The Beast Within

Now he slowed to a walk, afraid of what he would find over the hill. The pain in his chest increased with each step that he took. As he reached the top of the hill he saw it.

The place where the three people stood was in view and it was not empty. A single man stood in the valley among the trees as if a phantom memory of his dream. But the man was real not a dream. He paced back and forth twice then stopped and turned. His gaze was on Aaron and he knew this was the moment.

Aaron walked slowly down the embankment into the thicket of trees where the man waited. The pain spread to his arms and legs, but he knew there was no stopping now.

“Greetings, I am Steven and that is all you need know of me.” The man was slender and well dressed but his voice seemed familiar. Was this the voice that he had heard?

No it was not, but he had heard the man’s voice before. Like an echo from the past, Aaron’s memories returned. In a wave images of his nightmares and dreams flooded his head with such force he clutched his head.

A beast with the heart of a man and the essence of a god flashed in his head. Winged figures seemingly made of marble did battle on a field of bodies. Among these winged warriors Aaron stood stained in blood.

Also on the battlefield stood Steven, blood running from his open mouth. His teeth were as long as daggers and his eyes glowed yellow as the sun.

They faced each other down on the battlefield and as they charged each other the winged angels began to weep. They turned their backs on the beasts and began to wail.

“What is this?” Aaron screamed. “What are these images?” He fell to his knees in pain. His forehead hitting the ground in front of him, “Stop! No!”

A bright light that flooded around him momentarily blinded him. His thrashing ceased and he looked around. The park had disappeared and the battlefield had taken its place.

Human bodies coated the ground and the stench turned his stomach. A war was raging between the humans and the angels. Both man and angel fell beneath the battling armies.

A roar echoed over the battling men and they all stopped to see what came. A single man was crouched on all fours his face twisted in a grimace. It was Steven, his eyes glowing yellow and his bones shifting beneath the skin. His body mass doubled as Aaron watched and fine black hair grew over the entire length of his body.

He shed his human guise revealing a great beast of a lion with black fur and rust colored mane. His roar rumbled the earth as a long forked tongue snaked out licking the bodies at his feet.

Half the humans tried to run while the other half courageously attacked the beast. The lion stood three times taller than a man and its claws twice as big a man’s head. It killed half a dozen men with each swipe of its claws and bit men in two with its bite.

Anger rose in Aaron as he watched the slaughter and he felt himself changing. The beast raged within him wanting out. He closed his eyes feeling the beast touching his every pore.

When he opened his eyes he was back in the park and Steven stood before him.

“Now you know. Don’t you?” Steven smiled and twisted grin, “And now you know what I am.”

Aaron felt the hair on his arms growing and felt his body changing. “Murderer,” his voice barely a whisper.

“Yes, and we have some unfinished business.” Steven replied.

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Eli heard the voice whispering in his head. He watched the robed figure cross the street and head into the park.

“Come and see. Your destiny awaits.”

Eli followed, a pain in his chest pulsed with each step he took. Something covered his arms and to his astonishment his skin was bubbling. The skin of his arms split and feathers pushed through the gaping holes.

He fell to the ground his bones aching and his skin burning. He knew in an instant what he was and, after shedding his skin he leapt into the air. Like the phoenix he raised out of the ashes of his former self and flew deep into the park.

A roar shook the very air as the phoenix swooped down into the small valley. A giant bear and lion were locked in battle; tearing at each other with their claws and teeth.

The bear stood on its hind legs slapping the lion across the face gouging out an eye. It came down on top of the lion’s head, its teeth sinking deep into the lion’s neck.

With a quick swipe the bear felt a pain in its gut and felt its entrails spilling onto the ground. The bear stumbled back as the lion’s claws struck it repeatedly.

Then came a scream from above. As the bear toppled backwards it watched a winged bird drop into the lion. The phoenix’s claws digging into the lion’s back before it could react. It lifted the lion high up in the air, its great wings struggling to climb higher and higher. Then dropping the lion from several stories up.

The bones shattered as the lion slammed into the ground. The beast was motionless as the phoenix swooped back down landing beside it. The phoenix clawed the lion’s side and the lion remained motionless.

As the phoenix turned the lion lunged raking its great claws down the phoenix’s back splitting it open. It kicked at the lion involuntary then fell on to its side.

The bear melted away leaving Aaron clutching at his gut. He watched the lion form melt away and the phoenix soon followed. The men were gasping for breath and writhed in pools of blood.

“Come and see,” came the voice from the darkness of the trees. “Witness another failure.”

A giant wolf stepped from the darkness of the trees. It walked with its head hung low throwing a snarl at the men as it passed them. The wolf stopped and let out a howl. The skin of the wolf’s back split like a cocoon and a blood soaked head emerged from it.

It was a woman; her long hair clung to her back as she raised her torso from the wolf, her blood covered body, breasts, arms and legs glistened in the moonlight.

“Jennifer?” Eli gasped.

The woman spoke in an inhuman voice, “I am the lamb. I am the beast.”

“What? How?” Eli asked.

“There are two side to everything Eli. Like a coin has both heads and tails. Heaven and hell. Good and evil.”

Steven shook his head, “But this is the end.”

“No,” she said simply. “The apocalypse began centuries ago. The will not come, not this time. We were not supposed to battle each other, but the world. We where sent to destroy the world and we had failed. Again.”

She raised her arms and an emblem flared, burning a hole in her chest. The emblem was that of the lamb and the beast. A glowing wolf leaped from her body into the sky.

Emblems flared on the chests of the three men and, like the lamb before them, they leapt up into the sky. Their images and souls leaped to heaven and hell. Their spirits rose higher and higher until they passed from one plane of existence to another. They crossed all existence until they came to strange place.

The clouds were mirrors as was the ground and the sky. They entered a castle make of mirrors and floated down the hallways.

In the throne room was four beasts, kneeling to their masters. The walls were mirrors that reflected not their physical reflection, but their spiritual reflection.

Upon the throne sat the Lord in heaven and the Emperor of darkness. Like two sides of a coin they were one. In the mirror Lucifer sat in the throne, representing every thing that was cruel and unjust.

Lucifer looked at his own reflection in the mirror and watched God welcome the spirits. God smiled and looked into the mirror and saw Lucifer sneer at the beasts that were before him.

It was forever changing; an angel looking into the mirror would see his dark self. The mirror showed the other side of the coin to what ever gazed into it.

“Your pitiful humans have failed again milord,” Lucifer spoke to the mirror.

“Yes, I know milord, but they will learn. With each life they live they learn just a little more.” He smiled at the spirits. “It is time for you to try again.”

Laughter rang in the great throne room as the four spirits descended to earth once again.