A/N: This is a VERY dark chapter. But don't lose hope. Don't forget, we still have the Books of History on our side - the battle is not completely lost. So stick with me! :)

Thanks to Shojobaby, iluvjoe, Ozma, BlueEyes444, and Kimi-Lee22 for reviewing chapter 10. Please enjoy and REVIEW this one, too. ;o)

Paradise Broken

Chapter Eleven

Paradise, Colorado

June 3, 2010

They were killing Samuel.

Johnny Drake had ducked behind the church, heart racing, as Marsuvees Black turned his evil gaze to him. From his hiding spot, he could hear Samuel's inhuman screams as the crazed residents of Paradise beat him.

Johnny didn't know Samuel; didn't know anything about him. But he did know that he was still a kid, about Johnny's age, actually. He knew that Samuel was being murdered. And he knew that Samuel was no ordinary boy.

Why had he offered himself in the place of Joe? Why was he allowing himself to be brutalized by these people? Why wasn't he fighting back? And why on earth did Black choose to torment a young boy instead of an older teenager? He had had two people in his clutches—why did he give them up for a boy? Johnny didn't know. And at the moment, as another one of Samuel's cries wafted from the churchyard, Johnny realized that he really didn't care.

He only cared about Samuel.

He took a deep breath and rounded the corner of the church. He felt nauseated at the sight before him—Samuel was barely recognizable. The boy had been beaten and stabbed with the bloody stake that Steve Smithers clutched in one hand. He had been strung up on the same tree where Joe had been, his face turning blue.

He was dying. Maybe even dead. Johnny couldn't tell.

"You've got to stop this!" Johnny screeched, rushing forward blindly, tears cascading down his face as he rushed Black, not knowing what to do, having no plan of action, only realizing that he had to do something.

He lunged at Black, and suddenly, Black was not there. He disappeared into thin air. Johnny let out a yell as he dove headfirst into the ground. He heard a soft chuckle behind him.

Black was standing over him, eyes blacker than death, one too many teeth gleaming behind his open-mouthed snarl. "Johnny, we're not dealing with your normal gunslinger," Black smirked. "If you're going to take me down, you'll have to think outside the box, which is something no one in this pitiful, stupid world is able to do. So I guess that means you're in trouble."

Johnny scrambled away, and found himself at his mother's feet. Sally was scowling down at him, her eyes glassy and filled with an emotion that Johnny had never seen pointed in his direction from those blue depths—a hatred so deep and so profound, Johnny had to wonder if he'd rather face Black than his mother.

He turned to see Black advancing, snarling, looking like a vicious beast ready to tear into its freshly caught snack. Nope, he'd definitely rather deal with his mother.

"Mom!" Johnny shrieked, pulling himself to his feet and gripping his mother's arm, the arm that had rubbed his back so many times to get him to sleep, the same arm that had held him when he was a child.

This wasn't that arm. It wasn't his mother's arm.

Sally refused to look at him. "Mom! Look what they're doing! This is all wrong! This is—" he was cut off as Black grabbed the lapel of his jacket and tossed him aside like a piece of trash. The man slapped Johnny across the face—hard—and said, "How would you like to join Samuel?"

Marsuvees Black grinned a too-white, too-big, too-evil grin and turned to the townspeople. "Sic'em."

"Billy, you have to stop this!" Joe screamed. Losing control of himself, he stumbled forward and snatched the Stories of History out from under Billy's pen. Only then did Billy look up and even Joe had to cower at the glare in his eyes. Not only that, but...Billy's eyes were pure black, the same color as Black's...

Black's controlling him.

Billy roared and lunged at Joe, catching him in the chin with a punch that was too strong to have come from a scrawny thirteen-year-old like him. Joe reeled back, dazed, and lay still.

Frank rushed Billy, tackling the boy to the ground but was thrown off with incredible force. He and Billy began to fight for the upper hand.

Meanwhile, Joe had forced himself to a sitting position and crawled, unnoticed, to where the book lay open, a pencil beside it. Tears running down his face at the thought of the brave kid down in Paradise that had saved them, he whispered, "This is for you, Samuel."

Completely humbled, Joe wrote at the top of the next page:

Then the light destroyed the darkness once and for all. The End.

There was no rational explanation for what happened next. A blinding flash of light enveloped the monastery and all of Paradise. Everything was white and perfect. Joe heard laughing from somewhere in the distance.

As suddenly as it had appeared, the light was gone. But everything was different than it had been before the light. Billy was on his knees, sobbing into his hands, mumbling incoherently.

And Frank was hugging Joe. Joe hadn't even seen his brother approach him, but the next thing he knew, his brothers arms were thrown around his shoulders and Frank was hugging him.

There was a commotion by the door and the boys ended the embrace to see their father, accompanied by a monk who was crying so hard they wanted to cry with him. "My boy, my boy," was all he could say.

Fenton rushed forward and caught Joe, who, weakened and overwhelmed by the situation, had almost lost his balance. Joe felt his father's arms envelop him and heard his voice, thick with emotion, whisper, "I thought you were dead, Joe, I thought they had killed you...they were going to lynch you and..."

He took in Joe's bloody neck, wrists, and ankles, his bruised face and limbs and his breath caught in his throat.

"They did, Dad, but Frank got to me in time, he..."

Frank was pulled into the embrace and the three men stood in a swaying circle, arms wrapped around each other's shoulders, tears falling freely with no shame, thankful that they were alive. Grateful for each other.

"I love you, boys," Fenton said gruffly, pulling away with tears in his eyes. He never showed this much emotion, and it almost unnerved him. He cleared his throat. "This is David Abraham," he said, gesturing to the sobbing monk that had accompanied him into the library. "He is Samuel's father."

Joe looked at the man, wide-eyed, and David Abraham forced a smile and said, "You have saved us all, my boy."

Joe shook his hair, agitating his dirty blonde locks. "No, Mr. Abraham—Samuel saved us all."

David began to cry but didn't disagree.

There was a howl of inhuman pain from the floor of the library. Billy was curled into a fetal position, his eyes green, tears flooding to the floor. "I'm sorry, I killed Samuel, I killed him, I never liked him and I killed him..."

David Abraham pulled Billy to his feet where he stood shaking like a Chihuahua, looking like a small child about to get his first spanking. Joe winced, expecting the monk's pain and rage to be unleashed on Billy for ultimately killing his only son because of his evil heart and intentions.

Instead, David pulled Billy to his chest and held the boy, sobbing with him. "I forgive you, my son, my son," the older man wailed, embracing the boy named Billy who had embraced evil like the prodigal son.

Frank, Joe, and Fenton watched in shock for a moment, then decided to bow out and let the monk and the boy deal with their grief alone.

Besides, they needed to get down to Paradise and make sure Black really was shut down for good.

A/N: Two more chapters to go after this; please read and review and chapter twelve will be up soon! :)

~Emachinescat ^..^