I Will Repay

The kindling and wood were laid in the fire pit. The incantation was started with Sue dedicating her body, mind, and spirit to the service of the Dark Lord. She then proceeded with the lighting of the five candles, the sacred names were called out as each candle was ignited.

"Dave, wake up Mr. Murphy, we need him to be at least semi-conscious if we are going to use the sex blood sacrifice."

Dave walked over, took a "smelling salts" ampoule, broke it and held it under John's nose. Nothing happened. He hit John across the face, hard, several times, but there was no response. Unknown to the two witches the combination of the excessive dose of GHB and the concussion that had been caused by Sue's use of the sand filled sock had left Mr. Murphy totally and deeply anesthetized as well as in a deep coma.

"I can't wake him up!, I think the blow you gave him to the head plus the stuff you gave him have really put him out. In fact, his breathing is very shallow. I think we gave him too large a dose. He might not live long enough for the sacrifice."

It was then that Sue had to change plans.

"We'll simply do a simpler form of the blood sacrifice then. We can get the blood. Remove his jacket, tie, and shirt and then bring him into the circle ."

Dave obediently removed Mr. Murphy's jacket, shirt, and tie and then carried his body into the circle.

Sue took a sterile needle and drew seven drops of her blood for the chalice The silver cup had a small crimson pool in it. Sue then took another sterile needle and seven drops of Dave's blood joined hers in the chalice. She tilted the chalice to make sure that the blood was mixed. Sue then took the Boline to made a large cut just below John Murphy's ribs.. She sliced through the diaphragm and cut out the still beating heart, just like mesoAmerican sacrifices were done. The still beating heart pumped its last blood into the chalice. Sue went to each of the five stones and in turn poured out a small libation calling on the god who's name had been written on that particular stone. The heart was then put in a bag with sulfur and dropped on the fire. Then, with the scarlet and blue flames dancing in the fire Sue plunged the blade of the athame into the chalice symbolizing the union of the magical knife with the life's blood offered in the cup.

Dave, in shock at what he had just witnessed, took the remains of Mr. Murphuy's body and dumped them with his clothes, covering them well with branches and leaves. He didn't even notice the Boline partially shoved into the top edge of Mr. Murphy's pants. But, he did notice the change in the clearing when he turned around. The air in the clearing was lit by the scarlet flames of the wood and the blue fire from the sulfur. It was now being filled with a blue and scarlet mist that filled the area inside the circle. The most perfectly beautiful being that either Sue or Dave had ever seen was standing there. Dave collapsed face down outside the circle. The beautiful being smiled took the chalice from Sue's hand and drank its bloody contents. The chalice turned to molten metal in the being's hand and the molten metal dripped into a pool at his feet. The being then pointed into the flame. Something large and black, like solid smoke, appeared in the mist. It didn't speak, but both Sue and Dave heard the words, "my name is Hekatos, what does my mistress wish?" as clearly as if they had been spoken verbally. Sue's was ready with an answer.

"Pray thee, go and kill the sheriff's chief criminal investigator, he is a risk to me when it comes to the kidnapping of Mr. Murphy".

"Yes, mistress" was the response.

Sue then prostrated herself before the beautiful being. The being reached down and touched Sue where the drop of blood had been taken. There was a brief sharp burning feeling followed by the knowledge of acceptance. As the beautiful being disappeared Sue started the peacemaking and withdrawal portion of the complex spell that she had used to conjure up her familiar. It was over within fifteen more minutes.

"Dave, when I was face down on the ground the beautiful one touched me where I drew the drop of blood. It felt like I was on fire for a minute. Get the flashlight."

Dave retrieved the flashlight and turned it on, he then all but screamed, "Sue, you have a brand! There is a small pentacle surrounding the place where the needle prick was made. You have a permanent pentagram as a part of your body! That's freaky!"

"Dave, I want to see if you were also marked."

Sue looked down at Dave, there was no mark.

"You were outside the circle. It must be that you weren't ready for a complete acceptance by the powers that be. Blessed be the beautiful one for meeting with us tonight. Blessed be the scarlet and blue fire that has given me my familiar, Hekatos. I won't need to use this ritual to call him. From now on he will come when I call him with a simple spell. Dave, from now on I am the most powerful person that you know because I can summon an immortal to do my bidding."

Dave wisely didn't say anything, he wasn't so sure that he was comfortable with that idea.

Chapter Five

The Demonic attack against the Sheriff's Criminal Investigator

The sheriff's chief criminal investigator, Bob Schwartz, was at home with his wife and young children. Bob was relaxing with his wife, Judy, and watching an old movie that they had on tape. The children were both asleep in their bedroom. The family had gone to church to celebrate "All Hallow's Eve" the Church's true celebration that was corrupted to become Halloween.

"Hey Judy, how does a pizza and some soda sound to you?"

"I'm mostly full dear, but if you want one we have a pizza in the freezer."

"Yeah, I think I'll cook it. Let me stop the tape while I put the pizza in the oven. I don't want to miss any of the movie."

Bob walked into the kitchen and was unwrapping the pizza at the same time that Sue was sending Hekatos to do her will. Bob was suddenly aware that he felt like he was in danger. He turned around in time to see the blackness appearing in the room with him. His first response was to pray out loud.

"Lord Jesus, I call upon your protection. I am a child and servant of yours. You have told me that greater is He who is within me than he who is in the world. I call on you for your protection for me, and my family. Lord Jesus, I put all of our lives in your hands."

Bob had spoken loudly so Judy was aware that some form of spiritual warfare was in progress. She immediately started to pray, and headed for the children's room. Her prayer was all but identical to Bob's, not because it was a memorized set of words but because the same Holy Spirit was directing both of them. Judy didn't stop to shut the door, she just went over between the children's beds and placed a hand on each child and prayed.

Bob noticed that the blackness seemed to be shaking. It tried to move toward Bob but seemed to be stopped by an invisible wall. It tried several times to reach out and touch him but with no effect. Apparently exasperated the blackness then headed through the house looking for others to hurt. As it approached the children's room it again found that it could not move toward them. Judy saw the demon and was given peace from God that it couldn't hurt them. The demon was violently shaking at this point. With an audible wail, it disappeared in a mist that quickly evaporated.

Bob called the pastor right away. Bob was an Elder in pastor Paul's church. He explained what had happened. Pastor Paul came over immediately and prayed with Bob and Judy. He indicated that he believed that they had been face to face with a real demon. Bob and Judy stayed in the children's room that night. One of them was always awake and in constant prayer so that they were spiritually covered.

The demon was not going to come back. He had run into something that no demon could possibly win against, the Almighty God of the Universe was guarding some of His children. All Demons well knew that their power was useless in the face of that kind of opposition.

Chapter Six

The Church Meeting

At the end of the Sunday service pastor Paul asked everyone to stay for a few minutes for an emergency meeting. Most of the congregation in the fellowship were true followers of Christ, and they stayed. The meeting was to be one of the strangest meetings that any of them had ever attended.

Pastor Paul first requested that the Elders go to the doors of the sanctuary and make sure that they were closed and locked. Each Elder was to stand in front of his door praying for covering. The Elders knew what was about to be discussed.

The pastor read the report found in First Samuel 28:3-19; the story of the witch at Endor calling up a spirit. He then told them of the time that Martin Luther, in his study, threw the ink bottle at Satan.

"Although you have sung these words many times I ask you this morning to hear the words that Luther wrote".

A mighty fortress is our God,

A bulwark never failing;

Our helper he amid the flood

Of mortal ills prevailing:

For still our ancient foe

Does seek to work us woe;

His craft and power are great,

And, armed with cruel hate,

On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide,

Our striving would be losing,

Where not the right Man on our side,

The Man of god's own choosing:

You ask who that may be?

Christ Jesus, it is he;

Lord Sabaoth his name,

From age to age the same,

And he must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled,

Should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear for God has willed

His truth to triumph through us:

The prince of darkness grim,

We tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure,

For Lo! his doom is sure,

One little word shall fell him.

That Word above all earthly powers,

No thanks to them, is standing;

The Spirit and His gifts are ours

We answer His commanding,

Let goods and kindred go,

This mortal life also;

The body they may kill:

God's truth abideth still

His kingdom is forever!

"That word was, and is, Jesus".

"Luther wrote this in 1529 but it may as well have been written this morning. Only in Christ Jesus can the enemy be defeated."

The pastor continued:

"Let us pray. Almighty Father we gather together and call upon your great Name to shield us here in our deliberation this morning. You have shown me what we are faced with and we need your protection because it is not flesh and blood that seeks to do us harm. Lord God, we trust you to provide the protection that you have promised through your Son Jesus, our Lord." Amen.

"Now I know that most of you know that I do not rattle easily. You also know that I work very hard at telling things the way that they really are. Brothers and sisters we are under attack by Satan and his demons. I do not mean this figuratively. I want Bob and Judy Schwartz to come up and tell you what happened the night before last.

In turn, Judy and Bob told them what had happened. You could have heard a pin drop on the floor during the narrative. As Dave finished the pastor continued to speak.

"Now, some of you might be thinking that this isolated incident could have been a bad dream or such. I want to prevent that thought from entering your mind. Last night I had reason to speak with someone I know and trust. That man had faced demon activity as surly as had Bob and Judy. Unfortunately he had been knocked out. I will not give you the name or what has happened but I will tell you that Satan is indeed doing a powerful work in this area. I need to ask you to divide yourselves into twenty-four groups. I am going to ask that each of those in group one pray for God's protection of our entire church and town between midnight and five minutes after one each morning, those in group two should cover the hour of one to five minutes past two each morning, etc. The extra five minutes are to guarantee that there is no break in coverage. Some of you may think that I am over reacting. I have to tell you that from actual physical contact I have seen the results of the Lord doing a miracle in this situation. I have seen with my own eyes God's power to such effect that I would have told you that you were dreaming had you reported the details to me. ......People, we are under attack. I don't know why and I don't know who is behind it but what I do know is this: God is the Sovereign of the universe. He has promised to help us and protect us. He has told us that when two or three are gathered in His name that He will be there. I want no fewer than two people praying for this congregation and this town at any time around the clock. Until this is finished, your very lives may well be at stake. I am not permitted to tell you, at this time, why I say your lives are at risk, but believe me your lives depend upon God's protection."

"Another thing is that I would refrain from telling anyone other than those who are in this room about what I have said. According to a completely honest source there are people in, and around, this community who are dealing with dark forces. I can tell you that they have already done serious physical harm to one person. For the next week or so I would strongly urge you to avoid any social situation where you will not have a fellow believer along with you. The person who was physically harmed was hurt by people that he didn't think would be dangerous."

"There is no one here today that can oppose Satan in his or her own strength. We need to put on the whole armor of God from Ephesians 6: 10-18."

"Do you have questions that I can attempt to answer?"

The meeting went on for another half hour. All the expected questions came up, and they were handled as openly and honestly as they could be. The worshipers left the church building in a subdued manner. Most of them had never really given thought to the fact that there is true demonic evil in the world. Some of them finally remembered that reality can be sobering.

Chapter Seven

The Cell Phone Call on Sunday

Sue was in her room, ostensibly studying, but in reality trying to figure out what could have gone wrong. She was agitated. The fact that there had been no news about the Sheriff's chief investigator being found dead, and the fact that Mr. Murphy's body had turned up missing along with the Boline had left her feeling very uneasy. Sue's phone rang. She answered it.

"Hello?"

"Sue, it's me Dave, I'm scared. What if someone has found out about what we did? What if we are caught? Your prints are all over that knife and my fingerprints have to be on Mr. Murphy's skin, after all there was blood all over the place and I had to move him. What are we going to do? What can we do? What ...."

"Shut up Dave, you're acting like a little kid. I'm warning you, get your act together or you will put us both at risk."

"But Sue, you said that you had it all worked out. You said that nothing could go wrong. Things couldn't have gone much more wrong than they did. I didn't actually do anything to kill him. I provided a distraction and helped you move him but I'm innocent when it comes to killing him. I need to find a way to keep from getting involved in this."

'Dave, quiet down, you are getting hysterical. I will take care of this. Don't worry about it. Why don't you get in your SUV go back out to where we were and see if you can find that knife in the daylight."

"O.k. Sue I'll give it another try, but I don't want to be tossed in prison for something I really didn't do. I mean I don't have a lot to hide and I never really agreed to kill him. If I'm questioned I'll just have to say it wasn't me, I'm innocent regarding his death."

"Is that a threat, Dave? Are you saying that you would rat me out if anyone started to ask you too many questions?"

"I don't know Sue, I'm sort of coming apart at the seams right now. I think I'll take your advice and go out to look for that knife."

"Yes, you do that Dave, ........ Good by."

As Sue hung up she went over and locked her bedroom door. She turned to her spell book and started the invocation that would summon Hekatos. Dave would never weaken and tell people what had happened. Dave was about to have a fatal "accident".

Forty-five minutes later a Sheriff's department patrol car came around a curve and saw tracks leaving the road and going into the woods. He also saw smoke billowing above the tree tops from somewhere just inside the woods. He radioed for the fire department and advised them that he was going in to see what was going on. The road entered the wood with a slight curve, As the deputy rounded the curve he saw the SUV. It was upside down and was in the center of the fire. He couldn't get close to the vehicle but was struck by a very unusual thing. He had seen car wrecks and rollovers but he had never seen a car on its roof crushed almost as if a construction roller or crawler tractor had rolled over it. There were no other marks going into the woods. The only vehicle that had come this way was the SUV. But it couldn't have gotten into this location damaged like it was at the moment. The deputy returned to his car and radioed in that there would be need for the lab boys and the coroner. .... The deputy had seen what was left of the arm sticking out through the window.

The fire, police and coroner's people arrived and did their jobs. It was quite a while before the SUV was cool enough to allow anyone close to do any examination. It's always hard to do an examination after people have used foam and water to stop a fire. The fire investigator on the scene was confused. The fire had been hot enough so that parts of the SUV were melted. One of the items that would later lead to a lot of head scratching was that the fire had been hot enough to melt some of the glass in the windows. The fire boys had indicated something else that was most unusual. According to them the fire had started on the outside of the vehicle. Not only had it started on the outside, it appeared to have started everywhere at once. There was no place above or below what had once been the SUV that still retained any paint, on the outside.

The body was another matter. The coroner's men hadn't yet recovered the body but what they could see through the window openings told them that they were going to have a really bad time of it. From what they could see of the body some of it had been burned to ash, including the bones. The area of the body from the belt down to the thighs was essentially ash. The rest of the body was simply horribly burned. . There were obviously some unique features to this body. The state crime lab and probably the FBI crime lab would have to help with this one. It was going to take a fair amount of time just to get the body removed from the vehicle. People were bringing in jaws of life and a cutting torch. This was not going to be fun.

The license plate number had already been traced and a deputy had been sent to the Pryce house. Notifying parents of a child's death was never a job that anyone would want to have to do. But it had to be done.

* * *

The sheriff's patrol car pulled up to the Pryce house within an hour of the discovery of the burning SUV. The officer went to the door of the house and rang the bell. The door opened revealing Phil Pryce..

"Hello officer, is there a problem?"

"Yes, sir, could I come in and talk to you for a few minutes? It is very important."

"Well, I suppose so, the game on t.v. wasn't all that good. Come into the living room and have a seat."

They proceeded into a spacious room that was furnished in very expensive, very tasteful style.

"Now, what do you want officer?"

"Is your wife here sir?"

"No, she's at the store picking up a couple of things."

"Sir, is your son David around?"

"No, earlier he mentioned something about going out to see if he could find something that Sue had lost the other night when her car had a problem. He didn't say exactly where he was going to look but indicated that he would be back in a couple of hours."