Chapter 51
With a quick tap of his handlink, Sam appeared in the back seat of Tom’s rental. For travelling solo, he’d sure picked a big, rugged vehicle.
A quick look at the passenger seat seemed to suggest Donna wasn’t with him.
“Tom, where’s Donna?” Sam demanded. His sudden loud voice made Tom almost jump out of his skin.
“Jesus!” he growled. “Give me some warning! It’s unsettling enough I’m even lookin’ at my little brother from the future—do you have to sneak around like that?”
“Sorry… it’s supposed to make a noise when I appear,” Sam said distractedly, smacking a hand against the handlink. “But answer my question, would ya? Why isn’t Donna with you?”
He repositioned himself to the vacant passenger seat.
Tom jumped at the sudden change, before taking a breath. “I’m not driving your wife to help me intercept some deranged killer, Sam. I have training to deal with threats like that. What’s she gonna do? Stand there and hope not to get hurt?”
Sam sighed. “Donna is not a damsel in distress, Tom. There’s safety in numbers, and this is just one woman preying on a vulnerable kid.”
“A kid who’s like, possessed by a grown man, if I understand all of this correctly.”
“Look, Ben is not in an… optimal state to fight for himself right now,” Sam said. “But never mind that. I guess there’s no turning back and getting Donna now, so just keep on driving.” He glanced around the SUV. “Is this thing an off-roader?”
“Yeah,” Tom said, nodding. “I figured I might have to drive in the desert, so I wanted to be prepared.”
“Tom, I could kiss you. Except that I’m twenty years in the future.” Sam grinned. “I’ve got a map of where Janis’s body was found, and if you can drive this thing down to the riverside, that would be perfect. You might have to go through some bushes, though…”
“I don’t think the insurance covers that,” Tom lamented.
“Don’t worry, Tom. Remember, I’ve still got two million bucks to burn.”
“This is an expensive day for you,” mused Tom, giving Sam a look.
“Ancient history,” Sam said with a nonchalant shrug. He studied his brother’s flustered face. “Listen. Tom. Thank you for doing this. I know you and Al have a patchy history, but…”
“Sam, I have no beef with the Admiral—as long as I know you’re okay. That’s what it was always about. You.” He turned a sharp corner before continuing. “Besides, this is a murder we’re talking about. Who’s got time to worry about personal conflicts?”
Sam smiled. “Yeah, you’re completely right. If you have the power to save someone, you should do whatever you can to do it. And even if that means giving up some personal comfort… it’s… you know, still worth trying. Because… I could do so much more, Tom. Janis is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Tom eyed his brother curiously. “Um… what are you trying to tell me here, Sam?”
Sam cleared his throat, and abruptly changed the subject. “Try to be available around Christmas of 2008, Tom. Mom could use your support when she goes through chemo.”
Tom looked at him with wide eyes. “Sam…”
“It’s alright. She’ll beat the cancer, but… she could use the extra company.” He glanced down at his handlink as it threw up an alert; looked like there was a cop in the vicinity of Donna’s car. “Listen, I gotta get back to… uh, me. Keep going this way, and when you hit the riverside, you’ll want to head to the south side of the bridge. The water’s shallow and it’s a gentle incline, so don’t worry about falling in.” He looked up from the handlink. “I think you’re gonna get there first—so be on guard, and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Tom looked ahead, a grave expression on his face. “Aye aye,” he said. Sam smiled at this, knowing that he said it with the utmost military respect.
* * *
With a shudder, the car surrounding Ben finally came to a stop, and his churning stomach was pleased to be stationary once more.
“This is it, Ben,” Addison announced. “You remember what I said?”
“Uh… go limp,” Ben parroted. “Right?”
“Right. The cavalry will be here in the next six to ten minutes, so do everything you can to slow down whatever it is she’s got planned.”
“Okay. I can do this.”
He was more trying to convince himself than anything. As Mary-Sue flipped open the trunk, she glared down at him menacingly.
“Come on, you little whore,” she snarled, pulling him up by the bindings on his wrists. “Move.”
Taking his cue, Ben let all his muscles relax, and she struggled to drag him out into the night air.
“Remember to breathe,” Addison prompted. He took a few gasping breaths, before closing his eyes and feigning passing out.
“Lord have mercy,” Mary-Sue muttered, before kicking him in the stomach. “Wake up, you useless child.”
She kicked him again, and Ben flinched, letting out a yelp.
So much for playing possum.
“Get up,” the deranged woman commanded. “Get up, or I will retrieve my switch from the back seat and start whipping. I bet that’s your problem; those liberal parents of yours never lifting a finger to drive the devil out of you. That’s what made you this wretched thing you’ve become.”
“What are you gonna do to me?” Ben asked, still refraining from moving from his now prone position on the ground.
“You’re going to be cleansed of your sins,” Mary-Sue replied with an eerily chipper tone. “I’ve got my work cut out for me, but you’ll feel much better after receiving the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. You’ll be born again.”
Ben looked out upon the rippling waters of the Rio Grande. “You want to baptise me?”
“You have just one chance to go to Heaven, and you’re very lucky I’m extending that offer—it’s because I care about your eternal soul. You’ll thank me once you see your unclean friends writhing in the fires of Hell, while you are in perfect happiness.”
Doesn’t sound like I could be happy with that scenario.
He felt a rough hand grab him by the hair and pull until he cried out.
“Get up.”
Ben made a feeble display of attempting to rise to his feet, and fall over again.
“I can’t.”
Mary-Sue groaned. “Well then, I pity the state of your dress when I finish dragging you. Pray you stay decent.”
She grabbed him once again by the bindings, and began tugging, grunting with the effort as Ben simply passively let her do it. He could feel his skin getting grazed and scratched, but he figured it was better than hurrying to his death.
“You’re doing great,” Addison said as she walked beside him. “Ziggy says if you cooperate with her baptism once she gets you in the water, there’s a better chance she’ll let you live. It isn’t by much, but hopefully the others will be here by the time she finishes.”
The stones and weeds underneath Ben gave way to smooth sand, followed by cold water against his shivering body.
Mary- Sue finally dropped Ben’s hands, and she rolled him over so he was lying in the water facing upwards. She pushed him into a loose sitting position, and Ben did his best not to flop back into the water where he might become submerged. With his hands tied behind his back, it might have been a one way trip.
Mary-Sue pulled her shoes off, resting them on a jutting rock before continuing into the dark water beside Ben. She towered over him, looking skyward.
“Lord Jesus Christ, before you is a sinner. Bless me with your light, Lord, that I may drive away the evil and wash away all her sins in Your name.”
She cupped water in her hands, trickling it over Ben’s head.
Well, this wasn’t so bad. Just a shower, really.
“In the name of Jesus, I banish the demons from this child!”
This isn’t how you do an exorcism, Ben thought idly. Where is she getting this stuff?
His thoughts were banished from his mind as she violently grabbed him by the hair once again.
“Renounce the devil and all his lies.”
“Wha—”
“Renounce him!”
“O-okay, fine!” Ben said, flummoxed. “I renounce the devil, alright?”
“Say it like you mean it!” Mary-Sue slapped him hard on the cheek, briefly making him dizzy. He blinked a few times. How was he supposed to appease this woman?
“Just turn on the waterworks,” Addison suggested. “These religious nuts love when people get weepy and sincere.”
“Do you renounce the devil?” Mary-Sue continued.
Ben let his lip quiver, and he did his best to feign some kind of epiphany, before making a show of crying.
“I do! I do renounce the devil!” he said, sobbing dramatically.
“Do you accept Jesus Christ into your heart as your saviour?!”
“Yes! Praise Jesus!” Ben said, beginning to feel like he was dissociating from the surreal experience. “I see the light!” he added, lifting his eyes to the stars.
“Hallelujah!” Addison contributed snarkily. “Nice going, I think she’s buying it.”
“Beg the Lord for forgiveness!” Mary-Sue commanded.
“O Lord Jesus—the, um, Way, the Truth and the Light!” Ben recited, channelling every evangelical megachurch broadcast he’d ever happened upon while channel surfing. “Forgive me my sins!”
“May the blood of Jesus wash away her sins!” Mary-Sue cried, before thrusting Ben’s head under the water. As quickly as she did it, she pulled it back up again, still by the hair.
Ben was partially distracted by the idea of blood being able to wash anything away. Blood wasn’t known for leaving things clean.
“I baptise you in the name of the Father—”
She dunked him again.
“—the Son—”
Ben gasped for breath as she repeated the action.
“—and the Holy Spirit!”
And once more his head was submersed. Each cold shock had made him feel just a little more sober. Not sober enough to escape, but enough to make him more alert.
“Congratulations,” Mary-Sue said. “You have been born anew.”
“Okay… great… so, can I go now?” Ben asked, pleading with his eyes.
Mary-Sue laughed. “Oh my, no. You’ll go back to your life of sin, now won’t you?”
“What if I promised not to?”
Mary Sue stepped out of the water, crouching by the dark riverside. She returned to a standing position, now with a large rock in her hand.
“The only way to guarantee Heaven for you is to send you there now, while you are cleansed of your sins.” She smiled in perhaps the creepiest way possible as she approached; a broad, absent grin that didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m doing you a favour. You will thank me, I promise you that.”
Ben exchanged an open-mouthed look of horror with Addison.
“Ben, you have to fight her,” she said urgently. “Buy time.”
With his hands tied up, sitting chest deep in a river, Ben failed to see how he’d win against the blunt force of a rock. But he had to try.
First, he struggled with an attempt to rise to his feet. That failed as the current of the river threw him off balance, and he fell awkwardly back to the river bed.
Addison groaned. “Okay, so you can’t stand and your hands are tied. That leaves your legs—try and trip her up.”
Ben thrashed his legs towards the oncoming killer. She responded to this by grabbing his ankle with her free hand.
“Now now, you don’t want to do that,” she said calmly. “Don’t want to go to Hell at the last minute because of a little sinful behaviour, do you?”
She threw his leg aside, raising the boulder over her head.
Ben tried to get himself into a position to kick at her, but he knew his efforts wouldn’t be fast or precise enough to help him.
And then, the roar of an engine filled Ben’s senses as a big SUV emerged out of the vegetation, screeching to a halt, its bright headlights causing Ben and his assailant to squint and shade their eyes.
The door of the vehicle opened, and a silhouette pointed a handgun out from behind the door.
“Put the rock down,” boomed a deep, commanding voice.
“Oh, thank God,” Addison said. “It’s Sam’s brother. He made it.”
Mary Sue grimaced, and threw the rock down, before diving into the dark water and emerging behind Ben, grabbing him around the collar and using him as a human shield.
“This soul has been saved,” she snarled. “You can’t let it be made dirty again. I will finish this.”
“You’re completely out of your mind,” Tom said, cautiously approaching, keeping his aim, but knowing full well that he couldn’t risk a shot with Ben in the way.
“Uh… thou shalt not kill?” Ben tried. This only served to tighten Mary-Sue’s vice-like grip on him.
“Jesus will forgive my sins,” she whispered fiercely into his ear. “Just like he forgives yours.”
With that, she pulled both of them beneath the surface of the water.
“Shit!” Tom hissed, running towards them. With what little Ben could now see from under the water, he thought he saw a second silhouette behind Tom.
I… hope that’s Sam, he thought as he began to feel desperate for air.