CHAPTER 25 - "THE CURSE OF THE DAMNED"

It was remarkable the twists and turns life has for someone, Thann Von Strauss thought. One moment, a person can be on top of the world, and the next, they are dead - killed by a sibling, driven by their inner hate for transgressions done against him, by his own family. He never understood it until now that he was dead, a wandering spirit, just how psychologically damaging words and actions could form the psyche of an individual and then make him snap at a moment's notice when the opportunity arose.

And he had driven his brother mad with hatred towards him for things he had done to Spencer throughout his life. Then he had kidnapped Spencer and took him to that sadistic demon. And now Spencer was just like him, and under the guise of Decco's influence.

But partial fault was on his father, Erich Von Strauss, for demanding retribution on his own son for betraying the Illuminati, by feeding First Inspector Frederick Abberline information that Spencer thought would eventually lead Scotland Yard to bringing the Illuminati down.

But that was only a dream, fancy. Because nothing was more powerful than the Illuminati. They were everywhere, in every city, in city town, on every continent, and most of the time, you wouldn't even know it. They hid in political fronts, social circles, and ran the financial world through the threat and manipulation of others within these circles. You see, knowledge was power, and with some of the most knowledgeable men on the planet within the Illuminati, there was nothing hidden from them.

This is what drove Thann Von Strauss to be their envoy in England, because eventually he thought he would rise to be one of the elite and be a dominate force within their circle of friends. But not any longer. That dream was dead - like him. But as a ghost, he knew he could still make a different. He could turn the tides and rescue his brother, and thus, he escaped from…some sort of spirit processing centre?

He had been in a line with countless other spirits. The "room" was very large, completely white, and looked like a bank with tellers, and he told this was only the "check-in", told to him by a reception area before that. The reception desk was manned by a large individual who had the appearance of a Titan from Greek mythos, or a massive body builder, who continuously strived to strengthen himself like Atlas. While waiting in this line, he heard many different languages being spoken, most of which he couldn't fathom understanding, but some were French, Italian and English, and they were all asked the same question: "How did you die?" When it was his turn, he couldn't bare to speak his embarrassing death, so he merely said, "Blood lose." But from where his blood lose occurred, it wasn't difficult to see the cause.

I literally drowned in my own blood from my brother biting off my penis.

The man merely waved him to another door, to which he then found himself at the back of a very long line of other spirits in a Processing Centre. Was this was death was like or was he dreaming? he thought. There was absolutely no way he was going to wait for what would be like an eternity in this snake of a line.

So he slipped away, out of the Processing Centre. It was, in fact, quite easy and he had no resistance. There were no guards, no enforcement, no watchmen of any kind. And no where did he see that strange man in the black suit and two-tone hair and glasses that had brought him here.

What did he say he was…a Reaper? A supernatural "death being" - go-between the living and dead?

He remembered what he had done when he first realized he was dead. He cried and begged the "man" to restore him back to life, to give him a second chance, so he could make amends for his evil transgressions in life, especially towards his little brother, whom if it wasn't for him, Spencer would not have been seduced by a demon and then became his minion. And Thann was very apologetic. But the man would not relent in his duties, and refused.

"You blew it buddy," he had said to him. "Everyone dies. How and when - who knows? I'm just here to collect your soul and take it to be processed. Then the Decisioners will dicide where you go, and from your life record -" he looked in a file folder he held in his hand, "- it doesn't look good."

It was then the man showed him what he called a "cinematic record" of his life. It started at his birth, spanned through his childhood years, his teenage years, and his young adulthood, up until his death - and how he died. His horrible, disgusting, and shameful death. He couldn't believe that he had demanded Spencer "service" him, knowing of his brother's gay relationship with his friend Trent Banes. His brother was a poof, and this was looked down about in every social circle. It was like you had a mental illness.

And yet, he had the same "illness", and had, on occasion engaged in homoerotic coitus with men, as well as woman, and mostly in Illuminati ceremonies. And what he regretted just as much was murdering his own sister, Krystal, during an Illuminati ceremony, directed by his very own father. With fresh, family blood, he said that it would draw a demon to them, so the Illuminati could learn secrets of the ages. But it had failed, and Krystal died for nothing. At the time, he felt it had been his duty, and what he did didn't bother him - which it should have. She was his flesh and blood and he had committed murder, the most hideous crime in the Bible, for which he wore a crucifix around his neck because he believed in God - but he was sick in the head, he knew that now. He was a sadistic bastard that deserved what he got and Spencer had been his executioner.

He would be willing to go to Hell for eternity, but he had to save his brother first from a living hell. He had to break the power Decco held over Spencer. Once he did that, he would gladly suffer for his transgressions. He had no misgivings towards his brother. Spencer was a good boy. No, that was not fair. He was a good man, even though he was only seventeen, and he could make his own decisions. But this, being a minion of a demon, was not his choice to make - it was forced upon him.

And I am to blame.

He thought of his brother - and instantaneously he was taken to the front courtyard of the Von Strauss Manor. Was his will to find Spencer drawing him here? Was Spencer here at their home on the outskirts of London in the beautiful countryside?

He recalled the history of the grounds. At one point, a wealthy family owned and lived here, but then moved to a new location or simply sold the land for some unknown reason and build a large estate elsewhere. However, the name of this family was unknown - he only knew they had gained their fortune in a foreign gold mine, somewhere in Peru. The house was demolished. In later years, when his grandfather bought the land, and his father grew-up to amass his wealth and fortune, the Von Strauss Manor was built.

But it all means nothing now.

As a disembodied spirit, he walked through the front the door without solid contact and made his way into the vestibule hallway housing the main staircase. He felt a chill down his spine, not a physical one but a feeling of psychological nervousness about the manor. He felt a dark presence residing within and when he looked around, he found his family's butler laying dead in the library in a pool of his own blood, a deep wound in his chest. Someone had murdered him with brutal and malice intent.

And at that moment, he feared for his father.

He suddenly heard the bellowing screams of two men begging to be spared and it was coming from the Dining Hall. He didn't need to leave the Library to make his way there, but crossed through the wall - instantly bringing him to the next room, which was the Dining Hall. And here he found Spencer, and saw a horrific sight - the birth of some sort of grotesque looking creature that Spencer was summoning by chanting Latin script and using his demonic powers to create. And for an instant, he saw the faces of McDermott and Thibeau, who were two of the three of the main "felicitators" within the Illuminati. The third was his father. These men were being blended together, sifted together, to make a new being of sorts, their grotesque screams filling the converted Dining Hall, that was now some sort of ceremonial chamber.

With Spencer, Wilhelm Lazarus, the head of the Illuminati English branch, was also in the room watching this horrific birthing - his own Illuminati associates being used in this demonic experiment. There was also a boy standing next to Lazarus. A boy about the age of ten with angelic blond hair -

Oh my God, Lazarus - you succeeded in resurrecting Johnny? No, I think you didn't - it was that damn demon who did it! The scrolls didn't work, did they? So you agreed to whatever the demon promised you. I can see the covenant on your forehead, and I bet Johnny has one, too. You damn fool! You sold your soul to restore your boy's life? And yet, Spencer also had a similar covenant burned into his forehead. I'm too late. Decco already has you. No doubt he promised you power, since your felt powerless against me.

When the monster was complete, it stood floor to ceiling, widely and grotesquely muscular with veins bulging out in every part of his body, pulsing as if they were sentient beyond the monster. It's skin was a blood rust color with black swirls and streaks of encompassing its anatomically, acute, bare frame. The one thing the monster was missing was a genitals. It was a eunuch. As for its head, or rather its pair of heads, they were connected together with some sort of thick, stretched skin, umbilical strain. Their vision: one large eye in each head, were housed behind surgical, thin threads of dark colored skin like jail bars. And it had no mouth to speak of. Decco then waved an arm and a large, circular covenant with symbols and Latin script writing was branded, burned, into its chest, probably placed so he could control it.

You stupid fool, Spencer. You created a monster for this maniac! Why?

"I'm very impressed, Spencer. You have outdone yourself," Decco said, looking upon the monster. His eyes appeared to be gazing upon magnificent, ultimate power. And indeed, this monster was just that.

"Thank you, Master. I am pleased you like him," Spencer said somewhat too proudly.

Master? You willfully accepted into a covenant with this demon? Thann knew his brother had an grand imagination, beyond some of the greatest thinkers he knew. The vehicle he and his friend Trent created was proof of this. If the Von Strauss family had not been involved with the Illuminati, he knew Spencer could have been a great novelist like Jules Verne or an artist, sketching designs for buildings that would adore the English landscape. But now, under the influence of this demon, neither could ever be.

"I call him Epimetheus, after the Titan brother of Prometheus," Spencer continued. "He is strong, but like his two components, he is foolish and easily manipulated. You should have no difficulty sending him against your enemies. Also, those black swirls and streaks are actually shadows."

"Shadows?"

"Dark shadows," Spencer said. "They can detach from the body when ordered and can be used to engulf an opponent in complete blackness, sucking every ounce of energy from him. Once returned to the body, the energy is then used to increase Epimetheus's own strength." Decco nodded intrigued. "Furthermore - "

"There is more? My, you do have a vivid imagination, don't you?"

"I would hope so," Spencer said. "I wish returned what is mine."

What is mine?

Decco chuckled. "And yet, look at your monster. He has none either."

None either?

Spencer checked his throat, obviously not humored by an interior joke…

"As I was saying…"

Thann was awestruck at the Goliath-sized monster Spencer had just created through his imagination and demonic powers. He used, without scientific endeavor, what doctors would call gene manipulation. It was a relatively new science, but one where even the many influential scientists and doctors of the day, despite it being against God's will, said will revolutionize the scientific world one day. But Thann agreed: "This is raping the natural world," he murmured. But suddenly regretted that he had spoken out loud.

Decco sharply put up a hand to silence Spencer. Then he looked in Thann's direction. And Thann could swear the demon was looking directly at him and seemed to for several long seconds. His red eyes glowered and he then looked around the same area, as if surveying it, where Thann was standing. Spencer also turned, following Decco's gaze, but his eyes darted haphazardly unable to see what Decco had apparently thought he had heard. But Thann remained on the spot. Can you see me, demon?

"What is it, Master?" Lazarus asked.

"A wandering spirit," Johnny Lazarus spoke and pointed at Thann. "Over there, near the wall."

Decco waved an arm in the area of the wall and suddenly Thann's spirit solidified, or rather became visual to the normal eye. Thann looked himself over, saw the blood stains on the front of his clothing. The eternal blood stains. They looked as red and as flesh like on his real body.

"Very good, my lad," Decco said, pleased. "You saw him, even though I could not. Your time in the underworld must have given you the power to see the dead. And interesting and unexpected gift."

Lazarus looked at his son. "Johnny, you can see the dead?" he asked.

"Yes father, I can. But apart from us, and him, I have not seen many. But there are a few wandering spirits in the area. I saw them when we came here by coach. They are harmless, however. Like him."

Decco chuckled. "Harmless indeed," he said.

"Thann?" Spencer said. "Is that really you?"

"Yes, Spencer, it is. And you are all fool for joining him!" He sharply looked at Decco. "Let Spencer go, let him live a normal life, the one he should be living, without the torment I caused him in life, without the threat of the Illuminati, without the shame he felt for his sexuality and hiding it." Thann felt his face fold in utter apologetic sadness. "I am sorry, Spencer, for what I did to you, especially on that last day…"

"Thann…"

Decco looked thoughtful, closed fist on his mouth. Then said, "A trade-off? An interesting proposal." The demon eyed Spencer who looked downcast and saddened. Decco smiled. "Unfortunately, that isn't possible. It is too late for your little brother, Thann Von Strauss. He is mine. And with your sudden relevance in seeking forgiveness to restore yourself in God's good graces - which you never were, not after everything you did in life - you would be useless to my cause. Your brother is a perfect minion, and for good reason. But you do have my curiosity. How did you escape the Reapers?"

"That is my secret," Thann said angrily.

Decco shrugged, his arms up. "Very well. It matters not to me."

"Thann, I murdered father!" Spencer suddenly shouted out with tears in his eyes. "Decco was controlling me. Father tried to save me, but he failed. I bit into father neck and blood filled out onto the floor of the Illuminati audience hall. Then we brought McDermott and Thibeau back here and I transformed them into this…thing! I'm so sorry, Thann." And he collapsed to his knees. "I am destined for Hell." And he cried.

Thann was aghast, but now he knew the fate of his father.

He shook his head. "It's not your fault, Spencer. It's his! If you wish to blame anyone for all this, it is that damned demon!"

"How ironic," Decco said, chuckling. "You murdered your sister, spilled her blood, all to summon a demon - and yet, here I am. Now you do not want me around? What did you expect? Did you think you, your father and the Illuminati could instantly control a demon? You assume too much, even with spells. Which, I may add, are thousands of years out of date and can be quickly counteracted. The Inner Circle fell to this trap and were slaughtered when Sebastian Michealis entered the fray. The only true way to 'control' a demon is to broker into a covenant with them, and even then, the covenant can be summarily broken at any time, granted there is grounds or there is a violation from the human. The covenant's I have with them are different." He pointed to Spencer, Lazarus and Johnny. "They live under my ruling hand. I could kill them at any time, but they chose to serve me because of the power I grant them. The covenant Sebastian Michealis and Ciel Phantomhive have is different. Sebastian Michealis agrees to serve the boy and murder and kill all those who did his family wrong for Ciel's Phantomhive's soul. He's playing with him, you see."

"Sebastian Michealis is a demon?" Thann said, but then folded his arms across his chest.

"You mean, you didn't know?" Decco said quickly, then snorted annoyed. "Trickster human."

"Of course we knew. That is why some of us were so adamant in trying to protect certain secrets from getting out, demons can be very vicious and destructive to keep their identities secret in the human world, and First Inspector Abberline's investigation was getting too involved, and we knew soon he would make a discovery that would threaten everything. Lukas Phantomhive's history was a completely separate matter, for which through you, Spencer, he began investigating and came across Bryon Kelvin's name - who is, in fact, and we know this, the child kidnapper of London. If Scotland Yard got hold of him, the names and reputations of some of the most prominent men and women and England's society would be smeared and that could destroy the very fabric of many political, economic and social institutions. We, meaning the Illuminati, wanted to find him and punish him, and keep him silent. He knows the names of too many people.

"I didn't know that Decco would turn you into this…" he said to Spencer. "I didn't know he was even going to be there. I only wanted to scare you. Father wanted to punish you severely for what you almost did, and for allowing the inspector to escape, but I wanted to think of another way other than what he suggested. Father was a bastard, and honestly, regardless of his final actions, I am glad he is dead."

Spencer slumped his shoulders. "And I was the one threatening that secret with feeding information to Detective Abberline, hoping to expose the Illuminati and their horrible secrets. I was being selfish, not thinking about other consequences that would befall." But then he gazed hard with a stern look in his eyes. "And to punish you, dear brother, for murdering our sister. I tried to bring justice to Krystal, and then misfortunate unfolded, and now look at us…we have become the damned!" He stood up and then dropped his pants, exposing the bareness below. "I am a eunuch, brother! Decco made me into a eunuch because of my untimely sexuality desires. I will never be a man - or human - again!"

"Oh my God!"

"God?" Decco laughed. "God can't help you now. You two have spent your lives thinking with the wrong head, my friends. Now you can both be dickless hypocrites together."

The trick to tracking down a Poltergeist, for which Thann Von Strauss was not categorized as for escaping the Processing Centre inside Reaper Headquarters, was that they normally followed a set pattern; their mind was atypical and simplistic in their thinking. Namely, spirits often went back to the last place they died as if to seek reflection of their life, to obtain retrospective or something - to weep and to wonder how things could have gone differently. The problem with that is if they get too emotional, they could do what's known as "looping", and start to replay the last moments of their life just to live again. Thus, they would get trapped, unless they could come to terms that nothing can be done and accept their death. If not, they will repeat their demise over and over and over again in an unless cycle of wallowing, emotional torment.

Ronald Knox had some cases like this. Most of them were easy captures, but in one instance, one of them got very violent with him. So it attacked him with surprising powers that could only come supernaturally and from pent up hatred and anger. On this particular mission, he also discovered the secret to a baffling mystery that plagued humans at that time, but being a Reaper, he couldn't tell them.

He recalled this time:

He was ordered to retrieve seven ghosts from a "ghost ship" abandoned, a floating merchant brigantine ship called the Mary Celeste, that went missing, according to English-American authorities in 1872. It was in fact, attacked by a sinister ghost wishing to retrieve an item it had lost on board just before it set sail, who had been a supply loader. This ghost had been murdered in a tavern bar fight two days after it ship sailed.

Drunk and confrontational, the man: Henry Baggs, a young man in his late twenties, because he had lost an item very valuable to him, wanted to blow off some steam, but chose to pick a fight with a stranger twice his size. His opponent was incredibly strong, and during the bar fight, the man snapped Henry's neck when he was thrown against a wall very hard. Henry had died almost instantly.

The item was apparently a locket his girlfriend had given him with her picture inside, and as a human he didn't know where he had lost it, but as a ghost, he had remembered, and traveled across the ocean and found the Mary Celeste, on its peaceful, serene voyage towards the Straits of Gibraltar. From what Henry Baggs told him when first Knox arrived on the ship to collect the souls and finding him, Baggs said once he found his locket he would and stay with it and that would be it. Unfortunately, one of the crew members hadfound it and replaced the picture with another picture, one of his own girlfriend, and Henry went ballistic, and went on a bloody rampage, attacking them, throwing all the crew members overboard. However, as the ship was the last place they were alive, they remained on it as ghosts.

One month after the incident, he was ordered to collect the souls of these poor, unfortunately people, now trapped on their ship, and encountered Henry Baggs. At first, he was very calm and apologetic for what he had done and he, too, was trapped, hoping for a way off with the other seven others, who were scared of him for what Henry had done. He stayed onboard, not necessarily by what he had done, but by the attachment of his girlfriend's locket, for which he felt he needed to protect from the others.

After the entire story was laid out, unfortunately nothing could be done. The locket would have to stay, but all the spirits would have to leave. This is when Henry Baggs became violent and attacked Knox with forthright malice and supernatural hatred. He had never encountered such a powerful spirit filled with so much hatred, anger and bitterness. In was only with the collectively help of the other seven, did he manage to overpower Henry Baggs and suck him up into his Deathscythe for transport.

After that, he also escorted the others away and off the ship.

Standing in the same circular, black painted room, he had retrieved Thann Von Strauss's spirit originally from, he wondered if he had returned here. Apart from the man's body, Knox did not feel his return. This is where the young man had died, and if he returned here, Knox would feel it. But if he was not here, where was he? A bulletin was put out in Reaperdem if anyone saw him, and if someone had, he would be notified. But as of this moment, Thann Von Strauss was truly missing. And he hated Wanderers could refused to play by the rules and sought to hide. This would make his job a whole lot harder, and after working a seven-two hour shift and then being forced to search for an escapee - one of his retrieved souls who decided (and it had never happened before) to flee the Processing Centre - he wasn't in the best of moods.

William was ordering an investigation into who allowed Thann Von Strauss to escape, but if it was like everything else in Reaper Affairs, the paper work will be piled a mile high and will be in triplicate. The good thing was, Knox had done his job and would not get blamed for it. The bad thing was, he had to clean up someone else's mistake - and that made him in a doubly rotten mood.

After searching a few more "hot spots", which took next to no time at all, he finally winked in in front of the Von Strauss Manor. This was the last place he thought he would need to look. If Thann Von Strauss wasn't here, he'd return to William and tell him to send out a Reaper X team to find him. But they were already busy enough with hunting down Fallen Reapers and wouldn't have time. He knew William would just order him to keep looking. So, there was no point in any of that. He just hoped this rogue Wanderer was here.

Knox suddenly got a nasty chill down his spine as he stood outside in the front courtyard. He could feel a dark and sinister power here. Something very evil was inside.

To be continued…