by G Oldman
They crossed the empty street and turned left to head down the sidewalk. The kids already had dinner and didn't want their Dad to worry, so they skipped going to Big Ed's for one of his cookie dough milk shakes. They were the best and the three kids were sorely tempted but stayed true to their course.
Walking down the street, there were only a few cars moving past but otherwise their only company was the lamps overhead. The businesses to either side of the road were all closed. Most had their lights off. Three blocks later, they arrived at the park. It had a creepy name, Fallen Souls Memorial Park. The park was roughly four city blocks in size. A running path circled the perimeter and sidewalks passed through its center in an 'x.' In the middle of it was a memorial. It was a black stone obelisk with no inscription. At its foot was another brass plaque similar to the one at the school. There were street lights surrounding the pillar and around the perimeter. That left most of it in the dark.
The three kids cut through the park. Once they stepped into it, they heard dogs howl. They looked at each other with concern on their faces. Peter and Edmund put their hands in their pockets and pulled out their scout knives. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.
With Susan between them, the three kids hurried through the park. They heard the sound of movement through the leaves to their right. The park's trees limited their sight to just a few feet around them and the pool of light thrown out ahead by the memorial.
They kept walking. Soon they heard growls from the same direction as the running sound had come from.
"It's just a dog. We should be OK. Just don't act frightened," said Peter with far less confidence than the other two would have preferred.
The memorial was just twenty yards from them. They picked up the pace when what looked like a large rottweiler stepped out into the path in front of them. The dog was all black with a few brown markings on its chest and underbelly. What made it different from a normal hound was this one had two heads.
Susan was the first to speak, "Are you seeing a two headed dog or am I having a hallucination?"
Both boys confirmed her vision was normal and not imagination. Edmund held the naked blade of his Swiss army knife out in front of him. It could have looked intimidating had his hand not been shaking. Peter put his left leg out a little and held his left arm with his hand out as if signaling the dog to stop. He kept his Henry lock blade knife back in his right tucked closer to his side.
"Nice dog... er... dogs?" Muttered Peter. He had no inkling of what to do. This thing was half their height standing on its feet. If it attacked, they would get hurt no matter what.
The dog's four eyes glowed red in the darkness. Its breath was hot enough to produce steam. Both heads bared fangs and it crouched ready to pounce.
That was when the smell hit the kids. Someone nearby was smoking. Peter concluded that when you are really stressed, your mind can notice weird things.
Then to the left side of the road, they glimpsed a cigarette's glow as its owner sucked in on the lit cancer stick. It moved.
The dog sensed something had changed. The left head turned to see what the kids were looking at. Stepping out of the woods was a man wearing a black or dark cowboy hat and a large black duster that hung down to the top of his feet.
The newcomer took another deep drag of his cigarette then flicked the stub towards the dog. In response, the dog reacted by shifting its butt a few inches to the right and avoided the projectile.
"Dog, you need to git. You know this won't end well for you." The man spoke for the first time. He had a deep and resonating voice that rumbled.
Now the dog was far more concerned with the newcomer and turned around to face him. The newcomer reached into his duster.
Peter's eyes grew wide, and he whispered to the others, "He is going to pull a gun and shoot it."
There was genuine fear in Peter's voice. He saw that if the guy missed, all three of them were in his line of fire. Plus this was an armed stranger.
Instead of a pistol, the man drew a long sword from his duster. The blade shone with reflected light even though there was minimal light here. He struck a martial pose and held the sword two handed in front of him.
The dog and man began to circle one another. Before they made a quarter rotation, with a snarl, the hell hound leapt at the man.
The man smiled and swung his sword with a quick backhand that moved from low to high. This seemingly light and halfhearted attack took both of the dog's heads off. He used the momentum of his swing to step out of the way as the body continued forward and slammed into the ground where he had formerly been.
With a quick flick of the sword, the blood of the beast was snapped off of the blade and the newcomer slid the sword back into its sheath under the duster.
"Whoa, did you see that?" exclaimed Edmund. He lowered his hand and stood there in slack jawed amazement at the man.
Neither Peter nor Susan said anything for a few moments.
Finally Peter spoke up, "Thank you, sir. I think you may have saved our lives."
In response, the man fished in his pocket for another cigarette. He popped one in his mouth and then felt his pants pockets. He pulled a bright pink Bic lighter from his pocket and attempted to light it. After spinning the roller a half dozen times with no success, he finally spoke.
"Stupid, damn lighter. Hey, you kids have a lighter or a match?" asked the stranger.
"Uh, no, sir. We don't smoke," muttered Edmund.
The man was taken aback. "What? Damn. This was so much easier in the fifties and sixties. No one gave a crap about cancer and kids had lighters. This job is really starting to suck."
Susan looked at the man and his odd fashion sense. She whispered to Peter, "Who is this guy, Harry Dresden?"
The mention of the fictional hero from the Jim Butcher series made Peter start to laugh. But he stifled it due to the seriousness of the situation.
Peter tried next, "Sir, thank you for saving us but, who are you?"
The man reacted as if he had forgotten the kids were there. "Huh? Oh, yeah. My name is Ebenezer; I am one of the Barachiel."
He made the statement as if it was obvious who he was. The kids stared blankly at him. He started to shake his lighter. Then tried is a few more times before giving up and throwing it over his shoulder.
"Hey, don't be a litter bug," challenged Edmund. "There is a trash can just twenty yards that way."
He pointed off towards the memorial.
Ebenezer rolled his eyes. "We don't get any respect anymore. In the old days, people fell on their faces in terror. Hell, we had to keep saying 'fear not' every time we showed up. It almost became our catch phrase. Now I'm told off for being a litter bug seconds after saving their lives."
He looked upwards and shook his head and started walking back to the woods.
Susan slapped Edmund's shoulder and gave him a keep quiet look and called after Ebenezer before he disappeared into the darkness again.
Susan pleaded with Ebenezer, "Please, wait. We just don't understand what is going on. What was that two headed thing and what is a Bronchial?"
He turned and looked at them in exasperation.
Peter then got an idea, "Hey, if you answer our questions, I'll run back to Big Ed's and get you a book of matches. He keeps some up by the register. I remember seeing them there last week."
Susan and Edmund looked at Peter with wide eyes. He just shrugged at them.
Ebenezer raised his right eyebrow, frowned and then shrugged his shoulders. "Sure kid. I tell you what. I'll wait over there by the black rock."
Peter looked at his brother and sister, "I'll be right back. I'll run the whole way."
He closed his lock blade knife and shoved it back in his pocket. Seeing his brother do that, Edmund shut and pocketed his knife as well. Peter took off at a dead run to get back to the restaurant. When Edmund and Susan turned around, the man was leaning against the memorial. They walked a bit closer but just stayed in the edge of the pools of lig
ht thrown by the street lamps.
Chapter 5: Welcome to Hemisphere
It felt like Peter was gone for an hour. But he came running back in less than ten minutes. He waved to Susan and Edmund as he ran to Ebenezer.
Peter was out of breath as he said, "Here you go. It was their last pack."
Peter handed the pack of matches to Ebenezer. For his part, he rolled the box in his hands. He read the label.
"Who knew that skinny little kid would grow up to be a big fat old man?"
"Excuse me?" asked Edmund.
Ebenezer took another cigarette, then withdrew a wooden match from the box and struck it. He lit the cancer stick and sighed with contentment.
Blowing out a stream of smoke, Ebenezer said, "I've known Big Ed since he was five years old. He was a good kid. He had and still has a kind heart."
"But you don't look old enough to have known him as a kid. You are younger than he is," accused Edmund.
"Really? Well thanks. I am older than him as it turns out." Ebenezer smiled widely.
Susan interrupted, "Wait, let's back up. You said something about being a Bronchial, what is that?"
He tapped the ash off of his cigarette before answering, "Bronchial has to do with the lungs. I said Barachiel."
"OK, what's that then?" said Susan.
"The Barachiel is an order of guardian angels. I'm assigned to this area. I was put here after the first trading post was set up by the French. It was by the request of Father Paulo Lazard. He was a nice enough fellow, but I've been stuck here ever since."
The kids took a step back from Ebenezer. They looked at him as if he admitted to being a space alien that just arrived from Plutonia.
Edmund tried to address it first, "How can you be an angel and smoke? Don't angels have wings, wear white and are holy messengers and stuff."
Ebenezer shrugged, "I'm not that type of angel. Sure, you read about the famous ones: Gabriel, Michael and so on. Or the dramatic ones like in Ezekiel's visions. But there are many of us that serve different roles. I am a guardian angel that protects people. My best work is done when I'm not seen. The less people see of me, the more of a normal life they can live and make choices for themselves. If I ran around in wings and glowing white robes while flashing my sword around, sure more folks would believe. But would they be making that choice on their own? Or, instead, would they be compelled based on what they saw? It is supposed be the by faith and not by sight thing. That is all beyond my pay grade."
The kids still didn't know what to think.
Peter asked, "How can we be sure you are telling the truth?"
"Let me put it this way. How on earth would I get any benefit by lying to you about this? Is there anything I stand to gain? Well, other than the matches. Thank you for those." said Ebenezer.
Susan chimed in, "So why are you assigned here? What is so special about this town?"
"Now you are asking better questions. How are the townies treating you? Made tons of friends since you got here?" asked Ebenezer with a sly smile.
In unison, they all replied, "No."
"As I thought. The reason is, newcomers don't seem to stick around a long time in this town. The locals wait to see if the new guys can hack it before really welcoming them. This town is a nexus from earth to the heavenly and demonic realms. Things happen here that don't occur anywhere else. I am here to help contain things and when told, protect people. Like you three."
"Why us? What makes us important?" asked a rather confused Peter.
With a wry smile he replied, "Because your father asked from a sincere and willing heart. At least that is what I was told. I was ordered to reveal myself to you. That is something that doesn't happen much anymore."
Edmund cocked his head to the right, "Dad hired you for us? We don't have money for a body guard, let alone an angelic one."
That made Ebenezer laugh. "No, your father prayed for your protection. He is a straight forward and earnest man. He has a strong and solid faith. His prayer was granted and here I am. No payment involved. Let me tell you, no matter what your guidance counselor says, you won't ever get rich being an angel. Then again, I doubt that comes up much."
"So what does this mean? You are following us around?" asked Susan nervously. She crossed her arms over her chest and felt self-conscious about the shortness of her cheer uniform skirt.
"Nothing like that. I get tips when bad stuff will go down. I position myself and intercede as needed. Sometimes, I'm not allowed to act. If the person I am supposed to protect is engaged in sin, I can only observe what happens and can't act. Speaking of, you need to go home. Your Dad's going to worry soon. Let's walk while we talk. That kill's two birds with one stone as they say."
Peter and Edmund found this interesting. Susan thought it alarming. "You mean you stand by and let people get hurt?"
"I can' t protect people from themselves. What I can do is defend them from... how did that go... ' the rulers, authorities and cosmic powers governing this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.' It isn't possible to stop people from being stupid. But I have helped folks in this town before and will continue to do so. Heck, why do you think the safety markers are present all over this place. No city council in history would have voluntarily paid for that many of them. We had to step in."
In unison again, "Safety markers?"
Edmund tried to clarify, "What like stop lights or traffic cones?"
Ebenezer pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, the big round brass plaques. They are safe zones. All the locals are familiar with them and they assume everyone is so they don't tell the new people about them. You know, from the welcome packet. If you stand on them and close it, things like that dog can't attack you."
"Wait, it's a flat disk. How do you close it? Is it like a manhole cover you can open and hide in a shelter underneath?" asked Peter.
Ebenezer scratched at his chin, "That would've been cool but no. Did you read any of them yet?"
"Yeah, it's a grammatical nightmare. The one in front of the high school has many capitalization issues," said Susan.
"Hmpf. Don't be such a grammar nazi. The capitalized words are the keys to closing the circle. Words have power. If you had made it to the one in the park that dog couldn't get to you and would have gone away."
They blinked at him. Their house was now approaching fast. They needed more questions answered.
"What was that dog?" asked Edmund.
"That was a cerebus hound. You have read some Greek mythology, right? Or at least seen the cartoon Hercules movie?"
The kids nodded their heads.
"It's a dog from hell. It has two heads because, heck I don't remember why. As far as I know, Satan felt it looked cool. They are small and can get through the rifts easier than most things. Others creatures need help to pass through. That is part of the I can't protect against stupid thing. If a human helps something evil move through a rift, they are on their own."
Peter's head swam as he tried to make sense of everything. "Uh, huh. A hell hound broke out of the pit and was about to eat us before you cut its heads off with a magic sword."
"Close. The sword isn't magic, just angelic," replied Ebenezer.
"Right, that makes it better," snarked Edmund. "If we tell anyone about this, we will be locked away for our own good."
Ebenezer just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "What can I say; truth isn't always an easy pill to swallow. That doesn't make it any less true. Here you are, safe at home. I'll see you later."
"Will we see you again?" asked Susan.
He shrugged his shoulders and frowned. "Maybe. You now understand the dangers of traveling at night here. You know about the safe zones. Shoot, you should be OK. But if something comes up, I'll be around as long as you aren't being stupid. I can't save you if you jump in front of a bus. That is just called being a moron."
They had a hundred more questions to ask and were desperate for more answers. Before they could utter their next so
und, he disappeared.
Edmund looked up into the night sky. "Did he beam up like on Star Trek? Or did he teleport away?"
Susan muttered, "No idea."
Peter grunted in agreement with Susan. He then sniffed the air and leaned over to sniff at Susan and Edmund.
"Peter, what do you think you are doing?" asked Susan as she tried to lean away from her brother's nose. "Are you saying I stink?"
"No, we were just hanging out with a chain smoking angel. If we go in the house and Dad smells cigarettes on us, we will be the ones in trouble, not Ebenezer."
"Shoot, you are right. Dad will kill us," said Edmund. He was getting anxious.
Peter shook his head in wonder. "Be anxious for nothing, little brother. We don't smell of cigarettes. I guess that Ebenezer protected us from himself. Let's get inside. The nights here are freaking me out now."
Chapter 6: Earning a Daily Wage
Daniel waited up for his kids. His shift at the big box store would start in another thirty minutes and they weren't home yet. He was going to give it ten more minutes before looking for them.
Didn't Susan say, they had a ride home after practice and scouts? Some friend of hers from school would give them a lift. What was her name again? He couldn't remember what Susan had said. He hoped it was a girl at least.
Just as he reached for the knob, a key entered the lock. Daniel rushed back to his chair and sat down looking as casual as possible when the door opened.
"How was scouts and practice?"
"Good Dad," said Peter.
"Yeah, it was good," agreed Susan.
"I completed my first aid merit badge," informed Edmund.
"Hey, that is fantastic. I tell you what; the first aid merit badge is one that you will use for the rest of your life. What took you so long getting home?"
"Oh, Daddy. Gary's a big jerk, and I refused to ride with him. We walked home.
Daniel's thoughts raced. Gary? It was a guy? They walked? Holy Crap there is that monster dog running loose. What did the doctor say, something about the bite patterns consistent with a large rottweiler? They had to pass through that same park where the woman was attacked last night.
