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his eyes and the edges of his mouth.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time," he said. "This power sometimes skips
generations. I really didn't know if you had it until now. There'd been some
indications, but nothing concrete. Sitting here, with twenty-twenty hindsight, I
now realize there were times when it was obvious you had the power. I just
didn't want to believe it so I attributed it to something else."
"For instance," Jason said.
"Remember the time you got caught out in the snowstorm? You always
wondered how I could've found you so far off the trail and buried under the
snow. It wasn't just luck. I felt you, felt your heartbeat, heard your calls for help.
I thought it was me, my power reaching out and finding you. Still, I knew it felt
different, the energy was not like anything I'd ever experienced before. I figured
it was my emotional state making me feel strange. Now I know it was you. I
didn't find you; you found me."
"But you're a priest," Alex said. "How can you be a witch, too? Aren't the two on
opposite ends of the spectrum?"
"Personally, I don't like the term witch or warlock," Stephen said. "It implies
something evil. That's not true. There's nothing evil about the power. You're
simply born with it. It's an ability, a genetic trait, like the ability to throw a
football one hundred yards or to figure vast sums in your head. You've either got
it or you don't. I prefer to see it as a gift of God, a wonderful and powerful gift
that can easily be abused, but a gift nonetheless."
"So are you saying that witches and evil don't exist?" Alex asked. "That it's just
good people doing bad things?"
"Not at all," Stephen said. "Evil definitely exists because Satan exists. It's his
method to make basically good people do evil things, things that make them turn
away from God. Misusing this power falls into that category. In that way, people
lose faith in themselves, in right and wrong. Eventually they lead to their own
downfall, sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leading someone into misusing this
power is one of the things Satan can do.
"As for witches, it's sort of a matter of semantics. To some, the power that I
have, that you have, Jason, is horrifying. They don't understand it, so they seek
to define it in generalized and inaccurate terms. In that sense witches do exist,
but only in the minds of those who don't understand the true nature of the gift."
"How do you know Satan isn't making you think this power is a gift from God?"
Jason asked. "All the good you've been doing may have been satanically
directed."
"Good point," Stephen said. "One I've thought a lot about. The only answer I
have is that I believe in my faith and I believe in the goodness of the lord. The
times I've used the gift have all been for righteous and legitimate purposes. I've
never used it to further my own wealth or position in life. I've only used it to
help others and, in helping those others, I believe I've done the work of God."
"Sounds like massive rationalization to me," Jason said.
"Could be," Stephen said. "But the only way I'll know is when I die and stand
before God, or Satan, as the case may be. I believe in the former. Your mother
did, too. That's why she stayed. That and her love for me."
Stephen looked at his son. "It was your mother who put in the strongest vote
against telling you. She didn't want you to know unless it was necessary."
A faraway expression entered Stephen's eyes.
"She convinced herself it wasn't right up to the very end. Then it was too late."
"Mom knew all about it?" Jason exclaimed.
"Of course she knew," Stephen said. "The same as Alex knows now. My father
told me about the gift before he died. But I didn't tell Maureen until after we
were married. She wouldn't leave me. She even knew about Moloch, but she
wouldn't leave. It would've been so much better if she had."
"Moloch?" Alex said. "You mean the Phoenician god of death? The one who
demanded child sacrifices?"
"Precisely," Stephen said, impressed. "That's the name of the creature that
attacked you last night. How did you recognize the name?"
"My father was a nut about Egyptology," she said. "That naturally spilled over
into the history of the entire Middle East.
"And if I remember right," she continued, "Moloch demanded firstborn sons as
the children of sacrifice."
"Exactly," Stephen answered.
"Getting back to the matter at hand," Jason interrupted. "What is this Moloch?
Where does it come from? Is it really the same god that the Phoenicians
worshipped?"
"I doubt it, although I don't really know what he is. He's strong; his powers rival
our own. In some ways they're stronger, because he has no mercy, no conscience
to rein him in.
"As to where he comes from, my guess is he lives in a parallel world, an
alternate universe to use an old Outer Limits term. Whatever you want to call
them, they're real. It's my opinion that most demons, hobgoblins, and other
supernatural creatures come from alternate worlds."
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