“You know when you’re walking, the light catches your body, and two shadows appear. One is very clear and directly beside you, the other is a few inches away and dim.” Henri sat on the sofa and clasped his hands between his knees.
“Yes, but I’m not following you.”
“Evil and goodness are like that. With some people goodness is very lucid. Evil is diffused, but still present. Or some, like the ones we eliminate malevolence is halcyon and the individuals act on it. Goodness and love are farther and farther from the person. This is our job. We find the people who are enraged with anger and wickedness and send them on their way to heaven or hell.”
“Have you ever been tempted by the devil?” Mark asked and leaned forward.
Henri jumped off the sofa, walked to the fireplace and leaned against the mantel. “Recently.”
“I wanted to do anything and everything to destroy the man who took my wife. As you know, Tori and I have special abilities.”
Henri pivoted, leaned against the fireplace and waited to hear what Mark had to say. He would need to be processed by the fraternal order before he was inducted into the Angel of Death squad. But if Henri picked up on a quirk or abnormality time would be saved and Mark would be out of the running.
“I considered the dark side. It would be easy to trade my soul in order to have revenge. What would the costs have been? I would have gained satisfaction to have his life end, but my wife wouldn’t have been returned.” His glance met Henri’s. The man had been sneaking into Henri’s mind.
“Normally you won’t be able to read another of our kind’s thoughts. My mind is open, because I want something very much. A life beyond me.” Henri lowered his head, crossed his arms and legs. “I may have contemplated accepting the devil’s offer to give me what I desire, but the price is too high.”
“Tori will never see you again?” Mark’s voice held scorn and dismay.
“She will lose all memories of this time in her life. You will not exist to her.” The ache in his heart hadn’t subsided since he left her at the garden. The muscle might as well have been ripped out of his chest, because it did him no good. And Henri had shown no mercy for his roll call, he was sure all of them went straight to hell.
“As you said, this is the con to the position. Is there a possibility of negotiation?” Mark rose from the sofa and shuffled to the fridge. “Beer?”
Henri shook his head. “Negotiation isn’t possible. If you’ve changed your mind you need to tell me now.”
“No. I want. I need to help in whatever way possible to end evil on earth.” Mark shut the door and paced between the sofa and the fireplace.
“You should say goodbye two whomever you want. I’ll escort you to the weigh station.” Henri rubbed his chest, digging his fingers into the cloth. His mind had lost all sense of reality; he didn’t have a heart, so why did it ache?
“I curious, what is the reason you joined the corps?” Mark sat on the sofa.
Henri shoved away from his sentinel position and sat in the Queen Anne chair across from his recruit. “I was a knight for Caroline of Grandenburg-Ansbach, the Queen of England. Not in her immediate guard I was one of the first-line of defense. A skirmish occurred and mortally wounded I had been given the choice by my predecessor, enter the Angel of Death regimen or die.”
He winked. “Here I am, years later.”
“You’ve been doing this service for over three hundred years? Mark’s eyes widened, in apparent disbelief.
“Yes. Go say your goodbyes. We need to leave.” Henri crossed his arms across his chest. The pain was unbearable. Since the transformation, he’d been in a state of euphoria. Even when attacked by a reluctant parting guest, he had not felt such wretchedness. The burning sensation resembled the torment when the marauder’s blade slipped beneath his breastbone.
***
Tori didn’t get out of bed for a solid twenty-four hours, except one stumbling into the restroom. Henri hadn’t come after her. Confident he would, she counted the minutes. She refreshed her face and perfume in preparation for make-up sex. He didn’t come. At sundown she wandered around her garden, snapping off deadheads and snipping flowers for a bouquet. A rosebud had been broken off and lay in the middle of the path, exactly where Henri had stood earlier in the day.
Tori believed in signs and the broken young rose indicated their novice relationship had ended. The death was sharp and quick for him, but not with Tori. Her love for him would take a long time, a slow and painful demise. If ever!
Now, Mark stood in front of her, laminating about his future and the good deeds he do to help all people in the world, not just their tiny corner. She tried to listen, to focus on his words, but the sad decaying rose glared at her from under the apothecary jar.
Tears slow and steady leaked from her eyes.
“Tori, don’t cry. You know I can’t deal with a sobbing woman.” He grabbed her in a bear hug. “You’ll be alright. Tomorrow you’ll forget I was a pest and threw your favorite intaglio out the window when you were ten.”
She broke away from his comfort and went to the teak Indian puzzle box. A quick press of the smooth wood and the hidden compartment popped out. The scent of sweet exotic wood with a hint of fire filtered into the air. She withdrew the ring. The shape of a star and a moon had been stencil on a platinum silver band. The star, representing woman and the moon representing man is an African love symbol. Her mother had given it to her. At ten she fell in love with, Peter Bradley and used the ring as a seal for all of the love notes she sent to him. She made the mistake of using Mark’s chemistry homework to practice.
She tried to fit it onto her ring finger, but it was too small. The symbol for love fit perfectly on her pinkie finger. “I’ll never take it off. It’ll remind me of your fierce temper and of Henri.”
“You haven’t mentioned Henri, will you miss him terribly?”
“No! He’s just a man.” She turned away and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. He was just a man, but she knew it wasn’t true. She’d fallen in love with him. Henri Chambers could only be her true love. Forever and she’d seal a hundred envelopes declaring it was so.
“In time you’ll forget him,” Mark said on a sigh.
“Stop reading my mind.” A honk sounded outside her glass doors. He had called a cab, when she had told him she’d take him to the airport. “You need to go, if you’re going to catch your transportation.”
“This is goodbye then.” He crushed her in a hug.
“For now, you’ll be back in what, six months?” She smashed her face into his chest.
“Keep in mind, mother will always watch over you.” He pushed her arms.
She held a death grip on him, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt, he’d never return.
“Mark, don’t go.”
jj Keller 