On Tenterhooks (39 page)

He paused for a moment, letting it sink in.

“Pretty slick, huh?
I mean
—
think about that one
.
His demons could traumatize and damage a person without ever getting near them. Here I was looking for him to come at ya’ll
full-on
and instead he went for the soft target
—
your family.
Well, friend
s,
let me tell you that it greatly reduced our ability to protect those under our watch.
Everything we’d learned and everything that worked in the past
? Well,
that dog won’t hunt no more.”

He shook his
head. “I
guess I don’t need to
tell you that
his
maneuver turned the tide of the game
even more
in his favor
.
God had to do some quick reworking of his own in order to keep up.”

“Wait,” Abby interrupted. “Back up.
What do you me
an ‘
indirect
pain and hardship’?
”

“Right, you got it girl.
This is where
y’all
come in
to the story
.
”

“
You are saying that
we
—”
Abby
started.

“Are positives,” Martin finished.

“What the hell are you talking about
,
Abby?” asked
Veronica
, never taking her eyes
off
Biker.

“She’s talking about you,
Veronica
,” said Biker, looking at each of them
in turn
.
“She’s talking about all of you.”

“
A
re
you
telling me that
all of us, that we’re
these
positives
?” asked Steve.

“That is exactly what I’m telling you
.”

“Jesus Christ, give me a break,”
Veronica
snarled.

“He did. T
hat’s why I’m here,” smiled Biker.

“You’re our guardian angel, aren’t you
?” asked Abby, although to Steve it didn’t sound much like
a question
.

Biker tipped his
head
toward
Abby
.
“At your service
.”

“And that nasty pastor is a demon?” asked Martin
, pounding the table
.

“Yes
—
but not
just
a demon
;
he’s a real badass
.
See, when these
soul
-
suckers
first ge
t up here to earth, they
aren’t .
.
. developed
.
This is new to them, almost as if they are newborns
,
in a way
.
They are experiencing life in the physical form, learning societal conventions
to
blend in
.
As they learn
more, they gain more strength.”

Biker tapped the table again with his fingertips.

“
The
preacher
has been among the living for
many
years
now;
he was one of the first of Satan’s new breed
,
so to speak
.
He, and others like him, are kinda
like prototype
s. H
e was pulled off of duty cultivating evil and instead is now focus
ed on derailing the positives.”

“So
,
let me get this straight,” said
Veronica
. “A
preacher
, a man of God, is some big bad demon
,
and you, a trash-talking redneck we meet in some
Mexican dive
bar, are a guardian angel?  Yeah, put me in the non-believer category, please.”

“No,
Veronica
,” said Abby,
reaching across the table. “I
t makes sense
.
That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier.
He’s not human.
I could tell when
that
preacher
touched me that he was evil
.
I could feel it. It was
as if
he
were
magnifying my pain
.
It was just
. . .
evil.”

Veronica
sighed
.
Biker
crossed his arms and
leaned back in his chair, not wanting to intervene
.
He knew if
they were going to believe, it would have to come from within.

“Look, Abby,
S
weetie” said
Veronica
.
“You’re hurting
.
We all are
.
But grief can be a powerful thing
—
it can make you feel and do things that you never would have otherwise.”

“I think that’s Biker’s point,
Veronica
,” said Martin.

Veronica
turned to Steve, looking for help.
“Steve, tell them how crazy this sounds
.”

“Yeah, it does sound crazy, b
ut that doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

“What?
Are you serious?”

“I don’t kno
w if I’m serious,
Veronica
, okay?
Look, it’s been rough for all of us
.
I’ve seen things that are
reshaping
my view of the world. Things I always took for
granted
no longer seem to fit.”

“Unbelievable
,
” muttered
Veronica
.
She shook her head.

Chapter
3
5

The group sat in awkward silence for several moments
in
the dingy back-corner
booth
before Martin spoke
.

“So, Biker, l
et’s say for a minute that you are an angel, and that
preacher
is a demon
—”

“Okay,
sure,
l
et’s
say
that
.
But you need to understand the difference between reality and fantasy in this situation.”

Veronica
laughed
aloud
.
Biker ignored her and continued.

“In theology, angels are regarded as these halo-wearin
,
’ feather-flappin’ do-gooders that fly around carrying out God’s work
.
Well, that ain’t exactly right.”

“Then what is right?” Steve asked him
.
“I mean, if you are an angel, why don’t you just show us?  Prove it to us.”

“I
t
don’t work that way, Steve.
I have strict orders to blend in as much as possible
.
Just think of what could happen, if
people
found out that a true, tangible messenger of God was among them. Civilizations have literally been destroyed over less, bro.”

“Okay,” said
Steve
.
“B
ut
Veronica
has a point
.
It also sounds like a
convenient
cover story
.
How do we know it’s true?  You could just be a clever con-man with a convincing tone.”

“True
,
” Biker nodded. “
But for what, Steve
? None of you
is
rich. N
one of you
has
some heavy influence over anything
.
So if I
were
a bad guy, why would I lure you to Mexico just to sit down and talk in some dingy bar?  I know you all can think for yourselves, so do it
.
When you do, you’ll know I am speaking the truth.”

“Suppose we do believe all of this God and Satan stuff,” said Steve in response. “That still doesn’t tell us which side you are on
.
How do we know you’re not in league with the
preacher
?”

“All I can tell you is that you have to be able to accept some things on faith
.
I know recent events
have shaken
your faith, but at the end of the day,
that
is the
one
thing that can save you
.
If you, we, are going to go any further with this, you’re going to have to accept me at my word when I tell you who I am, what I am and why we are all here.

“Don’t think of me as somethin’
supernatural
.
Think of me more like a cross between a coach and an intelligence analyst
.
I ain’t here to showboat
.
I’m here because I have direct orders to counteract the work that Satan is doing on Earth right now
, like killing
the ones that you loved.”

Abby winced.

“Sorry
to be so blunt about it
,
folks.
But look, you got to understand this, above all else
.
He killed them
.
He murdered them just as surely as
Veronica
could murder with that gun.
”

“He killed Zack, didn’t he?” Abby asked, tears in her eyes.

“Without
question .
.
. and without remorse,” Biker answered. “
Only, he is so skilled at it that
it looked like an accident
. All
of ‘em
did.
That was the plan
.
He did it to get to you
.”

“It makes sense now,” said Abby, to no one in particular. “The doctors said it shouldn’t ha
ve happened that way
,
t
hat normally something like that couldn’t kill somebody
, or shouldn’t at least
.
They t
hought maybe he had some kinda preexisting condition or something
.”

“And he did,” said Biker, “in a manner of speakin
g
.
He had a demon on his back
,
a demon who took his life to get to you. He did it to shake your spirit, make you doubt your faith in the world, people, God, spirituality
. . .
all of it.”

“What about the website?  The
Say Goodbye
thing?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, that was me.
I set
it up
in
the
hope of doing some damage control
.
I couldn’t change what he'd done
—
I don’t have clearance for that kind of stuff
.
But I was hoping that in the process of writing to your loved ones, you would find some comfort, some
closure and be able to move on
.
Get
you back on the right track
,
so-to-speak.
”

“
But it didn’t work like that, did it?
” he continued. “
It certainly
brought you out of your shell, b
ut not in the way I’d planned.
I didn’t anticipate you being so skept
i
cal about the response you got
—
b
ig mistake on my part
.
Looking back, I
should
a
known better
.
Nowadays,
seems like people have a penchant for conspiracy theories,
identity
fraud and a litigious hunger that
I don’t even try to understand.
I should
a
been
prepared for it, should
a
seen
it
coming.
Everybody these days doubts the great bey
ond
.
The
world is too cynical.”

“That’s not fair,” said Steve. “Just because we didn’t trust that site doesn’t mean the world doesn’t have hope. But
it’s
not very often that something shines like those letters we got
.
You don’t
see a lot of goodness like that
,
so it caught us off guard.”

“
Yeah,” nodded Biker, “you’re right.
I guess I did know, and maybe just didn’t want to believe it
.
There has been a major erosion of faith here on earth that is difficult for someone like me to come to grips with
.
Mind you, I am not just talking about faith in the Holy church or God
.
I am just talking about plain and simple faith
.
Tr
ust in your fellow man and your
selves.

“Hell,” he muttered, waving a hand in Abby’s direction
.
“Even the eternal optimism of youth is dying off.”

“No, it isn’t,” Abby said in a low voice
.
“You’re not listening to us
.
I knew that message was from Zack, as soon as I read the first line. I cou
ldn’t explain how it happened. B
ut to me, the important thing was that he was okay
.
He was safe and he was happy. That’s what I learned from the experience.”

Biker
leaned forward and put his elbows on the edge of the table
.
He closed his eyes, rubbing his temples.

“I appreciate that
darlin
’
,
really
I do.
However,
your belief, your faith
is rare
.
Most others don’t take the time to appreciate what’s right there in front of them.
Not that I can blame
them
.
With all the progress made in the world, some things are just as dark as, or darker than, they ever were.”

Biker sighed and crossed his arms across his chest.
“
Sorry for the soap-boxing, but it gets damn frustrating in this race sometimes
.
Despite our best efforts, these changes are sure signs of his evil influence.”

“So
if I had sent a letter to my
m
o
m,
she would have responded
?”
Veronica
asked.

“Ye
p
,” Biker nodded. “
I channeled
the messages the others sent and asked
for a response, and what I got, I turned into words and sent
back
.
I was a translator for it, but those were absolutely
their words
.”
He
placed his palms up and out as if presenting them with a gift
, before he
smiled
.

“
Helen loves
you
Veronica
, and she knew, even now she knows, that you still love her.
The fact that you didn’t send a letter doesn’t change that
—
nothing would ever change her love for you.
”

Veronica
’s eye welled u
p with tears, but she forced herself not to cry
.
She pushed the safety on the gun and
gently
laid it on the tabletop.

“All of them know,” Biker said, looking at each of them in turn
.

“Martin,
Maggie
knows.”

Martin closed his eyes at the mention of his daughter.

“Abby,
Zack
knows
it
.” 

Abby stared down at the table.

“And Steve, Julie knows
,
too.”

Steve nodded
, suppressing the lump forming in his throat
.

The group was silent once again, except for sniffles and throat clearing.

Biker
slid the gun aside
,
reached across the table and placed his calloused, weather-beaten hand over Abby’s
.
His lanky fingers and acorn-like knuckles covered her petite hand
.
She looked up at him
.
Silent tears streamed down her face
.
Biker looked into her eyes.

Abby cracked a small smile, wiping her eyes with the heel of her palm.

Biker smiled back.
He squeezed her hand for a moment before letting go
, then
leaned back in his chair.
“So
what’s it going to be, Abby?
All of you?”

“You mean
,
do we believe you?” Steve asked him.

“No, not me.
My role in this is minor.
Do you believe in yourself?  Can you trust your heart and your soul and forget what your eyes show you or don’t show you and what your brain tells you or doesn’t tell you?”