SWNOVELS Chapter The Grove
Approximately six thousand miles away in northern California, the President of the United States accompanied by five secret service agents entered a remote area of the Redwood National Park well after dark. They walked into a grove of ancient redwoods on the shore of a small lake. Amongst the ancient trees in the center of the grove stood thirteen stone carvings of ancient Canaanite, Sumerian, and Babylonian deities in a large ring nearly seventy feet across. A forty-foot tall carving of an owl/human hybrid stood amidst the other giant forty-foot carvings with a roaring bonfire in front of it, which cast its light on the circle of deities. The men approached the fire and stopped in front of it, facing the great owl. “What’re we doing here?” one of the secret service agents asked another. “This place gives me the creeps.”
“Mr. President, this is highly unusual. What’re we doing here?” a secret service agent asked.
“Shut up and keep your eyes open!” the President snapped. The fire raged as tremendous waves of heat came off it. Suddenly, maniacal laughter echoed through the grove and the secret service agents surrounded the President. “Show yourself!” the President shouted with fear rising in him as the laughter continued.
“You have failed us, Mr. President,” the laughing voice growled menacingly, seeming to come from all directions. The agents began to fear as the voice rumbled and the fire turned blue, raging supernaturally. They looked around fearfully, trying to remember their oaths to protect the President. “I’ll not tolerate failure and neither will the Thirteen. You failed our Dark Lord, Mr. President, and now you must reap the penalty,” the voice hissed venomously. Suddenly, from the midst of the fire stepped a small man in a dark suit without a hair or fiber of his clothes being singed by the fire.
“Lord Hades!” the President cried out in recognition as his secret service agents pulled their guns in fear and began backing away, dragging the President along.
“Where do you think you’re going, worm?” Hades hissed venomously, raising his arm casually. He pointed to the giant statue of Baal with two fingers and a ring of fire suddenly erupted from the ground inside the circle of deities, shaking the earth and cutting off the President’s escape. The secret service agents turned their guns on Hades. With a wave of his hand, Hades gave the agents the illusion that their guns had turned into snakes. They dropped the guns with cries of fright. With another wave of his hand, he scattered the agents like flies, sending them sprawling in every direction as if something had actually hit them, leaving the President unprotected. Two of the agents fell into the fire that barred their escape and were instantly roasted alive, their screams echoing in the President’s ears. The other three fell scattered inside of the circle.
A hideous smile arose on Hades’ face as he said icily to the President, “See what happens to those who fail us, Mr. President.” His eyes began to glow red as he turned to the fire from which he stepped, calling to it. “Carazar singh zarafic belrocarius!” he hissed and suddenly the flame took on a life of its own as a twenty-three foot demon appeared in the fire. It looked like a creature made of cooling molten rock with fire erupting from cracks in its blackened skin and an enormous head with giant horns curling downwards and to the front from its elongated skull. Four, fist-sized eyes glowing like coals in a furnace sat embedded in its huge skull as it looked at Hades while leaning forward on its giant arms in the fire.
Hades pointed to the three agents who were down and the demon roared. A blast of blistering heat came out of its mouth as the demon stepped from the fire and pounced on the nearest of the agents while the President watched. The agent turned over just in time to see the beast of fire pounce on him. A blood-curdling scream rose from the agent as the demon incinerated him to ashes with a mere touch of its clawed hand. The demon then went and did the same with the other two agents while Hades watched with sadistic pleasure. The President fell to his knees, cringing in terror as the monstrous beast of hellfire suddenly towered over him. Hades called to the beast, and it stopped a mere inches away from the President. The heat from the monster singed the President’s hair and caused his clothes to smoke. The President cowered and backed away. Hades called to the beast again and it back off a few steps. Hades stepped toward the President and hissed, “Didn’t I warn you not to fail us again?”
The President looked up at Hades from his knees, begging for his life. “Please! Don’t kill me!” he cried in dread.
Hades drew back and clubbed him with the back of his fist, sending the President sprawling on the ground, leaving a burn mark on the President’s face. “If were up to me, I would give you to the Belrock, but Zeus has other plans for your sorry maggot ass. If you don’t want to become roast President, you will do as we say,” Hades hissed icily.
The President rose to his knees and bowed before Hades. “Yes, my lord,” the President cried in terror, “whatever you command. What do you want me to do?”
“The time of America is over,” Hades hissed. “America must be sacrificed to our god...the greatest sacrifice ever done and you will lead them to it. You will lead them to the altar of war and place them on the altar. Then you will sacrifice the whole nation to our god. Phase 3 must be implemented now. The world war will be fomented by your hand. The American people have stood in the way of our plans long enough with their rebellion to our rule. We created this nation and they turned against us, so now they must perish at your hand. When the nation is no more, then you’ll have your reward. This is absolutely your last chance. Fail us this time and you will surely be dinner for my friend here.”
“How shall I do this?” the President asked with great fear as the Belrock hovered over him.
“Follow the plan, you sniveling putrid wretch!” Hades snapped. “And don’t deviate from it in any manner. Our plans will go forth. Those loyal to the Muslim Alliance must be crushed and you must do it without the help of the rest of the world. You must utterly destroy them in the name of the global War on Terror, even though many of them are your allies. You will betray them as you’ve betrayed the American people. The Middle East must be forced into a conflagration that will only end with the destruction of all the Muslim and Arab powers there. No longer will they interfere in our plans like the rebellious American population. A sacrifice of them to our god may appease him enough to allow you to keep your position for a little longer. To kick this plan in high gear, you need to go after Syria next. It’s the lynchpin in the entire plan. Forget your pathetic plans to take the Ukraine and punish the Russians for annexing Crimea. It was a fool’s errand to begin with. The Russians have a pact with us concerning the Ukraine and Crimea. By your meddling in the internal affairs of the Ukraine with your ill-advised coup of the pro-Russian government there, you’ve done irreparable damage to our cause and we’re not going to have it any longer. We have vital interests in the Ukraine that must not be damaged by an ill-conceived civil war there. A civil war in the Ukraine was not part of the plan, but it is part of the plan in Syria. Therefore, you need to back the fuck off the Russians and the Ukraine. We gave them Crimea back as part of our deal and you will honor that deal.” The President’s face fell with the order.
“Don’t like it...tough,” Hades snapped, seeing the President’s reaction. “You’re playing way out of your league here. We’re not going to let a hundred years of planning be upset by an upstart maggot that thinks he’s all-powerful because he’s the President of the United States. You belong to us. We put you in as President and can just as easily remove you. My fiery friend here should be proof enough of that. Now, you need to get back online with the plan. The war has already been arranged in Syria. Syria is the prize right now, not the Ukraine.”
“But,” the President interrupted.
“Silence, you half-evolved pond scum!” Hades shouted, smashing his clenched fist into the President’s jaw leaving another burn mark on his face. “You’re not here to speak, but listen and obey or else. This is your last chance to redeem yourself, you stupid piece of ape-shit. Should you disobey again, you’re dead. We’ve lost months because of your stupidity. Now, this is the way it is, Mr. President. We’ve already fomented the civil war there, and had the rebels stupidly use chemical weapons so they could blame the Syrian government, which the rest of the world will know is a lie. The world will suggest that a removal of Syria’s chemical weapons would stop your attack. The Syrian President will concede and allow outsiders access to his chemical stockpiles to stop your aggression. This is but a ruse and part of the plan. When the Syrian President does this, our people will secure and remove his chemical weapons…not destroy them. Once all his chemical weapons are secured, there will be another chemical attack by our covert ops that will be blamed on the Syrian government. Our propaganda experts will tell the world the Syrian government wasn’t truthful and didn’t hand over all their weapons. This will provide you with the means and justification to force the issue, and go to war with Syria regardless of whether the rest of the world or the American people want it. You will do it.
“When you attack, go full bore. This attack will draw Iran into the conflict and you will take the attack them as well, invading to seize their oil fields. The Russians will then back the Iranians, providing them with supplies and a small number of troops. While this is going on, nuclear war will erupt on the Korean peninsula at our instigation and China will move to take Taiwan. North Korea will sack South Korea in retaliation for your attacks on Syria and Iran. China will back them and invade Taiwan at the same time, taking the island while your back is turned. When this happens, you will attack North Korea and China in Taiwan with the Pacific Fleet to drive them out. In the meantime, our agents within the US will launch their attacks on your infrastructure to degrade it and create chaos within the major cities. As soon as you’re fully engaged on four fronts, the Russians and Chinese will launch a sneak attack to destroy and occupy the US. America will fall and its soul harvested for our Dark Lord and his great cause. It will be done. It’s the will of the Council and our Dark Lord. Both America and the Muslim Alliance must die. Then the world will be ripe for the plucking.”
The President’s fear and anger rose greatly at the hearing of this and he protested, “No, you can’t do this. The world was promised to me. I was supposed to rule the world, not the Russians and Chinese! We had an agreement!”
Hades clubbed him with the back of his hand again, drawing blood this time. “An agreement based on your ability to follow the plan, which has been proven to be severely lacking…you putrid sniveling wretch. When you failed to deliver on your end and went off on your own, that agreement was nullified. The Ukraine situation is exhibit A of your incompetence and rebellion to our plans. Besides, you were never promised the world,” Hades hissed. “Our god is coming down. The world belongs to him. If you won’t do as you’re told, we have others that can and will. America and your precious Muslim Alliance will die, either by your hand or by someone else’s. Now, whose hand is it going to be?”
Hades glanced at the Belrock and it moved forward, closing in on the President. He backed away as the Belrock advanced. The President cried out in agony as the demon barely touched his clothes with a single flaming claw, searing his chest where the claw touched. “I’ll do it! I’ll do it! I’ll obey!” he screamed in agony.
Hades made a guttural chirp and the Belrock backed off. “That’s just a little reminder of who’s in charge here,” Hades snarled. “And don’t get any bright ideas about trying to mess up the plan because we have people all around you. If you contemplate even the tiniest thought of trying to stop or hijack it for your benefit, you will die most unpleasantly and be punished for all eternity. My dark friends have ways of torment you cannot comprehend.”
The President managed to crawl to his knees and swore, “I will do as I’m commanded. I swear it by the old gods here in this grove. May I burn forever in the hell of the Christians and Muslims if I don’t do as commanded.”
“Good!” Hades replied frigidly. He looked at the Belrock and it returned to the flame, disappearing. “This is literally your last chance, Mr. President. Fail us again and you will see that Hell is just a word, and the reality of it is infinitely worse than you can ever imagine!” Hades said severely as he waved his hand, causing the ring of fire imprisoning them to vanish. He then whistled. Five men appeared from the darkness of the grove, all of which were secret service agents. “Take him away,” Hades ordered. The new agents helped the President up and started to lead him away. “Mr. President,” Hades called out venomously, “this never happened, and neither of us were ever here.”
The President nodded and replied through the residual pain inflicted by the Belrock, “Yes, Lord Hades.” At that, the Secret Service led the President away. Hades turned and looked around at the thirteen forty-foot carvings of the gods, smiling wickedly, and then cackled madly.