How he became Here

Herb Burrows could remember the gloomy morning from 10 March 1882 as it was yesterday. The day after the funeral of Lucinda, the woman he loved so much.
She had never answered his love; she was married, so Herb went with his pain and sorrow to her grave, to be with her alone. 1

Herb was a part of the family Jenkins; he was adopted, and grown up with Lucinda and Tallulah as brother and sisters.
He was only a few years older, and had a certain feelings for the sisters and especially for Lucinda.
Later when Lucinda was engaged with Leo Wald Harlow - he hated that man from the start, he looked through his smile, and his smooth talking, that man would ruin the family - Herb put his chances on the more modest Tallulah.2

As in a trance Herb walked that morning at the cemetery, he saw or heard nothing, till he came to the grave.
He was frightened to death. The slab was removed, the coffin opened, and Lucinda was gone. Herb passed out.3

On 16 March 1882, Herb was released from his arrest.
He couldn’t remember much of the last days; it was a hole in his memory.
He lived as he was in a trance. There was only a vague moment that Tallulah had visited him. And now he wasn’t a suspect anymore; because Tallulah vanished while he was in prison.
Leo was gone too, and Herb knew it all a long. Leo was bad, and Leo was evil. Leo was now the suspect, but then he must be found first.
This was now the plan Herb had in mind, find Leo, and kill him, and finding both the sisters back.
How? He didn’t know it yet, he wasn’t exactly intelligent, but he knew he would succeed.4

Several years after the disappearing, Herb had still no clue or even the slightest trace.
The police stopped the investigation, the file was closed.5

The parents of Lucinda and Tallulah, stayed behind penniless in their mansion, they never recovered their lost.
Within a year they both died shortly after each other.
The house where you could hear once the laughing of the girls did fall in decay fast.6

Herb knew he would not succeed without any help, so he searched for another way.
The last years Herb had visit the cemetery several times, and heard rumours of strange situations, as vampirism, witchcraft and Satanism.
In the last Herb did go into deeper. On a suitable night he went to the cemetery, entered the crypt, and called for Satan.
This was probably a wrong decision with the best results.7

Satan isn’t that bad as people mostly thinks he is.
When there are some souls to win, he’s even very helpful.
He spoke to Herb with the words: “You mortal, why are you calling me to appear in this world? Is there something you want to offer me?”
Herb told his story.
Satan listens with full attention, after Herb finished he recalled: “What can you offer me? Is there any profit for me?”
Herb answered: “I offer you my soul when I die, and I will serve you till eternity, but I want to solve this case.”
Satan burst out in laughing and said: “When you’re dead, you’re useless for me, except that I have your soul. You know, I’ll help you on my conditions.”
Herb said: “Tell me your conditions, when I’m agreeing with them, we can settle this deal.”
Satan answered: “One - You speak to me with ‘Father’.“
“Two - From now on you will never use your own name when it concerns the girls, and I mean never, when you do, our deal is over, and your soul is mine; you will call yourself ‘Here Bury’.”
“Three - I decide when and where I will help you.”
“Four - I decide when I call you to me, and when I let you go.”
“Five - I give you a demonic form, and the possibility to change in another form, you’re a kind of shape shifter now.”
“Six - And never try to break our deal.”
Satan waited a moment, so Herb could think about his rules, then he continues: “When you accept my conditions, a part of your search shall soon be over.”
This sounded Herb as music in his ears, the reunion with the sisters. He said: “Father, I can life with your conditions, we have a deal.”
Satan grins at that moment, and the deal was closed, then Satan said: “The sisters have no priority, they’re not mortal, on the other hand the man Leo is. I’ll put you on his trail, you can do with him what you like, but I would like to have his soul too.”
This decision that Satan made was not exactly what Here had in mind, but he answered with the words: “Thank you, Father.”
Satan gave Here a map with a mark on it, and vanished in a flash of light and fire.8

After his talk with Satan, Here looked at himself and thought he wasn’t changed, till he thought of a demonic form.
At that moment he felt a sort of transformation.
He ran to a nearby pool, and looked in it. He was shocked.
In the water he saw a fire red face with spots, rams horns, big pointy ears, a big angular nose and chin. His bold head had a few pointy hairs, and when he looked behind he saw a kind of dragon tail. He touched his face, and felt the large fangs and a goatee at his chin.
Here thought: ‘I only miss the wings.’ At that moment a pair of grotesque transparent wings grows out of his shoulder blades.9

Later when he was accustomed with his form, he thought that ‘Father’ had some strange kind of humour.
Then he thought of his own being, and he noticed that the process reversed till he was back to his human form.
He would practice this transformation, make it his own, perfect it, and add other forms to it.10

Here looked at the map Satan gave him. He should go to the place that was marked.
In this place there was Leo. He would take revenge on him, for Lucinda and Tallulah, by killing Leo.
No one would put the suspicion on him, when he was in another form.
He went home to the ruined mansion, and prepared himself for his journey.11


Many decennia later Here entered a city; he had a very rough time behind him.
Satan helped Here only in the beginning, he found Leo, and when Here was finished with the man who ruined the family Jenkins, Satan pulled him back for the use of his own pleasure.
From that moment Here was the witness of all the human disasters that happened; only he was always on the wrong side.
When in the year 1912 the ship with the name Titanic went down he was onboard.
He drowned in the ice cold water of the Atlantic Ocean, and revived dripping from the salted water at the feet of Satan, who had the biggest fun with it.
When in the year 1945 the atomic bomb was thrown at Hiroshima he saw it coming down, and a few days later he saw it again in Nagasaki.
He couldn’t remember all the plain-, train-, and car-crashes where he was in, he was shot too many times, frozen on mountaintops, all for the entertainment of the one he offered his soul.12

Here became carefully after his experience, he didn’t know what kind of surprise this time ‘Father’ found for him.
He walked in the street when suddenly a woman passed him, a woman whose face was all the years in his mind, the face of one of his sisters. Satan helped him again.
He turned and ran in the direction the woman went, but he was too late she had turned a corner and was vanished in the dark.
Disappointed he sunk down on a bench were he sat for hours. He had seen one of the girls; he didn’t know who it was yet, Lucinda or Tallulah, he would find out later.
When he stood up he walked in the dark streets when he saw the woman again.
He stepped close at her, calling a name. “Lucinda.”
The woman turned, growled, and jumped almost at him with her hands spread.
Here stepped back.
It was Lucinda, only she didn’t know him. How could she, he was changed; he was in his demon form.
The woman draws without hesitation her guns and shot him.
When he revived it was already day, and the woman was gone.
Here explored the city, he didn’t wanna be shot again by Lucinda; neither would he loose the sight at her when he saw her again.
When the night came Here sat down on a bench in an decayed bus stop, he was sure there would not come any bus while he sat there, probably the last one had stopped over more than thirty years ago. Hours went by, he fell in sleep.
With a shock he woke up when something came down on the bench, he looked up, was he dreaming?
Lucinda sat next to him ready for an attack, he hold up his hand, and tried to speak. “Lucinda…it is me…He…” The last thing he saw was the attack, and when he opened his eyes again he found himself back at the feet of his ‘Father’.
“You almost told her your name, think of our deal,” he said. “Soon you will see her again.”
Here was relieved, ‘Father’ wasn’t angry with him.13

Months went by. Here was again used as a crash test dummy in several accidents, when he landed in another part of the city.
He noticed he was in his human form as he passed a window. This mends that he wouldn’t see one of the girls.
He started to ask questions at the people he saw. The only answers he got were the sisters left the place.
Here shake his head, dead end, and no trail.
Then someone poked him. “Looking for Tallulah and Lucinda?” someone asked him with a breaking voice.
Here turned, it was a little bold man with a pale, almost white skin.
He nodded. “Yes, I lost them,” he said.
“We can help each other,” spoke the man “I know where they went; I tell you when I can ask your help when I need it.”
Here accepted this help, and the two men left the city.14

They travelled for weeks through the land, maybe even through time.
Here had found out the name of the man ‘Francois Vhargon’, and the history of him, and his bond with the girls.
He had told him he was they’re ‘Father’.
They came nearby a town when Francois stopped and told Here that he should go into the town, and search for the girls.
He walked in the place, it looked peaceful, and he spoke with a few people.
The place was called Phantasma, and the names of the girls were well known.
He had found them back; the next problem was the contact without getting killed.15

If he had known what the future would bring, he had given up…16