Humming to the melody, the priest reached for the gun, noticing from the corner of his eye as the bartender hurried away.“I suppose I could have had a worse time with you,” Ángel said, gripping the handle.“But don’t worry, Babylon will miss you even if I won’t.”Maybe Gemory had been smart enough to lock the doors on her way out, or to pay off the security guards.Even if she hadn’t — the priest was guaranteed a good massacre just by virtue of how far the exit was.Casinos were labyrinths by design.Lifting the weapon, Ángel pointed it at the first casualty, and then watched the wicked man’s body thrown backward at the first barrage of bullets.Those behind him burst into red similarly, bones splintering, muscles bursting.And then, all those running and shouting followed.
‘The book,’ said the star to Dina, ‘of the end times.Of the anti-Christ.’
‘Is this about… Tadeo?’
‘He doesn’t know what he is.You must guide him into becoming a false prophet.The way I’ve guided you, you must guide him.’
Dina kept, kept, thinking of Uriel, of the old archangel desperate tostop the apocalypse from ever happening.‘Forgive me.’It seemed this truly was God’s will.‘Uriel, I wasn’t sent here to save them or to save us.’And neither was Tadeo.
In the midst of massacre, the beautiful Satan listened to the agony and fear, drank it all in, as he lifted his stilettos over bodies and walked.He’d have to leave now; he’d have to tell a story the people would believe.He had to avoid this much carnage again any time soon.“Oh Tadeo,” sighed Satan, “what ever will I do with you?”
CHAPTER10
On the television, there was something about a terror attack in a faraway casino.It shouldn’t have warranted so many hours of news time — after all, the migrant massacre down the road had been so recent — but some important people had been killed here.A friend of the president up north, of Babylon, and a top executive of a diamond company.And there are some lives that matter more than others.Tadeo may not understand this, not yet, but Joana did, sitting beside his mother and raising the volume on the television.At her other side, the angel Dina was sitting with his arms folded over one of the armrests of the couch, his cheek resting on his inner elbow.
A commentator was insisting that this terror was a global sin and that a nation like Babylon should be wary, for it bordered a place infested with crime and terror.After all, there was a massacre of migrants, down a road, just days ago.At that, Joana snorted before a hand came around her own, reaching from behind the couch, to yank the TV remote from her hand.
“Put on a movie,” Tadeo sighed, “or just anything that isn’t going to depress my mother or our angel.”He pressed on the channel button a few times until he settled on a film from a few decades ago, a comedy.Dina immediately perked up, only to tilt his face and wide eyes to Tadeo, as if he’d just remembered the young man lived here too.Then, Tadeo tossed the remote back onto the couch and adjusted the cloth bag over his shoulder of extra clothing.
“Are you heading out already?”Joana asked, nodding her head at the hat that Tadeo wore — atejana, old and darkened brown.“The soldiers shouldn’t get to town for another couple hours.But, I have a gift for you — before you go.”She slapped her hands on her knees, and the angel Dina turned to look at her, too, as she stood.
He’d been strange the last few days — Dina.Tadeo had noticed; the angel was quieter, spending most of his hours beside Tadeo’s mother in the living room.All the angel did was watch television, and he had yet to elaborate on the end of the world or saving it.
Setting his jaw, Tadeo looked to the wall by the nativity arrangement of biblical figurines and Day of the Dead portraits, where he saw what he’d expected.“I don’t need those,” he said instantly.Against the altar, there were two long automatic assault rifles.“I have what I need.”A pistol and a Beast beneath his skin.“But thank you.”However level his voice, he couldn’t force it to sound sincere.He’d told Joana a hundred times that he didn’t want more firearms, but she continued insisting that he shouldn’t rely on transforming into his monstrous self, that he should use regular weapons and rely on his abilities to heal.Often, she’d remind him that there was no telling what could happen if a video of Tadeo as a beast leaked to the rest of the world.
Joana rested her hands on her lower back, looking suddenly quite old for someone not much older than a teen.Pursing her lips, quirking a brow, she said, “If you can’t do the smart thing for yourself, you should do it for your family.”
Tired, Tadeo let out a breath and decided to walk toward the door, saying, “I’m not going to war, Joana.I’m just going to speak with the soldiers.”As he moved, he heard the couch creak — the angel slowly rising to shuffle closer.“No,” he said quickly, stopping, twisting back to face Dina.“I’m sorry.I should do this alone.Is that alright?God will see, and if I can, I wouldn’t want an angel to see if it all goes wrong.”
Dina blinked in confusion, hesitated.“I,” he paused, “suppose so.I can wait here with your family.”His voice was soft, and when the wail of a baby in the kitchen — the infant of Tadeo’s cousin — sounded, as always, he startled.
“After this is over,” Tadeo added, “we can talk about what to do about… the end of the world you told me about when we met.”Then, he tried a weak smile.“I just have to save this town before I can save the world.”The angel’s eyes flickered, but he didn’t say another word, and his expression seemed to fall away and leave nothing in its wake.Tadeo had seen Dina do this a few times, but he’d never known what to make out of it, a part of him believed that this was Dina receiving guidance from Heaven, something he wasn’t supposed to share.“I’ll go now.”He shifted from one foot to another.“I’ll be back soon.”Before heading for the door, Tadeo quickly went to press a kiss to his mother’s hair to try and soothe his trembling heart.He said goodbye another time, and then he headed for the door.
Dina stared in that direction for a few seconds in silence before he heard the sound of steps coming up behind him.Joana’s voice stiffly said: “I taught him how to shoot.”Dina turned back, staring at the young woman, or old girl — whose eyes were dead set on him, both her hands slid into her back pockets.“Everything he knows he learned from me.”Nearby, the baby was still screaming.“I’ve worked really hard on him.”
Dina had noticed this before, but he really asked it to himself now: ‘Why aren’t you mystified by me?’All of Tadeo’s family had been.‘You’re not afraid of me?’
From the kitchen, Tadeo’s grandmother shouted for Joana’s help with something, and she called back, “Voy.”I’m going.She turned on her heel, but before she walked away, she stopped and added in a murmur, “And he’s done a lot of good, but he has a lot left to finish.Something to keep in mind before you do anything.”
‘Who is she?’Dina asked Apsinthos, but the star didn’t answer.
As Tadeo walked, he felt the ghost of Dina’s angelic gaze lingering on him.He’d killed before; God knows he’d killed before, but an angel’s presence made him so much more aware of his sin.‘But you know,’ Tadeo called out to Heaven, ‘that it’s self-defense.I’m not violent because I want to be.You did this to me because you know, God.’The first blood you spill never leaves you, and he could still taste the meat of the first soldiers he’d slaughtered in an empty lot ten years ago.‘Jesus, you know holy war is necessary sometimes.To defeat evil.’Jesus had tried peace first too.
Even for Tadeo, the walk in the warm winter afternoon throughout the town was strenuous, but he always avoided using a car when possible, didn’t want his grandfather’s car to be implicated.
Right outside of town, along the highway, there was an overpass with a wall of missing-person posters.Countless people disappeared since everything had all begun nearly two decades ago now, maybe farther back.Tadeo struggled to know when everything had turned into this — this wall of faces, smiling or serious, some cropped from what must’ve been family photos, friend photos.As he set down his cloth bag and leaned back against a pillar — avoiding covering the images of the people — he distantly remembered his grandfather rushing to gather all the pictures of Tadeo’s dad after he’d been missing for too many hours.They’d used a photo of Tadeo, his mother, and his father at a park; a perfect day now forever associated with kidnapping, torture, and murder.
‘Kidnapping, torture, and murder.’
Immediately, Tadeo shut his eyes, stopped his thoughts.His blood had begun to cool.If he continued remembering, he would lose sight of where he was and what he was supposed to do.He’d learned that you never learn to bear it — the world that you’re born into.One had to forget to survive.Reaching for his hat, he removed it to begin fanning his face.He pointedly tried to think of dinner.He hated to stand under a bridge — the corner of his eye always tricking him into believing there were bodies swinging beneath like pendulums on a clock, their feet dangling how angel feet might dance while they fly.He had to think of dinner and nothing else.Nervously, he reached into his pocket, retrieved a plain black bandana and draped it over the bottom half of his face.It made him feel like a bandit from a film; it helped to pretend this was all fictional.
After a few hours, the streets had grown quiet, and there was a moment of relief from passing vehicles that’d heated the vicinity enough to make Tadeo, sitting against the pillar now, bathe and roast in his own sweat.But he knew the silence wasn’t a good sign; something had blocked traffic up ahead.Grunting, then, Tadeo rose to his feet, taking his gun, and stepped onto the road, moving to the dead middle of it.He began to walk.He breathed.He was alone, marching toward the silhouettes coming into view on the horizon, moving faster toward him than he was heading toward them.Most shapes were hefty, camouflage-colored cars, with four to five soldiers on the trunks — but there were smaller, more compact vehicles following behind, certainly with more armed military.Tadeo faced them alone.
As the first truck stopped just a few yards away, one of the men shouted for Tadeo to put his weapon down on the ground, but he didn’t.
“Why are you here?”Tadeo shouted back at them, lifting his pistol to hold with both hands, though he could feel something already squirming beneath his skin, eager to burst and make a massacre of this.“The person you’re looking for is me.”He didn’t take his uncle’s advice to hide; he knew if the army didn’t find him then they would just find an innocent person to blame.“But I’m not a criminal.I’ve only hurt traffickers and soldiers who’ve abused their authority.”All the trucks before him were coming to a stop; there was a helicopter trailing behind.“If you look into every man I’ve killed, you’ll see that it’s true.I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“Lower your weapon,” ordered another soldier, but this time muffled through the radio of his car.“And surrender yourself peacefully.”
