THE DEVIL'S HANDMAIDEN DARK REALM SERIES BOOK 1

Chapter 5. DELIVERED

Allesandra parks her car and frantically gets out. She stumbles over the curb and rushes to get inside the church. As she walks through the doorway of the one place that she has always felt safe, she breathes a huge sigh of relief. This is the place she would often go to when she needed to find comfort or spiritual guidance. Today was much different though. She was way past just needing to find comfort or spiritual guidance. It was much too late for that now. She was here tonight to try to squeeze a few more precious minutes out of her life and she was clinging to a shred of hope that she could possibly delay the inevitable.

From the dark circles under her eyes that she tried to cover up with too much make up, to the sullen look on her face, even in her hurried steps, it seemed to paint a dire picture of a distressed soul fleeing to this very church to find salvation. She would not find solace here tonight though or any other night for that matter. Her soul was now marked by the beast and he was coming for it. She would soon find out, that even the sacred walls of a church weren't strong enough to keep the likes of Satan out.

As she makes her way down the winding halls to the big, beautiful sanctuary, a calming, feeling slowly comes over her, allowing her to stop and look around and the nostalgic break calms her down a bit. As she steps through the huge glass doors into the sanctuary and walks down the bright-red, carpeted path of the aisle between the pews, she has a flashback to when she was a young girl. She pictures herself standing in this exact spot, walking hand in hand with her mother. She begins to reminisce and she lets the flood of memories from her wedding day and all the funerals she had attended here take over her thoughts and the sadness of having to let it all go, starts to overwhelm her. Tears steadily stream down her face as she is overcome with such emotion that as she finally reaches the front row of the sanctuary, collapses into her seat and completely breaks down.

After several minutes, she sits up and without another thought, yells out, "Hello! Anybody there? Father Thompson?" She waits a few seconds for a response and when she doesn't get one, she slumps back into her seat and stares blankly ahead. At this point, she is much too nervous to check to see what time it is, but her shattered nerves and rapid pulse are brutal reminders that her time is almost up. Even though she feels safe for the moment, she still foolishly thinks that as long as she stays right here she can keep Satan from getting to her.

She knows she can't hide forever and just the thought of that sends her into a panic and she starts to cry again. Just knowing that there is no way out and that nothing can save her now, she falls to her knees and begins to pray. But, before she can even get the first word out, Satan's wretched voice invades her head and interrupts her, "What a pity, Allesandra! I thought you were smarter than this. Do you really think you can hide from me here? I will come for what's mine very soon and there's not a damn thing you can do about it." He cackles, sounding quite proud of the power he holds over her and then continues scolding her, "But, by all means, try, pray your little heart out. Try to break our contract and see what happens. Here, I'll even help you out." He begins mocking her with his best impression of her, but in an over exaggerated, desperate sounding voice, of course, "Dear Lord in Heaven, please hear my prayer. My daughter was so sick and I sold my soul to the devil in exchange for her life and now I need your help to get out of it. Please Almighty God, I will do anything, blah, blah, blah!"

He finally stops terrorizing her and then several minutes later he starts up again, "See, foolish woman, no answer." He chuckles again, this time louder. "Like I asked you before. Where is your God?"

When he's finished berating her for her failed attempt to escape him, he follows that up with a maniacal laugh to add a sadistic element to the torturous game he's playing with her. Then, for several, excruciating minutes there is nothing but a deafening silence. Allesandra, too terrified to move or even breathe, sinks back down into the church pew and begins to hyperventilate as she sobs endlessly, trying her best to hold herself together.