The Trinity Circle

Blood, blood on his hands, blood on the floor everywhere Billy looked all he saw was blood. He clutched his head and stumbled around the bed. Why are my hands red, he thought? Reaching out to brace himself on the mattress, Billy stumbled. When he reached the floor, his hazy vision cleared for a moment. Joyce, he wondered. A foot stuck out from the bathroom door. He crawled to the threshold. At the cold travertine tile he froze. “No, no,” he cried. He dragged his shaking body over to Joyce who lay lifeless in a pool of her own blood. “Help!” Billy screamed. He cradled his wife’s head and wept. A sound in the house awakened hope. “Help!” he cried once more louder. Two police officers charged into the bedroom guns drawn. The first officer a rookie could not keep his gun still as it quivered in his grasp. “Sir,” the officer spoke. “Move away from the body.” Billy tears falling like rain remained on the floor with Joyce. He rocked back and forth. “No baby, no, no,” he sobbed. He looked up into the eyes of the young officer. “Who would do this?” The second officer seasoned and hard pushed by the rookie. “Mr. Stone, I’m officer Waylan. We need you to get up and come with us.” Officer Waylan spoke without sympathy or inflection. “Shouldn’t we give him a minute?” asked the rookie. “I’m in charge here Pete.” Waylan retorted. Waylan yanked on Billy’s arm. Billy pulled away. “I’m not leaving my wife,” Billy whimpered without taking his eyes from his bride. Waylan pulled harder this time and Billy started to scream, “Get out of my house!” Officer Pete tried to put his gun away and help Waylan. His clumsy fingers would not work. He watched as Waylan took his nightstick out. Before Pete could utter protest, Waylan whacked Billy on the side of his head. Billy crumbled unconscious. Waylan turned the stick and pointed it straight at Pete, “He resisted arrest, understand.” Pete nodded. He turned away and grasped at the doorframe for leverage. I’ve never seen anything so gruesome, he thought. “How does something like this happen?” Pete whispered into his hand. Waylan smirked at the rookie. “You’re naïve. This happens everyday all day long.” He shook Pete’s shoulder with malice and his words dripped with icy rage, “Don’t think you won’t see something like this again. Now be useful and let’s get this jerk in the patrol car while we wait for the coroner.” Pete tripped on Joyce’s leg. “You think he did it?” “No Petey, I think the guy who showed up to clean the HVAC and phoned it in did it.” Waylan’s sarcasm caused Pete to bristle. “You don’t know he did it,” Pete retorted. “You don’t know he didn’t.” 12 months later Jade clung to the cold concrete wall willing herself not to cry. She could not afford to be discovered in her hiding place in an alcove beside the dusty utility room. She had thought she had finally discovered the answers she had been searching for at the United Science Covenant but now she realized much too late that there were evil forces at work behind the peaceful smiles on the faces of the passionate recruiters she had met two months before. Jade recalled the first time she met the followers of USC. They were standing outside the exit of a rock concert. They seemed so fresh and radiated this feeling that she knew she had to get for herself. Even though she had been a little high, she could not mistake the euphoria she felt in their presence. And they welcomed her with open arms, accepted her for who she was and did not ask anything in return, at least not at first. Now Jade felt trapped. How I could have been so wrong, she thought desperately, as she sneaked another peak at the horror unfolding before her eyes. A single light bulb dangling from the ceiling illuminated the shallow darkness. There was a man strapped down to a table. His hands and feet secured tightly with thick leather straps. A man she knew simply as Marcus stood over him holding a long thin metal cylinder. Marcus jabbed the man on the table hard in the side, Jade was certain she heard the snapping of bone beneath the thrust. Immediately, Jade knew she had stumbled onto something unknown to most of those belonging to the USC fellowship. ”Tell me!” Marcus screamed. As he spoke saliva sprayed from his mouth and for a moment Jade thought he looked devoid of any humanity. He seemed to take on an animal like barbarism. Marcus continued mercilessly, “I know you told someone. We always know. Jimbo, Jimbo, poor stupid Jimbo, can’t even follow the simplest of instructions. Go to the house deliver the package and tell no one.” As he taunted the man on the table, his voice changed octaves and Marcus appeared to enjoy drawing out each syllable. “I promise,” the man cried, “I didn’t, I didn’t tell anyone, I swear.” “Now you’re lying again Jimbo, we know. Weren’t you listening?” Marcus circled the table as he spoke waving the rod back and forth through the air like a pendulum. Jim trembled harder knowing that as soon as he told Marcus what he wanted to know he would die. It was inevitable. Jim had tried to keep the secret but he had never been any good at keeping secrets. He always told someone, usually his mother. Jim wished his mother were there now. I would have liked to go to Disneyland, he thought. But he knew he would never ride Magic Mountain. He would never do any of those things taped to his refrigerator at home. Jim looked at Marcus from the corner of his eye as he passed the head of the table. He could tell Marcus was getting ready to hurt him again. Before Jim could open his mouth to end his suffering, Marcus began to sing, “Innie, Mennie, Minnie, Mo,” Marcus laughed as he brought the rod down across Jim’s left kneecap. Jim’s agonizing cry overpowered the small gasp Jade let slip passed her lips. She silently prayed that Jim would be all right. What could he have possibly done to deserve this kind of torture, Jade thought? She watched as Jim’s nose ran and his shirt beneath the arms revealed rings of perspiration. She focused on what he was saying. Jim’s voice was hoarse as Marcus leaned in to hear his confession. “Candace, I told my girlfriend Candace Rain,” he continued as tears coursed down his weathered face, “I just didn’t want her to leave me. She thought I was cheating on her. Candace never liked that old preacher anyway and I thought she would be impressed at how I was part of the plan.” As Jim spoke, Marcus moved away from the table. Jade breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Marcus lay the rod down. Maybe it’s over, she thought. Jim kept talking and Marcus appeared to ignore him as he rambled on, “Reverend Stone is so self-righteous, she would say. Candace didn’t believe in God she thought we were all reincarnated, over and over. There isn’t a God, she’d say. There isn’t a God.” “Oh there is a God, Jim.” Marcus’ voice deepened, “Candace was wrong about that but she’ll be meeting him shortly.” Pfff, the soft sound of the gun firing contradicted the finality of Jim’s life gone in a second. Jade heard the soft pop before her mind registered what her eyes saw. Marcus held a gun inches from Jim’s temple and all this stuff had sprayed out on the floor. He killed him, Jade tried to process. He is dead and I have seen the whole thing, Jade thought as panic began to unfurl its wings within her belly. Fear consumed her entire body causing her to shake. Leaning flat against the wall, she knew real terror for the first time in her life. Her breathing came rapidly and a voice inside her head told her what her body refused to do, “Run.” Louder and with more urgency the voice said, “RUN!” Jade ran. Up the stairs and down the hallway, Jade ran. Her feet felt like lead as she pushed on harder. When she came to the door, she fumbled. It stuck and she began to cry. Desperate, she pushed and kicked until it came loose. The door bounced against the jam and knocked her a few steps back.