~ three

Elder - Watching the children play in the yard with the teacher, "Historians are a curious species Dr Astorius.  Always curious.  Always questions.  Never satisfied with the answers.  That's what happened to your predecessors, one by one."

Astorius - "If the truth were a simple thing you could speak, would you speak it ?"

Elder - Smiles indulgently, "Define truth."  Back to watching over the children, "And facts are only as recorded in the world around us, not by any written word.  What word could be trusted for certain ?  What version, to be 'believed' in.

"This is why an Historian, can never be satisfied.  Questions which cannot be answered, allow them to tell their own story."

A look.

Astorius - "Allow me to rephrase.  What happened to this place ?"

Elder - A laugh as though a child's question.  "What was America founded to be ?"

Astorius - A laugh, "Okay.  'What version', do you want ?"

Elder - "The real one.  The one you think most defining."

Astorius - "Ah.  The version that gets me fired."  They exchange a smile, "A prison colony.  They cleaned out their prisons and the homeless from the streets and told them it was a second chance, leaving out there were people already here mind you.

"And they sent the nobility they wished to be rid of as well to rule it."

Elder - "And who was 'they' ?"

Astorius - "Well.  England mostly.  Most other countries had already scoped it for minerals and were disappointed."

Elder - "What of the Rosicrucians ?"

Astorius - A smile, "Rosicrucians ?  They ... were a religious sect, which formed their ideologies ... their 'magic' from the recovered texts of the crusades.  Ways from around the world formed into a singular Christian system.  Possibly as an extension of the Templars."

Elder - "Freemasons ?"

Astorius - "Dear God.  Well.  Freemasons were more a consolidation of power.  Alongside the Rosicrucians but ...

Elder - "And what of the Illuminati ?"

Astorius - "They were the ones who directed the creation of America, old families, still around today.  Mostly.  What are you ... "

Elder - "What is the the difference between, a Satanist, and a Demonologist ?"

Astorius - "I cannot comprehend why you think you needed another historian.  These are apt questions but still not sure where you're going ... a Satanist, worships.  A Demonologist, studies.  Catalogs. 

"Solomon was a Demonologist, by Christian terms."  Alister Crowley, was a Satanist.  It's why he was kicked out of the order."

Elder - "Ah ... so you know these things.  What was America founded to be ?"

Astorius - "Prison colony."

Elder - "For man and beast.  There is your answer Dr Astorius.  And how to understand it.  Connect the dots.  Stay alive."

She turns away as the class bell rings.

Astorius - To himself, "The points of the star."
________

His feet stomp the street, Belial's eyes growing wider before the nightclubs doors, keys still hanging out to lock for the night when the beast leans into the demon's face.

Beast - "Hello Belial."  He stands tall with a laugh.  The school bell rings.
________

Teacher - "And what I've come to appreciate ... in time ... is that a the curiosity intrinsic to a child's mind is truly a wonderful thing.  So I broke into the town archives."

Student one - "You what !?"
__

Elder - In her office with student one, "He what !?"
__

Teacher - "Don't be like that."

Student two - "We are exactly like that."

Teacher - "So do you want answers or do you just vibe off of having a lot of questions ?"

One - "Are you from like 1970 ?"

Two - " ' Vibe'."

One - "It's a vibe."

Two - "Good vibrations man."

Teacher - "Do you want to know what I found or don't you ?"
____

Student one - In the elder's office, "He's the best one yet.

Two - "Way better than all those dead ones."

The Elder gives a suspicious look ...
____

Belial gets used as a battering ram for the door, crashing through.  The security rushes.  Heads swiped off take flight.  One thinks he's a ninja, the beasts spits a fire onto him and watches him flee screaming, catching stage curtains in a blaze.

The beast points to the side as his wing unfolds it's tip into the chest of a man sneaking.  Pulls out and folds back under twice into his cloakish covering. 

To the elevator, where he leans close with great focus to the button, carefully tapping it with claw's tip, smiles a bit when it does a thing.  He looks up as it comes down in anticipation, practically giddy when it dings and the door opens with two wide eyed security inside frozen in terror.

Smiling he gets in with them and waits a second, wings hanging loose.  Looks at them a bit confused.

Beast - "Oh."  Carefully pushes the button.
____

The door dings open, their bodies apparently crushed into the walls behind him.  More security pause on that, then rush.  A swipe of a wing and their halved, he smiles down at one as he realizes it.

Beast - "Security Eresh ?  What do you have such hate for these men ?"

Eresh - "I like to watch."

Beast - "I don't."  With lightning speed and a crack of it, he slams her face first into the bookshelf. 

Eresh - A small scream and a wince with him behind her.  A tear, " ... i missed you ... "  A convulsion of pain while a claw slides into her mouth.

Beast - "I seek a book.  My demoness."

Eresh - Tonguing the finger from her mouth, it slides around her throat with another convulse.  " ... i know ... the thief warned me ... "

Beast - "Then you know what I want."

Eresh - "I know what you want."  She struggles up an arm to book and pulls it dropping to the floor from the shelf.  They glance down to the open page, the Ameth.

Beast - Into her ear as she shakes, "Do you love him ?"

Eresh - " ... always ... "

Beast - "And for me ?"

....

Eresh - Whispers, " ... nothing."  Their combined roar shatters the clock face, the fire working its way up.
____________

Teacher - "There were two families.  Both vying for control of the town's charter, the town split in half between them.  There were no witches.  Just a lot of crazed town folks with their fears all stirred up."

Student two - "They warred ... over a charter ?"

Teacher - "Oh.  Well.  This was before America became it's own country, a charter back them was like a direct tie all the way back to the throne.  Back into the good graces as it were.

"But the thing about history.  About being a historian attempting to understand an event, about which there are many versions, nine times out of ten the answer will be whichever is most boring.

"Fact is, all this being about rich guys wanting power is no surprise.  Burning witches just happened to sell a lot of press.  In fact it was the first press in the west.  Just invented.  It was the first tabloid news. 

"They had witches, we got Bat-boy.

Student one - "Who the fuck is Bat-boy."

Teacher - "Please with the language you're gonna get me in trouble with the nuns again.  He was like a ... little boy who was a bat ... tabloids loves that shit ... sorry ... before reality TV made things stranger."

Student two - "So like ... before Paris Hilton ?"

Teacher - "Yeah she pretty much took over that shit directly."  Clears his throat, "Stuff.  You know I actually feel like I taught you something historical there."

Both - "Mm.  No not really no."

One - "I still have no idea who the fuck Bat-boy is."

Voiced over kid in the back self mocking, "I know who Bat-boy is." 

They laugh, "Of course you know who bat boy is."
___

At the end of the long tunnels of the asylum underground, Nergal exits a cell wiping up his hands with a kerchief and looks up at the crashing sound at the other end.

A smile as he watches the beast walking for him, tearing off the locks of cells as he passes.  Slowly they gather behind his steps, their madness intuitive to do so.

Nergal - "Finally."

Nergal roars, his shoulders tearing out as two dogs chew their way out around his own ripping into another, the clang of one lock torn after the next to punctuate. 

Becoming Cerberus seems apparently excruciating, as the beast smiles back watching, clanging off another cell still.  The song's crescendo they clash.

Nergal fights well until the beast has the shoulder dogs by their throats, the central head gnashing held back, claws tearing at the beasts sides ignored.

He tears the heads off with the arms, flopping leftover of a thing ended with a heel to the middle one.  He turns to the gathered madness, held back in awe.

He tears off the door, the blinding light behind.