Apocalypsis 1.07 Vision by Mario Giordano Page B

the roof also seemed intact. Bühler advanced cautiously and used the dense bushes as cover. Still, not a single sound could be heard except for his own breathing. He dared to move closer and began to make his way around the entire building without making a sound. But the window shutters were all closed and it was impossible to see inside. Bühler listened for a long time for any noise coming from inside and, not hearing anything, he finally decided to break open the door. With an iron bar that he found in the ruins of the mental hospital, he jimmied the lock of the heavy wooden door and immediately let out a gasp of shock.
    I AM PAN.
    I AM THY MATE,
    I AM THY MAN,
    GOAT OF THY FLOCK
    I AM GOLD,
    I AM GOD,
    FLESH TO THY BONE,
    FLOWER TO THY ROD.
    He found himself in an elegant Art Deco hall. The floor and the walls were fashioned from shiny black marble and engraved with occult symbols in red marble. On both sides, dark bronze statues of a naked Satan were standing guard over the place. Both statues had breasts as well as penises, monstrously large and erect. One of the statues was smashing a cross with its cleft hooves, the other statue was holding something that looked like a burning lance or a torch. In the middle of the hall was a huge altar fit for a cathedral, hewn from black and glossy wood. Its sides were decorated with depictions of mythical horned creatures. On the empty wall above this altar were the words that had caught Bühler’s eye when he entered the hall, words that were written in golden letters on a blood red background, lascivious and blasphemous words. The yellowed black-and-white photo under the writing on the wall showed Aleister Crowley sitting in an imperious and disdainful pose on a divan, clad in a kaftan and a turban.
    Bühler took a deep breath and looked around. Still no sound. At both sides of the hall, doors led into adjacent rooms. He drew his gun again and began with the room to his left.
    This room was considerably less sophisticated, and minimally furnished in the style of the 1920’s. In the dim daylight that seeped through the open front door, Bühler could see that the walls were lavishly painted with symbols, additional quotes and pornographic scenes. Humans and animals copulating with each other. Or mauling each other. Or both.
    Bühler did not waste much time studying these murals, and swiftly continued to check the other rooms. He found no bedrooms, bathrooms or kitchen, just more halls with furniture from the twenties. Bühler could not imagine that anyone had ever lived here; the whole establishment seemed rather to be some sort of gathering place. The meeting place of an occult lodge, Bühler assumed. The thought did not really faze him. He continued to search for the server room and finally he found it in the back of the building. The metal shelves with the slots for the memory modules were empty. The cables hung down like tattered blood vessels. Only the red diode of a forgotten power supply unit laughed at him. Cursing under his breath, Bühler continued to check the building and when he reached the other side of the structure that looked out over the channel, he discovered a staircase leading down into the basement. He stopped for a moment and listened for sounds coming from outside. But it remained quiet except for the chugging of a boat engine in the distance.
    The steep stairs led down into darkness. Bühler cursed himself for not bringing a flashlight and had to use the display of his cell phone as a source of light. The cellar was very deep underground. He figured that it had originally been part of a substantially older structure, the foundations of which had been used to build this hospital complex.
    When he finally reached the bottom of the stairs, Bühler felt a cool draft of air that suggested the basement had ventilation. The ground consisted of compacted earth and exuded the rank smell of decay. In the pale light of the cell phone display, Bühler checked the