Black 01 - Black Rain (11 page)

I put my arm around Dino’s shoulders when he starts to break down and cry as he shakes Dad’s hand.

“Dino, you a good boy, and you grew up to be a fine man. Always remember that, son,” Dad responds.

“Dad, I’m about to leave, but I’ll be back. You take care and you know I love you, right?”

“Joe, you know I know that. Take care, son, and come back in one piece. I’m not going anywhere until you get back, so take care of your business, and get that woman back here safe now, you hear?”

I grab my father’s hand and with my other wipe the tear from my eye.

“Yes, sir!”

Chapter 6

Chase can’t stop the flow of tears from streaming down her face. She falls upon the hotel bed, kicks off her shoes and hugs the pillows to her.

She wonders what Agent James is doing to help her out of this situation. She knows Joe is on his way, but with Dread moving them around so much, finding her will be very difficult.

They’ll return to Nebraska in the morning and she sure as hell hopes there won’t be any more surprise ad-ventures like tonight’s. She rolls onto her back. Rain taps the window and tiny droplets roll down the win-dowpane as the lightning lights up the sky. The thunder booms from far off, but it’s getting closer each time. A knock comes at the door, and before she can answer, Dread walks in and sits next to her on the bed. The ran-cid scent of cigar fills his clothes.

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“Why do you cry in the dark, my dear? You have everything. I make you happy, no?”

Chase wants to run and hide, but is too tired to move.

She decides to play along, but won’t give in to any sexual advances from him.

“Dread, I’m just tired of all the killing and the drama from earlier this evening. I’m also not happy with the way my fight ended in Nebraska. I’m sure you understand.”

“Don’t be foolish, love. It’s only business. I do like dat honesty about you though, Chase,” he says as he squeezes her ass.

She grabs his hand and removes it from her backside.

“Dread, I have to tell you that groping really gets on my nerves. I’m not a football. You need to learn something about being romantic. I realize—especially after today—that you take what you want, but I’m not one of those things. I give my body to whom I choose.” She sits up and moves away from him.

Dread grabs Chase by the waist and pulls her closer to him. “Really? Well, people have been taking from me since I was a child of God. I thought I was pleasing you, Chase, but maybe I’ve been wrong. I’ve been very patient wit’ you, woman, because I do care, but do not take my kindness for weakness, okay?”

She does not like the tone, nor his hand moving up her inner thigh. How to keep him talking to take his mind off her? This situation is going to get violent.

“What do you mean by people taking advantage of you since you were a child of God? You really don’t seem like a person who would want to kill and hurt people. You do believe in God, don’t you?”

A loud burst of thunder, the wind picks up and rain
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pounds the windows of the hotel room. The rumble feels like a freight train across the street. The cool dew-mist of moisture invades the air and Dreads hand slips from her thigh. The force of the wind blows the curtains from side to side, and, as a streak of blue-green lightning explodes across the night sky, it reveals a disturbed frown upon Dread’s handsome face. His lower lip quivers.

He slowly gets up and walks to the window. His massive frame blocks the wind that grabs his black wavy hair and tosses it in the cool breeze. He almost looks majestic. His body is illuminated as the glow from the lightning outside flashes against his masculine sil-houette in the darkness. He turns and looks at Chase with a blank, lost expression; he seems to be stirring up haunting memories.

“Chase, I care about you enough to tell you dis. I have never told anyone, but perhaps it will shed some light on me. I truly do want you to understand me. My family is from Cuba and they are devout Catholics. I was a young altar boy who helped priests at church during service. We had a beautiful and spacious church right off the coastline in Havana. It was made of dark-red clay and brick, but we had stained-glass windows and the church was adorned with brass.”

Dread walks toward the balcony. He pushes the curtains to one side and looks out the window, rubbing his thick arms cooled by the night air as he continues. “There was a glass oval in the ceiling so the sun would shine on da congregation and the moon would shine in at night. It was so beautiful. I still remember the huge wooden hand-carved crucifix at da back of the altar. Jesus looked down with his arms
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outstretched for mankind. We were well off because my father was a cattle rancher, but our community was poor. We had status in da church because we were good contributors.”

Dread walks over to the bed and sits next to her as the storm rolls past and the rain calms to light showers.

It is cool and Chase starts to relax after the day’s stress.

Dread lies across the bed with his large hands under the back of his head, staring at the rain-kissed windows.

He continues. “I would serve mass at church three times a week. I was nine years old and it was raining just like tonight. My father had to get home to help get his herd of cattle, and Father Guevara Morales promised to get me home safe. He said he needed help getting the church in order after the service, so my mom and dad agreed. I liked Father Morales. He was a good man and always treated me special. Our church community loved him, as did my family. He came to my home often for dinner.”

Chase moves around on the bed fidgeting. Is he going to get to the point soon? “Dread, it’s getting late and I’ve had a long day. Are we close to where this story is going?” She wants him to quickly finish or change the story. She can feel it’s not going to have a good ending and that only spells trouble for her.

The wind has died down, but the rain is steadily pour-ing. The flashes of lightning are like a strobe light as Dread moves quickly toward her. She throws her hands up. He stops in front of her and runs his hands across his head. He takes a deep breath with his eyes closed, but his jawbone twitches. He slowly gathers his composure.

“Chase, darling, have some patience. Try and understand what I am trying to say to you. Please let me keep
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to the subject. I’m trying to be open to you. Do you not understand how hard dis is for me?”

Chase gathers herself and gives him her full attention, knowing very well that she has just dodged a violent confrontation. She says a silent prayer that he continue.

“Father Morales asked me if I was hungry and I said yes. The ladies of the church always made sure our priests had plenty to eat, so we walked to the rectory where Father Morales resided. There was food a-plenty and we ate till we had our fill. There was chicken, beef, all kind of vegetables and desserts. It was still raining very hard. It was hurricane season, but it was becoming dark very fast. I was kind of scared, so I asked Father Morales to take me home to my family. He knelt next to me, placed his hand on my shoulder and started to gently massage it. I pulled back.”

A loud thunder boomed and they both were startled.

Chase placed her hand on her chest to ease her rapid heartbeat. Dread walked back to the window and settled against the frame, letting the mist of the storm gently spray his muscular body.

“Chase, I’m sorry dis is difficult for me. I have never told anyone this story and I’m not sure why I reveal it to you now, but I feel I must.”

A childlike expression of innocence crosses his face as tears well in his eyes. She sees a human side of Dread, it’s as though he’s reaching out to her. She’s not sure if it’s that he trusts her with such a hidden secret or that he really cares.

“Take your time, I’m not going anywhere.” She’s surprised by the words slipping from her mouth.

“As I was saying, he was rubbing my shoulder and I
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asked to go home. He started to tell me how a priest was da holiest thing next to God. He sensed there was an evil presence in me and asked did I know anything about exorcism? I told him no and he began to tell me how demons gets into da body and only priests trained in exorcism could expunge the demons out. I was a devout Catholic, so I was scared. I asked him to help me and started crying. He said he would, but I had to trust him.”

Dread shifts his weight in the window, like he is shifting the haunted memories in his mind.

“Father Morales walk me over to the couch. He lit candles and turned off the lights. I think I was more scared of the shadows than the lightning, wind and thunder from the storm. Father Morales came to me and pulled a small bottle of holy oil from his pocket. He starts to unbuckle my pants, but I pulled away. He says he was only going to bless me to keep the demons away.

I still resisted, but he yanked my pants and underwear down to my knees. I was confused. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was exorcising me. He gripped my neck wit’ his right hand as he unfastened his pants wit’ his left.”

Dread wipes tears from his eyes. The pain he must have endured in holding all this in for so long! He runs his fingers through his thick mane and stares out the window. After a few moments pass, he slowly turns to her and continues.

“He pinned me to the armrest of da couch wit’ his body as he poured the holy oil in his palm and rubbed it on his penis. He forced me to bend over and raped me.

I was so ashamed and I knew he had to be the demon inside of me. I wondered why God would abandon me.

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I served Him well and prayed to Him every night. I didn’t deserve dat. Father Morales exorcised me several times over the next couple of years.”

Dread’s hands are formed into clenched fists at his side. “He would always make me take communion after his sexual exploitation. I would hold the host under my tongue and would never swallow the wine. He would try to force me to kiss him but I never would. He would even perform oral sex on me, but I just plotted my revenge. I went to our bishop and he slapped me. He told me to repent from such filthy lies and slander.”

Dread crashes into the wall with his fist. The loud cracking sound startles Chase and she shudders, wondering if he has broken his hand. Dread did not respond to the pain, just stares out of the window.

“Father Morales was at our home so much my dog even accepted him. The dog wouldn’t even bark when he climbed into my bedroom window at night to rape me. My dad wondered what was wrong after I nailed my bedroom windows shut. I told him that I feared the night and we left it at that. I think my dad might have suspected something, but was not sure. He never asked me outright. After three years of attacks, I had had enough and plotted my revenge.” A sinister grin spreads over Dread’s face.

“After Sunday service, once again I was at da rectory.

I had ground some glass and placed it in da gravy that Father Morales poured over his potatoes. I also crushed a cow-tranquilizer pill and emptied it in his tea. When Father Morales had me in his room pinned to his bed, he started coughing up blood. The glass had worked, cutting his insides. I broke loose from him and watched
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as he staggered and stumbled, asking me for help. I grabbed my baseball bat that I had hidden from under his bed and hit him as hard as I could in his chest. He was short of breath and coughed up blood. I was not ready to kill him yet. I wanted him to suffer like me.”

Dread turns to Chase, a distorted, enraged, sadistic look in his eyes and face. It dissolves any sympathy she might have felt for him. He walks closer to her and the damp night air caresses her as the chill bumps of cold and fear creep upon her skin.

“I kicked him in the gut a few times and had him unbuckle his pants. I made him turn over and grabbed da holy oil that he used on me and let him watch me as I oiled the butt of the baseball bat. I hit his ass hard as I could in the back to keep him still, then forced the butt of the bat into his ass as he’d forced himself into me. He screamed as I had, and it gave me joy. It was exhilarating. The more I forced the bat into him, the more he screamed.”

Dread chuckles under his breath. “I finally had mercy on him and went to his kitchen and grabbed a butcher’s knife and bourbon whiskey. I came back up to his room and cut his throat, then poured a fifth of whiskey on him and set his ass on fire. I wanted him to burn like he was in hell. I watched him squirm as the fire consumed him.

I had never experienced an erection before and I even ejaculated. It was divine.”

Dread sits next to Chase, putting his hand on her thigh. She was about to throw up. His eyes are ablaze in the darkness and he wears a smile.

“I went down to his garage and got the gasoline for the lawn mower. I burned that rectory down wit’ him in it. I ran home and never told anyone what had happened. I
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believe the bishop suspected me, but who would question a child for something so sinister? My cousin worked on the police force. He’s the one that helped me come over to America and get settled wit’ some relatives here.”

“Do you ever regret what you did to the priest?”

Chase asks.

Dread gives a half laugh. “Do you think dat fuckin’

priest faggot gave a damn about me? He got what he deserved. I sent him in a fireball straight to hell.”

Dread coolly gets up and walks away from Chase. He locks the door and saunters back slowly to the bed while unzipping his pants. The thought of having sex with Dread at this point turns her stomach. Chase refuses to be used like a common whore and tries to run to get to her gun, but he grabs her and hits her in the head. She feels her clothes being snatched off as she blacks out from the powerful blow to the back of her head.

Chapter 7