Wrath Of God

Chapter 7: 'Savior or psychopath?'

I parked my brand new off the line Mercedes Benz and slowly got out the car.
One the one side of my Mercedes was a Porsche and on the other side was Bentley.
I smiled and straightened my dark blue tie as I walked through the parking lot admiring the expensive cars of the rich and elite. I do admit I enjoyed pretending to be one of them when I wasn’t being Za’aphiel. I was wealthy but not because of my success on Wall Street as they were all led to believe. When you were rich and arrogant people left you alone and you could buy discretion and privacy.
I wore a tailored black Armani suit with a white shirt, dark blue tie and silver cufflinks. Around my wrist was a silver Rolex. My entire outfit cost more than the other property I owned that I went to when I wanted to portray a more ordinary persona. The name on personalized business card read Thomas Gabriel.
I wondered what my life would be like if I truly was Thomas Gabriel. Could I spend my days arguing on the phone, watching the stock market rise and fall, and flirt with blonde secretary that I didn’t hire for her typing skills. I laughed at the thought.
It was an intriguing idea but what was my life without death?
To accumulate money was not my purpose. Underneath this expensive tailored suit and carefully crafted façade I was Za’aphiel. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and grinned. It might just be a façade but damn I looked good.
I stepped into elevator and made my way up to the penthouse.

I could not sleep, I hardly ever could. My clock read 1:30 am.
 I had sleeping pills in the kitchen but I was in no mood to move. The pain was the only thing that felt real nowadays. The nightmares had become crueler and the thoughts in my head, more vivid and intense. Every night they plagued my sleep.
Images of my mother’s death and nightmares of my father. This time though the nightmare was different. It felt so real.
Instead of my mother lying on the floor was Alison. Alison wearing the same dress that mother wore. Alison was trying to protect herself. Lying on the floor crying, her tears smearing her make-up. She held her hands up trying to protect her face. There was a bruise on her cheek and blood coming out the corner of her mouth. Between her choked out sobs she was pleading for her life, pleading for the pain to stop.  Pleading for her attacker to stop.
The attacker in this nightmare was me. Me wearing my father’s sweat-stained blue checkered collar shirt. Me in my father’s grease covered blue jeans and dirty black work boots. I was red in the face and shouting in anger.
 I was the monster. I had raised my hand to strike Alison and as she screamed I awoke.
I didn’t go back to sleep after that for fear that I would return to the nightmare.
I am not a monster. After awhile of tossing and turning restlessly I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes. I reached for the television remote and turned it on.
 I didn’t care much for television, it was a celebration of sin and showed humanity at its worse. The programs were filled with sex, violence and profanity.
Despite this I found the news channels insightful and helpful.
 In my profession knowledge is power and it was important to know what was happening in the world. The story on at the moment was about some beaurocrat ranting on about global warming and how we are ruining the planet. He wore an expensive suit and a gold watch. Everything about said that he was a man of money and power. He probably owned more than one car and contributed more to global warming than the average person.
I was about to change the channel to a different news station but it seemed fate didn’t want that. The story changed from the global warming crisis to breaking news of the death of a wealthy casino owner. I smiled and turned up the volume and listened to what the reporter had to say about my work.

‘ This is Jolene Foster reporting live from The Gold Rabbit, the casino where its owner Rominev Shlobovsky was found dead in the early hours of the morning alongside the body of Ronald Chamberlain, a senior partner of the law firm Chamberlain and Cole.
Mr Shlobovsky was killed from a single close range gunshot to the temple.
The cause of Mr Chamberlains death is still undetermined but reports say he died in a lot of pain. No forensic evidence has yet been found at the scene.
  A small silver cross was found in the hands of Rominev.
 Police are yet to confirm it but this does indicate that Rominev was killed by none other than a serial killer that calls himself Za’aphiel. This makes Rominev the fifth victim of Za’aphiel this year. The killer Za’aphiel believes himself to be “the wrath of God” and a savior of the innocents. In all his previous killings his victims were found to be murderers and rapists making many people believe him to be a necessary evil.