Fortunate Sons

Chapter 9: A Million Secrets

Taylor sat in the dim light of his room like an Indian on his bed, staring at the book and waiting for something to happen. The image of the repentant angel unnerved him but Taylor just couldn't tear himself away no matter how hard he tried. There was something seductive about this book, hypnotically seductive. The need to know if this was what he suspected it to be weighed down on him until a dull ache began to run through his head and neck.

Finally, he had enough. Curiosity had begun to eat at his brain like a flesh eating disease. He had to know what was written upon those aged, musty smelling pages before he wouldn't be able to take it anymore.

When he opened the book, Taylor was dumbstruck. All of the words were written in a script he had only seen once before, intricate and beautiful but hard to read for those who didn't understand. What he wasn't expecting to find however were the huge stains and splotches of rust red that covered large portions of the pages.

Some of the passages were things that Taylor had already come to know. "The Rule of Three", "The Genesis", "God's Creation", all of it he had known and learned from Wild Bill and all of it had been a part of the test all of his kind had endured when they reached their twenties. It was only when he had begun to read and study the intricate drawings and diagrams on the pages that Taylor had begun to understand what he was dealing with.

The script began to swirl together to form words in a language so ancient that no human had ever been known to speak it. Only Taylor's kind could understand it, their own special tongue, their own special way of communicating in a world full of terrors. As he picked it all apart and put it back together in English, Taylor was struck with the realization that they weren't simply words on a page, nor were they something that an ordinary author would think in his or her wildest imaginings. Passages that spoke of conjuring, bending the elements, devouring the souls of evildoers, shielding, healing and bending the energy of living things to a person's will. This artifact, this very book had been missing for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years. This was it! This was really it!

"The book of the Fallen," he murmured.

He continued to read through passage after passage of the spells of his, Dix and Mitch's ancestors who had come to earth all those thousands of years ago. There was no doubt that these spells were powerful.....shockingly powerful.

As he read on, the words began to change their shape, forming a new passage with the intricate diagrams fading into pools of black ink upon the pages, the drips stitching together the words and letters as they trickled across the page.

Be warned, it read. Yay and though many may possess this book, they know not of the danger that awaits them in hidden darkness. Many will kill to keep the power that it gives. Nations have warred for it, thieves and tricksters always fall if they too possess it. And should our greatest foes seek its power, it will possess them in return for their evil.

Oh shit......Taylor thought fearfully. To think that this was in the hands of the enemy.....

He shuddered at the thought of men like Hoang Xuan Cao getting his filthy hands on such a thing. Though the book itself had the power to do much good, in the wrong hands it had the potential bring about nothing but destruction. He wanted badly to write home and tell Bill what they had found, but he knew it wasn't a wise choice.

The predicament left Taylor with uncertain doubts and deeply troubled. Sleep didn't come easy that night, but then again when had it ever? In a place like Vietnam, sleep was a comfort that no one could afford. His dreams were beginning to terrify him, shaking him to his very core. Every night the same images filled his mind, running through the jungles, through fire and terror only to end with him falling down into the gully and seeing the red skies above.

If I don't get some goddamned sleep, I'll go nuts......he thought.

When he could avoid it no longer, Taylor finally closed his eyes and went to sleep.