Chapter 26: The Void's Covenant
Morning light bled through the curtains, painting the sitting room in shades of bruised yellow. Jack sat motionless on the sofa, the Void-Bible heavy in his lap. Its cover stretched in human skin, still supple after all these years it glistened with a faint sheen of moisture, as if sweating in anticipation. The Void-Bible, a source of horrors but to him ,it gave him my inspirations for his projects.
Elara entered with two cups of tea, the steam curling like phantom fingers. She set one beside Jack, the cup clinking softly against the side table. She was just making the tea out of habit , for Jack rarely drank much tea. Her gaze flickered to the book, drawn by some primal unease...
...and recoiled when a black eye blinked back at her from its surface.
The teacup rattled.
"What is that?" she whispered.
Jack turned a page. The sound was wet, obscene. "Something that doesn't belong to you." His thumb traced a line of text, the letters squirming under his touch. "By the way since curiosity is killing you , this is the Void-Bible , Eleven Commandments. Want to hear them?"
Elara sat carefully, her own tea forgotten. "I'm listening."
A warning glance. "Listen. Don't focus."
Then he began.
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The First Commandment
"You shall have no gods before Me, for I am a jealous Void—and My hunger knows no end."
The air curdled.
Elara's teacup moved. The porcelain warped, lips forming along its rim, a tongue lolling from its interior. In one grotesque motion, it swallowed its contents whole before collapsing into a puddle of glaze and steam.
Jack didn't react.
Elara's fingers dug into the sofa cushions.
She could feel the power behind the commandment as if it is absolute law that should not be defiled , for defiler had terror coming their way.
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The Second Commandment
"You shall not carve My likeness, lest your hands birth what should not be seen."
Elara's vision blurred. The words slithered into her ears, taking root. Without thinking, she focused...
...and her irises split.
Tiny mouths bloomed across the dark circles of her eyes, teeth gnashing at nothing. Pain lanced through her optic nerves, white-hot and searing.
Jack's palm connected with her cheek. The slap echoed like a gunshot.
"I said don't focus." His voice was steel wrapped in velvet.
The mouths snapped shut, leaving her eyes bloodshot but whole. Elara gasped, clutching her face. A trickle of warmth dripped from her nose—black, viscous.
Jack waited until her breathing steadied. "Again?"
Elara nodded, wiping her nose. Her hands shook.
---
The Third Commandment
"You shall not speak My name, for to utter it is to invite Me in."
The syllables twisted as Jack spoke them, the air thickening with each word. Shadows deepened in the corners of the room. The floorboards groaned as if bearing invisible weight. Somewhere—far away yet closer than the walls—something stirred.
Elara's skin prickled. Every instinct screamed to run, to hide, to stop listening.
Jack's grip on the Bible tightened. The eye on its cover rolled wildly.
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The Fourth Commandment
"Remember the Sabbath, and keep it hollow."
The house sang.
Not a melody—a cacophony of reversed hymns, the notes dripping from the ceiling like molasses. The curtains billowed despite the still air. The lightbulb overhead swung, its filament pulsing in time with the unnatural rhythm.
Elara pressed her hands to her ears. It didn't help. The sound came from inside her skull.
---
The Fifth Commandment
"Honor your father and mother, that their suffering may nourish you."
Voices rose from the floorboards—
"Elara, please—" (her mother's last words, choked through blood)
"You were always too soft—" (her father's disappointment, sharp as a blade)
—and others, unfamiliar but no less agonized.
Jack remained still, his expression unreadable. The Bible trembled in his grasp, its pages fluttering like wounded birds.
---
The Sixth Commandment
"You shall not murder—for death is too kind a gift."
The sofa convulsed.
Bony fingers erupted from the cushions, clawing at the fabric. A skeletal arm followed, then another, their joints popping as they dragged some unseen horror from the depths of the furniture.
Jack snapped the Bible shut.
Silence.
The arms froze mid-reach, then crumbled to dust. The reversed hymns cut off abruptly. The teacup's remains solidified into harmless shards.
Only Elara's ragged breathing remained.
---
Jack set the Void-Bible aside. It vanished before touching the table, swallowed by the shadows at his feet.
Elara's hands were slick with sweat. The mouths in her eyes had closed, but the memory of teeth against her optic nerves lingered.
"See now?" Jack sighed
"If I continued till the Elevnth commandment, you would no longer be Elara but ink in the Void-Bible."
Jack's voice was eerily calm. "You lack discipline. Not strength but will." He leaned forward, his gaze boring into hers. "Which is why I'm changing your test."
Elara swallowed. "Changing it how?"
"Your disciple." A slow smile. "A child. Ten to fifteen years old."
Her stomach dropped. "You can't be serious."
Jack stood, his shadow stretching unnaturally across the wall. "Find one. Break one. Remake one." His fingers brushed her cheek, cold as a grave marker.
"If the rituals fails and they turn into a grotesque thing , you kill it..."
"If the ritual shows instability and failure, you fix it..."
"Remember one thing , I won't help no matter what happens to your chosen...."
"And when you do your ritual...."
The touch burned.
"...make sure they survive the process."
---
Elara's reflection in the hallway mirror was haggard. The mouths in her pupils were laughing in voices only Elara could hear , black veins now spiderwebbed from the corners of her eyes, delicate as cracks in porcelain.
Jack's voice carried from the sitting room:
"They'll fade by midnight on the seventh day. Consider it a reminder—focus when you shouldn't, and next time, I won't intervene."
A pause. Then, softer:
"Six days left, Elara. Don't waste them."
The front door clicked shut behind her.
Outside, the city bustled—unaware of the horrors taking root in its heart.
Unaware of the hunt beginning in its streets.
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