Fatal Vows

Chapter 13

I stare at him in disbelief, gawking.  My legs weaken and I stumble back a few steps.  He crosses his arms and leans back on the far counter.

"You?" I ask, not unlike the multiple murder victims who seemed to recognize me, blinking rapidly to make sure I'm not dreaming.

He laughs once.  "I suppose you have a lot of questions, Elena."  He shakes his head as if recalling a few bad memories.

It's my turn to laugh.  "Um, yes."  I steady myself on the counter next to me.  I notice all the maps are gone, everything on the counters is gone.

I swallow, still unable to believe what I see.  "Why?"

He scratches the back of his head.  "I myself never actually killed anybody, so lucky you."  He chuckles again, making my spine crawl.  "I'm here under the employment of a force called the Angelic Legion," he explains.  "Our mission is to exterminate all the evil people in the world, to put it in better terms."

"So you slaughter them," I say, cutting him off.  "You murder them."

"Well, yes," he responds, fidgeting with his black suit.  "It's the only way-"

"How is that the only way?" I counter, raising my voice.  "Why can't you just talk to these bad people, have them come to their senses, agree on a solution, have them see both sides, become one side-"

"Because in the end, no one listens!" he shouts back, shutting me up.  His breathing is rapid with rage.  "There will always be sides, Elena."  He shakes his head with a low laugh.  "In the end, people only fight for their own beliefs, no matter how messed up they are."  He raises his arms in exasperation.  "We're always the good guys in our own perspective."

"So you're a Catholic cult of serial killers, how quaint."

"Sure, why not."

Silence envelops the room, the air tense.  I nod for him to keep talking.

"I've been raised, trained since I was four," he says, running a hand through his hair.  "After my parents abandoned me in London."

I look down at the floor in front of me, unable to respond.

"Our main employer, our leader, found me on the streets and took me in, and here I am," he finishes, looking up at me.

I cock my head, "Who's your employer?"

"I am."

A familiar voice radiates from the door behind me.  Another larger figure in black stomps in the hut.  He reaches his gloved hands to his head and removes his helmet.  He strokes his thick beard.

Justin, my uncle.

Seeing him makes me stumble back more.  "You?"

He laughs, a hair-raising sound, as he shuts the door behind him.  He walks up to Daylon and pats his shoulder.  I see Daylon give him an uncomfortable look.

He rests on the counter with Daylon next to him, releasing a long sigh.  "I began the Angelic Legion twenty-five years ago, now, after my first wife died."  He looks up to me with sad, weary eyes.  "She was murdered, and that sparked my idea to create a community devoted to making a pure world."

"So all the people who died were on your kill list or something?  They were all bad people?" I ask, challenging them.  Daylon looks to his master.

"Yes.  Grace's ex-husband was the one who killed my wife," he explains matter-of-factly.  "The rest have their reasons."

"How did you do it though?" I question, still not able to understand.  "Some of the murders were in plain sight."