The Hand of God (11 page)

“Dammit!  Will you stop doing that?”

“Sorry,” he said.

“You got a lot of balls.  I’m getting really sick of you popping up here and there with these stupid messages.  How do I know you’re not with the Bishop?”

“It’s about faith, Charlie.”

“Oh fuck off.  Don’t give me this faith shit.  I’ve lived by faith my whole life. Who are you really?  ”.”

“I know you have, and who I am isn’t the important thing.”

That was enough.  Without warning, I ran toward him, put him in a wrist lock and leg swept him to the floor.  Once on the floor I placed him in a unilateral vascular neck restraint.  That’s a fancy way of saying I had him in a sleeper hold.  Despite his strange disappearing acts, it was nice to see that he was human. 

“Now, you will tell me who you are, or I will pop your head like a zit.”

His face turned a shade of dark red as he grunted.

“You gonna start talking?” I asked.  He just let out another grunt.  “Tap twice if you agree to talk, and I will let you go.”  Without hesitation he tapped his hand twice on my leg.  Slowly I released my grip and backed away slowly as he stood, rubbing the back of his neck.

“You’re stronger than you look.”

“Thanks.  I’ve had some training in that area.”

“Yeah, I can tell.  Just so you know, that is the last time you will pull something like that.”  He lost his usual relaxed demeanor and spoke with a tone that told me there was a lot more to him than I understood.  “So you ask who I am.  This might take a while.”  He said as he walked over to my desk and sat on the edge.

“So give me the Cliff’s Notes version,” I said, sitting on my bed crossing my arms.

“Okay,  I’m guessing the Bishop told you about your heritage.”

“Yeah he did.  It was weird, but at least he gave me more than just cryptic hints.”

“Bad habit of mine I guess.”  He looked around for a moment.  “It might be easier to explain who you are.”

“That was going to be my next question.”

“Okay, good.  I know you know the Genesis six passage, right?”

“Yes, I’m familiar with it,”  I said.

“Okay, so you familiar with the book of Enoch?”

“Yeah, I read it for a college paper.  It’s not scripture, though.”

He rolled his eyes.  “You people, I swear.  Just because your scholars don’t recognize it or consider it scripture doesn’t mean it isn’t true.  College history books aren’t scripture, but they still contain truth.”

“Fair enough,” I nodded.

“In Enoch there is a group of angels called the Watchers. They lusted after human women so they left heaven and came to earth. They took human women as their wives; those women bore children called the Nephilim.”

“Yeah, they were giants,” I said, “and supposedly killed in the Flood.”

“Not all of them.  Remember the Anakites?  Including Goliath?”

“Yes?
”

“Well a lot of the texts don’t go into it, but there were still a few around after the Flood.  They managed to find somewhere safe to survive.  They also continued to have children, and their children had children, so here you are.  When the Israelites moved to Caanan, they saw giants, the ‘Sons of Anak’ they called them.   Your ancestor is Bezaliel.  He was one of the original Watchers; the twenty leaders when they came to earth.  His name means “Shadow of God.”.  Not much is written of him in the translations, but he was one of the most ruthless of the fallen.  He was the one of the angels of death.  Such as the destroyer God sent to kill the first born Egyptians the night of the Passover.”

“I guess that would explain where I get my temperament.”

“Among other things,” David said.

“Weren’t they killed in the flood?”

“Most of them were.  In the Bible in Deutoronomy you see Joshua fights the Anakites several times.  It was God’s way of continuing to eradicate them.  In the book of Joshua, the Anakites fled to Gath after the battle.”

“And Goliath the giant was from Gath.”

“You got it. Kind of gives the fight with David some new meaning huh?”

“I guess so.  So what are you exactly?”

“You haven’t figured that out by now?”

“Sorry, I’m a bit slow these days.  Being drugged and beaten has that effect on me.”

“I’m an angel.”

I think I actually laughed out loud at this one.  Things had gotten too silly by this point. 

“Right, I should have figured.  I’m a Nephilim offspring and you’re an angel.  I suppose Satan is lurking around here somewhere too.”

“Very funny.  You teach about God for a living.  You just emphasized so much about your faith.  Why is this so hard to believe?”

“Because for one, I’ve seen nothing in scripture to believe angels still show themselves anymore.”

“Well of course not. The Bible was written in the first century.  We never stopped showing ourselves, we just don’t broadcast it.”

“So shouldn’t you have wings or something?”

“I take human form so I can blend in.”

“And why do I get Dave?  In the Bible people got Michael or Gabriel.  I get Dave.” 

“That’s not my real name.”

“Well, there’s a shocker.” I said.

“You really are a handful aren’t you?”

“So it seems.  What is your real name then?”

“Ezrael.  You won’t find my name in any biblical references.  However in the Apocalypse of Peter I’m the Angel of Wrath.  I’ll be casting sinners into their place of final torment after Judgment Day.”

Even for a man of God, this was all getting incredibly deep.  We Protestants are usually rather conservative when it comes to the supernatural.  Yet so far in one night, I’d seen and heard enough supernatural stuff to last me a lifetime.  I knew Dave/Ezrael wasn’t totally crazy.  Something wasn’t right about of all this, obviously.  I always prided myself on being the Hand of God.  Now I was wondering if this is what I really wanted.  Yet, if it were true, it would be a chance for me to be on the front lines of spiritual warfare.

“So if you’re an angel, how come I could kick your butt so easily?”

“In human form, I’m limited in my abilities.  So yes, you took me by surprise this time, but trust me,  it.  It won’t happen again.  I was also holding back so as not to harm you.”

I looked at my hands then back up at Ezrael.

“So does that mean I have some kind of super angel powers or something?”

“Most likely you do, but I don’t know what they are.”

“So why are you here?  Aren’t I some kind of abomination?  God tried to wipe us all out didn’t he?  Why does He need me for anything?”

“He did.  My job has been to hunt down what’s left of you and kill you all.  However with the Bishop, he sees an opportunity for you.  And as far as your work, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.  That’s not from God.”

“What are you talking about?  My work is too from God.  I have visions and everything.”

“It doesn’t work like that.  We’ll circle back to that later.  You’ve got plenty to do in the meantime.  The Bishop is not a man of God as you might have guessed.  You aren’t exactly in God’s favor.  But between the two of you, you are the lesser evil.  Not to mention your intentions are good, even though we need some work on your follow through.”

“So what are the Bishop’s intentions?  And what is he exactly?”

“I don’t know either of those things, other than he is out to lead people away from the church.  Distract them with his dog and pony show, but I’m not sure what his plan is from there.”

“Isn’t God all knowing?  You can’t give me any more than that?”

“God is, I’m not.  I only know what he tells me.” He stood and threw his arms into the air.  “I don’t know why he doesn’t just zap the Bishop and the rest of you half-bred freaks off the face of the earth.  I don’t know why he told me to kill the others, but to keep you alive long enough to help with this Bishop without giving me more info.  Maybe he wants to build your character so you can have some chance at redemption.  Maybe he wants you two to kill each other in the process.  Or maybe this is all a game to him.  I don’t know.  I do what I’m told, and this is what he told me to do.”

“Well, I’ll try not to take offense at the half-bred freak comment.”  This whole mess was a lot to take in.  Good thing I was apparently not entirely human or I might have really lost it.  Perhaps my lineage explained a lot of things about me.  “So where do I start with all this?”

“The rest you have to figure out for yourself.  I don’t know if I will be able to help you much from here.  I’ll probably get in trouble for telling you this much, but I figured you needed to know the truth about your past.”

“That does help I guess. So now what?”

“So now you go do some homework and go get him.”

“Then you’ll kill me?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.  He didn’t fill me in beyond that.”

Wonderful.  So God wanted me to do His dirty work, and then have me wiped out for being born.  Something I couldn’t exactly help.  Of course, He let His own son be crucified, so I guess I shouldn’t have expected much better.  Either way, I needed  some time to sort through all this.

“Okay, well I need some sleep first. You know us half-breeds need our beauty rest.”

I got up and pulled the blanket back on my bed.  When I turned around, Ezrael was gone.  It had been an enlightening evening, to say the least.

Chapter 20

Life was so much easier when I was just preaching on Sundays and killing sinners on the side.  Now I learn I have an ancient ancestor who happens to have been a fallen angel.  Plus I also may or may not possess some kind of supernatural ability, and my enemy is a guy who may or may not be human, but who really did have supernatural powers.  Not to mention the fact that all the people I had killed so far weren’t at God’s bidding after all. Yet despite all that, God still wanted me to do his bidding on this new mission, even though I’m an abomination and a serial killer.  Did I miss anything?

The rest of the week was uneventful by current standards.  The Bishop’s tent revival was all anyone in town or at the church would talk about.  People were talking about the Bishop and if he was really some kind of prophet.  I still didn’t get what the preacher he killed in the city had to do with anything.  Whatever he was, he’d attracted plenty of attention, including the local media.  They began lurking around anywhere he went.  They’d interview people about what they’d seen or felt at his revival. However, the Bishop himself had become scarce since the revival, no one had seen him. 

I figured that was part of the act.  Cause a big stir, and then hide out for a bit causing even more of a stir over the mysterious bishop.   By Sunday, my own church was buzzing with excitement over the Bishop and his bag of tricks.  The first person in the door that morning wasted no time asking my thoughts. It was Lee, of course.

“Hey Pastor Charlie!  Did you see the Bishop this week?  Did you see what he did?”

“Good morning Lee.  I sure did.”  I tried to smile.

“It was so amazing.  I felt the Lord moving.  He healed me too!”

“He did?”