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"Power to Hermes," the hooded group chanted several times. "Power
to Hermes."
The priest was motionless. The figure in red stepped up to the pulpit
and faced the audience.
"Those who want to follow us can. You will be placed in high esteem
in Satan's domain. Those who do not are doomed to horrible deaths!
Save yourselves!" Hermes shouted his eyes ablaze and intense.
"Get out!" Father McDuffy screamed. "Get out!"
"SILENCE!" Hermes replied. He turned towards the congregation
again. "You must come now or be lost forever."
Hermes started to leave with his followers close behind in a
procession of darkness. Some followed, moving silently and deliberately
out from the pews. No one looked back. Those who remained watched
intently. When the last person exited, Father McDuffy raced down the
aisle and slammed the doors shut. Minutes later, the church was filled
with a blinding burst of light as the doors swung open again. A small
crowd rushed in.
"Father McDuffy? My name is Wanda Jackson from Eyewitness
News," a voice came out of the light. "I would like to ask you about what
just happened here." There was a pause and then the woman spoke
again.
148 Absence of Faith
"Andy, make sure Fred gets those characters outside in the robes.
Have him do an on-camera interview. Just let the guy babble on. We'll
edit later. Now father, can you tell us what happened here?" the TV
reporter pushed her way into the church and stuck a microphone in front
of the harried priest.
"That character or whatever you call him barged in here and
disrupted our Mass. Scared a lot of the parishioners," the priest said.
The interview was cut off as the camera crew was pushed forward as
the inside of the church lit up. Wanda Jackson, an attractive brunette
with large, puffy lips, was pushed into Father McDuffy and they were
face to face with the microphone wedged between them. The crowd
swelled.
"Father McDuffy! Father McDuffy! We need a statement. I'm from
Channel 4 News," a voice said from within the crowd.
"You must all leave now!" Father McDuffy shouted as loud as his
lungs would allow him. "We are in the middle of a holy Mass!"
The crowd continued to push the priest back towards the altar. He
turned and headed for the pulpit. From his higher position, he watched
the church fill with several TV camera crews, radio reporters, and
photographers wearing army green vests with multitudes of cameras
hanging off their necks. The camera crews and radio reporters pushed
and shoved each other in their scramble to place a microphone near the
pulpit. The reporters fired a volley of questions at the priest. The
questions were incomprehensible as one question cut off the other in a
swirl of noise and confusion. Father McDuffy began to shake. He
suddenly felt very tired and short of breath. The room seemed to move
from side to side and then he felt someone grip his arm. Two altar boys
had grabbed him and slowly lowered him to the floor. One ran into the
back office and called an ambulance. The media people watched with
jaded eyes, and then frowned in disappointment.
"At least we got that other weirdo outside," one of camera technicians
said to Wanda Jackson.
"Yeah," she replied in a tone of disappointment. "Let's interview
some of these people, and then we'll come back in an hour for the priest."
"It's a good thing you spotted this story on the wires," the technician
said.
"We'll give it to the national feeds after we air it. I just know they'll
pick it up," Wanda Jackson said.
The News - Chapter 24
Carson sat down at his dining room table waiting for Linda to
bring in two plates filled with one of her gourmet dinners. He offered to
help, but Linda refused. It was 6 pm and the linen drapes filtered a
yellow-orange light into the dining room giving Carson a feeling of
warmth and security. Linda carried two white plates with two slices of
gravy-covered meatloaf, buttered string beans and fluffy brown rice.
Carson filled their glasses with red Bordeaux and buttered two freshly
baked dinner muffins.
"To us," he said raising his glass.
"To us," Linda said clicking her glass against his.
"This is great," Carson said smiling. "You make the best meatloaf
around. I'm glad I gave you my mother's recipe."
"I didn't use your mother's recipe," Linda said.
"No?" Carson said.
"Joan Paulson gave me hers. She's a teacher at school."
"Well, it's great. Better than my mother's."
"Thanks, darling," she replied.
The phone rang.
"I'll get it," Linda said rising from her seat.
150 Absence of Faith
"No, no. Sit. You made dinner. I'll get it."
Carson walked into the kitchen and picked up the phone.
"Carson! Did you catch the six o'clock news on Channel 7? They're
doing a story on Ocean Village. Turn on your TV!" Stokes shouted.
"Really? No kidding! Okay."
Carson rushed into the living room and turned on the TV. A car
commercial was on and the announcer was talking about a marathon of
sales with great deals and low cost financing.
"More bullshit," Carson mumbled to himself.
The TV commercial ended and a shot of the anchor desk appeared on
the screen with a close-up of an anchorwoman.
"Devil worship appears to be on the rise in Monmouth County today.
Here's a report from Eyewitness reporter Wanda Jackson in Asbury
Park," the anchorwoman said.
Linda joined Carson.
"What's going on?"
"I'll tell you later. I have to watch this," he said.
"Churches here in this tiny, religious community appear to be losing
their followings to a group of Satanists, who appear to be growing in
strength..." Wanda Jackson said while holding a microphone in front of
St. Mary's Church.
"That's St. Mary's!" Linda said.
The report showed the interview with Father McDuffy and with
Hermes, and then the screen switched to another reporter - a young man
in a brown suit.
"This is Richard Dieters from the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office.
Sheriff James Locust has noticed a higher than usual crime wave in the
past three weeks and he attributes it to the Satanist movement in Ocean
Village..." A burly man in his 50s with graying hair then appeared on
screen.
"In the past three weeks, we have had several model parolees commit
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