Chapter 41 Touch of Death

Things just keep getting better and better. To Lady Kingdom Keyblade, well I'm glad that you will still read my story even though you aren't Christian. Believe me my intent in writing this has nothing to do with being biased against other faiths or saying bad things about them. That would be hypocritical of me. Zach trying to force religion on others? That never occured to me. Probably the reason you think this is because a lot of the time he is dealing with demons, who already know the truth but choose not to listen, and when dealing with demons one must act forceful. If you talk to someone whose done exorcisms they'll probably agree with me.

I stood their for about two minutes, watching the books slowly float across the room, before sweeping past the books coming from the other side, and then fitting themselves into the spaces left where the other half of the books had come. Then, more books began to lift off and move again. Ghosts? No. Demons. I banished my fear, and cleared my mind from the darkness. I knew that this was only an attempt to place fear in my heart. I then closed my eyes, and bowed my head.

"In the name of the Lord," I said aloud, "I cleanse my soul and mind. May the light of God shine upon me, and cast away the demons which stand before me. For it is decreed in the Bible that those who follow God shall cast out demons."

I opened my eyes, and noticed that the books seemed to tremble as the words left my mouth. I smiled. Demons were not all powerful. Then I took one step forward. The books floated out in front of me, as if trying to keep me from getting through. I reached out with my hands, and brushed the books aside as I walked between the two rows. The books were all around me, reaching out to me like cold, dead hands. When they touched my flesh, it felt as if a Ghost was touching me. Cold they were, cold as death. Suddenly one book floated off of the shelf, and moved right in front of my face. Then it opened, and flipped through several pages. It stopped on page 397, and the face of the Right Hand appeared on the page. His cold, neon green eyes glared at me through his black flesh.

"What is that tune you are humming?" the face asked. "I seem to remember it from somewhere."

"Its a Christmas song. You know, the holiday where we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Its called 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.'"

"Oh right!" the Right Hand growled. "And of course, you are, a Gentleman!"

"God rest ye merry Gentlemen, let nothing you dismay, Remember Christ the Savior was born on Christmas day; To save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray. Oh tidings of comf-"

"Silence!" the Right Hand thundered. "I will not listen to songs about... Him!"

"Glory to God in the Highest," I said. "And on Earth Peace, and good will tow-"

The Right Hand shrieked, loudly, and the book slammed shut, and then opened again.

"What is with that song anyways?"

"Its what's keeping you out," I said, and continued humming 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.'

The book slammed shut, and fell to the ground with a thud. I reached down, and lifted it up slowly. I then turned it over, and read the title.

"Speaking to Spirits: how to get in touch with spirit guides and guardians." I read the title before dropping the book to the floor. "Its so fitting, isn't it Right Hand," I said as I walked away, "that you would appear in a book which contains the words breathed by Satan."

I continued walking deeper into the library. But as I walked, it seemed as if the air around me grew darker and darker. This was a dark place I was in. I began to hear noises of people crying out and wailing in pain. I shook my head, and forced the sounds out of my head.

"Don't listen Zach," I said so myself. "Its just a trick of the Right Hand to strike fear into you."

I continued, pushing past the lines of books, searching for my target. Dang, how big was this library? Every once and a while random books would lift off the wall and float towards me. I began to quote scripture when they were approaching me, and many of them fell to the ground, their power taken away.

"Where are you Right Hand?" I shouted out into the cold corridors of the library. "Come out and face me!"

I heard a strange hissing sound somewhere off in the rows ahead of me. What was that? I continued walking, warily looking into each darkened row which I passed, warily looking for any dark creature which may be lying in wait for me. There was the hiss again! It came from the row just ahead of me. Without thinking, I bypassed the other rows and walked over to that row. I then looked into it, my eyes peering through the darkness in search of whatever may be creating the noise. Nothing. Then I turned to look into the row to the right of the one I was looking into. I turned, expecting to see complete darkness, and found myself face to face with a corpse. I screamed, and fell backwards to the floor, and the cold image of the dead body faded away into the darkness. I breathed a sigh of relief, and stood up to my feet. It was only a hallucination, it was only a hallucination.

"Oooooooooo," a moan suddenly rose up into the air, freezing me in place, and slowing the very beating of my heart.

I turned, and looked back down the row between the two bookshelves again. I saw a creature, no, a monster, walking slowly between the bookshelves, while moaning like the dead. It looked human, but its skin was yellow, and underneath the skin it appeared to have only bones. For its skin held tightly to its bones, making it look like the very product of my nightmares. This... thing was dressed in a loose robe which was wrapped around the walking skeleton as if it could hide the scary features of the creature. But its eyes, I will never forget those eyes. Like the eyes of creatures born of your very nightmares, they searched around the row, looking for the souls of the living. Its bald, yellow head moved back and forth, and its glowing demonic eyes continued there search. The creature moaned again, before settling its eyes upon me. The horrible, dead eyes widened with the bloodlust of the damned as its foul gaze fell upon me. Then, without reason and without warning, the creature descended.

"Aaauuuuuggggggg!" I heard it screech as it flew towards me, with claws held outwards as if to scoop up my soul and tear it apart.

"Oh crap!" I shouted, before turning and running for my life.

For the first time in my life, I experienced pure terror. This creature was beyond any nightmare I had faced in the past. Just the fact that something as horrible as it was was coming for me caused my heart to stop, and my soul to cry out for salvation. It screeched like the undead as it gained on me. I was too afraid to look back. But then I began to wonder if it existed at all. Perhaps it was just another hallucination, set loose by the Right Hand to strike pure terror into my heart. I turned, and took one look over my shoulder. I looked into its eyes, and decided that I did not want to wait and find out. I turned and ran. Then I tripped on a loose floorboard, and tumbled over into empty space. No!I rolled over, and saw the creature descending upon me, with its arms held outwards as if to grab my still body and lift me up into its jaws. It got closer and closer, and each time I almost expected to wake up from a very long, and very very horrible nightmare. But I didn't. Then, it was almost upon me. It reached out its cold hands towards me!

"In the name of Jesus!" I screamed as quickly as I could. "I rebuke you!"

"Aaaauuuuugggg!" it screamed, its dark eyelids pulled back to expose the pale orbs.

"IN THE NAME OF JESUS!" I screamed.

Its gray hands reached out for my head. But then, right before they could touch me, its hands crumbled away. Before I knew it, the rest of the creature had disintegrated before my very eyes. It was gone. I took a deep breath.

"God be praised," I said softly.

Suddenly two hands grabbed me from behind. I screamed, and whirled around to face my attacker.


"Look!" Gotz shouted, pointing up into the sky. "Look what is happening!"

Kai looked up.

"What?" he asked. "Is it the Right Hand?"

"No," Gotz said, "something much more powerful than the Right Hand."

The two of them had run off chasing the lightning men until both of them had struck down as many as they could. The few that escaped leaped upon the person they were chasing, and then the person fell to the ground in an unconscious state of mind. Now the two of them had met back up, surprised that they couldn't find Zach. But then, the sky opened above them, and a neon green light shone down upon them.

"Harvest Goddess," Kai said. "It is the Harvest Goddess!"

A flash shot to the ground, and the Goddess appeared in a fragrance of bright neon light and transparent roses.

"I wield the powers of Nature," the Goddess said. "I wield the powers of plants. I preach the care for the Environment. Your God does not!"

She fired a bolt of neon green energy from her hand. Gotz and Kai leaped out of the way as it slammed against the ground before them.

"That is where you are wrong," Gotz retaliated. "You say you care for the Environment, buy you really only care for yourself."

"I take what is mine!" the Goddess suddenly shouted, jerking forward towards Gotz, her eyelids flashing wide open while her pupils flashed neon green glowing in a demonic glare.

Gotz stepped back from the sheer ferocity of this. Her eyes burned with an eternal hatred before the green fire sizzled out, and her demonic eyes returned to normal. At least, to what was believed to be normal.

"You are a demon, Goddess," Kai said. "I command you in the name of the God most high to leave this island and never return."

The Goddess shot him a demonic glare, but then her eyes quickly returned to normal. As if receiving an idea, the Harvest Goddess snapped her fingers and the cloud which she sat upon disappeared. The Goddess fell to the ground, before lifting herself up, and standing before them. When she wasn't on her cloud the Goddess looked surprisingly human. She appeared solid as a mortal, and stood about five foot nine. Perfectly sized for a human. She was dressed in a rather immodest two piece blue sort of suit. Her arms and legs were completely bare. Suddenly with an abrupt change of attitude, the Harvest Goddess began to smile at the two men with a seductive glow.

"You two are both men," she said. "And I am a woman. I promise that I can give you happiness for your entire lives if you in turn promise to give up your faiths in God and follow me. You know, its been a long time since I've treated anyone as an equal. It seems that everyone is below me. I lead all the Spirits, none of them are above me, at least none on this island. I think that I could only treat someone as my equal if they were to be my lover..."

She stopped for an instant, letting the words sink in. Kai's eyes wandered dangerously over her exposed flesh, before he stopped himself, rebuked himself in his mind, and asked God for forgiveness once again. To lust in such a way was no different than adultery.

"We would never..." Gotz began, but the words didn't come to his mouth.

"I may be a Spirit," the Goddess continued, "but I can take on a physical form. I can get intimate with humans you know..."

Something in the atmosphere changed. It became more sensual, more alluring, more deceitful. The sex drives in men are already unfortunately strong, but now they were made stronger. The Goddess took a step towards the two of them, looking both in the eye.

"No," Gotz said. "No. We can't do this. I have made a commitment to God."

But that didn't faze the Goddess. She walked right up to him, and leaned towards him enchantingly. The Goddess' soft, perfect hands took Gotz's hand and drew it towards her body. Gotz pulled his hand out of hers, and turned his back to her.

"No," he said. "I will not give in to your impure desires."

The Goddess frowned, and turned towards Kai.

"I can take you with me," she said with almost a pleading look in her eyes. "You and I can travel the world together. I would make a wonderful lover..."

She sniffed a little, purely to make herself off to be a sad, vulnerable girl. Kai found himself at a loss for words at this point.

"You don't have to settle down," she said. "For I will follow you wherever we go. She would never do that."

By she Kai knew she referred to Popuri, who wanted to settle down on Mineral Island and raise a family. Kai felt his loyalty to Popuri pulling him back, but the sensual atmosphere drew him forward. And sex can have a huge effect on men. Such a horrible, evil effect that it seems so hard for them to refuse the sin. The Goddess began walking towards him slowly.

"I will show you the true way to live life. A way filled with happiness, joy, and pleasure..."

The Goddess purred as she enunciated the last word. Kai's heart beat rose to a high level within him as he searched for the right way to handle this situation. The Goddess must have noticed that he was thinking hard about this, for she then reached out a tentative hand, and began stroking his arm softly, taking his mind off of morality and what was right.

"You are quite handsome Kai," the Goddess said almost secretively, before leaning in towards his face.

It all happened so fast that Kai could barely react. One minute she was walking slowly towards him, and the next she was kissing him passionately. The pleasure was intense as the Goddess stroked his face as she continued to kiss him on his lips, his cheeks, and his neck. Kai opened his mouth to protest, but the Goddess placed a gentle finger on his lips.

"Don't speak," she said softly. "Just kiss."

She then leaned in again and kissed him with much more energy, much more passion than before. Through this erotic show of power an alarm still managed to go off in Kai's head, even though he really enjoyed what she was doing. Perhaps it was when the Goddess began fingering the straps of her blue top that the first alarm sounded in Kai's mind. A part of him began shouting at him about his loyalty to Popuri, and his commitment to God, but a bigger and stronger part of him began shouting at him to go all the way in with this. For before him stood a shimmering beauty of pure gorgeousness that existed no where else. But then, through all this erotic confusion, Kai began to remember what the Bible said about this sort of thing.

"But I say this to you: 'If a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart'." (Matthew 5:27-28)

Adultery in my heart, Kai thought.

He had already committed adultery with the Goddess in his heart. A shock went through him, causing him to abruptly pull away from the sensual lips of the Goddess. The Goddess cursed this, knowing right well what had happened. And she had been so close to removing his innocence.

"What's wrong?" she asked looking up at him with sad eyes.

"This is," Kai said. "I made a commitment to God. I agreed to follow his laws. And on top of all this, I have Popuri. I can't believe I fell under your temptation!"

Kai prayed for forgiveness, and turned his back to the Goddess.

"I don't want you," he said as guilt washed over him. "Leave this island in the name of Jesus Christ."

The Goddess' eyes quickly changed from sad and vulnerable to angry and vengeful. Without warning she drew back her hand, and stabbed Kai through the back with her fingernails. The cut through him, splitting skin and bone.

"Kai!" Gotz shouted. "No!"

Kai crumpled to the ground as the Goddess began to smirk.

"No one says no to me!" she shouted, before laughing at the fallen shape of Kai.

Then the Harvest Goddess leaped up into the air, spinning as she flew. She landed on her cloud again, which lifted her up into the air. But the cloud was no longer white and pretty. It had become a dark, storm cloud. Gotz ran to Kai's side, and knelt beside him.

"I will swallow the entirety of this town into myself!" the Goddess shouted, with fire in her eyes. "I will take them with me! I will drag them down to the most unholy place in the universe!"

Gotz looked up at the Goddess as rain began to fall from the sky.


I knocked the cold hands away with my arm, and drew my sword. I found myself facing the librarian, Mary. Her face was etched in fear, and she huddled against the wall, as if fearing that some demon would come and take her to the Abyss.

"Mary?" I said. "What are you doing in here?"

"Please help me..." she whimpered in her terror.

A hiss rose up from further on in the library.

"They are in here," Mary said in utter fear. "I can hear them. I can feel them. Can you hear the people who are dying in here?"

"Listen to me Mary," I said.

"They are being tortured, please help me. They will find us, and torture us as well."

"Mary," I said. "Do not trust your ears in here. Its all an illusion. Do not trust even your senses. The demons have saturated this building with their evil power. That is why I am here. To face it down."

"They're going to kill us," Mary whimpered.

Another hiss. I lifted my sword up, and looked out into the darkness beyond me.

"Its not you they want," I whispered. "At least not now. Right now they are after me."

A bloodthirsty moan rose up from the far side of the Library.

"The exit is only thirty feet behind us," I said. "Look, you can see it if you look around this bookshelf."

Mary leaned over, and looked around the bookshelf. The door was there all right. But then a misty figure stepped out from the shadows, positioning itself in front of the door. It opened its demonic eyes, and roared at us. Mary screamed and jumped back behind the bookshelf where she grabbed me and held on tightly.

"Its okay," I said. "Trust me. Its just an illusion. It doesn't really exist. And if it does I know what will bring it down."

I stepped out of behind the bookshelf and saw that the misty ghost had disappeared.

"Its gone," I said. "You need to make a run for the door. When you get out of this building run for the beach. When you get there look for a boat. There should be a boat floating off in the water somewhere. Wave to it, half the people in the town are on board it. If anything stops you call on the name of Jesus and rebuke it. Do you understand me?"

Mary nodded hesitantly.

"Go," I said. "Right now!"

Mary let go of me, and bolted for the door. But the ghostly apparition reappeared, blocking her path. It wailed at her, its cold glowing green eyes flashing in the darkness. Mary fell backwards and screamed.

"Mary!" I shouted. "Fight back!"

She immediately screamed the name of Jesus as loud as she could. It was as if that was all she could say. But she screamed it as if she had a point to make. The Ghostly wraith roared, and exploded in blue fire. Mary leaped back to her feet and ran out the door as quickly as she could. I turned towards the far side of the library, were the hissing continued.

"Demons! You will not overtake me!"

But the demons did not care for my comments. They were the darkness, and the darkness was of them.

'I thought that by now you would have learned as much Zach. Darkness is falling on Mineral Town. The town is dying, and soon it will be replaced by a broken foundation, never to hold up any structure ever again. Its just an empty foundation, burned to the ground.'

"It will live on!"

'You cannot save it Zach. You do not hold the strength. You are weak.'

"And you are as well!" A shriek erupted from the other side of the room, and I saw a ghostly demon shoot out from the shadows at me.

I swung my sword as it flew into me, shattering it back into the nothingness it came from.

"I call upon the name of Jesus Christ!"

'Your calls will remain unanswered mortal.'

"My calls are always answered by God!"

'God does not care!'

"Then come out and fight me!" I challenged. "If God does not care, then you have nothing to fear. If God does not care then I have no strength, and will fall before you as nothing but a mortal. But I am not just a mortal! I am a mortal who holds the Holy Spirit in his heart! And you fear this!"

The Right Hand did not respond. It would not admit to its fear of the powers of God.

"The things I treasure most are beyond your reach," I continued. "You cannot reach them. You do not have the power. You are weak Right Hand! And I see you as what you truly are. You are a fallen Angel, you hold no power but the power of evil. And evil is easily held back by the power of good."

'The darkness is stronger than you think it is.'

"God is stronger than anything."