THE PRIEST OF SANTA MARIA

  ( CHAPTER  49 )  -  { PT.  4 } - Salvatrice, how did you do that? asked Aker. It was dead! Ahe grinned and said, Magic, before running away, her hands suspended above her head to feel the touch of the air. The others followed behind her shouting playfully and chasing the ball. They reached a private enclosure bustling with men, women and children going about their daily chores. In the moderately sized camp was an adobe structure which formed a T-shape--what looked like the main building. Smaller huts were sporadically spread around the encampment. In one corner, a few children dipped and swam in a crystalline rectangular pool, welcoming the icy-cold water on their scorched bodies. The surface glistened like diamonds enticing flies to their deaths. A queue of people snaked its way to a building where a native nurse stood in the doorway and questioned the next person in line. She was busy making notes on a clipboard. A father help his child who lay unconscious i...

  ( CHAPTER  49 ) - Let me see. Let me see. She bounded up and down on the spot. Aker lowered his hands to her eye level. It's dead. There's nothing we can do. By the looks of its wound, it was catapulted with a rock. The child smiled humbly and pressed her ear to its body. She closed her eyes for a moment and Let me see. Let me see. She bounded up and down on the spot. Aker lowered his hands to her eye level. It's dead. There's nothing we can do. By the looks of its wound, it was catapulted with a rock. The child smiled humbly and pressed her ear to its body. She closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them and announced, He wants to live. She kissed his feathered torso. The creature opened his eyes in a daze and found himself staring into the face of the little girl. She smiled at him in adoration. The children gasped as they crowded round with baited breaths. Aker, open your hands, she said. Aker did as instructed. The bird fidgeted, lifted its wings and hopped ...

  ( CHAPTER  49 )  -  { PT.  2 } - Most likely there will be some scarring, yes. Doctor Conti lifted the last segment of fabric, and they looked eagerly down at the Cardinal's hand. Will you look at that? said Doctor Conti. It's as if the very hand of God came down and made his mark upon you. The Cardinal gazed down at the perfect markings of a Greek cross in the center of his right hand. He was not amused.            EPILOGUE - FOUR-AND-A-HALF YEARS LATER: - BEDOUIN CAMP, SINAI DESERT, EGYPT                                    The sun's unrelenting rays beat down upon a sea of barren desert stretching for miles in all directions. Its blazing heat reflected a haziness that blinded the eye. A solitary tamarisk stood defiant. Firm. Erect. Shooting up from the arid sand. Its branches and leaves spread out to form a vast tent-like structure. A golde...

  ( CHAPTER  49 )  -  { PT.  1 } - Hans drew the curtains open, and shafts of powdered light illuminated the Cardinal seated at his desk across the room. His bandaged hand gripped a newspaper. That will be all, Hans. Your Eminence, he said, bowing his head and leaving the room. The Cardinal's virulent eyes started at the headline. Italian Cargo Ship Sinks in the Mediterranean Sea. The article went on to describe that the Greek coastguard found only one survivor on the lifeboat, the ships's cook, who was currently in hospital with a broken and severely gashed arm in need of several stitches, and a minor leg injury. The Cardinal called Kristoff's cell phone and left the usual cryptic message. As he waited for the equally cryptic return call, there was a knock at the door. Hans entered the room. Your Eminence, your physician is here. Let him in, will you. He placed the cell phone in his desk drawer. The doctor, a distinguished gentleman of wizened years, entered th...

  { PT.  8 } - It's going to get rocky. Frya blocked the door and made her way to the helm. The next explosion tore the ship in two. The screeching metal carcass careened to an extreme angle sending cargo containers the size of coaches spilling into the sea. Frya frantically pumped the release lever, and the lifeboat slid off its davits. It nosedived into the water like a playful whale, submerging into the sea and causing crashing ripples around them before it sprung to the surface. It danced on the stormy waves as Frya steered the boat like a native seaman, taking them a safe distance from the swirling vacuum. Only the four of them had made it to safety. A tortured Angelica rose from her seat and pushed her way past Achilleus. She pulled the door open, slumped on the flood and looked towards the sinking mass before her. The ship's mast, now a flaming beacon of the ship's existence--the rest of its body submerged beneath the ocean. Christiano, she whimpered unable to steer ...

  { PT.  7 } - Kristoff's eyes widened; his black dilated pupils covered their entire sockets. He raised the knives in the air. The reflection of the flames set the blades on fire. They flickered in his eyeballs. This kill is sanctioned by God. You carry an abomination, and you must die. Angelica maintained her composure, her fearless gaze focused on eyes that looked like empty sockets, ablaze. She looked across at his hands futilely quivering with determined force, yet Kristoff's arms remained suspended in the air. He stared at them as if they were alien, trying to move them with all the strength he could muster. He turned his dumb-founded gaze on Angelica. What are you? he managed to say before he found himself taking off through the air. Firmly attached to his hip was Christiano, ramming him with all the might of a bull. They landed several feet away on the sloping ground and wrestled in a tangled embrace as they tumbled down the deck. Christiano! cried Angelica, watching h...

  { PT.  6 } - Christiano! Angelica groped his shoulders. What's the matter? Christiano! She shook him as his mouth opened but no words found their way to his tongue. He grabbed at his left shoulder as he dropped to his knees. Christinao! Behind him, Kristoff wore a mordant smirk. He pulled the knife from Christiano's back and kicked him aside, making an easy path within reach of Angelica. Christinao writhed on the floor, his spine twisted and his hand attempting to reach the spot--as if it might alleviate the pain. Get...on the...boat. The words strained through his throat. Angelica tried to rush to him, but Kristoff stood in her path. He brandished his blade at her before proceeding to pull out a larger knife with a lethal serrated edge. With a blade in each hand, he flashed pearly white teeth that reflected the orange flicker of flames. Before I separate your head from your body, you will renounce your bond with Satan? My bond is with the Almighty. He bent his head to one s...