“Where are you going, Vincent? What are you going to do?” Lena asks him in a concerned voice.
He turns around and looks at Lena. “I don’t know. Hopefully, someone will tell me what to do. Goodnight, Lena.”
Vincent flips the hood of his sweatshirt over his head and walks out the door.
I know who you are
Vincent is once again working by himself. It has been a very slow night at work. He stops at a local deli, buys a sandwich and water, and then goes back to his patrol vehicle to eat. He turns on the radio to hear his favorite station, but there is no music being played.
The voice of Lester III is speaking. Vincent switches to the next station, but no music is playing. Just Lester III’s voice is heard.
“What the hell is this shit? This guy’s face is everywhere I look, and now I have to hear him every time I turn on the radio?”
Vincent unwraps his sandwich and takes a bite. His meal is interrupted when a bottle is thrown at his vehicle, crashing onto the hood. “What the fuck!” He exclaims with a mouth full of food.
He gets out of the vehicle and looks around. He notices a boy that looks to be around 12 years old standing on the other side of the street. Vincent points at him. “Hey, you, little shit—come here!”
The boy gives him the middle finger, then turns and runs down an alley.
Vincent gives chase. “I’m gonna kick the shit out of you when I catch you!”
The boy jumps a fence and then crawls through a window of an abandoned building. Vincent follows the boy into the building. It is pitch black and he cannot see anything. He retrieves a small flashlight from his gun belt and illuminates the room. He can hear the boy running within the building and follows.
Vincent travels through several rooms and finds himself in a long hallway. At the end of the hallway, he can see what appears to be a room lit by candles. He draws out his Glock handgun and tactically approaches the room, stopping at the entrance.
He peeks his head around the doorframe and looks into the room. He sees no one. He enters the room slowly with his gun held in both hands extended in front of him.
The room instantly becomes black and Vincent can hear nothing.
He feels something pushing on his right shoulder and hears a muffled voice saying something. Suddenly Vincent feels a great amount of pain on the back of his head. He begins to blink his eyes. His vision is blurry, but he can see several candles and what appears to be three men standing in front of him.
He shakes his head and can now clearly hear a voice saying, “Hey, wake up…wake up.”
Vincent grunts in pain, “Oh, my head.” He then realizes that he is handcuffed to a chair. He looks up at the three men and yells at them. “Let me out of these cuffs! I’m a cop!”
The man who is standing in the middle steps closer to Vincent. He is balding with white hair and appears to be in his 60s. The man puts his hand on Vincent’s head and asks in an Italian accent, “Vincent? Vincent Cain?”
“Yes, that’s me. Who are you and how do you know my name?”
The man nods his head to the man on his left, who walks behind Vincent and takes off his handcuffs.
“I’m very sorry about having to meet you this way. How does your head feel?” asks the Italian man.
He rubs the back of his head. “It hurts, but I’ll live.”
Vincent looks over to his left and sees the boy who threw the bottle at his police vehicle.
“You! You’re the one who threw the bottle at my car!”
The Italian man says, “It’s not his fault, Vincent. He only did what I ordered him to do.”
“Why would you tell him do something stupid like that?”
“Because we had to lure you here to us.”
“You know, all you had to do was walk over to my car and talk to me. Don’t you think that would’ve been easier?”
“Vincent, do you know who I am?”
“Now that I think of it…you do look familiar. Wait a minute…I know who you are.”
“My name is Pope Giovanni Francesco, head of the Roman Catholic Church, servant to God, the father, and our savior, Jesus Christ.” He points to the man on his right. “This is Arch Bishop Lazarus.” Then he points to the man on his left. “And this is Arch Bishop Vito.”
Vincent squints his eyes and is in awe by the Pope’s presence. “Yes, yes, I remember seeing you on TV a few years ago before religion was outlawed. But why…why are you here in Detroit of all places? Shouldn’t you be in the Vatican?
“The Vatican is no more, my son. It has been destroyed by the order of William Lester, the leader of the new world order. We escaped the attack and came here to carry out our mission.”
“Your mission? What mission?” Vincent asks.
“Do you believe in the devil, Vincent?”
“Nowadays I don’t believe in anything.”
“You know, Vincent…choosing not to believe in the devil doesn’t keep you safe from him. Whether you believe this or not, God has a purpose for everyone. Most people go through life living a simple and normal life and are never in the spotlight. Then once in a generation, someone comes along and has a huge influence on people. Then there are people who come around once in the world’s lifetime, and these people change the lives of all of mankind.”
The Pope walks to a large chest, unlocks it with a key, and removes a large book that appears to be hundreds of years old. He gently places the book down on a table.
“This is the original Bible. All the scrolls from everyone who has ever written something was gathered and condensed into this book.”
Vincent walks over to the Bible and begins to flip through the pages. “Wow, this is amazing.”
The Pope smiles “Yes, Vincent, it’s amazing. But there is a big secret that the Catholic Church has kept since its existence.”
“Really? Like what?” Vincent asks with a confused look on his face.
“You see, Vincent…there is a whole chapter of the Bible that was never added to the book.”
“Why not?”
“The chapter was not added because the Bible predicts the end of times in the Book of Revelation, so evil already knows what will occur or what we believe is going to occur. But let me ask you this question, Vincent. If you could predict the future and knew what was going to happen, then wouldn’t that give you the power to do something to disrupt or change the future?”
“Yes…because then I would be able to manipulate several events to change the future to how I wanted it.”
The Pope folds his hands together and then places them up to his lips. In a soft voice, he responds, “Exactly, my son. So if evil knew everything that was going to happen, then he would have had thousands of years to plan his attack. But if he didn’t have all the information, then it would be much harder for him to win.”
“So, again, what does any of this have to do with me?”
Pope Francesco flips open the Bible. “This is the Book of Revelation, but missing from the Book of Revelation is an entire chapter.” The Pope then bends down and picks up a scroll from the chest, places it on the table in front of Vincent, and unravels it. It contains several very old pages and drawings.
“The Book of Revelation was written around 68 A.D. In 443 A.D., Pope Leo and his arch bishops came together and decided that this chapter had to be removed from the bible because they felt that it would give evil an advantage when this time came.”
Pope Francesco points to a line of script on the scroll. “This says that a common man, a man of authority, shall rise from the city where the new temple is born. This line says his body will be covered in markings and images from those who are mentioned in the Great Book.”
“Ok…so?”
“Vincent, take your shirt off.”
“What? Why?”
“Vincent, take your shirt off!” Pope Francesco says to
him in a stern voice.
Vincent unstraps the Velcro straps on the sides of his tactical vest, flips the vest over his head, and drops it on the ground. “Is this really necessary?”
“Yes!”
Vincent shakes his head and then reaches behind his neck and pulls off his shirt.
Pope Francesco picks up another page and sets it on the table in front of Vincent. He points to an image on the page. It’s a picture of what appears to be a man cutting off the head of a man with long hair with a sword. The man with the sword is shirtless and has several black markings on his body.
Vincent’s mouth drops open. He is in awe. He begins to stutter. “My… my…father recently gave me two very old pieces of paper with pictures very similar to these. He told me that this man was a weapon of mass destruction.”
Pope Francesco places his hand on Vincent’s shoulder and says, “My son, we have been waiting for you for many years. You are the one, Vincent. You are the one that has been chosen to deliver mankind from this evil that is upon us.”
“I…I think this is what my father was trying to tell me. I can’t believe this. Are you shitting me? Why me?”
“Our paths are already written for us, Vincent. They are written for us before we are even born.”
“So what now? What am I supposed to do?”
“William Lester.”
“Yeah, what about him?” Vincent asks.
“He is who we call the Beast, or the Anti-Christ. You must destroy him.”
“And just how the hell do you expect me to do that? These people love him. Everyone thinks he is the savior of the world, and not to mention, the entire military is his security. I’ll never get within 100 yards of him.”
“Satan masquerades as an angel of light, Vincent. He disguises himself to mankind as something or someone good. Have faith…faith will guide you, and tell you what to do, my son.”
“I haven’t had faith since I was a kid.”
“I believe you have faith, Vincent. You have seen evil at his best. You know what is right and what is wrong. One more thing, Vincent…you need to make peace within yourself. So ask yourself this question…. who except God can give you peace? Go now, my son, and may God be with you.”
Pope Francesco, Arch Bishop Lazarus, Arch Bishop Vito, and the boy all walk out of the room.
“Hey! Hey, where you guys going? So you drop this huge bomb on me and you just leave?” Vincent puts on his shirt and tactical vest and leaves the room.
He makes his way out of the building, walks to the street, and stops. There is a large presence of soldiers and military vehicles in the area. Several military trucks filled with civilians drive past him. He looks up at the buildings and can see several pictures of Lester III posted on them. He looks back down at street level and sees another picture of Lester III on a passing bus. Lester III’s picture is everywhere he looks.
Vincent slowly walks to his patrol vehicle and sits in the driver’s seat. He sits motionless and stares straight through the windshield for several minutes. He places his right hand up to the ignition and slowly drives away.
Man’s best friend
It has been one day since Vincent spoke with Pope Francesco. He has not left his home since then. Lying in bed, he can do nothing but think of all that has happened to him, the things he witnessed, and the things that he had been told. Vincent is physically exhausted and mentally drained. He rolls over onto his stomach and closes his eyes to finally get some sleep.
***
Vincent finds himself in a large park that is surrounded by many trees. The grass is a beautiful dark green. The sound of birds chirping can be heard. The sun is shining bright with no clouds in sight.
He smiles and takes in a deep breath of fresh air. He turns around and sees a number of children on the playground. A beautiful woman is smiling at him. The woman has long, straight jet-black hair and is wearing a red sundress.
The woman signals to him with her finger to come over to her. She begins to walk away from the playground.
Vincent quickly follows and catches up to her. He notices that dark clouds have formed and are moving toward the park.
He smiles at the woman and says, “Looks like a storm is coming in.”
“I like storms.” The woman says with a smile on her face.
“So what brings you out here?”
“I came here for you.”
“For me?” Vincent asks, placing his hand on his chest.
The woman points to the sky. “Look how beautiful that is.”
Vincent looks up to see the clouds are now black and are formed in a way that he has never seen. “Um…I wouldn’t say beautiful…kinda scary if you ask me.”
The woman grabs Vincent’s hand and begins to pull him toward the direction of the storm. “Come on Vincent, come with me into the darkness.”
“Wait—how do you know my name?”
The clouds now block the sun. It has become very dark and windy. Vincent can hear the children on the playground screaming in fear.
The woman turns back toward Vincent. Her eyes are completely black and her dress has turned black. She smiles. “Don’t be afraid, Vincent. Come into the darkness.”
He tries to pull his hand away from the woman, but her grip is too strong. Then he feels a hand on his shoulder and turns around to see who is there.
He sees a teenage girl. She has curly orange hair, green eyes, and pale, freckled skin. She is wearing a bright white sundress.
“Wake up, Vincent. Evil is here,” she says to him.
The woman with the black hair becomes irate and screams at Vincent in a demonic voice. “You will come with me!” She begins to pull harder on Vincent’s arm.
The teenage girl pulls back on Vincent’s shoulder and says to him in a calm voice, “Vincent, wake up. Save yourself.” She puts her hand up to Vincent’s face and snaps her fingers.
Vincent opens his eyes and finds himself lying on his back in his bed. He hears the sound of several diesel-engine vehicles approaching his building. He jumps out of bed and opens the blinds. Ten armored Humvees and two military deuce-and-a-half trucks are approaching from down the street.
Vincent’s eyes open wide. “Oh shit!”
He runs to his closet and quickly jumps into a pair of black cargo pants. He throws on a black long sleeve t-shirt. He slides on his work boots and quickly ties them.
Moving over to his nightstand, he picks up his pair of black leather gloves and slides them on. He quickly walks into the living room, picks up his gun belt lying on the floor, and puts it around his waist. He pushes over his bookcase and types in the code to his safe, 1-8-7-5. He pulls on the handle and opens the safe.
The safe is filled with large amounts of weapons, ammunition, and explosives. Vincent removes a tactical vest and puts in on. He grabs six Magpul rifle magazines and fills his vest carrier with three on each side. Next he grabs a Glock .40 caliber handgun and places it into his holster. Now he removes his favorite weapon—an LMT M-4 rifle—kisses it, and says, “Hello, my love.”
He inserts one 30-round Magpul magazine, pulls the charging handle back, and releases it, charging the rifle with a round in the barrel. Then he slings the rifle over his shoulder.
Vincent pauses for a second and stares into the safe. He reaches into the safe and picks up a large book. He puts it to his lips, kisses it, and says, “Forgive me, my Lord, for I am about to sin.”
The book has a leather cover and is titled The Holy Bible in gold lettering. Vincent flips to the middle of the book and rips out several pages. He loads the middle with one pound of C-4 explosives and sticks in a blasting cap attached to a wireless remote detonator.
He moves over to the living-room window and sees that the military vehicles have stopped in front of his building. Several soldiers exit the Humvees and trucks and run into the buildin
g.
Vincent steps away from the window, but quickly moves back because something grabs his attention. Leo Denson is exiting the lead military vehicle.
“Oh, do I have something for you,” Vincent says with a smile on his face. He finds a blank sheet of paper and writes on it with a black Sharpie marker: “To my good friend Leo. Go fuck yourself!!!!” Then he places the paper over the Bible, opens the front door, and lays the Bible on the floor. He leaves the door slightly cracked open.
“Come on, boy,” he says. Ruger follows Vincent to the living- room window. Vincent opens the window and both exit onto the fire escape. Vincent holds the remote detonator in his left hand and waits.
***
Leo Denson leads the team of soldiers up the stairs to the 8th floor. He points down the hallway and says, “He’s in number 8-602.” The team moves tactically in a single file line and stops just short of number 8-602.
“What the hell are you guys waiting for? Move in!” Leo yells.
The lead soldier looks back toward Leo and says, “There’s something at the base of the door, sir.”
Leo quickly makes his way to the door. He bends down, picks up the note, and reads it. Leo laughs, crumples up the note, and flips it over his shoulder. He looks down at the floor and kneels down to picks up the book.
Leo slides his hand over the words The Holy Bible and becomes infuriated. He stands up and yells to the soldiers, “Get in there and bring that bastard to me alive!”
The lead soldier kicks in the door and they all move in, clearing one room at a time. Leo enters the apartment behind the soldiers and makes his way into the living room. The soldiers clear the loft and gather around Leo.
One of the soldiers says, “It’s all clear, sir. He’s not here.”
Leo looks down at the Bible and notices that it is unusually heavy. He immediately flips it open to the middle. “What the fuck!” Leo blurts out as he discovers that the Bible is loaded with C-4.
At that time, Vincent knocks on the window and gets Leo’s attention. Vincent holds up his left hand, showing Leo the detonator. The look on Leo’s face expresses extreme fear.