'If the camera malfunctioned,' he said. 'Remember, the film I shot back at the observatory came out blank, as well.''
'The people you talked with … could they be holding back? Deliberately holding back? Maybe to do a paper on the sightings?'
'I thought of that with the first two I spoke with,' he admitted. 'But a dozen people? No.' He sighed. 'So, that brings it right back to us.'
She sat beside him, taking his hands in hers. 'You weren't alone in seeing that … sighting several days before this one.'
'No.'
'Why then and not last evening?'
Ralph was silent for a moment; reflective in his quiet musings. 'Don't think me a fool for saying this, Betty, and rest assured you will be the only person to ever hear this from my lips, but … all right, charge ahead and get it said.
'Betty … we're Christians. Maybe not the best in the world, but we do try. We're believers, let's call it. So perhaps what I witnessed previously … no, not perhaps—I know I saw the face of God. It was magnificent … holy … even though He appeared to be quarreling with … somebody … something. What we witnessed the other night … well, have you given any thought to that being … from the other world?'
'What other world, Ralph?'
'Hell.'
By noon, Sam had brought in enough wood to last the women several days. There was plenty of oil for the lamps, candles should they need them, and ample fuel for the portable stoves and lanterns. He took a can of that for his own use. There was plenty of canned food in the cabin. There was no more Sam could do, but he was hesitant to leave the warmth and safety of the cabin … even more hesitant to leave Nydia. Looking at her, sitting quietly in a chair by the fire, Sam realized just how much he loved her, and knew that that love—right or wrong, morally—was growing each day.
She met his tender gaze. 'It's time for you to go, Sam.'
'I know.'
'We'll be all right,' she said. 'We have weapons, and 1 know how to use them. And,' she blinked away sudden tears, 'you have a job to do. Time is growing short, I believe.'
'Yes,' he agreed, still reluctant to leave.
'I packed the holy water as carefully as I could. You're sure you have everything else you'll need?'
He nodded his head.
'I love you, Sam.'
'And I love you, Nydia.'
'Go with God,' she said, her voice breaking.
Without looking back, Sam opened the door and stepped out into the cold air. He quietly closed the door behind him, jacked a round into the chamber of the old Thompson, slipped the SMG on safety, and walked down the path, heading toward Falcon House. The young man had a mission few would envy.
To meet the Devil.
A thousand miles away, the Coven was resting in and around Whitfield. The members, hundreds of them, were, to a person, exhausted after a night of debauchery, torture, and depravity. Their clothing reeked of filth and sin, for none among them had bathed in a week. The stink of the Devil worshipers and the smell of rotting flesh hung over the town like an ominous cloud called into being from the drum and cannon of a depraved rainmaker. The Coven members lay in sleep where they had fallen in exhaustion, stinking breathing heaps of wickedness … who would soon learn the awesome furious power of God's retributive wrath toward those who serve another Master.
In the Lansky home, the four people sat quietly. They listened to the almost too loud ticking of the old grandfather clock.
On the porch steps of the Lansky home, the Clay Man was immobile. He waited.
Jane Ann sat, reading from the Bible, reading the verses the mist that was Balon had directed her to read. She read, gaining inner strength for the ordeal that faced her. Soon.
And in the firmament, the Ruler of All Things, all planets, gave a rumbling command. A dead star sprang into life, billions and billions of miles from the planet known as earth. The bit of rock began to glow and smoke, and it began its journey slowly.
A creature from another time, another world, sprang onto the path Sam trod. It roared and clawed the earth. But Sam had studied the words of the warrior and understood at least part of them. He stood his ground, glaring at the gulon, a hideous mixture of the hyena and the lion.
'You can harm me only if I cease to believe in God's word, God's love, God's power, and God's protection,' Sam said to the creature. 'And I will never stop believing in Him. So get out of my way and get back to Hell where you belong.'
The creature turned its tail and slipped back into the timber, afraid of this mortal with God's protection against its kind.
'Personally,' the voice came to Sam, 'I would have fought the ugly beast of Hell.'
'To each his own.' Sam continued walking.
'The house, the few acres around it, and those who live with evil in it are yours. All else is mine.'
'Going to destroy the Devil's spawn?'
