The Second Coming (50 page)

Mike held his breath and closed his eyes as he backed into the surging wall of flames that engulfed his body, making his skin scream as if it was liquefying. He had to keep moving or he was going to burn to death. He was already planning on dropping and rolling on the ground if they made it through. Where the hell was the exit out of the building? He kept pulling on Big Pete’s underarm hoping that they were near their only chance of escape.

Kate was sitting on her knees trembling as she cried hysterically in shock from the trauma that was caused to her head by the explosion. She stared at the fire shooting violently from the opening in the doors. Her ears were ringing and her hearing was muffled by the pressure in her concussed head. There was no way they were going to be able to pull Big Pete’s body through the raging wave of fire.

And then suddenly, as if witnessing a mirage, the flames parted and Kate watched in stunned silence as Father John and Mike backed their way out of the inferno untouched, bent over as they dragged Big Pete out with quick little steps.

Once they were through the wall of fire and Mike was certain they were safely away from the blazing building, in one swift motion, he lay Big Pete down on the grass and dropped onto his back and began to roll around like a runaway bulldozer making sure that he smothered the fire that was eating his flesh like millions of red ants.

Kate began to scream as she watched Mike set Big Pete down like a heavy piece of furniture, flop to the ground and roll around like a broken ice skater spinning off his axis. He must be on fire. She couldn’t see any flames, but smoke was smoldering from his body and he clearly thought he was on fire. They must be invisible flames. She had seen something like this on NASCAR before when one of the pit crew caught on fire and stumbled around as the others tried to extinguish the invisible flames. She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t have anything to extinguish him with and she remembered being warned not to approach someone who was behaving as if they were on fire even when you couldn’t see the flames. She was helpless and began to sob uncontrollably.

Father John approached Kate and knelt down in front of her, his robe smoking like steam from a hot tub. His face was covered with soot, but other than that, his skin appeared unblemished. Kate looked at him bewildered. How did he make it through the fire without getting burnt?

Father John stared Kate in the eyes sympathetically. “It’s alright,” he assured her. “He’s not on fire, he just thinks he is. Go to him and help him. I’m going to take care of his partner.”

Kate’s fear subsided into an overwhelming sense of tranquility as she subconsciously rose to her feet and in a comatose state, stumbled over to where Mike was now on all fours hacking up his lungs.

Mike was on his hands and knees coughing dryly as he tried to catch his breath. He gasped for air as he choked on his charred throat and lungs. He was just beginning to be able to breathe again when he felt a hand touch him gently on the shoulder. He raised his head and looked up and to his surprise, there was Kate’s angelic face smeared with black ash. She was alive. How was that possible? He didn’t think anyone could have survived that blast.

“Are you alright?” he asked stunned in between raspy coughs.

Kate smiled and nodded her head. “Are you alright?” she asked with caring eyes.

Mike sat up on his knees across from Kate and in a trance like state, slowly examined his arms. He pulled the sleeves of his blackened shirt up to discover that his skin was unblemished. He thought for sure he would be covered with third degree burns. He looked at Kate with a confused furrow of the brow. “You’re not burned either,” he said astonished as he reached out and touched her cheek. “How is that possible?” he asked perplexed.

Kate smiled knowingly with an amused glimmer in her eyes. “It’s divine intervention,” she said peacefully.

“Where are Big Pete and Father John?” he asked in amazement. “Are they alright?”

Kate turned her head and looked over her shoulder. In the distance, set against the back drop of the flaming church, Mike could see the silhouette of Father John kneeling on the ground next to Big Pete’s body. What was Father John doing? Was Big Pete still alive? They needed to get him help. Mike reached into his pocket, pulled out his cell phone and placed the call for back up that he should have placed long before.

Father John was kneeling on the grass next to Big Pete’s smoking, charred covered body. The gunshot to his chest was bleeding profusely and Father John knew that he had already lost a lot of blood and that there wasn’t much time to waste. He was able to slow the bleeding inside the church by applying pressure, but that was only a temporary fix. Now he needed to stop the bleeding before it was too late. Making sure that no one could see what he was doing, Father John placed his hands on Big Pete’s wound and did his best to heal it.

Father John was deep in retrospective contemplation as he used his powers of divine intervention to heal Big Pete. Is this what everything he learned in his life was supposed to lead him to? He couldn’t believe that he had a twin brother, who was the Sterling Killer. His Father claimed that he left him at the orphanage to protect him from the church, but Father John now wondered if maybe he did it because he believed the story told in the Satanic Codex. Could the story be true? Did Jesus have a twin brother who was the Antichrist, the son of the Devil? Was the Antichrist the sixth son of Joseph of Nazareth? Was Joseph also a sixth son of a sixth son? Is that where the number 666 originated from? And if so, what did that mean to him?

Was he to believe that thousands of years later, the story told in the Satanic Codex was repeating itself? His father was a sixth son, as was his
father before him, which meant that his twin brother was also a sixth son. Did that mean his long lost twin brother, the Sterling Killer, was born under the number of the beast and was the son of the Devil? Did that mean Father John was the son of God, the second coming of the messiah?

Father John devoted his life to learning and teaching God’s word and searching for enlightenment and was endowed with the powers of divine intervention, just like Jesus. His brother was abandoned, just like the Antichrist, only to return to confront Father John just like the Antichrist did to Jesus in Jerusalem. Was the story told in the Satanic Codex becoming a self-fulfilled prophecy or was it the beginning of the epic battle foretold in the Apocalypse?

If he was the son of God, it would explain why he had the power and knowledge that he was blessed with. Was this why he was searching for enlightenment all of these years? Was this God’s plan for him? Was he supposed to confront and kill his twin brother, the Sterling Killer? At first he dismissed the story told in the Satanic Codex but now it was all clear to him. He stood up and began walking determinedly towards the blazing church. This was his destiny.

Mike watched in confused awe as Father John stood up and began to walk towards the fiery church.

“Where are you going?” Mike yelled with alarm. “If you go back in there, you are not coming out alive.”

Father John stopped and turned towards Mike and Kate, his body a dark silhouette against the yellow and orange hue of the fire.

“You take care of your friends,” Father John yelled solemnly. “I will take care of my brother.”

Mike watched in disbelief as Father John approached the flames that were shooting out the back doors. There was no way he could make it through the impenetrable wall of fire. It would consume him in an instant. Father John paused briefly and then stepped into the flames which parted like he was walking through a field of wheat. He was going in to kill his twin brother, the son of the Devil. This was his destiny.

chapter
78

F
ATHER
J
OHN STOOD
anxiously, in the middle of the sanctuary, in the eye of the fire storm that whipped swirling winds of suffocating heat, sparks and burning embers all around him. His lungs constricted in his chest as he squinted with irritated eyes at the vaulted ceiling as the flames twisted like a tornado, their tendrils climbing the walls and devouring the wood rafters with crackling intensity. Where was the Sterling Killer?

The Sterling Killer crept up behind Father John with the gun pointed at the back of his head. One false move and he would blow his brains out. His blood surged with anticipation, but his hand was steady with determination. This is what he had been waiting for; the satisfying taste of revenge.

“Come out and show yourself,” Father John shouted.

The Sterling Killer watched as Father John glanced up at the burning rafters. This was going to be the most rewarding kill of his life. He reached his hand out through the grey smoke and grabbed Father John by the back of his robe as he jammed the barrel of Mike’s dad’s pistol into the back of his head. “Get on your knees,” he demanded as he forced him down.

Father John’s face clinched as he gritted his teeth and reluctantly dropped to his knees.

“Put your hands behind your head.”

Father John slowly raised his hands to his head and felt the Sterling Killer grab the left one and wrench it behind his back until he thought it would pop out of his shoulder socket like a chicken bone.

“Get your face down on the ground.” The Sterling Killer pushed him to the steamy carpet as he stuck a knee in his back below his shoulder blades.
Father John winced in pain as his lungs compressed between his chest and the Sterling Killer’s knee making it hard to breath, much less speak.

“When did you figure out that it was me, your twin brother, killing the women in your dreams?” The Sterling Killer asked in a sadistic tone.

Father John’s face clinched as he gritted his teeth. “Not until Detective McCormick confronted dad with the story of the Satanic Codex and your date of birth from the orphanage,” Father John said reluctantly as he struggled to get the words out. “How did you find out who you are?”

“When I received a copy of the Satanic Codex, there was a copy of the Carpenter family tree with it. At first I was excited. I thought maybe my family was trying to contact me,” he grumbled reflectively as he tucked the gun into his pocket and removed a sterling silver knife from his waistband. “I had never tried to find my biological parents because I blamed them for abandoning me, but I was curious, so I went on the internet and discovered that Mrs. Carpenter died on June 6, 1966 due to complications while giving birth to her fifth son. I thought maybe it was me. I found your birth certificate for June 5
^th
, 1966 and thought maybe that was when I was born, but then I noticed there was a sixth son by the name of Samuel on the family tree. I wondered how that was possible if Mrs. Carpenter died while giving birth to her fifth son. That is when I decided to search for my biological parents and found my birth certificate that showed I was born on the morning of June 6
^th
, 1966. What was so curious about my birth certificate was that not only was I born on the same date that Mrs. Carpenter died, but the address on it was next door to the Carpenter’s house and Dr. Stevens was not only listed as my father, but also as the doctor who delivered me.” He planted the knife firmly behind Father John’s ear until he could feel his skin slicing open under the pressure of the sharp blade.

“They named Dr. Stevens as your biological father,” Father John said between breaths as he realized how his father hid the birth of his twin brother.

“That seemed like more than just a coincidence and that’s when I thought I might be the Carpenter’s sixth son and that maybe Mrs. Carpenter died while giving birth to me. I looked at the family tree and saw that Mr. Carpenter is a sixth son and so was his dad. That is when I made the connection with the Satanic Codex and realized that is why they changed my birth certificate and abandoned me. They thought I was the Antichrist.” He pulled Father John’s arm up and pinned it under his knee. “I wanted to confirm my
suspicions before I confronted Mr. Carpenter, but the Stevens were dead. And then I found the name of Nurse Nancy who was on duty the night we were born. I looked her up and sure enough, she was still living in the Bay Area, so I paid her a visit.”

“I asked her if she remembered the night of June 5
^th
, 1966 and she looked at me like she was seeing a ghost,” he recalled sinisterly. “She told me a very interesting story. She said that when Mrs. Carpenter came in, she had already given birth to one boy and was still in labor with another. After she gave birth to her second son, she died due to complications, but that is not why she remembered that night so well,” he said with an ominous sneer. “What she remembered was the horrible fighting and arguing that went on between Mr. Carpenter and Dr. Stevens. Apparently Mr. Carpenter refused to take me home. Nurse Nancy thought that Mr. Carpenter was just distraught over his wife’s death until she heard him explain the Satanic Codex to Dr. Stevens and how I was the son of the Devil. At first she didn’t believe that Mr. Carpenter or Dr. Stevens would really believe such a story, but then she realized what my date of birth is.”