Aekhem

Isabella

III

She went to another stairway heading down. When she got out of this hallway she came out to the center of a circle surrounded by terraces where thousands of people were sitting down. A spotlight aiming at her and people started forming a line in her direction.

Without looking at her straight in her eyes they left gifts to her feet. Gold, diamonds, property titles, company bonds, old family treasures of great value in this or that market, bags and briefcases full of cash, checks made out to one of her father's companies for millions of Euros. Isabella thought that misery and poverty would definitely never take part of her future.

In the background she could hear them chanting in old Sumerian:

"Satan, Lucifer, come Demons, Christ is dead, Dead to the

God of Jews, Dead to the God of Christians and Catholics,

Dead to the God of Islam, Long Live the One, The Chosen

One, The Real One, Darkness to Us All"

And although everybody thought they could not be seeing because of the darkness surrounding them, Isabella could see them all clearly. She had always been capable of seeing in the night. Nights for her were as clear as Day.

She could see old man, young woman, old women, young man. All ages from their twenties to their eighties.

More than a gathering was an orgy. Everybody doing it with everybody. Modesty was gone, and wine took it away. Nobody seem to have any type of remorse to what they were doing.

Another group, not participating in this event, was chanting and they were getting louder, same chant over and over, calling for the Master.

She saw her father naked with two women and smiled, the old man still had it in him and having fun.

Isabella noticed a darker place and darkness shining out of it. She forced her sight towards this spot and saw a familiar smile smiling at her and the eyes she recognized looking straight at her, she smiled back.

The chanting and moaning started to fade away slowly and as they did a giant dark being with wings with deep and slanted eyes appeared and stand in the middle of the circle. Silence was their response as he observed everybody.

He extended his wings and stood up straight. Everybody yelled in amazement. No more chanting no more moaning like moments before. Silence and terror. The lust died with the darkness.

Isabelle was smiling to Liknal. Her long wavy hair moved with the slightest wind coming from his wings. He smiled back to her in complicity.

Isabella walked to him and he leaned to her height. Everybody was astonished. Most of them never saw him before and the ones who once did, were very old. Three or four died that night holding their chest with a scared looked in their eyes. Liknal was content with the souls he got just by appearing before them. They were his but now they were with him.

Liknal was a beautiful dark being that caused repulsion, terror and admiration all at the same time and to all the ones present.

She saw her father coming downstairs not knowing where to step as he couldn't see where he was stepping. Stepping on everybody that could not moved or have died of the impression.

When he approached Liknal he kneeled before him and looking at the floor said:

"You are my Master and I am of yours your servant. Master of Darkness, Evil Guide, Night Light that illuminates my Dark Path" Liknal kept smiling and kept looking around.

Isabella thought of him as a starving Dragon smiling not knowing who he would eat first and knowing that everybody wanted to be eaten by him. There could not be more satisfaction in his eyes.

"Your majesty" the Duke of Beducci kept talking "I give you my daughter, your direct descendant, from generations, I have raised her, trained her and prepared her for you. My work here is done"

"Oh Oh!" Isabella thought "wrong words"

Liknal, still smiling, turned to look at the Duke, on his knees. He moved his big hand to the old man's neck and lift him off the floor. He started squeezing slowly. The Duke was having a hard time breathing. The old man's feet started to move and then shake in spasms as he grabbed Liknal's wrist with both hands. Isabella thought that maybe his job was not done at all and he still wanted to add something ... too late.

Liknal started walking around the circle with the old man hanging from his extended arm fighting for a breath. He looked like a gladiator waving the body of his victim wondering if the Romans wanted his prey to live or die.

The people cheered the victor, some yelled death and other were laughing out loud and some just applauded the show.

Liknal extended his left arm even more, the man hanging from his grip stopped moving but Liknal could still feel his soul inside of his body. He made a quick move to the man's chest and his hand appeared in the back of the man's body. His beating heart was in his palm and the blood that spluttered from the blow splashed his smile.

He put the body under his right arm and kept moving around the circle. Liknal's body turned to red, as red as the blood coming out of the dead man's body. Some of his body showed spots in black but most of it was covered in red. His black long hair and wings stayed the same.

Everybody was yelling in ecstasies, screaming, applauding, asking for more and chanting to the Master. He threw the body with a slight move from his arm and using minimal force. The body fell about ten yards from where Liknal was standing.

He walked towards Isabella and leaned to her height and whisper in her ear:

"They are all yours" and when he said this a black cloud of dust and ashes surrounded him and with it an unbearable smell, after a second, he disappeared.

Isabella turned to her dead father's body for a few seconds and ordered some people to remove the body from the premises. No feelings in her voice. That's what she expected of him; to sacrifice his life for her.

As Liknal had told her, now they all belonged to her, all of them and everything they owned. Their fortunes, their riches, their time, their lives. She walked up the stairs and everybody bowed to her as she walked.

IV

The following day, the Syrian newspaper mentioned a body found by the police in the Palmira ruins. An italian woman, in her early thirties, her body was found torn to pieces. She was sexually abused with an object of big size that practically cut her in half and her skin was cut with a sharp object. Pieces of her skin was hanging from her body. The only thing that was not touched was her face. Her bag and ID were found in the area.

In her mansion in Rome, Isabella was smiling and thinking.

Liknal did not know how to treat a lady.

Everything Isabella wanted, now she had ...everything. 3240�I�[��D