An ear-piercing screech of rubber on asphalt sounded as I ignored the stop sign of the intersection of Sugar Street and Walnut. The front end of my truck headed off of the road as I drastically over-corrected the steering to avoid contact with the small Honda Accord approaching my side. Narrowly avoiding the collision I found myself tossed to the passenger side as the truck nose came to rest in the accompanying ditch. My vision was out of focus and I tried to regain my senses of what had occurred and hazily checked to see if I was hurt in any way feeling about my shoulders and legs for anything out of place. A figure appeared in the driver’s side window reaching into the truck cab to touch my arm. As the figure came into focus I recognized the black shirt of the gentleman buttoned to the neck. I quickly locked to his eyes and was relieved to see that this young man was not marked by evil but was indeed a preacher. He grasped at my shirt collar as if trying to pull me through the open window. He questioned me sternly but calm.
The buildings huddled tightly within each other and towered high into the skyline justifying its majestic place above the city. Wooded acreage stretched for miles around all sides of its great walls resembling a well-fortified castle. Reverend Malcolm pushed the button on the intercom attached to the gate and with the assumption of the pseudonym Reverend White, was granted clearance. As the giant gates moved away from us, Reverend Malcolm placed the car back in gear moving us forward into the arms of this compound; this collection of rocks, mortar, and history.
“Are you alright?”
“Preacher, you gotta help me! Please you gotta help!”
“Slow down Sir, are you hurt?”
“I’m not hurt, but I need your help! There’s evil back there in the woods, pure evil, I saw it…”
“Please try to be calm; I’m going to call for an ambulance.”
“No! I need you to help me, Preacher! Please you gotta listen! It’s pure evil! Emmett said it was dead but it’s not! It’s loose and stronger than before! I saw it! I was face to face with it! It’s marking people for the devil and I saw it with my own two eyes…”
“Sir, please try not to get excited, I’m calling for an ambulance right now.”
The preacher ignored my pleas and reached into his front pocket revealing a compact cell phone while he moved to the opposite side of the vehicle. As he raised his hand to open the cover of his phone I calmed my voice and pleaded to him one last time as I leaned my body across the seat and reached my hand out of the window of the truck to him. I closed my eyes leaving my hand and arm extended to him as if desperate and disparaged.
“Please, Preacher, Rabbi, Father; whatever you may be… it’s about Tonder.”
The Preacher stood completely still and silent as if suspended in time. His head turned slowly to me over his left shoulder as he closed the cover of his phone. The color of his skin seemed to bleed away and was replaced by a sickened look of grey as if he had eaten something foul that disagreed immediately with his stomach. He stood motionless gazing at me through narrowed eyes, searching for the right words to utter before finally stammering.
“What did you just say?”
“I said it’s about Tonder and the beast that Emmett, I mean Balsavoy, kept in his back yard. I pray that you know what this will mean…what all this will mean… I’m a Chaser, Preacher. Will you help me? Please, Preacher.”
“Sir, do you realize what it is that you are saying? Where did you hear about this?”
“I didn’t hear about, dammit, I saw it! I’m part of it! Now, if you can’t help me then turn your head and let me go; I gotta figure this out.”
The preacher replaced the phone back into his pocket and once again approached the truck window staring deeply into my eyes with a stern look upon his face. His forehead wrinkled as he squinted in seriousness. He opened the truck door with a heavy jerk of the handle.
“Sir, you must come with me. You simply must.”
“Come with you where?”
“There is someone, an interested party, who should hear your… your story. You said that a demon has escaped? Do you realize how this sounds?”
“Yes, it killed Balsavoy, the one who was supposed to watch over it. It told me that it was going to come after me next and I got the hell outta there; sorry for the language, Preacher.”
“Can you walk, Sir?”
“Hell yes.”
“Then get in my car; quickly. There’s someplace that I want to take you. I can put you in touch with someone that can help. Please move quickly, sir, before anyone arrives.”
I exited the truck through the driver’s side door and experienced a burning across my sweat-covered forehead. I raised my hand and wiped the sweat away to discover a small amount of blood across my palm as the burning on my forehead intensified. With the sleeve of my shirt I wiped the remaining blood away from my face and opened the door of the preacher’s car. The preacher entered the driver’s side in a hurry starting the car before I had the opportunity the sit. His voice became rushed and excited as he tried to speak while moving the car in reverse and then quickly forward.
“Hurry, we must get you to Elder Lewis quickly.”
As I closed the passenger door and reached for my seat belt the preacher was already speeding us into the open road and forward down the streets of this unfamiliar small town. I extended my hand across the gear shift to the preacher showing my open palm to him.
“My name is Abel, Preacher, Su….”
“Reverend James Malcolm. What brings you to Campbellsburg Mr. Abel and how did you come to know of Tonder?”
My heart rate slowed and I began to feel the distance between the demon and the car, knowing that I was removed from the beast. I felt more at ease and somewhat relieved that I could mention Tonder and receive a sound reply from someone who at least seemed to understand my plight. I was anxious to speak with this strange, young preacher and felt compelled to tell him everything. Perhaps this comfort was a remnant of childhood confessions. I felt as though I was babbling.
“I guess Tonder has drawn me here. My father originally brought me into a clearing in the woods about fifteen years ago where a fella named Emmett showed us where some kind of demon had escaped from this stone fortress that he and my father had built. We caught it and put it back and I felt like I needed to come back to see what’s going on. I’ve been hearing voices in my dreams and I passed out a week ago. While I was blacked-out I had this…this encounter with some kind of ghost that gave me this gift, at least it said it was a gift, to see people who are marked. It has been more of a curse if you gotta know. What have I gotten in to?”
I placed my hands over my eyes as I threw my head back against the seat and stayed in the position with my elbows pointing outward. The drying cut on my head pulsed under my sore palms. Reverend Malcolm did not talk, but instead listened intently while I spoke.
“Reverend Malcolm, where are you taking me…where exactly?”
“It’s a town called Faldham; there is a Chapel there that our group has converted to a house on the grounds of our…of our community. This is where Elder Lewis resides in his retirement. I spent a few months there while in my studies and that’s where I befriended Elder Lewis. He taught me much about the clergy but I was most intrigued by his talks of a special force; a force that not many speak of. Not just in our affiliation, but in most religions. You might say it had been swept under the proverbial religious rug to be forgotten. Elder Lewis didn’t forget. Even when the others asked him to stop his…his foolishness; he continued. Coming here with the order and following the strength of our mission. He called it Tonder, Mr. Abel.. He had just begun his teachings to me after normal class hours when I was quickly transferred without good reason. I have not been allowed back to visit him, but we do communicate by phone occasionally. He informed me that he was stifled by the People’s Church of ever speaking of Tonder to me again. They said it was…not stable.”
“So what do you know about it?”
“Elder Lewis taught me; rather he supposes that Tonder is God in a simplified form, if you will, so that he is less overwhelming to man. I am told that if you were to witness God in his full glory then you would be caught up in his Rapture of Holiness and therefore incapable of comprehension. There are only a few recorded cases of contact with Tonder through the years but they do exist. I have not read the documentation, but Elder Lewis assures me…”
“Wait, wait, wait. Tonder is God? What are you saying, Preacher? Why would he water it down for us? God has talked to people in the past, right? Moses, David, Noah; the list goes on. I have never heard any bible talk about how Tonder spoke to Noah and told him to build an ark. You’ve gotta admit how crazy that sounds.”
I smirked slightly and cast my eyes to catch a smile from the Preacher’s profile. He appeared confident, but restless and hurried. He tried his best to appear relaxed.
“I am unsure of that, Mr. Abel, but I am sure that Elder Lewis can give you the details; perhaps a good starting point in this journey. The Elder also told me that there is evil on earth that is placed here in preparation of the final battle between Heaven and Hell and there are persons who contain the evil with prayers taught to them by Tonder to weaken the evil, leaving it unfit to prey upon those candidates that are appealing to it. That is until the final battle when all of the evil on earth is unleashed to gather its legions of humans to fight against the soldiers of God to decide the fate of man.”
“And what is the possible outcome of this great war, Preacher John?”
“I’m thinking that it is safe to say that the outcome will be Heaven or Hell, Mr. Abel, pure and simple; no compromise.”
I started my senses with a quick twist of my head feeling a sickened pit in the bottom of my stomach. I grabbed the Preachers sleeve.
“What time is it?”
“It is 2:35, Mr. Abel, 2:35.”
“Oh, no! You’ve got to let me use your phone to call my wife; she’s going to be worried sick!”
Reverend Malcolm retrieved his phone from his pocket with little effort handed it to me quickly. I raised the cover of the phone in aggravation and firmly dialed the numbers with my thumb. The phone rang only once before I could hear my Lynn’s voice on the opposite end of the line. From her tone I could tell that she was concerned and distraught.
“Lynn, it’s me.”
“Sutter, thank God! Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, listen I’m on my way to Faldham and I’m going to be a while…”
“Faldham! I got a call from the police saying that they found your truck in a ditch in Campbellsburg and I have been worried sick! What were you doing in Campbellsburg, Sutter, and I’ve dialed your phone but it goes straight to voice mail. What happened to you?”
“Honey, I’ll explain later. Some idiot ran me off the road, my phone is busted… and right now I am alright. I’ve got a few things to do before I can come home. I need you to hang tight until I call you back…”
“Are you in some kind of trouble? If you are just tell me where you are and I’ll come and get you. You are really scaring me.”
“I am fine, Lynn. I’ll call you back later. Give Doyle a kiss for me and tell him I will tuck him in bed later tonight, o.k.?”
“Sutter, I think that you should come home. We can call Dr. Borlan and he can…”
“Lynn, I’ll be home in a while and I will explain what I can. Right now I gotta go. Give Doyle a hug for me. I love you both.”
“Sutter, please just come home, I…”
I closed the cover of the phone and handed it back to Reverend Malcolm; in my mind asking for my wife’s understanding and forgiveness. I knew that if she were with me then she would surely understand. Reverend Malcolm placed the phone back into his pocket and continued driving down the empty highway. His curly black hair framed his face in an uneven manner covering his ears and reaching downward toward his thick goatee which for his young age already revealed some signs of grey. His appearance reminded me of the Spanish side of my family; my mother’s ancestors, except for his cold blue eyes that penetrated the windshield ahead but carried a gentle feeling of trust.
We drove for over an hour along the highway without passing more than five cars on this Sunday afternoon which gave me an uneasy feeling of being alone despite my traveling companion. I questioned him throughout the trip of his knowledge of Tonder and Elder Lewis, bringing the conversations to dead ends because of his lack of teaching from the retired preacher. As we approached the gates of this secluded compound, Reverend Malcolm slowed the car until finally stopping at the massive iron gates of the entrance.
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