Jake's Story, ch 20

This chapter comes between 19 and 20, and it'll be Patreon-only.   I will not be adding this to the book, and I will not be sharing it anywhere else.

Thank you for being here. :)

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Jose lowered himself down, hands first, and let loose a breath he hadn’t been aware he’d been holding.  From her position on the floor, Gloria met his eyes.  She was trembling.

Christopher and David were quiet for a few seconds, but then David began to cry.  Christopher showed uncommon maturity for his age and comforted his little brother, putting a hand on his arm.  He also gently covered his little brother’s mouth to keep him from making too much noise. Chris had been adapting to the new, dangerous world a little bit faster than David had.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jose saw Gloria shudder, and remembered what had just happened again.  Their...visitor had put a hand over her mouth, hadn’t he?

That entire situation had been so frightening his heart had almost stopped.  One moment the family had been huddling in the dark with barely any light to keep them company, wondering what in the world was going on outside.  The next moment, a dark intruder had crossed half the house in a flash and put a hand over Gloria’s mouth.  He’d held up a crucifix.

Jose’s memory was already fading, almost like it was too terrifying to hold onto.  The spectre had looked like a monster from the abyss, but must have been an angel.  The crucifix hadn’t burned him, and he’d even said, “Don’t be afraid,” like the angels in the Bible.  Weren’t angels supposed to be scary to actually see?  Jose wished he’d paid attention better in church.

But an angel?  Gloria was still convinced, and Jose had thought so too, but now he was not so sure.  Their unexpected houseguest had had massive teeth, a lean body, and his flesh had seemed to ooze...floating darkness.  The creature’s ragged clothing had just made him seem more bestial.  Jose had never seen anything like it.  But as frightening as he’d been, he had moved with an obvious gentleness while bringing in the injured children.

...Right before he’d sealed their door, given them weapons, and disappeared through the wall.

The two unfamiliar children laid out on the floor brought Jose back to more pressing realities.  It wasn’t quite time to zone out yet.  “Gloria, we need to do something for these children.”

“I know.”  His wife turned to Christopher and said, “Chris, take a flashlight.  Go get a half pan of water from the bathtub.  David, go with your brother and get the alcohol burner.  We need to heat some water.”

“Mother, I’m scared,” croaked David.  The boy sniffed, holding in more crying.  He was only seven years old, and still only half asleep.  Both boys appeared to still be affected by what had happened earlier, even before the nightmare-looking creature had brought them two injured children to look after.

Christopher didn’t ask any questions, just slowly got up.  The older boy seemed to be in shock, but he kept staring at the injured children on the floor, too.  He took David by the hand and took his swallowing brother to do what his mother had asked.

Once both boys were up, Jose scooted closer to Maria on the floor and examined the children.  He winced when he saw their wounds up close.  “What is happening to this world?” his wife whispered.

“Forget the world, what just happened to us?” muttered Jose.  He wheezed a quiet, desparate laugh.

“I do not know.  That was the most frightening experience of my life, but I feel like we all handled it better than we might have.  What if we had offended him?”

Jose began to stand.  He was mentally and emotionally drained, but he would do his best to save the hurt little boy and girl on the floor.  “So you really think he was an angel?”

“I don’t know,” said Gloria.  “He didn’t know Spanish well, and he didn’t seem to understand most of what we said, but you were there.”

“Yeah, I know,” said Jose with a nod.  “He didn’t respond to much, but when you asked if he was going to save us all, he said yes.”

“That’s right.”  Gloria busied herself getting.  “He was an angel of the Lord.”  She crossed herself.  “Covered in the blood of evil, savior of the innocent.  You felt it.  He was a destroyer for good.”

Jose examined a nasty wound on both children’s legs below a dirty tourniquet and winced.  “What makes you so sure?  Besides the fact we are not dead right now, of course.”

Gloria smiled grimly.  “You were there, Jose, mi corazon.”

“Yes, yes I was,” said Jose.  He shook his head, thinking about the chain of events.  It’s started about twenty minutes ago.

There had been vibrations in the air at first.  Gloria had been on watch, and she’d woken him up, but he’d already half-woken when it’d started.  Something had felt like it was squeezing his heart.

The boys had been half awake at that time, too.  But then a heaviness had filled the air, like being at the bottom of a deep pool.  It’d knocked the boys asleep, but Jose and Gloria had just panted, feeling an incredible pressure.  Their skin had crawled.  The feeling had been indescribable, like their hearts were being squeezed with barbed wire.

Then the entire apartment complex shook, like an earthquake.

At first, Jose had thought something like Purple Rain was happening again.  But then he’d realized what he was feeling.  Evil.  Something big and deep had been out there in the dark.

And just like that, it’d vanished.

Not long later, the victor had shown up, dropped off two injured children, and left.

Now Jose could barely hear Christopher or David opening a drawer in another room.  “Do you think our children will be alright?  That had to be shocking.  It was shocking for me.”

“I think so.  They are children.  Besides, I think Christopher can understand that we have two other little souls who need us right now.” Gloria gestured at the injured two on the floor.  “He has a very good heart.”

Jose absently nodded, thinking.  When Christopher came back with a pan and Gloria began getting everything ready to start cleaning up the injured children, Jose spoke again.  “I don’t agree, Love.”

“About what?”  His wife smiled sadly.  “We sure are tough now, aren’t we?  Everything that happened tonight, and we are just doing what we have to.”

“What we have to.”  Jose nodded.  “Evil has already come to this world in a way I didn’t think was possible.”  After David brought in what his mother had asked him to get, she sent both boys back into the rest of the apartment for bandages and medicine.  Jose turned to his wife and asked, “How did you know he was there, in the hallway?  You looked up before he moved and covered your mouth.”

Gloria shivered uncontrollably.  “I saw two points of blue, like little balls of fire staring at me from the dark.”

Jose nodded slowly.  “I don’t think he was an angel, Gloria.”

“Why?”  

His wife was devout, and Jose could tell she was sure about her belief, but she also respected him enough to listen.  He said, “Because I didn’t feel anything pure or holy from him.  Maybe some goodness, but he felt like...a sharp blade.  I’ve met very dangerous people in Mexico before we came to American.  It was sort of like that, but stronger, and without any darkness.  Just dangerous.  Neither good nor evil.”

Gloria slowly nodded.  “Maybe you are right, but I believe something, Jose.  Good and Evil will always fight.  I know you felt it a few minutes ago.  Something pure evil was in this apartment complex and it went away right before the angel appeared.  He had the blood of monsters on him.  The feeling I got was that he’d just fought a battle.  I know what I saw, and anyone or anything that protects the innocent is at least not on the side of evil.  He could have hurt us, but he helped.  Nothing was asked for in return.”

“That is true.  I hope you are right.”  Jose sighed.  He couldn’t deny that he felt more secure with the shotgun lying nearby now.  It was crazy how his family had moved to America to start a better life, and that decision had probably already saved them all.  Gloria had not been able to get ahold of her family at all after Purple Rain, before communications had gone down for good.  Something horrible might have happened.

Jose could only imagine what it was like back home.

Gloria busied herself on the floor, gently cleaning wounds of the unconscious children, and as Jose watched in amazement, her hands began to emit faint light.  The room was dim enough that he could clearly see it.

“Gloria, you’re glowing!”

With one hand on a little leg, Gloria began to quietly weep.  “I think...I think I can really help them, Jose!  This is...I can feel it.  It’s like I have been gifted by the Holy Spirit.”

“Praise God.”  Jose crossed himself.  “A miracle!  You just awakened!?”

“Yes.  It must be.  Look, the wound is closing!”  Sure enough, the skin on the wounded child’s leg was already showing improvement.  “The messenger gave you tools, and I have received a too, too.”

“Maybe,” said Jose.  He sighed.  “You know what this means, right?”

“Yes.”  Gloria continued to work and didn’t look back as she whispered, “Rember what it says in the book of Luke?  '"...to whom much has been given, much will be required...'"

Jose grimaced as.  “Yes, and that’s what both our families taught us, Love.  With power comes responsbility. And they were right.  It will be hard with four children to look after, but…”

“One thing at a time, Jose.  Let’s save these precious ones first, and we can figure out what comes after that.”  She shook her head.  “Two weeks ago, I would not have been able to handle this.”

“I know.”

“But we are strong.”

“I know.  We have to be.”

“Christopher is becoming strong, too.”  Jose couldn’t see Gloria’s face, but she could see in the shadows thrown by the light of her new healing power that she’d wiped away a tear.  “I hope that he becomes a good man.”

“Now who is getting ahead of herself?” asked Jose.

After a pause, Gloria chuckled softly.  “True.  One day at a time.”

They were both silent for a while, even after the boys wordlessly deposited medicine and bandages next to their mother and sat on the couch to watch.  Jose thought Christopher might have noticed his mother’s new light, but didn’t say anything.  David either didn’t notice or pretended he hadn’t.  Or maybe they’d seen it, understood, and hadn’t thought it worth asking about after the night they’d had.  After all, this was the Purple Rain World, now.  Jose’s heart felt heavy as he thought about the world his two boys would be forced to grow up in now.

...If they survived.

He shook his head.  Those were thoughts that could wait until he tried to sleep, when worries would race around his mind like rats made of shadows and fear.  Every night was the same, there was no point in feeding his darkest worries any more than he had to.

Jose glanced up at his wooden faced sons and couldn’t help asking, “Boys, what do you think just happened? What do you think of the angel?”

“The monster helped us,” said David.  “I think he was a good monster.  But let’s not open the door again for a long time, okay?”  He held his older brother’s hand in a white-knuckled grip.

Jose shared a quick smile with Gloria.  He said, “What is that expression?  ‘From the mouth of babes?’”

Gloria turned and said, “Boys, I want you to go lie down on the floor on the other side of your papa and face away now.”

Christopher frowned.  “But Mother,”

“Now.”

“Okay.”

As the boys got on the floor and tried to get settled, Gloria met Jose’s eyes.  She whispered, “Something terrible and amazing has just happened.  I will never forget the name, ‘Grim.’  “I will pray to Saint Michael to watch over that creature if he is a warrior of God.  If he is not, I will ask that Saint Michael use Grim as a weapon to destroy as many other agents of evil as possible.”

“That sounds good to me,” agreed Jose.

Gloria nodded. Most of her attention was on what she was doing now.  She said quietly, “I hope, angel or not, that Grim spills the blood of evil many, many more times.”  Her eyes flashed.  “I hope he makes them pay.  May he be covered in the blood of evil forever.”

“We can agree on that, my heart.  We can agree on that.”  Jose put a hand on her shoulder and watched in fascination as she used her new power to help save the wounded innocents on their floor.

And he vowed that if anything came through that door for his children, or the two who’d been entrusted to him, he would put his new shotgun to work.

Jose began to pray.

***

Jogging through the forest, Jake sneezed and suddenly had an incredibly strange sensation.  He felt like he was being watched, maybe even like something in the dark was amused with him.  The feeling was strong enough that he stopped for a moment.  But even after staying still and cycling his chi, probing his surroundings with all of his senses, he couldn’t detect anyone or anything nearby.  Probably nothing, he thought, and kept running.

He would find out in less than five minutes if the Warhounds were actually based at the school.