667: Issue #7 Pt. 2 "The Seventh Son"

The computer had arrived not long after Adam and Asher returned from the swamp. Josiah wasted no time in calling me to his private study where we could go over the files privately.

“Come in, Violet.” He called to me after I knocked. I entered and took a seat next to him in front of a giant computer straight out of the not so distant past.

“Does it work?” I punched a few keys on the keyboard and listened to the loud clicks.

“It does. I had to look all over to find one in working condition. And you’re lucky I checked on those disks: you thought they were 8-inch but they are actually 5 ¼. You had the year of the computer right, just not the disk size.” Josiah popped the lid on the box and grabbed one, starting with my file first.

“I can’t gauge size, apparently.” I rolled my eyes, but I was bad with numbers.

“Well, I have it covered.” Josiah had the computer booted up and popped in the disk.

He chose the first file, my file, and clicked on it.

I hadn’t told anyone about what I found, but Josiah would know soon enough. It wasn’t pertinent really, but it was something I’d kept from everyone.

“You were born here.” He turned to me and I slunk into my chair.

“I guess I was.”

“Why didn’t you mention it to me?” Josiah cocked his head to the side in question.

“I didn’t mention it to anyone.” I screwed my mouth to the side.

“Subject Number 001 is the resulting offspring of Patient Zero: Rhaine Eden Quirke. The patient was living in New Orleans, Louisiana at the time of conception due to fleeing her home country of Ireland after an abusive relationship. She procured the job through an affiliate in Dublin and was transferred to the United States for three years before undergoing treatment.

Quirke was essentially the test subject for our inhibitor serum and it proved a success. The child resulting from this implantation was the first efficaciously contained embryo, proving that the serum could effectively suppress the fabricated DNA of Dr. Lucinda’s design.

The mother suffered no ill effects; if anything she showed no signs of the typical symptoms of pregnancy.

Officially, this subject marked the success of “667”. Profiles of the other 666 subjects to follow.” Josiah read the notes aloud before scrolling down a bit further; there was a second page to my file that I hadn’t noticed.

Josiah clicked on it and a picture popped up on the screen.

“What the hell is that?” I pointed at the image on the screen; it looked similar to the paperwork Leo had shown us.

“It’s a DNA sequence, albeit a bit outdated,” Josiah leaned in closer, “Maybe a mock-up of the projected outcome of their little experiment.” He studied the screen and analyzed the sequence.

“Can you read it?” I studied it too, but I was looking at the symbols on the outer rim of the image.

“Gods, no. Leo probably can though. What are these symbols here on the side?” Josiah pointed to the exact thing that I was looking at.

“You want an honest answer? It looks like Enochian.” I knew a bit about the script because I planned on using it in a new book series.

“Angelic Script?” Josiah apparently knew what it was too.

“Yes.” I took a pad of paper from the desk and began transcribing the text.

“Can you translate this?” Josiah watched as I scribbled it all down on the paper.

“I think so. It may not be a hundred percent accurate, but I can run it by Henri; he can probably do better than I can.” I finished the last symbol and set my pen down.

“Let’s move on to the next file and see if it has the same thing.” He went on to file #002 and when he opened it, I felt my eyes water.

“Adam. Adam is Subject 002.” Now he had a number like I did and he was the second of our kind.

“It seems that way. All his information seems to be accurate, but let’s give a look at his notes and see if it tells us anything else.” Josiah scrolled down to the bottom of the file and I read it aloud.

“Subject Number 002 was our second successful implantation. We chose to take possession of the child after birth due to the source that helped fertilize the host’s egg. The mother chose to enter the program anonymously, but we knew her lineage regardless. The child was adopted at the age of two to a mother we knew would raise him properly and we intend on following up with his rearing as often as possible. Subsequent files will detail how the subject is growing, but the prospects look positive.” I knew that I must have been concentrating hard on what I was reading because Josiah let out a long breath and it startled me.

“I wonder what this source is that they used to fertilize the eggs. It didn’t mention anything about that in my file.” I mused aloud.

“Doesn’t mean that they didn’t in later files. The one you discovered on that blog was very minimal and seemed more like a follow up to me than anything informative. There has to be more recent files out there somewhere.” Josiah went to move on to another subject.

“Probably the same place that I pulled this from.” I dropped back in my chair with a grumble.

“Most likely; we will just have to figure out where that is. It is wonderful that you can alter things the way that you do, but I think there is more to your abilities than you realize.” Josiah’s words seemed almost encouraging.

“Go on…” I knew that he already had an idea.

“I think you could pretty much do whatever you want to do, but you have to be able to tap into it. You do things like this by accident; your mind knows what it is looking for, but it happens by chance. You have the will, but you don’t have the direction. If you could combine the two, you would be unstoppable.” Josiah made sense, but I still wasn’t sure how to get to where I was going.

“I’ll have to work on it.” I wanted to say something about my dreams, but I wasn’t sure how to go about it. Maybe I would start with the seal.

“Josiah? I have something I want to show you.”

I fished around in my pocket for the piece of paper I had sketched the symbol on and handed it over to him.

“What is this?” He studied it, running his fingers over the letters of Abaddon’s name.

“I had a dream about it.” I didn’t want to mention that the dream involved Asher drawing the symbol in the dirt; they were just getting to like him. I wondered if maybe something deep inside of him had taken over and urged him to draw the seal on the ground.

“I know a bit about Demons and Angels; Abaddon was synonymous with the Pit and the Angel of Destruction. There are varying stories about him in ancient texts, but he was an entity to be feared and never to be messed with. You dreamed about this?” I could tell that Josiah was wondering if there was more that I wasn’t telling him.

“I did. Last night was the first time I really got to see enough detail to remember it, but I dreamed about it the night before too.” I explained.

“The night that the Demon showed up at Sam’s?” Josiah asked curiously.

“Yes.” I nodded. They all knew about the encounter with Apollyon and what it had said to Seven, but this was the first time it was being brought up in more detail.

“Something is eluding me,” Josiah was thoughtful as he got up from his chair and began going through the books on a high shelf. He pulled down an old volume and began skimming the pages before closing it and picking up another one. He tossed the second one at me and I read the title.

“Pilgrim’s Progress.” I had remembered reading that when I was young and had mentioned it a nights before to the group.

“Christian battles Apollyon in that story; the son of Satan. Do you know what Apollyon means in Greek?” Josiah poured himself a drink; he looked a little stiff.

I shook my head.

“It means the Destroyer.” Josiah lifted his brow as he waited for me to put two and two together.

“Abaddon and Apollyon are the same being?” It clicked for me.

“Exactly. Abaddon was the Hebrew name for the Angel, but Apollyon took the form of a demonic being. What you fought in Baton Rouge was Abaddon.” He pointed at the book in my hand.

Asher had used a Goetic seal to force Apollyon back in the pit using his Hebrew name. But how did he even know what that name was?

“What do the letters on the seal say? I know that it is Hebrew, but I don’t speak the language.” I took the paper over to Josiah so he could study it.

“Language is Henri’s expertise so you’ll have to ask him; he would be able to tell you more about the whole thing.” Josiah crossed his arms.

“I’ll talk to him about it then. Do we want to go over a few more files?” Based on the sun outside the window, I could tell it was getting late.

“We can do that and then I seriously want you to talk to Henri. I don’t know why you were seeing this symbol in your dreams, but it may give us a way to destroy Apollyon if he shows his face again, which I assume he will.” Josiah sat down in his chair in front of the computer and I settled back in.

It could definitely do damage to the Demon, of that I witnessed, but how did someone who knew nothing of his powers tap into such a powerful magickal source?

I knew that Henri would have the answers.