Pain Purity and Apocalypse

Chapter 13: Dead Men Can Sometimes Tell Tales

Sunday, May 21, 1993
(Location: Only Jude Knows)

In a hidden place, far below the surface, Jude Grail circles Parker Magnus. A dim light swings from the flat, cement roof. Every wall looks the same, he has Parker trapped in an impenetrable box. The Angel jerks his body, trying to loosen the tight ropes binding his arms to the metal chair, bolted to the floor. They are made of thin, heat resistant threads, he couldn't burn them if he tried. He breathes heavily, watching with a keen eye, his President circle his seat like a shark to a wood raft adrift in the dark ocean.

"What is the meaning of this, Jude?!" His yell echoes off the walls.

"Where am I? Answer me!" His words die under his enraged tone. He tries to keep his calm, but the more Jude slows his circling, the more fear etches into Parker's skin, as if Jude carves it there himself.

"Why won't you answer!?" Slow steps, his hands remain folded behind his back, an almost pleasant expression across his face as he walks. Like he's taking a stroll in the park.

"You have to tell me why I'm here. You're not like Lucifer, you're worse, this isn't for your enjoyment, is it!" A slight chuckle escapes the old man's lips. Eventually, transforming into a dark, rich laugh. Parker's eyes widen, he's never heard a more unsettling sound. His heart beats in his chest, and his breathing quickens.

"What the hell... This is something a psycho does, like the ones feared in books. You're an evil son of a bitch, but you're not cruel to your own people!" Jude stops in front of the tightly secured man. He slowly descends his head down to meet his captive's eyes.

"No, I'm not cruel to my own people. It's funny you should say that like you are one of my citizens. We both know your loyalty ended on the day my father died!— And do you know what did it?" Parker has no way of gaining any distance from his enemy. Jude Grail could do any number of horrid things to him at this moment, and he won't be able to defend himself.

"Yeah... I do... Your father died of old age—"
"That's exactly right!" Jude's words strain through his clenched teeth, his fists quiver as he steps back, his head low.

"We're supposed to be Angels, Parker... We're supposed to be immortal. God took that right away from us." Parker's mouth parts slightly, revolted by that statement.

Immortality isn't worth killing for. He's a hypocrite, he says his immortality was stolen, when he's ended the lives of so many. I barely know why I'm down here, all I remember is being caught trying to escape the wall... Everything after being knocked unconscious I can't remember.

"Jude, Only Angels worthy of immortality get immortality. Did you forget that your father abandoned Heaven, threw off the Interracial Food Chain, and for what? Freedom? Asherwood is closer to Hell, than to a free city!" That cackling laugh comes again, sending a chilling shiver down Parker's spine. He yanks harder at the ropes, but it is to no avail.

"Ah, Parker, you're too much sometimes, truly. I am not my father, why should I be cursed for defying stability?"
"Not like your father? Not like your father!— You're exactly like him!" Jude's devilish, mischievous expression changes, his brows arch, furrowing with rage; His lips twist down into a dark scowl; And his golden eyes gleam. In the low light, his pale features become more deathly, sickly and old under his white suit. The veins of his forearms pulse a light blue.

" I— am nothing like my father. You dare compare me to the man that destroyed my— our right to immortality!"
"He died of old age, but it was far from a natural Human death... He was a few centuries old—"
"But I won't live that long! He betrayed Heaven after he had his chance at life. He screwed me— Asherwood over! if I can't have a long life— then— no one can!—"
"I think I finally figured you out." The long, white haired Angel smirks. Jude's head shoots up to meet his associate's shimmering eyes.