"Most civilized people still knock before entering someone private domain Nathan," he told the other immortal.
"Never claimed to be civilized," he said with a toothy grin. "Come on, her royal highness wants you to work you magic fingers on the computer again."
"If I must" he said with a sigh. Marking his place in his worn bible before he put it down he blew out the flame on his oil lantern.
"You do know we have this fancy thing called electricity now, right?", Nathan said as he entered the hallway. Ezekiel held his tongue knowing the other man was looking for a reaction. A trap he fell into more than once when he first met him a couple of years ago. He learned that by not answering he got under the other man's skin far faster than trying to come up with a a retort or a comeback. A pity the good Lord failed to give the other man the brains to realize the ploy stopped working because he kept trying it.
"This is about Jennifer's history teacher correct?", he said after a bit. "A simple search of the school website will get her the picture she desires. Any one could do that." A part of him wanted to add a snide remark, even you for example. But his upbringing told him such things were a sin, even if God did curse him with this life.
"Yeah but it's more fun watching you squirm while you're doing it," Nathan said, the grin returning. He had no remark, silent or verbal, for that. The world may have changed around him but like his people he refuse to use them since they were not part of the divine way. Which was why he was more than surprised to discover he had a natural talent for this "hacking" as they call it.
"About time you showed up," Victoria snapped as she, her daughter Jenny and Jin all waited for him. "I'm sure this idiot told you what I'm looking for."
"Hey I resemble that remark," Nathan quipped. Jin just looked at him with that look of his. "Get in the corner and shut up, got it."
"Ezekiel, if you would please," Jin said as he gestured toward the vacant chair in from of the devil machine. "I believe Jennifer said this individual was named Henry McDonald."
His fingers hesitating over the keyboard for a moment he quickly used his other curse to get on the school's website and pull up the pictures of the staff. However there wasn't a picture for a Henry McDonald to be found.
"A man of intelligence," Jin said as he peered over his shoulder. "He probably realized there may be an immortal who could try what we're trying."
"Man still got to have a license right," Nathan spoke up from the corner he picked out.
"The moron right for once," Victoria said with a grimace, which made the thief's grin even bigger. "Get into the DMV computers. There has to be a record there somewhere."
"As you wish," Ezeakel sighed. After several minutes he was in and looking around as best as he could.
"There are several Henry McDonalds in this state"
Jin looked at the information on the screen, "Define 'several'."
"At least a hundred. It will take a while to check each one. And that is if he went through the legal sources."
Cocking an eyebrow Jin commented, "That's a more common name than I expected."
"It's probably why he picked it," Victoria said. "There has to be a picture of him somewhere at that school." About then Jenny started to back away. Her mother saw it out of the corner of her eye and grabbed her by the hair and pulled her close. "What do you know?"
"That is no...," Ezeakel started to protest before Victoria backhanded him.
"I'll deal with my daughter in my way you God loving freak." Looking back at Jenny she pulled her head back a little more, "Now what do you know?! There has to be something he's been part of that had pictures taken."
"The foreign language group," she got out as her mother pulled back a little harder. "The was a group of student and teachers giving a free demonstration on talking in another language. It was the talk of the school."
"If it was the talk there better be a picture."
"I found it it," Ezekiel worked quickly to keep her from hurting the girl even more. And he had seen her
treat poor Jenny terribly. She leaned in, giving him a good whiff of the whore perfume she was currently wearing.
"That one," she pointed at the screen to a man who in the back. "Make it bigger." Enlarging and clearing up the image of the man's face she stared at it for a long time. Then she smiled in recognition, "Oh yeah, that's him all right."
"What do you know about him?", Jin asked as he studied his face as well.
"He's got a hard on to kill me for one," she answered.
"Most guys have some sort of hard on around you," Nathan said. Ezekiel said a silent prayer to cleanse his ears from such talk.
"I take it you slighted him in some way?", Jin asked.
"Slighted hell, I freed him," she told him. "A Japanese bitch attached herself to him a couple of centuries back. I killed her to help him. He didn't have the brains to see it that way."
"Very few see the world as you do my dear Victoria," Jin told her.
"Their loss." She turned toward her daughter, "Practice, now!", she ordered with a shove that was harder than necessary.
Nathan watched the young girl after she exited the room in a hurry, "Easy to believe in a God with an ass that looks like that around."
Ezekiel sat there bristling at their treatment and attitude toward the girl. Out of the group only Omar shared his distaste at how they treated her. But the Middle Eastern man often showed his displeasure, but did nothing out of respect or Jin. He, on the other hand, kept his displeasure bottled up since he was never one to confront a person over such matters.
He nearly jumped out of the chair when somebody put a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Jin smile at him, not like one of Nathan's false smiles, but a true one out of respect. "You have done well my friend. Go get some air, you've more than deserved it."
"Thank you sir," he said and quickly got away from the devil machine as fast as he could.
Dressed in the simple hat and coat he had worn for decades he walked the street on this night finding his
way toward a park. Here he breathed a little easier once he set foot, despite the foul air that covered this world. A bit of nature in the middle of all these man made buildings of modern society that reached into the sky. A far cry from the farm life he had known up until that day. His fingers went to the spot on his head where that horse kicked him hard after it got spooked. He woke up with everyone who was not crying stare at him. He was to stunned at that moment to notice to realize those were stares of fear. He was soon chased away by his own family and friends.
"I cast you out!", his father had told him later when he tried to come back home. "You are no son of mine! The devil has taken you now go!"
By all rights his father and family should have killed him right then and there instead of letting him run away from the only life he has ever known at that point. Of course now he knew that would have been futile on their part and would have made them fear him even more.
Of course even here he couldn't get away from the devilry of man's world as lamp with artificial light were placed out every so often. Keeping his gaze at the path in front of him he soon walked off of it and
to the darker parts of the park that those lights didn't reach. Finding a clearing he looked up at the sky and talked to God one more time, "Why have you cursed me like this? What could I have possibly have done to warrant such a punishment? What must I do to to finally be forgiven?"
As always he received no answer, and at times that drove him crazy more than Nathan has. At times he wanted to curse the Lord for doing this to him. To demand that he'd be set right. But he was cursed over a century ago. Even if he was set right where could he go? His family, the family he had known, was long dead. Any relatives he had now would be so far removed that they would be total strangers to each other, and he would still be stuck in this damnable modern world. In truth part of him feared this world had somehow seeped into the simple world he had known and infected it so he would never be free of it.
He knew there was one way out, the coward's way. But killing oneself was a sin and he was damned enough as it was, if that was even possible. And more than a few times he had found what Jin referred to as the "will to live" to strong to just let another immortal kill him. Another part of his curse.
The sensation that made him ill warned him another one was around. He looked around to see his potential challenger, or savior, standing to his left. "I thought I saw somebody come this way."
"If you wish to rob me stranger than you will have poor tidings for I have no money to speak of," he told him.
"I think a mugger could take one look at you and see that," he said as he looked him over. "But I think you I know I'm here for something else entirely."
"I fear you are right," Ezekiel removed his hat and coat and hung them on a nearby broken branch before removing the small sword and hand sickle hidden inside. "My name is Ezekiel Fields stranger."
"Mr. Fields," he said removing a broad sword from his coat, "I am Travis Smith."
Smith came at him first. They always did seeing what he used as weapons. But the sickle itself was a tool he had used all his life before his curse. So much so it was almost like extensions of his own arm. His opponent was strong, he could tell by the strikes he blocked, and well versed in the use of his sword. Perhaps this would be the one.
But he saw how he kept looking at the sickle in his other hand. Very, very few immortals fought with to weapons, much less one such as this. Jin had even helped him "improve" it by making the outer curve just as sharp as the inner one. A fact he proved when he used that outer edge to slice into the other man's leg with a backhanded slash. Then he brought the blade back around and stuck the point deep into the man's side. Smith cried out in pain and pushed him away before he could take his head with the sword.
Fighting like a desperate man while he waited for his wound to heal he tried to keep Ezekiel away. But Jin, the man who originally found him, had taught him too well. Forcing him to go in for the kill when he saw the blood. This was not going to be the man to free him. Forcing Smith's sword down He brought the point of the sickle down into his shoulder, ripping flesh and bone as he pulled forward to free it. A move that disgusted him each time he did it. Spinning around he used the edge of the sword to slice into Smith's other leg, deep enough that he fell to a knee. He stiffened as he hooked his neck with the sickle.
"Why couldn't you be the one?", he asked. He didn't get an answer from the confused man as he pulled his sword arm back and swung. Momentum from the strike made him turn around as Smith's head fell from his shoulder. As the body flopped to the ground Ezekiel quickly plunged the sword into the soil. And much like he would a cross it resembled in this position he dropped to his knees and prayed, "My Father who art in heaven..." The quickening surrounded before violating him. he held the prayer position for as long as he possibly cold before the energy inside him forced his arms to fly open. His screams reached the heavens as bolts of lightning like energy struck him that things around him. After an eternity of this torture it stopped and he slumped to the ground.
Tears in his eyes he finally got back to a position to kneel as he looked up at the heavens one more time, "Why won't you forgive me?"
