Authors: Angella Graff
“We may be,” Mark said. “We’re waiting for Ben to get here.”
“Oh wonderful. Mr. Stick-up-his-ass is joining us? Why, exactly, was he invited?” Asclepius asked as he wandered into the kitchen. He returned with a can of cola and a bag of potato chips in his good hand. The broken wrist was stretched outright, and though it was bright red and swollen, Mark could already see some of the swelling starting to reduce.
“Abby’s been taken over,” Mark said.
Asclepius opened the soft drink with a loud crack and took a long drink before he answered. “Ah, well I warned you all that was coming,” he said with a shrug. “They give out their name?”
“No,” Mark said. “In fact, whoever it was seemed very keen on keeping their identity a secret.”
“They have been awfully hush-hush lately,” he replied and munched on a couple of chips. “Oh well, let’s let this baby heal up while we wait for gramps, and then see what we can do about the sister. You like porn? I’m kind of in the mood for a little girl-on-girl.”
Chapter
Thirty-Eight
Ben stood outside Abby’s apartment, the key to her door in his hand, for a good ten minutes before he had the courage to open the door and walk inside. His sister had gone, that much was obvious. Ben had tried her cell phone no less than a dozen times, only to have the call sent to voicemail after one ring.
The idea that she was possessed was a little too much for Ben to process, and for the moment he was trying to wrap his mind around the idea that this was some sort of elaborate plan of Mark’s to get Ben to agree to head up to Washington.
He debated about smoking a cigarette, or five, but that wasn’t going to help and he really wanted to kick the habit anyway. With a deep breath, Ben turned the key in the lock and walked in. The one thing he didn’t expect to find was Greg on the sofa, foot up, cigar burning and some rather racy adult film on the television.
Mark, for his part, was sitting in the dining room, his head bowed over a book, his face rather red. Mark looked up when Ben walked in and his smile was one of extreme relief. “You’re here.”
Greg looked up at Ben from the couch, the cigar clenched between his teeth and he grinned. “Hey there, detective. Come to arrest me?” The voice wasn’t Greg’s but it was familiar, as was the smell of the cigar and the presence of scotch in a glass on the table.
“Asclepius,” Ben said with a small sigh.
“In the flesh, so to speak,” he said. He brandished his broken wrist, the bruise across the skin wide and the swelling reaching all the way down the fingers. “Seems my little friend Greg had an accident courtesy of your sister, so I’m working my magic and getting him healed up. As a bonus I’m watching porn and getting drunk. Care to join me?”
“No, and I’d like you to turn that off,” Ben replied. “I want to know where the hell my sister is.”
“I already explained that situation to you,” Mark said, walking into the room. “Believe me or not, your sister’s body has been absconded by some creature and she’s on her way to Washington as we speak.”
For some reason, those words caused something in Ben to snap. He just sort of lost it, rage flooding him, the pent up frustration from listening to these fairy tales was exploding. Without even realizing he was doing it, Ben had drawn his gun and shoved it in Mark’s face.
“Enough,” he hissed. “Where the hell is my sister?”
“I’m not lying to you,” Mark said, holding up his hands. “That gun isn’t going to do much but slow me down, and that won’t be good for any of us, so why don’t you just put it away.”
Ben growled, taking a step toward Mark, who held fast in his spot. “I refuse to believe anything you say.”
The room went quiet as the man on the sofa used the remote to switch off the TV. He shifted up onto his knees so his front was pressing against the back of the couch, and he had a small smile on his face. “Listen, Benny boy, he’s not lying. If he was lying, I wouldn’t be able to do this.”
Asclepius held out his hand, and to Ben’s absolute surprise, his gun went flying across the room, landing almost daintily in Asclepius’s palm. “What the hell?” Ben gasped.
“I don’t know what else to do to convince you, kid,” Asclepius said with a shrug as he set the gun down on the table. “Going on a shooting spree isn’t going to get your sister here any quicker, and frankly, the god that’s got her body might find that amusing rather than terrifying.”
Ben’s hands were trembling as he dropped them to his side. He felt suddenly naked, stripped of every sense of reason and defense, and for the first time in a long, long time, he was on the verge of tears. Something in him gave, not much, but enough. “I can’t take this. I’m going to get locked up in a mental hospital after all this is done.”
“Oh I wouldn’t say that,” Asclepius said with a grin. “Just think of it as an elaborate game of pretend… or something. I don’t know, whatever you humans do to deal with situations you can’t reason your way out of. I mean honestly, it has to happen all the time. The human brain’s capacity for understanding the beyond is terrifyingly small. I’m not sure how you handle it.”
“We don’t,” Mark said quietly. “That much should be obvious based on human behavior.”
“True,” Asclepius said with a sigh. He settled back down on the couch and patted the cushion next to him. “Pop a squat, Benny, and let’s game plan.”
Seemingly not of his own accord, Ben felt his feet propel him across the room to the edge of the sofa where he took a seat as far from Asclepius as he could manage. He crossed his arms, feeling defensive, and eyed his gun.
“I could kill you before you could move,” Asclepius said casually. “I don’t want to, believe me, but I’ll do what I have to do. I have a good deal going on with this one, and I’m in no hurry to send this body rotting into the ground.”
Ben clenched his jaw. “Who has my sister?”
“We’re not sure,” Mark said, taking a seat in the chair nearest to Ben. He put his hands between his knees and leaned forward. “I tried to find out, to get some clue, but whoever it was seemed pretty determined to keep its identity from us.”
“You both do realize I can’t get up to Washington legally, right? I could report my sister missing, however she’s a consenting adult, and if she wants to go, she can go,” Ben said in a defeated tone.
“Perhaps we could report the car stolen, have highway patrol pick her up?” Mark offered.
Asclepius threw his head back and laughed. “You really think that would end well for the officer?”
Ben cleared his throat. “We’re going to have to try and get in without the help of law enforcement. We can attempt to join the cult or something… see what we can do.”
Mark held up a hand. “Wait a moment. That might work.”
“Is that so, padre?” Asclepius said. “You don’t think they’ll recognize the three of us instantly?”
“They might,” Mark said, clearly referring to the gods, “but what about the humans? The gods are going to have to sleep at some point to keep their vessels from wearing out and dying on them too fast, right?”
“Possibly,” Asclepius said.
“Besides, whatever they’re doing, they’re likely not going to trouble themselves with menial jobs such as gate guarding,” Mark said. “If there are really only a handful of them, they’re probably going to be too busy to play police guard.”
“He’s got a point,” Ben said in a quiet voice. “Basic criminal psychology, the leaders would be too arrogant to take on such menial tasks themselves. A basic disguise, a little show of power from you,” he said, nodding at the cigar smoking god, “and we could possibly waltz right in.”
Mark looked down at his wristwatch and then back up at Ben. “Your sister left only about an hour and a half ago, so she doesn’t have much of a head start.”
“We could more than likely beat her there,” Ben said, “if I can get us a flight booked.”
“Hold your horses there, Benny,” Asclepius said. “What do you plan to do if you beat her there?”
“Locate Yehuda, for one,” Mark cut in.
“If we can get her the hell out before she has a chance to get in…” Ben started, but Asclepius interrupted him.
“And how, exactly, are you going to do that? She crushed Greg’s wrist without batting an eye. I’m certain whatever’s inside of her will have no trouble taking you out, with something a little more lethal than a couple of snapped bones.”
Ben sighed and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “So what do you suggest?”
“Let her get there first,” he replied with a shrug, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Let her get settled, comfortable, and then we go in. We get a few supplies from the hospital since she took all of ours, and with a little shot of feel-good juice, we can pop the god out of her and make a run for it.”
“He’s making sense,” Mark said.
“None of this is making sense,” Ben corrected, “but I see the basic idea. While I don’t want to sit on my ass and let my sister get comfortable with a bunch of nut jobs in a compound, that might actually be our only logical shot.”
“So we drive?” Asclepius asked. “You boys have no idea how much I love a good road trip.”
Ben groaned. “
I suppose we don’t have another choice. If we drive behind her, it’ll give her just enough time to feel comfortable that she’s beat us, and then we can get in.”
“I’ll see what supplies we have here,” Mark said, standing up. “Ben, you take our friend here to the hospital for medication refills, and pick up whatever else we need at the market. If we set out on the road in two hours, that’ll give her enough time to think we’re not coming. She’ll expect us right away, and if enough time passes, she’ll get distracted and drop her guard.”
“And if she doesn’t?” Ben challenged.
“Isn’t it worth that risk?” Mark replied.
This was Abby, the only person in Ben’s life that he truly cared about, and he wasn’t going to sit back and let whatever was happening to her destroy her. Ben didn’t care if it was a god, or if it was some sort of slip into psychosis, or if some insane cult leader was filling her head with crap. None of it mattered, and it was all worth the risk.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
A half hour later found Ben sitting in his car, which now reeked of cigar smoke, waiting on Asclepius to obtain more of the drug that he claimed would free Abby of whatever this affliction was. He had a feeling Asclepius wasn’t going to make this a quick in and out trip, so Ben opened the door and pulled out his phone.
He hesitated, his finger hovering over Stella’s number on the screen, wanting to call her, but not sure what he was going to say. He wanted to tell her, tell someone, what he was up to, what he was about to do. He was risking his job and his freedom with this plan, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to head out without someone knowing about it first.
She answered on the first ring. “Mmm, I was hoping I’d be hearing from you soon.”
Her voice washed over him, warm and comforting. Something about her was warmly soothing, and Ben found himself aching to just turn the car on and drive south until he was with her again. “Hey,” was what he ended up saying in response.
Stella let out a little laugh. “How are you?”
“Truthfully, not very well,” he replied. “My petition for the warrant to check out the cult was denied, and well…” he hesitated before the next part, “well… my sister sort of took it upon herself to go join this cult, or whatever, and now I kind of have to go against the judge’s orders and go after her.”