do. Some holes are too powerful for us, Abaddon will not hesitate to let us be slaughtered for missteps, but to those of us who act wisely, we shall attain salvation. We should only strive to sacrifice ourselves for the glory of the Grand Appearing. This is why the mega-holes must be sealed at all times.

The location of George Tipton's copy of the Necronomicon is at this point in time classified.'

Zack was beside himself to think that the home he had grown up in and remembered so fondly factored into all of this. That George Tipton had been messing around with this kind of stuff. That he and Cody had been living right on top of it! Zack wondered about the temple mentioned. For all of his and Cody's prowling about when they were kids, there had never been any indication of such a thing at all. And he and Cody knew the hotel like the back of their hand. Zack wondered, had it been sealed off?

But Zack saw there was more to this file. Apparently, there was also another full report included.

'The Tipton Hotel incident is one of the most important incidences to occur in the history of our formal organization. The full truth of the instance, though, has been kept from all but myself. I alone only have the full truth. There is, indeed, so much more to this tale than what is known in the official profile distributed among us!

First and foremost, nobody knows but myself that the copy of the Necronomicon George possessed was no coincidence. Kettlepod, Kansas was such an unimpressive little town. But of the believers who had been planted to safeguard a minor hole? Who cared, indeed! Did they know the truth of why they were put there? Do any of the families we place, one per generation, at one of these holes understand what is truly attempting to be accomplished? Indeed, was it not the very order of destiny itself? Do they understand the breadth of what they are doing in service to Our Lord, the most pivotal and extravagant nature of it all?

There was a reason for planting them there, much greater than they probably ever suspected. And the man who came to their doorstep, the one bearing the name of the Grand Father, how amazing their reactions would have been if they could have perceived the full truth of the one that delivered their message!

Concerning Jamie. Jamie was crazy. I could see it in the kid's eyes from the moment I took notice of him. But he was a godsend. A kid after my own heart, had I been far more egotistical and downright stupid when I was that age. I allowed the Dark Lord to lead him where he wanted to go. He wanted power, and had no idea what he was even going to do with such power. That was his undoing. That was why he deserved to die. That was why, in my opinion, Abaddon inevitably took him.

But George… yes, our Lord's will did not go unfulfilled. For this was the end of it all, to pass the book into George's hands, but not just to pass it into his hands, but to make him DESIRE the book and DESIRE to use it. I had forseen this all via the Prophet.

George was led to the Boston location. He knew not that which truly led him. He broke ground, attempted to summon something out of it, and was successful.

Oh, he tried to stop it. But it was all in vain. I watched this, just as if in that present time as much as I am in this present time right now, writing these words.

His mistake had ramifications for decades to come. The entire city of Boston was plunged into fear. How many disappeared that fateful night? The demon absorbed them all and held their souls captive, sustaining itself on their energy. And more people in the area continued to disappear.

But the quality of the souls was insufficient. The experiment proved what I had long suspected. That the Appearing could not be made to happen by the activating of only one or even all of the holes. No, the energies required are too extreme, too complex.

Actually, this was more for my benefit than anything else. I had to smirk as I watched the experiment fail. I had indeed feared it might be successful. I had been prepared to step in if it had.

What was I trying to prove? That Abaddon was not all powerful, here, in this realm tainted by El. Abaddon needs us – and me – just as much as we need his power.

Power. That's what this is all about. The greatest force in the universe. The experiment proved that Abaddon could not dispose of me so easily should he desire it.

The demon reigned in a large area of Boston for a very long period of time. The city was thrust into a panic. The United States government cordoned off an entire massive area of the city. It was known as the "Ghost Zone."

Now Zack it was all Zack could do but look at the page in confusion. This had definitely not happened. What exactly was going on here?

The demon needed more souls - special souls that carry that psychic link, the ability to, on occasion, connect between the realms. Very few have this gift. It is a remnant of the Old World, the world before the fall of Babel, the world before Adam.

The hotel went through a dormant period for a long time before it took Timothy Pike in 1986. Timothy was just a child, but had a large enough amount of energy to give it a strong charge. This lasted for a while, until it depleted Timothy's soul of its energy and of all the new souls it had attained. Then it went dormant again, and the legend of the hotel started to become mythology. It was a wealthy nightclub chain owner named Zack Martin who purchased the hotel and tried to turn it into his latest themed club for a profit. Beforehand, though, Todd St. Mark, in a secret relationship with London Tipton, found out the family's secret, that they knew something of George Tipton's work to stop something accidentally unleashed in the hotel. He arrived at the hotel to stop it himself and inadvertently provided the demon with another charge. Then it got Zack. Then Maddie Fitzpatrick and Trevor Bates, two 'ghost hunters' who happened to be there at the time.

It was the successor to George Tipton's attempt to undo what he had caused who finally put a stop to it. Zack's brother, Cody Martin.

Zack didn't think he could possibly take any more surprises. He really couldn't. His name. His brother's name. Maddie's name. London's name. In black and white. In an official report by Archimedes Demarion. The Tipton hotel. His brother. All connected to this conspiracy. Right here, surefire proof. Whether anything in this report was true or not. The growing anxiety in Zack's stomach was increasing.

Cody Martin showed remarkable resourcefulness in getting the best of the demon. I must admit I was rather impressed myself. Cody managed to fully divine the sealing incantation. It was uttered – those lyrics from that ancient language of the Old World. The souls the demon had absorbed were set free and returned to their respective times. This caused a massive dimensional hiccup from all the souls being returned to different times which caused history to change. The souls that vanished that fated night at the grand ball did not vanish at all. Most lost their memories of what had happened in the future that now never was.

George Tipton as well lost any such memories. In this new emerging timeline, he was not aware of how the hole was sealed, or what had brought about their unexpected salvation. But he did go into action rather fast and took the opportunity to murder our plant, Jack Cochran, acting CEO of Tipton Industries.

Some viewed the experiment as a failure. Of course, from my point of view, it was all playing out as it should. But more than just an experiment, more than just for my own attempts to understand, it was also highly necessary as I viewed it through the Prophet, to reshape the timeline somewhat. All must be exactly as it should be, happening in a specific way, everything at specific times. That way the Glorious Appearing can take place without a hitch. I see hundreds of possibilities, hundreds of futures in which we fail. Only a few in which the Incantation is successful. It gives me glee to know I have the power that ensures it will happen and no one will be able to stop it. Indeed, you could say now the real game is afoot.

Cody's sealing of the hole marked the end of his role in this game. Truthfully, I could take revenge and use him as one of the Blashphemies if I so wanted to. Almost did, actually. But another opportunity presented itself. I think I have more than enough now. There is no necessity to complicate things further than they need to be. I could kill Cody, but he did exactly what I wanted him to. I have no particular malice toward him. Does that make you feel better, Zack? He almost reminds me of my own brother. Full of spirit! But Cody Martin is less stupid. My brother was stupid. He deserved what happened to him. But Abaddon will deal with Cody as he pleases during the Appearing.

The other one will doubtless soon be poking around down here. He has his own special role to play. I dare not write it down here. Suspense to keep up and all, right, Zack?

The events have been set into motion. I see them even now, as I wander the tunnels between eras, tunnels that only those with the certain gifts have the power to traverse.

Roads of angels, as it were.

I have prepared a gauntlet of sorts for the Harbinger. The Harbinger tries to stop me, but I have already seen how the story ends! And it does not matter if he knows he is heading to his doom. His rage will not allow him to take any other path. I see all and know all. It's nice to have control.

Report to myself, Archimedes Demarion

Zack's grip on the file was so angry the part he was holding was crumpling in his hands. He closed the file and slammed it down in anger on the desk.

This was the proof he had needed. The unquestionable proof he had been trying to find. He didn't know what they had done to Maya, but he was pretty certain he was never going to see her again. He knew it. These twisted freaks – Archimedes – had been watching him for a long time. This had all been planned.

He thought back to John Tracey telling him that statistically there was nothing to fear from these people and nothing had really ever happened to anyone. Zack laughed.

He thought about showing this stuff to the authorities. But how could he? This stuff talked about demons, time travel, parallel universes, and all that kind of babble. How would he ever get taken seriously? But maybe he could prove that there had been an insane cult here involving him in some insane conspiracy. But then again, he had also been missing for ten years in this world. The more Zack sat and thought about it, the harder a time he was having making it work in his head.

The cult also seemed convinced, from the stuff he'd read, that he was an important figure in what they were trying to accomplish. Why him? What did he have that nobody else had? Why was he having to go through any of this?

Apparently, by what Archimedes wrote, there had once been another timeline. A past in which one of these demons got summoned. It had summoned right in the home he and Cody had grown up in!

Something had gone so wrong it had gotten noticed by entire world and created a panic. Something bad had happened to him. Cody had been the one who had come and set things right. But everything was righted, and Zack was still here, but apparently Zack had always been important to the cult. They still had big plans for him.

This was, of course, if he even believed the things he had read in front of him.

But could he fully doubt them? His head was all mixed up. He had witnessed events of the supernatural, for certain. He had even time traveled ten years into the future! Maybe in actuality he had hit his head at some point and was now in a deep coma. Maybe all of this was really happening in his mind.

It all sounded pretty insane when he thought about it. An alternate history? One that no longer existed? One in which Zack and Cody had not grown up inside the hotel, yet it somehow turned out to be a very important part of their destiny nonetheless?

Zack felt disconnected. His head felt heavy. It was all too much to take in. He felt for sure he must be dreaming. None of this could possibly be real. Maybe that stupid cave hadn't transported him to the future at all! Maybe he was now lying in a coma somewhere. But how could he prove that? He pinched himself hard and found out it hurt.

He started going through the files and desk again. He was looking for a report by Archimedes that might give any indication of what might have happened to his wife. He went through file after file. Much of it looked like very interesting reading he had no time to read. In the end, Zack could find no such report at all. Nothing giving off any indication whatsoever about what may have happened to his wife.

At the end of it all, Zack felt even more upset than he'd felt previously. He felt like he was stuck in a neverending nightmare. He just wanted it all to end.

But then Zack alighted on something. Something that sent him scrambling through the files one more time.

What it...?

Somehow, Zack had time traveled to this era. If time travel was real, could it not be possible to go back in time and save his wife? He wasn't sure. His thoughts might lead to a dead end, as far as he was certain. But he didn't really have any idea of what caused the luminescent wall he had encountered in that cave to be some sort of portal to this time. But he also knew that the portal had vanished when he had arrived here.

He came across a file he had skipped over the last few times. He pulled it out and realized this was what he was looking for.

The file was called 'Tunnels.'

Of course, it was written by Archimedes Demarion.

'Time is not so much of a fixed state. Indeed, until the fall of Atlantis, Mu, and the other pre-Adamic civilizations, the concept of time itself was given no credence. It was barely even noticeable in any sense of the thought-magic created societies of the time.

What we call time exists simultaneously. All is one and one is all. Time does not exist beyond the 'physical' realm. Time is a construct of the pocket universe that is our world for the progression of the final eternal state of things.

But true progression lies inasmuch within the metaphysical as well as the physical. For in the metaphysical, all that ever will be already is, in a sense. In the physical, we still have not caught up with the grand order of the way things are in the rest of the universe.

Concerning the tunnels: tunnels are wholly magic based. Not all magic disappeared after the fall of Atlantis, not all magic fully disappeared after the Babel incident. To be clearer, tunnels are rips through 'eternity' by which other simultaneous destinations upon the physical timestream can be reached. Time/space rips, to put them in strictly scientific terms.

Since time is constantly flowing while everything yet exists simultaneously, this is of course why we can have such things in our world such as 'prophets' and 'prophecy.' All that ever will be has already been determined. But the timestream is also not without possibilities. Nothing is set in stone. History is always happening, and 'progression' is always taking place, but progression is not linear.

It is indeed a mistake to think that time only occurs in one single progression along the physical. The timeline also can continue out of order. This can happen through actions in the past, present, and future, especially by those who traverse the tunnels. These tunnels are very rare and very few and very far in between. I am one of the very few throughout the entirety of history of all the billions of people who have ever lived who has had the blessing of traversing these tunnels. The first time was an accident. Many of the other tunnels I had to create. The "Proxy" and the Prophet made this easy for me. My time spent in the darkness in between periods of existence made it possible for me to understand how to do it.

But as I was saying, time can occur out of order. For example, a person born in the future creates history by altering the past. Sometimes actions can delete a timestream and create another future entirely. But this is typically a deception. Oftentimes what the time traveler thinks he is doing to change the future usually causes it to happen. For example, the very act of going back in time to prevent the Kennedy Assassination or the 9/11 tragedy, for example, might actually result in the predestined history actually happening. (The former has actually happened through a rather humorous fluke. I witnessed it.)

Each tunnel is only good for one type of 'jump.' A tunnel that leads from 1967 to 2013, for example, will only lead back and forth from those times and nowhere else. Each tunnel is different, and there are very few. You are normally lucky if you can find one. I was able to create a few very specific ones for my purposes. You cannot choose which time you want to go to, or the specific location you want to go to.

I should make another note: the destinations flow along with the physical timestream. That is, if there is a tunnel going to and from 1967 to 2013, and you live in 1967 and wait a full year before taking the tunnel, you would find that the destinations of the tunnel had changed to 1968 to 2014.

It is a great mystery why they work in the manner that they do, but it makes my work so much easier.

It is of some irritation that I cannot see all the way into all the possible futures to the end of history. I can only see up to a number of years ahead, till about 2071. I can only guess that as history is still being written, the possible branches coming from possible branches are more obscure to me. The End of Time has not occurred as far as I can see. But with the power I wield, the end will be written much sooner. The tunnels will not be needed after that. All time shall become one. Eternity shall become reality. A new world will be created. It will be that which has been fought for since the construct of flowing time began. It will be most glorious.

And such is the nature of the tunnels and the secrets that lie therein.

Report to myself, Archimedes Demarion

So, that proved his last hope somewhat hopeless. If this report was true, then the odds of him finding himself in the exact past and location he would need to be to save Maya were less than slim. He'd have to find a very specific tunnel to take him to a very specific time. He wouldn't know where to look or if one existed.

He sighed to himself as he closed the file and set it on its desk. He was exhausted and mentally drained.

If the portal in the cave worked both ways, he knew he should have no problem getting back to his own time. At least this way, he'd have the ability to search the town thoroughly uninhibited and get the information he needed. He suspected they might not have expected him to come back and use one of their tunnels. But he then thought of the way Archimedes had addressed him in the Mothman file, though, and felt disturbed.

Was he perhaps wrong? Were they aware of his interloping, even now? Had Archimedes intended it? Was his discovering all this stuff part of the plan? Or were they really just trying to mess with his mind?

This could all be just a setup. Zack had no way of proving whether or not anything listed in the books and files he'd been reading was true.

Zack thought of Maddie.

'Forget her.' He found himself thinking to himself. This time period didn't exist, as far as he was concerned. When he returned to his own time, it wouldn't matter no more. He decided that first he was going to return to the cave, verify the tunnel was there and could be used, then he was going to come back, prowl through the houses, find something to store all of the items and information he had found. He just needed to get back to his own time for a few minutes. He needed to get back to sanity.

His head aching something terrible, he got up from the seat and exited this monument to the absolute surreal.

(7)

He realized when he stepped outside that he still hadn't checked out the police station yet. He wanted to at least see the underground cells, to see if they held any clues whether or not Maya had ever been there.

It was just a short walk down the road. The fog seemed to be denser upon the town. Fitting, Zack thought.

Zack wasn't scared of anything. He was beyond being scared by this point. Right now he felt mostly angry. He would have welcomed something advancing on him from the fog. Bashing something or someone's head in would have been perfect catharsis. But nothing appeared, much to his relief and disappointment.

It was a short walk, and he arrived right at the police station's door. He entered, taking in the familiar scenery once again. Nothing had changed from ten years ago. He headed toward what he assumed to be Ollie's desk. He poked around the drawers and pulled out a ring of keys, which was exactly what he had been looking for. He then headed toward the opening on left side and into a hallway. There were a few doors along the hallway, but Zack ignored them. Zack followed the hallway around to the back where he found a few jail cells. There was nothing fancy. Just three ordinary cells on the back wall, the kind you'd see in any small town station. Zack knew this wasn't what he was looking for, though. He took a glance around and saw a large metal hatch in the floor. There was a small hole on the side facing him. Zack saw a crowbar leaning against the wall. Zack grabbed the crowbar and used it to pull up the hatch. It came up fairly easily. A flight of stairs went down into darkness. Zack turned on his flashlight and slowly descended.

A strong musty smell wafted up. This area much bigger than the area just above. It was a fairly narrow space. Zack could see there were three cells on each wall, opposite each other.

The doors were completely metal. There was no opening to look in or out of them. There was a small slat with a lock by which Zack presumed was used to deliver food to the people in the cells. Zack played around with the keys on the ring and tried to open one of the doors. He finally found one that worked and opened the cell, turning the keys with a *click*.

The door opened with a creek. Zack poked around inside with his flashlight. It took Zack a few seconds to realize that the door and walls were completely padded. The floor was stone, and there was a hole in the floor that he presumed was the toilet. There was nothing resembling any sort of bed here.

It was apparent that for anyone doing 'penance' here, they were locked in total darkness in a soundproof room with nothing but a hole in the ground. Near total sensory deprivation. Zack could only imagine what it must have been like to be stuck in a place like this. He thought of the possibility of Maya having to be in a place like this. His anger only continued to grow.

He checked each cell. The key he was using worked for all the cells. He found nothing else inside but a repeat of what he'd found in the first. No indication of who might have been in here and when.

There was nothing else to find, and Zack felt he'd had his fill of this place for one eternity. He headed back up into the police station. He had only one more thing he needed from this town and he would be on his way.

(8)

Zack stole through the foggy town. He didn't encounter Maddie along the way, which was fine by him. He took her boat and headed back out to the island.

He got to the island, pulled the boat upon the beach, and quickly made his way back to the cave.

He suddenly realized he'd forgotten to bring any of the evidence with him! But he decided he didn't really want to go back at this point. He needed a break. He just needed to get back to reality for the time being. He could come back if he needed to. Just no more for a bit.

He maneuvered quickly through the cave and came into the open area. He headed up to where he had remembered the shining part of the wall being. He touched the wall. Nothing.

Perhaps he was in the wrong spot. He shined his flashlight all around. He could see none of the familiar shining luminescence whatsoever. Panic welling up in his body, he continued to feel all around the area.

Extreme agitation coursed through his body as his feeling around became more frantic. But nothing happened. The portal, whatever it was, was no longer where he was supposed to be. Zack yelled and slammed his fist on the wall and tried to get ahold of himself. He felt a migraine coming on as he tried to get his mind straight and come to acceptance of the terrible new situation at hand.

He was stranded here.