James Hoch - Heckel Casey

I felt myself lift off the ground and glide toward the evil awaiting me. Armed with just the power inside me, I felt it seethe and boil to the point where every pore was poised to unleash the energy. Madeline spun feverishly in a circle as if she were a generator building power. As I approached, she flung her arms forward and a flash of silver energy bolts streamed from her eyes and hands. I held up my hand to deflect the attack, but the force knocked me down. Madeline instantly appeared above me and put her foot on my chest.

I awoke with a start and wiggled my arms, trying to break free from the bindings. It was just a dream, not a premonition, I thought. It's not the future.

"Ah, our guest is awake," a guard said. "Quick, give him another shot. We don't want him-"

But an arrow had pierced the guard's neck, abruptly interrupting his order. Blood dribbled out of his mouth as he tried to shout. Seconds later, while trying to pull the lethal shaft out of his neck, he slumped forward. The other four guards jumped up to attack and were quickly met by Sela and her cohorts. Jerky came running up to me, snarling with her hair bristled.

The fight was over in a matter of minutes.

"Apparently, Madeline just can't find good help," Sela said as she came running over to me. She bent down and removed my bonds. "Are you all right?" she asked nervously.

"Yeah, but my head feels like it was used to ring a church bell."

"We should get out of here quickly. Who knows what's hanging around out there?"

"No argument from me," I said standing up.

Sela walked toward the darkness. In a nearby wooded area, Tempest and the other horses were tied up. We quickly mounted Tempest together and rode off.

Hugging Sela, I whispered in her ear, "Thanks for the…um…rescue. You're my hero."

"I can't lose you. We can't lose you. You're our hero," she said softly.

"What do you mean by 'we'?" I asked, thinking she meant all of humanity.

Sela remained silent for a long while, then turned her head toward me as much as she could, kissed my cheek and said, "I'm pregnant."

Word of the failed capture came to Madeline as she sat on a balcony overlooking the Washington cityscape. As she stood up, her temper flared. "What do you mean you lost him? I thought you said you handpicked his captors."

The tall, slender, confident-looking man with greasy, black hair stood defiantly in front of Madeline. "I did pick them, Miss Madeline. I thought they were the best, but apparently I misjudged them. It won't happen again. I promise you," he said with a hint of trepidation in his voice.

Madeline, not saying a word, circled the man. He shifted uneasily on his feet. She touched him lightly on the shoulder and let her long polished green nails scrape across the back of his neck, sending shivers up his spine.

"Yes, you are right about that. It won't happen again," she said as the man was quickly picked up by an invisible force, pushed off the balcony and hung suspended in air. His feet wiggled high above the street below as he pleaded to be spared.

With a simple gesture of her hand, the invisible force let go of the supplicating man. Madeline nonchalantly walked to the edge of the balcony and watched the man hit the street below. The thump of his body hitting the pavement resounded off the surrounding buildings. She tilted her head back and laughed heartily. Madeline listened with the curiosity of a ten-year-old child as her iniquitous, maniacal laugh echoed across the skyscrapers.

"Not to worry, little Heckel. Just a minor setback. You make your courageous journey to Oregon. You'll have a greeting party so enormous that you will go running with your tail tucked behind your scrawny legs." High piercing laughter spread out across all of Washington.

Sela pushed Tempest hard to make it back to the camp. "Please stop, Sela. We need to talk for a minute," I said with a jiggle to my voice as Tempest raced down I-40.

"We're almost there. We can talk after we get back to camp," she said.

"Okay," I said as I kissed her neck and nibbled her earlobe. She shivered and giggled.

Almost the entire group came out to greet us as we rode into camp. A loud cheer erupted as Sela and I got off Tempest. Lots of folks patted us on the back and were eager to thank Sela and the four men for saving me. Jack took the opportunity to announce the next morning's departure time to travel to Flagstaff.

By the time we had gotten back, it was late in the day. After we got Tempest watered and fed, Sela came up to me, took my hand and we walked away from the group.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Apparently, I should be asking you that question more."

"I'm fine. I feel great."

My mouth went dry. Actually, it felt like my vocal cords had disappeared or maybe were somehow glued together. I had no idea what to say, and if I could, I didn't know how to get the words formed. Words like scared, petrified, afraid, frozen, incompetent, and nincompoop started to filter across my mind, and the longer it took for me to open my mouth to say something, the dumber I felt. My brain turned to guacamole.

Sela looked at me with loving, eager eyes, which only exacerbated my dimwitted, paralyzed condition. She stood in front of me and put her hand on my cheek. Her touch felt like a spark, a spark that I needed to jumpstart the battery in my brain.

"Sela, I…um…I…ah…wow…um," I said thinking that I must sound like a complete numbskull, and I mean that my skull was really, really numb.

Sela just laughed and put her arms around my waist. Her hair fell across the side of my face as she leaned in toward me. At this point, I was literally shaking and the feel of her cheek pressed against mine caused me to tremble even more.

The only words I could put together to actually make sense hit their mark dead on. "I love you, Sela."

Immediately, Sela started crying and hugged me tighter. "I love you, Heckel Casey…with all my heart and soul."

I started to cry. We held each other for what felt like hours. During that time, a parade of questions marched across my mind. I felt like a spectator at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and each of the giant tethered balloons had highly decorated questions flashing across them. What now? How do I protect her? How do I bring up a baby with evil all around? What about Madeline? How do I kill her?

"Sela, there are so many questions filling my head. The biggest one asking how we can subject our child to a world filled with Madeline's evil."

"Heckel, we are going to defeat Madeline before our child is even born. Our baby will come into a new world, a world of good people who trust each other and believe in each other. The way it is supposed to be."

A sudden blast of cold wind swirled around us. I put my arm around Sela and felt a strength I never knew I had. Any doubts of defeating Madeline or what my part was in this big game plan were suddenly put to rest.

"Yes, we will," I said firmly. The air returned to a gentle warm breeze.

"Pardon me, Miss Madeline. You sent for me."

Why is it that I always have sniveling, weasely, scrawny, weak-minded men surrounding me? Madeline thought as she slipped on a new pair of black calfskin leather boots and finished dressing.

"Yes, sit over there and wait," she barked. Sitting in front of her makeup mirror, she stared into it, feeling almost like the wicked witch in "Sleeping Beauty". Why does this little shit, Heckel, continue to stand in my way? I should be able to squash him like a bug.Yet the power in him continues to manifest itself.

"Where are they now?" she said at the groveling stump of a man sitting on the couch. She applied eyeliner and noticed that one of her eyebrows had a few gray hairs. With fierceness, she glowered at them. Slowly, the gray changed to dark brown. Her power was growing as well. She could…change things, manipulate things…and best of all, destroy things. Looking into an assortment of eye shadow, she picked a smoky dark gray to brush on above her eyes.