The First Male (47 page)
Authors: Lee Hayes
“W-w-wait, stopâplease,” Jazz managed to utter, but his broken words landed on uncaring ears. “Why are you doing this to me? Whoâwho are you?” Jazz asked as he spit blood from his mouth.
He
paused. “I am Alpha and Omega; the first and the last; the beginning and the end,”
he
said in matter-of-fact tone. “You will lay naked before the throne of God and repent your sins. You will renounce your wicked ways,”
he
said in a voice that boomed across the sky.
He
seemed to be in some kind of trance, walking back and forth and back and forth and uttering prayer.
He'd
walk away from Jazz only to return with a kick or a punch.
He
ordered Jazz on his knees and shocked him by punching him in the eye so hard Jazz thought he had been blinded. Jazz had never known pain so profoundly.
When
he
was satisfied that Jazz was weak enough,
he
dragged his
limp body across the coarse grass to the tattered fence at the very edge of the property that separated the back of the church from the woods. Jazz felt sharp rocks and shards of broken glass cutting across his skin as he grabbed at mounds of grass in an attempt to anchor his body.
When
he
got to the end of the field,
he
loosened his grip on Jazz and let him go.
He
walked through the hole in the fence and opened the door to a black van that was parked on a dirt trail. Jazz lifted his head to ascertain what was going on, but dizziness forced him back to the ground.
Then,
he
stepped from the van with handcuffs and proceeded to fasten Jazz to the fence before Jazz realized what was going on. Blood oozed from his weakened mouth when he coughed. Then
he
spoke in a hell-inspired voice as a foul stench permeated the air all around them.
“The reason you are alive is because it is the will of God. You have a job to do. You will be my apostle. The world will take little note of what I say here, but it will remember what you tell them. You will tell them all to repent. You will tell them of the coming apocalypse. You will tell them I am watching. I am
always
watching. You will do this in our covenant or I will visit you again. Jazz McKinney, you are my sacrifice to righteousness! Do you understand the task appointed to you?”
Pain sealed Jazz's lips, but his will to survive broke through and he mustered enough strength to mumble the word
yes
. Jazz wanted to see the face of this maniac, but his ragged body would not move.
“Mark this day as a return to righteousness. Walk by my side and you will dwell with me forever. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.”
Circumcision?
Jazz tried to shake himself free from his bondage, but he barely had strength to dangle the fence.
He
moved closer to Jazz whose wild eyes grew at the sight of the sharp stone held in
his
hand.
“Do not fear, my child. I will protect you in our covenant.”
Jazz kicked and wiggled his body to fend off the predator, but a powerful fist to Jazz's face ended his resistance.
He
reached down and grabbed the wad of skin atop of Jazz's penis. Jazz closed his eyes. Then, as if studying it,
he
looked curiously at the hull that hid the head of Jazz's organ. Suddenly,
he
took the sharp stone that
he
held and started cutting away the superfluous skin. Jazz screamed as loud as he could as the unbearable sensation rapidly inflamed every cell in his body. A hurt like no other hurt he had ever felt consumed him. Then, he found his voice. The sound that escaped from Jazz's mouth was previously unheard by any human ear; it reached the heavens,
circled the distant moon and stars, and came back down landing with a shattering thump.
He
stood before Jazz, skin in his hand, and spoke. “Tell them The Messiah has returned. And he is angry.”
The weight of his heavy words and the pain Jazz felt sent the night hurling around his head.
“THE LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want,”
he
continued. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.” The Messiah walked slowly through the opening in the fence toward the van, opened the door, and stepped casually into the vehicle.
Still bound to the fence, Jazz heard a rumbling noise from above and the sky grew bright as lightning burned an electric trail.
“For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” His words rung like a church bell in the night.
The Messiah closed the van's door and drove away slowly into the dark. In the final moment before his black van disappeared, the sky opened and rain poured from the heavens in buckets.
It rained for exactly six minutes and sixty-six seconds.
A car winding up the road in front of the church crunched the gravel beneath its tires and pulled Jazz out of his recount of the evening before. Ironically, his hope for rescue would lie in the hands of a stranger, as his demise almost did. He simply closed his eyes and waited, still chained to the fence and unable to move. He knew another judgment would surely come from the “good Samaritan” that was about to find andâhopefullyârescue him. It was a judgment he didn't want to face, yet he knew it would be nothing compared to the one the Messiah had administered on him the night before.
Strebor Books
P.O. Box 6505
Largo, MD 20792
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
© 2012 by Lee Hayes
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means whatsoever. For information address Strebor Books, P.O. Box 6505, Largo, MD 20792.
ISBN 978-1-59309-439-3
ISBN 978-1-4516-7567-2 (ebook)
LCCN 2012943215
First Strebor Books trade paperback edition September 2012
Cover design:
www.mariondesigns.com
Cover photograph: © Keith Saunders/Marion Designs
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