Heaven Forbid: Caught

Outside of the Church the parishioners crowded against the fount of holy water. Every Sunday was the same; the people would come out into the world with renewed enthusiasm and ready to preach the gospel. That was how it was supposed to go. That was the way things were meant to be.

But things seldom seem to go as they should.

Madeleine knew this as she sifted through the hordes of people; they’re perfume perforating her nose. This wasn’t the way things were supposed to be. The situation they were in now had to be a sign something had gone wrong. Looking through the crowd ahead of her, the whole time just trying to catch a glimpse of the man she was looking for. This was the exit she’d seen him use.

The air was cold and still wet from the fog that had perforated it. Despite the sun’s best efforts it couldn’t break through the thick cloud cover that blanketed Downtown Houston. A line of cars waited at the light as Madeleine reached the edge of the curb.

Across the street she spotted the target. His body was concealed in a long black duster. His long brown hair was tucked into the back of his collar from when he’d put it on.

Madeleine held her cell phone up over her mouth clicked the two-way feature on. Her voice was almost a whisper, “He’s headed your way, Dee.”

Dee giggled manically, “Now’s my chance!”

“Must you be so slutty?” Madeleine’s accent bit off the end of her words, “Its not like you’re going to actually get anywhere with him.”

“Stop distracting me,” Dee stammered into the two-way, “Dee out.”

Across the street Madeleine could see Dee crouched behind a car and peaking around the corner. Today was one of the rare occasions that Dee didn’t go all Goth. Madeleine was proud, maybe her advice had taken root.

Dee’s legs were hardly concealed by the short gray and black plaid skirt. The transparence of the lacey black trim didn’t help matters. Her thick mess of curls were pulled up in a haphazard ponytail. She even had on a white oxford button down. White was not a color commonly seen on Dee. Madeleine was shocked that Dee even owned these clothes.

In an instant Dee bounced to her feet and sprinted up the side walk, Madeleine rushed out across the road after her. The man in the duster had distanced himself. Madeleine jumped the rise of the curb and hit the sidewalk almost bumping into a drunken bum. “Where do you think you’re goin!” the bum shouted.

Dee had stopped next to a tall chain link fence. As Madeleine reached her she threw her arms to her sides and exclaimed, “I can’t climb this shit in heels!”

With her hands on her hips Madeline huffed at her companion, “There’s no reason to go up that, we can just catch up to him,” she took off again.

“But what do we say—“ Dee paused.

Madeleine darted up the sidewalk. Admittedly she wasn’t much for running. Angels weren’t required to do it very often, especially in boots like the ones she had on. She wished she’d been the kind to dress for functionality.

The target turned the corner and Madeleine knew she had to keep him in sight. It was be to lose someone in the city. Even on a Sunday morning the streets were still crowded.

Around the corner she spotted him checking the mailbox of the townhouse. She’d had no idea they were this close to his home, although she’d been there once. She hollered as she got closer, “Father Carlson!”

He froze, his head aimed slightly down and the shadow from his fedora covering his face, “Madeleine, please don’t call me that.”

“Sorry,” she stomped to a stop next to him and let out a sigh, “It’s just that I’ve been chasing after you for a while.”

Madeleine remembered the story that the former Priest had told her about leaving the Church. He’d been a man of the cloth for some time, but not the kind you saw conducting Mass. He’d fought demons for a secret order within the Church. He’d only quit when he lost someone he loved.

Dee rounded the corner screaming as and waving her pale arms above her head, “I’m here…I’m coming!” Before she could reach them, her heel caught at hole in the side walk and she faltered. In a fury of flailing arms and cursing Dee fell face first to the pavement.

“Holy shit, Dee are you okay?” she asked.

She fought to get up, her bottom lip puffed out and her eyes averted from anyone else’s. Brandon stooped down and took her hand, “It looks like you’re cut up a little, should we get those cleaned up?”

Dee knew that she didn’t need to have her wounds taken care of. Even if she was run through with a sword she could heal herself in a matter of minutes. That was granted that she wanted to. But stopping the pain wasn’t worth losing the moment.

She threw her arms around his neck, “Thanks.” Brandon hesitated for a moment and then lifted her clean into the air. With a slight smirk she pulled herself closer to him.

Madeleine rolled her eyes, “Don’t have time for this,” she said in a sing-song voice.

Dee shot her an evil glance and then turned back to Brandon with a smile. He started up the steps with her in his arms, “Can you get the door for me Dee, its unlocked.”

She reached over and turned the knob, pushing it open. He stepped inside with Madeleine following behind him closely. The inside of the townhouse was dark. Brandon ran an inner city orphanage, or at a time he had.

“You’ll have to excuse the lackluster care in here,” Brandon started, “I had to shut the place down.”

Dee focused her violet eyes on him through the darkness, “What do you mean that you shut the place down.”

Madeleine flicked the light on, “So its just you here?”

Brandon nodded, “I was forced to close the place really, at least temporarily.”

“But why?” asked Madeleine.

“Demon attacks are getting more frequent—they’re becoming aggressive and I fear they might target me here,” he replied.

“So you did it to protect the kids,” Dee said, “You’re like the dreamiest man alive.”

He smiled down at her, “Thanks, Dee—I guess.” He moved into the next room which was large and dark with a long ‘L’ shaped couch off to one side. He placed Dee carefully down on the couch and flipped the lamp on, “Let’s get you patched up.”

She folded her arms behind her head and stared up at him, “Thanks for taking care of me,” her cheeks turned a little red. She shifted on the leather couch and there was a soft rubbing sound of her skin on the material.

Madeleine entered the room with her arms folded, when she leaned back on the wall the color brown of her dress almost matched the large wood paneling of the walls. She placed her foot back against the baseboard stabling herself. Brandon left the room to get a first aid kit.

Madeleine sighed walking towards Dee, her anger brought her accent to forefront of her voice, “Who do you think you’re fooling?”

“What are you bitching about now?” asked Dee.

Now Madeleine kept her voice low, “We both know you don’t need someone to ‘a patch you up’, you can heal yourself just fine—“

“Just leave it alone, and its your fault I fell—you ran ahead and left me all alone,” Dee said.

Brandon entered from the other room and Madeleine walked back towards the entrance, “I think I need to go to the restroom,” she left.

Brandon watched as she walked out, “Is something the matter?”

“Yeah we’re just under a lot of pressure.”

He smiled, “That’s always a problem.”

“She gets high strung when she’s worried,” Dee said.

Brandon started to push her skirt up just a little bit, “May I?”

“Yeah,” her voice was imbued with nervousness and her cheeks turned hotter red.

“It looks like you cut your knee pretty bad here,” he said. When Brandon took her leg in his hand and bent it towards him slightly he could tell that she was in ridiculously good shape. There was no fat on her leg, it was all muscle.

Dee wanted to scream out. Her heart thudded hard against her chest. She’d thought of this too often. His touch so gentle it made her shudder slightly. Her hands pressed down into her lap Dee tried to strike up some kind of conversation to take her mind off a man she found irresistible running his hands all over her leg.

“We have to make sure nothing’s broken,” Brandon said.

She spoke up, “Do you like—things—you know how you see something and umm…” her mind went totally blank.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything broken, did you hit your head hard?” he asked.

“No.”

“This is going to burn a little,” he told her as he started to apply some antiseptic to her scrapes.

She winced, “Yeah.”

He finished most of her body and as he was about to put the kit away he leaned over on the end table next to the couch. Right then he noticed that there was a scrape on the side of her face.

“I missed a spot,” he stopped to wipe it and did so very carefully.

Dee sat there looking into his eyes and she sighed, “Maybe if you gave me a little—“ she froze up.

Brandon kissed Dee on the forehead lightly, “Is that better?”

“That’s…that…” Dee’s eyes rolled back in her head and she fell back onto the brown leather couch; fainted.

“Dee, are you alright, wake up!” Brandon lifted her head some.

Madeleine rushed back into the room from somewhere else, “What did you do to her?”

“I kissed her on the forehead and she just fell out!”

“You can’t kiss her,” Madeleine said, “She’s never even been touched by a guy—let alone kissed.” Now she rushed to her friend’s side, “You’re lucky that she didn’t have a heart attack.”

Brandon moved away as Madeleine knelt next to Dee, he writhed his hands together as he paced, “I don’t get it, what’s wrong with her?”

“Haven’t you noticed,” Madeleine said, “Or are you stupid?”

“Noticed what?”

“Nevermind,” Madeleine thought of how mad Dee would be if she mentioned it, even if she thought he should have known it herself. Madeleine held her hand over Dee’s face, her finger tips began to glow brilliant white. The light reflected off the leather of the couch and the picture that hung on the wall.

Dee’s eyes shot open and she pulled herself up from the couch, “What the Hell?” her cheeks were still hot red.

Madeleine smoothed Dee’s hair back from her forehead, “You passed out, are you alright?”

Dee nodded nervously, she lifted her head slightly. The corner of her lip lifted slightly as she smelled something distinct. She sniffed the air hard.

Madeleine raised her head up. She searched the room slowly, smelling the air as she looked around. In a smooth motion she pulled her hair away from her pretty face, her green eyes half closed, “I smell it too.”

“Smell what?” Brandon asked.

“Sulfur,” Dee jumped up from the couch and held her hand out to the side calling the scythe to her side. The weapon appeared in a flash of light and she brought it up behind her back.

Digging his hand deep into his duster Brandon produced a long barreled silver gun with ornate decorations, “Another demon attack.”

Thick black oil oozed from the ceiling and dripped onto the floor right near Madeleine’s foot, “Far worse than a demon attack, this is big trouble.”

The oil bubbled onto the floor, running down the wall slowly and starting to come from all sides all of the walls. Some of the oil ran faster than the others, the wooden floors were starting to seep too. The oil crept up between the floor boards.

Dee hissed, “Fuck,” she shot her gaze to each side of the room, “This was a trap they wanted to get us in the same place.”

Madeleine, Dee, Brandon—they all knew that this wasn’t your run of the mill attack, they were being pulled in—someone had set this up. The townhouse had become a prison and they were being pulled into Hell.