The Dark Messenger Read online

  Copyright 2 (C) 2015 milo spires

  First book in the season of ‘Hell.’

  This book is dedicated to

  My boy Bruce, &

  Everyone at The Crypt, Facebook Group

  And, in loving memory of my very best friend Solomon

  (He was amazing. RIP my friend)

  The Dark Messenger by Milo Spires

  Chapter Headings

  Chapter 1 – Alone for an Eternity.

  Chapter 2 – The Earth.

  Chapter 3 – Visiting the Tower.

  Chapter 4 – The Fight.

  Chapter 5 – Sleeping in the Rain.

  Chapter 6 – The Vision.

  Chapter 7 – Turned.

  Chapter 8 – A Good Vantage Point.

  Chapter 9 – Closed Ward.

  Chapter 10 – Shimmering Grey.

  Chapter 11 – The Visitor.

  Chapter 12 – Bewl Waters.

  Chapter 13 – Realizing his Mistake.

  Chapter 14 – A Place to Relax.

  Chapter 15 – Visiting old Friends.

  Chapter 16 – A Chance to Talk.

  Chapter 17 – Surprise Attack.

  Chapter 18 – A New Recruit.

  Chapter 19 – Visiting Jail.

  Chapter 20 – Trapped.

  Chapter 21 – Revolution.

  Chapter 22 – Not Guilty.

  Chapter 23 – Gaining Access.

  Chapter 24 – Honoring a Deal.

  Chapter 25 – A Celestial Attendant.

  Chapter 26 – Viatis Onertiunes.

  Chapter 27 – The Truth

  Chapter 28 – Righteous Punishment.

  Chapter 29 – Truth Messenger.

  Chapter 30 – Risk Insanity or let him Live.

  Chapter 31 – Think but Think Wisely.

  Chapter 32 – Pain is Coming.

  Chapter 33 – I don’t think I can fit.

  Chapter 34 – Bye, Bye, You old Bastard.

  Chapter 35 – The End is Near.

  Chapter 36 – Liar.

  Chapter 37 – The Traps Room.

  Chapter 38 – Hoidrious’ Plan.

  Chapter 39 – The Beach.

  Chapter 40 – Mietioc’s Wrath.

  Chapter 41 – A Message from the Future.

  Chapter 42 – The Priest.

  And as a FREE gift, 3 chapters afterwards of my next book, the sequel to this book, called Entering Hell.

  Chapter 1 – The Soldier.

  Chapter 2 – In the Van.

  Chapter 3 – Their Boss.

  Chapter 4 - The Priest.

  Chapter 1 - Alone for an Eternity

  (Two Days after Christ’s Crucifixion)

  Installis ran over the boiling hot rocky ground of Jerusalem, sliding on loose debris in the midday sun. He was frantic, for he had seen his love, Adina, lying some ways away; she was face-down in the dirt and not moving.

  He was desperate to reach her quickly, but his path ahead was blocked by a small market of traders, selling blankets and other wares. In an attempt to leap over some of their baskets he tripped, landing heavily and grazing his bare hands on the dirt and stones beneath him. He scrabbled to get back up to his feet as tears began to run down his face.

  She still hadn’t moved as Installis approached her, and he feared the worst.

  Dropping to his knees beside her body he called out her name. He gently placed his hand under her head, raising it slightly and lifting her face up away from the dirt.

  ‘Darling, please tell me you can hear me! Please don’t die!” He raised his eyes to heaven. “Please God save her. I ask only this, don't take her away from me.’

  She didn’t move though, and as his eyes began to look up over her body, he was speechless at what he saw. She had bruises everywhere, and a severe wound in her stomach that had been bleeding heavily, so much so that the ground beneath her was crimson red. He looked up at her face and was horrified to see that her eyes had been burnt out of her head, and her lips had been sliced off too.

  ‘Adina darling I love you, please don't leave me, I only have you!’ he cried out, refusing to accept her death and hoping that he could somehow save her. Thrusting his hands underneath her body he raised her up in his arms and then began to stand.

  The lack of sound suddenly penetrated his senses. He turned around to look at the crowd he’d run through. His eyes widened as he took in the sight before him. Everyone had stopped their trading and were simply staring at him. He recognized some of the faces as her friends and cried out to them.

  ‘Will no one help her? Help me,” he implored, ‘My love is dying!’

  But none of them moved. Nothing moved. Installis was feeling more and more desperate.

  ‘Who did this to her?’ he screamed. His voice caught, and he swallowed the tears that were welling up inside him.

  ‘Who would do this to my love?’ he cried again, his eyes darting from face to face.

  But nothing happened, and not one of them said anything. His voice merely echoed off the stone buildings all around him.

  Sudden movement caught Installis’s eye and he turned to see an old crippled beggar hobbling towards him. He bore the look of one that feared nothing should he say the truth, for his lined face had witnessed much in a long lifetime.

  And he had witnessed her brutal killing moments before too.

  The old man looked sadly at the corpse Installis was clutching, and shook his grizzled head. ‘She was tortured and killed by the Romans. It was the same soldiers as those who crucified Christ a couple of days ago,’ he said to him in a low gentle voice. He placed his hand upon the grieving man’s shoulder.

  Installis couldn’t understand why they would have done this to her.

  ‘Why did they have to kill her? She was unbelievably loving and everything that was good!’ he cried hoarsely, before slumping to his knees as he looked up in the direction of Heaven.

  ‘Father, I am your Truth Messenger. Please don’t allow this, please don’t take her away from me,’ he begged.

  Seconds passed, and then he fell forward, burying his face in her chest. ‘I love you so much, my darling. I'm so sorry I couldn’t protect you,’ he mumbled.

  ‘Installis,’ whispered the beggar, ‘you must listen to me.”

  Installis, surprised that the old man knew his name, looked up into the wizened face. And in that instant, he realized who this beggar was, and why the people weren’t moving. He wasn’t just a poor old man at all; he was really the angel Abdiel, the being Installis worked for.

  Changing back into his true form, the angel said:

  ‘Heaven knew of her fate, Installis, and I'm sorry for your loss, but there is nothing we can do now to save her, Adina’s soul is gone.’ He said as he looked into his eyes.

  Installis looked back down at his love and then closed his eyes as his whole body began to shiver violently. When he opened his eyes again, he was shocked to see that Adina’s body had vanished, as had the streets of Jerusalem too. Now he was now kneeling outside the gates of Heaven, with the angel Abdiel by his side.

  ‘Where is my love?’ he screamed as he leapt to his feet, spinning around frantically, hardly believing what was happening to him.

  ‘She is gone, Installis. You must let her go now for there is much work to do. I am sorry for your loss but we cannot change that now,’ the angel said to him in a soft, gentle tone.

  All reason left Installis. He strode over to Abdiel and screamed, ‘I refuse to accept her death! I have to find a way to bring her back!’ Thinking quickly, he came up with a plan. ‘I will jump back in time and save her life! I have to!’

  The angel then stepped forward with a serious look upon his face and his hand held high, ‘You must not leave. Our Father has forbidd
en it.’

  Installis gripped Abdiel’s arms and glared into his eyes. ‘Why would he do this to me after all these years?’ he cried. “I cannot think of a single valid reason!’

  ‘And you will not listen to any that I give you,’ the angel said sadly.

  ‘Why can’t I try to save her?’ Installis demanded.

  ‘It has been a couple of days since her death. Since we have come back, many other things have happened.’

  Installis was well aware that time was what humans experienced, and that he and Heaven’s angels could appear in any time in the past or future as they chose. This was what he wanted to do to save Adina, and he would have gone by now but for Abdiel’s statement. He couldn’t understand what the angel meant by saying ‘many other things have happened.’

  Abdiel seemed to read his mind. He walked toward the gate, and then turned back to face Installis. ‘The Romans responsible for Adina’s death were the same who crucified our Father’s only Son, and they have now all been punished for it. All those involved, including their leader Centurion Flavicus Rexius, have all suffered an unimaginably painful death, bestowed upon them by our Heavenly Father.’

  The angel walked forwards and reached out to touch him. Installis pulled away, refusing his touch, and stepped back in disgust.

  Abdiel withdrew his hand and sighed. Then he continued. ‘It also appears that Lucifer was involved in Christ’s crucifixion. His extreme jealousy has caused him to be disbanded from the angelic brethren and expelled from Heaven, as his punishment by our Father.’

  He caught Installis’ gaze and held it. ‘You must listen. The war raging between good and evil is far from over, and we need you to resume your position with us straightaway.’

  Installis was fuming with rage inside and had no intention at all of resuming his position with them. All he wanted to do now was to avenge Adina’s death.

  ‘Where are the soldiers’ souls?’ he demanded.

  Abdiel looked pained. ‘Lucifer has taken them, because they were left to wander the empty planes of time for eternity and refused permission to join us in Heaven.

  ‘Why would he take their souls?’ This made no sense to Installis.

  ‘You may not be pleased with what you hear if you ask me that question again, Installis, and we have much work to do. Please calm down and think for a minute.’

  The man’s face clouded with anger, ‘I demand to know. TELL ME!’

  Not willingly, but as commanded, Abdiel said, ‘Installis, please understand that what I am about to tell you will not please you at all. Lucifer has created evil beings from them that he calls vampires. They will live for an eternity and walk the earth, drinking the blood from humans.’

  Installis shook his head in disbelief. ‘Enough of this rubbish! I am leaving,’ he then spat on the floor as he closed his eyes and prepared to reappear upon earth.

  Abdiel insisted, ‘Our Father does not permit this! You must stay here.’

  Installis ignored him and vanished with only one thing on his mind,

  REVENGE

  Chapter 2 -The Earth

  In the year 2099, the planet is in global meltdown. There are wars breaking out everywhere, with two nuclear explosions having happened in the past six months. People are dying of widespread disease and suffering from vast shortages of food and medicines. Businesses are closed, transport systems broken without anyone prepared to fix them, huge storms, and seriously bad weather because of the radiation in the skies. From all signs, it seems that Nature is losing its grip.

  The massive winds and thick dark clouds that had begun over the past few years were carrying deadly toxins from war-stricken countries into fresher lands. People were growing sick everywhere, seas were mostly un-navigable due to huge waves, and crops were not growing well in the fields. What did grow could hardly be called ‘edible’. Hospitals were being pushed to breaking point too, and the massive lack of medicines and cures for new diseases left people no choice but to take chances at home rather than seek medical help. The government branded their front doors with red crosses to warn people from entering. History seemed to be repeating itself with plagues reminiscent of that of the Black Death, which had killed 60% of the European population hundreds of years before.

  There were no main airports open. Plane crashes were a regular occurrence, and traveling anywhere was a task. National trains still ran but journey times had become far longer than it would take for a steam train to do the very same journey a couple of centuries before. Main railway lines constantly blocked by fallen trees, and dead bodies seemed to be scattered everywhere. Rats began to overpopulate and disease found it had free passage to spread like wildfire.

  The import and export of goods was far worse now than it had been in the past five hundred years, and it was estimated to be non-existent except for the occasional black market supplies that were brought in by drones. Most of the roads could only be used in emergencies and the London underground was declared a health hazard.

  Fuel prices had increased so much that the use of generators to produce electricity was a real luxury, and even wealthy people used candles for light and wood burners for heating their homes. The weather was so cold all year round that summer months hardly even saw temperatures rising above five degrees.

  Too many people and too many machines, factories, pollution, and wars with nuclear weapons had turned the planet into a dying world. Something had to be done, and on a large scale, if there was any chance that Mother Nature might be able to heal herself.

  Vampires refused to let their planet be destroyed, and decided to fight back.

  Chapter 3 - Visiting the Tower

  It had been a particularly cold night that night, and the flight from near Brighton to the Tower of London had been hard going for Kaine, who had worn a facemask for the journey. He hated wearing it, but his beloved wife had insisted on him taking it with him to block out the disgusting pollution that was everywhere. He had flown the 40 miles, passing over Crawley from the outskirts of Brighton then onwards to Brixton before minutes later arriving at the Tower of London itself.

  As he reached it he circled for a moment to take in the pitifully sad and extremely crazy sights below him. There was so much violence that it reminded him of London in the 16th century, just before the Great fire. People had been so disgusting in that period of history. There were fights everywhere, robberies, rape, prostitution; the way people had chosen to live and the smell of the streets in those days was just vile. Now though, just like then, so many houses had red crosses on their doors too. It was almost as if it were an extremely popular Christmas decoration, and everybody wanted to display it. He couldn’t believe it as he scanned in all directions. These crosses seemed to be everywhere.

  Kaine was a huge vampire by human standards, although in the vampire world he was fairly average. He stood 6ft 6” tall, a size that was dwarfed by many of his peers. What set him aside from his own kind though was his broad muscular shoulders and solid back. His legs were equally muscled; they appeared to be made from stone because they were so hard. By all outward signs, it was as if he was someone who had been intravenously feeding on protein shakes and spending their entire life at the gym. Being a vampire had its benefits; his strength was something else and his speed was completely unbelievable. He could charge a full football pitch in three seconds and bend reinforced iron bars like they were jelly. His flying skills enabled him to fly up to 30 thousand feet and at speeds of up to 140 mph, due to his perfectly formed wings that spanned three meters either side of him in flight. He could take off vertically and carry ten times his own body weight with no alteration to his speed.

  Even though the long-held secret of the existence of vampires was now over, the last thing he wanted was to be spotted, and was careful not to be seen.

  For centuries their kind had only been a myth. Stories were told and movies made, but no one had any real evidence until now. A dark coven of vampires in the north of England had gone on a frenzied attack
in Edinburgh, killing hundreds of humans without any care for the number one rule: ‘Only kill those who won’t be missed, and NEVER be seen!’