The Wandering Jew

Part One - Abduction

It was a dark night. Well, kinda dark. The moon was almost full, but somehow, the streets still seemed darker than normal. I was walking home, after a particularly late night at the cinemas. We had missed the earlier session, and had decided to wait for the late one. The movie had been ok, but I wouldn’t want to see it again. My name is Jean Evan, and I am 17. I am also a seemingly average woman. I was, up until this fateful night.

I gazed at the sky, marveling at how that one cloud looked surprisingly like an old sailing ship. The moon shone lightly, illuminating the streets in a way the streetlights never could. Then I went through the dark alley that always gave me the creeps, even in daylight. It seemed to somehow block out light, and was pitch black. Steeling myself, I kept walking, and kept my eyes fixated on the path before me, rather than the dark corners which my imagination would fill with creatures of the night. I have a great imagination, or at least, that’s what everyone always says. As a kid I always had trouble getting to sleep, because I kept imagining some evil monsters hiding in the darkness, waiting to pounce on me.

Suddenly, a figure stepped out from the shadows, and I had the shock of a lifetime. He wore a long black cloak, and had a long white beard. In his right hand he clasped a walking stick made of wood. He was rather old, I could see, but that stick would still hurt like hell if he swung it. I backed away. “I don’t want trouble!” I shouted, eyes scanning the alley for anything I could use for a weapon. Panic filled me. Would he kill me? Or just rape me? Or steal all my stuff? Or was he just lost? Not very likely, at his hour…

“Whether or not you want trouble, trouble will find you, for it is your destiny.” Boomed the old man standing grandly in the alley, looking every bit like some wizard, or, at the very least, a member of a very secret organization. He was, I decided, insane. Which is never really a good thing. I stepped back, but felt something behind me. I dunno how. I spun and saw nothing, nothing at all. Creepy!

“It is only Verias, he will not harm you.” The darkness in the alley seemed to flow together behind me, to form the vague outline of a man. It scared the shit out of me. I leapt backwards, and yelled,

“Jesus!” The old man laughed unpleasantly, and the darkness-man faded away again. But he was there. I felt him. No way I’d go back that way, not in a million years. I’d have to go past the old man. Old CRAZY man. With a big staff.

“Who the hell are you? What the hell do you want with me?” I shouted, picking up the remains of a garden fence, brandishing it in front of me, keeping an eye out for the monster behind me.

“I have come to help you fulfil your destiny, and save the world from eternal damnation.”

“Oh. Right.” I said, backing up against the alley wall. I prepared to make a break for it. I’d hit the old man over the head, and run past him, I decided.

“Your name is Jean Evan, no?” Humouring him, I stalled.

“Uh, sure. Listen, I have to get home, my mum is expecting me…”

“You will not return home.” The old man said, glaring at me with his crazy dark eyes.

Not a good sign.

“Look, just let me go past, and nobody gets hurt.”

“You must go with me. You are in mortal danger.”

“Damn straight!” I yelled, and ran at him, swinging my fence post. The old man caught it in his left hand, moving faster than I thought was possible for anyone, let alone this old geezer, and with his right hand, he swung his staff, clubbing me over the head. I sunk to the floor, next to some discarded garbage bags, pain flooding my head, before I blacked out.

Part Two – The Train

I woke up some time later. I heard a strange clunking, clicking, rippling noise. I swayed slightly. I was on some sort of train. I opened my eyes and found I was asleep on a couch in a room which was, indeed, in a train. A glance outside showed that I we were already in the country. I heard footsteps and looked around, alarmed, but saw nothing, except a sort of wavy-ness moving towards the door. I watched as the door eerily opened by itself, and then closed itself again. I shuddered. That man-creature again.

I turned back to the window, and saw the same shimmering outside, and I squinted. Nothing. I turned the side, and distinctly saw something hovering outside the window. I turned back, and saw nothing. I slowly turned to the side, and with a sort of peripheral side-ways vision, I was able to perceive what was flying outside my window. It was a giant, red, bloodshot eye.

“JESUS!” I yelled and leapt away from the window.

Well, not just an eye. There was skin, too. Red scaly skin. But it was basically a giant flying eye, staring at me through the glass. I watched horrified, as the eye turned, and flew away. What the hell was this place? It certainly wasn’t a dream. Or was it? No, it wasn’t. In dreams its like you’re watching yourself, or something. Like you aren’t yourself, just a bystander. Kinda. Dreams are hard to explain. And this was nothing like that. They must have drugged me, or something, I decided. Some crazy mind-drug, to keep me occupied whilst they try and sell me as a slave.

I went over and tried the door. Locked. I swore. I then took stock of the situation. I had been kidnapped. I lived alone with my mother, and was poor, so it was hardly for the money. That left either revenge, or random murder. My mother was a boring, drab woman, and I could hardly believe she had done something to incur the wrath of that old man – wizard! He was a freaking wizard! Or, at least, he was able to control monsters. Verias, he had said. And he had probably sent that eye thing to watch me, too. Holy shit. Wizards and monsters.

Back to my situation. That left only random murder. He knew my name, so I had to assume he was a stalker, or something. Or maybe I was going to be sacrificed to some demon, or something. The old guy had spoken of destiny. Was it my destiny to be fed to some evil summoned monster? I hoped not.

I was avoiding the monster subject, because I didn’t want to think about it. For one, it threw my entire world into chaos. Suppose there was more of these wizard-types! If they could control demons, I’m pretty sure they could do many other unpleasant things, too. Perhaps they had infiltrated the government…Aliens! It had to be aliens. The monsters were aliens, and the old man was their human spy. Or maybe he was also an alien in disguise. And I was gonna be probed, or experimented on, or something.

For some reason, I liked the idea of aliens better than demons. Demons meant that there was an entire side of this world that hadn’t been discovered. Aliens simply meant that something from another planet had come. Damn aliens.

At least I wasn’t tied up. Now, to escape! I ran and rammed the door hard with my shoulder, succeeding only in hurting myself and making a loud noise. The door was too strong for me to break down. There wasn’t any furniture I could smash the windows with, either. I cast another eye outside, to make sure the eye-thing wasn’t back. Even if I DID open the window, what would I do? To bail at this speed meant certain death. I’d have to wait for the train to slow down, and only then could I escape.

If I broke one of the windows now – with my fist, which wasn’t going to be pleasant – it might be discovered. No, I had to wait until we were going at a slow enough speed before I’d break out. In the meantime, I had to stay alive. Even better would be if I could somehow make the train stop, and then escape. Which meant that I had to somehow get out of this room first. An emergency brake, perhaps? There was nothing like that in this compartment.

With something to do, my mind went off the subject of what might happen. If it looked like I was going to be tortured, or otherwise horribly killed, I was going to try and leap off the train, to my almost certain death. Better have an uncertain, quick death than a slow drawn out one at the hands of some sicko alien freak.

So I examined the room. There wasn’t much. A table was bolted to the floor. The couch-seat thing I had slept on was too heavy to lift. That was it, basically. There were other seat things all along the walls, but that didn’t help at all. I checked under the seats, and all along the walls, but the room was bare. Nothing in it at all, save me.

Idiot! I almost punched myself in the head. First thing I should have done was go through my pockets. I emptied it all, and made a small pile on the table. Keys. Wallet, with some money. Not enough to bribe anyone. My mobile was gone. Blast. And a book. The Homeward Bounders, by Diana Wynne Jones. Great book. In a pinch I could throw it, I guess, but it wasn’t the thickest, and it was a paper back. Besides, I disliked damaging books.

Ok, I had some coins. If there where any screws, I could try and undo them with my money, however unlikely that was. At least I had a plan. No screws to be found. The bolts under the table wouldn’t budge, either.

“AAAAAAAAAAAARGH.” I screamed, beating against the walls. Even they were too solid to get through.

As I turned back towards the door, I had the biggest shock ever; the old man was back, and his demon-friend was by his side. I backed away, eyeing the shimmering air next to the man. Out of the corner of my eye, I could sort of a see the dark outline of a man-shaped creature, like I had seen in the alley before. Thinking about that alley reminded me that my mum was probably missing me; I had been unconscious for the entire night.

The old man noticed me eyeing his alien, and he smiled.

“So you have learned to see demons. Good.” Demons. Not aliens. Aw.

“What do you want with me?” I demanded, angrily, clutching my belongings tightly in my hands. If he came any closer, I decided, I would throw them at him, though it would do absolutely nothing, save anger him. I can’t aim well, either. It wasn’t looking good.

“I want to fulfil your destiny.” He repeated, and I glared at him.

“If it’s my destiny to be sacrificed to some ungodly creature, then SCREW YOU.” I shouted at the top of my lungs. If I was going to die, I might as well go with some dignity. Better than that sobbing and begging shit.

The man seemed appalled.

“I won’t hurt you. In fact, I will do my best to prevent you from being hurt in any way.”

“Then bring me home!” I shouted back, readying myself to throw the book. The man sighed.

“My name,” he said, “is Ahasuerus. I am known as “The Wandering Jew”.” He pronounced his name Ah-Has-You-Rus.

“Pull the other.” I said. Unlike most people, ignorant louts they were, I knew who he claimed to be; in fact, the very book I prepared to throw at him contained the character of Ahasuerus, The Wandering Jew.

“I am not lying; I am really he who scorned Jesus Christ all those years ago.” This was news to me. In the book, all I knew was that the Wanderer was doomed to…well, wander for all eternity, because of some sin he had committed. Or, at least, he was forced to claim he had sinned. In truth, he had done something different, but this is not The Homeward Bounders, this is another story entirely, so I will not give plot summaries of other stories, no matter how good they are.

“Bullshit.” I said. He did look really old. AND he had the demon, which hinted at the supernatural aspect.

“Prove it.” He sighed.

“I cannot. You must believe my word. I am Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew, one of the Three Immortals, and I have brought you with me so that you may bring about The Second Coming of Jesus Christ.” Woa.

“So, what, you’re saying I’m destined to give birth to Jesus Christ?” I said, unsure of what to believe. This guy was a freaking wizard. Of that I was pretty sure. Ahasuerus…perhaps. But definitely wizard. And if demons and wizards existed, why shouldn’t I be the mother of Jesus Christ Reborn?

“No. You are the reincarnation of John the Evangelist, and you alone can find Christ, and proclaim his Second Coming. Without you at his side, the world will sink into darkness and sin. You will unleash the power of Our Saviour!”

“Whoa, whoa, slow down. My name is JANET Evan, not John the Evangelist. I’m a girl, hello! And you are saying that I’m supposed to find the Reborn Christ?” Ahasuerus nodded.

“Ok. One thing at a time. What’s with the whole demon thing? Can you do magic? Or what?” A faint smile appeared on Ahasuerus’ lips.

“Have you ever,” he finally said, “heard of a man called Merlin?” I nodded. Who hadn’t? Old crotchety wizard, did magic, fought evil, something about a sword, and Arthur.

“You’re saying your Merlin?” Ahasuerus nodded.

“I am. Or was. And no, I cannot do magic. At least, not in the way you think. I can summon demons to do my bidding. Whilst I cannot do “magic”, demons most certainly can.”

“Summon demons? Isn’t that…like…unholy, or something? Aren’t you trying to find Jesus Christ? Why should I trust you if you’re summoning demons?”

“Well…demon is an incorrect term. We summon spirits. Some of them, demons, come from the Abyss, and are evil. They will do all they can to kill you. Others, like mine, are not evil. They are simply spirits bound to me.” He said, glancing at his own demon.

“So whats with that guy? Verias?”

“Verias is my personal demon. He is bound to me. I am his master.”

“Unholy contracts! I knew it!” I shouted, feeling bolder. This guy didn’t seem to want to hurt me. He may be insane, he may not be, in which case I was in some sort of adventure. Cool.

He sighed.

“No, he isn’t corrupting me. It just means that we are bound. There are…” he paused, seeking of a word,

“bad contracts. In which the caster leaves himself susceptible to…evil. But Verias and I share a clean one. He’s good, see. Other wizards, they make contracts with demons, and wield black magic.”

“So there aren’t any negative side-effects?” I asked, desperate to keep the conversation about my destiny and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ away. Demons I could handle. Kinda. Me being the incarnation of John I couldn’t. Besides, demons were far more interesting. Perhaps I could learn to summon them? Doing magic would be pretty damn sweet.

“No. There are side-effects, of course, but the benefits outweighs the costs.”

He said, defensively. He may be 2000 years old, but I had him on the defensive. He wasn’t as high and mighty as he thought he was.

“Like?” I asked, hands on my hips, my belongings still within easy reach on the seat.

“If I die, so does Verias, and vice versa. We feel each other’s pain.”
Nasty. At least it motivated the demon to keep his master alive, and vice versa.

“So how do you keep him in line? It’s not like you whip him for being a bad slave.”

“He’s not really a slave.” Ahasuerus said, looking at Verias, who was just standing there.

“It’s a mutual agreement. Spirits like Verias…benign spirits, reside in Heaven or Purgatory, whilst the evil ones, demons, reside in Hell. Spirits from Heaven are also called angels, whilst those from Purgatory are just spirits.”

“Wait a minute…you can summon angels?”

“Yes. Minor ones. Anyways, by summoning them here, we allow them to participate in life. They, in return, serve us.”

“Life? That’s all they get? They get to live? They’ve been had.”

“Not really. It’s difficult to explain how living feels like if you’ve been doing it your whole life. Anyway, evil spirits demand a bit more than just living, like sacrifices and the lot, but I won’t go into that. Angels, on the other hand, refuse to commit violence, unless it’s against demons, so they have their drawbacks…but they are pretty powerful. Demons, too, but they tend to corrupt wizards with their evilness. Purgatory spirits are the best ones, in my opinion. Weaker, sure, but a lot more flexible.”

Now for the big question.

“So…can I learn it? This summoning?” Ahasuerus hesitated.

“Yes.” He finally said.

“It will take time; not many possess the suitable power for it. I myself had to study demons for more than a century before I was properly able to summon them.”

“A century?” Damn, that sucked. Being able to do magic would be sweet, but not if I only got to use it once I was really, really old.

“Well, you seem naturally skilled. It took me years to learn to see demons; you seem to be rather adept at it already. You would learn quickly, I am sure. In fact, I believe it is your destiny.” Win!

“Destiny, huh? How do you know so much about my destiny?”

“There have been prophecies…John the Evangelist shall find the Christ. And I shall find the Evangelist.”

“So, what, it’s my destiny to summon demons and find Jesus?” I was still uncomfortable with the whole demons thing. They seemed ok, but what the hell did I know?

“Precisely. I believe you will be his protector; your gift with spirits will come in handy.”

I sat down. Ok. So I was going to become some kind of witch, and find Jesus Christ, and become some kind of new age apostle.

Honestly, I was holding up better than I would have thought. I was believing some total stranger about something completely insane. But some part of me trusted him, and it was this part that made me believe. If I WAS John, then surely I would have some kind of magical intuition about things. Which I did, kinda.

“So…how do I “find” Jesus?” I finally asked. Ahasuerus seemed relieved that I wasn’t making a fuss about things. You know, in the movies and books, the protagonists are always completely rattled by some change in their life, and they always just “want to lead a normal life”. Hey, as long as I got to summon some cool demons – spirits, I mean - I’d be happy. My life hadn’t been that good, anyways.

“The Reborn Christ is in…London. Once there, it will be up to you to find him. And once you do, he will rise up and cleanse this world of evil.”

“So we’re going to London. I always wanted to go there…” Something was fishy, though. Things didn’t add up.

“So what’s all this kidnapping business? Had you just asked nicely, I probably would have come, too.” A guilty look crossed the Wanderer’s face. Oh-oh.

“I had to get to you as fast as possible. You see…I am not the only one trying to find you.”

There is always a catch. DAMNIT.

“Who…who else was looking for me? I thought the “prophecies” said you would find me?” He nodded.

“It doesn’t mean I WILL find you. It means that I am the only one who CAN find you. There is a difference. It is up to me to find you, and no one else. But that shouldn’t suggest that I can’t be stopped; If I die, then no one would have found you, and you would never find the Messiah. And if you happen to die now, then no one else will find the Messiah. But rest assured that once you get to London, you’ll know where to go.”

“Kill me? Who would want to kill me?” Ahasuerus sighed loudly.

“Have you,” he asked, “ever heard of a man called Cain?”

“Cain?” I asked, bewildered.

“Wasn’t he the son of Adam and Eve? And something with his brother? And a mark?” Ahasuerus nodded, pleased. I prided myself on obscure knowledge and legends. I always had liked stories.

“Cain was the son of Adam and Eve. He killed his brother, when his sacrifice to god wasn’t accepted, whilst his brothers’ was. He was then a cursed man, doomed to forever wander the lands. As to the Mark of Cain,” he showed his hand, upon which a strange symbol had been branded, not unlike the letter “K”.

“So…so he’s still alive?” The Wanderer nodded.

“But that would make him…thousands of years old!” He nodded again.

“And he’s trying to kill me?” A third nod.

“Why?” I shouted, confused and alarmed. Death was not good.

“He has been wandering the earth for thousands of years; you might say he has a grudge against God.”

“So…he’s angry about being punished…so he’s gonna try and do something that he’ll be punished for, again?”

“Yes. He has been around for so long…he knows things that I do not. He is a true master of demonology. He is a force to be reckoned with…”

“And he wants me dead. Can’t God…kill him, or something?”

“God doesn’t intervene. Ever. And he’s immortal, remember? And so am I.”

I buried my face in my hands. To be honest, it was actually all exciting. Ok, the whole immortal ancient wizard guy trying to kill me wasn’t too good, but I could learn to control spirits! Magic! So far, in my life, I hadn’t accomplished much. I mean, honestly, what was the point in life? I wouldn’t miss my old life much. Sure, I’d miss my mum, and some of my friends, but I could always go back and visit them, surely. I was surprised at how little my life meant to me.

“So, uh, are there any more immortal wizards running around that I should know about?”

“There are only three beings on this earth cursed with the Mark of Cain. And, coincidentally, only three people who can truly summon spirits.”

“You, Cain, who’s the third guy? The Flying Dutchman?” The Homeward Bounders also featured the Dutchman; he had had a similar fate to Ahasuerus, but was much more recent. He had sworn to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, even if it took till judgement day. He had recklessly endangered himself, and his crew, so, God, in a cruel yet ironic twist of fate, had cursed him to endlessly wander the seas, never able to reach his destination, never able to die.

“Why, yes, the Dutchman is the third Immortal, and the youngest.” I smiled knowingly. I had surprised him; I was not the stupid little girl he had assumed I would be. I tossed him my book.

“You should read that; you’re in it, and so’s the Dutchman.” He seemed surprised, and a bit taken aback, but he tucked the book in his coat. He may be immortal and a kickass wizard, but he wasn’t stupid enough to dismiss anything I did as stupid. You do get wiser with age, it seems.

“So, can you teach me to summon stuff? Like that shadow-man and that red eye?” Ahasuerus froze.

“Red eye? What Red Eye?” He tried to sound unconcerned, but failed.

“The one that was flying outside my window. Are you telling me it wasn’t yours?” He glanced at the window, nothing was there. His manner changed instantly, the shadow-man, Verias, seemed to tense.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, like I’d lie about something like that. So, what, it was Cain?” He nodded.

“Most likely. I will have to take….extra precautions.”

“What?”

“Lesson number one. Demons hate water. And lightning.”

“So what will you do?”

“Summon up a storm.”

The ceremony was rather simple. Ahasuerus drew a pentacle on the compartment floor, and then a smaller one outside the first.

“You can watch, but I doubt you will see much.” Then he began.

He spoke many strange words which he read out from an old book, and the centre of the pentacle shimmered and wavered, and I was able to see a sort of large figure – it seemed to be a sort of wet blue colour – which flickered strangely, as though it was on a bad television set. Verias, the spirit-companion in the corner, seemed to growl slightly.

“What is your will, master?” The spirit spoke with a sort hissing slimy noise. I recoiled, I had assumed because of Verias’ silence, that demons weren’t able to talk.

“Summon up a storm behind us, so that any demons following us will be delayed. Then you may go.”

“It will be done.” The spirit hissed, and seemed to disappear.

“Cool.” I said. It seemed so easy!

“Will the thunderstorm stop this…Cain?” I asked, after staring out of the window for a moment.

“Only his demons, I’m afraid. Well, it will hinder them, certainly. Now, come, have something to eat.”

I followed him out of the cabin, and marvelled at the train as I went. It was really quite posh.

“What kind of train is this?” Without turning around, Ahasuerus said:

“It is my personal one.” Wow. Rich immortal wizard. Not a bad combination. And he was on my side. Even better!

He led me to another, kitchen sort of cabin, where a simple meal waited. Bread and meat, mostly. I sat down to eat; I was pretty hungry. And the food wasn’t half bad.

As I ate, I noticed the light was getting worse. I glanced out of a window and saw dark clouds building behind us. The demon was actually creating a storm!

“The summoning has drained me; I must rest. It was a pretty powerful angel.”

“That was an angel?” I asked, interested. So much for the angelic voice, wings, white gown and halo stereotype.

“Yes. It was. If anything happens, tell Verias.” He indicated the shadow-man who stood silently in the corner, and then he left. He did look tired. Thunderstorms must be quite hard to create, I imagined. You’d need a pretty powerful angel.

I finished my lunch and wandered around the train. One door was locked, I assumed it was that of Ahasuerus’ room. But I was able to go through the rest of the train. A train! A private train! I could do anything I wanted! I realised that, for the first time in my life, I was free. Kinda. No school to worry about. No job. No acting properly. No chores. No responsibilities! Well, I had to find Jesus, I guess. But that had the glamour of adventure, so I didn’t mind. Free! If I could learn to summon demons, I could do anything I wanted! Amass riches, and buy myself anything I desired.

Always Verias tagged along. I tried starting up some conversations, but he never answered. Either he couldn’t, or wouldn’t. Stupid demon. Spirit, I mean. There was a small library that I browsed; most books were really old. Probably summoning books. I also found a neat staircase that led to a sort of balcony thing on the top of the train, I could feel the wind in my face and watch the thunderstorm develop behind me. It started to rain, so I quickly went down. Verias came down pretty quickly, too. I guess it was true that demons hated water.

After another hour I got bored. I went back to the cabin in which the demon had been summoned; the summoning book still sat there. It seemed to call me, and I lifted it up and opened a random page. “How to summon an imp.”

It hit me like a hammer. Immense pain in my head. I yelled and fell back, and the book fell to the floor with a dull thud. Everything swam, and images and memories poured into brain…memories that weren’t mine. Then, for the second time in under a day, I fell unconscious. The last thing I saw was Verias, who caught me as I slumped down. His fingers felt strange…cold. Then blackness.

I awoke with a yell. Roughly half an hour later. At least, according to my watch. It could have been tampered with, for all I knew. Verias stood in the corner, his featureless dark face staring at me. I glanced at him suspiciously. Why had I fainted? Then I realised I could see him clearly, now. Before he was like a dark smoke, hard to see in the dark. Now I saw him clearly.

I…I had changed. It was like there was something in my brain, like there was something on the tip of my tongue. What is happening to me? I wondered. My headache had gone. I remembered strange images…impossible images. One clear one remained in my head, though the rest seemed to be just around a corner, just out of sight, just beyond my reach. They were…insubstantial. But this one image remained in my head, clear as the day it had happened, long, long ago.

A man. On a cross. Everything else was blurry, but I saw the man clearly. I saw it as if it was a photo before me, I could see even the finest features of his face. A haunted face. He had brownish hair, and a brown beard. Just as he was always shown in the pictures. Wearing only a loincloth. I shivered, and remembered where I was.

There was only one explanation for these strange flashes. Ahasuerus was right. I WAS the reincarnation of John the Evangelist. Or, at least, someone who had seen Jesus on the cross. Because it was him. I knew that as surely as I knew my hair was red. The immensity of it all landed on me. Jesus was coming back! He would save the world! Everything would be nice and happy and clean and good! And I would help. Or try to.

I knew then that I had to get to London. Had to. I had to get there, come hell or high water. For all I knew, hell WOULD come. And by the looks of the torrents of water raining down behind us, there might even be high water. My eyes landed on the book that still lay on the floor. It had a nice dusty leather cover, and the pages were a cool yellow colour, just like the spell books in movies were. And I knew I had to try summoning a demon. What good would I be if I couldn’t even summon an imp? Yes, I’d summon an imp. You can’t start too early, after all.

I picked up the book, and read the page. It was like I already knew it; I had just not quite remembered the exact details. As I scanned the page I remembered how to do it. Easy stuff. But I hadn’t ever summoned before! Or had I?

I stepped into the smaller circle, holding the book before me. Verias seemed to be alarmed, he took a step towards me. “Stay back.” I commanded, in a voice that sounded different to my own. I willed the demon back, and he actually did step back. He saw that I had changed. He feared me. It was a good feeling, power. Power corrupts! I had always thought that if I ever got power, I’d do my best to not be corrupted. Oh, well, here goes.

I spoke the incantation words, and then I started babbling, saying things I didn’t understand, things I had never seen or read before. Some strange language. I panicked. I was being possessed! Help! And then I said a name. That’s all I remember. The name. It all just kind of slipped out.

“Godfrey.” The air shimmered, and a small brown imp was there, beating its wings wildly to keep afloat. In one hand, it clutched a small wooden spear, with an iron head. It didn’t look very durable. I frowned; the spell I had done was supposed to summon a smaller, less powerful imp. What had summoned? My previous life had taken over for a second, and summoned something else.

“What do ya want?” It asked, rudely, glaring at me.

“Godfrey.” I said again, and the imp nodded.

“That’s me.” It squinted, staring at me. It was probably wondering how a mere girl had been able to summon it. I assumed most demon-summoners were really, really old.

“You’re just a kid!” he said rudely, flying towards the edge of the pentacle, where he rebounded off an invisible wall. He was trapped.

“Ok, you’ve summoned me. Now let me go. Before you hurt yourself.” Godfrey didn’t seem to keen on being summoned by a mere 17-year old. He gazed into the corner, and saw Verias. His tiny black eyes widened considerably. He seemed to recognize the demon.

“Godfrey.” I said, staring at him, half-remembering the spunky imp from long ago.

“I bind you to my will.” I said, staring at him. Godfrey looked into my eyes, and seemed to be afraid.

“Who are you?” He asked in a quavering voice. My mind went kind of hazy, then, but I still remember what I said.

“I am John the Evangelist! I, who wrote the Book of Revelation, I, who was the disciple of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. I, who will bring about the Second Coming of the Messiah, and lead him to glory!”

The imp looked awed. It did sound pretty damn impressive.

“John?” It asked, hovering before me.

“John, is that really you?” I had recovered from my bout of haziness.

“Apparently.” I said blinking and shaking my head.

“Then I bind myself to your will.” The imp bowed his head, and I said:
“It is done.” And then Godfrey flew out of the pentacle, and landed on my shoulder with a laugh.

“I always knew you’d come back.” He said, matter-of-factly.

“So, when are we? And where are we going?”

“It’s 2005, and we are headed for London, in order to find Jesus Christ Reborn. Oh, and some guy called Cain is following us. And another guy called Ahasuerus is helping me.” Although I had only just met the little imp, I already felt as though I trusted him. He seemed cool.

“Cain? The Cain?” I nodded.

“Oh.” He said, blinking furiously.

After a moment of silence, I finally said:

“So, uh, maybe you should go and see if he’s following us, or something?” The imp nodded, and I led him towards the balcony-thing. He shrieked when he saw the rain and tried to hide under my jacket. I was interested to see that the rain turned into steam the instance it touched his skin.

I held my jacket over him, and he gazed behind us, into the grey-ness of the storm. He stared intently for a second, and then shook his head.

“There’s…something, but it’s…faint. I think, for the moment, we’re safe.” Then he twitched and moaned slightly.

“Aaah…it’s getting…stronger. Oh dear.” He leaned closer, as though it would make any difference, and suddenly yelped.

“It’s him!” He yelled, desperately fighting to free himself from my coat, and probably hide back in the train.

“Who? Cain?” I demanded, fighting to keep the imp in my coat.

“No!” His muffled voice shouted, as he trashed violently against the brown fabric.

“It’s a demon!” He flipped about, and finally found the exit, tumbling to the metal floor of the balcony.

“The Magatharas!” The imp yelled, before diving down back into the train.

I followed him down, and grabbed him by his skinny arm before he could fly away.

“Who the hell is Magatha…that thing?”

“It’s Cain’s demon! Really, really, really powerful!” He struggled some more.

“You’re not going anywhere.” The imp stopped, and puffed up his cheeks, and then let out a tremendous roar that made me almost drop him.

Verias instantly came running at our side, summoned by the roar.

“Magatharas has come!” Godfrey said urgently, pointing up at the staircase that led to the balcony.

“No time to wake your master, the creature will have killed us before he could do anything useful.” The imp urged. This I doubted. Ahasuerus seemed quite capable. Then again, we were up against the only person on the planet more powerful and old than he was, so what did I know?

Verias, after seeming to hesitate a moment, flew up the stairs and was gone.

“Let’s wake the Wanderer.” The imp suggested, already flying towards his room.

“I thought you said it would be too late.” I said, suspiciously.

“Uh, Verias will delay it for a few moments, perhaps his master will be able to conjure something up.”

He was trying to get out of having to fight “it” himself, I saw. I was slightly nervous. What could “it” be? What was it that Godfrey was so terrified of? We arrived at the door. I knocked hard on it, and shouted:

“WAKE UP!” At the top of my voice. But nothing happened. Godfrey tried yelling and beating upon it, but I detected a fain sheen upon the door, which the imp informed me, was a shield of some sort. We tried making as much noise as we could, but despite our best efforts, Ahasuerus wouldn’t wake up. I suspect the shield blocked out sound, as well. Back to the balcony, I guess.

I ran back up as fast as I could; perhaps I could help, or something, anything. I arrived at the top, with my faithful imp sitting on my shoulder, and saw a strange sight. Verias, who had been up till then hopping along the carriages, stood on the last one, staring intently at the demon running after the train in enormous strides.

The demon – Magatharas – was…bizarre. He was tall. Immensely tall. Taller than the train. Perhaps three or four meters, maybe even five. It was hard to judge from this distance. But he was simply huge. Gigantic. His skin was pale, pale as the palest white. He had long, long arms, and long, long legs, which made him look like some huge stick insect; it was rather eerie. He was dressed in a black and white striped suit, and wore a striped top hat, like some insane clown or some demented circus manager. His face… his face was really horrific. He had two huge orbs for eyes, two huge black orbs, bigger than my fist, maybe even bigger than that. He was too far away to tell. And his mouth. His mouth was like a round hole in his face, and he had sharp teeth all around it; not just on the top and the bottom, but all around, like his entire mouth was filled with incredibly sharp teeth on all sides.

This monstrosity was sprinting flat-out behind the train, trying to catch it. We were going fast. Very, very fast. But this guy…you know how in the movies, the huge monster all step really, really slowly. Like, their foot descends, and it takes several seconds before it hits the floor. Enough time for people to scream and run, and that sort of thing. It wasn’t like that at all. This guy was moving as fast as normal human beings do, or, at least, his legs were. But because he was so incredibly, monstrously, tall, he was covering an amazing amount of ground. His spindly legs flashed back and forth, and he was slowly catching up. He was going to catch the train, literally!

Within moment, he was running parallel with the train, trying to get to the front. But Verias wouldn’t have it. The tiny-by-comparison-man leapt from the train like a speeding comet, and collided with Magatharas in pretty much the same way. He was like a bullet; he tackled the huge demon on the side, and the giant fell to his side, rolling away violently at a high speed, tearing up the field as he went. Any human would be dead ten-times over. With demons, I had no such luck.

Verias recovered first, and he seemed to grow. Not as big as Magatharas, no, but he was definitely taller by a meter or so. He was still only about half the size of his opponent. With a silent yell he rammed into the recuperating leviathan, and the two toppled over. Magatharas, although fast, big, and almost certainly strong, was having trouble with his long arms; they were rather clumsy in close quarters.

Despite this hindrance, the huge pale hand hurled Verias a good distance away, where the spirit landed with a loud thump. It was amazing. The train was going in a sort of curve to avoid the swampy marshland that was in the way of the track, so we sort of circled around the battling pair, which meant that I could watch the fight, but that we were no closer to escaping Cain’s demon.

“Go help him.” I commanded the tiny imp who was cowering beneath my hair.

“What? ME? What can I do?” He asked, retreating even further into my hair.

“Help him, NOW.” I commanded, and the imp felt the pull of my command.

“Damn you!” He said, and flew off, heading for the battling pair. We were about halfway in the curve. If the two of them could distract Magatharas for a bit longer…they might outrun him. Or, at the very least, it would buy them more time.

Godfrey kept beating his arms, ignoring the irritating itch of the rain on his bare skin. I watched as the little imp approached the wrestling pair – Magatharas seemed to have the upper hand – and then he draw back and hurled his little brown spear at the immense creature. It was almost funny. The tiny spear hit fair and true, into the back of the hug demon’s back leg. He howled slightly and turned to face this new threat, when another spear hit his shoulder.

The spears were to the demon as a finger-sized stick was to us; except that it would take a whole lot more to kill a demon that it would a human. A human might die after being speared by a dozen tiny spears…it would take a good deal more to finish Magatharas. The demon roared and lunged for the tiny imp, when…Verias hit him from the side and he fell to the floor again. Another spear hit Magatharas on his arm, and the leviathan snarled, and grabbed Verias by the leg, and swung him around his head like a lasso. I winced in sympathy as the demon hurled the shadow-man through the air, where he smashed right into Godfrey, after which both demons fell to the soggy marsh.

Magatharas, free of his pesky opponents, started to sprint towards the end of the curve. He was going to intercept the train. And then what? He couldn’t possibly stop it, no way. He was certainly strong; perhaps he would break the rails and de-rail the train, which would probably be the end of Jean Evan. Jumping off the train was out of the question. Sure, the moor was soft, but not that soft. Fate would decide my …fate.

Magatharas beat the train and stood still on the tracks, as I thundered towards him, with no way to stop. I had explored all I could of the train, so the controls must be in Ahasuerus’ room, or perhaps a room beyond his. Whichever it was, it was still unreachable. If I could wake the Wanderer…no, I would never make it in time. Even if I COULD wake him, which was pretty damn hard, as I had previously discovered. Besides, I was paralysed with fear. If I was going to die, better I do it on the balcony, in full view of events, rather than beating fruitlessly on the door of a really, really, really old man. If the de-railing slowed the train down enough, I could still jump…but then I’d be at the mercy of the huge demon.

I glanced behind me, where Verias and Godfrey were high-tailing it towards Magatharas, but they were going to slow. They’d never make it in time. I turned back to the demon, who was about two hundred or so meters ahead. I was within minutes, no, seconds of collision. Strangely enough, Magatharas just stood there, rather than destroying the rails. Did he really think he could stop the train all by himself? It seemed pretty likely. Magatharas was pretty clever, I knew. But how did I know? I didn’t know. No train was going to kill Magatharas…he was wicked crazy strong, too. Then something really strange happened.

Something was descending from the sky, heading straight for the demon. At an amazing speed, too. At first, it looked like a big black rain cloud, swooping down on the demon. Perhaps Ahasuerus’ weather-demon had come back to protect his master? But this cloud was too big for the demon. It looked like…like a ship. It was a ship. A big black flying ship, heading straight for the huge spindly monster who was perhaps a hundred meters before me. As we drew closer to collision, I almost thought I could see a tiny figure standing on the deck, steering the flying ship. It looked really spooky.

We were drawing close. I couldn’t tell what would collide with what…us with the demon, the demon with the ship, or all three at once. The ship lurched forwards, and Magatharas seemed to see it for the first time. He turned and roared, just as the tip of the ship struck him in the chest, and rammed him off the tracks in a very violent manner. I screamed as the train ran full speed right into the ship…and passed through.

It was as though the ship was made of thick black smoke. We passed quite harmlessly through it, and I stared in wonder and fear. It was a ghost ship! The ghost ship. It was, I realised, the Flying Dutchman. I hadn’t met him before…but then again, I hadn’t met Ahasuerus either. Or had I? Something about it all seemed vaguely familiar…

I turned and watch as the ship flew up, and Magatharas roared in challenge. The ship descended again, like a bird swooping on an insect below, and the huge demon barely avoided the huge boat. Meanwhile, Verias and Godfrey had leapt onto the last carriage, and were making their way back to me. I jumped about a meter in the air when a voice beside me said:

“He will not trouble us for a while.” I whirled around and saw the Wandering Jew at my side.

“So NOW you wake up? We almost died!” I yelled, waving my arms frantically.

“Luckily the Flying Dutchman came along, then.” He calmly said. But I saw the way his hand gripped the railing tightly; he was only pretending to be calm. He hadn’t expected an attack this quickly, I assumed. Godfrey appeared at my side, shivering and small, and curled up in my jacket again.

“Let’s go down.” I said, feeling sorry for the little imp. He may be a coward, but he also knew how to make me feel sorry for him. We descended back into the train, and I caught a last glimpse of the Magatharas fighting the Flying Dutchman in the distance.

“So you summoned a spirit.” The Wanderer said.

“You should have waited until I was awake. It could have been dangerous”

“Yeah, well, if it wasn’t for Godfrey here, we mightn’t have known that Magaratha guy was coming till he was sitting on top of our carriage!”

“Godfrey, you say? Interesting.” He stroked his beard, as all men who want to seem wise do.

“Yeah, apparently me and him go way back. Way, way back.” Ahasuerus nodded.

“The Dutchman will make sure that Magatharas will not bother us for quite a while. Until we reach London, at least.”

“What about that flying eye?”

“The eye is a demon known as “Garyothos Mandowlenwin Pogastos”. Mostly, he’s called Gary. He’s mainly used for spying and scrying and the sort, he can’t really hurt us. Gary and Magatharas work as a team; Gary scouts, his ally does the dirty work.” I nodded. It all sounded familiar, anyways. Suddenly, I was really tired. Summoning takes it out of you, I guess, as well as the whole “near-death experience” thing. Terror was also pretty exhausting.

“I’m gonna take a nap.” I informed my host.

“Yes, you had best conserve your strength. Verias here will show you to your room. I will wake you when we reach London. Now, if you will kindly un-summon your little friend here…”

“Oh no. I can’t. He’s staying.”

“What do you mean, you can’t? Of course you can.”

“No, he’s meant to stay a bit. Besides, I could use his watchful eye.”

“There are more…powerful, and skilled imps out there.” Godfrey looked scandalised.

“I think you underestimate Godfrey. Now, I’m tired.” I turned away, and followed Verias to my room, with my little imp sitting grinning on my shoulder, pulling faces at Ahasuerus.

Part Three – London

London. We where in London. Or so Ahasuerus told me. We had stopped, at least. I felt…strange. Something was going to happen, and pretty soon. But what? Would I find Jesus? How? And was I sure this wasn’t all some kind of crazy dream or hallucination? Or had I perhaps gone completely insane? Who knows. Not me. That’s for sure.

We got off the train. There was some sort of special platform for it. I dunno how the old man did it. Maybe he was very influential, or had his own train yard. I dunno. I’ve been to London before. It’s just a great big dark, dirty city. It was also wet. Very wet. It was just the same as it was the last I time I had come. I dunno what I had expected. Something, at least.

Before we left the train, the Wanderer set up some kind of gigantic pentacle. Maybe he was preparing to summon something. I had no idea. I was pretty sure Godfrey knew. He had twitched uncomfortably, when he had seen the pentacle. That was probably why the Wandering Jew had wanted me to un-summon the imp. Whatever it was, it was important. That much was sure. The imp could tell me later, when Ahasuerus was off somewhere.

The old man had a pretty grim look on his face when we left. Verias seemed surly, too. I wondered what they were so grumpy about. So, we got off the train, and caught a taxi into the heart of London. Good old London.

We got off into the rain, and Ahasuerus opened up an umbrella.

“So now what? How am I supposed to find our Messiah?”

“I don’t know.” Oh. That was great.

“Where are we going?”

“Anywhere. You’re supposed to find Jesus.” He stopped still.

“You lead.” I shrugged, and started walking down the streets admiring the shops, and keeping an eye out for anyone who looked remotely like Jesus.

Verias and Godfrey, I was interested to see, went completely un-noticed amongst the crowd. The demons were invisible to their eyes. Verias kept mostly behind his master, and somehow managed to avoid being jostled or touched by anyone. He seemed to shrink and grow to fit any gaps amongst the populace quite easily.

I could go on about the hours we spent wandering London, until it got late and cold, and we trudged back to the train, but it wasn’t very interesting. I didn’t get any divine revelations, or meet a pack of angels, or anything like that. I didn’t even see any other demons.

Godfrey did, however, tell me about that pentacle Ahasuerus had drawn. The really big important looking one. Usually, memories from my first life kinda come back when I need them; like when I was summoning Godfrey. But with this pentacle…I didn’t have a clue. To explain, my imp told me a story.

“Ever heard of a bloke called Faust?”

“What, like, Goethe’s Faust? That crazy doctor that made a pact with the devil?” Godfrey smiled.

“Yeah, that’s him. Well, old Ahasuerus is none other than Doctor Faust himself.”

“You’re kidding!” It made sense, I guess. Ahasuerus knew…like, everything. He could have taught any subject at any university in the world with ease. I guess when you live forever, you pick up a few things. He was especially good at History and…back to Faust.

The story of Faust goes roughly like this: Old man knows everything, is bored, wants to know more, devil comes along, old man agrees to sell his soul in exchange for having the devil as his servant for a while. So these two go and have all these adventures, and something about the love of his life, and learning about new things, and in the end he dies, and learns his lesson, or something, and manages to get into Heaven anyways. I think.

So, yeah, both Faust and Ahasuerus knew lots and lots, and both summoned demons. The connection was pretty obvious, I guess.

“I thought it was a work of fiction?” I finally asked, after contemplating this.

“Well, it mostly is, but it was based on The Wandering Jew. So, anyways, I’ll tell you the story of the real Faust.”

“Ahasuerus is cursed. In more ways than one. He’s doomed to live for quite a bit. Always has to keep living, for one. But there’s also another catch, to make things especially unpleasant. Your pal Jesus saw to that. He had his reasons, sure, because otherwise the Wanderer wouldn’t have found you, and you wouldn’t find Jesus, and so on, but still, it was a pretty damn mean thing to do.”

“Anyone Ahasuerus gets close to eventually dies. That’s how he’s forced to wander. If he stays in any one place to long, bad things happen. His family, for instance. After he was cursed by Jesus, he went back home. Within five years, all his family and friends were dead. Most of the town was gone, as a matter of fact. Plagues and famines and earthquakes and the sort. They knew he was cursed and tried to kill him. When that didn’t work, they all ran.”

“But yeah. So he’s doomed to make no friends, and never fall in love, and all that jazz. Pretty much the same thing happened to Cain, which is why he’s so goddamn insane now. The Dutchman, he’s…different. He’s got his ship, unlike the other two. But back to the story.”

“So one day, Ahasuerus meets some girl. Real pretty. Went by the name of Rose. Blah Blah, love at first sight, they got together. Heck, Ahasuerus even told Rose who he really was, and what he could do. She could even see demons, to some extent. It was all very romantic. But it couldn’t last. No one messes with the man.”

“But Ahasuerus wouldn’t let go. He summoned demons to protect his love. They stopped the accidents, and the sickness, and everything else Fate threw their way. He’s one tough guy, Ahasuerus is. He fought to the bitter end. He should have left her. Would have ended better, that way.”

“So eventually, they sent an angel to kill her. By this time, a decade or so had passed, and Ahasuerus was still doing all he could to stop his wife from dying. Almost killed himself, summoning all those demons to protect her. Poor, poor Rose…”

“So this angel came. I forget his name. He was all sad, and apologetic, but said that Rose had to die for the sake of mankind. Now, Ahasuerus, he had already fought for so damn long, he wasn’t about to give up now, was he? But all those demons he summoned…they didn’t last long against a proper angel. So Ahasuerus went for the big guys. He didn’t bother with the small fry. He summoned Abaddon. Now, Abaddon, he is to Magatharas as a cat is to a mouse.”

“So he summoned Abaddon. Big nasty demon. Didn’t bother with any of the lesser spheres; went straight for the First. Now Abaddon went up to Michael, that’s the name of the angel, and the two of them have a fight. And when I say fight, I mean one of the biggest and most horrific battles in all of history. Those two battled for days. Each blow was like an earthquake. They wrecked the entire landscape for miles.”

“What about Ahasuerus?”

“Ah, yes. As you can imagine, summoning Abaddon took quite a bit out of him. Put himself at mortal risk, he did.”

“I thought he can’t die!”

“Yes. But when one summons someone like Abaddon, there is a price. Normally, demons just kinda…siphon off your goodness, and slowly corrupt you. But the higher ones, they’re a bit different, see. If Ahasuerus, for even a moment, made some sort of slip up, lost his concentration, made some sort of mistake, the demon would have been on him, and would have taken his entire soul. His body would survive, sure, but his entire personality, his mind, it would all be burning in hell. So he was free from the taint, the corruption, of demons, but his entire soul was at risk. He placed humanity on the line that day, he did.”

“But he contained the demon. He was able to keep him in line. Just. So after seven days of intense battling, with no sign of an end, Rose had had enough. Ahasuerus was completely exhausted; any moment could potentially be his last. Something had to be done. Rose was a brave woman. Brave, but foolish. She saw the state her true love was in. So she went out between the battling angel and demon, and sacrificed herself for the goodwill of her husband and the rest of the world.”

“With her death, there was no reason to fight. Abaddon was sent back to the depth, and Michael went back to his home. And Ahasuerus stayed where he was, grief-stricken. They say he mourned for one hundred years, cursing God and Jesus and Michael for what they had done to him.”

“And now?”

“Now…he has recovered. The pain has faded. He’s on God’s side, again.”

“That’s it? No regrets?”

“Well, of course, he misses his wife, but she died for humanity, and he has resigned himself for doing the same. As a tribute, of sorts.”

“But…he can’t die.”

“No, I suppose not. But…well…that pentacle in that train.” I winced.

“It doesn’t…summon something nasty, does it?”

“Abaddon himself.” I put my head in my hands.

“So, after wandering around for 2000 years, waiting for me to come along, he’s gonna risk eternal damnation juuust before Jesus arrives on earth?” Godfrey nodded.

“Sucks to be him.” He nodded again.

Of course, my feelings were slightly more complicated than that. He was taking a huge risk….if Abaddon overpowered him, he’d go to hell. He’d be soulless. And Abaddon would probably wreck half of London before he went back to Hell. But Ahasuerus knew the risk…he would have made his decision for a reason. Was Cain really that powerful? Did the Wandering Jew really need to put his soul on the line for some girl who might find Jesus?

So after one uneventful day we went home. It was weird; I had a sort of intuition about where it was. The train, I mean. Home. The train was now my home. It sounded weird. The train had felt like a place to stay for the moment, a hotel, if you will. Where was I gonna stay once I found Jesus? But back to the train. I knew where it was. And usually my sense of direction is hopeless. But the train…the train had an…aura, of sorts. Like, I knew were it was, I felt it. All the magic and demons and summoning that had gone down there since Ahasuerus had got it had created a sort of pulse signal, or something. It was a magical place. It was pretty cool. But yeah, that was about the only magical thing that had happened all day.

Or the next. Or the one after that. Or after that, too. It was only my fifth day in London that was interesting. We were trudging down another section of London (the grumpy old man insisted on doing it all systematically. I told him that I was the one doing the looking, so we should do it my way, but he told me he was 2000 years old and that I should be quiet) when I felt something. The others did, too. It was like the train, kinda, but different…and smaller.

And it was familiar. Yet I couldn’t place it. Ahasuerus and Verias could, though.

“Gary is here!” The Wanderer said urgently, and led us into some kind of warehouse. At first I questioned this logic; what if we were caught? But his plan turned out pretty sound, so meh.

Ahasuerus whipped out some chalk and drew up a pentacle before I could say

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Drawing an un-summon pentacle.” Oh. Nice idea. An un-summon pentacle sends spirits back to wherever they come from. Pretty simple to make. I reckon I could have made one. Not as quickly as Ahasuerus, sure, but still.

“So how do we get Gary into the pentacle?” He was still furiously drawing.

“Your friend Godfrey can pin him down.” He said without looking up.

“With what?” I looked at Godfrey, who waved his little brown spear at me. Ew. The thought of a spear stabbing a giant eye wasn’t too pleasing.

Ahasuerus stood. He turned to Godfrey.

“You. Do something magical.” Godfrey smiled.

“You ain’t my master.” He said, waving his spear.

“Do something magical.” I commanded, and Godfrey bowed, and raised his hand, and a shower of sparks, just like from a firework, blasted into the air above our heads.

“There.” He said, smirking some more.

“That aught to do it.” Ahasuerus said. Personally, I was mystified. But a moment later Garyothos Mandowlenwin Pogastos smashed through the window, drawn by the scent of magic, and swooped on me. I screamed. I admit it. How many times do you have a giant red eye swoop down on you?

Gary missed me – I ducked – and crashed into some boxes. He then leapt out, and, I kid you not, he grew arms and legs. Grew them! They just sprouted out, skinny thing little things, and he was standing on little red feet. Then he leapt at me. This time Verias saved me, punching the eye in the back of its…eye and it stumbled away from me. Gary was obviously not used to physical combat.

Then Godfrey swooped on him, and one of those lanky arms slapped him away, and he flew into a wall. Woa. So he was strong. Verias stood between me and the demon, and Ahasuerus held his staff ready. I wondered what he’d be like fighting…

Anyways. Godfrey had disentangled himself from the wall, and was defending his mistress. A spear thudded dead-centre into the iris of Gary, and the filthy little creature was ripped backwards by the force of it. Another spear (I turned away…ugh) pinned Gary to the wall just above the pentacle on the floor.

Gary’s eye focused on the pentacle below him, and then widened. It was almost comical. Before the demon-eye could do anything about its predicament, Ahasuerus bellowed the un-summoning words, which, I, again found familiar without ever having heard them before. To be honest, this reincarnation thing was becoming rather tiresome. When you have led two lives, why do you get them in halves? Couldn’t I just suddenly remember my exploits as John the Evangelist? Why all this half-knowledge, vague familiarities and smoky memories?

Back to Gary. He was writhing and screaming and shaking violently, and then he was gone. Spears and all. Cool.

“We must leave. Magatharas will have felt that.” Good reason. We ran.

We should have been quicker. Not three paces from the warehouse we ran into the big guy. He was towering above us, invisible to the civilians. I had no idea how he had managed to avoid accidentally bumping one of them. I still don’t.

“Run!” Ahasuerus yelled to me, and we all turned to run. Verias was no match for Magatharas. Neither was Godfrey. So we ran.

The huge demon was too quick, however. If it wasn’t for Godfrey, I doubt we would have survived. My little imp leapt from my shoulder and hurled a spear right at the demon. Magatharas roared and swiped at the tiny imp, who dodged skilfully. It was pretty stupid of me, but I felt some kind of connection to Godfrey. I couldn’t leave him behind. If I was supposed to find and protect Jesus Christ, I’d have to learn how to fight sometime.So I stood my ground.

Magatharas grabbed Godfrey out of the sky and began to crush him in his enormous hand. I skidded to a halt, and turned back.

“No!” Ahasuerus shouted, also turning. I guess I was pretty important to him. To the whole of humanity, I guess, but I wasn’t thinking then, only doing.

I can’t remember what I said. Only that I said some strange words, and then a freaking fireball appeared in my hand. A fireball! It was actually some sort of imp, Ahasuerus told me later, that I had summoned. Apparently, for the lesser imps, you don’t need a pentacle. Anyways, this burning imp wasn’t even warm in my hand. I was completely unharmed. All that mattered was Magatharas. I raised my hand and the burning imp hurled a large fireball straight at his creepy face.

The fire hit him square in the nose and exploded with the force of a grenade. Meanwhile, the fire-imp in my hand, its job done, faded away. The stricken demon roared and fell backwards, dropping a crushed Godfrey who limped back to my side. Magatharas hit the floor with an enormous thud which the passer-bys didn’t even feel. Somehow he made himself insubstantial, and they all walked right through him. I dunno what he did. I was too busy running.

Lobbing a fireball at a hulking demon leaves one in quite a state. I ran, not caring where. Unluckily for me, I got lost. I ended up in some dark alley. Like the one were all this had begun. I hoped it wasn’t going to end here, as well. But…something strange happened. I met him. One of my “old” friends. Or, at least, I think it was. He just appeared, suddenly.

He was lying in a corner. At first he seemed really old. He was a bum. He didn’t really look like it; jeans, a t-shirt. But he was lying in some alley. His face was really lined and worried, and his eyes were red. That’s why I thought he was older. But he was only a teenager, like me. After examining him more closely, I guessed him to be slightly younger than I. Normally, I would have turned and gone; he was a freaking bum. But this guy…he also had an aura. Had I finally found my Jesus?

He stared at me with a strange expression on his face. After a moment, he stood.

“John?” He finally asked, leaning forwards, checking my features.

“Is that you, John? John the Evangelist?” I nodded. This was him!

“Ah, of course. You’re here for him.” Him?

“Uh, him? who?”

“Him. Jesus. You are supposed to find him, John.”

“My name is Jean. And are you Jesus?” I didn’t imagine Jesus talking about himself in the third person. But, hey, stranger stuff had happened.

“Me?” He laughed.

“No, John, don’t you recognize me?” I shook my head. This guy wasn’t Jesus. I felt it. He was someone else. Familiar.

“No, I don’t.” His mouth twitched slightly. He sighed.

“You had better get going. The Three will soon meet their end.”

“What are you talking about?”

“There’s always the alternative.” He laughed.

“You’ll want to avoid that one, though.” Ok, this guy was getting creepy.

“Who are you?”

“I am…I will join you, soon. If all goes well. Or maybe I will join a bit earlier, and help out. It depends. But I cannot help you now, only after you have found Him. Which is why I must leave now. I am the second.”

“Second what? Who are you?” He walked past me, back to where the alley met the street. Then he turned back to me and said:

“I will be the second to re-join Jesus Christ Reborn. I am Philip the Apostle.”

He went.

Feeling distinctly puzzled, I ran out after him, but he was gone. Godfrey was waiting there for me, though. I looked around. Magatharas was nowhere to be seen.

“He’s gone.” Godfrey said, and sighed.

“Thanks for doing that back there.” I said. And I meant it.

“Thanks for saving me, too.”

“We should probably head back, and meet up with Ahasuerus.”

Back at the train, we met the Wanderer and his demon, who were glad we were unharmed.

“We shall have to be more cautious tomorrow.” He said. I didn’t mention Philip. I still had my doubts about him. For all I know he could have been a hallucination brought about by the fear and me lobbing that fireball. I don’t know. But I didn’t say anything.

That night at the dinner table I asked:

“So what happens after I find Jesus?”

“The prophecies don’t mention much after you finding him. I guess you’ll know what to do when the time comes, I guess.”

“And….uh, I’m like an apostle, right?” He nodded.

“So…are there others? Other apostles?”

“Sure. There are 12 apostles, like before, and all should gather around Jesus soon enough.”

“Even that betrayer guy, Judas?”

“Even him.”

“Oh.”

The next day…nothing. Nothing at all. Occasionally we “felt” Magatharas, like, his aura, but we always fled as soon as we felt even a whiff of him. I didn’t meet Philip again, either. No, most of that day was quite boring. But then….then there was the way home.

As we plodded back to the train after a long boring day, I started talking about auras.

“So how did you find me? Like, in the first place?”

“Chance, mostly. But you have an aura.”

“I do?” I looked at myself…and saw nothing. I looked up at Godfrey, who shrugged.

“Demons cannot see our auras.”

“Oh. So you can’t see the aura around the train, either?” I asked Godfrey, who shook his head.

“There’s an aura around my train?” Ahasuerus seemed puzzled.

“You can’t see it?”

“No.”

“Maybe I have some special refined aura-seeing-technique, or something.”

“Perhaps you do. Although it is strange…” Hmm. An aura only I could see. Interesting. I thought about this as we neared the train. I looked at the long metal thing and frowned.

“How come it’s only on one end?”

“I can’t see it, remember? Which end is it? Maybe my books have some sort of aura around them…or the pentacle I drew up.” But that made no sense. It was on the other end of the train. Over near the bedrooms. What was there that could make an aura only I could see?

Then it hit me. Like a ton of bricks. No, make that a kilometre long train, going at full speed, and filled to the brim with tons and tons of bricks. A classical “I get it!” moment. I almost fell over.

“Follow me!” I yelled at Ahasuerus and sprinted over to the train-end with the aura. The old man followed me, curiously. I think he began to understand it, as well.

As we approached, the aura seemed to be slowly moving away. I caught a glimpse of something moving.

“STOP!” I bellowed, sprinting after the figure. It was down on the tracks. I leapt down in one go and ran on, the ground below me crunching. The figure ahead of he stopped, and slumped against the train.

As I came closer, I saw that he was a bum. Another one. This one looked to be older than me, though. In his twenties, I’d guess. And he was dressed like a bum, too. Brown rags hung off him, and his face was unshaven. His hair was wild and his face dirty. Overall, not what I had expected the Messiah to look like.

“You know,” I said, “It’s dangerous to sleep under trains. They might start driving at any time.” The man shook his head sadly.

“Not this one. This one will stay here until they find him.”

“Him? Who’s Him?”

“Me.” He said, and climbed up, off the tracks. I followed him. Ahasuerus was approaching us, now.

“Does that mean that you are-“

“Just leave me alone!” He yelled at me, and I jumped back.

“Look, pal, I’ve come a long way for this, and that old guy has come an even longer way. So, are you Jesus Christ or not?” He shook his head wildly.

“NO!” He tried to run again, but I grabbed him by the arm. Ahasuerus had arrived.

“This,” I told him, “is Jesus Christ.” I was sure of it. His aura was absolutely enormous.

“You’re sure? He admitted to it?”

“Well, no, but I’m the only one who can see his aura, and it’s the biggest aura I’ve ever seen. Bigger than yours, and Magatharas’.” It was bigger than Philip’s, too.

“He has to admit it. Otherwise it won’t work.”

“Well, are you Jesus Christ Reborn?”

“Leave me alone!” He shouted wildly again, and tugged against my arm.

“No. Say that you are. Then you can go.”

“I won’t be free, ever, if I do! So leave me alone! I’m not gonna do it!”

“Say it!” I yelled back at him. It seemed to quieten him down.

“Do you have any idea,” he started, “What it’s like to be told you are Jesus Christ? That you’ll be sought after by demonic assassins and Satan himself? And that you will die for your people?”

“He’s gonna die?” I asked Ahasuerus, who nodded.

“I was ten! TEN! You had no right!” He yelled up at the darkening sky. It was going to rain again, I saw.

“For ten years I have lived on the streets, HIDING, from YOU!” He yelled at me.

“Quit being so damn selfish! The fate of humanity rests on your bony, dirty, shoulders, so be a descend human being, and admit to being Jesus!” I yelled back at him. I’ve always wanted to use the whole “fate of humanity rests on your shoulders” thing. I’m glad I was able to.

“I thought, maybe, maybe you wouldn’t come. Maybe you had died, or something. And I hoped. I lived in the dirt and HOPED.”

“Why did you live in the streets?”

“Why not? What was the point of school? If I’m going to be the Messiah, why should I have to go to school? How will it help ME?”

He kept on ranting and raving.

“But then you DID come. And my hope was dashed! You will be the death of me! So I had to hide. And what place better to hide, than in the very place I wanted to avoid! And it worked, too! If it hadn’t been for my blasted aura…”

“We would have found you eventually. You can’t outrun fate!”

“Oh yes I can! And I will! You can’t stop me!”

“Think of your people! All the people you’re letting down!”

“MY people? I’m not even HUMAN. I’m some kind of twisted HYBRID. So LEAVE ME ALONE.” I would have gotten him around to my way of thinking. Eventually. But, as it turned out, there was no time for that.

“AHASUERUS.” Boomed a voice. A chilling voice. And something was coming, too. Something very, very big. I trembled at the aura. Whatever was coming, was bad. Very bad.

“YOU AND I HAVE UNFINISHED BUSINESS!” The station seemed to shake with the vibrations of that voice. Ahasuerus was staring at the source of the sound, with a look of horror on his face.

“FOR TOO LONG HAVE YOU FOILED ME, AND RUN, LIKE A COWARD.” It was coming from the streets, in huge, pulsing waves. And something was coming from the London mists. Something dark.

Part Four - Battle

“BUT YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE THIS TIME.” The figure broke through the fog, and I saw that it was a man. Not a demon, as I had thought. It was a freaking man! He wore black, all in black. A black trenchcoat, shirt, and pants. Black hair, too. Typical “bad guy” attire. Admittedly, he looked pretty stylish. Upon his hand was branded the Mark of Cain, the same one that was on Ahasuerus’ hand. And the Flying Dutchman’s too, I was guessing. Behind him loomed Magatharas, I saw. Magatharas seemed to be puny compared to this man. This man…I knew who it must be. Cain. Cain, who was the son of Adam and Eve. That made him the oldest human alive. His eyes…his eyes were black, too. And they contained so much knowledge, so much horror, so much destruction and evil and power, that I was forced to look away the instant I saw them. This was not good.

“Say it!” I yelled at Jesus Christ, who was staring, aghast, at Cain. He seemed speechless.

“SILENCE!” Cain bellowed, and seemed to flick his hand. Jesus, beside me, was swatted away by some huge invisible hand. He flew through the air, hit the train hard, very hard, and fell to the ground. He wasn’t moving. This was not looking good.

Cain was suddenly upon us. He was within about ten meters of me, and I shuddered again. This man was so incredibly, powerfully evil, I doubted we would come out of this encounter alive. But this had to be done. The fun and games were over. This was it.

“This is it.” Cain said, as though he was reading my mind.

“The final battle of us immortals. Either way, you will die, Ahasuerus. Do you think you can fight me? I have lived on this rock for millennia. Do you think you can match my power?” He drew his sword.

“I think not.”

Ahasuerus stood ready, holding his long wooden staff before him like a weapon. I doubted he would be able to hold off Cain and Magatharas for long. Shit. But then…Ahasuerus started incanting, started summoning. Cain did, too, a moment later. What was going on? Where was the summoning circle?

My question was answered a moment later. There was an incredible rending noise, like the sky itself being torn apart, and the front of Ahasuerus’ train exploded in a shower of steel. At the same time, Verias writhed and turned and then disappeared in a puff of smoke. It seemed that Ahasuerus wanted to conserve his energy, and didn’t like the idea of controlling two spirits at the same time. The huge figure now stood in the wreckage of the train, and it climbed out, and approached us with huge thundering footsteps. Abaddon.

At the same time, however, the nearby Thames were stirring. The water began to writhe and boil, and all of a sudden an enormous shape lifted from the waters. A giant, lurching from the banks towards us. A name, unbidden, came into my mind: Samael. Another of the great demons. He approached Abaddon with steps that shook the platform below us.

Abaddon…I can only describe him as a sort of giant. He was huge, and dark. He seemed to be made of blackness, night, perhaps. Like he was wearing a giant shimmering cloak of night. Two dark horns protruded from his head, and his two huge eyes burnt with a fiendish red light. He towered over even Magatharas, who shrank back before him.

Now, Samael…he was big. Taller than Abaddon, but skinnier and not as broad. He, too, was black. Also, he had one eye. He was vaguely reptilian in shape, though. He had scales. They were made of some dark plate-like substance, and its eye was also red. A long dark column swung behind him, and it took me a moment to realise it was a tail. It had nasty black talons, too, and lots and lots of teeth, I saw. The two of them were freaking huge.

So. Then it began. The fight. On our side was Ahasuerus, Abaddon, Godfrey and me, whilst on theirs stood Cain, the Leviathan and Magatharas (Cain didn’t seem to have any qualms about controlling two demons at the same time). I didn’t like the odds. Samael struck, his huge fangs glinting, and Abaddon grabbed the giant demon, and they began to wrestle, making everything shudder as they fought on the big train platform.

Meanwhile Cain charged at Ahasuerus, holding his sword ready. The two immortals crashed, and duelled. Cain was clearly a master of the sword; but Ahasuerus was a master of the staff. They twirled and danced and fought wildly, occasionally hurling fireballs and lightning and the like at each other. It all seemed kind of pointless, really, as they were immortal, but then I realised that they were trying to make each other lose concentration, so that their own demon would consume them. Yikes.

That left Godfrey, me, and Magatharas. Not good. The demon’s eyes turned to us, and I took a step back. Godfrey sat at my shoulder, grimly eyeing the huge demon. He charged at us.

Godfrey hurled a spear; but it had no effect whatsoever. Magatharas just kept on coming. He avoided the duelling immortals, as well as the fighting demon-lords, and came right at us. I managed to conjure another fireball, which the demon managed to dodge. I ran. What else was there to do? I might have died, then. But once again, Fate intervened.

A dark ship came thundering down from the sky, heading straight for Magatharas. The Flying Dutchman! Saved again. Magatharas turned, and saw the approaching ship, and dived out of the way, narrowly missing being rammed again. The Dutchman, not missing a beat, fired one of his ghostly cannons, and a cannon-ball struck the demon and exploded violently. As the Dutchman was closer this time, I could make him out. He was a short man, with a long ragged beard, and was waving a cutlass in the air and laughing maniacally.

Summoning up a fire-ball imp is pretty hard to do. It’s like a slider puzzle that you have to solve. You keep randomly guessing it, and solving it, but that hardly helps you when you desperately need to use it. So you keep doing it, until you memorised the way to solve the puzzle, and are able to lob fireballs at any given time. Other stuff, too, I’m sure. Ice-imps and water-imps and lightning-imps and the like. They were pretty much the same.

Too bad for me, I was still at the random-guessing stage. I willed fire, I shouted strange words that sounded like they would do something (which, given my unique situation, is quite possible). But I just couldn’t do it. Then, as fate would have it, a fireball whizzed from my fingertips just as I had lowered them, giving up. Well, from the spirit in my hand. The fireball mis-fired going way past Magatharas, and between the two duelling magicians, and hit Samael on his enormous tail.

Now, when I say the phrase “It did Jack”, I mean it. Now, that fireball was like a freaking grenade going off. One of them had knocked Magatharas right off his feet, and would probably incinerate any human it touched. But Samael…it was, I imagine (I was not, nor have I ever been a giant demon) rather like some annoying kid throwing a paper ball at your foot in class. It blackened the concrete floor of the platform, but beyond that, nothing. Not even a dent. Just some smoke.

I was scared the power would go away, so I…did it again, aiming for Magatharas this time. It was like something you did, and then forgot how to do. But I had only just thrown the fireball, so I still remembered how to do it…and I did it. I dunno how to explain….it was like a song. Its catchy, you sing it for a bit, and the next day, you just can’t remember the tune. But yeah. Moving on. The fireball hit Magatharas in the back (he was dodging more cannon-balls) and the impact threw him forwards, onto the ground.

The Flying Dutchman could handle Magatharas. I glanced at the struggling demon-lords, and the fight was pretty much the same. They were wrestling and fighting; not much had changed. It wasn’t like I could do anything in that fight anyways. But…Ahasuerus. He was - pardon my French - getting his ass kicked. I had to go and help him.

I wandered over to him, wondering what to do. I was far too unskilled and unsure with the fireballs to be effective; I’d probably hit Ahasuerus or it would mis-fire into my foot, or something.

“Godfrey!” I yelled.

“Go throw your spears at Cain.” The imp nodded, and flew off my shoulder, and drew back his arm. He pegged the spear as hard as he could, and it thundered down towards Cain, who, somehow, managed to smash the freaking spear right in half before it got near him, whilst fending off Ahasuerus’ beserker staff attacks. Crap.

“Keep doing it! It’s distracting him!” I yelled up to him. What in God’s name was I supposed to do? Ah, what the hell. They were both immortal, anyways. I raised my hand and…nothing happened. It was gone. The feeling was gone. No fireballs! And there was no way I was gonna go and charge Cain with my fists. Nothing I could do here. I should go and check on Jesus! Right! I had forgotten all about.

Too late. Really, had it been a few seconds earlier, maybe. But Cain impaled Ahasuerus on his sword. Up till then, the old man had blocked most of the blows with his staff; he was pretty skilled. But thousands of years of experience won out, and he got stabbed. Hard.

He lost concentration. Who wouldn’t, if they got stabbed in the gut, even if they were immortal? Abaddon roared, and forced Samael back. Then he turned, and started to approach us. Oh god. Cain turned and looked at me. I was looking back at where Jesus was, somewhere on the tracks. We both started running at the same time. I sprinted flat out, but Cain sent a fireball spinning after me. I heard it, turned, and…did some nifty magic.

I don’t recall how I did it; it was different to the fireball. Harder. Some sort of shielding demon, I suppose. I didn’t need a summoning circle. All I knew was some sort of shimmering green wall appeared before me, which the fireball hit. Now, I wasn’t unharmed. Not a single flame touched me. But I was still hurled back, where I landed hard on the concrete. I hit my head. It hurt.

Dazed, I lay there, in pain, as my little imp, Godfrey, changed. With a roar, he seemed to grow, until a man-sized demon stood where he had been floating. A big, strong demon. A demon made out of fire. Godfrey roared and swept his huge burning wings and leapt at Cain, tackling him to the floor and burning him with his supernatural immolation. He looked really awesome.

I tried to crawl away, so I wasn’t paying attention to Godfrey and Cain’s fight. He filled me in on it later, though. So, apparently, Godfrey changed into his uber-strong powerful form of death and doom and destruction. I always knew he was special. More than he appeared. That’s why I had kept him on as a spirit all those years ago. So, although Godfrey, in his new and more skilled form, was pretty strong, Cain was about a billion times more powerful. They wrestled for a short time. I figured later it was so that he was buying me time, or something. Too bad it didn’t work. Godfrey’s pretty cool, though. I only knew him for a few days, and we were already saving each other’s lives regularly. Though, now that I think about it, I probably already knew him for quite a bit. Stupid reincarnation thing. Eh, what are you gonna do about it?

So I crawled. And crawled. It was awfully far. I still got pretty far, considering. I was about ten meters from the tracks when I heard footsteps. I turned, and saw Cain standing above me. Godfrey lay back there, in his normal form, looking pretty beat up. Aw.

“It ends here, John.” He said, and raised his sword. In that moment, I noticed several things. One, the Flying Dutchman was beating Magatharas up pretty good. But he was still too busy to notice I was about to die. Samael had struck at Abaddon from behind, whilst the large demon was still intently trying to consume Ahasuerus’ soul. Speaking of, the old man was just recovering. Good on him. Then I saw Cain’s sword descending, and I hoped to God that the man standing behind Cain was on my side.

Philip swung, and clubbed Cain right on the head with some kind of metal pole. The immortal grunted, and stumbled slightly. Luckily for me, that meant that I didn’t get stabbed in the chest, rather on the side of my stomach. It still hurt like hell. I was probably going to die of blood loss anyways. The combination of concussion and sword made everything go kind of wonky. In the bad way. The pain was kind of distant, numb, like an itch. That was good.

Then it happened. My magical boost. If I didn’t get up, I was gonna die. And mankind would be screwed. So I got up. Easy as pie. Philip the Apostle was still clubbing Cain on the head with a fervency that didn’t seem at all like him. From what I had seen in the, what, five minutes I had first met him, that is. But he got Cain by surprise. No matter if you’re Jesus, John the Evangelist Reborn, or Cain-the-freaking-immortal, a pipe to the head still hurts. Good on him. I ran. Or stumbled. Or both. I can’t remember too much. The tracks then loomed up to me, and I fell down onto them. I landed beside Jesus. By that time, I wasn’t feeling any pain anymore. I assume that that’s a bad sign. But yeah, Jesus. He was alive, at least. Good.

“Hey.” I murmured, and pulled myself up beside him.

“I think I broke my spine.” He moaned, not moving. It looked like the throw down onto the tracks had been more damaging that I had thought. He had been crying. This was not looking good. I didn’t care. I was half-dead anyways.

“Yeah, I got stabbed. And hit by a fireball.” I said matter-of-factly. It probably came out as a hopeless mumble.

“So,” I finally coughed. Silence.

“Are you Jesus? I’m not gonna ask again.” I managed to say, holding my side. Jesus coughed.

“Fine. I admit it. I am Jesus Christ.” Yes! Success! Everything went kind of weird, then. Lots of white light, and stuff. Maybe even some angelic singing, though no one else heard it, and I was pretty messed up at the time. Philip also claimed he had just been stabbed in the chest by a very angry Cain around that time.

I felt the pain go away. Jesus stood, yes, stood. His spine seemed to have healed. He helped me up. Then we…floated up off the tracks, onto the platform. Jesus Christ seemed to be shining. There was bright light, and a wave of light seemed to pulse outwards, getting rid of Magatharas and Abaddon and Samael. Good riddance. I felt tired.

My wounds had healed. So had Jesus’. And Philip’s, too. Heck, even the train roof had been fixed. Philip stood up, and staggered towards us.

“Cain, Ahasuerus and Bernard, I command you to me.” Jesus yelled. He seemed to be a different person. Less like a whining selfish kid, more like the Son of God. The Flying Dutchman, Bernard, I realised, and Ahasuerus, approached us. Cain seemed to be resisting, but he was almost dragged before Jesus by some kind of invisible force. Everything was so white…so bright.

“You three have been cursed to wander the earth until my Second Coming.” Huh? That was new. What did this mean?

“Bernard. Kneel.” The Flying Dutchman did so.

“For centuries you, Bernard the Flying Dutchman, last of the Immortals, have served me and my people. Today, I release you, and send you on your way. Heaven awaits you.” There was more white light (it was giving me a headache…but then so was everything else. But the light especially) and the Dutchman (and his ship) seemed to sort of fade away. Bernard was smiling when he went.

“Cain. Kneel.” Cain snarled, but was forced to kneel before Jesus. He was afraid. I smiled smugly.

“For several millennia you, Cain, first of the Immortals, have commited crimes against me and my people. Today, I release you, and send you on your way. For your abominations against mankind, I send you to Caina, in the Ninth Circle of Hell. May you rot there for all of eternity.” The look on Jesus’ face…the contempt…even had I not know who Cain was, I instantly would have despised him because of the way Jesus looked at him. Pity and contempt and disgust, all rolled into one. With some loathing rolled in.

“Please! I-“ He was cut off by Jesus.

“Do not say anything. I have decided on your fate. Now get out of my sight.”

“Nooooo!” He yelled, before he was dragged away backwards by some unseen demon, and faded away, screaming all the time. It was horrific.

Note to self: Don’t piss Jesus off.

We all turned to Ahasuerus, who stood there with a sort of resigned look on his face. Verias had returned, I saw, the instant Abaddon had been banished. Both of them stood side by side, and when Jesus called:

“Ahasuerus. Kneel.” I watched in horror as he did so. All this time, his entire extended life, he had known that the path he chose would eventually lead to his death. By finding me and personally brining me to Jesus, he was ensuring his death! I felt terrible.

“For two thousand years have you, Ahasuerus, The Wandering Jew, served me. Your valour and courage are undisputable. Your good deeds are innumerable. And you have suffered, for serving me. Today, I release you, and send you on your way. Heaven awaits you, and I bestow the title of “Saint” upon you. Live well.”

Ahasuerus nodded, and looked at me.

“Goodbye. Go save the world for me.” He said.

Then he, too, faded away. I was alone. All alone. I was in London, no money, and now no food or housing, either, train not withstanding. Jesus stared at us sadly, and said:

“It had to be done.”

There isn’t much left to tell. Godfrey had also been healed, and sat on my shoulder. I smiled at him. Then I, too, kneeled before Jesus Christ the Second.

“I, Jean Evans, John the Evangelist, pledge myself to you, Jesus Christ. I am the first of the new Apostles.” I intoned. Jesus nodded, and Philip also kneeled.

“I, Philip the Evangelist, pledge myself to you, Jesus Christ. I am the second of the new Apostles.” Jesus nodded again.

“It is done.” We both stood. There was an awkward silence of sorts. What was there to say?

“So, uh, what’s your real name?” I finally asked Him.

“Christopher Holly.”

“Oh.”