Ruin: The Waking (11 page)

“I’ll get you another table, Bill,” Isadore called from just behind him, “I’m so sorry.”

Ruin was relieved she followed, he didn’t know what would happen if she hadn’t and didn’t want to know. By the time he reached the steps, the power was rearing again. Ruin paused at the dogs and obeyed the urge to judge something. “Sleep,” he said to them. Power shot into the dogs and arrested their hearts. And they slept. Soundly and without corrupted breathing.

He hurried to the truck, feeling like the power still wasn’t satisfied
, that it was again gearing up. “Let’s hurry up and get out of here before I do something else.”

“Then stop it!” Isadore
cried, climbing in the truck after him.

“I would if I could or knew how!” Ruin yelled. “Do you think I like not having control?”

She fumbled her keys with trembling hands as Sam came out of the house and stared at the dogs. Isadore started the truck and began to turn it around. “What did you do to the dogs?” she squealed, fighting with the shift until Ruin wanted to torch the wretched truck right from around them.

“I put them out of their misery.”

“Oh my
God!
” she cried, stepping on the gas and tearing out. “You can’t
do
that! Why did you do that?”

“I had to, the power
made me, it’s out of my control.”

She regarded
him with worried eyes, sending the heat swirling faster.

“You’re not helping Isadore,” he barked.

“Well I can’t help it! Are you going to explode my head accidentally or
what?
”

“I don’t think I can hurt you.”

“You don’t think?” she shrieked. “You strangled me!”

“
It’s different. I think.”

She barely looked both ways at the end of the driveway and we hit the pave doing
thirty miles per hour. A half a mile later, we came on a man hitchhiking.

“Oh my God,” Isadore whispered. “Isn’t that the man from the other night?”

“Keep driving,” Ruin said, wanting to get as far from him as he could. He was the reason for this power. Ever since that night, it was much more awake.

“Are you sure? He looks like he needs a ride,” she cried.

“He’s not
human
Isadore, he doesn’t need a
fucking
ride!”

“
Not stopping, not stopping!” She gripped the wheel tight with both hands and focusing her eyes on the road, passing the man with his thumb out.

“Damn bastard,” Ruin g
rowled. “Turn around!”

“
What? Why?!”

“Because I’m blind!”

Chapter Eleven

“Awww,
shit!
” Isadore hit the brakes and threw Ruin into the dash. “Hold on! Backing up now, JD.”

“Warn me
before
you slam the brakes, Isadore!”

“Sorry,” she squealed, “I wasn’t thinking. Too busy processing the hysteria threatening to shut my mind down.”

Ruin forgot how fragile she actually was. “Damn, I’m sorry.”

“I’ll make you pay later.”

Right in the middle of the power rage in total darkness, images of Isadore having an orgasm brought the fire and ice from mind crushing screams to a deadly idling growl. Wow. He gasped in awe and the passenger door opened.

“Scoot over asshole,”
Caliber said sliding in with a shove. “Do that again, and you’ll be crawling to your next assignment. Raise your shirt, I need to get at the keyboard.”

Keyboard? Is that what it was? Ruin removed it altogether.

“And that little trick I just had to do alerted every Olethros to our location in this vicinity, thank you very much.” He pressed various locations on his body. Six. “So don’t come crying when you find you and the pretty little lady in a jam.”

“Jam?”

“I sure as hell don’t mean jelly, son.”

“Oh great,” Isadore whispered.

“Well that’s it for me,” he said. “Until next time. And tell Grim they’re waiting for his report. Stop the truck please.”

Idadore did and he opened the door, muttering, “How complicated can it be, ushering ju
dged souls, I’ll never get that bony being.”

Ruin’s sight returned just as Caliber shut the door, grinned
at him, and vanished.

“Ooooookay,” Isadore sang lightly. “He disappeared.”

Ruin regarded her and pointed forward. “Go. Fast.”

“Yes sir.” She fought the shift and punched it, making the tires squeal on the pavement.
“Going fast.”

Ruin steadied his breathing the best he could but to no avail.

“You don’t sound okay.”

“I’m not,
fuck!
”

“Ohhhh no, you’re cussing,” she whispered. “This is bad.” She reached and rubbed his trembling hand on the seat and Ruin latched on to it.

“I need to touch you,” he gasped.

“Okay, touch me, come closer. “I
s it helping?”

He
slid next to her and the power changed gears again. But they were still eager, only for her now. “Isadore,” he whispered. “It likes you.”

“What? What likes me?” she cried.

“This power, the hot, the ice, it wants you.”

“What does that mean it
wants
me,
how
does it want me?”

“Stop being afraid,” he growled.

“Well it’s kind of
hard
goddammit!”

“It just wants to make you feel good. It doesn’t want to hurt you.”

She glanced from him to the road, her brows furrowed.

“I’m sorry. It’s the truth. I can’t make it different.”

“Feel good?” she whispered. “Like how?”

“I need to touch you.”

“Oh my God, touch me, I’m driving.  And no! No, it can’t
touch me.
I’m…I’m a
Christian woman!
”

He drew back
a little, the power threatening to get out of hand. “What do you mean you’re a
Christian
woman, what does that have to do with anything?”

She gasped several times. “I can’t just let you
touch me
like that!”

“You already have,” he snapped, not understanding.

“And it was a
big mistake!
” She nodded with wide eyes, clutching the steering wheel.

Ruin was boggled. “You liked it. No, you loved it.”

“That has
nothing
to do with it? I’m not supposed to do that!”

“Says
who?
”

“God!”

“God,” he whispered. “God says you can’t feel good?”

“No! God says I have to
marry
before I engage in
sex!
It’s called
fornication
if I don’t!”

“Marry.” He was confused, searching the data in his mind he’d obtained from the confounding book, mumbling quickly through the marriages he’d recalled reading. “What do you want from me? To pay your father money? I don’t have any!” But he sure had power quickly careening out of control. “Isadore, I need this.”

More shocked and offended gasps. “I’m sorry, I’m not going to.” She regarded him and the road rapidly. “I’m not going to have sex with a man who isn’t in love with me.”

“
In
love?” Ruin growled and shot to the other side of the truck not trusting himself. What did
in love
mean? Was that different than the nurturing and caring of another human? He didn’t even need her to care for him, just to let him care or take care of her pleasure. Which was healthy, and a
good
thing, not bad. Why did she set it up like a road block at a time he needed her to comply? “I don’t have time for these puzzles Isadore.”

“Puzzle? There is nothing puzzling about it, mister!” she snapped.

Her anger took the edge off and he ran for that angle. “Love, what can you tell me about love? You have wisdom about this? Knowledge?”

She watched the road, and checked her mirrors, her face a mask of angry confusion.

“You don’t, do you,” he accused. “You want what you have no idea of.”

“I do have an idea!”

“And so if I give you this love, then you would marry me,” he said.

“How can you give me something you don’t even know!” she yelled.

“The same way you apparently would, only without the guesses and hunches sucked from stupid poetic lies and fairytales. And this is what your God requires for you to be able to feel good? A love that you’ve never experienced or know? And out of all the so called marriages I remember reading, funny there was only one that mentioned love. The rest were merely arrangements, some after
rapes
, so I say how about we go with the majority and make the arrangement. Would you like it with or without the rape?”

She slammed the br
akes until the truck stopped dead in the middle of the road and stared at him, mouth hanging open, eyes wide. She proceeded to choke on gasps and such, making Ruin want to shake the words from her. “What about Samson and Delilah huh? They were in love!”

“It
never
said they were married.”

She retained hold of the steering wheel and
squinted. “It was
understood!
”

Ruin let a dry laugh rip. “Bullshit! What was understood was he was
fornicating
as you call it
.
Perhaps I should do as the Lord’s anointed and find a woman who is married and have him killed so I can have her? Or maybe I should find a thousand women and marry a few and keep the rest as my sex slaves like our Mr. King Solomon?”

“Okay, okay look.” She turned in her seat
toward him. “The Old Testament is a bad example for all of this, and it’s not the testament I live by, we are under the
New C
ovenant. And in there,” she pointed at him, “you are to have
one wife.
And
love
her. More than
yourself
even.” She nodded a lot. “Enough to
die
for her.
”

The power was back to chaos and Ruin pointed forward, heaving through the waves taking him.
“If you don’t move now, the power inside me is going to come out and I won’t be able to control it.”

Panic struck her and she scrambled to get the truck in gear and shot them forward. “Going, going, don’t do anything crazy!”

Ruin growled and leaned over. “Why is the power so furious?” Ruin pointed. “Right, turn right.”

“Maybe it’s judging you!”

He jerked to her. “Judging
me!
”

“Yes, for trying to sleep with me without
marrying
me!”

“Left,” he gasped, gripping the dashboard, ready to rip a hole in it.

She took the turn and he held on. “I mean if you’re good, the power wouldn’t
want
to do that.”

“
Well there you have it, Isadore! I’m not good.”

“I didn’t say that, I said you wanting sex before marriage is not good.”

“And love,” he reminded, furious.

“I want sex with you too, that doesn’t make me bad.”

“Road!” he yelled.

She gasped and jerked the wheel, putting the vehicle back in their lane as another vehicle
narrowly missed hitting them. “I mean, we can’t just have sex without taking responsibility.”

“I just wanted to make you feel good Isadore, not have sex with you,” Ruin whispered, shaking now.

She gasped like that offended her. “Well tough shit buddy, playing with my privates is the same thing. To me!”

He could only nod, his head on the dashboard, bent over. The fire and ice was fully locked and loaded on what was coming. Judgment. Execution. Judgment. Execution. The words beat in his blood and screamed in his ears. “There, over there.” He pointed.

“There where, this is far as I can go, the swamp is ahead of us!”

He stumbled out of the truck the second she stopped, making his way to the water. What now?

“I mean I’m not perfect, I let you do that because I wanted it, but I need love to do that.”

“Yes,” he gasped, holding his knees. “Love that you don’t know anything about, I get it.”

“It’s
real!
Just because you never experienced something doesn’t mean you don’t know it!”

“Like God,” he said.

She shot her finger at him. “I have experienced God.”

“Ah yes, faith. Believing in things you feel are true. Because that’s logical validation. I need to get across this water.” He looked around.

“Too bad you don’t believe, you could pray,” she snapped.

“Oh but you do, why don’t you pray for something to get us across.
Show me this God of yours.”

“Why should I pray and help you?”

“Because,” he chuckled feeling drunk. “You had that dream,” he shook his finger at her. “Your God said to help me.” He grabbed his head hissing. “What’s the matter… having second thoughts about your interpretation?”

“Fine, I’ll pray. This time.”
She closed her eyes briefly then opened them.

“That’s it?” He looked all around. “What did you pray for?”

“A way across,” she said exasperated.

“Weren’t you specific?”

“Oh come on! He’s God. I think He knows what to send.” Like Ruin was dumber than a rock for not knowing.

“Did you let him know we needed it
today
Isadore?”

She searched along the water as though truly expecting something.
“Again, He’s God,” she said lightly, “If He can tell the world to come into existence, I’m sure he can tell time. And don’t think we’re done talking about this faith thing. You don’t know about what you’ve never tried.”

“I don’t need to stick my head under
the tire of a semi-truck to know it’s as foolish as your faith principal.”

“Ohhhh-ho-ho you’d better watch your back in a lightning storm, talking like that.
” She aimed her finger at him.

Ruin felt like the answer to get across was in his mind and
just out of reach, hiding from him. He growled in frustration when a noise reached his ear and a few seconds later, a boat approached with Isadore laughing and running to the water, waving them down.

“Ohhhh,” she
said when the boat made its way to them. “Who’s the awesome God now?” She added a funny little dance with her arms in a circle and her hips gyrating.

It just f
igured coincidence would show up just at the wrong time and prove her right.

The man who was returning from checking his traps loaned them
his boat after Ruin killed all his catch with a word and threw him out for refusing to help.

“You can’t just do that!” Isadore said, flying the boat across the water at top speed.

“Why send us a ride we can’t use?” he yelled over the whine of the engine. “It’s not like I killed him.”

“You killed his fish!”

“I likely prolonged somebody’s life, killing that batch of polluted paraphyletic.” 

“Why do you hate everything?”

Hate? “Because everything is in need of ceasing to exist.”