Ultimate Supernatural Horror Box Set

TWENTY-FIVE

Paraiso

Dan had listened raptly. She’d been speaking to the world, he knew, to all of humankind, but he’d felt as if she were speaking only to him. For what she’d said reflected exactly his innermost thoughts and feelings. Because of his vows, his membership in the priesthood, he’d been afraid to vocalize them, even to himself. But now that she had said them, he could acknowledge what he’d sensed, known all along.

He wondered if that was why he was here, in this house, in her presence—in His presence—why he’d been with her all along.

As the Virgin finished speaking she touched Carrie’s bowed head and said, “Come, my devoted one.”

Carrie rose to her feet. The Virgin held out her hand and Carrie took it.

The Virgin said, “Our time here is done.”

Our time is done. What did she mean by that?

Dan swallowed and addressed her again.

“Wait...please. Can’t you...bring her back? Make her live again? You can do that, can’t you?”

The Virgin shook her head. “Her time here is through. She is coming with me.”

“With you? You’re taking her away? Where?” Dan felt a sob building in his chest. He still hadn’t come to terms with Carrie’s death. “Oh, please. I’ve only just begun to know her. You can’t take her away from me now.”

“I haven’t taken her away. One of your brothers did that.”

And then Carrie and the Virgin began to rise.

When they were floating half a dozen feet above the floor, they began to drift toward the ruined windows, toward the sea, toward the towering column of water that waited for them.

“Wait!” cried another voice—the man who called himself Kesev, whom the Mother called Iscariot. “Mother, please wait!”

Their seaward drift slowed.

“Yes, Judas?”

“What of me?”

“What of you, Judas?”

“Am I to be left here alone? Haven’t I suffered enough? Two thousand years, Mother! Haven’t I earned forgiveness?”

“Forgiveness does not come from me, Judas. You know that.”

“Then intercede for me, Mother. Don’t leave me here alone. Everyone I’ve ever known has left me. Please...I do not deserve this anymore.”

The Virgin paused, as if listening, then extended her free hand toward Judas.

“Come.”

Judas rushed forward, leaped to catch her hand, and when their fingers touched, he floated up to join her, clutching her hand in both of his.

Dan saw tears in Judas’s eyes, and felt them well up in his own. Carrie...Carrie was leaving.

He fought the urge to call her back, knowing she wouldn’t, couldn’t respond. He’d lost her—not now, not today, but yesterday, when Emilio had put a 9mm hole in her heart.

The three of them drifted through the ruined window frames, out into the storm, toward the gargantuan swirling, roaring column of water that loomed outside.

Dan ran to the frames, clung to one, leaning over the precipice that fell away to the pounding surf below. He sobbed unashamedly and let the tears flow down his cheeks. He watched longingly as their progress accelerated and their retreating forms shrank.

Soon they were lost in the mist.

Moments later, the cyclopean waterspout began to retreat, shrinking as it moved off into the Pacific. Gradually it thinned from a thousand yards across to a slender tornado-like funnel, and then it was gone.

The storm, too, was gone. Magically, the encircling winds died, the fog melted away, the clouds dispersed. Midday sunlight burst free and flooded the sky, warming Dan’s face and spirit.

He clung there a few moments longer, wiping his eyes, gathering his wits, girding himself to face a world without Carrie. Finally, when he turned away, he saw Senator Crenshaw leaning over the hospital bed, whispering to his unconscious son.

“Did you hear that, Charlie? You’re going to be well again. All I’ve got to do is give away everything I own. But that’s no problem, Charlie. I’ll set up trusts for everything, even for Paraiso. That way all my assets will be out of my control, but we can still live here. And I’ll put my nomination bid on hold. I won’t do anything until you’re better, Charlie. After that, you’ll see the goddamndest campaign you ever saw in your life. You just wait and see, Charlie.”

As Dan walked past he couldn’t resist saying, “You just don’t get it, do you.”

“What?” Crenshaw said, straightening. “What do you mean?”

“Weren’t you listening?”

“Of course, I—”

“Then think about what you heard, fool.”

Dan could not spare any more time here. A new world waited outside. He could feel it.

He hurried up the stairs and burst out into the new fresh air. He had no idea what he’d find when he got back to civilization, but he knew the events of the past few moments would change it forever.

For better or for worse? And for how long? He would see.

He dearly wished Carrie were here to explore it with him. And maybe she was. She’d touched his life so deeply, he knew he’d always carry a part of her with him.

He thrust his hands into his pockets and realized that Carrie was still with him in a more tangible way. He pulled out her baggies of powder and clippings and stared at them. Whatever he found out there in the new world, he was sure now that the new age of miracles was not over yet.

Perhaps it had just begun.

Find Harmony, children

And you will find Heaven

~~~

THE END