John Lyman - The Secret Chapel

Leo’s thinking began to clear, and he realized that whatever they had to do, they had to do it quickly. “John, give me the stone brick.”

John and Leo’s eyes met. The ancient stone brick from the chapel!

“How did we forget about that?” Ariella said. She was dumbfounded at how they could have forgotten such a critical piece of the puzzle.

“The demon’s trying to cloud our thinking,” Leo rubbed his temples. “I can feel it.”

John’s palms were sweaty as he slid the backpack off his shoulder and reached inside to remove the mysterious brick. He lifted it out just as a searing heat flashed from inside the stone. “What the…?”

The heat pressed into John’s flesh. His hand was on fire. He opened his hand and watched the brick fall to the gem-like floor below. It shattered into pieces the moment it hit.

The group froze in place. Had they already failed before they had started? Ariella took in a deep breath and bent down to examine the remains. She removed a small spade from her backpack and flicked the largest broken piece over. A pulsating light lit up their faces and the team began to back away- Now what ?

Encased within the broken piece of brick was a glowing, rectangular crystal. It began to pulsate with the same bluish glow that emanated from the walls of the cavern. Ariella’s eyes widened. Instinctively, she bent down and reached her hand toward it.

“Careful,” John said. “That thing is really hot.”

She prodded it with the tip of her finger. “It’s cool.”

Wrapping her fingers around it, she pulled the crystal-like object loose from the stone and held it up. Her face was bathed in its brilliant light. “Look.” Her eyes widened farther. “It has the image of a golden sword inside.”

Everyone stared at the beautiful image with wonder.

“It’s the key,” John said, his mind racing ahead of the others.

Could it be? Leo thought. He glanced back at Lev. “Your call, Professor.”

Lev wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked around. “Let’s start looking for something we can match it with. There has to be a connection here somewhere.”

The five found it difficult to take their eyes away from the image of the golden sword as they slowly moved away and spread out, looking for anything that might possibly be a link between the pulsating crystal and the book encased below.

Alon was focused on the cavern’s walls when he crossed in front of one of the black tunnels and stopped. Were those eyes staring out of the darkness at him? He began to slowly back away, his voice failing. John was looking up at the ceiling for clues when Alon backed into him. John twisted around and felt his heart begin to race. Two vacant, yellow eyes were glaring at the group from inside the tunnel. “Father Leo.”

The others turned and saw Alon and John backing away from the terrifying sight.

“Stay where you are,” Leo said to the group. “No one run.” Instinctively, they began to move to the center of the cavern, away from all of the entrances.

They were watching the menacing eyes framed in blackness when they heard a muffled growl from behind and turned to see a black-robed figure standing motionless inside the cavern.

Leo swiveled his head. “Oh, my God, there are two of them.”

“Look again, Father,” John said, looking into one of the other tunnels. “There are three of them.”

Leo wheeled around and saw another pair of unearthly yellow eyes following their every move from the tunnel John was staring at. He held up his large golden cross and quietly told the others to take out their bottles of holy water. They formed a tight circle and huddled together, no one saying a word.

A low rumble broke the silence as a misty, dark cloud began to form inside the cavern, blotting out the luminescent stars above. Leo began to pray, as did the others.

Bright red light shot from the eyes of the black-robed figure standing inside the cavern, while the smell of sulfur filled the room and the temperature began to rise.

Leo was praying with all of his power, beseeching God to intervene. He knew that facing even one demon was a losing proposition in most cases, and now they were facing at least three that they could see. Satan had called in the reserves.

The black-robed figure began to change shape back and forth, allowing the group to see glimpses of the demon’s gargoyle-like silhouette. Satan’s second in command, Agaliarept, his winged, jackal-like general over hell began to howl, filling the space with an unearthly sound. His blood-red eyes were watching their every move. He rose up as if to fly away before suddenly disappearing from their view. From the blackness of the tunnels, the growling intensified, while inside the cavern around them, a hideous, echoing voice chanted in an ancient, long-dead language. The group spun around to the sight of two more sets of yellow eyes watching them from the other two tunnels.

Leo studied their situation, his analytical Jesuit training forcing him to weigh all their options. Apparently, only the most powerful demon, Agaliarept, had eyes the color of blood, while the other four demons possessed yellow eyes, making it easier to differentiate between Satan’s grand general and the lesser demons who guarded the tunnels. Five against five-but odds mattered little in a battle with the supernatural.

“They’re in all the tunnels!” Alon shouted above the din of howling and chanting.

“We’ve got to get out of here!”

“It’s too late,” Lev told him, “they’re blocking the exits.”

John grabbed Alon by the shoulders. “The book! We’ve got to get the book.”

“The book … are you crazy? Those things will probably kill us all before we even touch it.” Alon was beginning to tremble. Even a man built like an oak tree had his limits.

Leo had to do something. Anything. “Sprinkle the holy water in front of yourselves!” he shouted. Praying in Latin, he held the cross in his outstretched hands and commanded the entities to depart while the others began to pour their holy water around in a circle.

Suddenly, Satan’s general appeared directly in front of them. He had been there all along, and only the last-minute command to use the holy water had prevented him from entering the circle, or worse, entering one of the team members. The hideous demon glared right into Leo’s eyes before becoming vapor-like and fading from sight.

The terrifying sight of the malevolent yellow eyes staring out from the black robes of the demons in the tunnels was beginning to unnerve the group. What were they waiting for? In the blink of an eye, the demons disappeared from their hiding places and materialized inside the cavern. The feeling of evil was electric as they flickered and blurred before disappearing once again. The events were becoming more and more chaotic, disorienting the team.

“Where did they go?” John shouted.

Leo held his cross high. “They’re still here. Join hands and pray.”

A strong wind blew over the group as the vibrating hum of thousands of tiny beating wings echoed off the surrounding walls. In an instant, a massive swarm of bright red flying insects filled the cavern and surrounded the team. The insects discovered that they were blocked by the ring of holy water and began circling the group in a maddened frenzy.

The temperature in the cavern began to rise, causing the holy water to slowly evaporate into steam above the transparent floor. The petrified group could feel the rising heat on their exposed skin as the vapor rose around them, and then, without warning, the insects were on them.

God’s chosen five screamed and shouted in agony while trying in vain to protect themselves from the savage insects. Leo crossed himself and prayed for salvation. Had God abandoned his chosen ones? Above the sound of the insects and their own screams, they could hear the demons laughing all around them. It was now only a matter of time as the blood flowed from their wounds and their vision began to cloud into blackness.