chapter XVII
WE FOUND A TABLE near the back of the small hometown pizza joint and sat down. The place was moderately full; farmers, road crew guys, fishermen, and just-passin’-thru types filled various booths and tables. An ancient Rock-Ola jukebox hurled the occasional hatefully catchy 80’s power ballad at all of us whenever someone dropped in some quarters, which was too often for my taste. The waitresses hustled from table to table with frilly little salmon-colored aprons around their waists. It didn’t take much imagination to see them taking orders with pad and pen, lit cigarettes dangling from their lips, held fast by their filters in the bond of thick blood-red lipstick, thus completing the cliché. I mean, why not, after all?
One of them, a rough bulldog of a woman with pock-marked jowls and strands of gray hair rebelling against the bun that held most of it at bay, came and curtly took our order. She then swooshed away in a storm of polyester and Aqua Net hairspray.
“So,” Michael began, “what do you think about Ellie?”
It was abrupt; it made me suddenly cautious. I brought my guard up by taking a sip of Coke, hiding behind the glass and speaking into it, “What do you mean?” My voice tumbled out amplified, it embarrassed me.
“Well, I mean…you two seem to have your differences, ya know? I couldn’t help but sense the drama.”
I huffed. It was mostly a laugh. “Yeah. Well, I honestly don’t know what her problem is. Can we talk about something else?”
He looked frustrated. “Yeah, I guess.”
I thought about how she had insisted on dividing us up along boy-girl lines at the hotel. “Look. I think she’s who says she is, okay? I mean, like her or not, she’s the real deal…”
Michael’s expression was a clear question mark, and it hung over both of us. “But what was going on back there on the train?”
I thought about it, wanting to give him my best answer. “It was crazy. I don’t even know. It’s like all this…this evil…just came out of nowhere.” I wiped beads of condensation from my glass down onto the table, spinning it counterclockwise as I did so. “I guess after the devil was done down in Georgia he decided to take a little train ride in Oregon, huh-huh,” I laughed crazily at my own pathetic joke and made a face.
He didn’t laugh or even crack a smile. “Yeah,” he said, and that’s all he said.
“What.” I knew there was more.
“I don’t know.”
“Yeah, you do.”
He acknowledged the truth with a little shrug. “Okay.”
“Yeah?”
“Just okay.”
“You’re holding out on me.”
This time he sighed heavily. “Sparkling conversation. First date.”
“Second,” I corrected him into my glass, taking another sip.
“Second,” he acknowledged, drumming his fingers on the table.
“And don’t try to change the subject. Go on, spill it,” I said. I tried to sound encouraging, optimistic. It came out too harsh.
He sighed again. “I just don’t know...” He looked like a little boy sitting there, like a little boy whose dog had just been run over and he didn’t know what to do with himself.
I reached out and touched his arm. “What is it?”
We were interrupted by the waitress. She placed a hot pizza down on the table with a couple of plates, called us both “hon,” and walked off after confirming we needed nothing else. We dug in greedily, forgetting the line of conversation for a moment. But it came back. I wouldn’t let it die.
“Do you think we can trust her?” I asked.
“Ellie? Ha,” Michael said, “Yeah, we can trust her.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I gnashed another bite of gorgeous tasting pizza in my mouth.
“It’s Kim you should be worried about.”
“Mff?” I asked through my food. It helped me mask my shock.
“Kim. Dude. She’s the reason…”
I swallowed. “What. Tell me.”
He simply shook his head. “Can’t we just enjoy ourselves for one evening, just the two of us? Why do we have to talk about this?”
“Because it’s important?” I was a little incredulous.
“More important than taking a much-needed time out? Come on, we’ve been running from—” He lowered his voice and came closer. “We’ve been running for almost a week now. Running, like common criminals. From…from all kinds of…of things. And people. Can’t we just have one night? A few hours?”
This time I sighed. I was exasperated but I took another enormous bite of my slice and began chewing it. All I could do was roll my eyes a little in expression of my frustration. “You’re worse than my Dad,” I finally said.
“Compliment accepted.”
“Oh, FRACK,” I said, which proved I was a Battlestar Galactica nerd.
He laughed at me and then took another bite. “I’m hungry,” he said.
It was one of those things people said as they were eating; it made no sense really.
I knew he was done talking about The Issue At Hand, and in that sense what had happened just now was the spitting image of any number of conversations I’d had with my Dad. When it was over, it was over. He could be so stubborn!
Still, though. Something Michael said about Kim rang true and deep.
There was something about her that just wasn’t sitting well with me lately, though I couldn’t place my finger on it. Why can he see it, and why can’t I? Was it just because I was so close with her? I ran over the hypotheticals in my head: the what-ifs.
What if you had a friend who…I mean, what if every evil thing in all creation was making a beeline to you, was bent on your destruction? What would be the best way to get to you?
A man on the inside.
I looked at Michael.
We’ve already been through this. The statement rang out in my head with an upturned questioning lilt at the end of it.
Who better to engineer ultimate betrayal, though? Who better than that person in whom there has been invested ultimate trust? I had seen a ton of movies, and in every one, the best friend was suspect number one. But this was real life, so was I just thinking this because of my movie habit?
Why is Kim here? I wondered. Why would she be so eager to come along on what amounts to the worst imaginable version of a perpetual car chase scene? I dug around in my feelings, searching for She, searching for El, searching for the truth, asking God for answers, reaching out once again for Kreios.
But there was nothing.
Part of me wanted desperately to defend her. Kim was my best friend from way back; nobody knew me like she did, and nobody could ever come between us. Not even Michael…. Again, it resounded in my mind like a question, and it was difficult to know who had said it.
I shook my head and dug into the next slice of pizza. I was really hungry.
“Hey…” I said after a moment. My wheels were turning, moving on to different topics. “So… tell me again how we know Kreios is going to end up in Africa?” I had been wondering this for quite some time. I couldn’t remember if it was Michael or Ellie who had said it first, and I had been meaning to get some clarification. Preferably from him.
“It’s just what I’m thinking is most likely to happen. A hunch. The Brotherhood wouldn’t have sent those twitchy little fast ones—the weird little fungus-covered ones—if things weren’t deadly serious. I think Kreios is in big-time trouble. I think he’s going after the roots of everything that is evil in this world. He’s aiming for one of the most prestigious—I mean one of the most insidious strongholds of demonic power in the whole world. When I was in the Brotherhood…I mean…I know stuff, okay? I have memories that aren’t even my own, because of James.” He paused, breathing, apparently thinking.
“Those—those little twitchy fungusy ones are called Anti-Cherubs. They only come from Original lands. Like Africa. Or…the Middle East. Like where Eden used to be. The Anti-Cherubs are some of the original rebels, like that big guy said. They are pure blood angels of darkness. Their usual function is to encircle the earthly throne of the Prince of Darkness himself with apostate traitorous praise.” He paused and took a drink to fill the vacuum of silence between us.
“You talk about the devil. We had a brush with Satanic power the other night on that road. It’s not a laughing matter. And your grandfather is, like, stirring it up because he thinks you’re dead and he wants revenge. It would only make sense, based on what I’ve seen so far, that he has awakened powers in Original Lands either by threatening them or by actually going there already and fighting them on their own turf. It’s the Nri Clan. They’re legend among the Brotherhood. My f—I mean, Stanley…once when I was younger…um…shared with me…all this kind of stuff.”
His eyes looked distant and haunted. I never wanted him to look at me like that ever again for the rest of his life.
“Anyway, I’m betting if we start in South Africa, we’ll pick up one Hell of a trail. So to speak.”
“You think we can find him?”
“Kreios?”
“Yeah.” I swallowed and blinked back tears.
He reached across the table and grasped my hands, enfolding them within his own. “I sure hope so.”
“Do you think he’s…okay?”
He looked worried. “Of course.”
“You’re a bad liar.” I attempted a smile but quickly looked down. There was the pizza. I wasn’t so hungry anymore.
“You know why all this is happening, right?”
“Not really,” I said, starting to cry now in earnest.
“The Nri are hunting us down because my father is dead. And they’re not the only ones, don’t kid yourself. The one who retrieves the Bloodstone will become the next Seer.” He stopped, allowing this new information to sink in.
“So…where is it?” I thought back to the day on the cliff.
“What, the Bloodstone?”
“Yeah.”
“That is a really good question.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What does that mean?”
“I’m not going to talk about it any further.”
My jaw hit the floor in shock. Before I could shout abuses at him, he spoke again.
“At least not until you’ve had a chance to talk with Kim.”
“Kim? What’s she got to do with this?”
“You’d better ask her.” He resumed eating. It was grotesque to me; I wanted to barf. Oh, no…. Was my sickness coming back? And what did that mean?
“But,” I began, “why would Kim have anything to do with…” As my voice did its decrescendo into nothingness, the light came on. Oh, no.
I watched as Michael rubbed his chest, grimacing like it hurt.