Radicle (Terminal trilogy #2, can stand alone)

9: The church

Tecie seemed different- satisfied, I suppose- after that night. I couldn't quite explain it. But she stopped looking all demanding at me, and started just living with me. She still would drag me places and try and get me invested in daily life in the city, but mostly she had let me be.

My schedule was vague. Sometimes Stacy (I had grown comfortable with dropping his surname) would request a meeting with me, but he didn't give me any new jobs. He just requested information about the cult I had joined, and bought me lunch. I was almost growing fond of him.

The cult, or really, The Church of Future Angels, was still not an inviting place to visit. But I had a certain obligation to be there every other day. I actually started wearing a watch for this very reason, and learned to tell time. Three hours a day was what I gave myself. Any more and I would have broken.

It wasn't perhaps the worst place. Everyone was down right loyal to me, actually, and I was fairly certain if I ever needed a week off not one of them would have held it against me. When I was there, I was always made perfectly comfortable and spoken to with great respect. But I hated being worshipped, and I really hated their oily fingers touching my wings. Only the leader, Lilith, seemed to have the right to actually pull my feathers, but at the rate she was going I wasn't sure how many I'd have by the time I left Hell. Did my feathers even grow back? I had no idea.

Lilith herself, as lovely as she made herself out to be, was far too attractive for my tastes. And she held herself to that goal too. She'd frequently use her position as leader to arrange 'private sessions' with me. During these she'd often ask about Heaven, or seek personal advice. But she also made herself quite available, so to speak, and had me sit very close to her on the bed surrounded by candles. Once she invited me to bathe with her. It was the first time I had bathed for weeks, and I was really quite grateful, but she came out of it looking disappointed.

I wasn't ever sure what she was expecting of me, to be honest. When I was asked, I preached Heaven's morals to the members of the church, and this included chastity. In a few days, everyone had dropped off all ties to their significant others. Marriages were broken or distanced, off-and-on flings finally ceased. I didn't really feel it my place to encourage such behavior, of course, but I did what was asked of me.

It was hard to translate the rules of Heaven properly to the church though. The only times I found Lilith truly useful was when she was interpreting them for me, and finding ways to make them translate. For example, all church members moved into the headquarters. Many had before, of course, but now it was a set requirement. I counted their numbers at a good hundred plus.

To find space for everyone, the church bought out the neighboring building. A couple members had sold their old apartments to afford the building, and seemed to be truly thankful to spend it all.

Once everyone was accounted for, the new rules became that no one could leave without Lilith's (or my) permission. This meant most church members had to quit their jobs. There were a few cases where we let them keep them, mostly because they donated most of their wages to the church's bank.

As I led and spoke my way around the church, I was always entirely surprised how much power I had over these people. Lilith had about the same amount, of course, and she always clung by my side. But I was the icon here. And they all loved me. These people were throwing away their everything for the chance to be near me. It was depressing, sure, but also exhilarating.

I kept this half of my life mostly private from Tecie. She knew I was heading up a cult, sure, but that was about it. I had told her where the church was in case of emergencies, and would tell her when I was leaving. But otherwise she didn't really ask about it.

She sometimes talked about Heaven with me, but that was it. And usually it was only when we couldn't sleep. We'd head up to the roof and stargaze for an hour. I couldn't gauge her reaction to any of it. But she kept quiet.

In the daytimes, she tried to bond with me through television. And it worked greatly. I learned The Few's names, and pretty soon knew all the gossip to be had. Each morning we'd gather around a government-issued TV and watch the morning news. First came the substantial news about the economy and the war numbers, things which I dutifully took note of. But then the other anchor, a clean looking man, would delve into gossip. And it was great.

There was so much to be had. It wasn't only relationship drama- of which there were plenty. It was also obsessions, fashions, parties, murder, and blackmail. And it was great fun. I liked to think I enjoyed it mostly for the 'watching demons tear their lives apart' part though, not for the human interest side. But that might have been the more angelic side of me talking.

I still had the habit of paying the most attention to Moll. I couldn't help it, really, even if she had been less than exciting in real life. In some ways she was even better as a still-frame photo, blurry and indistinguishable as she wandered towards whatever-place at two in the morning. Because up close she wasn't quite who I had mistaken her for.

The gossip to be had of her was mostly related to her children. Or really, lack of. She had given birth about three months previous at this point, but the baby had never actually been seen in public. And her last child, about two years old, was similarly missing. Tecie had a theory about it.

"You do realize she was on active duty in the military for the last five years, right? Normally when someone gets pregnant during combat, they either get an abortion or get permanently dismissed with maternity leave. And they aren't even allowed back in after birth. Even if they have a partner at home to watch the child!"

"So? She's a high ranking general in your army. She can pull rules about, I'm sure."

"She wasn't at the time though. That came after her second child. And after her first, she was back fighting within two months."

"So is she going back now that it's been three months since her second?" Technically it had been three months and a half since she had given birth, but that was more of a mouthful.

"I haven't heard anything about it. But it's weird."

"I will ask her about it when I see her again."

"Stacy going to set up another meeting?" She sounded frankly angry about it.

"I'd have to ask him." I still hadn't paid off my first debt to Stacy. My time with the church seemed to have no designated end, and I was afraid to ask about it.

"Watch what you get tangled in." She said. Tecie seemed to say this every day. Certainly whenever I went out to the church. Usually she'd stick to a 'don't go' but sometimes she'd simply send me off with a cryptic warning as well.

She did have a job, it turned out, but I rarely saw her leave for it. She worked in the hospital on occasion, but that was all I knew. I didn't understand what had made her qualify to escort me to Hell in the first place. And I still didn't understand the look that had crossed Michael's face when he had mentioned her as the one who had chosen me for the task in the first place. I was too afraid to ask her myself.

I still had my farm job. But I didn't go there very often. And while my co-workers did notice, there never seemed to be a movement to fire me. I think they didn't care when I showed up and how much I worked at all. After all, I wasn't getting paid nor was I using any of the given meal tickets or dorm.