Fallen Stones (54 page)

"Steph," Jason said, "I have an idea. And I think I may be right; at least I hope I'm right. Listen. No matter what you hear or see. Try not to be afraid of them. I think that might be part of the secret of how we can beat them. I think they live on the fear and the hatred of others. That's why they tried to pit us against each other. They need us to be at odds with each other and not united. Because I suspect with the three of us here together and combined as one force they can't control us."

Stephanie looked perplexed for a moment as if thinking about something then said, "I think you're right, Jason. I can feel them trying to take back control…of me…of my body…like they did before…but they can't seem to do it. When it was just me they could, but now I don't think they can."

“Keep fighting them, Steph,” Jason urged. “We can beat them together. I know we can. We love each other, and nothing is stronger than that. I'm sure of it. ”

"You will bring the bitch and the child to me now!" Dwight shouted across the distance, his form was twitching and moving erratically like an old silent movie film as were the rest of the creatures. Jason could see something was now very different about the ghosts; something was happening to them, but Dwight still tried to assert his control: "You will do as I command or I swear I will order you all to rip out your own eyes and swallow them while we watch with pleasure!"

Fueled by a newfound confidence, Jason pointed his finger at Dwight once again and shouted, "Screw you, Livingston. Any powers you believe you have are now useless against us. We are a strong and unified force of unconditional love, and you can do nothing to harm us. You've existed without love for so long you have forgotten its power and its strength. We don't fear you, Dwight Livingston, nor do we fear any of your pitiful minions. We don't even acknowledge your right to exist."

Then Jason decided to push even harder, "We laugh at you as the pathetic lost souls you've become. You're all destined to spend your eternities in pain and torment because of the sins you've committed in your lives. My wife's soul is pure; my son's soul is pure and so is mine. And together we are immune to your ridiculous commands.

"We may have the blood of Dwight Livingston flowing through our veins, but we have souls which are uncorrupted. And you pitiable creatures don't have the power to separate us ever again.  Jason shouted one taunt after another not even certain what he was doing, but he could tell that the more he showed his strength and lack of fear, the more disturbed the spirits appeared to get.

Then all of the ghosts began to howl like banshees and wale as if in the throes of agony. They continued to twitch and gyrate as if being hit with painful bolts of lightning. Jason realized he was definitely on the right track and decided he would continue to taunt the demons until they either fled or hopefully were somehow destroyed.

He shouted at the jerking group of hell-spawned demons, "I, Jason John Wright, illegitimate great grandson of Dwight Livingston, with the strength of my family's love now possess the power. And as such, I command all of you miserable creatures to go now and return to whatever corner of Hell you have arisen from. I order you to leave me and my family alone forever."

The specters were all contorting and screaming as if Jason's words were hitting them like a barrage of bullets one after another. Fresh blood began to ooze from each of the creatures' wounds. The gashes began to rip open further allowing more of the sickening blackish crimson fluid to flow.

Then a sound like that of thousands of buzzing insects was emanating from the opening of the well as suddenly an enormous black cloud made up of swarms of some type of tiny blackish flies flew from the fiery pit encircling the creatures then boring deep into their freshly weeping sores.

One of the insects flew close to Jason's face, and before it flew away a second later, he saw it clearly in all of its horror. The thing's body was similar to that of the type of fly Jason had seen many times before around garbage or dead animals; a mix of blue, green, black and other colors giving its skin the impression of an oil slick on a puddle of water. Its legs were double the length of a normal fly and appeared to have long, talons on the ends of tiny humanoid fingers.

Its hideous face was by far its most disturbing feature, resembling that of a balding old man with wispy grey hair, segmented insectile eyes and two long ram-like horns curving back from a hairless forehead. Its mouth was much too large for hits head, disproportionately oversized and was filled with hundreds of long pointy needle-like teeth. That single second of observation seemed like an eternity to Jason, and he was relieved when the creature flew away to return to the swarm, obviously not interested in either he or his family.

H. Mason Armstrong stood twisting from side to side all the while bellowing in agony. The hole where his heart had once been was black with the carnivorous insects and was obviously increasing in size as thousands of chomping mouths proceeded to devour him from the inside out. Likewise, the gaunt form of Emerson Washburn twitched and convulsed as the tiny creatures filled the gashes in his chest, while lapping up his oozing fluids. Some had zeroed in on the area between his legs and were chewing on the dangling threads of musculature which was all that remained of his severed genitalia. He slapped the palm of one hand against his chest while batting at his crotch in a useless attempt to stop the hungry things from enjoying their feast.

All around them, the ground suddenly began to tremble and the family found themselves in the middle of an earthquake. Then before his eyes, Jason saw the well begin to change shape. The ice holding the circular wall of soil together, which formed the shape of the well began to melt and the wall crumbled back to soil. The creatures screamed and howled uncontrollably as the insect-like scavengers devoured their mottled flesh.

Next, the place where the opening for the well had been was visible to Jason and Stephanie, but it too was changing its appearance. Instead of its original round shape, it took on the shape of giant slit in the soil, looking as if God had taken a giant ax and cleaved a gash in the earth. The frozen ground around the opening was thawing as a cloud of steam rose up all around the crevasse. The earth around the opening was becoming hot and molten. Jason could smell something foul and sulfurous coming from inside the crevasse. The small bubbling pools of lava spurted from inside the hole followed by occasional bursts of flames. Soon the flames were larger, almost twenty feet high, as the ground continued to shake with tremors.

Jason was not and could not possibly be prepared for what happened next. Long rope-like flaming tentacles sprang up out of the opening whipping and spitting flames like a nest of uncontrollable vipers. One of the whipping lava lariats wrapped itself around Dwight Livingston's throat and began pulling him toward the hole. Dwight screamed and howled "Noooo!" repeatedly while trying desperately to fight off the grip of the wild flaming loop. An instant later, another rope of molten lava wrapped around his arms and legs, and soon he was being pulled downward into the bubbling earthen caldron of pain. Just before Dwight disappeared from his sight, Jason witnessed the specter's head separate from his body as did his arms and legs as his spectral form was torn to pieces.

Jason heard a woman scream and saw Marie Livingston entwined in the fiery filaments, which melted the flesh from her ghostly body while simultaneously dragging her contorting form toward the volcanic pit. Her hair was ablaze and burning like a torch. She looked directly at Jason as if pleading for help, when her eyeballs exploded outward as a swarm of black insects streamed from her now vacant sockets. Likewise her scream mouth vomited a swarm of buzzing pestilence.

The charred skeletal remains of Jack Moran, the creature Jason had not been able to identify, was face down clawing and digging at the earth trying desperately to escape as ropes of flames wrapped around its ankles and pulled the creature toward the fiery threshold.

Within the next few seconds, the each one of the horrible beings were likewise pulled down into the flaming portal to what Jason assumed was Hell. He could not think of anything but what he imagined Hell to be that was capable of the unholy carnage he was witnessing. The earth continued to shake so violently; Jason found it almost impossible to remain upright. After a moment or two, Jason smelled something he feared almost as much as the horrifying sight unfolding before him. Despite the sulfurous stench coming from the flaming split in the earth, Jason was certain he smelled something he recognized, which was extremely dangerous and which was not from Hell but was of his own world. He smelled natural gas and suddenly realized the line which connected the main house to the hexagonal spa building had become ruptured by the earthquake.

With the conflagration of fire billowing from the crack in the earth, Jason knew he only had seconds to get his family to safety. He turned and tried desperately to lead Stephanie and Sammy away from the eminent explosion. But before they gotten more than twenty feet away, the spa building blew up sending deadly debris of flaming rock and timber flying high into the sky.

 

Chapter 40

 

The pressure from the blast knocked Jason, Stephanie and Sammy to the ground as a storm of flaming debris began plummeting down toward them. Despite his shocked condition, Jason managed to become a human shield, covering Stephanie and Sammy with his own body in an attempt to protect them from the rain of flaming hellfire. He prepared himself for what was to come, fearing he might die in the process but prepared to use his last breath if necessary to save his family.

He heard the fiery rubble of stone and rock fall around him and gritted his teeth in anticipation of the agonizing pain he knew was coming. But to his surprise he felt nothing. He heard sizzling sounds from above and cautiously lifted his head to try to see what was happening. All around them the formerly frozen meadow was ablaze as fiery debris continued to rain down like a vision from some hellish nightmare. Yet for some unknown reason, a small area immediately near them remained untouched.

“Jason?” Stephanie asked, “What's happening? Why aren't we dead?”

For a moment Jason began to wonder if they actually might in fact be dead. He replied, “I… I don't know, Steph. None of the stuff seems to be landing anywhere near us. It's like we are protected or something.”

“Look!” Stephanie exclaimed pointing upward. She still was lying on the ground but had rolled over on her side. About ten feet above them the raining pieces of burning debris seemed to miraculously stop in the air, sizzle then turn to dust and slide down the outside of what appeared to be a giant translucent dome of some sort, which glimmered with millions of tiny sparkling lights. The large structure completely covered them, acting as a protective barrier. “Look at it, Jason! What in the world is it? Where did it come from?”

Sammy sat up and pointed to a place in the meadow about thirty feet away and said, “Boys.”

Jason and Stephanie followed his gaze and saw two bright glowing forms of light, which seemed to be roughly shaped like two small boys. The brightness of their iridescent forms was almost impossible to look at directly. But through squinted eyes, shielded by his hand, Jason could make out a stream of luminescent particles extending from the shimmering beings linking them to their mysterious protective dome.

“Boys help,” Sammy said. “Boys phone Daddy. Boys help Sammy.”

Then before Jason and Stephanie had a chance to grasp the significance of what was happening, they heard another incredible explosion, even greater than the first. They turned to see their beautiful renovated farmhouse/mansion blasted into flaming rubble before their eyes. The shock wave from the blast shook the earth below them and nearly knocked them down. They saw the translucent dome wobbled from the blast but still maintained its shape. As before, the fiery remnants flew far and wide setting the remaining out buildings on the property ablaze. Soon every single building and outbuilding was being reduced to cinders.

“Oh my God no!” Stephanie cried. “Everything we own. Everything we have is burning up, Jason. Our house, our clothing, our furniture, it's all gone.”

Jason's stomach sank with the frustration of the loss. But then he realized what they had just managed to barely escape and suddenly the burning buildings and all of their earthly possessions became nothing more than that: just a bunch of burning material and fallen stones. “Don't cry, Steph. All of that was just stuff. We can worry about it tomorrow. Right now all that matters is we are safe and alive.” He knew Stephanie agreed with him, but she still needed to grieve for the loss of their belongings.

In a few minutes, the rain of debris stopped, and Jason saw the translucent sparkling dome which surrounded them begin to dissipate and fade away. In the distance, the two glowing boys stood quietly, arms at their sides.

“Go see boys,” Sammy said as he squirmed in Jason's arms, wanting to be put down. He held Jason and Stephanie's hands, and the three carefully walked between the flaming remnants to the place where the boys quietly stood. Now they all could clearly see the Livingston boys in greater detail. They were dressed in bright white dress shirts and white pants but were barefoot. They wore a look of contentment which Stephanie believed came from their seeing the Wright family together and safe.

“All things happen for a reason,” Stephanie thought. She found herself contemplating how because the spirit boys were here and had not moved on to whatever afterlife awaited them; she and her family were safe and alive. Had the two crossed over ninety years earlier, then the three of them surely would have died in the explosions. “All things happen for a reason,” she thought again, smiling satisfactorily.

Stephanie stepped forward and said, “Matthew. Charles. Thank you so much for protecting me and my family. You saved our lives.” The two spectral shapes stood looking at her but said nothing. “Had you lived, I'm sure you would have grown to be fine men, and I would have been proud to have had you as great uncles. God bless you both and thank you again for all you have done for us.”