I made this for school. I had fun writing it, but I don't feel it is very good. Review and tell me what you think.

The Tempter

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me,” read a man in black robes and grayed hair. He looked around the dark sanctuary, almost as if waiting for a response. He began to turn to a bookmark in the bible resting upon the podium.

“That is the fourth verse in Psalm twenty-three, correct, father?” echoed a voice in the darkness.

Startled, the man at the podium raised his head and scanned the room. “Who’s there?” he said shakily.

A tall man wearing a heavy coat and hair blacker than the darkness around him stepped forward into sight. “It’s been a long time, father,” he spoke gently.

“You almost gave me a heart attack, boy! You know I’m getting older!” the man in robes said, followed by a hearty laugh. “Yes, it has been some time. How long exactly? Two, three years?”

“Two and four months,” was the tall mans reply. “I was in town and I figured I should see an old friend.”

“Well you could have seen me in the morning, you know, instead of making my heart sprint,” the robed man commented. “In this day and age, voices in the dark could mean very bad things. Not that they were ever good.”

“I apologize, father. But I’m only here for a night, and I wasn’t sure when the next time I would get to see you would be.”

“Under stood, but must you call me ‘father’? I’ve told you before, you’re a close friend to me, and you can call me Luke. Nowadays, only my sister and brother call me by my first name.”

“If you would like me to, Luke.”

“Ha, ha! Do you want something to drink? I have wine. Oh, that’s right, you can’t handle it. I’m sorry. I’ll go put on a pot of coffee then.”

“Thank you for your hospitality, but I am severely pressed for time. I must leave now,” Michael said, and then took a step back.

“Already?” Luke walked to the pale man and put a hand upon his shoulder as he was turning to leave. “You’ve barely been here five minutes.”

“I would stay, but it is urgent. I will try to see you another day.” He walked down the middle of the sanctuary towards to two large oaken doors that led to the world outside.

He grasped the handle of the left door, and then paused. “Luke.”

“Yes, son?”

“That verse you read is still my favorite,” he said before leaving the church.

“What a character,” Luke murmured as he returned to the pulpit. “Michael…he is no ordinary man.”

Michael was in a café on the crossing of Second Street and Eiffel Boulevard. He gently sipped a cup of coffee as he stared at nothing in particular. A man with spiked blonde hair walked in and searched the café with eyes. Seeing Michael, he walked up to him.

“There you are. Next time you tell me to meet you at a coffee shop, tell me which one, okay?” he complained. “I’ve been looking around town for two hours for you.”

“You were wasting time,” Michael pointed out. “I arrived here only about ten minutes ago.”

“What!?” the blonde man exclaimed with a sharp expression of fury on his face.

“I visited an old friend of mine who helped me a few years ago when I was assigned a job here,” Michael calmly stated. He sipped his coffee again, ignoring the glare given by the blonde man.

“You little… never mind. Putting that aside, I have the specs for the new target. Here, look at them,” he said as he pulled out a large folder brimming with papers and documents from a dark green knapsack he carried over his shoulder. “He’s a bad one. Already killed three civilians. We think he may strike again soon.”

He sat down as Michael flipped through the contents of the folder. “Mark, if the organization has so much on this target, why hasn’t he been captured?”

“They’ve tried. He’s slippery. Thing is, he’s not a destroyer or even a possessor. He’s a tempter.”

“A tempter? He convinced someone to kill for him?”

“Yeah. He’s very good at what he does, that simple. That makes him harder to stop though. We can’t just find and kill him,” Mark said in a grievous tone. He continued, “Let’s move. We already have a lead and Rahab is waiting. Oh, one more thing. The organization sent us a trainee. Like we need a newb at a time like this, but as if the higher-ups actually care about that. Man, once I get promoted past field work…”

A black van driven by a woman with tan-brown skin pulled up by a large church. Looking a the structure he had just visited, Michael inquired, “Why are we here?”

“Did anyone tell you that you ask too many questions? This is our lead, a priest named Luke Valor. He used to be an exorcist,” Mark said agitatedly.

Michael stared at the cathedral he had been in only an hour earlier, imagining Luke’s surprise when he walked in.

“Rahab,” Mark directed. “Stay here and watch the van. And you,” he looked at a boy in his late teens, who was studying the gothic structure. “Come with me and Michael. Simon, right?”

“Yes, sir,” was the succinct reply.

“This isn’t the military, kid. There’s no need for that. Just call me Mark.”

They walked into the church quietly, as if not to disturb the solemn silence. Michael scanned the sanctuary, sensing something amiss in the all-to-common room.

“Oh, God,” Mark said, looking down the main aisle.

Michael’s eyes aimed at a collapsed figure in front of the podium. A figure in robes. He ran to the fallen priest with thoughts of a cold rainy night two years ago, when Luke had found him half-dead in a gutter. Luke was a sickly color, and he had the appearance of a very old man. There was a hole in is robes, at his chest, where blood was pouring out.

“Father…” Michael said, not able to bring himself to check for a pulse.

Luke’s eyes opened to Michael’s voice. “I thought I told you to call me Luke,” he whispered with a smile. He closed his eyes, and didn’t open them ever again.

“Don’t tell me,” Mark said, walking up to the body. “this was the ‘old friend’ ;you were talking about?”

Michael sighed deeply and arose. “He was attacked only a short while ago. The person our target has tempted is near, probably still on grounds. Mark, call Rahab; tell her to patrol and see if there are any suspicious characters in the vicinity. Luke died from a gun wound, as seen at his chest. Stay alert, he is probably still armed.”

Mark laid his knapsack on a pew and took out a cell phone. He walked a few steps away and made a call. Michael pulled off a duffel bag on his back and laid it on the ground. Fumbling through it, he pulled out several black sleek-looking objects.

“Simon, do you have a weapon?” he called out to the young man.

“Only a knife,” said Paul as he walked to where Michael was kneeling. “The organization told me I would be provided for.”

“You will be, but it is best to carry your own equipment. Here,” Michael explained as he handed Simon a pistol. “Consider it a welcoming gift. It’s a Beretta 93R, a machine pistol. Standard three modes, I’m sure you’re familiar. I-”

“Please, sir, I don’t want to take your weapon,” Simon said, almost as if he were apologizing.

“Don’t worry, I can easily get another. Besides, you need to be properly armed, and that knife isn’t close to proper here. From now on, I suggest you try to make a personal arsenal. The organization will only give you basic armaments. It doesn’t get much funding, since it’s a black corporation. It doesn’t exist, technically.”

Simon pondered for a moment and said, “Thank you, Michael. I’ll take your advice.” He began to study the gun in his hands.

“Michael,” Mark stated as he put away his cell phone. “Rahab’s going around. You’re familiar with this place, aren’t you? Where do you think we should look first?”

Michael thought for a moment while Mark pulled a MAC-10 from his knapsack. “Luke once told me the more mischievous children hide in the library. There are plenty of small hiding places in it. We should go there first, then to the fellowship hall. The way it is designed, a few tipped tables could make a fort.”

“Alright then, let’s go,” Mark directed as he cocked his gun.

Michael retrieved a SW 500 from his bag, then returned it to his back. He then strode towards the place he remembered the library to be.

Opening the doors to the book-packed room, Michael turned on the lights and ran his eyes around the tome-laden furniture. Signaling the others, they slowly crept from bookcase to bookcase, making sure there was no one between them. They walked across a small reading area designed for children. Mark glanced at the cabinets, then the table. However, his reaction was to late.

A hand lunged from underneath and grabbed his leg. A body followed it and tackled Mark. Twisting around, he pointed a black revolver at his head.

“Don’t move! He’s at my mercy!” the man declared.

Michael kept his gun down and gently said, “Sir, please relax. We are here to help you. We are-”

“-the police. I-I know,” the man spat nervously. His gun-hand began to shake. “It’s about the priest, right?”

“Simon, move away. This could be dangerous,” Michael ordered.

Simon obeyed and took a step backwards. He looked at Michael and noticed him look at him, his gun, the man, and to Simon again. “Sir,” Michael proceeded, “we will not harm you. Release your hostage and I promise I won’t hurt you.”

“You’re not fooling me. You’ll just arrest me. But if I have this man, you can’t,” the man said. “Why, you’re probably all afraid I’m gonna shoot, aren’t you. Well-”

He was interrupted by a loud gunshot, quickly followed by a pain-filled roar. The man’s hand was releasing blood violently, and he quickly let go of Mark. Mark, in turn, clubbed the man on the back of the head with his gun.

“Good job, Simon. You figured out what I wanted you to do without me having to even tell you. Excellent,” Michael said, then began searching for something in his bag.

“You guys are insane. He could have killed me!” Mark shouted in his loudest complaining voice.

“Sir, you’re not hurt, are you?” Simon said indifferently.

“Don’t call me sir. It bothers me.”

Michael sighed and thought of what Luke had said about using his name as he bent down to the man’s hand to wrap the wound, not realizing it already began to heal.

“Now what do we do?” Mark asked. “We have to weapon of the tempter, but how do we get the tempter itself?”

“We talk to the weapon,” Michael replied as he bound the man’s limbs.

They moved the man to the sanctuary, and in twenty minutes, the man awoke. He pulled out of a daze and began to look around him. When seeing the three men, he went pale and nervously looked for a way to escape.

“Calm down. What do you think we’ll do to you?” Michael inquired.

“Arrest me then kill me,” the man said, not looking at Michael’s face.

“And why do you think that?”

“You know why… I killed the priest. My other acts are in the paper already.”

“There is no evidence against you. And how would the police know that you were going to kill him tonight far enough ahead of time to come here right after you shot him?” There was no response from the man. Getting up, Michael continues, “You were tempted to do these heinous deeds you have done by a tempter demon named Mindscrape. You never had a grudge against any of the people you killed, until a month ago, haven’t you?”

The man stared into space for a moment, then looked at Michael in the eyes. “Oh, dear. I had such a good thing going, and now someone found me out. And so quickly, too. I thought I would have the chance to kill more people.” He tore all his bonds apart and immediately rose up, looking three feet taller than before. He slammed his fists into the ground, and sent all three across the room.

When Michael looked back up, he didn’t see the man anymore, but a behemoth with the appearance of a red-hot boulder with limbs. Realizing the situation, he called to Mark and yelled, “This is Mindscrape? I thought he was a tempter, not a destroyer!”

“I went through a transformation, just to throw any potential exorcists off me,” the boulder said. “Ha, ha, even though it didn’t work as long as I thought it would, at least I can still kill you three!”

He began tossing pews at Michael and Mark, while Simon slipped away unnoticed. For several minutes, they simply evaded the benches thrown by the demon, finding that bullets could not damage Mindscrape’s stone hide.

Simon and the van driver ran in carrying what looked like glass flasks of water. Coming as close as they could, they threw the flasks at Mindscrape. The moment they touched him, he screamed with enormous pain. A thick screen of steam surrounded him, and when it cleared, he vanished.

“I’ve told you two before, you should always carry holy water. If Simon hadn’t come out and told me what happened, you would have died,” Rahab said reprimanded.

“We don’t need you to lecture us,” Mark said exhaustedly. “And thank you.”

“Well, if you’re all okay, I suggest we leave,” Rahab advised. “The noise from the fight probably woke a few people up and the police will be here soon. We can’t be here.”

They all cleared the sanctuary through the large oaken doors. Michael was the last. He grasped the handle of the left door, and then paused. “Luke.”

There was no answer.

“I was looking forward to that coffee,” he said before leaving the church.

Out of a door leading to the fellowship hall, a man walked. Surveying the damage from the fight, he stood silent for a moment. “Oh well,” the man said. “That pawn can be replaced. At least they didn’t search in the hall.”

He paused then continued, “Ha! This is good! They will think that Mindscrape is dead! They won’t come anymore… This was worth losing Stonescale. ”