Topic: To Sell a Soul (Giles Moreau Prolog) (Read 46019 times)

BerkaZerka · « **on:** June 09, 2016, 09:00:17 pm »

Portland Maine; Wednesday April 20th 2016
The dreams were getting worse.

They had started about two weeks ago and were building to something; something Giles was sure would be revealed tonight - though he was equally sure it probably wasn't something he really wanted to know.

Perhaps he would already know, if it wasn't so hard to remember the details of these surreal nightmares that seemed to vanish from the mind mere moments after opening his eyes each morning. After the third dream, he had taken to writing down everything he could recall of them, in a notepad he kept on the nightstand.

It was filled with near mad scribblings. Words that conjured wispy fragments of meaning. Clues to something... sinister?

Thirty pieces of silver. Judas reference? Isaac sacrificed. Not stopped by God? Dying? Ascending. Place of choice? Two Books?

Giles glanced at the clock by the bed - 11:30 pm.

He really wasn't sure he wanted to go to sleep. Not that he could avoid it forever. But there was a heavy sense of foreboding that gripped his chest and made him feel sick about the whole thing.

What were these dreams trying to tell him and who were they from?

Drakilian · « **Reply #1 on:** July 06, 2016, 11:01:39 pm »

Father Giles makes the sign of the cross as he sites by his bedside, putting down the book.

Oh heavenly father, do you warn me of a coming disaster? These visions with which I find myself assailed, is it your hand I feel within?

Have I been betrayed?

Have you betrayed me?

Forgive me Lord, I should not doubt you.

Giles closes his eyes and rubs at his temples, feeling a nervous headache coming on in anticipation of the restless night ahead of him. Hopefully it wouldn't wake up Faith.

He would have to see Father Armand about this soon. He would know what to do.

Resigning himself to what is to come, Giles disrobes and settles into his bed, laying his head back against the pillow and closing his eyes. As he begins to drift off he utters a Hail Mary...

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #2 on:** July 08, 2016, 12:01:05 pm »

Restful sleep did not come easy for Giles this night.

He would doze off, then abruptly startle himself awake with a great shudder. It felt as if something waited just across the boarder of consciousness to seize his soul when he slipped beyond the waves.

Waves...?

That was an interesting analogy. It did feel as if he was drowning each time he failed to fall asleep. Or suffocating maybe.

Something... smothering him?

Then, as Giles reflected on the sorts of things that might want to smother his soul, a dark shadow inexplicably moved across his room. Fast, like flowing water! It fell upon him in his bed and choked the very breath from his lungs - digging shadowy ethereal claws into his chest!

As Giles flailed against the suffocating assault, he realized that his body lay still in the sheets, paralyzed and pinned - yet he had use of his arms? No, wait... not his arms - they lay motionless at his side. These were the arms of his spirit! The thing was pulling Giles's soul from his body!

Invoking the name of the Lord, Giles rebuked the demon, his words rasping and labored. It was trying to stay his voice too, but Giles got it out and felt the entity pull away slightly.

With building panic, Giles willed his physical arm to move, and slowly it did. He reached for the cross on his nightstand and with agonizing effort brought it up between himself and the demon.

It withdrew immediately --- and Giles was no longer in his room.

'How did I get here?' he found himself thinking.

He remembered the attack in his room and the power of the Lord compelling whatever that was to flee his presence.

After that, he was sure he had not fallen asleep. And this did not feel like a dream.

A vision maybe?

'That's right, the dreams... I must be in the dream again...'

Looking around, Giles found himself in luminescent white clouds, standing on an unseen floor. He could walk around, though there was no clear indication as to where he should go.

Then the mist opened before him, showing a scene from the Bible. It was like watching history unfold.

Judas Iscariot, accepting thirty pieces of silver for betraying the Messiah. Giles watched, as one set of hands passed the silver and the other set of hands received them.

Then that scene closed and another opened up. It was Abraham on the mountain, ready to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Giles watched as Abraham built an altar and arranged wood on it. He then bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, atop of the wood.

The scene suddenly shifted and Giles found himself looking up at Abraham from the alter - he was now in Issac's place, as Abraham raised the sacrificial knife!

'Surly the Lord God will stay Abraham's hand, as he did in the Old Testament,' Giles thought with building anxiety.

But no.

Abraham's hands came down, plunging the knife through Giles's heart. It flooded Giles's being with shock, as the searing pain enveloped him. He was dying and God had not saved him.

'Why? Why has thou forsaken me?' Giles pleaded in anguish of soul - more so at the absence of God than even his mortal death.

Giles felt his spirit leave his body and ascend upward.

It seemed to float higher and higher, for an unfathomably long time, until finally (hours later?), it entered a holy place of some kind.

It was a magnificent open temple, supported by a multitude of smooth white columns. One hundred feet high and ascending from one end to the other in flowing alabaster steps that rose fifty feet from their base to the top.

At the low side of the steps was a massive iron book, wrapped in barbed chains, and sitting on a bed of radiating red coals.

At the top of the steps was another huge book; this one resting upright and propped open on a ray of blinding white light. Its pages of silver bound in a filigree of intertwining gold and platinum.

What was Giles supposed to do here? He no longer had a physical body and wasn't sure he could even interact with what he saw, being an incorporeal spirit.

Still, he noted that he could float around and move toward the stairs...

Drakilian · « **Reply #3 on:** July 08, 2016, 03:51:22 pm »

I am being shown false visions.

Giles hesitates for a second, then heads towards the book covered in barbed chains on the bed of coals.

Abraham's hand was stayed - it was STAYED! Something tries to temp me from the lord's path. Something fills my mind with deceit. Perhaps myself. Perhaps Faith... no, drive such thoughts from your head.

Lord, someone tries to tempt me from your path, something wants me to think you've betrayed me, so it shows me Judas. It wants to show me that Faith should never have been saved, and I rail against this. Lord, lend me your strength, that I may right myself.

Giles steels himself in expectation as he draws closer to the towering iron book.

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #4 on:** July 09, 2016, 06:09:34 pm »

Approaching the bound iron book brought an overwhelming feeling of burning dread to John's chest - so marvelous in affect, that it physically repulsed him. He literally couldn't force himself to get closer than five yards to it.

Even at this distance, it made John feel akin to a grape that had been crushed under the foot of a giant - broken and without hope, left with nothing but complete ruin and utter despair.

Surrounded in a pallor of unquenchable misery, rising up from the burning red coals like invisible smoke, there was no doubt that the horrifying abomination was truly infernal in nature and a thing of the damned!

Drakilian · « **Reply #5 on:** July 09, 2016, 11:32:28 pm »

I am not strong enough, Giles thinks to himself in despair.

It seems like it would be so easy to reach for that golden book. Too easy.

The road to ruin is painted in gold, I must not give in. But I cannot continue - the pain, it sears the flesh...

But why would it be so hard to reach this iron book? The devil tempts, he does not shun.

For a moment, Giles contemplates doing nothing - nothing at all. Just waiting in place until this damned vision was removed.

But dreams can last forever. Time doesn't work the same way in a person's head.

Doubt niggles away at the priest's psyche, however.

What if the Lord is trying to tell me something after all? After whatever that... something? Perhaps a warning? A revelation as to the true nature of my dreams?

If the devil tempts, perhaps he tempts me with the difficulty I have in reaching this infernal thing?

I do not know. I cannot know.

The priest sets out, marching towards the divine book, steeling himself now against what he believes will be contrary feelings to the iron book, afraid to let himself be taken by whatever promises will fill his head on approaching it.

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #6 on:** July 10, 2016, 09:49:18 pm »

As Giles had suspected, nearing the gold and platinum-bound book at the top of the stairs brought an opposite host of feelings than the one below.

It radiated an aura of peace, contentment, and euphoria. It was approachable. Giles could even reach out and touch it, if he so desired. Were it a trap of the adversary, it was a good one. But how could it be?

‘By their fruits shall ye know them,’ the Bible had said.

But it had also warned that the devil could ‘come as a wolf in sheep’s clothing’.

As Giles considered these things, he became aware of names written upon the silver pages. Columns and columns of them, filling the face of both open sheets – a hundred names per column – ten columns per page.

While he was somehow aware of them being names, he couldn’t read them. They were written in an unknown script. It was also self-evident that Giles’s name was not among those listed.

Something about knowing this caused an unexpected pang of remorse. It shuddered through Giles’s being like a hammer-blow.

Then the eyes of his understanding were opened, and he realized that what he was standing before, was God’s Book of Life. To have one’s name written in The Book of Life was to be redeemed. To be saved. To be exhaled.

How was his name not in the book?!? He was a faithful servant of the Lord!

He needed to write his name in the book. All he had to do was reach out and will it to be. This was God’s test. To see if he was willing to make that commitment again. To seal it in the Book of Life with his very soul.

In contrast, the book below – that unholy infernal thing – was the Book of The Damned. It contained, locked within, the names of all those who fell short of God’s Grace. Those consigned to endless torment in the fires of Hell.

Drakilian · « **Reply #7 on:** July 10, 2016, 10:24:12 pm »

Giles hesitates before the book.

He did not want me to near the Book of the Damned. He does not believe me beyond redemption.

But this... Humility is among the purest of virtues, and would not only an arrogant fool deem himself worthy of exaltation?

Giles' hand twitches out towards the book, but he forces it back.

Lord, forgive me my weakness.

Lord, your servant is lost, and begs of you a sign.

And so Giles falls to his knees in prayer.

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #8 on:** July 11, 2016, 03:29:23 pm »

As Giles asked for a sign and fell to his knees in prayer, a thunderous crack was heard at the bottom of the stairs! The great barbed chains, binding the Book of the Damned, burst asunder and the massive iron tome violently flung itself open!

The pages within were of slick gray bismuth and the text an eerie burning fire.

Inexplicably, Giles found himself abruptly standing in the air, arm's length from the book, enveloped in the miasma that surrounded it and feeling... nothing? Perhaps he was being protected from the book's influence?

Or more likely, numb from the shock of what he was looking at.

He was staring at something. Something in the book. He was vaguely aware that he had been staring at it for quite some time now. It was like that slow wake from a dream, where you knew you were asleep but couldn't force yourself awake.

Slowly, Giles focused his eyes on the burning text within the book.

It was his name.

Unmistakable. Without question. Right there on the page. Sealed in unholy fire...

His name.

---

Again the previous scenes flashed before Giles's eyes -

Thirty pieces of silver being handed, not to Judas, but to a woman.

Giles once again on the sacrificial alter. The knife coming down - in the hands of a woman.

And lastly, a woman's hand, writing Giles's name into the Book of The Damned.

How could she betray him like this. Why would she betray him like this? She was supposed to be his mother!

---

Giles shot up in bed - nauseous from what he had just seen. The dream was still fresh in his head and not fading this time - every detail at his recall.

What did his mother do? It didn't make any sense. How could she damn Giles? Wasn't a man judged for his own choices?

Maybe it was just a dream. Could it be just a dream?

As all these questions and doubts swam through Giles's head, his phone began ringing. Looking over at the nightstand, at the clock near where his phone sat, he saw that it was 7:30 in the morning.

Drakilian · « **Reply #9 on:** July 11, 2016, 03:32:37 pm »

Mother?

A dream, nothing but a dream, it was nothing but a dream, cast these vile thoughts from your head.

Shaken, Giles takes a breath before reaching for his phone.

"Yes, hello?", he answers, his voice speaking of his troubled sleep.

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #10 on:** July 11, 2016, 05:01:38 pm »

"Giles, this is Father Armand," the familiar voice replied on the phone - the tone sounding grave - "I need to see you in my office right away. We need to talk."

Drakilian · « **Reply #11 on:** July 11, 2016, 05:27:12 pm »

After a while, Giles nods - mostly to himself.

"Yes, we do. I'll be over shortly."

Shutting his phone, Giles goes through the usual morning routines and then pads lightly over to Faith's room to check on the girl

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #12 on:** July 12, 2016, 01:20:31 pm »

The four year old that Giles had raised as his own was still sleeping peacefully, as he went in to check on her.

Sister Rosemary would be arriving soon. She came in each morning at 8:00am to ready Faith for preschool.

It occurred to Giles that he should take Faith to see his father sometime this week. The man had been out of a coma for four years now, having awakened only two days after Giles rescued Faith from the alley that cold winter's day.

After so long asleep, Gerard had not taken up life again easily. The world was not the same now as when he went under, nearly two decades ago, and he was having a hard time adapting to all the changes.

Giles once hoped his father and mother would get back together upon his father's return, but that never happened. After so long apart, they were virtual strangers when he awoke; and Theresa had moved on with her own life.

It seemed as though Gerard would never be able to catch up; and Giles could feel the resignation in his father's voice every time he spoke with him.

The only thing that ever seemed to cheer the man up was seeing his little 'granddaughter' and it had been a while since they were last able to arrange a playdate.

Drakilian · « **Reply #13 on:** July 12, 2016, 04:01:40 pm »

Yes, yes that will do. In fact...

Giles takes his phone out and calls his father.

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #14 on:** July 12, 2016, 04:50:12 pm »

After a few rings, Giles's call was sent to voicemail.

It wasn't unusual however, especially before noon. Gerard would sometimes hit the bottle pretty hard, when he got depressed, and the hangovers alone would keep him locked up in a dark room for most of the day.

As Giles waited for the tone to begin recording a message, he heard Sister Rosemary at the door, letting herself in.

Drakilian · « **Reply #15 on:** July 13, 2016, 01:54:57 pm »

Giles closes the door and goes to greet the woman, "She's still sleeping, sorry for the trouble Rosemary."

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #16 on:** July 13, 2016, 04:56:26 pm »

"It is no trouble at all Father," Sister Rosemary smiled, "This is a blessing I cherish, to be able to help you raise such a wonderful little girl as Faith!"

The young nun then put her things down and went into Faith's room, to begin getting the child ready for the new day.

Drakilian · « **Reply #17 on:** July 13, 2016, 06:37:50 pm »

"I'm going out to visit Father Armand, call me if you need anything!"

Giles shuts the door to his apartment and then walks down to the ground floor, getting into the car he has parked outside.

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #18 on:** July 14, 2016, 10:51:37 am »

Arriving at the Church Administration Building, across the street from the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Giles parked his car and went in.

Father Armand's office was at the end of the hall.

"Sit down Giles," Father Armand directed, not getting up from his desk to shake Giles's hand as usual. The man had a very somber look on his face and Giles could tell that something serious was on his mind.

Taking a seat in one of the two red Corinthian leather chairs, arranged in front of the senior priest's matching mahogany desk, Giles braced himself for the news.

"Father Armand?" he prompted.

"It is your father Giles," the man said, pausing to think through how to say what had to come next - "I am afraid that he hung himself last night Giles."

"He left a note that 'he should never have woken up,' and instruction for the authorities to contact me."

"I think he wanted to spare you somehow Giles."

"You know that suicide is an unpardonable sin. As such, your father's body cannot be buried on church property."

"But I am here to help Giles. We can keep this between us - and your father's transgression between him and God."

"I have already made 'arrangements' with the authorities. His death certificate will read 'Alcohol Poisoning'. No one else needs to know how he died."

Father Armand then shook his head in regret.

"I am sorry Giles. If you need me to make arrangements with a funeral home, I am here for you. God is here for you son."

Drakilian · « **Reply #19 on:** July 14, 2016, 12:33:22 pm »

Without a word, Giles gets up and leaves the room.

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #20 on:** July 14, 2016, 02:38:24 pm »

"Our Lord God, give him strength," Father Armand prayed aloud, watching helplessly, as Father Moreau left the room.

Drakilian · « **Reply #21 on:** July 15, 2016, 01:12:39 am »

Once outside, Giles starts driving to his fathers house.

About halfway there he stops the car and screams, punching at the steering wheel and setting the horn honking, while tears start to stream down his face. If anyone could look into his mind they'd be overwhelmed by a rush of anger and feelings of... Betrayal.

A question, screamed endlessly by a fractured inner voice - "Why?"

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #22 on:** July 16, 2016, 10:40:15 am »

No answer.

It felt as if something had changed... As it the very heavens were now closed to Giles.

That dream? No, it couldn't be. That was just a dream. It didn't mean anything. This was just the shock of what his father had done to himself.

Did Giles's mother even know yet?

Drakilian · « **Reply #23 on:** July 16, 2016, 11:53:10 am »

After a while in his car, Giles resumed his drive. He wanted to see it. Somehow, he wanted to make sure this was real.

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #24 on:** July 16, 2016, 07:28:28 pm »

Arriving at his father's tiny one-bedroom residence in a large rundown house that had been made into four separate apartments, Giles fished the spare key out of his pocket.

Stepping up onto the porch, he watched the local drug dealers across the street go back inside at his presence. Not that he could do anything to them, but perhaps they yet retained a small sliver of guilt, in the presence of God's servant.

Letting himself in, Giles saw that the living room was a mess of empty vodka bottles and smelled of body odor, vomit, and piss.

This was where his dad slept all the time, on the couch in front of the TV. He only used the bedroom itself for storage. Giles had never seen it this bad however. Or at least his dad always had the place cleaned up whenever Giles had brought Faith over for a visit.

Walking through the kitchen to the back room, Giles noted that the shelves and refrigerator were bare. Sometimes if had been hard to get Gerard to eat when he was in one of his depressions.

Heading to check the back room, Giles stopped abruptly – his heart nearly jumping out of his chest. From the corner of his eye, he could see the shadowy outline of someone sitting on the edge of the tub in the darkness of the unlit bathroom.

Drakilian · « **Reply #25 on:** July 19, 2016, 11:51:51 am »

Giles walks into the room without saying a word, without even greeting the man, and sits next to him.

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #26 on:** July 20, 2016, 10:50:26 am »

The hairs on the back of Giles's neck raised up as he entered the dark bathroom - but he pressed forward and sat down on the edge of the tub.

There was no one else in the room. The dark silhouette he had seen was just the crumpled shower curtain, pulled halfway off the rings and hanging at an odd angle. It abruptly occurred to Giles that this was probably the place his father had hanged himself - off the shower rod.

The curtain was likely pulled down, either in his struggles, or when the authorities found him later and cut him down.

At these thoughts, Giles then experienced a sudden and profound claustrophobia that seemed to fall on him out of nowhere!

It was as if the bathroom was much too small and closing in all around him! His head swam in a growing panic - and for a moment, he couldn't even stand to flee the room - which every fiber of his being loudly shrieked for him to do!

When his body finally caught up with his mind, Giles instinctively leapt up from the edge of the tub and was about to run, when black mold splotches on the walls began to ooze about... and slowly shaped themselves into recognizable letters and words.

It was the writing on the wall that caused Giles to stop in his tracks - and in an instant, the feelings of panic and fear were replaced with a gnawing revulsion, similar to that caused in his dream, when he had approached the great iron Book of the Damned...

"I saw what she did to us son. She didn't know I could see her when I was in a coma. I though I could disbelieve and it would be all right. I was wrong. I am sorry my son."

Drakilian · « **Reply #27 on:** July 21, 2016, 12:01:02 pm »

Giles blinks wildly for a second, then he slaps himself across the face and looks again, are the words still there?

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #28 on:** July 21, 2016, 12:33:40 pm »

There must be some truth the old adage of 'slapping sense into somebody,' as the stinging smack to the face seemed to ground Giles back to reality.

The bizarre feelings immediately vanished and, of course, the walls were just walls - nothing written on them, nor any hint of mold to speak of.

Only Giles's racing heartbeat and numb cheek suggested that anything had ever been out of the ordinary just a few moments ago.

Although those words... they seemed to stay in his mind. Refusing to be so easily forgotten.

'I saw what she did to us son. She didn't know I could see her when I was in a coma. I though I could disbelieve and it would be all right. I was wrong. I am sorry my son.'

Drakilian · « **Reply #29 on:** July 24, 2016, 12:37:57 pm »

Chilled, Giles hunches over and covers his face with his hands, his breath coming out in deep, shuddering gasps, his eyes wet underneath his grip.

Giles stays where he is, and does not move. At all. He'll stay here, where his father died - no, where he killed himself - until he falls asleep again, or is forcibly removed.

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #30 on:** July 25, 2016, 04:51:29 pm »

Giles wasn't sure how long he had slumpted there on the bathroom floor when a woman's gentle voice brought him back to consciousness. There was something ethereal about the voice; and it felt as though it had literally floated into his mind and carried him out of some dark place.

"Giles..." The voice called again.

It wasn't a voice Giles recognized, but it had a distant familiarity to it.

"Giles, I am sent from on high, to minister to you in your hour of need," the angelic voice called out of thin air, "Get thyself to hallowed ground and I shall come to you there."

"Have faith son of man, for I am Sarapheen."

Drakilian · « **Reply #31 on:** July 26, 2016, 11:10:36 pm »

Groggily, Giles stumbles up from the floor of the bathroom.

Sarapheen?

Searching his mind he cannot remember the name from his studies of the various biblical angels. A variation of Seraphim, perhaps?

A Seraphim?

No, of course not. One of god's favoured? How could they look favourably on him now? God had turned his gaze away from Giles.

Unbidden, an image of the writing on that ceiling flashes past his eyes again.

Giles drives fast on the way to his church.

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #32 on:** July 27, 2016, 10:21:23 am »

Arriving back at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Giles parked his car, climbed the steps, and went in the front. Passing through the nave, he arrived at the chancel, being the holy focal point of the great building - were the Savior's Cross hung before the sacred alter.

Looking around, Giles saw that the place was empty, except for an older fellow and his wife praying in the nave. After a few minutes however, they got up and left.

Giles could feel a strange excitement in the air around him, as he looked up at the vibrant colored light, streaming in through the stained-glass high above.

Drakilian · « **Reply #33 on:** July 27, 2016, 11:58:41 pm »

Giles kneels and then bows his head in prayer.

Lord, your servant has come at the behest of Sarapheen, please, give me a sign.

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #34 on:** July 28, 2016, 11:05:20 am »

In answer, Giles felt a column of warmth and light begin to shine down on him from above. Opening his eyes, he looked up into the high vaulted clerestory and witnessed the very heavens part.

Uncontrollable emotion then welled up from within his soul, as tears of euphoric joy streamed down his face.

God was answering his prayers! God was sending an Angel!

Down through the part, a woman with golden wings of light and a fiery burning halo descended, until her bare feet stood upon the floor in front of Giles. She was dressed in celestial white robes with a red sash over one shoulder and what looked like a sling wrapped around her waist.

She was comely, but not overly so, a brunette, and spoke with the same calming voice Giles had heard at his father's house.

"Giles, I am Serapheen," she said.

"I am here to help you understand things. And in so doing, to extend to you a new calling from on high."

As she spoke, the heavens above closed and the light faded, along with her wings and halo. She now looked like a normal human being, albeit bare-footed and otherwise overdressed.

"We can take one of the side chaplets, to talk. I am sure that you have many questions."

Drakilian · « **Reply #35 on:** July 28, 2016, 02:12:12 pm »

Giles humbly bows his head, and nods, speechless in the face of divinity.

He stumbles upright, a if dazed - a definite possibility - and heads to one of the empty side chapels.

Once seated, he looks up beseechingly into Serapheen's eyes, and asks in a tone that begs as much as it questions - "My father?"

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #36 on:** July 28, 2016, 09:47:32 pm »

"Giles, your father Gerard will serve a penance in Purgatory, for the Sin of Sloth in the taking of his own life," Sarapheen explained gently, "but in due time, he shall cross over into Paradise, forgiven of his transgressions."

What Giles was hearing rang true, as the angel spoke it, but it ran contrary to the teachings of the Church that he had internalized in the Seminary.

He found himself asking - 'how can it be?' - wanting to believe it, feeling that it was true, yet afraid to accept it. For to do so, would mean that the tenants of his faith were fallible...

Drakilian · « **Reply #37 on:** July 29, 2016, 12:56:42 am »

Giles steels himself and then compartmentalizes his emotion away. He can feel for his father later, he can think on this creature's answers - for now, when will he ever have the chance to ask such questions again - knowing they would be answered?

He then hesitates a second, before asking his next question - "Forgive me my ignorance Serapheen, I have not read your name during my studies, or if I have I cannot recall... who are you?"

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #38 on:** July 29, 2016, 10:07:36 am »

"I am what you can become Giles," Sarapheen replied; "My name is not in any archive, or biblical text, because I am relatively new among the Ascended."

"The Angels watch over the Earth, each assigned to a specific Ministry. My Ministry is the eastern portion of North America. The Angels you know of, have all Ascended further, becoming the Archangels and even higher. These are they, to whom I report."

"In my recent Ascension, a void has been created below me. I have chosen you, Giles, to fill that void. I would, that you should become one of my Disciples. I would, that you help me purge the world of demonic influence. To fight that battle in places that I cannot tread."

"If you accept this calling, you shall receive knowledge and power from on high, necessary to its fulfilling. You shall see the world as it truly is - the veil of man's ignorance forever cast from your eyes."

As she spoke, Sarapheen's golden wings of light and fiery burning halo flared visible once again, as if to underscore the truth of what she was saying.

"And, should you fulfill this calling righteously, you will one day Ascend yourself - becoming as I now am, before you."

Drakilian · « **Reply #39 on:** July 29, 2016, 10:19:29 am »

Giles sits mute at the revelations Sarapheen provides - as well as the future she promises.

But.. There is something... Perhaps Sarapheen can tell him with finality if it is true or not.

He hesitates again - this was not a day for absolute certainty, then: "My mother."

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #40 on:** July 29, 2016, 12:50:33 pm »

A motherly look of compassion came upon Sarapheen's face, as her wings and halo once again faded from view.

"This will not be easy for you Giles," she warned, "but it is something, about yourself, that you must know."

The Angel let out a slow breath - as if what she was about to say, pained her, as much as it would Giles to hear it.

"When you were nine years old, your father Gerard was in an accident and went into coma."

"Your mother went to see him in the hospital, every day after the accident for six months; spending many hours in the hospital chapel, praying for him, and faithfully waiting for him to awaken. When that became too much for her to bare, she began visiting a few times a week for another two years, praying for her husband an hour before mass each Sunday."

"When that did not bring her husband back to her, she stopped going to mass altogether (except for Christmas and Easter) but continued to pine over your father's condition and visit him as much as she could, weekly, for another two years."

"After four years in a coma, your mother was heartbroken and nearly gave up. But she forced herself to continue her vigil over her husband, and began making a single visit each week, on Sundays."

"After six and a half years, your mother's heart finally gave up; and she stopped all hospital visits and all church attendance."

"This was when you began to get into serious trouble Giles."

"This is because - in her heartache and lost faith - you mother attracted the attention of a demon of Pride and Wrath. It made a bargain with your mother (taking advantage of her, yes) - but to which, she still willingly agreed."

"Because of this pact, you suffered an overabundance of Wrath in your youth."

"She traded a portion of your soul Giles - in exchange for her husband back; but with the condition that it would take as long as 'God had failed so far' - feeding the demon's Pride (and meaning six and a half years)."

"This is how your mother knew the day your father would come out of the coma and was at the hospital for it."

"You were twenty-three at the time, remember? In the Seminary when your father woke up - after nearly fourteen years asleep."

"But your father Gerard, he did not cope very well with his new life."

"From the outside, one might guess that he had lost too much of his life to adapt to all the changes. Or perhaps blame the fact that his wife, your mother Theresa, had eventually given up on him after all that waiting, and had moved on with her own life."

"The truth is, that your father Gerard had been with your mother that entire time. In spirit, he saw everything - what she had done - the desperate measures to which she had gone to get him back. He was there to witness her demonic bargain; and to watch a portion of your soul ripped from your very being."

"He could not forgiver her for doing that to you and confronted her about it, shortly after waking up. But she was so far consumed by the demon's own Pride at that point, that she scornfully mocked him; telling him to tell the whole world. That they would, and rightly so, think him mad."

"And it did eventually drive your father mad - carrying that knowledge around - ever trying to disbelieve the truth of it. But he could never be free of it, nor drowned it in enough alcohol to make it go away."

"That is why he ended his own life Giles."

Drakilian · « **Reply #41 on:** July 29, 2016, 01:24:04 pm »

About halfway through Sarapheen's explanation Giles closes his eyes and bows his head, as if in prayer, though no plea for help crosses either his mind or his lips.

Once Sarapheen is done Giles does not speak for the longest time, until he asks, a tremor in his normally calm, soothing voice announcing the depth of his emotion - "Sarapheen, this wrath I feel now, this wrath that swallows my pity whispers cruel thoughts into my mind, tell me, please, is it the demon's, or is it mine?"

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #42 on:** July 29, 2016, 02:53:10 pm »

"What was once the demon's rage, has long ago become your own," Sarapheen answered. "But that is why you were able to overcome it; and get your life back together, with Father Armand's help."

"I find no trace of the demon within you now. The Wrath that you feel is yours alone to control. And I have faith in your ability to do so. You have already proven that - just look at the life you have chosen to live."

"Look at what you have done for that little child, Faith. The Charity you have shown to her."

"Charity overcometh much Wrath."

Drakilian · « **Reply #43 on:** July 30, 2016, 03:42:00 pm »

Trembling a bit, Giles stills himself, closes his eyes again and lets out a deep sigh, it hangs heavy with resignation. Sarapheen might get the impression that Giles almost wished his wrath was the demon's - so that he might be excused for the hatred he now feels for his poor mother.

"You mentionned that I was to take up a calling... but how can I do that if part of my soul was given away? Have I not been damned?"

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #44 on:** July 31, 2016, 03:01:09 pm »

"You are not damned, Giles," Sarapheen answered kindly; "A man or woman can only be judged on what they have, themselves, chosen to do. You did not enter into an unholy union with the demonic - your mother did."

Drakilian · « **Reply #45 on:** July 31, 2016, 07:45:12 pm »

"So my soul is not forfeit - no part of it?"

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #46 on:** August 01, 2016, 01:03:12 pm »

"Your soul is 'incomplete'," Sarapheen answered, "But I can help prepare you, to get that portion of yourself back."

"It will not be easy; and it will require you to eventually face your mother. But it is hardy something you are ready for right now."

"First, you must receive the proper tools and training in your new calling. Which you haven't told me that you accept it yet. The choice is still yours."

Drakilian · « **Reply #47 on:** August 01, 2016, 01:33:47 pm »

Giles falls, to kneel before Sarapheen.

"I am a servant of the Lord. Whatever calling he deems to be mine, I shall undertake. Yes, Sarapheen, I accept."

BerkaZerka · « **Reply #48 on:** August 01, 2016, 02:30:11 pm »

"Good. I'm very glad to hear that Giles," the angel replied, pleased with his choice.

"Now," she then continued, "I want you to choose a place that we can meet over the next few weeks, for regular private discussion and instruction."

"The Church is well suited for simply 'talking', but what I have to show you involves a lot of 'doing' - and it is not something we can risk other mortals seeing."

"For when a mortal witnesses the Sublime - unless his faith is truly unshakable - the mind will begin to unravel the Truth of it, due to humanity's innate sense of Disbelief."

Drakilian · « **Reply #49 on:** August 01, 2016, 03:39:00 pm »

"There is a place my father would take me when I was younger - when he was... When he was still whole. A private plot of land north of the city where my grandfather was buried - he was a combat medic, he risked his life to save enemies and allies both during the wars. I've always admired him, if I could, I would like to meet you there."

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Author Topic: To Sell a Soul (Giles Moreau Prolog) (Read 46019 times)