Post by The Circle Television Network on Sept 18, 2016 18:18:42 GMT -5
Ruins of Madison Chapel
Empire City
Chapter VII: Where There’s Smoke…
The church lay in ruins, with tons of brick collapsed atop burned wood, as Brandon Knight stood at the edge of the rubble with his sister standing by his side. Brandon shook his head, unable to believe that Madison Chapel was gone. “I can’t believe it’s gone…the city needs this place Daria…Empire City needs it’s faith.”
Daria Knight arched her brow at her brother. “Brandon, it’s a building…people put their faith in Gods.”
Brandon corrected, holding up a single finger. “God Daria…singular.”
Daria shook her head with a laugh, “One God rhetoric? Really brother?”
Brandon wanted to tell his sister about Anka, he wanted to change her mind, but something stayed his tongue on the matter. Instead, he was interrupted by the sound of a man whistling close by. He looked around and couldn't help but gasp, seeing a tall lanky man leaning over the rubble, his trousers hanging around his thighs, spurting a yellow stream onto the rubble. Brandon was shocked and embarrassed for his sister to see the disrespectful sight. Brandon started to walk over to the man, but Daria grabbed his arm to stop him. “Brandon…it’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”
Brandon patted her hand, “That’s not the point Daria. It’s disrespectful…it’s blasphemous!”
As Brandon walked away, Daria rolled her eyes and folded her arms, calling after him, “It’s a building!”
Brandon stalked over to the man, grabbing him by the jacket cuff. “Have you no shame, my son!?"
The man pulled his arm away and glanced disjointedly at Brandon, "Sssshame? Sssshame? Ssssshame is not closhing this plashe down before they hadda chanshe to burn the muther, ha ha ha!" He continued jetting his stream of urine onto the rubble before finally zipping up. Brandon stood back, his head raised skywards, asking the almighty for some end to the madness of the city, before the man turned forcefully towards him, his firm hand knocking Brandon on the chest, sending him staggering backwards. "Wha'choo think of that, man? You ran this joint, didn'tsha? Don'tchooo know people don't believe in the One God anymore?" He asked with a haunting melody to his voice.
Brandon sighed, pointing for him to leave. “Please…go!”
The man looked at Brandon, his eyes suddenly staring off into the distance, blankly. All signs of his earlier drunkenness disappeared. “…she told me to come here…she told me to burn it down…I was too late…”
Brandon’s eyes widened, he reached out and grabbed the man by his shoulders. “WHO?! WHO TOLD YOU THAT?!”
“The girl…” His eyes suddenly cleared, then his face twisted into a mask of hate as he grabbed Brandon by his collar. “YOU LOOKING TO DIE PREACHER MAN?!!”
As the man draws his fist back, Brandon steels himself to take the punch. “I won’t fight you…I just want to know who told you to burn my church!”
The man swung at Brandon, but he deflected the blow, still trying to get the man to talk to him. The man pushed Brandon backwards, swinging wildly at him. “I’LL KILL YOU MAN!”
Brandon warded off the wild swings, still holding him. “TELL ME WHO SENT YOU HERE!!”
Again the man’s face went blank, “…death…”
A flash of cold steel was seen by Brandon a moment to late as the man pulled out a knife, wielding it with deadly intent as he bore down on the priest. The blade’s course was halted with such vicious suddenness that it went flying several yards away, clattering into the rubble.
CRACK “AAAAARRRGGHHH!!”
Brandon stumbled and fell down as his would-be attacker screamed as he was slammed to the ground by Daria, his arm still in her grasp as it was bent at an unnatural angle, obviously broken. Daria let his arm go and the man scrambled to his feet, still screaming as he stumbled off.
“NO!! STOP HIM DARIA!” Brandon got to his feet, trying to chase after the man, but Daria grabbed him, holding him back. He starred at her, wide eyed, “We have to stop him! He knows about the church other church burnings!”
Daria shook her brother, “Brandon! Let him go! He’s just a nutcase! Gods! He almost killed you!” She pushed him back, “You need to stop it! You’re not a police officer anymore!”
Brandon looked at his sister, and then off into the darkness in the direction the man had fled. He sighed, shaking his head in defeat. He didn’t like it, but his sister was right. He was no longer a police officer and he had nearly gone to meet his maker. “You’re right Daria…of course you’re right. Thank you.”
As Brandon relented, Daria let him go and looked around, posting her hands on her hips. She didn’t know if the man had been sent to finish off her brother by her benefactor, but she wasn’t going to watch her brother killed in front of her. That wasn’t part of the agreement, assuming she even continued to honor it after this debacle. Daria turned, taking her brother by his arm. “Let’s get you home Brandon…”
As the two walked away, there was a flutter in the breeze. High above them, unseen and out of earshot the beat of powerful wings carried Anka into the night sky. Rather than pursue the fleeing man, she heads in the opposite direction…
Madison District Police Station
Empire City
Stacey sat at her computer terminal staring at the screen. She had gotten no match off the name Anka Jairus earlier, but she had hoped that a match off of her facial features would be more fruitful. The security cameras had recorded her image…or so she had thought, but every time the cameras fell on her, the image blurred, making recognition difficult, if not impossible.
She sighed as she got up and walked over to the door of her office. She called out to the Desk Sergeant. “Bradski, call up someone and have them check the damn cameras, I think there is something wrong with them. They’re blurring out or something.”
The officer nodded, then called back to her. “By the way…Fire wanted you to call…they said that they got something weird back on the Chapel fire, something you might be interested in.”
She nodded and walked back into her office, closing the door behind her as she picked up the phone and dialed the number for the Fire Investigator. The investigator that she had hounded the Fire Chief for promptly picked up. “Sweeny? It’s Jordan, they told me that you had something on the Madison Chapel fire.”
He started, “Well Detective, I can tell you for sure that…”
Stacey cut him off, “I swear to Superius, if you tell me that you know it was hot…I am going to come down there an punch you in the face!”
Sweeny paused and even through the silence, the disappointment in not being able to tell his favorite joke was palatable. He cleared his throat instead, “Yeah Detective, I think I found something that you’ll find very interesting. Because of the damage to the building’s interior before it burned, we suspected arson was the most likely cause.”
Stacey chimed in. “Is there something wrong with that initial assessment?”
Sweeny paused for a moment. “Well…I still suspect that it was arson, but to be perfectly honest with you…I have yet to find the cause. I mean…there are no accelerants present…no sign of anything at all that could have caused the fire.” He paused. “Almost as if it had just come from nowhere.”
Stacey sat back in her chair, twisting a lock of her hair, “Well…fire doesn’t always need to come from some loon with a gas can and a Jones for starting fires. I mean, couldn’t they have brought in a torch or something?”
Sweeny had run through it all, and there was no other explanation that Stacey could throw at him that fit. “No…there would have been something there. I promise you, I would have found something.” He paused for a moment. “But, I have a theory on it, if you’ll hear me out.”
Stacey was wary. It sounded as if Sweeny was about to say something far fetched. Grabbing at straws was never a good idea, but there was nothing else to latch on to. “What is it Sweeny…?”
He went on, “Well…what if the fire had actually come from nowhere? What if the fire wasn’t simply started…what if it was…made…?”
Stacey stopped twisting her hair and scowled. “Made? You mean…like fire appearing out of thin air?”
Sweeny moved to explain his point. “Suppose there was a Super that could do that? Cause fire to come from nowhere. That would certainly explain a lot of things…and so I hear…there is just such a person tucked away in an Empire City jail cell across town. Some nutcase at Shloopy’s turned a guy’s car into the world’s biggest firecracker…with nothing but his bare hands.” He waited to hear her reaction, and when it didn’t come he checked to make sure that she was still listening. “Detective? Are you still there?”
“Yeah Sweeny…gimme a second…” She sat there in silence for a few moments as she considered what Sweeny had said. Before, something like that would have been greeted as a joke, but now, it wasn’t as far fetched as all that. All of Empire City had seen citizens with amazing abilities. Some super strong…others super fast…some could fly…and yet who was to say that none of them could be capable of burning a church to the ground with nothing but a thought? Perhaps the person who was responsible for the fire was already languishing in a jail cell after all. Perhaps the person who had killed young Jacob Phills and burned his body to a near cinder was the very Super that Sweeny was talking about. “Sweeny, send me over everything that you have on this person. I’m going to need some serious evidence before the Chief will even let me look at something like this.”
He answered quickly, “Sure thing Detective…some nut job calling himself Meepus. I’ll get you the report on what happened.”
“Thanks Sweeny.” As Stacey hung up the phone, she waited for the familiar tickle of excitement to come over her, as it always did when she got close to cracking a case, but this time there was nothing…only a deep sense of foreboding. There was something strange about this case…something that screamed for her to air on the side of caution. There was more to all of this than met the naked eye, and she had a suspicion that it somehow involved her ex-boyfriend’s new houseguest. She glanced at the blurred image on her computer screen as she narrowed her eyes. “What do you have to do with all of this Ms. Jairus…?”
Madison Village East
Empire City
After the excitement earlier, Brandon relaxed at his desk reading scripture by a lone light inside his study. He had often taken to reading over the given word as he worked on his weekly sermon…but this time he was looking for something else. The references to angels were not as abundant as he would have liked…but they were there. The thing that troubled him was that the encounters that occurred there were hardly like the ones that he had experienced. The angels in the scripture were heralds of God, serving his will and communing with people to guide them. Anka was nothing like that at all. She actually seemed to hold a sort of grudge against the Almighty…of course, if the story she told him was true…perhaps she had a good enough reason. “I’m sorry Lord…” He apologized for the stray thought.
He closed the book and sighed. What was to say that this was not some sort of test for him? What better way to test a man’s conviction than to confirm his beliefs on one hand, then fly in the face of them on the other. Brandon was determined not to waver. Everything that had happened, had happened for a reason and…
“What are you doing Father?”
Brandon jumped as he was startled in mid-thought, unsure if the man from earlier had come back to finish the job. He wheeled around and saw Anka perched in his open window. He grabbed his chest as it heaved up and down. “Good Lord…you scared me.”
She smiled as she stepped into the room from the window and walked over to his side, leaning over him to peer at the book of scripture he had just finished pouring through. “Hummmm! I would have never figured you for someone who enjoyed fiction…” She picked up the book and thumbed at the pages, before tossing it back down. “…I prefer thrillers and mysteries myself.”
Brandon stood up and faced off with her. “ENOUGH OF THIS!! What are you trying to do?!! You continue to try to shake my faith every time I see you! Are you testing me? Because I can tell you now…it won’t work! I believe in The Lord, and if anything…you are proof of that in and of itself!”
Anka looked at Brandon and laughed as she sat down on his couch, stretching out and making herself comfortable. “Father…I never said that I wanted you to stop believing. I told you my story…it was all true. I just know Him a lot better than you.” She gestured towards the book on his desk. “That there…it’s not about God…not the REAL God. That book was written by men Father. Men with agendas and men who couldn’t possibly know the true nature of God.”
Brandon looked at the book and then back to Anka. It was true that the scripture was indeed penned by man…but the words had come from God. There was no getting around that…as far as he was concerned at least. “Anka, you don’t think that He has given you a higher purpose? You don’t think that He has a plan for you…for all of us?”
Again her mood seemed to grow dark. “Be thankful that you don’t know Him as I do…because if you did…you’d not be so eager to be part of His plans. Enjoy your time here while it lasts Father, forget all this religious drivel! In the end…you’ll find that it doesn’t matter.”
“DOESN’T MATTER?!!” Brandon was flabbergasted. “How can you say such a thing? IT DOES MATTER!! A person’s faith is sometimes all that they have to give them a moral compass in life. My belief in God has sustained me…made me whole…helped me to better the lives of others…”
Her dark eyes flashed. “Like Jacob Phills?”
Brandon flinched as if he had been struck physically. “DAMN YOU!! You know that Jacob was a good person! He lived his life well and he…”
“HE DIED LIKE AN ANIMAL!!” Anka grimaced. “He was a child…and your so-called benevolent God allowed him to die an unspeakably brutal death…in His own house. Trust me Father, right now at this very moment…he is wishing that he had got to live his life and do all the things that he always wanted, instead of spending his time on his knees praying to a God that didn’t give a shit about him!!”
Brandon pointed at her. “YOU’RE WRONG!! YOU LIE AND YOU’RE WRONG!! God loved Jacob…He loves us all!! Jacob may have suffered in death…but he’s in glory now! He earned it…and Jesus gave his life so that we could all have a chance at it!!”
Anka got to her feet and stood nose to nose with him. She regarded him with a mixture of anger and pity. “You really believe that? You really think that we all have that chance? WE DON’T!! Not all of us…you’ve seen that with your own eyes! You’ve heard my story!” She turned away from him. “Some of us suffer and suffer…but there is never anything more for us. We are His playthings…” She turned back to him and glared. “…just hope that He doesn’t take a particular interest in you… like He has in me…”
Brandon looked at her wanting tell her how he had been saved earlier in the night, ready to give the credit to God, through his sister of course, but decided against it. His focus was on the question of God’s plan, and yet none of his questions were answered…the mysteries only deepened for him. “You’re an angel…you sit in God’s council, why do you…”
“I’M NO ANGEL!!!” She stood back away from him. “I’m…I was…a person, just like everyone else…a long time ago. I…” She paused, and as she did she seemed to grow tense. Slowly her brilliant wings opened up from behind her.
This time Brandon tensed as well, “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Her eyes moved to the door. “This place isn’t safe Father…” She reached out her hand to him as she whispered. “…come to me! Come to me now!!”
Brandon looked at the door, even as he stepped towards her. “What is it, I don’t understa…”
She reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling him close to her as she quickly pushed him down and wrapped her wings around the both of them. At that very same moment, the door to his apartment came crashing down. He opened his mouth to say something, but Anka covered it and held him still and silent. His eyes grew large as he watched one of the women that had killed Jacob roll into the room, her claws bared and ready to strike.
Fear immediately gripped him and he started to scramble to his feet, but Anka held him down effortlessly with one hand, even as she knelt down over him, unmoving. It was then that he noticed with a certain sense of wonder that the woman in the room could not see them…even as they could see her. Anka’s wings had obscured them from view…just as she could obscure the wings themselves if she willed it. It appeared to him as though they were looking at the world through a very thin veil. He wanted to reach up and touch her wings, but he thought the better of it and decided to lay still.
Inside the room, Reaver looked around quickly, her elongated and wickedly sharp claws at the ready. She listened for a sound, but heard none. Her eyes moved to the closed bedroom door and she bared her teeth as her powerful leg muscles propelled her towards and right through it. Shards of broken wood flew in all directions as she landed on all fours with all the grace of a giant predator. It only took a moment for her to tear the room apart before realizing that there was no one there at all.
Reaver stomped back out, throwing furniture in all directions as she screamed in anger. This was where she had hoped to find the priest…the one that would lead him to the winged bitch that had injured her companion, yet he was nowhere to be found. Apparently the priest was not as stupid as she had hoped. He had gotten out and run for the hills…but there had to be some clue of where to find him here. If she found him…then she would find the winged girl…then they would both pay for what she had done to Vixxxen.
Reaver began ripping out the drawers and slinging their contents all over the place. She sifted through them frantically, looking for something…anything. She started as the phone rung, bounding up and over to the couch like a great jungle cat with her teeth bared. The phone rang several more times before the answering machine picked up and the voice of the priest implored the caller to leave a message.
Reaver set back to sifting through the mess on the floor, even as she listened to the message on the machine. She paused as it was a woman’s voice…and she wondered if it might be the very one she was looking for…
”Brandon…it’s Stacey, I got a lead in on the person who might have torched the church and I’m heading over to check it out. Apparently the person who did this can make fire appear from thin air…a meta with a fire fetish. He’s locked up across town, so I’m gonna put the screws to him to see if he’s our man with these church burnings…cross your fingers…or whatever you One God people do.”
She paused for a moment…
”By the way…I’m sorry if I acted like a jerk the other day. I didn’t mean to…I think I’m just worried about you is all. I want you to come by and see me later. I want to talk to you about your friend when you get a chance. There is something that’s not righ…OH SHIT!! I almost missed the Centreville exit!! Sorry about that!! I’ll be in touch with you after I talk to this firebug…okay?”
As the message finished, Reaver stood up and walked to the desk as she looked down at the flashing message light. She chuckled to herself. “If I can’t find you priest…maybe I can find someone that you care about…”
She turned and gave the room one last glance, before darting to the open window, then bounding out of it and into the cold night air.
Brandon struggled against Anka as he realized what the woman meant to do and finally she let him up. He ran to the window and looked out of it cautiously, then turned back to her. “WE HAVE TO FIND HER!! WE HAVE TO STOP HER!!”
Anka frowned. “No…you need to hide! Let someone else deal with her. That woman means to kill you, I don’t know why, and I don’t think that I care, and you shouldn’t either!”
Brandon shook his head. “You don’t get it!! She’s going after Stacey since she can’t find me!!”
Anka seemed unconvinced and unmoved. “She doesn’t even know where your little girlfriend is! She’s just grasping at straws.”
Brandon pointed to the answering machine and the flashing message light on it. “She said that she was going to talk with some guy in jail…she mentioned the Centreville exit…how many jails do you think there are in that vicinity?!!”
Anka looked away as she seemed torn for a moment. She didn’t want to get involved in all of this…but she was…and now she was being pulled in even deeper. She walked over to the window and perched herself there. “Fine! I’ll go and look after her for you, but you need to get yourself somewhere safe in the meantime, do you have anywhere that you can go?”
He thought for a moment, then it came to him. “Yes!! My sister…Daria…I can go to her!”
Anka remembered the dark feeling that had washed over her the other night when his sister had come calling, but there was no time to debate what that may and may not of have meant. She put her hand on his shoulder. “Fine, go there, but do me a favor…don’t tell anyone where you are going…NO ONE!! Do you understand?”
“Yes…no one! Just hurry, okay?” He pleaded with her.
Anka said nothing as she just fell back out the window, her massive wings deploying and taking her right back up into the skies of Empire City. As she made her way in the direction of Centreville…she could not know that a great confrontation awaited her there…not just against the foe she expected…but against another…
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Father Brandon Knight … Trace VanReardon
Daria Knight … Missy
Drunken Assailant … Bruce Bernard
Anka (Hexx) … Kenzi Grey
Detective Stacey Jordan … Nina Stokes
Officer Bradski … Todd Berryman
Fire Investigator Sweeny … Tyler Cromwell
Reaver … Melissa Reeves
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Pedos Candy
Empire City
Chapter VII: Where There’s Smoke…
The church lay in ruins, with tons of brick collapsed atop burned wood, as Brandon Knight stood at the edge of the rubble with his sister standing by his side. Brandon shook his head, unable to believe that Madison Chapel was gone. “I can’t believe it’s gone…the city needs this place Daria…Empire City needs it’s faith.”
Daria Knight arched her brow at her brother. “Brandon, it’s a building…people put their faith in Gods.”
Brandon corrected, holding up a single finger. “God Daria…singular.”
Daria shook her head with a laugh, “One God rhetoric? Really brother?”
Brandon wanted to tell his sister about Anka, he wanted to change her mind, but something stayed his tongue on the matter. Instead, he was interrupted by the sound of a man whistling close by. He looked around and couldn't help but gasp, seeing a tall lanky man leaning over the rubble, his trousers hanging around his thighs, spurting a yellow stream onto the rubble. Brandon was shocked and embarrassed for his sister to see the disrespectful sight. Brandon started to walk over to the man, but Daria grabbed his arm to stop him. “Brandon…it’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”
Brandon patted her hand, “That’s not the point Daria. It’s disrespectful…it’s blasphemous!”
As Brandon walked away, Daria rolled her eyes and folded her arms, calling after him, “It’s a building!”
Brandon stalked over to the man, grabbing him by the jacket cuff. “Have you no shame, my son!?"
The man pulled his arm away and glanced disjointedly at Brandon, "Sssshame? Sssshame? Ssssshame is not closhing this plashe down before they hadda chanshe to burn the muther, ha ha ha!" He continued jetting his stream of urine onto the rubble before finally zipping up. Brandon stood back, his head raised skywards, asking the almighty for some end to the madness of the city, before the man turned forcefully towards him, his firm hand knocking Brandon on the chest, sending him staggering backwards. "Wha'choo think of that, man? You ran this joint, didn'tsha? Don'tchooo know people don't believe in the One God anymore?" He asked with a haunting melody to his voice.
Brandon sighed, pointing for him to leave. “Please…go!”
The man looked at Brandon, his eyes suddenly staring off into the distance, blankly. All signs of his earlier drunkenness disappeared. “…she told me to come here…she told me to burn it down…I was too late…”
Brandon’s eyes widened, he reached out and grabbed the man by his shoulders. “WHO?! WHO TOLD YOU THAT?!”
“The girl…” His eyes suddenly cleared, then his face twisted into a mask of hate as he grabbed Brandon by his collar. “YOU LOOKING TO DIE PREACHER MAN?!!”
As the man draws his fist back, Brandon steels himself to take the punch. “I won’t fight you…I just want to know who told you to burn my church!”
The man swung at Brandon, but he deflected the blow, still trying to get the man to talk to him. The man pushed Brandon backwards, swinging wildly at him. “I’LL KILL YOU MAN!”
Brandon warded off the wild swings, still holding him. “TELL ME WHO SENT YOU HERE!!”
Again the man’s face went blank, “…death…”
A flash of cold steel was seen by Brandon a moment to late as the man pulled out a knife, wielding it with deadly intent as he bore down on the priest. The blade’s course was halted with such vicious suddenness that it went flying several yards away, clattering into the rubble.
CRACK “AAAAARRRGGHHH!!”
Brandon stumbled and fell down as his would-be attacker screamed as he was slammed to the ground by Daria, his arm still in her grasp as it was bent at an unnatural angle, obviously broken. Daria let his arm go and the man scrambled to his feet, still screaming as he stumbled off.
“NO!! STOP HIM DARIA!” Brandon got to his feet, trying to chase after the man, but Daria grabbed him, holding him back. He starred at her, wide eyed, “We have to stop him! He knows about the church other church burnings!”
Daria shook her brother, “Brandon! Let him go! He’s just a nutcase! Gods! He almost killed you!” She pushed him back, “You need to stop it! You’re not a police officer anymore!”
Brandon looked at his sister, and then off into the darkness in the direction the man had fled. He sighed, shaking his head in defeat. He didn’t like it, but his sister was right. He was no longer a police officer and he had nearly gone to meet his maker. “You’re right Daria…of course you’re right. Thank you.”
As Brandon relented, Daria let him go and looked around, posting her hands on her hips. She didn’t know if the man had been sent to finish off her brother by her benefactor, but she wasn’t going to watch her brother killed in front of her. That wasn’t part of the agreement, assuming she even continued to honor it after this debacle. Daria turned, taking her brother by his arm. “Let’s get you home Brandon…”
As the two walked away, there was a flutter in the breeze. High above them, unseen and out of earshot the beat of powerful wings carried Anka into the night sky. Rather than pursue the fleeing man, she heads in the opposite direction…
Madison District Police Station
Empire City
Stacey sat at her computer terminal staring at the screen. She had gotten no match off the name Anka Jairus earlier, but she had hoped that a match off of her facial features would be more fruitful. The security cameras had recorded her image…or so she had thought, but every time the cameras fell on her, the image blurred, making recognition difficult, if not impossible.
She sighed as she got up and walked over to the door of her office. She called out to the Desk Sergeant. “Bradski, call up someone and have them check the damn cameras, I think there is something wrong with them. They’re blurring out or something.”
The officer nodded, then called back to her. “By the way…Fire wanted you to call…they said that they got something weird back on the Chapel fire, something you might be interested in.”
She nodded and walked back into her office, closing the door behind her as she picked up the phone and dialed the number for the Fire Investigator. The investigator that she had hounded the Fire Chief for promptly picked up. “Sweeny? It’s Jordan, they told me that you had something on the Madison Chapel fire.”
He started, “Well Detective, I can tell you for sure that…”
Stacey cut him off, “I swear to Superius, if you tell me that you know it was hot…I am going to come down there an punch you in the face!”
Sweeny paused and even through the silence, the disappointment in not being able to tell his favorite joke was palatable. He cleared his throat instead, “Yeah Detective, I think I found something that you’ll find very interesting. Because of the damage to the building’s interior before it burned, we suspected arson was the most likely cause.”
Stacey chimed in. “Is there something wrong with that initial assessment?”
Sweeny paused for a moment. “Well…I still suspect that it was arson, but to be perfectly honest with you…I have yet to find the cause. I mean…there are no accelerants present…no sign of anything at all that could have caused the fire.” He paused. “Almost as if it had just come from nowhere.”
Stacey sat back in her chair, twisting a lock of her hair, “Well…fire doesn’t always need to come from some loon with a gas can and a Jones for starting fires. I mean, couldn’t they have brought in a torch or something?”
Sweeny had run through it all, and there was no other explanation that Stacey could throw at him that fit. “No…there would have been something there. I promise you, I would have found something.” He paused for a moment. “But, I have a theory on it, if you’ll hear me out.”
Stacey was wary. It sounded as if Sweeny was about to say something far fetched. Grabbing at straws was never a good idea, but there was nothing else to latch on to. “What is it Sweeny…?”
He went on, “Well…what if the fire had actually come from nowhere? What if the fire wasn’t simply started…what if it was…made…?”
Stacey stopped twisting her hair and scowled. “Made? You mean…like fire appearing out of thin air?”
Sweeny moved to explain his point. “Suppose there was a Super that could do that? Cause fire to come from nowhere. That would certainly explain a lot of things…and so I hear…there is just such a person tucked away in an Empire City jail cell across town. Some nutcase at Shloopy’s turned a guy’s car into the world’s biggest firecracker…with nothing but his bare hands.” He waited to hear her reaction, and when it didn’t come he checked to make sure that she was still listening. “Detective? Are you still there?”
“Yeah Sweeny…gimme a second…” She sat there in silence for a few moments as she considered what Sweeny had said. Before, something like that would have been greeted as a joke, but now, it wasn’t as far fetched as all that. All of Empire City had seen citizens with amazing abilities. Some super strong…others super fast…some could fly…and yet who was to say that none of them could be capable of burning a church to the ground with nothing but a thought? Perhaps the person who was responsible for the fire was already languishing in a jail cell after all. Perhaps the person who had killed young Jacob Phills and burned his body to a near cinder was the very Super that Sweeny was talking about. “Sweeny, send me over everything that you have on this person. I’m going to need some serious evidence before the Chief will even let me look at something like this.”
He answered quickly, “Sure thing Detective…some nut job calling himself Meepus. I’ll get you the report on what happened.”
“Thanks Sweeny.” As Stacey hung up the phone, she waited for the familiar tickle of excitement to come over her, as it always did when she got close to cracking a case, but this time there was nothing…only a deep sense of foreboding. There was something strange about this case…something that screamed for her to air on the side of caution. There was more to all of this than met the naked eye, and she had a suspicion that it somehow involved her ex-boyfriend’s new houseguest. She glanced at the blurred image on her computer screen as she narrowed her eyes. “What do you have to do with all of this Ms. Jairus…?”
Madison Village East
Empire City
After the excitement earlier, Brandon relaxed at his desk reading scripture by a lone light inside his study. He had often taken to reading over the given word as he worked on his weekly sermon…but this time he was looking for something else. The references to angels were not as abundant as he would have liked…but they were there. The thing that troubled him was that the encounters that occurred there were hardly like the ones that he had experienced. The angels in the scripture were heralds of God, serving his will and communing with people to guide them. Anka was nothing like that at all. She actually seemed to hold a sort of grudge against the Almighty…of course, if the story she told him was true…perhaps she had a good enough reason. “I’m sorry Lord…” He apologized for the stray thought.
He closed the book and sighed. What was to say that this was not some sort of test for him? What better way to test a man’s conviction than to confirm his beliefs on one hand, then fly in the face of them on the other. Brandon was determined not to waver. Everything that had happened, had happened for a reason and…
“What are you doing Father?”
Brandon jumped as he was startled in mid-thought, unsure if the man from earlier had come back to finish the job. He wheeled around and saw Anka perched in his open window. He grabbed his chest as it heaved up and down. “Good Lord…you scared me.”
She smiled as she stepped into the room from the window and walked over to his side, leaning over him to peer at the book of scripture he had just finished pouring through. “Hummmm! I would have never figured you for someone who enjoyed fiction…” She picked up the book and thumbed at the pages, before tossing it back down. “…I prefer thrillers and mysteries myself.”
Brandon stood up and faced off with her. “ENOUGH OF THIS!! What are you trying to do?!! You continue to try to shake my faith every time I see you! Are you testing me? Because I can tell you now…it won’t work! I believe in The Lord, and if anything…you are proof of that in and of itself!”
Anka looked at Brandon and laughed as she sat down on his couch, stretching out and making herself comfortable. “Father…I never said that I wanted you to stop believing. I told you my story…it was all true. I just know Him a lot better than you.” She gestured towards the book on his desk. “That there…it’s not about God…not the REAL God. That book was written by men Father. Men with agendas and men who couldn’t possibly know the true nature of God.”
Brandon looked at the book and then back to Anka. It was true that the scripture was indeed penned by man…but the words had come from God. There was no getting around that…as far as he was concerned at least. “Anka, you don’t think that He has given you a higher purpose? You don’t think that He has a plan for you…for all of us?”
Again her mood seemed to grow dark. “Be thankful that you don’t know Him as I do…because if you did…you’d not be so eager to be part of His plans. Enjoy your time here while it lasts Father, forget all this religious drivel! In the end…you’ll find that it doesn’t matter.”
“DOESN’T MATTER?!!” Brandon was flabbergasted. “How can you say such a thing? IT DOES MATTER!! A person’s faith is sometimes all that they have to give them a moral compass in life. My belief in God has sustained me…made me whole…helped me to better the lives of others…”
Her dark eyes flashed. “Like Jacob Phills?”
Brandon flinched as if he had been struck physically. “DAMN YOU!! You know that Jacob was a good person! He lived his life well and he…”
“HE DIED LIKE AN ANIMAL!!” Anka grimaced. “He was a child…and your so-called benevolent God allowed him to die an unspeakably brutal death…in His own house. Trust me Father, right now at this very moment…he is wishing that he had got to live his life and do all the things that he always wanted, instead of spending his time on his knees praying to a God that didn’t give a shit about him!!”
Brandon pointed at her. “YOU’RE WRONG!! YOU LIE AND YOU’RE WRONG!! God loved Jacob…He loves us all!! Jacob may have suffered in death…but he’s in glory now! He earned it…and Jesus gave his life so that we could all have a chance at it!!”
Anka got to her feet and stood nose to nose with him. She regarded him with a mixture of anger and pity. “You really believe that? You really think that we all have that chance? WE DON’T!! Not all of us…you’ve seen that with your own eyes! You’ve heard my story!” She turned away from him. “Some of us suffer and suffer…but there is never anything more for us. We are His playthings…” She turned back to him and glared. “…just hope that He doesn’t take a particular interest in you… like He has in me…”
Brandon looked at her wanting tell her how he had been saved earlier in the night, ready to give the credit to God, through his sister of course, but decided against it. His focus was on the question of God’s plan, and yet none of his questions were answered…the mysteries only deepened for him. “You’re an angel…you sit in God’s council, why do you…”
“I’M NO ANGEL!!!” She stood back away from him. “I’m…I was…a person, just like everyone else…a long time ago. I…” She paused, and as she did she seemed to grow tense. Slowly her brilliant wings opened up from behind her.
This time Brandon tensed as well, “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Her eyes moved to the door. “This place isn’t safe Father…” She reached out her hand to him as she whispered. “…come to me! Come to me now!!”
Brandon looked at the door, even as he stepped towards her. “What is it, I don’t understa…”
She reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling him close to her as she quickly pushed him down and wrapped her wings around the both of them. At that very same moment, the door to his apartment came crashing down. He opened his mouth to say something, but Anka covered it and held him still and silent. His eyes grew large as he watched one of the women that had killed Jacob roll into the room, her claws bared and ready to strike.
Fear immediately gripped him and he started to scramble to his feet, but Anka held him down effortlessly with one hand, even as she knelt down over him, unmoving. It was then that he noticed with a certain sense of wonder that the woman in the room could not see them…even as they could see her. Anka’s wings had obscured them from view…just as she could obscure the wings themselves if she willed it. It appeared to him as though they were looking at the world through a very thin veil. He wanted to reach up and touch her wings, but he thought the better of it and decided to lay still.
Inside the room, Reaver looked around quickly, her elongated and wickedly sharp claws at the ready. She listened for a sound, but heard none. Her eyes moved to the closed bedroom door and she bared her teeth as her powerful leg muscles propelled her towards and right through it. Shards of broken wood flew in all directions as she landed on all fours with all the grace of a giant predator. It only took a moment for her to tear the room apart before realizing that there was no one there at all.
Reaver stomped back out, throwing furniture in all directions as she screamed in anger. This was where she had hoped to find the priest…the one that would lead him to the winged bitch that had injured her companion, yet he was nowhere to be found. Apparently the priest was not as stupid as she had hoped. He had gotten out and run for the hills…but there had to be some clue of where to find him here. If she found him…then she would find the winged girl…then they would both pay for what she had done to Vixxxen.
Reaver began ripping out the drawers and slinging their contents all over the place. She sifted through them frantically, looking for something…anything. She started as the phone rung, bounding up and over to the couch like a great jungle cat with her teeth bared. The phone rang several more times before the answering machine picked up and the voice of the priest implored the caller to leave a message.
Reaver set back to sifting through the mess on the floor, even as she listened to the message on the machine. She paused as it was a woman’s voice…and she wondered if it might be the very one she was looking for…
”Brandon…it’s Stacey, I got a lead in on the person who might have torched the church and I’m heading over to check it out. Apparently the person who did this can make fire appear from thin air…a meta with a fire fetish. He’s locked up across town, so I’m gonna put the screws to him to see if he’s our man with these church burnings…cross your fingers…or whatever you One God people do.”
She paused for a moment…
”By the way…I’m sorry if I acted like a jerk the other day. I didn’t mean to…I think I’m just worried about you is all. I want you to come by and see me later. I want to talk to you about your friend when you get a chance. There is something that’s not righ…OH SHIT!! I almost missed the Centreville exit!! Sorry about that!! I’ll be in touch with you after I talk to this firebug…okay?”
As the message finished, Reaver stood up and walked to the desk as she looked down at the flashing message light. She chuckled to herself. “If I can’t find you priest…maybe I can find someone that you care about…”
She turned and gave the room one last glance, before darting to the open window, then bounding out of it and into the cold night air.
Brandon struggled against Anka as he realized what the woman meant to do and finally she let him up. He ran to the window and looked out of it cautiously, then turned back to her. “WE HAVE TO FIND HER!! WE HAVE TO STOP HER!!”
Anka frowned. “No…you need to hide! Let someone else deal with her. That woman means to kill you, I don’t know why, and I don’t think that I care, and you shouldn’t either!”
Brandon shook his head. “You don’t get it!! She’s going after Stacey since she can’t find me!!”
Anka seemed unconvinced and unmoved. “She doesn’t even know where your little girlfriend is! She’s just grasping at straws.”
Brandon pointed to the answering machine and the flashing message light on it. “She said that she was going to talk with some guy in jail…she mentioned the Centreville exit…how many jails do you think there are in that vicinity?!!”
Anka looked away as she seemed torn for a moment. She didn’t want to get involved in all of this…but she was…and now she was being pulled in even deeper. She walked over to the window and perched herself there. “Fine! I’ll go and look after her for you, but you need to get yourself somewhere safe in the meantime, do you have anywhere that you can go?”
He thought for a moment, then it came to him. “Yes!! My sister…Daria…I can go to her!”
Anka remembered the dark feeling that had washed over her the other night when his sister had come calling, but there was no time to debate what that may and may not of have meant. She put her hand on his shoulder. “Fine, go there, but do me a favor…don’t tell anyone where you are going…NO ONE!! Do you understand?”
“Yes…no one! Just hurry, okay?” He pleaded with her.
Anka said nothing as she just fell back out the window, her massive wings deploying and taking her right back up into the skies of Empire City. As she made her way in the direction of Centreville…she could not know that a great confrontation awaited her there…not just against the foe she expected…but against another…
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Father Brandon Knight … Trace VanReardon
Daria Knight … Missy
Drunken Assailant … Bruce Bernard
Anka (Hexx) … Kenzi Grey
Detective Stacey Jordan … Nina Stokes
Officer Bradski … Todd Berryman
Fire Investigator Sweeny … Tyler Cromwell
Reaver … Melissa Reeves
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Pedos Candy
