Hidden Thrones

by Scalzo, Russ

  Frank raised his foot and kicked the door open identifying himself, “FBI. Don’t move!”

  Both men shined their flashlights around the room nervously searching for the source of the disturbance, when suddenly something jumped out of the open closet. Frank spun around, flashlight and gun securely gripped in his hands, and pointed them at the closet. They heard a squeal and a large black cat came flying past them and ran down the steps. Just then, a huge clap of thunder rattled through the old inn.

  Frank glanced back at Jack with a look of both relief and disgust, shook his head, and said, “Damn cats. Did I ever tell you how much I hate cats?”

  Jack took a deep breath and rubbed his forehead. The two men continued down the dark hallway. The only light besides their flashlights was an occasional bolt of lightning that split the sky overhead, which was followed by a huge clap of thunder. As they approached room 210 at the end of the hallway, Jack felt the spiritual atmosphere change dramatically. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but it felt like a mixture of depression and hopelessness. It was so strong, that it was nearly suffocating. He motioned to Frank to let him take the lead. The door to room 210 was shut, but not locked. Jack slowly opened it with Frank right over his shoulder, gun in hand.

  Suddenly, they saw it standing by the window. The room was a murky gray, the dark stormy weather barely letting enough light in for them to see the outline of the huge dark figure, its head only inches from the ceiling. It had an appearance like a man, but its eyes glowed an eerie orangey-red that cut through the gray shadows. He had what looked like two large wings that were folded at his side. He stared straight at Jack who was standing in the open doorway. When Frank saw it, his heart began to pound in his chest and his mouth became dry, making it hard to swallow. He knew at that moment that his gun was not going to be the weapon of choice. They pointed their flashlights at the creature to no avail. To their amazement, the darkness just seemed to swallow the light up.

  Jack stared right back at it. He could feel waves of depression trying to wrap around him like a giant python. He addressed the creature, “Who are you and what’s your name?”

  The creature moved a little closer. A trail of reddish mist swirled behind him. “I am Despair. What are you doing here? Have you come to die?” It hissed at them, “Or don’t you realize you’re being hunted.” Its eyes grew larger and glowed red, then orange, and then back to red.

  Jack straightened up knowing that demonic spirits always challenge first then try to intimidate with fear.

  “No, I have not come to die! I have been sent here by the Lord Jesus Christ to cast you out of this place. Do you dare to stand against the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?”

  The creature hissed again, only louder and his breathing became labored and more intense. When it spoke, it was like a loud whisper, every word ending in a hiss like the sound a snake would make, “You have a target on your back, Jack Bennett. You and your apprentice.”

  Jack knew better than to have a conversation with an evil spirit. The longer he stood there, the greater the danger and the deeper the darkness felt.

  “I will not stand here and converse with you. By the power given to me by my heavenly Father, I bind you and cast you from this place in the name of Jesus, the son of the Living God!”

  The creature ran at them and stood face to face with Jack for a few seconds, hissing and oozing, doing its best to strike fear into Jack’s heart and destroy his faith. Jack held his ground even though he felt like he was having an out-of-body experience. Then suddenly, he felt as though the hand of God had been laid upon him. He shouted, “Leave this place, spirit of Despair, in the name of Jesus!”

  The creature roared like a wild beast, circled the room twice, and vanished in a cloud of reddish mist.

  Frank looked at Jack, his eyes as big as saucers. “What the heck, Jack? My heart can’t take much more of this. Whatever happened to flesh and blood bad guys?”

  Jack turned to him, his heart still racing, “Our God is an awesome God. That’s all I can say. Hey, look! The rain stopped. This would be a good time to get out of here.”

  Frank walked into the room and stood right where the demon had stood. He was totally amazed at the incredible power of the name of Jesus. He looked around the room for a minute and then turned to Jack. “What do you think about what that demon said about us being hunted?”

  “I will admit that was weird. Especially since you and I seem to be under some kind of surveillance. However, I’ve never known a demon to be truthful. Jesus said the devil is a liar and even went on to define it further. He said that he is the Father of Lies, the very originator of the lie. I don’t think we can put too much stock in anything one of his demons told us.”

  He glanced out the window and saw something a good distance down the driveway. He looked again and motioned to Jack. “Jack, take a look at this.”

  Jack walked over to the window and looked. His eyes widened. “I think that’s the car I saw back in town! Yes, definitely. That’s the car that followed you.”

  “Yeah, that’s the one.”

  “How did he know we were here? Do you think he followed us?”

  Frank checked his weapon one more time and said, “No way. I would have picked up on that on the way here. No, somebody tipped him off - somebody on the inside. That’s not good Jack. That means somebody in the FBI is giving Senator Wellsenburg info on our cases. It won’t be long before they connect all the dots.”

  Jack took one more look out the window, “He’s leaving. We should follow him and find out who hired him.”

  “Not now. When I get back in DC I will find out what’s going on one way or another. Let’s get you back home and to that beautiful girl of yours. We need a little break anyway, don’t you think?”

  Jack nodded, “Yeah this place gives me the creeps.”

  The two men walked down the steps and out the door. Jack opened the car door and stood there for a moment. He turned and looked back at the old inn. He raised his eyes to check the upstairs window one more time. He knew God had taken care of the situation but he couldn’t help taking one more look.

  Frank started the car, waited for a few seconds, and then said sarcastically, “Are you getting in or do you want to book a room”?

  Jack got in, and as they drove down the long driveway, they both knew the biggest battles were still ahead.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Jack sat at his desk with a fresh brewed cup of joe and began to type. Frank had dropped him off around two and then he decided to do a little work around the yard, pulling weeds out of the flowerbeds and watering his tomato plants. Working outside always helped Jack relax and enabled him to clear his mind. For him, there was nothing like getting his hands dirty in the fertile, black, Virginia soil. It always reminded him of the lessons Jesus taught. In the Gospels there is a story about a man who sowed good seed and then, during the night, the enemy came and sowed bad seed alongside it. Jack knew how important it was to keep up with his garden so the weeds wouldn’t have a chance to overtake his plants. He learned to apply that to his spiritual life as well. It helped him remember to pray and read his Bible every day, like keeping the bad seeds of life from overtaking his heart.

  Jack made plans to pick Emily up for dinner at six. He knew he had to tell her about the person who was following Frank and him. At this point, he was pretty sure that Emily would take it in stride, considering everything else he had told her.

  It was five o’clock when Jack got out of the shower. He decided he had time to add a special entry to his blog before he picked Emily up. After today’s experience, he felt he needed to say something.

  “The Growing Evil on Planet Earth”

  By Jack Bennett

  Special Edition

  There is much being said today about terrorism, and rightly so. We see beheadings in Syria and attacks on our sons and daughters in the military and law enforcement all around the world. What drives people to do such awful brutal acts? W
hat do you think? Is it religion? Politics? Or is just plain hate? When it happens here in the West, people say it’s because the person wasn’t in their right mind. Really? That seems to be a no brainer, don’t you think? Well, enough questions. How about some answers?

  This world is a battlefield and you and I are in the battle somewhere, whether we like it or not. We have two choices.

  1. We can bury our heads in the sand. We can continue to live our lives completely avoiding this truth in hopes that it won’t touch us, or someone we love. We can just sit back and hope that it will all somehow magically disappear. (Most of us are doing this now.)

  2. We can decide to learn the truth about the forces of evil and fight back.

  Now you may say, “That’s easy for you to say, blogger man, but I have a life and a family and I can’t get involved in some crazy battle.”

  Trust me, I know it sounds like a sci-fi novel, but give me a second (or two… possibly three). Evil started way back in eternity, which is a pretty long time ago. Whether you and I like it or not, the devil is real and he hates you. Why? Because God loves you and he hates that fact. There is an evil in this world that influences every aspect of life on planet Earth and the more that people embrace that spirit of evil, the more evil they will become. God told us how He wanted us to live and how He wanted us to treat each other, but somewhere along the line we all decided to do our own thing and go our own way. You can’t put truck parts in a washing machine and expect it to run, just like you can’t live on sugar only and expect to feel good. God has a plan for you and I, and we need to follow it.

  Evil comes from the master of evil, and no - he doesn’t wear a red suit and carry a pitchfork. It’s much, much worse than that. He comes as an angel of light promising that you will have everything you want if you will only follow him. Sounds like some politicians. However, like the mouse tempted by the cheese or peanut butter, once you’re in the trap, it’s usually too late.

  What’s your opinion? Do you feel these poor guys in ISIS and other terror groups, mass murderers and the like just had bad childhoods? Or do you believe what the Bible has to say:

  “We struggle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

  Until next time,

  Jack Bennett

  Jack read it over, hit the enter key, and sent the post off. It was now twenty after five and he needed to get dressed and head out the door. Even though he felt nervous about telling Emily about the surveillance, he still couldn’t wait to see her. As he got ready, Frank’s words kept swimming around in his head: You buy this girl a big diamond ring and make it forever.

  Jack wished in his heart he could do that, but it went against all common sense, against everything he counseled everyone else not to do. He kept telling himself that it was too early for anything like that and that they needed more time to get to know each other. He kept repeating it over and over again in his head, but it wasn’t helping. All he could think about was how crazy he was about her. He grabbed his car keys and was on his way.

  * * *

  It was five o’clock when Frank got back to D.C. He was hell-bent on finding out why he was being followed. He had called Jeff Callaport, his inside source, while he was on the road. Jeff was the same one who had first given him the info on Wellsenburg and the Sons of Nimrod. He was a longtime friend and a real character. He was short, only about five feet tall, and was usually very sarcastic. Jeff was often compared to a young Danny DeVito, not only because of his face, size, and shape, but because he often acted a lot like the character DeVito played on the 1980’s TV show, Taxi. Frank figured he might have some idea about what was going on.

  They had agreed to meet at The Old Ebbitt at six o’clock. It was one of Frank’s favorite spots in D.C. Established in 1856, it was a favorite of Presidents Grant, Cleveland, Harding, and Theodore Roosevelt. Frank was a bit of a history buff so he got off on the whole experience.

  The Old Ebbitt served a diverse selection of food. Frank knew Jeff liked the crab cakes there while Frank was all about their steaks. He figured he owed Jeff at least a dinner after all the help he had given.

  Frank parked his car on Tenth Street across from the FBI building and walked the half-mile or so to the restaurant. It turned out to be a nice evening and he needed some time to sort through all that had happened at the old inn. Hanging with Jack was both a challenge and a growing experience. He had to admit that he was kind of jealous of Jack’s newfound love. He knew Jack’s plans and that he and Emily were about to have dinner together and hang out, probably until the wee hours of the morning. Having someone like that in his life was something Frank often thought about, but for now he had to do his job, and right now, that was to find out as much about Wellsenburg’s plans as possible.

  He reached the restaurant on the corner of G and Fifteenth and walked in. Jeff was sitting at the bar waiting. When he saw Frank come in, Jeff motioned to the waiter and they were seated. He had made a reservation as soon as Frank called him about the meet. There were many rooms and bars in this historic restaurant, but Frank preferred to sit in Grant's bar room because it was quieter than the rest of the place, and he loved to sit in the high-back, mahogany and velvet booths. All the bars were gorgeous, set in marble, brass, and beveled glass. Frank didn’t come here often, mostly because the food was a little pricey and it was always crowded. However, the atmosphere and the food were wonderful and, as he put it, he was never disappointed.

  “Hey, Frank. How are you? Still in one piece I see,” Jeff said.

  Frank chuckled. “Hey, Jeff. Yeah and I hope to keep it that way.”

  The waiter came over to their table in the trademark Old Ebbitt uniform of a white button-down shirt, bow tie, suspenders, and a long, white apron, and asked if they would like a drink. Frank ordered a glass of the house red and Jeff stayed with his Scotch on the rocks that he brought over from the bar.

  “Did you ever wonder who painted that oil painting hanging over the bar?” Frank asked.

  Jeff looked at him noticeably uninterested, “You mean the one of the naked lady? No, not really.”

  “Are you all right? You seem on edge. I mean more than usual.”

  Jeff took another sip of his drink and plunked his glass back on the table. “Divorce sucks!”

  Frank sat back a little surprised at Jeff’s opening salvo.

  “Whoa, what’s going on?”

  Jeff peered down into his drink. “Seven years with this woman and it’s like she forgot that we used to be in love. Now it’s all about the money and the house. Thank God we didn’t have any kids yet. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted kids but she wanted to wait. I guess she was right about that part. I mean, is this why she wanted to wait to have a family? Did she have this in the back of her mind or what? I’m sorry, Frank. I know you had a bad one too. I’ve just had a really bad day.”

  Unfortunately, Frank was also well acquainted with the way Jeff was feeling. It had only been two years since his divorce and it wasn’t one of those amicable ones. His wife left him for her yoga instructor. She said it was only a onetime thing, when in fact he found out with a little investigation that she had been seeing him off and on for six months. The fortunate thing he had in common with Jeff was that neither of them had children to drag through it all.

  “No worries, my friend. You’re right, there ain’t nothing good about it. How many Scotches have you had?”

  Jeff picked up his glass again and glared at it, “Just two. My head’s not hurting from alcohol, just misery. By the way, you look pretty good for all you’ve been through lately. What’s your secret?”

  Frank looked at Jeff and simply said, “I have the Lord in my life now.”

  Jeff stared at him for a minute then responded. “You? Mr. FBI? Frank ‘The Lawman’ Lederman. Wait a minute! I thought you were Jewish!”

  Frank smiled. “Well, I am by birt
h. I never was a practicing Jew, but yes I am Jewish. A few weeks ago, I had an incredible experience with God. I felt Him like I never thought possible. I prayed to Jesus for the first time and He changed my whole way of thinking. He gave me a real, supernatural peace. I feel great. I mean, I still have tough situations like the one we’re discussing, but I can feel Him leading and guiding me through them.”

  Jeff sat back in his seat. He was truly taken aback by Frank’s honesty, but was genuinely touched by what he was saying.

  “Wow, I think that’s awesome, Frank. I’ve heard others talk like that, but I never thought I would hear those words coming from you. I mean, that’s great and all, but I don’t understand. How does something like that happen? One day you’re one way, then the next day you’re...? ”

  “I think the word you’re looking for is saved. I’ll tell you what my buddy told me. Go home tonight and talk to the Lord Jesus. Talk to Him like you’re talking to me. Tell Him all about what’s going on in your life and ask Him to forgive you of all your sins - your failings and mess-ups. Believe me, you will feel like a giant load has been taken off your back.”

  “Just hearing you talk like that blows my mind. You seem different. I can sense that.” Jeff thought about it for a moment and said, “I could really use some peace in my life. You know what? I’ll do it. I promise I will spend some time talking to God when I get home tonight.”

  The waiter came back with Frank’s cabernet and asked for their order. Frank ordered his New York Strip and Jeff ordered his favorite - crab cakes. Once the waiter left, Jeff collected himself and refocused. “Now, tell me more about this shadow of yours?”

  “I haven’t seen his face, but he followed me out of Blackstone two days ago and then he showed up this morning at my assignment outside of Merrifield. I figure he’s connected to you-know-who.”