by Bryan, JL
“It’s complicated. What do you know about this cult called the Church of First Light?”
Cassidy sighed. That again. “I know he’s involved with it. My mom doesn’t seem too worried, though. Apparently it’s his least destructive phase since middle school.”
“I came across some information about them recently,” Tamila said. “I’m working at a firm in Buckhead this summer before I go back for my second year of law school.”
“Second year?” Cassidy did the math. “So you finished college in three years?”
“It’s easy if you stay in school every summer. Anyway, we had this situation where we helped a certain high net worth client search for his daughter. Fifteen-year-old rich girl runs away to avoid rehab, that kind of situation. At one point, she stayed at a First Light mission in Austin, Texas, for a couple of days. These missions welcome runaways and delinquents; easy marks for recruiting, I guess, young people with no direction. That turned out to be a dead end. The girl didn’t actually join the cult, but something about it gave me a very strong, very bad feeling. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and I kept researching.”
“What happened to the girl?”
“She turned up in Portland, Oregon, strung out on heroin. She’s in a platinum drug treatment center now. Her parents are worth a quarter of a billion dollars, so her life’s going to have whatever happiness money can buy. The girl’s not the point—the cult is what we need to talk about.”
A dark-skinned, grandmotherly waitress arrived with hot tea made from coffee leaves. Cassidy was unfamiliar with Ethiopian cuisine, so she took Tamila’s advice and ordered the kei wott, described on the menu as a kind of beef stew with a barbecue sauce.
“What did you find out about them?” Cassidy asked when the waitress left.
“The cult? First, it’s not easy to learn about them. They’re secretive and small, but very well-funded. The founder—they call him their prophet—is a guy named Eli Bernham. Another super-rich kid. He created it in the seventies, in California.”
“Not the most shocking time or place for a wacky new cult.”
“True. They seem to recruit these kids and turn them around, send them to study finance, business, law...They go in as drifting delinquents and come out ten years later as hot young bond traders driving Porsches. And they tithe back to the church, of course.”
“So they change teenage thugs into douchebag yuppies,” Cassidy said, and Tamila smiled a little and nodded. Cassidy tried to imagine her brother in a Brooks Brothers suit. “Could be worse. I mean, that beats a mass suicide, right?”
“Sure. But I think there’s more happening under the surface, things most people wouldn’t even believe. I managed to meet this girl who hangs out at the First Light youth mission here in Atlanta—it’s in a crappy old office building not far from here. I checked the property records, and the church owns the whole building. This girl was getting uncomfortable with all of it, and I coaxed her into talking.” Tamila hesitated, looking at her.
“And?” Cassidy asked. She was eager to learn more about what her brother was doing.
“You remember what happened that night, don’t you?” Tamila whispered, leaning closer. “With Reese?”
“Of course.”
“This cult is into demons—they don’t call them demons, they call them ‘angels of darkness’ as opposed to ‘angels of light.’ The ‘dark’ is because they’re closer to Earth, supposedly trying to help us out—the ‘light’ angels are high above like the stars, watching us coldly, not helping humans at all. That’s their little theology, anyway. It’s a very complicated sort of devil worship, at its core.”
“Devil worship? Like in a bad horror movie from the 1980’s?”
“Only these devils are real. I was supposed to meet with the girl again at lunchtime today. Her name’s Zoe, by the way, and she’s friends with your brother. She’s mentioned him specifically. I think she might have a crush on him.”
“Aw. My mom said he was probably only into this church—this cult, I mean—because of a girl.”
“Let’s hope so. Zoe didn’t make it today, never showed up for our meeting. I called around, hospitals and police precincts, pretending I was her mother and couldn’t find her. She was brought into Grady Hospital early this morning...dead on arrival.”
“Holy shit. What happened to her?”
“Sudden heart failure, with no obvious cause.”
Cassidy gasped and felt herself grow cold just as the food arrived. The wott was a stew almost as thick as hummus, redolent with hot, peppery herbs, served over slices of flatbread. It looked delicious, but Cassidy’s appetite had just taken a serious blow.
“Are you okay?” Tamila asked. “Your whole face just bleached white.”
“My dad,” Cassidy said. “He died the same way. Heart failure they couldn’t explain.”
“I asked the hospital if drugs were involved, but they didn’t find evidence of any. And that was the last question they let me ask over the phone. Zoe told me she’d quit drugs because the church discourages them—the ‘patron spirits’ prefer healthy, young, attractive bodies.”
“The what spirits?” Cassidy asked.
“If I’m reading between the lines correctly...these cult members volunteer for demonic possession,” Tamila said.
“Why would they do that?”
“Maybe because they get a Porsche out of it. Try your wott, it’s good.” Tamila scooped up the thick stew with the bread, rolled up the edges, and held it toward Cassidy’s mouth.
“You don’t have to feed me. I can handle it.” Cassidy smiled.
“It’s part of Ethiopian dining. Feeding someone else is called gursha, a sign of friendship.”
“If you say so,” Cassidy opened her mouth and let Tamila hand-feed her. The food was good despite her suddenly shrunken appetite—warm bread, spicy beef. “Do I feed you now?”
“Of course.”
Cassidy reached over to Tamila’s plate, scooped up some misser wott, made of lentils, onions, and peppers, and gently fed it to her old friend.
“It really is good to see you,” Cassidy said. “Even if it has to be crazy like this.”
“You, too.” Tamila returned her smile, then opened a briefcase by her chair and brought out an accordion folder with a flap tied down by string. “Here’s a copy of everything I know about the cult. I hope it will help you talk your brother out of it.”
“I’m calling him now.” Cassidy tried him on her cell phone, but Kieran didn’t answer. She left an urgent message for him to call right away.
“He’s probably at the mission. I’ve staked it out a few times, and Kieran seems to hang out there every night,” Tamila said.
“You said it was near here?”
“Right down the street.”
“We have to go get him,” Cassidy said. “You think they killed this Zoe girl for having second thoughts, don’t you?”
Tamila hesitated a moment, then nodded. “I’m not sure how, but yes. That’s what I think.”
“And if my brother has second thoughts, they might kill him, too. And if he doesn’t have second thoughts, they’ll put a demon in him?”
“Right.”
“What if that’s happening right now? What if it’s tonight? We could already be too late, Tamila! We have to go get him.” Cassidy shoved a heap of food into her mouth as she stood. She tossed her money on the table and hurried toward the door.
“Wait!” Tamila caught up with her. “You’re not going alone. I know more about these people than you do.”
“You’ll come with me?”
“You’re not going alone. We should take my car, the place is a little hard to find.”
Cassidy and Tamila stepped outside and paused under the awning, preparing to dash through the rain to Tamila’s car. Cassidy saw that the invisible parasites were everywhere now, though few of them had been hanging around when she’d arrived.
“Ready to run?” Tamila touched her key fob, an
d the lights of a red Mazda flashed across the parking lot as her doors unlocked.
“Ready.” Cassidy and Tamila’s hands clasped automatically, just like when they were kids walking beside the busy highways. They lowered their heads and charged through the rain.
As they ran toward Tamila’s car, Cassidy heard a long, high-pitched shriek from somewhere above. She stopped to look up, squinting against the rain.
“What is it?” Tamila asked, stumbling but not releasing Cassidy’s hand.
“You don’t hear that?”
“Hear what?”
Cassidy finally saw the source of the sound—a thing like a rotten crow with a long, serrated beak, swooping down toward them from the black clouds above. It was one of the parasites nobody else could see, but Cassidy had never heard one before.
“It’s a—it’s hard to explain, let’s just keep going,” Cassidy said.
“What are you looking at?” Tamila squinted.
The bird-thing dove and slammed into Tamila’s chest, its serrated beak plunging straight through her to emerge on the other side, followed by the rest of its body.
Tamila gave a choking gasp and clutched at her heart with her free hand. Her other hand tightened its grip on Cassidy’s, fingernails biting into Cassidy’s palm hard enough to draw blood. Tamila sank to her knees, eyes wide, and slumped against the driver side of her car.
“Tami!” Cassidy screamed. She knelt in a puddle and held her friend. “Tamila, say something!”
Tamila’s eyes were wide open, but the girl didn’t respond no matter what Cassidy did. Cassidy fumbled out her phone and dialed 911.
“Tamila, please...” Cassidy kept trying to wake her, but Tamila didn’t seem to have a pulse anymore. Cassidy was horrified—she’d seen the thing coming, but she’d never seen one of the parasites do anything like this. They usually just fed invisibly on people, unnoticed.
Cassidy realized this was her own fault—she hadn’t even tried to push Tamila out of the way. She’d grown accustomed to seeing the transparent creatures as mostly harmless.
By the time the ambulance arrived, most of the restaurant staff was outside, trying uselessly to help in some way. The medics tried to revive Tamila, but the girl was gone.
Cassidy slipped away, clutching the damp folder of information about the cult, and drove off into the storm, sobbing, horrified, and angry, but also scared.
Kieran could be next, she thought, and she punched the accelerator.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Cassidy squinted as she drove down Cheshire Bridge, trying to read street numbers through the heavy rain. She missed the address she wanted twice, each time turning around to look again. She finally found the little spur road that led off the side of a strip mall with an adult novelty shop and a massage parlor. The overgrown drive took her to a rundown, three-story office building. The first story lay dark, but some of the windows on the second and third were lighted.
She parked on the cracked, weedy asphalt near the narrow, barred front entrance. Cassidy took a breath. Her entire body was shaking—she’d just seen her oldest friend die, but she had to act before something happened to her brother, too.
She had no doubt that the cult had killed Tamila for investigating them, as well as the girl Zoe who had helped Tamila. Cassidy’s own determination to avoid dealing with anything supernatural had allowed the situation to develop into something dangerous to those closest to her. She wanted to figure out who exactly had killed Tamila, but she had to start by rescuing Kieran.
Steeling herself as much as she could manage, Cassidy left the car and hurried through the rain. The front door of the building was locked, so she pressed the button beside it. A small security camera peered down at her from above.
“Hello?” a woman’s voice asked from the small speaker.
“Hi.” Cassidy held up one of the Are You the Messiah? pamphlets, which she’d taken from Tamila’s folder. She’d left the rest of the folder back in the car. “Someone from here gave me this a few weeks ago. I’ve read it and I answered the questions, and...I just need to talk to someone about it. I think maybe I could be the messiah. Is that crazy?”
“It may feel that way, but I promise you’re not crazy.” The woman’s voice seemed warmer and friendlier now. “Come on in. We’ll talk.”
The door buzzed, and Cassidy pushed it open.
The lobby was empty and dark, and her footsteps echoed as she stepped inside, not sure where to go. She found a cheap-looking building directory, a black board with movable white letters. The only occupant of the building appeared to be First Light Youth Mission, 201.
Cassidy pressed the elevator button and shivered while she waited. She was soaking wet, but she was much colder on the inside.
What am I doing? she asked herself. She felt she was losing her mind, or had already lost it.
The elevator pinged and the doors opened, flooding the dark lobby with light.
Cassidy rode up and entered the small lobby of what looked like a bland corporate suite. A woman stood up behind the desk, smiling as Cassidy entered. She was around Cassidy’s age, maybe a couple of years older, a little plump in a loose summer dress, cute in an approachable sort of way.
“Hi! You look drenched. I should brew you up some hot chocolate,” she said.
“No, thanks.” Cassidy smeared her hair back from her face and looked around the wood-paneled, gently lit room. A plaque identified it as the place she was looking for.
“So the questions spoke to you?” The lady stepped around the desk. “You’re definitely at the right place to talk about it. I’m Deena—my husband Matt and I run this little mission.” She offered a hand, and Cassidy shook it. “You know, I already have a special feeling about you—”
“I’m Cassidy. I’m looking for my brother Kieran.”
Deena’s mouth hung open for a moment, clearly caught off-guard.
“Oh...I thought you said...” Deena fumbled.
“Can I speak to him?”
“Um...” Deena looked nervous. “Okay, I’ll page him.” She reached over the desk and pressed a button on the phone. “I need Kieran to come out for a sec.” Deena cast a suspicious look at Cassidy. “Did you even read our brochure?”
“I’m not the messiah,” Cassidy said. “Neither are you, and neither is my brother or anybody else.”
“Well, only the prophet can determine that...” Deena looked worried as Kieran emerged from the door behind her.
“What’s up?” Kieran asked. He was grinning, but his smile collapsed when he saw his sister. “Cassidy?”
“We need to talk.”
“Go ahead. I’m in the middle of something,” Kieran said.
“Privately, maybe?” Cassidy glanced at Deena.
“I can step in back. Sure you don’t want that hot chocolate? Or a cola?”
“No, thanks.” Cassidy waited for the woman to close the door. “You have to get out of here, Kieran.”
“Why?”
“These people are...I wish I could say they were crazy, but it’s worse than that.” Cassidy paused, trying to think of a reasonable way to explain things, but she couldn’t. “They worship demons.”
“Oh, you don’t understand,” Kieran said. “Calling the Luciferian celestials ‘demons’ is just a deception from Uriel’s faction. Both factions are the same kind of thing.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Cassidy hadn’t expected him to come back with something even stranger than what she had to say.
“The truth has been hidden from us,” he told her. “The reality is that one order of angels wants to help us and give us power, while the others just want to watch us suffer and struggle for their own amusement.”
“Wait...so you know this is a group that worships Satan?”
“That’s not a name we use when we speak of the Undying. You’re clueless, Cassidy. I’ll explain it to you sometime, if you can even understand it, but I have to get back to my friends now.” Kieran turned
and walked toward the door.
“Kieran! You can’t go back in there.”
“Why not?” Kieran scowled. “Just because you say? Stop trying to control my life, Cassidy. You’ve been gone for years. You never wanted anything to do with me, and now you think you can order me around?”
“This is important,” Cassidy said. “We can save the immature angsty whining for later. Right now, we need to get out of here.”
“No.” Kieran crossed his arms and backed away toward the door. “I’m staying. You should go.”
“I’m not leaving here without you.”
The door behind Kieran opened, and Deena emerged, followed by several smirking teenagers.
“If he wants you to leave, I’ll have to insist that you do,” Deena said. She no longer looked cute and non-threatening. She seemed taller, and her eyes had a strange yellow cast to them. Her voice was cold and hard.
“You can’t keep my brother here,” Cassidy said. She balled her hands into fists, ready for a fight.
“We’re not keeping him. It’s his choice to stay. Isn’t it, Kieran?”
“Yeah, it is.” Kieran glared at Cassidy.
“Come on!” Feeling desperate, Cassidy grabbed for Kieran’s arm. Why wouldn’t the little prick cooperate? She wondered whether he was already possessed.
“Throw her out!” Deena snarled. All the boys, including Kieran, seized Cassidy’s arms and legs and hoisted her up. She struggled and kicked uselessly as they carried her to the elevator and down to the lobby.
“Kieran, what are you doing?” Cassidy yelled at her brother, who clasped her left arm along with another boy.
“I’m in charge of my own life now,” Kieran said. “The church is my family now.”
“They are not your family!” Cassidy shouted while the teenagers carried her through the dark first-floor lobby. One girl ran ahead to open the door for them. “You barely know them!”
“They’re here for me, at least. More than I can say for anybody else.” Kieran smirked as they heaved Cassidy out the door. She slammed into the wet pavement and cried out in pain. Kieran gave her a good-bye wave and a jaunty smile.