Authors: Angella Graff
“You have no idea,” she said and then her cheeks went a little pink. “Or well, I guess you do have some idea.” She gave a nervous laugh and crossed her arms defensively across her chest. “No offense.”
“None taken,” Greg said. “Do you mind if I have a look at your bruises? Mark and I are trying to put together a theory here.”
“Oh, sure,” she said. She hiked up the sleeve on her sweater all the way past her elbow on her right arm and extended it out. Sure enough, from the crook of her arm and down over the inside of her forearm there were small, round bruises.
Greg leaned forward, taking her arm in his hand gingerly, and he pressed on the skin around the bruises with his thumb. Abby let out a small hiss of pain and Greg looked up at her. “I apologize.” He peered down at the skin further, though Mark had no idea what Greg was looking for, and eventually the doctor released her.
“Would you both excuse me a moment?” Abby said and stood up. When both men looked at her with concern in her eyes, she said, “Just the restroom, be out in a moment. I feel okay right now, I promise.”
Mark took a seat in Abby’s vacated spot and looked at Greg. “Well? Is she lying?”
“No,” Greg said. “Her eyes would have shifted when I caused her physical pain, so she’s herself at the moment. Of course, we can’t be too careful, but I can for certain tell you the bruises on her arms are injection sites, and likely she’s being drugged.”
“Is she doing it herself?” Mark asked.
“Doubtful. The injection sites are on her right arm, and she’s right handed. It’s not impossible, but not likely.”
Mark let out a small breath. “So now we just need to be concerned with who is doing this, since the gods are incorporeal and seeing as we have no idea who might be involved.”
Abby came out of the restroom looking somewhat refreshed. There was a little more color to her cheeks and she looked like she’d gotten some actual sleep. “Anyone talked to my brother yet?” she asked as she sat down a space away from Mark.
“I called him, but unfortunately I was only able to leave a voicemail. I explained some of our concern so I’m hoping he’ll get back to us soon,” Greg said.
Mark looked down at his watch and realized it was starting to slip into the evening hours. “Okay so, as of right now we have no motivation, no clue as to who might be possessing you, Abby, and no idea where or when your brother will be back. I think what’s most important is making sure you stay safe.”
“Agreed, and the best way to do that is to stay together. Strength in numbers,” Greg said. “Normally I don’t abide by that reasoning, however in this case it makes sense.”
“I agree with you,” Abby said. “Right now I don’t want to be alone. I have no idea what’s happening to me and I’m getting really freaked out.”
“Try and remain as calm as you can,” Greg said in a soothing tone. “Nothing good will come of panicking. Right now I can’t give out too much detail, but I can promise that I have a way of protecting you should something happen to you again.”
Mark frowned, unsure why Greg wouldn’t want to tell her about the drug, but he reasoned it had to be in case someone, a god or somehow a person, was listening. “Look, why don’t we get something to eat. We can order delivery, Greg, you can call Ben once more, and we’ll try and form a game plan.”
“Sounds good,” Greg said and pulled out his phone.
Mark walked into the kitchen and found an old take out menu for Chinese, and ordered a variety of dishes to be delivered. He stood in the kitchen long after the call was over, his mind racing with fear and confusion, feeling paralyzed without any information to go on.
Had this been centuries before, Mark would have just stormed the hospital walls and taken Yehuda by force, steeling away into a mountain cave or somewhere off the grid until people forgot about him and the man who could work miracles.
Even in centuries when churches with their armies had gotten ahold of Yehuda, Mark could just pick up a sword or a gun, and take charge. This was different, this century. Technology was doubling every year, it seemed. People were becoming more aware, less fanatical as a whole, and yet strangely more paranoid. There were cameras now, and cars, and guns and weapons Mark once could have never dreamed of. The computers surpassed his understanding, and now that Yehuda could be hidden from him, Mark was feeling, for the first time since he’d been cursed, helpless.
He splashed a bit of water from the sink onto his face and patted himself dry with a dish towel. He tried to go back into his short term memory and remember what it felt like to just be the blind teacher, the transfer priest from Russia, no real past, no real future. Just a guy talking to high school students about classical literature and history.
He could barely remember what that felt like now. But that was always his history, it seemed. No matter what he was doing, what century he was in, no matter how long things had seemed calm, there was the ever looming threat that someone would discover Yehuda and try to start another religious war.
The Judas Curse, someone had called it from Mark’s past, one of the few Mark had ever let in on his secret. Mark laughed to himself and shook his head, “Oh if I only had any idea then what a curse it would continue to be…”
Mark stood up straight and shook of the feeling of melancholy. Sinking into the what-ifs of his past was not going to help their problem now. Mark had to get to Yehuda before any real damage could be done. It was clear these beings, these false gods were using Yehuda to further their own means, but Mark couldn’t be sure why. Using Yehuda’s power was not going to bring them into physical form. Yehuda could manipulate human matter, but that was it.
Mark walked back into the room where Greg and Abby sat, chatting quietly to each other. Greg looked up at Mark when he walked in the room. “I called, but all I got was voicemail again. I’m hoping he got my message.”
“Well he said he was coming home,” Mark said, “when I spoke to him earlier. I told him a little about what happened to Abby. He, of course, is thinking something more along the lines of one of us hurting her, but either way, if that’ll bring him back home, it’s worth it. He’s supposed to have more information on who might have taken Yehuda.”
Greg gave a small shrug. “Let’s hope he’s on a plane then.”
Chapter
Thirty-Five
Ben’s plane landed on time, which was likely a record for the San Francisco airport seeing as almost every flight was delayed by fog after nine in the morning. It was a bumpy landing, but that was typical for the runway which sat right on the bay.
Trying to curb his anxiety, Ben fidgeted in his seat until he was finally able to stand up and shuffle out in a line with the rest of the passengers. He had his bag over his shoulder, his body starting to sweat from the compressed heat created by all the bodies, and by the time he was inside the terminal, he had to physically keep himself from running outside to catch a cab.
Luckily, once Ben made it outside, there were plenty of taxis waiting. Though the one thing he wanted more than anything was the familiar smell of his apartment, a hot shower, and a good long sleep in his bed, he gave the cab driver the address to Sacred Heart where he knew his sister would be.
Traffic seemed to be worse than ever, which frustrated him, but he kept his temper in check for the near half-hour it took to get to the school. The gates were locked, so Ben had the driver drop him off near the entrance and he pushed the numbers on the keypad to dial into Mark’s apartment.
“It’s Ben,” he snapped at the little speaker when Mark’s voice called out over the intercom.
“Come in,” Mark said in a hurried tone.
The gate buzzed and the pedestrian side clicked open. Ben threw the gate’s door wide open and walked as fast as he could to the side door. He navigated the hallways with now-practiced ease and soon he was standing at Mark’s door. Mark stood there, dark glasses on, and Ben wondered if Mark had the contacts on and couldn’t see him.
“I’m here,” Ben said in a clipped, short tone.
Mark’s face broke into a grin. “Oh good, come in. Just in time for dinner.”
Ben shoved past man and stormed into the living room where he saw his sister chatting happily away to Greg Asclepius. Ben immediately sat down next to her and took her by the shoulders. “Did you call your doctor?” was the first thing he blurted out.
Abby shrugged out of his grasp and scooted back away from him. “Please don’t start this, Ben. We both know I’m not sick.”
“I’m starting to think maybe you are,” Ben said. “I mean, if there’s something wrong, something like I had, it would distort your ability to tell the difference between reality and fantasy.”
“You were right there with me,” Abby snapped. “You saw everything, you saw more than I did, in fact. Please don’t start with me.” Her voice was tight, begging, and her eyes were watery. “I’m so damn tired, Ben, and I can’t deal with you fighting me every step of the way.”
Ben let out a breath and turned to Greg who was now helping Mark pull out the small, white paper boxes full of food from a large, brown bag. “Look, what we know right now is someone has been drugging her. We’re not sure who, or why, but the bruises on her arm are coming from injection sites,” Greg said.
Ben’s face grew hot. “If either of you two have been touching my sister…”
“We don’t know who it is,” Greg said. “I can tell you for certain I don’t remember doing anything like that, and you can attest to Asclepius’s whereabouts since you were with him the entire time I was under his influence.”
Ben swallowed thickly. “Yes, during your slip into your other personality, I was there.”
“And Abby insists that Mark hasn’t been touching her,” Greg said.
“There would be no sense in me drugging your sister,” Mark said as he pulled off his glasses.
“All we can really do is observe her,” Greg said. “Eventually, the person doing it, is going to get caught, or at the very least, reveal their motivations for using Abby.”
Sitting back, Ben shook his head at the offered food and stared down at the floor. “So what? We just sit around waiting for my sister to lose her damn mind like the rest of you?”
Mark let out a little sigh and settled down at the low coffee table right near Ben’s feet. “Do you have any news on our possible kidnapper?”
“Some,” Ben said sharply. “When I get to the office tomorrow morning I’m going to be checking into a possible cult situation involving your little friend.”
Mark’s eyes widened. “What do you mean cult situation?”
Ben hesitated, looking over from Greg to Abby before he decided to answer. It was one thing to share facts with his sister, but it was quite another to give out sensitive information with a couple of men he believed might be involved somehow. “We located the person who last had contact with John Doe,” Ben said slowly. “Tracking him by credit card, we believe he may be involved in a cult up in Washington State.”
Mark let out a breath. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
Ben glared suspiciously at Mark. “Oh? Is that so?”
Mark gave a little nod and a slightly helpless shrug. “Ben, whether you truly believe in what you’ve seen over the last few weeks or not, you can’t deny what happened to you when you touched him. You’d also be foolish to believe that the only one he ever healed was you. Imagine what a layperson could do if they discovered that ability.”
“So you think they could have a cult involving a comatose man who can miraculously heal people?” Ben asked.
“No,” Mark said slowly. “The funny thing about his curse is that it can pass on to others. Not for long periods of time, but long enough to change people’s lives. Men are men, and they’re greedy, and if they believe they can market this ability, I have absolute belief they would lock Yehuda in a room and use him until the well of power dried up.”