by Tiffany King
"Ready?" Mark asked, from the porch swing where he had been waiting for me.
"Yeah, I guess so," I said, glancing back at my house one last time as he opened the car door for me.
"Would you rather stay home?" Mark asked concerned. "I'm positive the others won't mind. We can fill you in tomorrow morning with the strategy we've come up with."
"No, I want to be with you guys. I missed hanging out with you guys the past two days. It majorly sucks to be away from the hub," I said. "Besides, my mom all but pushed me out the door," I added.
"I'm sure she's looking forward to a little quiet time. Believe me, I discovered when I was in the hospital that those nurses buzz in and out all hours of the day and night. I swear I thought they were on a mission to make my stay there Hell on earth," he said, smiling at me.
"I guess you're right. I never even thought about that. No wonder she pushed me out the door. I've been hovering over her since her release. I bet she's relieved to have the house to herself," I said, feeling my guilt melt away.
Chapter 10
I woke before dawn the day of our first ever Angelic mission. I watched the sun creep up along the wall across from my window with Feline at my side. The apprehension I was sure I would feel was absent. I knew without a shadow of a doubt we were ready. We had spent the previous day going over our plan of attack or "soul attack," as Shawn liked to phrase it. The details had been laid out and we were all itching to get in there and prove ourselves.
"Of course, waking up so early wasn’t part of the plan." I grumbled to Feline good-naturedly, picking up my book off my nightstand. I pulled out my bookmark and lost myself in the current vampire novel I was reading.
Several hours later, I placed the completed book on my table and glanced at my clock radio. "Well, I guess 8:30 is better than 6:00," I told Feline as I finally climbed out of bed. He chose to ignore my hint, though, and burrowed deeper into my quilt.
"Whatever, you bum," I said, scratching him under the chin.
The long day that lay ahead before our mission seemed endless and I needed something to pass the time. I decided that a late spring cleaning was in order and attacked my room with gusto. I was by all means not a slob, but both my suitcases I had used to transport my clothes back and forth to Mark's house still needed to be unpacked, along with my overnight bag filled with toiletry items. I worked through my room methodically, clearing one section at a time. My favorite music played lightly in the background from my iPod that I had placed on its docking station.
An hour later my room was spic-and-span and I had moved on to my sitting room and bathroom. I took my time dusting the bookshelves in my sitting room, removing one book at a time to gently dust each one. By noon, the entire upstairs practically sparkled as I finally put my cleaning supplies away. Exhausted but happy with my time killer, I jumped into the shower to bathe quickly before I headed downstairs to fix lunch for my mom and me.
"Boy, you were a busy bee up there this morning," my mom commented as I placed a plate loaded with a turkey sandwich and chips in front of her.
"You know me, once I start a project I have to finish it," I said, after swallowing the bite of sandwich I had taken. "I figure I will tackle the living room and kitchen next, that way we won't have it hanging over our heads."
"Krista, I appreciate all your help, but you don't have to kill yourself taking care of me."
"I don't mind," I said, speaking the truth. Keeping busy had worked like a charm at keeping my mind off what lay ahead of me that night.
"If you're trying for the best daughter award you already have that, hands down," she said, giving me one last chance to slack off.
"Well, I'm just trying to make sure I have it locked in for next year too," I teased, clearing our empty plates from the table.
"Ah, I see. Well in that case, get back to work."
"Aye captain," I said, giving her a mock salute on my way to the living room.
The rest of the day passed quickly, and before I knew it Mark was ringing the doorbell to pick me up.
"Bye Mom," I said, giving her a quick peck on the cheek.
"Have fun at the Boardwalk Dear, though I'm surprised you guys aren’t sick of it yet."
"Are you kidding me? Sam and Shawn are both ride junkies, they could go every day," I said, skirting around the guilt I felt for the white lie I had fed her.
"Okay, stay safe then," she said as I closed the front door behind me.
Mark grabbed my hand as we descended the front steps. I was relieved to see him, but wished it were under different circumstances. We had been so busy training that our alone time lately was non-existent.
"This is nice," I commented, looking at our joined hands.
"Very nice," he replied, pulling me into his arms for a quick kiss before he opened the car door for me.
"Hey guys," I said, addressing my extended family.
Their greetings rang out through the vehicle as I fastened my seatbelt.
"Everybody ready?" Mark asked, backing out of my driveway.
"Heck yeah, let's go save some souls," Shawn said in an awful imitation of a tough guy. The tension floating around the vehicle was evident on everyone's faces and he was doing his best to make us laugh.
I knew we were ready, but I couldn't help my nerves. We had a solid game plan set thanks to Haniel. Our goal was to arrive at the revival early so we could interact with the people there. The appearance of mere socializing would give us the chance to save as many of them as possible. Haniel advised us to work quickly before Alan made his appearance.
"Being an Abbadon, he will most likely see you for what you truly are. You must try to avoid that if possible. Go in, save who you can, and get out," he told us.
"So I spent the morning Googling this Alan guy," Sam said, breaking the silence in the vehicle.
"Nothing really came up under his name so I tried to think outside the box a little," she added. "I did find an interesting string of attacks at government buildings in several surrounding counties."
"What do you mean?" I asked curiously.
"For example, in Santa Clara County, the welfare office was completely gutted and vandalized. Oh, and an employee was severely beaten. The victim is still in ICU and hasn’t been able to tell authorities anything. In that same county, exactly one week later, a security guard and a lawyer leaving the courthouse were both beaten with the guards night stick. The lawyer suffered a blow to the neck which left him paralyzed and the security guard died a few days after the attack due to complications. Once I found those two cases, I widened my search to other counties around us and found similar incidents," she said. "Here, I made a mock map and labeled each government attack," she added, passing around the map of California she had printed up.
It was passed up my way after the others had a chance to look at it. Based on Sam's handiwork, you could definitely make out a pattern by studying the areas she highlighted. "Have they caught anyone yet?" I asked, studying the couple of dozen marks on the map.
"No, but the way they are spread out over several counties almost makes it look random. Besides, all you hear about on the news anymore is violence, so it's not like these incidents stick out. The only reason I started finding them is because I was really looking. After Alan did his speech on the whole 'are you sick of blah blah' rant, I started thinking he could definitely be using forgotten souls for something like that."
"Wow, Sam, that's impressive," I said, admiring her ingenuity.
"It was nothing," she said, looking a little embarrassed by the praise. "A couple things I did find interesting, though. Each one of the attacks occurred the day after a revival, and tonight must be the last revival at this location."
"How do you know that?" Robert asked intrigued.
"The attacks or it being the revival's last show?" She asked for clarification.
"The last show."
"Oh, I pulled the permits online and this site is booked to host a fair next weekend."
"Dam
n, girl, you really did your research," Shawn said affectionately.
"I just wanted to give us a rough idea about what we could be facing. Besides, it's not like I did much, the Internet did most of the work for me," she said, with now flushed red cheeks.
"Whatever, you still connected the dots," he said, giving her a loud smacking kiss on the cheek. "You did good babe."
I sat studying the big tent in front of us as we waited in a small line of traffic filtering into the dirt parking lot. Sam's findings went a long way in confirming that my instincts had been right, that we were indeed needed in this situation. Innocent people had died or been hurt, and all signs seemed to point to the occupants of the tent in front of me.
"I guess we should get in there," Mark said, opening his car door.
Sam and Shawn climbed out my side of the vehicle which faced the tent. Lynn and Robert discreetly climbed out on the other side which opened near the woods. We had decided that we would look suspicious walking in together, so Lynn and Robert would follow us into the tent after a few minutes. We knew that time was crucial, and Lynn would be of better use if she was with us the instant we entered the tent, but Haniel had advised us to avoid drawing too much attention to ourselves.
"And do not separate from your Protectors under any circumstance. You cannot do your job effectively if your Protector is not there with you," he stated, leaving no room for argument.
Taking his words to heart, we decided the next best thing would be for them to follow us in.
The tent was noisy when we entered, with different groups of attendees scattered about chatting amongst each themselves. Mark and I separated from Sam and Shawn once we got inside, deciding each of us would take a different direction. Mark and I approached a lone girl standing just inside the entrance of the tent. She was dressed in all black and had dyed her cropped hair orange. She had a tattered knapsack slung onto her back and clutched a Monster energy drink in her left hand while her right kept the straps of her bag from slipping. The despair she felt was tangible, to the point that I felt like I could taste it. The images began flooding my mind as I attempted to make a connection with her. It took every bit of concentration I had to filter the negative emotions I was now feeling. She was obviously a runaway as I sensed a heavy feeling of homesickness. Suddenly, I was no longer in the revival tent, but what seemed like an abandoned building with boarded up windows. The smell of urine was overwhelming as rats scurried across the trash-covered floors. There she was, frightened and huddled in a dark corner. I could feel her every emotion as if we were sharing the same mind. She was afraid to fall asleep and starved from not eating for days. I trusted the weeks of training with Haniel, embracing the horrific images and replacing them with my own.
All of a sudden we were no longer in the abandoned building. I stood in front of a woman, maybe in her thirties at most. She was wearing an apron, pulling fresh baked pies out of the oven. The kitchen windows were open to let the cool autumn breeze find its way inside. A little girl ran into the bright room, dragging a doll with tattered hair across the floor. The woman turned, smiling, to pick up the girl with outstretched arms and covered her neck with kisses, making the young child squeal with delight. Suddenly the image blurred and I began to once again hear the rumblings of several conversations at once. I felt Mark grab my arm to hold me up.
"Krista, are you okay? You looked like you were losing your balance," he asked concerned.
"I'm fine, but that felt like it took forever. Is she still here?" I asked, regaining my focus.
"She's over there. What do you mean it felt like forever? Your eyes were only closed for a few seconds."
I found myself more concerned with the girl than what Mark telling me. I looked to my right to see her quietly exit through the open tent flap.
"Did you see that?" I asked Mark enthusiastically. "Come on."
I made my way over to the two guys standing a couple feet away. Mark instantly engaged one of them in a conversation while I worked my magic on the other. His emotions were different than the girl I had left, and the animosity he emitted was warranted as his images flashed in front of me. Once again, I took them in, filtering them with the happy ones while washing away all the ill feelings that were attached to them. Mark stopped midsentence as I turned to his friend and started the process again. It amazed me how readily my soul embraced the images and emotions that it had shied away from the last week. I felt jubilant as I moved on. I had previously perceived the emotions as heavy and draining, but instead, they acted like an energy source that propelled me forward.
I lost track of time as we made our way around the tent doing the job we were created for. I was so focused on the task at hand that Mark had to tug on my arm to get my attention.
"Krista, we gotta go. The revival will be starting any minute."
"Just a few more, please," I begged, looking around at the few remaining forgotten souls on our side of the tent I hadn’t gotten to yet. "I haven’t found the girl market yet and I don't know if Sam or Lynn have either," I whispered, looking around at a tent that was now emptier than it was earlier.
"Krista, they're already outside waiting for us," Mark said, grabbing onto my hand and dragging me toward the exit.
I looked behind me helplessly, feeling awful for the few souls I had been unable to save. Haniel had warned us that we couldn’t save everyone and that even one soul saved was better than none.
We were almost to the exit when I heard Alan's voice behind us encouraging the few followers we had left behind us to find seats. We picked up our pace and reached the exit with a sigh of relief.
"Not leaving so soon are you?" A voice boomed across the tent as a huge body stopped in front of us, blocking the exit. I recognized him instantly as the guy who had watched us so intently the week before.
"Of course not," Mark said. "Misty just remembered she left her purse in the car," he added, nodding toward me, acting like he was aggravated for my negligence. Taking Mark's words as a sign, I closed my eyes and reached out to embrace the hatred that was flowing freely around the man in front of us.
The images that greeted me swept all air from my lungs as I realized my mistake instantly. He was not a forgotten soul. He was something else entirely. My own emotions burned inside me, leaving me disoriented. Allowing him inside and getting a glimpse of the darkness that resided in him had robbed me of all the energy I had gained just moments before. His soul wasn't dark like I would have expected in someone that evil, it was just simply gone.
He was soulless.
Chapter 11
"Come on Misty, let's go get your purse," Mark said, tugging me close so that my depleted body could lean heavily on his.
"I believe Alan might want a few words with you first," the soulless creature said in front of us.
Focusing all my attention on keeping my emotions at bay, I felt Mark shifting our bodies slightly so that we faced the man at the front of the tent.
"Ah, I see we have a traitor in our midst," Alan said in a dry tone, addressing the small group of people that remained. Because the mass exodus of the tent was now so evident, I could clearly tell who the last of the forgotten souls were and who were soulless Demons.
"Do you know the best way to flush out a traitor?" Alan asked, breaking into my thoughts. "Live bait," he said, dragging the girl I had been looking for by the hair to his side. I watched in horror as he tightened his hand in her hair and pulled a small handgun out of the waistband of his jeans.
I went to take a step toward her, but Mark had me anchored firmly against him.
"No!" he whispered, pushing me behind him through the narrow opening in the tent wall that was still exposed. "Run and get the guys and don't come back," he said, propelling me out the opening.
I turned and fled in one movement, feeling the monster behind me grasping at the thin air I left behind as I raced toward the others.
"Get her!" Alan screamed as panic erupted inside the tent. My legs propelled me across the
dirt lot faster than I had ever moved. In the blink of an eye, I was at my friends' sides shouting at Shawn and Robert to help Mark.
I watched as Shawn and Robert headed back toward the tent at what seemed like a turtles pace after my own sprint. I turned and glanced into the worried eyes of my friends as a gunshot rang out through the night.
Without pausing to think, I raced back toward the nightmare, into the mayhem I had just fled. The scene inside the tent was chaotic with people scattered everywhere and our Protectors in the middle of the mess fighting off the soulless creatures Alan had at his disposal.
"Thank God," I exhaled, seeing Mark alive and fighting at the far end of the tent. Continuing to scan the ruckus in front of me, I finally settled on the victim of the gunshot. The girl I had intended to save, the whole reason we were even here in the first place lying in a pool of blood on the hard-packed dirt at the front of the tent.