THE SECOND SIGHT
Chapter 40
CONFESSIONS
Location: THE CHAMBER
JOE BOAT
(haunted, forlorn)
That, unfortunately, is the case, my son. I know there is no sane way to justify it, and I know I have no right expecting you to un-derstand it, but at that age I was a desperate young man, around your age now. The world had trodden on me, and I felt angry and defiled. Power and wealth were all that mattered to me. Greed, in all its ugliness, overcame me. At that point of my life, love wasn’t an emotion I knew. I was dead inside, and hate for the world was raging in my heart. And so Simon Boat initiated me into the world of evil.
BOAT
(heartbreakingly)
Just like you initiated me?
Joe Boat winces, and as he looks at his son Boat can see the bright tears in his eyes.
JOE BOAT
That was the first part, yes. For almost three years after the initiation I never felt any alien presence in me. Life was good. I had a lot of money because everything I tou-ched turned to gold. And yes, I commanded respect for the first time in my life. I had money and power, and life was really good.
On the beginning of the fourth year I was visited by The Council; they are the men and women you saw in here with me earlier on, some of the most powerful humans on earth. They ordered me to establish the Golgotha Heights International Church. I knew then that my time had come. The Devil had come back to claim his winnings.
He was silent for a long time – so long, in fact, that Boat wonders if he has decided not to continue.
Finally he stirs with another long sigh.
JOE BOAT
When the church was established and the headquarters erected, and after we had handed it over to Pastor Phil Bart to operate, I began to feel the presence of the demons possessing me. At first it began with tingling s-ns¶tions within me at odd moments, the kind of tingling you get when blood rushes back into veins that have been denied the flow of blood for some time, but without the as-sociated pain.
Just a warm mildly irritating tingling, and then I would experience long stretches of memory loss. Sometimes I’d remember going to bed, and the next time I woke up I would find myself in another country with all necessary docu-mentation on me. I would realize that I had lost maybe a week or two in between the time I went to bed and the time I woke up. And terrible things might have happened within that stretch of time, terrible things involving men of God…
His voice trails off, his face ridden with guilt.
He is finding real pain not in telling the story or remembering the evil he had been used to do, no, but his pain comes from telling his son the truth, laying his soul ba-re so that the son he loves so much will see how dirty his father really is.
These are deeds no proud father can allow his dotting son to know, but there is no way out for him now, and he has to say it.
BOAT
(scared, sickened)
Murder? It made you murder men of God?
Joe Boat’s face is now filled with genuine distress now.
JOE BOAT
(sadly)
Murder would’ve been bearable, believe me. Murder is one man killing another, and being accountable to men here on earth, later to God. What I’m talking about is way above that, son. This spiritual warfare, evil going after good and vice versa, where no government agency or human authority has the power to interfere.
It is a deadly kind of warfare on level higher than the human intellect. It is the duty of chosen men of God – The Unblinds, as they’re known – to come after the demons and drive them out of human hosts. Sometimes, and this is becoming quite often, the demons overpower the Unblinds because along the way the Unblind could’ve been tainted with sin. Death results in most cases. That was how it began for me, son.
Another long pause, a trembling hand ru-bs across his face, and then he continues.
JOE BOAT
It began first with the tingle, like I told you, and then the long stretches of memory loss. I would later find out that, for instance, a whole herd of cattle or sheep had been brutally butchered in the night. Sometimes people were practically torn apart, their innards strewn all over the streets, and I would always be in the vicinity. At first I tried not to acknowledge the fact that I might be a part of it, but when I began to find blood on my li-ps and human or animal limbs in my room, or pocket after waking up, I knew that I was in de-ep trouble.
It was terrifying when you go to bed and wake up to find your bed sheets smeared with blood, your feet caked with mud and maybe a severed human head lying on the bed. That was when I realized that the demon within me manifested during the terrible blackouts, and it used me to wreak its own br@nd of perversion and terrible murders and everything else vile, mostly on innocent people, innocent men of God who had backslidden.
Yaw Boat feels cold, but it isn’t from the vagaries of the weather. This is a de-ep cold that seeps throu-ghhis veins and renders him speechless as he listens to the horrendous story his father is telling him.
JOE BOAT
I was Elder of the of the unholy Council of possessed vessels. I was the head of a great number of powerful people in the world. Each year, when we meet, more demons leave the bodies of the Council members and join the ones inside me. The demons in me have become the Legion, the most dominant, most vile demon because it is composed of many, many evil spirits. Soon I wasn’t spared the gory details anymore about how the Legion operated using my body.
The memory losses stopped, and instead I was for-ced to watch. Whenever that vile horde of demons manifested I was aware of doing those things poor men of God and tearing them apart. I killed domestic animals brutally, and I hunting down fallen Christians and ripping them up. I was completely being controlled by the Legion, and this nightmare lasted for a long time, and then I met your mother, son. She was the daughter of a powerful man of God who had fallen from grace.
It was love at first sight, son. I loved that woman to bits. It was nothing I had ever experienced before. You see, the Legion went after her father to kill him. The demons were about to rip out his jugular wthen your mother appeared, and she had this wonderful glow-ring around her, you know, the one you described to me on the phone.
BOAT
(numbly)
The for-ce-field.
JOE BOAT
What?
BOAT
The glow-ring thing. I call it the for-ce-field.
JOE BOAT
Oh. I see. Anyway, she saved her father that day because the Legion fled in fear. It was my first encounter with that for-ce-field, if I may borrow your word. It felt so refreshing. Later I called on her father and had him brou-ght to our church’s headquarters to work there. Shortly afterwards I married your mother, and the demons in me fled for a time after our wedding. It was the only time of my life that I was genuinely happy. She was an angel, and brou-ght meaning to my life. I loved your mother, son. I loved her so!
He is definitely crying now.
The tears fall down his cheeks silently, and yet his face has taken on that familiar glow it always has when he is talking about his wife or looking at a picture of her. At those moments his heart always seems to be mirrored on his face. He makes no attempt to wipe his face as he looks sadly at his stunned son.
JOE BOAT
I had three happy uninterrupted years with her. I realize now that I should’ve told your mother about the situation I was in, but I was so scared of losing her. And then, the unexpected happened. You see, I was happy your mother was not getting pregnant, but of course it distressed her, even though she was such a staunch Christian. I was happy when we were not getting kids because for the very first time I really knew what love was, and I knew that if she gave birth to a son I was never going to be able to this evil horde of demons occu-py my son.
And then you were born, and the very first time I held you in my arms and your little fingers curled around mine, I knew I was never going to let you go throu-ghthe hell I was going throu-gh. I was in anguish for a long time, because I knew those evil demons would definitely come back because they are so vindictive and never give up. I finally realized that the only way I could defeat them was to become a true Christian. My bloody mistake!
His last words are uttered with sadness and great pain, and when he speaks again his voice shakes badly, filled with unshed tears.
JOE BOAT
I did two things wrongly. I as-sumed wrongly that the demons have fled my body forever because your mother was always near to me, and her for-ce-field kept them away. My second mistake was that I confessed everything eventually to your mother. She was terrified and informed her father. Your grandfather knew an old exorcist called Paul V. Clement, who as-sured us that he could perform a successful exorcism to rid me completely of the Legion.
Joe Boat stands up violently and paces the room for a while. He stops in front of his son, and his expression is one of bitterness and pain as he looks Boat.
This part of the confession is his most terrible nightmare, a moment which had replayed in his mind all throu-ghthe interceding years, and Boat knows this, and his pity for his father soars.
This is the fetid poison – the offensively malodorous element – that has lain in Joe Boat’s br£-$t for ages and which threatens to choke him with its vileness.
JOE BOAT
(distressingly)
It was the night it all happened. It happened in your grandfather’s house, late at night. You were in the care of the housekeeper in our house. Only the four of us were present. Your mother was in the living-room, praying fervently. Your grandfather, Clement and I were in the bedroom. Clement, that old fake, was full of shit! After his death the newspapers dredged up a sordid affair he was having with a prostitute.
He was helped by your grandfather whose faith had never filled up again, sadly. They were a pair of old fools dabbling in something way above them. The Legion was as powerful as it was vicious. In the middle of the exorcism the demons entered me again and manifested, raging mad. The old men chickened out and tried to flee, but it was too late. The demons for-ced me to watch as they to-re out Clement’s throat. It also used a heavy metallic flower vase to bash in your grandfather’s head.
Joe Boat stops.
Now he is weeping audibly, his sniffs terrible.
Yaw Boat’s jaw is set ti-ghtly, and the anger in his br£-$t is not like anything he has ever experienced.
Now Boat appreciates the icy-blue fingers of vengeance. If he can for-ce that damn demon to manifest, as his father puts it, and if he has the power to toast it over a hot grill and stick it with pitchforks so that it died a slow painful death, Yaw Boat would’ve done so gladly.
JOE BOAT
Your mother burst into the bedroom, drawn by their screams, and she was glowing brilliantly. The sight of me transformed into such a beast scared her so much, terrified her so much, that she had a mas-sive heart attack just then. She had always had a weak heart, since infancy, and alas it gave up on her that instant. The leading investigators in the case were all demon-possessed.
As the saying goes, the Devil looks after his own. They shut the case as another unsolved murders. That’s the story of my life, son. When you told me about Anderson prophecy I was truly glad, believe me. I thought maybe, in some hidden way, God was saving me the pain of watching you go throu-ghthis hell. And I had hoped for a miracle, but none came. However, I was for-ced to go throu-ghthe initiation because if I had resisted, the Legion would’ve for-ced me to kill you, and believe me, Yaw, that is something I can never live with! Not again… not ever, my cherished son!
Joe Boat breaks down completely then.
His whole body collap-ses, and he sinks to his knees besides Boat, and puts his head in his son’s lap-s as he weeps distressingly, his whole being filled with grief.
Yaw Boat cannot speak because seeing his dear father so broken really tears him to the core, and slowly his tears fall on top of his father’s grey hair.
Boat cries for his poor mother, his unknown grandfather, and that old Pastor Clement.
His young heart is filled with rage against the vindictive evil hosts of demons known as the Legion!
As his tears fall he knows that he will rather die, than be invaded by those demons! There is no way he is going to allow that!
There is darkness, but he craves for the light.
The future looked bleak for him, knows that there is no way he will live the life his father has lived.
He prefers death, and one way or the other, he will find it.
It is the only option left anyway.
BOAT
(gently)
What happens to me now, Dad?
They stare at each other with shock and fear.
Joe Boat is sitting on the floor beside his son, his hands on Boat’s lap-s. He sighs miserably and gets to his feet.
He walks out of sight, somewhere behind Yaw Boat, and returns with a knife and slashes the ropes binding his son’s hands.
JOE BOAT
(hoarsely)
Son, if only I can give my life up for yours, I’ll gladly do that. From the second you were born, everything has been orche-strated for this final phase. I watched, helplessly, when you were se-duced by Naana. It was meant to drive you away from God, to point you in the direction of total debauchery. Your friend Bob was a tool used to introduce you to drugs, to push you further away from God.
Yaw Boat ru-bs his wrists and nods dejectedly.
So many things make sense now.
BOAT
Where does Uncle Samson and Elaine fit in?
JOE BOAT
Samson was appointed by the Council to oversee your development and keep you in line, so to speak. Elaine was also chosen to be your partner throu-ghyour reign. When you were circu-mcised, right here in this chamber, her hymen was also broken, and both of your blood were mixed to bind you together, forever, so that you cannot fall in love with another woman, like I did.
She has been raised to love only you. The first time she was sent to you, in the dark, was to establish the beginning of your evil kingdom. You were not supposed to be aware of the fact that you were making love to her, but I guess God had other plans for you, and made you aware.
Boat is horrified.
BOAT
She knew? She has been part of this all along?
JOE BOAT
Yes, son, since she was ten years old. She also had a guardian, who happens to be her real mother, and a Council member. Your meeting with her wasn’t by chance at all. She already knew you, and knew what to do and say.
BOAT
(sadly)
So her for-ce-field was really fake, just like the one around our house.
JOE BOAT
(haunted)
You have a great gift, son, but you’re still a novice. You are inexperienced as an Unblind, and that, sadly, has been your undoing. But I blame Pastor Anderson. It was a gross dereliction of duty on his part. He should’ve stayed with you, or warned you to look out for the false for-ce-field. Evil uses the fake field to trap fallen Unblinds. If you had been experienced you would’ve noticed that Elaine’s glow was only superficial, carefully projected over her being, mostly around her head and shoulders.
When the Council heard that Anderson had gotten to you, they went into a panic mode. Even the Legion in me felt so threatened that they left my body to come and trap you, especially when it was perceived that God has shown you this secret chamber. When you escaped from the chamber I didn’t know you were coming to see me at the church. We all thought you were fleeing, going to meet Anderson. That’s why they pursued you so ha-rd. I was so hopeful because I could feel the agitation of the Legion within me. I had never felt their fear so strongly like that ever. Oh, yes, I was praying that Anderson is near, and that he will initiate you fully as an Unblind before the Legion got its claws into you.
BOAT
(confused)
It doesn’t make much sense, Dad, excuse my language. You are filled with these things, which are against God. And yet you live your life like a Christian. You even built a church. If the Devil and his minions are against Christians, and are hellbent on destroying them, or making them stray from God, why did you put up a church to draw more people to God? Why deceive the world that your riches came about because you’re a Christian? Surely that will make more people seek God, thus defeating your purpose.
Joe Boat walks to his throne and sits down wearily.
JOE BOAT
On the contrary, the mission of my church is to pull people away from God. Good churches lay emphasis on the Gospel. Repentance from sin, abstaining from sin, seeking the kingdom of God first, staying on the narrow road, the wrath of God’s judgement are things that real churches hammer on. They condemn sin in all its form without fear or respect for individuals. But people don’t want to hear about wages of sin, death and God’s final judgement. They don’t want to be reminded about heaven and hell.
They want miracles, financial breakthrou-ghs, healthy living, maintaining happy families, getting married, getting children, coping with adultery and fornication… anything but the real Gospel. Incredible, but yes, they want to be told that they are human beings, and God un-derstands their weaknesses, and sin isn’t really that bad because they can be forgiven by prayer and by a little fasting.
That’s what churches like mine do. They don’t preach Gospel. They don’t preach salvation. We preach distorted lies. We preach miracles, deliveries from witchcraft, financial prosperity. This is what pleases millions of people and make them believe they’re Christians, but they are not! They’re just church goers. We tell them what will sound sweet in their ears and look wonderful to their eyes. What they want to hear and what they want to see. So, our congregation keeps on growing.
TBC…