The Next Thing I Knew (Heavenly) (24 page)

How was this possible?

"You are interfering with God's plan.  His angels have come to put His Plan into action.  Repent and desist, child or I will end you in God's holy fire this instant."

"This is impossible," I groaned.  "You can't hurt people in Heavenly."

"Belief is a powerful ally.  I believe and God makes me strong."

I dragged myself behind an ornate wooden couch.

"Let me end her, please," Anna said.  "She has put her witchcraft upon Latham."

"Is it God's will to pervert the minds of kids and make them sound like idiots from the Dark Ages?" I asked.  "Witchcraft?  Are you kidding me?"  I groaned and my eyes watered in pain.

"This is my God-given duty, dear one," Ms. Tate said to Anna.  "I must complete it.  God will reward us all if we convert rather than end her."

"But the corrupt ones weaken us," Anna said.

"They do, and that is why they must go.  But the believers strengthen our cause."

Something tugged at my mind.  I answered.  It was Kyle, thank the stars.  I intentionally avoided thanking God for that one.

My God, you're hurt,
Kyle said.

I'd appreciate it if you didn't use his name around me right now.  He's kicking my ass.

God?

No, but his bitch is.

How?  It's impossible to hurt ghosts.

Tell that to the smoking crater on my chest.

Flit to us.  We'll get out of here.

I need my parents.

You'll need a grave if you don't leave now.

I sighed and groaned at the same time as my chest ached.  He was right.  I couldn't fight something I didn't understand.  Ms. Tate would hold my parents hostage until I was either dead or on her side but at least they were alive.  More pressing matters needed tending to.  I willed myself to Kyle.

Nothing happened.

I tried again.

Still nothing.

"There's no escape, child.  You can't flit from within the church."

I almost shouted that it was impossible, but so far she'd won those arguments today.  I heard her approaching, the golden staff clinking heavy upon the stone floor.  I might not be able to flit, but I could still fly.  I hovered a few inches off the floor and jetted away.

Huge corridors intersected in a grid-like fashion.  I turned left and got nowhere fast.  The place was a huge maze.  I saw signs for Sunday school designated by age and gender; I saw singles classes and married classes also divided by gender.  Most of the rooms were full of people.  Some of the attendees turned to stare blankly at me as I drifted past leaving a trail of smoke and the odor of burnt cotton and flesh.

A few people wandered the halls.  I stopped a nerdy-looking man with buck teeth and horn-rimmed glasses.  Why he hadn't fixed that yet I didn't know.  "Help me," I said.  "Which way is out of here?"

"You want to leave the house of the Lord?"  He stared at the front of my crispy dress.  "You bear the wrath of the God Hand.  You've been bad."  He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Sinner on the loose!"  He grabbed me.

I screamed as his arms closed over my burns.  "You idiot." I kicked him and sent him sprawling.  The effort cost me another dose of horrific pain.

Damn what I wouldn't give for super powers right about now
.

The classrooms started emptying out.  The halls filled with people.  I flew higher until I was almost touching the vaulted ceiling dozens of feet above their heads.  Hands reached from the throng below.  People flew up to meet me.  I dodged them but there were too many of them.  Super powers would be really, really great right about now.

Wait a minute.  I was flying.  Didn't that count as a super power?

I zipped left into a featureless corridor.  It was empty of people and doors although large iron chandeliers hung from the ceiling just like the rest of the corridors.  It didn't go anywhere except a stone wall with a huge painting of Christ nailed to the Cross on it.

I spun around.  The corridor behind me swarmed with worshippers on the ground and in the air.  I had a feeling I was in for a painful conversion.

A stone wall to my back and the Sunday school group from Hell to my front.  Not a great way to go down kicking and screaming.  The burns on my chest raged for relief.  If one of the zombies for Christ offered me some aloe vera in exchange for my soul, I probably would have given it to them at that moment.

I had to do something.  I concentrated, picturing a wall between me and the mob.  A lump grew from the ground until it was about a foot tall, shuddered, and stopped.  People spilled over it and tripped over each other.  Funny to watch on any other occasion, but really, really sad right now.  I was such a failure.  I needed a wall, an invisible barrier, a raging fire, anything.  Even a freaking feather would be saying something.

Nibbles, where are you?

I focused, picturing a stone wall between us.  Instead, a single red feather floated down.  I looked behind me, expecting Nibbles to be staring down the horde with his green eyes.  But he wasn't there.  Had I made that feather?

I turned to see another and another feather drift from the ceiling.  Then a flurry of red feathers dumped from the air like a red blizzard, carpeting the floor and the people.  I backed up to the wall as the Sunday school horde closed to fifty yards.  The feathers fell thicker until they blinded me.  People were yelling and spitting feathers out of their mouths.  I flew to the top of the corridor and positioned myself against the corner.  I pictured a clear corridor just my size through the feathers along the edge.  A gentle breezed puffed the feathers out of my way.  I could see down to the corner ahead.  Nobody blocked my way.  I zipped over the blind worshippers leaving a cloud of red feathers whirling in my wake.

I turned right at the corner and zoomed onward.  The rain of feathers continued for a distance down the hall and then ended.  The hall was clear of the throng of people as well.  Something growled and leapt from the darkness of a side corridor.  I dodged as one of the mammoth brown hounds smashed into the stone ceiling.

Another appeared ahead and leapt, gaping maw and slobbering canine teeth snapping on empty air as I jerked to a halt.  The hounds formed a circle, their black eyes watching my hovering form.  I couldn't move without one of them landing a chomp on me.  The one against the wall to my left pounced.  I held up my arm reflexively willing it to protect me.

The dog yelped and bounced off a shimmering wall in the air about two inches from my bare arm.  Another attacked and hit the same resistance.  I gritted my teeth.  My arm felt like a wet noodle.  I had a feeling another couple hits like that and my shield or whatever it was fending them off might go with it.  Forget super powers.  What I really needed now was a hundred pounds of beef.

I pictured a huge mound of ground chuck on the floor.  Nothing happened.  Anger snapped through me.  "Give me something at least!"  The crystal clear image of a raw t-bone formed in my mind.  A tyrannosaurus-sized version appeared in the air and thudded on the floor.  The hounds looked at the steak.  They looked at me.  They looked back at the steak, sniffed it, and made a decision.  I could wait.  The steak, on the other hand, could not.  They tore into it.

T-bone.  Dogs.  Classic.

Or maybe just luck.  Whoever had created those dogs may have given them abnormal size but at least they had the same instincts as normal dogs.  I'd managed to occupy the dogs but I still didn't know how to escape from this blasted church.

I saw a familiar landmark ahead.  On the right was the entrance to Ms. Tate's cavernous sanctuary, a marble arch.  She looked up, saw me, and raised the cross.  A beam of light seared from it, blasting a chunk of mortar inches away from my face.  I raised my arm.  My shield slammed into a chunk of stone.  Pain jolted through my bones.  I ricocheted downward and slammed into Ms. Tate.  She tumbled away.  Her staff slid across the floor.  I stopped cold.

I staggered to my feet in time to see Anna's fist in closer detail than I wanted to.  It intersected my face.  The blow lifted me off my feet and I slid across the floor.  I pushed myself up.  My shield arm had gone numb.  My nose felt broken.  The charred spot on my chest ached.  I sat on my knees, vision swimming with tears.  I tasted blood on my lips.  No use asking how or why I was bleeding.  It was happening and it hurt like hell.

Anna grabbed a handful of my hair and dragged me across the floor.  Ms. Tate lay a few feet away.  She wasn't moving.  I clutched at Anna's hand.  Grabbed her arm.  I tried to merge but I could barely muster enough of my senses to keep my eyes open, much less meditate.  She kept pulling me as I kicked and screamed and flailed.  I punched backward at an awkward angle.  She grunted.  Released me.  I spun, scrambling to my knees, fists up like a boxer.  She was gone.

I saw her slumped against the wall near Ms. Tate.  Damn, I must really pack a punch, I thought.

Then I saw Kyle, Chris, and Mike hovering in the air.  Kyle was nursing his fist.  Chris landed, cradled me up in his arms like a baby.

"Let's jet," Kyle said.

We flew through a series of holes in the thick church walls until we reached open skies.

"How'd you do that?" I asked, my voice sounding thick, my tongue rubbery.

"I was pissed," Kyle said.  "Didn't know I had it in me to hit a girl."

I looked into Chris's deep blue eyes.  His face was blurry and my head kept lolling from wooziness.  I probably looked like something from a horror movie:  bleeding face, split lip, busted nose, burnt chest, and the coordination of a drunk.

"I love you," I said to him, although it sounded more like "I luuu ooo."  I felt blood bubbles on my lips.  Attractive.

Chris smiled.  He looked kind of like Superman at that moment, flying me out of danger.

I bobbed in and out of consciousness but I didn't care.  I was in Chris's arms.

* * * * *

I jerked awake.  Looked around.  I was in the Shaval ship in Diana's quarters.  I looked at my body, half expecting to see Diana's curves, but no, the curves I saw were all my own.  My burned shirt was gone and I was back in a yellow summer dress.  I pulled down the front, holding my breath.  If my boobs were burnt, I was going to cry.  But the flesh was whole.  Not even a hint of trauma except the flesh was slightly paler in spots.  My lips felt fine.  I gently touched my nose.  It was firmly in place.

A dozen roses sat on the floor next to me.  They smelled wonderful.

Chris?

You're awake,
he sent back and appeared a second later.  He hugged me and kissed me on my forehead.

"I'm not messed up anymore."

"We were worried sick but there wasn't jack we could do about it.  Kyle noticed your lips were healing so we figured you just needed rest."

"Thank Go--I mean--my lucky stars.  Damn, I need some other entity else to thank now."

He laughed.  "Lucy, I know things went bad between us.  I tried so hard to do the friends things."

My heart sank a little bit.  "It's not working for you?"

He shook his head.  "I can't do it.  It's too hard."

"Please don't give up on me.  I don't know what I did wrong--"

"You haven't done anything wrong."

"But--"

He put a finger to my lips.  "Hush for a minute.  I'm not finished."  He took my hand and kissed it and gazed into my eyes.

I whimpered.

"I love you, Lucy.  I can't deny it anymore.  What you did with Nick hurt me more than anything I've ever felt.  I was so angry with you, but after a while I realized it was because I care for you like no other girl and any little thing you did could hurt me.  I felt so vulnerable and I'm not used to that."

"What about Bethany?"

"She's been a good friend to me.  She's the one who told me I needed to man up and beg for you to come back."

"I thought you two were a couple."

He laughed.  "No, we've always been good friends.  We grew up together and I guess she's like a sister to me."

Tears pooled in my eyes and my lower lip quivered and scrunched up.  I've seen myself cry and it's not pretty.  Just my luck I'd ruin this romantic moment with one of my scrunchy-cry faces.

Chris brushed a tear from my cheek, just like in a chick flick.  Then he kissed me.  His warm lips melted into mine.  I pressed my hands to his cheeks and felt that wonderful stubble on his face and pressed myself into him.  I started laughing in between sobs of joy. 
Lucy Morgan, you're a complete wreck.

But Chris still loved me and that was the only thing that mattered.

"You're not mad at me that I gave you the fat Shaval as a host?" I asked after I regained a bit of sanity.

"Heck no, I love Gabriel.  He doesn't use meds or surgery to keep himself looking like an athlete.  And he's really smart."

"I think he and Diana should have a date."

"Oh, you're a naughty girl."  He clucked his tongue.

"I'm curious to see what it feels like."

"So wrong, but oh so right."

"Let's do it."

"You got it, babe."

Later, much later, I assembled a squad meeting.  We went over final preparations.  The Rrilk put the gel cases with our bodies in the stasis chamber of the Shaval ship.  The chamber was more or less the Shaval equivalent of an industrial-sized freezer that didn't actually freeze anything with cold temperatures.  It also ignored living tissue so the Rrilk could walk in and out without effect.  We rigged the security in one of the bedrooms so only the Rrilk could open the portal and we could lock the Shaval inside.  It was time to go.

While the others were saying goodbye to friends and family, I went back home and took a long last look at the place I'd grown up.  I looked down the street at the quiet houses.  I saw the tree where Kyle and I had carved a heart around the names of two neighbors who were married to other people just to see what trouble we could stir up.  I saw where we put up our lemonade stand one summer.  After our concocted lemonade gave five kids diarrhea, we'd had to go out of business.

I chuckled at the memories.  We'd been little hellions.  Life had been fun.

A red feather drifted onto my nose.  I heard a plaintive meow as Nibbles stretched his claws through my jeans and into my leg.  I laughed and jerked back.  Bent over and picked him up.

"I'll be back soon, kitty."  I nuzzled his little nose and set him down.  "By the way, your little feather trick saved my life."

He meowed again, staring at me with those feline eyes.  I wondered if he'd been a human in another life.  Sometimes he seemed to be trying to tell me something.  Nibbles raised a paw, almost like a dog would do to shake.  I knelt and took his paw.  He meowed again.  He sounded almost sad to me.  Then he started to fade away.  I clenched his paw.

"You're leaving me?" I said.

He meowed.

"No, please don't.  I want you to stay with me."

He meowed again.

His paw slipped from my fingers.  His eyelids drooped languidly and he regarded me through the slits.  Then he was gone.  A single red feather drifted gently to the ground where he'd been.

A rasping noise scraped from my throat and sobs shook my body.  I picked up the red feather and kissed it and hugged it like a little baby.  I lay on my back and stared at the stars as the tears cascaded from the corners of my eyes and over my ears.  I hoped Nibbles was in kitty heaven.  I hoped he had all the feathers he wanted to play with.

I hoped the god of kitties had nicer followers than the human god.  People like Ms. Tate dragged the entire human race down.  I'd questioned myself so much over the past few days about what made us worth saving.  Why not let the Shaval take stewardship of our planet?  They'd probably be a lot nicer to it than we were.  But I knew the answer.  I knew why I'd risk everything to save humans.  I suspected even Nibbles knew the answer to that.

Because there were people like Kyle and Chris, Mike and Anil, Bethany and Missy.  The rest of the people on my team were humans worth fighting for, worth dying for.  They were my brothers and sisters.  They deserved a good life and all the bad ones could go to Ms. Tate.  Somehow I suspected that was a worse fate than Hell.

Anil had known why we were fighting before his end.  We carried a part of him with us now.  And it was our duty to make sure his death wasn't in vain.  I stood up, wiped away my tears, and kissed Nibbles's feather one more time before tucking it into my pocket.  I looked up at the stars.

Zalista, here we come.