Page 15 of The Red Rider
I tried to suppress it. I’d never done that before. Could it just wait ten minutes so I could find out how that man played into my father’s whole diabolical plan? I didn’t ask for charcoal. I sat there, trying to listen to Dice. It wasn’t working. The more I tried to suppress it and not draw, the more the ringing in my ears drowned out Dice.
Dice knew something was wrong. He jumped up and started shaking me, but it was like I was paralyzed. He touched my face, and I could see blood on his fingers through the haze of black in my vision. It was like my entire body seized up in a cramp. I couldn’t have even held a piece of charcoal if I was able to ask for it.
I felt my body seizing as my vision narrowed to a tiny point. The ringing in my ears was practically a roar. I couldn’t hold on anymore. I blacked out.
Chapter 9
M
y eyes fluttered open. I was flat on my back on the bed with the Horsemen of the Apocalypse flittering over me. My head could only be in Dice’s lap because I could see Aeron. Leif was right in my face, and was that his finger in my ear? It felt weird, and I tried to shove it out.
“Get your fucking finger out my ear, Leif,” I moaned.
I felt like a flaming garbage truck had hit me. My head was pounding, my muscles were sore, and it tasted like something crawled in my mouth and died.
“I’m just taking your temperature. See? It’s normal. What exactly happened, Ariel?”
I tried to remember. I’d never done this before when I didn’t draw it out. I tried to recall what I’d seen when I blacked out. I tried to sit up, and they all pressed me back into Dice’s lap. No, this was important. We needed to be ready.
“Stop! I was trying to push down a vision to find out what Dice was going to tell me about one of my father’s politicians, but I had a vision about him.”
My head was spinning. This man was still alive, and he was utterly insane. Aeron handed me a thermos of water.
“Drink this before you tell us. And tell us lying down.”
“I have to sit up to drink.”
“Fine, but lie back down,” Leif said, gently helping me sit up.
The water was cool and refreshing. It was as if pushing down that vision had depleted all the water in my body. I gulped the water down and collapsed back into Dice’s lap. I hadn’t even processed I was snuggling in his lap. It felt like it was the playoffs, and I’d played at least three softball games that day.
“You can’t push it down when you get a vision, Ariel,” Leif fussed.
“Calm down, Sparky. Who is the man Dice was telling me about? He was in my vision. He’s alive, and I think he’s on his way to Florida.”
“What did you see?” Dice demanded.
“He was driving some RV he rigged up with fences and barbed wire. He’s got this massive speaker on the top, and he’s driving from D.C. screaming sermons through the speaker about repenting. He’s got an entire horde following him. He’s not quite there yet. I saw a road sign about New Jersey in my vision.”
“I told you that you should have let me kill that fuck,” Aeron growled.
“Whois that fuck? Dice triggered a memory. My father was very excited when he got elected.”
Aeron just grumped at me.
“We aren’t telling you a damned thing unless you lie back down and relax. You scared the shit out of us. We thought one of Leif’s pets scratched you, and you were coming down with the Rage Mutation. Dice called us right away, and when we got here, you were totally limp and bleeding from the nose and ears. You can’t ignore it when you feel a vision coming.”
“Thank you, Captain Obvious. Lesson learned.”
Dice just pulled me back into his lap and started playing with my hair. Okay, I’d never be mad at someone playing with my hair, even if I wasn’t all that sure about Dice. Clearly, this man was somehow important, and he was continuing to cause problems if he was heading to Florida. People didn’t take vacations anymore. Plus, no one stuck a speaker on an RV to screamrepent or go to Hellfor good reasons.
“Okay, fine. I’m settled. Who’s the psycho?”
“Okay, remember how we told you the Book of Revelations had been altered to make the end of the world seem less dire? You would know Leonard Carmen as the Lion of Judah if you remember your scripture. In the bible, it’s a heavenly persona who breaks the seven seals to signal the second coming of Christ. In layman’s terms, it’s really the Antichrist’s errand person to bring about the end of the world,” Aeron said.
“What a dick. Why didn’t you just kill him before he managed to cause all this?”
“It doesn’t work like that in this day and age. Leonard wasn’t working alone. He was a preacher who got elected to Congress. He had other politicians, his constituents, his congregation, and lobbyist on his side. If he had disappeared without a trace or been assassinated, he would have been turned into a martyr to his people. They would have pressed harder to get his bills pushed through,” Aeron said.
