"The Punisher: City of Hate"
Chapter 2- " The Holy Ghost "
The Reverend had his back to the door when he heard it open.
"Have you decided to stop running from God, Mr. Castle?"his words trailed off as he turned to see three men enter.
One had a .38 pointed at the Reverend.
"What do you want, the offerings for the night are gone, we have nothing.." The Reverend spoke, a hint of pleading fear crossing his voice.
The men walked right up to him. The man who seemed to be the leader, strode up to him,and looked into his eyes.For the secong time that night,he saw that hate he had been fearing his entire life.
That was when the punch connected with his face,knocking him to the floor.The Leader looked at him and smiled. Then he began to slid off his coat, then shirt. Bearing his chest.
"Do you see this?" the man asked.
The Reverend stared at the large symbol on the mans chest,a symbol that should have been gone 50 years ago.A large swastika with a sword through the top dominated the mans upper turso.
"DO YOU SEE THIS!" the man yelled.
The Reverend looked up."Yes," he almost whimpered.
."Are you AFRAID of this symbol?", the man asked, his voice loud and dominate on the word "afraid".
The Reverend tried to stand up,he was knocked off his feet.
"SIT DOWN BOY,I WOULD HAVE ASKED YOU TO STAND IF I WANTED YOU TOO,NOW ANSWER MY QUESTION,DOES THIS SYMBOL FRIGHTIN' YOUR NIGGER ASS!",He screamed.
"Yes...", the Reverend as he stared into the skinhead's eye's
."Good, we have chosen you to give your "people" and the rest of those sub-human fucks, a message from us.."
The man pulled a letter from his coat pocket.
"Stand up" he said.
The Reverend stood up.
"God sees everything you do,how will Saint Peter judge you?" the Reverend asked, eye's pleading as they searched for a hint of humanity in the Nazi's eyes.
."He'll thank me" said the man,and with that he took the knife from his pocket,and cut the Reverends throat.
His jugular spilled blood across his robes,and the Reverend felt his shirt being undone,and the knife cut into his chest.his eyes were rolling from the loss of blood and pain.Then he saw those big doors open, and he managed a smile as he finally let the last breath ease from his body, as he met his God.
Frank opened the doors and wasn't expecting the scene he was about to see.
He saw a man crouched over the Reverend,who was spread out on the altar with blood running from his throat,A man whose shirt was off,was crouched over him and had seemed to just finished carving something in the Reverends chest. Two men were behind the altar,spraying,what smelt like gas,on the gigantic cross behind the altar.Frank looked back at the Reverend and could have sworn a smile played across the man's face before his eyes closed forever.
One of the men spraying the altar,looked at Frank as he entered.
"SHIT",the man screamed,the man pulled his .38 and took aim.
Frank was already moving,.45 in hand.He dived into the row of pews just as the .38 was fired,the bullets slamming into the old sturdy wood.
Frank came up and fired at the three men.The other two had realized what was happening by now,and were moving.
The shirtless guy screamed,"Light it,and lets get the fuck outta here!"
Frank came up and pulled the trigger,the hammer came down and ignited the gun powder in the casing sending the bullet right into the man with the .38's head.
"SHIT!" screamed shirtless,and grabbed the .38.
The other man crawled toward the cross and placed a match on it, The cross went up in flames. Frank rolled down the aisle and came up firing again,sending both men ducking for cover,and shirtless firing blind.
The clip ran dry and Frank ducked into another set of pews to reload.The clip snapped into place and Frank came up and took aim,but hesitated at what he saw.
Shirtless now had a hostage,a bum.
"You want smells like shit here to die,you fuck?" Shirtless screamed.
Frank didn't answer,his eyes tracked the movements of the other man as he tried to use the pews as cover,Frank looked for a pattern in the pews,to see when the man would be without the use of his cover.
Distantly he heard"PUT THE GUN DOWN!" from shirtless,but that didn't matter.
The other man had momentarily lost some of his cover from a groove in the pews
Frank whirled around and ducked,the .45 finding its mark in between the grooves in the pew,and he fired.He heard a yelp of pain as the bullet connect with whatever part of the body the bullet struck.He rolled up to his feet and was about to fire over the bums shoulder into shirtless,when shirtlesses bullet connected with him.
The bullet hit dead center of the flak vest he was wearing pushing him back and knocking the air from him. Though the bullet had been stopped he could still feel part of the bullet trying to work its way in...Shirtless released the man and ran through a door in the back,the bum staggered to the floor and crawled over to Frank
"You need help mister?"Frank went to stand up and give chase but couldn't find the air to do so.
"Get..outta...here" he said to the Bum.The bum looked at him, and nodded as he ran out the big oak doors.Thats when Frank heard the whimpering.
Frank stood up,the wound was painful but it could have been worse.He pulled up his shirt,and gazed down at the kevlar vest,there was a small rip just over his heart.
"Much worse,"he thought.
He ignored the burning cross behind him and turned towards the whimpering man and walked over. The bullet had grazed over the mans back,a long line traced the path of the bullet. The flames behind him were the only light in the room,but in the gathering darkness,he could just see the tears forming in the mans eyes.
"Get up." he growled.
The man said nothing,just laid there.
"Alright,I'll help you..."and with that Frank grabbed the man by the hair and dragged him toward the Reverends body.
"You helped kill this man,why?"
The man started to laugh."You'd think I'd tell you?What for,you'll kill me anyway.."
Frank picked him up,and slammed his face against the altar,then dragged him to the burning cross.He propped the man up and inched his face towards the flames.The man screamed.
"FINE..FINE!Theres a note...,"the man whimpered.
"Where?" asked Frank.
The man cried,and brought his hands to his face.
"Over there...on...on the body..."said the mans muffled voice.
Frank threw the man back,away from the cross.The flames were getting higher,and he could finally hear sirens in the distance. He turned away and moved toward the body,when he heard the most peculiar sound.
Laughing.
It came from the man,who had moments ago been crying
."You think your gonna win?" he asked mockingly as he stood up."We'll kill you with the rest of them." A deep grin spread across the mans face."Or better yet..I'll KILL you.."
With that the man produced a switchblade.Frank,caught off guard at first,had little time to dodge the first stab,but immediaetly caught on to the style.
The man was high on adrenaline,his swings taking him off balance.Frank caught his next swing,then using the mans momentum,pulled the mans knee into his waiting foot.What resulted was a resounding CRACK! as bone split.
The man stumbled backwards,screaming.He fell right into the burning cross.The screams grew even louder as the flames overtook the insane radical.the man crawled away as the flames engulfed him,the pitch of the scream growing higher.The image rekindled something in Franks brain..
"Naplam..." he whispered.
All of a sudden he was back in the jungle,He had called for a blanket nap' of the entire area,but the planes had missed there target,it had landed on Castle,and his men. They crawled and staggered every which way,the smell of roasted flesh and the pitch of screams rose in volume.
He watched as Pvt. Hall crawled toward him,burning arm outstreched,eyes pleading,and Frank did now what he had done then,he aimed his .45 and put a bullet in the burning radicals head.
The screams stopped,the memories faded..for now.
Frank found himself here and now,standing next to a burning cross and three dead men. His eyes caught the golden form of a crucifix,but he looked away and turned back towards the body of the Reverend. He found the note on the Reverends chest, and he began to read.