The Incubus, Succubus and Son of Perdition Box Set: The Len du Randt Bundle (43 page)

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The barking was part of the dream at
first, aggressive and relentless. Shaun turned and coughed. The dream slowly
seeped away, allowing reality to slip through. He opened his eyes. Through the
darkness he could barely make out the silhouette of his wife. It took a moment
before his eyes could focus enough to read the neon lights of the alarm clock
next to her head.

03:33 A.M

And he could hear the dog barking.

‘Sam?’

She didn’t respond.

The dog continued its consistent
barking. It wouldn’t usually bark at this hour unless there was a good reason
to do so. Shaun sat up straight, ran his hand over his face and then got out of
bed before making his way down the corridor to the living room.

‘What’s wrong, Maximus?’ Shaun
asked. His dog ignored him and continued barking at something outside. It
scratched the sliding glass door and sniffed at the bottom. ‘What’s bothering
you, buddy?’

Shaun looked outside.

Nothing.

He could only see the dark shapes of
the trees in the back yard. Nothing more.

He flipped the switch and the yard
was instantly lit.

Still nothing.

The dog continued its aggressive
barking, the ridge of hair on its back a clear indication of its agitation.

Shaun unlatched and opened the
sliding door, allowing Maximus to pursue whatever enemy hid in the shadows. The
dog merely ran to a tree and raised itself against the trunk, barking at
something high above while clawing at the bark of the tree.

‘Maximus,’ Shaun shouted, trying his
best not to raise his voice too loud. The Labrador paused and looked at him,
whimpered, and then turned its attention back at the tree and continued its
frantic barking. ‘Maximus!’ Shaun shouted and stepped outside. ‘What’s wrong,
boy?’

The dog looked at him and growled.

Shaun stopped dead.

‘Maximus?’

Maximus bared his teeth at Shaun.

‘What’s the matter—?’

The dog bolted forward, charging at
Shaun at a breakneck speed. It took Shaun a moment to realise what was
happening. He forced his numb legs to run back into the house and slammed the
glass door shut just as the dog jumped up. It rammed itself into the glass,
scratching furiously at the glass door as it tried to get in.

‘What the hell...?’

Not taking his eyes off the dog,
Shaun retreated deeper into the house. He came to an abrupt halt when he bumped
into something. He turned around and was just in time to see the arm swing
before it struck him hard against the side of the head. The force of the blow
lifted him clear off the ground and sent him crashing into a book shelf. Shaun
raised himself on his hands and knees, his mind reeling, his head throbbing. He
waved his arm around, searching the darkness for whoever had struck him, but he
couldn’t see anyone.

‘Who...who’s there?’

Shaun sensed someone move behind
him. A soft scream escaped his lips as someone abruptly pulled him up by his
hair. Even in the midst of turmoil, he still considered his sleeping wife.
Can’t
wake Samantha!
Pain surged through his head as his feet dangled a short
space off the ground. Shaun kicked around wildly to try and free himself, but
all his efforts were in vain. He was flung from the living room into the
hallway where he crashed into the wall with a sickening
crack.

The pain ran down his upper arms and
stabbed into his rib cage. Pushing as hard as he could with his weakened arms,
Shaun managed to lift himself. There was an odd metallic taste in his mouth.
His vision blurred and he struggled to form a coherent thought. Someone was in
his house, an intruder with one apparent objective.

With what strength he could muster,
he pushed himself up and ran to the bedroom where he slammed the door shut
behind him.

‘What’s going on?’ Samantha asked as
she switched on the bed lamp. ‘What’s happening?’

‘I don’t know,’ Shaun said as he
flung open the cupboard doors.

‘You’re bleeding, Shaun! Please tell
me what’s going on!’

Shaun took the shotgun from the
cupboard and pumped a cartridge into the chamber. ‘Whatever you do,’ he said.
‘Don’t go out there.’

‘Shaun, no,’ Samantha protested.
‘Don’t leave me.
Please!
’

‘Stay here, Sam, and don’t move,’ he
said and left the room, closing the door behind him.

The silence that followed was
unbearable.

‘Shaun...?’

A scream.

Glass breaking.

An ear-splitting explosion as the
shotgun discharged.

Then silence again.

‘Shaun?’

Samantha got out of bed and as fast
as she could, made her way to the door. She listened for any movement or sound
on the other side. She couldn’t hear anything. Slowly, and as silently as she
could manage, she wrapped her fingers around the handle and opened the door.
She peered down the darkened hallway but couldn’t see anything.

‘Shaun...?’

No answer.

‘Answer me, Shaun!’

In the background, past the high
pitched ringing in her ears, she could hear Maximus barking. Closer, in the
foreground, she heard a growl that chilled her blood.

She slammed the door shut, sobbing
as she tried to figure out what to do. Should she lock the door? She hesitated.
What if Shaun needed to get into the room?

Thunk!

Something smacked hard into the
door. Samantha let out a scream and turned the key, locking it. ‘Help me,
Shaun!’ she cried. Tears streamed down her face. ‘Don’t leave me alone in
here.’

Thud!

She flinched and took a few steps
back. She was in mid-stride when she bumped into something. Samantha turned
around and only got a brief glimpse of the glowing eyes and razor sharp fangs
before everything went black.

*   
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 ‘Come,’ Amy said and opened
her arms.

‘Come,’ Natasha said and opened her
arms.

Jared wrapped his left arm around
Amy, and his right around Natasha.

He was driving.

He was flying.

He was the universe.

‘You are the one, Jared Greene,’
Natasha said and blew him a kiss.

‘All power goes to you,’ Amy said.

Jared stood on the clouds, looking
down at the world beneath him.

‘You are the one,’ Natasha said.

Jared smiled and looked at her. She
returned the smile, but something was different. Something was wrong. Her face
melted away as if it were made of wax, revealing a hideous creature underneath.
Darkness swallowed Jared and he was instantly transported from the cloud high
above the earth to his car.

All power goes to you.

The car flipped.

You are the one.

The car landed on its roof. Sparks
shot every which way.

They wanted to manipulate your
choice; to bend your free will and make you accomplish their goals.

The car neared a tree.

Jared jerked awake. It took a moment
to realise where he was and who the figure was that was hunching over him.

‘It appears that you’ve had a bad
dream, my friend,’ Simon said.

Jared sat upright and squinted at
morning sunlight. He rubbed his face. ‘You can dream in a coma?’

‘Come,’ Simon said and extended his
hand toward Jared. ‘We can’t stay here much longer.’

Using Simon as leverage, Jared
pulled himself up. He looked around. The place looked completely different in
daylight. Less ominous. Elrisk stood at the window, in exactly the same
position as he had been standing in since he had drawn his sword the previous
evening. When he saw that Jared was awake, he sheathed his sword and saluted.
Jared returned a flimsy salute. He was in no mood for formalities.

Glass crunched underneath his feet
as he stepped into the morning sunlight outside. Jared looked up and down the
deserted road and rested his eyes on the orange glow in the distance. ‘Where
are we headed?’ he asked.

‘We’re going that way,’ Simon said
and nodded in the direction of the glow. ‘We need to get you there before
nightfall.’

‘Where is that?’ Jared asked. ‘And
what is that glow?’ If Jared didn’t know any better, he would have thought that
the setting sun on the horizon gave off the eerie orange hue in the distance.

‘You will see soon enough,’ Simon
said. ‘Come, for time is of the essence.’

For most of the day the three of
them slowly progressed toward the glow, manoeuvring their way through side
streets as they tried to avoid anything that might be lurking about. They saw a
group of half-decayed people milling around, and took a long way around them.
After what felt like days of travelling, they finally arrived at their
destination: the source of the orange glow.

Jared stared in awe as tears welled
in his eyes. ‘That’s...’

‘That’s Lake Metanoia,’ Simon said.

Jared fell to his knees. He could feel
the heat from the flames even from where he was kneeling. ‘The lake is on
fire...’

Simon nodded and hunched down next
to Jared. ‘A result of the bomb.’

A tear trickled down Jared’s cheek.
‘I...I caused this?’

For a moment Simon didn’t answer. He
merely listened to the roaring of the extraordinary large flames in the
distance. ‘It doesn’t have to be this way, you know,’ he said and helped Jared
to his feet.

‘Tell me,’ Jared said. ‘Tell me how
to prevent this from happening.’

‘You will have to figure that out
for yourself,’ Simon said. ‘When the time is right, you’ll know what to do.’

Elrisk pointed to a small building
near the lake. ‘That’s where we have to be. But we must move quickly.’

Simon nodded.

‘What’s that?’ Jared asked.

‘A Church,’ Elrisk said and started
toward their destination. ‘Come, we’re running out of daylight fast.’

The heat intensified as the three
neared the lake. Jared looked up at the blaze in front of them, mesmerized at
the sheer size of the flames. It was only when they were almost right next to
the lake that Jared heard the screaming above the roaring fire.

‘There are people in there,’ Jared
said and wiped at the perspiration on his forehead.

‘Indeed,’ Elrisk said. ‘A foreshadow
of what’s to come on Judgement day.’

Despite the scorching heat, a chill
crept down Jared’s spine. ‘This is—’

Simon thrust out his hand to shush
Jared. The two men unsheathed their swords and stood back-to-back with Jared
between them.

‘Where are they?’ Simon asked in a
hushed voice.

‘I don’t know,’ Elrisk said. ‘But
there are many. I can feel it.’

Jared was about to ask who they were
talking about when he saw them. They came from all over, running toward the
three of them; their arms flailing around wildly through the air.

‘This is it,’ Elrisk said.

‘This is it,’ his companion
confirmed.

The two waited until the zombie-like
horde were upon them. ‘
Now!
’ Elrisk shouted and the two of them slashed
out their blades simultaneously. Four of the attackers fell at their feet at
once, stopping the rest in their tracks.

For a moment nothing happened. Then,
as if on cue, they all charged again.

‘Look,’ Jared said and pointed at
something in the distance.

‘Not good,’ Elrisk said when he saw
the pack of gene-manipulated bears advance upon them in frog-like hops.
‘There’s twenty odd of them.’ Elrisk looked at the building that was their
destination. ‘They will be upon us in less than a minute or two. Yuriel, take
Jared and make a break for it. I’ll fend them off.’

‘You can’t take them alone,’ Simon
said. ‘I’ll stay and help first.’

‘The sun is setting,’ Elrisk said
and slashed down two more attackers. ‘There’s no time to argue. There will be
even more of them soon.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘
Go!
’

Simon grabbed hold of Jared’s arm
and pulled him as he slashed a path with his sword. At least thirty of the
monstrous people fell before they reached the little Church building. With one
powerful kick the door gave way, and Simon urged Jared inside. He slew another
attacker and then closed the door and bolted it from the inside.

‘Where to now?’ Jared asked.

‘Come,’ Simon said and ran to the
pulpit at the front. Jared followed as quickly as his aching legs allowed.
‘This is where the door is.’