The Lie, page 19
“This,” he said, and bent over and picked up the dagger that had ripped a hole through me earlier. He flung it into the crevice and the second it left his hand, the ground began to sway again. Jacob was at my side in a split second. He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the ground, then covered my body with his as the entire area shook. I closed my eyes and refused to look, terrified of seeing any more. In seconds, it was over. Jacob slowly released his grip on me and stood up. I only opened my eyes when I heard his low whistle.
“Well, don’t that beat all?”
My mouth hung open in shock. It looked like we had been transported somewhere else because the destruction from before was gone. No, not just gone, it was as if it never existed. There was not one scattered pebble, pile of smoldering ashes or even footsteps left. Thick, tall grass covered every inch of the glen. There was not one telltale sign of the circle, the altar or any of the evil participants who had been vaporized—there was nothing left.
“I…” was all I could get out. I reached around to feel the wound it had made in my back. To my surprise, the only thing I felt was the hole in my shirt.
“Jacob! It’s gone.” I squealed with delight.
“Not gone, Karmen. Healed. There is a big difference,” Jacob said as he walked back toward me, his shining face leading the way. That’s when I noticed that the huge gash that Jacob had on his head earlier was gone. The only sign it had ever been there was the blood stains on his shirt.
“I must have found favor with God or something. You too—not only did he heal your wound, but it seems he decided to make you a human candle. Complete with a white wick on top!” I laughed, tears of joy running down my face.
Jacob reached out his hand, and I gladly embraced it. He was all I had left and somehow, I knew that would be enough.
“I wouldn’t laugh too hard there, missy. You are no longer a carrot top.”
“I’m not?” I pulled a strand of hair in front of me. “Oh wow, I’m not! It’s pure white, just like yours. Please tell me my face hasn’t become a flashlight like yours too?” I said, shocked by my new appearance.
Jacob laughed. “Nope, only me. I guess since I was in the middle of a struggle for the knife from Mitchell when the cavalry arrived and looked up, the light infused me with this Heavenly glow. Now I know how Moses felt. Hope it goes away before next Sunday’s sermon. Not exactly sure how I would explain it to the flock.”
“What do you mean?” I asked as we slowly made our way through the new, fresh grass back toward the cabin.
“I have a lot to teach you, don’t I?” Jacob teased. “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments…”
As we gently picked our way through the glen, I was shocked when I realized I was smiling at the sound of Jacob’s voice as he spoke, my grin becoming bigger when I heard another sound that had been absent before.
The sound of the creatures of the forest was like music to my ears. I stopped and turned around and took one last look. The sun streaked across the sky amidst the fluffy white clouds, the rays streaming through them and caressing the green grass.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Jacob said from behind me.
“Yes. And very strange. After all that happened, I feel…I don’t know…tranquil? How can that be?” I muttered in response. I should be a blubbering fool at best, catatonic at worst. After all, my life had just undergone not only a one-eighty, but my entire belief system had just violently been shoved in another direction after being stabbed and then miraculously healed. I had witnessed—sort of—an epic battle between good and evil, ending with the destruction of the four most important people in my world.
Jacob moved beside me, his warm hand gently touched my shoulder.
“Peace that surpasses all understanding, dear. Consider it a gift from above.”
I nodded in silence and turned to face him. It was a gift all right.
A divine one.
It took us over an hour to make our way through the woods. Both of us were physically exhausted but neither of us could rest until we knew that it was truly over. In only a few hours, Kiroly Adamik was due to give his speech to the United Nations.
The minute we walked into the living room, I sighed. “We won’t be watching anything on that,” I said, pointing to the demolished television set. “I forget I broke it, and there isn’t another one here.”
“Grab a bag and let’s head over to my place. We can catch the morning news there. Once we are certain things are okay, we can decide what to do about…the disappearances.”
I sighed. I hadn’t even let my mind wander over into that territory yet, and I wasn’t going to enter that area now. We had much bigger concerns on our plate at the moment.
“Only on one condition—I have to bring Furby,” I said as I grabbed his carrier from next to the demolished couch. I looked up when I heard Jacob laugh.
“Oh, not a problem at all. As I said earlier, I believe I have a new friend.”
Sure enough, Furby was perched on Jacob’s shoulder like a parrot, his furry face buried in Jacob’s neck.
“How did he…? Oh, never mind. You watch him and I’ll go grab a few things.”
When I walked into my bedroom, I was confronted with the open bag, the blood money still neatly packed inside. My first instinct was to grab my own bag and then set the whole damned place on fire, obliterating every trace of Mom, Cy, Mitchell and Emily in a fiery inferno. A fitting sendoff, considering what happened to them in the glen earlier. Maybe the burning flames would incinerate each of them entirely from my memory.
While I packed my suitcase, I took one last look at the money. Before I could change my mind, I called out to Jacob.
“Jacob? Will you please come carry this?”
I stood by the edge of the bed when he walked in, finger pointing to the now closed suitcase. I slung my bag over my shoulder and waited while his eyes darted between me and the bag of money. For a minute, I thought he was going to say something, maybe balk at the idea. He reached down and grabbed the two pieces of paper that we left behind earlier, shoved them in his front pants pocket and hefted the bag off the bed. We walked in silence out to his truck, my heart thumping in my chest as I took in the last glimpse of my ol’ Kentucky home.
Ten minutes later, as the morning sun reached its full height over the top of Bailey Mountain, we were on the main road. Furby had refused to be put inside his carrier and now sat on Jacob’s lap, curled up into a tight ball. We hadn’t said anything during our short drive. Both of us were lost inside a myriad of thoughts. I started to comment about Furby to break the ice, but something on the radio caught my attention.
It was the annoying wail of the Emergency Broadcast System.
“Repeating…The flight carrying European Council leader, Kiroly Adamik, went down over the Atlantic at around 3:54 a.m. At this time, it is still unclear as to the reason for the crash, although several credible sources are reporting that numerous terror groups are claiming responsibility. Reports are flooding in from witnesses who claim to have seen the plane explode in mid-air before impact. At this time, it is feared that all on board perished. Until all claims are fully investigated and the wreckage found, all flight travel in the United States has been grounded…Repeating…”
The floodgates opened inside me and the tears gushed out faster and heavier than a raging river. I couldn’t form a clear thought in my head. Sadness. Heartache. Betrayal. Loneliness. Fear. Joy. Every emotion possible spun through me as I finally wept for it all. I felt like an empty shell, a withered husk of my former self. The Karmen Moncrille I had always known had a mother and uncle who adored her, a best friend whom she could count on for anything and was loved by a man whose heart she adored as well. That woman didn’t exist anymore. Coming to grips with that reality shredded all my ties to my former life. My entire life was based upon one enormous lie just so others could use me for their evil ambitions.
It felt like I cried for hours in the small front seat of Jacob’s truck. The tears simply wouldn’t stop, but they did begin to slow down enough for me to hear Jacob’s.
While I wept like a baby, Jacob must have pulled over because I realized that we had parked on the shoulder of the road. Jacob’s face was buried in his hands, resting on the steering wheel. His chest heaved with each mournful sob.
As I watched him suffer, I felt a stirring inside of me. It rose from deep within and quickly spread up to my heart, then engulfed my mind. True, pure love filled every crevice in me. My former life was over, burned away just like those that had betrayed me, but that didn’t seem to matter anymore. I was sitting next to the most honest, stoic, truthful and heroic person I had ever met—and yet I had only known of his existence for less than forty-eight hours. A man who lived what he believed and risked everything, including his life, to help me. I had been a total stranger—a figure who haunted his dreams.
Gently, I reached over and touched Jacob’s shoulder. “Please, Jacob. Don’t cry. I can’t stand to see a grown man sob. Besides, you didn’t give me time to finish my meltdown before you started yours.”
He pulled one hand away from his face and reached up and covered my own. After a few sniffles and one good wipe of his face on his shirtsleeve, he turned his wet face toward mine. His snow white hair was sticking out in every direction.
“Karmen, I…I don’t know if I possess the words to properly thank you.”
I blinked in shock. “Thank me? For what? Seems like all I did was invade your dreams for years, drag you out into the dead of night to confront a coven of devil worshipers and then almost get you killed. Yeah, which part of that are you thanking me for?”
I smiled warmly at him, hoping my inappropriate humor would lighten the heavy situation. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.
“You are a pistol, Karmen. I’ll give you that. Spunk and strength still shining through even in the midst of enormous emotional upheaval. I’m sorry I’m bawling like a starving kitten, but I just can’t believe that you risked your life to save mine. I feel…so…I don’t know, unworthy. And extremely blessed.”
I sniffed back my tears and released humor instead.
“Well, our original plan didn’t work out the way we’d hoped, so I improvised.”
“Actually, it did,” he responded, his voice quiet, reflective.
Confused, I replied, “Run that by me one more time?”
“I left out a few details of the vision I had. I saw that you were going to kill yourself to end all of this. I couldn’t let that happen, so I asked God to let them kill me instead. My life in exchange for yours—the wrong sacrifice would be made, thus nullifying the words you wrote and saving us all.”
“Wait…what? You…me…so was that it? It was our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for the other that stopped it?” I sputtered.
“Could be. But I believe the real reason is just as the angel said. The Devil will have his shot at ruling for seven years, but the time wasn’t right today. I knew, no—I felt—that. The Holy Spirit—I still felt His presence inside of me—comforting me. According to scripture, the deceiver will not be able to reveal himself to the world until the Holy Spirit is removed from the earth. At least that is how I always read 2 Thessalonians 2:7.
Oh boy, I have a lot to learn.
“You really were going to lay down your life for mine and the world,” I whispered, the full magnitude of what happened less than three hours ago settling in. The words I had read countless times in numerous books finally hit home:
Greater love hath no man than this: that a man lay down his life for a friend.
My façade broke and I felt the tears pour out of me again. I leaned over and hugged him, and we sat in the bright morning sun on the side of Highway 27 and wept like lost, orphaned siblings that had just been reunited. I broke away from the embrace first.
“You know, Jacob, you really need to stop reading my mind, because it’s getting kind of freaky. Let’s just call this day even—I saved you, you saved me—and together, we managed to save the entire human population. I would say that’s a successful day, wouldn’t you?” I said, wiping my tears with my shaking hands.
Jacob did the same then started the truck back up. As he pulled onto the highway and headed toward his house, he smiled. The enormity of his grin was only matched by the glow of his newly illuminated face. I suspected his guest bedroom was going to be where I ended up permanently, since I really had no place to go and felt like I had a lot to learn from him, not only as a mentor, but as a pastor and friend.
“Don’t get too cocky there, missy. One win in a skirmish does not mean victory over the entire war. The battle still rages, as it has since Lucifer was ousted from Heaven. Today wasn’t his time, but one day, it will be. The Bible is very clear on that premise. No one knows when that day will be except the Lord God. All we are commanded to do as His followers are to watch the signs and pray, and seek out His wisdom as the time grows shorter. When the final soul on this earth who will hear His words and accept the truth believes, then there won’t be a thing anyone can do to stop the Antichrist from his short-lived reign.”
I let out a slow, heavy sigh. “You don’t think that…”
“No, Karmen. I don’t. You made the conscious choice to reject the lies and held onto the truth. You won’t be the one that is used next time. Believe me when I say that your family and friends are simply droplets of water in a vast ocean of followers of the Evil One. He will seek out and find another venue to gain entry through—and it won’t be you. I’m sure of it. Feel it right here,” he said, pointing to his heart.
I swallowed hard. Please, God, let him be right.
“If my former destiny was to write the lie…I wonder what will happen if I decide to tell the truth?”
“If you write for the glory of God, my dear, the truth will always set you free.”
Jacob pulled up in front of a quaint house that sat next to a small, white church about two hundred yards away. The graceful steeple was topped with a simple yet delicate cross glittered in the morning light. I stared at the symbol that had never meant anything to me before, but now, meant everything.
“I just thought of something, Jacob. What are we going to tell people is the reason for me being here? I mean, I don’t know a lot about rules of the church and all, but somehow, I think your members might bristle at having a young woman visiting overnight with you. I doubt they are going to believe that our relationship is strictly platonic.”
Jacob shut the engine off and gathered Furby under one arm and then reached over into the bed of the truck to retrieve the suitcase with the other.
“Way ahead of you, my dear niece.”
“Niece? Oh come on, Jacob. People are going to ask you why you never told them that you were Karmen Moncrille’s uncle, don’t you think?”
Jacob paused in mid-stride and turned back to me, the look of amusement on his face apparent.
“You seem to forget that you don’t look like Karmen Moncrille anymore. Perhaps a good once-over in the mirror when we get inside will ease your worries. No one will bat an eye, I promise.”
I laughed at his candor. Yeah, with a head full of white hair and probably the wrinkles from all the stress to match, I definitely wouldn’t resemble the woman I once was. Like the explosion that destroyed the altar, she was completely gone.
“So, Uncle Jacob, what’s my name?” I said when we crossed the threshold of the front door. Inside the living room the first thing I saw was an old picture of a beautiful little girl on top of the mantle. I knew instantly that it was a picture of his daughter, Sarah.
My gosh, but we did look alike.
Jacob set Furby down to let him explore his new surroundings. Furby never glanced back at either of us. He curled his fluffy tail over his back and began to wander around the living room, his padded feet never made a sound as he followed his nose. Jacob walked up behind me and said, “That choice, my dear, is entirely up to you.”
I stared at the picture of the young girl who I resembled so much and contemplated the name Sarah, but something niggled in my mind that wasn’t right. Finally, it hit me.
“Eva. Eva Abshire.”
Tears welled up in Jacob’s eyes. He held them at bay and smiled, pulling me into a bear hug. Relief and gratitude fell from us both in the form of our salty tears as we clung tight to each other in his small, welcoming living room. Over his shoulder, I could see the rise of Bailey Mountain.
“I had the unmistakable feeling that I was meant to live here at the base of the mountain, so here I am. I didn’t realize I would be on the other side of it, though,” I muttered into Jacob’s chest.
“This time, my dear, you are on the right side,” Jacob replied as he released me from his bear hug.
“Yes, because the truth set me free,” I said, moving over to the enormous stack of books on Jacob’s shelf. “Looks like I have a lot of studying to do.”
“First things first, Eva. We have some rather urgent issues to take care of now that we know the world is safe, at least temporarily.”
I sighed. The tasks that loomed before us would be arduous. After the day I’d just experienced, tying up the loose ends of the disappearance of five people, myself included, should be a piece of proverbial cake.
Not.
Jacob sensed my apprehension and smiled. Our familial bonds already solidified, he held out his warm hand, which I clasped with my shaky one. Furby purred at his feet so he bent down and picked him up, then handed his furry body over to me and grabbed my bag.
“This won’t be easy, but I don’t believe it will be as difficult as you are imaging. Think about it—all those who knew you were in Kentucky are gone—nothing was left in that glen, not even a trace of DNA. An investigation into the disappearances of all of you will ensue and turn up diddly-squat. After all, the only remaining evidence that any of you were ever in Kentucky are three vehicles at your cabin, none of which belong to you. The place is trashed and your fingerprints are all over the shattered items. I would think the conclusion would be that you put up one heckuva fight.”
