Revenge of the Three (Hand of God) (14 page)

Chapter 41

     As I
got closer to Maria, I could see that her eyes appeared pitch black. They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. Looking into her eyes was like looking into two empty, bottomless wells. There was nothing there-her soul had been eaten up by the Ghost.

     “Come here
, Charlie. Come give your girl a big kiss! Hahahahaha!” the thing sounded hideous. I had no idea what I was going to do. I don’t have a large crowd of people to turn into zombies. The red sky turned black as I made my way toward her. She held her hand out to me and for some reason I ducked. It was a good thing I had since a lightning bolt came screeching toward me, zipping over my head.

     “Oh, good reflexes! But can you do this?” The Ghost said as she leaped from the railing, all the way to the top of the large antenna above the roof. She laughed at me while wrapping her arms and legs around it. “Come and get me
, Charlie!”

     This was not good. I had no idea how to get up there, or how she was holding on against the heavy winds. I got on all fours and crawled up the roof
to the tower’s peak. I made my way over the railing and smaller antennas to begin the climb up the larger one. I was relieved there was a maintenance ladder attached to the side of the antenna. I grabbed on and began climbing. I can’t say that I’d ever been afraid of heights, but looking down at the ladder and seeing the city over 650 feet below didn’t exactly build my confidence.

     As I climbed, I could hear Maria laughing again.

     “Come on, lover boy. Come and get me. You gonna cut me up like you do your other victims? Let me see you try. Maybe you should crucify me like you did the Bishop! Oh, you’d have to nail your honey to a cross in order to do it. What a shame! Hahahaha!”

     I seriously wanted to fuck that thing up. I’d seen it when it wasn’t in a body. It was just a large plume of cloud or smoke.
I had no idea how to kill it in that form. No, I was going to have to do something with it while it was inside of Maria. I finally reached her, holding tightly to the ladder while she clung to the antenna as if she were a spider. We were at the highest point in the city.

     “Well, you made it tough guy.”

     “Yeah, I’m here. So you gonna kill me, then her? Or both?”

     “I’m not going to kill her
, Charlie.
You
are!” It said as it reached for me. An electric charge coursed through my body as she grabbed my shoulder. I jerked back but felt my grip loosen. “Be careful Charlie! It’s a long way down!”

     I reached around trying to grab her, but she moved just out of my reach. She grabbed me around the waist from behind. I almost let go again as more pain shot through my body. This time she wasn’t letting up. Her fingers dug deeper into my side, burning through my flesh. If I didn’t do something, my insides would be cooked in minutes.

     She continued to laugh as wave after wave seared through me. Without thinking, I grabbed her by the face and felt my fingers sinking in. I didn’t think this would work, but it was my last hope. I didn’t want to turn Maria into a zombie, but maybe after the Ghost was gone, she’d turn back. As my fingers sank in deeper, Maria cried out in her own voice.

     “Charlie! You’re hurting me! Please stop! Help me!” I almost let go, but I knew the Ghost was trying to fool me. After a few seconds, I felt something else through my fingers, then my arm. The pain was gone and replaced by a tingling, almost burning sensation. The black mist began to swirl around me as the burning got stronger and stronger
, and then I began to feel euphoric. I became lightheaded and suddenly felt better and stronger than I’d ever felt before.

    
What are you doing?
The Ghost said, but it wasn’t coming from Maria. It was inside my head. I realized that was drawing the Ghost into myself. I continued pulling it in until my strength drained out of me. I felt lightheaded and weak as my vision blurred. I finally let go of Maria. For the first time, her eyes were her own again. I wanted to reach out to her but she couldn’t cling to the antenna any longer, and she fell away.  Immediately, I dove after her. The strong winds blew us just beyond the roof as we began plunging toward the earth. 

     “Charlie!” Maria cried as she fell. I suddenly felt strong again. Stronger than I’d ever felt before. I was in a nose dive and gaining on Maria in our free fall. She reached up to me as I got closer to her, finally grabbing on to me as we continued to plummet almost 700 feet to the ground below. I could see the pavement coming up faster and faster. For some reason, I wasn’t afraid as the ground got closer. I pushed Maria over my shoulder and flipped around just as I hit the ground feet first with a crash. I went to one knee, placing my right hand on the ground in front of me to brace myself. The pavement all around me cracked in all directions. It took me a few seconds to process what had just happened. I sat Maria down as I stood. She looked dazed and scared, yet she looked like herself, which was enough for me.

     “Charlie? What did you do?”

     “I’m not sure. I think it’s inside of me now.”

     “What? How is it not controlling you?”

     “I don’t know. That fall should have killed us both. I feel strong, like I’m feeding off its power
.”

     “Oh my God.”

     “Something like that,” I made a feeble effort at wry humor. Maria collapsed in my arms and I held her tight. I wasn’t sure what to make of all this.

     “Well, isn’t that the cutest thing.” Majors said from behind me. I turned and saw he was walking toward me from the tower. He must have woke
n up.

     “You missed the show,” I said.

     “I know. I owe you a punch in the face.  Told you she was your girlfriend.”

    “Yeah
, yeah.”

     “I saw what happened up there. That thing isn’t possessing you?”

     “I think I’m possessing it.”

    
Let me out of here Charlie! I will rip you apart piece by piece, from the inside out!
I heard the Ghost’s voice scream from inside my head.

    
No, you won’t. I’m not like Maria. You’re part of me now. And I’m gonna use you to destroy the Father.

     You can’t---
I silenced the voice with my own thoughts and never heard it again.

     “So
, what happens now?” Maria asked.

     “I think it’s time I go to
Him.”

     “Who?”

     “The Son and the Ghost came to me. I’m not going to wait for the Father. I’m taking the fight to Him.

Epilogue

Somewhere in Mexico

     I sat outside the mansion while the tejano music blasted from the inside. It took a bit of work, but I was able to find out when and where I could find the leaders of the Guajardo Cartel. There were three main guys. The big fish was Benicio Alvarez. He was a nasty son of a bitch too. When his son got arrested, he bailed him out of jail and had one of his guys peel his skin off one inch at a time. It took them three weeks, and involved a blood transfusion so he’d stay alive during the process.  He did all that to his own kid just to make an example of him.

 
    The outer wall to the compound was over ten feet tall. I hadn’t had a chance to see what I could do now that I had the Ghost inside me, but I was sure I had some of its powers. The night air was cool as made my way from the hills to the wall. There was a sentry standing guard on the one side. I crept up behind him without making a sound. I couldn’t believe how silently I was able to move. That must have had something to do with my new abilities. It was as if I was willing my silence. I was on before he knew what hit him. In one quick motion, pulled the knife out of its sheath, it was a Marine K-Bar I found at an Army/Navy store. Grabbing him by the head, I slit his throat, on the right side, cutting deep into his carotid artery, and sliced all the way along his neck and through his windpipe.

 
    I could have just broken his neck, would have been less messy, but tonight I wanted blood. The cartel had caused me enough problems and had been trying to kill me for weeks. It was time to put an end to them for good. When the sentry fell, I stepped over his body and worked my way around the wall. I reached the main gate where there was only one guard. I figured there would be more, but I must have killed the other one. The guard there was leaning against the gate, playing with a cell phone. It must have been a boring job. They were out in the middle of nowhere and guarding the outside of a fortress.  No one could get through even if they didn’t have guards. No one, except me.

 
    This guard looked up just as I came around the corner. He reached for his gun, but I grabbed him by the shirt and thrust the knife into his throat. The gun fell from his hand as he thrashed and struggled.  He gurgled and gasped as the air rushed from his windpipe. It took an unusually long amount of time, but after a minute or so he went down.  I felt around his belt and found a device on his belt. It looked like a garage door opener but was smaller. I activated it and the large gate swung open. I stepped inside and closed the gate behind me.

 
    The music got louder and louder as I made my way to the house. I heard people talking and laughing as I approached. There was a couple standing outside laughing loudly. They saw me as I walked by, but didn’t even look at me. I walked right through the front door where a door man tried to stop me.  He said something to me in Spanish, but didn’t finish. I thrust the knife into his windpipe and watched him fall. A woman screamed from the hallway as she turned and ran. I followed her and arrived into the main room where the party was.

 
  Dozens of people were there staring at me. The music had stopped and I saw several men with AK-47s pointed at me.

 
    “Who the fuck are you?” A man said from the corner. I turned and saw him sitting in a large chair. He was wearing what looked like an expensive suit, holding a drink in his right hand.  “Whoever you are, you are very stupid 
senor. 
You are dead.”  The man in the chair was none other than Benicio Alvarez.

 
    “I don’t think so,” I said. I had thought of this ahead of time, but wasn’t sure it would work. I focused my thoughts on the men with guns. I had meant to make the guns turn red hot so they could drop them. Instead, the guns exploded in their hands. The men all fell to the ground screaming and staring at the bloody stumps where their arms use to be. Their faces were peppered with shrapnel. A few died from the blast, the rest were just all fucked up.

 
    Benicio jumped to his feet, but using my mind again, I stopped him. He froze in his tracks as I focused all my energy on the center of his forehead. Sweat poured down his face when I saw his flesh start to bubble. His face, and hands began bubbling and popping as if his skin was boiling. The rest of the guests began screaming as Benicio’s skin began to slowly start running down his face, exposing his bare skull. Flesh and blood oozed and dripped from his fingers as he collapsed, nothing left but a bloody heap of bone and tissue.

 
    “Who are you?” someone screamed from behind me.

 
    “I am El Diablo Blanco,” I said. “And I’ve come to send you all to Hell.”