THE SECOND SIGHT
Chapter 41
THE MANIFESTATION
Location: THE CHAMBER
It chills Yaw Boat.
He is horrified.
BOAT
(aghast)
Dear sweet Lord! That is horrible!
JOE BOAT
Unfortunately, yes, my son. Those who come to my church, and churches like mine, are lured into falling de-eper into their sins. They believe they have a form of Godliness, but they are rotten sinners to the core. A few of them eventually get to see the truth, and they leave in search of the real Gospel. But that’s just a minuscule deviation, and irrelevant percentage. The greater numbers feel safe and happy in our churches, and so they remain unsaved sinners for life.
In addition to the horror Yaw Boat now feels real disgust, and a strange feeling, something akin to pity for all those millions of Golgotha Heights followers throu-ghout the world.
Such terrible deceit!
Such an unholy agenda!
Oh, such relentless evil!
Innocent souls who believed they are on snow-white paths are in truth being manipulated like puppets. They believe falsely that they are leading righteous lives, but like ostriches they are just burying their heads in the sand, and pretending that stink is coming from somewhere else.
There are false prophets among the people, false teachers quietly bringing in destructive sects, be on the watch out for the false prophets that come to you in sheep’s clothing but are ravenous wolves inside, and many false prophets will arise and mislead many…
Where has Boat heard that before?
But, worse of all, he is about to become one of them; one of the all-time greats no doubt, if he is going to be invaded by the great number of uglies that had crashed into his father.
A young handsome man like him, controlled by a host of demons, and in control of some of the wealthiest powerful people across the globe… riches and power at his beck and call, fame to have, but for what?
A waste.
Unacceptable!
He has seen a glimpse of what they are capable of doing, and the way they operate. The thought of being invaded by even one of them is sickening and terrifying enough to drive Boat’s heart into palpitations.
BOAT
(fearfully)
You’ve not answered my earlier question, Dad. I witnessed that crazy ritual earlier, and I saw the damn demons entering your body. What happens to me now? Or is it over? Has my body been already invaded?
There is untold agony and horror on Joe Boat’s face.
JOE BOAT
The ritual is over, my son. But you haven’t been invaded yet. At precisely twelve midnight a host of demons known as the Legion will leave my body and invade yours. Only one will be left in my body, to control me, and threaten you with my death if you don’t obey. You’ll be the new King, and you will have control over all of us. I’ll only be there to guide you and show you how to stay away from Unblinds. There’s nothing I can do, son. Age has caught up with me, and my unholy work is done. If I try to help you, or even think about it, they will kill you. I saw your mother die because of me. I can’t lose you too. No, I won’t be responsible for your death, my son.
BOAT
(desperately, agonized)
But we can’t give in like that, Dad! You have to un-derstand that I don’t want any of this! I can’t live my life like that! I’d rather die than be like that!
Tears fill Joe Boat’s eyes.
His son’s pain, confusion and fear breaks his heart, and he trembles fiercely.
JOE BOAT
(whimpering)
It’s too late now, son! Oh, dear Lord! What have I done to you, my son? Please forgive me! If it will take my death alone, Yaw, believe me, I’ll gladly die to save you! But I can’t let those things kill you, son! I just can’t!
Yaw Boat runs to his father’s side with tears of anguish streaming down his face, and he falls to his knees and holds his father’s legs, his body skaking uncontrollably.
BOAT
(fiercely)
Dad! I’d rather die than have those things in me! Let’s get in touch with Pastor Anderson. Let’s get out of here now and seek him. He’ll know what to do, how to help us. He told me…
Boat’s voice trails off as his father raises his face from his hands.
Terror. Horror. Fear.
Joe Boat’s forehead and the left side of his face are normal, but the right side of that face is twisted, gnarled, ancient, beastly!
It is wrinkled and hairy, and his teeth are long, decayed and concave on that side…
JOE BOAT MONSTER
(growling)
IT IS TIME, LADDIE! FUNKY TIME, BOY! TIDE IS UP, TIME TO SURF, BAAABY!
Yaw Boat screams and gets to his feet. Desperately he looks around him.
The manifestation has started!
His father’s face is gone now, and it was replaced with that horrible face of the monster.
The mark of the beast is blazing crimson on the beast’s forehead. Its face is still inches from Boat’s, and he can see the pain of his father as he is submerged, pushed to the background as the host of demons surfaces.
Boat turns towards the exit to flee, and then there is a sheen of green, and out of nowhere Hideous appears, and settles around Boat’s feet.
Tentacles shoot out from Hideous’ mouth and curl around Boat’s wrists, holding him firmly to the sp-ot.
The Legion takes real delight in crushing Joe Boat in front of Boat because as that mind-boggling manifestation takes place, that thing still retains Joe Boat’s eyes.
Boat watches the pain and terror and helplessness in his father’s eyes as the monster slowly comes out, they are the clear eyes of a terrified father trying desperately to hold on and help a beloved son.
The shoulders of the beast emerges, tearing the fine fabric with a nasty ripping sound. Its legs thickens until a third one explodes out. The thick horn doesn’t shatter the crown of the head in a shower of broken skull bones and blood as Boat has feared, but it forms! The top of his father’s head seems to bulge upward, thick at the base, long and curved toward the tip!
The Legion emerges in all its ugliness.
It gloats at Boat out of the ugly leathery face. Its eyes are still Joe Boat’s; it is still keeping his father present to witness the evil.
Boat can see the agony in the depths of his father’s eyes, the sheer pain, and that is what freezes Boat’s heart.
Boat had been about to scream with the paralysing fear he is feeling, but his father’s torture grabs his fear and tosses it out of him straight into the trash can, and as he watches that despicable being torturing his father, a slow fury climbs up in Boat, causing him to stop struggling and to glare at that thing with a snarling face in fierce anger, his head thr-ust forward defiantly.
That monster finally sees that instead of fear Yaw Boat is getting increasingly wrathful, and its face freezes with incomprehension, and then it realizes what is causing Boat to be so aggressive.
Suddenly it growls, and Joe Boat’s eyes fade out gradually, still agonized, still frightened… and in its place are the demon’s rainbow eyes.
Its long ears are curled backward, and it growls again.
But it is too late now.
Yaw Boat is no longer scared of it.
A cold calm has settled over him, and the fear is completely gone. He feels an icy energy sizzling in him, coupled with a cold fury that threatens to explode, and his balled fists je-rk spasmodically as Hideous strains to hold him ti-ghtly.
The Monster moves forward and peers into Boat’s eyes. Its breath is foul, is if it has eaten a million rotten corpses, and maybe it had.
JOE BOAT MONSTER
(growling menacingly)
YE ART MINE!
Its look is belligerent, defying Boat to oppose it. It is breathing with feeling, alien, palpably evil, and ready to wreak a terrible repercussion if it is opposed.
Boat watches it, never blinking an eye, slightly tilted forward, held by the restraints of the tentacles of Hideous around his arms, wrists, thi-ghs and ankles.
What Boat feels is sizzling cold anger.
Suddenly the eyes of the monster begin to change constantly, rapidly. Now a burning red, like the burning belly of a volcano, and then a stri-ped orange and yellow, then purplish, and then a maddening pure white, and again de-ep black.
Boat feels like being peeked at, just like he and his friends taken turns at that little slit in Sweet Jenna’s tent and peeked at her nak-ed tiny b-oobs when they went Red Cross camping during elementary school.
It is like that now. The horned monster remains absolutely still, but its eyes change rapidly, from one colour to the next, from one size to the other, and from one shape to the next.
It dawns on Boat finally.
There are indeed a lot of demons in that monstrous body!
Hundreds of demons bunched together, all clamouring for a better view of the host that will soon be theirs, taking a form of sick gladness in it. A young, strong body! They are appraising him, accepting him…
An awful lot of demons!
A legion of evil.
And suddenly it occurs to Boat how pathetic his plan is. How can he ever dream of committing suicide with that many demons in him?
He has just seen how easily they had submerged his father, pushing his personality to the background, ruling him!
Yaw Boat suddenly knows that once they invaded him, and possess his body, he will have no will of his own, no thoughts of his own! They will take over and control him absolutely.
He doesn’t stand a chance against them!
BOAT
(angrily, defiantly, disrespectfully)
You f*¢king turds! I’m not yours! I hate you, and my body is the last f*¢king thing I’ll ever give to you. You don’t bloody own me!
The rotating eyes stop.
They were now a terrible live crimson, like a great inferno lic-king upward, and suddenly tendrils of faint smoke seeps out of the monster’s nostrils. A de-ep growling sound emerges from the depths of its throat.
The fires in its eyes seemed to burn even brighter, and it leans forward ominously, that growling sound emerging from its throat again.
JOE BOAT MONSTER
(in a rumbling, decayed voice)
YE HATH NO SAY IN THIS, EARTHLING! THY DESTINY WAS DECIDED A SPELL. YE ART MINE!!!
The smell from its mouth is that of a million dead and rotten fish, of decayed sewers, of virulent bogs.
It is a nauseating blast that makes Yaw Boat gag suddenly as the vomit rises uncontrollably. He retches ha-rd, but fights against the foulness in his throat, refusing to throw up and show his fear and acute distress to that vile thing.
BOAT
(defiantly)
My destiny? You decided my destiny? The ugly bunch of you? You think you have dominion over me because of some damn pact you entered into with my father?
JOE BOAT MONSTER
(angrily)
SHUT THY MOUTH, EARTHLING! I RAISED THEE PUNY! THOU BEARETH MY MARK. THOU HATH NO REDEMPTION, PUNY EARTHLING VESSEL!
It takes two quick steps towards Boat, glowering at him, all puffed up and ugly.
Somehow Boat finds the mirth to give a real chuckle and shake his head.
BOAT
No, pal, you’re lying. I bear no mark of yours. I’ll only bear the mark if you’re able to possess my body, but since I’m tied down here, and you’re still over there, I don’t think I have the mark of the beast yet, but then again, you thrive on lies, don’t you? You really want to occu-py my body, you piece of stale menstrual stink? Come on then, you turd, come on!
The burning eyes suddenly give way and are replaced by terrible eyes which are so frightening that Yaw Boat found himself catching his breath, staring at them with paralysed thoughts.
The irises of these demon eyes are red and thin, seeming to be pushed inward, narrowing as it goes down, so that the middle pupils were extremely large and sunken, and the s-ns¶tion he feels is like staring into an abyss, a sort of bottomless pit.
The burning eyes intrude fractionally, as if there is a battle for supremacy going on, but the ghoulish eyes pushes back in, and before Boat can utter another word he feels his throat filling up painfully, and his breath is choked off.
It feels as if a giant hand has taken hold of his ne-ck and is slowly and deliberately strangling him.
Boat gags, his eyes bulging as his lungs fight for air. Throu-ghthe pain he dimly admits that he has infuriated one of those vicious demons with his big mouth and insolence.
The demon with the burning eyes had dallied, preferring to show me a little insight into who is boss. This had obviously not gone down well with one of the uglies, which has pushed its way throu-gh, determined not to jaw-jaw with Boat but to convince him in a more practical way who is the king.
Boat tries to scream, but his throat is burning fiercely, and his vision is already clouding.
In a haze he sees that monstrous thing beginning to vibr@te, and then whitish-grey ghostly figures begin to leave it, homing in on Boat, their ugly faces filled with sadistic glee, like addicts eyeing a fresh cut of Colombian high-grade cocaine.
They are coming!
The horde of demons, the Legion, are beginning to invade him!
Oh, dear Lord!
Boat feels the ghostly demons on his body, touching, probing, digging and entering.
TBc….