Absence of Faith (18 page)

"My God!" Stokes gasped.

Carson was soaked in blood. A nurse
ran over to him with several towels and wiped the blood off his
face. Carson immediately turned to the man and gently turned him
over onto his back. Stokes helped. An elderly woman lay next to the
man.

Carson face turned into a mask of
fear. Stokes stared at him as if he saw him for the first
time.

"What?"

"They’re my neighbors,"

He placed two fingers over his eyes
and pulled his lids down. He hesitantly, carefully put his fingers
around the bloody shard and pulled it out of the man's neck - the
glass had sliced through his main artery just above the Adam's
apple.

G
lowing
streams of orange light from an awakening sun sliced through the
thick green bush setting the dew on fire. A man dressed in army
fatigues appeared out of the large leafy palms and stopped at the
other men lying on the ground. His eyes were in shadow partly from
the helmet and partly because the fire streams of light from the
light beams ran diagonally across his chin. Suddenly his eyes
widened and his jaw began to move in slow motion. Fog from the cold
ground formed giant wisps that wrapped around his legs like
luminous snakes.

"Kyyyyyyyyyle!" the man finally
screamed.

The man's jaw began to move again
in slow motion - he was trying to say something, but there was no
sound this time. Then, the bush behind the man parted and several
Asian men stood there aiming rifles at the man. Smoke and fire
flashed out of the gun's barrels and the man fell forward with his
chest and stomach blowing out red and meaty in front of him. As the
man fell, the fire streams of light touched his twisted face and
Kyle recognized the face.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" Kyle
screamed.

Kyle's could feel his skin turn hot
and wet. He began to shake.

"What's the matter?" Chantress
asked.

"Oh man, what a nightmare," Kyle
said sighing in relief.

"A bad one?"

"The worst," he said. "It was the
man I saw in the restaurant."

"Are you sure?"

"The one that appeared here the
other night," Kyle said.

"Oh."

Kyle went into the bathroom and
closed the door behind him. He looked at his face in the mirror and
deeply into his eyes.
The windows of his mind
, he thought.
Who was that man? What does he want and what was he trying to
say?
As he stared into his eyes, he screamed again. He burst
out of the bathroom and ran into the bedroom, jumped into bed, and
pulled Chantress close to him.

"What's the matter with you?" she
said.

"I don't know. Something crazy. I
was looking at myself in the mirror and suddenly I saw that man. My
face had transformed into his. My eyes were his eyes. It scared the
hell out of me," Kyle said.

"Maybe, this man did something
awful to you when you were a child and now you remember it,"
Chantress said.

"No, I don't think so," he
replied.

"Maybe, it was one of your mother's
boyfriends."

"She didn't date anybody except my
stepfather."

"I'm really sorry you're having a
bad time," she said caressing his face.

He squeezed her hand and closed his
eyes. He strained his memory in hope of remembering this strange
man who appeared in his life like an apparition.
A man without
an identity,
he thought.
Who are you mister boogey man? The
man who saves the world? Ha! Where are you going? What is your
future? Was that really my eyes I saw in the mirror or
yours?

Suddenly, Kyle knew the answers.
Chantress was the answer. She had given him vision, a future, a
place under the sun. He simply had to reach out and take it.
Perhaps, it was a view of the future - his future.

He sat up and looked at Chantress
with strange admiration.

"I know who that man
is."

"Why are you looking at me like
that. You’re giving me the creeps?"

"I know who that man
is."

“You do?”

"My father. He's trying to tell me
something. Before we met I went to a you know…a fortune teller and
she told me my father was trying to contact me."

"You went to a psychic?" Chantress
said. "We’re so alike. I’m so impressed. I want to hear all about
it!"

"Okay, but it’s scary."

"Oh come on! How scary can going to
a psychic be?"

He told her about the awful
experience how the woman died, and how he passed out several times,
and about the beam of light that pierced his eye.

"What bothers me is that he was
trying to tell me something, but he was blown away before he could
say it. Like he was trying to warn me about something and someone
else didn't want me to know."

"Well, it was only a dream," she
said.

"Yeah...only a dream, but I have a
feeling it really happened."

Kyle turned and stared out the
window at the empty gray street.

"What’s the matter?"

"Just thinking. There are people
out there who have dreams that come true. I just hope I'm not one
of them."

"Are you crazy? Everybody has
dreams and everybody wants the good ones to come true. It's just
that some people give up on their dreams, forget about them, and
never try to make them happen. Many people just wish for things to
happen," Chantress said.

"I didn't mean my dreams. I meant
the nightmares."

"So then what are your dreams,
Kyle?"

"You know, I never had any real
dreams until I met you. I was just drifting along, looking for
something to turn up. I really didn't care about much of anything
until you came into my life. Now I have a direction and I can see
things more clearly."

"That's wonderful! I knew we would
be good together. I just knew it!" she said hugging him like a long
lost teddy bear.

"Are we ready for tonight's
meeting?"

"Everybody will be here at seven
thirty. We'll go over the rules and meetings dates, and then we'll
have the open discussion," Chantress explained. "My parents would
never let me have this meeting at my house."

"This is not devil worship, is it?
We won't be worshipping anything except our own potential,
right?"

Chantress nodded.

"So where is the mystical, the
spiritual part of all this?"

"The spiritual, mystical part is
realizing the power within oneself, the power to do whatever you
set your mind to do. Isn't that mystical enough? It's the same as
devil worship except more positive, more normal and with results
that are acceptable to everyone. We don't have to hide in dark
cellars or abandoned buildings. And I'll bet we'll attract more
people because it makes sense. New Age is spiritual - it's the age
where people realize higher levels of their selves, a new spiritual
self. Look at all the seminars that are held on positive thinking
and self motivation!"

"I guess so," Kyle replied. "But
it's not like a religion or devil worship?"

"I suppose you got a kick out of
drinking dog's blood! Personally, I thought it was disgusting and
so did the others who are coming tonight," Chantress
said.

"Well, yeah...I thought it was
disgusting, but it was kind of exciting, too," Kyle
confessed.

"You men are all alike. The animal
has never grown out of you. Either you are with me or you're
against me on this. There are no maybes. Are you going to help me
with this or not?"

"Oh, yeah, I said I would. Don't
get so bent out of shape," Kyle said.

Chantress looked at him icily and
vanished into the bathroom to shower. Kyle sat back down on the
edge of the bed and ran his hand through his long, thick hair. The
running water broke the silence and it excited him knowing
Chantress was naked. He opened the bathroom door and slipped into a
hot, moist wall of steam. Chantress' naked body was shiny an silky
from the cascading water.

"I thought you'd never come in,"
she said her eyes afire.

They soaped each other's body and
then slid their hands all over each other enjoying the slippery
sensation. Chantress' last bit of frosty feelings washed away with
Kyle's touch and the hot, pulsating water. They floated in and out
of a fantasy with the steam, the water and the soap enveloping all
of their senses. The fantasy turned into a combined ecstasy as they
made love. It nearly caused them to pass out.

T
hey spent
the early part of the day preparing for the meeting. Kyle bought
cold cuts and vegetable salads from the nearby supermarket, and
Chantress made several trays of finger sandwiches. Kyle placed
bowls of chips, pretzels, and crackers on the small round table in
the kitchen.

"This is going to be some party!"
Kyle said as he positioned the bowls on the table.

"A celebration," Chantress
said.

The guests arrived around 7:45 –
first to arrive was a 50s something doctor and his wife, a dentist
and his son, a construction worker and his friends, and several
others Kyle did not get a chance to greet as they entered the tiny
apartment. They all introduced themselves with their real names. To
Chantress, it was like meeting a group of new people since she had
only known them by their secret identities used in the cult. The
room was very crowded. Chantress began the meeting setting down the
guidelines, and the rules, and the philosophy of the group. Kyle
half listened - he was tuned into a small group near the door - the
construction worker and his friends.

"I knew this was going to be dumb,"
one of the men whispered.

"Sounds like a lot of this
intellectual shit that I hate," the other man replied. "Look most
of them are those college types."

"Yeah, I agree," said another man
overhearing the conversation.

"We'd better stay until she stops
talking to be polite," added another man.

"Fuck it. Let's go," said the
construction worker.

The four men moved toward the
door.

Chantress saw Kyle follow the men
and frowned.

"Kyle would you like to tell
everyone your views on the group and where you want it to go?"
Chantress said.

"Uh...sure," his eyes wide and
questioning.

Kyle walked to the center of the
room where Chantress was standing. The men by the door
stopped.

"First I would like to welcome
everybody. We are on the verge of a new beginning - the beginning
of a new life, a better life, a more fulfilling life, and it will
all start right here tonight!"

The crowd applauded. Chantress
could not believe it was Kyle. Kyle looked at her and smiled. His
eyes blazed with steel blue confidence and the sweetness of
success.

"We are all here because we want
something more, something better for our lives. We don't want to be
like everybody else, we don't want to think or act like the masses.
We're better than that - superior in many ways and we have the mind
power to prove it to the world!" Kyle said.

The crowd applauded louder this
time. The group was mesmerized. Chantress beamed. The construction
worker and his group stayed.

"I like this guy," said one of
them.

"Me, too."

When the formal session of the
meeting ended, the crowd surged towards Kyle offering him their
hands and several pats on the back. Chantress slithered up to
him.

"This is great. You were great.
We're going to be great together," she said.

"Yeah, we will," he
said.

When the last guest left, Chantress
grabbed Kyle's hand and led him into the kitchen.

"I've saved the best for last," she
said.

She opened the refrigerator door
and pulled out a bottle of champagne.

"For us," she said holding up the
bottle. "I knew this was going to be a success."

Kyle took the bottle from her and
began twisting the wires holding the metal security cap. Then he
used his thumbs to push the cork upward. The bottle opened with a
piercing pop and Kyle let the plastic cork hit the ceiling and
ricochet around the room like the feelings bouncing around inside
of him. Chantress held two tumblers up and Kyle filled them, and
then they toasted. Chantress peeled off her jeans and her tube top
and stood before Kyle. She sat on the kitchen table bringing Kyle
closer to her. His clothes fell to the floor in a small pile. They
touched each other passing in and out of a pleasurable fantasy.
Chantress was breathless. They both slipped into a numbing euphoria
when he entered her, and they stayed that way until the euphoria
exploded into yet another greater one that completely swallowed
their senses, their consciousness. They lay on the table for some
time letting reality slowly drift back.