Riders

Addie Scott glanced up in disgust as the transit car's door opened with a blast of chill snowy air. Two figures slid in on the tail of the blast and settled giggling in a rear corner seat. The homeless bundle drowsing, bestirred itself to see if he could panhandle from the newcomers and lapsed back into his stupor as the doors bumped shut. Addie sniffed dubiously at the odor of unwashed vagrant as it wafted down the aisle past her, then returned to her white vinyl Bible while the train resumed speed.

Laughter from the end of the car broke into her quiet meditation, and she glared at the two in the back. A boy, blond haired and dressed in a western hat and battered black trench coat was hanging upside down from the hand rails at the top of the car. On the seat the girl clapped her hands and laughed.

"You'll beak your neck with your foolishness," the sharpness of her own voice startled her, echoing in the near empty car. "And it will be your own fault." Addie snapped. He swung down, the train rocking gently. He stood watching her return to her book, the girls voice reached her.

"What an old haggis!" She had an odd accent. Foreigners, the old woman thought, God had better things to do than watch out for crazy foreigners.

The train rumbled in to the tunnel, interior lights now augmented by the fluorescence flicking past. They reached another station, and the car opened and closed its doors futilely before continuing on its way.

"I'm hungry," the girls voice had a childish tone with a lisp.

"I know honey. We'll find something. Soon." He was trying to be soothing.

"Not soon, now!" Addie revised her idea of the couple. More than likely brother watching his younger sister. She felt a wave of righteousness swell inside her. She had saved him from being injured and the girl taken by criminals, but for her watchfulness, the grace of God and her prayers.

A shadow fell over her. The girl looked to be no more than fourteen or so, An oversized leather coat covered her from neck to the ground. Underneath a lace trimmed party dress of black velvet came down to her ankles and laced up granny boots. Out from her wide brimmed felt hat hung long, dark, corkscrews curls. Her face was heart-shaped with wide violet eyes.

"What are you reading?"

"The Bible, The Word of God." She glanced down the aisle. the boy sat watching feet stretched on the bench in front of him, smoking.

"What word is God's? There's a lot of words in that book." Could she possibly be as innocent as she seemed? Addie began a lecture on the word of God and the salvation of souls.

"When did he write all this?" the girl interrupting, sat down on the floor at Addie's feet.

"Many years ago.."

"Wow." the girl paused in thought, "What if there were someone who was, ok, like, a thousand years old, or maybe older, and they never heard of what is said in that book at all."

"Then they would be lying, because the Lord God Sent his only Begotten Son to the world of sinners to redeem them, two thousand years ago."

"But what if there was a person who had been alive for thousands of years and had lived in Jerusalem and never heard of this Jesus Christ person?"

"It is impossible," Addie felt her patience wearing thin. "Firstly, because only a holy man can be graced by The Lord to live that long, and, also because the Bible states that Jesus lived there at this time." she took a breath to stress her point, "The Bible does not lie. Man lies"

"But, that book was written by men." the girl raised an eyebrow.

"Goodly men who had heard the Word of God."

"But they were men." The girl stood up. "So, I will tell you this. Primus, there are persons in this world that have lived for much longer that your book has been in print. Or there has even been a printing press." her voice had lost it's youthful tones, there was no trace of a child in her bearing now. "Secondus, your book and your explanation constantly contradicts itself, and your not even smart enough to question it. How pathetic."

"Impossible! One does not question the word of God!" Addie Scott rose from her seat in wrath, her bags falling to the floor, raising her Bible before her like a sword.

"The whole of your religion is based on a badly orchestrated lie."

"Now you listen here...!"Addie's words were cut off by the girl's hand wrapping about her throat. Her violet eyes and pretty face contorted into a masque of otherworldliness.

"Listen to me, old woman,"came the guttural rumble, "I have seen the past before your silly books were written. Before the maggot of that insidious filthy worm you call Christianity was hatched from the back brain of corrupt degenerate politician." She plucked the volume from the woman's hand. As she held it high, a sound like a sharp cough as the book burst into flames. Addie reached incoherently for the burning book as it tumbled flaming and charring from the girls hand

"I can tell you tales, you twisted child of your father, to make your soul scream, but you have no soul anymore." The girl was lifting the woman by her throat, corrective shoes kicking helplessly in the air.

"You sold it to a fantasy so you would not feel the need to take responsibility for your choices." the drunk in the seat cringed away behind her whimpering,

"You gave it away so you could blame others for your faults and actions when you got yourself in trouble." She shook the larger woman above her head like a terrier shakes a rat.

"Now answer me," Drool began to drip from the woman's gaping mouth as her face turned purple with asphyxiation. "What have you gotten away with? How many lives have you destroyed with your lies and your petty minded hate?"

In answer, Addie Scott's long life began to flicker before her eyes. The daughter she threw out, the children and grandchildren she had abused in the name of her God, a thousand, thousand days began to march by in ranks.

"Answer me!" The girl's jaw dropped by inches gaping wide to show the curved pearl like flashes of her inches long incisors. Addie tried to think of the words to a prayer, any prayer. All she could see in her mind was the last glimpse of her daughters drawn and tearful face as she evicted her from the house for wearing clothes she did not approve of. Numbness was settling in every weakly flailing limb as oxygen drained from her brain.

"Now tell me, are you really so pure and good?' Bright violet eyes gleamed in the shadows, ivory teeth nearing her face. "Did you really get away with your crimes?" Adelaide Scott felt the prick of sharp teeth in her neck cut through her dizziness and her body began to fail to answer her commands. There was a roaring in her ears.

"Now it's time to find out the truth about your god, child, welcome to the other side." The last sound Addie heard was the crack of her own cervical vertebra as the lights went out for the final time.

The leather clad child gently arranged the woman's body in the seat. Lolling head balanced on her shopping bags. An old woman fallen asleep in the train. Wiping the saliva from her coat with the dead woman's cheap polyester scarf, her violet eyes scanned the derelict shivering on the bench as she drifted down the aisle.

"Be forgetful," she commanded, "Be gone"

The train pulled into the next station, the doors opening back into the night again. The homeless man fled out of one door, the girl followed by the pale boy out the other.

He put his arm around her now warm shoulders and held her to him. The train closed up and pulled away.

"You know something, sweetie?"She snuggled against him.

"Hmmm?"

"I love the way you hunt."