Page 16 of Dark Side of the Cloth (The Righteous 1)
Images of his own father came to mind. How many women and teenage girls had his father raped and then killed? Too many to count, too many for him to even remember them all. Dean gripped the shovel handle harder.
“I was always their first and their last,” Tim said. “It was beautiful, and they knew I loved them.” Tim stopped talking to take a deep breath as he looked up to the star-filled night sky. “Don’t you see, I did them a favor. I showed them what true love is, and they will never have to worry about what the cruelty of this world will do to them. They’ll never have their hearts broken or end up on the street, becoming nothing more than a cheap trick. I saved them from being disappointed, let down, or abused by some pervert.”
Um, hello, pot meet kettle.Dean raised an eyebrow. He wondered if this guy knew just how crazy he sounded. “So, you were their savior?”
“Yes! You understand it. I was their savior, their teacher, their lover. I did, no do, love them, and they will remain perfect forever. Their faces will never grow old and get wrinkled or suffer a fate like cancer.” Tim smiled wide. “Don’t you see, in my own way, I was doing God’s work?” Tim nodded his head vigorously up and down. “So, will you let me go now?”
“Didn’t I already tell you that there is no God?”
Tim leaned his body over, his face growing serious. “Yes, but I know you’re just testing me. This is a final test to see if I’m worthy of God’s forgiveness.”
Is this guy for real?
Dean had come across many forms of delusion in his travels and his journey as one of The Righteous, but the inner workings of this man’s mind…Dean rubbed his chin.
“You’ve found me out. You are a sharp one, Tim.” Tim’s smile beamed idiotically up at him. “But, I’m not sure yet. You’re gonna have to tell me where you put the bodies.”
“Oh, I can’t do that.” Tim looked away from him, his face contorting in what looked like pain.
“Tim, you’re right that you’re being tested, and this is the only way I’ll know you’re serious about walking away from your dark blasphemous past and get help.”
One corner of his mouth curled up.
“I know you feel you are doing God’s work, but God believes in all of his children having the right to make their own mistakes. You stole that from those little girls, and in essence, you stole that from God. He is angry with you, Tim, very angry.”
“I don’t want to end up in hell,” Tim whimpered.
Dean puffed out his chest and used the voice he would use in a sermon as he continued. “Then you will need to tell me the answers I seek.” Dean paused again and held out his hands like he was the next messiah, and God was speaking to him right then. “Why do you think I was chosen to come to this town, Tim? I was sent here to find you. God speaks to me, and he sees you can do better. I have the power to grant you the forgiveness you seek, but only if you are honest with me.”
Tim looked at the formidable dirt walls towering on either side and gently swayed back and forth like a metronome.
“God doesn’t like to wait for an answer. He is too busy to deal with those that don’t genuinely want to get better. You have three seconds to make a choice. One, Two—”
“Okay, wait! But I need to take you to where they are.”
“Forget it, you have failed the test, and it is obvious now that you don’t want to change.” Dean stood and threw another shovel full of dirt onto him.
“Stop! Don’t… Shit! Okay, I’ll tell you, but you have to promise me that this will grant me access to Heaven.”
Dean leaned against the shovel, annoyed now with this game.
“Yes, of course. That amount of self-growth will surely grant you access to Heaven.” Dean barely managed not to roll his eyes in disgust. “Please Tim, do not let this opportunity pass you by—where are the girls buried?”
“I didn’t bury them. Instead, I made sure they would stay perfect just the way they are. Forever.”
“Uh-huh, and what exactly does that mean?”
Tim bit his lip and looked around like someone might hear him. Dean was ready to say fuck it and just beat the fucker to death with the shovel whether he got an answer or not.
“In the very back of my place, between stacks two and three of the compacted vehicles, there’s what looks like an old steel shed. You can’t see it unless you walk right up to it.”
Again with the licking of the lips.
“Inside, there is a work of art. I turned the entire space into a dollhouse. That’s where they’re perfectly preserved, frozen in time to play as children forever. I even painted the walls pink with butterflies and got them a tea set.”
While Tim smiled and looked genuinely pleased with what he’d done, Dean was more horrified than if Tim had simply buried the bodies.
“You froze the little girls and put them in a massive freezer? Like a space to play with each other?” he asked. Dean was seriously considering altering the punishment for this one.
