Evil Agreement (39 page)

Suddenly gunshots rang out. In rapid succession coven members
fall to the ground, shot dead.

Kelley looks over and sees
Korie
with a smoking gun in her hand.

In a furious rage, Kelley extends her left hand at
Korie
and suddenly the gun flies from
Korie’s
hand. Now on the ground, the gun turns white hot and melts away.

Kelley lifts her arm and
Korie
is
lifted into the air.

Miss Beacon shouts at Kelley.

“Moloch, you are weak and a failure. How many times have you
failed Lucifer?”

Angrily Kelley sweeps her right hand towards Miss Beacon who
is suddenly picked up into the air and tossed backwards several feet. She lands
on top of several church members, knocking them down in the process.

Aaron reaches out his own right hand. He is able to retrieve
Korie
as he lowers her back to the ground.

“I will destroy you,” shouts Kelley.

“Your mission has failed.” Gesturing to the souls he says,
“They demand justice. They are here to bear witness to your failure.”

“I will bring Lucifer,” said Kelley.

“You will bring nothing. You are going to go back to hell
where you belong. You will answer to Lucifer for your failure.”

Kelley stretches out her two arms towards Aaron. A huge ball
of hellfire flies towards him. He holds up his own hands and the fireball
vaporizes.

Kelley jumps down from the altar and reaches her hands into
the air above her head. She flings them towards Aaron. Lightning bolts crackle
as they erratically fly from her hands towards Aaron. Once again, he raises his
own hands and these lightning bolts rebound off of him back towards Kelley. The
lightning misses her and explodes into the ground.

The crowd begins to back away.

“To hell,” shouted many of the souls “Send him back,” shout
others.

“Kelley, listen to my voice,” said Aaron.

“You wish to speak to Kelley,” bellows Moloch. “There is no
Kelley.”

“Yes, there is. Kelley together we can cast him out.”

Kelley now rushes towards Aaron. It is clear her intent is to
get her hands on him, to kill him.

He raises his right hand and signals the sign of the cross in
the air in front of him.

Kelley stops, cringing at this gesture.

“I call upon all of the saints, the angels and archangels,
God’s faithful and the Holy Trinity. It is they who now command you to leave
this woman.”

Kelley throws up her arms as if to ward off his words.

“Get away from her. Leave her body and spirit now. We command
you to go.”

“I’m not leaving. She’s mine. Together we will bring forth
Lucifer,” said Kelley with less conviction than before.

Aaron steps towards her. She backs away. He moves still
closer. She continues to retreat. Suddenly he reaches out to her. He places his
right hand on her head. A huge explosion of light bursts out from under his
palm.

Moloch lets out a huge cry, “No!”

“By all the power of goodness, by all that is holy, we the
faithful hereby call upon Christ our Savior, the Holy Spirit, and God the
Creator, in their name we now command you to go. Leave this person, leave this
place. Return to the eternity of damnation that is your place.”

Kelley’s body begins to shake. Her entire body flashes back
and forth from that of a young woman to one possessed by Moloch.

The ground shakes.

Suddenly Kelley’s mouth opens and a twirling series of lights
swirl out of her into the air.

Her body falls limply to the ground. She begins to evolve
back into human form. Meanwhile the twirling lights explode into the air. Now
standing over Aaron and Kelley is the ever-menacing Moloch.

Aaron turns and steps between Moloch and Kelley.

Moloch glares at Aaron. His snake like tongue flicks the air.

The two stare at each other.

Aaron reaches up and joins his hands in a prayerful clasp. He
then opens his hands, and faces his palms towards Moloch. From his palms moves
a bluish light which spreads out in front of him. This light appears to be
composed of hundreds of tiny hands, all facing Moloch palm side forward. As
these hands reach Moloch, his figure suddenly implodes. Moloch is now
vanquished.

Korie
runs to Aaron and throws her
arms around him. She kisses him several times.

Kelley stands up and is fully clothed, as she was when she
first arrived. She also runs over and hugs Aaron and
Korie
.

“Miss Beacon!” said Aaron.

The three of them turn and search the crowd for her. She is
nowhere to be seen.

Many in the crowd are walking around holding their heads.

“What happened” says one. “What are we doing up here?” said
another.

Samuel’s body twists and cavorts on the ground as his evil
spirit struggles to extricate itself from his body. He moans softly.

Kelley and
Korie
both go to him.

Kneeling next to him Kelley strokes his hair.

“Are you okay?” she asks.

He reaches up and touches his throat. It’s still very tender.

“Ouch,” he says.

“Samuel, say something!” said Kelley.

“Don’t call me Samuel. You know I hate that. Where are we
anyway?”

Kelley looks at
Korie
and they both
smile.

Aaron continues to look for Miss Beacon. It seems she has
disappeared. Aaron noticed the souls, the source of his righteous power had
also vanished as well.

People began to drift to the trail road to leave the
mountain.

Aaron knew his work wasn’t quite done. The members of the
coven are collapsed on the ground. Their bodies are trapped in a
half-transformed state. One by one he approaches each coven member, reaching
out to them, as he had with Moloch just moments before. The same bluish light
and tiny hands push out towards the coven members. Soon the member’s bodies
give up their fiendish hell mates. The coven member’s clothes reappear as well.
One by one they regain consciousness and stand up. Soon they also begin to
leave the clearing.

He couldn’t do anything for Ed, the Judge or the Reverend.
Their fates were well beyond his reach.

Aaron walks over towards the woods next to the changing tent.
Just beyond was the cemetery of his ancestors. He went and stood next to the
wrought iron gate. Standing just inside the gate is Aaron’s mother. Behind her
is Aaron’s grandmother and so on. They all approach the gate. One by one they
reach across and hug him.

His mother hugs him last. She reaches up and caresses his
head with her hands, then she pulls him to her and she kisses him on the
forehead. When he raises his head up he notices that they are all gone.

Sadly he turns back towards the clearing.

Aaron heads over to Kelley,
Korie
and Sammy. Together they leave the clearing and head back down the mountain.

***

The front door to
Mojo’s
is open.
Aaron and
Korie
step inside. Aaron pays the attendant
the required cover charge. In a moment, a young man comes up to them and
escorts them to a table for two on the left side of the room. A house band is
playing a Junior Wells blues classic called
Messin
’
with the Kid
.

Aaron and
Korie
sit down. In a
moment a young woman comes by and asks, “Can I get you folks something to
drink?”

“Sure, I’ll have a Green Slime,” said Aaron.

“I’ll have Sex on the Beach,” said
Korie
.

“Are you guys sure these are real drinks?” asked the woman.

“Trust us,” said
Korie
.

“Okay,” said the waitress as she turns and heads over to the
bar.

“I like this place,” said Aaron.

“Yeah, me too,” said
Korie
. “I’m
glad we decided to come back.”

Just then someone slapped Aaron on the back.

“Hey man, how’re
doin
?” asked a
familiar voice.

Aaron turned around and recognized the club’s owner, Ron.

“We’re doing fine, just fine.”

“That’s cool. Say, you know the last time you two were here?”

“Yeah,” said Aaron.

“Do you remember a crazy son of a bitch looking to get his
hands on you?”

“Yeah.”

“Mean bastard.”

“You could say that.”

“He tried
messin
’ with me. I knew I
couldn’t stop him but I tried to slow him up for you guys.”

“You did good.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” said Aaron.

“Is he still after you?”

“No. Let’s just say that he won’t be bothering anyone
anymore.”

“I see!” said Ron.

“Everything’s cool. Just Cool!” said Aaron.

The house band announced their next song. It was a song written
by Bono, from the band U2, for B.B. King. The song’s title is
When Love
Comes to Town
.

The band began to play.

“You guys going to be staying in town for long?” asked Ron.

“Don’t know yet,” said Aaron.

“Well, you’re always welcome. Would you like to see my new
Fender
Strat
? It once belonged to Albert King.”

Korie
looked over at Aaron. She
reached across the table and touched his hand and said, “You two go on. I’ll be
okay, really.”

Aaron pushed himself away from the table and stood up. He and
Ron began to head back stage. The waitress arrived with their drinks.

Aaron looked back at the table and spoke up, “Hey, Angel, put
that table on my tab.”

The waitress nodded as she put the two drinks down on the
table.

“Did he just call you Angel?” asked
Korie
.

“Yeah” said the waitress. It’s my name, see,” she said as she
showed her nametag to
Korie
.

Korie
looked at the nametag and
sure enough it said, “Angel.”

“Today’s my first day.”

“Uh-huh,” said
Korie
as she looked
into the waitress’ eyes.

For a brief moment they looked at each other.

Korie
smiled and then Angel, the
waitress, smiled as well.

“Well, Angel, good luck with the job.”

“Thanks,” she responded. “If it’s okay, I’ll come back in a
little while, for your dinner order.”

“Sure.”

The waitress turned and left.

Korie
watched her walk away.

Aaron and Ron were heading back to their table. Ron was
carrying a guitar and Aaron was toting a bass guitar.

Korie
smiled at the sight of those
two bluesmen
wannabees
.

She turned and looked across the room and noticed that Angel
was watching, too.

***

It was an extremely humid night in the jungle. The daytime
temperature had been over one hundred degrees. While the nighttime temperature
had fallen to below seventy-five degrees, the humidity still remained.

Under lamplight, a man was mixing certain ‘over the counter’
chemicals, along with number two fuel oil, in a large blue plastic thirty
gallon barrel. He slowly stirred the mix. He was mixing homemade explosives for
a bomb he was building.

Several other men were huddled nearby over a large map, which
was unfolded over the hood of a beat up old Toyota pickup truck. They were busy
discussing their plans.

These men were part of the
Cinque
Liberos
, a so-called people’s revolutionary army, seeking
to overthrow the government of Columbia.
Ever since the U.S. Government had aided in the Colombian Army’s coup of their
government, the new military government had been able to wage a successful
campaign against the drug lords. The drug lords had been striking back with a
fury.

Assassinations and bombings had been going on nearly non-stop
for over a year.

The U.S. was sending its top law enforcement official,
General Francis Templeton, Drug Czar, to Columbia to meet with the Colombian
President, as a show of solidarity with the struggles of the new Columbian
government. The terrorists had learned of this meeting and were planning to set
off several bombs at the meeting site.

One of the men looking over the map said, “I would kiss the
ass of the devil himself to be sure that our plans would succeed.”

“Yeah, me, too,” said another.

The other men nodded their agreement.

“Maybe I could be of some assistance,” said the voice of a
stranger who stepped out of the darkness.

In an instant, all the men drew their guns.

The man mixing the explosives didn’t. He was too busy praying
that bullets didn’t start flying, not while he was standing next to the
explosives.

“Who are you?” demanded one of the men.

“My name is Moloch.”

Acknowledgments

I have received support and encouragement from so many
people. Where does one begin? For me, it begins with my parents, Reginald and
Rose
Hatin
, who encouraged me to read anything and
everything. They instilled in me a willingness to dream, to take risks and to
embrace a mantra that “nothing is impossible.” My very best friend and wife,
Anne, has always shared my passion for reading and writing and is always the
first to read and critique my writing. She faithfully gives me a “readers”
perspective.

My oldest son R. Joel
Hatin
is a
talented computer expert who is responsible for the design of my website
www.richardhatin.com. He will also serve as my expert on all things, “social
media.” My second son Aaron
Hatin
designs all the
covers for my novels and is in his own right a gifted and talented computer and
video artist. My youngest son Brady
Hatin
is a very
creative and talented man who has introduced me to new things in art and
literature which challenge and motivates me. Thanks guys!

I also need to thank Liz Thomas who has volunteered to read
my material and has lent a critical eye when necessary.
 

I also need to thank the dozens of friends, family, and
neighbors who have volunteered their time to read drafts of my novels. Their
feedback and encouragement has provided me with needed fuel, that I drawn upon,
as I continue to write.

I also wish to thank Lisa Kimball, who got everything rolling
for me by introducing me to her friend, Tim Packman, an accomplished and
recognized writer of family friendly books. Tim listened to my story about
struggling to get published and offered his own excellent advice and
encouragement. He introduced me to Cathy Teets, President of Headline Books.
Cathy listened to my “pitch” and took a chance on me by considering samples of
my work. I owe a big thank you to Cathy and her staff for all that they have
done on my behalf.