Jack's Back ((Ascension: Book 2)) (9 page)

Contemplating the Apocalypse

Melanie slept in the bean bag chair in Jessie's room. The boy had turned the volume of the TV all the way down while he played video games but once in a while, her eyes would flutter open when he clicked the buttons on the game controller with too much vigor.

Her dreams were an odd mix of hope, despair, murder and love. A single tear rolled out of her eye as she dreamt. Jessie crept towards her and gently wiped it away. As he got back in bed her fevered dreams evaporated and she slept peacefully.

Luke sat on the sofa in the living room, deep in thought. He hadn't tried to stop Melanie from sleeping in the child's room. He knew she was overly protective. Plus he just didn't give a shit.

They hadn't slept in
the same bed since he'd broken out of hell. It wasn't that he was repulsed by her or anything. He worried that if he had sex with her he'd show up on God's radar. Angels weren't allowed to mate with humans. It was a huge no-no, and any angel found breaking the rule would be dealt with swiftly and mercilessly (and he would always technically be an angel, no matter how much his hatred morphed him internally).

But only a month ago, a
message had come through the ether. Apparently, one lucky angel would finally get to impregnate a human but it couldn't just be any girl (like Melanie). The girl had been pre-chosen.

He could only imagine his brothers
clambering over one another for the chance to create a new age messiah. It wouldn't matter though. A messiah born of human and angel wouldn't be able to do shit to affect the world if Lucifer's plans played out the way they were supposed to.

In fact, it was a fortunate turn of events. According to an article he'd read, the girl was less than fifty miles from him and every angel would be making a beeline for her. When they arrived for the ceremonial raping, they would hopefully be close enough to pay attention to what he was doing
with his church.

Because that was his ultimate goal. He had to convince an angel that the apocalypse was coming and hope that the angel reported it back to the boss. So far
none of his idiotic brothers had shown up, but if the girl was still chaste there was still a chance.

The alternative was less than appealing.  In lieu of an angel just happening upon his doorstep because it was in the neighborhood, he'd have to ramp things up, get a hundred million followers
or more and then wait for the angels to appear, wondering what all the fuss is about.

But he didn't want to do that. He had charisma, but getting that many people to pay attention to what he had to say could take a decade
or more.

He wondered if he should somehow try and reach the girl. Maybe offer her safe harbor or something. At least introduce himself. No, he had to be subtle. He couldn't risk his brothers seeing him for who he really is.

He'd bide his time and pray for good luck.

He wondered, not for the first time, where those c
reatures Jessie had conjured up had gone off to. He wanted to dismiss their appearance as a fluke but the more he dwelled on it, the more paranoid he became. Of course, he could kill all of them with nothing more than a thought, but still. They were pesky and they weren't supposed to be here.

And what of the military? He'd just wiped out a bunch of them and he had to admit that it felt great to flex his muscle
s, but were there going to be others?

He put all of that trifling
bullshit to the back of his mind. Obstacles like those were easily removed and he had bigger fish to fry. He had to invoke the apocalypse.

Stockholm Syndrome

Jack stared at Shelly as she drove them back home.

He must have been too obvious because she said, "What the fuck is it?"

Jack thought long and hard before responding. "Listen, I don't think Lucifer's going to fall into our trap. The fact that he hasn't rape
d you already is proof enough he doesn't care about God's little prophesy."

"Then why the hell am I here?"

"Because I was clutching at straws. You were my only lead, but I'm pretty sure now that you're not going to draw him out like I had hoped."

"What does that mean then? Are you cutting me loose?"

"Yes. You're free to go as soon as we get back to the house."

"Tough shit. I'm staying. And you're going to stop angels from assaulting me, got it?"

Jack laughed aloud. "You don't give the orders around here girl. God has a plan for you. In case you haven't noticed, God and I aren't exactly on speaking terms. By association, you're my enemy. Consider yourself lucky that I've protected you this much."

"Fuck that. I'd rather be a right hand man to Sat
an than a boot polisher to God. I may not be useful as a lure for Lucifer but I attract a shit load of angels and one of them is bound to know where Lucifer's hiding."

"I don't think so. Lucifer will be laying low. I don't know if he
's still cooking up a scheme to take over or if he's just enjoying life outside of hell, but either way, he wants to avoid detection at all costs."

" I don't care Jack. I'm staying."

Jack opened his mouth to disagree but Dick-eyes scurried forward from the back seat and crawled on top of Jack's head. Jack stared up at it and after a few seconds of silence, he nodded.

He said to Shelly, "Dick-eyes here thinks we need to keep you with us. He's worried you'll buckle and tell an angel what we're doing here and the angel will tell God."

"So now I'm your captive?"

"It appears so."

"Good. You don't need to tie me up or anything because I'm going nowhere."

Jack groaned out loud but Shelly knew it was for show.

Death to Jessie

Simon saw his chance. Lucifer had left for the morning and the rest of the house was silent as the grave. He told Steven, his fellow patroller, that he was going inside to take a leak.

Steven argued with him that it was against the rules but Simon lied and told him that Luke had said it's ok because their port-a-potty
in the back yard was overflowing (he'd seen Steven relieving himself at the back fence on several occasions so he knew he didn't have a clue about the state of the port-a-potty).

Steven mulled it over and finally let it go. It wouldn't have mattered though, Simon was going inside, with or without permission because the son of Lucifer was being hidden away in there
and he was defenseless at the moment.

He knew he didn't have the strength to defeat Lucifer, but he could take
out the kid, no problem.

He walked up to and then through the front door.

The girlfriend was in the living room in her pajamas nursing a steaming cup of coffee. Her eyes went wide at first when Simon walked in, but she recognized him and waved. "What's up Simon?"

"Sorry for barging in miss, but the port-a-potty's out of order and I was hoping I could sneak in and use your restroom. I didn't know you were awake or I'd have knocked first."

"Don't worry about it. I'll leave the door unlocked until Luke gets the port-a-potty replaced."

"Thank you so much."

"Do you know where the bathroom is?"

"Yeah. Thanks again." Simon walked down the hall, and when he was out of earshot, let out a heavy sigh
of relief. He hated that he had to do this. Melanie was a sweetheart and the kid was cool enough, but there was no other way.

He reached into his cramped waist band and pulled out the revolver. It was heavy in his hands. He would make this as quick as possible. When the boy was dead, he'd push a round through Melanie, just in case there was more to her than met the eye, and then he'd camp by the front door and wait for Luke to come wandering in. He was pretty sure a bullet wouldn't kill Lucifer, but he'd be an idiot to not try. If it did nothing, he'd eat his own gun and call it a mission accomplished.

He slowly slid the boys bedroom door open.

Jessie the Conundrum

Melanie jumped at the gunshot report. Her coffee went all over her
pants and into her shoes, but she barely noticed the burns. She ran towards the noise and realized in horror that it had come from Jessie's room. There was a single wisp of smoke from gunpowder floating in the hall outside his bedroom.

She pushed his door open and was stunned at what she saw. Jessie was glowing with a faint light, like a halo. He was standing on his bed. There was a man face down on the floor, dead. But there wasn't any blood. Jessie was staring at the man with an intensity Melanie had never witnessed before. All at once the man burst into a flash of brilliant light and when the light diminished,
his body vanished.

Melanie looked to Jessie again. His glow faded as he slumped back into the bed.

Despite all the crazy shit she'd seen over the past year, she was momentarily speechless. Finally she stammered, "What the fuck just happened? Did you do that?"

Jessie seem
ed to be mulling over what he should say. Eventually he said, "He came in with a gun and shot at me. I had no choice."

Melanie ran to him and started to roughly inspect his body for bullet wounds.

"Where did he hit you?"

Jessie pointed at his own face but there were no marks, let alone a fatal gaping bullet wound.

She said, "I don't understand."

"I can't tell you everything Melanie but just know that I'm more than just a weird
little boy and it'll take more than a silly little gun to kill me."

She shook her head, trying to make sense of what he was saying.

He continued, "Promise me you won't breath a word of this to Luke."

"What's to say? He wouldn't believe me anyway."

"He would. He knows something's coming. If you told him, he'd worry."

Melanie had a sort of epiphany. Well, it had been a lingering suspicion but she'd managed to squash it whenever it had come to her in the past. She asked, "Is Luke Jack or is he Lucifer?"

"I think you know."

That was all she needed to hear. She said, "Alright then, get your shit, we're getting the
fuck out of here."

Jessie shook his head sadly. "We can't go. Jack is back and he's coming for us."

"What? My Jack? He's coming for us? If fake Jack is Lucifer that means my Jack is in hell. How did he escape?"

"
I can't give you many answers and for that I'm truly sorry. You'll see."

"Ugh. What the hell has my life become?"

He answered, "What it was always meant to be."

She stared at the boy. "Ok then, what the fuck are you?"

He looked down and whispered, "When you find out, I don't think you'll love me anymore."

That softened her and she said, "I'll always love you, no matter what you tell me."

He said, "It won't be long before everything is clear."

She shook her head, had one last look around, and shut the door behind her as she left the room.
It was all too much to take in. Her disgust had been replaced with a newer, more awful kind of disgust. She wanted nothing more than to escape this mess, but she was stuck here; chained by her devotion to those she held dear. But those she held dear were hiding things from her; important things.

She had one objective now: Get as drunk as possible, as quickly as she could.
Who cared that it was the middle of the day?

She grabbed a bottle of vodka and the jug of orange juice from the fridge. She brought it all back to the living room and filled her empty coffee cup with the mix.

She slammed it back and waited for the alcohol to slow down her fevered thoughts.

She hoped Jessie was telling the truth and not just
coming up with imaginary scenarios. She hoped Luke was Lucifer. She hoped the real Jack was coming for her.

It scared her to imagine what might happen, but anything was better than this so called life she'd
fashioned for herself.

Running From the Cops

Shelly noticed it first: The distinct sound of helicopter rotors.

Jack was asleep in the passenger seat despite the fact that he'd told her he never sleeps.

She said, "Wake up dude."

Jack mumbled something incoherent and jolted awake. "What the fuck is that noise?"

Just then a siren
erupted and strobe lights shone behind them. Shelly could only guess that maybe the golf course owner or the bartender had seen a bunch of scary monsters kill one of their customers and they reported it to the authorities.

Jack said, "We can't fight them because we'll kill them all, and I don't think we can outrun a chopper. Our best bet is for you to drop us all off and we'll scatter. Hopefully the chopper will be more interested in us than it is in you. You drive back to the house, and try not to lead them to us."

"Why don't you just kill them?"

"Are you kidding me? I'm not evil. Those people are innocent.
I expected more from you."

"I know. I don't know what I was thinking."

"Ok then, slow down after you take that right up ahead." Jack looked in the back seat. "Everyone get out when she stops. Meet back at the house."

Shelly slowed down and as one, all the doors burst open and all the creatures scattered.

Jack said, "Good luck," and then he took off running.

It was odd seeing a beast so powerful and evil looking,
fleeing.

Shelly floored it. The chopper seemed to veer away from her but that fucking squad car was still right on her ass. She'd never been in a high speed chase before, but compared to the things she'd been through these last few days, it was par for the course.