Forgotten Souls (The Saving Angels 2)

"Whatever, you bum," I said, scratching him under the chin.

The long day that lay ahead before our mission seemed endless and I needed something to pass the time. I decided that a late spring cleaning was in order and attacked my room with gusto. I was by all means not a slob, but both my suitcases I had used to transport my clothes back and forth to Mark's house still needed to be unpacked, along with my overnight bag filled with toiletry items. I worked through my room methodically, clearing one section at a time. My favorite music played lightly in the background from my iPod that I had placed on its docking station.

An hour later my room was spic-and-span and I had moved on to my sitting room and bathroom. I took my time dusting the bookshelves in my sitting room, removing one book at a time to gently dust each one. By noon, the entire upstairs practically sparkled as I finally put my cleaning supplies away. Exhausted but happy with my time killer, I jumped into the shower to bathe quickly before I headed downstairs to fix lunch for my mom and me.

"Boy, you were a busy bee up there this morning," my mom commented as I placed a plate loaded with a turkey sandwich and chips in front of her.

"You know me, once I start a project I have to finish it," I said, after swallowing the bite of sandwich I had taken. "I figure I will tackle the living room and kitchen next, that way we won't have it hanging over our heads."

"Krista, I appreciate all your help, but you don't have to kill yourself taking care of me."

"I don't mind," I said, speaking the truth. Keeping busy had worked like a charm at keeping my mind off what lay ahead of me that night.

"If you're trying for the best daughter award you already have that, hands down," she said, giving me one last chance to slack off.

"Well, I'm just trying to make sure I have it locked in for next year too," I teased, clearing our empty plates from the table.

"Ah, I see. Well in that case, get back to work."

"Aye captain," I said, giving her a mock salute on my way to the living room.

The rest of the day passed quickly, and before I knew it Mark was ringing the doorbell to pick me up.

"Bye Mom," I said, giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

"Have fun at the Boardwalk Dear, though I'm surprised you guys aren’t sick of it yet."

"Are you kidding me? Sam and Shawn are both ride junkies, they could go every day," I said, skirting around the guilt I felt for the white lie I had fed her.

"Okay, stay safe then," she said as I closed the front door behind me.

Mark grabbed my hand as we descended the front steps. I was relieved to see him, but wished it were under different circumstances. We had been so busy training that our alone time lately was non-existent.

"This is nice," I commented, looking at our joined hands.

"Very nice," he replied, pulling me into his arms for a quick kiss before he opened the car door for me.

"Hey guys," I said, addressing my extended family.

Their greetings rang out through the vehicle as I fastened my seatbelt.

"Everybody ready?" Mark asked, backing out of my driveway.

"Heck yeah, let's go save some souls," Shawn said in an awful imitation of a tough guy. The tension floating around the vehicle was evident on everyone's faces and he was doing his best to make us laugh.

I knew we were ready, but I couldn't help my nerves. We had a solid game plan set thanks to Haniel. Our goal was to arrive at the revival early so we could interact with the people there. The appearance of mere socializing would give us the chance to save as many of them as possible. Haniel advised us to work quickly before Alan made his appearance.

"Being an Abbadon, he will most likely see you for what you truly are. You must try to avoid that if possible. Go in, save who you can, and get out," he told us.

"So I spent the morning Googling this Alan guy," Sam said, breaking the silence in the vehicle.

"Nothing really came up under his name so I tried to think outside the box a little," she added. "I did find an interesting string of attacks at government buildings in several surrounding counties."

"What do you mean?" I asked curiously.

"For example, in Santa Clara County, the welfare office was completely gutted and vandalized. Oh, and an employee was severely beaten. The victim is still in ICU and hasn’t been able to tell authorities anything. In that same county, exactly one week later, a security guard and a lawyer leaving the courthouse were both beaten with the guards night stick. The lawyer suffered a blow to the neck which left him paralyzed and the security guard died a few days after the attack due to complications. Once I found those two cases, I widened my search to other counties around us and found similar incidents," she said. "Here, I made a mock map and labeled each government attack," she added, passing around the map of California she had printed up.

It was passed up my way after the others had a chance to look at it. Based on Sam's handiwork, you could definitely make out a pattern by studying the areas she highlighted. "Have they caught anyone yet?" I asked, studying the couple of dozen marks on the map.