John Lyman - The Secret Chapel

Tiny beads of sweat formed across Ariella’s forehead as she whirled around and peered into all four tunnels for any sign of the thing she knew had to be near.

“I’m afraid our time alone here is coming to an end,” Lev said. “The demon is close by.”

“Yes,” Leo said, “I think we all just felt his calling card. Demons can manifest themselves in a hundred different ways, none of which we would expect. It could enter the room as a beautiful woman, and then suddenly change into some horrific manifestation of pure evil. It might appear a hundred yards away … or right in front of us.”

The sudden rumbling had awakened the fear everyone had so far refused to acknowledge. Ariella’s fingernails were digging into John’s arm. “Why doesn’t it appear?”

John winced as he gently patted her hand. “I don’t know, Ariella. I’m surprised we’ve made it this far.”

“So am I. That thing we saw yesterday has to be around somewhere. It’s not going to let us come in here and do whatever we want without a fight.” The hair began to stand up on the back of her neck. “I’m afraid we’ve made a terrible mistake.”

“The book!” Lev shouted. He was pointing down at the dark red shape they had all been looking at before the rumbling started. The others strained in an effort to make out the details of what Lev was seeing.

Leo was focusing all of his attention on the object lying below in the clear blackness. “I’m not sure I’m seeing anything I could describe as a book.”

Lev seemed almost agitated. He pointed back down into the translucent abyss. “The Bible code mentioned a book. Look! What else could it be?”

The red shape began to materialize in Leo’s field of vision. The object’s outline became clearer to him. “Oh, my God, you’re right. I see it now.”

Slowly, one by one, they all began to see the outline of what indeed looked like a large red book.

“It is a book,” Ariella whispered, as if revealing a secret.

“That’s got to be what we’re looking for,” John chimed in. They all studied the transparent floor in an effort to make out the details of something that had probably occupied this cavern since the beginning of time.

Lev knelt beside John and placed his hand on the floor directly over the book. The others watched as he closed his eyes and concentrated with every ounce of his God-given ability. Time passed as another distant rumble came from below. The ground shook again, this time stronger and lasting longer.

“Oh, my God,” Lev said in a weak voice. His eyes were closed, and he was sweating profusely. He seemed to be in some sort of trance.

Leo knelt beside him and placed his hand on his shoulder. “What’s happening?” He glanced over at Lev’s face. “Lev … are you alright?”

“I know what it is, Leo. Oh, my God. We’re all in more danger than I thought.”

Everyone froze. More danger ? They looked around the cavern for any physical sign of a threat. Lev stopped speaking and remained transfixed on the red object beneath him. Despite Leo’s pleas for him to speak, he remained statue-like on the cold transparent surface.

With Alon’s help, Leo lifted Lev to his feet.

“Lev, what is it? Open your eyes and talk to me.”

With visible effort, Lev slowly began to open his eyes. His gaze had a faraway look, as though he was seeing something in another dimension. At last, he began to mumble. His breathing was labored and his words were unintelligible as the others strained to hear. His body shuddered before he finally broke loose from his trance-like state and shouted out loud. “It’s a Bible!”

Comprehension evaded the group as they tried in vain to understand.

“Did he say… a Bible?” John asked.

Leo tried to think. Why would Satan be protecting a Bible?

Lev continued to tremble while Ariella poured some cool water on his forehead.

“He’s not making any sense,” Alon said.

Lev’s faraway look evaporated. He was transported back to the present from a distant vision. He looked around at the others before turning to Leo and grabbing him by the shoulders.

“It’s the… it’s the Devil’s Bible, Leo.”

Leo physically stepped back away from him. He was sure he had misunderstood what the man had just said. “The what? Did you say-the Devil’s Bible?”

The team was shocked into the first stages of disbelief. What in God’s name was Lev talking about? Everyone knew that there was only one Bible-the one and only true book that was born from the hand of God. The idea of Satan having his own Bible was beyond their grasp. It sounded like a bad script from a horror movie.

Could it be? Leo wondered. Could Satan actually have his own written version of the events that had occurred since his banishment from heaven by God? Was this the Devil’s church here on earth?

Questions and doubt began to flood his mind. The inevitable theological dialogue resulting from a book inspired by Satan could shake the very foundation of the world’s three monotheistic religions. It could wreak havoc with mankind’s belief systems and play right into Satan’s hand.

A thousand possibilities ran through Leo’s mind, but one fact stood out above all others. Nothing good could come from the hand of a dark angel cast from heaven by God himself. This was evil in its purest form.

Ariella looked down into the darkness at the red object encased beneath her. “I know this is what we’re supposed to take from Satan and somehow deliver to God.” She was beginning to shake uncontrollably as she glanced about the cavern. The others followed her gaze to the object below and were overcome by the aura of pure malevolence flowing from the area around it.

Certainty and resolve was beginning to replace doubt and fear in Leo’s mind, but he was still holding on to a secret belief that maybe they were doing the wrong thing by being there at all. Maybe they should just leave it alone and run away from this place as fast as they could. This could very well be the biggest crapshoot in history.

“We have to take it,” Lev said, seeming to read Leo’s mind. “I sense there is great evil coming from this spot, and the darkness will only spread if we fail to carry out the mission God has set before us. We must remove that book.”

“That thing is covered by solid stone,” Alon said. “How are we supposed to get to it without drilling equipment or explosives?”

The others looked around at each other with the realization that they had missed the obvious. There was no way to access the book encased under several feet of solid stone.

Leo found it increasingly hard to think. He had to clear his mind. What did the chapel they had discovered under the Vatican have to do with this monument to Satan here under the desert? Had he given this enough thought? He had to assume the two were surely interconnected somehow. The letter! In Morelli’s letter to Leo, he had written that the object they would be searching for in the Holy Land was very old, dating back to the time when Lucifer was cast out of heaven. This must be it.

For a moment, Leo felt certain the right answer was floating somewhere within his grasp before he began to second guess himself again. Was the demon playing tricks with him? His mind played through a half-dozen scenarios before the priest realized that he needed strength and feedback from the others. He put the obvious question to the group out loud. “I trust what Lev has said, but if this is really the Devil’s book, I have to ask, does God really want us to touch such an evil thing? We have to be absolutely certain that we are doing the right thing.”

“Maybe taking it away from here neutralizes it somehow,” John said. “We’ve been talking a lot over the past few weeks about how the world is backing farther and farther away from God, and we’ve seen in the code that this is an area that harbors an evolving disturbance in the balance between good and evil in the world. Something’s causing the great shift away from the world’s belief in God. Maybe this is the answer.”