“Can you feel that? Can you feel how much love I just shot into you?” She silently nodded, not trusting her voice. “Good, you and I are going to be spending a lot of time together. Your body belongs to me now, got it?” She nodded again. “Good, and make sure you shave yourself down there before our next meet. Hair is a real turnoff for me.”
The pages were flipped with anger and impatience, but refused to give up the secrets Helena was after. She was in the library, looking for any information she could get on the Antichrist. She couldn’t find much; every mentioning was about what would happen with the Apocalypse and told her nothing that she didn’t already know from reading the bible: a charismatic guy would appear, a genius of politics and economics, who would use fake miracles and lies to turn people away from Christ. Then Jesus would show up and the Apocalypse would happen.
But nothing told her how to beat him herself, or how to at least fight him. What really concerned her was that he wasn’t following the biblical prophecy. He claimed he witnessed Christ’s crucifixion and had been wandering the globe ever since. So why hadn’t he made his move yet? Why was he still pretending to just be a high school student? Had he always had his current appearance? Or could he change the way he looked so that he could better assume identities and positions of power? He had mentioned earlier that he was thinking about his future, that there was a whole world just waiting to be conquered. What was he really planning?
She closed the book she had been reading and leaned back in her chair. ‘This isn’t getting me anywhere. If I’m going to find his weakness, then I’ll need to do some investigation.’
Father Hauser sat in his small office, deep in thought. The things Helena and Thane had told him were very concerning. He had known Helena since she first came to Rosewood University and regarded her as a very brave and spirited young woman. She often came to him for help when she did something bad, both in search of guidance and for help escaping the Discipline Committee’s wrath. But when she spoke to him in the church… that was the first time he had seen her truly frightened. Why would she say the entire school was in danger and then just run off?
He thought back to what she said, searching for clues. ‘She said that there was going to be a war that would show the truth. Show… the truth… What truth? What was she talking about? If there were a war, why would everyone in the school be in danger? Would it happen here? If it did, then that would mean everyone in Rome is in danger. Thane said that there was something dark in the school as well, something different from the other cases. Maybe… Helena is a victim of possession and what she saw was a nightmare brought on by whatever is haunting her? Thane told me to keep a lookout for any strange phenomena, maybe I should try looking at Helena…’
“Excuse me, are you Chad?”
The pudgy student, studying at a sunlit table on the grassy campus, looked up. “Yes, can I help you?”
“My name is Helena, and I was hoping I could ask you something.”
“Ok, shoot.”
She sat down next to him at the picnic table, setting her book bag beside her. “You’re Xavier’s roommate, right?”
“Uh… yeah.”
“Is there anything you could tell me about him? Anything weird you might have noticed about him?”
Chad looked around in confusion. “Why are you asking? You do know that dating is forbidden in this school, right?”
Helena groaned in annoyance. “I’m not curious in that way. I met him the day he first came here and he seems like kind of a weird guy. I’m just wondering if it’s something only I’m noticing or if he just seems quirky to everyone.”
“He doesn’t seem weird to me. He’s quiet, doesn’t talk to me much, but he’s always very polite.”
“Does he have any weird stuff in your room? Anything that might give a clue as to where he’s from?”
“Nope, or at least I haven’t seen anything. He did have a duffle bag with him that he keeps under his bed, but I don’t think there is anything weird in there.”
‘A duffle bag? There may be some clues in there.’ “Ok, well I guess it was just a strange first impression he gave me. I should get going. Thank you.”
Hooking her arm around the straps of her book bag, she stood up but intentionally threw herself off balance and into a fall. “Whoa!”
Swinging her arm, she “accidentally” struck Chad in the face with her book bag, breaking his nose and sending him to the ground, howling in pain.
‘Lord, please forgive me for that. I’m only doing what I must.’ “Oh my god, Chad! I’m so sorry, are you alright?!” He only gave a muffled cry, trying to stop the blood pouring to his nose. “It’s ok, I’ll help get you to the infirmary.” Taking advantage of his pain, she pulled him to his feet while sneaking her hand into his pocket and taking his dorm room key. ‘And please forgive me for that too.’
There was hushed muttering in the cafeteria as Thane made his way to the kitchen with an empty tray for dinner. He was well-known in this school, more than just for his untidy appearance.
“Who is that guy?” a sixteen-year-old girl asked her friend, the two of them watching from their table.
“That’s Alexander Thane, he’s a senior. From what I’ve heard, priests will ask him for help from time to time.”
“Help? Help for what?”
“Exorcisms. Supposedly he’s got some really sharp sixth sense and is able to free people from possession faster than any other priest. I think he once said that he was going to become a priest and just do exorcisms as a specialist. He’ll probably be recruited into the Vatican pretty soon.”
Thane got in line in the kitchen, moving his tray down the metal slide. Someone got behind him. At that moment, his entire body froze and became suddenly drenched with a cold sweat. Around him, the paint peeled off the walls, the food became rotten, the metal rusted, and everyone in the kitchen turned to skeletons and crumbled. The ceiling above his head was ripped away, revealing a hurricane of fire overhead. Feeling a blaring heat on his back, he turned around. The school was gone, all of Rome swept aside as if by a nuclear explosion. In its place was a literal mountain of skeletons, with flames streaming up through the eye sockets of the skulls and between the bones. At the top of the mountain sat a figure on an obsidian throne, surrounded by naked women with collars on their necks, swooning at his feet and clambering for his attention.
The figure was twenty feet in height with a very muscular build. In the literal blink of an eye, the figure disappeared and reappeared in front of Thane, their faces so close that he could see nothing but the bloody flames churning in his eyes. A colossal hand closed around his throat and a monstrous roar slammed into his eardrums, making him nearly pass out in agony.
“Hey, are you ok?”
Thane was shaken from the hallucination, finding Xavier standing in front of him. The hand that had been around his throat was instead on his shoulder. Everyone in the kitchen was staring at the two of them.