Two Steps From Hell

The sound of police sirens echoed down the street as police car tyres burned along the asphalt to a stop just near the entrance of a two-hundred-year-old Cathedral on Main Street, Downtown. It was one of those old buildings that weren't knocked down to make room for the more futuristic upscale skyscrapers that now highlighted the city's magnificent skyline. The Cathedral itself was smacked between two sixty-storey business centres.

Just outside the church, members gathered as if they were afraid to enter in. Detective Essen led the handful of police officers that were with him up to the scene.

He was both a man of great stature and strength; standing at six feet and two inches tall. He was a light-skinned African American with bright brown eyes and had an untidy beard that needed trimming. A few strands of grey hair among his low kept curly black mane, indicated that he was probably in his early forties.

With haste in his steps, he and the other officers approached a young woman who stood with the congregation waiting on them.

"What happened here?" Essen asked, resting his hands on his waist.

"I don't know where to begin, Detective. One minute we were singing a hymn, the next minute this man is barging into the Cathedral waving a gun in his hand. We all managed to get out, but David is still in there with him. He's our assistant pastor. Please, you have to help him," the young woman pleaded, wiping a tear away with her hand.

Essen then turned to his men and said, "I need you to form a perimeter around this Cathedral. Get these people back."

Immediately the officers started to herd the people away from the Cathedral, while at the same time closing off the area with police yellow tape.

The detective while strapping on a bulletproof vest, began to walk towards the huge Cathedral doors.

Being escorted away by the police, the young woman turned around and warned, saying, "Detective, be careful."

Essen looked back and nodded his head in agreement and respect for her concern for his life. The detective cautiously opened the doors and entered. They closed by themselves as he walked in. The Cathedral interior design was a milestone in the development of western architecture: the pointed arch; the rib-and-vault; and, most significantly, the flying buttress. Its spiritual intensity is heightened by the fact that no direct light entered the building. All the light is filled through its many colour-stained-glass windows so that the whole experience of entering the Cathedral seemed out of this world. To provide stability for the daring construction, immense flying buttresses were used in an unprecedented way. The glass followed a uniform style, with figures in the upper panels related to the legends of saints. The Cathedral was truly a masterpiece from an artistic point of view.

The estranged man in question on seeing Essen entering the Cathedral frantically pointed his gun at him. "Don't take another step!" He barked.

Essen seeing the sensitivity of the situation, gently rested his handgun on the floor for him to see. With his hands empty and raised, Essen then slowly proceeded to walk up the aisle to the pulpit where the man and David stood.

"I'm unarmed. I just want to talk," Essen carefully said glancing at the pastor to see if he was hurt. "David, are you okay?"

The pastor nodded his head. Essen understood this and turned back his attention to the time-worn, bald-headed man who still held him at gunpoint. He was in a dirty old lab coat.

"Look, friend, you don't have to go through with this. I get it. Life can be a total bitch sometimes but we got to keep fighting, brother, right?" Essen said, trying to smooth talk the man, but he remained unmoved.

The pastor raised his hand in an attempt to get Essen's attention, which he did and revealed that "His name is Judas and might I ask you to refrain from using such language in this house of worship."

"I think we've already stepped over that boundary, Pastor."

"Enough!" Judas exclaimed, gripping the gun tightly in annoyance. He tore wide open his sleep-deprived eyes at the detective and asked, "Who sent you? They sent you to kill me didn't they?!"

"No. No one sent me. I'm not here to kill you, Judas."

"I don't believe you."

Essen showed him his detective badge. "See? I'm on your side, buddy, but right now there are a lot of people outside truly terrified of you. C'mon, let me help you. Put away the gun."

"I couldn't trust any of them," Judas went on, slowly lowering his guard by looking away. "I needed to speak with the pastor alone. I didn't know who else to turn to."

"You can talk to me," Essen said with a caring voice, watching him as he lowered the gun even more. Then in the blink of an eye, Essen dived right into him like a star linebacker, pinning him down on the floor and disarming him of his weapon.

"No. No. No. Let me go. You're making a terrible mistake!"

Essen cuffed his hands together while he used his knee to pin him down on the carpet-covered floor. He subsequently pulled him up onto his feet and responded, saying, "You're under arrest dirtbag for public endangerment."

The pastor with his hand over his mouth was a bit taken back as to how rough Essen was treating Judas. "Is this completely necessary, Detective?" The pastor argued, stepping in front of him.

"Step aside, reverent. You're in my way!"

With his aggressive tone of voice and tough face, the pastor humbly obeyed his command, stepping out of his way.

With his hands cuffed behind his back, Essen led Judas down the aisle and out through the Cathedral doors. The pastor followed closely behind them.

By this time, the entire Cathedral grounds were taped off, forcing the crowd that had gathered to stand on the opposite sidewalk across the street. People clapped in relief when they saw Essen emerging with Judas in handcuffs and the pastor following behind them seemingly unhurt. A few more police cars were parked on the street along with a news company van labelled 'Kapitol News'.

"Please, you got to listen to me. They are everywhere. They will kill me!" Judas sincerely warned, begging for the detective to heed him.

Finally reaching his police car, Essen spun him around so that he could see his face and without a single care in the world, said, "Hey, you got the right to remain silent. I suggest you use it," he afterwards spun him back around to face the car.

"No, you need to listen to me..."

Just as the detective was opening the car door, he innocently noticed a red beam of light moving up Judas' face and later stopping in the middle of his forehead. "...you have no idea what's coming," was Judas' last words before out of nowhere a bullet flew straight through his head, sending blood and brain tissues to splatter all over the pastor, who was standing behind him. Everyone in the crowd ducked all at once when they heard the initial gunfire. The police officers scrambled in chaos as they tried to pinpoint where the gunshot came from. Essen, on the other hand, froze with a gaping mouth and a twitching eyebrow as he watched in slow motion Judas' body falling and hitting the pavement lifeless; thick blood gushing out from his head, painted the sidewalk red.

At the same time, on the roof of a high rising building immediately facing the Cathedral, stood the lone figure of a masked woman holding a sniper rifle.

"The traitor is no more," she satisfyingly revealed.

Shortly after, a cleverly disguised male voice replied to her through a communicator she had in her left ear, saying, "Excellent."