Hates Catch 22 The Book of Verboten

Artie was devastated that his best friend and the woman he loved were going to become one. This wasn't the way it was suppose to happen for him. He had been watching Elizah prepare for the ceremony. His stomach twisted in desire as he sees her step out in her ceremonial dress for her friends to help finish with the final touches.

She is wearing a shimmery light blue dress that looked like glass, making his heart flutter. Her friends are assisting with her hair, wrapping it up. They place a blue jasmine with white angel breath wreath on top and a veil of blue and white angels breathe vines intertwining down the back of her dress.

Just watching her being happy without him was causing his heart to be in severe distress. He wasn't sure how much more he could take it was getting harder for him to breath. Just thinking about her spending her life with Markus was making him sick to his stomach. Leaving his perch where he could watch her, Artie left Olympus to the only place no one could find him.

Totally enraged from the memory Artie punched a hole in the stone wall and he looked sympathetically at his elder who was sitting on a large boulder playing with his four foot albino Burmese python.

"How can I win her heart now or separate them?" he was so angry that if he was a train smoke would have been coming out of his ears. "He didn't even ask me how I felt about the union. Uncle, I saw her first."

Dolos being old and "wise" smiled at him with a devilish grin before standing. He stood nine feet tall and was on the slim side. His dark gray eyes gleamed as he looked at Artie with malicious delight.

"Kidnap her," he laughed. "And make him fall to earth." He said as the snake went up his arm and loosely wound itself around his boney neck.

Not knowing exactly how he was going to do it, ideas slowly started popping into Arties head.

"Your right Uncle, if he thinks she has been kidnapped and takes an earthly shape to find her, he cannot come back."

He remembered that when an angel does take a shape other than their natural form on earth, they are forgotten by the heavens. It sounded easier said than done. Ready to try anything, he asked, "How would I do it?"

"I will take care of everything Nephew," he said walking over to Artie. "You just need to do one thing for me to have everything."

Artie nodded without getting the rest of the details. He was willing to do just about anything and everything to get Elizah all to himself.

Taking a knife in his hand Dolos slit the palm of Arties' hand and placed the bloody knife on an altar, lighting it on fire. Artie thought to himself, finally he was going to the girl.

Chapter 2

Stone ~ 1990

Artie told me it would be a miracle if we ever found her after all these years. I picked up the tattered binder with dog eared dirty papers with over three thousand names in it. Only the addresses left on the last page weren't crossed off, I looked at the next address on the list.

Over the last six years I have been going to each and every single one of these possible addresses trying to find her. I pulled up to 3161 Lakeview Road, the third one from the top of the list. The gray mailbox had flowers and the name "Thomas" hand written on the side of it, matching the name on list.

I double checked all of my surroundings like I always did. Taking every precaution not to get caught. I got out of my sleek vintage black Chevy Impala and started toward the house.

The house was set back a little further away from the street than the rest of the houses on the block. Giving it an almost intimate and romantic feeling. It also had large beautiful aromatic blooming cherry trees lining the driveway which gave great cover for me to hide in case a car drove by.