Eclipse

Chapter 12

Place: Jeremy's Personal Hell Part 2

Time: A little earlier. 

Jeremy tried his to catch his breath. His breathing hurt, it felt like a rib or two was broken. David Witherman lay at his feet lifeless.

"Good job my boy!" Came the gruff voice from across the room. 

"What happened to you?" Jeremy asked. Trying to kick up a small conversation to give him time to recover. 

"Me? I've always been like this. I could always hear the voices of the angels and demons" His grandfather replied. 

"Grandma said  you were different when I asked. Before I was born. She said you used to be the kindest man alive, that's why she married you." Jeremy thought he could taste blood in his mouth too.

"I don't remember my parents that well" Jeremy started. "I lived with grandma for most of my life that I could remember, can you tell me what you were like when you had your daughter? My mom?"

Robert seemed to tense up, his eyes narrowed and face frowned. Jeremy could almost detect a hint of a twitch in Robert's lip. 

"That heathen, had you out of wedlock! That whore! She couldn't help herself. Had you and couldn't keep her man." He snarled

"She couldn't even provide for her own child, so she gave you to us to take care of. You were terrible, horrible. I sensed the devil in you as soon as we saw you."

Jeremy tried to remember back to those times, anything of familiarity. He could vaguely remember his grandfather being there at the very beginning, but his clearer memories began when he was in the institution.

"I tried so hard to exorcise the demon in you, but you kept causing trouble. Eventually that bitch of a wife of mine sent me to that place. She said that I was the one with devil in me the whole time. She didn't know, but I knew. I could sense both sides."

He must of tried to do something to me when I was younger for my grandmother to send him to the hospital. Something beyond reproach. 

"They were always there" he continued. "God was always speaking to me. I could tell when it was him. Whenever I was with your grandmother, his voice was the loudest. The soft warm soothing feel that he provided me."

Robert was starting at the ceiling, almost in reverence. 

"But then you came!" He snarled looking at me. His voice becoming hoarse again. "The devil was always there in the back of my mind, pushing thoughts here and there, but I knew when to listen and when not to. But you brought something else with you and when your grandmother sent me away, the devil flooded through, and I let him." 

He was always psychotic. Jeremy thought to himself. His grandmothers love kept him at peace and at the devil at bay. Maybe he confused the comfort of love to the presence of god. Either way, his brain wasn't right, between that and what seemed to be intense religious indoctrination.

 Jeremy looked at Thomas on the ground, he was still on all fours, his entire body tense and ready to attack, and if it weren't for Robert's hand on him, he would. 

"Every time I saw you, he came back in, louder and louder, and I finally gave him. God speaks to me from time to time when I think of your grandmother, but the devil is my bed side companion. It's time you leave my life for good, and I can rejoin her again."

With that, Robert released his hands from Thomas, who charged full speed at Jeremy.

Jeremy was as rested as could be and ready for the attack. With a quick movement, he slammed his fists down on the back of Thomas's neck smashing him into the floor. Jeremy followed up as fast as he could with a powerful stomp of his foot to the same location at the intersection of the skull and spine killing Thomas for good.