Chelsea had been past the church at least a thousand times. She remembered when it was being built; she had honestly thought it was going to be a sports stadium of some kind. It was huge, ridiculously so. It was made of metal and on the outside resembled a large spaceship that had settled down right in the center of the city. On the inside, it looked more like a church…a huge one. The pews were set up like stadium seats so that wherever you sat, you had a bird’s-eye view of the stage, or “altar” as he called it. There were white candles on five-foot-tall candelabras set up on both sides and in the center was a huge white and gold organ. There was a podium, and of course a microphone so everyone could hear what the dear preacher had to say. The wall behind the altar, though, that’s where Chelsea’s eyes wanted to stay focused. It was a large, white screen that he used to scroll hymnal lyrics or show pictures of happy, sin-free Christians. She only knew those things because she’d seen him on television. She hadn’t told Chopper, but sometimes she would walk into the day room at rehab and his show would be on the big seventy-inch television. Something about his face and the sound of his voice always gave her the creeps, and she’d have to turn around and walk back out of the room.

She finally took her eyes from the blank, white screen and looked over at the pew across the aisle. Zack and Garrett sat there, dressed in street clothes. If Chopper hadn’t told her they would be there, she wouldn’t have recognized either of them. Of course, there were very few other men walking around that were as big as Garrett. Even in plain clothes it was hard not to notice him. Zack smiled and winked at her and she smiled back. She wished that Chopper was here with her, but he said that Dax needed him out back. She suspected that translated into wherever they planned on taking Walton when all of this was over. She wasn’t privy to the entire plan, but she saw the look in Chopper’s eyes when he talked about this guy. She knew that the utter disgrace and humiliation he was about to experience wasn’t going to be nearly enough.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce our organist Susan Woodrow.” The crowd erupted in applause as an elderly woman sat down on the bench in front of the organ. Once the noise died down, she began to play. Chelsea thought it was an odd choice for a Sunday service. The song was in no way a hymn. It sounded more like carnival music, but she understood quickly when the crowd erupted once again, and a spotlight appeared celestially from the ceiling. The pastor, or as he would be referred to from then on, however short the rest of his time on earth might be, as the congressman, appeared as if out of nowhere. He was dressed in a white suit and other than his shoe-polish-black hair, everything was white from head to toe. The crowd was on their feet. People were clapping and cheering and some were even crying. One woman was dancing in the aisle and praising the Lord. Chelsea sat in her seat and looked around, wondering how one evil man, could convince so many people that he was the second coming of Christ.

Once he reached the center of the stage where the podium and the microphone were, he held up his arms and another light came on above him, like he was opening up the heavens. She rolled her eyes, and then she caught sight of Zack out of the corner of one. He had his thumb and forefinger in the shape of a gun and with one eye closed, he was aiming it at the evangelist. Chelsea chuckled to herself and returned her attention back to the stage. The evangelist picked up the microphone and tapped it and the huge crowd fell silent. Once again, he held up his arms and he yelled out, “Praise the Lord!” The audience parroted him, and he did it again, louder. The crowd returned the yell, even louder, practically shaking the steel walls of the building.

Walton’s dramatic show of praising the Lord, thanking God for life, and saying amen went on for a good fifteen minutes before he calmed down, the audience quietened, and he began to speak. “What is this place?” he yelled.

“Church!” people yelled back, in different variations of the word.

“Yes! This is a church. This is a building made of steel and glass. This is a cage!”

They all yelled, “A cage!”

“That’s right!” he said. “This beautiful, wonderful church is nothing but a cage because wherever I go…He is in me!” They repeated that, and he did too. Then he went on to say, “He is inside of me. He is in the air and mountains and the animals… He is love!” They all screamed that out and a few of them fell to their knees in tears. Then he moved on to his win in Congress and his move to DC. “Next week I won’t be here because it’s time for me to move on!” That was met with both cheers, applause, and “No!” from the audience. “But you don’t need me, because like me, you have Him inside of you! God is with you, and you don’t need this old pastor to preach to you! You need to listen to the message that he is sending from inside of you! He’s sending a message of love and light. He’s guiding you toward safety, and away from sin.”

“Because everyone sins, right?” Chelsea’s heart seized up. That was Chopper’s voice. The place went silent. A pin dropped in the back row would have been heard around the world, because that voice didn’t come from the pastor, it came from overhead. The pastor froze as well, and he was looking around like everyone else. Finally, with his fake smile in place he said, “That’s right, everyone sins. No one is perfect and that’s why God is in each and every one of us.”

“And we should all be forgiven for our sins,” the voice said. Chelsea saw the pastor look at one of his bodyguards on stage. The man spoke into a radio he had attached to his shoulder. The pastor went with it again. “Amen!” he said, but he was looking more nervous. The two months since he was confronted by the club and the thirty thousand dollars he’d paid them to go away had given him a sense of security. Now, he was wondering if it had been a false sense, she was sure.

“None of us should be taunted for our sins, and none of us should be led into more sin by a false prophet who only means to do them harm.” The audience began to believe it was all part of the show and they were yelling their “Amen! And Praise the Lord!” as the pastor stood on stage looking scared and confused. His bodyguards had all gone backstage, presumably to investigate, but they hadn’t returned. Chelsea could see by the look on Walton’s face that he was unsure of what to do next.

“There are consequences to all of our actions whether they be on this earth…or in the afterlife. Isn’t that right, Congressman Walton?”

With sweat now beading on his shiny forehead the evangelist looked out at his audience of over a thousand and toward the television cameras in the back, and said, “My children, my followers, my fellow Christians, I regret to inform you…” The screen behind him came to life and there was a frozen picture of his face. The audience cheered so loudly that whatever he was informing them of got lost. Chelsea wished that she could have seen his face as he turned and looked up at the screen. As soon as he did, he started for the exit behind the stage. She couldn’t see them, but she knew that the guys must have been there, judging by the way he stopped in his tracks. He turned and quickly headed for the other one, but he stopped there too.

The audience was rumbling, trying to figure out what was going on. Walton finally turned back toward them, but not to address them, to try to escape down the steps of the stage. That was when Chelsea noticed Zack and Garrett had gotten up from their seats and were standing, one at each exit. The look of horror on his face was classic, especially when the sound of Chopper’s voice said, “What you’re about to watch is a true story. It’s a story of a man who believed he was above God’s laws. He’s a man who believed that he could sin, as long as he did it in private and then on Sundays he could step up on this stage and pretend like he was better than you, and me. This man believed himself to be the second coming of Christ…or at least he wanted you to believe he was. This man took your donations, and this…is what he spent it on…” Suddenly there was sound with the picture and the congressman/clergyman/evangelist was telling someone off-screen to “Suck it.” The audience gasped, but that was nothing compared to the collective horror over what happened next. The video cut to show that he was completely nude and as he held a handful of dark hair and called the woman who was “sucking it” a “cunt” and a “whore” and a “sinner,” his trusted bodyguard…one that had just been on stage with him…stroked his own hard dick and watched.

Chelsea forgot she was watching herself for several seconds and she was riveted to the screen. It wasn’t until she heard the woman begin to gag and watched her try to pull away and get slapped for it that her stomach rolled. She looked around her, instead of at the screen. People were yelling, crying, gasping, and one woman had even fainted. Several people were on their phones and she was sure they were calling the police. She didn’t want to be there when they showed up. She picked up her bag and headed for the back exit. When she got there, she discovered that Cody and some of the other guys had taken the place of the ushers that had been there when she entered the church. Cody held the door for her and as she passed through it, she felt the warmth of his big hand on her shoulder. When the sun hit her face, she smiled. Oddly, instead of upsetting her the way she thought it might, all of that had somehow made her realize just how lucky she was. She wasn’t being judged. She wasn’t being hated. All of that was in her past, and now it was Bart Walton’s turn. She walked away from the church feeling lighter than she had in years and more blessed than she ever had.

By the time she reached her apartment, she had a text message from Cody telling her that they were all okay and “mayhem” had ensued at the church. She turned on the television and thanks to modern technology…i.e., cellphones…she watched it all unfold again. She saw flashes of video that she hadn’t stayed long enough to watch. Of course, the news only showed his face and his bodyguard’s face, but it was enough. There were also lots of pictures and video of him in real time. He was ruined and the look on his face told the world that he knew it.