Post by Bishop on Oct 9, 2014 22:19:43 GMT -6
****ORIGINAL POSTED ON STATIC WRESTLING FEDERATION****
Somewhere outside the limits of Las Vegas Bishop and Annabelle are driving, in a recently fixed Bentley. It is near sunset, and they are hurrying more than usual. Bishop is expecting something, and he does not want to be on the wrong end of it.
“We have a slight issue, so we have a stop, and then we will return to Vegas. Stay in the car.”
“What do yo-“
“STAY in the car Annabelle.”
“…”
Bishop walks into a YMCA just outside of Las Vegas, its smells and sounds drifting lightly on the breeze. The sand moves seemingly in patterns with the breeze across the ground Annabelle is staring at. Turning her head towards the building, she sees various people coming and going, and realizes that the building not only has the facilities of a YMCA, but is in fact housing for several families. Assuming the residence is Pentecostal funded, if not owned, Annabelle, now out of the car and stretching her legs, glances into the various open windows on the back side of the building. Families eating dinner, praying, even playing video games.
“I am smart enough to know that stay in the car means stay out of the building. So I will” Annabelle thought to herself.
She smiles to herself softly as she reacts to a ball rolling towards her, yellow with a smile on it, from the doorway of the building. A blond toddler trots after it, only to freeze when she sees Annabelle.
“Hi there. Is this yours?”
“..yes..Who are you?”
The little girl walks a few steps closer to Annabelle, her eyes Caribbean blue. They are bright, reflecting the colors of the sky behind Annabelle. Her eyes are innocent, yet holding a tension and apprehension for the ‘stranger’ she saw in Annabelle, that for every step closer, they seemed to darken and shadow.
“My name is Annabelle. You can call be Belle.”
“What’s your name?” Annabelle says handing the ball out as a sign of good faith. “Do you live here?”
Seeing the situation was to appear safe for the moment, the little girl takes the ball from Annabelle. “My names Mary”
“That’s a beautiful name, is it like the Virgin Mary?”
Even more elated that Annabelle knows about the same religious texts Mary has read every night since learning to read, she begins to open up a bit more.
“It sure is! Mommy says that I’m her little angel, and some day if I’m good, I’ll meet the REAL Mary.”
“I’m sure you will Mary.” Feeling inquisitive, and wanted to take advantage of her new found friend. “So what else is in here besides a pool and your houses?”
“Just Mr. M’s rooms. We aren’t allowed in those, they...”
“Mary! Come inside!”
“That’s Mommy. Gotta go. Bye Belle!”
“Bye Mary.”
Noticing that it has been a long time since Bishop went inside the building. Not wanting to disobey him, Annabelle walks close enough by the door to see inside every time someone opens it during the resident’s comings and goings. Pacing back and forth, back and forth, she get close enough to reach out and touch the door handle herself. Finally, the door opens and Bishop runs directly into Annabelle, who freezes in place, staring directly into Bishop’s eyes.
He grabs her, and pushes her towards the car.
“Take it easy! I wasn’t going into the building...”
“I TOLD YOU TO STAY OUT FOR A REASON. THIS...” regaining his composure,”…This place will NEVER be a place you have to go. Not everyone can be trusted.”
“Pentecostal that can’t be trusted?”
“A Pentecostal outreach.”
“So what was that all about?”
“We think that your-“
No sooner than the words pass his lips, as the sound of thunder echoes from the building and around the emptiness of the landscape, enveloping the two. A scream pierces the now dark desert. Bishop and Annabelle turn around to see a teenage girl running out of the door, blood streaming down her face. Each step she takes outside of the door, she begins to stumble more and more. Getting close enough to touch Bishop’s face, her hand comes up to his cheek. Tears are smearing her mascara down her face, as she collapses and falls face-first directly in front of him, a bullet hole in the back of her head.
The thunder increases in rapidity, coming from different floors of the building, the flashes seen through some of the darkened windows. Blood splattering up upon the glass, the situation taking even Bishop by surprise. Bishop could react, Annabelle began sprinting towards the door, more out of blind instinct than actual heroism.
Screaming at the top of her lungs, brought on my a natural sense of maturnity:
“MARY!? MARY!!”
“ANNABELLE!” Bishop catches up to Annabelle in the entryway of the Y, putting both arms around her waist and lifting her up as he tries to turn her towards the door. Before he could turn to leave, Bishop makes eye contact with a person inside coming from inside one of the rooms connected to the entryway. The stranger is pulling a woman by her hair, it is clear he has beaten her almost to death. The stranger notices Bishop, and gazes in to his eyes.
A burning gaze, that, had Annabelle not been present, would make Bishop risk his entire existence on this plane to extinguish. The stranger tilts his head, and the thunder is heard, the flash is seen, and the blood from the first victim parent’s splatters stains the strangers face. The stranger raises the Uzi, and points it at Bishop, shoving the now lifeless body aside. In a moment of pure adrenaline, greater than any that he has felt in the ring, Bishop dives to the side, Annabelle in hand as the door behind where they stood shatters in a hail of bullets.
Bishop grabs a table and throws Annabelle underneath it, as he crawls to the nearest wall, and pulls a cable attached to an electrical box. The entire building goes dark. Panic is still heard from the floors above, the sounds of dozens of feet running up and down the hallways in complete pandemonium. Instinctually trying to find a way out, the residents eventually try to escape in the path of a bullet, and body after body is heard falling lifelessly to the floor as they fall victim to the shooters above.
After a time, the sounds stop. The building is as dead sounding as the corpses littering it. Nothing can be heard by Bishop, except the sound of his own heartbeat. A state of focus has taken over him, a sense of guardianship, a sense of leadership. Snapping into a balance of trance and reality by the sound of Annabelle crying, Bishop slides over to her. His body narrowing avoiding being kicked by the shooter who saw Bishop, slowly entering the room in which Annabelle and he were hiding. He pulls her into him as close as possible, taking a crucifix out of his pocket and putting it in her hands, while covering her mouth to extinguish the noise. Tears flowing over his hand.
The shooter walks around the room, before eventually leaving. Bishop looks out from under the table where the two were taking refuge, as the killer has his back turned. After making sure Annabelle was safe, the intruder had to learn the God’s Punishment is worse than a gunshot.
Bishop makes his way to the shooter, once upon him, Bishop extends his leg sideways. Using the full force of his leg muscles to shatter the side of the shooter’s knee, the sound of cartilage and bones crunching breaks the silence of the dark hallway. Springing up at twice the speed the shooter is falling, Bishop covers the shooters mouth and nose, suffocating him until he loses consciousness.
“We’ll chat later.” Whispers Bishop as he hears the rest of the shooters gathering at the back entryway of the Y.
“I had to get at least 100 points for that last bitch, f*cking ugly one.”
“You don’t get shit for ugly, you get shit for rank. You see any leader here?”
“Whatever, torch the place and let’s fucking go. We got other stops, like he said, burn 'em all.”
The usual composure that Bishop exhibits under even extreme stress completely shuts down, picking up the Uzi, Bishop begins to recite the Lord’s Prayer…at full volume. Raising the Uzi to aim directly down the hallway…
“Our father, who art in heaven…”
Bishop begins to quicken his pace.
“Hallowed by thy name, thy kingdom come”
At a full run, Bishop curves the first turn, and then the second until he is face to face with the group of shooters preparing cocktails.
“Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven."
Bishop opens fire on the group, scattering bullets everywhere, shooting not for accuracy, but for mass destruction.
“Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses…”
Shooter after shooter is injured by the spray of bullets coming from Bishop.
"…for we forgive those who trespass against us.”
In a desperate attempt to stop Bishop’s assault, the last shooter to have not been injured and slide out of the door, hurls a finished cocktail in Bishop’s direction. Dodging it, the cocktail goes past Bishop into the room and explodes in a ball of flames. Distracted by this, Bishop is oblivious to the last shooter escaping, as well as the liquid under his shoes.
Finally coming to from the state he was in, Bishop began to feel a sense of dread fall over him as he realizes the scent of the liquid underneath him was all too familiar. Specifically in the powering of vehicles.
Sprinting back to where he left Annabelle, Bishop only makes it a few steps before the room explodes completely. Propelling Bishop forward, he lands on the ground, stunned from the impact.
Back under the table in the entryway, the explosion wakes up Annabelle from her fit, only for her to realize that Bishop is not by her side. She scrambles up and into the now smoke filled hallway. Yelling as loudly as she could:
“BISHOP!! BISHOP!!”
She eventually runs to the point where Bishop is laying, partially in flames. She begins to try to roll his over, finally getting him onto his stomach to put out the fire.
“Wake up! WAKE UP! You HAVE TO SAVE THEM!! WAKE UP!! BISHOP…DAMMIT GARRETT WAKE UP!”
Upon hearing his actual name for the first time in a long time, Bishop springs to life, grasping at Annabelle as he begins to enter the room again, mentally.
“Come on! We have to go!”
Dragging Bishop to a standing position, they support each other as they stumble towards the exit.
Once outside, they head around the building, back to the Bentley. Once on the other side, Annabelle hears the voice that would make her blood run cold.
“Help me! Belle!!”
Annabelle puts Bishop close enough to the car for him to get inside, and turns to see a little hand waving a yellow napkin around from inside a window. She recognizes the voice to be Mary’s, the little girl she made friends with earlier. She runs over to her, only to see that she is trapped under a table on the inside, her leg crushed underneath. The same table is on fire, and its spreading towards the child rapidly.
In the same moment of release that led her to this point, Annabelle is now faced with a greater test than any The Pentecostal could come up with. She grabs Mary’s hand and tries to pull her free, to no avail.
The attempt only furthering the agony little Mary is in, Annabelle lets go of Mary.
“Please get me out…” Mary is sobbing beyond any control, only being a child, she can’t grasp what is happening, or what happened to her family.” I want my mommy! Belle help me!! PLEASE!!!”
Annabelle stares into the flames that are now licking the nearly severed leg, and then into the blue of Mary’s eyes, now a mix of black and oranges, dancing around each other.
Barely breathing, Annabelle takes a step back, then another, then another. Turning to face the car only when its metal could be felt upon the back of her leg. Rapidly accept the inevitability of the child's fate, she is forever changed.
“Belle!! Please BELLE!!! PLEASE!!!” The intelligible words morph in bloodcurdling screams, as the flames engulf the little child. The screams fade into silence as Bishop and Annabelle prepare to drive away.
The sirens of fire trucks can be heard in the distance. As well as the crackling and crumbling of the structure, now burning from the inside.
The words, ‘someday I’ll meet the REAL Mary’ float in Annabelle’s head as Bishop starts the car. The last sight she sees of the Y are the smoke columns, and a little, yellow ball, with what used to be a smile on it, now singed and burned, sitting melted in the sand.