Centurion: Mark's Gospel as a Thriller (8 page)

"Legion, please, he needs to breathe.
He'll die
!"

Legion flicks his head, and I drop to the ground. The weight is immediately lifted from my chest. I roll onto my back and fill my lungs with cold air, which shocks my throat as it descends into my body. I try to stand, but my body buckles beneath me, and I fall to the ground. Every ounce of strength has been drained from my body. I roll onto my back and suck air. I feel like I've run a hundred miles.

Maria returns her attention to Legion. "We need to travel through the tunnel. This man is wanted by the Centurion Guard, and we can't go back the way we've come."

"Has the Teacher lived up to your lofty expectations?" Legion says, ignoring her question about the tunnel.

Maria draws a deep breath and steels herself for whatever is coming next. Finally she says, "He shattered them...if you want to know the truth."

Legion laughs. "I knew it. No man will ever accept you, not after what you've done. You'll never be clean in the eyes of a man. You're dirty and worthless."

With warm eyes, Maria says, "He shattered them with acceptance. The Teacher treats me like all the others—no different. We're friends."

"What does he demand in return?"

"Nothing," Maria says. "He asks only that we continue following the way."

Legion laughs harder. "What way is that?"

"I'm still learning."

"Then why do you follow?"

"You know what I used to be. You saw my torment." Maria steps closer to Legion. "Look in my eyes now and see the difference." Legion grunts and turns his back to her. "He still asks about you," she says. Legion emits another sound that comes directly from the pits of hell. "You can have this too, Alejandro," she says tenderly, taking a few more steps closer to him. "You don't have to live this way. There's life outside this cave. Turn around and see the difference."

Without turning, Legion says, "This man who accepts you and makes all you rejects hopeful will soon be knocked off his throne. Then what will you be left with? Who will protect you?"

"The Teacher has no throne, nor does he want one."

"We all want a throne!" Legion barks. "And yes, he sits on a throne. But not for long."

Maria takes another bold step toward him and places her tiny hand on his wide back. She looks like a child standing next to him. I scramble weakly to my feet and prepare to lunge at him.

"What are you planning to do?" she asks Legion.

"Stay and find out."

"You know I can't do that," Maria says.

"Can't...or won't?"

"Look at me," Maria says.

To my great surprise, Legion obeys, turning slowly to face Maria.

He listens to her.

"Leave this place," Maria says. "Come with us to the park. It's never too late to start over. It doesn't have to be this way. You have the power to change your life."

There's a pregnant pause before Legion responds. It's the sort of silence that can exist only between two people with a lengthy and storied past. It's a pause that holds a thousand words, a thousand memories, and a thousand heartaches. It's a pause that makes me insanely jealous.

Finally Legion says, "The tunnel is yours. Go."

"Legion, you should come—"

"Go!"
he roars. "Before I change my mind and throw you both to the wolves."

Maria moves quickly around Legion, and I follow after her, but he strikes me hard on the chest, stopping me in my tracks. "Boy," he says slowly, "the next time we meet will be the last day of your life."

I slowly back away from him and allow Maria to lead the way to the tunnel. When we arrive, it appears to be better lit than Legion's cave and similar to the first space we entered. A line for a railway track cuts down the center.

As we make our way through the tunnel, Legion's threat echoes in my head. If another man had uttered those words, I'd have attacked him right there and then. But Legion possesses dark powers. I've come home for a fight—make no mistake about it—but I want no part of that. I came here to fight men...not monsters.

Maria hurries me along for another hundred yards before she slows down. "I'm sorry for what happened in there," she says. "Are you OK?"

"It'll take more than a giant freak with anger issues to stop me."

Maria laughs, and her voice is throaty and full. It's a laugh I want to hear many more times, a laugh I'll work hard to earn.

She intertwines her fingers with mine. "Alejandro was always a jealous man," she says, "even before he became as he is now. He'd fly off the handle if a man so much as looked at me sideways. He was always crazy like that. But I've never seen him show that kind of aggression so quickly. And his powers are clearly growing. He detested you the moment you entered the cave."

"I tend to have that effect on people."

She laughs again. It's even better the second time.

Maria grins. "Not on me."

This time I laugh. "Just give me time. I'll drive you all kinds of crazy."

Maria smiles widely, gazing at me in a way I never dreamed a beautiful woman would. Looking at her is like having bright electricity course through my veins. It's the cardinal energy of men who topple empires, liberate slaves, and move mountains. She's a drug so potent that I already know I'll stop at nothing to get it. It's taken no more than an hour to find myself irrevocably hooked on Maria.

In fact I've been so enmeshed in our conversation that I haven't paid any attention to our walk, making the waiting train seem as if it's materialized from thin air. A man stands on the back deck of the caboose with his arms folded, watching us grimly as we approach. He wears the cap of an engineer, the black bill listing far to the left. His mustache is thick and covers the entirety of his mouth; I wonder how he manages to eat.

The caboose is attached to a single compartment, and the engineer motions for us to climb aboard. We ascend the short ladder and crawl into an
empty shipping container that smells of ammonia and bleach. We slide across the floor until our backs are flat against the wall. There are no seats inside.

"You've done this before?" I say.

Maria laughs as our train heaves and lurches forward. "Relax," she says. "We made it. You're safe now."

Without asking, she takes my aching hands into hers and blows gently on them. Her touch is simple yet intimate in ways I've never known. My mother's touch carried with it the magic of solace, but this is different—
very
different. It's both calming and exhilarating. Somewhere deep in my soul—too deep for me to draw fully into the light—I'm aware that my life is changing. Instinctively I know I'll look back on this moment and think,
There. Right there.

Maria licks her thumb and rubs dried blood from my chin. "This needs to be stitched up."

"I don't mind a scar."

"Do you have many?"

"Scars?"

She nods.

I nod.

"Where?" she says, sliding her body closer to mine, our hipbones touching each other.

"They're the kind you can't see."

She nods again.

The train gathers speed, and I feel a sense of peace knowing we're moving out of this dark place. I peer out the open door of the container and spot small pairs of lights running along the walls. I point to them. "What are those lights for?"

Maria presses her body so close to mine that I feel her heart thumping in her chest. She whispers, "They aren't lights. They're eyes."

he tunnel walls resemble a country night's sky; there are thousands of brilliantly shining stars. But they're not exploding balls of hydrogen; they're eyes, and not the kind you want watching over you from the heavens. These eyes have the cold, sharp glow of demons, and they can only mean one thing—the Evil One has seen you; he knows you exist, and he will come for you.

I run my hand across Maria's knee and fantasize about caressing her thigh. "I don't believe in these creatures." I say. "Or at least I didn't. I thought they were a figment created for children. A monster under the bed to scare little ones into minding their parents."

Maria sighs. "It turns out the creatures under the bed are real."

"How did you get mixed up in this? I can't imagine you living down here. You're nothing like those people."

"You didn't know me then. I thank God for that."

"Yes, but..." I start to ask her about Legion, but a lump gathers in my throat where my question belongs. The answer, no matter what it is, will devastate me. If she's still married to that man, I'll die. But she can't be, right? Alejandro is simply...not human. Not anymore.

But they
were
married. She said the words. Maria loved him once, and perhaps she still does. I can't bear the thought of it. I've never felt such radical jealousy. All I know is I want Maria, and I want her to myself.

"I'm not married to him anymore," she says, as if reading my hot thoughts. "Alejandro was a good man, a very good man. But he
—we
—got involved in a way of life we never should have. The fall from grace is easier to come by than one thinks." Maria cries softly as she speaks, the memories like sharp barbs in her brain, injecting each word with pain.

"You don't have to talk about it. It's all behind you."

"No," she says thickly. "I want to tell you. I'd rather it be me than one of the others in the park. I know how they like to talk."

"I don't understand."

Maria speaks slowly, deliberately; she seems sad but not ashamed. "The way Alejandro is now is how I used to be."

It's an incomprehensible idea, the notion that precious and petite Maria could ever resemble anything close to the nightmare that is Legion. "Not possible," I say. "You couldn't possibly—"

"But I was," she says. "Not as powerful, no, but I was cruel, angry, and.
dark.
We both entangled our souls in the dark arts, and I...we...
I
lost control. It's as stupidly simple and pathetic as that. We needed a refuge," she says matter-of-factly.
"Badly.
Alejandro was always a gentle spirit, but his work ethic was never that of a respectable man. He was lazy, and we were drifters. A few months here and a few more there...wherever. Alejandro did manual labor, and I sang in cafés." A trace of a smile flashes across her face. "I had a lovely voice, and it was fine for a time. We preferred transiency to a conventional life. We adored the freedom. But the Kingdom's invasion of the South changed everything. Because of his size, Alejandro was drafted into the Kingdom's foreign army. A month later his orders came in. He would be sent across the sea, and we'd never see each other again. That's when we opened ourselves to...other possibilities."

The train lurches hard as the incline of our ascent grows steeper. We're traveling much faster than I'd expected on this old line. I take another look through the doorway and discover the eyes of the demons have disappeared, their muted effervescence replaced with nothing but darkness. I'm growing tired of the dark but prefer it to the spying eyes of those wretched creatures hiding beneath its cover.

"Those in the underground," Maria says, "granted us asylum from the Kingdom. But we soon discovered their hospitality came at a high price. Before we knew it, we'd lost control of our lives."

"So you were both...what? Possessed?"

"Seven times—for me, that is. It was more for Alejandro. I...can't explain it. The torture is inexplicable. It's like hell itself has taken residence inside your body, in your spirit. I hated myself, and I wanted to die."

"How did you escape? How did you defeat them?"

"I didn't."

"I don't understand."

"I was saved."

"How?"

Maria smiles as a soft beam of light splashes into the train. The car levels out, and the train slows down. She stands and says, "You're about to find out."

The train rolls into the park and stops at a makeshift station consisting of a single bench and a battered sign that reads, GETH PARK. I stand and take Maria's hand as she moves toward the open door. "We're here," she says. "Time for you to meet the Teacher."

"Won't the Kingdom look for me here? I'm a wanted man. And...Maria, I'm afraid you are too. That bank guard saw you; he heard your voice. Nothing will be the same for you now; we're in serious trouble."