Chapter 2: The Tale of Philip Lemarchand.

5/11/12 Area 51, Nevada.

"This new shockwave weapon can better work, Dr. Johnson or Walker will have both our hides!"

"I'm pretty sure this will work, sir. After all, we have done years of research before we build this. If this experiment goes right, we can use it against the Taliban, within a month."

"I hope for you that you're right."

The shockwave gun was grey and has the looks and seize of a assault rifle, only the barrel was different. The soldier testing the weapon, points the gun at a crash test dummy, who stands behind a wall. He shoots at the wall and causes a slightly visible wave. The wall explodes on impact, blowing the stones against the dummy with enough force to cause lethal wounds as it was a real person. "Yes!"

But the euphoric sheers quickly becomes a scream of horror as the gun suddenly explodes in the hands of the soldier. The soldier's body was gone from the waist up. The legs collapse on the floor as the body parts of the now deceased soldier were spread everywhere.

"Todd! My office, now!"

"Oh shit. Thanks, man. You can explain it to the judge as you're trailed for this."

"It was an accident!"

"No, YOU were an accident!"

Still mad, he continues his way to the office of Officer Walker. Walker was the leader of the military department of experimental weapons and he... He was the head of research with the emphasis on was. This incident was one in many but this was the first with a lethal victim. He was sure that he would be fired this time. His research would be confiscated and he would have nothing. And if he brought out his story, he would be 'sanctioned' immediately. He knocked on the door, waiting for his execution. "Come in, Dr. Todd."

He entered the office and to his surprise he was not alone. Walker and three others were sitting around his desk. Walker stands up and asks him to sit on the remaining chair. "I'm sorry about that accident with the..."

"I haven't called you here to listen to your excuses. You are here for a complete new project. We are going to create the ultimate warrior. A hellbringer as you may called it."

The man on his left interrupts him: "They're called Cenobites."

"Cenobites, indeed. We will tamper the powers of Hell, Todd and you are going to help us."

"And how do you have do that? With all respect but with only dreams and religious ideas, we can't make weapons"

"WE don't need to make such a weapon, they already exist. We only need to retrieve one of those 'weapons' and unlock its true potential."

"OK, you lost me!"

"Mister Lemarchand will explain it to you."

The man on the left, who interrupted Walker, coughs and start his story: "I'm Samuel Lemarchand, descendent of Philip Lemarchand, the famous French toymaker of Hell."

A man on the right of Walker interrupts him: "I believe I know this story. Philip Lemarchand created in the 18th century a puzzle box for a dark magician named Duc de L'Isle..."

"No, no, no. That's a lie. Created by his son, Michel Lemarchand, who was grieved by the truth behind his father's work. Philip Lemarchand was no innocent, oblivious toy maker, he was a MONSTER! Philip was a hedonist who surpassed the borders of human pleasures and perversities. Compared to him, Marquis de Sade was a Dr. Seuss. He was a killer of men, women and children, cannibal, vampire... Until his madness reached its highest peak, as he found an old book describing the origin of a world beyond pleasure and pain. He unlocked its secrets and was able to create a mysterious box made of the finest metals, the most expensive wood and forged with it, a gateway to hell, as he bound these materials with the human fat and blood of innocents. The box would be known as the Lament Configuration. In the years that followed, he keep creating this kind of vessels, all with the same goal. Luring the willing to its unrivalled 'pleasures'. He should have made over a hundred of these boxes, before disappearing without a trace. His son was so ashamed of this, he spread the rumour that Philip was deceived when he made the box for a rich aristocrat. I and my team have researched the boxes for a decade but I'm the only one who remains now. Both Amy Bell and Johan Granger disappeared mysteriously. I believe they might have found what we're searching for as their true intentions weren't as pure as my own. Both disappeared 18 years ago..."

He shows them two pictures of how they looked before their disappearing.

"What do you mean?"

"They were fascinated by the ideas of hell and the immortality the box can granted."

"Can it make someone immortal?" he asks the man with certain eagerness.

"Yes, but with a prize no one should want to pay..."

"OK, I get it and what if I refuse to work for this project?"

"Then we will offer you the choice: execution for treachery or the testing of experimental weapons. The man that died today had chosen the latter."

This last warning and everything Lemarchand had said spook in his head as he returns home. As he walks through the street, a mysterious man bumps into him and falls on the ground. A strange package escapes one of his pockets. He helps the man to stand up and picks up the package. As he wants to give him the package, the man refuses. "It's yours, sir."

Before he can do another thing, the man walks away. Curiously, he opens the package and finds a little pyramid, a tetrahedron. He looks from the mysterious item to its original owner but he has disappeared. Strange, he thinks. The tetrahedron was red with golden lines and a circle in the middle, on the side pointed at him. He feels a strange tinkling in his fingers. He puts the sculpture in the pocket of his jacket and enters his home. He tries to watch some TV, to keep his mind of the things he had witness that day but he can't. His thoughts always went to the sculpture. He stands up and takes it out the pocket of his jacket. He starts to play with it and suddenly, he accidentally twists one of the corners. It was no sculpture but a puzzle. "I have to call that weirdo from Walker's office but..." Something, maybe just his curiosity, kept him from calling. He walks upstairs, to his attic and sit down. He always goes to his attic if he wanted some peace. His finger moves over the circle and he feels it was a presser plate. He pushes on it and the corners starts to twist. In pure ecstasy, he watched the movement of the puzzle. He's awaken by the sound of his doorbell. "Damn it!"

He stands up and runs down the stairs. He pulls the door and screams louder than necessary and without looking: "What!"

"Do you want to buy Girl's Scout Cookies, sir?"

He opens his eyes and blushes, he had screamed against an innocent girl scout.

"One box, please!"

After he paid for his cookies, he closes the door. He throws the box on the table and returns to his attic. Suddenly he hears a strange music. He was like lured to the music. Like he was enchanted by the song. He climbs up the stairs to his attic and looks around. The place did no longer look like his attic. It was now empty with a white curtain in the middle of the room. The mysterious sound came from behind the curtain. He wants to leave but he couldn't. His legs refuses to turn back. He walks towards the sound. It was a strange, erotic song, clearing his head. He feels he was getting an erection from the song. How was this possible. Standing before the curtain, he stretches his hand and grabs the curtain. Behind it a mysterious woman was playing on a cello. But it was no woman as he ever saw one. She wore a black leather pants and top and was bare feet. A large iron pin was driven through her heel into her bone as a morbid parody on stiletto heels , one in each foot. Her upper arms had two deep cuts and she wears black leather evening gloves, sewed into her skin. Four deep cuts marked her white face. Two cut resembled a Glasgow smile, the second two started each from above her ears to the corners of her eyes. A third smaller cut between her eyes connected the two upper cuts. A hood made of the same leather material was sewed in to her bald head. The cenobite no longer looked like Amy Bell. Years of loyal servitude to Leviathan's Laws had transformed her in a hellish beauty, a beauty only surpassed by Leviathan's own daughters.

Even more disturbing than her looks was the instrument she was playing on. The cello was made of a human corpse! The scroll was a skull, lacking its lower jaw. The neck was made of the spinal cord while the body of the cello was made of the a female body, lacking arms, legs and breasts. Two F-holes were made in the stomach and the endpin was, just like the neck, made of the spinal cord. The strings were red, looked like veins and most likely were. The bow she used to play on this 'instrument' was made of a femur and veins. Her eyes were closed as she plays and he's mesmerized by the image, he notice her eyelids were cut in a cross form. Suddenly, she opens her eyes and stands up. "Welcome, Mr. Todd!"

Quickly he turns around and sees two men standing behind him. Both are mutilated in a similar fashion as the female cenobite. The first one was Johan, or what was once him. His face was the only that made him recognizable as human being, something he wasn't since a long time. His dreadlocks were gone and replaced by long chains ending in fishing hooks. The chains were connected to his head by a metal rings that pierced his skull. One pin was driven through his chin and his cheeks were cut open. He only wears a leather pants, so his upper body was exposed. 6 deep cuts between his ribs, two crosses cut in the side of his upper arms. Both his hands and his back were skinned. But the appearance of his companion was even worse. In Hell, he was known as the Arctic Cenobite. To bring order to his flesh, the Engineers had experiment on him with cryogenics. This created a unique abomination. Due the extreme cold that was used during his creation, he's lacked ears, a big part of his nose (only a small part of his nose bone was left, the rest was an empty hole) and his eyelids. His blood was replace by anti-freeze liquid as the veins on the site of his head showed. Only his head and hands were exposed as he wears the same kind of bondage outfit as the other two. His fingers were blackened, like necrosis. It was the Granger Cenobite who speaks to him. He was leader of this gash, his black eyes scanning Todd's body. "Did you enjoy it, mister Todd. The Song of Lust?"

"Who are you?"

"We are explorers in the further regions of experience. Or in the visions of your master, a weapon. We're no weapon, nothing that simple. But back to my question. Did you like the Song of Lust."

Todd still remains quiet, no believing what he sees. "This can't be real!"

"You refuses to answer my question."

"This can't be REAL!"

"Not real? Let us see how real this sounds."

The Seductress Cenobite gives him his cello. The instrument had belonged to him, changed to fit better to his master. "The Song of Pain."

The Seductress and the Arctic start to dance with each other as Granger starts to play on the cello. A sound like he had never heard before, tortured his ears. The sound causes a horrible pain. It was like someone pushed a knife into his meatuses and twisted it. The blood vessels in his eyes popped as the two other cenobites waltzes around him. He collapsed to the ground, pressing his hands to his ears and blood dripped out his eyes and mouth. "And now time for the best part!"

He starts to scream as his skull starts to shatter by the sound. The attic returns to his normal interior and Todd lays dead on the floor, with a fractured skull, teeth spread across the room. eyes that have popped from his skull and the Tetrahedron in his hand...