“Father, use Elizabeth. Help this other girl with whatever she is going through. Bring her to you, as well. And since I’m praying for her salvation, I pray for Elizabeth’s too. I think she is so close. Bring it to pass, I pray.”
Tara walked out of the kitchen and leaned against the wall that overlooked the dining area.
She surveyed what had become of the dinner group.
Zach, after he’d eaten—which figured—had said goodbye, needing to get home to mow the lawn, per a promise he’d made to his dad earlier in the week.
That kid, taking advantage of my kind, food-providing heart. She shook her head with a smile.
Brent was settled in the living room, Fox News now on the television.
Jamie had gone back down to the basement to “start a campaign” in their newly purchased video game. If it hadn’t been for how active he was with karate and getting out of the house with Zach, she’d have limited the gaming time. But he was a good kid, doing most things right, so she opted not to complain. Too much.
Jenna still held onto Kyla on the couch, doing her best to keep the baby awake until her Mom-Mom came home.
And Amy was camped out in the middle of the living room floor, a plethora of colored pencils scattered about her, filling page after page of her sketch book with drawings of animals in princess dresses.
All was well.
Except for the one thing she couldn’t excise from her mind.
Demons.
Angels.
Brent had her paranoid, now, with all the dream and nightmare stuff.
If it hadn’t been for Brent still waking each night, startled from the recurring nightmare, it would be easier for her to dismiss everything.
But what if the nightmare was actually meant to be a warning?
Tara had never doubted the tale that he’d shared with her two years before— the story of the troubled and pregnant fifteen-year-old. She’d hung on every word of the story while he’d told it to her, becoming emotionally involved herself.
In the tale—in what almost was, but couldn’t have been, a dream—Brent had been tasked by Jesus—Joshua—to do his best to protect the life of an unborn baby that a girl named Elizabeth was precariously close to aborting.
Then the story in which he’d been engaged had shifted. Demons had become involved, whose primary goal was to get the girl to commit suicide. Thankfully, Joshua had provided Brent with a warrior—an angelic being—named Garian, who both obeyed and sometimes advised him in the midst of the fight for her life.
In the end, though, Brent had lost the fight. A cunning and powerful demon of death had waged war for the distraught girl. And with the belief that she had no other viable solution before her, that Elizabeth had taken her own life with a gun.
It had been a desperate fight, and his failure to protect her life had pressed hard upon his heart and mind. That’s when Joshua had stepped back into the picture. He had let Brent know that, even though he’d been given a myriad of different God-like powers to assist him, free will—demonically influenced—had been powerful enough to end his mission with heartbreaking finality.
Joshua had also said that he himself would have done no better in protecting her life under the same circumstances.
Brent had been shocked. But Joshua had opened Brent’s eyes to what was happening the world over: the influences of sin were powerful. And when an individual’s free will was determined enough, it could thwart God’s own desires and purposes for that person’s life.
People hurt each other, took advantage of each other, killed each other, and even killed themselves … every … single … day. Joshua had made it clear that his heart was always deeply pained to lose any of those that he had purposely brought into existence.
Brent was also given to understand this vitally important fact about God and his creation: God loved people too much to take free will from them. True love couldn’t exist without it.
He had learned another valuable lesson through that conversation as well: Control was an illusion. Perfect control over one’s own—or another’s—circumstances wasn’t possible, because it would mean a loss of individual freedom to choose.
Tara knew that they lived—that everyone lived—in a world that was at war for the hearts of men, women, boys, and girls. And as Christians, they had all been tasked with sharing Jesus with everyone, so that no one would end up dead before knowing of the salvation that was readily available to each through the blood of the savior himself.
Tara’s heart was startled with a thought.
“Brent?” she softly called out into the living room.
He turned and raised his eyebrows in acknowledgment.
She motioned for him to follow her into the kitchen.
He walked in, curiosity on his face.
“What if the battle for Elizabeth isn’t over?”
“I don’t follow.”
“I mean, even though so much is different from what you dreamed … or went through … or whatever it was you experienced in Kentucky, maybe there are still similarities that we haven’t considered.”
His face grew serious. “Go on. Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“Suppose your nightmares are supposed to be, not just figuratively but, very literally an awakening for you. And what if taking Elizabeth into our home was not the escape from harm that you were trying to provide her in your Kentucky dreams. What if.…”
Tara’s hand came up to her mouth as tears filled her eyes.
“What if the gun scene hasn’t taken place yet? What if demons are still going to try to kill her?”
Suddenly Tara was overwhelmed. She fell to her knees at Brent’s feet and began to weep.
Brent knelt down in front of her, placing his hand on her shoulder. “Shh … shh.… Tara, it’s okay. Everything’s going to be all right.”
But how could either of them know that to be the truth?
Chapter 57
W
hat if it isn’t okay?
Brent felt the sobs rack Tara’s body. This was more than a mere concern to her.
He heard Jenna walk into the dining area. She had Kyla on her hip.
“Mom?”
Brent didn’t know what to say to either of them in that moment. He leaned over his wife as she bowed forward, forearms on her knees. He did his best to wrap his arms around her and provide a modicum of comfort.
“Dad? What’s going on?”
He could hear the fear in Jenna’s voice. Kyla began to cry.
“Jenna, go and comfort Kyla. When I know what and how to explain, I will. I promise.”
Kyla’s crying grew distant as Jenna walked back into the living room.
He heard Amy ask what was wrong but couldn’t hear Jenna’s response to her.
The sound of Jamie’s feet traipsing up the steps from the basement became apparent.
“Dad? Mom?”
He walked up beside them and also knelt.
Brent almost asked him to give her some space too, but decided against it.
“Let him be a part of this,” a quiet voice whispered to his heart.
“Mom?” Jamie, too, put his arms around her.
Brent responded to him. “Jamie,” he said softly, “begin praying for Elizabeth. Your mom thinks she may be in trouble.”
“In trouble? Like right now?”
“I don’t know. I kind of doubt that it’s right this moment, but your mom believes that danger is coming. And … I do too.”
JAMIE LISTENED TO his dad as he continued to speak.
“Ask Jenna if she thinks that Kyla would be able to sleep. If so, ask her to put her to bed. Then you can tell Jenna what I told you. We’ll find a way to share with Amy. Okay?”
“Okay, Dad.”
Jamie got up and walked into the living room. He sat next to Jenna, who was still trying to calm a whimpering little girl.
“Wha
t’s going on?” she asked.
“I don’t know much, but Mom thinks that Elizabeth’s in danger. I don’t know why yet.
“Danger? Did Elizabeth say something? Was it a text?”
Jamie would have ordinarily become peeved that she hadn’t listened to him specifically say that he didn’t know why, but this circumstance caused him to be gentler with her.
“I don’t know why. But Dad said to ask you if Kyla would go to sleep in her bed; then I can tell you what little I do know.”
Jenna looked at Kyla who was beginning to settle. She wiped away the remaining tears and whispered, “I love you, Kyla girl. You are beautiful and I love you. Uncle Jamie loves you too.”
It wasn’t the first time that Jamie had heard himself referred to as Kyla’s uncle, but he knew that it was never going to get old either. He placed his hand on the little girl’s right cheek and said, “Yes, Uncle Jamie loves you too.”
He smiled, and as Kyla’s eyes locked on his, she began to smile as well.
Jenna stroked her hair and said, “Time to go night-night, Miss Kyla. Let’s get you ready.”
Surprisingly, Kyla yawned with “night-night” playing across her lips.
Jenna got up and started up the steps. She stopped and looked down at Jamie. “Come on up in a couple of minutes while I’m tucking her in. You might be a help if she changes her mind.”
“Will do.”
Jamie leaned back into the couch. He could still hear his mom crying, but the severity had subsided. His dad was talking to her softly, but he couldn’t hear what was being said.
“God?” Jamie heard himself begin. “Is everything okay?”
His dad believed that danger was not imminent. But who could really know that?
And how had his mom come to conclude that there was danger, anyway? Was it a feeling? Was it based on something she’d heard or read?
The sooner his mom recovered from her painful emotions, the sooner would come his answers.
He thought about Elizabeth. Obviously, she’d been around a bunch of people when he and Zach had left the business park. He doubted that there would have been any trouble there. His mom had said that she was with a coworker from the diner, though. That part of the puzzle didn’t fit quite right, but that didn’t mean he was looking at it right. Any number of reasons could have put her there with someone she worked with.
Chances were that things were fine today. Elizabeth had answered his mom back immediately after she’d sent a text checking on her.
Still, better safe than sorry.
Jamie got up and called to Jenna. “Can you text Elizabeth? Just ask her how she’s doing?”
“Yeah, good idea. Will you bring up my phone?”
He grabbed the phone off the coffee table and walked up the stairs to Elizabeth’s room.
Jamie had arrived just in time to smell baby-stink coming from a freshly removed diaper.
“Oh, man. Really? You couldn’t have waited until you were done and grabbed your phone yourself?”
“Jamie, one day, this is going to be your life.”
He laughed. “Nuh-uh. This is mommy and aunt business. Daddies have too many other important things to do.”
Jenna laughed without a retort and took the phone that was being held out to her at a distance.
She apparently changed her mind on the retort, because she couldn’t refrain from at least one jab. “You’re the big baby in this room.”
He coughed and stepped backward. “Whatever you say. I’ll be downstairs.”
That was awful!
ELIZABETH BUTTONED THE top of her jeans. She was fully dressed again.
With emotions aside, at least for the time being, the second photo shoot had redeemed the evening. She looked forward to seeing a second set of photos and wondered if she’d like herself in the uniform after all.
Mark’s back was turned away from her, but she could still see his left shoulder at the corner of the building as he leaned against the yellowish brick wall. She hadn’t dressed facing his direction, so she wondered if maybe he’d sneaked a look or two.
She smiled at the idea that he just may have. Maybe he even took a picture or two for himself? Maybe she’d never know.
“It’s safe,” she called over to him.
He rolled off the wall into full view. He was smiling.
“So, where are you taking me for our meal?” she asked.
“I think you deserve a little more than just a burger and fries, so I looked online to see what was available that would allow me to spend a little bit of money on you.”
Now she was smiling. Big.
The gentleman in him is showing through again.
“And…?”
“Like Italian?”
“You’re speaking my language!”
She hoped he appreciated her wordplay.
“Your chariot awaits.”
She grabbed her small tote bag and headed toward him.
When they got to the cars—there were only two others to be seen anywhere in the parking lot—she walked to hers and dumped the bag in her back seat. He’d already opened the passenger door of the BMW and was waiting on her.
When he’d seated her and closed the door, she remembered something that her dad—Brent—had told her. “If you ever find yourself needing to get into an unfamiliar vehicle, take a picture of the license plate and text it to me or someone else close to you.”
At the time, she couldn’t imagine being anything other than self-protective like that. Somehow, though, her comfort level with Mark had caused her to not even think of doing that. She couldn’t very well get out of the car now. It would be insulting. She knew it wasn’t an issue anyway.
“It’s a little out of the way, and there’s a quick stop I’d like to make before we arrive, if that’s okay with you.”
She grabbed her cell and looked at the time. 6:55 p.m.
It was getting late, but not that late. She’d never been one to stay out past sunset, though. Primarily because she hadn’t any friends to spend that much time with.
“Maybe I should call my mom and let her know that I’ll be later than expected.”
Mark didn’t respond. She looked over at him and his lips were pursed as if he were contemplating a response.
She raised her eyebrows, wondering why there’d be a delay in him agreeing.
Her phone chimed. A text appeared on her screen. It was from Jenna.
“Wow, that’s some coincidental timing!” she said to Mark with a grin.
Just put Kyla to bed, Sis. Wondering what you’re up to.
Elizabeth’s heart smiled. Sis. I love being called that.
She responded:
Still out with my new friend. Was about to call Mom. Can you let her know she can put the meal away she made for me? We’re going out for Italian. Thanks for taking care of Kyla! Love you!
Chime.
Love you too! Have fun and enjoy. What time do you think you’ll be home? Mom’ll want to know.
She turned to Mark. “Do you have an idea how late we’ll be getting back here?”
“Not sure, but it’s close to 7:00 now, so I’d say, what, 9:30-ish?”
Elizabeth responded to Jenna:
We’re thinking 9:30-ish. Oh, and I have something really cool to show you when I get home! It’s so exciting!
Chime.
Look forward to it. Be safe!
“We are good to go, Mister Johnson.”
The pursed lips were gone. He turned to her as he drove toward the exit. “We’re about to have a really good time together. I can just feel it.”
“Don’t mind if I do.”
Chapter 58
D
rew had to play this thing out carefully; he knew that. At this point, he hoped that their time together would remain comfortable and playful.
The plan he’d worked out in his mind while standing against the building seemed to
be the only option he had. But it would come with some risk.
The first thing he believed he had to do was to be perceived as though he was faltering on his decision to keep things platonic and professional. He was sure that he could show her he was still desirous of her and gradually escalate it as they got close to their destination.
Which reminded him … he wasn’t exactly sure how to get there from where he now was.
He pulled out his phone and opened up Google Maps. Into the search bar he typed: 14517 Rural Rte. 133, Hallisburg, OH 44069. It was twenty-seven minutes away.
“Hallisburg?”
Drew was caught off guard. “Yeah, you know where it is?”
“I know some people who live the next town over.”
He had to play it cool. “Maybe I should have just asked you where it was. I’m sure you can give nicer-sounding turn-by-turn instructions than my phone.”
Elizabeth playfully cleared her throat, and with a somewhat seductive-sounding voice, she said, “In a half mile, turn left onto Oh My Goodness Boulevard, followed by an immediate right onto You Are Handsome Street.”
That, too, caught Drew off guard. Wow! “I sure didn’t see that coming,” he said, honestly.
Elizabeth came back quickly. “And that, Mark, is why you need to follow my directions!”
Man, I like this girl!
He really did wish that the age gap would miraculously shrink by some seventeen or eighteen years.
“So, what’s in Hallisburg?”
He decided that he needed to let one of the cats out of the bag. Here was a big risk.
“Believe it or not, my mom’s home.”
He could see Elizabeth immediately shift in her seat to face him.
“Your mom? But I thought you weren’t from here?”
He tried to provide a realistic laugh. “My mom lived here. She moved here about eight years ago. She wanted a place in the country, and she decided that a place called Hallisburg was the perfect location for her.”
Elizabeth stared at him for another moment or two before responding. He was getting nervous.
“You just said that she lived in Hallisburg. She doesn’t live there anymore?”
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