XVIII

Seven felt himself breathing heavy from tension as he approached Lexi Gomez. After all, he had just seen her exhibiting supernatural behavior of the wrong kind. An inhuman glare had been in her eyes as well as an unnaturally deep growl in her voice and her body contorting at a ridiculous angle. Not to mention ‘the warning’. Was he about to get another one? Maybe he should have just stayed in Minnesota.

“It’s your fault,” Lexi said to Seven with a small smile.

Seven relaxed a little and smiled himself. “You mean all this,” he said pointing around the room. “The levitating and the choking of your sister.”

Lexi looked at Amy with genuine contrition and reached a hand to her sister. “That’s right, I did try to choke you. I’m so, so sorry!”

“Just know, I love you and forgive you, Lex,” Amy said before she pulled her sister into an embrace.

“Thank you,” Lexi said meekly as she hugged her back. When they parted, quiet tears ran down both of their cheeks. “I don’t know how I can ever thank you for helping me. All of you, thank you. And Mr. Sallie, I need to give you an extra special thank you. So, thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.”

“Me?” Seven Sallie said with a puzzled frown as he pointed a thumb into his chest. With a touch of shame, he recalled how he wanted to burst through the door and flee when Lexi focused her demonic glare and growl on him. “Why me?”

“You see,” Lexi began weakly and then sighed heavily. “Oh boy, I’m so tired, I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay, honey,” Captain Kirk said. “You’ve been through quite a battle. Get some rest and recount your ordeal later.”

“Thank you pastor, but no,” Lexi said with a burst of energy. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am for every single one of you for not abandoning me in my time of desperate need. Please, I want to explain in a nutshell what you have witnessed tonight. I guess this all began many weeks ago at your church, Pastor Samson. I had attended Billy Bob Booker’s wedding with my boyfriend Devin.”

Everyone turned to look at Dirk’s brother. Devin had been staring at Lexi with a stunned expression. When he found sixteen eyes gazing at him, Devin forced a smile and nodded once. Then eight pairs of eyes turned back to Lexi in anticipation.

“For the first time I could remember,” Lexi continued. “I felt a drawing to God. As I watched my sister with her husband Dirk, and Destiny and Brock. Billy Bob Booker and his bride. I wanted that peace and joy I saw in their whole demeanors. When we left the church, I stole a Bible from a bookshelf. I’m sorry, pastor. I ended up burning it, but I will buy ten new ones and bring them to you.”

“That’s quite all right, dear one,” Captain Kirk said with a chuckle as he gave his long white beard a stroke. “I forgive you, and most importantly, so does God.”

“Anyhow, I read it from cover to cover,” Lexi explained. “And reread certain parts. But even as I became closer to God, dark thoughts overpowered the good ones. Then I would have periods of black outs, where I couldn’t remember what I did for hours. I figured your church wasn’t for me, but I wanted to get my life figured out. I wanted to understand my existence. I wanted a spiritual destiny. Not Brock’s wife of course, but a purpose in life.”

A titter of laughter crossed through the little group.

“That’s when I thought of Zella La Stella,” Lexi continued as eight pairs of eyes briefly fell upon the professed psychic. Zella frowned and bit her lower lip. “It was also at Billy Bob Booker’s wedding where I met her for the first time. At the reception, Zella was telling the writer Johnathan Embers about meeting Billy Bob and the influence he had over her friend Willa. Willa had been involved in a form of prostitution and actually operated her sex trade in the basement of the Victorian house she shared with Zella.”

Sixteen eyes turned upon Zella once again. She felt her ears get hot with embarrassment as she nervously explained. “Most, if not all, of you know Willa and her story. Obviously she’s no longer involved in the sex trade. Johnathan Ember’s e-book about her conversion is available on Amazon if any of you want to read about it.”

“So I had made an appointment with Zella to get a reading for direction in my life,” Lexi began again. “Ironically, she told me to pray and read the Bible. She said I had a very dark aura and only the light of God could free me. So I continued with the Bible, but it seemed the harder I sought, the more frustrated I became. I see now I was coming to God with anger and complaints, rather than with a humble teachable attitude.

“You have to realize, I spent half of my life involved in some form of the occult. Especially when I became close with Amy’s and my half sister Jezebel Black. In case you don’t know, the three of us have the same mother, but we all have different fathers. Fortunately for Amy, she was mostly raised by her father’s parents and didn’t get to know Jezebel and me until she was a teenager.

“So, to make a long story short, I spent years actually seeking Satan and embracing dark powers. When I was reading the Bible, I found the section about Jesus in the wilderness the most fascinating. You know, when Satan offered all the kingdoms of the world and what not. And Jesus’s steadfast reply was ‘it is written.’

“I didn’t get all the kingdoms of the world by following Satan, but I did alright. He was really trying to reward me when he put my little sister here into my wares. You remember, sis, when I was trying to make you a stripper? At the same time, Jezebel wanted you for a virgin sacrifice.”

“How could I forget?” Amy replied wide eyed. “Johnathan Embers wrote about it in the e-book ‘Knight Storm’.”

“But low and behold, God intervened using his servant Destiny,” Lexi continued. “You never made it to the stage and pole once or Jezebel’s sick altar of sacrifice. You didn’t even know my long term goal was to make you one of the biggest porn stars in the country. Depraved humanity would have ate up your cute, wholesome good looks doing vile things.”

“Thank God He rescued me,” Amy said gratefully.

“Yes, praise Jesus,” Lexi added and then grinned broadly, raised her hands in the air and looked up. “Not only does that name not make me convulse, I can say it to His glory. Praise Jesus! Praise Jesus my Savior!”

Lexi’s hands then dropped to her face, covering it as she was overcome with emotion. Her body began to shake with sobs of relief and joy. Amy put her arms around Lexi and Lexi hugged her back. “I’m so sorry, little sister, please forgive me. I hope we can start a fresh relationship.”

“Yes and yes, big sister,” Amy replied with a sweet smile.

Lexi leaned toward her sister and kissed her forehead before the two women hugged. Then Amy had a distant memory triggered. She was a little girl. Maybe five or six, she couldn’t remember. It was the last time she remembered seeing Lexi until they were reacquainted after Amy’s grandparents had died when she was a teenager.

Amy was at her mother’s home. Her mother was a drug addict and alcoholic. Amy recalled a man talking really friendly to her as she played. Then he began to touch her in ways that made her feel funny and uncomfortable. Then he took Amy by the hand and lead her away from the toys she had been playing with.

“No, no,” Amy remembered pleading desperately. The man frightened her!

Then Lexi, only a few years older, stepped in front of them. She talked to the man. Then she kissed Amy on the forehead and left hand in hand with the perverted man.

Amy, wanting to confirm why Lexi’s dramatic conversion was real, related the memory. She made sure everyone listening knew that Lexi allowed herself to be abused by the man instead of her. Amy had left out the part in her retelling about Lexi kissing her forehead. So she asked Lexi in front of everybody that had prayed. “Is what I’m remembering real Lex?”

Lexi just bowed her head and whimpered.

“Lexi, is it real?” Amy demanded with surprising  authority.

Lexi calmly looked up at her sister. She slowly moved toward her and kissed her forehead again. “I love you, little sis.”

“I love you, too,” Amy declared as she threw herself into her sister. They both began to sob uncontrollably.

There wasn’t a dry eye in the room, except for Devin Easton, Lexi’s boyfriend. He continued to stare at Lexi in a daze. He couldn’t figure out what went on with her. He recalled how over the last few months she became so volatile. Then how over the last couple of weeks downright crazy. What did it say about him that he had been attracted to such a witchy woman? Was he possessed himself? Was her conversion genuine? He had witnessed her vacillate from normal to crazy more times than he could count. Now he felt crazy himself.

“Lexi,” Destiny spoke softly as the touching moment between the sisters settled. “What was your interest in Seven Sallie? You had some type of warning for him last week, and now you said you owed him a special thank you.”

“Right,” she laughed. “Sorry about getting sidetracked.”

“Don’t be,” Destiny said with a warm smile. “It was beautiful and a privilege to witness your deliverance. I am blown away at the drastic transformation we just saw.”

“As I tried to seek God over the last months, there was something powerful in me resisting. It was confusing and frustrating. I couldn’t call on the name of Jesus, even though there was this part in me that knew I needed Him. Then I started hearing voices, literal voices. They started telling me they were going to kill Seven Sallie. That’s why in a small moment of clarity I passed on the warning to Zella. Over the last few days the voices got louder and louder until they took me over and told me to kill Seven Sallie myself.”

Lexi clamped a hand over her mouth, bowed her head, and shook it. Seven gazed at her with his mouth agape. Amy took a hold of her sister’s hand. “It’s okay Lex, you didn’t go through with it.”

“I intended to. There’s a gun and a knife in my car to prove it. I don’t know why I ended up at Zella’s and then here with you all.”

“The grace of God,” Amy said as she smiled and happy tears ran down her eyes.

“Amen,” Destiny replied, and the added. “Even though you couldn’t verbalize it, God knew part of you was crying out to Him. But God doesn’t force Himself on anyone. The devil and the demonic are the ones that are about force, manipulation, and bondage.”

“It doesn’t surprise me you don’t remember coming to my place,” Zella said. “Girl, you were out of your mind, babbling incoherently and such. That’s why I called Devin. Then he thought of calling Amy and Dirk.”

“Yeah,” Lexi said with a shrug. “All I know is I left my house determined to kill Seven Sallie.”

Sixteen eyes gazed at Seven. He forced a smile as every hair on the back of his neck stood on end.