Rapture Falls (25 page)

He was greeted upon his return by a stunning woman, she wore an expertly tailored suit that hugged dangerously at all the right curves, Farrell had been happily married for over twenty years without ever a single moment of doubt or temptation but oh boy, he would have thrown this woman across the counter and taken her tight here and now. He felt intoxicated by her musky allure, his mind felt oddly muddled and confused, the woman’s perfume filled his nostrils and watered his eyes,
she smiled and he was lost completely, he did not even hear her name as she extended a perfectly manicured hand,

             
“Hello Robert” she purred “I’m Lucy”.

             
Baine sat encased in his tomb, the small cells walls were close and claustrophobic, the lighting was poor and he could only sit on the thin mattress, he had been overwhelmed at the castle, the priests body hung accusingly behind him as the police pointed weapons that spat bullets faster than he could move even with the book. A few of the officers had gotten in angry sly strikes in the back of the police van whilst he was driven away from the scene, he did not blame them as they obviously held an affinity for the priest, he had merely withdrawn into his own mind waiting for a gap in his incarceration, a window from which to take his leave.
A sense of general malaise had raised and settled heavily on his shoulders, he had such grand plans for his life, he had witnessed the glimpses of just what may lay ahead, he had a brother who had trusted him and a quiet nameless librarian whose
silhouette
had captured his imagination and offered hope of a strange but wonderful future. All of which had now moved further from his grasp, dancing tauntingly out of reach and mocking his very efforts, no matter what he tried it seemed it that he would always find himself on some predetermined path of another’s choosing.

They had funneled him into the large central station and here he sat waiting for his interrogators to arrive, apparently he was deemed worthy enough to receive attention from the top boss himself, the armed response unit had by now long departed
and he was confident of extricating himself from the building
but he could not leave without his book
and so for now had to swallow his anger
and
exert
difficult
self
control.
He was meditating as such when the cell door was unlocked, confused he
turned
to face his early and unexpected visitor, the door swung open and a stunning woman posed in front of him, her attitude was clearly designed to illicit a fawning response from men,
but he was not so easily swayed, “Put the tits away sweetheart and just say your piece, I’m really in no mood to be fucked about”.

             
“Baine, I am here to release you”
the woman
husked, “Both your mental and” she looked about the cell theatrically, “physical shackles”.

Baine looked across at the seductress, she was slightly taller than him and her ravenous eyes sparkled with relish, she was eager but he did not yet know for what. “Well what ever your deal is do you not think that perhaps we should adjourn to less formal surroundings?” he asked.

“Do not concern yourself yet lover, we have time to converse”
S
he sashayed across to his cot and sat with
a panthers
grace beside him, her suits short skirt slid up her long legs with a soft
whisper and her black eyes held
a dark promise
, a silver silk blouse strained to contain impossibly pert breasts as her jacket fell open invitingly, she faced him no more than six inches away with a tilted head and parted
wet
lips, despite his best intentions Baine shifted slightly to relieve his body’s rebellious pressure that made his trousers a little too tight.

“You can keep the performance love, you just don’t do it for me” Baine lied, the woman’s aroma was intoxicating, but he was sure that he knew her from somewhere, normally his memory was perfect but the sheer force of her charisma was scrambling his radar.

“M
y name is Lucifer and I am the
one
true fallen angel,
but you can
call me Lucy.
I
alone
sat at Gods right hand before his betrayal of us over his human pets. We were the Archangels that basked in his glory and held our place over all of his creations since time began. I know that you have spoken with Gabriel” she spate the name with distaste.

“Gabriel is a
fool;
he would build a world of miserable perfection, a world of tyrannical rule without lust and passion, without battl
es and glory, a world to which
warrior
s
like us could never belong”.

“Yeah that’s great, uh, but aren’t you like, oh I don’t know, THE FUCKING DEVIL?” Baine asked incredulously.

The woman laughed uproariously, “You people and your faith in bedtime stories and fairy tales, the Devil is a ridiculous concoction for naughty children created by Gods emissaries on earth to maintain control and gather taxes unto the church. Tell me something Baine, is the Devil supposed to be good or evil?”

“Well evil I guess” Baine answered

“And what are Go
d and the Devil just the best
of friends?”

“Obviously no”

“And where does the Devil live?”

“In hell” Baine was already tiring of her patronising manner

“And what happens to evil men when they die?”

“They are punished in hell”

“So then answer me this then genius, if the Devil is evil and if the Devil is diametrically opposed to God, why would the Devil punish evil men?, would not hell be heaven for the evil mortals, wouldn’t murderers and
paedophiles
and rapists and the rest of the scum be rewarded when they got to hell just as the good are told that they will be rewarded in heaven?”

Baine opened his mouth to speak before he realised that he had no argument, the simple logic was starling, just why would an evil devil punish evil men
.

“Don’t you get it, there is
no heaven and there is no hell,
God abandoned this world so very long ago, there are only trace memories
of
him remaining, the Knights Templar have been used by greedy men for their own pathetic
grubby
ends, de Payens was using you only for his own needs,
he was corrupted by the power of your book and
he has not received th
e word of God for centuries,
you were not directed to further any great causes only for the whims of a small mind from a small man, you have always felt alone because you were abandoned like us all”

“So why should I side with you, what makes you right” Baine enquired

“Let me tell you about the 11
^th
Order Baine, Gabriel would be the girl that would let you take her on a woodland picnic, you’d hold hands and stroll by the river, you’d talk and laugh and peck goodnight at the door”

“So then what are you?” a reeling Baine asked.

“
I’m
the girl that would let you throw her over a desk in the office and fuck her brains out”
she looked Baine squarely in the eyes, the challenge was unmistakable,

“You just have to decide what kind of girl does it for you, Baine you are truly a fascinating creature,
we should be sat side by side on commanding thrones watching the scurrying insects crawl at our feet and worship us as Gods. We could stride the world as titans, constructing and destroying as we saw fit, filling the rivers with the flowing blood of our enemies, gnawing on the flesh of the fallen and grinding their bones to dust beneath of feet”.

Baine was looking at the open door as the
woman
next to him babbled on, the sheen of desperate sweat on her forehead and the stench of
her religious fervor
was acting as a real turn off, the sooner he was away from
the nutjob
the better.
Suddenly her hand lashed out and gripped his face pinching his cheeks painfully;
he felt her undeniable strength
as her sharp nails dug into his flesh
leaving
bloody trails.

“YOU WOULD IGNORE ME”
she screamed;
her once beautiful face contorted with murderous rage, “YOU WOULD IGNORE ME WHILST I OFFERED YOU THE WORLD” she lifted Baine by the one handed hold on his face and threw him in a single effortless motion out into the corridor.

             
Baine landed hard, the thinly carpeted floor offering no protection, in a flash she was standing over him, her hands held like claws, her crimson nails curled in anger.

“Whoa, hold on a sec” he held his hands out in surrender from his prone position, “I didn’
t mean to upset you, I’m just a little concerned about my impending incarceration, you’ve open the door and I’d rather like to use it”

             
She scooped him
up
from the floor and hammered him into the nearest metal cell door, his head clanged
nosily
on the hard surface and his brains
scrambled as his vision blurred, she continued to bounce his skull off of every metal door
as she dragged him
along the corridor screaming incoherently as she did so.
She flung Baine into the bright reception area and his feet tangled in the body of a uniformed sergeant lying dead on the floor, the place was deserted save for the body, Baine fell over the outstretched legs and fell heavily.
Lucifer strode menacingly toward him, all pretence of beauty had fallen from her face, she was now a wild animal that had submitted fully to its
base nature.

             
“You will submit to me, you will kneel before me, you will fall” she screamed with eyes wild and hands clawed, she fell upon him tearing with teeth and talons.

             
After what seemed like a dark eternity punctuated by the sounds of his own ripping flesh Baine slowly drifted back into the world, he did not know if it was by luck or design that Lucifer had dragged him to the point of no return of even his remarkable healing ability but he had tottered on the very edge.
His chest hitched and spluttered, his shirt was a bloody torn rag, he gingerly traced the raw edges of the still open wounds, a cross-cross of ragged ridges, the ceiling began to slow its spinning circus. Baine held his hands across his stomach to stop anything spilling out and gently eased himself into a sitting position backed up against a sturdy desk. His eyes started to clear and he could see Lucifer standing facing him wearing a strange look of confusion and almost concern on her face.
Baine scrambled backwards shuffling across the floor on his backside, his hand brushed across a cold metal cylindrical object, he grasped it like a drowning man
clutches
to a lifeboat. He rolled onto his back gaining his feet in a fluid motion
ignoring his bodies screaming protests
; he gripped the telescopic baton firmly and flicked his wrist hard ext
ending the metal truncheon, Lucifer
ran hard at him forgetting all of her natural grace now lolloping clumsily, Baine kicked a sturdy chair with castors at her awkward approach. The chair struck her hard in the shins and she fell forward as her legs entangled with the spinning chair, Baine leapt forward at the off balance angel, his arm was raised high
using the last dregs of his reserves
he brought the baton down hard
with both hands,
thrusting the thin end of the telescopic device sideways into her neck, blood immediately exploded from the vicious wound.