Morningstar/Alignment by Keith Trimm (people reading books txt) 📕

"What on Earth travels at the speed of light? How can this be a naturally occurring event? You’re theory is flawed," Alex said.

"Not everything has to move very far or in the same direction," Tony rebutted.

Brinkman just watched the men go at it. Alex was set aback by this last comment and had no answer. Tony felt he had finally got him on that point.

"It would be like a microwave oven," Alex said. "Like a burned instant burrito."

"True, but not if all the matter was moving in the same direction. You don’t burn up when you walk do you? All your molecules head in the same direction."

"I see," Said Brinkman. "Makes more sense to me now."

"Sounds like science fiction to me," Alex said, and he headed off leaving Tony and Brinkman to discuss the issue further.

"I may have a job offer for you." Brinkman said to Tony as he watched Parsons disappear behind into the building. "If you don’t mind working for the government that is."

Chapter 9

July 5, 1969

It was the first Saturday night of the month, the night reserved for the New Moon Sacrifice. Torches were lit and the members of the church huddled around the concrete slab, next to the run-down shack, like sharks in a feeding frenzy. Standing next to the slab, dressed in black and red was Seth, the high priest of the church. To his left, two sheriff’s deputies restrained Brother Follett from behind, forcing him to kneel in a twisted, contorted, painful position. The sheriff stood silently by watching. The torchlight flickered on the men dancing in and out shooting shadows that danced on the trees surrounding them.

"Welcome children," Seth said to the flock, his arms raised up to the sky. "We have once again come to show reverence to out father, the Morning Star." He looked out to the attentive audience, silent and hungry for each word he spoke. "This is a special night," he said pausing, scanning the crowd. "Not only because it is the mass of the Sacrifice, but because the prophecy has been fulfilled!" he shouted.

The crowd gasped and a collective murmur resonated throughout the mass of astonished parishioners.

"Our savior has come, and tonight we will be with him," Seth said bowing his head with the words. The crowd was silent; the only sounds penetrating were those of the crickets chirping in the midsummer night heat.

"Not all is well," he added. He slowly turned to face Brother Follett who was restrained and bound. "Some among you have turned your backs to the church. Some among you have plotted to destroy the very foundation that keeps us together. Some of you no longer speak the truth!"

Follett’s eyes burned through Seth’s as he spoke about him to the crowd, their mutual stare locked them together, like the horns of two fighting rams. He pulled and tugged, but was unable to free himself from his captors wanting desperately to attack his accuser just ten feet away.

"No! It is all a lie!" Follett yelled to the crowd. He was answered with a punch in the kidney from behind. He gasped for air as he reeled from the pain.

Seth seemed to glide on air as he walked over to Brother Follett who now was doubled over in agony. "Brother Follett has graciously named all of his coconspirators," Seth said sweeping his hand across the crowd. "During a moment of repentance he reflected on his actions and prayed for forgiveness. As you can see he has once fallen again," he added looking down upon the prisoner.

"You…" Brother Follett yelled. Before he could get out another word he was again punched from behind.

"Brother Follett had decided to repent for his sins to the father. I shall make sure he keeps his promise," Seth said and took a single step away. "If any of you decide to confess your sins I will again baptize you releasing you of your sins. All the father asks is repentance."

Faces in the crowd turned to look at each other, members trying to decide who among them were of the rebellion.

"If you come forward now, I will spare you of our fallen brother’s punishment." Seth said to the crowd. "If you make me force you out like rats in a sewer, you will feel the punishment."

"I gave no names!" Follett screamed. He was immediately shoved to the ground, gagged and beaten before the mass of church members.

"He lies!" Seth yelled. He again turned to the crowd. "I will give you but one chance to confess freely! Those of you who refuse will pay the ultimate price!"

From the crowd, a small group of members approached the slab and climbed up onto it. The faces of the congregation twisted to hate as they witnessed these few come forth and proclaim their disdain for the church.

"What crime am I being accused of?" a woman from the small group asked. "Is it a crime to speak the truth?"

Seth turned away from the woman ignoring her and addressed the mass. "Three days ago, this sacred ground was violated. Our burial vault, hidden for over thirty years, was discovered and then desecrated by an outsider. One of you unlocked the entrance to the chamber and allowed this to occur. One of you was trying to subvert the church and sabotage our mission."

"We are guilty of nothing I say! You have no proof any one of us doing this."

"If you are not guilty, then why do you come forth?"

"We come forth to expose you!" she yelled.

The crowd churned and voices grumbled throughout.

"Me? How dare you?" Seth asked.

"You are such a fool!" she yelled to him. "A blind fool so self-absorbed with your own glory and power to see that Brother Follett was coming to kill you!"

"Kill me? I am the great protector! You’re…"

"You are the great deceiver, the prince of lies incarnate!" she yelled now looking to the crowd. "You unlocked the gate to the chamber allowing the intruders inside! You wanted the church discovered so you could expose the secret to the whole world. Brother Follett was only trying to protect what you were trying to destroy!"

Seth stood dumbfounded on the slab, his eyes glued to the women accuser before him. He looked to the crowd and again raised his hands. "She is trying to save herself. I am the keeper of the doctrine, the high priest. Why would I want to expose it to the outside?" He asked.

"You’re power hungry, and a mad man!" she barked back at him. Your love of power is only dwarfed by your hate of keeping the secret."

"You are insane." Seth said calmly and called for his deacon’s to silence her. They gagged her and dragged her off the slab before she could do any more damage and insight the crowd into an uncontrollable mass. He looked to the sheriff standing by the shed and said "Tonight I shall present to you the son of our Lord, but first I must make a sacrifice to his holiness worthy of him." He held out his hand and the sheriff walked over presenting him with Follett’s hunting knife. "With this I shall show reverence to my Lord."

The crowd was now silent as they watched the ceremony-taking place on the concrete slab before them. The calm night air, rest upon the hundreds of parishioners, as they stood in awe of the power of the sacrament about to unfold, unshaken by the previous scandal.

"All souls he takes he claims as his own." Seth said looking down at the knife in his hand. He looked up and held the knife above his head. The crowd yelled in approval. He walked over to Follett and motioned the two deputies restraining him to bring him to his feet. "Brother Follett!" he proclaimed to the crowd. "The decision of sacrifice has been made in the name of our Lord Lucifer. In his name I thee baptize!"

The knife plunged deep into Follett’s heart and remained there as Seth watched him fall to the ground, striking the slab with his skull.

"Our Lord is pleased!" he stated to the crowd as blood drained from Follett’s body onto the concrete. "It is now time for the prophecy to be fulfilled."

The sheriff deputies, now freed from restraining Follett, walked over and helped haul up the wild man they had found in the basement of the Johnson house, onto the slab. The man looked about wildly at the many faces staring back at him from below like a scared helpless child. His arms were forced out to his sides, held fast by the deputies, his pose resembling that of Christ on the cross, his body resembling a tortured soul. He tried to pull free, but the four men holding him gave little as he struggled to get away.

"Don’t be afraid my son." Seth said to the prisoner touching his face with the back of his hand. "You are a caterpillar waiting to be reborn into a beautiful butterfly." Seth nodded to the sheriff standing close and said, "The time is now."

The sheriff stepped in front of the prisoner and faced out to the crowd, blocking the man from view. He knelt down on one knee and drew his service revolver, placing it in his mouth with his thumb on the trigger. His eyes grew red for a second. He then he pulled the trigger. Pop went the gun, and the sheriff fell to the side landing hard on the slab. The prisoner standing behind was released from his captors grip and grabbed his abdomen as blood poured forth from the bullet wound.

The prisoner dropped to his knees and stared at the blood on the slab, mute and bewildered. His long dirty hair fell back as he lost his life, collapsing back to the concrete slab. Both the sheriff and the prisoner lied flat on the concrete lifeless and limp. The crowd began to rumble and Seth raised his hand to silence it without taking his eyes off the two dead men at his feet.

Chapter 10

July 5, 1969

The wild man rose up, standing before the crowd, healed of its bullet wound. Its eyes were now the same color red the sheriff’s eyes had been a moment before. There had been a transformation of body and soul. The monster, mute from the day it was discovered, now opened his mouth before the astonished crowd and proclaimed," I am the son of the Morning Star!" The crowd stood silent in fear.

Seth backed away in his master’s presence bowing down on one knee.

I have not come to judge the living nor the dead," the wild man said, addressing the crowd. "I am here to fulfill a promise to my father, to fill his kingdom with faithful, reverent, souls. Your only purpose is to assist me with my task."

Standing naked and dirty, the Son of the Morning Star gripped the iron collar from around his neck and tore it off with both hands letting it, and the chain fall to the concrete with a clang and a rattle. "I stand before you as your savior, your God on Earth," he stated scanning the mass before him. "My father has given me a name. A name for which you shall all call me by. My name is Alex!" he yelled to the silent group while pointing to the scar on his shoulder and chest. "My father branded me, putting forth my name for all to see." He paced the slab becoming more animated. "From this day forward you shall call me master. You shall call me your savior. The outside world will know me as Alex. I shall know you as my slaves."

His red eyes darted back and forth making hard eye contact with several members of the church. "Your only goal is to die and be reborn into an eternity with my father, you have no higher