Authors: Angella Graff
Mark gave a little chuckle. “Try as I might, she would not be convinced to stay. To be honest, I rather enjoy the company, though I did warn her of the danger I’m about to face. Danger,” Mark continued, looking right at the doctor, “I hadn’t anticipated.”
“Ah yes, I probably should have tried to contact you earlier when I realized what Abigail was,” Greg said softly.
“I’m at a loss as to what you are, doctor, and what you are hiding,” Mark said, arms folded.
“I’m human,” Greg said, spreading his hands out. “Not immortal, not equipped with any sort of power or gifts. I’m a doctor, and also the bearer of very unfortunate secrets that I’m not supposed to divulge.”
Mark quirked an eyebrow and looked over at Ben who seemed to be deliberately not making eye contact with Mark or Greg. “But you’re willing to tell us now?”
“It’s worth the risk, now that my contacts have some information on Abby and Ben. And, of course, you and your companion.”
Mark blinked a few times and stared at the doctor. He seemed to be telling the absolute truth, and Mark felt his adrenaline shoot up. “Do these contacts of yours know where to find him?”
Greg gave a soft, sad shake of his head. “I’m afraid not. I’ve been informed that they’re working on it, but whoever took him has been able to cloak him from the rest of us.”
“Us?” Mark pointed out.
Greg gave a little embarrassed laugh. “Yes, I still have a secret or two. Either way, Yehuda is cloaked and we’re going to have to use more traditional methods of finding him.”
“Traditional?” Ben chimed in.
Greg smiled. “That’s where you come in detective. His presence is invisible, so we’re going to have to do this the old fashioned way. We’re going to have to look for him.”
There was a tense pause, and then Ben gave a derisive chuckle, shaking his head. “
Look
for him? Going on what evidence, exactly? You realize the only person connected with him is sitting in the room with us, don’t you? He had no other visitors, no other connections. Hell, he had no effing name for me to go on. How, exactly, are we going to go look for him?”
“We may be receiving some sort of evidence soon,” Greg said with a small shrug.
Both Mark and Ben stared at Greg, Ben’s eyes narrow and angry. “I’m tired of your cryptic bullshit, doctor,” Ben snapped. “You drag me to some hospital without giving me any proper information, you seem to have some contacts you aren’t going to name, you insist my sister is in danger… enough is enough. Either come clean or I’m going to have you arrested for obstruction.”
Greg let out a little sigh. “It’s not as easy as just coming clean, you see.”
“No,” Ben retorted quickly, “I don’t see. I don’t really see what’s going on with any of this. I’m sitting in some illegally rented hotel room with the number one suspect in my homicide case, some crazy doctor and my sister who seems to think that you,” he pointed at Mark, “are an immortal who wrote the bible, and that the missing guy is Judas Iscariot. To top it off, you, doctor, want me to believe that the patients in my case were possessed by ancient Greek gods. Forgive me, won’t you, if I don’t see.”
Mark looked at Greg sharply. “Ancient Greek gods?”
Greg let out a little sigh. “The term gods is really such a wide term. It’s associated with the birth of the world and with humans, but that’s not what they did.”
“Are you one of them?” Mark asked.
“You know about them?” Ben demanded from Mark.
“No, but believe me after two thousand years, it’s not crazy to assume that those gods actually existed,” Mark replied tiredly.
“Not existed,” Greg said slowly, “exist. They exist still, though no longer powerful or corporeal, or even really visible in most circumstances. When they were at the height of their power, they bred with humans. Now people like me, people like Ben here, and Abby, are walking around with what I like to refer to as the God Gene. It’s the ability to be a host for the consciousness of the ancient ones who are still roaming this plane.”
Mark leaned forward, his eyes wide. “People like Ben and Abby?”
“I’m not sure who they descended from, but I’ve been assured from my contact that they are hosts. Well,” the doctor said with a shrug, “not Ben. His absolute disbelief in any of this, despite being faced with it, prevents them from being able to enter his consciousness at all. Either way, Abby is a wide open door, and some of the ones left here are not very friendly.”
Mark felt a chill creep up his spine. “And these unfriendly ones, they have something to do with Yehuda’s disappearance?”
“I can’t be sure. Communication with my contacts is difficult. You see, I don’t fully understand the nature of these beings, these old ones. From what I’ve been told, they exist in this realm in a sort of half-state, a consciousness. Many moved on to a higher realm, but some were unable to, whether it was from desire, or inability to accept that the humans had moved beyond them. Some were sad, some were angry. Eventually they learned that they could feel again, be seen again, by borrowing the bodies of the humans that could withstand a god consciousness.”
“What do you mean withstand?” Mark asked.
“In my research, I’ve discovered that the spirits, or souls, or consciousness… however you want to describe it, exist at a higher frequency than that of a normal human. I’m still researching how, but those who possess the God Gene are able to withstand that higher frequency during a session where they are hosting a god. When a god tries to enter a human without the god gene, that human dies. Their organs explode, essentially, and that is if they can even enter someone who is a non-vessel.”
Ben stood up and grabbed his wine. “This is the most absurd thing I have ever heard.”
“I realize that,” Greg said patiently. “However, absurd or no, it’s the truth, and it’s a very big part of what’s going on.”
“How, exactly, am I supposed to pursue a homicide case with the sole evidence being that the victims had something called a God Gene, and that they were possessed by some otherworldly beings using their bodies as puppets? I’d be suspended and put on psychiatric observation. I’m not going to compromise my position as head detective to condone your belief in this nonsense,” Ben finished, throwing his hands up in the air.
Greg let out a sigh, his face falling into an expression of defeat. “I’m not asking you to continue a homicide case based on this evidence. I’m asking you to understand that something is going on beyond the scope of your personal belief system. I’m not asking you to subscribe to it, Ben, I’m asking you to just accept that if we do not put a stop to whatever plan has been set into motion, people are going to die.”
Ben sat back down and stared at Mark. “Die? People are going to die?”
“People have died, in mass amounts, because of what Yehuda can do,” Mark replied sadly. “People have killed in the name of the deity created by my hand, something that was done outside of my control.”
Ben shook his head, rubbing his face hard with the heels of his palms. “Worst case scenario?”
“A mass cult raised in Yehuda’s name, religion taking over as government, re-visioning of the Spanish Inquisition, just to name a few,” Mark said. “The crusades existed because of a false belief in religion, that only one was right, and everyone else was wrong. People die in the name of religion all the time, and the world as it is, cannot afford another miracle worker. Christianity is dying out, rapidly, and the religion in its last, gasping breath, is more dangerous and violent than ever.”
“So you’re trying to tell me that this one homeless, comatose, crazy person can be responsible for an entire cult, and mass murder?” Ben asked.
“Can you deny what you saw last night?” Greg demanded.
Ben stared blankly for a moment, and eventually said, “I don’t know what I saw last night, Greg. I don’t know what the hell that was all about. For all I know, you staged this so you can get me involved deeper in this madness. I’m on the verge of losing my damn job because of you two, and I’ve yet to hear one valid reason to continue on.”
“If you don’t help us, if we can’t get back the man that was taken,” Greg said slowly, “they’re going to take your sister.”
Ben froze, his face turning a bit pink, and his eyes locked on Greg’s face. “Is that a threat, doctor?”
“It’s a warning,” Greg said, his voice very different than it had been all day. His eyes slipped closed and he spoke in an almost whisper. “Your sister is very special, Benjamin, too special for her own good. She believes too fiercely in the possibility that all this is real, and it makes her the perfect target. Too willing, and they’ll take her. The moment our guard is dropped, they’ll take her.” Greg’s eyes fluttered open and he gave a little cough.
But the damage was done. Ben was properly scared and he got up from his seat, grabbing his cigarettes out of his jacket, he lit one and walked to the window. “This isn’t funny anymore, the both of you. It’s one thing to play let’s see how crazy we can make the detective, but dragging my sister into it is beyond…”
“I swear we’re not dragging her into anything,” Mark interrupted, getting up and taking a step towards Ben. “I care about your sister and if I’d had any idea of what was out there, what danger she could be in, I would not have let her come.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered,” Greg said softly. “They’ve known about her for years. They know about all of us, the ones with the gene. It was only a matter of time before she was targeted.”
Ben looked at Mark, ignoring Greg completely. “Did you know about any of this? You say you care about her, so tell me the truth. Did you know about whatever nonsense this doctor is vomiting out?”
“I didn’t,” Mark vowed. “I should have. Having lived as long as I have on this earth, I should have known, but I didn’t. However, I know what he’s talking about, I’ve seen the sparks inside of people, people who’ve been touched by whatever lies beyond, and what he says makes sense.”
“Makes sense?” Ben exclaimed. “You honestly believe that the idea that the Greek gods were real makes sense?” Ben let out a sarcastic laugh and shook his head. “Of course you do, I mean, you literally think you’re two-thousand years old. Greek gods… why not!”
“This is getting us nowhere,” Mark said, sitting down and hanging his head.
“I’m going to have to show him tonight,” Greg said.
“Show me what?” Ben demanded, looking at Greg with sharp eyes.
“Everything,” Greg said in a low voice. “Mark will stay here with Abby and I’ll take you back to my office and show you everything.”
Chapter
Twenty-Six
Ben sat at the bar, his second glass of scotch on its way down, his head slightly warm and dizzy. He hadn’t eaten much in the last few days, so the liquor was making quick work of his sobriety. He knew he should have felt guilty for drinking on the job, and for drinking before dinner, but in the situation he was in, it just seemed the only thing he could do.
The bar inside the hotel was probably one of the most posh places he’d ever been to. The architecture in the hotel was old, not ancient, as really nothing in the United States was really ancient, but he appreciated the feel of it.
He found himself studying his own face in the mirror behind the bar, his reflection from the chin up visible above the bottles of vodka that shone in the bar’s spotlight. He looked tired, haggard and defeated. His hair hung limp, his eyes sunken and black around the skin, and his lips were cracked and pale.
Whatever was happening wasn’t good. Ben had been healed from the tumor, but he still felt like he was dying, and he didn’t know how to stop it.
“One more?” the bartender asked as Ben tipped back the last of the scotch.