Burning Tears-Chapter 10
Theme Song: "Falling Apart" by Zebrahead
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"Excessive eating and envy...and Vincent and I seem to be the only ones unchanged. Something just isn't right."
Nathan awaited on the top of the town's church for the arrival of the false deity. While waiting, he was evaluating the events of the past two days.
"Maybe this has to do with Satan's return? Shit, I forgot to make the report to Agent Raul. I can't do it now though."
Suddenly, an explosion went off somewhere behind the church. Across the road, a bank was being robbed as three masked people were breaking through the glass windows and running towards their escape vehicle that had just rolled in.
"Agent Blackwood, we have a robbery on Main Street, two males and a female entered a gray van...model and year unclear. I'm on the pursuit." said Nathan, flashing out his wings. He noticed nobody responded. "Does anyone copy?"
And yet again, was met with only static.
"Hello, anyone?"
Static again.
"Piece of shit watch." grumbled Nate, tossing the watch and shooting it with his gun.
He leaped off the roof and glided towards the truck. Almost as if the driver noticed Nathan coming, the driver spun the van around with a sharp U-turn and screeched its way down the street. The vehicle however didn't go too far. It made another sharp turn to the left at a red light and unsuspecting of the red SUV driving through, the getaway vehicle swerved head-on into the SUV.
Without hesitation, two passengers exited the vehicle scattering about with bags of money. Nathan landed at the scene and immediately remorphed a pistol into a longshot revolver- firing it twice, and popping off the knees of one criminal, leaving him immobile. Next, Nathan aimed now both revolvers in the opposite direction, then blew off both of the hands of the other runner. The splattering of blood could be seen from far as the man realized he had a no way to pick the bag back up. Nathan finally made his way calmly to the man, shoving him to the warm asphalt. Nate lifted his foot, retracted his boot spikes, then stomped on both of the man's knees with a distinctive sound that combined that of squishing and crunching.
Nathan picked up the bag of money and left the main to cry in pain. "Where'd the woman go?"
He went back to the truck and ripped off the left rear-door from its hinges. He found the woman in a mask curled up in the corner.
"Please! Don't hurt me!" she begged.
Her voice sounded young.
"Get out of the van!" hissed Nathan, putting his guns away.
She wriggled a bit, but couldn't move. "I'm stuck! The strap's stuck!"
Nathan ignited a Blazer, stepping into the van.
"Please, no, stop!" the girl cried.
"Shut up for a sec'!" barked Nathan.
He tugged on the strap to give room for his blade to slide through. In a clean slit, the strap loosened from the girl. Nathan gripped the girl by her arm and led her out of the van, They stood face-to-face with one another, Nathan angered. He pulled the black mask off her face to reveal a young Asian teen with messy short-bobbed hair that was died a bright ube color. Nathan extinguished his weapon and holstered it behind him.
"How stupid do you feel right now?" growled Nathan.
"I'm sorry, OK?! Just do your worst to me, I deserve it..." she spoke in clear English.
"I don't hurt women or kids- in which you belong to both categories. Where in that purple head of yours did you think it was a good idea to commit such a crime? How old are you?"
"I'll be sixteen next week..."
"Oh, happy fucking birthday! You're an adult now! Pft, or so you think. And you smoke too, oh just great- not damaging your lungs or anything! I can smell the tobacco from your sweater."
"It was the other men! I do not smoke!"
Nathan's eyebrows furrowed, "Your teeth are yellow..."
"I drink a little too much coffee..." she replied, pointing at the three empty coffee cups in the back of the van.
"Listen, I don't wanna know the crap you went through in life that led you to this moment, but don't let the actions of others influence you into something you know deep down that you're not. Now get the fuck out of here and stay in school! If I see you out here again, I'll make sure you wind up in prison for acting twice your age!"
The girl turned to run away, but Nathan yanked her by her tan hoodie. "But first, give me the money in your pocket."
"NO! It's mine!" she suddenly bursted.
Nathan went to take it from her hoodie's front pouch, but the teen tried clawing his hand.
"I need this!" she yelled.
Nathan gripped her wrist tighter and yanked it out of her pocket, quickly removing the money with his other hand.
He pulled her wrist between their faces, showing the hand with a ring, "This ring is Pandora; 14K Gold. You're obviously not in need of this money to afford a ring like that. And you're not fooling anyone with those fake prescription, 'hazel eye' contacts- which again, aren't very cheap. You have three seconds to run away."
The girl waited no longer and made haste towards an alleyway.
Suddenly, an earsplitting crash caused Nathan to jump around into a readied stance; holding out one gun and one hand over a Blazer on his back. The van was demolished inwards from the roof as if something had dived in. A few seconds later, a brown behemoth broke through with the rest of the money.
"Joseph! I called you, why didn't you answer?" Nathan frustrated.
"This is a one-man job! The money's mine, sorry- not sorry." gruffed Joseph.
Joseph started walking away with the money, chuckling to himself. Nathan quickdrew his revolvers and fired at Joseph's hands. Joseph lost his grip upon the stinging contact of the bullets and roared out with fury. He rotated back around flaring his fangs at Nate.
"You know, you've really been a pain in my ass these past few days." Nathan called out.
"Let me take my money and I won't be a problem anymore."
"That's the problem exactly, it's not yours, asshole!"
"Shit stain!"
"Bitch!"
Joseph roared and galloped towards Nathan. Nathan fired his revolvers at him, but Joe kept pounding the asphalt- even after receiving two bullets to the head.
It was too late when Nathan remembered that bullets only anger Joseph. "Fuck."
Joseph threw a backhand at Nathan, launching him across the road into a pizza shop. Glass dispersed everywhere around Nathan and the customers panicked in response. Nathan looked behind him to notice people arguing at the cash register. It looked like they were fighting over money. One man pulled out a gun and shot the other two in the head. Nathan painfully reached for his own gun to stop the guy, but Joseph was already behind him, holding his legs. Before Nate moved, Joe yanked him upwards to smack the ceiling and before he could land back on the floor, Joseph kneeled down, caught him, and slammed Nate's body on his knee- snapping his spine. Nathan coughed out a wad of blood and felt himself thrown aside, left to repair his bones. Joseph charged the murderer at the register, held him by his legs and head with both hands, and tore his body in half- blood and organs shooting about the restaurant.
"You deserve your life as much as you deserve this money!" he mocked, tossing the halves in the kitchen.
Nathan recovered, now charging at Joseph with his wings flinging out. He grabbed a handful of fur then flew up through the roof using Joseph as a battering ram. Nathan threw his body onto the roof and landed himself right on his torso with spiked boots. Nathan lit a Blazer right above him and went to drive it through Joseph's throat, but Joe caught his hand with his larger hand, then clawed at Nathan's face to get him off. Nathan rolled off, healing the three open slashes on his face and lighting his other Blazer. Joseph backflipped to a stand and growled as a challenge to Nathan.
Nathan lunged forward and slid to a crouch, stabbing both blades into Joseph's massive torso. Joseph growled more, cracking Nathan on his chin with a left knee and throwing a right fist straight on his eye. Joseph used the free moment to remove the Blazers, but they immediately diminished in his hands. To his surprise, a blocky white fist struck him right under his snout, causing a few teeth to crack. Nathan followed with a leap and roundhouse kicked Joseph's temple. Joseph rocked backwards a bit, then Nathan threw himself into Joseph's hulking stature, and they both went soaring off the roof of the building. Joseph was wise enough to spin themselves in mid-air, in which that caused Joseph to land on Nathan as they hit the ground. Nathan wound up being slammed with his upper back awkwardly bent and cracking on the street curb as Joseph pressed weight onto his body. Finally, Joe delivered two heavy hammer punches on Nathan's face and roared down at him establishing the victory. He got up and went back for the stolen money.
"F-Fuck...you..." Nathan grunted through red gritted teeth, his skull trying to reform again.
Just then, the church's clock tower resonated throughout the town. It was 12:00 noon. A light flashed in front of the building and in seconds, an applaud from many can be heard from far. Nathan rolled over to get up, realizing he was supposed to be there instead of a pizza shop behind the church. From the corner of his eye, he saw Joseph jogging towards the church, just transforming back to his human form.
"You're not the Joseph I know anymore. And that goes for Adrianna and the rest of humanity; brainwashed by this false prophet."
Nathan's guns liquified and remolded together in his hands to create a sniper rifle.
"But that's OK. I can still save you for the moment. Besides, you're not a regular werewolf anyway."
Nathan aimed down the sight of his rifle, carefully aiming for the back of Joseph's skull. He steadied the gun, feeling the wind strength, the stability of his gun, and predicting where the bullet will go. Finger ready, he inhaled to steady his weakened body for a clean shot, close one of his eyes, then pulled the trigger- a silent bullet penetrating Joseph's head in a second. Little blood came out, but Joseph dropped to the ground.
Nathan was aware that mercury could kill a werewolf, but Joseph was no ordinary werewolf. Joseph was cursed with the spirit animal bestowed in his soul, and it just so happens to be that the spirit animal was a wolf. Had Joseph been born with any other animal, he could still tap into its respective form. It's because of this that Joseph could withstand Nathan's mercury bullets, no matter where they strike.
"That should knock him out for a while." thought Nathan.
A faint, digital ring of a phone was heard from inside the pizza shop. Nathan pushed himself up and searched inside.
He found a dropped cell phone on the bench of the second table and answered the call, "Hello?"
"Hello. This is a message to let the parents know that the Gray Owl School students in: Kindergarten, First Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade, and Fourth Grade, will be dismissed early today at 12:00 PM. Thank you...To repeat this mes-"
Nathan hung up and checked the time on the screen. "Fucking 12:01, thanks for the 'heads-up!' Dammit, I'll have to do deal with Satan later, Vincent comes first...It's not like Addie would- or even could pick him up."
Later On...
"How much do you think she'll buy?" asked Vincent.
"I have no idea. We'll find out at the end of the month with her credit card bill. She just texted me that she's almost home." replied Nathan.
The two were on the floor with a pair of Vincent's sneakers, learning and teaching (respectively) how to tie shoelaces. There was a cartoon on the TV to keep Vincent relaxed:
"Is this the Krusty Krab?"
"No, this is Patr-"
"We interrupt this daily program for a live broadcast taking place in front of Sungleam Church on Main Street!"
Nathan and Vincent turned their attention to the television screen to see Jesus' iconic face on the screen with a seemingly innocent smile. Nathan's jaw tensed on how identical this figure looked in comparison the real deity.
"Daddy...is that-"
"No! He's a fake, and don't listen to anything he says! I was afraid this would happen..."
"What would happen?"
"Don't worry about it. Just keep tying." declared Nathan.
He thought it was best to not put his son at unease with the thought of knowing the worst can happen if his father doesn't succeed in stopping Satan. The crowd finally silenced as this "Jesus" began speaking, "Hello, sisters and brothers. I have finally returned to save you all. I will heal, I will mend, and I will cleanse as I have promised. I am here to make my existence known and believed; I am here for you. So please, have faith in me and I will restore hope to this world. We will come together in love and serenity; through blood and water, we are all related, we are all human! We are one. There's no reason to sin any longer. You have all committed many as of late, and I know you will commit more. Nevertheless, I forgive you. I forgive you, and I always will, my children. Come one, come all- my blessings I shall grant to you..."
Nathan was baffled when the crowd applauded him. The voice, the mannerism, everything was spot-on and majestic. But it was two words that struck Nathan the hardest: "human" and "sin." It was almost as if everything was piecing together in his head. Those two words, the recent odd behaviors, and Anubis's previous warning:
"...Lucifer, will return again...seven days from tomorrow."
"I have to pee, I'll be back." stated Vincent.
Nathan gasped as he finally concluded what was happening. "Seven days...These people are committing sins in this time; a sin per day, as in, The Seven Deadly Sins. That explains the past few days! There was Envy, Gluttony...today was Greed- and there's still four days left...No one will listen to me, because they're all already under his control! Satan's bringing out the evil in everyone's soul to commit these sins so that he has a reason to gain their trusts as this false 'Jesus.' That also explains why Vincent and I aren't affected, because we're not fully human."
Vincent came back down ready to practice tying again, but stopped when his father told him, "Vincent, go upstairs and put all your clothes, toys, and books on your bed. I'll explain more when I go up, but we'll have to go away for a while."
Vince hesitated at first, but respected his father's word and hurried upstairs. Just then, Adrianna kicked open the front door with dozens of shopping bags in her hand. Nathan rushed to the kitchen without greeting her and grabbed a cup. He poured water and mixed it with a sleeping pill. He ran back over to her after she just found a spot to drop her bags.
"I'll take of advantage of your greed while I still can..." Nathan mumbled.
"Greed? Excuse me?" she frowned.
"I'll give you fifty dollars right now if you drink this whole cup in less than a minute."
Adrianna immediately grabbed the cup and drank the water in roughly twenty seconds.
"I'm sorry." said Nathan.
He firmly pressed two fingers on her neck below her ears and she immediately fell asleep with Nathan catching her before she fell. He lied her down on the couch and ran upstairs to start packing.
*Three...
Do the numbers make sense now? 😁
And the colors in the attachments represent each sin as well!
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