Demented...
Demented...
It is a day of December in the year 2012; according to the ancient Mayans, it is the end of an age, but we underestimated to what extent. Today the world is facing a pandemic where people of all genders, ages and ethnicities are experiencing psychotic episodes with visions and collective paranoia, resulting in tragic and mysterious deaths.
Those who are affected by this hysteria are sharing the same dreams and hallucinations, and they believe to receive divine revelations. Their lives are at risk and many are afraid, trying to live a normal life and hiding from those who are chasing them. Some of them have been found death, by having their hearts ripped off their chests while still alive. The media calls it the “Genocide of the Enlightened”.
But when the world faces the greatest darkness, the brightest light is sent to us. Legends, myths and religions all over the world speak of then; but you might know them as “Angels”. Among them, seven are above all; they are the great Archangels and when divine intervention is needed, the Archangels come to life as human without memories of their real identity. But as eternal and multidimensional beings, the angels and archangels have to split into two or more, to fit human bodies and dream the dream of life. They normally split into a female and a male half, creating twin souls. The males are called the Keys, and the females are the Gates, because through them is how the divine entities can crossover to the realm of men. These are believes of those affected by this dementia, waiting for the awakening of the archangels in their human form.
The assassination of the so-called “Enlightened” has caught the attention of the highest circles of power; the kind of power that can build nations and destroy governments. There is an ancient control system “Control” that centers the political, religious, scientific and financial powers across the globe; they have live in secrecy for generations; they were there in the times of the Templars, but their existence can be traced to the times of the last pharaohs.
“Control” has many agents positioned around the world, but there is one above all others: Max di Santi, a man like no other. His body is a mortal weapon that pushes the limits of strength, speed and flexibility of our species. His brain is unique, manifesting eidetic memory, telepathy and telekinesis, therefore he is blessed with photographic memory, he can hear and see peoples thoughts, and he can move objects with his mind. But Max also suffers from a rare memory disorder that prevents him from storing long-term memories, and every morning Max wakes up with no knowledge of his past or his real identity. For this reason, Max records messages on his “gadget” hopping that when he wakes up the next morning he will have enough information to survive another day. Through this same gadget, on the shape of a mobile phone, Max receives his instructions from Control, and he has access to limitless resources and information through “Operator” which he trusts blindly, so he can fulfill the most dangerous missions in the most unlikely places, no questions asked.
Max’s mission borders on the paranormal and his badge grants him jurisdiction around the world. He is entrusted to neutralize the Heart-rippers and end the “Genocide of the Enlightened”, but now he has been commanded to find and neutralize a mysterious cyber terrorist and to retrieve a vital file. The target goes by the web alias “The Word”, but others call him Metatron. The Word had obtained and leak highly classified information on the net and the file is a diary written in future dates, describing with disturbing precision the world events that are happening after the diary was written. The name of this file is "The Third Testament". When Max discovers that The Word is a mixed-race teen and he causes the boys death, Max starts questioning the legitimacy of his actions.
Max’s journey takes him to track members of ancient royal dynasties, which can be traced to the times before Christ; among the people he gets to meet are the queens of an all female court originated en Africa, which might have answers about The Word. Another important figure in his life is lord Byron Merlova, also known as the last Merovingian; Max in confronted with the lord when a massacre in the Merlova castle becomes his mission. There he discovers that it was not the fist time he walked the halls of the castle; he starts remembering his childhood when he was tested and tutored by lord Byron himself who is the highest authority of “Control”. Older memories takes him back to the life of Saint Rodolfo who visited the castle five centuries ago and initiated the Inquisition, and the life of Saint Longinus who was present at the crucifixion and prevented the mutilation of the body of Christ.
Max discovers that most of his missions involve secrecy surrounding the “real” lineage of Jesus Christ, both his ascendance and his descendants. Great forces are battling to either reveal or conceal this secret. Max also discovers that the genealogy of one of the seven dynasties involved traces down to him.
A series of experience reveals that Max is either in the middle of a war between angels and demons, or he is just demented.
Synopsys
This is the story of the seven archangels that come to life as humans when divine intervention is needed. They have no memory of their past or their real identity. According to the myth, the archangels are multidimensional beings that split into two to fit human bodies, normally as females known as the “Gates” and males known as the “Keys”.
The story is centered in Max di Santi, the Luvion’s Key, who came as Saint Longinus during the crucifixion of The Christ who fifteen centuries later returned as Saint Rodolfo, initiating the witch hunts. Today we believed that the Luvion’s Key has returned as Max di Santi, a secret agent for a powerful organization who suffers from a rare memory disorder but is gifted with super natural abilities. His mission involves solving crimes related to paranormal events around the world.
There is a conspiracy to assassinate members of seven ancient royal families that are linked to the bloodline of Jesus Christ. The assassins are trying to prevent the fulfillment of the prophecy that speaks of the return of the Messiah, upon the unification of the seven bloodlines.
Max eventually discovers that he belongs to at least one of these families. Max begins to believe that he is then incarnation of the Archangel Michael, but it might all just be dementia.
By Walter Moore
Chapter 1:
I was born the day I died
It is another night in another city, in the fall of 2012. An empty road in the darkest night and Agent Max di Santi is behind the wheel of his black Porsche Mascan. This, he likes much, he likes the silence and the empty road.
The wind rages through the window and thorough his black shiny and abundant hair, and yet there is silence. To his left, the lake whispers and the crickets sing, but still there is silence, because there is not a thought in his mind, just silence. Having the mind is free from all thoughts is an indescribable experience, but to be able to maintain this freedom for a long period of time is merely impossible. The human mind is a fascinating thing, we use a small percentage of its potential, we all have human brains but each one is unique.
Eidetic memory, for example, (known as photographic memory), allows people to memorize what they see after a brief exposure, with outstanding precision and for a long period of time; it is only found in children and generally is not found in adults, however, at age thirty, Agent Max di Santi has an eidetic memory which make him great for his job.
Max di Santi is a man like no other, taller than the average man, Max has the shape of a gladiator; his body is a mortal weapon, which make him great for the job. Max’s brain is also rare; he suffers from a memory disorder that prevents him from storing long-term memories and every morning he wakes up with no knowledge of his past or his real identity and some how, this makes him perfect for his job.
Max has a gadget that looks like a mobile phone; it has a metallic texture and a simple and yet refined shape. Every night, Max uses the gadget to leave a message for the man he will be the next morning, who will have no notion of who he is or what he is, as if he was born again, like every morning.
Through “the gadget” Max has access to all available information classified or not. He also has near to limitless resources through his gadget, where he receives instructions delivered by “Operator”, the voice in the other side of the line; soft, polite and even sensual to some. We have a hard time knowing if Operator is a real woman or a very sophisticated machine.
People tend to describe the human body as a machine, but a machine can be disassembled and reassembled getting the same result. The human body, on the other hand, cannot. Max’s “machine” is highly performing; he pushes the limits of strength, speed, flexibility and dexterity of the human body; but not surprisingly what people notices the most is the way Max looks; this he knows for a fact because one of the most amazing things about Max is that, additional to his above normal sense of hearing, he can also feel, hear and see peoples thoughts.
In the intimacy of their own thoughts, people indulge in the most outrageous fantasies when they meet Max; they either want him or want to “be” him. Instinctively a female human reacts to Max’s physical attributes, slave to the their primitive instincts that force them to feel attraction for the best specimen in order to pass down his attributes to the next generation. Most human males with heterosexual tendencies see Max with both admiration and envy; Max creates reactions generated by the competitive nature of our species, however we are also social by nature and we are condition to work in hierarchic systems on which Max would stands out as Alpha. Max is what women want to have and men want to be.
Our reproductive instinct translates into sexual desire. Thanks to sex we have entered into the world we live in, and is thanks to sex that we will have a next generation that will inherit our genetic pool; therefore the selection through genetic attributes is of the most importance. Men are the keys and women are the gates through which we cross into the human experience; but now days, our primitive reproductive impulse is manifested in the search for pleasure and it’s rarely done for reproductive purposes.
If you knew that your thoughts are no longer private, how would you feel and react? Even if Max wakes up every morning in a new place, with no memory of his past or identity, it takes him no effort to know that people will think something but will say something else, and their actions must of the time wont match either their thoughts or their words. Max looks at us and at the world we created, with the eyes of an explorer observing an inferior species. Even so, every new morning Max observes with fascination and he is always surprised with the general goodness of our nature, our expressions of love, compassion and our sense of humor.
Max believes that as a species were are in the perfect center between the animal and the divine. Max has no sense of superiority even if he is superior in many ways; he feels compassion and sometimes, great sadness for the senseless suffering we created, knowing how easy would it be to fix it all. He sees us with our broken spirits always waiting and hoping, feeling separated, not knowing that we are all connected, not knowing that together we are unstoppable. Even if Max can see the uniqueness in each of us, he has a hard time seeing a person as an individual unless there is something special about a person; he sees the human family as one entity, like if we are just cells in a body; but he also sees a body without a head. It is painfully obvious to him that what humanity is missing is an Alpha and one throne. For Max our planet is a home, and humanity is a family, but this family and this home needs a father and a mother as there was in the days of the garden.
For a moment, Max was able to clear his mind from all thoughts, but the nature of the mind forces us to move through moments and emotion in a fluid and at times repetitive way; we tend to think, but also we have an internal dialog and this he knows it for a fact. Our brain is always thinking and when asleep is dreaming. It takes some training to stop all this thinking and gain awareness of our thoughts. A thought tends to involves an emotion and Max can see that people in general want to be elsewhere, doing something else with someone else or alone; people are rarely present, in the here and now, always taken by memories of the past or pre experiencing events that may or may not happen in the future.
Max realizes that he likes to be alone. Being present in the moment and completely aware of what he is doing, he is invaded by a thought and then by the memories of the last twenty hours, which is all he can remember from his whole life. Max’s life are the events that occurred from the moment he woke up in a hotel room at sunrise, to the very moment is was living then and there, behind the wheels of a luxurious black USV. He though:
“The thoughts of one or few are like crickets in the night,
but the thought of many or all is painful and unbearable noise.”
When you can hear, see and feel the thoughts of hundreds of people thinking at the same time, the noise of the city becomes something out of this world.
“I like the silence
There is virtue in loneliness”
Just finishing having this thought, Max’s mind is invaded by gruesome images of a massacre; he can hear the thoughts of one or two at first, but soon after, he can hear dozens of voices:
“I’ve never seen anything like this!”
“Look at all this blood!”
“Who could have done this?”
“I don’t understand, no gunshots, no stab wounds!
Something did this with its own claws!”
“How can you rip out someone’s heart with bare hands?”
Max understands that he is not far from his destination, and the GPS system confirms it: “In five kilometers turn left to arrive to your destination”.
Heavy Crown
Potenza, Italy, 1990. That faithful night was tainted in all sorts of grays; the sea and the skies were enraged, as if the heavens wanted to bring down the magnificent building with thunders and lightning; but Villa di Santi stood proudly on top of the cliff, with its tall columns, its white marble and its many secrets.
For countless generations, Villa di Santi was home to an ancient Italian dynasty of the same name. The ancestry of this noble family could be traced for over five centuries which produced a great number of memorable characters in the political, financial and ecclesiastic realms, but for one reason or another, their lives used to end untimely, making them a breed in the verge of extinction and in 1990 only two di Santi were alive, mother and son, but in light of what was occurring at the time, maybe only one would survive the night. Lorena di Santi was young, beautiful and wealthy like no other, but none of that mattered in those days, she would have traded all for her son’s health.
Fear clouded Lorena’s life, since her parents died in a plain crash. She was raised by her sole relative, the powerful matriarch, Regina di Santi, her father’s mother who isolated her behind the walls of the villa to kept her close and safe from the dangers of the world, knowing that death was always lingering around them.
Lorena had just turned eighteen when Regina was found lifeless in the northern gardens of the villa, poisoned by a common bee to which she was allergic. After her “Nona’s” passing, Lorena became the sole heiress of one of the greatest fortunes in the old continent, making of her the most coveted price. Proposals from the wealthiest and noblest of families came from the four corners of the world, but for the first time she felt free and no one on Earth could force her into doing something she wouldn’t want.
Lorena became a socialite in the vibrant European bourgeoisie during the late seventies. She was the quintessence of youth, beauty and old money. But the sense of inevitability that she was brought up with and the access to limitless resource, allowed Lorena to live her life in the most unusual way. She traveled the world to the most colorful and some times the most terrible places. She had a hunger of experiences and purpose. She used to enjoy living as a commoner among the most humble people, but even if she brought happiness and hope to many with her wealth, she always felt unfulfilled.
All the emptiness came to an end in a Mediterranean beach of Morocco. He was tall and dark, he was beautiful; a magnificent specimen and more than that; he was the one, he was the only one. For the first time she truly believed that invisible forces could conspire to bring together the ingredients of perfection. There was nothing she could or would do to prevent that very moment when two naked bodies laying on the sand became one. New life got seeded in the deepness of her very self.
Lorena was already in her early thirties when she gave herself to the man who made her a mother and they never saw each other again. We know nothing of him; she jealously kept the secret, but we can guess his beauty when we look at the child they produced. When anyone dared to ask about the father she always replied: “It was an angel from heaven”.
Many would say that the old glory of the di Santi dynasty was lost when the sole heiress decided to conceive a fatherless son; but today we know that they were wrong.
When Lorena returned from her trip to Morocco she kept thinking of that man she loved instantly and the words he told her; she tried to disregard it as superstitions when he told her that they would have a boy, a very special boy and she will have three visitors to witness his birth. Lorena knew impossible a conception as she had taken the precautions to prevent it but no one can scape destiny. Five months into her pregnancy three Tibetan monks arrived to gates of Villa di Santi, and Lorena began to believe.
Master Yao was a very old man, already ninety-nine, who served as Sacred Oracle of a temple in the highest mountains of Tibet. The Oracle was never to leave the temple, especially with his poor health, but he decided to come to Potenza in person to bless the unborn child, as he knew he would not last much longer. According to the tradition, when the Sacred Oracle has the visions of the incarnation of and important entity, Tibet sends a mission to meet the parents before or after the birth of the child, when this child comes to age, a number of test are presented to him or her to confirm the identity of the soul, objects are presented to the child and among them, some of the objects will be items that belong to him or her in a previous life; choosing the correct items will confirm the reincarnation of that known soul.
The Sacred Oracle, with the help of two younger companions that were fluent in Italian and English told her that that night in the Moroccan beach she had become a “Gate of Life” and a very old soul who was there since the beginning was to be born through her womb; a boy who would become a champion for the divines, who will hold the spear and bring the rage of God to those who linger in darkness. Lorena said she did not believe in reincarnation, she said she was from the Christian faith, to what the monk replied: “If you are Christian you believe in the second coming of your god. How else is he going to come to life if is not through reincarnation?”. Lorena decided not to discuss religion, feeling compassion for the old man who said he came all the way from Tibet because he knew that his days on Earth were about to end. The Sacred Oracle shyly asked her if he could touch her belly, and when she agreed he gave his blessings: “Welcome to life, oh holly one, may the grace of god bathe your days in the land of men! Welcome to life, oh Luvion’s champion! May the armies of god follow your commands!” .
Later that day, Lorena was told that the old Oracle past away in the airport, moments before he had to board his flight back home.
Four month later, Maximus Angelo Benedetto di Santi was born. Max was a beautiful boy, with his big blue eyes, his black hair and his pale skin. Max di Santi was the joy and pride of his mother. During his first five years, Lorena left all public life and dedicated her days to see him grow. Lorena found the greatest happiness watching her toddler giving his first steps towards her arms in the gardens of the villa, but the joy lasted five years and few months. She thought that five years and few months was the exact time that took Death to find them.
Standing in the dark, staring at the fuggy window, Lorena watched how the sky brought down its fury. Lorena had no fight left inside her; her boy was dying.
A month ago the, a five year old Max di Santi was the happiest child; his laughter could fill the immensity of the villa. Max would spend the days running, jumping, and playing in a world of wonder. He was a curious boy, with the purest heart. He was instantly loved by whomever he encountered, but all these changed the night he gazed into the eyes of death and since then he was no longer the same.
Max got deeply tormented and victim of an unknown illness that was beyond the realm of the medical science. Febrile and suffering from horrible hallucinations, the boy would neither eat nor sleep. He grew weak each day that passed and the doctors feared the worst, but he was not hospitalized. The boy remained in his chambers in the highest floor of Villa di Santi.
That summer, Lorena was woken up every night by the cries of her boy; but it got worse. Max used to speak of a woman that visited him at night, but no one believed him so in time he decided to stop speaking all together. It didn’t take long for all to realize that the boy’s torments were not product of the child’s imagination.
One by one, the members of the help experienced something that could only be described as a presence. It started with a faded lament in the wind, which became so loud that it was impossible to ignore, followed by the inexplicable drop in room temperature. One by one, cooks, maids, driver, gardeners and everyone else from the help left the Villa, spooked by what came at night. Most of them could hear her clearly, crying and moaning in pain; this was the sound of a tormented soul, but Max was the only one who could actually see her. She wore a wet white dress from an ancient time, torn and dirty with mud. Her pale skin was translucent and her long black hair would cover the dark holes she had for eyes. The crying woman suffered from a pain that was beyond physical.
For Lorena it was nothing more than the superstitions of ignorant villagers that somehow came to her son’s ears. She thought they were spooked by popular legends and the vivid imagination of a sick boy. Even so, she sock help in the town’s church. Lorena found out that “La Llorona” (The Crying Woman) was a wide spread legend with several version, that spoke of a woman who committed suicide after killing her children. But what she thought were rumors and superstitions had gotten out of control really fast. Lorena refused to believe until that night when she realized she was all alone in four stores villa with a sick child and she saw the wet footprints on the carpet of her son’s bedroom. At first she thought she was also hallucinating; she was as sleep deprived as her son, but she went down on her knees and she felt the dirty water on the thick carpet with the shape of a woman’s foot, and she finally knew that something terrible got a hold of her son and her home.
A lightning, a thunder and the lights went out.
The electricity was intermittent so there were long moments of darkness. Lorena didn’t have the means to distract her mind, and it became impossible to remain in denial. Lorena lost all hope, she was broken and down on her knees; she had tried everything except for one, so she sock the help of a god she didn’t believe existed, and she prayed her heart out like she had never done before. Suddenly she heard the doorbell and the lights came back on.
Lorena got up from the carpet but when she looked again there were no footprints. She heard the doorbell once again, but was too tired and too desperate to think or act, she could only react. She gave another look to the floor, and then she went to Max’s, who was unconscious and sweaty. The doorbell rang a third time, so she walked out of Max’s bedroom and rushed through halls and staircases until she made it to the main entrance; she opened the great door just enough to see who was behind it and there she found a big black woman in her late sixties and she had the loveliest smile. She had an umbrella but for some reason she was not wet. “I’m sorry I came unannounced but…” she said “…I understand you are in desperate need of help. My name is Mrs. Angela, but everyone calls me Mama Angie”.
Lorena opened the great door as wide as possible and she got out of the way without saying a word; this is how she welcomed Mama Angie to her home; the way you would welcome the greatest blessing. Lorena stood there, before Angela, looking down with her hands crossed, she felt like crying but she didn’t, and Mama Angie understood. “Lets get us some tea, you will feel much better”.
Mama Angie found her way to the kitchen and Lorena followed. She helped Lorena sit at the kitchen table and she boiled some water to prepare some tea for both. “Let me guess…” Mama Angie said, “No milk, no sugar, just some drops of lime and honey, am I right?” Lorena nodded.
Mama Angie joined Lorena at the table when the cries of the boy became louder than the storm. Lorena trembled, but Mama Angie comforted her holding her hand with compassion. Lorena broke in tears and leaned on Angela’s shoulder to let it all out. Mama Angie got up and held Lorena’s hand saying: “So, is time to work. Take me to the boy.”
Lorena took Mama Angie to Max’s chambers; where they found the boy terrified with his eyes wide opened and gasping for air. The power went out once again, but Angie lit the candles she found on the night table.
For Max and Mama Angie, the soft light of the candle revealed the pale face of the crying woman, but Lorena could not see it. Mama Angie looked right into the dark holes that the spectrum had for eyes but then she decided to ignore her and focus on the boy. Mama Angie sat beside Max and gently she encouraged him to lean on her chest. Angie put her arm around Max’s shoulders and then she said: “I heard you had some trouble sleeping my little friend. When I was little I had the same problem, until someone told me stories to help me fall asleep. I know a story that might be perfect for you:”
“A long time ago, in a beautiful castle, a princess was born, but the joy didn’t last as the baby was stolen from her mother by an evil witch. The princess was not harmed because she was too valuable for all, and the witch raised her as if she was her own daughter. The princess grew into a young beautiful woman but she was raised as a witch.
One day she met a man, but this man was no other, he was a noble man full of compassion who declined the wealth and privilege of his noble family to serve his god. He was a Saint and a healer who was able to cast away the demons. The saint was offered in marriage to the princess since he was a little boy, but as a man, he refused to marry when he made vows. Even so the witches knew that they were destined to meet, and a force beyond their will drew them to each other.
The princess and the saint crossed paths in a gala at a great Merlova castle. Some say that it was the use of her dark arts and a poison on the wine what seduced the saint and that night, under the light of a red moon, they gave into the desires of the flesh; she was no longer a princess and he was no longer a saint, they were just a man and a woman and they loved each other for just one moment.
But afterwards, the spell of the witch wore of, and when the saint returned to his senses he realized that he had sin. It all felt like a dream to him, but he was naked in the dark woods by the castle. Then he understood that he was cheated and that he had lost his sanctity. The saint got enraged when he saw a demon in the princes, and he cursed her, her womb and all of her kind. But what he didn’t know at the time is that the queen witch who stole the princess had plotted their encounter and their union would produce a child destined to bare an incredible power: the power of the eyes that could see it all.
The princess was accused of witchery and was condemned to die by fire, but as she was carrying a child inside her, she was allowed to live until the creature was born. The princess was confined to the dungeons in a convent and there she remained in darkness, until the night of the storm, a night very much like this, when the locks and gates of her prison opened by an unseen force and she got to scape.
But at that point the prince had realized how much damage she had caused. She knew she had done terrible things and she knew she had to put an end to it; so, under the fury of the storm she went to the top of the bridge and she jumped into the mad river.
The princes woke up in a world full of darkness, everyone and everything where nothing more than shadows for her eyes, no one could see her or touch her, and she could not touch anything or anyone. The princess realized that she was all alone, in her own personal hell.
The days turned into months and then years. Centuries passed and during that time of loneliness she sock any kind of human contact but the most she got of it was when someone got spooked by her cries.
But nothing is fore ever, (not even hell), so one night, five hundred years later, while roaming the world by the sea line, she saw a light in the distance and she was drawn to it. There was also a familiar feeling, a presence that she had almost forgotten; she had found the saint who cursed her, but he was no longer a man; he was a boy with a different name, living a different life.
She couldn’t help it, she had to see him and she begged for him to look back at her, but he wouldn’t do it. The boy that once was a saint was terrified of the vision of her, and he couldn’t understand because he could no longer remember, and she cried and cried every night but he only felt more and more tormented.
The princess and the saint were bound to each other since a time before time, in this life and many others, because they were two half of one thing. He suffered, because she suffered, but he didn’t know this then. The boy that once was a saint didn’t understand that she only wanted him to look at her and see that she regretted all she did to him in the past. She needed his forgiveness so she could rest in peace. “
Both Lorena and Max listened in silence and with fascination to Mama Angie’s story, and when she was done, Max had this look on his eyes, like if he had finally comprehended everything. He gathered all his strength to get out of bed but he was very weak; even so he refused his mother’s help, and he managed to get on his own two feet.
Max gave few steps towards the darkest corner of his chambers, because he knew he would find her there. He could clearly see her, a woman in fetal position crying in the corner, dressed in white, wet and dirty, with long black hair. She didn’t look at him, she was blinded by the shine that came out of the boy, and then she heard his voice, but it was not the voice of a child, it was the voice of a man from another time, and he said: “I forgive you!”
At that very moment, all the centuries of pain and misery were lifted of her soul, she was no longer wet or dirty, she felt like she became her old self. She was overwhelmed with joy and she went on her knees in gratitude. Then she vanished.
The power returned to Villa di Santi. Lorena couldn’t believe the dramatic recovery of her sick son. Max looked at his mother and said: “I’m hungry”, and Lorena burst into tears. Mama Angie chose that moment to walk away to never return.
