The Second Coming (44 page)

“That’s when I remembered that Father John was born on June 5, 1966 and according to your wife’s certificate of death, she died shortly after on June 6, 1966 and it got me to thinking; what if your wife gave birth to Father
John’s twin before she died? I searched the orphanage list of names and found a name with a June 6, 1966 date of birth and realized it was true.”

Mr. Carpenter closed his eyes and a tear ran down his cheek as his face trembled. Big Pete and James watched in disbelief.

“After your wife gave birth to Father John, she gave birth to his twin brother, didn’t she? He was your sixth son as are you and your father,” Mike said tauntingly. “You had a birth certificate forged for him and left him to be adopted at the orphanage because of the story of the Antichrist in the Satanic Codex.”

The old man’s face turned red and contorted as he looked around at the men standing at the foot of his bed. “You have no right to judge me,” he told them as he shook his finger at them. “You have no idea what happened.”

James gently placed his hand on his father’s shoulder. “It’s alright Dad,” he said calmly. “No one’s blaming you. Why don’t you tell us what happened?”

Mr. Carpenter’s face slowly eased as Mike and Big Pete waited anxiously for him to speak.

“Soon after Mary became pregnant with our fifth son, I received a mysterious manila envelope with no name or address on it,” the old man recalled with a trembling voice. “When I opened it, I found a copy of the Satanic Codex with a warning attached to it.”

“What did it say?” Big Pete asked intrigued.

The old man stared off somewhere in the distance with a disturbed furrow of his brow. “It said that if my wife gave birth to a sixth son, he would not be allowed to live,” he told them remorsefully.

“Why wouldn’t he be allowed to live?” Big Pete asked for clarification.

“I am the 6
^th
son of my family, as was my father before me,” he explained feebly. “According to the Satanic Codex, a child that is born a third generation 6
^th
son will be the son of the Devil, the second coming of the Antichrist, who will rise up against God and Jesus and bring the Apocalypse with him.”

The old man paused to catch his breath and James gave him a sip of water from the straw in his cup.

“At first I didn’t take the Satanic Codex or the warning seriously, but then on the night of June 5
^th
, 1966, someone broke into our house. I thought it was the people who sent me the Satanic Codex and the warning so I went downstairs with my shotgun ready to kill them, but when I got
downstairs, I heard someone running up the stairs,” he paused to catch his wheezing breath and then continued. “By the time I got up to my room, there was a dark intruder at Mary’s bedside. I shot him as he climbed out the window. I watched the buckshot hit him, knocking him out the window. He fell two stories to the lawn in our front yard, but when I looked out the window he was gone,” he said as his voice trailed off. “I remember thinking that it wasn’t humanly possible to survive being hit with a shotgun blast, especially after falling two stories, but he was nowhere to be seen.”

“What did you do?” James asked perplexed from his father’s bedside.

“I checked on your mother and found her lying in a pool of blood with John’s purple head sticking out of her with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck,” he said as a tear ran down his wrinkled face. “I was able to get him free and got him breathing, but your mother had lost a lot of blood. Dr. Stevens from next door came over after he heard the shotgun blast and was able to deliver John safely, but we had to rush your mother to the hospital.”

Mike couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was like something out of a movie. “What happened at the hospital?”

The Old man glanced at Mike with a look of confusion and then turned to James. “A couple of hours later, on the morning of June 6
^th
, 1966, your mother passed away while giving birth to John’s twin brother.”

“6-6-66,” Mike said under his breath in amazement.

“That is when I knew the prophecy of the Satanic Codex was becoming reality,” the old man said regretfully as he wiped a tear from his cheek with a shaky hand.

“Why did you give your son up for adoption?” Mike asked incredulously. “You don’t actually believe your son is the Antichrist, do you?”

“He gave him up for adoption because he was afraid of what the church would do if they found out he was a sixth son,” Father John suddenly said tenderly from the doorway. “He was trying to protect him.”

Mike’s head snapped as he glared over at Father John dressed in his brown robe as he strode over to his father’s bedside. “Don’t tell me you believe in the Satanic Codex?”

“This is the first time I have ever heard of it,” Father John replied as he looked at his dad with sympathetic eyes and then glared at Mike. “Who are you to cast judgment? What would you have done?”

Mike couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “I would have exposed the story for what it is,” Mike said indignantly. “Instead it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaving your twin brother at the orphanage didn’t protect him, it created the Sterling Killer.”

chapter
68

A
S
K
ATE DROVE
down the freeway with the tip of the knife firmly planted in her side, she couldn’t help but reflect on when she was abducted by Jimmy. The only difference was she wasn’t really afraid that Jimmy was going to hurt her. They had shared an incredible experience together and she knew he was just scared and confused. The Sterling Killer had killed already and she was certain he planned on killing her. Where was he taking her and what was he going to do to her? Was she going to meet the same fate as his other victim’s? Her mind was racing as she tried to figure out what to do when the Sterling Killer spoke.

“When I was a teenager, before the Satanic Codex showed up mysteriously in my mailbox, I was killing people randomly for the thrill of it,” he explained venomously. “I started out by killing people that I knew and who trusted me, always making it appear as though it was an accident. Anytime I was with someone and the opportunity presented itself, I would push them in front of a speeding car or off a ledge, but after a while that became too easy and I grew bored.”

Kate couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She was certain she was going to be next.

“I realized I needed the killings to be more personal. I wanted to look the victims in the eyes and watch the look of horror as their life drained from them,” he explained with a menacing tone. “I began moving around the country working at construction sites during the day and stalking young ladies at night. I would find single women who lived alone because they were easy targets and follow them around until I figured out their schedule and what they liked to do,” he explained in a cold, calculating voice. “I would
arrange it so that I would conveniently bump into them while they were out. I would politely introduce myself and if they treated me kindly and with respect, I would treat them the same way and move on to a different victim,” he explained reflectively. “I was testing their character and they were completely unaware that I was a murderer and that if they treated me rudely, they would be brutally killed.”

Kate’s mouth was dry and she could barely swallow as she sped down the middle lane of the freeway in shock.

“If they ignored me or acted like they were better than me, I would apologize for bothering them and leave to go to their house, where I would break in and hide in a closet or in the crawl space or attic,” he said with vengeful pride. “I would wait quietly until they got home and were asleep and then I would sneak out of my hiding spot, into their room and crawl on top of them in their bed and place a rag soaked with chloroform over their nose and mouth. The look of terror in their eyes when they awoke and realized what was happening to them was exhilarating.”

Kate was speechless. All she could think about was all of the guys who tried to pick her up that she blew off and how she could have so easily been one of his victims.

“Once they passed out from the chloroform, I would undress them, tie them to their beds and bring them back to consciousness. The sinking look of regret on their face when they realized I was the guy they so rudely dismissed was empowering. They didn’t think they were better than me anymore and I’ll bet they wished they had treated me with a little more dignity. Now I was the one with the power and control.”

“Oh my god,” Kate thought to herself frantically as she tried to keep her eyes on the road. “Is that what he is going to do to me?”

“I would beat and rape them until they were barely conscious and then, like a cat playing with a mouse, I would bring them back to consciousness so that when I wrapped my hands around their tender necks and strangled them, I could watch the color fade from their bulging eyes,” he reflected sadistically. “Did you know your pupil slowly loses its vibrant color and turns to grey when you die?” He asked as he moved his face close enough to the side of Kate’s head that she could feel his hot breath on her neck. He smelled like death; like rancid meat. She gagged and almost threw up before he sat back in his seat with the knife still planted firmly above her hip.

“When the Satanic Codex and a copy of the Carpenter family tree showed up in my mailbox, I knew someone had tracked me down and that they were sending me a message, but I didn’t know who it was or what they were trying to tell me. After I read the ancient text, I realized that my father abandoned me at the orphanage because he thought I was the Antichrist so I decided if that is who he thought I was, then that is who I would become.”

The pain from the knife in Kate’s side was causing her upper lip and brow to perspire as her face twisted with in agony. She couldn’t think clearly. What was the Satanic Codex he was referring to?

“I did research about the Devil and found out that he was a fallen angel that was cast out by God just like I was cast out by my father and I could relate to the Devil’s feeling of betrayal and envy,” he explained with a bitter hint of irony. “I learned that Satanists used human sacrifices when worshipping the Devil and often cut out the intestines of the victims and burned them as an offering inside an inverted pentagram. I began to study black magic and soon realized I have dark powers that I never knew about. That is when I started to believe that the story told in Satanic Codex was true and I took on the persona of the Antichrist.”

Kate was trying to understand everything that he was telling her, but the only thing she could think about was him cutting her intestines out like he did with the other victims and then burning them in an upside down pentagram as an offering to the Devil. She needed to do something quick and she thought about crashing her car into a tree, but the piercing pain of the knife in her side reminded her that if the crash didn’t kill her, he would.

She didn’t think she had a choice but to wait for a better opportunity until she remembered, with stunning clarity, the cell phone in her front pocket. How did she not think of it earlier? She couldn’t believe how stupid she was. In all of her agonizing panic, she forgot all about it. Now it was so clear to her. She had to use it to call Mike and let him know what was happening and where she was. But how was she going to get to it out of her front pocket without him noticing? She thought about cautiously reaching into her pocket, but there was no way she could do that without him seeing her adjust her body so her hand could fit into the pocket. And then she was struck with sudden alarm. What if someone called her and the phone rang? He would hear it and that would be the end of her link to the outside world.
She prayed that no one would call her. Her cell phone was the only chance to get out of this alive.

“I don’t blame you for feeling that way. I would have been angry too and wanted to exact my revenge, but killing me won’t do you any good. I can help you if you let me,” Kate pleaded.

“It’s too late. I decided long ago that I will use my powers to reverse the outcome of the Satanic Codex and kill my brother before he can kill me. Then maybe my family will realize they should not have abandoned me at the orphanage,” he told her with an ominous hiss. “That is why I began stabbing young blonde bartenders in the heart with a sterling silver knife shaped like a cross and disemboweling them, leaving their bodies to be found in churches with the symbol of the sixth son. I wanted to create a sensational reaction from the public.”

This guy was obviously a sociopath if he thought people would think he was the Antichrist. An insanity plea might be the only thing that would keep him from the death penalty.

“While I was beating and raping the first bartender, I could feel something inside of me crying out for me to stop. I could hear a voice in my head as if it was my own, pleading for me not to kill her. At first I thought it was my conscious, but then I realized that it was my brother and that he too had mystical powers that he was using to try and stop me, but they weren’t strong enough,” the Sterling Killer said with vindictive pride. “I knew that my brother would eventually figure out who I am and why I am doing this and that he would try to stop me. It was all part of my plan to lure him into the epic confrontation between good and evil, one body at a time.”