A Wicked Haven

by Barry Smith

  “What?” asks Dax, his eyes wide in disbelief.

  “Let’s go!” urges Phoenix, as she pulls Dax out of his dressing room, along with Jett and Chloe, and continue running down the hallway.

  “Let’s take my car,” offers Dax. Then turning in another direction, he says, “This way.” The group of four race down a back alley, towards a car park, where they all hop into Dax’s car.

  “Seat belts, everyone; this is gonna be one hell of a ride,” cautions Dax, as he speeds off.

  “I’m calling the cops,” announces Phoenix, as she pulls out her phone.

  “Damn!” she curses, as she raises her phone towards the roof of the car, “I have no cell phone service.”

  “Neither do I,” shouts Jett, “We have always had perfect service on the island before.”

  “Let’s not worry about it now,” consoles Dax, “Let’s just get the fuck off this island.”

  ***

  Just outside the Grand Temple, along the Boardwalk, a large-sized crowd has gathered, and is beginning to partway for The First Apostle, Father Kraven to walk through. He steps up onto the monumental steps of the Grand Temple, and looks over the crowd that has spanned backward, to the far ends of the Boardwalk. Behind him on the top steps, are the church leaders and now, several hundreds of the Brothers of the Missionary that fill up the entire front of the church.

  Father Kraven steps up to the microphone and speaks into it, “Today is the 3rd anniversary of our first Zion Temple being built in Corbindale Bay, and the beginning of our efforts to transform this place into a city of hope. As I look upon the largest audience we’ve ever had to date, it shows our efforts have paid off, and that the Lord Savior has blessed us for the work we’ve done. There is still more work to do, and we can’t do it alone. Continue talking to friends and family, and share the Lord’s message. If you have sons who have now become of age, we need more fisherman to fish out the people. Send us your sons to become Brothers of the Missionary. Their efforts alone, have made the biggest impact on this city.”

  Then raising his voice, he shouts to the audience, “Are you ready to serve thy lord and savior?!”

  “Yes!” shouts the crowd in response.

  Father Kraven then continues, “Then come with me, my children; there is much work to be done to inherit the Kingdom Zion.”

  The crowd then breaks into chants: “Zion! Zion! Zion!”

  ***

  On top of a hill, on the side of the Route 96, that overlooks the Boardwalk, Ryan, Bryce, and Falcon, having just escaped the Grand Temple, looks down to witness the enormity of new Disciples of Zion members that have gathered at the Temple to hear Father Kraven’s speech.

  From high above, each follower’s glowing Sapphire of Life gem sparkled in the foggy night, like fireflies. A realization soon sets in, on all three, of the horror they are to confront in the face of the growing cult phenomenon. Ryan and Bryce, who are still in total disbelief, proceed to get into Falcon’s car to get police backup.

  Chapter 7

  “Falcon, If I could be so kind to bring up the elephant in the car, but how are you not dead?” asks a confused Ryan.

  Falcon, smiling and looking back at him through the rear-view mirror, then begins to explain:

  “First off, Niall Pinkerton did die that night of the investigation; I owe Twist and Doctor Eto my new life as Falcon.” He continues, “On that night of my solo investigation of Quist, I was going through major depression: my wife was cheating on me, my daughter was a drug addict, and I felt I had become a failure at my job with all the backlog of missing person cases. So, instead of investigating that night, I got smashed out of my mind on Bliss before making the drive back home. I later wake up in a basement on a medical table with IV’s coming out of me. I groggily remember on the adjacent table, an Asian man operating on a young pregnant woman that I supposedly hit in my impairment of driving my car. And with the amount of trauma that the young woman sustained, Doctor Eto wasn’t able to save her or her baby. And I, Niall Pinkerton, had also died that night, of overwhelming guilt and more depression. This eye patch right here…,will always be a reminder of that night. Shards of my car’s windshield in my eye is the price I paid, and was the catalyst to change my fucking life.”

  “After recovering, there was no hesitation when it came to faking my own death. Twist found out that I was a Police Detective and ex-Delta Force Operative, and asked me to be a part of his bird collection of Sky Kill Assassins. I felt after saving my life that was the least that I could do. He implanted me with cybionic legs, but just recently, I was the first to receive the cybionic arms and hands that he had not yet perfected. I had undergone several experimental and disastrous attempts to perfect his science, but his complete super-soldier that he originally designed for the military had finally come to life. I was then code named ‘Falcon’, and assigned to be one of his fearsome five lead Assassins. I was also placed in charge of all security at A Wicked Haven.

  Twist hooked me up with a house, a car, and gave me wealth, way beyond my measly detective salary. I changed my look, and kept a very low profile from the public.” And even though Doctor Eto is no longer practicing since the mysterious dismemberment of his right hand, I still pay my good friend a visit every now and then.”

  “Although Niall was dead, I still couldn’t bear the thought of not looking over my daughter. I wanted to make sure I got her away from Ricky Lawson, her loser boyfriend, from Trouble Town. My daughter was the only one I let know that I was alive, and I made every effort to bring her home with me to recover from her addiction, and live a better life out of the slums of Trouble Town.”

  “One night, I come home, and she wasn’t there, so I decided to go to Ricky’s place in Trouble Town. I got there, and found my daughter was fucked-up high, and this punk had beaten her, stolen some of my clothes and had on, my favorite pair of expensive alligator boots. I threw him in the trunk of my car and took him to a basement in Quist for a little Old School ‘I & I’, Intimidation & Interrogation. I kept him locked up in that room for weeks; naked, hungry, and humiliated, until he swore to stop seeing my daughter. In his pleas for mercy of my interrogation, I later found out that he defected from the Disciples of Zion because he disagreed with some of their methods of torturing people to convert. He said my interrogation reminded him of that. For that brief moment, I actually felt guilty and decided to let the boy go. But just as soon as I could, I heard gunshots in the other room, and found out that Bryce had uncovered some transgressions of Doctor Whitfield that was unbeknownst to me as well. He told me that you were heading to see Father Covay at the Grand Temple; so we came as soon as we can, knowing that you could be in danger.”

  “I never did thank you both for that, thank you,” says Ryan, after the explanation, “Now, it’s all starting to make sense. And that night you took Ricky Lawson, I was the person you ran off the road. But out of curiosity, a week before that, what was happening in ‘7734’ when I heard a woman scream and I saw you, and I believe, Doctor Whitfield comes out laughing with a box dripping blood?”

  “Oh, that night,” laughs Falcon, “Yeah, we cut off the finger of one of Twist’s Lady Loves. She was caught trying to steal several gold bars locked in his safe. Twist had requested we mail one of her fingers in a box, with a bird feather, and send it to her family.”

  “That’s just cold,” shudders Bryce.

  “Hey, don’t judge me,” replies Falcon, “What the Bossman wants, the Bossman gets.” Then pulling the vehicle over, he says, “Hey, we’re here at the police station, but it looks like we’re the only ones here.”

  ***

  In Twist’s office, after the early closure of the club due to the deadly attack on Sage, Twist has called for a mandatory meeting. Every property Assassin are in attendance, and Twist wasted no time venting his rage;

  “What the fuck is happening? I have three dead bodies and no assailant apprehended! Now that the Island has been rechecked and secured, let’s start piecing sh
it together. Who was the last to do an escort to room 7734?”

  One of the guards raises his hand.

  Twist asked, “Do we have a name?”

  “Bernard Lockwood was written on the nurse’s log.” the guard responds,

  “Well, where did Bernard go and how did he get out of here, with a pregnant woman, without being seen by any of my top assassins?” shouts Twist, before he adds, “Speaking of, where the fuck is Falcon?”

  Jayli the janitor, who happen to overhear the conversation from the hallway, timidly comes into the room, toying with his fingers.

  “What is it, boy?” screams Twist, his anger getting the better of him.

  “I’m sorry, Bossman,” stammers the visibly frightened boy, “I didn’t mean to pry, but I overheard your conversation; I saw Falcon leave with some man and a pregnant girl not too long ago.”

  Twist throws both his hands in the air while shouting, “Fuck, that god damn traitor! I want that asshole’s head on my desk by the end of the day. Close up everything; the only thing anyone will be working tonight is finding that mother fuckin son of a bitch!”

  Twist storms out the meeting through a back door, with all the assassins, when they were greeted with the sounds of guns being cocked.

  “FREEZE!”

  Suddenly, clusters of flashlights, headlights, and siren lights appear in the darkness, blinding all the assassins, and a particular bright beam of light shines overhead from a helicopter, hovering above.

  Through the haze and lights, Captain McCormack speaks up,

  “You are all under arrest for kidnapping and human trafficking. I need you to drop your weapons and put your hands in the air.”

  Twist, dropping his hands from his eyes, laughs and then replies, “Actually, I’m going to need YOU to drop your mother fuckin weapons before my assassins drop each and every one of you pig fuckers. You decide if you want to make this ugly or not, but WE WILL NOT STAND DOWN!”

  Twist’s aggressiveness and uncooperativeness made more of the police officers cock their guns, which prompts the assassins to pull their swords from their sheaths.

  From the beam of headlights, three silhouettes comes into view, saying, “Hold it, all of you! I think we can explain what’s going on.”

  Twist yells, as he recognizes one of the figures, “Falcon, you murderous fuck!”

  Falcon, Ryan, and Bryce are now standing in between the warring parties. Ryan turns around and tells Captain McCormack and the police,

  “Stand down officers. Yes, there is some shady dealings going on here, but we can deal with that another day.”

  Falcon, facing Twist, says, “We’ll explain, but we need everyone to stand down.”

  Twist shouts in reply, “You son of a bitch! You killed Sage, and now you want us to stand down?”

  Ryan, hearing what Twist has said, cries out, “What?! No!” as he stands, in shock, by the news.

  Jumping to Falcon’s defense, Bryce says, “Falcon could not have done this, he’s been with me the entire time.”

  Captain McCormack then interjects, “Clearly, there is some confusion; so Swett, you better start explaining quickly.”

  A voice from the night then hissed, “Or maybe it’s you that needs to start explaining, Captain!”

  Out steps Damien Estrada, along with twenty InfliXion members.

  ”Who invited you to the party?!” yells, Captain McCormack.

  “I did!” responds Dovine, stepping forward, “Before our meeting; Damien called me about a mysterious attack on 12 of his members with none of them being found. He believed the cops were behind this, and he wanted to enlist Sky Kill to get to the bottom of the matter.”

  “I think we know what happened to your crew Damien,” replies Ryan, “And we believe we have the answers you’re all looking for, but that answer won’t transpire in a battle amongst ourselves. We have a bigger battle to fight.

  Falcon then says to Twist, “And it’s going to take us all working together to destroy the true enemy, or we will be facing the dawns of Hell.”

  “Hell, I will,” shouts Twist, “I rather run into fire than work with that two-faced fuck,” he vents, while pointing at McCormack.

  “What makes you think I want to work with you?” asks McCormack.

  “Listen!” shouts Ryan, “If we don’t put our differences aside, we can kiss the city,” -he turns to McCormack- “and our nightclubs”-he turns to Twist- “goodbye.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” replies Twist.

  “Let’s all go back inside to discuss,” suggests Falcon, “Because we’re going to need to pull out all of our resources to fight this crime against humanity.”

  They all then, head inside Quist to strategize about the daunting task ahead.

  ***

  At a residential home in Trouble Town, Carl Adams is carrying his young daughter, Mariah to her bedroom. He places her down, at the side of her bed, and said to her, “Time to say your prayers before bed.”

  The little girl kneels by the side of her bed, and grips with both hands, her ‘Sapphire of Life’ necklace before reciting a prayer,

  “Now, I lay me down to sleep;

  I pray that he’ll watch over me.

  Thanks for life, I have each day,

  to skip, and laugh, and sing, and play.

  I hold my sapphire in my hand,

  to someday reach the promise land.

  So, before I sleep and dream of you,

  bless all of those I love so true.

  Bless Grandma and Grandpa, and Daddy, too.

  But most of all, Lord, I Love You.”

  Mariah climbs into bed, and Carl tucks her in partially, and sat next to her. The young girl then ask, “Daddy, what does the Sapphire of Life mean?” He then explains,

  “Well, sweetie; it is written that the Sapphire of Life represents our guardian angels. They live through the sapphire to watch over us, and make sure we choose the right path to inherit the Kingdom of Zion, and be with our Lord Savior.”

  The father looks down to see that his daughter’s eyes are already drooping. He then strokes her head and begins to sing a lullaby, in rhythm, to the tick-tock of the room’s antique clock:

  ♪You are sleepy, you are sleepy, close your eyes, close your eyes. It is time for bed now, lay your little head down. Say goodnight, til morning light.

  He then breaks into a hymn,

  ♪My Lord loves me this I know, for the prophet tells me so. Don’t believe and he will know. Face thee light or dark below. Yes, My Lord Loves Me (3x). For the prophets tell me so.

  [Revelation Sequence] As both melodies begin to overlap:

  {A man’s blood-shot eyes from crying, sees a steel door that splits open; one moving up and one moving down. His face is illuminated with a reflection of orange amber light, in which heat waves begin to fill the air space in front of his face.}

  {At the back door of the Grand Temple’s Factory, several Missionaries forcefully escort captured haters and non-believers into the factory. Outside the factory, the faint sounds of agony and horrifying pain are heard, while looming black smoke rises from the chimney, with the smell of death filling the air}

  {The Temple’s church bell rings twice.}

  {At the rally, Father Kraven has come down the steps of the Grand Temple, leading the audience in a hymn of ♪“Yes, My Lord Loves Me.”}

  {Inside the factory, a Missionary boy is sweeping up all the human ashes from the Condemnation Chamber (Trash Incinerator). He sweeps up and pours the ashes down a metal funnel, within a wall, that travels through a pipe that leads to an assembly line in the basement below. In one section of the assembly line, the ashes mix with another powder substance. In another section, the mixed ashes are poured into small round metal containers traveling on a conveyor belt. One after another, the containers are being closed by a mechanical arm and then, travel into a furnace. On the other side of the furnace, the metal containers are burning ember hot and then, enter into a cooling system. On t
he other end of the cooling system, a Missionary Boy opens the metal containers and removes a sparkling blue rock.}

  {In another room, we see a man in an apron, holding up to his right eye, a magnifying glass, and inspecting a now fine cut, sparkling blue gem. He then places the Sapphire of life into the charm of a necklace.}

  We return to Mariah, asleep in her room, with the Sapphire of Life necklace on her chest after her father fully tucks her in. Carl gets up from the bed while finishing the lullaby.

  ♪For the prophets tell me….

  Say goodnight, til morning light.

  As Carl makes his way out of her room, he looks back at his daughter one last time before slowly closing the door.

  ***

  Dax, Phoenix, Jett and Chloe are still driving on Route 96, through Trouble Town from A Wicked Haven.

  “Hey, I still have no signal,” complains Phoenix, “I don’t get it, what gives?”

  “Maybe you all didn’t pay your phone bill,” replies Dax, before glancing at his dashboard, “Shit! I’m almost out of gas. We have to pull off at the next exit and fill up.”

  “In the middle of South Central Trouble Town,” asks Phoenix, raising her head from her phone, “Are you nuts?”

  “We have no other choice,” responds Dax, before pulling off onto the next exit.

  “There!” points Chloe, “I see a gas station.”

  They drive into the old-looking ‘Two Pump Chump’s Gas Station’ and park at the most convenient pump. Dax gets out, inserts his credit card, and begins to pump fuel.

  “Hey guys,” shouts Jett from the car, “I’m going to go inside to use the restroom.” Chloe adds, “I’m coming with you. I need something to drink.”

  “Can you get us something too?” asks Phoenix, “I’m going to go smoke while you’re inside.”

  Dax, not wanting to be by himself, says, “I’m going to leave this pumping; I could use a drag too.”

  Once inside, Jett looks for the cashier but found nobody behind the counter.