Absence of Faith (19 page)

"Kyle, it's never been this good
with anyone else. You have something magical," Chantress whispered
into his ear.

"I feel the same way. I can't get
enough of you."

They finished the champagne and
made love a second time on the sofa in the living room. They
watched a movie wrapped in each other's bodies. They celebrated
each other’s existence. When the movie ended, Chantress got up and
put on her clothes.

"What's the matter? Did I do
something wrong?" Kyle asked.

"No. I have to get home...my
parents, you know," she said.

"Oh yeah, give me a second to get
dressed and I’ll take you home."

* * *

They kissed long and hard as they
sat in Kyle's car in front of Chantress' house. She gave him
several smaller kisses on his face. Her eyes sparkled like stars in
the night and the warmth pouring out of her eyes sent a hot, fiery
burst of emotion through Kyle's body.

"I feel very lucky to have you. I
hadn't had such an intense relationship since I was in high school.
Most of the girls I've met in the bars were losers...screwed up.
Others were parasites - looking to latch onto the first decent guy
that came along. A lot of them were looking for husbands to support
them, so they could quit their jobs and stay home. I didn't want
any part of that," Kyle explained. "I'm glad I found
you."

"I feel the same way, Kyle,"
Chantress replied with a kiss.

They embraced and kissed for
several minutes.

"I have to go," she said. "Call me
tomorrow."

"Okay," he said.

She got out of the car and leaned
down to blow him a kiss through the window. He caught it with his
hand and put it to his mouth. She smiled and faded into the
darkness. He started the engine and drove away. Suddenly, he was
very tired and struggled to stay awake for the short drive back to
his apartment. The champagne and the lovemaking must have caught up
with him, he thought. He turned down his street and instantly
slammed on his brakes. The car skidded to a stop - the screeching
of the tires bounced around in his head like an explosion in a
tunnel. Chantress stood in the middle of the road wearing a long,
flowing white robe. She walked to the side of the car and
smiled.

"What are you doing in the middle
of the street?" Kyle asked. "How did you get here? I just dropped
you off."

Chantress smiled, and then she put
her arms around his neck and began to pull Kyle out of the
car.

"Hey! Wait until I get out!" Kyle
shouted. He wondered why he was angry with Chantress.

Then the door on the other side of
the car opened and two men with distorted, ugly faces got in and
grabbed Kyle's arms. They wore strange smiles and began pulling
Kyle in the opposite direction. The men wore black robes and their
hands seemed especially large with abnormally long
fingers.

"Hey! What the…?" Kyle shouted, but
his voice had no volume. It was as if he was shouting in a vacuum
and neither Chantress nor the weird-looking men seemed to hear him.
Kyle struggled to get away from the men, and then he struggled to
get away from Chantress. He was uncertain whom to go to and he
didn't understand why he was ambivalent. Then one of the men placed
his large hand over Kyle's head and suddenly Kyle felt an
exhilarating, exciting sensation run through his body. It was a
feeling of the wild and it seemed to penetrate into the deepest
recesses of his mind and soul. It touched his most primitive
instincts. He pushed Chantress away and moved toward the men. This
was where he belonged, he thought. But, the sensation went sour and
he was filled with guilt. He turned toward Chantress and noticed he
was naked! How did he get naked? He was horrified and then filled
with an intense ecstasy that flowed through his entire body. It was
as if he were making love over and over. Suddenly, the feeling
stopped. It was replaced by the excitement he experienced earlier.
The wild feeling. One of the ugly men grabbed his face, and pulled
it towards him, and the wild feeling intensified. He turned to look
at Chantress. She was crying, but he didn't know why. As each tear
fell from her face, it tore at his heart and he wanted to put his
arms around her and hug her each time. He turned, brought his arm
up to push the men out of the car, but stopped. He was filled with
that intoxicating and exhilarating feeling again. It overwhelmed
him. This time it was stronger, addictive and refreshing. He looked
at Chantress again, but her tears did not pull at his heart this
time. He moved across the seat to follow the men. Her face turned
to hatred sending an icy spear through his heart. He felt sad, but
the excitement of the feeling dominated him and he left with the
ugly men.

He ran down the street following
one man, while the other ran behind him. He wasn’t naked anymore.
The street led into a dark tunnel with glistening walls and hot,
stale air. The farther down Kyle ran into the tunnel the warmer it
became until he could feel his skin become wet. Several beads
dripped into his eyes, burning and blurring them. It was hard to
breathe the hot, motionless air. He turned back, but the ugly man
with the long fingers was still behind him following his every move
like a mirror image. Suddenly flames leaped out of the walls like
giant orange tongues and licked Kyle repeatedly. He felt the
tongues burn his skin, but there was no pain. The pounding of the
men's footfalls was all he could hear as they ran farther and
farther into the tunnel to escape the flaming tongues. The pounding
became louder and louder. Kyle ran faster and faster. Then Kyle
heard a snap and the black tunnel opened up to blinding white
light. A giant, wrinkled face with deep-set eyes and distorted
features hovered above him.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" he
screamed.

He jumped away hitting the back of
his head on something hard, and then everything began to spin
around. After a few seconds, the steering wheel of his car came
into focus.

"Are you all right in there?" a
tiny muffled voice said.

Kyle rubbed eyes and opened them to
see an old woman peering in at him through the driver's side
window. He cautiously rolled the window down about three
inches.

"I was walking by and saw you
slumped over - I thought you were dead. Scared the dickens out of
me. Then I thought if you were alive, it must be pretty hot in that
car with all the windows rolled up," the old woman
explained.

"Where am I?" Kyle
asked.

"Chestnut Street," the woman
replied. "I better call 911."

Kyle waved her off. He looked
around and saw that he was parked in front of his
apartment.

"I must have slept in the car all
night after leaving Chantress," he said. "I'm all right now and
thank you."

The old woman grinned slightly, and
walked away looking back several times. Her wrinkled skin reminded
Kyle of the iguana he had as a child in Costa Rica - the skin hung
down off its neck in wrinkled layers. Kyle lifted himself out of
his car - his legs stiff and his shirt soaked with sweat. A sliver
of fear ran through his body as he thought about how he could have
fallen asleep in his car while still driving. The last thing he
remembered was turning down his street. He felt awful, but he
didn't know why, and then he recalled the dream. He was sad that he
left Chantress. He entered his apartment and dialed her number, but
no one answered. He walked into the bathroom and looked into the
mirror. He saw a cloud swirling around in his mind and he wondered
why the cloud bothered him so much. It wasn’t the dream. The cloud
was vanishing and the thought was trying to make it through. It was
almost there when a knock on the door shattered the thread. Kyle
left the bathroom, opened the door, and his eyes
widened.

A
thin woman
with long red hair tied into a ponytail stood next to the Magus
with empty, drawn faces. At first, Kyle saw the Magus as one of the
men in his dream with the ugly distorted faces. The woman was the
same one he had seen at the cult meeting.

"Hermes. I'm glad you’re home. I
would like to talk to you. Can we come in?" the Magus
said.

"How do you know where I
live?"

"Chantress told us," the red-haired
woman said.

Kyle hesitated and then moved aside
to let them pass.

The woman smiled seductively at
Kyle.

"What do you want?" Kyle asked
impatiently.

"May we sit?" the Magus asked
moving toward the sofa.

"Go ahead."

"Your future, of course," the Magus
said. "Can you come to the house tomorrow around seven?"

"I don't know. What
for?"

"We've decided that you really
belong in our group and we have a little initiation ceremony
planned," the Magus explained. "It would definitely be worth
it."

"You won't be sorry. It's for you,"
the woman said her green eyes titillating Kyle's most primitive
desires.

Kyle looked around the room and
then frowned.

"Okay, I'll come, but I can't stay
long."

"Whatever suits you," the Magus
replied. "Then it's settled. You won't be sorry. I'm looking
forward to this."

The Magus took a tiny piece of
yellow folded paper out of his shirt pocket and gave it to Kyle.
Kyle opened the paper and saw it had an address written on it in
pencil. He noticed the address was different than the house where
the first meeting was held.

* * *

A blood-red sun slowly dipped out
of sight when Kyle left for the Magus' house. He arrived at the
house about fifteen minutes early so he sat in his car and listened
to the radio. A black car pulled up in front of a two-story house
and a heavy, bald man got out. It was the Magus. The Magus went to
the door and rang the doorbell. A young couple, both with jet black
hair walked out, and got into a car in the driveway. The Magus
nodded to the couple as they passed him. Kyle approached the
house.

"Good evening, Hermes," the Magus
said opening the door. "Come in, come in."

Kyle was silent and walked into the
living room where the furniture like the surroundings, was clean,
neat, and simple. Several small Chinese paintings of colorful birds
hung on the off white walls.

"Sit down, sit down. Would you like
some tea?"

"No." Kyle sat down on the far
right of a small light blue sofa. The Magus slumped down on a
matching easy chair.

"Well, as you know some members of
my group have left including your friend, Methos," the Magus
explained.

"How do you know that?"

"Simple. They didn't show up at
last week's meeting, and I knew for some time that they weren't
happy with us," he explained.

He reached up with his right hand
and scratched the side of his puffy freshly shaved face.

"It doesn't matter anyway. Let them
do what they want. I'm only interested in loyal
followers."

"So what do you want to talk to me
for?" Kyle asked.

"Well, I sensed something different
in you, something unique," the Magus explained. "And I wanted to
know how you felt about our Black Mass."

"I liked it," Kyle said.

"I thought so. I could tell from
your eyes. But what about Methos? Are you and her an
item?"

"Why do you want to know?" he
said.

"I could tell she hated the Black
Mass, and I know she's formed another group. Are you part of
it?"

"Yeah," Kyle said staring down at
the rug.

The Magus sat back his round,
overweight body crushing the pillowed cushions beneath him. A frown
formed on his large round head.

"You know, you could be a member of
both. Methos' group is about New Age and ours is about devil
worship," the Magus explained. "I don't see a conflict, do
you?"

"Well maybe, but she doesn't like
what your group has become," Kyle said.

The Magus paused to gather his
thoughts.

"Yes, but you do," the Magus said.
"You like what we're doing, don't you?"

"Yeah, sort of..."

"Well, then it's settled. You could
be one of us. Come to the next meeting. I'll work out something
very appealing to you," the Magus said.

"I don't know..."

"What have you to lose? You know,
you will always be a second fiddle in Methos' group - that's her
thing. This could be your thing."

Kyle looked at him intensely. The
Magus seemed to suck his mind out through his eyes.

"What are you saying?"

"You can go places with
us."

Kyle’s eyes were in another place.
A small smile creased his face.

"Well...okay."

"Great. We'll see you Sunday at
seven thirty."

* * *

Kyle left his apartment that Sunday
feeling that he had made a big mistake. He slowly drove past the
Magus' house and parked his car on the next block. He sat there
thinking about what he should do. He got out and started walking
towards the Magus' house.
I'll tell him I don't want to be in
his group,
he thought. He took a deep breath and sighed. He
looked at his watch – it was 7:35. He started walking again and a
chill ran over his head and down his spine. He slowly turned to see
who was following him on the empty street. It was the dark figure
of a tall man only a few feet away. Kyle ran.