The Madness at Koresh Manor­ Part 6

At first, Jimmy thought Raphael was joking about the snowball fight, but they ended up a great big battle with the children of the small town. The children loved the game, and to Raphael’s surprise, Jimmy did as well. It took the tall man a little while to get into the fight but once he did he almost didn’t want to stop. It was odd, but at the same time, Raphael understood it, how easy it was to fall back into the moments of being a kid, even a big kid.

                After about an hour or so the battle was over with most of the children being shipped off to school or work, Raphael was not sure. He promises a few of them another battle and to show them how to make snow cream, ice cream made from the snow. He was a little shock the kids had ever heard of it, but then again this was a cult he was dealing with right now.

                The kids ran off with Raphael’s smiled. It was back to matter at hand. He turns on his heels asking Jimmy, “What is next?”

                “Would you like to talk to a few people to see what we are about?” Jimmy asked back to the cold personality he wore before the game.

                “Sure, but can we get something warm to drink first?” Raphael asked.

                “Let’s head over to the diner,” Jimmy ordered. Everything in town could be walked in a few minutes and from what Raphael could gather the mansion which sits above the town on a small hill was where Cyrus lived and teach.

                Raphael walked beside the man and asked him, “Where you from?”

                “Washington,” Jimmy said.

                “So, you are used to the cold, huh?”

                “A little,” he nodded, “but nothing like this.”

                “Yeah, what brings you here?” Raphael asked feeling eyes fall of them from somewhere in the tree. He was sure a certain fox person was watching them.

                “Cyrus and his teachings,” Jimmy said.

                “What are his teachings?” Raphael asked.

                Jimmy stared at him for a moment. “He is going to break the seals bring Heaven to the world.”

                “He is chosen to do this?” Raphael asked knowing it was best not to act as if anything he said was insane, no matter how much it was to him.

                “God has chosen him and us,” Jimmy said.

                “How do you know? God has chosen him?” He asked.

                “I have the miracles Cyrus has to perform,” he said with absolute conviction.       

                “Like?”

                “He healed my legs,” Jimmy told him. “I couldn’t walk before I met him and Cyrus spoke the words of God and laid his hands on my legs, and I could walk.”

                “Really?” Raphael asked noticing quickly Jimmy said spoke the words. If he hadn’t spent a life where dealing with magic was a common occurrence, then he might believe this man. But people like Jimmy thought magic was something in books and movies. He had no idea there was real magic in the world and most of all how it worked.

                To cast a spell to heal someone to walk, Raphael knew glancing down at Jimmy’s legs for a moment, was a powerful spell indeed. It would also take Cyrus staying around the man for a few days if not weeks to make sure the spell took hold.

                “It was hard for me to believe as well,” Jimmy said. “I was a hardcore atheist before I met Cyrus and his church.”

                “Do you join right then and there?”

                “Yes, I did,” he said. “I stood up walked around and give my life to him. He made me one of his houses, and we slept in the same room until we moved here. All the house of David sleeps under the same roof,” Jimmy said pointing at the mansion.

                Raphael followed his finger to the poorly built mansion with a tall tower on one said and a small church on the other side. All the people Cyrus healed stayed near him so he could keep the spell working because it was far too powerful to take hold. Raphael grin because he must love having Rain around, the sorcerer was more than likely helping take some of the burdens off form Cyrus. The amount of mana Cyrus was having to use must have been outrageous.

                “Did the healing take it out of Cyrus?” Raphael asked.

                “He has been sick until your friend showed up,” Jimmy said. “Rain was a God sent for him.”

                “How so?”

                Jimmy catch himself from saying anything more. He scowls deeply at Raphael because he must have forgotten he wasn’t part of their little group. He shouldn’t have been talking this much about any of what he said. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

                “Hey man,” Raphael said, “I’m just here following you around.”

                Jimmy open the diner door letting Raphael go in and order a cup of hot tea. He sat down across from Jimmy who still seems a little upset at himself. Raphael started talking to him about little things not trying to get any more information out of him. In time Raphael would learn everything he needed to know but what Jimmy didn’t know was he had texted Karalius that Cyrus knew magic.

                He felt his phone move in his pocket, but he wasn’t about to pull it out. Karalius said they had to save Rain and stop the end of the world but what Raphael has seen so far there was nothing wrong going on here. Of course, he wasn’t foolish enough to think they were not hiding something from him, but how bad could it bad? Everyone he met seem like nice people trying to make their own life in the world. They didn’t want trouble, and most of all didn’t need it. Most of the people in the town were not soldiers of any army.

                However, Raphael had to remind himself more than once, in his life nothing was what it seemed. It could all go south fast, and every one of these people could turn out be demons from Hell. It wouldn’t be the first time it happens to him or the weirdest thing he has faced before.