The movement was swift and powerful, and as his left shoe was exploded from his foot on impact the rest of his body was a shattered mass of exploded meat and bone, thrown thirty feet from the point of impact by the fully laden truck. Even as his body crumpled in slow motion towards its final resting place his physical mind felt a nanosecond of excruciating pain followed by a dull peace and darkness. The next unit measure of time was immeasurable; it could have been an instant or millennia as far as Joe Griggs was concerned. The realization that he was dead took an instant as he could still feel his limbs and his physical being although he was on another plane of consciousness.
The atmosphere was nonexistent but in his mind it was think like treacle and soot mixed together and blown around, he started to cough and could see no reason why he would need to as his body was a shimmering play on light and dark, there were no angels no demons, yet, and he was stuck in place in a void that lacked any real description to his disembodied mind.
“Hello” I thought I said aloud, but it must be a hangover from my corporeal days as a human, the psychic feedback that left me bellowed for a second time. “Hello! Is there anyone there” I motioned again. Nothing still nothing, shit I must be dead! Is this death, am I transitioning to be reborn or some shit or is this where I stay until what’s left of me dissipates in this mire of dark smoke. I cannot move, nor turn, I just am! Another period of what must be time where I am passed and I have no idea how long it was as I don’t really have any perception of this non reality. I felt something happening, what was left of me was moving at light speed and in an instant I was transported to yet another place where there were more like me, I can’t see faces as such but I can interpret the outlines as shadows of their former selves as I was, and although I really don’t see, I can sense them. Silhouettes shifted and moved around me as if all in the space were looking at each other, Shapes in front were there, then gone in a blink as we surged forward in unison to God knows where.
“God, GOD! Has nothing to do with this place Azurad! Or have you forgotten your father” an evil force of presence weighed upon me at that instant. Other shapes moved some placed unthinking hands over unreal ears, others collapsed in the void and some I could feel were laughing with the respondent.
“You are here for repurposing and rebirth back on the solid plane.” The voice bellowed at me. “And any others amongst you that cannot remember your purpose here should regress into your being and find who you really are before you move past the next holding chase.” It finished.
“Who are you” I motioned toward the large phantom as it glided towards me. It had a physical presence of sorts unlike the rest of us, and was distinctly non human in many ways but in others I felt it to be comforting and almost too human.
“You do not recall your favoured blood and leader in subterfuge and sins of the flesh”. It paused for a time. I am the builder of the tower, the instructor of men, the death of many or the one who seeks revenge, against that so called God for drowning a world that was learning to live upon his created plain called earth”. Again there was a pause I looked in the general direction of the towering shadow and as it moved towards me solid and huge with muscle and tusk its newly formed mouth opened and said “I am Nimrod, right hand to the light bringer: your father!”.
Although I had no body or head my essence swirled in the void and as I hit the front of the moving throng, my presence moved swiftly as one yet again to another darker place that was a holding cell or worse. Again what passes for time in this place transpired and I was left to remember my previous lives, and in all I had lived through eighty eight births and deaths each one as simple as the last, deaths young, old and all ages in-between, from natural causes to being ripped apart by sword and mace in battle. I was also a mother and father many times over as the choice was not mine and never would be. I was a slave to the darkness and I could feel that each time I came back I liked it less each time but the nature of my placing on the earthly plane was to cause as much disruption to the fabric of god’s society as possible, from simple seduction of a good spirit to outright murder.
“What am I” I said now out aloud to myself and the darkness peeled back to reveal a red, purple hue to the surroundings.
“You are the servant of my will Azurad and as your father you do it with a measure of hatred and distrust I cannot create myself.” The voice is simple and light but as oppressive as a water laden towel on pressing over your mouth and nose during torture. The pain I felt and cold although I had no body is excruciating. “You are one of my favoured few and your father my right hand, man? No that sounds too much like the world I send you, let’s just say he is the mace in my armoury.” It said.
“Now are you going to stay a while and recover your thoughts, or do you want to go back in line and await your rebirth.” The words he formed ate through my unfocused self like acid burning a hole in plastic. “No master I would like for to be cast back into the shell I just departed if possible? My life was moving at a rate and I was to enact my plan soon”. I lied.
“I did not see that at all Azurad! I saw a normal life being led nothing to undermine the god state of mind at all or simply create havoc amongst his little toys he calls humans.” Was his painful reply
“No I had plans for action I assure you master, I was luring one so young into a life away from the church and into obscure depravity and drug filled mindlessness.” Again I lied.
I saw glowing embers where eyes should be and a hollow sound as all went dark as the words “So be it” burned my soul.
Pain so much pain was the only thing I could feel and the taste of burnt copper in my mouth, bones and organs shattered beyond repair screamed and bled internal. A woman’s voice was screaming orders, and she was saying “ring 911 he’s alive” I felt my bones tingle and my organs knit as the flesh and blood I owned regenerated and formed a living organism once more. I moaned and opened one eye and all I could hear before I passed out was the soft female whisper in my ear “What are you?”
Necroscope by Brian Lumley
