A small television portrayed a black and white screen shot of multiple camera views. Looking over the feed on the screen it was clear that Lucky Trail was empty. No residents, no guards and certainly no angels. It made no sense, where was everyone? They both pondered.
Rummaging through the desk drawers provided nothing useful other than a key to the locker that stood behind them. Opening the lock and looking inside, both Tomek and Drake looked at each other and smiled. Pulling out the contents and lying them down upon the desk Tomek knew what his brother was thinking.
“Here, you take this one,” Drake said handing over the forest green polo shirt. The shirts donned the yellow Lucky Trail stitched logo and happened to be same shirt each of the angels they had killed the night before were wearing as they met their demise.
“This uniform is bullshit man, we need to keep our camo on,” Tomek said showing his displeasure in dressing like one of Niko’s kids.
“Put the damnned thing on and be a wolf,” Drake told him.
“A wolf?” Tomek asked.
“In sheep’s clothing,” Drake replied in reference to the old parable they both had learned from Uncle many years ago.
Tomek understood his brother’s plan and began putting on the shirt needing no more encouragement. Drake figured they would remain unseen approaching the main compound areas tactically in silence, but if they were dressed as angels and were seen from a distance they may just be ignored.
Taking one last glance at the closed caption television monitor on the shelf, Tomek caught movement in the corner of the screen. The screen was labeled with a sticker that read Chapel.
“Look here, look at this, there he is,” Tomek said grabbing his brother and turning his attention to the monitor. Neither of the boys had actually met or even seen Father Niko before other than from afar on the day of the funeral. However they both knew the man they were looking at. Standing at the pulpit was none other than the Father himself.
Adorned in full ceremonial robes and multicolored sashes of red and purple, the Father seemed to be looking up to the sky. As if he was having a silent conversation with the Lord himself. They could not make out much more due to the graininess of the small screen but knowing his location made their next destination inside the compound an easy choice.
They both continued to watch as Niko swayed back and forth, throwing his arms up above his head, waiving them around only to have them shoot back down towards the earth with the same velocity. There was something captivating about the video feed to the twins. Even with no sound, Father Niko could grab and hold one’s attention. It was as if he truly did have a hold on their souls and the boys found themselves watching him and paying no attention to the rest of the world around them. Then the unthinkable happened.
For no known rhyme or reason, Father Niko stopped his apparent preaching and walked to the middle of the red carpeted altar area. There the man stood atop three steps motionless. He then looked up and to the corner of the room, looking directly at the camera mounted where the walls met the roof. Staring with his dark eyes at the lens of the camera he raised his left hand into the air pointing a finger at the camera. Rolling his wrist over, Father Niko the used the same extended finger to make a come hither motion. It was if Father Niko knew he was being watched by the twins and had openly invited them to come and join him in the sanctuary.
Stepping away from the screen Tomek and Drake just looked at each other frozen in shock. It was not fear. The twins did not fear Father Niko. Hawkins had ranted about the priest many times but never portrayed him as anything but a politician like the mayor that wore robes.
“Does he know we are here?” Drake asked.
“There is no way, he must have been telling someone else to come join him. Someone else who was supposed to be in that shack,” Tomek said making sense of the situation.
“But, where are they?” Drake responded asking what they both thought.
“Good question,” Tomek replied.
“Let’s go,” Drake suggested.
“Go?” Tomek replied.
“Lets go, we can leave here, leave Pine Run,” Drake said.
“Why, are you scared or something?” Tomek asked
“Scared, no. But we have always been taught to survive. Going after Niko does not help us survive. Even if we walk in there and he is alone and then we kill him, what have we really accomplished? We can leave now, go up river and start over. We can build a new version of our old life. There is nothing here for us, Tomek. Uncle is dead, Hawkins is dead and...”
Drake’s end point was interrupted by the loud sound of static and a short screech filling the air. The voice coming from the speakers strewn throughout the entire property of Lucky Trail was not familiar to them other than the one time they had heard it in the past. It was not that Father Niko had an overly recognizable sound. However it was his cadence that made them aware of exactly who was broadcasting the message.
“Yea though I walk through the shadow of death I fear no evil, come say hello, twins. Your sister and I have been expecting you.”
The words hit them both as if a bear had pounced upon them. Was the mayor telling the truth they wondered? But if Annette was really working with Father Niko the whole time, why were the angels trying to kill her? If Annette was here with Niko then maybe her plan was for them to be a part of Lucky Trail. Did their older sister, who was now the sheriff want them to serve as part of Niko’s kids? It was, after all, a place meant to save the lost innocence of troubled kids. And there certainly was no more troubled kids than Tomek and Drake Henderson. So many questions, so many lies and only one way to find out the truth.
Tomek started walking briskly towards the large group of buildings near the front of the area where the driveway ended. The square brick open-sided pavilion-type structures looked more like barracks than anything else and the twins found them empty as well. Rows upon rows of bunk beds were neatly made as if they had never seen a night of sleep in their existence. Passing the four sets of empty barracks each one of them as large and as empty as the last Drake followed his brother and matched his briskly-paced walk. Each step made purposely and with enough aggressiveness to let Drake know that nothing he said would stop his twin brother at this point.
Drake followed in tow, crossbow fully cocked with a bolt upon the rail. Tomek removed an arrow from his back quiver and nocked it against the string as they reached the front stone steps of the chapel. On any other occasion they may have noticed the detailed beauty that was present in the buildings architecture, but not now, not today.
As they began opening the large heavy wooden doors atop the steps, the twins were hit with the overpowering smell of something rotting. The musty scent seemed to be emanating from the nave area as they pushed forward into the building. Standing at the back of the cathedral they looked forward to the altar where Father Niko stood in the same place just as he had been on the video.
The pews were full of young boys all of whom appeared to be to between the ages of ten and eighteen. The twins stood there, looking down each pew row as they walked forward. Their weapons drawn and aimed toward the priest who had yet to acknowledge their presence. Father Niko just stood there looking forward at the approaching brothers remaining silent.
Once reaching the altar they stood a mere twelve feet from Niko. In passing by every pew, they confirmed each row held the same as the last. The rows were full, full of young boys dressed in the same green polo style-shirt as both Drake and Tomek. The same one they had put on in the guard shack. Looking behind them, they saw again each row full, full of young boys lying on their backs without shoes or socks upon their feet. Every single row was full, full of young boys and men in what Father Niko intended to be their final resting place.
They were no longer boys, they were now bodies. Not a single one of them was alive. The source of the foul smell was now evident. Each one of them had drinketh from the cup of God. The cup that Father Niko now held out in his hands offering to the twin
s.
The twins stood there among hundreds of dead bodies and felt a presence among them that was greater than any they had before. Uncle had taken his own life just like the rows and rows of Niko’s kids before them.
For the first time in many years Tomek and Drake felt, afraid.
25 Niko
“What have you done?” Drake asked aiming the crossbow at Niko with the safety off and his finger on the metal trigger.
“I have done nothing, they have all chosen to follow their own path into glory,” Father Niko replied. “And now they sit at the right hand of the Almighty in His kingdom of everlasting joy. You see they have been saved. Have you?” Father Niko asked the twins who still both had their weapons drawn and aimed upon him.
“The only one needing to be saved around here is you,” Tomek threatened.
“Be that as it may child, I shall join my boys in Heaven. Might my angels be there as well?” Father Niko asked.
“Your thug-ass angel’s wings got clipped all right. And they definitely have gone somewhere. But I can downright tell you it wasn’t Heaven. Straight to Hell for that batch of demons. Now I hope you are ready to join them,” Drake said.
“Timothy four my son, Timothy four,” Niko said disregarding the twins threats.
“Why are crazy old men always calling me their son? I ain’t your son, and the last two guys that made that mistake are both dead!” Tomek replied referencing the old sheriff and the mayor.
“So the drugs, all this time were for this?” Drake asked.
“Timothy four my son, Timothy four,” Niko said disregarding the twin’s threats again.
“You killed all these children you sick demon and for what? So you can claim righteousness while standing here to quote a book of fairy tales? Where is my sister?” Tomek was now yelling at Niko.
“Timothy four my son, Timothy four,” Niko repeated.
“I hope you are ready to learn just how wrong you are about the afterlife.” Drake said as he squeezed the grip of the crossbow readying it for the fire position.
Father Niko raised the gold-plated chalice in the air and began preaching from the fourth chapter of the book Timothy. “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
“There is no virtue in faith, look what it has done to these kids. You have destroyed their souls,” Drake said challenging the priest.
“They have chosen their destiny and so must you,” Father Niko replied.
“If one truly has a destiny, it cannot be chosen. Cause if you choose it, then by definition it is not actually a destiny. If there is a Hell I hope you rot in it for eternity,” Tomek said as he kept the bowstring tight against his fingers waiting for Father Niko to make his next move.
Both twins wanted him dead, yet for some reason they hesitated on sending him to Hell right there upon the altar. Perhaps it was the slight respect that they had for the church in general that kept them from sending an arrow into his body. Killing a priest upon the altar no matter how wicked he may be appeared to be troublesome, even for the likes of Tomek and Drake. The moment seemed as if it lasted for hours yet only minutes had passed.
The tension in his shoulders and back muscles would soon force Tomek to either shoot or let down the string. Just as he began to let down the string, Niko took as step toward them and said,
“Good bye for now twins, I shall now taketh the seat amongst my angels and children of God.”
Father Niko raised the chalice to his lips and swallowed the remaining contents of the cup. Dropping to his knees he began to pray in a tongue that was unrecognizable to both Drake and Tomek. It was not English nor even Latin which he was known to speak from time to time. The last words he spoke seemed to be cut off by his falling forward off the front three steps where he landed face down, dead like the children that drank from the very same cup before him.
There was no sound in the large cathedral. The silence of the room’s occupants had been caused by an overly lethal dose of potassium cyanide mixed into the sacramental wine. As it turned out, the blood of Christ was to blame for the quick deaths of every lifeless body inside Niko’s house of God. Tomek and Drake stood there taking it all in. Wondering how their small, lonely woodland way of life and survival had led them to the grandiose situation of both life and death that was now before them.
Looking at each other, they both simply shrugged and remembered clearly what Uncle had preached to them many a time.
All things live and all things die.
Walking back towards the front door, they stopped at each row. Looking over the boys, dressed the same as them. Most with the same skin color as them. They were not openly praying, but it was as if they both felt that some show of respect was appropriate. They all looked peaceful as if they had just fallen asleep. The twins knew after watching Father Niko succumb to the sacrament that there was no way each child laid there on his own. Niko must of placed them there post mortem. It would have been a lot of work but perhaps the angels were still around at that point to assist.
“What now?” Tomek said questioning Drake as to their future plans.
“I don’t know, I just don’t know anymore,” Drake replied.
“I say we go find her, get the hell out of this place and make a new life together.” Tomek suggested talking about his sister Sheriff Henderson.
Drake sighed and turned to look back at the cathedral full of death. Taking in the gravity of the situation he remained confused on what their next action should be. Turning back he put his arm around his brother as they began walking out of the building as they reached the front door they stopped. Drake then sighed again and looked at his brother,
“If you want to go find her, then go. I support you, but I can’t. I just can’t,” Drake explained.
“Where you go, I go,” Tomek said showing solidarity to his brother.
“Good then, let’s go home,” Drake replied.
Upon pushing the large wooden doors to the building open, Tomek stood on the front steps and noticed strange red dots had appeared on his chest. This made Tomek curiously look up into the parking area as Drake had simultaneously noticed the exact same dot upon his torso.
Standing there, with assault rifles drawn were two Michigan State Police SWAT Troopers. The laser sights of their AR-15 tactical weapons projected forward and illumined the chests of both twins. The reticules upon their bodies were a clear indication that only one of two things was going to happen. If they did not surrender they would be finding out if Father Niko was correct in regards to the possibility of a so-called afterlife.
Dropping their weapons, the decision was made to live, to survive. The two Troopers fully decked out in tactical ballistic gear and shields slowly moved forward ordering the twins to the ground. Their orders fell upon deaf ears as neither Tomek or Drake complied. They just stood there looking at the two approaching them unsure of exactly what was happening.
The lead Trooper reached up lifting the drop down visor affixed to his riot helmet exposing his face and again ordered them to the ground. This time the command was well received and both Tomek and Drake slumped to their knees with their hands behind their backs.
The second SWAT officer approached them and like the other raised the helmet’s visor.
“Hello boys,” Sheriff Henderson said causing them both to look up at the surprise of hearing Annette’s voice. They were happy to see her, however they sincerely wished that Trooper Common was not present for the family reunion as well. However after his catching of Henderson from her improvised rope fail she felt he deserved to be there as well.
The large doors of the church remained propped open as Trooper Common glanced inside to the true horror that was upon them all.
“Sheriff, you need to see this,” He said asking Henderson to join him inside.
Trooper Common secured Drake’s hands in thick plastic zip tie restraints
as Henderson did the same to Tomek. Lefting both the boys up and walking them back into the chapel, Henderson observed what lay before them. Letting go of Tomek she walked up the middle of the aisle looking row by row at the numerous empty souls that filled the room.
Looking back at her brothers, emotion took over and her eyes began filling with both tears and hate. Wiping away the pain she looked at them both once more and asked,
“What have you done?”
The End ~ Book 2
Will Tomek and Drake be held responsible for Father Niko’s Master Plan?
Or
Will Sheriff Henderson believe they had nothing to do with it and finally get the family she has so longed for all these years.
Find out when the Twins story concludes in book number 3.
Twins of Prey III ~ Ascension
The End ~ Book 2
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
If you took a guy who loves to hunt and fish and then made him a professional magician with a decade long career in law enforcement who also enjoys his work as an ordained wedding officiant you would have W.C. Hoffman.
A loving husband and father of two, his writing utilizes the outdoors knowledge he has gained over the years he has spent chasing game in the wildest areas of North America. Hoffman's unique life skills are often evident in his novels.
Twins of Prey II: Homecoming Page 14
