Chapter Nine: Pitch-Blackness

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We were still here, floating in pitch-blackness. "Hehe, ah...Wasn't this all fun happening, regardless it was necessary? It doesn't matter how much you hated them or how much you wanna kill them, Entities were in the right. For them nothing was more of a goal than sustaining the Creation '', I said as we popped into Edward's hometown church.

It was empty, just the two of us and all this space. "There were many greater forces at play, mainly Chaos and Faith. As Entities are not divine, their nature describes their personalities and their actions. You met the great mother of all beginning. let's just call her Genesis. One of the two Primordial Entities, who exist somewhere inside the creation", I explained while I got up to stretch my legs and walked over to the stage.

"A really, really long time ago, it was all done by Children of Distortion. Distortion is the second Primordial Entity. It's like "The End"...", I said, stepping onto the stage. "But all it does is sleep and it is said, when it's time for the Creation to end, it will wake up... And I guess you can clue in on what happened. Now let's talk about Faith", I said kicking down the podium and sitting on it, and stretching my legs.

"But let's just hold that thought for a moment and let us visit a distant memory of your many Abominations on that world. Good all 1998, Los Angeles", I said looking straight at Edward.

[Los Angeles]

Mortise,

Innocence is a very fragile thing, it can all get flushed down the drain with one wrong look. But even that has layers to it. The more insane shit a person sees, the more layers get torn apart. Things that are crazy enough to drive a man mad, but I for one had the great chance to experience all my innocence getting shattered overnight.

The year was 1982 and the place was the St. James orphanage, administered by Father Ricardo Jhaveri. A good nature father to the orphan and devoted worshipper to that fucking Christ. He took care of us and gave us his sermon daily, hoping that we will live our lives free of sin. But one particular day out of the blue, something changed him.

Now picture this, fourteen children blindfolded and pinned to the floor. One by one, despite our confused screams and cries. He went around, taking jabs at our hearts with a knife. While he yelled at us to keep quiet as if we were the rude ones screaming at him.

Each time he was about to finish one of us off, he would utter a single prayer over and over again. "Dominatorem terrae ianitor inferni igne inferni. Et da animabus tuo. O placet, dabitur tuum cum misericordia".

At that time, I didn't know what that shit meant, while I kept begging him for forgiveness for something I didn't know I had done. But it didn't matter how much we cried or begged, our words fell on deaf ears.

He simply ignored our screams like some sort of devoted fucker. Father Ricardo pulled the knife out of the other child's chest and then moved toward me. At that point, I was the only one left crying as the last one choked on his blood and died like the rest of them.

I had no hope and fear was the only thing I felt at the time. He uttered a similar prayer and then drove the knife into my chest. Sudden pain from the stab wound rushed to my head, knocking me out momentarily. But, then the ground underneath me shook violently, causing me to wake up.

My eyes opened to a bright room, torched up from the side by burning flames. It was just me and Father Ricardo, as his arms stuck out from underneath the collapsed roof, crushing him.

Catherine,

I tried my best to keep my eyes open, the road was starting to blend. It was already past midnight, I was driving alone somewhere around the LA countryside. Each time I closed my eyes, the numbing sensation from gripping the steering wheel would disappear and my shoulders would relax.

Each time images of burning walls and screams of a frightened child would appear. He would be running, trying to get away from contorted and twisted figures reaching out for him from the ash. Running until he reaches a well, surrounded by trees and the burning sky. This was a nightmare I was having ever since I arrived here in LA.

It would end in the same way every time. But before I could see the end, the radio turned itself on, jolting me awake. The steering wheel turned as my body tensed, nearly driving me off-road. But I was able to pull my car back into the lane, now physically shaken. I angrily looked at the radio.

"I am so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, Catherine", Dom said calmly from the other side of the radio. "I have a phone you know?", I said back, while I wiped the sweat with the sleeve of my coat. "You didn't even bother to wake me up before you left. Well, I am still asleep though." Dom said.

Dom, or Dominic, was a powerful Physic medium working for my father and the Church. He had an amazingly terrifying ability to track any person. And could even communicate with the set person through any electronic device nearby. Or directly in your head, which is a painful experience.

"You are useless, Dom. It's better when you are asleep", I replied. "Ouch, that hurts. I would prefer if you would have taken me with you, but okay. Anyway, be careful with Mortise. He is quite unstable", Dom said. "I'll be fine, I read his entire file and the Ferrell Family as well. I'll just find him, take care of the house and be back in the morning", I replied.

"Well isn't all that easy and straight forwards, ho... noth.....", suddenly the radio broke into static, as two figures popped onto the road, causing me to slam on the brakes. My rented Toyota Corolla came to a screeching halt, with two big Stags staring at me intently. I quickly glanced over to the radio, but there was silence.

"Dom? Hey, are you still there?"I asked and the silence was the response. Then suddenly, another Stag came running and rammed into the side of the Toyota Corolla, breaking into the glass plane. I jumped out of the seat, protecting my face with my arms. In confusion and panic, I came around onto the passenger seat and escaped through the door.

I stepped onto the gravel and quickly towards the soft dirt of the roadside. With open woods welcoming me with looming darkness. I quickly turned around and I saw a herd of stags already surrounding my car, snorting at me angrily.

Slowly approaching me with their heads down and hoofs dragging on the gravel. At first, I tried taking my gun, but just then a piercing pain went through my forehead. A single thought flared up, for me to turn around and get away from these creatures.

The next thing I knew, I was running through the forest and the Stags weren't following me. It almost felt like ash, with shades of gray all around me, and a moonless sky above me. The trees were just gray leafless logs and the ground was crippling burnt dirt and leaves.

I kept running for a few minutes until I stopped hearing someone beating on a wet cloth. Walking towards the sound and pasting a few trees, I found a man hunching down on the ground and hammering down on someone underneath him.

He was wearing a burgundy coat and a dress suit underneath. While having some sort of numb feeling in my head, I approached him. "What happened!? aren't you gonna scream!?", the man yelled at whoever was beneath him.

As soon as I stepped close to him, the noise from my shoes took his attention and he turned around at me in surprise. I recognized him immediately from this photo, except for the blood across his pretty face. Messy dark brown hair with a sadistic complexion.

As he looked at me in confusion, the thing underneath him slipped out, causing him to fall backward. The thing in question was a naked and hairless deformed decaying human carcass. While on its knees towards the sky, the thing had twisted half of its body around. Kicking back while crawling forwards on his hand, away from Mortise.

He stopped and stood up, turning his torso the right way, facing me. Its skin was a wrinkled decaying mess, with fresh wounds and scars. Its mouth hangs open due to a broken jaw and bashed in the face. Yet it still had its dead bloodshot eyes glaring at me.

Then its broken mouth curved upwards into a grin, as it chuckled at me.