The Devil's son - 5. Only a paper moon

“So far the police has issued no statements but it’s safe to conclude Central Park is even more dangerous the last few days then the years before” the reporter said in front of the camera. “Only two days ago two men were murdered in a strange way but this morning a young man was found cut in half. Since no formal statement has been issued we don’t know whether the two cases are connected or not”.

Arthur stood in his small bathroom, repeatingly washing his hands and shaking to the core. Every time he closed his eyes he saw his hands holding the flaming sword and slashing that mugger, cutting him in half. At first, when he woke up this morning, he thought it was a strange dream. Even when he first saw the news bulletin he could convince himself it was only something he saw happening last night, while he walked through the park. That all changed when he saw the remains of his suit. The back of his suit was completely shredded, probably when the wings had broken his skin. And on his sleeves and hands was blood. That explained why he was washing his hands.

“It’s not possible” Arthur kept mumbling to himself. “It’s just not possible”.

Arthur thought he was losing his mind. He had always been afraid someone would find out about his sexuality, his upbringing or his strange dreams but now he was mostly afraid he was becoming a schizophrenic. Not even the fear the old woman he saved would talk to the press was as strong as the fear of going crazy. The main subject of his dreams had stepped out, took him over and slashed a man in two with a flaming sword after flying a couple of meters. And with that, Arthur’s knees buckled and he fell, almost hitting his head to the sink.

“It’s not possible. Only schizo’s believe their dreamfigures come to life!” Arthur whispered. In the distance he heard his phone ring but he was too far gone to get up and answer his phone. Only four words kept repeating in his mind: “It’s not possible”.

“Hey, Arthur. This is Jayden .. Again! It’s the fourth time I called this morning and I’m freaking out a little. I get more and more convinced it was your body they found in the park this morning. So if you’re not a dead body could you please, please, PLEASE call me back?”.

Jayden was pacing back and forth getting more and more worried about Arthur.

“I never should have let him walk home alone. He probably went through the park and got in trouble and now he’s a corpse in the morgue.” Jayden kept going on. “I could’ve protected him, making everyone who threatened him run for their lives” Jayden thought. “But I guess Arthur would’ve done the same as soon as he saw my claws, horns or wings”.

All of a sudden Jayden felt the need to get some air. He grabbed his jacket and walked towards the front door when he passed the mirror in the hallway. It was only then Jayden noticed he was still naked.

“Hmm, if I had gone out like this, I would’ve been in police custody before you could stay “exhibitionist” and who knows what else I would’ve spilled” Jayden said, turned around and walked to his bedroom to get dressed.

“Hey, Dawg. Hey, bro, I’m calling you”.

The young Afro-American man walked past a group of what looked like gang members, paying no attention. Not for a moment he thought the calls from one of them were meant for him.

“Hey, Will! Why are you walking right past us? And what the hell did you do, shit yourself?” a tall guy dressed in a red shirt and black loose jeans had grabbed him and turned him around.

“Sorry, do I know you?” the Afro-American man in the black and white said.

“Will, are you ok? It’s me, Jim, your brother”

“Sorry, I don’t remember a brother. It doesn’t really matter. I need to find Jayden. I have to warn him”

“Hell no, baby brother. You need to come home with me. We have to get you out of those dirty clothes and get you a shower or something” the guy named Jim said. “See you later. I have to take care of my bro here” Jim shouted to the other guys sitting in the sidewalk.

“Come on, bro. Home!”

Samuel was getting more and more worried about Arthur. They were supposed to meet dr. Wall in 15 minutes and Arthur was nowhere to be found. Arthur had a tendency to be late in his private life but was always very punctual when it came down to the hospital.

“Arthur, this is Samuel. I hope you don’t hear this message because that means your already on your way. And if you do hear this message, I hope you have a very good explanation why you’re not here by now” Samuel left on Arthurs answering machine.

“Dr.Berger, Dr. Wall can see you and dr. Ericson now” the secretary of the pathology department said.

“Dr. Ericson is not here yet. I think he’s stuck in traffic” Samuel said. “Can we wait a few more minutes?”

“Afraid not. Dr. Wall has another appointment in 30 minutes. So it’s now or after Dr. Wall returns from the annual pathologists convention”.

“I understand. Well, now it is, than”.

Samuel walked in dr. Walls office.

“Ah, dr. Berger. I heard you and dr. Ericson have a new angle for our mystery disease. I thought out appointment was with both you and dr. Ericson?”

“That’s right, dr. Wall. I have no idea where dr. Ericson is. I take it he’s on his way here. Can we wait until he gets here?”

“No, we can’t. My entire afternoon is planned because at the end of the day I leave for LA”.

“Well, it feels wrong to take all the credit for this. I mean, Arthur was the one who first thought of our theory”.

“Don’t worry, dr. Berger. I’ll make sure you both get what is coming to you” dr. Wall said.

“Well, during the meeting you and dr. Engelberts showed us the colon and stained samples of the colonic wall. We realised one of the strongest agents to trigger the inflammation process is a protein. So we were wondering if you found foreign proteins or cells in the colon of the patient?”

“As a matter of fact, we did find a foreign protein but I never saw that protein cause something like that. The protein we found, resembled the proteins found in the tail of spermcells”.

“Resembled?”

“Yes, it was not quite the same as the human protein so we think that guy maybe has sex with animals”.

“But if he was, could that cause the inflammation?”

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know. I have to look into that. Well, if that was all ….”

“Yes, that was pretty much it, dr. Wall. Do you think it will be of any help?”

“Who knows? Antibiotics and warfarin were findings by accident and now modern medicine can’t function without anymore. So maybe you found the answer but it’s more likely to lead to a dead end”.

“And if it leads to a dead end?” Samuel asked.

“We’ll have to wait until we know more. If you solved it, I will personally make sure you will get your residency”.

“And Arthur?”

“You really need to start looking out for yourself. In medicine they are no friends, only colleagues. I admire your loyalty but if all of this was so important for dr. Ericson, why isn’t he here?”

“But, I told you it was a joined effort” Samuel said, his mind working overtime. Everything dr. Wall said pointed out he would be getting the credit and Arthur would be left out. Samuel wanted a residency but not at the expense of his friendship with Arthur.

“In the end you were the one telling me this, not Arthur Ericson. And a discovery means nothing before you share it. Now, I need to cut this meeting short. My next appointment is in 15 minutes and I want to discuss your theory with dr. Engelberts”.

“Please remember it was also Arthurs work, dr. Wall” Samuel pleaded but the pathologist wasn’t listening anymore. His mind was also racing. The theory this young intern just told him about could very well be the key to solving the mystery of this strange new disease and no one knew about it, except the intern and him.

Samuel left dr. Walls office while having the feeling he made a very big mistake by telling dr. Wall about their findings without Arthur present.

Jayden was walking through the park, heading for Arthurs apartment. He never been to Arthurs apartment before but he knew the address. He was walking at a speed not many people can master for a longer period of time.

“If something has happened to Arthur I’ll never forgive myself” Jayden mumbled.

Normally Jayden is a striking young man who takes really good care of himself. But not today. Jayden didn’t shave and his hair was a mess. He had put on the first pair of jeans he could find and never noticed they had grass stains all over them from an adventure at night time in the park. The shirt he was wearing was more suitable for a tuxedo than for a pair of jeans. He wasn’t wearing any socks and his bare feet were in two similar but still different sneakers. Jayden didn’t notice and even if he did he didn’t care. All he cared for now was making sure Arthur was alright.

Jayden turned the block and froze in his place. He saw a man walking towards the apartment building Arthur lived in. The man was dressed in white pants, white shirt, white shoes and a long white coat. His hair was shoulder length and blond. He didn’t look at Jayden but if he had, Jayden would’ve looked at the bluest eyes he’d ever seen. One thing Jayden did know, though: this man is trouble; this man is powerful; this man is dangerous to me. Jayden knew immediately he should stay as far from the man as possible and this man should definitely not see him. Jayden walked back around the corner and decided to wait till the man was gone. He looked around the corner and saw the man enter Arthurs building.

“Great, now I can’t check on Arthur. Who knows where that guy needed to go and how long he’ll be at it? And, to make matters worse, I’m getting horny again”.

About ten minutes later Jayden got his answer. He saw the man in white walk past the corner where he was waiting, with his arm around Arthurs shoulders.

“Hmm, if Arthur knows him maybe Arthur is not safe to be around either” Jayden thought. “Maybe I should leave Arthur alone”.

But Jayden already knew that wouldn’t happen. At least now he knew Arthur was ok so he could work on his other problem: his hard and aching cock! He decided to go the one of the adult book stores to find a guy to fuck.

When Jayden got there he realised it was still early and it would be very well possible there would not be any other customers at this hour. And, indeed, it was very quiet. Only the shop owner and a Latin guy were there, talking at the counter. The shop owner was old and the Latin guy not much younger., maybe 45 or 50 years old. Still, the Latin guy was in reasonable shape so Jayden would see what would happen. He walked towards the back of the store where the video booths were. Jayden didn’t have to wait long. Less than a minute after he walked into a booth the Latin guy followed him, his semihard dick out of his pants. Jayden took his very hard dick out of his pants as well. The Latin guy almost started drooling. Jayden grabbed him by his shirt, pulled him into the booth and closed the door.

“So, you like my dick?” Jayden asked. The Latin guy only nodded, not being able to speak.

“Are you top or bottom?”

“T-t-top” the Latin guy stammered.

“Not today, you’re not” Jayden said. “Today you’re gonna get my hard dick up yours ass and you’re going to love it. Ain’t that so, my little slut?”

The Latin guy nodded again.

Jayden took that as his permission to do his thing so he turned the guy around, pulled his pants down and bent him over.

“Please, be careful” the Latin guy said. “I’ve only been fucked once in my life”.

Jayden didn’t answer but grabbed a tube of lube from his pocket, containing a low concentration of lidocaine to make the skin around the anus numb. He applied it in huge amounts on this guy’s ass and used a different kind on his dick. Just as the Latin guy wanted to protest Jayden put his huge, hard and throbbing dick at the man’s asshole.

“Hey, be careful! I don’t think I can take that huge monster!” the Latin guy begged but Jayden didn’t listen. In one big thrust he entered the man’s hole, causing the skin around the anus to tear and the man to scream in pain. But still Jayden didn’t care. For Jayden the world had faded and consisted only of his hard dick in this guy’s hot ass. He pumped and pumped, totally ignoring the guy’s cries of pain and begging to stop. No way Jayden could stop now, not before he had had his orgasm. Somewhere in the distance he heard the shop owner banging on the door, demanding to end this rape but Jayden blocked that out as well. The only thing he wanted, was to cum.

Of course, being the horny guy he is without having had sex for at least 36 hours his climax didn’t take long and he pumped a huge load of cum is the Latin guy’s ass. As soon as he came down from his post-orgasmic high he pulled out of the guy’s ass, pulled up his jeans and opened the door to the booth. There the shop owner stood, holding a baseball bat.

“I called the police. They’ll be here any minute now” the shop owner stated. Jayden only looked at him and tried to walk past him to leave the shop. The owner blocked him.

“Oh no, you’re not going anywhere, mister, except maybe jail”

“Jail” Jayden thought. “Not the place I really want to be” and he shoved the old man aside, leaving the video booth and walking towards the exit of the store. The shop owner swung the baseball bat in order to hit Jayden’s shoulder but Jayden was able to avoid the impact. He grabbed the owner and threw him across the shop.

“If you value your life, grandpa, you forget you ever saw me” Jayden growled. To add a little drama to the scene he allowed his eyes to turn yellow and he bared his growing fangs. It had the desired effect. The shop owner lost control over his bladder and wet himself. Almost immediately after that he passed out. Jayden left the store in a hurry, leaving the Latin guy bleeding in the video booth.

While Jayden stayed out of sight the man in white was standing in front of Arthur’s apartmentbuilding.

“It’s a shame one of ours needs to live in a hellhole like this” the man in white thought to himself. Although there were worse parts of New York to live Arthur’s apartment building was in no way a palace.

“Ok, need to get in, make contact, explain some things and get out. How hard can it be?” the man in white said to himself. And with that, he walked into the building. He looked at the mailboxes what apartment Arthur lived and decided to take the stairs. The elevator didn’t look that trustworthy.

When the man in white came to the third floor he knocked on Arthur’s door. Nobody answered.

“Come on, Ar’Thurian! I know you’re in there!” the man in white shouted through the door. “Open up!”

Arthur heard the man shouting but ignored it. Only a couple of seconds later he realised the man’s voice had called him Ar’Thurian. He got up and walked towards the door.

“How did you call me?” Arthur asked.

“By your one true name, warrior angel: Ar’Thurian!” the man said.

Arthur opened the door and waved the man inside.

“I don’t think it’s wise to call me that in public, especially not with my neighbours” Arthur said. “And how do you even know me?”

“I know everything there is to know about you, Ar’Thurian. I know who you are, what you are, why you’re here and what happened last night in the park” the man in white said.

“How can you know?” Arthur asked. “Who the hell are you anyway?”

“Because I sent you here myself, Ar’Thurian” the man in white said. “And as for the other part, hell has nothing to do with it. You really don’t recognise me, do you?”

“No, should I?” Arthur asked.

“Well, it would have made a lot easier, warrior angel” the man in white said. “I am Michael, the Archangel Michael, commander of Heaven’s Armies and the one who sent you to Earth in order to protect it from a horrible fate!”