UNWITTING VESSELS (sequel To Vessels Unknown)

EIGHT

                                                                      UNIQUE

I watched his guards haul him into the office area. The entire congregation were as disgusted as me......well maybe not that particular word. But they were amazed at how their honorable Pastor Adrian thrashed all over the place.

       Even his son, almost dropped the Mic. Yes o!.....It's not everyday that someone who wielded such power succumbed to a higher power.
I hissed before I could stop myself. They looked like sheep, but they have been wolves all along, hiding and perpetuating evil. 

         Everything else in the church stopped moving as I attuned my ears to the heart beat of the man who had been hunting my dreams. Shutting my eyes to the noises around me, I listened.
There were roaring noises just like the ones I heard in my dreams. Then things thrashed and crashed everywhere. Men were screaming and begging for their lives.

            "What was he doing to them there?" I thought as I sought to have a visual through his eyes. But I met a more fierce eyes staring me back into my body. I trembled when I realized I was back in the church, on my seat.

Nkasi my friend gave me the 'Are you alright gaze'? I nodded and straightened myself.

           Glancing through the congregation again, most people didn't seem to care anymore. Some even looked on to Jacob with admiration. I waited for the pastor to reappear, but he didn't, so I pretended that I had to use the rest room.

Thumping away from the saints, I raced outside, following his violent heart palpitations that only myself could hear. Whatever that was chasing him was terrifying or worse still, deadly.

            My foot made it outside the church toward the north entrance. I forced a good amount of air Into my lungs as I waited to calm my nerves.
His car, the same one I rode in when I visited his house, was speedily making it's way across the tarred road and racing towards the front exit. I knew tight there that he was leaving.

Our eyes met when he tried to steal a glance out his tinted car. I washed him down with a murderous stare.

             "You will come to me!" I muttered. His eyes blinked away from me in fear.

There was no doubt in my spirit that he heard me. This Pastor wasn't just like any other.
His abilities were mind numbing. I doubted he even knew the depth of what he possessed.

          I stood there till Nkasi joined me as we walked back home. Almost everyone along our path were talking about how wonderful the service was. I didn't have an opinion when some ladies asked me what I thought.

My face widened in a smile. I could tell what I felt, but I knew there won't be anymore Generation Christian Worship Center after that.
My head holder when another asked me if it was a good service? I solemnly nodded to avoid stories that touch.

As soon as I left Nkasi at the entrance of her apartment complex, I raced home to check on the 'furnace'.
Right where it was hidden under my bed, I retrieved the crystal ball that gave me the shocks. The center was still glowing in a red furnace of fire. I glanced at it severally. I could never really know what it was or it's function.

I climbed into bed with it held firmly in my palm. Soon, I drifted off to sleep.
When I woke, the sight before me froze me with fright. The spherical bulb was no longer in my hand, but in the air. A massive creature held it in its hands, tossing it up and down.

           "Jesus!" I shouted.

It growled in laughter. "Oh come off it! Will you?" It whooshed air out into the atmosphere and rubbed it's hairy face.  "That name can't do anything for you. Do you know why?" It snarled at me.

My head shook fearfully. "Because you are not one of them. Because you have not been given the power and the right to do so."

My body involuntarily shrunk backwards into my bed as it's head moved closer to my face. I couldn't differentiate if it was a male or female monster.

All I knew was it had a height no human could possibly possess. I was even afraid, my neighbors upstairs could be displaced by it's height.

         "Okay." I muttered. Pointing at the stuff in it's hand, I asked. "Can I have it back?"

It pulled its head back to it's body and rolled the thing in it's long claws and nodded.

        "Okay." But you must get it back to the person who owns it, or creatures worse than me will hunt you."

I nodded with every fiber in me. "Although, There was no way I was giving Pastor Adrian his furnace back. I will keep it as my insurance policy." I concluded in my heart.

          "You lie!" I felt its nose blare hurricane breeze on my face. "I can hear your thoughts as loud as your heart beats."

Unconsciously, I grabbed my chest. "Okay. I promise. I will!" It searched my eyes one more time while I shut my eyes tight.

    Then I felt it in my hand. Cold as the winter. The furnace within it has died and the beast was gone. I collapsed on the bed, muffling my screams with a pillow.

          After a while, I tumbled out of bed like a feather. My eyes did a 360° search of my apartment before I dragged my body to the bathroom. I walked around like I had no bones in my body.
What I saw left me mute. I couldn't close my eyes for fear of seeing that creature again.

       Disgustedly, I tossed the furnace on my bed and walked around my apartment aimlessly. Sleep found me moments later.  It was 1am when I woke up. The skies were dark. There was no moon. It made me so sad that I caught few tears race down my face.

Again the furnace was firmly in my hands. I looked at it and shook my head. Whatever was going on should please leave me alone.  

My foot sustained me as I pulled my entire body up.
Angrily, I tossed the furnace back into the box where I'd stored it and pushed it back into its position.

Finally in the kitchen, I took out Nkasi's remaining stock fish stew and warmed it with leftover rice and muzzled it down.
Done with late dinner/breakfast, I tossed my body into bed and waited for sleep.