ASCENSION (12 page)

              “Well, I suppose we had better start heading back. The girls are already gonna be sore that we were late for breakfast,” Ben said finally, then went up to the counter to pay for the drinks.

              “No,” Joe said shaking his head. “It's on the house.”

              Ben cocked an eyebrow. “What for?”

              Joe shrugged. “For what you two did for  Miller's boy. Neither of you will ever have to buy something in this restaurant again. I can tell you that much.”

              “How did you know about Mr. Miller's son?” Ben asked, stupefied. It had only just happened hours ago.

              Joe shrugged. “The whole town knows, Ben. You boys are heroes.”

              Ben grimaced. “That Miller never could keep his mouth shut, him or his wife.”

              Joe shook his head. “Don't worry. We aren't gonna turn you in to the government or nothin’. We don't like them out here anyways. We just want to thank you. The mayor is going to invite you to the town square for an award ceremony. Everyone is going to be there.”

              “The mayor,” Ben repeated, shocked.

              Joe nodded enthusiastically. “Yep. Don't worry, though. The mayor already said no cameras. He wants to keep it a discreet affair. So will you come? Wouldn't be much of a ceremony without you two.”

              Ben looked at Jake. “Well, what do you think? This is a small town. If Joe knows, everyone does. That's just how it works.”

              Jake hesitated.

              “It's not like you can do any more damage,” Ben said with a shrug.

              Jake sighed, looking from Joe to Ben. These were good people, he realized. The best people. Maybe this time everything would be okay. Maybe he could trust them. “Okay,” he said finally. “But that medal better be solid gold, none of that plated stuff.” Jake smirked.

              Joe laughed and cried out, slapping the counter. “You don't know how much that's going to mean to the mayor. I'm gonna get on the wire and call him right now!” Joe said, and disappeared into the back.

              “What have I gotten myself into?” Jake asked with a grin.

              “A whole lot of troub-” Ben was interrupted by two young boys bursting open the diner doors. They were gasping for breath.

              “B-b-Ben,” the shorter, chubbier of the two said, pausing to pant. His face was flushed red.

              “Nelson? Billy? What is it? What's gotten into you?”

              Billy, the taller boy, was less out of breath. He spoke more coherently. “There are strangers in the square, Ben.”

              “Strangers?” Ben asked, confused.

              “Yeah, they've got your daughter, Zack too, and some woman. They keep calling out your name,” Billy said.

              Jake's stomach turned, releasing the dread behind it. It coursed through his veins like razor blades. They had found him.

              “They said they're going to kill them if you don't come, Ben,” Nelson squeaked.

              Ben didn't hesitate. He snatched his coat off of the rack and made a beeline for the door.

              Jake jumped up, following him. “Ben. Ben!” he called after him, but Ben's strides were long. Jake had never seen him move so fast. “Stop!”

              Ben whirled around. “What?” he roared.

              “You don't understand. These...people, you don't know who, what they are,” Jake tried to explain.

              “I don't care. They have my children!” Ben said.

              “Ben, you don't have to go. It's me they want. Just me. If I go with them, maybe, maybe they will leave the town alone. Nobody has to die here.”

              “You're one of us now, Jake. You're family. And I would never trade one son for another. Or ten other sons. We will figure this out together. They can't take on the whole town,” Ben said, pulling a shotgun from under the seat of his pick-up truck.

              Jake shook his head. “You don't understand. That won't help you. They can and they will kill each and every one of you.”

              “Well, then I died doing the right thing,” Ben said, pushing past Jake towards the town square.

              “Why does everyone say that? It's not the right thing! It's not,” Jake pleaded. “It's stubborn and stupid.”

              “That's me in a nutshell,” Ben said, then cocked the shotgun.

Chapter 8

(Sophie)

              Sophie struggled against her restraints, trying to scream, but Ras' Guul had ordered Balan to gag her after she had yelled for Jake to run. Hundreds of people were gathering around the steeple where the three demons now stood. Ras' Guul looked pleased.

              “I bid you a well-met afternoon, good people of Aurora Falls,” Ras' Guul announced to the crowds. The people were yammering amongst themselves in confusion. “Silence!” Ras' Guul bellowed. For the briefest moment, his face warped, his mouth growing wide and filled with fangs. The noise of the crowd extinguished instantly. “Better.” Ras' Guul grinned. “Now if you all would be so kind as to tell me where Benjamin Campbell is?”

              The crowd looked amongst each other. “Let the kids go!” a lone voice said.

              “Who said that?” Ras' Guul demanded.

              “We did.” In the crowd, ten or eleven men, two of whom were the doctor and Mr. Miller, were all holding weapons. Some had rifles, others had pistols, one even held an aluminum baseball bat.

              Ras' Guul's eyes narrowed. “Are you threatening me with your pitiful trinkets? The audacity and stupidity of you mewling creatures is astonishing.”

              The men raised their weapons, and a series of cocking and clicking noises rang through the still afternoon air. “This is your last warning,” the doctor said. “Let them go.”

              Ras' Guul smirked insidiously. “You first,” he said, and waved his hand. Suddenly, the guns glowed ember red and began melting in the hands of the militia men. The doctor looked on in horror as the metal ate into his flesh. Screams of agony echoed through the square. Then, the man with the baseball bat charged at Ras' Guul. Ras' Guul thrust out his arm, and the man's feet lifted straight off the ground, and he was suspended in mid-air, feet flailing wildly as he gargled, holding his throat. Ras' Guul sneered, his hand pinching like a vice. “Now that I have your attention, please, direct me to Benjamin Campbell. If you do, I swear to you I will not harm a single soul here. If you do not, however, I will slaughter each and every one of you, one by one. Slowly, starting with the youngest in each family. You will watch them all die in front of you, begging for mercy that won't come. That, or you can give up Benjamin Campbell. Your choice.”

              The crowd remained silent. “Ben's one of our own. We aren't just going to give him up because of a few magic tricks,” Mr. Miller said, clutching his burned hands. “We aren't afraid of you.”

              Ras' Guul examined Mr. Miller closely, his eyes going serpentine and glowing ominously. “You should be. You really should be.” Darkness, utter darkness began curling out of Ras' Guul's mouth, like smoke. Then Ras' Guul's skin began to flake away, revealing ashen, black flesh beneath. Soon the darkness swallowed his whole body, and he was simply a silhouette of embers and ashes, glowing hotly. “This is your last chance,” Ras' Guul howled, flames dancing all around his new form. “Surrender Benjamin Campbell, or I will slaughter you like the sheep you are!”

              Nobody in the crowd budged.

              “Fools,” Ras' Guul said. “I suppose I'll start with you,” he said to the man dangling in mid-air.

              “Stop!” Ben's voice echoed through the square.

             
NO.
Sophie thought.
Why did you come?

             
Ras' Guul returned to his human form and smiled. “Ah, Benjamin. Good to see someone here has a good sense of judgment,” he said, putting his hand down. The man in the air plummeted into the crowd, where he was caught before he hit the ground.

              Ben put the shotgun down. “That's right. Now what do you want from me?”

              “Simple,” Ras' Guul hissed. “I simply want the one you call Jake. That's all I ask. You are the only one who knows his whereabouts. If you tell me where he is, I will let all of you go. This town will prosper. I will shower you in riches,” Ras' Guul said as golden coins appeared from thin air, cascading onto the steps below. “You and your people will live in wealth for the rest of your days. And all I ask in return is that you give me the boy.”

              Ben was silent for a moment. “First, let my children go.”

              “Done,” Ras' Guul said, nodding to Andras.

              “The girl too,” Ben said.

              Ras' Guul frowned. “I cannot do that, Benjamin. She is important to me. Too dangerous to let out of my sight.”

              “Fine,” Ben shrugged. “No deal then.”

              Ras' Guul grimaced. “Very well, let the oracle go.”

              Andras looked at him in shock. “But, master...”

              “Do as you’re told!” Ras' Guul snapped. Andras obeyed, Sophie felt a brief flash of heat, and she was free.

              “Benjamin, don't tell them anything!” Sophie said. “They're demons. They're going to kill us anyway. It doesn't matter what we do. They are monsters. Cold-blooded killers.”

              “She lies,” Ras' Guul said. “I care about nothing but the boy.”

              Ben looked at Sophie for a long time. “I'm sorry, Sophie, but this has to be done. It's the right thing to do.”

              “No.” Sophie shook her head, tears pouring down her cheeks as Ben pushed past her.

              “I'll tell you where Jake is,” Ben said.

              Ras' Guul's grin was thin, his eyes wide, expectant.

              “He's safe from you. Far, far away.”

              Ras' Guul's smile faded. “Kill them all.” he said, and, like dogs off of a leash, Andras and Balan descended upon the crowd.

****

(Jake)

              “Let me go!” Jake howled, but Joe and his friends weren't even listening to him anymore. Jake had tried to go after Ben, but Joe, along with the help of a few of his workers, had subdued him and tied him to a chair, refusing to let Jake surrender himself to Ras' Guul.

              Then he heard them, the screams. The sound of a roaring fire. Smoke began to fill the sky like great black pillars. Then Jake felt something else, something different. There was no fear, no terror. The people were not fleeing or fighting. They were staying together, accepting their fate as a single group, bonded together by their faith. He heard the prayers then. First one, then another, until soon his mind was filled with the murmurs of the entire town.

             
Forgive me, God. I'm sorry, for I have sinned.
The whole town was not asking for salvation but for forgiveness. From the oldest to the youngest, they all simply wished for a painless death. Jake felt their blind faith. It made the light inside him glow fiercely, pulsating with power. His eyes went wide as the love of hundreds of people, an entire community, filled him with warmth, smothering the blackness. The light grew in him like a beacon, struggling against some kind of shackle. Then, it burst free, and Jake was swallowed by the light.

              Jake was glowing now, his entire body bathed in a golden light.

              “Lord have mercy,” Joe murmured when he saw him.

              He opened his eyes. Everything was so serene, so calm. He felt focused. “Jake?” someone asked. That name was vaguely familiar, but seemed to have lost meaning. “I am Ezekiel,” the being said, and the ropes around his wrists unraveled and fell to the wooden floor. Now flowers.

              “He's an angel!” Joe said. “I knew it!”

              Then Ezekiel saw something flying towards the diner. It was a car, hurdling through the air, coming directly at them. Ezekiel raised his hands, and the light pushed outwards, forming a sphere. With a catastrophic clang, the sailing car crashed into the wall of light, exploding into shrapnel, blowing out the back wall of the diner.

              When Ezekiel opened his eyes, he watched crumbling debris run down the bubble of light. Everyone inside it, however, remained unscathed. That's when Ezekiel's eyes locked with those of Balan, who was in the parking lot across the street. Balan lifted another vehicle clean off the ground, this time a truck. Then tossed it into the air.

              Ezekiel did not hesitate. With lightning speed, he closed the gap on Balan, firing his fist into Balan's massive chest. There was a burst of light, and Balan flew backwards from the force of impact, smashing into the wall of the post office with a dull crack.

              Balan shook off the debris and rose to his feet. “So, the imprisoned angel has returned.” Balan began circling around Ezekiel.

              “Where is the oracle?” Ezekiel demanded.

              “She belongs to Ras' Guul now. She will be his adviser for the war to come. Our legions have grown strong while you slumbered, Ezekiel. Now not even you can save the mortals. This world will be ours. No matter what happens here, you have already lost,” Balan said.

              “Than your death will have to console me,” Ezekiel spat.

              Balan pounced then, flinging chunks of gravel into the air. Ezekiel side-stepped the tackle, then fired a beam of golden light into Balan's back. Balan howled as the holy light singed his flesh. Then a stream of fire roared past Ezekiel, just glancing his cheek. He turned in the direction of the shot to see Andras. Her arms were wreathed in flames, and her fangs were bared in a snarl.