Iss of Death

(This story was created at work with a fellow supervisor's creative imagination and my own. He created the demon, I created its tale. Written for Lucus. Thanks for the fun Luke)

Kiss of Death

(1) The Interview Begins

"We're still not sure what caused his insanity but he is as humble and intelligent as ever. He still cannot be trusted though in a spark of a second he'll fly off and has killed 12, inmates and guards since his containment here at the asylum. Without warning he'll lash out?" Said the warden.

Martin Anderson walked along the prison corridor in the asylum ward with the warden in silence. The warden was a big man and rambling about the Doctor's condition and ventures, that led to his capture and rehabilitation.

"We're not sure exactly how many he has mutilated in all but he was sentenced to death for the 27 murders, of what they are calling the, 'Night Stalker," serial killings. These poor souls faces were ripped off and some of them totally mutilated. It's as if he played with their body parts till they finally died. The strangest part of it all is the victims had no pupils, their eyes were pearl white. No color to them what so ever." The warden continued.

Martin continued to write in his note pad as they strolled slowly down the prison's hall. The large metal doors they passed all had small little windows of very thick glass for viewing. Martin was a small framed man with a black suit and tie. His dark brown hair was perfectly combed and his mustache trimmed nicely. His hands continually scratched in his pad while the Warden give the basic facts of the Doctors imprisonment.

"Will I have to interview him through a window?" Martin asked.

"No, he his shackled very well and expecting a reporter. He has given permission for you to interview him before his execution." The Warden said as he stopped in front of a large steel door. A guard was posted outside and the Warden gave a nod for the sentry to unlock it. The clanking of the keys into the metal door echoed in the hall. The door swung open and the Warden stepped to the side allowing Martin to enter. As Martin began to slowly enter the prison cell of the asylum wing, the warden gripped his arm tightly.

"Stay at least ten feet away from him at all times and for God sake don't fall for his clever ways. A guard will be right here in case you need him, yell out. Please becarefull, but at the same time see if you can get any answers out of him. We have been unable to, perhaps he will take his story to his grave, but we're hoping you might get his confession first." The Warden released his arm and Martin turned to look deeply inside the prison cell.

The spacious room was dim lit but he saw a chair had been placed in its center, obviously for his comfort. Martin slowly inched his way in to the room before he heard the clanking of the door behind him as it closed. Martin froze for a moment then saw a man's figure in the darkened side of the cell. Slightly hidden was his face, but his body still stuck out some from the light's reflection.

"Dr. Reinhold?" Martin asked the shadowed figure that remained still in the corner. The man stirred a bit and the sound of chains jingled from his movement. Martins breathing was heavy and his heart rate was pounding. Standing unsure what to do, his eyes remained on the Serial killer, frightened.

"I can...smell your fear," a deep and drawn out voice said from the corner of the room. Martin heard what he believed to be sniffing of the man's nose. He took a seat in the chair that was in the center of the room. Nervously Martin fumbled with his note pad and pencil.

"Dr. Reinhold you have been found guilty of murdering over 27 people, what do you have to say about these charges against you?" Martin asked with a jittery tone in his voice. There was a long silence in the room.

"What is your name?" A deep raspy voice came from the shadows.

"Martin...Martin Anderson, I write for a National Syndicate, Dr. Reinhold and I was informed you ask for an interview. Your request was for a religious writer and I was called to prepare a statement of your confession I believe." Martin said fairly confident.

"And are you a religious man, Mr. Anderson? Do you believe in God?" The deep voice of Dr. Reinhold asked. He still hid himself in the shadows of the corner, seemingly facing away from Martin.

"Why yes," Martin replied.

"So then you believe in Satan as well?" Dr. Reinhold asked slow and casual. His voice was drawn out and bellowed slightly in the cells acoustics.

"Well, I presume so." Martin answered only a tad uncertain of himself. "Why? Does this concern you now that your execution is tomorrow?" Martin scribbled franticly in his note pad.

"It has every thing to do with it, I've seen...HELL'S FURY!" Yelling and jerking from his seat as the chains that bound the Dr. rattled from his pulling on them to get closer to Martin. The Dr. slightly turned to Martin for the first time and Martin could see the disfigured facial features of Dr. Reinhold in the shadows. His eyes seem to glow almost golden, yet Dr. Reinhold pulled back into the shadows and Martin still couldn't get a good look at him yet.

Martin become quite nervous at the Dr.'s unsettling. Fixed himself in his seat and glanced at the door to his side. "Dr. Reinhold, are you going to confess to these crimes?" Martin asked in hopes to shorten his interview somewhat.

"You want my confession? Or would you rather the whole story?" Dr. Reinhold said with a bit more ease. The Dr. pulled back more into the shadows. His bellowing voice was much lighter and calm again.

"Well, I presume the whole story would make your confession more justified, I presume." Martin said with pencil ready to write.

"Justified?" The Dr. slightly snickered. "Presume?" He snickered again. "Martin Anderson, you'll need to grow you some balls if you want to carry the burden of writing my story." The Dr. become quiet and withdrawn. Martin's mind scrambled for a descent come back to assure he would get what he came for.

"Well I see I am getting nowhere, 'Good day' Dr." Martin began to get up and leave. He was uncomfortable with his being here in the first place and his balls weren't going to grow at his request. He had almost gotten to the cell door when the Dr. replied.

"SIT down, you want to know what drove me to what I am today?" The Dr. seem to be a bit unsettled yet willing to comply. Martin turned around and sat back down. Putting his pencil to his note pad and awaited the Dr.'s confession or comments.

"Do you know anything about the Mayan culture Mr. Anderson?" Dr. Reinhold asked shifting slightly.

"Not really Dr. why?" Martin asked with curiosity.

"Because that's where it all began." The Dr. said with certainty. Martin seemingly scoffed but his ears perked to the fact the Doctor was willing to talk more.

(2) The Secret of the Tomb

The Dr. began slowly speaking, "It was 1959...I was called to Palenque, South America, by Doctor Keyser. Who was doing an Archeological dig there. He had found some encryptic writings that he was not familiar with and believe me, Dr. Keyser was the second best encryptor in the world as far as the Incas and Mayan cultures." Dr Reinhold was silent a moment and studied Martin, then began again.

"He called me cause I was the best. He had sent me pictures of some writings in hope that I could unravel their meanings. I wasn't to sure of the writings and had to be sure that they said what I thought they had said. So I went to see for my self, for I believed Dr. Keyser had found the codex of the, Ah How." (Mayan Gods) Dr. Reinhold watched Martin carefully.

Martin was scribbling away at his note pad then turned the page on the note pad and got a paper cut. The sting caused him to bring his finger into his mouth and his brow showed his pain. Dr. Reinhold growled and jerked his chains, aroused at the sight. Martins eyes flared and fear set in. The Dr. grunted and settled back in his seat uneasy.

"Grr, I smell your pain." The Dr. said unsettled a bit, then resumed his story to get his mind off Martins injury. "Now where was I? Oh yes, the Codex. I arrived at the site and Dr. Keyser took me immediately to the tomb. Presumably the tomb of an 'Ah How' a God that was believed to come from extraterrestrial."

Martin snickered.

"You don't seem to understand Mr. Anderson, the Mayans believed in the fact that their Gods come from outer space or have you no knowledge of their beliefs?" Dr. Reinhold asked with a note of arrogance.

"No, I did not know this," Martin continued to scribble in his pad. "Please, continue."

"I approached the archway that Dr. Keyser and his team had dug up. It was some 140 ft below a temple that was used to worship, Cizin. Cizin (Kisin): "Stinking One"; He was the Mayan earthquake God, the God of death, ruler of the subterranean land of the dead. He lives beneath the earth in a purgatory where all souls except those of soldiers killed in battle and women who died in childbirth spend some time." Dr. Reinhold paused. Moved about some then began again.

"The writings were hard to read but I could make out this of the codex: the Popol Vuh, a sacred book equivalent in sanctity to the Bible. Claims that The death God called Yum Cimil. He also could be called Ah Puch, the God of the Underworld. Dragged the suicide goddess that was called Ixtab to his layer. She was shown in a pictorial with a rope around her neck. The Mayans believed that suicides would lead you to heaven. Anyway, Yum Cimil had his way with Ixtab. To ensure his impregnating her, he tied her to two pillars upside down and fucked her every day, 13 times a day, for 33 days."

Dr. Reinhold continued, "His sperm pooled in her woman hood like that of a cup, keeping it full. Till she was ensured a child from this God of death. Keeping her in the depths of this layer till she gave birth then he ate her flesh while she was still alive before her very eyes."

"My word," Martin spat while writing franticly.

"The child that was depicted on the Codex claimed him to be; a demon child." The Dr. said with a low grumble.

"Dr. Reinhold, what does this have to do with you and your...situation?" Martin asked becoming a bit bored with the history lesson. Dr. Reinhold stirred uneasy, then moaned a low growls grunt.

"You said that you were a religious man, is that correct Mr. Anderson?" Dr. Reinhold asked.

"Well, yes," Martin answered quickly.

"Well, according to this Popol Vuh, this demon child was raised by Satan himself. He never died and went to hell, Mr. Anderson. He was raised with demons and their teachings. His soul was so evil from both his parents wickedness, that Lucifer himself took a shining to this boy. Giving him the kingdom of hell and all its knowledge, including everlasting life. The escape from death." Dr. Reinhold paused to allow Martin to catch up with his writing.

"What was the child's name," Martin asked as he come to a stopping point.

"Well, now that was the writing we had trouble with." The Dr. proclaimed. "The letters read; 'thaed live eht.' It took me days of study till we figured it out." The Dr. paused till Martin had finished his writing again.

"What was it?" Martin asked with a curious tone in his voice.

"Well, I dare not say just yet, the words to this day make me quiver, for deeper in this tomb lay a darker secret." Dr. Reinhold said.

"Oh?" Martin settled in his seat from the stiffness.

"This demon child learned as much as the devil himself. The devil fearing that the child had learned to much already sent him back to earth thousands of years later in hopes that he would die somehow, perhaps naturally, then Lucifer could have his soul in his control. For remember this child had not died yet." Dr. Reinhold swallowed for his throat was becoming raspy.

"The Gods on Earth saw a great purpose for this child, only he wasn't a child any longer and they employed him to do their dirty work. Killing other Gods that were to powerful, the politics of the gods, hey Mr. Anderson." The Dr. chuckled for the first time in a while.

"This living demon had learned how to become stronger with each life he took. His transformations in hell from his so called experiments of everlasting strength as he called it, made his body hideously deformed. He lurked in the underworld till darkness then did the gods bidding. But with ever kill he made, he became tremendously stronger till even the gods feared him now." The Dr. chuckled again. "The gods and the devil himself feared this...demon-man."

"You read all this from this excavation?" Martin asked still writing furiously.

"This took about a week to piece together from the cryptic writings of the codex Dr. Keyser found and the pictorial in the subterranean tomb of the God of death, Yum Cimil. The workers were still digging deeper as my associate and I pieced together this version of the Popol Vuh; the Mayan bible." Dr. Reinhold yawned then stirred in his seat causing his shackles to rattle. Martins head perked up from his writings then continued.

"Then it happened," Dr. Reinhold's voice become a bit startled. His chains rattled from his movement in his chair.

(3) Terror Reigns

"...The workers cried out from the depths of the tomb. The earth shook as though it were an earth quake. Derbies fell from the tavern like tomb so we all scattered quickly to the surface. We could hear the cries of the workers from deep within the tomb but no one dared to enter while the ground shook from the so called Earth quake." The Dr. was sitting straight up his seat. Martin could barely see the disfigured form of Dr. Reinhold's face. The hideous look made him dart his eyes back to his pad and write vigorously, even more.

"Your fear is a scent I adore," the Dr. said in a mischievous tone. Martins eyes never looked up but his fear grew with every breath. The Dr. was making him a bit nervous. "Dust bellowed from the opening of this tomb, months worth of work gone we presumed. My assistant was a lovely lady, Miss Tankersley. She was in her mid-twenties and very pretty. She was standing next to me watching this tomb enclose. When...it came out." The Dr. become silent.

"It? What was...it?" Martin's curiosity peaked.

"thaed live eht," The Dr. spelled the words out again. Martin didn't write, he just starred at the Dr.

"What is...'thaed live eht.' "Martin asked.

"Put it to a mirror. The words are reversed." Dr. Reinhold mumbled. It took me a very long time to figure out why too," The Dr. proclaimed with a heavy sigh. "But that didn't help Miss Tankersley, the poor dear."

"What became of her?" Martin asked curiously.

"This creature was a fright to see, I ran behind a truck and seen the whole thing before my eyes. The evil death, grasped her in his hands and lifted her before him and starred deeply into her eyes as she screamed bloody murder. This creature fed off her fear. The more she scream the more he enjoyed it. It had a tail similar to a scorpions, long and crooked at its end. His body was large and muscular like that of a gorilla only his skin was almost pasty gray. Holding her up off her feet as she kicked and screamed. A man behind me had a pistol and shot several times but his shaking hands didn't allow a descent shot." Dr. Reinhold turned in his seat. Then continued.

"Almost everyone ran for the woods at the sight of this man like creature. I couldn't believe my eyes either. I was like you once Mr. Anderson. I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't witnessed it with my own eyes."

"My God man this can't be real. How come I never heard of this?" Martin asked in slight disbelief.

"Why do you think I'm in an asylum, Mr. Anderson? Ask yourself that question and you'll find your answer." Dr. Reinhold said with a hateful voice, grumbling. "This man-like-creature tore her to shreds slowly dragging her off and kept her alive to feed off her fear. His mouth was like none I had ever seen before. Like an aardvarks only shorter, seemingly a small opening with four crack like slats that were fixed as an X. You will never phantom why Mr. Anderson." The Dr. said in a wicked tone.

"Why?" Martins interest perked while still writing feverishly.

"We found Miss Tankersley a week later," Dr. Reinhold purposely avoiding Martins question. "I called out a Mercenary named Rick Blaine. Ever heard of him Mr. Anderson?"

"Can't say I have," Martin replied.

"Rick Blaine was a world renowned Hunter of everything. His specialty being men on the run, a tracker and ex-soldier. He came with a squad of six men to hunt this creature and find Miss Tankersley at my request." Dr. Reinhold shifted in his seat.

"We found her, only after finding seven other disfigured bodies first. Their faces were like they had been ripped apart from the inside out. They all had three strange but similar features to their deaths. The faces were disfigured, a puncture wound to the back of their heads and..." Dr. Reinhold paused for a very long time.

"What was that?" Martin asked as he wrote.

"Their eyes...were...white. There was no color left in them. They had their eye balls but the iris was not colored blue, brown or green. They were simply white. As if the color had been sucked out of them." Martin looked up from his scribbles. Starring into the dark corner that the Dr. sat in.

"Rick Blaine was a husky man and his death squad as they call it brought the bodies back to the site where Dr. Keyeser and I worked relentlessly to open the tomb again. The men inside were buried alive for all we knew. The answers we needed to figure out this demon lay in its depths. We knew this and did all we could to get back into that tomb. But every day a new body was found reminding us that there was a creature created by the gods and Satan himself running loose on this earthly plain."

"You know Dr. Reinhold, this would make a great fictional story but..." Martin was cut short.

"This is not... FICTION," Dr. Reinhold jerked his shackles at their length in anger. Showing more of his disfigured face then slowly descending back into the darkness of the corner's shadow.

"I apologize Dr. It's just that this is quite a tale." Martin said with due respect and fear. The Dr. sat in the corner, his nostrils flared and the sound of him taking deep breaths through his nose could be heard very clearly.

"Awe... I love the smell of fear," Dr. Reinhold said mumbling as if he was pleased with Martins shaken voice. Martin looked at his watch as if looking for an excuse to hurry to the end of his interview but he dared not say anything that might show his anxieties.

"I had been reading the Popol Vuh for days and figured out that the gods feared this demon so much that they figured out a way to capture it and hopefully kill it. Only how do you kill something that has been blessed by Satan to live forever?" Dr. Reinhold turned in his chair. Tiring from his lengthy sitting and binds.

"Did you figure it out?" Martin asked with intrigue.

"I learned that they baited this creature with a young female. For woman tend to become frightened more easily and to greater degrees. They bound her in this tomb for days, stripped her of her clothing and tortured her to some point to create fear and pain. One of the demons weaknesses was he loved and fed off human fear like an addiction." The Dr. drew a deep breath and held it a moment then sighed.

"Did this work for them?" Martin asked with an interested tone.

"Oh yes, it was the only way to lure him back into the tomb. The woman was helplessly used, her life was the sacrifice they needed. If you know anything of the Mayans Mr. Anderson is they were firm believers in sacrifice. It was like a ticket to heaven to them. But this poor girl must have been truly frightened to bring the demon back into a certain demise." Dr. Reinhold moved and rattled his chains trying to bring back a certain level of caution in Martin.