“How do you know this?” I asked.
“I didn’t leave Phoenix’s tent when you did. I overheard the conversation between the good Sheriff and the angel.”
“And, why haven’t you told me about this before now?”
“There was no need. You were doing fine.”
“Mr. Dark, shut the hell up,” I commanded.
Stoney ran to where I stood by the police cruiser as it slowly pulled away with the sheriff at the wheel. “Where does he think he’s going? I’m going to chop him into little pieces.”
I stepped in front of him, blocking his path. “Let him go. I’ve broken his allegiance to Phoenix and taken control of him.”
“I don’t like this plan of yours. You can’t trust demons. They don’t pledge, they lie. This is going to blow up in your face and I won’t be there to protect you next time.” Stoney replied.
“If he does half of what I commanded him to do, it will solve many of our problems for us,” I answered.
Flower rushed to me, and said, “Stoney’s right. Why didn’t you send him back to Hell? The last thing you need is a demon servant.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I insisted. “Believe me, I don’t think we will have any more trouble with Sheriff Briggs.”
Jimmy waltzed over carrying Ishtar’s broken sword.
Roger said, “That’s not a souvenir. It’s dangerous.”
“Yeah. A dangerous souvenir,” Jimmy answered as he propped it across his shoulders.
I punched Jimmy on the shoulder. “You did good, big guy.” I smiled. “When did you figure out your size is what marks you as surely as my amber eyes marks me? Those extra big muscles are a part of your gift.”
“About an hour and a half ago,” he said. “When I looked down and saw that translucent, electric blue armor over my clothes.”
“Look who’s special now.” I gave Jimmy another arm punch.
“That was some toss,” Jimmy laughed. “I told you, you have a great arm for football.”
“Stoney, will the van start?” Flower asked. “Do you think it can get us back to the commune?”
“Only one way to find out,” Stoney replied.
Jimmy took time to search for the officer’s gun and found it behind a four-foot-tall statue of a weeping angel. He returned it to the rookie cop who looked more confused than ever.
We all piled in the VW, even the rookie jumped in with us. Waiting for Stoney to get the van going, the officer finally had time to introduce himself. His name was Jeremy Barrett.
Officer Barrett eventually asked, “What just happened? Were those actual monsters outside the cemetery?” He hesitated before finishing his thought. “Is that what you were running from when you went on your crazy driving spree?”
Flower took the officer’s hand, and his whole countenance changed. He calmed down and listened. “Yes, we were running from those monsters. They are demons and they are still out there somewhere.” She put a hand on his cheek. “Listen to me very carefully, your partner and his friend are bloodthirsty demons, and you need to be aware of it. I’m sure they will ask you to do things—evil things. Resist them and when they see you won’t follow them, they will leave you alone. It is written, Resist the devil, and he will flee. Without their angel’s power fueling their evil, they won’t harm you.”
“Who was that crazy guy with the wings and a sword? Was he a demon too?” He put his hands to the side of his head and shivered. “Oh gosh, I have to tell someone about what I saw or I’ll go bonkers.”
Flower put her hands over his and pressed them close to his head. “Calm yourself. Breathe.” She cleared her throat and continued. “That wasn’t a demon. He was an angel, but not a good one. He works for that guy you call Satan.” She paused. “You can’t tell anyone about what you saw. They will have you see a psychiatrist and call you crazy. Ponder what you have seen and heard in your heart and tell no one. Remember, no one needs to know about this. The demons and the fallen angel have all been vanquished, at least for your lifetime. You have nothing to fear.”
Roger said, “Arland, I wish you could reach into his mind and take away his memories of all this.”
“Sorry, it doesn’t work like that.” I scowled. “I have the power of revelation and sight. I’m not a vampire with psychic abilities.”
“How do I write up this incident at the cemetery?” Officer Barrett asked.
I explained that the people who couldn’t see the demons thought everything was fine and what drew the crowd was the noise. I also mentioned what I had told the old man about the lightning striking the tree. I said, “Tell everyone that you were assigned to escort the procession of cars to a graveside funeral at the cemetery and the minister got long-winded. Report the fire in the tree as an unimportant event because the rain put it out. It only provided a bit of excitement at an otherwise boring funeral. Other than that, you should report today as uneventful as usual—a normal day in Blue Eye.”
Stoney inserted the key into the ignition and twisted it. The engine tried to turn over but didn’t. He pumped the gas pedal for a while and tried again. It started like nothing was ever wrong.
“Thank the Lord these VW vans have the engine in the rear,” Stoney commented. “If we had plowed into that tree in another type of vehicle, we’d be stranded.”
We left Officer Garrett at the Post Office and went back to the DX station to fill up with gas before getting on the road. Roger wanted another look at the ancient library book. Flower said it would be fine. The Principality had probably left after we did, and she was right. I described the other librarian to the current librarian. She said no one by that description worked there, and she had been working all morning. Furthermore, we had not been in the library, else she would have seen us. I scratched my head. She must have been under some book shelving charm to keep her busy.
It was just another angel cover-up. We gave this new woman the reference number of the book we had been examining, but she said they never had such a book. I had no doubt the Principality had taken it with her.
Compared to our trip to Blue Eye, the trip back was uneventful. We successfully bypassed the sacred Mountain of Purgatory; this time. When we got back, Flower took me to the clinic.
“In your vision, you touched the dead people with the star and they dissolved. You told me the dead people in the dream were my patients here and the star was the talisman. It’s time to see what happens when you touch them with this thing.”
There was nothing to say. She was right. I spoke to the medallion, and it dislodged from the book. I didn’t know exactly what to do or how to go about using the thing. I gripped the medallion and approached the raven-haired beauty lying in the hospital bed. I gently touched the talisman to her forehead and her eyes flew open. She sat straight up, grabbed Flower, and said, “The Sheriff is not human he is a demon. I saw him in his hideous, hellish form. He took me out of my body and trapped me in purgatory to keep me from telling.”
While she talked, I went to each of the men and touched them with the talisman as well. They all sat straight up and called for Flower.
She gathered them around her. Laying hands on them, she comforted them—mended their frayed nerves, calmed their fears, and soothed the anxiety caused by the hellish experience.
The raven-haired teen said, “It was like my soul went traveling. Nothing I could do made any difference. I was trapped.”
“Becca, we simply kept you comfortable and waited. Nothing I did helped. For the first time ever, I felt powerless,” Flower replied.
Becca said, “I knew my body was here, but at the same time, I also knew my consciousness had been transported to one of the nine rings orbiting a burning lake of fire. It was horrible. At different times, I could see the separate rings as they revolved—and more. I could faintly see the tormented souls struggling there on each plane.” She teared up and burst out weeping. More than that, she wouldn’t say.
When the four came down the stairs, the entire population
of the commune rejoiced.
The Happy Hollow hippies gathered in the Roundhouse for a celebration. I thought wine came in bottles. They rolled in a five-gallon barrel and hammered a tap into it. There were lots of hugs, cheers, and toasts for their revived friends. Stoney sat in a huddle telling his version of the battle of Blue Eye. Needless to say, everyone had a great time. Regretfully all Roger, Jimmy, and I got was fruit juice, but we enjoyed ourselves.
Miss Tabitha pulled me to the side and said, “While you were away, the elders met and considered your petition for residency.”
I gave her my best hopeful expression.
“They rejected it with an option. If you return in three years when you are eighteen, they will automatically accept you.”
I smiled and said, “I had a strong feeling that would be their decision.”
“Of course you did. After all, you are a prophet,” she laughed. “We will allow you to stay a few more days, but your time here is done. At least for now.”
“What about Rose? She lied about her age and said she was eighteen, but she is only seventeen. Please don’t make her leave too. This is her home.”
“I am sorry, but I cannot discuss Miss Rose’s situation with you. It would be a breach of trust. I will talk to Rose when she returns and if she sees fit to share our conversation with you, then it is up to her.” Tabitha took my hand, “You have some decisions to make. Are you going to go home with Jimmy or are your parents coming here to pick you up?”
It was a question for which I had no answer.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Consequences
After my regretful discussion with Miss Tabitha about me returning to my parents, Flower went to work on my bruises and blisters. She had started healing Jimmy’s wounds in the van on the way back to the commune. By the time we arrived, Jimmy looked like our old Jimmy. The one I had known since kindergarten.
Roger came next. He had hidden behind the big monument, so he didn’t have as many burns. It was hard to get him to put The Book of Uriel down. He had his nose buried in it all the time. He said the book didn’t burn because it was inviolable. I didn’t know what the word meant, but I guessed the pages are fireproof.
The very evening we got back, we were told the sheriff went into the police station and demanded Rose’s release. He insisted all charges against her be dropped. After they let her go, she made a phone call to the commune for Jimmy to come and pick her up. It wasn’t thirty minutes later, Sheriff Briggs collapsed with a heart attack and died on the spot.
With the Sheriff’s demon gone, no one wanted to follow up on what Briggs had told the hippies about insulating the solar collectors. The rumor in the community was that Sheriff Briggs himself had set the field on fire. The commune was not at fault.
Bad news always seemed to follow the good, and in this case, it was no different. As a result of Rose being arrested, her parents were contacted, and she was being remanded back to live with them until she turned eighteen.
I thought it sounded ridiculous because she said she was going to turn eighteen in a couple of months. It all turned out to be a lie. She was going to be eighteen in a year and two months.
Jimmy and I went to the courthouse to pick her up, but social services beat us there. They wouldn’t let any of us talk to her. They said the people at the commune might have brainwashed her into believing crazy things like…Sheriff Briggs being a demon.
Anyway, we had to leave without seeing Rose again. I expected Jimmy to go off into a temper tantrum and start breaking things, but instead, he got quiet. His whole demeanor was blue and melancholy. His sadness went deep.
For the first time in my life, I think I saw what true love was like. It had the power to change people. If this were any other girl, Jimmy would be tearing-up-jake and making a big show, but for Rose, his heart was torn in two. I didn’t know which depressed me more—seeing Jimmy so hurt or having to leave the commune.
Flower said I could call anytime and we would talk. That was some comfort. She had turned out to be my guiding star. Who knows, maybe when I’m fifty I might make it with a hundred-and-fifty-year-old hippy chick who wears a fringed halter top, a maxi-skirt, and looks to be thirty-five or forty. Meeting her solved the mystery of why puberty and I kept playing tag. It was running, and I was chasing. Eventually, I would catch up with it, but if I’m anything like Flower, I’ve got a lot of living to do—unless the end of the world interrupts my plans.
Our victory over Phoenix was one battle in a war that ultimately could mean the end of everything. Thankfully, I had some great backup to fight with me and to give me good advice.
Stressing the importance of keeping our gifts a secret, Flower said it would weird-out anyone we ever told. Keeping things to ourselves was going to be a way of life, especially the details of our adventure. Talking about seeing demons would get us locked up in the hospital for looney toons.
As for the Book of Uriel, considering that Flower was far more knowledgeable about gifts than we were, it was a unanimous decision to leave the book and the Talisman with her. She and the council of elders would keep it safe.
We got to spend celebration night at the commune. The next morning, after lingering goodbyes, we loaded up in the Mustang and headed back home. For me, it felt wrong having to go back to Western, Texas. I had found my place, my people, only to be told I had to leave it all behind. Deep down, I was thankful for this trip despite its dangers and hardships.
No doubt it would continue to change my life. I would never be the same boy again. Even though I didn’t look like a grown man, I felt I had crossed an invisible line. We all had. Whatever innocence we clung to when we left was shattered by the knowledge of demons and fallen angels.
This ended up being the topic of conversation as we sped down Route 66 on the way to Texas. Jimmy’s super strength had vanished when he left Blue Eye, and Roger didn’t utter epiphanies at every turn of the road. For me, I didn’t see one flashing light screaming the word DIE. I considered the absence of prophetic apparitions a good thing.
Truth be told, I suppose we were pretty wrapped up in our own personal transformations. At least I was. It didn’t leave much room for casual conversation during our drive back to Western. We thought we were going on an adventure to a rock concert. Fate had a different adventure in mind all along.
When we were heading north, it was all about getting to know each other and celebrating our common ground. It turned out we had plenty of common ground. The question rolling over in my mind was: What’s going to happen next?
When we got to Amarillo, I called my parents, and since I was on my way home, they were better with my leaving than I expected. I figured there would still be hell to pay. When Jimmy dropped me off, my mother came busting out the door, grabbing and hugging me. She had never once hugged me since I was eight-years-old.
Mother blubbered, “I was so worried. I missed you so much.” Then she uttered the words I thought I’d never hear, “I love you, dear.”
Frankly, I didn’t know how to react. Judging from her past actions, I had always thought she didn’t love me. To my astonishment, she and Dad both apologized for not telling me about Aunt Hattie’s gift and how it led to her suicide. I’m pretty sure Hattie didn’t have someone like Flower to explain what was happening to her.
From what they said, I could tell they were clueless as to what the gift was, only that it showed up from time to time in our family. Mother said if I started having mental problems like Hattie, she would stand by me every step of the way.
I didn’t know how to take that. Where were those steps she talked about? Where were they going to take me? Was she expecting me to end up in the loony bin? I knew right then I could never confide in her about anything. Not about my gift, and certainly not about the battle of Blue Eye. She would never understand what was really happening to me.
Dad didn’t give me too hard a time about the fifty dollars. He simply said I had to pay him back—fair enough. He asked not
hing about my trip, only winked at me, and acted like he knew exactly what we had been up to. I’m pretty sure he was talking about a completely different rite of passage than I had experienced.
I had hoped my newfound independence would mark a better relationship with them, and I was right. All considered, my connection with my parents became stronger on the surface. At least we started functioning like a family for once, but my silence and the secret I kept from them created a chasm we would never breach.
They still yelled and fought every morning. Dad continued to bolt out of the house to get away from Mom and her skillet. Thankfully, something about how they looked at me had changed. I think they realized my time at home was rapidly coming to an end—and every minute was precious. And then, maybe they didn’t learn that lesson… Maybe it was me.
That was the secret lesson I learned from Flower—no matter how long life is, it’s too short not to enjoy it. So I forgave my parents. However, trust and camaraderie are far different from forgiveness. Oddly enough, I found a trustworthiness in an old buddy and the school bully, one I never expected to find.
Jimmy, Roger, and I were tighter friends than the three musketeers. We seldom went anywhere without the other two, not if we could help it. Our bond was stronger than blood; we were brothers in a way no one would or could understand—especially Sarah. It only took a few days for her and Jimmy to break-up. I guess I figured that was coming. I knew for a fact Jimmy had found his soulmate in Rose. He would just have to find her again.
It was not only hard for him, but it grieved me seeing him so down. Over the course of those fateful days in August, I discovered in my two friends, a worth no one else could see. Other people may always see Jimmy as a bully, but I see him as a hero. And even though Roger’s parents act as if he’s invisible, I see his brilliance.
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