The day was bright as Michael Manzi stood gazing across the cemetery where headstones swept over a hillock and flowed off into the distance. A soft breeze caressed him as he raised his arms.
“Come, my brothers and sisters the master has need of you!” he said in a gentle but firm voice with burning red eyes.
He watched as a column of white mist shot out of the sky and then, hitting the ground, the mist flowed over the graveyard. After a moment the soil in front of the myriad headstones erupted, and bodies crawled out of the plots. The rejuvenated bodies had new souls and looked perfectly human, albeit dressed in burial clothes.
“Now follow me, there is a world to conquer!” Manzi bellowed.
The mass army of dead followed the former priest off the cemetery.
Ian Ritchie left the elevator and strolled over to the double doors of the penthouse suite on the top floor of Manhattan's Baberton Tower. He stamped the doors open and entered. Two suited men with long hair pointed automatic pistols at him.
“Now, take it easy gentlemen. I'm here to see your boss. I have a proposal for him; something he'll like, in fact you'll all like!” Ritchie said with a grin.
A man also in a suit stood up from a table surrounded by other dark figures. His hair was tied back in a ponytail and he had a beard. He raised a hand up to the two guards. “What makes you think I'll be interested in what someone who bursts into a private meeting has to say?”
“First, a little demonstration. You're a vampire, right? Take a bite!” Ritchie said tilting his head to the side exposing his neck.
The man flew over the room revealing two large pointed teeth and sank them into Ritchie's neck, but instead of sucking blood he jumped back. “Hey man! You got no blood. You're cold as stone.
It's like you're...”
“Dead!” interrupted Ritchie.
“Yeah, dead.”
“Now that we understand each other: the proposal! I was recruited by a powerful man, Thomas Baumann. He's on the planet for a reason. You may or may not know we are entering the period of the Book of Revelation.”
“Hold up!” howled the head vampire, “look around, you're not the only undead. This ain't a Bible class we’re holding here.”
Loud laughter erupted around the room.
“I know what you do, supplying drugs and all, but this is the real deal. This guy Bauman he's the Antichrist, and he's here to raise an army to take the Earth.”
“Why doesn’t he come himself, if he's so high and mighty?”
“I suggested you people to him and he told me to bring you to meet him and hear what he has to say. This is it gentlemen,” Ritchie said looking around the room, “no more hiding in the shadows from security services, because there won't be any government.”
Silence drifted among the host.
“Okay, okay," said the head man looking at his colleagues, “I'll think about it and get in touch with the other brothers around the country.”
“Don't take too long, things are moving fast. You don't want to know who else is here!”
“I'll be in touch.”
“Gentlemen,” said Ritchie as he turned and left the suite.
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Chapter Thirty David walked through swirling mists, which hissed and whispered inconceivable things. The further he walked the thicker the mist became until he stopped; something was whispering in English!
“What is it you want David de Longford? You are not welcome here.”
He moved on, then, with a swishing noise, the ethereal mists cleared like drapes being pulled apart. The sun shone from a clear blue sky as he stopped in a country glade. A beautiful woman with blond hair bouncing on her shoulders approached him.
“Mother, I was wondering when I would see you?”
“My dear boy,” growled the demon Hel. The voice incongruous with her human form. “What do you want here? Are you still protecting those miserable creatures on that planet?”
David grimaced. “As charming as ever I see. Nice to see some things never change!”
The sun faded, and the mists wafted back. Hel's eye colour changed from blue to red.
“Don't bother trying to scare me with the dramatics.”
“Why would I bother with that!” hissed Hel.
She grew in size as the dark returned.
“Grondin seems to think he destroyed you and Grandfather.
“That miserable fucker! We led him on somewhat!”
“So, the power he's using just now isn't real?”
“Oh, he absorbed power here. Just not ours. We let him go... or more correctly, we kicked him out despite what he says.”
“He's now calling himself Satan, and he's on the Earth to challenge the Second Coming.”
“It's possible he has attained the power to reach that escalated height. And now I have realised why you are here: to look for the one who claims to be the master of your universe.”
“And do you know where he is?”
“No!” She growled.
David turned around and strode back the way he came.
The whispering returned. “Do not despair, the one you seek is with a dark group known as…”
The voice faded causing David to peer around the mists.
After a moment it returned. “Freeing him will not be easy, you will have to use great power!”
David looked around again. “The name. What's the name of the group?”
“The CIA... seek Meddings!” hissed the voice as laughter echoed around the mists.
David woke up and looked over at Matthew. “Come on Mattie we've got things to do.”
Matthew opened his eyes and looked at the clock by his bedside. “What... but it's four in the morning?”
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