Page 140 of The Confidant
He was so much bigger than me, and though I was pretty strong for a girl, if this turned physical, I would easily be overpowered by his tall frame.
Maybe if I feigned interest in whatever weird story he had to tell, he’d get distracted enough that I could slip my phone out of my bag and call 9-1-1 without him noticing.
The service was always spotty in the church, but maybe from the top floor it would work.
So to buy myself time, I asked, “Are you saying you’re a descendant of the actual Jehovah? Like,the Son of God,Jehovah?”
“Yes.”
“But Jehovah didn’t have any children,” I said. “The Bible never said anything about it.”
“That’s because it happened later.” His eyes smiled, like he was so thrilled to share this shocking story with me.“Much later.”
An eerie chill raced down my spine.
“You were supposed to learn this story tonight,” Xander said. “Every worthy member of The Fold learns about it in the sacred marriage ceremony.”
“So my dad knows about this?”
“Of course.”
“Then why has no one ever mentioned Jehovah’s posterity before?”
“Some revelations can only be spoken in the holiest of places,” he said, gesturing to the curtain on my left, like he was speaking of this room being that specific place. “Talking about the sacred traditions in the outside world could lead to grave consequences. The serpent is always looking to confuse and lead Jehovah’s disciples astray.”
My dad had said that the sacred ceremony was something he couldn’t speak about, so maybe some of what Xander was saying was true?
I shook my head. That would be so weird, though. To have some sort of hidden doctrine that only certain members knew about.
“As you know, God has to work by the laws of science,” Xander continued, thankfully taking a step back so I could breathe. “But when Samuel Williams was eighteen, his mother told him that the man who raised him wasn’t Samuel’s biological father after all. That just like Jehovah wasn’t Joseph of Nazareth’s biological son, Samuel was conceived in a similar manner. His mom was Jehovah’s spiritual partner—a chosen vessel just like Mary.” Xander moved to the wall on my left. Opening a keypad next to the curtain, he said, “Samuel Williams was the literal son of Jehovah, which is why he was able to restore the true church and priesthood here on earth.”
Okay, Xander had to be suffering from some sort of delusion right now. Because this almost sounded like the plot for Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, with all the secret ceremonies and talk of Jehovah fathering children no one had heard of before.
Or maybe Xander had truly lost his mind. I’d learned in Psychology that certain mental illnesses could be triggered during our twenties after suffering a big stress. When I said that I wouldn’t be able to fulfill my part of the ceremony, did it stress out Xander so much that it sent him into some sort of mania?
While he was distracted with the keypad that would do who knew what, I tugged on the zipper of my bag, attempting to discreetly open it so I could reach inside.
But as soon as Xander heard the zipping noise, he looked back at me.
I thought for sure he would snatch my bag away, but instead, he simply said, “Just a few moments, and all will be revealed to you, Scarlett.”
Is there anything here that I could use as a weapon?I wondered, looking at the other end of the room. There was a high back chair in the corner with a side table, as well as the lamp that he’d turned on after he’d first locked the door.
I could probably use the lamp as a weapon…if I could somehow sneak up behind him.
I didn’t love the idea of trying to knock him out with it—it was likely that I might not do it right and only make him more volatile. But if he tried attacking me or doing anything else, it might be my only hope.
I looked around for something else that might be helpful, knowing that he must be planning to move onto the next phase of his plan if he was using the keypad that would make some unknown thing happen.
But the only other thing besides the curtain and the basic furniture was a window, so there was literally nothing else for me to use.
In all my imaginings of what could be behind the mysterious, permanently locked door, I’d never pictured something so minimalistic for the High Priest to use when Jehovah and God visited him. Or so small. It was barely the size of my bedroom at the parsonage.
But people got married and did other ceremonies up on this floor of the church, right? So there had to be another room up here somewhere.
Just as I had the thought, the white curtain started to slowly part, revealing a large wooden door that was curved at the top. And once the curtain was fully in the open position, the door slowly started to swing open, revealing a short, dimly lit walkway that led to what looked like a much larger room.
With a smile on his face, Xander gestured to the secret hallway and said, “Welcome to the Holy of Holies, my love. As you can see, everything is ready for you.”
