TITLE: The Third Power By Diane Velikis 01/22/10 |
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
SEND ARTICLE TO A FRIEND |
The rest of chapter 1 and 2
Here you will see Julie as a young christian who is struggeling with many losses and what the proper concept of fame should be. In Chapter 2 her first terrorizing encounter of the monster she feels she unleashed.
.....One by one she began to open the white double decked cabinets that were meant to house plenty of supplies for the long winters. After seeing many bare shelves she realized she simply could not keep putting it off.
Leaning over the old refinished farm sink she stared out the window laced with frilly curtains. Fall would soon arrive and all the messy chores that came with it.
Martin would be somewhere in the yard doing something to prepare the house and yard for winter.
Julie struck gold when Martin applied for the grounds keeper position. He took it upon himself to see what needed to be done and just did it. In a short matter of time he became family.
Sure enough there he was, not exactly working though. He had the leaf blower roaring at full throttle and Karla and King her two shepherds were attacking the foliage as it shot out the tube. Martin enjoyed teasing them more than the task at hand.
When Julie spent time away after the release of The Third Power, she felt a sense of relief know-ing that Martin was at Kimble’s, looking in on Auntie Anna.
Never did she think that she would lose her so soon. Why did she have to keep reminding herself that Auntie Anna was gone? Was that normal?
She received the news while she was on a book signing tour that Auntie Anna had passed. Julie threw her things in a suitcase and flew back from Denver immediately. Eventually she waited in shock to board the Ferry to Martha‘s Vineyard, feeling numb with overwhelming grief.
Once she finally boarded, it didn’t seem like the usual thirty five minute ride. The Atlantic rolled beneath in gentle waves, as she fidgeted with the news paper that she saw laying on one of the seats that was left from a previous passenger.
She began reading how the locals were excited about “The Grand Illumination” which was cele-brated once a year usually in August. Residents of the Campground who owned gingerbread cot-tages lit lanterns and had a huge sing along in the Tabernacle. The cottages were past down from generations.
She knew how much Auntie Anna loved this festival. She gulped with despairing sadness the realization that she would not be attending anymore. Nothing was ever going to be the same.
She still remembers the day she received the inheritance of Kimble’s Bed and Breakfast. That would be the last gift she would ever receive from Auntie Anna. In her will she said “I believe you will use Kimble’s in a mighty and unselfish way. I leave you all my love, Auntie Anna”
Instead she hibernated inside Kimble’s and therapeutically wrote during those turbulent months. She poured herself into writing about that awful villain The Third Power.
Besides, she really needed to be alone and deal with her loss. After her first release, she could barely get around the Island. Everyone wanted to crowd around someone they thought to be famous. Now she knows how Jesus must have felt. No wonder he often went off to be alone.
All though Julie by nature tended to be a loner, by no means was she shy, just needed moments alone with her thoughts. Didn't most writers she reasoned?
In no time at all a sequence to her novel was born putting an end to his demise.
A Christian detective became the town hero who solved the case. It also drew her closer to God as she studied the scriptures like mad.
Tears welled up in her eyes bringing her back to the present as she now stood before Martin. “Maybe everything did happen too fast.
If you really stop and think about it, look at the turn of events that occurred within less than a year’s time. I became a new Christian. I lost my aunt, I ended my engagement, and I’m dealing with the pressures of fame. I’m only twenty four, although I sound much younger for feeling sorry for myself. - There I chided myself.”
“Well I have a big announcement- You can handle what has happened and is happening. I was never much on wise Christian words but Auntie Anna quoted enough to me that I took to believing them. One thing she told me was “Everything has a purpose under heaven” Martin replied peering down.
His rugged features turned a bright shade of pink after his announcement. Standing there in his flannel shirt and blue jeans he looked like a lumberjack who was caught telling a sweet little nursery rhyme. She wondered if this was his first awkward moment of sharing scripture, or if he belonged to a local church.
Feeling an overwhelming need to embrace him, Julie leaned over and gave him a hug, as the dogs jumped in and soon there was a collision course of affection.
Chapter 2
Although she originally planned to catch the Ferry, as she was driving along the scenic country road on the Island, she suddenly lost her nerve. The dark skies promised a downpour sometime today. The Island Queen Ferry, was the only one that took just passengers, and not cars. She didn’t want to deal with a stormy ferry ride and pick up her second car that was stored in Fal-mouth at her friend’s summer cottage. Her plan was to send Martin to pick up the groceries there, only because she was always looking for ways to find odd jobs for him to do. But the sky was ready to burst.
Shopping could wait another day. I’ll pick up a few things at Chilmark and head home she thought.
As she drove her thoughts raced back to her ex fiance Paul, and the rides they used to share on this picturesque Island. His handsome face would light up like it did nowhere else. Both of them were native Pennsylvanians and this kind of atmosphere was like a breath of fresh air and wonder.
He wanted to move on the Island and run a B&B soon after they were married. He adored Auntie Anna and said they wouldn’t pose competition because she catered to Christian Authors only.
His last biting words after her conversion were “Marry You? I don’t like you now!”
She wondered if he moved on.
She was sure that he a made a success of himself. With Paul it was always give me this and I’ll give you that. A business mind always at work swinging deals. She prayed for him every day as tears slid on her pillow each night. Sometimes even in her sleep.
Suddenly a yellow moped darted out in front of her from the woods. Screeching her tires and swerving away from hitting it nearly caused her to lose control of the car. It came from out of nowhere. A man wearing a Halloween mask raised his hand and waved in mockery at the serious consequences that almost occurred.
She stopped her car. Visibly shaken from the near mishap she yelled “Are you crazy!”
He roared away on the moped, not the least bit remorseful or apologetic. He zigzagged as if to
display just how cocky he was.
Calm down Julie, she reasoned to herself. She must have been parked for ten minutes breathing deeply, waiting to give the maniac moped driver plenty of time to be nowhere in her path before she got back on the road. Just as she was about to put the car in drive a chilling sight appeared from the woods.
A man and woman in their early twenties were bent down leaning on each other for support, and blood was trailing everywhere.
Immediately Julie leaped out of her car, while dialing 911 on her cell phone. Once she ap-proached the couple she assured them that help was on the way. The sight before her was grue-some. The man had a missing ear, and the young lady had a missing finger. Blood was every-where. They both collapsed in relief from her gentle reassurance. The rain continued to pound from the sky, and a red stream of blood flowed beneath them.
The young lady began to talk incoherently clearly in shock. Julie knelt down in two inches of water and keenly listened as the young lady babbled, panic was not hiding on any of their faces.
“A man who called himself the third power… If your left finger causes you to sin cut it off… “
Julie did catch the name Third Power. Her head started to spin as she heard the sirens rushing to the scene.
The lady’s shocked voice began to sound very distant when suddenly her world went black.
“The Third Power threw their ear and finger in the Atlantic“, was the last things she heard before fainting.
Unless this was all a bad dream Julie did not want to wake up.
“What else could you tell me” were the next things Julie heard when she gained consciousness.
Gazing up from being cradled by a paramedic Julie tried to focus on the site before her.
Other paramedics were working on the couple as they both lay on stretchers.
A tall uniformed man looked piercingly down at the victims as he probed for information. He looked determined to catch the person responsible for this heinous crime.
Julie learned the victims names were Stewart Davis and Shelby Martin.
They were young tourists visiting Martha’s Vineyard for the first time. Their very first excursion on the Island was to rent mopeds and explore all that they can. After a morning of driving around the roads that reminded them of countryside in Paris, they followed a trail that led them to the beach.
Shelby continued to tell of her frightening encounter, as Steward Davis lay moaning on the stretcher.
“…As they sat on the sandy shore she reached over to ruffle his hair, and thought she saw some-one or something out of the corner of her eye. But by that time it was too late. The next thing she knew was she felt unimaginable pain and they both screamed covered in blood.
Hovering over them was a man wearing a blood splattered latex mask. To their horror it was their blood. What happens next was the dreadful realization that he was holding her severed finger in his hand, and blood was gushing down Stewards face.
Taunting them accusingly he began pointing his finger at them, making a shame shame gesture with her missing finger. “Your ring finger is missing” he said in an eerie calm tone. Enjoying the torment he was inflicting he continued to antagonize “My knife must be pretty sharp, I see you lost an ear,” glancing at Steward.
The maniac who stood before him was intimidating tall. He could have easily overpowered Ste-ward in his agonizing state. There was nothing for them to do but sit there and wonder when and how this horror would end.
Still the attacker continued to taunt. “Two with one swipe! An ear and a finger. Tisk tisk” Shrugging his shoulders he stated flatly “what to do,” as if it the words where merely a sarcastic remark from someone who knew precisely what his next move would be.
He picked up the ear where it laid severed on the ground, as if it was something he done routinely. After all it was just a missing body part. Her finger that he used for the earlier gesture was then both tossed into the ocean.
“Here fishy fishy!” He cruelly teased.
“Please God don’t let him kill us” were the silent prayers of Shelby.
Swiftly the looming menace of a man took the knife and slashed the tires on one of the mopeds. He then wiped his masked brow, gesturing that he was suddenly exhausted. Blood was now be-ginning to stain the latex mask he wore. With a curt nod and bow he scoffed “That ul teach ya. If your finger causes you to sin cut it off and all that jazz.”
Driving off on the moped the masked man yelled gleefully “I am the Third Power Woo Hooo!”
The cop finished writing down her statement.
Shelby kept repeating “I can’t believe this! Why would someone want to hurt us? We don’t even know anyone here on the Island. We’re tourists!”
Julie started to put two and two together and chimed “That must have been him!”
That seemed to grab everyone’s attention and they all looked at her quizzically for a further ex-planation.
“It was the yellow moped that caused me to swerve off the road.” With her eyes wide Julie re-layed the information trying to be helpful.
“And your name is?” The officer asked.
“Julie Riskim”
“Interesting” The cop immediately gave her his full attention. “Aren’t you the author of The Third Power?” His stare bore through her with forceful brown eyes, as if he was looking for ways to fit her in a puzzle.
“I am.” Her big blue eyes looked like a deer caught in headlights. How could someone take something that was make believe, and turn it into a real live monster? She thought of the third power as math, which she hated, and created a mad man that bore the name. Her ability to write came at an early age. The past twenty six years at Kimble’s held cherished memories. The cen-turies old Victorian house, offered her tranquility. It was there she learned Gingerbread means architecture and not just cookies. Why couldn’t third power mean a mad man?
“Right about now I feel awful that someone could take a fictitious character from my novel and commit this horrible crime“Julie choked.
“I must be out of the loop,” he drooled. “I don’t know who or what The Third Power is, other than what I read in the Press. I know you are the author of two best sellers that features an ob-vious maniac. ”
Obviously Officer Pompous cares little about a writer’s world.
He probably did reveal his name, but that may have happened when she fainted. Right now she was numb from shock and wasn’t about to ask him to repeat it.
The ambulance sped away. Thank goodness for the brief distraction. With a curt nod he got in his squad car gesturing for her to join him.
It was determined by a paramedic that she was fine other than the fact that she fainted, however she should not drive. She supposed this lift home was Officer Un-chivalrous way of doing his duty.
As graciously as she could she slid into the car.
The drive home was silent. She thought it was going to take forever. Once the squad car stopped in front of her house Julie leaped out of the car mumbling the words “thank you officer.”
“I’d like for you to come down to the station later on today. And bring a copy of your book.” he stated a bit distracted while scrutinizing Kimble’s.
Just then Karla and King ran up to greet Julie. “Dogs need to be on leashes,” were his final words before the policeman drove off.
Great.
Not even “you’re welcome Julie.”
Just brusque orders.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.