The Second Sight – Episode 52

THE SECOND SIGHT EPISODE 52

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THE SUMMONER

She had been a little troubled when she realized she could be hitched for a lifetime to a man who would never be like any ordinary husband.

She would be the wife of a man who would see things at every turn, and who would be chasing after ugly stuff no one else could see. That had scared her, but in the end she had knew she had to be strong, because her love for me was strong enough to conquer all her fears.

As she put it, the love was a force she could not fight, and its raw strength amazed her. Maybe, she reasoned, God had put that love in her heart, and there was just no way was she going to be able to fight it.

Finally she smiled and held my hands gently.

NICOLE

(tenderly)

My mother did it, and I don’t see why I can’t do it. The truth is that I love you, madly, and I can’t stay without you, even if that means a life of worry and tension. But we will make it work, my darling. Yes, we will!

They were the sweetest words I had ever heard, and we spent a long time just holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes, and this time there was no tension.

Only love … pure, unadulterated, V-rgin love.

I didn’t tell her the terrible thing that had happened at the hotel where I had almost lost my life, and the role Andrew Okai had played in it all.

The time would come, pretty soon, when I would be able to tell her about Andrew, but presently, for no particular reason at all, I felt it was better to wait.

Late in the evening, just after dinner, Charles Bonner and the pastor had managed to usher me into the huge study, and there we had remained for almost two hours.

We explored all the angles and put everything into perspective. Their experience and new-found vitality fully complemented my enhanced power and youthful exuberance.

We were trying to predict the next line of attack from the Legion, now firmly embedded in Andrew Okai. We worried about how people like Andrew and her mother and the young widow had been in the church, all of them demon-possessed, and yet they had not been found out.

Could they have developed something else, a sort of shrouding disguise that allowed them to mingle with true Christians? As horrible as it sounded, we could not overlook that fact.

Finally, tired and sleepy, we gave it up.

Bonner spoke from one of the windows where he had been standing for a while now; since he lost his cane standing and walking had become quite a habit to him, and I couldn’t say I was particularly surprised by that.

CHARLES BONNER

(quietly)

Andy Okai is near, I hope you all know that. He can’t run now. You have the ultimate Godly power, and he has the ultimate evil equivalent. Both of you can’t survive, and one has to go. Paul is okay now – he has triumphed where he was meant to burn, and the Legion wouldn’t forgive that, but they wouldn’t dare touch Paul again. They would be scared because of his refreshed protection. You, Yaw, shall be held responsible for their failure to kill Paul. Not only that, you have been a direct cause of all the Legion’s latest string of defeats and fear. It now hates you with an infernal fury, and they would come after you. A final pitch, a battle of survival. One of you would have to go.

BOAT

(stifling a yawn)

I’m ready. They should bring it on. I’ll be tracking it down anyway. No one crushes my father’s skull and gets away scot free, man or demon!

Paul Anderson laughed and shook his head.

PAUL ANDERSON

Too known Unblind!

We all chuckled at that.

BOAT

(laughing)

Abi you see that kan thing? Make I flex small. I dey form brutal!

We all laughed again, and then Anderson’s face got serious again.

PAUL ANDERSON

But as is the way of the great Evil One, the Legion wouldn’t be foolish enough to face Yaw in a fair fight, would it?

CHARLES BONNER

(face troubled)

No, of course not. I think the Legion would try to get an advantage over you, Yaw. It could be slight, and it could be major, but believe me once it thinks it has the leverage it would call for you. You need to be extra careful.

I nodded, and I was serious.

BOAT

(soberly)

Believe me, I’m careful. I know how evil those demons are, and how brutal they can be with their tactics. I’ll never take the Legion for granted ever again. I’ll be ready.

CHARLES BONNER

Yes, you are. I now understand why our dear Lord saw it fit to recruit someone like you, son. You’re doing what I’ve never seen any Unblind doing. Now you can even command the elements of life and death.

I looked at him, startled and confused, not really understanding his last statement.

His kind eyes appraised me, and saw my sudden air of bafflement.

CHARLES BONNER

Yes, Yaw. That thing you described as the Death Cloud, the one that came for Basoah’s soul. Surely you don’t think it appeared by chance do you?

I shook my head, totally baffled now.

BOAT

(confused)

I don’t understand. I told you that the Death Cloud was outside Pastor Anderson’s ward before I went in. It was waiting.

Bonner came forward and sat down, his old eyes fixed on me.

CHARLES BONNER

(thoughtfully)

No, I don’t think so. You remember the first time you saw the Death Cloud?

I nodded.

BOAT

Yeah. In Jackson Peak, it came for Ray Mensah. I saw it following him out of the hospital earlier, and later it was in the backseat of Mensah’s car at the point of death, and seemed to take Mensah’s soul with it.

CHARLES BONNER

(nodding)

Ahuh. So you see, that episode with Mensah was different in the sense that you did nothing. The messenger of death was there to take Ray’s soul because it was Ray’s time to die; the appointed time had come for him. You had absolutely no control over it. But in the case of Basoah you had total control. You ordered it to attack before it did just that. That’s the difference. In Ray’s case, the time was the appointed time, and you couldn’t have stopped the Death Cloud from taking Ray, but in the case of Basoah, if you had commanded the Death Cloud to go away, it would’ve gone and left Basoah alone. Do you understand me?

PAUL ANDERSON

(carefully)

I don’t get it, Charles. What you’re trying to say is very, very scary, to say the least. Are you saying Yaw is also a Summoner? We thought that didn’t exist. What are you driving at?

CHARLES BONNER

Simple. When the time comes for men of God to die there are always angels around, as Yaw found out in that hotel when his soul began to leave his body. And when a sinner dies his soul is taken by the forces of evil, as was the case of Ray Mensah. That’s the general belief, anyway, from our perspectives as Unblinds. That aside, when it comes to the real people of the Devil, people who had sold their souls for the power of this earth, they are different. Yaw has been endowed with the power to summon their

messenger of death. I was once told this phenomenon was possible by an old Unblind who claimed to be a Summoner, but I disagreed with him. He said that the appointed deaths of human beings are the sole prerogatives of God, and we agreed on that. However, he continued, when it comes to human vessels inhabited by demons and who have received the marks of the beast, an Unblind can call for the death of such a human being, and although I disagreed with him on that, I now know that is true. It is evidenced by the way Yaw commanded the Death Cloud to take Basoah.

PAUL ANDERSON

(awed)

So, put bluntly, you’re saying that Yaw can conjure up his own death squad for the people with the marks of the beasts?

CHARLES BONNER

Exactly. When he’s angry and pissed off enough, as I’m sure he was when he found out Basoah was in your room, he could unconsciously call on the dark forces of death.

BOAT

(scared)

“But that’s so impossible! That’s preposterous! Blasphemous, even! I never even thought about such a thing let alone called on it

unconsciously . It was there because it had to be there! I found it outside the door!

CHARLES BONNER

(firmly)

No, boy, no! I told you that yours is a different calling. You’re the new breed of Unblinds: strong, fearless, and totally dependent the broad spectrum of amazing powers bestowed on you by God. I think you have the power to call on the messenger of death, and I think you have other abilities you haven’t even tapped into yet. Explore, boy, and I’m sure you would be surprised to find out just how powerful God has made you. The question is, can you handle something like that without abusing it?

I was stunned.

I trembled a bit, totally humbled by the fact that I had somehow called upon that evil thing and used it to kill Uncle Samson.

Murder!

I was a murderer!

I had thought his time had come, but to find out that I had orchestrated it filled me with bitter guile and a wh0le lot of sudden sadness and the crushing weight of guilt.

It was so sobering that I felt my throat closing over.

Such power could just not be! It was as frightening as it was exhilarating. No, it just couldn’t be, no man should be endowed with something like that!

Twice I tried to speak, and twice nothing came out.

And then, suddenly it was not that important anymore because the madness returned just then … and it all started when Nicole suddenly opened the study door and stood in doorway, gazing at us with dismay!

Her nightgown was a killer.

It was a filmy silky red, stopping short above her knees.

The upper part was a sweet lacy affair, accentuating the beautiful orbs of her br-asts. Her figure was incredibly breath-taking, and as I turned to gaze at her I felt the joy spreading slowly through me – not the lustful kind of joy – and I felt pride at having won the heart of such an angel.

My train of thought occurred, however, before I had taken a look at her face.

I told you earlier that I was a sort of leg freak, didn’t I? So naturally my eyes roved downward to upward, spending a long time at her long beautiful legs, and up her midriff and settled finally on her face.

First I was aware of Pastor Anderson getting up quickly, and asking a question in a worried voice.

And then Charles Bonner spoke, and his voice was suddenly filled with great fear. He stood up quickly and began to move toward Nicole.

CHARLES BONNER

(greatly scared)

Something is wrong. Nicole, what’s wrong? What’s happening to you, my dear?

And then I saw her face.

The corridor behind her was dark, but the lights in the study illuminated that dear face, and what I saw on it chilled me to the bone.

Her eyes were wide, and her mouth was opened wide as if she was struggling for breath.

There was terror in the depths of those dear eyes, and her arms were reaching out blindly, clawing at thin air as if she needed to hold on to something.

The fear hit me like a bullet, propelling me out of my chair, sending it crashing backward.

EVIL IN THE FOREST

Her voice seemed to be coming from far away when she spoke, as if she was in some sort of a tunnel or h0le far away from me.

NICOLE

()

Yaw! Are you here, Yaw?

BOAT

Nicole!

I whispered, reaching out for her, the fear crystallizing into some hærd metal in the pit of my stomach. There was a buzzing in my head and a pain as sudden as it was severe racked my wh0le body.

I could feel the evil presence all around me.

Already Bonner and Anderson had started to glow brilliantly, but Nicole was not so protected.

She was not glowing!

She didn’t have a force-field!

My dulled brain tried to find out why, even as I was moving toward her. I knew that if I could only touch her everything would be alright.

She was within touching distance now.

NICOLE

Yaaaaaaaaaw!

She scre-med, her voice that terrified and that fierce, freezing us all momentarily, and just when my hands were about to tighten around hers she was s-cked forcibly and viciously backward.

It was as if a giant just reached in and pulled her away.

She was lifted off her feet and hurled backward. I could see her body in the dark corridor, legs and arms flailing in the air, and then she was deposited hærd on the floor just in front of the door leading into the living-room.

I began running.

She tried to get to her feet, but only managed to get unto her hands and knees before she was yanked up and thrown sickeningly against one of the walls!

She was dragged along the wall, vertically up, straight up, and then whatever evil force was controlling her flung her against the ceiling!

There she was, hanging from the ceiling, hair down and almost covering her face, but she was pasted on the ceiling, defying gravity!

Suddenly she was dragged across the ceiling, then down the wall, and she was yanked through the door violently.

One moment she was on the ceiling, and the next she was gone.

BOAT

Nicole!

I scre-med as I ran.

There was a buzzing in my ears, a kind of irritating bass drone that just wouldn’t go away. Mrs. Anderson and some of the servants had come down, faces worried, enquiring about what was going on.

I didn’t pause or break stride. I was aware that I had pushed somebody out of my way, hærd enough to knock her down, but I paid no heed.

When I burst into the living room I found her in an armchair.

Her head and shoulders were on the floor and her legs and buttocks in the armchair. The nightie was bunched up under her br-asts, and she was exposed from wa-ist down. I caught a flash of white lacy p-nties, but of all the emotions I was feeling, ho-ny was certainly not one of them.

BOAT

(pained, broken)

Nicole! Oh, my darling … what is happening?

And then she was yanked out of armchair and straight into the air, and her head missed the overhead ceiling fan just by inches. She was drawn through the door and out of sight.

I jumped over furniture, knocked my shins against a low stool and came down hærd.

I scrambled to my feet and flew blindly through the door that leads to the compound beyond.

I jumped the steps and landed on the green grass.

I was reminded of the night Bruno had died, right here, and my fear found expression in the drops of tears that ran down unheeded down my cheeks.

I saw her.

She was on the grass, but one beautiful leg was held perfectly still in the air as if an invisible hand was holding it up.

As I watched she was dragged across the grass at speed, and just as I began to run after her she was jerked off the grass and flung with power and fury into the air.

BOAT

Nicole!

I scre-med again.

I ran hærd after her. Whatever was controlling her was taking her into the garden…and beyond.

When I reached the garden I saw her being dragged through the air straight into the forest that formed the border of the Anderson residence.

She was flying mid-air level, hands and legs still flailing, just out of reach.

I crashed into the dark forest. I could feel the evil all around me. Sneaky ghostly fingers reached out. I was surrounded by a thick fog, and I could hear the eerie voices within, just around me, but invisible to even my second sight.

Leaves slapped my face, and branches reached out to hold and entwine me. The trees seemed to have a life of their own as they fought against me, controlled by an evil presence so strong that it had changed the wh0le place and made it into an atmosphere of potent evil.

They seemed to move, trying to block my charge.

They were looking at me out of their barks, extending their leaves to slap my face and reaching out with their branches to scratch and hold me…and all along they were speaking in their crazy drone, driving me crazy.

Nicole was being dragged too far away; already she seemed too far away, and always her cries reached my ears – terrified, dying!

Roots reached out and curled around my ankles. I felt the climbing ropes closing in, swishing through the darkness and lashing viciously across my body.

I crashed into the forest floor, and suddenly the leaves were all over me. They lashed my face and flooded my mouth even as the roots slowly curled around me and the climbing plants dragged my face into the earth.

I felt something w-t and squishy across my neck, and then slithering around my face and then it was choking me.

The hiss, the sliminess … it was a f****ng snake!

A poisonous black mamba was entwined around my neck now, seeking a place on my face to strike.

No.

This couldn’t be happening!

They had hit me where it hurt most, right in the heart. Nicole was more than a woman. She was more than just another person and certainly more than just someone I wanted to marry.

The few past minutes had shown me just that. She was my soul, the one person who made my heart beat. She was somebody I could not live without, and it seemed that evil forces had come to that realization too, perhaps ages ago, and now they had me by the balls.

By punishing the woman I loved so much they had caused me to abandon my fate and the special powers I had been endowed with.

But no more.

I was the Unblind, after all.

The fury was a living thing in me as I forced my face off the ground and spat out the acrid soil.

BOAT

(wrathfully)

Get off me right now! How dare you touch God’s anointed? Git, arseh0les!

The brightness blinded me, and a moment later I saw that I was glowing gloriously.

The branches, leaves, roots and climbing plants left my body, and for a moment I thought I heard their scre-ms of agony as they fled.

I got to my feet, but I didn’t run again.

The terrified mamba was slithering away, and I stepped down on its neck, and immediately a demon with a half-rotten face and yellow blazing eyes filled with fear shot out of the mamba and tried desperately to float away.

I didn’t even open my mouth.

I just willed it to burn, and it burst into flames in mid-air, its cries of horror and pain feeling with me uncontrollable glee.

I was suffused by a fury so total that I could feel my body shaking with its intensity. The trees stretched ahead of me, dark and silent, secretly fuming at having been rendered so helpless.

The coldness bit into me, and I could still hear the grumblings of the ghosts and semi-dead in the air around me, restless spirits of wickedness which couldn’t vacate the earth.

I could feel their animosity around me, their great urge to hurt me badly. I could smell their foul scents and feel their creepy breaths on my skin. I could feel their slimy fingers reaching out with evil, wishing only to tear me apart.

Evil faces glinted darkly on the tree trunks. Breathing, huffing, fuming … evil rot!

This was Funky Grounds come alive!

They were creeping up behind me, gnarled fingers crooked, reaching for my nape, serrated teeth opening, closing in on my flesh…only held in check by my blazing force-field.

BOAT

Be still, and shut the f**k up, y’all!

I hissed without breaking stride, and then I felt them stiffening and going absolutely still, although their foul evil continued to permeate the air.

To be continued…

©Aaron Ansah – Agyeman

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