The Wrath Walker (The Wrath Series Book 1) by Matthew Newson (moboreader txt) 📕

much as even listened to a sermon in years, those principles still guided and judged my every motive, thought, and action no matter how hard I tried to block them out.

Every time I strayed from them over the years, it only increased the levels of guilt and shame already compounded on top of the stack that continued to crush and torment my soul every day. I thought about asking God and others to be forgiven, but I never did, because I truly deserved to suffer for my sins. I wondered when the day finally came, when I had been tormented enough, would I feel like a man who had been released from spending years in solitary confinement?

With my luck, on that day the sun upon my face and fresh air blowing across my skin, freedom would only become my next imprisoned state.

A man like me could never be truly free.

I recognized that I was spiraling to the depths of the abyss of my internal sadness, and I couldn’t stop it with reading my old law books. I needed to talk to someone at that moment, but I had no friends to turn to except for one man who would always talk to me.

I drove to The Holy Anointed Church, and hoped Phillip was there and not busy. As I approached the parking lot, I saw his car, and felt a wave of relief hit me as I pulled in and parked. Since it wasn’t Sunday, I figured he’d be alone working in his office on a message or whatever pastors did during the week. I remembered there was a doorbell on the side door to the church by Phillip’s office he had installed for deliveries when the church was closed. I rang the bell and Phillip appeared at the glass door within seconds with a welcoming smile.

“Hey, Brandon, how are you?” He looked genuinely happy to see me, and I had to admit to myself it felt nice. I had received so many looks of disdain from others for so long that I had grown to accept them as a normal part of my life.

“Hey, Phillip, I um... I came by to talk. If you have a minute.”

“Well sure, come on in, I’m just prepping my message for this coming Sunday.”

“You’re busy, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I’ll come back another time.”

“Don’t worry about that, I could use a break from staring at my computer screen. I’ve been in front of that thing all day. Come inside, please.” Phillip motioned for me to follow. We went to his office, and again I was amazed by the sheer elegance of the room. It just seemed too nice for a pastor’s office, but then again it was a big church, and the rest of the building looked just as good. I figured God was okay with churches being more on the higher end of the elegance spectrum, because if they were ugly and run down, no one would want to go to them. We sat down and I thought about what I wanted to talk about, and the exact words I should use.

“What brings you by today?” Phillip sat and folded his hands together on the top of his desk.

I sat and shifted around in the chair as I tried to get comfortable and settle the nervous energy that filled my insides. “Several things, to be honest with you.”

“Are you still wondering about that Wrath Walker guy we talked about before? Have you seen him again?”

“No, I haven’t seen him, but we can get to that later. I just came from Joey’s Kitchen.”

“I love their lunch specials.”

“Yeah, that’s great, Phillip, but I went there and had a conversation with Joey about the Wrath guy possibly coming after him.”

“You did? How did that go?”

“Not as good as one might think.” I looked around the room, kicking myself internally again over the arrogance of my actions. I should have known better than to think Joey would ever listen to me.

“I can only imagine someone wouldn’t be happy to hear that they’re being targeted by a... What was this guy again?”

“He said he was a Wrath Walker, that he was the living embodiment of God’s wrath on the earth. You’re right by the way, Joey didn’t take it well. He told me to never come back to his restaurant and if I did there would be serious consequences. You know he’s mobbed up, right? He and the rest of the Amaras are responsible for the majority of the crime in this town, but they are paid up with the right people, so no one ever arrests them.”

“I’ve heard rumors about him and the people he associates with, but I try to stay out of all that. The Bible teaches us to avoid gossip, since the majority of people can’t confirm if what they are saying is true.”

“If the Amaras are good at anything, it’s covering their tracks and leaving no loose ends.”

“I can see you do not care for Joey or any of the Amaras. So, tell me this if you will, Brandon, why did you try and warn Joey that someone might be after him? You had to have known he wasn’t going to listen to you and would respond to you in the way that he did.”

“I don’t know. I guess I thought... Well, maybe if I could... It started last night, when I went through some of my old case files and figured Joey would be his next target. I figured I’d warn him, so he could at least be on the lookout or something.”

“That was nice of you. Some might even say, it was a very Christianly of you to do that for one of your enemies.”

“Truth be told, I’ve wanted to kill that guy for years. I think some would say that’s not Christian of me at all.”

“That’s not Christianly or moral, so why did you go warn him? Why not just sit back and see what happens?”

“Because that’s not