Legends (To Absolve the Fallen Book 3)

by Aaron Babbitt

  “I hope you will forgive me if I’m a little skeptical,” Catherine Harper replied with cool reservation.

  “Of course,” Abbie agreed with a smile. “Everybody’s skeptical initially. This is not the first time I’ve had a conversation like the one we’re having now. In fact, over the course of many centuries, I’ve gotten rather used to it.”

  Mayor Harper looked questioningly to Mary, who had gone back to fixing breakfast. Then, having not received an answer, turned back to Abbie.

  “How old are you, Ms. Martin?”

  “Dr. Martin,” Abbie corrected softly, “if we’re going to use titles. And I’m coming up on my four hundred twenty-fourth birthday. I was tutored by the first Queen Elizabeth of England. I have danced with William Shakespeare and Sir Francis Bacon. For a very long time, I fled my past, jumping from one country to another. I helped people wherever I could. On my two hundredth fiftieth birthday, I was inducted into the Elder Prophet Council, and I have served there ever since. I’ve stood by world leaders in every major natural, supernatural, or human catastrophe in the last two centuries, as I have been called upon to do again.”

  “With all due respect,” Catherine began, “I’ve heard a lot of things on the news and from rumors that I find very distressing, and they all seem to originate from what are being called prophets. However, I am here on behalf of the Governor of Missouri and the people of Kingstone. It is my hope that we can work something out. Do you have something to offer, something that might corroborate your amazing story?”

  “You want proof.”

  “You are in the Show-Me State, Dr. Martin. I think you are expecting me to take a little too much on faith alone.”

  “What do you need proof of?” Abbie wondered. “Is it that you don’t believe we are who we say we are, or that our cause is what we say it is?”

  “Maybe both,” the mayor responded honestly. “Frankly, it appears that you have successfully manipulated one of our community’s most upstanding families to buy into your cult of personality. I must admit, it seems tempting to believe that a war between good and evil is literally being fought in our midst, and I am a God-fearing woman. I saw what I could consider demons on television, and I’ve heard first-hand testimony in defense of its authenticity, but I wasn’t there. And even if I had been, I don’t know that I would have believed what I saw.”

  “Abbie,” Alex interjected, “maybe I should try.”

  She smiled, nodded, and motioned for him to take over.

  “Catherine,” he said purposefully, “everyone in this room has had a similar conversation at some point. However, I think you’re going to be talking about faith a little differently after today. What kind of proof do you want?”

  “If they’re prophets,” she replied, “shouldn’t they be able to do things?”

  “I called a pillar of fire from the sky to burn for three days,” John countered.

  Alex added, “I conjured a thunderstorm out of nowhere above the downtown square.”

  “I saw the fire,” Catherine admitted. “Nothing we had was capable of putting it out. After three days, it went out on its own. And many people have confirmed the story of the storm. But the media is saying that we’re all on drugs or just looking for attention. I don’t know how to respond. Things are looking pretty bad.”

  “The media has always been one of the most devious tools of evil minds,” Abbie said. “Demons and corrupted humans use the news to misdirect the masses and propagate twisted agendas all the time. This is why, in the past, we have never involved ourselves with the media,” she added pointedly to John. “The likelihood is too high that they will side with their evil masters, and the result will not be favorable. Now that our presence and intentions have been made clear, I guess it’s time to act. The eyes of the world focus on us through the warped lenses of the news. I suppose it had to come to this sooner or later. If we give them undeniable proof, they will have to listen.”

  “And this undeniable proof would be...?” Mayor Harper prompted.

  Alex held out his hand. “Catherine, do you trust me?”

  “Alex, I trust you, but I think they may have--”

  “Then, take my hand,” Alex replied.

  “All right, Alex, but I really don’t have time for--” But her thought was never finished. As her hand grasped Alex’s, her mouth fell agape, and no more words came out. Her eyelids fluttered for a second, then closed.

  Alex’s eyes also closed so that he could focus and form his thoughts in such a way that they would seem neither intrusive nor frightening to this long-time friend of the family.

  Everyone was quiet, watching what was happening with interest. They were confident because everyone in the room had seen Alex do this before with a surprising amount of success.

  Unafraid to break the silence, Nathan informed the cooks, “I don’t like my eggs scrambled.”

  To which, Mary replied, “Then, I’ll leave the stove on so you can make your eggs.”

  ***

  Eva had parked her car downtown at the city park and began looking at the sites, some of which she’d recognized from the news.

  Every man in the general vicinity stopped to watch her as she walked by, many receiving scolding looks or even physical abuse from the women they were with. Of course, even if Alex was walking through town now—and there would be no way for her to notice with all of the other prophet influence around—he wouldn’t recognize her in her current disguise. She looked very different from when he had last seen her. In fact, she rarely used the same disguise twice.

  Her anonymity made her very hard to track. Because of Eva’s skill in masking or altering the perception of her physical looks as well as the identifying sensation of her supernatural nature, she could and often did walk unnoticed among prophets; sometimes even demons didn’t notice her. But she didn’t use the trick any more than she had to because the slightest loss of concentration could cost her dearly. If Eva had ever been discovered in most of the places she’d had to hide, she definitely would not still be around.

  She regretted, now, showing Metatron how to hide his supernatural presence from those who seek him because she could no longer detect his presence, but it wasn’t really like she’d had a choice. He would have killed her and taken it if she didn’t comply. Not that it mattered; Eva didn’t even know if he was still on this plane of existence.

  One demon, though, definitely couldn’t mask himself from her. Ephippas was around here somewhere. From time to time, she would catch a sensation of him, just out of range for her to detect his exact location. He seemed to be staying outside of the town.

  “It’s rather audacious of you to nonchalantly stroll around so close to where two demons were recently slain by a single prophet,” a commanding voice that made her shudder observed.

  She turned slowly to her right and beheld the archangel Raphael in all of his glory. He stood tall and shone brightly. In his hands, he held a flaming sword. From the lack of reaction of the locals, Eva assumed that she was the only one who could see the archangel.

  “Am I to die now?” she whispered, wanting to maintain her stealth and knowing full well that the angel could hear mice nestling in walls from miles away.

  Raphael smiled. “What’s the matter, temptress? Afraid that the mortals might think you’re crazy? No, I have not appeared to you with the intent to slay you. If it were my task, I would not have bothered having a conversation with you first. I’m afraid the job of eliminating you will go to someone else. I revealed myself to ask you what it was that brought you into a town that holds so much danger for you.” He moved his sword from side to side for dramatic effect.

  She averted her eyes slightly and spoke a little louder. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were around.”

  “That I can believe. You are very cowardly. Answer my question now.”

  “I seek Ephippas,” she heard herself admitting, despite her will to say something completely different. “He killed the mercenaries station
ed with him and took off. I came here to find out why,” she explained to him, though she had no desire to.

  Raphael shook his head. “You won’t find him here. He’s smart enough to maintain a safe distance, and going after him would be unwise. He has a new master now.”

  “Who?”

  “That I’m sure you’ll find out for yourself. Now, go carry out whatever malicious deed your overseers have you performing at the moment, and be gone from my presence. Trust me when I say that only the Father stays my hand. Though I would like little more than to banish you to Hell here and now, it would seem He still has some purpose for you.”

  “Well,” Eva snarled in response, growing bolder from the admission, “I guess it’s good you’re such an obedient puppet.”

  “Obedient or not, you and I are both puppets,” Raphael retorted before dissipating into nothing, leaving only his voice. “The difference is that I’m aware of my strings.”

  Eva grumbled a few curses in vain toward the spot where Raphael had appeared to her. She got no response and considered it a good omen.

  For some reason the archangel had let her pass. If he knew of her intentions, surely she would have died upon entering Kingstone. Or, perhaps he did know, and he was baiting her. However, that seemed uncharacteristic of any angel she’d ever heard of encountering a demon. Usually, they would wait for some kind of grievous breach of protocol and destroy the demon without warning. She decided it best not to dwell on the situation right there along Main Street.

  Eva turned around, got back in her car, and drove immediately to Kansas City. Patheus wouldn’t want to hear what she had to say, which gave her an incentive to make haste. No one could burst his bubble quite like she could.

  ***

  To Catherine, it appeared that, once she took Alex’s hand, everyone else in the room vanished. Only she and Alex stood in the room. Startled, she detached her hand from Alex’s and spun around to find the missing others.

  “I didn’t mean to frighten you,” Alex explained. “I just thought this might be a better place to talk.”

  She looked skeptically at him for a moment. “Where did everyone go?”

  “Nobody’s gone anywhere,” he said. “I have taken you into my head to offer you a chance to see some of the things I have seen.”

  Catherine cocked one eyebrow as if trying to comprehend what he had just said. “In your head?”

  “That’s right. Normally, I wouldn’t make this kind of invasion without explaining to you what was going to happen, but I didn’t think you’d believe me anyway. And I chose my mind for the meeting place because I’ve found that I don’t have as much control in other people’s minds. Not that I want it to sound like I have control over you. This can end whenever you want it to.”

  “What is this?” Catherine asked slowly.

  “I’m a prophet, Catherine. And one of my gifts is the ability to make a telepathic link between myself and at least one other.”

  “At least?”

  “Last night, I used my ability to shield the minds of my two friends, Matt and Elizabeth.”

  Following his explanation, two figures appeared behind him—a young man and woman, who had just been standing next to Alex; both appeared to be only slightly older than he was. Catherine jumped a little when they suddenly appeared, and again when they just as suddenly disappeared.

  “Have I been given drugs? Am I hallucinating?”

  Alex laughed. “Not to my knowledge. And I’m not sure that drugs could do this anyway. I’m trying to give you a comfortable place from which I can show you some of the things I’ve seen in the last month. If you ever become scared, just say the word, and I’ll disconnect us.”

  “That doesn’t sound pleasant either,” she noted.

  “All I’ll have to do is let go of your hand. Apparently, things work a lot better if I make physical contact, though even that doesn’t seem to be the barrier it once was.”

  Catherine looked down at the hand that had just held Alex’s with some confusion.

  “Oh,” Alex said, understanding, “we’re still holding hands in the real world. That’s the only way the connection could be this strong.”

  “This is starting to freak me out, Alex.”

  “Imagine how I felt when a reforming demon approached me with the same concept in this very house not too long ago.”

  Then, they heard a voice bellow, “Stand away from the door!”

  Alex’s own voice, from the other side of a closed door at the far end of the room, questioned, “What?”

  Catherine looked startled by the voices, especially Alex’s, coming from the adjacent room. She looked at him questioningly.

  “It’s only a memory,” Alex answered.

  The front door flew open, and four men with guns came running in. Catherine screamed. They burst through the door that Alex’s voice had come from, completely ignoring the two of them standing there. Behind the door stood a pillar of fire, which seemed to freeze the hired guns in their tracks. A withered, reddish-brown, humanoid-looking wretch with bubbling skin came strolling into the house moments after the mercenaries had made their entrance.

  “My God,” Catherine gasped.

  Alex merely continued to watch the memory enacted. The demon strolled into the room after the mercenaries and proceeded to engage in a one-sided conversation with Jeremiah. To which, Jeremiah merely replied by striking the other demon in the head so fast that it actually caused it to explode, and its body subsequently burst into flames.

  “It’s hard to believe because we’re not used to seeing it in reality, only in movies and on television,” Alex explained as the sound of gunfire filled the room.

  Catherine dove to the floor. Alex only reached out his hand to help her up.

  “Truthfully,” he said with a smile, “it’s only a memory. There’s nothing to be afraid of here.”

  Another Alex came running out of the room and went straight for the porch, where they could see him double over and proceed to spill the contents of his stomach onto the ground.

  The Alex standing with Catherine watched himself with mild disgust and said, “It doesn’t get much better from here. We can go now.”

  He waved his hand dismissively, and the two of them were once again standing in the positions they were when he took her hand. She looked down to find that he had been right: Their hands were still locked. He let go and waited for her response.

  After some silence and thought, Catherine conceded, “All right, I’m listening.”

  ***

  Patheus didn’t look like he wanted to believe what he was hearing. “Run that one by me again,” he commanded of Eva who now stood before him in his office.

  “Patheus, I’m just telling you what the angel told me.”

  He looked down to his desk and sought out other possible answers, but none came to him. Raphael had to be talking about Lucifer. Ephippas would not have gone back to God, and due to Mastema’s demise, there weren’t a whole lot of other options to be Ephippas’s new master. If anything Eva said could be believed, that is.

  “Who’s he talking about?” she asked. “Who would Ephippas turn to if not Metatron? You don’t think...”

  “No, that is one difference between us. I do think. And yes, there does seem to be only one remaining rational option, one that probably means pretty bad things for us.”

  “Where is Metatron?” she demanded. “We can’t do this without him.”

  “Don’t you think I realize that?” Patheus growled at her. “For some reason, he sent you to torture me instead of doing something useful like coming himself.”

  “What if he died in Las Vegas?” she wondered.

  “You are full of obvious suggestions, aren’t you? Yes, I had considered that, but I don’t think so. I doubt anything short of angelic fury could best Metatron.”

  “What about Lucifer?”

  Patheus sighed. “I suppose he’s a possibility too.”

  “What are you going to do?”


  Patheus stood up, walked to the door, grabbing his coat on the way, and said, “The only thing I can do. I’ll have to go find Metatron. Maybe, I’ll run into Saleos while I’m there so I can kill that treacherous fool.”

  “What about Kingstone?”

  “I wasn’t planning on attacking it today anyway,” he replied as he opened the door. “Now, get out of my office.”

  ***

  “Well, the Governor will want to talk to you,” Mayor Harper explained. “I’ll tell him what I saw and how I feel. I’m sure he’ll want to meet you immediately.”

  “Meeting the Governor is fine,” Abbie said, “but he needs to be discreet.”

  “Of course,” Catherine agreed. “He’s not going to want to draw a lot of attention to himself either.”

  “Then, we will look forward to the meeting.”

  Alex nodded in agreement.

  Catherine stole another look at the Tanners, James having taken over for Abbie with the eggs since the Mayor’s trip into Alex’s memory, who were serving breakfast at the table. She wondered whether or not her longtime friends could give her any additional information. Surely, they could give her some kind of rational explanation of what was going on here.

  “Mary, may I speak with you?” she asked.

  “Absolutely,” Alex’s mother replied as she poured orange juice into a glass in front of the chair Nathan was already sitting in.

  “Privately?”

  Mary laughed. “Catherine, we’re about to eat. If it’s important, you can tell me here. I’m sure everyone is trustworthy.”

  Catherine sighed. “It’s about them.”

  Mary nodded as she sat a plate of sausage on the table. “Of course. Look, I’m not going to say anything differently to you in private than I would in this dining room. However, you are perfectly welcome to sit with us and eat breakfast.”

  “Fine,” Catherine retorted, a little miffed but taking a seat at the table anyway. “I guess my first question is: Were those real tears at Alex’s funeral?”