ARMAGEDDON

2: Digging

  I found out why my family wasn't picking up the phone. They were violently murdered, in the same fashion as my grandfather. A mass funeral was held for all four of them. I felt no emotion towards the events that were laid out before me.

I could only feel a numbness. An abyss of emptiness. There was so much going on all at once, it was too much for me to process. I was the sole inheritor of about 2.5 million dollars and my grandfather's estate. 

I was investigated for a while by the police, but they couldn't link me to the death of my family with DNA evidence, or anything else. There were piles of corpses at my grandfather's place, along with so many spent bullet casings, but there was no sign of a struggle at my house. They either died in their sleep, or woke up to those...things.

The police kept referring to them as "mutant coyotes", but all of us knew that was bullshit. It was Texas after all, so they have to rationalize it with something. Those creatures were the same creatures I saw in my nightmares. Demons. They were real.

About three months after the incident, I took residence in my grandfather's house after it was cleaned up and fixed. I started digging through my grandfather's things. Anything that might have resembled a journal or memoir, I put aside and piled them in the spare bedroom.

I also put aside old letters that he had stored away also, I needed to know everything about his past. When I had finished digging through old boxes and trunks full of journals, war memorabilia, and other things, I had a hefty stack of 15 full journals, and hundreds of letters.

I went through the journals first, most of them were from his high school years, and most of his journals from his time in the Army were surprisingly tedious, until I reached the last journal. It was rich with data I was looking for. There were hundreds of pages, pictures of places I had heard of but never seen. Egypt, Japan, Germany, Sweden, you name it.

He's been around the world, and he's never told anyone about it. I was even more surprised when I learned why he did all this traveling.

June 6th, 1956

"I had to go to England today. The Demons have been making noise right outside of Lincolnshire. I fought alongside Daniel there, and we killed hundreds of the bastards, but more importantly, we killed the group of Incubus demons that were orchestrating an invasion attempt. However, when we interrogated one Incubus, it sounds like there will be a shift of power in all nine circles of Hell. This could be problematic, as it could cause rouge demon factions to invade Earth. However, I think I might leave this fight for the others in our order. I wish to raise a family with someone, and as glorious as my time was, it is time that I stop fighting so many wars. I need to be a normal man again."

A lot of the entries in the final journal kept referring to someone named Daniel, and my grandfather mentioned a man named Daniel "living underneath Tokyo". I started to scour several letters, until I finally found one from Daniel.

"Moses,

My old sanctum has been recently compromised. I have decided to relocate to somewhere in Tokyo. I hear that they've started to put up neon lights everywhere. Should make for an interesting night life one day. As for the reason why, I feel that I must go underground to ensure everyone's safety. Look for me if something goes wrong,old friend. It would be regrettable if your past were to catch up with you.

                                                                                                      -Daniel Llewoh"

That was all I needed. So if my grandfather mentioned underneath Tokyo, then that means Daniel is living underground in Tokyo somewhere. I will find him, and I will have my answers. If he's still alive, that is. He must be as old as my grandfather...

I started to pack a single bag for my clothes and some sundries for personal hygiene to ready myself for a journey to Japan. I already had a passport, so that was something I didn't need to fret over. I scheduled a flight from Dallas to Tokyo and walked out through the front door of my grandfather's house. 

He was such a badass, and he died like one too. But he was my grandfather, someone who's been around my entire life. And now, he's gone. Just like that. I gazed at the house behind me, knowing very well that I would not return for a few days, or months even. 

I had this strange gut feeling that somehow, my life was going to change even more than it had already changed.