Old Valley Road Hotel

[ 10 ! 50 ]

The Old Valley Road Hotel.

By Wombat. -------------------------

-------------------------------- Part 10 - The Hotel of Horrors --------------------------------

He strode back down into the kitchen and looked around. It was dark in there because of the boards on the windows. Derek could barely see but he could see it was a large room with dusty stainless steel surfaces everywhere. It was obviously equipped to cater for a large hotel. There were two large six-burner stoves that he could see in the faint light. There were sinks, bowls, mixers and culinary equipment everywhere. It looked as though everything had been just left there. Everything was covered in gritty dust. Derek found the light switch on the door to the main part of the hotel but of course it did not work. The electricity had never been reconnected after it was cut off in 1993.

Derek prowled out into the ground floor corridor. He scanned around with his telepathic sense but did not pick up a thing. He was on high alert. He decided to explore all over the hotel. He was not going to sit around like a dummy waiting for something to happen. He investigated the ground floor of the back of the hotel first. He remembered seeing from the plans when he bought the property that the hotel was basically square in shape with a courtyard in the middle. There were two stories and an extensive basement that extended the whole area of the hotel around the four sides of the courtyard. At the back of the hotel the basement was of two levels where the property sloped down away from the road.

Derek looked into some of the rooms near the kitchen. They were storerooms full of all sorts of things. Derek could not see clearly in the darkness. Despite it being noon outside, the hotel was very dark inside throughout because of the boards over the windows. Further along were small bedrooms for staff. Derek reached the corner of the corridor and turned towards the road frontage. The bedrooms were bigger than before but still fairly small. They were clearly for guests paying the cheap rate. Dust was everywhere. Every surface Derek touched was gritty with dust. Derek remembered from before that the big luxurious rooms were upstairs. He had spent those frightening first two nights in one of those upstairs room. He became aware of a foetid smell in the air as though there was a dead animal somewhere. Probably a dead rat, Derek thought. On high alert he prowled the corridor, passing a staircase up to the first floor. His thick muscular arms hung loosely and wide ready for action. Sweat ran down his neck and chest. As he approached the next corner he thought he heard footsteps behind him. He kept walking and reached out with his telepathy but nothing registered. The footsteps behind him continued. He whirled around but the corridor behind him appeared empty. However it was difficult to see in the darkness. There could easily be something lurking in the shadows. His eyes were not a lot of use. He wished Hal was with him and pushed the thought aside. He had to be alone for this mission to succeed. He was the bait. The thought made his skin crawl. What the hell was Hal going to do? There was no sign of him anywhere that Derek's telepathy could tell. Had Hal gone to up Heaven to call up the holy cavalry? He found the thought funny and oddly comforting. He was tense and getting a bit bored.

He walked stiff-leggedly around the corner and into the corridor that ran along the front of the hotel parallel to Valley Road. Something small and invisible in the darkness scuttled past him. A mouse? A rat? Derek had no idea. If it were a small rodent, it probably thought it saw the Terminator prowling the corridor. He realised he was about 40 pounds heavier than Arnold Schwarzenegger with bigger muscles. He would be the Heavy Terminator. Derek smiled grimly to himself at the thought. He heard distant laughter. His neck prickled. It was most likely a kookaburra outside sitting in a gum tree in the forest surrounding the hotel. It was out there in the midday sunshine in the friendly forest. How Derek wished he was outside in the sunshine too. Instead he was locked inside this bloody hotel like a guard dog prowling the corridors. The simile appealed to Derek. He saw himself as a big, deep-chested, powerful German Shepherd Dog with big sharp fangs on guard in this dismal hotel. This big dog was dangerous. He could fight. Derek gave an experimental growl. It sounded satisfactorily deep and throaty. He growled again. It felt good.

The rooms along this corridor were mainly bars, lounges and reception rooms. They were big rooms which would be light and airy once the boards were removed. In the bars Derek thought he could detect a very faint smell of stale beer and cigarette smoke. There were a few bedrooms as well. In one of the bars on the courtyard side of the corridor, Derek saw a bright light that looked like daylight. He walked quickly across the room and stumbled over a chair in the darkness. Fighting down an impulse to kick it across the room, he put the chair aside and approached more carefully. The light was streaming in from a hole in one of the boards covering the windows. He peered through the hole and saw part of the courtyard brightly lit in the sunshine. The part he could see was overgrown with weeds. He could see part of a sickly looking tree. The courtyard was going to need work, he thought.

Something brushed against his bare upper arm. Derek whirled around in fright. He could not see a thing. The room was in inky blackness as Derek's eyes were still used to the sunlight outside. He was effectively blinded. Fighting down a stab of panic, Derek took a deep breath and calmed himself down. He scanned around with his telepathy. There was nothing. He groped his way cautiously back across the room, stumbling into several chairs on the way. He wished his eyes would hurry up and readjust to the darkness. He fetched up against the opposite and groped along it for the door. He could not find it. Where was the fucking door? Derek became agitated. Something touched his bare biceps muscle and Derek felt a sharp sting shoot into it. Anxiously Derek brushed whatever it was off his arm. His biceps muscle kept on stinging. Something else touched the back of his bare neck. Derek brushed it away frantically. Other things came at his bare muscular chest, touching it and making it sting and tingle. Derek swung wildly in a rising panic and ran into the wall with a heavy thump. Keep calm, he told himself. He remembered Hal's words. No matter what, do not panic. He fought to regain his calm and his fear turned to anger. He was the big black panther and no damned evil spirits were going to mess with him. He snarled angrily. These filthy things had no business contaminating his place, this earth. He owned this place and he was not going to play host to things that destroyed the happiness of his race. Yes, to the evil spirits, he was a big fat oil tanker loaded with goodies. These spirits swirling around him probably missed out on a feed the last time he was in here and were absolutely desperate to get to his energy, so desperate that they were hurting him. They were craving the energy in his big muscles. If they missed out again, they probably faced extinction soon. Good fucking riddance! The sooner these fucking pirates and parasites were got rid of, the better! His anger scared them off but the room was full of rustling. His eyes adjusted to the darkness again. He found the door and stalked out into the gloomy corridor. It was actually darker that in the reception room he had just left. Why did they congregate there? He had better be careful. The evil spirits had already drawn blood, metaphorically speaking. They had already tapped some of his energy. It was a good thing he had plenty. He thanked God that Hal had given him an energy charge before he came in here. He reached out with his telepathy towards God wanting release from this prison. He could just detect a distant warm fuzziness. A mind glyph came back.

<+ You are doing a good job. Please continue with your task. I love you, Derek. I am with you always. Remember that. +>

Derek stood in the dark corridor and sighed gustily. He was hot, sweaty and angry. God had just spoken to him, but he was far from overjoyed. He wanted out. If he were to go down, he would go down fighting. However, he was thankful that he was being watched over. He would put up a hell of a fight. He was Big Derek now. But these fucking spirits were so damned intangible. He clenched his teeth in determination. The big powerful man squared his shoulders and stomped along the corridor. His heavy boots thumped heavily along the wooden corridor floor. He arrived at the main entrance where the main staircase ascended upstairs. A dark carved wooden counter stood in front of the door to the manager's office. Derek ran his finger through the thick layer of dust on the counter top and wiped his hand on his overalls. He walked into the manager's office. The room was large and spacious but even darker than the main hall inside. The boarded up windows faced onto Valley Road. Near the window Derek could just see a large wooden desk with a chair behind it. He could sense something in the room with him. He could just make out an indistinct form sitting in the manager's chair. Curious, he walked over closer to the desk but the chair was empty. His skin crawled. He turned and walked out of the room into the main entrance hall again. The main entrance was dark. The stout wooden door was surrounded by fine stained glass windows that Derek had not noticed before. The whole entrance had been covered over with boards to protect these works of art. He tapped a panel experimentally. The hollow knocking noise seemed to echo around the hotel. He looked up at the dim form of the main staircase looming in the darkness. So this was where the hotel owner had hanged himself in 1933 according to Hal. He half expected to see the owner's form swinging from the upper balcony. The thought made the back of his neck prickle. It would have quite a sight to greet the staff and guests, he thought with grim humour. Something small brushed against his face. He brushed it away irritably. Derek was not sure whether it was an insect or something else.

He walked heavily into the corridor running parallel to Valley Road and turned towards the car park side to the building. On the other side of that car park lay the garage where he had lived for the past two years. This hotel was all new territory to him.

Behind the manager's office was what looked like another bar and next to that were two fine large dining rooms. Derek could see in the dim light the faint forms of tables and chairs spaced regularly around both rooms. The one next to the kitchen on the car park side of the hotel looked to be better appointed than the front dining room as far as Derek could tell in the faint light. Through a door in the end wall of the better was some kind of scullery or serving room. As he walked though in the gloom, he kicked a large metal pot lying on the floor in the middle of the room. The noise it made as it went crashing across the concrete floor echoed deafeningly around the hotel. Derek startled. He took a deep breath to calm himself and thought grimly that he was certainly drawing attention to himself. He reached out with his telepathic sense and could detect nothing. He opened the door on the other side and found himself back in the darkened kitchen after a complete circuit of the ground floor. He stood still and listened intently when he heard a faint scuttling in an obscure corner. He could detect telepathically the indistinct presence of something or some things in the vicinity. He did not like being in the dark. He heard distant laughter and sighed with relief when he recognised the laugh of the pair of kookaburras nesting in a gum tree in the forest not far from the garage. They reminded him of the good clean world outside. He wanted very much to be outside in the sunlight in instead of locked inside this dark and gloomy hotel. He squared his shoulders and steeled himself with determination. He was not going to fail Hal.

He stalked out through the kitchen door out into the corridor and turned towards the front of the hotel. Here the corridor formed a wide gallery with windows opening onto the central courtyard. The windows were all boarded up here too so it was dark here as well. There was a foetid smell here as well as if some animal had died and was rotting. Daylight showed faintly through chinks between the boards. On the other side were the kitchen and dining rooms. The feeling of other presences grew a little stronger. Halfway along the inside wall Derek found the staircase leading upstairs to the first floor. He remembered from the plans that there were staff stairs at each corner of the building and guests' stairs halfway along each side.

Derek ascended the darkened stairs and found himself in the first floor corridor running parallel to the car park. There were doors to rooms on each side. It was dark here and the offensive foetid smell was stronger. Derek could feel distinctly the presence of nameless things. His telepathy registered quite strongly. His skin crawled. Whatever they were, they were not nice. He found the room where he had spent the first two ghastly nights here two years ago when he was Little Derek. He was Big Derek now but still his skin prickled all over at the memory. He felt a constant background fear now. It was certainly not overwhelming but it was there nonetheless. The room was large and grand but it was quite dark because he had screwed the boards back over the windows back then. The bed and other furniture were still there and covered in dust. In the tiny amount of daylight shining through the chinks in the board he could see the crack in the glass from before when he had flung the window open in his panic- stricken flight from the things in the room. He could clearly sense something else in the room with him. It was utterly evil. He tensed his muscles ready for action. Something touched his back and brushed against his bare arm. His triceps muscle stung as the thing drew energy from him. Derek whirled, his teeth bared in an angry snarl. He growled throatily and grabbed vainly at what had stung him. He was the big black panther and he was not going to be intimidated. With all the dignity he could muster he stalked from the room into the corridor. Behind him he heard a low evil laugh. That was no kookaburra. He felt something invisible rush past his head with a flutter down the corridor. At first he thought it might have been a bat but it had an evil intelligence. There were faint knocking noises in the walls around him. He had goose-bumps permanently now. His bare muscular arms tingled. He could feel the tiny bumps in his smooth skin.

He walked into a room on the courtyard side and his nostrils were assailed by a strong and horridly repulsive odour of rotting flesh. In the dimness he could see something lying on the bed. It got up from the bed and walked towards him with arms outstretched. Rotten flesh phosphorescent with decay was falling off its face and the bones of the skull were visible. The empty eye sockets regarded Derek blankly. Long hair floated around the rotting head. It was wearing a tattered dress from the late nineteenth century. Once upon a time it might have been a woman. It was truly a ghastly apparition. Derek's eyes widened. He gasped in horror despite the foul stench. His scalp prickled and he broke out into a sweat. He kept his fear under rigid control. Some part of him marvelled at his self-control but he knew that if he slid over into panic, he was doomed. This was one hell of a test he had to undergo, if that what it was!

"Shit a brick, you're ugly!" he muttered and hurriedly left the room.

The foul stench was making him nauseous.

"Come back, my darling," screeched the apparition inside. "Come back to me, my beautiful man. Come back to me, my Adonis."

Derek was appalled by the echo of Hal's words. No fucking way on earth, he thought grimly to himself as he strode off down the corridor. An evil laugh cackled behind him. It was warm in the hotel and Derek was hot and sweaty now. Runnels of sweat ran from his neck down the cleft between his pectoral muscles. He could smell his own musky man's body odour. As he walked the corridor he heard the patter of many feet behind him. He stopped and whirled around. There was complete silence. Nothing stirred. The silence was absolute until it was broken by the sweet liquid warbling of a magpie in the courtyard outside. His eyes could detect nothing in the darkness but his telepathy was strongly registering evil minds nearby. They were cowards, he thought angrily, they won't come at me directly. Unbidden, an image popped into his mind of a big, heavily muscled bull loaded with good meat being stalked by a pack of wolves who were slowly but surely wearing him down. That made him feel very uncomfortable. But he was not going to give in without a fight. He pushed the image away.

He strode along the corridor. The patter of feet and scuttle of claws from invisible things came on behind him. His skin was crawling. That sensation combined with the sweat trickling down his body under his overalls made him feel very uncomfortable. He wished for release from this but he knew there was no easy way out. He had to go through with this to the end. Please God, look after me, he prayed. His mind steadied. His courage became firmer. He maintained his steady stride and turned the corner into the front corridor parallel to Valley Road. There were more bedrooms each side of the dark corridor. He continued on until he reached a big space where the top of the main staircase was. He slowed his pace. It was darker here than before, as if cloud had come over the sun outside. Something was moving between the banister rungs. He went over for a closer look and saw a rope tied to the banister. He looked down over the banister and saw a body swaying on the end of the rope. Oh, the hotel owner, he thought. He was not surprised.

"Oi! What are you doing here?" A voice with a rough Irish accent sounded behind him.

Derek whirled around, tensed for action. He could just make out a human-like form in front of him. At first he thought it was a vagrant who was squatting in the hotel but his telepathic sense told him the figure before him was far more sinister. In the dimness he could just make out a strongly built man shorter than Derek and with red curly hair.

"Thomas O'Leary, I presume?" purred Derek in a smooth deep voice.

Derek thought he would try and befriend this ghost of the famous bushranger. It would be interesting.

"What's that to you?" was the reply.

"If you are Mad Dog O'Leary, I just wanted to tell you that your exploits are legendary. People are still talking about you more than 130 years after you've died."

"Is that a fact? 130 years now, is it?"

"Yes indeed! You're still famous."

Derek surprised himself with his coolness. Here he was talking to the ghost of an evil bushranger as if he were a minor celebrity he had met at a party. He thought he would see how far he could get with flattery.

"Fancy that. How would you like to be a dead man?"

"No, thank you. I much prefer to be alive."

Derek heard the banisters rattle behind him. He whipped around to see the body of the hanged hotel owner clambering over the rail still with the rope around its neck. It jumped off and ran towards him with hands outstretched. The rope came free from the banister and trailed behind the apparition. It stopped and gathered up the rope quickly, then advanced towards Derek menacingly with the rope in its hands. O'Leary rushed at Derek and grabbed his throat, trying to choke him. Simultaneously the hotel owner came up behind him and wrapped the rope around his neck. Derek fought like a cornered panther. It's on, he thought grimly. He swung his fists wildly but connected with nothing but thin air. The rope felt real and so did O'Leary's hands around his neck but the rest of O'Leary was as insubstantial as smoke. That's not fair, Derek thought wildly to himself as he snarled furiously. He pulled furiously at the rope around his neck. Derek swung a mighty punch at the hotel owner's ghost but his fist went straight through. It connected with nothing but thin air. Derek thought angrily if the owner is not real, then neither is the rope. The owner leapt at him and sank his teeth like a vampire into the base of Derek's muscular neck. The pain was terrific and Derek yelled in fury as he tried in vain to get the insubstantial wraith off him. O'Leary rushed in and sank his teeth into Derek's pectoral muscle just over his heart. Derek struggled ferociously with the two wraiths but could gain no purchase. The pain was tremendous as the ghosts greedily sucked the life force from him like lampreys feeding on a salmon. Beyond his two attackers Derek could see a platoon of ghosts and what looked like huge horde of thousands of foul, indescribably hideous and monstrous demons rapidly advancing on him from the dark spaces of the corridor. This sure is a real plague of demons, Derek thought.

<< Dear God, I am in really deep shit now. Help me now please, dear God. >> Derek sent a frantic prayer.

A mind glyph returned from a distant warm fuzziness.

<+ Keep faith. Be of good courage. You will have eternal life. +>

Bugger it, does that mean I'm going to die here, Derek thought to himself angrily as he struggled with the ghosts.

"Oh well, it's been a good life. I suppose it was worth it spending those few beautiful days with Hal to go down fighting these fucking demons and ghosts," he thought grimly to himself.

The first of the horde to reach him was something that looked like a woman in a Victorian dress. Her face was dead white and her wide staring eyes had black circles around as if they were in a skull. Her teeth were greatly elongated like those of a movie vampire. She rushed up and ripped open the press-studs of Derek's overalls all the way down until his penis was fully exposed. Then she sank her vampire fangs into the thick muscles of Derek's belly. He screamed in pain. Almost immediately behind the vampire woman, the rest of the huge horde rushed in and each one of those myriad foul beings sank their teeth or fangs into Derek's body. The rotting cadaver woman that Derek had seen in the bedroom was in the front of horde and sank her skull's teeth into his side near his liver. The rest of the horde rushed in to Derek passing through one another to get at his energy laden body. Derek thrashed and struggled furiously. The things came in through the material of his overall as battening onto his exposed flesh. Every square millimetre of his skin seemed to have teeth piercing it as each member of the evil horde sucked the life energy from his body. The pain was immense. It was absolutely terrific. His whole body was being tortured horribly. Every cell in his body was being damaged. Derek screamed in anguish and fury. He struggled with extreme violence as he realised that he was in the middle of a feeding frenzy, just the wrong place to be. He was in the centre of a huge pulsating mass of unnatural things all eager to get their fill of energy from his body.

Just when he thought that things could not get any worse a huge ghastly pale thing appeared from the darkness of the corridor. It floated towards the furiously struggling Derek and the seething mass around him, regarding him with baleful eyes more soulless that those of a white pointer shark. Its head was fringed with slimy looking tentacles. Its whole body was pale and slimy like something from the depths of a putrid pool in a foul dark cave far underground. Its slit-like mouth opened wide revealing a circular array of sharp pointed triangular teeth like those of a giant white pointer shark. It looked like a giant shark-toothed lamprey crossed with an octopus. Derek's eyes widened in horror. It pushed through the seething press of things already battened onto Derek's body and fastened its horrific teeth onto Derek's chest over his furiously pounding heart, covering the beings already sucking the energy from him there including O'Leary. His consciousness dimmed as the energy circuits supplying his brain suffered a serious overload. The huge monstrosity was draining vast amounts of life energy from the already badly depleted stores of Derek's powerful body. The pain was horrific. Derek's knees buckled. His body started to go limp. He fell to his knees but still he fought and struggled.

He was dimly aware of an exultant cry circulating through the creatures feeding on him.

<+ He's down! +>

A sudden brilliant flash illuminated the entire space with white light. To Derek's dimming awareness, it seemed that a large portal had opened in the hotel corridor through to somewhere else. Through it poured a host of bright shining beings that looked like angels. They chased down the foul things that had been feeding on him. As Derek rocked unsteadily on his knees with his sight fading, he felt a familiar pair of powerful arms wrap around him. He felt the comforting awareness of Hal's mind next to him. Hal was very distressed but was remaining calm with a stern effort on his part. Hal gently lifted Derek to his feet, quickly stripped the overalls from Derek's torso and wrapped his arms around Derek's chest, clasping Derek to the front of his naked body. Huge amounts of healing and life energy rushed like a torrent from his body into Derek through the bare skin. The blast of energies was painful but it was a blessed relief for Derek's pain-wracked body. Derek was vaguely conscious of the torrent of energy pouring in from somewhere else through Hal's body into his own.

<< Oh, Derek. My dear beautiful Derek, what did those foul creatures do to you? >>

Hal was still quite distressed. Derek was shocked to see Hal's eyes brimming with tears. His consciousness cleared rapidly. He felt considerably better now. He felt he was about back to what he was before he walked into this hotel. Hal hugged him fervently.

<< God be thanked that you're still alive! Oh, Derek, you were just so brave. You are so full of courage. You are the bravest man I know. You are a real hero. You just stood there and fought with those foul things of darkness all by yourself until you could fight no more. You were so alone and stood your ground so bravely and fought those horrid monsters almost to your last breath. You are just so incredibly brave and courageous. You thought you were going to die but still you fought. And those things hurt you so much. They inflicted such horrible torture on you. You suffered so cruelly and you were so terribly alone. Oh, Derek, you are such a marvellously, wonderfully brave man facing up to those hideous things alone. And you fought so valiantly. You defied them so heroically. Oh, my dear, beautiful, brave, courageous, wonderful Derek! >>

Tears ran freely down Hal's face. Derek hugged him back. Hal wept into Derek's neck. His tears trickled through his beard down Derek's chest.

Derek's curiosity returned. He looked around and saw a horde of small angels chasing down the remnant of the demons. They would skewer them with some kind of spear and thrust them into an iridescent silver sack, close the sack and then the sack vanished from view. Those little angels were cherubim, he realised. And they were making short work of the demons. To Derek they looked like an army of children running around gleefully squashing a plague of spiders. A squad of them had caught the huge hideous monster like a giant lamprey that had been the last to attack Derek. They had impaled it on their spears and it was struggling feebly. In this supernaturally bright light it looked like an enormous giant axolotl. The cherubim were chanting "We've got the big one, we've got the big one". Two cherubim flew over with a big silver sack. The others lifted up the monster on their spears, tossed it in and closed the sack. The silver sack vanished. That monstrous thing was no more. Very soon, all the demons had been mopped up and disposed of like so much rubbish.

<< The cherubim use the silver sacks to toss the demons into the Outer Darkness. They will never bother us again. >> Hal explained.

Hal had recovered his emotional equilibrium. He held Derek in a tight bear hug. Derek was awed by much Hal loved him. He wondered if he was worth all that love.

<< Dear silly big brave fella. Of course you are worth it. You are worth every bit of my love. You are a most wonderful, valiant and courageous hero. >>

He kissed Derek fervently on the lips. Derek responded eagerly. It was really good to have Hal back again. He kissed Hal with rising passion, hugging Hal's rock hard body with all his strength. His cock started to stiffen as they kissed.

He felt a vast warm kindly intelligence behind him, a great intelligence indeed. It felt like a god. Hal became a little embarrassed at the gaze of the great being upon them and broke the kiss. He turned Derek around and Derek saw in front of him a great being shining with a supernaturally bright light. It, or rather, he had the form of a big powerfully built naked human male and he stood approximately 3 metres (10 feet) tall. He was very obviously male with a large penis that hung more than halfway to his knees. His skin looked like shining liquid gold. His muscles, veins and sinews seemed fashioned from liquid gold. His curly hair seemed wrought from spun strands of gold. His eyes were a surprising agate blue. >From his back sprouted two enormous wings that spread over a span of about 6 or 7 metres and were covered with pale golden feathers. It appeared that the fabric of the hotel had been distorted and expanded to accommodate such a splendid and magnificent being.

Hal presented Derek to the great and splendid being. << Sir, this is my student Derek.>>

Hal to Derek: << Derek, this is my mentor, the Archangel Michael. >>

The great archangel took Derek's hand and shook it. Derek felt a bit foolish with his overalls trailing backwards from the tops of his thighs but the archangel was not the least bit concerned. Hal was like an eager young officer in front of a great high noble.

Michael: << It is good to see two men who love each other so much and who are happy to show it openly. >>

Both the men grinned.

Michael went on: << Derek, I am very impressed with your valiant bravery in resisting the demons and ghosts. It is rare indeed to see such a high quality of courage in a normal human being. It is easy to be brave when you are invulnerable to both physical and psychic attack. >>

Here the archangel winked slyly at Hal and continued.

<< It is clear that Hal has taught you well and for that I praise him. A person with any invulnerability would not have been able to function at all as the bait for the evil spirits. Due to your heroic efforts, our mission in cleansing the evil spirits out of this edifice has been completely successful. Every demon has been cast into the Outer Darkness and every ghost is detained to be dealt with. No ghosts or other evil spirits shall remain here on this earth. As we speak now, my angels are removing all the negative energies that have accumulated over the years from all the fabric of the entire building. To do what you did in resisting the attack without the benefit of any invulnerability at all shows a rare and splendid courage. Derek, I praise and commend you highly. >>

Derek basked in the archangel's praise and Hal's admiration.

Michael went on: << I must apologise to you for Hal not telling you the whole story. He did so on my explicit instructions. I wanted particularly to get rid of the Chluruthuu, the huge spirit monster that attacked you at the end. It is very old and very cunning which makes it hard to capture. It was brought into the Earth plane hundreds of years ago by a powerful and very foolish Aboriginal sorcerer who greatly overestimated his power. That sorcerer paid for his foolishness with his life and soul. We had to wait and let your energy get down to dangerously low levels in order to attract the monster from its hiding place. From its viewpoint, the other demons and ghosts were already draining a huge amount of life energy from you. You already were well stocked with a vast amount of energy but the other demons had left little energy in you. If the Chluruthuu had waited any longer, you would have died and there would have been no energy left for it. It wants lots of energy. Therefore it came out and was draining you completely of energy. We let them drain you almost to point of complete exhaustion and death in order to attract out any more evil spirits who wanted to get energy from you. When they cried 'He's down', it meant that you were almost finished. Many had fed very well from you. You were within seconds of unconsciousness and less than a minute from death when we arrived. It is all thanks to you that the mission was a complete success. I regret very much that you suffered so horribly and that we had to leave your rescue so late. I am sorry that Hal was not able to be fully frank and open with you. I take full responsibility for that. I thank you very much indeed for the part you played as bait and the most extraordinary courage you displayed today. Thank you indeed. >>

Derek smiled. << That's O.K. >>

The great archangel clasped Derek on the shoulder affectionately.

<< Well done, soldier. Well done indeed. >>

He winked and released Derek's hand.

To both of them he sent: << We had better deal with these unfortunates captured by my angels. >>

Derek turned his head and saw all the ghosts lined up in the grip of powerful seraphim. There was Tom O'Leary, the hotel owner, the vampire woman, the rotting cadaver woman and about two dozen other ghosts that had once been human beings. Each of the seraphim holding the ghosts looked like members of a football team all tall, strong, powerfully built and male. Each had wide spreading wings covered with white feathers. The great archangel walked down the line of ghosts like a victorious general inspecting his prisoners. His great wings almost brushed the floor.

Hal: << Derek, mate, you don't need your overalls any more. Shall I put them away for you? >>

<< Yep. >>

Derek felt his overalls disappear from around his thighs. He was naked except for his black work boots. He folded his arms across his chest and watched the great archangel. Hal put his arm affectionately around Derek's shoulders.

As the archangel Michael walked down the line of captive ghosts, one of the female ghosts flung herself down on the floor and prostrated herself before the great archangel.

"Mercy, oh please, mercy!" she cried. "Please have mercy on me. I know I am the wickedest of sinners and I know I deserve eternal punishment for my sins but mercy, please have mercy upon me. I am so terribly sorry for my sins. I will never sin again. I will always be a good girl. Please get me out of this horrible place. Please, oh please, take me from here."

Derek pricked up his senses.

Hal: << That's the woman I was telling you about who fell pregnant to the American airman and stabbed herself in her bed here. Her name is Janice. >>

Michael spoke to her: "Janice, you are in error when you say you are the most wicked of sinners. You are merely a silly girl who went too far with a handsome young airman and you compounded your silliness by killing yourself. You got yourself into a dreadful pickle but you are most certainly not the most wicked of sinners. I am pleased to see your sincere repentance and your determination to sin no more. I will send you to the Lord God for His merciful decision about you."

He nodded to the seraph who had been holding her. The seraph picked Janice up gently and led her through the portal away to the great Heavenly light on the other side. Janice turned and thanked the archangel with tearful sincerity. Another female ghost prostrated herself before the archangel, begged for mercy and declared her sincere repentance. She too was led away through the portal by her seraph. Then the majority of ghosts prostrated themselves on the floor before Michael, begging for mercy and declaring their repentance. They were all desperately eager to get out of the hotel. One by one they were led away through the portal. Soon there were only six ghosts left. Tom O'Leary stood at the end of the line nearest to Derek and Hal. The hotel owner stood near him.

Michael stood in front of the vampire woman and looked at her with a steady gaze for a second or so. She hissed and spat at him. Instantly two cherubim appeared carrying an iridescent silver bag. They threw the bag over her and closed it. The bag vanished with her inside. A dozen more cherubim carrying bags appeared behind the Archangel Michael.

Hal: << She's been banished to the Outer Darkness. >>

Michael looked at Hal with an indulgent smile.

Hal: << Sir, I was just telling Derek. >> He was a little sheepish.

Michael: << Good. You may keep on educating Derek. >>

The archangel stood in front of the cadaver woman who cackled insanely. Michael held out his hand and gave her the thumbs down. The cherubim bagged her and posted her off to the Outer Darkness.

Michael stood in front of a male ghost who said, "Get fucked." He got bagged by the cherubim.

Derek snorted with derision. << What an idiot! >>

Hal: << When they have become sufficiently demonised, they don't know any better. >>

The next ghost, also a male, looked anxiously about him. He trembled before the archangel's steady gaze. He was terrified. He fell to his knees and begged Michael not to throw him away. He prostrated himself on the floor before Michael and with tears running down his face, begged forgiveness for his sins and declared his repentance. The archangel nodded curtly and the seraph picked the man up. The man fell down before Michael again and kissed his feet in gratitude. The seraph tapped the man on the shoulder and inclined his head towards the portal. The man got up and meekly followed his seraph through to the other side.

Michael stood in front of the hotel owner's ghost and fixed it with a steady gaze.

The wild-eyed ghost burst out with: "You bastard. You filthy bastard. I have suffered terribly at evil peoples' hands. How dare you..."

The cherubim bagged him in mid tirade.

Derek: << The guy is as mad as a cut snake. >>

Hal snickered. Derek stood as steady as a rock with his legs apart and his arms folded across his chest. Hal had his arm around Derek's shoulders.

Tom O'Leary was the only ghost left. The Archangel Michael fixed him with a steady gaze. The bushranger looked everywhere but at the archangel. He caught Derek's eyes. He recognised Derek.

"Well?" asked Michael after a while.

"That fellow over there," said O'Leary to the archangel. "The dark- haired fellow with the huge muscles and the big work boots. He's got a real nerve. You know, he tried to make friends with me. He's a living man and he tried to make friends with a ghost. Have you ever heard of such a thing? I tell you, he's got nerves of steel, that man."

"I know," said the archangel dryly. "He's a man of uncommon courage."

"Yeah. And he's real good looking too". O'Leary rattled on nervously. "Is he an angel in training?"

"No. Better than that."

"Can I be an angel in training?"

Michael smiled ironically.

"You would have to be very good even to do that," he said. "Humans can do better than that though, but you would have to be very good and learn your lessons well."

"Sounds a bit hard to me."

"Tom, you do have the opportunity to do this."

O'Leary looked slyly over at Derek and Hal.

"Those two fellows with the huge muscles. They're good mates. Do they, um, er, sleep together."

"They are indeed lovers. Isn't manly love a beautiful thing."

The bushranger gawped stupidly at the archangel.

"Oh!" he said after a while in a small voice.

The cherubim shifted impatiently behind the Archangel Michael. Michael held up two fingers in front of O'Leary's face.

"Tom O'Leary," the archangel said. "You have two choices, only two choices. Either be thrown away into the Outer Darkness or come into the Heavenly Light. You cannot stay here."

"Don't want to stay here."

"Fine. Which alternative do you choose then? You have been avoiding the issue for rather a long time. Would you like me to make the choice for you? I may just choose to send you to the Outer Darkness."

"If I go to Heaven, will I have to be good?"

"Yes."

"Very good?"

"Yes."

"Trouble is," said O'Leary. "I don't know how to be good. I never been good in my whole life. The nuns at the school in Ireland said I was bad all the way through and I'd go straight to Hell when I die. I got transported here to Australia because I was bad. If Hell's worse that this here hotel that I've been stuck in all these years, I want to go to Heaven. I like to go to Heaven but I don't know how to be good."

"Tom," said Michael gently. "The Lord God has just sent me a message and given you a third choice. He is most merciful. If you choose this alternative, He will send you back to Earth again where you will be born again as a baby and grow up learning to be good. You will have another chance at life and perhaps a better chance than you had in your previous life."

Derek suddenly had an image of O'Leary in a priest's dog collar and a black suit ministering to the faithful of his parish. Hal picked up the image, gasped and sniggered. The idea was outrageous, that of the bad bushranger becoming a priest.

Michael looked over at the two men and smiled indulgently. Hal was desperately trying to stifle his giggles.

The archangel turned to O'Leary.

"My young friend, the one you have met before, has had the idea that you should become a priest."

O'Leary gaped at Michael stupidly. "Me! A priest!"

"Yes. The life of a humble country priest ministering devotedly to the faithful in his pastoral care has much to recommend it. It will be an excellent opportunity to atone for your past misdeeds and to let your goodness shine through from your soul. That is only a recommendation. How you choose to live your next human life is essentially up to you. Don't forget though that the reason you would go to a new life is to learn how to be good. That should be your overriding intention."

O'Leary stood a second and thought.

"Alright, then," he said. "I'll take that alternative. I'll take the third alternative and become a person again. This time I'll be good. I promise."

"Good!" said Michael. "That's settled. Tom, you need to see the Lord God and He will set you up for sending you back to Earth."

He nodded to the seraph who started to lead O'Leary away to the portal. O'Leary turned and came up to Derek and shook his hand. Surprisingly, O'Leary's hand had some substance.

"I'm sorry I hurt you the way I did before," he said to Derek. "I really am. You're a stout fellow."

He shook Hal's hand as well then scampered off with the seraph through the portal.

The archangel dusted his hands together.

"That's that done," he said to the two men. "Now for the fun part."

--------------------- Continued in Part 11. ---------------------