“Okay…” Still sounded creepy to me.
“So I went early and went inside to find him, and he wasn’t anywhere in the main hall so I thought he was probably downstairs . . .”
“There’s a downstairs?”
“It’s not much, a little kitchen, a small room for his office. And sure enough, I heard his voice, but I thought it sounded like he was talking to someone, so I didn’t go in. I wasn’t sure if I should.”
“Okay.”
“So I waited outside and sort of listened, and then I heard a voice, and it sounded like Gabe’s voice, and I thought that didn’t make sense…”
“What?” I asked her quickly. “What did you just say?”
“Well, that’s the thing. I was thinking like, what’s he doing here? He doesn’t like this stuff. So I really carefully opened the door a little bit, just a little bit, and peeked inside. And I saw that it was Gabe, and he was…” She was visibly upset now. “Riley, he was all tied up. And…and…he was all bruised, and just as I was wondering what had happened, I saw Pastor Warren hit him, like really hard, across the face.”
“Amber…”
“And I made a noise, and Pastor Warren heard, and so I ran upstairs, and I didn’t know what to do. I guess I should have gone home, but I know y’all are such good friends, and I didn’t think you knew about it, and I thought I should tell you.”
I was already on my feet heading toward the door. She turned and called the last bit out after me. Without even looking back at her, I opened the door and stepped inside, slamming it behind me.
“Gabe’s been taken by Pastor Warren. He’s at the church, being held there and beaten, and I’m going to rescue him,” I announced to the team.
“What are you talking about?” asked Father Peter.
“I don’t know how it happened, but for some reason Pastor Warren has him, and I’ve got to save him.”
“Well, yeah, of course, and we’ll help,” said Daniel. Everyone else stood up in a rush.
“No, no. We can’t all go. We have to start taking positions so that we don’t look suspicious to the police. You guys need to get home, change, get everything together, and meet. I’ll do this.”
“You can’t do this on your own,” said Lacy.
“I can. Trust me, you’ve no idea what I’m capable of.” Okay, so I didn’t know what I was capable of either, but I knew I was one of the Nephilim and that meant I had talents.
“Let me go with you,” said Father Peter, his voice sounding shaky. “I don’t need to go home first, and I am one of the least suspicious of any of you. I can show up at any time.”
I looked at him, and though he looked a little scared, I did like the idea of at least one other person with me. “Okay. You can come. But the rest of you, stick to the plan.”
Everyone else nodded reluctantly, and my heart warmed to see how much they cared, about me, about Gabe.
“Oh, and someone’s got to take Amber home. She’s sitting outside.”
“I guess I’ll have to,” said Lacy. “She’ll think it’s weird that I’m here with you, but even weirder that the Alexanders are. And Frank’s sticking around here as his alibi.”
“Thanks, Lacy,” I said a little too coldly. She looked at me funny, but then gathered up her stuff and went to meet Amber.
She had to leave first, so that Amber wouldn’t see everyone else pile out of the house. The rest of us watched as she pulled out of our driveway and onto the main road, and then we all went outside. I hopped into my mother’s car with Father Peter in the passenger seat.
“Riley,” said Curtis coming to the window, “take your shotgun.”
“I’m not about to shoot Pastor Warren,” I replied, aghast.
“No, in case you don’t have time to get back before the ceremony. Keep it in your trunk.”
I nodded, that made a bit more sense. Curtis fetched it from the house and stowed it in the back. Then I looked at the rest of them standing at my window.
“I’m sorry I have to rush off like this. And I might not be able to meet up with you guys in time and everything, so if I don’t show, everyone take their signal from Curtis.”
“It’s okay. You just save Gabe,” said Daniel.
“Oh, I will.” I turned over the engine, and we were off down the drive in a cloud of dust.
“Riley, please don’t do anything stupid,” said Father Peter, and I raced down the street.
“I won’t, Father, I won’t,” I replied. I really had no idea what I was going to do, but I knew whatever it would turn out to be, even I’d be surprised by it. I turned left sharply and then right again.
“Well…just take care of yourself.”
“You know, Father, I’m more worried about the bigger danger.”
“The bigger danger?”
“Well, Pastor Warren can’t be holding Gabe prisoner just because he doesn’t like the way he dresses. He’s gotta know something. And there’s very few people who know what we know, so I’m thinking there’s someone on our team that we can’t trust, and that’s not good.” I didn’t mention who I really suspected. After all, there was one person in our team who really enjoyed a good gossip. Whose parents were very close friends with the pastor. Who even though she had agreed to be my friend, maybe hadn’t actually meant it.
“I hadn’t considered that,” replied Father Peter.
“So we’ve got to keep our eyes open tonight, Father. Things may be a lot more complicated than we’ve anticipated.”
We were on Main Street now, almost through town. We passed the fair grounds, and I really hoped my parents wouldn’t notice their car whiz by. They approved of shooting down Thralls, but I didn’t think they’d approve of a rescue mission that sent their daughter into the basement of a malevolent pastor.
Soon we were through town, and the tower of the church was in plain sight. I slowed and stopped around a hundred meters from the entrance where the front door was hidden from view by the brush. I opened the door.
“Please be careful, Riley,” said Father Peter. I could tell he was now seriously second-guessing my decision.
“I will be. You just be ready for a quick getaway,” I replied. We both got out of the car, and Father Peter got into the driver’s seat. “If I’m not back in fifteen, call the cops.”
Father Peter nodded, and I closed the door behind him.
46.
There was no way I was walking into the church with a loaded shotgun. I wasn’t ready to shoot a real person, and I definitely didn’t want to accidentally shoot Gabe. So I walked toward the door armed just with my wits and my supposed supernatural abilities. Neither particularly comforted me as I stepped inside. I looked around for some stairs down and finally found them at the far end of the foyer hidden behind a coat rack.
I took them slowly and quietly and found myself in a narrow hallway with a low ceiling. There were three doors that led off it. I took a deep breath and made my way to the first, placing my ear against it to see if I could hear anything. Then, as quietly as I could, I opened it. It was dark inside, and I could see the white porcelain bowl of a toilet reflected in the light from the hall. I moved onto the next door, which led to the kitchen Amber had mentioned. That left the last, and so I approached it extra quietly. Once more I placed my ear to the door, but I couldn’t hear anything there either. So I turned the knob slowly and pushed. A shaft of light sliced the dark, and I stopped, worried someone on the inside would have noticed the movement. When nothing happened I opened it a bit further so I could peek inside.
All I could see was the back of a chair and the legs of a desk behind it. There was nothing else I could do. I rallied my spirits. Come on, instincts. And I opened the door completely.
Gabe was in the left corner, bound and gagged, with his head slumped to one side. But there was no one else in the room. I made a beeline for him, and his eyes opened when I touched him. He stared at me with wide eyes, and I nodded. �
��It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here.” I started to undo Pastor Warren’s work with the ropes and the gag, which were tied way better than the time I’d had Gabe as my prisoner.
When the gag was out of his mouth, he coughed loudly and with his now free hand massaged his jaw. “Thanks,” he said hoarsely. “You folks really do like tying up a person.”
“Nah, I think in my case it had more to do with the Nephilim thing,” I replied, finishing with his feet.
“Nephilim?”
“I’ll explain later. What happened to you? How’d you get here?” I asked struggling a bit with the ropes around his feet.
“I don’t really know. After we…well, you know…I went and sat on the front porch for a bit, kind of like you in the swing. Then I thought I saw something…Ow,” he said as my nails scratched his ankle.
“Sorry. Go on. Damn, these things are tight.”
“I thought actually it was that ghost thing in the trees so I moved closer to look, but there wasn’t anything there. Then someone hit me on the head, and I blacked out.”
“Pastor Warren.”
“I guess so. I woke up here. Felt like when I’d woken up in your shed. Though the company wasn’t quite as nice.”
“Done,” I said, unwinding the rope. “Can you stand up?” I asked, rising to my feet and offering him my hands for balance.
“I dunno. He’s had me tied up for a week, no food, very little water,” replied Gabe reaching for my hands.
“Damn, I should have brought you some. I didn’t think.”
“It’s okay, Riley, you came. I knew you’d come.” He grasped my hands and I helped him to stand. He wasn’t kidding that he wasn’t sure he could stand. He teetered dangerously and had to reach out to the wall for extra balance. Now that he was standing in the light, his wounds showed clearly. His face was covered in bruises, his left eye was a little swollen.
“Jeez, what the hell did he do to you?” I said feeling my emotions start to get the better of me.
“Oh, you know, punches,” replied Gabe. “Let’s not talk about it.”
I nodded and tried to stay cool and focused, but it was getting progressively harder to do so. After all, only an hour ago I’d been under the impression he’d left me for good, in a really selfish way, too, and now we were reunited. All this was emotional enough on its own without the added sick feeling about what he’d gone through over the last week.
But I held it together. “Come on, then,” I said. “If you can walk, we need to get out of here. You know where Pastor Warren is?”
“He went chasing after Amber when she caught him. Hasn’t been back since.” He pushed himself off the wall, and I reached out to him, but he waved me off and steadied himself. “Okay. I can do this. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Wait a second,” I said. I turned around and went to the door.
“What is it?”
“I thought I heard something. Shh.” I looked out into the hallway and listened carefully. I didn’t hear anything, but there was still no time to waste. “Come on, let’s hurry.”
Gabe maneuvered his way to my side. We slipped out through the door and made our way along the hall to the stairs. I went up first, just as carefully and quietly as I had on the way in. That’s when I saw Pastor Warren, or at least his feet, on the other side of the coat rack.
As quickly as I could without making a sound, I rushed back down the steps to Gabe.
“Pastor Warren,” I mouthed to him, and he nodded. We made our way back toward the office, slid inside, and closed the door behind us.
“Is there another way out?” I asked Gabe.
“The boiler room’s through the closet. Seen him go in a few times. I’ve no idea if it leads anywhere, though,” replied Gabe.
“Well, let’s check it out,” I replied. I went to the closet at the far end of the room and peered inside. I felt for a switch, and when I turned it on I saw what Gabe meant. It was just a closet, but at the back was a small doorway, more like a rectangle that had been cut out of the wall, and it led into the underside of the main hall. I slipped into the closet and through the cutout. It was too dark to really see anything, and I came back into the closet.
“Does he have a flashlight or anything?”
“In the drawer of his desk.”
I stepped out of the closet and saw Gabe had pulled the door open a tiny bit and was staring out. “Hurry, Riley,” he said quietly. “He’s coming down the steps.”
I opened the drawer and rifled through its contents. The flashlight was beneath some papers, and I grabbed it. As I rushed over to the closet again, I wished we’d had more time. I was sure there’d be incriminating stuff in that drawer. I didn’t know what kind of stuff, just that there’d be some.
“He’s using the bathroom. I’m coming with you,” said Gabe leaving his post and following me.
We went through the closet and the hole in the back. I turned on the flashlight and was stunned to see that the space beyond was the size of the main hall.
“Okay, there’s so got to be a way out through here,” I said, and we made our way carefully into the dark and started the journey to the other side. Even though I had the flashlight, it wasn’t quite enough to keep us from tripping occasionally. “Be careful,” I said after a swinging rope hit me in the face. As we continued, I noticed that there were more and more ropes. It was starting to feel like we were walking through a jungle.
“Shine the light to the left,” said Gabe, and I did. It looked like there was some kind of ladder heading up, running along the wall, probably into the main hall.
“Wow, good eyesight,” I said, and we headed in its direction. I turned briefly and shone the light behind us, but there was no sign of Pastor Warren. As I brought the light back in front of us, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I stopped and shone the light in that direction. It hit on a giant box thing in the middle of the room.
“It looks good,” called Gabe as quietly as he could from the ladder. “Are you coming?”
“Yes,” I replied, but I couldn’t help it. I approached the large box shape and stared at it. Up close I could see levers and winches. This looked to be the source of most of the ropes, as they disappeared into its top.
“Riley!” called Gabe with more urgency.
I had to join him. It was stupid to get sidetracked like this. But as I went over to where he was standing, a couple rungs up on the ladder, I shone my flashlight along the ceiling, following the ropes until I noticed them turn and then run parallel to the ladder soaring up above.
“Shit,” I said and then sighed hard.
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
“So it was all an illusion, after all. A stupid obvious illusion.” Smoke and mirrors. Seriously?
“What was?”
“Nothing. Let’s climb up.”
We did. I was below to make sure Gabe didn’t slip and fall. We climbed up one story, through a hole in the ceiling and found ourselves inside the walls of the main hall. I aimed the flashlight up. Sure enough, both the ladder and the ropes continued into the rafters.
“Which way?” asked Gabe. I brought the light back down to our level to see what our options were.
“Well, this way takes us to the front. Let’s do that,” I said. Now I was the leader, and the space was so narrow that we had to move sideways along the wall. It wasn’t easy to maneuver along like that, and with so much concentration on where I was putting my feet I didn’t notice the speaker until I ran right into it.
“Ow,” I said, bringing my hand to my forehead.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” I shone the light on the speaker, and shook my head. Smoke and mirrors. And sound equipment.
We continued more carefully now and eventually made our way around the corner. That’s when we saw a ray of light not too far off before us.
“A way out?” I asked.
“Damn well hope so,” replied
Gabe.
We approached it carefully. It turned out to be a small door, maybe waist high. It didn’t take more than a soft push, and it was open. Daylight, thank god.
“The way out should be directly to our left,” I told Gabe so he could prepare himself. I was so impressed he’d managed to do any of this in the first place. The guy had serious will power.
I bent down so I could see out into the main hall—and looked right into Pastor Warren’s face.
“Let me help you down, Miss Carver,” he said, grabbing my wrist tightly. “It’s a little bit of a jump.”
47.
With sweaty palms, Pastor Warren carefully helped me out from between the walls of his church and on to the floor of the main hall. The sun had almost set now, and the bright red light shone in through the window and reflected off the copper wings hanging at the far end. They looked like they were on fire. It was kind of frightening.
“Come on out, Gabe,” said Pastor Warren. “You don’t want to know what I’ll do to her if you don’t.”
I’d like to see you try, I thought. Then I remembered I didn’t actually know what my abilities were, and I probably shouldn’t be tempting fate.
Gabe joined us reluctantly, and even though I knew we were in a pretty bad situation, I was kind of flattered that Pastor Warren’s threat had that effect on him. The three of us stood there staring at each other. It all felt pretty stupid.
“Pastor Warren, what do you think you’re doing?” I asked, finally.
“At the moment, trying to figure out what to do with you two,” he replied. His face was bright red, and sweat was pouring down his brow.
“But kidnapping? Beating someone up? Why is any of it necessary?”
Pastor Warren laughed. “When I found out about Gabe, what he supposedly was, well now, I couldn’t just let some loose cannon wander around like that, could I?”
“He’s not some loose cannon. And he’d gone a year not saying anything.”
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