Demonic Designs (To Absolve the Fallen) (15 page)

“Finally, I get to meet this Alex, who your world seems to revolve around.
 
I hope he’s every bit as good as you say he is.”
 

Matt and Jeremiah exchanged patronizing smiles.
 
Then, Matt went to Elizabeth to examine her.
 
There didn’t look to be any lingering damage from the demon’s breath, but he didn’t want to take any chances.
 
He told Jeremiah about it.

Jeremiah walked over and studied her neck.
 
“I don’t see anything, but we’ll keep an eye on her.
 
She should be gaining consciousness soon, and then we’ll just ask her how she feels.”
 
Jeremiah threw her over his shoulder and turned to walk to the expanded door.
 
“I expect you to be on your best behavior with Alex.”

Matt smiled and brushed the rebellious hair out of his face.
 
“Of course.
 
Why would you expect differently?”

Jeremiah glared at him.
 
“I don’t.
 
But it’s only fair for me to warn you that he may pay a little more attention to Elizabeth than you might want.”

Matt glared back.
 
“Oh,
really
...”

***

An old Chinese man, garbed in loose, orange robes, sat about a dozen feet away from the entrance to the Buddhist temple.
 
He peered into the heavens, perhaps seeking guidance from the stars.
 
His heart burned with the knowledge of pain and loss his people would have to suffer through.
 
They had endured so much already.
 
He knew, from experience, that the Buddhist people were strong.
 
And every ounce of that strength would be necessary in times to come.
 

He sighed, remembering how vital it was to not be controlled by possibilities.
 
His people needed him to be there for them, now, not looking to the future.
 
They would make it through, as they always have.
 
With the right leadership, they would be stronger than before.
 
Of course, he could not know if they would accept the new leadership.
 
Everything would change for them so quickly that it might be difficult to adapt.
 
Reminding himself that his people had been strong and wise for longer than he had been alive, he allowed himself to relax a little.
 

All would be well, even if, from time to time, it may not seem that way.
 
He did not have the same kind of faith that many of the prominent religions expressed, but he did have faith.
 
Not in a god, as such, but in enlightenment and the perseverance of his people.

“Holiness,” a monk called to him in Hindi.
 
“Is everything all right?”

The Dalai Lama smiled and nodded.
 
Yes, everything was going to be fine.

I met Alex when he was seventeen.
 
I didn’t know what to make of him—he was certainly too timid to be what Jeremiah wanted him to be, but I couldn’t deny that he was touched.
 
Perhaps we all have that timidity when we first begin to realize our potential.
 
There is some obstacle within all of us that we must face, and, if Jeremiah had anything to say about the matter, Alex would have to live up to some mind-boggling expectations.
 
Like so many of Jeremiah’s protégés, Alex was taken away from his family and given a new one.
 
God demands that we leave everything to follow Him.
 
None of us can ever truly fathom what that means until we have nothing left.

--
Abigail Martin
, Through the Eyes of a Martyr

When Alex saw Jeremiah, the demon looked very tired.
 
He carried someone over his shoulder.
 
Alex could make out feminine characteristics.
 
She was unconscious and maybe wounded, from the look of things.
 

“That must be Liz,” Alex reasoned.

There was a young man walking with Jeremiah—Matt, no doubt.
 
He had a fresh cut along his cheek that he was tending to with a piece of fabric, which looked like it had been ripped off of his shirt.
 
As they approached, Jeremiah signaled Alex to roll his window down.

“Get in the back,” he said.
 
“We’ll put Elizabeth back there with you, and Matt will ride up front with me.”

Alex looked at the back seat, which was—at best—a joke.
 
“She and I are going to fit back there?”

The demon opened the driver’s side door, looking rushed but exhausted.
 
“Get in the back,” he repeated a little more sternly.

Alex shrugged and hopped over the back seat.
 
Jeremiah laid the seat forward and handed Elizabeth back to Alex.
 
Alex took her and was thankful she looked physically fine.
 

Jeremiah had carried her to the car in a way that made it look easy, but Alex was not prepared for the dead weight of a person; she was heavier than she looked.
 
He felt clumsy and embarrassed handling her body in this fashion.
 

Hooking his right arm underneath her knees and bracing her back with his left, he gently lifted her body into the back seat.
 
Once she was securely in place, he rolled up his jacket and stuck it behind her neck for support.

She was quite attractive, just as Jeremiah had implied.
 
As she lay next to him, Alex felt a twinge of bitter jealousy.
 
Matt was lucky to have such a beautiful woman by his side in what seemed to be a dangerous and otherwise lonely line of work.
          
 

He just stared at her, taking everything in.
 
She had chestnut-colored hair that came down to the middle of her back.
 
Her body was shapely, but Alex could tell that it was not something she was overly vain about; he liked that in women.
 
It seemed too often that women would wear tight, revealing clothes and paint themselves in makeup to be
beautiful
, but Alex thought that was just superficial.
 
Liz was breathtaking in a baggy t-shirt and blue jeans.
 
He hadn’t noticed, but a smile had formed on his face as he examined her.

The driver’s seat flew back into the upright position with a snap, yanking Alex back into reality.
 
He saw Jeremiah, who was also smiling, watching him.
 
Then, the passenger side door opened, and Alex noticed that Matt was not smiling.
 
He was studying Alex intently and dabbing blood around the cut on his cheek.

Jeremiah got into the car and turned to Alex.
 
“I think there’s a seat belt back there, somewhere.
 
You should probably buckle her up; we might have to drive pretty dangerously.”

Alex didn’t miss the menacing glare that Matt shot to Jeremiah, but he dug around and found the seat belt.
 
He looked to Matt, but he was getting in the car and didn’t make eye contact with anyone else until they started to drive away.

He said, “So, you must be Alex.”

“Yep.
 
And I guess you’re Matt.”

He laughed.
 
“Oh, so I guess that Jeremiah
did
mention me, after all.
 
I assumed he would, but I also often wonder if I put too much faith in him.”
 

At that point, he did look directly at Jeremiah.
 
Jeremiah merely returned his stare until Matt looked away.

“You kids don’t give me enough credit,” Jeremiah stated as he pulled out of the parking lot they had been sitting in.

“Give Caesar his due,” Matt returned quietly.

“Actually,” Jeremiah corrected, “one quote is, ‘render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.’
 
Therefore, render to me the things that are mine.”

Matt grunted.
 
“No victory is too small for you, is it, Jeremiah?”

“The little things in life are what really matter,” the demon concurred.
 
He pulled out a cell phone, pressed two buttons and put it to his ear.
 
“It’s me,” he said.
 
“The warehouse is contaminated.
 
Clean it out.
 
I want it spotless in twenty minutes.
 
Tomorrow, it’s to be leveled.
 
Understood?...No, everyone is all right.”
 
He looked over at Matt.
 
“He’s got a scratch, but he’ll live.”

“Thank you, Marla,” Matt yelled loud enough for the person on the other end to hear.

Jeremiah rolled his eyes.
 
“Yes, well anyway...
 
Uh, she’s unconscious right now, so you’ll have to get that information from her later...
 
No, I told you everyone is fine...
 
Of course he is.
 
What do you think I’ve been doing all of this time?
 
Why don’t people trust me?...
 
Listen, you have to get this done, and by my count, you have nineteen minutes and five seconds.
 
I don’t pay you ridiculous amounts of money to tell me what you think about what I’m doing.
 
Get busy.”
 
With that, he snapped the phone shut.
 
“I don’t know why I hire people with personality.
 
It gets in the way too much.
 
Alex, Marla says that she is looking forward to meeting you.”

“Who’s Marla?”

Jeremiah just shook his head and answered, “You know what?
 
Just don’t worry about it.
 
Marla doesn’t matter; her inane babble doesn’t matter, and her obsessive interference doesn’t matter.
 
She’s a hemorrhoid sent from God.”

Matt looked back to Alex, smiled.
 
“She’s a lifeline.
 
At any given time, she has all of Jeremiah’s little schemes organized in her head—at least, the ones that Jeremiah has chosen to reveal to any of us—and she keeps us all in line.
 
You’ll grow to love the sound of her voice.
 
It’s always like she has everything under control, and she even seems to put the smack down on Jeremiah every now and again.
 
You’ll meet her when we get home.”

Alex tried to smile back, but it was difficult.
 
It seemed like Matt was sizing him up.
 
He already knew that Alex was thinking about his girl.
 
Alex turned to look at the scenery, and, after a rather perplexed look, Matt looked forward.
 

It occurred to Alex that if Matt was a prophet too, then he might have the ability to read minds.
 
If that was the case, then surely everything Alex had been thinking about Liz would be obvious.
 
Who was he kidding?
 
It could probably be read all over his face.
 
He knew his face and ears got red when he was embarrassed or scared, and they were both burning right now.

Alex really didn’t want to get the shit kicked out of him, but suddenly he felt a deep sense of emptiness fill him.
 
It was as if he had never known love before.
 
He looked toward the front seat.
 
Jeremiah was watching the road, and Matt was looking out the passenger-side window.
 
Alex looked down at Elizabeth and soaked her in.

It seemed wrong to look at her this way since he hadn’t even met her yet, and he had only just seen her for the first time.
 
Alex felt guilty and intimidated when he considered that her boyfriend was sitting in the front seat.
 
Not to mention, he’s a master of ass-whooping.
 

That’s right
, Alex thought.
 
You always want what you can’t have
.
 

He noticed that he was no longer looking at Elizabeth.
 
His focus had centered on the back of Matt’s head.
 
He couldn’t pry his eyes away.
 
It felt like something was beckoning him, pulling him away from his own mind.
 
His will broke, sending his consciousness on a path toward the force that was so alluring: Matt.
 

Alex became overwhelmed by sadness.
 
He couldn’t interpret the emotion any better than that.
 
There was pain and longing.
 
Alex got lost in it and spiraled down, down.
 
There was a bright point that he could see far in the distance, but he didn’t know how to get there, and it was too far to go back.
 
He tried to pull himself toward that light, whatever it might be.
 
The rest of this place was a wasteland of torment.
 

He had to know what was bright enough to put a smile on Matt’s face despite all of this pain; it had to be Elizabeth.
 
Alex was sure that if he could get a little closer, he would feel the same feelings that he, himself, had about the girl.
 
He was convinced that she was at the forefront of Matt’s every thought.
 
Judging by the pain that bombarded Alex from every direction, she might be the only thing keeping him from spinning out of control.
 
Alex felt ashamed, but he wanted her even more.
 

He was so close now.
 
He could feel warmth coming off of this light.
 
It had filled the majority of his vision.
 
Alex could feel something else getting closer.
 
This is it
, he told himself.
 
This will be the answer
.
 

Then, a torrent of emotion filled him, none of it positive.
 
It felt like he had been hit in the chest with a blast of freezing water, and he was sent far from that warm spot.
 
Alex screamed, but he didn’t know if he made any noise because his ears were only filled with questions and doubts.
 
His life was being ripped from him.
 
He could see himself on the ground, in what looked to be a high school.
 
Someone much bigger than Alex was beating him senselessly.
 
The bigger guy was screaming something that Alex couldn’t figure out.
 
That was probably due to the throbbing in his ears from the random smacks to the side of the head.
 
The emotion Alex was feeling was fear, and this fear of Matt’s was sucking him in.

It felt like there was a force pressing on Alex’s chest.
 
He wanted to scream out to the bully to stop, but he could make no noise.
 
He could feel each blow from this gorilla, and he could taste blood welling up in his mouth.
 
He was choking on it.

***