Untaken Read online

  “Jake? No need for that.”

  “Ben. What’s going on?”

  Ben lowered the shotgun in his hands and motioned for Jake to come in. He stuck his head out the door, looked left and right, and then closed the door behind them.

  “They’re gone, Jake.”

  “Linda? And the kids?”

  “Gone.”

  “Where? What happened?”

  Ben fell to his knees on the floor. He was in emotional pain. Jake and his neighbor shared the same age. They had become friends almost instantly when Jake moved in next door. Ben and his wife, Linda, had two children, both boys.

  “Gone. I don’t know where,” Ben cried on the floor. “I woke up and they weren’t here.”

  “When did they leave?”

  “They didn’t leave, Jake. I would have heard them.”

  Jake knelt down next to Ben and placed his hands on his shoulder. “They were…taken?”

  Ben looked up at Jake. He looked like a man who had nothing left. Sad and broken by the sudden solitude he felt. “It’s the end, isn’t it, Jake? Just like they said.”

  “I don’t know. Did you see how bright it is outside?”

  He nodded, “We went to bed, and the light woke me. She was gone, and the boys were not in their room.”

  Jake knew that Ben and Linda were religious folks. He often would see them through his living room window, leaving for church on Sunday mornings as he sat on his couch with the NFL pre-game on TV.

  “They were good. They were taken,” Ben was struggling to get the words out.

  Maybe kooky old Bill was not as strange as Jake thought he was. Ben and his family seemed stable. There were no unusual spiritual stories shared across the fence by this neighbor. The family seemed like a classic American tale of husband, wife, and children in a nice suburban home. A regular Brady Bunch.

  “Why are you still here?” Jake asked. As the words left his mouth, he wanted them back in. He didn’t mean to compound Ben’s pain with a terrible question of his own personal salvation. His curiosity burst out from behind his lips without a filter. Yet the response from Ben was not guarded.

  “I’ve been cheating on Linda.”

  Jake was shocked by the confession. Ben was a sinner in the highest capacity. He had broken one of the Ten Commandments.

  Jake pointed to the shotgun in Ben’s hand, “We’ll need that.” He stood up and reached his hand out to help Ben to his feet.

  “Where are we going?” Ben asked.

  “To church.”

  They walked out the front door together and down the porch stairs. Ben stopped and looked off in the distance to the east. “He’s coming.”

  “Let’s go.”

  “He’s coming for me. He’s coming for us both.”

  The red clouds continued to growl silently in the distance. The tranquility of the present, as surreal as it felt, did nothing to calm Jake’s nerves. The ominous red in the distance disturbed his chances of peace.

  He grabbed Ben’s shirt collar and pulled him away. There was stillness outside. Jake saw another neighbor in the window of a house down the street. The street was silent. Without the immensity of the rolling evil clouds to the east, today would have been the most relaxing day of weather he had ever experienced in his life.

  Jake punched the garage code into his outside keypad. Nothing happened. He tried again. “Wait here.”

  He went inside his house, grabbed his car keys from the wicker basket by the door, went to the garage and pressed the big green button on the garage wall. Frustrated, he went to the garage door an opened it manually.

  Ben was still in the same spot on the driveway, staring into the darkness to the east.

  “Get in.” Jake climbed into the driver’s seat of his Jeep. He turned the key in the ignition, but the Jeep didn’t respond. He tried again. He left the keys in the ignition and walked out of the garage to where Ben was standing on the driveway. Ben was entranced by the incoming evil.

  “Today is Judgment Day,” Ben mumbled out.

  “Let’s go.” Jake put his hand to the shotgun in Ben’s arms. If this weapon was going to be useful, it would need to be in the hands of a clear-thinking person. Ben let the shotgun slide out from his grasp.

  “Shells?”

  “Today we receive our punishment.”

  “Ben. Shells?” Jake asked again, and Ben pulled his eyes away from the east. He cleared his throat.

  “In the house, under my bed,” he responded.

  Jake found a backpack full of shotgun shells under Ben’s bed. In the backpack there was also a .357 Magnum revolver with two boxes of rounds.

  Outside, Ben had fallen to his knees on the grass.

  “We’re going, Ben. Get up.”

  Holy Apostles Church was two blocks away. They could easily make it on foot before the clouds rolled in. The golden sky was still bright as it had been, but now thin wisps of white cloud were flowing at ground level through the neighborhood streets, hurried and twisty, as if trying to catch up to the blizzard of white that was far away to the west. The tumbling dark red stood tall on the other side.

  They ran together, Jake carried the shotgun and the backpack, which now held the thermos of holy water in addition to the handgun and extra rounds. Ben’s eyes stayed fixed on the wall of black redness that slowly churned up dust and ate up the golden streaks of sky, rolling fast in place but still moving at a slower rate than it appeared to be. He ran fast enough to keep up with Jake on the sidewalk, passing houses to their right.

  A woman was on her knees on the sidewalk in front of them, crying hysterically and praying aloud, a rosary clutched in her hands. The men passed her by.

  As they approached the church doors, they saw two people running inside.

  “Are we safe inside?” Ben asked.

  “I don’t know,” Jake said.

  “He can’t get us inside the church.”

  “Who?”

  “Satan.”

  “I don’t know.”

  The two men went inside, the big church door closing loudly behind them. The church was busy. The pews were scattered with people, some kneeling in penitent prayer, and some standing with arms outstretched, speaking in tongues. The church was loud with nervous conversation. There were some people who were together, husbands and wives. Very few children were there, and most of the people looked to be without a companion. Many people were scared, some were excited, but everyone was praying for salvation.

  Ben hit his knees and sobbed remorseful tears.

  At the front of the church, at the altar, a priest was on his knees in front of the sudden congregation, facing the crucifix, deep in prayer. Jake negotiated the people who littered the center aisle on their knees, and made his way to the priest.

  “Father.” It felt strange to address anyone this way, but Jake found himself in a spiritual sense.

  The priest looked up. The shotgun in Jake’s hands didn’t alarm the priest any. He reached out for Jake’s arm and tugged him down to join him on his knees in prayer. “My son, tell God your sins. Make peace with yourself.”

  Jake looked back at the scattering of people in the pews. More people were finding their way into the church from the side doors. Some were believers seeking forgiveness, some were simply seeking shelter and a church seemed like a good place to go to avoid evil.

  He knelt beside the pastor. “Father, are we safe here?”

  “We are all safe in the house of God,” the priest had a faraway look in his eyes.

  “Are we the damned?”

  The priest looked at him. His eyes were firm, and the distant look disappeared. A man behind them came to the altar, his eyes up at the crucifix, and nonsense streaming from his lips.

  Steady and fixed, the priest asked, “You are not here to confess for salvation, are you?”

  “No,” Jake said and he lifted the shotgun in his hands.

  “You are going to fight back?”

  “I guess. What is coming?”<
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  “We were not tak-” The priest cut his sentence short, and took Jake’s arm and led him to the sacristy behind the altar. In the privacy of the backroom, he felt he could speak. He closed the door to the sacristy and tugged the tightness of his white collar away from his neck. The priest looked normal back here. Like a man who was prepared to face death. A man who was more concerned with his own well-being than that of his flock.

  “We were not taken. All of us,” he said to Jake, almost in a whisper.

  “Are we going to Hell?”

  “That answer is in your heart. All of us are untaken, but not all of us are among the damned.”

  “That’s what Bill said. My neighbor. What does that mean?”

  “God has taken the good, the deserving, already. Now evil has its pick. Satan will take only the damned into the darkness.”

  “And the rest of us?”

  The priest held his head back, his eyes fixed on Jake. He raised his eyebrow, “Certain of yourself to not be among the damned?”

  “I have no reason to be scared. I’m a good man,” Jake said.

  The man outside the sacristy door continued speaking in tongues, more loudly than before. The priest put his hand to the doorknob and locked it. The room smelled of incense. It was a small room with one window. Facing east.

  “The rest of us must stay on this earth. There will be no presence of God. He will have left this place. Satan too. But we will be here among the others, in limbo.”

  “Limbo? Forever?”

  “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days,” the priest quoted scripture.

  “Ten days of tribulation? I read that it was seven years.”

  “There are many interpretations of scripture.”

  “So, there’s still hope? For the untaken…for us?”

  “We will have to suffer.”

  “What’s your interpretation?”

  “No one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows…”

  “You don’t know?” Jake read through the lines.

  “Right. The golden sky, the heavenly white clouds, the wall of red darkness…it’s already gone differently than popular interpretations. Differently than what I expected.”

  “What if I don’t want to suffer through the darkness? God skipped over me already. Why not just end it all now at the end of this barrel?” He held up the shotgun.

  “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” Again the priest quoted the book of Revelation.

  Jake thought it over. “Wait, what about you?”

  The priest leveled his eyes at Jake. “Me?”

  “Yes. You’re a priest. How were you not taken?”

  “Because I wear this robe, you think God has a cushy spot in Heaven for me?”

  “Are you a…pedophile?”

  The priest looked at Jake, insulted. “How dare you lump me in with the wicked. Casting their sins upon mine.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it, I just thought…”

  “You didn’t think. Because the media sprays the filth that the priesthood is filled with vile predators, you believe it.”

  “I just…it was the first thing that came to mind.” Jake was embarrassed.

  “No, my son. I too have a weakness, but not the stereotype that you pinned on me just now.” The priest held his arms out. With the end times upon them, he saw no reason to hold back. “Prostitutes. Women of the night.”

  Jake was taken by surprise with the confession. “That’s worse.”

  “How is that worse?”

  “I guess it’s not. I just didn’t expect that from a man…a man of the…”

  “…of the cloth. I know. I also drink. Heavily at times.”

  “Jesus.”

  “Don’t blaspheme.”

  “Sorry.”

  The priest went to the cupboards in the sacristy and pulled out two squeezable water bottles. He filled them both with water from a metal tank that was supported by stilts in the room. On the tank were words carved in the steel: FOR THE SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST. He turned and looked at Jake as he twisted the water bottle caps tightly.

  “Does holy water work?” Jake asked.

  “It’s the only thing I have.” The priest motioned to the shotgun in Jake’s hands. “I see you’re prepared for battle.”

  Jake nodded. “Yes. What kind of battle are we in for?”

  “The worst kind, my son. We will be face to face with evil. Those who are damned will be taken. I suppose it will be horrific. If you are to endure limbo on earth, which at this point I can only hope that I am lucky enough, you may be passed over. Ignored.”

  “Are we safe in the church?”

  The priest smiled at Jake. “You ask a lot of questions…” He held the last syllable out.

  “Jake,” Jake told him his name.

  “Could these doors hold back a murderer with a bazooka, Jake? No. Satan has no place in a church, but God will no longer be with us. The Dark Prince will burst in here without hesitation and gather his souls.”

  “Goddamn.”

  The priest snapped his head up in disapproval at Jake’s exclamation, and then smiled, “Deep shit, right?”

  The dark clouds rumbled in from the east. The powerful wind whipped up dust that mixed with the redness of the clouds. It let out a low, painful groan as it tumbled forward, lapping its wretched outstretched fingers at the magnificent golden light that held it back. The white clouds that wisped over the ground under the golden sky disappeared, and darkness took over.

  Trees were uprooted and added to the churn. Cars were flipped over as the tsunami of cloud burst forward. It came in a powerful first wave that turned the landscape black behind it. Windows of buildings shattered as the heavy vibrations shook them loose. The groan grew louder as the Satanic chant of lost souls accompanied the clouds.

  As the hue of Heavenly gold faded out, the sky behind the dark crimson sheet of billowing evil became like night again. The stars refused to shine and the moon, once bright orange, became a dark blood-red, reflecting only the light that the clouds offered. It growled deafeningly outside. The church vibrated at the sound.

  The priest looked out the small window in the sacristy. “He’s here.”

  Jake shivered at the thought. The devil and all his hellish demons were coming forth. “God be with us.” He made an awkward sign of the cross over his chest.

  The window in the sacristy cracked and splintered. The priest ducked out of the way as shards of glass sprinkled the room and black ash poured in with a howl. He looked at Jake and spoke above the noise, “We’ll need more than just us. Is there anybody out there that you know? Anybody who is trustworthy?”

  Jake thought about Ben. He was the only man in the church that he knew. But Ben might be swallowed up whole by the demon spirits in the first moments. He had admitted that he was a sinner, and Jake had lost trust in him. As far as putting his own life in Ben’s hands, it didn’t deserve another thought.

  He heard a thunderous grumble as the light outside the window faded quickly. Jake thought of his father. He was a good man, but he had not seen him in the church. He needed to find his father...if he was still on earth. He had to know.

  The priest opened the sacristy door. The hysterics of the congregation grew louder as the light that streamed in from the church windows quickly became dark red from the glow of the moon. The windows shattered and rained upon the pews as the cry of evil spewed forth. Black dust gasped in from outside. Some people screamed in fear. Some called out God’s name.

  They made their way through the center of the church. Halfway down the aisle, the priest stopped. There was a man at the edge of the pew sitting in silent prayer, unshaken by the frantic noise.

  “You.”

  The man looked up at the priest. “Yes?
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  “Do you want to live?”

  “Yes, Father,” he said in a calm baritone.

  “Come with us.”

  The man rose from his seat and followed Jake and the priest to the doors of the church. The priest had no doubt chosen the man because he was large. He was not panicked like many of the people in the church, and he had warm eyes that were full of goodness. He was bald, black, and muscular. Jake looked at the man’s imposing physical stature and decided immediately that he would make a good teammate.

  At the foyer of the church, a woman was standing calmly, her eyes closed and hands folded in prayer. She was alone, and her face was lit by the burning red that poured in from the windows. The priest handed her one of the bottles filled with holy water. “Come with us.”

  The four of them stood at the church’s heavy doors. Blackness seeped in from under the door, billowing up like smoke. The priest looked back down the aisle of the church. There were screams behind them as the dust and blackish smoke, with colorful red tentacles, trickled in through the cracks in the side doors. One man let out a tormented scream as a straight finger of smoke jabbed down his open mouth. His body straightened, his arms held outward, darkness stemmed from his eye sockets as his body lifted into the air, his head held back at an impossible angle. The smoke ripped out from his mouth, his body went limp and then burst into a plume of black ash.

  The crowd screamed in horror as the smoke lifted another body into the air. Some people called out God’s name in terror, one last beg for forgiveness before they were ushered into eternal damnation. Others ran toward the back of the church to where Jake and his team of three stood at the doors.

  Jake saw Ben in the aisle on his knees. A thin arm of black reached into his neighbor and his body bent backward, his eyes went black. The blackness passed through him quickly, but his body did not burst into ash as the other man’s had. Ben fell to the floor in a crumpled heap, unmoving, his skin went pale.

  “Let’s go,” the priest called to Jake and his other two picks.