The Fate of a Family Man - Part Four

[Joey "The Handyman" Handy]

The Fate of a Family Man - Part Four 

I bent down and picked up the bible, turning it this way and that, as if I'd never seen one before. There was something different about it, something off. As crazy as it was, it felt simultaneous heavy, as if the weight of the world resided inside, yet it also felt weightless, effortless to bear. The book's weight was physical, it's weightlessness seemed more emotional.



It boggled my mind as I examined it. I had been brought up in a house that neither attended church, nor believed in a deity, much to my nana's chagrin. She had always been a spiritual person. I had even asked her one day just why she was so devout.



"When you've seen the things I've seen," she'd state with a severe look in her eyes, "you understand that there are higher powers at work."



The projector clattered back into life, making me think I should consider getting the old ticker checked out, should I ever get out of this godforsaken attic. This time, instead of an old timey western style motion picture, it was a young, beautiful gypsy woman standing in a field of young sunflowers that had yet to be anywhere near mature enough to bloom.



She had her pitch black hair covered in a kerchief that protested to no avail in the wind. It was made from a polka dotted pattern, a darker blue version of the homemade dress she wore. She slowly turned towards the camera, her smooth, pale complexion glowing in the sunlight. Her stomach stood out like she had swallowed a watermelon whole. It was when she smiled that I immediately recognized her; it was my nana! A much younger version, but it was unmistakable.



She looked directly at the person holding the camera, laughing at something inaudible that had been said to her, her baby blue eyes sparkling with glee.



"Great," I muttered. "More silent movies." I continued to watch as she radiated on the back of Nadine's wedding dress. Sentiment trickled down my cheek as I beheld the specter of my grandmother's youth.



"Yoseph." She spoke! In a movie with no sound whatsoever, this image of my nana, carrying who I can only assume was my mother within her, said my name! I knew it was her, too, because she couldn't pronouce "J's" to save her life.



"Yoseph," the image repeated, ensnaring my full attention. "You are in danger, Yoseph!"



"Ho. Lee. Shit!" I exclaimed, my mouth agape.



"MIND YOUR TONGUE!" she reprimanded sternly. She glowered at the camera, the same blue eyes that held such joy only seconds before, now black with seriousness.



Yep. Same old nana. My eyes were as wide as saucers, I'm certain of it. Surely she wasn't speaking to me. That would be impossible. This had to have been filmed over sixty years ago. There was no way!



"N-Nana?"



"Yes." She softened her expression.



I felt the sudden urge to faint, yet I held on somehow. I blinked slowly at the image as she closed in on the camera. I thought that maybe she'd get cut off by the frame of the picture, but she never did. Before I knew it, the youthful image of my grandmother had fully materialized out of the dress.



"Yoseph," she beckoned again. "You must not meet the devil-woman on the scaffolds. She will be your undoing."



I clasped one hand to my head to steady it a bit more. The bible in my other hand flew away and lighted in her waiting grasp as if summoned by her. It flittered open to a page.



"Ephesians 6:12," she began, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."



"I'm trapped in here with Seromine," I snarked.



"The False Prophet isn't your worry just yet." She closed the Good Book, and returned her attention to me. "You have to go to war against those who reign over the evil around you. The woman is beyond your capabilities."



"I've won against Alexa before. Sure, it was an accident, but..."



"That's precisely why the woman is more than you can handle. Happenstance won't save you from death. Don't be too proud, Yoseph. Proverbs 16:18: Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." She paused, her eyes overcome with a sadness that was palpable. "You shall fall, Yoseph, if you don't take care."



"Well, yeah. They're scaffolds."



She clicked her tongue at me, the same way she always did when I was a kid and she caught me being disrespectful. I was thankful that a movie projection couldn't make me choose a switch from a tree. I hoped.



"This is no yoking matter, Yoseph. The woman is dangerous," she stopped, steeling herself for the rest of her sentence. "And so is Alexa Black. If you don't wake up soon, you will be damned."



With that last word, everything went dark briefly. The door to the attic flung itself right, allowing a beam of light from the hallway below in. The case that had contained the movies and the projector had been closed and slid back into its resting place in an instant, as if I had imagined the entire episode.



I had even almost written it off as a hallucination. I hastily made my way toward the opening, just in case whatever spirit had just haunted me changed its mind and decided to keep me a bit longer. In my rush, my foot kicked a dusty old book towards the opening.



It was the same bible.



I grabbed it up and descended the steps, all too thankful to see the traffic-trampled grey carpet of our second floor. I wanted to put as much space between myself and the attic as possible. I never got any answers about what was happening at the PCW Arena, why everything seemed to be falling apart mysteriously. In fact, I ended up with more questions than answers after that particular encounter.



At this point, I didn't care. I wanted out of that house. I would fly to Greenville and curl up in a nice cot in a locked room with as few electronic or mechanical devices as possible. I needed to save what little saniti (oops, sanity) for dealing with a real-life she-demon.



Alexa Black was going to be stopped, and I'd be the guy to do it. Or die trying. God! Did that thought HAVE to just cross my mind?