Chapter Five
No Respite
Victor
The redeye flight had been rough. Now driving along the coastline road in the south of France I felt my first measure of peace. It was short-lived.
I jammed the car into a lower gear as I impatiently waited to pass a slow-moving bus. The coast ahead clear I flew around the bus that had been holding me back from my destination.
My seaside villa in this remote section of the south of France lay just ahead. I was hoping, but without much conviction, that it had gone unscathed in my brief absence from it.
I lost my hope of that at the sight of the gated entrance busted open. In anger I down geared the car and slipped past the entrance to glide to a stop in front of the villa.
The main door stood wide open. The organization did not waste much time in terms of making a point.
Stepping past the threshold of the home I surveyed the thoroughness of the destruction to my favorite place in the world that was now quite trashed. Smashed furniture and torn apart walls gave silent witness to the fact that they had meticulously searched for all my secret stashes.
It was clear that they intended to make a demonstration of me. Mr. Perfect had finally slipped up and in a way I was the last of the old prototypes to go.
All my new counterparts in the industry were engineered on the genetic level to be what I had been by nature, coldly dispassionate and utterly ruthless. In a state of growing apathy I made my way to the second story, only to see more of the same.
Everything was out of order. Going to my studio I felt hate blossom into a bright flame within me at the sight of the destruction to my one passion in life.
Oil paintings that had taken me years to create lay about the floor shredded into tattered pieces, while the easels they had set upon for display were now only so much broken up firewood. My paints had been smeared upon the walls and floors and the room in its destruction of all its former finery now had a ghastly veneer added to it, as if to say something terrible had happened here.
This was their futile attempt to hurt me before putting an end to me for good. It did hurt, but not as much as they might think.
Nothing quite hurt as bad, as the repeated sound of my own gun going off over and over within my mind. I’d taken the lives of many people and thought myself long distanced from the act of feeling anything, but I’d been wrong.
The whole flight back to France I had been haunted by that moment in the alleyway to the point that I dared not even close my eyes. I hadn’t slept on the flight and now what was the point of doing it now?
Tomorrow they’d be back. Tomorrow they’d come to finish their work in terms of the destruction of everything that was me.
I closed my eyes and again the shot went off. My eyes wide open again I looked about my shattered studio in search of the solace I had in part found here upon many occasions.
Going to a wall I took down a painting of mine that had escaped receiving any more damage other than having paint smeared across it. Taking it across the room I set it up on a desk.
Stacking up enough debris behind it to support it adequately I then went in search of some oil paints. Finding enough to work with and some brushes I began to paint over what lay upon the canvas already.
This painting would be the last one. I’d let them kill me tomorrow. There was no reason to keep playing at living this life, when I doubted I even had the functionality of performing such a simplistic task yet.
I was a monster of intentional creation and hell was where I belonged.
*****
Desirée
Desirée said her goodbyes and after making it to the door of the store she called back over one shoulder to Taneka, “Remember what I said. Things are going to change.”
“I certainly hope so child. Now God go with you.”
Desirée smiled and let the door of the store close behind her. She abruptly stopped at the sight of the hand being extended to her that seemed to lead into a hallway that was awhirl with light.
The Spirit of God urged her on and she took the hand and was transported in a twinkling of a moment.
*****
Taneka
Taneka looked up at a man that had come to the cash register, “Yes, can I help you?”
Looking dazed the man said, “Is this a winning number?”
Taneka took the ticket from the man and did a double take. It was!
“I have one too!” Came another voice.
“So do I!” Came a third voice as a rising hysteria began to mount within the store.
Taneka stared reflectively out over the gathering crowd. Three winning numbers!
People would flock to her store from all over just to buy tickets! Handing the ticket back she rushed past the man to the door of the shop.
She pushed her way out onto the street past the gathering crowd and looked vainly about for any sight of Desirée. Not finding her she turned her eyes heavenward and said, “You sure does work in mysterious ways Lord! Thank you! I can keep my store now!”
Putting her hand to her heart she then blew it heavenward before turning to go back into the store. “All right simmer down everyone! We’ll get it all sorted out. Just give me a moment.
Regaining her position behind the counter she addressed the longtime customer with the winning ticket before her, “Now James what are you gonna do with that money?”
“Well I dunno just quite yet, but I….”
“Well you had better be thanking the good Lord for it before you go doing anything, because He sure enough gave it to you today! I tell you James if you ain’t got Jesus in your heart that money ain’t gonna do you a lick of good. No sir, it ain’t! The love of money is the root of all evil the Good Book says and it’s true! We need money to live by, but when you let it live your life for you then you got trouble. Now you best get right with Jesus now or you’ll be worse off in the end than you were before that ticket!”
The man named James, who had been a longtime regular of the store over the years, blinked repeatedly as more and more people filed into the store behind him. Finally finding his voice he said, “I never knew you to be a woman of faith before. What’s gotten into yuh?”
“The good Lord’s in me and it’s high time I showz it! Now you’re all gonna hear a sermon and if you don’t like that then you can get out, but from now on this establishment is taking its orders from upstairs!”
Shouts of encouragement rang out from the crowd and Taneka started testifying with boldness before her captive audience of all that God had done for her within the last 24 hours.
*****
Desirée
“What a mess!” Desirée whispered beneath her breath, as she made her way up stairs littered with the debris of what had once been a quite stylish place. Even in the disaster on parade all around her she could glean enough to know that she was no longer in America, but someplace abroad most likely in Europe. Why had the Holy Spirit brought her here?
Unerringly her feet took her in a certain direction and before long the torn apart domain of an artist’s lair unfolded around her with a grizzly starkness of destruction, only made more so by the bright splashes of paint on the walls. The destroyed paintings were heart rending to behold, because in small unmarred spaces of canvas the original masterpieces still showed through in testament to what had once been.
She cast her gaze wonderingly at the man, who lay asleep across the top of the desk, on which sat a finished art piece. Eyes widening she glanced from him to the canvas.
Quietly approaching the table she lifted the canvas free from it. Glancing to her killer and back to the canvas she held she marveled again that such a thing was even possible.
How could a man that did what he did for a living yet have enough soul to paint in living color as he had in this portrait of her. He’d painted her in a pose reminiscent of how she must’ve looked to him before he had pulled the trigger.
It was eye-opening, as was the depth of his ability. Glancing once more at the painting she said out loud, “Not my fondest moment let me tell you, but not my worst looking one either apparently.”
The man reared back upright and with one glance at her he shot off in the opposite direction in a backward lunge, as if fleeing from her could be no higher priority. He slammed up clumsily against a chest of drawers that halted all further movement backward.
Standing there breathing as if he’d just been in a race he looked the picture of startled amazement. It had been dark before in the alleyway and she really hadn’t seen him that well.
Now upon her acute study of him she found him to be as strong as she had imagined and he was very handsome. Smiling warmly she gestured to the painting of herself, “Did my eyes really look like this?”
*****
Victor
I’d lost it! I glanced around to see whether I had been transported out of my studio, but I hadn’t been.
How was she standing here? She was dead. I’d shot her. I’d nearly blown her head from off her shoulders and yet she stood before me!
It was a clone that was it!
My eyes found the scar on her forehead and everything within me stopped including my heart. As if from a long way away I heard her voice, “Aren’t you going to answer me?”
“What?” I breathed out with.
“Ohhh I like your accent! Now are you going to tell me or what?”
“Tell you what?” I asked completely dazed.
“My eyes. Did I really look like this right before you shot me?”
“Yes.” I said feeling the moment become more surreal by the second.
She glanced back at the painting of herself for a moment before glancing back at me with a spark to her eyes that echoed of a fiery and very much alive spirit. Her lips moved as her eyes reflected intense curiosity, “Why did you paint me?”
Stumbling for a lack of words to express myself I did then what I thought I had to. Stepping forward slightly I reached a finger out and pushed it against her shoulder. Solid flesh met my touch and I recoiled backwards from her again.
I put a hand to my head and closed my eyes briefly. Opening them I was graced to see her still standing there with a look in her eyes that almost bordered on something akin to pity.
“Why did you paint me?” She asked softly again.
It was too much to keep looking into her direct stare upon me and looking away I said, “I …… try to put the pieces back together.”
There was a moment of silence before she softly said, “I see.”
Glancing to her I was in time to hear her say, “Only God can truly put the pieces back together. This is a good painting, but it can’t breathe. Tell me would you like to be put back together?”
The utter sincerity of her gaze upon me had my eyes burning and in exasperation I shook my head back and forth, “I do not understand! I kill you and you now here.”
She nodded, “Very scary I must appear to you I know. Here take this.”
She took something from the pocket of her jeans and tossed it at me. I caught it and letting my eyes fall from her mesmerizing gaze I looked to the open palm of my hand.
The smashed up hunk of copper I would have recognized from anywhere. I hand loaded my own shells and my bullets were unique. This was one of mine.
I felt my eyes watering as I stared at the bullet. I glanced from the bullet to her forehead and then back to her eyes.
Her eyes of all things held compassion in them for me! I looked away, only to have my eyes fall upon the bullet in my palm that seemed to weigh a ton.
Finding it hard to speak I managed to say, “I am sorry.”
“I believe you. But now the fact remains that I am without a bodyguard. Seeing as how you’ve already once taken my life I think it’s only a fair exchange that your life now be spent in the protection of the new life God has gifted me past the destructive power of your bullet. Well, what do you say?” She asked challengingly.
I stared at her incredulously. Pointing at my chest I exclaimed, “Me! Your bodyguard?”
She nodded, “You can’t name someone else more capable than yourself can you?”
I just stared at her. This was all mixed up! I couldn’t think!
Turning away I glanced out the window only to see a long line of cars approaching down the circuitous mountain road in the distance.
“Oh no!” I said loudly and then I said, “They are coming for me and you are here!”
“They, as in them that sent you to kill me?”
I nodded vigorously, as I debated about what to do, even as I was not entirely sure that I was not still held up within some awful dream.
“They’re trying to kill you because you refused to do the things that they wanted you to do to me before you killed me aren’t they?”
I nodded.
“Thank you for not listening. I very much appreciate it.” She said softly.
I rubbed my hands into my eyes. No sense! Nothing made any sense!
Pointing to the way she had come in here I said, “You must go! They be here soon to kill you again!”
Smiling she shook her head and said, “I’m not going anywhere without you. As I said you’re my new bodyguard. The only thing that remains to be seen is what you’re going to do about it.”
I stared at the woman in amazed frustration. Pointing at her I said, “You stubborn!
Laughing slightly she affirmed to me by saying, “Very.”
I turned away, as I grappled with the situation that I must protect the woman, who I had killed and yet was even now alive again. Going to the outdoor balcony off of the artist studio that overlooked the road that led to the Villa I verified for myself that they had not found everything.
The situation was so unclear to me and yet there was a very clear and pressing need to protect what I had once destroyed. A second chance to do away with the deathknell of that fateful shot that had been driving me crazy.
The woman came outside to lean up against the solid railing of the porch to gaze at me ponderingly, as I jumped up onto the top of the railing and reached up to grab a hold of a large wind chime that hung above the porch. The rope holding the chime snapped under my pressure upon it and I jumped down with its pieces clanging together noisily.
Pointing to her I said, “You get down.”
Surprisingly she complied and moved to sit down on the tile floor of the porch all the while watching me as if I was some kind of reoccurring surprise to her. I snapped the connecting wires of all five of the interlinking pieces of the wind chime apart until all five barrels were free.
Wasting no time I assembled the five barrels together in a spaced out circular pattern by switching around the disc that they had all hung from until all five barrels clicked into it midway down their length. Reaching to the side I picked up a small table and tore off one section of the table’s leg apparatus, which in reality was a tripod that I had disguised by constructing it into the table.
Taking the tripod I took the assembled barrel construct and fitted it down onto the clip-in module on the outside of the ball bearing like disk that all five barrels spun easily within. It clicked home and grabbing another small table I brought it up against the solid railing of the balcony.
I set the assembled barrels and tripod onto the table. Turning I reached for a light sconce on the wall and tore it free. Electric sparks arced off from the torn away wires, as I took the sconce and reassembled it differently to form the triggering mechanism for the Gatling gun I was creating from real parts that I had disguised as to appear as something else.
The triggering assembly affixed to the backend of the barrels I turned to the awning covering and with a sharp twist removed the windup crank handle. Going to the Gatling gun I snapped the hand crank handle into place on the triggering mechanism. The gun was ready.
Glancing to the corner where the woman was I saw her sitting there with a hand half over her mouth as if to hold in laughter. She thought all this was funny!
Did she not know how close to death she was at the hands of the men who would be here in the next few moments?
‘Why should she be?’ Came the reverse thought. I just didn’t know anything anymore. Nothing was as I had always assumed it to be, especially in regards to this woman.
Picking up a table leg I smashed away at the solid top of the porch railing. The adobe surface of the railing began to crack away next to where the Gatling gun rested on the small table that I had placed it on.
With the cemented veneer gone from the top of the railing I tore out the remaining chunks of mortar until the opening in the top of the railing was made clear. Reaching down into the interior of the wall I pulled up the end of a 50 caliber round cartridge belt studded with a continuous line of shells.
Taking the end of the cartridge belt I snapped it into the sidemounted receiver and took up my position behind the gun. I’d forgotten something and cursing I turned back to the French doors behind me and ripped off the undersized door fob.
Taking the fob I screwed it into place on the forward gun port frame. It was my front sight. How I had forgotten it in the assembly was beyond me other than to say that this woman had an effect of making me lose concentration by just being near me.
I grasped the solitary handle with one hand and sighting down the length of the top barrel through the site I took aim at the lead car now pulling past the front gate of the Villa. My other hand formed over the crank handle, which I began to turn rapidly.
The barrels of the Gatling gun spun as with each hammer fall of the cocking mechanism a 50 caliber bullet was sent off in a repeating staccato fashion to tear through metal and man alike. The assault on my home was thwarted before it had even begun as men bailed out of exploding cars and attempted to run for safety. I gunned every last one of them down unmercifully.
Finally I left off cranking as there were simply no more targets of availability within the lineup of the five blazing cars located near the entrance. Imperceptibly I felt my gaze drawn to the woman on the floor.
She was slowly shaking her head as she stared at me still smiling. She took her fingers from out of her ears and was on the verge of saying something, when I reached forward with abruptness and hauled her to her feet to then jump up onto the balcony railing and go over the side taking her with me.
She screamed and then abruptly let out an ‘oomph!’ As with a splitting of fabric we tore through the seams of two canopies situated below the balcony and then with a resounding thud we hit the ground.
She landed on top of me with enough force to half drive the air out of my body, but there was no time for regaining lost breath. Getting up I tugged her toward where a slit trench existed within the landscaping around the Villa. I only hoped that there were no snakes coiled up in it as I knew they liked to frequent the area.
We were breathlessly half there when I saw the fire trail through the sky. Pulling her up to me I lifted her bodily and chucked her forward to land within the slit trench just as the world behind me exploded with fury.
The explosions of the missiles lifted me off my feet and blew me the rest of the way there, almost. I slid into the trench on top of the woman as even more explosions rang out behind us in the direction of the Villa.
Her body was soft beneath me and I did my best to not crush her while at the same time not physically appear above the top of the shallow trench that had been created with only one body in mind. Her hands came up around my waist and pulled me down against her even as I heard her words through the din of hell exploding topside, “I can take your weight.”
I didn’t listen to her and stayed as I was. I really didn’t care if I got blown up or not. I’d been planning on it actually, now because of her that wasn’t happening.
I’d given up on trying to think my way through the fast evolving situation that I’d somehow gotten caught up in. At last the explosions stopped and straightening upwards I looked around to see if the coast was clear.
Glancing down to her I was in time to hear her say matter-of-factly, “I think you’re going to make quite the bodyguard after all.”
I stared at her a moment before saying definitively, “You crazy!”
She snorted in an unladylike fashion and said, “Hey I’m not the one trying to save the woman that you just killed yesterday. That bit of twisted up logic you own all by yourself big boy.”
She was right and yet how on Earth was she right?
People who were dead should stay dead and yet I was very grateful that she had not stayed dead. Pulling her up I led her over to a paver patio that was located nearby. Leaning down I ripped several pavers away to reveal a clasp. I gave it a good yank and with a hydraulic his of sound the center of the paver patio popped away as a large oblong box popped up through it sending pavers flying.
She wore a bit of a dazed expression as I rushed to the sides of the box and began ripping them away to reveal a high-powered dirt bike, with the box cleared away I hopped onto the seat and kick started it alive.
I glanced up to look for her, only to feel her slide onto the bike behind me. With her hands clasped around my middle I tore out across the grounds that reflected only the wreckage of something I had once held in high regard.
*****
The presence of a female at my back and her hands about my waist echoed the question of, ‘what on Earth was I going to do with this woman?’ like the ringing of a gong heralding the start of something new.
She’d said that I owed her my life in exchange for taking hers and in a twisted way she was right. What was I going to do?
I stopped in the hills above a small sleepy seaside village. Shutting the bike off I dismounted and effectively escaped the touch of the woman that just wouldn’t go away.
My head was throbbing with the events of the past 72 hours. I still wasn’t quite sure if I wasn’t imagining all this somehow.
Pointing to the village I said, “Go! Here take money and this.” I said, as I shucked a small 9mm out of an ankle holster and handed it to her.
She took the items, but she was shaking her head no, “You’re not getting off the hook that easy.”
In exasperation I turned away from her for a moment before turning back to her. Feeling in the need to shout I instead said as controlled as I could, “Allow me explain. You dead. I mean they think you dead. That’s good! Go live life and be free! Stay with me and be dead quickly! They find us. I’m not safe to be with. You deserve much more. Yes, I…… I’m very sorry for what I did to you. I bad man and you should go now!”
I made to move past her to the bike, which she had just dismounted from. I tried to ignore her and my back was to her when I heard her say, “They already know I’m alive.”
I hesitated and then said, “No, I don’t think. I……”
“You’re not that well in control Victor. At least not as much as you like to think you are.”
I stopped at what I was doing to turn and look at the woman I had killed and yet still looked upon me with compassion, of all things.
“You didn’t choose to be infested did you. You don’t like it either do you. You try to hide the elements of what remains of you and only do enough to be let off the hook and not disciplined, but you can’t stay awake forever can you. You’re afraid of what will happen when your control slips and the manifesting dark entities that they split into your identity take hold aren’t you? I said it before and I’ll say it again Victor. I think you make a very good bodyguard.”
I didn’t know what to do and it was harder and harder to stand still as the urge to flee was pressed upon me increasingly by the others that shared my form. The very knowledge that they were afraid of this woman though made me resist to stay where I was all the harder.
She came closer and reaching her hands up she touched the sides of my heavily sweating face gently and said, “You want to be free don’t you.”
“Yes!!!” I gritted out with every fiber of my being even as my voice was threatened to be choked out by the dominion of others.
“Then you have to trust me. What is your full name?”
“Victor Allienko.” I managed to get out as I felt on the verge of passing out.
Oh no! I lost control!
As if through a window I saw the change in the moment take place that always terrified me. My voice changed and my body became controlled by others. Many others.
Helpless to stop it I watched my hands grip around the woman’s throat. I watched her hands come up to grip my wrists and the next moment my body was lifted and body slammed down against the ground in such a way and with a force as had never happened to me before.
What was happening? She was leaning over me pressing one hand against my chest with what felt like the weight of a boxcar train.
The entities were screaming and howling to the point that it was horrible to my own ears and yet all the while she was looking into my eyes in such a way as if she was seeing the real me. Speaking softly she said with a grace that carried over the din my taken over body was making, “I’m not without defense.”
Her demeanor changed and her focus was no longer on me and yet it was. “You were not wanted to start with and you are no longer welcome and I cast you out in the name of Yeshua.”
The growling increased and I felt on the verge of being ripped apart.
“Silence! Are you able to resist He who bears the Name above all other names?”
“No!!!” They answered in fright.
“Then be gone from here!” Desirée pressed.
“We have rights!” They answered.
“No you don’t and besides I claim him.”
“You have no claim!!!” They shrieked.
“Yes I do and you know well why it is that I do.”
“He’s not under the blood! He’s not saved!”
“Not yet, but still that gives you no claim.”
“He’s ours!!!” They whined.
“He’s his own and his choice yet remains. How about it Victor?”
Finding voice for the first time I said, “I’m yours!”
She shook her head no, grasping her hand I said, “I serve you! I speak the truth!”
Looking into my eyes she gazed for a moment before saying, “I am myself a servant. I am under the authority of my Master.”
“And I you!” I insisted.
She looked as if to protest, but stifled it.
“I serve you!” I repeated desperately. It had been a very long time since I had felt as free as I did now. There was not anything I wouldn’t do for this woman.
Her eyes sparked and softly she said as if she’d just read my thoughts, “If there’s nothing you wouldn’t do for me then you have to trust me when I say that simply serving me in this life isn’t enough to ensure a future free of the demons that you were just freed from.”
My eyes traced up to the faint scar on her forehead. She hadn’t healed that wound by herself. Even as I knew evil I knew there was the opposite of it as well.
The only problem was that I had been actively engaged against the right side for a long time. I had done unspeakable things in the pursuit of pleasing my masters and some things just couldn’t be forgiven.
She shook her head, but said nothing more than, “You’ll see.”
She straightened up and suddenly I came back to my full awareness of senses. We were in a lot of danger by being here still.
Coming to my feet I looked at her awkwardly for a moment at a loss as to what to do. What did I say?
Seeming to sense my inner confusion she asked, “East or West?”
Shaking my head I said, “Neither! Avoid roads.”
Smiling she said, “Then lead the way.”
Swallowing I looked toward the north be