That night along the docks, there was the bustle of ships coming in from every port on earth . The noise of equipment and the shouts of workers made a din which filled the air. Because of this, no one would know what was taking place.
A middle-aged white man, dressed in black and wearing priest's white collar, silently walked along the crates along the dock. He had been following the trail of the object he wanted and now it was time to intercept it before it fell into the wrong hands. Taking a quick glance around, the priest ducked between two crates and moved to the crate he wanted. Praying that the information he had was correct, he took out a small screwdriver and began to pry open one of crates.
Suddenly, he heard a noise above the dockyard din. A deep breathing sound. Saying a Hail Mary, he pried off one of the boards and reached inside. His fingers found a small, wrapped bundle nestled among the packing material.
The breathing sound came closer and closer and the priest realized it what it was. Turning, he began to run among the boxes of recently unloaded goods. Now the priest saw shadows, shadows that did not belong to anything human. He kept running, but everywhere he turned, the shadows found him. Stopping for breath, the priest knew it was no use.
They were surrounding him.
No matter which way he ran, the priest knew he was being cornered with no way of escape. No sound of his pursuers could be heard at that moment, but he knew they were there, coming ever closer. The small wrapped bundle he held in his hand seemed to weigh a ton, but he knew he could not abandon it, or let those who were chasing him get it in their possession. He could NOT let it fall into their ungodly hands.
The priest knew his life was forfeit; but that mattered little to him; He knew his mission was dangerous when he took it, and he had already made his peace with the Lord. But the last thing he would do would be to protect the bundle in his hands, keep it from those who would use it for evil. Clutching the bundle tightly, he looked up into the night sky and prayed for guidance.
Suddenly, a rat ran over his shoe and down a path between two large containers. Without a thought, the priest followed the rat over to its home: a hole it had gnawed in a wooden crate. The rat stood by the hole and looked up at the priest and he understood.
He bent down and tried to place his precious bundle in the hole, but something was blocking his way. The man reached into the hole and pulled out an identical bundle like the one in his hand. Smiling, the priest quickly put his own bundle in the hole and looked at the rat.
"Thank you, brother rat." He smiled.
The rat squeaked and went into its hole. The priest began to walk away, but when he turned the corner, he was confronted by his pursuers-black formless shapes with red eyes. One of the shapes grabbed the man by the collar and threw him against a crate.
"Give it to us." A hissing voice demanded.
"No, I will not!" The priest shouted, "This knowledge is not for your eyes!"
The black shapes grew in size and descended on the priest. He screamed, but was unheard over the din of the dockyard. The black shapes came over him and he knew no more.
+ + + +
The next day, the Monkees were watching the noon news and eating lunch on the couch. On a small table next to the couch, Peter was filling a small sack with books. After a commercial, the announcer came back on.
"Early this morning," The female announcer said, "Dock workers made a startling discovery when they found the body of a priest. The priest has been identified as Fr. John Vincent, OSM. He was found in among the crates in an unloading area. There was no sign of a struggle, and police are investigating. An autopsy will be performed later today."
The four Monkees made the sign of the cross when they heard of the death of the priest.
"That's awful." Micky said sadly.
"What was he doing at the docks so late at night?" Mike wondered.
Nobody had an answer for that and Davy looked over to see what Peter was doing.
"What's up there, Peter?" He asked.
"I'm putting the last of my eastern books in this sack so I can take them over to the book store and sell them." Peter replied. "I think these are the last ones."
"Wait a minute, Peter." Mike said as he got up off the couch. "I think I have something else for you."
Mike went up into the bedroom he shared with Micky and a minute later came down the stairs with a book in his hand.
"Here you go." He said, handing the book to Peter. "It's a book I've had for awhile from L. Ron Hubbard called `Dyanetics'. When I first read it, it sounded like the way to go, but now that I've found our Lord Jesus again, I think his Christian Science theory is all nonsense."
"Thanks, Mike." Peter smiled and put the book in his sack as well.
"So what book you gonna buy now?" Micky asked.
"I'm going to buy a new bible for Darlene for her birthday." Peter replied, "Her old one is falling apart."
"That will be a terrific gift." Davy approved.
"Yeah, I think she'll like it a lot." Peter said, hefting the sack onto his shoulder. "Mike, can I take the car into town?"
"Sure, Peter." Mike replied, "Just be home by four so we can rehearse."
"Thanks, Mike." Peter smiled, "Goodbye guys."
"Bye, Peter." The others replied.
Peter grabbed the keys from their holder near the door and went outside.
++++
In a dark room lit with candles, which was inside large mansion in a fancy part of town, two women were waiting. One of them, a woman in her mid-thirties with short blond hair paced angrily back and forth. The other, a few years younger with long black hair trailing down her back was lounging on a sofa drinking wine from a goblet.
"Where are they?" The woman that was pacing demanded, "How long would it take them to find that book?"
"Settle down, big sister." The other woman replied, taking a sip. "They'll find it."
Suddenly there was a puff of black smoke and three demons appeared in front of them. They folded their wings and bowed to the standing woman. The demon in the middle held a small bundle in its hands.
"Here you are, mistress." The middle demon hissed, his red eyes glowing, as he held out the bundle.
"It's about time!" The woman snapped grabbing the bundle.
"Sorry, mistress Synthea." Another demon replied, "We were delayed by one of those from the..."
"Don't speak that name in my presence." Synthea snarled, as she ripped the paper away.
The last of the paper came off and Synthea looked at the book that the paper had covered.
"Holy Bible." She breathed, then looked up at the demons. "Holy Bible!" She shouted at them, "Is this some sort of sick joke?"
"That's the bundle he had in his hand, Mistress." The third demon protested. "There were no others."
"Incompetent fools!" She shouted, throwing the bible at them. The demons ducked and it went sailing over their heads. "You were tricked!"
The woman on the couch just shook her head. Synthea pointed at the three demons.
"Get out of here!" She shouted angrily. "Lord Satan will hear about your failure!"
The three demons quickly disappeared in a puff of black smoke.
"AARRRGGHH!" Synthea screamed, her hands balled into fists. "I wanted that book!"
"You could've just waited until it was delivered to the book store, you know." The woman on the couch said, her voice slightly slurred. "You're just so impatient."
"Shut up, Alice." Synthea snapped, "Let's hope Gwen has unpacked it by now."
"Gwen?" Alice repeated, "She's working at the bookstore?"
"Yes, why?" Synthea asked.
"Gwen is as dumb as a box of rocks and not as pretty." Alice replied, sitting up and putting her empty goblet on the coffee table.
"I know, but she has her uses." Synthea replied, walking over to the phone.
++++
It was a short drive to Ye Olde Book Shoppe and Peter was able to get a parking space close by. Slinging the sack of books across his shoulder, he walked over to the store's front window. Looking at the books on display Peter frowned, but with a sigh, he walked inside the old store. He had been to this store before, but wasn't too happy about coming here. The only reason he did come here was that this was one of the few bookstores around that bought books as well as sold them.
The bell attached to the door announced Peter's arrival and within moments a woman came from the back room. She winced when she saw Peter, (she had waited on him the last time he had come) but put on a smile and walked over to him. Peter also remembered the girl and with an inward sigh walked over to her.
"Hello, welcome to Ye Olde Book Shoppe." She said in a squeaky voice, "My name is Gwen how may I help you?"
"Hello Gwen." Peter replied, "I'd like to sell some books."
"Oh...will you be buying some too?" She asked hopefully.
"Yes I will." Peter nodded.
"Ok, come over here." Gwen said, leading him over to the front counter, "Let's see what you have."
Peter put the sack of books on the counter and opened it up. As Gwen watched, Peter opened up the sack and laid the books out for her to see.
"You want to sell these?" Gwen asked.
"Yes, I no longer read them, nor believe in their message." Peter replied. "They're cluttering up my bookshelf."
"Oh." Was all Gwen could say. She looked at the books and noticed ones like Autobiography of a Yogi, the I Chin and Mike's L. Ron Hubbard book among them.
She lingered over them for several seconds, wondering why Peter wanted to get rid of them. Peter finally cleared his throat.
"Oh, I can give you seven dollars for them." Gwen told him, "And only because they're still in pretty good condition."
"I'll take it." Peter said. "I'd like to use the money on a new book."
"What book are you interested in?" Gwen asked.
"I'd like to buy another bible." Peter replied.
"Another one?" Gwen asked.
"Yes, for a friend." Peter said patiently.
"Ok, I'll show you where the bibles are." Gwen said and led him to the back of the store.
On the way there, Gwen's shoulder knocked a book off the shelf. Peter stopped and picked it up.
"Oh thank you." Gwen smiled, then noticed Peter looking at the cover. "That's one book in our best-selling series." She said.
"Yes, I know. I saw them on your front window display." Peter replied, frowning. "The Dirty Little Secrets Series."
"You know of it?" Gwen asked.
"It's a series of stories about four warlocks-in-training." Peter replied, looking Gwen right in the eye, "They appear to be ordinary guys trying to make a living, but actually they secretly use magic to cause trouble, thus the name of the series."
"Well it's just..." Gwen tried to say.
"But using witchcraft is evil." Peter went on, "And the four of them always seem to come out ahead at the end, making fools out of everyone."
"It seems you know a lot about the books." Gwen said when Peter finally finished.
"Yes, the pastor at my church warned us about them."
"But it's just a story." Gwen insisted.
"Stories aimed at the young under the guise of entertainment. Mixing good with evil. To make people think witchcraft is ok." Peter replied.
Gwen opened her mouth to say something, but then the phone rang.
"Excuse me." She said, glad to get away from Peter. "The bibles you're looking for are at the end of this aisle on the bottom row."
"Thank you." Peter replied, and walked to where the shop girl had indicated.
Once there, Peter saw a small brown leather bible sitting on top of a pile of wrapped ones still sitting in an open box. Obviously, the bibles had just come in. He picked up the bible and flipped through it.
"Yes, this is very nice." Peter thought, "Darlene will love it."
He picked up one of the paper-wrapped bibles underneath it and walked back up to the counter.
Gwen ran over to the phone and answered it on the fourth ring.
"Hello, Ye Old Book Shoppe, may I help you?"
"Took you long enough to answer." Was the sharp reply on the other end.
"Oh, I'm sorry, mistress." Gwen answered, her voice low "I was busy with a customer."
The voice on the other end made a dismissive sound and got right to the point.
"My demons didn't get the package, they had been tricked. Go see if it had come in the morning's arrivals."
"I'll check, mistress." Gwen said nervously, "I haven't had the chance to really unpack everything yet."
"Well, get rid of that customer, close the shop, and look for it!" Synthea growled, "I want it brought to me right away!"
"It will be done, mistress." Gwen said, but by that time the person on the other end had hung up.
Gwen turned and was startled to see Peter standing behind her. He was holding a book wrapped in white paper in his hand.
"Oh, you scared me!" Gwen exclaimed.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that." Peter replied sincerely, "I would like to buy this bible."
"Ok, come on, I'll ring it up." Gwen replied with a smile.
Chapter 1
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