A/N: Sorry about the delay, guys. Here's chapter nine. ;o)
Thanks to iluvjoe, Shojobaby, MCR-1993, and BlueEyes444 for reviewing chapter eight. Enjoy and don't forget to review! :D
Paradise Broken
Chapter Nine
The Monastery
June 3, 2010
A scream echoed through the worried silence. Joe.
Fenton was instantly on his feet and headed toward the door. David Abraham caught his arm in a surprisingly strong grip and pulled the agonized father to a halt. "Mr. Hardy. Please," he said in a desperate voice.
Fenton felt tears well up in his eyes but did nothing to stop the flow. "That is my son!" he said, pain decorating every word. "They are down there doing who knows what to my son, my baby, and you expect me just to sit here passively and allow them to do so?" He shook his head and wrenched his arm from the monk's grasp. "No, David. I'm sorry, but nothing is going to stop me from saving my sons."
"Mr. Hardy, if you go down there, Joe will have no chance of living," David Abraham said softly. "In order to set things back in order, we must allow events to unfold as they will. Only Samuel, an innocent child, has any hope of going to Paradise and returning now. I know this makes no sense to you, Mr. Hardy, but believe me when I tell you that there is so much more than all of this."
"More than what?" Fenton snapped, his stomach twisted into various knots, feeling more like a pretzel than a stomach at the moment. His head was spinning and all he could think about was Joe's tortured scream and Samuel's words... "lynching...lynching...the youngest...lynching..."
David patiently explained. "More than this place. More than the Monastery, more than Project Showdown, more than Paradise or New York or Colorado or America. More than Earth, more than this reality."
"So now we're in the Twilight Zone?" Fenton said sarcastically.
"No," David said simply. "But Marsuvees Black isn't of this world. Neither are the Books of History." He paused. "There is so much undiscovered, so much to learn. Nothing is what it seems, my friend. But I promise you this: what is happening down in Paradise is beyond the both of us: it is a battle for something—even I do not know what—we cannot imagine. But Samuel...Samuel can change things. We cannot."
Fenton felt his knees weaken and he knew in that moment that somehow, some way, David was right. He couldn't interfere. Otherwise, unspeakable evil could possibly be released.
In actuality, unspeakable evil had already been released. Its name was Marsuvees Black.
Fenton's legs gave out completely and he slumped to the ground.
His son—possibly both of his boys—were in the hands of unspeakable evil.
And there was nothing he could do about it except put his trust in a fourteen-year-old boy.
"No!" Frank screamed and thankfully Black stopped just inches away from Joe's belly. He couldn't even tell if Joe was breathing anymore. Was it Frank's wild imagination, or were Joe's lips turning blue?
No, he couldn't be dead. He just couldn't.
"Don't worry, my friend," Marsuvees Black crooned, snapping his fingers and making the knife disappear. "He's not getting off that easy. This disgusting piece of filth deserves everything he's getting. Trying to stop me..." The man chuckled. "Impossible, but still, he must be punished."
"You just can't do this!" Frank yelled, tears rolling down his face. "It's impossible!"
"Can't what, you stupid puke?" Black snapped. "Can't control an entire village of imbeciles? Can't hang your dimwit of a brother from a tree? Or can't snap my fingers and make a deadly weapon appear? Suhupow, baby." Frank stared at him. "Oh, do you want some Suhupow, Frankie-boy? You wanna trip? Wanna trip on Grace Juice, baby?" He grinned an evil, gleaming white smile. "I have all the power in the world."
"No you don't," said a soft voice.
"And you never will," another voice chimed in.
Frank gasped. "Johnny!" he hissed. "I told you to stay at your house! And why did you bring another kid with you?"
But Johnny wasn't listening. His eyes had locked onto his mother's face, leering up at the motionless Joe, a thirst for blood in her eyes. Johnny looked as if he were about to cry.
The other boy, a blonde boy with green eyes, spoke up. "He didn't bring me. I came of my own accord. We just happened to meet here at the same time." He smiled at Johnny. "My name is Samuel," the boy said. "And don't worry. Everything will be okay. You'll see."
"What do you know, you stupid kid?" Black spat. "Just for your nerve, I think I'll kill you next!"
"Kill me now, but let them go," Samuel said softly. A single tear rolled down his cheek, but he stood brave and tall.
"What—no!" Frank and Johnny said simultaneously. Black mulled it over for a second.
"Why not?" he said in an amused voice. He motioned at Claude, who immediately released the rope and Joe thumped to the ground, landing on his stomach. A soft groan escaped his lips. "It just makes the game even more interesting."
"Both of them," Samuel said.
Marsuvees Black raised an eyebrow. "Raising the stakes, I like it."
He nodded at Steve Smithers who untied Frank. "Take your brother and leave," Black ordered Frank. "If I see you two pukes again I swear I will not hold back."
"I can't let you kill an innocent kid!" Frank hissed.
"Then you've sealed your brother's fate," Black said. "Claude, can you hoist him back into the tree for me?"
"No!" Frank said.
Samuel looked at Frank with fierce determination. "Just go, Frank. Take Joe and go the monastery. Go down the tunnels, follow the worms. Stop Billy if you can."
Somehow, Frank knew that what Samuel said made perfect sense. He knew without a doubt that he had to take Joe to the monastery. Even though he had just met Samuel—how had the boy known their names?— he knew that he was right.
"Come on, Johnny," Frank said.
"No," Johnny answered. "I'm staying with Samuel."
"Johnny..."
"Let him stay," Samuel ordered.
Frank complied.
Without bothering to untie Joe, he grabbed his unconscious brother and went as fast as he could to the car. He laid his brother in the backseat, cut the ropes that held his hands and feet together, and was about to cut the rope that bound his wrists together and his legs immobile and take the noose from around his neck when he heard a piercing scream. Samuel.
Then he heard the boy wail, "Go!"
Tears streaming down his face, Frank abandoned the task of de-pretzeling his brother, jumped into the driver's seat, and squealed off toward the monastery, Samuel's tortured screams following him the whole way.
A/N: Thanks for being patient; I'll have chapter ten up soon! :)
~Emachinescat ^..^
PS - REVIEW! :)