Excerpt: Son of Joan

There were dark clouds building outside and the wind whipped at my hair. I knew what I was here to do, and I knew that God would be smiling down on me tonight. I had been training for this since the day my father died. My body was tense, and I could feel my fingers and hands tingling against the cool of the gun in my pocket. I hoped that I didn't have to use it.

That was the one part of my plan that wasn't perfected yet. I still couldn't shoot without my hands shaking.

There were no lights in the chapel, save the pale yellow light of the candles. That meant he was still here. Good.

I entered the chapel, bowed at the alter, genuflected and sat in the front pew to pray and offer up a prayer for the night's success. Steps behind me alerted me to the pedophile's presence. I never cared what the paper's said. He was guilty. he had hurt that little boy, and he had to pay for it before the eyes of God.

Aaron Clarke shuffled down the pew and sat next to me. My skin crawled against my thighs.

“Do you need to speak to me, my child?”

How could one so vile seem so pious? I shifted in my seat to try to move away from him.

“Can you show me around the church, Father? I am new to this parish and have yet to see it all.”

He smiled and nodded, happy to have a new sheep for his flock. I walked beside him, studying his movements and trying to assess his strengths and weaknesses.

“This is our choir loft. We're remodeling it right now, so mind the planks as we pass through. We're hoping --” He hadn't seen me step behind him as he spoke. He was so caught up in his tour. It wasn't until he was falling that he noticed I had pushed him.

The sound of breaking glass was nothing compared to the sound of his body hitting the metal cross in the courtyard.

I fell to my knees and thanked God for allowing me the power to do what needed to be done in order to redeem mankind.

The molesters, the abusers, the drug lords, the whores. All of them needed to be cleared in order to make way for the rapture of God's love. All of them needed to pay for the death of my father.