Dark Rider

“What if he doesn’t slip up just once?” Kassie questioned and earned a sigh from God, one of regret and sadness that warned her of his next words.

“Then we will search as long as he is still out there terrorizing you. My dear you should be able to live the life I have set in stone for you, you shouldn’t have to detour for your father. I promise you that once we have captured him, you will no longer have to worry for your safety and A.J.’s,” God patted Kassie’s hand that he reached out and grabbed and smiled comfortingly down at her. “I want you to do something for me.”

“What?” she questioned, a little reluctantly, it gave away in her voice, she didn’t want to have to do something scary or hard because she wasn’t very good with stress related pressure and now didn’t seem to help her problems. Seeing as she was fleeing from the scary and hard, fleeing seemed like a good idea.

“Don’t worry,” he laughed as he leaned down and whispered softly to her so low that she had to lean in farther to hear. “I just want you to make sure Francis doesn’t use his powers again, you all need to lay low for your father to lose your trail. I can no longer give you help; he can tell when I send things for your benefit. I’m not sure how, I have a slight suspicion that he’s not alone in his hunt. I believe a woman named Vega is helping him. Before she was sent to the abyss five years ago, like your father. She was a bounty hunter, like Rider.”

“So she’s tracking us for my father?” the sudden explanation caused terror to ensue her, she jumped from her chair and left God to mimic her and stand in front of her, she was scared now that since he had help she would be even more of an easy target, its not like she wasn’t to begin with but with a Bounty hunter like Rider helping him, she and A.J. had no chance.

“Kassandra,” God placed his free hand on her cheek and gave it a slight pat, calming her down slightly in result. “Rider will protect you; we just need to keep you low key so she cannot track you. I will allow this one time and one time only. To keep you all from starving I won’t hold it against you if you have to take necessary things from for survival. I’ll replace the merchandise a while after you leave to keep your trail slowed. No matter what, Kassandra, never stop except to sleep and eat, you have to get away from him while we find him.”

“This seems so—“Kassie paused and sighed heavily, trying her hardest not to cry in front of God, she figured he had seen her do it before but being in front of him doing it seemed weak and cowardly and oh so girlie of her. “Unreal.”

“It does,” God agreed as he turned both of them around and gestured for Diablo to come forward. “Lucifer will take you far away from New York now, remember what we spoke about.”

“I’ll try,” Kassie unsteadily murmured as she stepped forward and took Diablo’s outstretched hand, she turned around and looked at God with tired, frightened eyes. “Thank you for trying, God.”

“Christ, I prefer Christ, it makes me seem more human I believe,” he corrected her as he smiled perfectly down at her. “And don’t thank me just yet. Be safe my child.”

“Uh huh,” she murmured again but that time a bit more shaky as Diablo placed both arms around her shoulders and gave her a quick comforting hug, Diablo turned and nodded to God, then he began to walk down the hill towards Rider and A.J. who waited patiently at the bottom surrounded by many walking, wondering spirits.

“Don’t worry, Christ, I won’t let you down. I’ll make sure that Lester Mackerel is sentenced to be unmade, Alexander and Kassandra will live their life out fully as planned, uninterrupted by this nuisance,” Diablo explained as he stood beside Rider, handing over Kassie’s hands to Rider who scooped her up into a well deserved hug on her part.

“I don’t know what he said; it kind of went over my head. All I know is that he can’t help us, he can only find dad and that will take time and patience,” Kassie placed her face into Rider’s shirt and sobbed. She felt like a crybaby, a ninny for being so weak but at least she wasn’t crying in front of him. Crying made her feel better though, it washed away all her worry and fear, she needed to cry out but she didn’t want too.

“Don’t worry,” Rider whispered as he looked up and sent a knowing nod towards God, who nodded his head back and looked at Diablo with permission to leave. When Diablo placed his hands on both Rider’s and A.J.’s shoulders, the scene that showed beautiful meadow like lands surrounded in spirits walking around aimlessly turned into a dirt road surrounded by dead trees. “This is the best you could have done?”

“On such a small area with so little power to do so, be happy it wasn’t in the woods rather than the road,” Diablo grumbled sarcastically as he lifted his hands from the men’s shoulders and walked forward, turning on his heel he sighed and stared at all three of them. Bunched together, looking lost as ever, he wondered if he and Christ could really help them, Rider would live so to speak and if not he would die doing his duty, he would only be sent back to Christ who would turn him back into a fallen angel. But the children, he thought, would have to return again and start over since they hadn’t fulfilled their life as of yet. The map they were set to follow hadn’t been finished designed, they had plenty to do that had still been left undone. Taking another deep, regretful breath he walked forward and placed his hands on Kassie’s back gently. “Let the speed of a thousand angels led you to your final destination.”

“You make it sound like I am going to die,” Kassie croaked out with a small laugh, though it sounded forced, Diablo smiled some. He reached over and pulled her from Rider’s chest into his own, giving her a tender and loving hug that she couldn’t exactly react too.

“I have faith in you to pull through this, your strong, Kassandra. You can do this, A.J. was right about you. You aren’t one to give up easily. You have fight in you, and I believe that you would fight until the end of time if you were given the chance,” he whispered into her ear as he held her close, giving her time to relax in the embrace before he let her go.

“When did he say that?” she wiped underneath her right eye, the tears that had fallen moments before had settled under her damp lashes, leaving little shining spots of moisture.

“Not to long ago,” he explained as he took a step back, with a glance to each person he cleared his throat. “I will try my hardest to set this back to the way it once was. Rider, take care of them, with this on your record you might just come back as a high up angel. There is no help for me, but you, I believe will once again become an angel.”

“I don’t believe it but, thanks for the encouragement there Lucy,” Rider shrugged his shoulders with doubt as Kassie made her way back into his protecting arms. “Even if it did make me look like a hero, I’m not doing it for the status. Kassie and A.J. need me and I’m not leaving him defenseless. If I had to be thrown into the abyss for helping them, I’d take the consequences.”

“You don’t know how much that little statement brings up the respect I have for you,” Diablo smiled and suddenly disappeared, though one second Kassie saw him and the moment she blinked he was missing. She went limp against Rider’s chest and groaned.

“I hate my dad, its not like I had a good childhood, he had to screw it up but damn! Did he have to mess up my adulthood too?” she questioned out loud into no one in particular, she listened with closed eyes to the sounds around her. Rider’s deep breathing, signaling he was thinking out a plan. A.J.’s rapidly moving footsteps, showing that he was pacing from the awkward silence and the faint sounds of cars miles and miles away. “Car?”

“Yes we need a car but we don’t have one, we can take one from—“Rider began to explain but was abruptly cut off when Kassie jerked away from his arms in one fluent movement and began racing down the dirt road. Rider and A.J. glanced at each other with matching looks of confusion before they turned back to the slowly fading away figure of Kassie and they both took off to catch her. “What is she doing?”

“I don’t know, she met with God and I think she lost her mind!” A.J. shouted over the sounds of rocks, dirt and gravel that crunched under their feet as they ran, as silent as it was around them it sounded as if they were jumping on a bed of glass or eating on pop rocks and Pepsi.

“No,” Rider quietly murmured as he looked towards the right wall of trees and bushes, slowly a smile made its way across his face until it turned into a knowing smirk. “That girl, she’s brilliant! She heard the highway from back there!”

“Highway, I thought we were in the middle of the damn woods,” A.J. had resorted to screaming as they slowly advanced on Kassie who was beginning to wind down and slow in pace.

Rider snapped him a look before he fixed his gaze on the back of Kassie’s red locks of flowing curly hair. “You should watch your mouth, A.J. your only twelve. I bet Kassie doesn’t like you cussing.”

Frowning at the fact that Rider had just scolded him like a child of mere infant years, A.J. looked away from him as he sped in his sprint towards Kassie. “No,” he paused to grumble under his breath. “She hates it when I cuss; she says it reminds her of her rebelled years.”

“Its funny,” Rider chuckled as they came closer to Kassie while the trees thinned out and beyond the darkness, bright lights could be seen zipping by. “She sure does cuss a lot to detest it so much.”