We woke as the sun came up the following morning and came downstairs immediately, concerned as to what we might find. The small of freshly ground coffee as we reached the bottom of the stairs seemed like a good omen and we were overjoyed to find John seated on the sofa with Martha, still obviously extremely tired, but enjoying their drink together. He looked up as we came into the room and I realised that he could still see.
Martha smiled at us, she looked none the worse for her recent ordeal. Perhaps a little more dishevelled than usual but bright eyed and vital.
"Coffee in the kitchen," she said, and I left the room, returning quickly with three steaming mugs to find Eve sitting on the floor at John's feet and Beth and Martha seated on the sofa, one either side of him. I handed them their drinks, sat in the chair opposite and we drank in companionable silence. The room was still as we had left it the night before. The bloodstained platform remained, a stark reminder of the horrors of the previous evening. I looked at it with revulsion, wanting it not to be there. John saw my gaze and spoke,
"We will break it up later today, and its timber will keep us warm as it burns," he said. We have no more use for such devices." He paused.
"I owe all of you an apology," he said. "And a debt of gratitude which is too great to ever repay. Through your courage and quick action yesterday you averted a catastrophe that even now I can barely begin to contemplate... No, hear me out." He held up his hand to silence our chorus of denial. "In my arrogance and ignorance, I completely underestimated the powers ranged against us. I put you, the people I love most, in extreme danger, and not only you; we came within a hair's breadth of unleashing a terrible evil on the world, and who knows what the consequences of that might have been."
"And yet," I spoke out, "We are unharmed in the end, Eve is cured, and you have regained your sight. This is the way the Goddess works; even out of evil, good comes."
"Ah Hazel," John said, "as usual, your words reveal the treasure that is your heart and soul." I blushed and the others laughed. Cathartic laughter that brightened the room.
"Come," John said, "we will talk more of this later, but I must sleep to regain my strength, at least for the rest of the morning. And you too, if you are wise, will rest. Help me please Martha."
Martha helped John stand, and led him, with a less than steady step to his room. We three foraged in the kitchen and found bread, cheese, and more coffee. We were hungry and made a simple breakfast that was as good as a feast. I for one did not feel the need to rest, the opposite in fact, I was full of energy and felt I needed to do something practical.
"I am going to clean and dismantle that platform and put it on the wood pile for burning," I said. Beth and Eve volunteered to help and between us we removed the spreader and cuffs, unbolted the post and maneuvered the platform itself out through the kitchen and stacked it out of sight behind the pile of logs that were ready for the fire. Then we cleaned up the living room and stoked the fire, happy that when John and Martha reappeared, the cosy room would be back to normal. After our exertions John's advice to rest seemed sensible and so we returned to our communal bedroom and slept again.
It was mid-afternoon when we surfaced and came downstairs to find John, much recovered, in the kitchen peeling vegetables, while Martha stirred a large pot whose delicious aromas filled the kitchen. John looked up and smiled as we entered.
"You have no idea how wonderful it is to be able to see to do these simple tasks," he said. "And thank you all for clearing up. Beth, if you look in that cupboard over there you will find a couple of bottles of wine that will do justice to Martha's stew and perhaps Eve and Hazel will lay the table for us."
The dinner that Martha and John prepared was delicious. The wine complemented it perfectly and afterwards we sat around the fire, the events of the previous day seeming incongruous, completely alien to the warmth, companionship and love that had grown between us. John stared into the fire, watching the flames dance as though hungry for the visual stimulus he had been denied for so long. Finally, he broke the silence.
"I spoke to you this morning from my heart when I expressed my sorrow for what you have been through. Martha and I have talked at length about what happened yesterday, and we would like to share our conclusions with you. Even though some of it is inevitably surmise and we may never know the whole truth." John looked at Martha and she continued.
"It is beyond doubt that Eve's pseudo pregnancy was the result of something that occurred during your enactment of the Great Rite. We know that she was possessed at the time by two spirits, that of Sarah, Beth's late partner but also by some force of demonic origin. Our first mistake was to underestimate the power of that force. At the rite it was the daemon who left Eve's body first, the spirit of Sarah remained and left only when Eve reached sacred orgasm. We assumed that the daemon had been forced from Eve's body but that was wrong. The forces of the Evil One are cunning. John and I now think that the daemon, or some manifestation of it, left Eve's body voluntarily, crucially before Eve's climax. Before leaving it accomplished its foul purpose, causing the corruption that led to Eve's pregnancy. Sarah's spirit was freed by Eve's sacred climax at Hazel's hands, and we were blinded by the obvious beauty and goodness of that act."
John spoke, "we think that had it not been for the rite, the daemon would have remained dormant until, in the fullness of time, Eve conceived a child naturally, whereupon the embryo would have been corrupted.
The other clue to which we paid insufficient attention was the fact that we did not know how Eve's possession occurred in the first place. Eve swore that she has never undertaken any of the practices that might have opened her to possession." John looked embarrassed, "and I, er have been sufficiently intimate with you Eve, to be in no doubt that you told us the truth." Now it was Eve's turn to turn a fetching shade of pink.
"We should have set more store on understanding how that happened. It seems to us now that the channel that allowed Eve's possession in the first place remained open and that at the height of our healing ritual yesterday, we enabled a powerful servant of Asmodeus to cross to our plane of existence. You saw the result when Eve's poor body was taken over."
John was interrupted by a cry of fear from Eve, her face a picture of terror.
"What is to stop that channel being used again?" she whispered, as though dreading the answer. I put my arms around her, as though mortal strength could protect her from such a foe.
"You need not worry," John was quick to reassure. "Martha has seen to that. When she offered her life, and it was accepted, the work of the Evil One was undone. The power of love and sacrifice has closed the door. I cannot say that there are no other ways for evil to enter the world, of course there are, but you are safe."
Eve left me and went to where Martha sat. "I will never be able to thank you enough," she said, throwing her arms around the surprised woman's neck. "You saved my life."
"Martha saved all our lives," John's voice was grave. "If the creature had not been stopped, Beth would have been impregnated, if she did not die in the attempt. And if she had, the creature would have turned to Hazel or Martha to accomplish its purpose. If Beth survived the rape, the rapid gestation and birth would certainly have killed her. Once the demon child was born, any of us remaining alive would have been killed, the creature would have reverted to Eve's form and remained at large in this world to nurture its spawn, possessing her body until it had no more use for it."
It was a sobering thought, and we were all silent for a moment until John answered my unspoken question.
"You must remember that the power for good was not Martha's death itself, rather her willing intention to sacrifice her life. At the time of the offer, she had no reason to hope or believe that she would not die."
"But what about the talisman?" I asked, "that was the key that allowed us to save you. Without it Martha would have been beyond resuscitation, regardless of John's healing powers"
"I had no knowledge of the power of the talisman," Martha admitted, "It was given to me by my father when I was a small child. I put it around Eve's neck before the ceremony because I have always treasured it and I hoped it would protect her. When the creature tore it off and threw it to the floor it was close enough for me to reach out with my toes and gather it. I hid it under my foot until there was a moment when I could pick it up un-noticed and hold it in my hand.
"There is the power of the Goddess at work," said Beth. Even in the darkest times, the means of salvation is manifest, the token of love given to you by your father has served its purpose."
