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He is screaming as his twisted features stare up at me, revealing the crazy inside his mind. My gun is pressing into his head, and he’s almost forgotten it’s there as he laughs like a madman.
“It’s what I do. I keep Heaven in the light of God. I punish sinners, which you know only too well.”
“Ah, yes.” I sense the anger building inside me as he refers to my own cleansing at his hands and I say roughly, “You took a young boy and you beat him. You stripped him of his dignity, and you kept him locked in a cage. You taunted him, you goaded him, and you terrified him.”
I take a deep breath, trying to remain in control of my shit, and say in a deadly voice, “You whipped him, caned him, and throttled him. You beat him to within an inch of his life and then you made him beg for forgiveness. That child was six years old. That child was me.”
He merely sneers and spits on my boot. “You were my biggest failure. You were your parent’s biggest failure and this town’s biggest failure. You deserved everything you got and I’m only sorry I didn’t bury you along with the other sinners I tried to help.”
As I stare at the maniac at my feet, a sense of calm fills me.
I think about the child I was, sitting on my shoulder now, watching his aggressor get what’s coming to him. I am surrounded by the ghosts of the women he murdered, and I stand with Faith and Hope on either side of me as I prepare to do what is inevitable.
Most of all, I have the backing of my brothers because without them, I would not be as strong, so I grab the reverend’s gun that’s resting nearby and force it into his hand and cover it with mine.
For a second, he grins, thinking he has regained the upper hand, and I whisper, “You are not worth my time. Just for your information, Heaven is about to be dragged into the modern world and everyone will learn how evil you are. You will be spoken about as the demon who took over this town disguised as a man of God. They will think of you as the devil because that is who really controls your evil mind and so, maybe now is the perfect time to send you back to him.”
His wide eyes fill with rage with every word I speak and as he makes to argue I take his hand and force his own gun into his mouth and as I use his finger to pull the trigger, the last words he hears are, “Rot in hell you bastard.”
As his head explodes in my hand, I feel a sense of relief that it’s over. As his blood rains down, it signifies a cleansing of sorts. My past has been blown away with his spirit and he will never be able to harm anyone again.
I could have beaten him. I could have tortured him, and I could have made it brutal. However, I’m not him and I never will be and that was a fitting end for a bastard who had the soul of the devil disguised as one of God’s chosen.
One thing I’m certain of, Heaven is no longer an option for Reverend Peters, and the world will be a much better place without him in it.
CHAPTER21
FAITH
There is an eerie silence as the reverend’s voice spills from the church outside. I swear the entire town turns toward the open window and listens to the confessions of a madman. With every word he speaks, a part of my soul falls away because I never knew. I doubt anyone did what lengths he went to and for so many years.
We trusted him. We feared him, which, as it turns out, was for a very good reason.
He was a serial killer masquerading as a priest. He was the man the town looked to for guidance. To speak about their innermost thoughts and beg for forgiveness. We have crowded into his church every day for the past thirty years and lived our lives through his teachings because we hoped he was setting us on the right path.
He has made a mockery of everything we believed in, and his confession reminds us what fools we were. What fools we are, because every single person in this town lapped up everything he preached and never questioned him at all.
My heart reaches out to his many victims, and I shiver when I remember what it was like under his rule. My life was about to become unbearable and now, what now? I still don’t have the answer to that.
I swear nobody spoke at all as his words rang out loud and damning his soul to hell.
I glance at my father, who is lying on the floor, his hands above his head, still and frozen in place as the words of the man he trusted washes over him like acid rain.
It must burn knowing you have been made a fool of. Every person here who believed in him must be feeling like the biggest idiot alive right now.
Then there are the ferocious men who brought light on the subject. Standing over their captives with a fearsome silence and expressions of disgust for what this town has done.
We are no better than Reverend Peters. We allowed it to happen and when a shot rings out it shatters the silence and I scream as I make to run toward the church.
“Jonny!” I yell as I am held back by my two protectors and the man who commands them says with a slight shake of his head, “I wouldn’t go in there if I were you.”
“Jonny!” I sob as I struggle in their arms and then my heart almost stops beating as the door opens and the man himself walks out, covered in blood but with a smile on his face.
I am finally released and as I fall into his bloodied arms, I couldn’t care less. As they wrap around my shivering body, I cry so hard with relief that he made it.
He rests his hand on the back of my head and leans down, whispering, “It’s over, baby. You’re free. We’re all free.”
“You mean...” I stare up at him with hope and he grins, revealing the man I fell in love in with. “Dead, baby. Let’s just say he repented of his sins and took the easy way out.”
