Atonement (Heaven Sent Book 1)

by JL Rothstein

  “You’re not doing anything here demon. You come after her,” Tom thrust his finger toward Gen, “it’s an act of war against all of us.”

  Schlosser got back on his feet and bellowed a laugh, with each peak of his voice the electricity sparked. “You think I’m afraid of you? You think you can stop me? I’ll have my revenge,” He told them. “She’ll just never know when it’s coming.”

  “You think you can steal something that powerful and slither out of Hell unnoticed?” Gen said to Schlosser. “Something’s here for you Roamer, something a lot more powerful than you.”

  “There’s nothing more powerful than me now!” Schlosser howled. His piercing shriek burst the light bulbs above their heads.

  Kelly felt the floor shake, most of the humans walking through the hallway had to grab the wall to steady themselves. Screams erupted as the lights switched to emergency power, and thunder and lightning roared across the sky outside.

  Kelly’s eyes strained against the breaking bulbs and dimly lit hallway. Just like a scary movie Schlosser was somehow standing directly in front of Gen. The demon had used his newly acquired powers to push the O’Mara family several feet away from the two of them. His arm extended toward Gen, and grabbed hold of Gen’s throat, picking her entire body several feet off the ground. Gen’s screams were muffled as her feet dangled wildly below her.

  Kelly struggled, but couldn’t move, she was unable to lift her arms from her side or take even one step forward. Physically frozen, but able to see and hear everything, Kelly’s mind reeled. Just like Lacey described the night of Sebastian’s murder, Kelly remembered in horror.

  “You’re gonna die for what you put me through bitch.” His tongue slithered out to lick Gen’s face, as it rolled along her cheek his venom burned and split her skin open. Her muffled screams echoed all around them. “You have no idea what it was like for me down there. No allies! No allegiance! No relief!” He leaned in closer to Gen, their faces nearly obliterated by the smoke coming from the burning wound he had inflicted on her face. “They tortured me for months! You will die when, and where, I say you’re gonna die, but first I’m gonna destroy your life. Then I’m gonna eat your soul when you fall.”

  Kelly anguished watching Gen trying to fight him off, her thrashing and kicking seemed to have no effect. Somehow Gen was able to retrieve a weapon from her waist band and stab him, but he barely flinched.

  How is Gen able to move, but not us? Kelly silently screamed in frustration. The power he used to keep them frozen was too strong. It was agonizing watching his attack unfold, knowing there was nothing she could do to help herself or her siblings. It’s just as torturous as Lacey described, Kelly thought.

  Kelly caught a glimpse of Deb, who seemed closer than the rest of them. She saw Deb’s body shaking, her pale face contorted in horror at what she was witnessing.

  Oh no, Deb is reliving what happened to Michael all over again, Kelly realized. Deb’s hands flew to her face to stifle a scream. In that moment Kelly understood it was the previous trauma that had Deb paralyzed and not Schlosser.

  “Fight Deb, fight!” Kelly managed to yell. “You can do this Deb, you’re stronger than you give yourself credit for!”

  The words reached Deb, and Kelly felt her sister snap out of it. Launching herself forward Deb crashed into Schlosser’s left side causing him to lose balance and fall to one knee. Schlosser shrieked in pain and he lost his grip on Gen in the collision. The violent thud broke the demon’s concentration, enabling Kelly and her brothers to slowly regain their movement.

  Gen tumbled to the floor but managed to scramble back up and pull away. Kelly felt Deb’s shield wrap around them. Deb’s defensive mechanism seemed to knock Schlosser even farther away from her and Gen. Deb had managed to send the Roamer Demon within feet from Kelly and her brother’s position. Tom leapt forward, but it was too late, Schlosser used his powers to teleport away before he could be reached.

  Kelly and her family heard the echoes of Schlosser’s threat as he escaped. “I’m coming for you bitch, and there’s nothing you or your kind can do to stop me.”

  “Gen, are you alright?” Kelly asked as she ran to her sister’s side.

  The lights blared to life as electricity was fully restored.

  Deb was searching in her pockets. “We need to stop the venom from burning any further into her skin.

  Kelly saw the fear in Gen’s eyes, she was stunned at Schlosser’s ability to hold them all at bay. “Gen, Deb’s got Holy water, hold on. It’s going to hurt, but we can’t start healing you until we put out the fire in the venom.”

  Deb opened a small vial and doused Gen’s face with it. The scream Gen let out as the liquid made contact put Kelly further on edge. Slowly Gen descended to the floor, her legs giving out underneath her.

  “It’s okay, it’s out now, Gen” Deb told her.

  Kelly looked at Gen’s partially slumped body against Deb’s kneeling frame and her heart ached. “Let’s go Deb, come on!” Kelly implored. “We need to start healing her!”

  Kelly and Deb held their hands just above Gen’s face and slowly began to heal her skin. When they were done there was a small red scar across her cheek.

  “We couldn’t get it all here, we’ll need Holy oil and more time,” Deb told her.

  “It’s fine, it’s better,” Gen huffed. “Thank you.” She slowly got up and faced Kelly.

  “I sent the guys out to see if they can pick up a scent,” Tom said over Kelly’s shoulder.

  “I doubt they’ll be able to track him,” Kelly said.

  “We have to try,” Tom replied.

  Hospital personnel were continuing to show up, cleaning carts were scattered throughout as staff swept up broken glass and picked up furniture knocked over during the battle.

  “I think that’s a waste of our energy. Since you’re here, wait” Gen said to Tom “How are you here?”

  “Deb called us, but she was cut off before she could relay your exact position in the hospital, so it took us a few to find you. When we arrived, we felt nothing supernatural. Whatever he’s using to cloak, it’s the best I’ve ever witnessed.”

  “It’s exactly like the one used at the church.,” Deb said. “It even leaves the same ragged electrical signature I remember feeling from that day. I was unsure before, but now I’m convinced. He must have stolen those powers from the green-eyed demon that’s missing.”

  “How did you get through it, Deb?” Kelly asked. “You saved Gen.”

  “I think it was Gen, not me,” Deb replied. “When he put up that forcefield and knocked you and our brothers back, Gen and I should have been knocked back too, but we weren’t.”

  “Well, he already had a hold of me Deb,” Gen said.

  “Yes, but I think you wouldn’t have moved. Just like at the church, when the green-eyed demon knocked everyone off the field, you remained on your feet.” Deb added, “I think because I was closest to you, somehow your blocking covered me too.”

  “The building swayed, people were knocked into the walls,” Kelly said. “You’re saying that was Gen, not Schlosser?”

  “Yes, that’s exactly how it felt in the church yard too,” Deb answered.

  “If only Michael were here,” Kelly said to Gen. “He would know how to help you harness that power, so you could use it.”

  “I know, but we’ll figure it out,” Tom told Kelly. “For now, we should get Gen home.”

  As they turned to leave Kelly stopped. “Wait! What about Gerry? He saw me, Tom. He can actually see me.”

  “Are you sure?” Tom asked.

  “Yes, we all saw,” Gen answered.

  “We want you to walk through his dreams,” Kelly told Tom. “The medication should have sedated him, not sure if he’s still asleep now, but we should try.”

  Tom looked at Kelly but then nodded. “Frankie, we need you back here, if we’re going to do this, we need you to boost my power, so we can be fast about it.” Tom called.

  Frankie ar
rived in the hallway next to Deb. “Where to?” he asked her.

  Kelly turned and walked into Gerry’s room, his daughter was on her cell phone relaying the shaking floor incident to someone on the other end. She wandered out of the room and into the hallway. Deb projected her shield to keep her there.

  “He still looks out to me. The medication must be pretty strong,” Kelly commented.

  “Let’s get to it then.” Tom positioned himself on the other side of Gerry’s bed.

  Fascinated, Kelly followed Tom as he sat in a chair. He reached his arm out and placed his hand on Gerry’s forehead. “Let me enter first and call you in when I need you Frankie.”

  Frankie nodded his reply.

  It took a few minutes before Tom started to relay what he was seeing. At first there was nothing of interest, but then Tom stopped talking.

  After a few moments of silence Tom ordered, “Frankie grab my shoulder and project this image.”

  Frankie grabbed Tom’s shoulder with his left hand, then Kelly saw him swing his right hand out in front of him as if propelling something into the air. Within a few moments a 3D image started to form around them. Like a circular movie screen in full color, the dream was projected. They were now seeing what Tom was seeing.

  There was a woman in a car. Kelly saw the driver’s side window was down and her long brown hair was billowing around her face.

  “That’s Becky, but not recent,” Gen said.

  Kelly could see the car was speeding along a wet road. In scattered images the vehicle skids across multiple lanes of traffic and comes to a thunderous halt. Becky was slumped against the wheel, blood dripping from her forehead. The image jumped again, now Becky, still bandaged from the accident, was crying into the arms of a tall man as they stood over a headstone.

  “That’s her husband,” Gen explained. “This is the first accident from three years ago when she lost the baby she was carrying.”

  The scene changed, gray and white snowy streaks scattered the image. As a new picture formed Kelly could see herself standing next to Gerry’s bed the night he was brought into the ER. “That’s me, from six months ago. The night I saved him.”

  The scene was quick to jump once again, but Kelly could still make out her own image. “Oh crap, that’s me from tonight.”

  “Yes, but look Kell, it’s not just you,” Deb added. “He’s dreaming of me and Gen now too.”

  “I see that,” Kelly agreed. “That’s from today before we ran into Schlosser.”

  “There’s more,” Tom said. “He’s somehow seeing us right now!”

  Kelly peered through the washed-out picture awaiting the next visual to come to life. Finally, it became clear, and there the five of them stood. Tom’s hand laying on Gerry’s forehead, Frankie gripping his shoulder. Kelly, Deb, and Gen watching the images of themselves dance in the air in front of them.

  “What the heck?!” Kelly exclaimed. “How can he see what we are doing right now, while he’s asleep?”

  “How can he see all of us, when before he could only see Kelly?” Deb added.

  The image blurred a final time and went nearly black.

  “He’s resisting,” Tom told them. “I’m nearly losing my grip.”

  “Hold on,” Frankie said. “Let me adjust my focus, I can sense the next image in the dream Tom’s trying to wrangle.”

  Kelly heard beeping on one of Gerry’s machines. Reading his blood pressure gage she could see it was rising. “I think we might need to stop, he’s having a physical response, Tom.”

  “One more minute, I have it, I just need to push it to Frankie,” Tom answered.

  Kelly looked through the glass cutout in Gerry’s door. The two nurses were headed their way. “We’re out of time guys.”

  “Look!” Deb yelled “It’s Gen with Schlosser.”

  Kelly’s heart skipped a beat as she saw Gen kicked to the ground by Schlosser. All around her were demons, Gen’s hands were bound behind her back, by what appeared to be a piece ripped from the Chain of Chaos. Blood had soaked her hands, her face was bruised and burning, tears streaked down her cheeks. The view followed Schlosser as he hauled Gen to her feet, a smile spread like wildfire across his hideous face.

  Kelly wanted to turn away, afraid of what she was about to witness, but she couldn’t. Instead, she focused on the image playing out before them. A large Hell Fighter placed his hand on Gen’s shoulder pushing her to her knees, the demon dripped sweat and venom as it moved around above her. Gen howled in pain as the drops of burning fluid scattered across her skin. Schlosser lifted his sword aiming to strike Gen down with it.

  Kelly heard Deb gasp, just as the image collapsed into a blinding white light that they had to shield their eyes from. When the last of the outlines evaporated Kelly looked at Gen. Her sister looked like she was going to throw up. Deb got to Gen first and wrapped an arm around her.

  “I’m taking her home.” Without waiting Deb teleported the two of them out leaving Kelly alone with Tom and Frankie.

  The nurses burst into the room to check on Gerry, his daughter right on their heels. Thankfully, Gerry’s vitals were already returning to normal. “It’s alright Gerry, it’s just a bad dream hun, nothing to worry about,” the flamboyant nurse called out.

  Kelly watched Gerry’s daughter hang up the phone and race to her father’s side, grabbing hold of his hand.

  “Tom,” Kelly whispered. “What did we just …” She couldn’t finish the question.

  “Not here, all of us need to get back to the house,” he told her. “Now Kelly, let’s move!”

  Kelly was stunned, she stood frozen for a moment trying to process what they just saw.

  Did we just witness Gen’s death? Kelly thought the question her body refused to verbalize.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Gen sat in the kitchen while Deb busied herself making tea. She heard the whistling sounds of the kettle as it started to boil, but nothing seemed real.

  How many times have we sat in this kitchen recovering from demonic interference? Gen wondered.

  “What the Hell did we just see in Gerry’s dream?” Kelly burst into the room with Frankie and Tom close behind her. “Where’s the booze? I could use a drink!” she declared, “and from the looks of it, so could Gen and Frankie.”

  Gen felt the rest of her brothers arrive, the room was once again thrust into organized chaos. Dan pulled the whiteboard forward, Xavier poured drinks, Greg rummaged through cabinets looking for food, while the rest of them clamored to find a chair or place to rest.

  Deb approached quietly, handing Gen a piping hot cup of tea. It smelled of citrus and cardamom. Gen wrapped both hands around it. As she pulled the drink close to her mouth, she caught the strong odor of alcohol and knew Deb had spiked it with whiskey. Gen sipped slowly, letting the drink warm her from the inside out.

  “Ok, I know Frankie was projecting to all of you,” Tom said to the room. “Did anyone not see Gerry’s dreams?”

  The room fell silent, Gen watched her siblings looking around at each other.

  Great, everyone saw how I’m going to die, Gen thought as she closed her eyes and took another sip to calm the rising tide inside her. Maybe once he kills me, they’ll send me to the Pit as penance. At least I’ll get to see Gabriel one last time.

  “Alright, so we don’t need to relive it then.” Tom’s words pulled Gen back to the present.

  “I didn’t know Frankie was projecting beyond the room,” Deb offered.

  “Yes, it took a lot of effort, but it seemed the most efficient thing to do,” Tom answered. “We didn’t want to have to keep wasting time retelling information if we could share it in real time.”

  “I didn’t know Frankie could project beyond the room,” Kelly commented.

  “It’s new,” Frankie told her. “Michael and I have been working on pushing the boundaries. We’ve been testing my ability to project both Greg’s memory retrieval and Tom’s dream walking out beyond those present in the space.” />
  Kelly’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked at Frankie. “I guess we should have volunteered for more training,” Kelly lamented.

  “There will be plenty of time for that when Michael returns,” Tom told her.

  Plenty of time, how does he know we’ll all have plenty of time? Gen thought. Who’s to say how much time any of us has?

  “Do we know what Gerry is?” Dan asked.

  “I had no idea Gerry was anything more than a charge until tonight,” Kelly answered.

  “Through Gerry we heard Gen talk about Becky from three years ago, how could he know about that?” Xavier asked.

  “How could he know about any of it—the past, us in the present …” Kelly paused.

  “You forgot the future, Kell,” Gen said. “Me with Schlosser was obviously the future.”

  “The future isn’t set yet,” Greg told her.

  “That’s true, anything can happen between now and then that could change that,” Tom agreed.

  “How do we know that wasn’t planted there by Schlosser? We don’t know the extent of the powers he’s acquired,” Frankie added.

  “The truth is we don’t know anything,” Kelly answered.

  “We know he’s coming for me. For us.” Gen heard the resigned tone of her own voice and squirmed. “We know enough.”

  Tom reassured her. “We can’t get stuck here, Gen. We need to stay positive and work on the things we can control.”

  Gen’s hands shook, splashing tea over the rim, down the outside of her hands, and into her lap, as she nearly dropped the mug.

  “Enough!” Gen slammed the mug on the table with such force it broke into several pieces. Shards of ceramic scattered across the table as hot liquid spilled onto the floor. “We don’t know Michael’s coming back! We don’t know that we’re ever going to see Gabriel, Jared, Harry, or Michael ever again!” Choking back tears she tried to reel back the anger exploding to the surface.

  Tom held up his hands as if he could stop her tirade.

  “I’m tired,” Gen told them. “You’re tired.” She paused to take in their faces, their gaze firmly fixed on her.