HALLOWED GROUND Read online

  Margot blasted him away with her mind and fell to her knees as Jonathan’s body tumbled limp across the dust-caked asphalt. She tried to stand again, but was overtaken by quaking in her body.

  Samuel stopped his attack when Jonathan grabbed the girl. He watched, bewildered by Jonathan’s tactic. Margot’s body now shuddered. Her mind seemed to return with new strength against the parasite controlling her. “Lord Jesus, help me!” she cried.

  A wave of pain hit her. She fell to the ground, heaving on her hands and knees. Black fluid issued from her nose and mouth, spilling onto the concrete. The fluid tried to take form again, but Samuel was already there.

  He summoned a burning heat with his mind, igniting the gelatinous creature writhing on the ground before him. Nemesis, all that was left of his form, burst into flame, screeching and clawing at the pavement until the fire consumed him. After a few moments, only ash remained of the creature Trenton Hallowed had become.

  Samuel knelt next to Margot as she sat up. “Is it gone?”

  He smiled through the dried blood and dust caked on his face. “I think so, Margot. Are you okay?”

  She turned to Jonathan’s body, lying motionless twenty feet away. “Yeah. Thanks to him.”

  •

  Jonathan barely had the strength left to open his eyes. He found Samuel Stokes kneeling next to him, along with Jay, who was holding tightly to his daughter, Margot. Jonathan looked at Jay’s face, hoping to find a smile, some sign that all was finally well. “Is Margot all right?” he managed through labored breaths.

  Jay smiled down at him. “You saved her, Jonathan. You saved my baby.”

  Jonathan smiled back at his friend, weakly, trying to shake his head a little. “Not me. Jesus saved her.”

  Jay nodded. He understood.

  Jonathan looked at Samuel. He still looked bewildered by what had happened—even more by how it had happened. “Samuel, don’t go on hating people. We all make mistakes. That’s why God gave us the Savior.”

  Samuel could only stare into his eyes. Even after all he had done to the man, Jonathan still had only kind words for him. Samuel managed a weak nod, placing his hand on Jonathan’s.

  Jonathan turned to Jay. “Help him understand, Jay.”

  Jay gulped down the lump gathering in his throat. “I will—” Then he realized Jonathan was already gone.

  21 RECONCILED

  Jay placed a single red rose on Jonathan’s casket, as the few other mourners began to make their way back across the cemetery to their cars. Margot stood next to her father, wiping tears from her eyes. The preacher came by and shook his hand, before walking away from the grave site.

  Jay and Margot lingered at the casket with its wreaths of flowers lying on top. He looked back toward the few cars now pulling away from the cemetery. “He had to die in a time when no one even knew who he was,” Jay said. He had not recognized the few men who had shown up for Jason’s graveside service.

  “But, Dad, we knew who he was. You’ve told me about him all my life. Even if I didn’t get to see him, but for a short moment, I still knew him. We’ll never forget Jonathan, will we?”

  Jay smiled at his daughter, stroking her dark hair. “You’re right, sweetheart. I suppose we had better get going. Jonathan once told me he wondered if God had let him live until this time, so that he could bring you back to me. I guess, now, his work really is finished.”

  Jay had not bothered with an autopsy. It had been clear that Jonathan’s body had finally expended all of the hyper-metabolic strength it had. It was over. Jonathan had run his race and finished his course. He was safe now.

  They walked back to the road where their driver waited with the car door open. Fall leaves rustled along the ground as the nip of a cool October morning waited to be burned away by the noonday sun.

  •

  Samuel Stokes sat inside his cell in Imperial City’s maximum security holding facility. A bracelet blinked red on his ankle. Any attempt to escape the cell, or facility, would trigger hidden electrostatic devices to stun him into unconsciousness.

  Samuel watched the wall, thinking about all that had happened. He had surprised himself by surrendering to the authorities, following the destructive battle with the Nemesis creature. He knew he could escape if he wanted to, but he wouldn’t. Something Jonathan Hallowed had said to him, made him realize the futility of what he was doing. The little girl, Margot, had even pleaded with him, afterward, not to use his power to hurt people anymore.

  He still wasn’t sure why he felt this way. Revenge had not brought him the satisfaction he had hoped for. A lot of people had been hurt who never had anything to do with his situation. Samuel realized he hadn’t been anymore fair to those people, than Andre Sarkov had been to him and his Halo Project siblings.

  Jay Young appeared outside the transparent plexi-steel barrier, serving as the front wall and doorway to his cell. He spoke through an intercom positioned in the middle of the barrier. “Samuel, how are you feeling?”

  Samuel stood up and walked over to the front of the cell. “Not too bad, I suppose, Doc.” He noticed Jay’s dark suit with a rose on the lapel. “Jonathan’s funeral was today, wasn’t it?”

  Jay nodded. “Yes. I’m going to miss him a lot.”

  “I wish I could have come. He seemed like a good man,” Samuel said.

  Jay nodded. “If anyone was, it was Jonathan.”

  Samuel looked at the ceiling. “I guess it’s guys like that who make it into Heaven.”

  Samuel gave him a cautious look. “True, Samuel, but not for the reason you think. Jonathan didn’t go there because he was good, but because his faith was in Jesus Christ.”

  Samuel looked downcast. “Sure, who wouldn’t want to save a guy like him? After all I put him through, he still didn’t hate me. I just don’t understand how he could do that.”

  Jay remembered Jonathan’s last words. “Help him understand, Jay.” He smiled at Samuel, reaching into his coat pocket. Jay removed a small Bible and opened it to the Gospel of John, chapter three. He looked down the page where his eyes fell on verse number sixteen. Jay looked at Samuel and grinned. “Let’s have a talk.”