by Lily White
Giving up, I dropped the book on the table and sat up to throw my legs off the bed. The floor was cold against my bare feet and it took me some time to find my shoes, but after locating them in the closet beneath a dress that had fallen from the hanger, I set out in search of Elijah.
He would be mad that I ventured out again after he’d warned me off the first time, but I couldn’t help my curiosity. How he’d found the man in the first place was a mystery to me, one I’d ask him about when we had time to be alone again.
Pulling the door open, I peeked out to make sure nobody lingered in the halls. I hurried down making a right and a left before coming to the doors that led to the sanctuary. I heard three voices arguing, all low and angry, the words becoming louder and more urgent with each passing second. Fear shot through me to hear someone scream, the sound piercing and unholy.
Pushing the door open as slowly as possible, I hoped the hinges wouldn’t squeak and give me away. Not that it mattered much with the way that man was screaming, even the blare of an air-horn wouldn’t be heard.
I poked my head out just far enough to have a clear view of the large room, my view obscured by the benches and pews between where I stood and where the men were gathered. I couldn’t see the man from the side of the road, but I distinctly saw Elijah standing by the large crosses, as well as the town sheriff and Richard.
“How are we going to hide this once the poor bastard bleeds to death?” Richard asked, the low timber of his voice vibrating across the room. I swear if that man was an animal, he’d be a big ol’ grizzly bear given his size and the depth of his booming voice.
“We’re not,” Elijah answered.
Both the sheriff and Richard turned to look at him, their expressions shocked and questioning. “We can’t let the women and children see this. They can’t handle it.”
Elijah bent down to do something out of my sight, but the scream that tore across the room let me know there was somebody lying on the ground beneath them. Fear shot through my heart, both that I wouldn’t be able to handle whatever it was they were doing, and also that I’d get caught watching when I was supposed to be back in the room sleeping.
Despite my brain shouting at me to shut the door and go back to my room before anybody saw me, I couldn’t step away. I was too curious to know what they were doing, too damn scared to move and find out later the hard way. If I learned anything in the months I’d spent as Elijah’s wife, it was that secrets and surprises would hurt me more than anything else.
I didn’t understand why he kept so much from me, as if I were a weak little woman who couldn’t handle the truth that, sometimes, he had to destroy the evil infecting this town.
Tired of being alone and stuck in a room waiting for him, I stayed by that door and watching, hoping with everything I had that he wouldn’t turn around and notice I could see what he was doing.
ELIJAH
“I hate to admit this, Father Hayle, but I had my doubts about what you were telling my brother. Now, seeing this for myself, I don’t doubt any longer. I think you may be on to something.”
James spoke as I tended to our possessed man, readying him for the moment we would free him of his evil, regardless of the fact it would strip him of life. He screamed and wailed, begging for someone to believe I wasn’t actually a priest. Richard laughed it off, and so did the sheriff, one who knew the truth, and the other sinking deeper into the illusion that I was a good man.
Splashing out another few drops of the holy water onto the wounds left behind by the lashings of a whip, the idiot beneath me screamed bloody murder swearing to anybody who would listen that he was just some perverted jerk and not a demon like I claimed.
Sadly, he was being honest, but the sheriff wouldn’t believe him. Why would plain water cause so much pain if there wasn’t a demon inside?
I’ll tell you why that water hurt, and it had nothing to do with the fake blessing. I’d added bleach just to ensure it burned as it soaked into the lacerations and scrapes left by the beating and whipping he took after we had to fight to drag him back out here.
The sheriff was steadfast in his belief that holy water was cleansing the body, meanwhile I was hoping the son of a bitch wouldn’t get too close and wonder why the condemned man now smelled like a house that was freshly cleaned.
I hadn’t used too much, just enough to make it burn. I doubted it would be a problem.
“So, what do we do next? How to get rid of the demon?”
Richard smiled when I shot a glance at him, shrugging his big, bulky shoulders and waited for me to answer the question.
“We crucify him. Kill him in the same way our Savior was killed by the Romans who were infected with just as much evil as this man. It’s God’s way of getting even for what was done to the Son.”
The sheriff grunted out his approval. “Sounds a hell of a lot easier than that shit you see on television. What’s the point of exorcisms if it’s easier just to nail their asses to crosses and leave them there to die?”
Face practically purple, Richard fought not to laugh. One would think I’d drugged the sheriff for as easily as he swallowed down the lies I was feeding him. Didn’t anybody ever think for themselves anymore? Or was the Faith crammed so far down their throats that it somehow compressed the arteries and cut off the blood flow to their brains?
“Don’t believe the lies Hollywood tells you, Sheriff. All of that stuff is put there by the Devil to deceive you. That’s why there’s so much graphic sex and violence in the big blockbuster movies. The world has slipped in to the depths of Hell and nobody realizes just how bad it’s become.”
“Not in my town,” he growled out. “I won’t let this place fall to the Devil. Not now that I know the truth.” Glancing up from the man on the floor who was writhing over himself and crying, James locked his eyes with mine. “When do we involve the rest of the townspeople? When do we let them know how much evil surrounds them and what can be done about it? I think the sooner the better. I don’t want to see another young woman die like poor Annabelle. I was there when they cleaned up the scene-“
I smiled and placed my hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to tell me, James. I was there, too, remember?”
He nodded his head, the grief of that girl’s untimely death still weighing on his shoulders.
Having never intended for Annabelle to die, I didn’t feel guilty for being the one that pushed her to it. In fact, if I’d known then what I knew at this moment, I would have shaken her hand and thanked her for the favor. Without her, this town wouldn’t have been so stunned as to be deceived. Sure, they may have believed eventually that evil was what affected their fields and had the banks breathing down their necks with the threat of foreclosure, but Annabelle’s death only broke them down more, making my job a hell of a lot easier.
“I guess there’s nothing to do now than to grab the nails and string this poor bastard up.”
James nodded his head in agreement. “How long will it take for him to die? Will it be as quick as Jesus?”
My grin widened. “No. The Son of God died quickly because a soldier pierced his side. Unfortunately, this poor son of a bitch will have to go out a lot slower.”
“What? What the fuck are you talking about? This is insanity! I’m not a fucking demon!” The condemned attempted to sit up, but Richard kicked him in the chest to knock him back down. Even the blow to his ribs didn’t stop him from claiming his innocence. “Listen, Sheriff, just take me to jail, okay? I’ll confess to the rape today and to several more you don’t know about. Hell, I’ll even confess for crimes I didn’t commit if it means you won’t do this! I’ll spend the rest of my fucking life rotting in prison, if that’s what it takes. How the fuck do you believe this crazy son of a bitch? He’s not even a priest!”
James scoffed at the accused and said, “You were right, Father Hayle. All demons do is lie. You’ve been the parish priest in this town for twelve years and this guy thinks I’d believe him? Let’s do what we hav
e to do in order to finish this up. I have more criminals to catch and bring to you. By the time we’re through, there won’t be any crime anywhere near this town and I’ll be hailed a hero.”
I laughed at the thought. Of course it would be his over inflated ego that would drive him to nail a man to a piece of wood and leave him there to die slowly.
As for myself, I had far more important reasons for pulling this off, and within a few months, all would come to fruition. I wouldn’t call my reasoning evil by any means, just a necessary course of action that would lift the veil of secrecy and expose the true evil in this world.
“Richard,” I said, “help me bring one of these crosses down so we can nail this son of a bitch to it. Tomorrow I’ll give a sermon explaining to both the family and the townspeople who attend that the war we’re fighting for the Almighty has finally started.”
JACOB
“Four weeks? Is that the best you can do? Isn’t there another shop around town that can get the weapons faster?”
The older gentleman behind the counter stared over at me with one big yellow eye, his eyebrow rising so far up his head, I worried it would get lost in his receding hairline. His jowls hung loose and swung as he shook his head in disbelief. Leaning over so that his arms folded over themselves on the counter, he lowered his voice and asked, “Son, I know you passed all the background checks I’ve done, and you look relatively normal, but is there is a particular reason you want these weapons? I thought you said they were for hunting.”
Yeah, I thought, like I actually need a semi-automatic for hunting deer. I’ve never hunted a day in my life and even I knew that line of crap was bullshit. You would think the lie would alert him to the fact that these weapons weren’t for what I was claiming, but I went along with it regardless, hoping he didn’t pick up on the anxiety I was feeling.
“They are for hunting. It’s just that the trip is scheduled to take place in a week and a half and I can’t let my friends show me up.” Shrugging a shoulder, I flashed him the practiced smile I’d always used as a priest. “You know how it is out there. Men thinking that they’re better somehow because their gun is bigger.”
His eyebrow pushed higher. Still speaking low, he was half laughing when he answered, “You do know that the size of your gun says nothing about the size of your dick, right?”
I rolled my eyes, but played along. “Yes, I know that. I’m not out there to pull it out and brag that mine is bigger than theirs.”
“Yeah, but much like a man’s cock, it’s not the size that matters but what you do with it. In bed, it’s all about rocking a woman’s body and making her scream, but when it comes to shooting bullets instead of come, it’s all about bringing the animal down as quickly as possible while ensuring it feels as little pain as possible.”
We stared at each other for a few silent seconds before he pushed up from the counter and ran a hand through his thinning hair. Breathing out, he looked up at the large clock on the wall and back at me. “I tell you what, it’s getting late and I need to close the shop for the night, but I can make some calls and see if I can find what you’re looking for at another store in the area. Why don’t you come back in a few days and see what I found?”
I didn’t like the idea of waiting to confront my brother. With half a mind to just drop it and find another store, I also remembered it would mean another background check, which had the potential to alert some authority somewhere that I was up to something. Sadly, the truth was that if Jericho had controlled the parish for this long, the damage was already done. But still, I wasn’t able to just walk away and let him continue whatever game he was playing against the town.
Rushing over there without arming myself would only leave me dead and buried in some shallow grave somewhere, so I had no other option that to do as this man asked and come back to see what he could find for me.
“Do you think the other shops would have what I need?”
Shrugging a shoulder, he moved away from the counter to file away the catalog he’d used to help me select the weapons I would need. “Don’t know. With all the bullshit that’s going on in this country right now, the particular weapons you’re looking for are in hot demand. That’s good for us because we suck up the profits, but it just means that people like you have to be patient for the manufacturers to send out more shipments.”
He turned back, his eyes darting between the door and me. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you out any faster, but I really do need to be shutting down for the night. You can look around yourself at other stores, but I’m pretty much certain you’ll have the same issues everywhere. I have some resources that aren’t available to the public. Let me look around for a few days and then you can come back to talk to me. Does that sound good to you?”
Exhaustion withered my shoulders, not to mention the weight of defeat that was crushing me. What the hell was I thinking? That I could rush into a store and walk away with a damn armory in one night? Even in a country as gun crazy as this, it wasn’t a possibility. One week wasn’t a lot of time to wait. I’d done it for Father Timothy when he needed to get me the information on the music director and priest. I could do it again, in that fucking hotel room, biding my time with the bodies of whatever woman was willing to undergo my fury just to get herself off for the night.
It was too bad I sent Erin…or Erica?… off on such bad terms. Her brand of romance would have been perfect to work out the frustration I was feeling.
Letting out a deep sigh teeming with all the negative thoughts and feelings whirling inside me, I thanked the guy and made my way out of the store to step out onto the sidewalk that had been busy when I stepped in earlier that day.
I didn’t know how much damage Jericho had already caused in that small, rural town, and I didn’t know how much more he could cause while I waited for the guns I needed. What I did know is that I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that I could return to that place with anything less than a full truck of guns and the bullets to go with them.
EVE
The four men spoke so quietly that I wasn’t able to overhear them. Well, not the four of them, exactly. The one I assumed was lying on the ground screamed and shouted as he begged for his freedom. While I’d been listening he admitted to the crimes he’d committed against innocent women. It confirmed what I knew that night on the side of the road – the man was a demon and had been after me because, at that time, I was the easiest of victims. It was just one more example of how Elijah was saving me from everything evil that filled this world. Just one more example of his power. Just one more example that proved he was so connected to God that he could face down Satan himself and win.
Holding the door open with the tip of my foot, I was careful to keep my head and face out of view. Every time one of the men scanned their eyes over, I pulled back hoping and praying that none of them saw me. Fifteen minutes had passed already and they were none the wiser that I sat in witness of what they were doing. As long as I stayed quiet as a mouse, Elijah would never know I’d been spying.
My plan would have worked if I’d been stronger, if I’d been more able to view violence without flinching. But it all changed from one moment to the next, and I feared I’d be caught for my stupidity.
Poking my head back out, I watched in fascinated wonder as Elijah and Richard brought down one of the large crosses at the back of the church. I would have sworn that thing was too heavy for two men to handle, but then I remembered the story in the Bible of our Savior’s death. He’d been made to carry it on his own all the way to the hill even with the injuries from his earlier beating. My eyes closed and a tear leaked out at the thought of how cruel men could be to each other. Even when we had God’s son among us, we were too blind to see it. We hurt him and killed him, left him in pain and watched silently while they gave him the wound that ended him. And when all that was said and done, when they’d destroyed someone so beautiful, those people walked back to their normal lives to do their chores, tend to their homes or hav
e dinner. Nothing had changed since we learned the truth of our greatest sin. People were still so horrible and terrifying that I couldn’t even go outside without worry that a man like the one being held on the ground won’t find me and steal my purity.
For that, I didn’t cry to know that they were hurting him and making him suffer, but that still didn’t mean I was brave enough to stand and witness how they’d chosen to destroy his evil.
Once the cross was brought down, they dragged the man over and laid him beside it. Richard wrapped one large hand around the man’s arm, holding it in place as the sheriff took a hammer and nail and banged it through the flesh and bones to attach his wrist to the cross.
I gasped, unable to handle the sight of the blood, unable to hear the piercing scream that echoed off the ceiling and walls of the sanctuary. I was that one tiny sound that drew Elijah’s attention toward the door, that almost gave my position away to the men who hadn’t yet seen me.
Holding out a hand, he told Richard to stop for a moment. Still looking over, he shifted his position to get a better look at the door. I backed away but was too afraid to close the door fully. Even that small movement would alert them to the fact that they weren’t alone in the large sanctuary.
“Did either of you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Richard answered, his voice gruff and breathless.
Elijah didn’t answer immediately, but his approaching footsteps let me know he wasn’t going to drop the matter and get back to what they were doing.
“Stay there for a second. I swore I heard something.”
Left with no choice, I let the door close, the quiet click of the knob setting into place sounding behind me as I ran down the hallway, turned one corner and then another, pushing myself as fast as I possibly could toward the bedroom. I made it inside, shut the door as quietly as I could and jumped in bed. Kicking my shoes off, I let them fall to the floor, not caring where they landed as I pulled the blanket over my head. I was tucked away, warm and secure by the time that door opened again.