Outcast (26 page)

“I will be. You just be ready for a quick getaway,” I replied. We both got out of the car, and Father Peter got into the driver’s seat. “If I’m not back in fifteen, call the cops.”

Father Peter nodded, and I closed the door behind him.

There was no way I was walking into the church with a loaded shotgun. I wasn’t ready to shoot a real person, and I definitely didn’t want to accidentally shoot Gabe. So I walked toward the door armed just with my wits and my supposed supernatural abilities. Neither particularly comforted me as I stepped inside. I looked around for some stairs down and finally found them at the far end of the foyer hidden behind a coat rack.

I took them slowly and quietly and found myself in a narrow hallway with a low ceiling. There were three doors that led off it. I took a deep breath and made my way to the first, placing my ear against it to see if I could hear anything. Then, as quietly as I could, I opened it. It was dark inside, and I could see the white porcelain bowl of a toilet reflected in the light from the hall. I moved onto the next door, which led to the kitchen Amber had mentioned. That left the last, and so I approached it extra quietly. Once more I placed my ear to the door, but I couldn’t hear anything there either. So I turned the knob slowly and pushed. A shaft of light sliced the dark, and I stopped, worried someone on the inside would have noticed the movement. When nothing happened I opened it a bit further so I could peek inside.

All I could see was the back of a chair and the legs of a desk behind it. There was nothing else I could do. I rallied my spirits. Come on, instincts. And I opened the door completely.

Gabe was in the left corner, bound and gagged, with his head slumped to one side. But there was no one else in the room. I made a beeline for him, and his eyes opened when I touched him. He stared at me with wide eyes, and I nodded. “It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here.” I started to undo Pastor Warren’s work with the ropes and the gag, which were tied way better than the time I’d had Gabe as my prisoner.

When the gag was out of his mouth, he coughed loudly and with his now free hand massaged his jaw. “Thanks,” he said hoarsely. “You folks really do like tying up a person.”

“Nah, I think in my case it had more to do with the Nephilim thing,” I replied, finishing with his feet.

“Nephilim?”

“I’ll explain later. What happened to you? How’d you get here?” I asked struggling a bit with the ropes around his feet.

“I don’t really know. After we…well, you know…I went and sat on the front porch for a bit, kind of like you in the swing. Then I thought I saw something…Ow,” he said as my nails scratched his ankle.

“Sorry. Go on. Damn, these things are tight.”

“I thought actually it was that ghost thing in the trees so I moved closer to look, but there wasn’t anything there. Then someone hit me on the head, and I blacked out.”

“Pastor Warren.”

“I guess so. I woke up here. Felt like when I’d woken up in your shed. Though the company wasn’t quite as nice.”

“Done,” I said, unwinding the rope. “Can you stand up?” I asked, rising to my feet and offering him my hands for balance.

“I dunno. He’s had me tied up for a week, no food, very little water,” replied Gabe reaching for my hands.

“Damn, I should have brought you some. I didn’t think.”

“It’s okay, Riley, you came. I knew you’d come.” He grasped my hands and I helped him to stand. He wasn’t kidding that he wasn’t sure he could stand. He teetered dangerously and had to reach out to the wall for extra balance. Now that he was standing in the light, his wounds showed clearly. His face was covered in bruises, his left eye was a little swollen.

“Jeez, what the hell did he do to you?” I said feeling my emotions start to get the better of me.

“Oh, you know, punches,” replied Gabe. “Let’s not talk about it.”

I nodded and tried to stay cool and focused, but it was getting progressively harder to do so. After all, only an hour ago I’d been under the impression he’d left me for good, in a really selfish way, too, and now we were reunited. All this was emotional enough on its own without the added sick feeling about what he’d gone through over the last week.

But I held it together. “Come on, then,” I said. “If you can walk, we need to get out of here. You know where Pastor Warren is?”

“He went chasing after Amber when she caught him. Hasn’t been back since.” He pushed himself off the wall, and I reached out to him, but he waved me off and steadied himself. “Okay. I can do this. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Wait a second,” I said. I turned around and went to the door.

“What is it?”

“I thought I heard something. Shh.” I looked out into the hallway and listened carefully. I didn’t hear anything, but there was still no time to waste. “Come on, let’s hurry.”

Gabe maneuvered his way to my side. We slipped out through the door and made our way along the hall to the stairs. I went up first, just as carefully and quietly as I had on the way in. That’s when I saw Pastor Warren, or at least his feet, on the other side of the coat rack.

As quickly as I could without making a sound, I rushed back down the steps to Gabe.

“Pastor Warren,” I mouthed to him, and he nodded. We made our way back toward the office, slid inside, and closed the door behind us.

“Is there another way out?” I asked Gabe.

“The boiler room’s through the closet. Seen him go in a few times. I’ve no idea if it leads anywhere, though,” replied Gabe.

“Well, let’s check it out,” I replied. I went to the closet at the far end of the room and peered inside. I felt for a switch, and when I turned it on I saw what Gabe meant. It was just a closet, but at the back was a small doorway, more like a rectangle that had been cut out of the wall, and it led into the underside of the main hall. I slipped into the closet and through the cutout. It was too dark to really see anything, and I came back into the closet.

“Does he have a flashlight or anything?”

“In the drawer of his desk.”

I stepped out of the closet and saw Gabe had pulled the door open a tiny bit and was staring out. “Hurry, Riley,” he said quietly. “He’s coming down the steps.”

I opened the drawer and rifled through its contents. The flashlight was beneath some papers, and I grabbed it. As I rushed over to the closet again, I wished we’d had more time. I was sure there’d be incriminating stuff in that drawer. I didn’t know what kind of stuff, just that there’d be some.

“He’s using the bathroom. I’m coming with you,” said Gabe leaving his post and following me.

We went through the closet and the hole in the back. I turned on the flashlight and was stunned to see that the space beyond was the size of the main hall.

“Okay, there’s so got to be a way out through here,” I said, and we made our way carefully into the dark and started the journey to the other side. Even though I had the flashlight, it wasn’t quite enough to keep us from tripping occasionally. “Be careful,” I said after a swinging rope hit me in the face. As we continued, I noticed that there were more and more ropes. It was starting to feel like we were walking through a jungle.

“Shine the light to the left,” said Gabe, and I did. It looked like there was some kind of ladder heading up, running along the wall, probably into the main hall.

“Wow, good eyesight,” I said, and we headed in its direction. I turned briefly and shone the light behind us, but there was no sign of Pastor Warren. As I brought the light back in front of us, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I stopped and shone the light in that direction. It hit on a giant box thing in the middle of the room.

“It looks good,” called Gabe as quietly as he could from the ladder. “Are you coming?”

“Yes,” I replied, but I couldn’t help it. I approached the large box shape and stared at it. Up close I could see levers and winches. This looked to be the source of most of the ropes, as they disappeared into its top.

“Riley!” called Gabe with more urgency.

I had to join him. It was stupid to get sidetracked like this. But as I went over to where he was standing, a couple rungs up on the ladder, I shone my flashlight along the ceiling, following the ropes until I noticed them turn and then run parallel to the ladder soaring up above.

“Shit,” I said and then sighed hard.

“Yeah, sweetheart?”

“So it was all an illusion, after all. A stupid obvious illusion.” Smoke and mirrors. Seriously?

“What was?”

“Nothing. Let’s climb up.”

We did. I was below to make sure Gabe didn’t slip and fall. We climbed up one story, through a hole in the ceiling and found ourselves inside the walls of the main hall. I aimed the flashlight up. Sure enough, both the ladder and the ropes continued into the rafters.

“Which way?” asked Gabe. I brought the light back down to our level to see what our options were.

“Well, this way takes us to the front. Let’s do that,” I said. Now I was the leader, and the space was so narrow that we had to move sideways along the wall. It wasn’t easy to maneuver along like that, and with so much concentration on where I was putting my feet I didn’t notice the speaker until I ran right into it.

“Ow,” I said, bringing my hand to my forehead.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.” I shone the light on the speaker, and shook my head. Smoke and mirrors. And sound equipment.

We continued more carefully now and eventually made our way around the corner. That’s when we saw a ray of light not too far off before us.

“A way out?” I asked.

“Damn well hope so,” replied Gabe.

We approached it carefully. It turned out to be a small door, maybe waist high. It didn’t take more than a soft push, and it was open. Daylight, thank god.

“The way out should be directly to our left,” I told Gabe so he could prepare himself. I was so impressed he’d managed to do any of this in the first place. The guy had serious will power.

I bent down so I could see out into the main hall—and looked right into Pastor Warren’s face.

“Let me help you down, Miss Carver,” he said, grabbing my wrist tightly. “It’s a little bit of a jump.”

With sweaty palms, Pastor Warren carefully helped me out from between the walls of his church and on to the floor of the main hall. The sun had almost set now, and the bright red light shone in through the window and reflected off the copper wings hanging at the far end. They looked like they were on fire. It was kind of frightening.

“Come on out, Gabe,” said Pastor Warren. “You don’t want to know what I’ll do to her if you don’t.”

I’d like to see you try, I thought. Then I remembered I didn’t actually know what my abilities were, and I probably shouldn’t be tempting fate.

Gabe joined us reluctantly, and even though I knew we were in a pretty bad situation, I was kind of flattered that Pastor Warren’s threat had that effect on him. The three of us stood there staring at each other. It all felt pretty stupid.

“Pastor Warren, what do you think you’re doing?” I asked, finally.

“At the moment, trying to figure out what to do with you two,” he replied. His face was bright red, and sweat was pouring down his brow.

“But kidnapping? Beating someone up? Why is any of it necessary?”

Pastor Warren laughed. “When I found out about Gabe, what he supposedly was, well now, I couldn’t just let some loose cannon wander around like that, could I?”

“He’s not some loose cannon. And he’d gone a year not saying anything.”

“Ain’t taking no risks, little girl.”

“You’re pathetic.”

“Saying something like that to me is close to heresy, or haven’t you heard? I’m the chosen one,” said Pastor Warren with a wide grin.

I laughed. Yeah, right. “Oh give me a break,” I replied. “I know it’s all a big fake, and it’s so damn obvious. So obvious it’s crazy everyone fell for it in the first place. You use damn ropes to float. We saw the machine down there, and you play sounds through speakers in the walls.”

“Airplane wire, actually. It’s thin, able to support a lot of weight, and virtually invisible when the lights are dimmed. I attached myself to it when you all had your eyes closed, and then released the catch to fall to the ground. Simple, yes, but I don’t think it was so damn obvious. Little Miss Skeptic herself didn’t figure it out, and you’re just about the last person who’d ever trust me. It’s easy when you have one real paranormal event. Then anything else becomes possible.”

He made sense. Obviously, he made sense. It had worked, after all. “Did you get Mirabel involved with the plan too? To make it less suspicious? Show that someone else could float too, not just you?”

“Nah,” replied Pastor Warren. “She was my test, just got the equipment, didn’t want to try it out on myself, now did I? Then she started enjoying all the attention—that got a bit annoying I have to admit.”

Selfish bastard. “Well, once people learn the truth about the angels, none of this is going to matter anyway. You’re done, Pastor Warren.”

“Ain’t nobody learning the truth,” he replied. “Couldn’t decide what to do with him, figured no one would believe him anyway. But he was damn unhelpful, wouldn’t tell me anything about his kind.” Pastor Warren glared at Gabe.

“I told you I didn’t remember!” replied Gabe fiercely.

“A likely story. ’Course you remember, deep down.”

Gabe just shook his head. “There ain’t nothing I can say, can I?”

“Well, you can keep pretending all you want. I’m done,” replied Pastor Warren and there was an edge to that melodic voice of his that hadn’t been there before. “Just have to get rid of the evidence and it’s all over. Everyone’s already thinking he’s skipped town.”

“Where’s my bike?” asked Gabe in a way that sounded like he’d already asked the Pastor the question many times before.

“I tossed it into the forest next to your place. Piece of junk.”

“You don’t want to be saying that, Pastor…”

“Gabe, pick your battles,” I said placing a hand on his arm.

“Yeah, just this guy’s been at me all week, and I don’t even know why. At first I just thought he wanted to interrogate me, but now I think he just enjoys torturing people. Power-hungry son of a bitch.” I looked at Gabe, and I wondered if it just made sense to let him sock Pastor Warren in the jaw.

“We’re leaving, Pastor Warren, and don’t try to stop us. By now Father Peter’s called the cops and everything.”

Pastor Warren laughed. “Find that hard to believe. When he’s the one who told me about y’all in the first place.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“You’re lying.”

“Miss Carver, how’d I have known about this if someone hadn’t told me?”

“But…but he wouldn’t do that…”

“He did. He’s always been trying to prove us wrong, to get us to leave. Thought this would finally shut me up. Boy, did he misjudge that.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. I was stunned. Still I had to say something. “Well, whatever, I’m sure he still called the cops.”

“Let them come. Here I’ve got two kids breaking and entering on Celebration Day. That’s got to be an extra offense.”

“And when they see what you’ve done to Gabe…”

“Little girl,” said Pastor Warren taking a step toward me, “I always thought you were supposed to be the smart one. It doesn’t matter what Gabe looks like. It wouldn’t matter if he was bleeding to death in the middle of the floor, and I was standing over him with the knife. I’m in charge of this town now. The sheriff answers to me. I’m his goddamned boss. You’re just a sad little heretic, and he’s—” Pastor Warren turned to look at Gabe “—just some bad kid.”

I didn’t have time to react. I didn’t even really process what was going on as I watched Gabe’s fist make contact with Pastor Warren’s sweaty cheek. It happened so fast that for a second I thought Pastor Warren had just stumbled backward, but then I realized what had happened and grabbed Gabe’s arm.

“You just got yourself into a world of trouble, boy,” said Pastor Warren holding the side of his face.

“Time to get out of here, Riley,” said Gabe quickly.

“Oh yeah.”

We turned and flew out the door. It looked like I was right and Father Peter had called the cops like I’d asked him. The police were pulling up just as we burst outside. Great, we didn’t look suspicious at all running like fools out of the church. Of course, I’d been a total idiot to tell Father Peter to call them in the first place. I think my fear for Gabe’s safety had totally clouded my judgment.

It was almost totally dark outside now, but Father Peter was still waiting in the driver’s seat of my parents’ car, the headlights lighting our path. We dove inside.

He took off in an instant without us having to say anything. The cops were getting back into their cars and in no time were following us, sirens wailing.

“Where’re we going?” asked Father Peter in a panic.

“We need to get to the fair grounds, meet up with everyone else. The sun’s almost set. It’s time,” I said. Father Peter nodded, and we roared through the streets leading an honest-to-goodness car chase.

I looked over at Father Peter who was focusing extra hard on the road ahead. It didn’t seem the time to bring up his betrayal, but there might not be another opportunity.

“So what’s up with telling on us to Pastor Warren, Father?” I asked.

The car jerked wildly to one side. I guess it was the truth then.

“I didn’t tell him about the plan,” said Father Peter, getting control over the car and bringing us back into the proper lane.

“Well, that’s good. But why’d you tell him at all?” The adrenaline pumping through my system was making get angry really fast.

“Riley, I’m so sorry,” said Father Peter glancing at me. I saw that same sad worn expression on his face as the one I’d seen all those many months ago in his office. I knew he’d betrayed us, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit of pity for him. A very little bit. “He and I were having one of our pointless meetings, and the way he just went on and on, as if he was actually the son of God, it was really upsetting to me…”

“Watch out!” called Gabe from the backseat.

Father Peter spun the wheel and narrowly missed the dog standing in the road.

“So you just thought you’d throw your weight around,” I said.

“Riley, I truly am sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. I know I was wrong. When you said Gabe had gone missing, I feared the worst…”

“Are you telling me you suspected that Pastor Warren had taken Gabe?”

Father Peter looked at me again. This time he looked like he might be about to cry. “Riley, I’m…so sorry.”

Yeah, I know. You’ve said. “You know what, Father? I can accept that in a moment of weakness you told Pastor Warren about Gabe. But the fact that you would keep quiet about where you thought he was just to save your own skin…that’s unforgivable.”

“Riley.”

“You let me believe he’d left!”

“You thought I’d gone?” asked Gabe from the back. I turned around to look at him. He appeared really hurt.

“Well, you’d supposedly left a note.” I explained.

“A note.”

“Yeah.” I told him what he’d written and saw his face fall.

“And you actually thought I’d write something like that for you? That I’d just leave you like that?”

I felt terrible. But it wasn’t fair. It had been the only reasonable explanation at the time. “And besides, you’d totally run off so many times in the winter, don’t forget.”

“But after our date, after everything that happened, even after all that, you still thought I’d left you?”

“Gabe, I’m sorry.”

“We’re getting close,” interrupted Father Peter. “What’s the plan?”

“Please, Gabe, please forgive me.” I was feeling desperate now.

“I guess…” he said.

“Oh for god’s sake,” said Father Peter. It wasn’t like him to use language like that, and we both looked at him. “Gabe, the second she learned where you were she was off to rescue you. Don’t let that evil bastard tear you two apart over a stupid note. And Riley. I’m a coward. A stupid, selfish coward. I’m sorry for it, and you may never forgive me, but right now, we have to focus on the plan. Now, what the hell am I doing, kids? Am I stopping or what?”

“I…” I was a little blindsided by his words.

“You got your shotgun, sweetheart?” asked Gabe.

“In the trunk.”

“Okay. I’ll lead the cops away from the car by making a run for it. You grab your shotgun, and then you come find me. Father Peter, you just take off. Maybe you’ll get some following you too.”

“I’m not shooting any cops, Gabe.”

“’Course you’re not. It ain’t about that, Riley. It’s getting close to the time. You said so yourself. We need you armed and ready. You’re our leader.”

I nodded. He was right. “Okay. You got all that, Father Peter?”

“Yes. But you’d better get ready. We’re almost there.”

“Okay.”

Father Peter spun around the corner, and there we were, directly in front of the fair grounds. “I’m going to stop now,” he announced, and Gabe got himself ready. “I’ll pop the trunk, count to thirty, and then I’m taking off.”

“You feeling strong enough?” I asked Gabe.

“Don’t know why, sweetheart, but I’m feeling right full of energy.”