Crucifax Read Free

our world is now in its darkest night! Just look around you, friends, and what do you see?"
    "Nocturnal emissionaries!" Someone laughed.
    Brad took Tina's hand, and they led the way down the walk to Tiny Naylor's. Bobbi and Nick walked with a couple feet of cold space between them.
    "I really don't want to stay very long," Mallory said. "If you want, I can walk home."
    "No, I'll take you." Jeff had to slow his pace so he wouldn't leave her behind. "I just thought if d be better than hanging around the apartment."
    "… bled on the cross for our sins…" Reverend Bain-bridge droned on, his voice fading behind them.
    "Yeah," Mallory smiled up at Jeff. "I guess so."
    She stopped.
    Her smile fell away.
    Jeff stood beside her, frowning, although he wasn't sure why. He looked ahead at the others; they had stopped, too, and were looking around.
    Despite the sounds of the traffic, the boulevard suddenly seemed quiet, and everything around him seemed to slow to a liquidy, dreamlike crawl. There was a low, almost imperceptible buzz in Jeff's head, as if the roots of his crooked teeth were vibrating. The skin on his back tingled as a gentle balmy breeze began to blow, and when Jeff looked back at the Calvary Youth, he saw them standing oddly still as the pamphlets slipped from their soap-scrubbed hands and skittered down the sidewalk.
    The stragglers still coming from the theater slowed and looked around at the dazed teenagers.
    Reverend Bainbridge paused, lowering his Bible hand, and then raised it again, speaking even louder than before, trying to regain what little attention he'd had.
    "There will come a time of trouble as no man has known before, my friends, and that time has already started," he said. "The clock is ticking and… and…" He leaned toward one of the young women who had dropped her pamphlets and was slowly turning her eyes upward. "Pick them up!" he hissed.
    She did not respond.
    Mallory tilted her head back.
    So did Nick and Bobbi, Tina and Brad.
    And the Calvary Youth.
    Jeff looked up past the lights and the buildings to the dark and cloudy sky and saw nothing.
    There was a break in the clouds, a narrow, crooked opening, like a crack in a giant plaster ceiling. Something flickered. Jeff couldn't tell if the flickering was in the clouds or somewhere deep inside his head, way behind his eyes.
    He squinted, shaking his head.
    A plane, maybe? he thought. The Burbank Airport was nearby, and planes flew over all the time, their lights blinking.
    A shriek came from the group of young Christians, and a girl squealed, "It's near! It's coming! The end is coming!"
    Lightning, he thought, craning his head forward. But when he closed his eyes for a moment, the flickering seemed to continue.
    "The Holy Spirit is here, my friends!" Reverend Bainbridge shouted. "These young people have been moved by the Holy Spirit to come to you tonight—"
    Eyes open again, Jeff thought, It probably is lightning, and it's finally going to rain, and I wish that guy would shut up!
    "— not by personal gain, not by pride—"
    Maybe the rain will make Mallory feel better, and then maybe, then maybe this guy would shut the fuck up because —
    "—or a need for recognition, but by the soft murmurs of the voice of God Himself!"
    — because there is no God; if there was a God, there wouldn't be any heat waves, and —
    "They are here because they live in fear for the souls of their friends, their families, and the souls of each and every one of you! "
    The voice faded a bit and, in the edges of his vision as he looked upward, Jeff thought he noticed a dimming in the lights of the boulevard—
    Maybe… maybe it's a helicopter or —
    —and a cold hand slid into his brain and began to rummage around.
    — or assholes like my father, there wouldn 't be any of those if there was a God, and there wouldn't be any slutty sisters, no slutty sisters with revolving doors between their —
    Jeff's head jerked back suddenly as if dodging a swinging fist. His