Knock Three Times

17. Blood Benediction

                THE FIERCE FALL WINDS rattled the windows of a dingy motel room. The musky odour of fifty-year-old furniture, matted shag green carpet, and unwashed wood paneled walls admitted a shady first impression when Father Jeremy first arrived. As he lay upon a thin blanket and warn mattress, one of two which stood side-by-side in the room, the priest was debating whether the accommodations were a step up, or down from the bunk beds in the basement of St. Anthony's Church.

    Jenson had guided them to the location, but it was Father Theron who insisted on blindfolding the girl, as he wasn't yet sure of what kind of power he was dealing with, and seeing that Father Amaral had already given his life for the cause, he wasn't taking any chances henceforth.

    Meanwhile, Detective Jenson was still fighting her own beliefs as she removed Ashley's blindfold, after the curtains were drawn closed. The child did not question their motives while Theron got busy marking the walls. There was a bag sitting upon the small table before the window, filled with extra large markers they had procured from a nearby stationary store. He seemed to waste no time tossing a used marker aside and pulling a new one from its wrapper only to continue.

    'I still don't have a clue as to what you're doing.' said Jenson, watching him mark the walls in strange letters, but it was surprising that it was young Ashley who had answered.

    'He's keeping the evil from this room, transforming our little motel room to Holy Ground. You're spelling is atrocious by the way, Father Theron.'

    The seasoned priest turned to the child in confusion. He looked upon the wall at his messy writing, the lettering that of ancient Babylonian, at least that particular section.

    'You can read this?' he asked, pointing the marker at his own writing, and she answered with a simple nod.

    'Really?' he shook his head in disbelief. 'Then tell me what it says.' Theron crossed his arms in disbelief, but as the child got to her feet, Ashley snatched the marker from his hand and began correcting him.

    'Babylonian shares a similar dialect with Sumerian, as you've probably figured out. Similar to Latin being a core language which birthed Spanish, Portuguese, French and even English, this ancient language shares a core tongue as well; that's where you're getting confused. You'll find your guard much more effective if you simply stick with one, rather than mixing the two languages together.' Completing her corrections, she dragged the marker across the section of wall, speaking and translating each word.

    '"Breach the realm of life from death and hellfire, and keep blind those who hunt the faithful, as light is naturally shrouded from darkness, and darkness from light."'

    Father Theron's jaw dropped, utterly astonished. He'd been studying the ancient languages throughout his entire career, and had yet to meet someone so young who could not only understand ancient script, but read and write it better than he could—or any scholar he'd known, for that fact.

    'I have met many old scholars at the Vatican, child; some well over a hundred years old, who have been studying ancient script their entire lives, but still have not mastered them with such accuracy.'

    'Perhaps they should have been studying root common tongues, like Latin?' she smirked.

    'How many languages can you speak, child?' asked Father Jeremy, sitting up from the mattress, just as impressed with the child Oracle in his company.

    'How many are there?' she shrugged.

    'How?' asked Jenson, completely bewildered.

    'How do you breathe?'