Centurion: Mark's Gospel as a Thriller by Ryan Casey Waller Read Free Book Online Page B

Legion."
    "Who's Legion?" I say.
    "You'll find out soon."
    "Wait. Who are you...and why are you helping me? You saved my life."
    Maria stops walking and turns her body to face mine, wrapping her arms tightly around my waist. It's supremely dark, and I can't see the face I know is within inches of my own. I feel her sweet breath on my lips, and my body trembles. She presses her chest against mine and resurrects the part of me I thought was dead forever—my heart.
    "I saw you," she says into my ear. "In the Office of Record, when I was crying."
    "Yes," I say, anxious for her to know. "I saw you too. You were beautiful. You...are beautiful."
    "I applied for a northern visa. It took two years to process." Maria pauses, and the darkness feels as if it's spreading out around us. We're like two people floating in infinite space, with only each other to hold onto. "Today it was denied."
    I run my hand across her face and feel tears stream down her cheeks. "Why do you want to go north? It only makes it easier for them to enlist you in the camps."
    "The West is off limits for a foreigner like me. And I'll do anything to escape the South. It's my only hope for a new life. Or at least it was." Maria's hands are now on my face, her fingers exploring my nose and lips. "But then I saw you. I can't explain it. Your eyes...they were so gentle, so...kind. You cared about my pain. I saw it in your eyes."
    "My eyes told you that?" I whisper. "If you hadn't been there, just now on the street, I'd...I'd be dead. No doubt about it. You risked your life to save me. How do you thank a person for something like that?"
    Maria kisses my forehead, and I can no longer feel the ground beneath my feet. We're fully suspended in the darkness of space, our bodies pressed together as one.
    "Where have you been?" I say, fumbling for the words to express my ineffable heart.
    "In places I pray you'll never go."
    "I'm here now. Wherever you've been, Maria, whatever you've suffered, that's over now. I can take you away from this place. I'll get you out of the South."
    "Tell me your name," she says.
    "Deacon. And you have me now, and it's all you'll need."
    Maria stiffens, and I fear she can see straight through me, understanding how preposterous my pledge is. I want it to be true, and maybe I even believe it will be true. All these feelings are so new, so unexpected. I'm speaking without thinking first.
    But the truth is I haven't come home to fall in love. I've come home to fight in a war, and my destiny will take me north, if I live that long. And when I go north, I won't be traveling with a lover. I'll be marching with other warriors, men prepared to fight and die for the cause. It's foolish and unfair for me to promise Maria freedom and safety. Yet I can't bring myself to recant my promise. I want it too dearly.
    "Maria?" I say. "Do you believe me?"
    Before she can answer, a blast of cold air rushes toward us. The hair on my neck and arms prickles to attention. Then a voice, which can be described only as infernal, slithers out from the dark.
    "Welcome home, Maria."

push Maria behind me, shielding her from whatever lurks in the abyss.
    "Who's there?" I say.
    My question is answered with the laugh of a madman.
    "He calls himself 'Legion,'" Maria says quietly. "But his real name is Alejandro. We must talk to him. Alejandro controls access to the tunnel, the only way out of here. He's also one of the reasons the Centurion Guard won't venture too far underground."
    "He's that dangerous?"
    "Every bit," Maria says. "He killed three centurions last month—by himself."
    "He has weapons?"
    "He doesn't need them. He killed all three with nothing but his hands. But his army does have weapons—weapons not even the centurions possess."
    "His army?" I say, certain I've misunderstood her.
    "Yes. Alejandro controls an army of a thousand men."
    I can't imagine how an unarmed man could take down a single centurion yet alone three of them. Centurions are the most well-trained