TIME TUNNEL - The Arthur Agency: A Story of Faith
“So, we can just break into Faith’s illusion created by the demons?” Toby Jackson sighed, “That is just bizarre!”
Detective Danny Cornelius, part time time walker, opened the time tunnel chamber and positioned them both inside. “This is more of a viewing room into Faith’s story. The demons have been black magic-ed, so to speak, into the story world she is creating. Since so many characters are based on real people, they are able to gaslight her via these same people who have no idea the whispers they are getting in their heads are being used to taunt Faith. It’s all actually doing a number on her mind and soul.”
“Woah, intense!” Toby wriggled in the seat restraints and wondered out loud. “How long does it take to break into someone’s illusion?”
Danny laughed. People always seemed to relate time travel to stories like the Time Machine or Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. But the Sonic Machine gifted to them by the good galactics was very silent and only a green light on the console told him they had entered Faith’s illusion successfully. “We’re here. Technology in our possession is pretty advanced thanks to our galactic friends.”
Toby chuckled, “Galactic friends? Awesome.”
Danny shook his head wondering who Toby was channelling, Bill or Ted. The guy definitely should have been briefed before coming on board the Time Tunnel History Lessons Project or HLP which he frequently noted to himself was the Help Me Project. Time was saying “help me, fix my glitches.”
Standing quietly behind them was Lincoln Linus, one of the galactic managers of the Time Tunnel He was a large black man who wore a pin striped suit he could have pulled straight out of the forties. Linc was just one of many galactics who helped them transverse the time space continuum. The other woman who worked with them was Tessa Wainwright, a lithe platinum hair blonde with a permanent scowl. Not a woman you really wanted to mess with.
Linc spoke up using his intense baritone. “We will begin with entering her real life then show you what is about to unfold,” he said. “She really doesn’t see this coming and we will have to manage this a bit so she won’t go completely off the rails when she discovers Trisha, her good friend in the worship team was the one who betrayed everyone.”
***
Faith Waters could see Norman Baxter getting into the red SUV across the way over at Compass Point Church. He was a fit middle aged man in his fifties who had a bit of gray running through his temples already. Quite a contrast to her hair that only seemed to get darker and curlier over the years. When she had attended CP and eventually served on the worship team, it had been easy to run over to church whenever they needed her. Now her church was across town and not so convenient. Plus, she was only a background singer and not a lead so her burden wasn’t very heavy. She had done that purposely since she didn’t want to unexpectedly fall for someone she knew would never be available to her romantically. Basically, she was just hanging out on the outskirts of her new church life licking her wounds from what had happened at Compass Point six months earlier.
She really did miss the place and the people but Norman had secretly unfriended her from Facebook and kicked her out of all the church’s online groups. She still didn’t know why. Back in February she had wanted to work with the staff after she left her last job earlier that year but quickly felt like an outsider among people she’d known for years.
He glanced her way, his expression blank. Norman’s distance vision wasn’t that good and she was far enough away he probably couldn’t see her sitting on the porch and relaxing after a busy day at work. He was leaving for the day too. She had heard Norman was going to be working with Dek Fox, one of the musicians over at North Point Church where she now attended. He needed insights into what to do with the worship team after the worship leader left shortly after the old pastor. Everyone at Compass Point was still healing and a new minister had been called but he wouldn’t be available for a few months. Her old friend, Detective Ross Strong, who was a current Deacon had stepped up to take the interim position.
Ross Strong in fact was just far enough away from Faith’s house that she couldn’t see his cruiser idling on the street. He knew she was still hung up on Norman so he hadn’t made his intentions known yet. He was definitely wanting to have a more stable relationship with her first then move it on to something more romantic. Faith wasn’t one to just jump into dating without first testing the waters. Her interest in Norman was causing him a bit of panic. Not for his own intentions but Ross was concerned if Norman discovered her crush, he would use it to his advantage
The old pastor at Compass Point was the one who had convinced Norman to push out Faith. Not because of her crush but because Faith was too upstanding a citizen to let go of the fact that the pastor was using the church funds as petty cash and was just about ready to finish his con game and rush out of town, which is what he ended up doing, All the petty cash gone and church funds liquidated. Ross was still trying to find the man and bring him to justice which is why he was here idling at Faith’s house right now. He’d gotten a tip someone might be looking to attack someone from Compass Point and his greatest fear was that Faith had gotten into her old pastor 's crosshairs.
Ross saw Norman get out of his car after pulling up behind his cruiser. The two had become closer friends since he had taken over the interim position and many of the pastoral duties. He relied a lot on Norman since his job as a police detective sometimes took a lot of his notice. Norman slipped into the passenger seat of Ross' cruiser with a friendly smile and a quick question.
"Hey, boss. What's up? You get a lead on our old pastor?"
Norman could see Faith through the kitchen window trending to get dad, Henry. Her niece Cassie was focused on her phone sitting at the kitchen table. Henry had gone through a lot since the death of his wife two years earlier. He was now only coming out of the depression that Norman feared may haunt him for the rest of his life. Norman felt for the man.
Ross' answer broke into Norman's thoughts. "Unfortunately, it's not good. DNA tests along with fingerprints came back from the lab. Looks like his name is really Raymond Chase."
Norman cursed under his breath.
"You've heard of him?" Ross asked raising a curious eyebrow.
"I've come across his father a number of times in my previous career. Bailey Chase is the head of a nasty organization known as The Trust. Faith has actually run across them in the past. I never met the man but had heard of him. Not gonna lie, a real sociopath. Half my age and built like a football quarterback" Norman cursed again. "This is not good. No wonder he I insinuated himself into her life. Could be payback of some sort." He paused momentarily. "I'm getting an insight she may have known her old pastor in college. Might benefit is to pull in Jim Williams. "
Norman pulled out his phone and texted Detective Danny to check out the real name of their old pastor asking him to add alias. The response was just a thumbs up. No one knew Norman was also on the Park Ridge PD. He hoped between the three of them and their intern Toby they would get more details on exactly what they had in front of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment