The Children of Eternity (27 page)

It was then that the demons arrived through the portal with Jerry’s birth mother in tow.

“Remember, they can’t see you or hurt you,” said Christopher, stepping to Jerry’s side. “These are only shadows of the past, a record of things that happened a long time ago. Just stand out of the way and watch.”

“We’ve prepared a very special place for you, wench,” snarled the demon leading the precession, the one who seemed to be the leader. “You killed the life that was within you. You gave it so much pain as it died. We thought that it was only fitting that you be placed within a thing that in turn will grant you pain untold, pain eternal. It is a thing created by the mind of man for just such a purpose as this. Your people had a name for it: they called it the virgin or the iron maiden. But call it what you will, it shall become your eternal home, your eternal nightmare.”

The demon looked toward the device and seemed surprised to find that it was already open.

“Oh my God!” gasped Leona, gazing at the terrible instrument before her.

“I didn’t leave it open,” objected the demon on Leona’s right.

“It matters not,” growled the demonic leader. “It saves me the trouble of opening it. Prepare her!”

The other two demons roughly escorted Leona toward the iron maiden. She struggled with them, but it was to no avail.

“Don’t get involved,” repeated Christopher. “It’s a great way to lose your way within the book.”

With her arms shackled behind her back, Leona was forced into the maiden. It was a tight squeeze.

One of the demons pulled and tightened the chain around her waist, thereby restraining her within the maiden, while the other restrained her at her ankles. They then proceeded to place additional lengths of chain around her throat, thighs, and knees. The end of each chain was stretched across her body and fed into a metal slot on the opposite side of the sarcophagus. It was then ratcheted tightly around her, securing her body in place. Following this, the demons stepped back.

The demon leader looked on approvingly, then stepped forward. It became abundantly clear that this creature loved its work. “When this lid closes upon you, these spikes will be slowly driven into your tender flesh. You may find it interesting to learn that the predecessor of this device did not grant even its mortal occupant a quick death. Oh no, they were not nearly so fortunate.” The demon caressed one of the spikes with its gaunt hand. “The smooth, tapered nature of these spikes seals the deep wounds they produce. The struggling of the victim, even their breathing, wiggles the spikes within those wounds and causes the person to slowly bleed to death.

“Even at that, it may take a day or more for the victim to expire. It’s all a matter of making the spikes just the right length and placing them in the right places to optimize the effect. I can assure you that we have done an expert job on that score, and this device was designed specifically with this place in mind.”

“This has to be a dream,” gasped Leona. “You can’t be real.”

“Oh, I assure you that we are very real,” replied the demon. “So is this place. If anything, it was your life on Earth that was the dream. But allow me to continue.” The demon pointed to the two rows of spikes that would be driven into her legs once the lid closed. “These spikes were designed specifically to penetrate the muscles of your legs right to the bone. With even the slightest of movement on your part, their sharp tips scratch those bones, producing agonizing pain.”

The demon pointed to another pair of spikes farther up. “These penetrate your kidneys, creating their own unique pain. This one drives into your liver and this one into your spleen. These penetrate your intestines, and these your stomach.” There was another pause. “On Earth, a device such as this would not have a spike that drove itself into your heart. No, that would ruin the entire effect, bringing about a premature death. However, the rules here are slightly different.”

Leona was weeping bitterly now, and her tears were ripping apart Jerry’s very soul. Yes, this was the woman who had denied him a life on Earth, yet she was also the woman who had given him an existence. She was his mother, and he felt a bond there even now.

Then the demon pointed toward the last two spikes, which were somewhat smaller and shorter than the others—the only ones located within the head of the maiden. “Ah, but these are special. You humans are so sensitive about your eyes. If we are going to desecrate your other organs, we can hardly neglect those blue beauties, can we?”

Leona’s eyes grew wide with terror. She tried to turn her head, but she couldn’t move.

“No, you cannot move your eyes out of the path of these spikes. You shall spend the rest of your eternity blind, suffocating, and in intense agony,” continued the demon, placing its hand upon the dial and turning it one notch.

The hinges of the device creaked and groaned as the lid slowly began to close. Leona cried and struggled wildly, yet she could hardly move. It took the better part of a minute for the lid to close. The last few seconds were the worst as the spikes slowly dimpled her flesh and then broke through. The lid closed tightly amid Leona’s muffled screams.

Then the demon turned the dial another notch and stepped back as the seam that separated the terrible device began to glow with bright orange heat. Lastly, the dial itself seemed to ignite into bright luminance. Within another minute the task was complete. The demons reentered the vortex and it vanished once more. All that remained was the sound of crashing waves and the faint muffled screams of Leona. Another few seconds saw the first few drops of her blood ooze from beneath the terrible device on their way to the basin.

Jerry fell to his knees weeping even as the vision faded and was replaced by the quiet of the library. Christopher took his hand.

“Now you know,” said Christopher. “I’m sorry.”

It was a minute before Jerry responded. “Now I know what I have to do.”

“Rescue her?” deduced Christopher.

“Yes—I have to,” confirmed Jerry.

Christopher didn’t respond. He knew that there would be no changing the mind of his closest friend. He only hoped that his determination would not be his downfall. They walked together from the Hall of Records. Jerry hardly said a word as they made their way from the city.

Two days later, Christopher stood side by side with Jerry at Professor Faraday’s science complex on the first level of Heaven. They gazed with wonder at the magnificent craft before them. Over 180 feet across, the saucer-shaped craft was still little more than a framework of substructure sitting upon its four spidery legs.

“This is the culmination of my life’s work,” announced Michael Faraday as he pointed at the great vehicle, “mine and that of about a hundred other scientists and engineers. Thankfully it wasn’t damaged during the war. We’ve built upon the pioneering work of Dr. Kepler, Nikola Tesla, and others. However, we’ve overcome the limitations of size. This vehicle will carry three hundred people on a journey of exploration, or in the defense of our way of life.”

He turned to Christopher. “My staff and I look forward to completing your education in physics and engineering. I’m sure you will become a valuable member of our science team.”

Then he turned to Jerry. “And I must say that I am most impressed with your abilities in the art of physical materialization. We will teach you to become even better as you work with our team to create the complex components that will one day make that thing fly through the universe.”

“I would like to think that I might one day pilot crafts that can explore the universe as well,” replied Jerry.

“That too is possible,” confirmed Faraday. “It will be a competitive field, but you are welcome to try.”

Jerry smiled. “Professor Faraday, the way I see it is that I can do it or do it not…there is no try. I will do it, sir.”

Faraday chuckled slightly. “Yes, Jerry, I think you will. Let’s get you situated. My wife and I have made room for you in our home. Our home will become your home. We have much to do in the coming months and years. I look forward to hearing good things about both of you.”

As Christopher and Jerry made their way to the beautiful mansion, they both knew that they had their work cut out for them. This was just the beginning for the four children who had grown so much during the past couple of months. The Father had told them that their task was not yet complete, and they had no doubt of that.

Perhaps Christopher put it best when he said that the children of eternity would ride again. Jerry had to think about that one for a time. He didn’t exactly understand the vernacular. When it came to Christopher, he often didn’t, but he was certain that Christopher was probably right.

B
RILLIANT SUNLIGHT GLISTENED OBLIQUELY OFF
the snow and ice of the gently rolling terrain of this vast arctic valley. In the distance, high mountains covered from top to bottom in a mantle of white reached toward the crystal blue heavens. It was a scene of magnificent desolation—and total isolation.

Bedillia Farnsworth planted her ski poles firmly into the snow and gazed out across this land through her dark snow goggles. She wore a heavy down parka, an arctic snow suit, and thick snow boots as protection against the cold. She was certainly no stranger to the cold. She had spent much of the last ten years living and working in a far harsher environment than this. To her, today was a very mild day with its still air and brilliant sunlight.

She turned to gaze into the sunlight again. She pulled the woolen scarf from her face to soak in all of the energy this brilliant orb had to offer. How wonderful it felt. The sun hung just a few degrees above the distant horizon, and it wouldn’t be getting much higher than this, not at this time of the year. Indeed, this day would be scarcely four hours long.

When she was last here, three weeks ago, the sun wasn’t visible at all. It remained below the horizon during the entire day, and bright aurora played amid the stars in a realm of twilight. Aurora and stars together—how very beautiful it all was. She recalled a realm of eternal night where shimmering aurora danced against a charcoal sky devoid of stars, a realm beyond the universe of humanity. In that place, a single mistake, one careless step, could lead to consequences beyond comprehension. Why did her mind always wander back to those days? Wasn’t it best to put that all behind her?

Bedillia had seen and experienced a lot in her lifetime of 67 years—far more than most. Was that all…just 67? It seemed like so many more years had passed. Still, she had weathered them well, at least on the surface. To the casual observer, she was a truly beautiful woman, appearing to be no more than 30, and she didn’t even have to work at it. Still, one had only to look deep into her eyes to see her true age. There one could see the pain, the fear, and yes, the wonder of her existence. She was the rarest of beings in Heaven, one who had also experienced, firsthand, the horrors of Hell. It was an experience that she would gladly have done without. Even as other children of God sought knowledge of the realm beyond Heaven, including the knowledge of their loved ones in Hell, Bedillia wished only that she could forget.

Even here, in Heaven, the memories of those terrible years still haunted her dreams. God the Father had forgiven her. He had made that quite clear when she stood before Him in the Great Hall of Judgment. He had given her that rarest of commodities: a second chance, and that chance had been granted to her on the very day of the rapture of the saints. Yet in granting her entrance into paradise, He had also bestowed something else upon her—notoriety. It was a notoriety that she would just as soon have lived without. Everyone here knew who she was and how she had come to be here.

People around her tried to be pleasant, of course, yet she was absolutely convinced that to them she was a second-class citizen of Heaven. They weren’t about to question the decision of the Father in granting her entrance into their realm of course, but she could sense their uneasiness around her.

Hadn’t she paid for her transgressions during the nearly ten years that she had spent hanging from a chain within that terrible furnace, broiling like a dark, sizzling, yet never-quite-done flank of meat? And that meat that had once been a human being felt the agony of the flames. The physical laws that governed Hell were different from those of Earth. There was no death, no slipping into a state of shock or unconsciousness, but there was pain—endless pain. No matter how much damage was done to the bodies of the damned, they always regenerated. No injury was terminal and no disfigurement permanent.