The next morning, Trinity woke up more refreshed than she had all week. The feeling put her in such a good mood that she decided to run some errands. Maybe when she was out, she would swing by and visit Joseph and Renée, her old foster parents. She quickly got ready and left before changing her mind.
She knew she had to go by the store first, because she never showed up empty handed. Of course, they were always persistent in telling her that she didn’t need to bring anything, but she couldn’t help it. They had spent so long taking care of her, and now, she tried to help them out whenever possible. She owed them so much. Without them, Nicci and she would never have gotten the chances they did in life and this was just her way of helping take care of them for a change.
The last time she came here it was with Renée, and Trinity had caught her eyeing a nice new purse. It wasn’t a designer brand and didn’t cost that much, but when Trinity mentioned that she get it, she started mumbling about the hot water heater and dishwasher needing fixed. Well today, Trinity decided to surprise her with it.
The next stop was the grocery side of the store. She knew she needed food for her place but decided to get it later. This trip was for Joseph and Renée and the children that were with them now.
Smiling a wicked grin, she reached the snack isle and walked up to the cookies. They hardly ever splurged on junk food; always claiming that it rots teeth. Trinity would always joke that their teeth were going to fall out anyway, so why not. That worked pretty well until the kids got older. Oh well, she thought as she placed the snacks in her cart; kids needed treats too. Smiling, she thought of the hardship of taking them home if they didn’t want to keep them. It was a win, win.
While she was browsing the shelves, a family entered the isle. It was hard not to notice them; kids were yelling, others were arguing, and one was…seeing how fast he could skip down the aisle? Man oh man, she thought. They had to have two carts. One held a little girl in the front area, and the other one held a toddler in the big part. Not only that, but there were two older boys walking next to the carts.
As she watched discreetly from the corner of her eye, she saw that all the children were scanning the shelves for their own snack. To top off the chaos, the man and woman were trying to hit each other with their carts, laughing and smiling at each other the whole time. What craziness! Except, it was also something she longed to have someday, a big family. She wanted the husband that looked at her with love in his eyes, and children that thought she was the most wonderful person in the world. There would never be a shortage of people that loved her, and she would never be alone in the world again.
She left the aisle with a sigh and two packages of fudge striped cookies.
Trinity was almost done shopping. Making her way to the produce section, she had to grab some fresh fruits and vegetables. This way she could make up for the sugar snacks by bringing healthy stuff as well.
By the time she was done, she had five full bags of food for them. She couldn’t wait to get out of the store. Walking towards the door, she braced herself to walk out into the…
Where was the rain? Holy cow! It had stopped raining. Was that the sun?
All Trinity could do was stop and stare. The goofy grin on her face matched the other people leaving and entering the store. After two weeks of dreary weather, she was afraid she had forgotten what the sun felt like on her skin. “Glorious!” She thought.
Their summer had been so dry and when it had started raining, the ground had been so hard and couldn’t soak up all the water fast enough. As a result, the river had flooded over at many locations. The whole city had been in an uproar, praying that the rain would stop before more damage occurred. Let’s just hope that this sun is a sign of better weather to come.
Trinity loved this; she got into her car and rolled down her window to let in the fresh air. Turning on her radio, she started driving to the place she used to call home.
When she pulled in the driveway, the house looked deserted. Their van was gone and all the shades in the windows were closed. Damn. She scolded herself for not calling first.
After unloading the car, she went up and knocked on the front door, just in case. When no one came, she placed the bags gently on the ground so she could grab the spare key. She would just put the stuff away, then get going.
When she stepped inside, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath in. The house had always smelled the same and was always comforting to her. It had a faint musty smell blended with a stronger aroma of homemade bread. It was the smell of home.
Trinity went to the kitchen to unload the groceries. When she was finished, she neatly put her surprise on the counter for Renée and wrote a note to both of them that said she was sorry she missed them, she would see them soon, she loved them, oh, and the cookies were in the cupboard. She smiled when she wrote the last part, picturing Renée shaking her head.
She was humming on her way back to her car. It’s amazing what a good night’s rest can do to a person. It could also be the weather, she thought, glancing at the sky. The sun was finally out making the temperature reach into the eighties. With the slight breeze, it was turning out to be a gorgeous day. Climbing into her car, she decided she wasn’t ready to go home yet.
Instead of heading straight home, she decided that she needed some sustenance. There was a new bakery that just opened up close to her house that she wanted to try out. She didn’t have to be anywhere at the moment, so she thought it was the perfect time. “Heck, I might even get Nicci something too. She feeds me enough.” Trinity flicked her lucky miniature troll doll hanging from her mirror. “What do ya think?”
As she was driving, she turned up the radio when a song came on that she hadn’t heard in a long time, and she couldn’t help but sing along. “Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev, Rockefeller, Capinilla, Communist Bloc, Roy Cohn, Jos Parone, Taskanini Da Non, Dah Blah Blah, “Rock around the Clock.” She laughed at the fact that she still got tongue tied on the words after all these years trying to keep up with Billy.
Turning down the radio, Trinity concentrated on where she was. The bakery was a few miles away after the bridge that she was approaching. She was so close, she could practically taste the icing on her tongue when she thought of the sugary selection they would have.
Of course, the moment she thought about it, the traffic over the bridge turned into a standstill. It wasn’t a large bridge, just big enough to go over a break off from the north branch of the river. There was only one lane on either side and the bridge was close to five car lengths long. With cars on all three sides of her and the side of the bridge on the other, she was well and truly stuck.
“Ugh! Come on! What’s going on?” The bridge was full and both sides were at a complete stop. She craned her neck out the window, but couldn’t see what was going on.
All of the sudden, she heard a squeal from outside her car. “Ms. Bradshaw!! Hey, Ms. Bradshaw!!”
She turned her head in the direction she heard the yelling coming from and noticed two of her students waving frantically at her. They were on the opposite side of the bridge, but the cars were positioned in a way where they had a direct line of vision to her. As Trinity gave them a smile and waved, she was racking her brain to remember their names. She knew one was from her third period and the other from fourth. She could even remember where they sat, but she couldn’t think of their…
“Ah, Katie and…Jennifer” she mumbled to herself.
Satisfied by her acknowledgment, they returned their attention to each other and continued to bounce and sing. Ah, to be that carefree…
No cars were moving and it looked as if she was going to be there for a while. While she was waiting, she decided to call Nicci and see what she wanted. She put her phone on speaker when it started to ring and clipped it into its holder. After numerous rings, Nicci finally answered.
“Hey you.”
“So, I got a wild hair up my rear and decided to check out the bakery that just opened. I w
as gonna get you something. What would you like?” Trinity already knew what her friend would say.
“You don’t have to do that.”
Rolling her eyes at her oh so predictable friend, she replied back. “I know I don’t. You always feed me, and now it’s my turn. I’m in a good mood…it’s a nice day…the sun is ou-” Trinity looked out the window and she saw that clouds had rolled back in, and were slowly covering the sun again. The temperature started to slowly drop, but she refused to roll up her window just yet. “Okay, so, the sun was out.”
She heard chuckling on the other side of the phone. “Fine, whatever, what do the donuts look like?”
“I don’t know. I’m not there yet.”
“Oh! Where are you?”
Trinity craned her neck again to try and see what the holdup was. “Grrr…I am stuck on the Washington Bridge. No one’s moving.”
“That stinks. There’s no way to turn around and cross somewhere else?”
“No, I’m boxed in.” Trinity glanced at the river. “It is kind of disheartening to be stuck on a bridge with a raging river below me.”
“I thought you said you were on the Washington Bridge? There’s hardly anything to the river there; how can it be raging?”
She looked back down at the river and remembered what it looked like just a week ago and could understand why Nicci thought what she did. “It’s all the rain we’ve gotten. The water’s up and flowing fast.”
Trinity tried to get back to the sole reason why she had called. “Okay. Do you know what you want, food wise?
“No. You’ll have to call me when you get there to tell…”
The loud rumble outside her car made her interrupt her friend. “Whoa!!”
Just then, the bridge started to shake.
******
Malachi was standing and staring at the river…waiting; just like he had been for the past twenty minutes.
Finally Gideon said exactly what he was thinking. “What the hell are we doing here?”
Terah sighed before explaining herself again. “I don’t know exactly.” She looked over at Malachi but then glanced quickly away before continuing. “I just know that we’re supposed to be here, at this time.”
Everyone just sighed and went back to looking around and…waiting. No one was willing to question Terah when she thought they were supposed to be somewhere.
While everyone was looking everywhere else, he was looking at Terah. She had been acting strange ever since she had mentioned this to everyone; avoiding him and never making eye contact. He knew that she was hiding something and he vowed to find out what soon enough.
For now, he went back to observing his surroundings. They had come to a place by the river. It was a secluded area with trees sporadically placed in a large open area. The width of the river had increased dramatically, making it engulf trees that were once beside the water. The amounts of rainfall had also increased the speed of the current, thus increasing the danger. The looks were ominous, but it was not different from other places in the city.
Looking up, he watched as clouds drifted back over the sun. It was nice while it lasted, he thought. Along with the wind and rain, it was turning out to be another shitty day, weather wise.
Malachi looked over his right shoulder to the bridge they were near. He could see how the cars weren’t moving and saw the construction workers on either side. Already thinking that it was odd to have both sides stopped, he looked closer at what the men were doing.
After a few minutes of watching, he noticed the workers were leaving the bridge and convening on one side of the river, opposite of them. The workers started to walk parallel to the river in their direction. By this time, everyone on his team had zeroed in on the men and were waiting for something to happen.
Finally, the crew had walked the distance of the river and when they were directly across, turned their attention to the team. Slowly the construction crew parted to reveal a finer dressed man in the middle of them all. Malachi’s whole body stiffened. The man looked to be in his early thirties and was wearing a pinstripe suit that did nothing to disguise his build. All the while, he had a smirk on his face while he twirled the cane he was holding, staring at only Malachi the whole time
Everyone gave a collective gasp. “Who is that?” Tori asked in shock.
“Wow” was all Terah could manage to get out.
His four teammates all looked confused as to what was going on, but Malachi knew exactly who he was staring at. He had met him once before and knew he would never forget the man who had almost killed him years ago. “Azazel”
“What did you say?” Gemariah asked as if he couldn’t believe what he had heard.
“That’s Azazel.” Malachi said through gritted teeth as he unsheathed his sword. His entire team drew their weapons as well when they finally snapped to attention.
Gemariah stepped up to Malachi who wouldn’t take his eyes off the fallen one. “Are you ready for this?”
Malachi didn’t think he could get any more ready. “Oh yeah.”
“Well then…we got your back. Be careful.”
The moment Gemariah got done speaking, Azazel’s smirk widened into a full grin, as if he knew what was going through Malachi’s head and thought the idea was funny. He watched as Azazel’s hand came up and gave a mock salute.
At that moment, everyone’s attention was drawn to the bridge as a deep roar sounded from its direction. They watched as the areas where the bridge met land fell into the river once they were destroyed. In the next instant, the pillars holding up the bridge exploded, followed by the middle, which made the bridge crumble into the river. The screams could be heard from where they were standing when the bridge started to collapse.
When Malachi looked back over to where Azazel was, the area was empty. No! He was gone!! He knew he couldn’t let him get away, not when he had spent a few lifetimes searching for him and now was so close. He took a step in that direction but was stopped when Tori grabbed his arm.
“You can’t, Malachi! Not today, not now.” Pointing to where the bridge used to stand, she continued. “There are a lot of people there that will need you and your ability.”
He stared at the spot his great grandfather had just stood. He wanted more than anything to go after him. His inner demons were struggling with indecision, until Gemariah came over to him.
“Don’t give in man. This is your chance to prove you’re nothing like him. You have two choices; save or destroy. If you walk away from this, you will be letting people die that you could have helped. Pick the one that makes you a better man. You will find him again and get your chance. I promise!”
He knew everything Gemariah said was true, but it was still hard. Without saying a word, he squared his shoulders, sheathed his weapon, and turned in the direction of the bridge.
******
“Oh my God!!” Trinity threw her hands out to brace herself at the first shake.
“What? Rin! What’s going on?” Trinity could hear the panic in her friend’s voice from the phone.
She started looking around frantically for an explanation, and then there was a loud sound of an explosion. She quickly placed her hands over her ears, but it didn’t stop the now ringing sound coming from them.
Breathing heavy and starting to panic, she looked towards the car that held Katie and Jennifer. They were clearly scared and started to open their doors to get out when the section of the bridge in front of her car exploded. Dust and debris flew up in the air all the way across the bridge, successfully cutting it in half.
That’s when everything started happening at once. They were starting to fall. The bridge was actually collapsing!
She could hear Nicci yelling into the phone; wondering what was going on.
“The bridge…The bridge!!!” That was all Trinity got yelled out before she had to brace herself for impact. She didn’t know if she was going to hit water, or pieces of the bridge, but all she could do at his point was hold on. She squeeze
d her eyes shut and held her breath…
When she finally hit, it was mostly water. That didn’t mean it was a soft landing by any means, but she was still alive! Luckily she still had been wearing her seatbelt, but that didn’t stop her from getting knocked around a few times. The injury on the side of her head proved it.
There was a split second of stillness, after the car came to a rest upside down in the river. It was starting to sink, hood first, and she knew she had to act fast. She pulled herself out the window, but was immediately swept away by the water’s current.
Trinity struggled to keep her head above the water and thought she was going to drown a few different times. The current would drag her under, spin her every which way, and spit her back out. This happened a few times, and she knew she was losing a lot of energy fighting to stay afloat.
She saw a tree coming up and thought to make a grab for it. When the time came, she missed the branch she was trying for and the movement sent her spinning under water again. When she surfaced, Trinity blurrily saw another tree up ahead. She knew she didn’t have much more fight in her and this could possibly be her last chance.
She stretched and reached for the tree…she missed. At the last second her palm skimmed a small twig coming off a branch and she latched onto it for dear life. Grunting from trying to exert more energy than she had, she pulled herself up to the thicker branch and was able to maneuver herself to the trunk.
Trinity was trying frantically to catch her breath but was unsuccessful. Unbelievably, she made it! Then she started thinking about all the other people on the bridge and wondering how they were fairing. Turning her head the direction she came from, she strained her eyes trying to find anyone, but saw nothing. She noted there were no flashing lights and figured no one had arrived yet.
“What am I going to do?” she mumbled to herself. Should she try to swim to shore now that she had her bearings back or stay in the tree until someone finds her?
Trinity looked down at herself to judge the condition she was in. Her arms along with her hands were covered in small wounds from the tree and her entire body felt bruised. That was not including the massive headache she had from when her car fell. Overall, she didn’t think she was strong enough to make it to land.
Celestial Beginnings (Nephilim Series) Page 9
