The Madness at Koresh Manor Part 9

Raphael followed Cyrus and Rain down into the depth of a stone house under the mansion. The walls of this place were touched with a time long ago, and the color had long faded. The way was lite by touches, and to Raphael, it was as if they were walking in the castle of Dracula. It was odd to see something like a hallway like his, it felt as if it should have never been in the first place.

                “These halls were built by the Lord,” Cyrus said leading the way. “He sent me a dream to find them, and it is the true reason why I brought my people here. This castle is where the kingdom of Heaven will come from, and I am the bringer of that Heaven.”

                Raphael didn’t say a word following them down into the depth, but he did keep looking over at Rain who seem to be fighting a spell over his mind. A battle Raphael saw before Cyrus came out of the night. A battle he could see Rain winning, but now he seems to be losing the war. Raphael hoped his plan would play out the way he needed it too and Rain was still somewhere in that odd skull of his because if even the littlest thing went wrong, then they were all doom.

                “But this is not what I wanted to show you,” Cyrus said.

                “An underground castle?” Raphael asked. “It is cool, man.”

                Cyrus cocked a grin at him opening an old wooden door to the room made from pure gold. In the middle of the room sat a table and chairs formed form the gold as well and Cyrus sat down in one of the chairs. He beckons Raphael to do the same while Rain stood off to the side.

                “Where does that go?” Raphael asked pointing to the door behind Cyrus and not seeming to be in awe of the gold room. He has seen places like it before, some better, some worst but little surprised him anymore.

                “You’ll find out soon enough,” Cyrus said. “Now tell me about your mother.”

                “Hm, I would rather not,” Raphael said moving in his sit a little and not being able to look the man in his eyes.

                “My son,” Cyrus said, “for the light to heal you of your pain it must first know your pain.”

                “I don’t wa ---” But something else reached into Raphael’s mind pulling the thoughts from his head and sitting before him was no longer a crazed cult leader but is his lovely mother. He shook his head telling the ghost it was not real. He had fought this vision once before he in his life. His mother was dead, it was the cold hard truth of his life, and no ghost was going to be able to change that fact. No matter how many ghosts of spells brought his mother back from the dead, it would never change the one unbreaking reality of it all, she was dead.

                “Tell me what you found out,” Adeline Talon spoke softly.

                “No,” Raphael growled at her but again the hand of something be on the door reached into his mind pulling everything out like a child stealing a cookie from the cookie jar. He didn’t even realize he was standing up screaming at her for everything she did before he was in this world. She taught them killing was wrong unless it was out of self-defense and yet, she had murder countless people for money, power, and orders. She killed whole families while using her own as a way to pay for past sins. She told them, made them understand they could be angels in a fallen world, while she was a devil dancing on the bones of the people she murdered. And somehow after everything, he learns about the horrors of his mother he couldn’t stop loving her. He hated her. He hated knowing who she was deep down, but he couldn’t stop loving her.

                She kept her past a lie to them. She never spoke about it because she knew they couldn’t look at her the same again. He couldn’t do it now even to a fake ghost. He screamed with tears running down his face calling her a monster.

                And then he blinked, and Cyrus was sitting there where his mother once was, he dropped back down into the chair crying. No one said a word until Raphael lifted his head again. “What was that?” He asked with more rage in his tone then he wished to show.

                “It was the Lord,” Cyrus said with a smile, “working through you to bleed out all the sin. Don’t you feel better?”

                “I do,” he said not sure if it was a lie or not.

                “And your family they know none of this?” Cyrus asked.

                “Just my dad, but he doesn’t talk about it.”

                “Must be a lot to carry alone,” the man said, “but now you don’t have to carry it alone. We -” he glanced at Rain and Raphael did the same seeing deep in Rain’s eyes he was still at war with something. “We can help you carry this burden.”

                “It is my burden to carry alone,” Raphael told him.

                “That is where you are wrong,” the cult leader said, “it is the Lord’s to carry. Don’t you want to be healed?”

                “I don’t know.”

                “Really?”

                “Yes, I really don’t know if I want to be healed,” he said with a grimace tone. “Maybe, this punishment for me hating my mother. Maybe, this is punishment for me wishing she would go because I was mad her before she left that night. We got into a fight, and I can’t even remember why but I told her I didn’t love her anymore.” He glances at the table top. “The hurt in her eyes was the last thing I can remember of her, and she never came back. So -” He looked back at the mad cult leader with rage in his eyes. “I don’t know if I want to be healed.”

                “I understand,” Cyrus said. “I also told my mother I hated her before her death.” Why did something tell Raphael it was right before the man killed her. “I also understand what that does to a son. I really understand you, Rain and I can tell you, I can help.” He stood up from his golden chair. “Let me show you the light and the Father will set you free.”

                “No I’m goo---” But Raphael was already standing and heading for the door. The magic in this place was like nothing he has felt before. It was forcing him to follow the will of this man. Cyrus opened the golden door and was about to step into it when it smashed shut.

                “Raphael, don’t --- go --- in there,” Rain cried with his spellbook open. “Fight ---fight!”

 

Author's Note

Writer’s Notes: I know, I know in the last story ‘The Assassination of Two’ (http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/CLCurrie/2058555/) I used a foe with mind controlling powers. I shouldn’t be doing the same thing, but Cyrus’s power is different than the Voice and there far more too it then minds controlling. I just hope the new foe works better than the last one. I have an idea where I am going, but we shall see how well it goes.