END OF TIME: The Devil Wants Your Soul

By James Benedict

Humanity is in the end of ages with many warnings of what is to come. War, pestilence, famine, mayhem and earthquakes with an endless list of tragedies. This is to be followed by the end of time and final judgement. But before the end of time, the devil and his demons are in a frenzy to snatch your soul b

• Language: English
• Publisher: URLink Print & Media, LLC
• Release date: Jun 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9781684864409

James Benedict

he author is a baby-boomer raised in Maine shortly after WWII. Raised in a rural town along the Kennebec River, graduated from the Maine Maritime Academy with an engineer's license, BS degree and an officer's commission for the United States Navy. Sailed the seas to the west coast of Africa from Dakar, Senegal to the Cape of Good Hope. He became disillusioned with many things that he witnessed, especially the harsh ways people were treated. From the trials and tribulations of life, he was inspired to enter a Benedictine Monastery and Jesus touched his heart. Under the Benedictine tutelage, he learned about spirituality, scripture and asceticism well under the name of Br. James.He left the monastery before simple vows and the trials and tribulations of life were thrust upon him once again. The result of his knowledge and wisdom gained from the monks and the continuation to practice his faith is the impetus of his writings. He worked for Union Camp / International Paper for 34 years as an engineer. Presently enjoying his retirement between his grandchildren and writing, hence the pen-name of James Benedict.

Book preview

Chapter 1

The Carnage

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Life is a precious gift and for those that believe, then prayer, worship and devotion have a special place in their lives. But beware for those who do not believe for the devil is on the continue prowl for your soul as the Bible tells us, "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8.

It was a quiet spring evening and the people of New Canaan, Connecticut thought all was well in their sleepy little town as the clock struck three minutes pass midnight. For the devil’s charades happen between midnight and four a.m. as the saying goes,

"The stroke of eight bells begins the pernicious foray,

to torment, destroy and lead you astray.

Our only defense is the armor of devotion and prayer,

all souls take note and be humbly aware."

The twelve-unit Cornish apartment complex on Maple St. was inundated with all available cruisers from the local police department. The call came into the 911 dispatch around 6 am when the newspaper delivery boy found the main door open and headless bodies strewn throughout the complex. Frantic, hysterical and incoherent; Billy’s words didn’t make any sense,

Bo-bo-dies, no-no heads -— blo-blo-blo-od everywhere -— Help me, please help me!

Fortunate enough those dispatchers are well trained to handle any situation with Rule One, ‘stay calm.’ And that is just what Susan Launesto did, she remained calm and asked the caller, It is ok, please give me your location.

Hesitantly he responded, 207 Maple St.

Then Susan asked him his name.

Slowly, as if not knowing his name, he responded, Bil_ – Billy Jones.

Billy, help is on the way, stay put and calm and I will stay on the phone to talk to you, ok?

Two very different scenarios, one discombobulated and frantic, the other reassuring and calm.

The small town of New Canaan had six police officers on duty and two detectives. All were at the address of 207 Maple St. along with one full time coroner. The police chief Ted B. Burrows, the middle ‘B’ stood for buzzy, because after 44 years on the service and his aging years was getting a little senile, arrived without his first cup of coffee to begin a new day.

Ted gets out of his squad car and catches his jacket on the door causing a tear.

Sweet Jesus, what the hell?

Far from being eloquent, he proceeds from the squad car to the entrance of the apartment complex.

Morning Chief, was the greeting from Lt. Deavers, we got a bad one this morning!

Chief Burrows shakes his head and rubs his jaw while asking, What’s the verdict?

Lt. Deavers looks at his notepad and responds, We have twelve units with twenty -three dead bodies!

Chief Burrows can’t believe his ears and exclaims, WHAT?

Continuing on Lt. Deavers says, And that isn’t the worse news.

The chief responds sarcastically, Pray tell, why?

All are decapitated!

The chief’s face becomes frozen like a block of ice and he is paralyzed in his tracks unable to move forward. He looks around bewildered, not fully comprehending the full statement from his Lieutenant.

And there are three puncture wounds in each of their hearts and only two young surviving witnesses.

Turning a blanch white, the chief had to sit down on the steps to regain his composure before proceeding into the complex. Chief Burrows stares down upon the ground and mutters to himself, three weeks until retirement and this!

Taciturn, he proceeds up the stairs and into the first apartment. The coroner just finished with the first elderly couple in apartment 1A. He walks into the apartment and is sickened by the blood splatter and decapitated bodies.

The chief looks around and finally speaks by saying, "44 years and I still can’t get used to brutal homicides. The blood coming from the headless corpses is very messy, because of arterial spray from the carotid and vertebral arteries. The heart continues to beat for some time after decapitation - basically until it runs out of blood to push upon, which should be about 15–20 seconds.

The coroner objected to the chief about the many dead bodies and needed help while the chief is on his cell phone calling his old-time crony, Chief Patrick J. Mahoney. They went to the police academy together and served together those neophyte years walking the beat, learning the ropes and advancing in rank and years. Pat wound-up as police chief in White Plains, New York and Ted went on to become chief of police in the small community of New Canaan. A small lovely community in Fairfield County on the Five-mile River which borders New York State and about an hour’s train ride from Manhattan.

The phone is ringing and Chief Patrick Mahoney answers his phone in the best Irish brogue that one could ever hear with, A top of the morning to ya, may the devil chase ya, but never catch ya!

Chief Ted responds, Well I hope for you it is a top of the morning, but for me, it’s the very bottom of the barrel and a lot of pits! For I’m afraid the devil stopped here last night!

What’s wrong my friend? Pat, sympathetically asked, for there is much apprehension in your voice.

Ted slowly responds, With only three weeks to retirement, the bubble has burst!

What are you talking about? Pat urgently asked.

Ted continues, My worst nightmare, we have a homicide case with twenty-three decapitated bodies, no weapons and as far as I know now, no witnesses!

Holy God, responds Pat.

"What the hell happened?

Ted, the best he can, gives the pieces of the puzzle to Pat with most of the pieces missing. A case this size from forensics to detective investigation needs to be scrutinized with the very best in order to apprehend and bring to justice the culprits. Ted could not supply ample answers to all of Pat’s necessary questions concerning the case. But Pat offered to first get approval from his boss and then notify the state police in Hartford, Connecticut because it is their jurisdiction. He then offered his best forensic team to aid in the investigation and his sharpest detectives to bloodhound this case to find the answers. With that said both hung up their phones disillusioned.

Every life is precious but with twenty-three gruesome murders, the gravity to find answers is top priority. With that said, Ted turned to his Lt. and said, Ok, Jay step by step, lead me through all of this mayhem.

Putting on their plastic gloves and white coveralls so not to contaminate the scene, Lt. Deavers led the chief through each room. The sickening smell from pungent odors was permeating from room to room and into the hallways as they proceeded to each apartment and through each room. There were twenty-three deaths and twenty-five residents. All were present during the mayhem as Ted asked, Who are the two survivors?

Lt. Deavers responded, Two sisters from apartment 5B on the second floor. Twin sisters, both eleven years old.

Ted shakes his head and asked, Did they witness anything?

Right now, they both are in a state of shock and are not responding to any questions, responds Lt. Deavers.

Ted understandably points to Jay and tells him to get officer Jennifer Price here to take care of the girls for she has daughters of her own and will be the best person to handle this situation. He then scrupulously bends over each individual body to study the wounds. Each body had a severed head lying nearby and it sickened all that were in the room.

The chief asked again, Weapons?

Shaking his head Jay Deavers responded, None on the premises!

Any idea of what type of weapons? asked the chief.

Lt. Deavers responds, Your guess is as good as mine, some type of sword or cleaver to sever the head and a three-prong fork to puncture the hearts.

The chief stares at the body in disbelief as he shakes his head and speaks. Blood thirsty butchers! With the thoughts of his parents in the forefront of his mind, for they are tenants of the Cornish complex, the chief asked, "Are all tenants beside the two girls deceased?

The Lt. puts his hand on the chief’s shoulder as if trying to give some support but very little comfort as he responded, All the tenants are brutally murdered!

Looking at the wounds piercing the heart, Odd configuration of two smaller holes and one large, gaping hole in the middle. I think your right Jay, some type of pitchfork.

Within a couple of hours, the detectives and forensic teams arrived from the White Plains Police Department in New York. The tedious task of meticulously identifying, tagging evidence, marking the various blood splatter, taking samples and searching from top to bottom each room, nook and cranny took better then twelve hours. Each body was finger-printed to identify the body and tagged before transferring to the city morgue.

The two sisters were taken to the local hospital to be treated for shock and then assigned to witness protection. At this point no one knew how many culprits were involved in the dastardly deed or how many weapons were used. It was going to be a long night! The premises were scoured from top to bottom but no clues or fingerprints were discovered of the culprits. No suspects, no weapons, multiple deaths and no motives; just massive murder. Speculation is no good for immediate arrest of suspects. There are too many unanswered questions and the chief was extremely perturbed to no end.

The forensic specialist, a Dr. Abhilasha Kumar meticulously studied the blood patterns in each room which would take time and more days to understand what occurred, for this was no ordinary crime. There is a major difference between blood spatter patterns, blood drip stains and blood transfer patterns. Commonly referred to as BPA, blood pattern analysis, it was critical for her to determine the how, what, when and where in order to apprehend the who that committed the atrocity. And why was Abhilasha so diligent in her scrutiny? Because she remembers back to when her parents were bludgeoned to death back home in India. Her parent’s death became an unsolved case due to blundering the analysis of the evidence at the scene.

Scrutinizing the patterns, distance and trajectory gave her a snapshot of what occurred. Out of the twelve apartments, there were nineteen rooms with blood spatter and drippings from severed heads. The trajectory of the blood was similar in some rooms and yet different in other rooms. This meant that the force used to strike the victims was different. Abhilasha realized that there was more than one perpetrator involved.

She next concentrated on the various surfaces of walls, ceilings, floors and windows. Just as the motion of an object or person can determine what a blood spatter pattern can look like, so can the surface onto which the blood spatters. For instance, the same blood spattered on bedsheets will be absorbed and therefore distort the patterns versus blood spattered on a hard surface such as floors, concrete or even on a pane of glass which causes no distortion. Blood spatter analysts must take into account the surface as well as the trajectory of the blood in order to determine the facts of the crime scene.

Abhilasha visited each room and studied the evidence and then had a colleague from the crime lab of White Plains do the same investigation to compare notes. The different shapes and sizes of blood spatter on the