Dark Places of the Soul: Dark Soul Trilogy - Book 1 (9 page)

Two other vehicles had remained on the
roadway after colliding. The tangled mass of metal smoked and would
be heroes where desperately trying to free those trapped behind
twisted steel.

“
He’s dead.”

Noah heard the shout from the highway. The
woman slammed the top of the gray sedan with an angry fist. He
moved around the rear of his wreckage, amazed that he didn’t feel
any pain in his body. The woman looked at him and again repeated
her chorus.

“
He’s dead… damn
him.”

An unfeeling eulogy by a poor actress, she
disgusted the part of him which was still clinging to his role as a
man of God.

Excited shouts from the two vehicles to his
south took hold of his attention, stealing his interest from the
woman who cursed the dead. Three people, one limping badly ran from
the wreckage of their vehicles. A spark, a flame, and for an
instant Noah saw the faces of the heroes along with the face of the
victim saved. The brief moment evaporated when the flame kindled a
world-deafening explosion.

***

“
Shit, that doesn’t look
good,” Keri’s reaction came in response to the flaming wreckage
ahead.

James applied the breaks to the lumbering
Winnebago. The war zone viewed through the windshield captured the
attention of all northbound traffic. Passage ahead was blocked by
two late model cars engulfed in flames. James brought the camper to
rest on the wide gravel shoulder of the highway. Keri opened the
door on her side of the vehicle and beat him to the ground before
the idling engine ceased. She ran on ahead, like an emergency
worker at the scene of her expertise. James followed.

Amid the chaos three actors in a script gone
off course sat a safe distance from the blaze. One of the three was
a woman in her forties, a cut across the right side of her
forehead. The other two were teenaged boys. They both seemed to be
uninjured and more than willing to help the woman out.

Further down the highway Keri saw two men
walking back up the black top from a pick-up truck which had pulled
over. On the median a car rested upside down, its driver was
presently on a course across the highway to a car where a
distraught woman waited.

James moved ahead of her as a proclamation
of someone being deceased carried through the still morning air.
She recognized the man crossing the interstate from the median as
Noah Cote, the minister from the restaurant who had been given
another opportunity to amend his life.

“
Didn’t think we’d run
into him again… this soon,” she said to James.

“
He is responding to the
woman at the gray sedan ahead,” he commented. “Someone is either
injured… severely, or dead.”

Keri knelt down to the woman being attended
to by the teenaged boys. She estimated that one of the teenagers
was old enough to have recently got his license. This was a hell of
a way to be introduced to the realities of the highway.

“
You okay?” She
asked.

The woman nodded her head in response. One
of the boys wore a terrified look on his face. The other seemed
calmer and in control of the situation.

“
They’ve got this under
control,” James insisted, “let’s go see if we can help up there.”
He pointed to Noah Cote, the woman and the gray car.

Noah was trying to free the driver’s side
door on the vehicle. As they moved closer the damage from impact
with the pick-up truck became obvious. Noah called out for help
without recognizing those he beckoned to. The woman at the gray
sedan turned toward James and Keri, a couple approaching from the
backdrop of hell. Keri sensed that she and her new friend were
recognized by the woman and somewhere in the background of her
thoughts the instant’s familiarity crept into the foreground.

***

Lights of the emergency vehicles flashed
into the horizon of the approaching midday, heading south in
direction of New York’s capital city. Zachary’s body occupied the
back of one ambulance; Candice decided another chapter of life had
passed along with the shell of the man she didn’t really love. Her
bruises had been treated by a young and good looking paramedic. The
option was taken on her part not to submit to treatment at the
hospital. Zachary’s next of kin would be notified. She missed
joining the horde, making up his family, by a matter of months.

Noah Cote had tried to be a comfort where no
comfort was needed. Any grief she possessed had little to do with
the loss of one man. What mattered most in the present spectrum of
things was the crumbling career Zachary had begun to raise from the
ashes.

“
You know those two?”
Candice asked Noah, in reference to James and Keri.

“
Met them this morning at
breakfast,” Noah answered.

“
And that whole story
about coming together by fate… about dreams?”

Noah had no response for her this time. He
had listened to the story she told about her own recurring
nightmares. This event had been visualized in her sleep often over
the last few months. James and Keri filled the roles of the two
apparitions walking from the world of damnation, emerging from the
fires of a hell she might deserve.

“
I dreamt about this,” she
said, giving indication to the five vehicle accident, “and them. On
the flight out here I thought I was actually seeing a prophecy
unfold before my eyes. I witnessed Zachary’s death… so vividly… but
I had no power to change it. Then from the flames came two people…
I saw both of them coming to me.”

As a minister, Noah knew grief took many
forms. It was obvious to him that Candice hid from the ruins of
reality in denial.

“
Then you’re buying into
the story?” Noah asked.

“
Is there an
option?”

The young woman with curly blond hair, who
had introduced herself as Keri Jacobson, came over to Noah and
Candice. “They’ll be here soon t’ tow these vehicles away,” she
began, “James says we can head out in the camper.”

Candice looked directly into the Keri’s
eyes; there was no doubt in any of the young woman’s actions.

“
I believe you were sent
to me through providence.” Candice said with earnest. “I can only
hope it is a positive destiny you’re about to lead me… us to.”
Candice looked at Noah, seeking agreement through his expression.
“Zachary and I were heading up north to a lakeside side cabin he
owned. We should go there first. I have a Jeep… there. It would be
better transportation than a Winnebago.”

The lakeside property owned by the late
Zachary Wells consisted of a twelve acre parcel with at least five
hundred feet of water frontage. Keri knew little about tax
assessments, but she knew this piece of land with the ten room
contemporary house had to be in one of the upper brackets of the
taxed elite.

The others were gathered inside. She had a
compelling urge to listen to the night settling on the lake, a
silent sound, a soul soothing peace. They had prepped the Jeep for
the morning, deciding to stay at the lake overnight. James told
them of their destination, Boston. No one questioned his authority,
or asked what made him so sure of the calling. Keri figured Noah
would bark out a protest against the visions of the school teacher
who seemed touched by spirituality, but not denomination. She was
surprised when the minister maintained his silence.

Keri would follow James wherever he
dictated. Her only apprehension came from concern of a coming
moment when he would deny her his company, the moment when he would
make clear to her his lack of the desire she overflowed with. She
knew if he found out about her past, his friendship, would never
blossom into the ardor she felt.

Following James Lansing into this onslaught
of destruction should have filled her with fear. Instead it calmed
her. She had been privy to her own dreams. Somewhere in a future
time, after whatever mission they were being called to reached
completion, she would stand in his embrace, warmed and comforted.
She had walked through this vision in past nights without ever
feeling its prophetic value. The Jeep, unveiled familiarity, it was
James who held her in the dreams while some brunette woman looked
on, a dark haired member of their quest she had not yet met. The
Jeep, she had seen its red hood through the embrace. Will James be
aware of her darkest secrets during the interlude, or will that
heartbreak still be to come?

“
I think James was
wonderin’ where you were.” Candice strolled up beside Keri, without
being heard until she spoke.

Keri noticed the school teacher standing out
on the deck off the front of the house. She waved, wishing he had
been the one to come to the water looking for a lost sheep.

“
I think he’s got a thing
for you,” Candice teased.

“
Like a shepherd and a
lost sheep,” Keri verbalized her thought.

“
I think that’s Noah
Cote’s department,” Candice answered. “The minister always leads
the sheep down the path to righteousness, while those like James
Lansing try very hard to seduce the innocent.”

“
That would be true only
if I were among the innocent.”

“
Why do you suppose God
saved you from that explosion?”

Candice took Keri by surprise. After the
accident on the highway Candice and Noah had become willing
participants in this destination-less journey. They hadn’t spoken
of the initial meeting between school teacher and the curly haired,
unemployed blond.

“
He shared how you two
met.” Candice offered an answer to her confusion. “While you were
down here playin’ footsie with the water.”

Candice walked closer to the water’s edge.
Keri looked back up to the deck, hoping to see James heading their
way. He had returned to the well lit interior of the house.

“
I’m sorry… for your
loss,” Keri said after leaving her romantic desires where they
belonged, for the moment.

Candice turned toward Keri. In the moonlight
Keri was aware of the callous expression on the older female’s
face.

“
I took it you were…
lovers,” Keri tired to clarify her intentions.

“
Sexual partners… yes,
lovers… no,” Candice responded with a coolness of attitude. “My
loss is for the possibilities Zak opened up for me. My only hope is
that I’ve made enough connections during our time sharing a bed to
keep my career on the rise.”

Keri felt shocked by the response Candice
gave. Her own boldness took control of a tongue which was capable
of getting her into trouble. “Then… you used him.”

“
We used each other,”
Candice offered without taking offense to the accusation. “Isn’t
that the way of the world? We all use each other. If you haven’t
used our visionary school teacher yet for some gain, I’m sure you
will… and I’m also certain he’ll use you.” Candice appraised the
young girl in front of her before adding, “If you don’t mind my
saying so… you are the type to get used.”

“
How so?” Keri felt the
tingling rise of emotion on the back of her neck. She wanted to
walk away from the insulting tone of Candice Goddard, but chose
instead to let the question escape from her tongue.

“
You wear it on your
sleeve.”

“
What?” Keri asked with
confusion.

“
You want him to use you.
Deep down you’re a submissive. I’ll bet if a man strikes you… you
think you deserve it.”

“
No.” Keri’s response was
softly spoken and not convincing in the least.

“
You need to listen to
yourself love,” Candice said, “that is the most submissive denial
I’ve ever heard.”

***

The girl with the short black hair walked
out of room 205. He watched the daughter of Randall Hawkins through
the eyes of an ageless Lonnie Wilkerson. She aroused his desire.
The time was right for him to walk through this world with such
passion. A short black skirt and a revealing blouse, he cursed
Randall for raising such a shameless tart. The ageless form in
Lonnie Wilkerson’s flesh knew Stephanie’s suppressed desires. His
existence in the world would give her the strength to act on
them.

Many bore no indignity today. Modesty was a
thing left behind long ago. This race of thinking multi-celled
creatures progressed through this world immersed in a giant orgy of
sensual pleasure. He loved every minute of torrid promiscuity,
especially when it was this easy to offer temptation.

“
Come to me,” he whispered
into the conditioned air, his breath taking form.

He overflowed with a need the daughter of
Randall Hawkins could definitely fill. A hunger for her lewd
secrets coursed through his bowels. He had planned on the four, who
were due to arrive soon. Randall’s daughter was an unexpected
treat. A tentacle of his thought stretched out to Stephanie in a
barely visible mist. A vapor, probing the empty space along the
ceiling, seeking the mind it was sent to infect. He touched her and
blinded her to his presence.

“
You my child,” the
ageless Lonnie Wilkerson breathed, “will guide them to me… my
chosen… and you shall bring… with you… my old friend.”

His thought surrounded her, a cloud she
could not see. His induced trance had purchased her soul. His form
would remain invisible to her until he chose to reveal himself.

As the elevator announced its arrival from
the lower floors his essence gathered form, solidifying into matter
from beyond the grave. He was a hunter stalking his prey, smelling
the perfume of her lust, tasting the sin of her flesh. The doors
slid open and the haggard shape of a decaying Lonnie Wilkerson
followed her.