The Stone of Blood (32 page)

I thumbed through more pages then, …pages filled with words and descriptions and meanings. And havin’ nearly exhausted my efforts I happened upon a picture …a picture laid out on glossy print …at the center of one of the books!

A picture that I hadn’t seen before! And I could
not
believe my eyes!

It was a painting by one of the great
masters of the European Renaissance era. His name was Raphael.

The painting was called “
The Sacrifice at Lystra
”.

Within Raphael’s paintin’, a statue of a ‘
werewolf
’ was positioned in its backdrop, with patrons displayed in a
virtual state of transition …changin’ from man to beast upon its canvas! The ‘
coup de grace
’ bein
’
the child holdin’ a golden box
left of
center of the paintin’s heart; a golden box with silver and pearl inlay!

“
I had seen that golden box before!
” I realized. “
It was the golden box from my vision! It was the golden vault that carried a crystal stone …the color of blood!
”

“
The Stone of Blood!
” I said to myself. “
I remember it now!
”

“
Could this have been a clue left behind by Raphael for someone to follow?
” I wondered.

The painting was dated 1515 and the official description was laid out beneath his artwork.

‘
The Sacrifice at Lystra (Acts 14:8). After Paul miraculously cures a cripple, the people of Lystra see him and his companion Barnabas (both standing left) as gods, and want to make a sacrifice to them. Paul tears his garments in disgust, whilst Barnabas speaks to the crowd, persuading the young man at centre to restrain the man with the sacrificial ax’.

“
Perhaps Raphael had hidden the true meanin’ within his painting.”
I reasoned. “
S
o that only those who held the key to its knowledge would be able to understand it’s meanin’.
”

“
But how could he have known?
” I wondered further. “…
u
nless he’d also been a member of their secret society?
”

I turned then to the Bible and read straight from
Acts 14:8-18

‘
8 In Lystra there sat a man who was lame. He had been that way from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed 10 and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.
’
11 When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.
’

‘
14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: 15 “Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. 16 In the past, he let all nations go their own way. 17 Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.” 18 Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.
’

The words that
held
my attention were held within the line that read, “
We too are only human, like you.
”

And I remembered the words, the words that had been written upon the marbled rock within the cavern; words that were written beneath the thrones. They were Christian words. I had wondered about them at the time.
Gen
1:26
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

I couldn’t say that I knew for sure the true meanin’ behind Raphael’s painting. But I did know that the best way to hide somethin’ was to hide it in ‘
plain sight
’. And this ‘
somethin’
seemed to have been hidden in ‘
plain sight
’ for nearly five hundred years!

“
Could
Raphael have meant to depict these ‘werewolves’ as
‘
human like us
’
?
” I wondered.

Theories were beginnin’ to take shape, but ‘
circumstantial
’ evidence and a cave at an abandoned rock quarry didn’t provide enough ‘
physical
’ evidence to prove nothin’ to nobody!

“
And what of the ghost in the barn?
” I thought again. “
Did the Confederate Soldier find out somethin’ that he shouldn’t have? Just like Colby had joked about back at the quarry? Or was he one of em’? And did he simply choose to fight on the wrong side of the war?
” I’d have to admit that I didn’t have a clue where a Confederate Soldier would fit into all of this.

But I had surmised an intricate and detailed chain of events that were culminating from the pages of history into my real life and present world! And by evidence of this painting by Raphael and the images within my vision at the cave …it was all revolving around this same golden box that the image of the small child was carryin’; a golden box with silver and pearl inlay that held within it a crystalline stone the color of blood.

I had never made the connection before; the ‘
Prince of Blood
’ and the ‘
Stone of Blood
’. But it all was makin’ sense to me now!

“
And what was it they called them?
” I whispered out loud no longer worried who might hear. “
Somethin’ I remembered from my vision in the cave …where children were runnin’ …men were chasin’ them …there were horses …and there was fire …guns …their words
filled my mind!
”

“
The chosen
!
” I gasped
.

Nineteen

Of Witches Ghosts and Werewolves

Saturday mornin’ had finally come and we’d gone over to visit Grandpa and Grandma up on Heaven Hill! It was a beautiful day! And they had lots of company! Of course, with my mom and dad both havin’ eleven brothers and sisters each, it only took a few of em’ to be over there with their families and kids to make for a whole lot of people and for a whole lot of company!

Grandpa was sittin’ in his chair in the livin’ room talkin’ and all the grownups were in there talkin’ too. So I found myself an open spot on the floor and I sat down and listened. I knew that the odds of my gettin’ a word in edge wise in their conversations was gonna be next to impossible bein’ as how I was a kid and all, but I didn’t mind. We’d have our time to talk. And in the mean time, I would just sit back and listen to my Grandpa’s stories.

“Me and Dad …we went over there to that man’s house and played poker. And when I left there, I had every goddamned thing he had …and all of em’ had and even the goddamned furniture! By god I left there with better’n eight hundred dollars cash money and I had every damned thing he had in his house! I had his furniture and every damned thing he had in there! I gave it all to Jessie. He and Hinny had just got married. And hell, I wasn’t married then. And I give him enough furniture by god to go to house keepin’ on! Well me and him hung around together and things.” My grandpa said.

“Yea, well that bunch over’n there liked to gamble.” My grandpa continued. “You know …you take a people oh, that get that gamlin’ fever …if you don’t gamble; well they’ll find somebody that wants to gamble with em’! Yes sir! And alot of people gambled because they can’t help it …they just have to gamble.”

“Now I didn’t do it! I gambled for the damned money! And if you didn’t watch me I was gonna get it too! Because I’m gonna tell you back there in that time …now Berthy can tell you that I could get anything out of that deck that I wanted!” Grandpa said. “But I had the best trainers there was in the world over there helpin’ me …over there at that Coffee Pot Inn.”

“I spent pert near two years over there and that was a gamblin’ house! And it was that the best dealers in the state by god were there! That’s all they done! Well, it was called the Coffee Pot Inn.” Grandpa reflected. “I don’t reckon it’s over there now. It used to be out there at the fork of 31E and 31W over there in
Indiana
way up there on
White River
. Where they crossed like this.” he said as he held up his fingers in the shape of a cross. “And it, well it was supposed to have been a restaurant. And they called it the Coffee Pot Inn but all down in the basement and things was a gamblin’ place.” Grandpa continued. “They had the restaurant up above. You’ve seen like that hadn’t you? They got a restaurant one place and in the back room or someplace they got a gamblin’ place. And I spent pert near two years in there learnin’ how to handle, get them cards, handle them cards. And I got so damned good that you could be a dealin’ and I could cut em’ and I could cut them cards and get what I wanted to out of that deck!”