When I was young, every story of ghouls and demons intrigued me. I soaked my mind in any book of fantasy, religion, myth, and especially gravitated towards vampires and monsters of fairytales. My interest continued into adulthood, and I then sought out the text and manuscripts of these tales. I visited libraries, temples, and pursued any shred of strange occurrences. I wanted to witness a truly supernatural event, some proof of their existence beyond the pages of myth. I stayed the night at haunted houses, attended religious rites, even visited the castles of Vlad the Impaler and the infamous Countess Bathory, who was rumored to bathe in the blood of virgins.
Why virgins? Why did creatures require virgins? Was it innocence, hoping to inflict an unforgettable trauma? Was it the purity of passing on genetics, a remnant of hereditary rulership? Or was blood something more, some source of life? Regardless, visiting these places showed me something more, something which has since afflicted me with doubtless terror.
I found something, a signature in the bowels of both the castles of Vlad the Impaler and the Countess. Although separated by hundreds of years, the sigil was found at both places. The symbol was carved into the stone foundation, a Latin name, comprised of 2 words.
In both places the words Vex Obernoth were etched. The letters overlapped, becoming a single letter or symbol.
I looked for a reference anywhere in my books and resources. I found nothing in my own, but I did find a reference in the 1st edition of Dante’s Inferno. A demon who lived on the outskirts of the City of Dis, a location near the center of hell. This demon would usher the most vile and corrupted souls past the city gates and deeper into the infernal pit. I found the mention only once, but I had a trail to follow.
For years I searched, and a few crumbs led me to ancient rulers. I found the sigil of Vex Obernoth in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal. This tyrannical ruler was obsessed with collecting ancient texts in the hopes of finding immortality. I found the sigil in 2 of the great pyramids, thousands of years before Dante’s Inferno was written. The unnamed tombs had their names scratched off. From the hieroglyphs there was mention of eternal life, a contract with the demon Vex, a great serpent of the sky.
I took photos and rubbings of these findings; I collected as much as I could on my own. Then with access to the internet and its ghostly immortality, I found others had also done rubbings of artifacts. I found a rubbing of the Holy Grail, and on its side, I saw the distinct sigil of Vex. This is when is started to put the pieces together.
The common theme was immortality, and eternal life. With the Grail, the knights were successful and whatever terrors or justifications of their quest, was quietly omitted from the pages of history. Whereas with Ashurbanipal, Vlad, and the Countess, their crimes were all which remained of their immortality attempts. So, I surmised the demon would tempt rulers with eternal life and the price of some great evil or cost.
Then I investigated the biggest story of eternal life; Christianity. I was able to visit the Vatican in Rome and see some of the letters which were the foundation for the New Testament. I discovered of the 26 included letters, 13 were written by the Apostle Paul, and the book of Revelation was written by John. I found the sigil of Vex Obernoth on 3 of Paul’s letters, and 1 on manuscript of Revelations. Such a connection was unmistakable. I recorded my findings, but besides the sigils, I had no further details about Vex Obernoth.
Then as luck would have it, I was at a family gathering, and my sister suggested her piano might be haunted. I found the sigil of Vex hidden within and asked to borrow the piano. Later, when I played the piano, in the hopes some inspiration or knowledge would occur to me. A swirl of black miasma flowed from it, and a fiendish voice spoke from behind the cloud. I listened in paralyzed silence.
“I will give you eternal life mortal, in exchange for the blood of your family. Kill them and live until time itself disappears. What is my low price compared to an eternal reward?”
I awoke in a fever, without the memory of going to sleep. I can still feel the demon nearby, and when no one else is in my home, I can hear 2 notes played on the piano, a reminder of the infernal contract awaiting me. I won’t deny it’s temptation; to live to see the modern world play out, to see what happens in 500 years, or 1000. To see how history moves, naked without the blur of secondhand experience. I am not a killer, nor will I be the demon’s victim, but the illicit magic of such a wonderous thing consumes and enthralls me. I feel like I am a part of an ancient and endless legacy. I feel like Dante, visiting the locations of Hell, an awestruck tourist of corruption.
So here is my dilemma, do I take such knowledge to the grave, or to publish these findings? If I tell others, they might take up the demon on their transaction. They might invoke the sigil and through great evil acts justify the promise of eternal life. Yet even thinking these thoughts, my mind is drawn towards the age of my family, and how easy they might step into death as they enter old age. I feel like a worm, dangling on a hook for some great monstrance to consume.
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