Confession - Day 11

2012-11-12

Note: Somehow I managed to mix a Chicago section and a Baghdad section at the end of 23 yesterday. I’ve gone back and rewritten it to fit better and reposted the entire chapter here:

23 – Chicago

SEVERAL WEEKS AGO

His story went on for a few minutes, detailing how he and his friends had arrived at Mrs. Claire’s, how’d they’d been granted not only an audience but a chance to participate in a real life seance session. And finally, to the old woman calling forward the spirits of the dead–one spirit in particular.

Confession - Day 10

2012-11-11

22 – Rome

PRESENT DAY

“Raise the dead you say?” There was more than a trace of disbelief in Father Antonio’s voice. Honestly, I didn’t blame him. He hadn’t seen even a fraction of the crazy things that I’d seen.

Confession - Day 9

2012-11-10

21 – Baghdad

SEVERAL YEARS AGO

Whatever answer Amira had been about to give was swallowed up by the sudden chatter of gunfire coming from somewhere entirely too close by. It had been several days since I’d heard anything hear this close; although the sound had never gone away entirely.

I turned to back to Amira, intending to get her to safety before rejoining my unit–if the fighting were picking up again, they were going to need a priest. But when I turned to her, the first thing that I noticed was that she was too pale, her face gone an almost chalky white, lighter even than my own.

Confession - Day 8

2012-11-09

18 – Chicago

SEVERAL WEEKS AGO

I caught up with him a few blocks later. Luckily for me, he didn’t seem to have a car, or at least if he did, it wasn’t parked nearby. He almost seemed to be walking slowly enough specifically so that I could catch up with him.

“Come to try to stop me, padre?”

Honestly, yes. That was high on my mind. But even before that, “I came to understand.”

Confession - Day 7

2012-11-08

17 – Chicago

SEVERAL WEEKS AGO

“What are you talking about?” I asked. I knew that being directly confrontational wasn’t necessarily the best of plans when the other person was holding a weapon.

“He came back,” the man beside me said, “from the dead.” An emphatic nod punctuated each word. “But when he did, something came back with him.”

Confession - Day 6

2012-11-07

13 – Chicago

SEVERAL WEEKS AGO

“So what happened then?” I asked him after giving him a moment to recollect his thoughts. “After you talked?”

He turned back to me. “And then he was gone.”

“Gone? Like vanished?” I thought back to how he’d disappeared after in the confessional.

Confession - Day 5

2012-11-06

11 – Baghdad

SEVERAL YEARS AGO

I stood in the square before the National Museum of Iraq. staring up at the two towers flanking the central archway. I knew that orders had come down from on high that we were to do everything we could to avoid engaging in a firefight where the building or its contents might be damaged, yet even so there had been excessive looting and for the most part that edict had been followed.

Confession - Day 4

2012-11-05

8 - Chicago

SEVERAL WEEKS AGO

Two thoughts immediately crossed my mind.

Your brother? followed closely on its heels by *Was?

Confession - Day 3

2012-11-04

7 - Chicago

SEVERAL WEEKS AGO

The man with his old army jacket was still standing there facing me across the back of the church. Again, briefly, I considered running. with his gun at his side like that, there was a chance I could at least make it out the front doorway before he could fire.

Confession - Day 2

2012-11-03

4 – Chicago

SEVERAL WEEKS AGO

“Where is he?” the man attached to the gun growled, a rumbling in his voice hinting at a lifetime hard and painful.

I looked up, then up again. The man was huge, taller than me by a head and a half and wide enough that he seemed to fill the doorway. The red and blue flashing I’d seen before lit the regularly lit the door frame to his either side, but I couldn’t see past him to determine his source.