Doubt - Among Us Trilogy Book 1 - a Truth Seekers end of the world religious thriller series

by Anne-Rae Vasquez

  Where was Kerim?

  She looked over and saw a group of agents standing next to their vehicles. The sight of those bottom-feeding sharks made her heart pound so hard in her chest that she felt like her ribs were going to crack.

  “Cristal!” Kerim called out.

  She turned and saw him being held by two agents, while waiting for another agent to open the door to the vehicle.

  “Kerim!”

  She called out and ran towards him. That’s when Yaffa stepped into her path with her hand extended out and signaling for her to stop.

  “Stay back, girl. You don’t want to be arrested, too,” Yaffa said with a sneer.

  “Murderer!” Cristal screamed, as she felt every cell in her body begging to snap Yaffa’s neck.

  She imagined all the ways she could destroy her, when to her surprise, a bolt of energy from inside her body blasted out from her hands. She assaulted Yaffa’s lard ass over onto another agent.

  Cristal looked down at her hands in amazement at what had just happened.

  Holy crap, did I do that?

  Cristal bolted over to Kerim, and she threw her arms around him. The two agents who had been holding him must have been freaked out with what they just witnessed, because they released his arms and stepped back without question.

  “You can’t leave. You can’t,” she said, sobbing into his shoulder.

  Kerim kissed her on the cheek, saying, “Cristal, please stop crying. It rips me apart to see you like this.”

  Her chest was burning as if flames were torching her body from the inside.

  Keep calm, she told herself.

  All of a sudden, a high-pitched sound blasted through the air. The ground began shifting in violent waves, ripping cement and uprooting trees. Kerim reached down and grabbed her around her waist and started to run.

  The fear she felt earlier was replaced with an incredible calm, as if she were only an observer watching the chaos around her. Everyone was scattering and looking for cover.

  Serena and Rinaldo ran to the van; the agents scrambled to a building across the street. Walid’s friends crouched beside the wall.

  Harry, on the other hand, was standing motionless, staring at her with a sad look on his face. He couldn’t be her protector anymore.

  “Stop this at once!”

  Now what?

  Cristal turned and found herself looking into the barrel of Yaffa’s gun.

  Chapter 28

  Beginning of the End

  THE GROUND BENEATH THE agent’s feet rose and fell, but Yaffa looked determined to ride the waves like a skilled surfer.

  “You are no longer grounded. Gabriel is gone. You’ve unleashed your powers. The powers you have are beyond what you can imagine. You must trust yourself,” her father’s voice said in her head.

  “I said stop this or I will shoot!” Yaffa’s words came out like a shrill cry.

  Was Yaffa threatening her or begging for her life?

  A gunshot filled the air. She heard the bullet whip past her ear.

  An incredible force shoved Cristal, throwing her body twenty feet into the wall. She landed on the ground. Her shoulder was bruised, but the rest of her was relatively unharmed. When she stood up, she was shocked to see Dr. Saeed standing in front of her.

  “Dr. Saeed?” she asked.

  She heard a crash as giant chunks of the wall came down around her.

  “Cristal!”

  Kerim and Harry were running towards her, dodging pieces of the falling wall and jumping over the ground-swelling waves.

  She glanced up and saw Raffe standing beside her, facing Dr. Saeed.

  “Leave her alone,” Raffe growled.

  “Come with me, Cristal,” Dr. Saeed said, motioning to her.

  “No, Cristal! Don’t listen to him!” Harry screamed.

  The ground shifted violently, causing Dr. Saeed to fall backwards.

  “Dr. Saeed!” Cristal cried.

  She tried running towards him, but her legs wouldn’t budge. They were planted to the ground, the energy shooting through her body up into the sky.

  Dr. Saeed stood up and was trying to steady himself when Harry tackled him, sending him back onto the ground. They wrestled as the ground rippled around them.

  Dr. Saeed flung Harry, thrusting him up in the air like a sack of potatoes before slamming him into the wall. In the blink of an eye, Dr. Saeed bounced up from the ground effortlessly. His body rotated in a fluid-like motion, and he began running, although it looked more like flying, towards Cristal.

  But it wasn’t Dr. Saeed, although it resembled him in appearance. This thing’s eyes were glowing an odd neon yellow color; its body was transparent, and its mouth opened revealing a row of two-inch long fangs.

  What in the hell?

  She tried to lift her legs to run, but the magnetic energy from the earth held her down.

  Dear God!

  As if to answer her prayer, a gust of wind brushed past her. Raffe had transformed back into the winged being and was flying towards Dr. Saeed at a speed faster than a shuttle preparing for liftoff.

  “I command you to stop,” Raffe’s voice bellowed.

  The vibrations from his words caused more tremors in the ground.

  “You can’t use that cheap parlor trick on me,” the dark spirit said in a voice that sounded almost robotic, deep and guttural with a hollow screeching echo in the tone.

  All of a sudden, the dark demon spirit whipped out a black tail about six feet in length and lashed at Raffe’s head. Raffe reeled backwards, obviously hurt by the blow.

  So he isn’t invincible after all, she thought to herself.

  Raffe quickly regained his balance, stretched out his wings, and his arm reached behind him for something. To her amazement, he drew out a sword—a sword she would have never imagined existed. The shaft had ornate symbols emblazoned on it; the blade forged out of pure white energy was the length of Raffe’s wing with rays of light gleaming from the edges. Holding the sword forward, Raffe hurtled towards the demon, plunging the blade deep into its chest.

  A howl came out of the demon’s mouth, a horrific sound not from this world—a terrifying shriek that made the hairs on Cristal’s arm stand on end.

  The demon spirit morphed back into Dr. Saeed’s human physical body and plummeted to the ground. As the human body of Dr. Saeed lay motionless on the ground, she watched a dark shadow rise from it, twisting and writhing in agony.

  Raffe waved his sword up in the air, not showing any mercy. The dark shadow demon shrunk back in fear, before turning and slithering down into a large jagged crack on the sidewalk.

  The ground expanded and upheaved, before sending fierce tremors in all directions, north, south, east, and west. The great wall behind her was now a mountain of dust.

  Harry appeared in front of her, his face pale as a white sheet.

  “Cristal,” he said. “Kerim isn’t who you think he is. You have to believe me. You can’t trust him.”

  “Stop it, Harry,” she said, overwhelmed and exhausted with what she had just witnessed.

  Harry took a step closer to her, his blue eyes clouded with shadows.

  “Listen to me. I just watched this video that Gabriel sent me before he died. He took it when he was still in the van. It’s Raffe and Kerim discussing how they were going to eliminate you.”

  “I said, stop it! Nothing you say is going to change how I feel about Kerim.”

  “Then, I won’t talk,” he said as he shoved his phone to her. “Here, watch for yourself.”

  On the screen was a video of Raffe and Kerim. They were having a deep discussion outside the van. The video must have been taken before she had been lifted up to the tops of the fortress walls, because she could see herself in the background talking with Walid.

  Raffe was speaking, but it was in Hebrew, so she couldn’t understand a word.

  “What does this prove? So they’re talking,” she snapped at him. “You know I can’t understand what they’re
saying.”

  This is unreal! Trapped in a pillar of uncontrollable energy and having this ridiculous conversation with Harry.

  “If you want to help, figure out how to make me stop this!” she yelled, pointing at the light blasting from her body.

  Didn’t he care that she was standing here emitting energy like a nuclear power station gone wild?

  The force inside her was funneling up to the heavens from the top of her head and down to the bowels of the earth from the bottoms of her feet.

  Where are you, Kerim?

  Harry stepped to the side and she saw Raffe, who had metamorphosed back in human form, with Kerim standing beside Dr. Saeed’s body. Raffe was waving his arms and yelling in Hebrew, while Kerim was shouting back at him. Suddenly, Dr. Saeed’s body sat upright. He was looking around as if he was in a daze.

  Okay? Now, what’s going on?

  Raffe raised his arm with a clenched fist, as if ready to pulverize Dr. Saeed until Kerim’s hand caught his arm.

  “The demon left the body. You can’t hurt the human,” she heard Kerim say.

  Raffe sneered.

  “He signed his life away to the devil when he wanted to find the secrets of immortality. This pathetic piece of sh*t doesn’t deserve to live.”

  Abruptly, Harry turned to her and asked, “Wait a minute, do you understand what they’re saying?”

  “Of course, I do,” she said.

  After the words left her mouth, she realized that Kerim and Raffe were speaking in Hebrew.

  “I don’t get it. How come I can understand them?” she asked Harry.

  Harry came closer, his body inches from hers. He grabbed her hand and held it tight.

  “I don’t know either, but I think maybe you always were able to learn languages quickly. You just didn’t know how to tap into that part of your brain.”

  “Seriously? It can’t be that simple.”

  Harry swiped his phone and turned it back to her.

  “Oh yeah? Watch the video and see for yourself. I bet that you understand what they’re saying now,” he said.

  “You know, I could say you’re crazy but after all that’s happened today, anything is possible,” she replied. “My father spoke to me in my thoughts. He said that Gabriel’s death unleashed my hidden powers.”

  “Your father said that? You know what, that makes absolute sense! Gabriel must have been like a ground wire in an electrical outlet. Before he died, he somehow prevented you from accessing your powers,” he said.

  “Or, he helped contain the energy from going out of control, like what’s happening right now.” She pointed to the beam of light blasting through her body.

  Harry held his phone up to Cristal.

  “Are you ready to watch now?” he asked.

  Cristal took a deep breath and said, “Yeah, show it to me.”

  The video started playing from the beginning. It sounded like Raffe was lecturing Kerim.

  “Do you remember now? You were sent here to stop her. Not to fall in love with her. When you were changed into human form, we archived your memories and implanted fabricated memories into your human brain. This is the only way our kind can successfully infiltrate humans.”

  Holy crap! What is he talking about? Cristal thought to herself.

  Kerim began speaking.

  “I am remembering now. The Almighty sent me to stop the dark spirits from entering our spiritual realm,” Kerim said.

  He speaks so strangely, she thought. It doesn’t sound at all like the way he talks to me. But maybe it’s just how my mind is translating this. It’s like I’m a Hebrew as a Second Language student and my brain is processing what they’re saying too literally.

  Raffe cracked a weird smile, relieved to hear that Kerim was finally coming around.

  “Kerim, you are one of our greatest warriors. You took on this mission to protect the Kingdom of the Almighty.”

  Kerim stared off into the distance and said, “And the black holes are the entrances to the secret portals from our world to this world. Only our kind is permitted to travel back and forth. Although, we are able to transport humans to Limbo, Purgatory, or Paradise.”

  The way he spoke was as if he was repeating something he had learned during his training.

  Raffe smiled, and said, “Very good. You are remembering now. Don’t worry; it will all come back to you. Your human brain is much too small to fully grasp all of it. Today, you will be transformed back to your natural state, but you must complete your mission. You must eliminate the girl. She is the key to opening the portals for the humans and the demons. Her natural power and abilities are threatening the security of all worlds.”

  Kerim raised his hand in defiance.

  “No! I cannot do this! She is an innocent. She has done nothing wrong.”

  Raffe’s expression changed, as if repulsed by Kerim’s reaction.

  “Not only must you do this. You will do this lest you face the wrath of the Almighty.”

  OMG. Is this “angel-speak” or is this how they say things in Hebrew? Do angels really speak like this?

  Kerim put his face in his hands. His body was visibly shaking.

  “I cannot complete this mission. I love her, with every part of my being.”

  Cristal felt her heart swell despite learning about Kerim’s true identity.

  WTH? He was sent here to kill me?

  She was beginning to fully comprehend the meaning of the phrase “Love is blind.”

  Raffe put his arm around Kerim’s shoulders, speaking in a softer tone.

  “When I first was sent down here, for my first mission, I, too, fell for the charms of the female human persuasion.”

  Kerim glanced up, and asked, “You did?”

  Raffe nodded.

  “In fact, that is why the Almighty sent me here to make sure you complete your mission. I was sent to destroy Liora Henandez, a Sephardi—a Jew of Spanish ancestry. The Henandez bloodline that goes back centuries is known to have special powers and abilities. He appointed guardian angels to watch over them. Since they were a good people, the guardians were instructed not to harm them but to report if the security of our worlds is breached. For centuries, the Henandez family kept their powers concealed from anyone outside the family. They followed the Almighty’s rules and never once did He have to send an archangel for an extraction mission.”

  Kerim was completely absorbed, listening intently.

  “Unfortunately, during the 1960s in this world, it was a time when the humans were rebelling against their parents’ beliefs and searching for spiritual independence. Liora was a good woman. Her brother was killed in a war that she believed was senseless. She wanted to fight against injustice, so she joined a group of activists who at the time were uncovering secret experiments without knowing that the scientists were in fact demon possessed humans.”

  Kerim interrupted, raising his hand.

  “I remember this. These were the ‘Isolating the Soul’ experiments. It caused a stir with the Seven Senior Archangels. I didn’t understand the significance at the time and why we were put on high alert. Demons are always searching for more effective ways to relinquish humans from their souls with their permission. When I finished my intensive training to become an archangel, I realized how devious demons really were. Instead of threatening humans to give away their souls, they had found a much easier way. They simply asked humans to be test subjects and made them sign release forms thereby giving away their rights to their soul.”

  Raffe picked up where Kerim left off. “It was not just that. You may have not been briefed, as this is classified information. However, I share this with you as I have been given some leeway by the Almighty to provide you information on a ‘need to know’ basis. It seems to me this is the time you ‘need to know.’ The leaders of the dark spirits have always wanted to enter Limbo and Purgatory to steal the souls of those who are waiting to enter the gates of Paradise. If they breach this world and enter ours, this act alone will cause an
imbalance between all the worlds, which could lead to catastrophic destruction for the world here and the spirit world. This would thrust good and evil of man and spirit into a war that will end all wars.”

  Kerim arched his eyebrow.

  “And what happened with Liora?”

  Raffe shrugged as if trying to make the memory seem trivial.

  “Well, I fell in love with her. It was hard not to. She was beautiful, generous, and had the purest heart I have ever seen in a human. Like you, my memory had been archived, and implanted memories made me believe I was human. It was with Liora that I felt the emotion of love for the first time. Unless we are in pure human form, our kind does not have the capacity of feeling this emotion. When it came time to eliminate her, I was blinded by the love I felt for her. Love is an emotion that you will not forget, but over time, the memories will fade.”

  Kerim’s eyes widened. Cristal realized at the same moment that it was Raffe and Liora that Bina Schwartz saw in her dream.

  Kerim asked quietly, “And the Almighty pulled you out of the mission and returned you to Him?”

  Raffe’s face grew dark as he spoke.

  “He removed me from the human world and stripped me of my rank. The Almighty demoted me from being a general to a lowly Purgatory Guide. The other archangels scoffed at me. But after getting to know the humans in Purgatory and understanding their suffering and pain, I realized why we have to protect them. Eventually, I was returned to my brigade and given the rank of Admiral.”

  Kerim smiled wistfully.

  “I am a colonel in your brigade, Admiral Raphael,” he said with a deep respect in his voice. “You mentored me, I remember. But you still haven’t told me what happened to Liora.”

  Raffe replied with a sigh, “The Almighty sent another angel to finish the mission. Once the angel took her from this world, her soul entered the Kingdom. She sits among those who are in the good graces of Him. Here in the human world, she left behind a daughter who was raised by Liora’s sister as her own child. She changed her name to ‘HERNANDEZ’ to protect the child’s identity and emigrated from here to Mexico. When the child became an adult, she immigrated to the United States. Don’t you see? Cristal Hernandez is Liora’s great granddaughter.”

  ***

  She shook her head in disbelief.

  “Harry, this is too much. I’m part of a bloodline that has special powers?”

  There was no time to think about this now.