Read Online The World Ends at Five & Other Stories by M Pepper Langlinais - Free Book Online

Jezebel pulled Lucien’s cigarettes from his suitcoat pocket and walked away from him, back to the desk. He mechanically held out his lighter for her, which she swiped from his grasp, refusing to allow him the courtesy. He gave a small shrug to show he didn’t care and went back to gazing out the window. “Bring me my bible,” he said. It came out flat, toneless, but it was enough to make Jezebel gasp.
    Then, for the second time in one evening, the office door burst open. “Sir, we have news.”
    “Evidently,” Lucien replied dourly. “What is it?” “They’re here to find the Righteous One.”
    Still, very still. A rock, a pillar. He took a deep breath. “Bring me my bible,” he said again. When she didn’t move, he turned on her. “Now!”
    Jezebel slapped the lighter onto the desk and marched across the room to where the book was kept in a glass case. It was beautiful, written by the hand of the Lord Himself, and the words burned upon the page. They were not ink but flame. Gently she lifted it from its place, surprised it did not scald her.
    “Sir,” the angel at the door said timidly, “what do you want us to do?”
    “Go and get her. Bring her to me.”
    “ Ah. . .?”
    Lucien turned the full force of his displeasure onto the nervous figure. “Are you questioning me?”
    “No! Of course not, sir.” The angel swiftly disappeared.
    Jezebel handed Lucien the bible, and he flipped instantly to the back, to the books that told the stories of the final times. The Revelation.
    He began silently to read.
     
    They had reached the edge of the shadowed city.
    “How will we find him?” asked Stephen.
    “Keep walking. It will become clear.”
     
    Doria Abernathy was startled by a knock at her door.
    If asked, Doria would never have counted herself among the righteous. Raised Catholic in New Orleans, she had moved to California with a friend who had insisted it was the place to be. The friend having long since married and moved to Wyoming (now the place to be), Doria remained in California alone, except for a large orange tabby she called Kasey.
    As the insistent knock sounded again, Doria glanced at her apartment window and caught her own haunted reflection suspended there against the darkening sky. Storm clouds were building, the twinkling skyscrapers pushing against them defiantly like people crowded into a room where the roofing is too low, and so they strive to stand as tall as they can, even to the point of butting their heads and shoulders against the ceiling as if they have a hope to break through. It occurred to Doria then that something might be very wrong--she seldom had visitors, and she suspected it might be bad news.
    She answered the door anyway.
     
    Stephen looked up and around at the towering buildings. He looked at the people on the sidewalks, some of them rushing to wherever they had to be, others with no place to go resigned to a life on the street. It was like nothing he had ever seen before, and his heart went out to these children of the Creator who had no clue as to what they were facing this night.
    “How will it end?” whispered Stephen.
    Andrew walked ahead, swiftly, never bothering to stop and take in the marvels around him. They meant little in the greater scheme. “The storm is coming. The rain of fire will drown the city.”
    Stephen looked up again. The sky above them was dark but cloudless. Yet looking back he could see that out over the bay the storm was advancing towards the land. The angel gave a little shiver and felt another pang of remorse for these hapless souls who had no idea they were going into battle, much less were they prepared for it.
     
    “Miss Abernathy,” Lucien said, reclining comfortably in his desk chair, “I have had my eye on you for quite some time.”
    Doria shifted slightly in the chair she’d been shown to. The place was dark and unbelievably warm for a room made of so much glass. What made her the most nervous was that she could hardly see