The Devil's Touch

'Daniel.' The whisper drifted through the dim corridors of the lower level of the huge house. 'Come, Daniel. We want you, brother. Come to us and we'll go home. Come meet us, now, brother. It's time.'

A hissing sound filled the corridor. The hissing was followed by the foulest of smells.

Father Le Moyne began murmuring prayers. He held vials of holy water, one vial in each hand. He whispered to Sam, 'The holy water will cause them great agony. But you must strike immediately after the liquid touches their flesh. Give me a stake.'

'You handle the holy water, Father,' Sam returned the whisper. 'I'll handle the stakes. I'm younger and stronger. Are you sure you can go through with this, Father?'

'They are no longer of this world, Sam. That is not my brother nor my brother's wife. They are of the undead, the walking dead. They must be destroyed.'

'Look out!' Noah yelled. 'To our right.'

Creatures from the depths of horror's living reality came lunging at the three men, momentarily freezing them in the grips of stark terror and revulsion.

Noah was the first to react. His shotgun roared, the double ought slugs ripping into already mangled flesh, knocking the man and woman sprawling backward. The sight was more than hideous. Father Le Moyne's brother had only part of his face; one eye dangled from the socket. His chest was ripped open, exposing the rib cage. His wife was torn and mangled from her face to her knees; she had been thrown through the windshield. Bloody tissue and whiteness of bone was evident.

The priest sprang into action. He hurled the holy water onto the flesh of the undead.

The man and woman shrieked in agony as the blessed water burned and seared the unholy flesh. Their gaping mouths spewed forth great belches of stinking breath as they thrashed on the polished floor. A thick yellow fluid began leaking from the smoking holes in their flesh.

Sam jumped forward, a stake in each hand. He drove the first stake into the center of the man's chest, whirled around, and drove the second stake through the heart of the woman.

'Noah,' Sam shouted. 'Work the stake deeper into his chest.'

The writer handed Father Le Moyne his shotgun and jumped into the middle of the stinking gore, grabbing the stake and working it deeper into the man's heart.

The screaming of the undead echoed through the great house, ricocheting off the marble statues, the fine paintings, the old wood, and causing the chandeliers to vibrate, trembling as if in terror.

Dirty yellow smoke began rising from the man and woman. They jerked and screamed as their souls left their bodies. Father Le Moyne prayed to God Almighty to forgive the dead, for what they had become was not of their choosing.

The smoke drifted away; the moaning ceased; the jerking stopped; the man and woman were no more a part of the living dead. Nothing was left of them except a few scraps of stinking rags and the dust of a few bones.

'Noah,' Sam said. 'Find a garbage bag. I'll get a shovel from the utility shed.' He looked at the priest. 'You want to say anything over them when I bury what is left of them, Father?'

Le Moyne hesitated for a moment. 'No,' he said. 'I've said all that needs to be said. There is more I could say, but I don't believe it's necessary.'

'Barbara.' The electronically pushed voice once more found its way into the mansion. 'Come on, baby. Come suck ol' Duke's cock again. Then you can bend over and I can stick it to you. I bet you'd like—'

Joe's rifle barked, flame leaping from the muzzle of the .270. A bubbling, choking scream cut a painful scar into the ink of night, followed by a thump and a metallic sound scraping on concrete.

Joe's voice drifted downstairs. 'Shot that bastard right in the bullhorn. Drove that sucker slap into his mouth and down his throat. Bet that'll shut him up.'

Somewhere in the huge mansion, Barbara began alternately laughing and screaming hysterically.

WEDNESDAY

'What has been done to bring Sam Balon to me?' Xaviere asked the coven leaders.

No one replied. None present would meet the young woman's piercing eyes.

'I see,' she spoke softly. 'Sam and the others have ignored my deadline. I cannot, for some reason, reach my Master Father, and that disturbs me. For I am unsure as to the proper direction to take. 1 do not know what has happened. He was here only hours ago. Now he is gone.'

'Princess!' Jimmy Perkins shuffled into the room. 'The Tablet is gone!'

They all knew what that meant. Satan was gone.

But why did he leave?

'You cheating, rotten, no good son of a cosmic whore!' The Dark One hurled the message across the sky in plumes of yellow smoke.

In the firmament, the Almighty yawned.

'Damn You! How dare You interfere with my earthly affairs? That was not the deal we made. You were to keep Your meddling nose out of my affairs.'

'I make no deals with the likes of you, wallower in filth. Besides, how have I interfered? The followers of My Word are still surrounded by your rabble. The barrier you erected around the community is still in place and functioning. I have not prevented the torture and rapes and deaths. How can you say 1 have interfered?'

'You son-of-a-bitch!' Satan roared. 'I cannot reenter the community. I have been blocked. You have blocked me from entering.'

'No, fallen one. I have done nothing of the sort. You are mistaken.'