The Incubus, Succubus and Son of Perdition Box Set: The Len du Randt Bundle (49 page)

‘What’s here, Jared?’ he asked
himself as he scanned his eyes across the water. The urge to be there grew
stronger as he neared the majestic lake. ‘What am I looking for?’

In the distance, not too far from
the lake was a small building. Jared felt compelled to go towards it and
promptly began the painful limp. It wasn’t until he was halfway there that he
stopped to look up at the building again. What he saw made him gasp and he dropped
his cane as he recoiled. Not too far off, at each corner of the building
towered four massive statues, each about as tall as a six-storey building; men
with swords crafted with exceptional detail. But the sheer size wasn’t what
bothered Jared. What did bother him was the fact that they weren’t there a
minute ago.

Jared took a deep breath and picked
up his cane. He limped towards the small building, cautiously eyeing the
intense detail of the massive statues that appeared from seemingly nowhere.
Their facial expressions were stern and fierce, ready for confrontation. Jared
couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed as he walked up to the first two statues.
Sentinels
they are,
Jared thought.
Guarding this small building. What on earth
could be so important?

Without warning and as one entity,
all four statues unsheathed their swords and pointed them outward in what
appeared to be some sort of salute.

Jared fell back onto the soft grass
and scrambled to get away. He twisted his hand and crashed into the ground. ‘
Don’t
kill me!
’

The statues didn’t move. They just
stood there, swords extended at face level in front of them.

Jared slowly opened his eyes. He
grabbed his cane and—biting back the pain—stood up and hobbled towards the
large wooden doors of the building as quickly as possible. He didn’t dare look
back as he slipped through the doors and only once the bolt snapped into place,
did he exhale. He took a moment to compose himself before examining his
surroundings. The stained glass windows lent a certain sense of colour to the
otherwise traditional building. Wooden pews flooded the room towards the front
and ended just in front of a small stage upon which stood a pulpit. Something
about the Church felt familiar to him. Jared couldn’t put his finger on it, but
he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had been there before. He looked at the
doors and ran his fingers over the varnished wood.

Images of a man bolting the door
flickered through Jared’s mind like a homemade movie. He was certain that he
had been here before. Jared closed his eyes.

Come, this is where the door is.

A flash of a man smashing the brick
wall at the front.

Jared slowly made his way to the
wall behind the pulpit. He looked back over the pews and a sense of urgency
overcame him. As quickly as the sense came, it left.
Weird,
Jared
thought and traced his fingers down the brick wall. He was looking for
something,
anything
that could fill the gaps he had in his memory.
Anything that could tell him why he was seeing the things that he was seeing as
well as why he felt drawn to this place.

‘May I help you?’ a voice asked and
Jared spun around.

‘I’m sorry,’ Jared said to the man
standing in the isle. ‘I was just...’

‘You’re Jared Greene, right?’ the
man asked as he approached Jared.

Jared nodded. ‘And you are...?’

‘Peter Jacobs,’ the man said and
extended his hand. ‘I’m the Pastor of this Church.’

Jared shook his hand. ‘How did you
know...?’

‘Your name?’ the Pastor finished
Jared’s sentence. He smiled. ‘I had a vision about you, Mister Greene. I’ve
been expecting you.’

*   
-    -    -    *

Justin was in the garden, tending to
Rebecca’s roses when the phone rang. At first he thought that he would just let
it ring, but something in his gut urged him rather to take the call.

‘Mister Greene?’

It was a woman’s voice. ‘Yes...?’

‘This is Dorothy Stevens from Brooke
& Lester Literary Agents.’

Justin’s heart leapt to his throat.
‘Hi...’

‘I’m calling you about your
manuscript,
The Reaper and Mr. Smith.
’

‘Yes...?’ Justin wanted to kick
himself for being dumb-struck.

There was a moment of silence before
she spoke again. ‘It’s a good book, Mister Greene; a bit rough around the
edges, but I can work with it. I’m calling you because I would like to
represent the book. If you haven’t found another agent already, that is.’

I wish!
‘Uh...no...’ he said and flinched.
‘I mean...I don’t have anyone representing the book yet.’

‘I unfortunately only have one more
slot open for this year and would very much like to include your manuscript,
but there’s also another one that I was equally impressed with.’

Justin’s stomach constricted.
‘Uh...What does that mean?’

‘Well, since I received your
manuscript first, I wanted to give you the first option. Would you be able to
see me tomorrow afternoon, say around three?’

‘Tomorrow?’ Justin asked. He didn’t
expect any of this to happen at the rate it was happening. ‘Where? What time?’

‘At our offices in Cape Town.’

Justin’s hand tightened around the
receiver. He would have to fly to Cape Town. There’s no way that he would be
able to be back the same day and still be there for Monique. ‘Tomorrow might be
a bit tight,’ he said. ‘Would Friday be possible for you?’

‘Unfortunately, due to a very tight
deadline that we are on, it
has
to be tomorrow,’ she said. ‘If you can’t
see me by then, I will have to go with the other author. I’m sure you
understand.’

Jared’s mind reeled. He needed to
stall for time. ‘I just have to check a few things,’ he said. ‘Can I get back
to you in a couple of minutes?’

‘Sure.’ She gave him her contact
number. Justin wrote it down and after hanging up, pulled back the chair and
sat down in it with a heavy sigh.

Monique sang softly as she entered
the kitchen. She took an apple, chewed off a bite and swallowed. ‘What’s wrong,
dad?’

Justin sighed. ‘An agent wants to
see me in person tomorrow. She wants to represent my book, but only if I can
meet her in Cape Town. If I can’t make it, she won’t represent me and who knows
how long it will take before I get another agent interested in the novel?’

Monique bit off another piece and
chewed on it for a while. ‘So?’ she asked. ‘What’s the problem?’

‘The problem?’ Justin asked and
almost burst out laughing with frustration. ‘Do you know how hard it is to get
an agent?’

‘I’m not talking about that,’
Monique said. ‘I want to know why you can’t go to see her?’

This time Justin did laugh. ‘She’s
in Cape Town, Monique.’

Monique rolled her eyes. ‘So...?’

He could only smile at his daughter.
‘I’ll never be able to make the round trip in a day.’

‘Then sleep over.’

‘Right. And just who do you think will
look after you while I’m gone?’

‘Dad,’ Monique said, dragging the
word out into a nag. ‘I’m not a little girl anymore. I’m seventeen years old
and more than capable of taking care of myself, thank you.’

Justin bit his lip. He wanted the
agent more than anything else. Besides, Monique did have a valid point. She was
older now and capable of handling herself. ‘On one condition,’ he said.

‘Yes...?’

‘That you get one of your friends to
come over and spend the night here with you.’

‘Done,’ she said.

‘I’m talking about a girl friend.’

Monique laughed. ‘I know, silly.’

Justin picked up the phone to call
the agent and then hesitated. ‘I’ll have to run this past your mother first.’

‘Negative, dad,’ Monique said and
shook her head. ‘There’s no time. Call this agent and tell him that you will be
there tomorrow. Then call the airport and book your flight.’ She smiled and
wrapped her hands around his. ‘You’ve been waiting five years for this day,
dad. I’ll be fine. Promise.’

‘Her,’ Justin said. ‘You mean I
should call her. The agent is a woman.’

‘Fine,’ Monique said and picked up
the handset. She held it out to him and tapped her foot lightly. ‘Call
her
,’
she said, ‘or else I will.’

Justin took the handset from her.
Monique was right. He had a chance to have his book represented and would be a
fool to pass it up.
Yes
, he resolved.
I’ll do it!

‘You’ll thank me later,’ Monique
said and a sly grin spread across her young face. ‘My birthday is coming up.’
She winked and kissed him on the forehead before leaving him to his arrangements.

The office was smaller than Jared
figured a Pastor’s office would be. It was host to only a wooden desk covered
in paper and a bookshelf against the wall. When the Pastor ran out of shelf
space, he stacked the remaining books in three heaps next to the bookshelf.
Jared figured that Pastor Jacobs would need a larger bookshelf soon, but it was
obvious that it wasn’t going to happen until he got a bigger office.

Jared eyed the books.
Predestined
for Hell?
He shivered at the title.
Apologetics in Action; The Myth of
Evolution; The Son of Perdition; All you ever need to know about Jehovah’s
Witnesses; Demon, be gone!
Jared shook his head and stared out the window
at the small patch of grass and one single tree that was the Pastor’s view. In
the distance, the sun’s reflection on the lake sparkled like thousands of tiny
diamonds.

An image of a diamond ring entered
his mind.

Amy...

‘Here we go,’ the Pastor said as he
entered the office with a wooden tray upon which stood two mugs filled with hot
water. Jared took a mug from the tray and scooped a heap of coffee and two
sugars into the water. He added milk and stirred the mixture until all the
ingredients were blended into a satisfactory cream colour.

‘I hope you like it. Would you like
a biscuit?’

Jared took a sip and nodded. He
dunked the biscuit and ate it before he placed the cup on a coaster and sat
back into the chair. Once comfortable, he folded his arms and established eye
contact. ‘Why am I here, Pastor?’ he asked.

Pastor Jacobs sighed and stared at
the swirling liquid in his own mug while he formulated an answer in his mind.
Finally he just shrugged. ‘Honestly, I don’t know,’ he said. ‘The vision I had
merely showed you standing there. I received your name through a word of knowledge,
but the rest is unclear.’

‘No offence, Pastor,’ Jared said and
leaned forward. ‘If I don’t know why I’m here, and you don’t know why I’m here,
then what’s the use of me being here at all?’

‘I don’t know yet,’ Pastor Jacobs
said. ‘But maybe we’re not supposed to know right away. Maybe the purpose of
our meeting one another will be revealed at a later stage.’

‘Great. And what are we supposed to
do until then?’

‘I’m not sure. Let’s talk about
you.’

Jared sat back and inhaled deeply.
He was in no mood to talk about himself, but something in his gut made him come
to this Church, and he was curious to find out what. He could see no harm in
playing along for now. ‘Okay, Pastor,’ he said. ‘What would you like to know?’

‘Tell me more about yourself. What
kind of work do you do, Mister Greene?’

‘Where to begin?’ Jared asked. He
leaned forward in the chair, shifted his weight until he was comfortable, and
then swallowed a mouthful of coffee before he spoke again. ‘I used to own a
company called Whyte & Greene International.’

‘I heard about them,’ the Pastor
said with a nod. A sudden realization flooded his eyes and his face brightened.
‘You’re Jared Greene,’ he said as if stating a new fact. ‘
The
Jared
Greene.’

Jared smiled faintly. ‘I guess so.’
He lowered his eyes and looked at the palms of his hands for a moment. ‘I lost
the girl that I wanted to marry recently,’ he said and swallowed hard to try
and fight back the tears that brimmed in his eyes. ‘On the night of the funeral
I crashed my car. According to my mother, I was in a coma for a month before I
finally woke up.’

‘I read about the accident in the
papers,’ Pastor Jacobs said. ‘I’m so sorry to hear about the passing of your
loved one.’

‘Thanks.’

‘If you ever need to talk about
it...’

‘It’s okay,’ Jared said and made a
slight wave with his hand to dismiss the topic. ‘Anyway,’ he said. ‘When I woke
up from the coma a month later, I was blind.’

‘Blind?’

‘Physically, yes. I couldn’t see a
thing.’

‘But you can see now, right?’ the
Pastor asked and felt foolish even as the words parted from his mouth.
Assumption was never a good thing in his business, so he felt compelled to
rather just confirm.

‘I can, yes.’

‘Interesting. What happened? Was it
a short-term blindness?’

‘To tell you the honest truth,
Pastor, I’m not quite sure myself. All I know is that my mother came into the
room, rubbed some sort of liquid on my eyes, and prayed for me.’

Pastor Jacobs leaned forward,
clearly interested in the part that came next.

‘When I opened my eyes,’ Jared said.
‘I could see.’

‘Amazing,’ the Pastor said and shook
his head in disbelief. He smiled broadly. ‘It’s wonderful how powerful simple
faith and prayer can be.’

‘Indeed,’ Jared said. ‘I must admit
that I’m not a Christian and therefore don’t really believe in the things you
do. But what I do know is that my mother prayed for me to be able to see again,
and when I opened my eyes, I could. The problem is that I’ve received more than
I bargained for.’

‘Why?’ Pastor Jacobs asked. ‘What do
you mean?’

For a moment Jared thought of shrugging
off the subject and changing the topic. But he wanted answers and he would
rather talk to someone about it than no one at all. Something made him come to
this Church, so this might be where he would get the answers he so desperately
needed. ‘Since the moment I opened my eyes,’ he said and took a deep breath.
‘I’ve been seeing strange things.’

‘Oh? What kind of things?’

‘I’m not sure how to explain it,’
Jared said and downed the last half of his coffee. ‘As I said before, I’m not a
Christian, although I’m not ignorant of the things that you believe. My parents
made sure of that. Growing up, I was taught about angels and demons, heaven and
hell...’

A knock on the door made the Pastor
look up. Jared caught the slightest hint of irritation in his facial expression.
‘Yes?’

The door opened and a young woman
stuck her head through the gap. ‘Sorry to interrupt,’ she said. ‘I just wanted
to remind you of the meeting at four.’

Pastor Jacobs nodded, and after she
closed the door again, turned his attention toward Jared. ‘I do apologize for
that, Mister Greene. Please continue.’

‘Please, call me Jared.’

‘All right, Jared. Please call me
Peter.’

Jared smiled. He finished his coffee
before he spoke again. ‘Angels and demons,’ he said. ‘I think that’s what I’ve
been seeing.’

‘Angels?’ the Pastor asked. ‘You see
angels?’

Jared nodded. ‘At least I think
that’s what they are. Like the four you’ve got outside this building.’

The Pastor leaned back and looked
out the window. ‘We have angels outside?’ he asked. He merely saw the tree and
the patch of grass that was his limited office view. In the distance was the
lake, but there were no people outside, nor angels.

‘They’re massive,’ Jared said. ‘One
at each corner of the building. I thought that they were statues at first, but
when they moved, I was forced to consider the alternative.’

‘You saw angels outside?’ the Pastor
asked again. ‘As in actually
saw
them?’

Jared nodded.

Pastor Jacobs could only laugh out
in delight. ‘Praise the Lord,’ he said and finished his coffee. His facial
expression then changed from cheerful to stern and he stole another glance
outside before he spoke again. ‘You said that you can see demons too?’

Jared nodded. ‘But there are none
here. I can assure you of that.’

The Pastor sat back and rubbed his
chin. ‘And these angels and demons,’ he said. ‘What do they look like?’

‘It’s still hard to determine which
ones are angels,’ Jared said. ‘Some have white robes while others wear armour
and have swords. Some are huge like the ones outside this building, and some
are normal. Sometimes I don’t know if I’m looking at a normal human being or
not.’

‘And the demons?’

‘Hideous,’ Jared said. ‘They look
like burnt or disfigured people and mostly wear black robes. Some have fangs
and forked tongues, although I never stick around to look more closely.’

‘How often do you see them?’

Jared folded his arms. ‘It started
with one, but gradually became more frequent as I grasped what I was
potentially seeing and realised what to look out for.’ He sighed. ‘I know that
this sounds insane, Pastor, but it feels like I’m losing my mind here. How do I
know that it’s not all just in my head, a figment of my over-active
imagination? Perhaps it could be the result of damage to my brain due to the
accident and coma?’

Pastor Jacobs opened his desk drawer
and pulled out a black leather-bound Bible. He ignored Jared’s question as he
paged through the book. Finally he stopped and tapped his finger on a specific
verse. ‘When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next
morning,’ he read aloud, ‘an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the
city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked.

‘“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet
answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And
Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open their eyes so they may see.”

‘Then the LORD opened the servant’s
eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all
around Elisha.’

Only when the Pastor finished
reading from the Bible did Jared become aware of how tightly he was clutching
the mug.

‘Two Kings six verse fifteen to
seventeen. One of my favourite pieces in the Bible.’

Jared weighed the words he just
heard before he asked the question. ‘So I might not be losing my mind?’

‘I don’t think so, no,’ said Pastor
Jacobs. ‘I believe that this ability of yours is directly from God.’

‘Yeah? How can you be so sure?’

The elder man smiled warmly.
‘Because I had a vision about you, Jared.’

Jared stood up and walked to the
window, where he stared out. For a moment he imagined that he was back in his
own office, staring out over Kelwick before making important business
decisions. ‘What am I to do with this, Pastor Jacobs?’ he asked without taking
his eyes off the sparkling water in the distance. ‘Why would He choose me, a non-believer?’

‘Well,’ the Pastor said. ‘I’m
thinking that if this gift is indeed from God, that you should make things
right with Him so that you can use it for His cause.’

Jared turned and frowned. ‘What
makes Him think that I
wanted
this “gift” to begin with? I never asked
for it. Why don’t I have a choice in the matter?’ Jared took a breath to calm
himself. ‘Whatever happened to free will?’

‘Receiving the gift is not really a
matter of free will. Tomorrow you could lose your arm in an accident. That has
nothing to do with free will. What you do with that which you receive is where
the free will comes in. How you respond after you’ve lost your arm,
that’s
free will. You can decide to let it get you down and ruin your life, or you can
stand up and overcome the situation you’re faced with. You don’t
have
to
convert, no. But if you do, you’d be able to do so much more with what you
have.’

‘And if I decide to do nothing?’

‘That is your choice too. Although,
before you plan to do anything at all, go and think about what we’ve discussed.
You were led here by the Holy Spirit. I had a vision about you. There’s no
doubt in my mind that the Lord has a plan with all of this. You’re a smart man,
Mister Greene. I’m pretty sure you’ll figure out what to do.’

‘I’ll think about it, Pastor,’ Jared
said and stood up. ‘Thank you so much for your time.’ Pastor Jacobs stood up
and followed Jared to the door. Before stepping out of the office the younger
man paused. ‘I didn’t ask for this, you know?’ Jared said.

‘I know,’ the Pastor said and
smiled. ‘Neither did Moses.’

Jared forced a chuckle and shook the
Pastor’s hand. ‘Thanks again for your time, Pastor Jacobs,’ he said and left.

When Jared was gone, Pastor Peter
Jacobs closed the door and let out a heavy sigh. ‘Please be with him, Lord,’ he
prayed softly. ‘Please guide Jared through whatever lies ahead.’

*   
-    -    -    *

Jared’s heart was beating as fast as
the thoughts that raced through his mind. He walked as quickly as his aching
legs could carry him, not looking back at the Church or the giant angels. Only
when he reached the lake did he stop to catch his breath. He sat down on the
soft grass and looked up at the clouds that glided so gently high above
Kelwick.

What you do with that which you
receive is where the free will comes in.

A cool breeze ruffled the leaves in
the nearby trees as it passed through them before gently tugging at Jared’s
hair. Jared picked up a flat stone that was lying near his hand and tossed it
through the air. It whirled before hitting the water, patting the surface twice
before disappearing with a
plonk.