“Good luck?”
“He told them that he would have mercy on them as he tried to snatch them out of the fires of Hell. I, too, will have mercy on you while I try to save your soul.”
“I don’t want to save my soul,” Anthony said, “I want to save my son.”
“Don’t worry about him. He’s already been saved.”
* * *
Ellis drove slowly around parked cars and down sudden steep slopes. Anthony had to tell him to hurry up, stop wasting time before he buried the claw end of the hammer into Ellis’s leg. That encouraged him to speed up.
He slowed down and stopped behind a small hatchback. A large guy in the driver’s seat noticed them in the rearview mirror and almost jumped out of his seat. The driver’s door was open a moment later and Dwayne was standing there, a surprised, though not worried, expression on his face.
“Where’s my son?” Anthony hissed.
Ellis looked at him. “Doing God’s work.”
Anthony got out of the car and went right for Dwayne, who held up his hands in innocence. “What did you do with my son?” His shouts bounced off the surrounding hills.
“Keep your voice down, Anthony,” Dwayne said. “Someone is going to call the cops and you don’t want that.”
“No, you don’t want that. Bring on the cops.” Anthony stepped within a few feet of Dwayne. The man outweighed him by thirty or forty pounds, but he was no match for a hammer to the skull.
“If that happens, you’ll lose your son.”
“Where is he?!” Anthony brandished the hammer above his head like a bludgeon.
“Dad?”
Brendan had come around the corner of a line of bushes. He was wearing work gloves and carrying a can of gasoline. His face was wet and smeared with black splotches. A strange expression floated on his face.
“What are you doing?”
Brendan looked from Anthony to Dwayne. “I was going to stay, to guard, but I heard the screaming and …”
“What are you doing?” Anthony said, anger breaking.
Tears gathered in Brendan’s eyes and Anthony fought the urge to drop the hammer and take his little boy in his arms. He had to stay strong right now while Ellis and Dwayne were around. There would be plenty of time for hugs later.
“I’m only trying to help,” Brendan said in a slow, fragile voice.
“Help? Who?”
“Tyler.”
Anthony stopped. What did that mean? “Help Tyler how?”
Brendan stumbled for an answer.
Behind him, large flames licked up the front of a house. They had completely engulfed the front door and thick, black smoke was spiraling above the house and into the sky.
“Oh, my God,” Anthony whispered.
9
He heard Dad’s scream and came running. He felt like he hadn’t seen Dad in days, maybe longer. Dad had become a stranger to Brendan, someone for whom Brendan would do anything and yet someone who he no longer really knew.
Before turning the corner of the Karras’s driveway, Brendan slowed. He had wanted to see him, hug him, and beg for his understanding but that urge died. Dad wouldn’t understand why Brendan had placed starter logs doused in gasoline before the main escape points of the Karras’s house. He would never forgive Brendan for Delaney’s death if he ever discovered what really happened. Dad was more likely to have him arrested or committed to some crazy-people hospital than take him in his arms.
Horror and desperation drew across Dad’s face and gritted in his voice. Brendan wished he had stayed where he was. The weight of the gun sagged the pocket of his coat. He hadn’t touched it since Dwayne entrusted him with it, and now he knew why he had really run toward Dad’s voice. He hadn’t wanted to shoot anyone.
“I’m only trying to help,” Brendan said. He felt like he might start crying. Dwayne was staring at him with equal parts rage and frustration. How was he supposed to please anyone?
“Help? Who?”
“Tyler.”
Dad’s face went blank. “Help Tyler how?”
The starter logs Brendan had placed on the Karras front porch burst with an explosion of heat. Giants flames ate at the front door and the smoke quickly engulfed most of the house’s front. Smoke also billowed from behind the house where the other starter logs ignited.
“Oh, my God.” Dad walked toward him in slow, dead steps. He spoke in a shocked whisper. “What did you do? My God, son, what did you do?”
“I had to, Dad. Tyler needed my help.”
“Help? Help how?” A hammer dangled in one hand.
Ellis spoke up from behind them. “Brendan is God’s disciple now. He was not afraid to do what was necessary to protect his family. He is the embodiment of all that the First Church of Jesus Christ the Empowered stand for.”
Dad was shaking his head. “You didn’t. Please say you didn’t do this.”
Brendan couldn’t say anything. God wanted him to do this. There was no rational way to explain what was inherently irrational. Dad might never understand it and Tyler might even be angry, but at least Tyler would be grateful. It might take a while, but he would be grateful.
“You have a choice now, Anthony,” Ellis said. “Come with us and we will keep you protected. Turn against us, and you will pay with all you have.”
Dad rested his hand on Brendan’s shoulder. “Go away,” he said with little energy. “Leave me and my son alone.”
“We can’t do that.”
Ellis nodded to Dwayne, who moved toward them. Dad raised the hammer. “Back off or I swear I will kill you.”
Dwayne paused, glanced at Ellis.
“Don’t be stupid,” Ellis said to Dad. “You can stay here if that’s what you really want, but Brendan comes with us.”
Dad’s lips pulled back from his teeth like a dog about to attack. “You will never take my son.”
Ellis started to respond but a car pulling up alongside him killed his words. All heads turned as the car slowed, slowed, stopped. At first Brendan thought it was more of Ellis’s people. If that were true, Dad would have to run. There’d be no way he could fight off more than two. Brendan would have to sacrifice himself to save his father. He knew right now and with complete certainty that he would do just that.
But the car belonged to Paul, Tyler’s friend. He sat in his car, glancing at everyone, dumbfounded. He slowly got out of the car. “Mr. Williams?”
Dad took a moment to respond. “What are you doing here, Paul?”
He shook his head as if this scene were not comprehending. “What are you doing here?”
“Call the police, Paul,” Dad said. “Call them now.”
Paul’s eyes set on the fire, which was now raging across most of the front of the house. Sasha and her mother might have escaped through a window; this fire could be for nothing.
At least I did it, Brendan thought. I proved I was strong.
“Oh, shit!” Paul yelled. He ran straight past Dwayne toward Dad. He meant to push past him but Dad grabbed him by the shoulders. The hammer clattered on the street.
“What?” Dad said. “What is it? What’s so important about that house?”
For a moment, the words could not escape Paul’s mouth. “Tyler! He’s in there!”
Then they were both running toward the burning house and Brendan was alone with Ellis and Dwayne.
10
Darkness. Yet, sounds very clearly, and voices.
“Be sure to make a clean cut,” Sasha’s mother said. “The sacrifice must be clean.”
“They’re so hard,” Sasha said. “What if I damage the other one?”
She was going to cut off one of his testicles. Oh, Jesus Christ shit fuck shit fuck no. Tyler tried to will himself out of his paralysis. He had to move, to get away from these psychotic women before they cut him and—