The Called

by Justin Price

  He had to use their family.

  Samyaza al Assad arose from his three hours of sleep to walk out on the balcony of his palace as was his custom every morning. Those who knew his sleeping habits had always joked that he may not be human. As he walked into the cool morning air, he looked up at the stars that were still shining in the sky brightly. There was no trace of sunlight to be seen as al Assad leaned against the edge of the balcony. His piercing blue eyes looked up at the moon and they seemed to momentarily turn red.

  With a calm but chilling voice, he proclaimed: "I will ascend to the heavens and exalt myself above the stars. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds and be like the Most High. All of creation will belong to me once and for all and I will never relinquish it. I have spoken it, and so shall it be. There will be none above or beside me. I will rule with a rod of iron and cause all of mankind to serve me. They will all see that their success, their riches, and their small measure of glory is because of me."

  As the sun began to peak over the mountains in the distance, he said, "I am the son of the dawn. There is none in all of creation like me. My vessel, Assad, will do my bidding until all has been taken from the Lion of Judah and his followers."

  As the sun came up over the horizon into full view, Samyaza's eyes returned to their same stony blue and he turned around and began his day as if nothing had ever happened. After preparing his clothes and grooming himself, he walked downstairs for breakfast where Adnan Bahar was patiently waiting.

  "Thank you so much for having me here this morning, your majesty."

  "It is my pleasure Adnan. I am ready to hear all about your latest exploits."

  The two shook hands and sat down at the table that had been prepared with an assortment of fruits, pastries, and eggs. There was more food there than both men could hope to eat in an entire day.

  "I have been looking forward to this meeting all week Director Bahar. What new information do you have for me today?"

  "Well, sir. I think that you will be pleased to know that we are ahead of schedule in all countries with our recording devices. We expect that within six weeks, the process will be complete. In addition, we have finished three temples for the worship of you, your Majesty. They are state of the art and they blow away all other places of worship guaranteed. We have only the latest technology installed there. Each individual who goes in will be met with a holographic image of you. It will be powered with the latest artificial intelligence that mimics you and everything that you would say under any circumstance that they bring to the table. They will finally have a god that they can see and who can actually speak back to them and offer them comfort or advice."

  With a proud smile, Assad asked, "How accurate is this technology?"

  "In test runs, it has been found to be accurate 99% percent of the time. Of the 1%, most of them were just a little off and a few were wrong only because we had people try to trick the system. We will schedule you to visit one of them in the near future. I believe you will find it quite charming."

  "Yes, I'm sure. Thank you for the updates Adnan. Now, I want to tell you one of the main reasons that I have called you here this morning."

  "What is that sir?" Adnan asked with a hint of anticipation in his voice.

  "Are you completely committed to me Mr. Bahar?"

  "Yes sir," he stated with a bit of nervousness.

  "Remove your shoes."

  Adnan slipped his designer shoes off onto the floor.

  "Who am I to you?"

  "Sir, you are the promised one. The one who the prophets of every belief system foretold. You are a god on this earth."

  "You are right to say that I am the god of this world. I was born to be a prince. I am the power of the air and I will be king of all. Now, if this is what you believe then I tell you to bow before me and worship me."

  Bahar slipped out of his chair and onto his knees with his face to the floor and began to give him praise.

  "Now rise."

  Adnan rose to his feet and kept his eyes closed with tears streaming down his face. He felt like he no longer had control of all of his faculties, but it was all well to him in that moment. He knew he was witnessing and about to receive something different.

  "Adnan Bahar, I am promoting you to my second in command. The only one you will report to from now on will be myself. You will be Supreme Commander. Your role will be to cause all people to see me for who I am and worship me. Do you understand your new role?"

  "Yes sir. Thank you sir," said Adnan.

  Assad placed his hands on Adnan's head and in that moment he felt power course through him like lightning. His eyes were opened like never before as he beheld Assad's true form. Light radiated from him. It was obvious that he was not of human origin and neither were those that he saw around him. This assortment of beings standing around Assad seemed to levitate in the air and had a ghostly beauty to them as they flowed like smoke and fire.

  "Who are they?"

  Charles stood inside the portal with Erica and grasped her hand. They both walked toward the opening that went into his study at home. As they came to the entrance, he noticed that she was met with resistance. He pulled ahead with her following behind, still linked together.

  "Come on honey. We can do this. I can't lose you again," he shouted above the roar of the energy as he passed through the opening. He could still feel her hand as he continued to pull her. He gave one last tug and she came out after him. The portal closed with a bang that knocked him to the floor violently. As he looked up, he noticed that it was no longer his wife standing there.

  He thought he saw some very large creature with wings crash through the window that had already been shattered by the previous blast. As he stood to his feet, the room was empty and dark. All of the lights in the room had been shattered.

  "Erica?"

  Erica?!"

  "No!"

  He dropped to his knees and wailed like he did when he first lost her to cancer years before. His hope of having his wife back with him somehow was destroyed. The proverbial carrot had been dangled in front of his face and then snatched away before he could reach it. He laid there is physical and mental pain in broken glass and dreams, wishing that he could just leave this world so that he could be reunited with his wife.

  "Dad!"

  The knock on the door and panicked voices of his daughters snapped him out of it. He immediately limped to the door and opened it.

  "Dad, are you okay?” asked Caitlin with a grave look of concern on her face.

  "Yes, honey. I'm alright. Just a science experiment gone wrong. Nothing that can't be fixed."

  "You have blood on you daddy", said Raelynn.

  "Oh...," Charles said, wiping his brow with a handkerchief.

  "Just a few small cuts from the broken glass. You girls stay right there now, I don't want either one of you to end up with glass in your feet. I will call a cleaning crew to come in and get this taken care of first thing tomorrow."

  "Alright dad. Are you sure you are okay?"

  "I'm fine girls. Really."

  The real truth was that he was holding back tears the entire time. It wasn't because of physical pain. That was easy to deal with. It was the pain of feeling like he had failed his wife all over again. As the girls went back to their rooms, Charles sat down on his large study chair by the fireplace and pondered what had just happened.

  Maybe he was being too hard on himself. Maybe this whole thing was an illusion, or at least not what it seemed. He couldn't make sense of the creature he had caught a glimpse of. He wondered if it was real or just a hallucination caused by the effects of the wormhole or the blast. He really didn't want to think about it too much because it gave him a sick feeling in his stomach, but what if tampering with the space-time continuum had released something sinister or dangerous into this world.

  What if "it" was still out there?

  Noah heard the sound of a car peeling out about a quarter of a mile down the trail. He took off in a de
ad sprint, realizing that his time to return to his wife had run out and she might have left just as he instructed. As he ran out of the woods, he could see the black tire marks on the road where Joanna had floored the accelerator. Why would she do that? She wouldn't want to draw attention to herself out here.

  The red car was already traveling down the old highway at eighty miles per hour. Trees were zipping by faster than the eyes could see.

  "Is your seatbelt on Ryan?"

  "Yea, mom." Ryan said with evident fear.

  "Honey, I want you to pray. Can you do that for me?"

  "Yes."

  Ryan shut his eyes and bowed his head, whispering a prayer to a God that he didn't know much about, but trusted with his life.

  The black vehicle pulled closer by the second as they zipped through the forest road. They were heading north into several miles of wilderness with little hope of making it to freedom. The black SUV rammed the back of their car, trying to cause them to lose control. Another violent time, the officer rammed their car. They finally lost control and fishtailed.

  The car spun around the other direction in time to see the SUV continue on a straight trajectory in the middle of the "Y" in the road. Between the split were several redwood trees. The SUV hit one head on with a loud crash. Joanna looked back at Ryan, who still had his head down and his eyes shut. They were okay. But what about the officer?

  She sat there as still as a stone for several seconds, waiting to see if the officer would exit the vehicle or if there would be any movement at all. The SUV rested about twenty feet in front of them. There was never any movement. Joanna tried to turn around and find Noah, but the car had stalled. She pushed the ignition button, but it wouldn’t even crank now.

  Joanna suddenly became very fearful of the situation they were in. They could be caught right now or forced to spend the night in the wilderness as fugitives. Neither option sounded very enticing.

  "Ryan, I want you to stay in the car and keep your head down. I'm going to go check on this man."

  "Okay, mom. Be careful."

  She approached the totaled government vehicle low to the ground. She closed in within ten feet. Her heart felt like it was going to pound out of her chest. Her pulse was racing and sweat coursed down her forehead and into her eyes, stinging them in the process. Just as she took a deep breath, the door flew open.

  The officer stumbled out with blood covering his face in a crimson mask. His face was already swollen and disfigured. He struggled to hold one eye open as he looked at Joanna.

  "You stop right there!” he said.

  She panicked and ran toward her car. She flung the back door open and pulled Ryan out of his seat.

  "We have to go Ryan. Run with me as fast as you can."

  They both ran into the woods as the officer pursued them. He pulled out his gun and fired it as they disappeared into the forest.

  Joanna felt a horrible sting on her right shoulder just as she heard the gun fire. She yelled out in pain, but they couldn't stop now.

  The officer called for backup as he holstered his gun and sat on the ground in pain. Within ten minutes, three other squad cars pulled up to assist him. By that time, Joanna and Ryan had been long gone, but they left a small trail of blood. The officers let their German shepherd out of the squad car and they were hot on their trail just as night was beginning to fall.

  Meanwhile, Noah had been about ten feet from the highway behind some brush watching the squad cars go north. He could only imagine what had happened. Not knowing had happened to the most important people in his life was a tough pill to swallow. The only thing he could do was try to locate them, so he stayed out of sight, but close enough to the main road to hear and see what was going on. He started the hike toward their direction as daylight disappeared and the sound of crickets began.

  CHAPTER 8

  “My baby! Are you alright?” asked Mrs. Clark.

  Abbie looked up to see her mom rush over to her with arms outstretched.

  “I’m okay mom.”

  “Oh, thank goodness. I got on the next flight over here as soon as I heard.”

  “Mom, I’m sorry.”

  “What do you have to be sorry for?”

  “I’m just sorry that I put Jenna and myself in that situation. I’m sorry I worried you and that you had to buy a plane ticket and come out here.”

  Abbie’s mom looked at her compassionately and said, “Look at me Abbie. There is nothing you could have done. Neither one of you could have known what was going to happen last night. I don’t want you beating yourself up over this.”

  “It’s just much easier said than done. I have had a lot of time today to just lay here and wonder what I could have done differently. We should have known better not to have gone down that alley at that time of night.”

  “Baby, hindsight is always twenty-twenty. It was just a tragedy that couldn’t have been prevented.”

  Abbie had been thinking of Jenna’s parents and what they had to be going through. She also wondered if they would feel resentment toward her in some way.

  “Have you heard anything from Jenna’s parents?” asked Abbie.

  “Yes. They are doing about as well as can be expected right now. They chose to stay home and begin the funeral arrangements. The body was being flown out this afternoon.”

  Abbie just looked straight ahead with tears welling up in her eyes.

  “Mom, I want to come home.”

  “You’ve got it honey. They said that you are doing well. You just banged your head a bit and had some dehydration. They plan on releasing you tomorrow morning and we can be on the first flight back home.”

  “I would like that a lot.”

  “Good. Now get your rest. I need to make a few calls and then I will be back up here this evening to stay with you for the night. I love you!”

  “I love you too momma. Thank you for being here for me.”

  “That’s why I’m here,” she said as she walked out the door.

  This was the most alert that Abbie had been since everything happened. She didn’t want to sit and dwell on anything, so she decided to turn on the television. She reached for the remote and the screen was lowered from the ceiling. She brought it to rest at the foot of her bed and turned on the local five o’clock news.

  The reporter was trying to brush the hair out of her face due to the wind outside. She was walking down a familiar street in Nashville talking about the Smashville club.

  ‘Oh no’, thought Abbie.

  ‘Could it be?’

  Sure enough, the reporter motioned with her hand at the club and the alley next to it which had police tape in front of it.

  “This is the site of a grisly murder which happened late last night here at the club in downtown Nashville. Police say that they apprehended one Logan Smith three blocks away after he fled the scene. This was apparently an attempted rape. Police are investigating and we will have more information as it becomes available.”

  Abbie looked at the mug shot of the man on the screen. It was him alright. The dark, slightly gray hair and goatee with those haunting green eyes couldn’t be mistaken. She turned the TV off as she felt a panic attack coming on.

  ‘At least they apprehended him’, she thought.

  ‘They took him off the streets before he could harm anyone else.’

  She felt so many things right now. None of them were good feelings. Sadness, anger, fear, hatred. She had never felt so fragile and vulnerable in her life. In the middle of her contemplation, the dream she had earlier came back to her remembrance. She thought of the comfort that she felt.

  ‘If only real men were that way’, she thought.

  Even if it was only a meaningless dream or this man was a figment of her imagination, it was the only concrete comfort that she had felt all day other than her mom. Somehow, even though her mom was here with her, it still didn’t compare to what she felt during and after that dream. She thought maybe it was her subconscious trying to make up for the
fact that her father wasn’t in her life. She needed that love and comfort from a man, but she never had it and certainly didn’t have it now.

  Abbie started thinking ahead to the coming few days. She was looking forward to being released from the hospital in the morning and was even relieved to be going back to the familiarity of home, but she also dreaded it. She dreaded having to go to the funeral and look Jenna’s parents in the eyes. She dreaded the questions and people treating her like a porcelain doll that could break at any moment.

  The truth was: She knew that she could break at any moment. But, maybe on some level that breaking was good. It was never good to hold such things inside. Emotions had to be expressed. She just didn’t like doing that in front of other people. She knew that she had to face questions from the authorities to wrap up the investigation. She knew that she would eventually have to be called upon as a witness in this man’s trial.

  The thought of what she still had to go through after all of this was overwhelming. She definitely didn’t want her whole life revolving around this one incident. She would like to get through the coming week and then move on, but she knew that it was more complicated than that. Maybe she could disappear and create a new life for herself. Maybe she could go somewhere warm and sunny with sand and ocean as far as the eye could see.

  As she sat there daydreaming, the phone next to the bed startled her with a loud ring. Abbie just stared at the phone for a few seconds wondering if she should even answer. Curiosity finally got the best of her and she answered.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey Abbie. It’s Lexi.”

  “Oh, hey Lexi.”

  “How are you girl? I heard what happened. I am so sorry.”

  “I’m okay. Just focused on getting out of here so I can go home.”

  “Home like as in Oklahoma?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Great. I am so glad that you are coming back. I wish it would have been under better circumstances. I know that we kind of had our differences in opinion on whether we should stay in Nashville or not. I am just so sorry that I didn’t get a chance to talk to Jenna again.”