“Oh, I haven’t thought about that one before. But wait. If I do that, then you won’t get paid. Maybe you shouldn’t try to help in the future, Doc, if you want to have a financially stable career,” Kevan sarcastically said.
The doctor looked at him and shook his head and left. Luna walked in after he left.
“Is she okay?” she asked.
“Yes,” Kevan said.
Luna hugged him. It seemed like her belly had gotten a lot bigger in the previous two days.
“What are you going to do?”
“I … I don’t know.” Kevan looked at his mother as she slept. Her body was so fragile, but that was his mother. He didn’t want to lose her.
Kevan’s phone rang. It was a number he didn’t recognize. Usually he would’ve just ignored it, but—
“Hello,” Kevan said.
“Hello, Kevan, this is Svante.”
Svante? Why in the hell was a god calling him?
“Hello, Svante.”
“I heard about your mother.”
There was a pause. Kevan didn’t answer him.
“About how she was in the hospital.”
“I’m … I’m sorry I stormed out. This wasn’t your fault, this happened during our meeting.” Why was he apologizing to him?
“That’s the thing, it’s not my fault that she OD’d, but it will be if I allowed it to happen again.”
Kevan stared at his phone. “What are you saying?”
“I’ve moved some funds around. I will help you with your mother. I’ve already sent the payment to Heaven’s Heights.”
Kevan nearly dropped his phone. “I…I…I don’t—”
“Don’t say anything. Not all the gods are bad guys, Kevan. He is the only all-seeing one. We others have a harder time seeing things in others. I hope you have a fine night.”
Svante hung up.
“Kevan, who was that?”
Kevan turned to Luna. His mother was going to be helped. After a year of shit, his life was finally starting to look up.
Kevan walked to Luna and hugged her. She looked at him, confused. He was crying in her arms.
…
Svante hung up the phone in his office. He wondered how Queen would react to what he’d just done. Screw her. This was his place to rule over.
Brookes walked through his door without knocking. Svante got to his feet.
“You wanted to see me?” Brookes said.
“Yes, I wanted to see Queen’s fuck buddy.”
“Is that all?”
“I want you to leave Sotira.”
“I cannot do that, Svante.”
“Are you disobeying my order, the order of a god?” Svante's tone rose.
Brookes stepped back, noticing the change in his voice.
“I only answer to Queen, Svante.”
“Don’t use my name. Call me either Sir or… actually, just Sir.”
“Sir.… I was ordered to do business here by Queen.”
“I don’t like it when other gods interfere in my domain. Especially when they’re killing people for unexplainable reasons.”
“I’m overseeing some people for Queen. When my business is done, I will leave and never come back to this shithole. If you have a problem with that, speak to Queen.”
“Rats like you should be killed. I could make you disappear, in the flash of a second.”
Brookes stepped toward him.
“Rats like me make the world go round. Queen took a liking to me, so she wouldn’t like it if I were to go missing.”
“Leave my office.”
Brookes smiled and turned to leave.
“If you weren’t Queen’s lust toy then I would kill you with my bare hands. Once that lust leaves Queen… and oh, yes, her lust for you will leave her, it always does for people like you… she’ll discard you like the others. And then I will find you and I will kill you myself.”
Brookes hesitated and looked at Svante. He was serious.
“I’d probably be doing you a favor as I don’t see how people like you can live with yourself.”
“It’s easier than you think,” Brookes said as he left. The door slammed behind him.
Svante pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
Brookes was a human snitch. Working with Queen to strategically subjugate the human race. He would have never allowed this.
But now He didn’t speak to anyone anymore. Svante sat in his seat and smoked his cigarette. He needed to figure out a way to stop Queen from her reign. But to have a war of the gods again? He couldn’t let that happen. What could he do?
As he sat and smoked the night away, he wished that He would speak to him again. To give guidance to the world.
To help save them from themselves.
4
Touched
Barbara sat next to Kevan in his truck as he drove home. She was looking better, her skin full of color, the bags under her eyes lessening.
Whatever the doctor gave her really helped. Kevan wondered if Svante could possibly help with the medical bills as well. But he wasn’t going to push it.
The drive home was quiet and uneventful. His mother didn’t speak to him as she stared out of the window the whole way. Kevan didn’t say anything to her. He wanted to tell her he was glad that she was alive. That he was glad that he had found her before it was too late. But…
Kevan glanced at his mother, she looked deep in thought. The silence wasn’t awkward. It was perfect. So he didn’t say a word.
When they arrived at her home, Kevan sat on the couch, letting out a long sigh. When was the last time he slept? He needed to get some sleep.
But first maybe a drink. Kevan laughed. Maybe he really was an alcoholic.
His mother stood in front him, staring at him. Not saying a word.
“What is it?” Kevan asked.
“I’ll … I’ll go. To rehab.”
Kevan smiled.
…
The night was still smoky, the ash filling August’s nose as he sat on the curb. In front of him, firefighters searched his apartment’s remains. Red and blue lights filled his vision.
It was over. A gas leak, they said, started it all.
August cried into his hands.
The fight he had was gone. Sara was the anchor that kept him afloat. Now, he had nothing to stop him from being consumed by the deep abyss.
“Found something!” a firefighter yelled.
August perked up.
The firefighter lifted a wall off of someone. A woman.
“She’s still alive,” the firefighter said.
Sara.
August got up and ran to her but was stopped by the police. “Sir, you cannot cross over, this is a police investigation.”
“Investigation? That’s my girlfriend!” August yelled. He tried to get past the cop again, but the cop forced him back.
August had to watch as they dug her out and put her on the stretcher. August yelled and yelled as they put her into an ambulance and drove off. August tried with all his might but the police never budged.
…
August’s tires squealed to a stop outside of the hospital. He had a hard time keeping up with the ambulance since it could run lights, but he saw it turn into this hospital.
The paramedics were unloading Sara as he pulled in. He ran to them as they carried her to the door.
“Wait!” he yelled.
He ran into the hospital and followed Sara’s stretcher. Doctors started to work on her as he ran up to them.
A nurse stopped him, “Sir, we have to operate. Are you her husband? We have a place you can wait.”
“No, I’m her boyfriend.”
“Sorry, sir, the ER waiting room is for family only. You will need to wait in the lobby.”
“Fuck!” August screamed. The nurse jumped. He wanted to punch something, hit anything. He looked at the nurse, she motioned toward the lobby.
He couldn’t do anything to her, she was just doing her job. August breathed in
deeply and made his way to the lobby and sat down.
He didn’t get a good look at Sara, at how bad her injuries were. He needed them to save her, they had to.
…
It was a few hours later. Sara lay on a hospital bed, asleep under medication. The machine next to her beeped slowly as her heart was beating steadily. A woman stood next to her, covered in pure white robes. Her face was blurry and unclear. But past the blur and the lack of clarity was the shape of a beauty.
She touched Sara’s face and caressed it.
Sara opened her eyes. She stood naked in the purest white. Clouds surrounded her, raging against each other, yet not making a single sound. Not a breeze to make her bare skin uncomfortable. Sara didn’t notice her bareness, for the entity in front of her was all she could focus on.
In front of her stood the woman, her face a blur, no matter how hard Sara’s eyes tried to focus. Behind the woman was a break in the white; past the break was an infinity of colors. A voice spoke in Sara’s head, the woman’s voice. Sara didn’t understand how she knew it was her, but she understood what she had to do. To save August and to save the world.
…
Luna stood over an unbuilt crib in her apartment. “This is impossible.”
She’d been trying to build the crib all day.
Something wet hit her feet. She looked down.
“Oh god.”
Her water had just broken.
“Oh god, oh god, oh god!”
She ran to her phone and called Kevan. But it went straight to voicemail.
“Shit!”
…
Kevan sat at the bar in the Skullet. He’d been nursing his whiskey all night. The glass was still half-full. He’s not in the mood to drink. He thought he would be, after a day like that.
Brookes walked in and sat next to him.
Of course he was here. Kevan said, “Are you following me?”
“Why would I follow you?”
“You seem to be here every time I’m here. My family is kind of notorious, apparently.”
Brookes laughed.
“The whole world isn’t about you and your problems,” Brookes said with some rancor.
Kevan didn’t reply to him. He knew when someone didn’t want to be talked to. But he should at the very least thank him for his suggestion.
“I didn’t mean it that way… Thanks for the help with my mother.”
Brookes shrugged.
“We all have to do what we have to, to survive,” he said.
“You keep saying that. But I don’t even know your story.”
Brookes looked at him. Kevan got his attention. Kevan noticed that Brookes spent hundreds each night. Seemingly drinking so much without getting at least a little bit tipsy.
His clothes looked dirty but his face wasn’t, his skin was taut and firm and despite the scruffy look of his beard, it was somewhat well-maintained. And now that Kevan got a closer look, Brookes seemed like someone who was hiding in plain sight.
“How about you screw off?” Brookes said.
“Sorry but you introduced yourself to me. I’m not the one who started off this relationship we have. I kind of want to know why you’ve been so helpful. And then a second later decide not to be?”
Brookes stared into his drink. “I’m part of a wet team.”
“A wet team?”
“A soldier for the gods. I kill people so the world keeps running.”
Kevan stared at him. The bartender brought Brookes another drink and he downed it. “I’ve killed entire towns of people like you. I sabotage those pitiful elections that you humans have.”
Humans. He spoke like he wasn’t one.
“I’ve shot fathers, mothers, and children in the face while they pleaded for salvation. When the only reason they had to be ended was because of the posturing of some god.”
“Why... why are you telling me this?”
Brookes laughed.
“I didn’t think it would work. I was the one giving your mother her fix anyways.”
“What?” Kevan’s back stiffened.
“What? You didn’t hear me? How do you think these kind of drugs get to you humans? By men like me. We get incentives from certain gods for every person we get hooked.”
Kevan’s whiskey glass smashed into Brookes’ face and Brookes toppled to the floor.
“You fucking started this!” Kevan yelled.
Brookes bled from a gash near his eye. Kevan stood over him.
Brookes just laughed. The bartender raised a gun to Kevan. “Not in my bar.”
Kevan stared at Brookes, who kept laughing. Kevan wanted to rip his tongue out. Kevan threw a few dollars on the bar “for the glass” and left.
Brookes stood back up and wiped the blood from his face. He stared at the blood covering his hand.
Hmm.
The bartender picked up the phone.
“Don’t,” Brookes said. The bartender hung up.
Brookes pulled out his phone. The police would get in his way. He swiped through his contacts and stopped on Barbara’s number.
They all had to do what they needed to, to survive.
…
Barbara sat on her bed, rocking back and forth. Her phone was next to her. She was rubbing her arms. Her itch was coming back. Kevan needed to hurry back. Her phone rang.
…
August still sat in the hospital lobby. He didn’t know how long it’d been. Hours? Days? How long were they going to make him wait? He wasn’t going to leave until he saw her. He was tired of hospital food and his ass hurt. The sun was creeping down through the windows. It was bullshit that they wouldn’t let him see Sara.
A nurse walked up to him. “She’s asking for you,” she said.
August walked with her. The nurse led him to a room. With the window in the door, he could see inside the room. There Sara sat. Without a mark on her. She was looking out of the window. The orange light from the sun painted her skin radiant.
August slowly walked in.
“Sara?”
She turned to him and smiled. “August?”
He ran to her and hugged her.
“I … I thought I lost you.”
“No … I’m fine.”
August let go of his hug and looked over her. His hands caressed her face.
“There’s not a mark on you. It must’ve been a miracle.”
Sara looked back out of the window. Something was on her mind.
“What is it?”
“I …” She hesitated. She grabbed his hand and held it. “Maybe the gods aren’t all as bad as they seem.”
“What? You must have hit your head or something.”
“No. I didn’t hit anything. I just want to go home.”
“We can’t. It burned down.”
“No, August. Our real home. Sotira.”
“But we can’t go back. We’re criminals!”
“I don’t care anymore. I just want to go home. Can you do that for me, August?”
August stared into her eyes. There was a softness in them, a heat in them he hadn’t seen in a very long time. A purpose. He couldn’t say no to her.
He hugged her.
“Let’s go home.”
…
As the sun was setting, Kevan returned to his mother’s house and walked into her bedroom. She wasn’t there.
“Mom!” he yelled. No answer. He walked into the kitchen and called her cell from the home phone.
Someone picked up.
“Hello, Kevan,” the voice was Brookes.
“Why in the hell do you have my mother’s cell?”
“Well, let her answer that for you.”
In the background, he could hear muffled cries.
Brookes said, “Oh sorry, just a second.” Kevan heard a thump and a shriek. “She doesn’t want to talk right now.”
“What in the hell have you done with her!!” Kevan yelled.
“I had some men capture her for me, so we can have some litt
le one-on-one time.”
“You’ve kidnapped her over some bar shit?”
“No, no. This is so much more than that. But I have a surprise in store for you because of that incident. Come back the way you came. I’m in the alleyway behind the bar. You have thirty minutes.”
Brookes hung up. How was he able to get her so quickly? Kevan stared at the phone.
Fuck.
…
It was night. Brookes stood in the middle of an alley, checking his watch. Barbara sat next to him on her knees, with a gag in her mouth and ropes tied around her.
Brookes checked his watch. “It’s a ten minute drive and your son is almost late. Maybe I overestimated how much he cared for you.”
As if it was nothing more than a small rock, a bullet bounced off his face. Brookes bent over and picked up the bullet that had bounced off him. A rifle round. It was smashed.
“You know, that won’t work,” Brookes yelled. Nobody answered back. He must have been on one of the rooftops.
Brookes spun around but couldn’t find him. Another bullet bounced off his back.
“Seriously, stop. It’s getting pitiful.” Another one bounced off his head.
“I will say that you are a nice shot. But I’m one of the Touched. By the mother Queen herself. Do you know what a Touched is?”
Nobody answered him.
“A Touched is a human, like me, who has been touched by the grace of the gods.”
Brookes spun as he talked. He had a guess of where Kevan was, based on the trajectory of the bullets, but he liked to entertain himself from time to time with his grandeur.
“Only by a man’s bare fist can I be hurt, not by any human-made weapon. Which is why I was surprised when you gave my face a nice big scar.” Brookes pointed to his face. His gash was bandaged. It wouldn’t go away. There were loopholes with this rule, which is why he had glass embedded in his face as well. He wasn’t sure why that was as it was human-made but he was going to need to pick the fragments out. Plus he was sure that Kevan didn’t notice that fact.
The Men Who Killed God (Sinner of the Infinite Book 1) Page 6