Journal Entry 12

I’m staring out a window of a shady California motel room while munching on a feast of Doritos, peanut M&M’s, and soda.  All the rooms in this place open to the outside and are built in a horseshoe around an old pool filled with stagnate, green water.  For dessert, cigarettes.  My old brand.  The health of my lungs isn’t my top priority anymore.  Jacob’s gun lay next to the ashtray.  He dropped me off an hour ago, telling me to, “Hang low,” and call him if I get back any more memories.  The portable cell phone he gave me has one number in it- his. 

For reference, Jacob is short and stocky, not fat.  Very dark completed and bald.  I haven’t seen him without a hat yet, but it’s obvious that he’s bald.  His hat seems to always be different and perfectly matches his clothes.  He calls me Drew for some reason, but it’s a dead giveaway so I know it’s him when he does.  He also carries a gun like the one he gave me, except his reads, “Thou shalt not steal.”  Mine reads, “Thou shalt not kill.”

I still can’t figure out why he’s taken such an interest in me.  It seems like he’s helped thousands of people, but he says he never brings them into his world, gives them his personal gun, or is willing to be killed by his own gang.  Or maybe, he just likes to tick people off.  I think the truth is he get the job done at any cost.

I spent the first hour this morning running from Jacob.  When I realized I had lost more two days of my memory (only one recorded in the journal) and saw a black guy at my door, I took off running out the back door.  I figured it was another one of the Morning Star thugs from the Barber’s crew.  It sounds a little racist looking back, but I don’t really have any black friends.  Besides, I was right.  Jacob is a Morning Star.

I grabbed the journal and took off out the back door.  I live in a typical LA suburban cul-de-sac surrounded by a thin line of trees.  I figured the best way to lose him was to cut through the yards and then through the trees to the main road.  I ran frantically through my neighbors’ yards, faster than I realized I could.  When I got to the road, I was exhausted.  My thighs burned and my heard pounded.  I took a moment to catch my breath on the edge of the woods.  The ditch was high and I couldn’t be seen from the road.  I figured I’d wait until he left and then head for the police station in town.

“I should have grabbed my cell phone and called them,” I thought to myself, but then I realized the police might not be the best answer.  “They have people on the inside.” I remember reading that Jacob had his guys attack Jackson in prison.  That’s how he died.  “They could be at the police station waiting for me.”

I got light headed in the sun and sat down.  It was all too much to take.  My heart pounded so hard I could feel it coursing through my head.  I had nowhere to go, nowhere to turn.  “The charm shop,” popped into my mind.  I had to see if this was all real.  “Did I really get attacked there?”  I remember wanting to go there and find out what happened to me the first time, but had I really gone there?  All I had to go by was entry 10.  “Did I really see an angel in the desert?”  My own writing in entry 4 told me that I did, but I had no memory of it.  Maybe, I was forced to write a lie.   

I had to move on.  I walked along the tree line on what seemed to be a kid’s makeshift bike path.  The tree line was only two trees deep, but eventually it emptied into a small preserve that was more of a swampy water runoff for the homes in the area.  I had to cut up the ditch and cross the main road.  I made my way to a nearby drugstore and asked the cashier to call me a cab.  Using the address in the journal, I went to the charm shop.

…

Just got a memory back like Jacob said I would.  I remember the first time I met Jacob, the charm shop and going to the desert.  I recall my entire first memory gap. 

I remember Jacob handing me a gun when I left the charm shop.  I had not written it down.  I told him that I’d never shot a gun before.  He just smiled and said, “The witch is right.  I got to lead my crew away from you.  They won’t like us using Ms. Jenna’s services.  Angels are evil and so is this witch.  Use this to protect yourself against the angels.  It’ll stop them.  The words on the side are to remind you not to shoot people.  It ain’t killin’ if they’re not human.  I put the safety on the gun and brought it with me to the desert.  I drove slowly.  I didn’t want to be pulled over with a gun in the car. 

There’s more.  Jacob pulled me in close after he handed me the gun and whispered, “Write down the GPS coordinates and put them somewhere in your house.  Somewhere secret.  Don’t write it down in your journal.  Don’t write down our conversation.  And if you fail tomorrow.  Write down that you lost your only chance.”  I started to protest, but Jacob cut me off.  “You’re gonna have to figure out if you trust me Drew.  I can’t explain all this shit because the less you know the safer you are.”

Can’t remember the coordinates.  My memory stopped after I left the desert.  The cowboy told me, “Put that gun away, son,” after he killed the angel above the fire.  I dropped the gun without second thought.  The image of the angel consumed me.  It was beautiful young boy dressed in BC clothing.  Its face was calm, peaceful.  Its eyes started to open, but before they could, that cowboy shot it right between the eyes.  Yes, there are angels, and some are beautiful.    

I need to take a break to think.  I can’t believe I was that close to finding Avery.  I can’t stand this.  It’s like I just lost her again

Journal Entry 11

I woke up this morning just like every morning since I found this journal under my pillow.  I have a morning coffee, I reread it, I add to it, and I plan. 

This morning is different.  Something is off.  The earlier entries I have no memory of as I expect.  I lost my memory after entry 5.  I remember everything after entry 5, expect for entry 10.  I’m pretty sure my memory has been erased again.  I really can’t remember anything about the last entry.  I worked out a timeline.  It seems that I lost two days: Journal entry 10 and another day. 

This means I lost my memory twice.  The first time I have an account in the journal.  The second time I didn’t write down.  One things for sure.  I’m running out of time to find Avery.

I checked under my pillow, under my couch, and in my pots for the gun.  No gun.  I ran for my car. I needed air.  It was gone.  My car wasn’t in my driveway or my garage.

I have no lead, no gun, no car, and no memory… There’s a knock on the door.  I can see out the window it’s a black man.  I gotta get out of here….the back door…

Journal Entry 10

Rough day.  I’ve got a bag of ice on my knee, and I think I’m going to leave that gun I found under my pillow tonight.  I’m in deep, now.  No closer to Avery, but I’m in very deep.

Beautiful Charms was the shop.  I recognized it from my journal as soon as I walked in.  The jewelry, the snap bracelets Avery loves, and the teenage girl behind the counter were all there.  I wasn’t sure about the girl.  I didn’t have much of a description to go by.  (I’ll have to do a better job describing people.)  She was skinny, blonde, and chomping on a wad gum.  I figured it could have been different girl, but I knew I was in the right place.  The rack of snap bracelets was exactly where I expected.

The girl was sitting on a tall stool chair but stood up as I approach.  Her uninviting eyes peered at me like she knew why I was there.  They were telling me that I shouldn’t be there. 

“I’m looking for Jenna-” was all I could say before she attacked.  She planted a hand on the counter and jumped it without bending a knee or an elbow.  In midair, she kicked me in my left ear.  Her feet hit the ground before I recoiled.  I had brought the gun that I found with me, hiding it under my shirt.  I reached for it, but she was quicker.  She sent a crushing blow to my knee.  I screamed in pain and fell to the ground.  She rolled me over to my back with her foot and pressed it to my chest.  I never so much as touched the gun.

“I need to save my daughter,” I begged.

Her expression didn’t change.  She just snapped her gum and stared blankly at me.  She breathed as calmly as she had when I first entered the store.  The entire exercise had been effortless for her.

A heavyset woman stormed in from the backroom.  She had an open laptop in hand.  It had to be Jenna.   “This hasn’t happened before.  This isn’t right.  You are not supposed to be here.  The Jinni kills you.  Keep him down Tiffany.  This isn’t right.”

Her computer started pinging.  She set it on the counter while I panted flat on the floor.  Frantically, Jenna typed.  I could see windows popping up and closing on her screen.

“No, no, no.” Jenna continued to moan.

“What?” Tiffany asked.

“This is new, but never changes again.  It’s creating a whole new timeline.  Mastema found-  Get down!” Jenna yelled.

It was too late.  The place lit up with gunfire. Hundreds of splashing red dots sprang from both of their bodies.  The windows were shattered in seconds.  I covered myself as best as I could in a fetal position as glass rained on me.  Their bodies dropped to the floor.

In seconds, the place was decimated.  Before silence could sink in, four Black gangbangers stormed into the shop and grabbed me.  Two of them had their faces covered with bandanas, the third had a Raiders’ cap pulled down, and the fourth didn’t seem to care.  I tried to resist.

The one dressed in all Raiders’ get-up threatened me.  “We gonna mess you up if you don’t get in.”

The thug with the white skullcap and fully exposed face seemed to be in charge.  His deep Black voice was thicker than the others’.  “Chill out G.  Don’t sweat it, Andrew.  We ain’t gonna do nothin’ to you.  We ain’t suppose ta hurt you, but cops are gonna be all over this place.  So get in if you wanna live.”

Could this be Jacob, I thought.  He knew my name.  “I’m staying here.  The cops aren’t going to kill me,” I mistakenly protested.

Their leader searched me and found my gun.  “You ain’t talking to no cops.  You’d have a felony for concealing a weapon in no time.  Now, get in the car before I stop asking,” he said.

I limped my way to the car.  My knee had never hurt so much.  One of the thugs opened the back door and I hopped in.  The rest tossed their weapons, including Jacob’s gun, into the trunk and got in with me.  I sat in the middle back between two of them.  The leader sat shotgun.

I figured I was lucky enough to be alive.  It didn’t matter that I was in a car full of killers.  I had just survived a barrage of gunfire.  How could it get any worse?  Plus, they reminded me of Jacob.  Given the lack of description in my journal, one of them could have been him. 

As soon as we got moving, I asked, “Are any of you Jacob?”

They erupted with laughter.  “This cracker’s running around with Jacob’s gat, a Watcher, and no memory.  But he don’t care.  He’s got a mission.  No worries.  They call me ‘The Barber.’  You can call me Joe.  This here’s my unit.  We were ordered to stake out the charm shop in case something goes down after you contacted that oracle.  When we saw you, we were going ta jump you when you came out, but things went south for ya so we had to act fast.  You must of surprised that bitch.  You can’t just go walk into an oracle’s place without them expectin’ you.  That’s a good way to get yourself killed.”

After I read my previous journal entries, I had thought about Jenna’s powers.  She seemed to know that I was coming that day with Jacob.  She seemed to know the future.  I asked Joe, the Barber.

“Exactly… well kind of.  There’s many possible futures.  Angels are able to live the timeline of existence multiple times.  When they do, they leave imprints.  Oracles know how to find these and see the future.  But don’t worry about all that.  We’re taking you home.  I’ve been assigned to your case.  You go home, ice that knee, and let me take care of this.”

“Jacob is supposed to help me.” I responded.

“Not anymore.  You ain’t allowed to call a jinni.  We don’t work with angels.  Jacob’s in big trouble for messing with them.  He’s off your case.  No worries though.  I’m even better.”

When Joe dropped me off, he didn’t tell me to make a journal or that he was going to find Avery.  He just told me to get a good night’s sleep. Before I got out of the car, I insisted he give me my gun back.  I don’t think he intended to give it back, but he returned it as through it slipped his mind.  I’m pretty sure that he’s setting me up for something.  I need to find Jacob.  For some reason, I trust him even though I have no memory of him.  I think it’s the fact that he was willing to break the rules to help me find Avery.

Journal Entry 9

I searched for charm shops this morning.  I found two that look promising. I’m going to check both today.  Here are the addresses in case I lose my memory again.

Beautiful Charms

217 South Fair Oaks Avenue

Pasadena, CA 91105-2005

Charming Charms 

19000 Hawthorne Blvd # 100

Torrance, CA 90503

Journal Entry 8

I have nothing.  That will be my greatest asset.  I am going to find Jacob, save my daughter, and kill that bastard cowboy.  I don’t know if God’s evil, but I am going to kill anyone who gets in my way.

I check my Garmin and my computer browser for where I have been.  No history.  I never clear the history.  Someone must have deleted the GPS coordinates from my stuff.

Journal Entry 7

I went to the police station today.  After an hour wait, an officer, not on my case, told me they were searching the area they picked up Jackson.  I can’t believe I didn’t write down the GPS coordinates, or the charm shops address, or something.  I am an idiot. 

I went home and threw out our bed.  Maybe I’ll be able to sleep in there now… Maybe I won’t be able to sleep in there again.

Journal Entry 6

I found a gun today under my couch.  It’s weird, almost fancy.  It’s sliver plated with a gold inscription that read, “Thou shalt not kill.”  I hid it in a pot in the kitchen.     

I talked to my sister today.  She hadn’t talked to me since the funeral.  Somewhere I lost two days and my entire memory of this guy, Jacob.  I didn’t tell her about the journal.  I feel like I need to keep it secret and need to keep writing in it.

Journal Entry 5

I found this notebook under my pillow on the couch.  It’s in my hand writing, and I am freaking out!

I woke up on the couch again, like I always do.  I still can’t sleep in that room.  Instead of washing up, I turned on the TV.  I got into the nasty habit of flipping through the news stations before moving off the couch.  I guess I was hoping to find something.  When I moved my pillow, I found it.  This crazy notebook.  I read through the entire thing and you know what…  I can’t remember how long I’ve been sleeping on the couch.

Journal Entry 4




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It didn’t work.  I lost Avery today, but I can’t give up.  I need to get back there and try again.  I need to find Jacob.  My only lead is the charm shop.  It’s almost daybreak and I need some sleep.  I’ll have to head back tomorrow.

I took me all day to drive to the GPS coordinates that Jenna had given me.  I had driven slowly because I was paranoid about the... well I was paranoid.  When I stopped for lunch, I sat drinking coffee for at least an hour trying to keep calm.  I couldn’t believe what I was doing.  It was all either a waste of time or maybe, just maybe, I was doing the one thing that would save Avery.  Looking back, I can’t believe I was so naive.  I should’ve gotten there sooner.

I drove out to the desert.  The location was about a half mile off the road.  I remember thinking that it was going to be hard to find the exact location, but I saw the fire in the distance as soon as I started walking.  There was a campfire just like Jenna said.  Maybe she really was a witch.

A man was waiting for me on the far side it.  He sat quietly, glaring.

I didn’t know what to say.  “Are you here to stop me or help me?” I asked.

The man straightened his cowboy hat and said, “What you aiming to do ain’t good.  Jinni’s don’t serve their master.  They follow God’s Will.  I can’t let ya do this.”

“God wants me to find my daughter,” I told him.  “He wouldn’t let her die.”

“Millions of children die every year.  God don’t care if yer kid dies.  You summon that angel son, and you’ll be messing with God.  You ain’t gonna like the results.”

I figured this guy couldn’t stop me anyway.  I crunched up the bag and tossed it into the fire.  I recited the chant Jenna had told me to say.

The fire erupted and then died down to short blue flames.  An angel appeared above it.  It was incredible.  It looked exactly like I had expected.  It had a gleaming white robe, stretched wings, and a boyish face.  Not even a moment later, that bastard in the cowboy hat shot it straight in the head.  The angel dropped into the fire burning.

The cowboy walked over to me.  He put his hand on my shoulder and said, “It’s better this way.  Trust me.  That angel would of killed the both of us.”

I drove all the way back tonight and now here I am.  The sun is breaking and I am writing down what happened.  It is all real.  I saw an angel.  The only chance I had to get my Avery back.

I’m not going to give up.  I will not cry.  I will fight.  I will find Jacob and then get my daughter back.

Journal Entry 3

I stopped for a long lunch.  I figured I should finish my journal in case something really weird happens.  But to be honest, I think I’m just procrastinating.  I can’t believe I’m doing this.  I should’ve probably told my sister, but then again.  She’d probably have me committed. 

Jacob picked me up yesterday and took me to a run-of-the-mill charm shop.  It was garish kind of place to say the least.  It was like a giant pre-teen jewelry box.  Cheap necklaces, hair ties, you name it, hung everywhere.  I noticed the snap bracelets right away.  They had every color of the rainbow.  Avery would have loved it. Oh, Avery where are you?

Jacob focused on the clerk.  She couldn’t have been any older than sixteen, but Jacob’s hard stare didn’t faze her.  I couldn’t fathom what was going on with those two, so I panicked.  I bolted to the door and ran into a rack of earrings.  Jacob didn’t look.  The girl didn’t look.  They just continued to stare at each other.

“Where’s Jenna?” Jacob said.  His voice was so cold that my heart sank into my stomach.

The girl told him that she was in the back.  Jacob turned to me and said, “Leave it, Drew.”  Normally, I would have ignored a person who told me not to clean up my own mess, but Jacob’s demeanor had changed.  He’s one tough guy− scary.

I followed him through a beaded curtain.  We entered a small room that had thousands of tchotchkes displayed all along the walls.  Some were like those up in the front, but most looked older and had a dull sheen.  A heavyset woman slumped in a beanbag chair with a laptop on her generous lap.   Two empty bean bags sat opposite of her.  She signaled for us to sit.

“What is your offering?” she asked.

“I ain’t going to kill yah.” Jacob shot back.

“No thanks.”  She looked up from her computer and grinned.

Jacob took out a penny and tossed it to her.

She held it up.  “1955 double die wheat penny.”

Before I could ask a question, she started in on me.  “Ah…the remaining victim of Darrel Jackson.  Jackson was one of God’s projects, you know.  Always looking for ways to end someone’s life, and yet leaves a victim behind so that the pain lasts forever.”

Jacob defended me.  “I didn’t bring him here to be taunted by you, witch.”

Jenna took out a brown paper bag. “You want Andrew to summon an angel, a tool of God, to fight God’s Divine Plan.  You want him putting out fire with fire.  He should understand what he’s getting into.”

I spoke up, “The only thing that matters is finding my daughter.”

“Here is everything you need.  The GPS coordinates are inside.  Go to the location and throw the bag in the fire.  Burn everything in the bag, including the paper with the coordinates.”

Jacob grabbed the bag and peeked inside. 

“He must go alone,” she told him.

“He’s not going alone,” Jacob told her.

“He will, and you must leave now.  The Morning Stars have been tracking you.  They don’t believe in fighting fire with fire.  Jacob, you must go before they realize what you’ve done.”

Jacob had me leave by myself and catch a bus back home. 

So here I am.  Procrastinating at a truck stop.  Writing down what happened to me in case my memory gets erased.  On my way to summon a real angel to save my daughter, Avery.

Journal Entry 2

I decided to write down what has happened to me so far before I go.  I am driving to some GPS coordinates Jenna gave me.  I think the coordinates are sending me to the middle of the desert.  The drive should take me all day.  It’s funny.  I’m more afraid of losing my memories of this past week than going to this ridiculously specific spot a complete stranger gave me.

It’s been a week since Darrel Jackson took my family from me.  Heather and our daughter.  Avery is only seven.  I had left for work like any other day, but decided to go home for lunch to surprise Heather.  I liked to do little things like that just for the fun of it.  Avery should’ve been at school.  Heather and I had been talking about having another baby.  I had thought, “Why not today?”

I collapsed when I found Heather on our bed.  Jackson had raped and mutilated her.  I managed to call the police, but I dropped the phone in the middle of the conversation when I remembered Avery.  She wasn’t there.  I called the school.  I remember praying while the phone rang that she had left for school before the attack.  She wasn’t there either.  I threw the phone down and search the house.  I couldn’t find her.  Hope filled my heart.  Maybe she was still alive.  I prayed and prayed that she’d be safe.  The police found Jackson later that day outside of town at a gas station.  I thought my prayers had been answered, but the joke was on me.  Jackson had hid my daughter. My little Avery.  She looks so much like her mother.  Their beautiful blue eyes.  The way they light up when they eat their favorite hot fudge sundaes.    My heart aches… I can’t lose Avery too!

I’ll never forget his evil smile and his black eyes the first and only time I came face to face with Jackson.  He had told the police that he wouldn’t give them any information on Avery until he saw me.  The police said that it was just a trick.  They were right.  He just smiled and told me she had a month if she knew how to ration food and water.  I pleaded with him to let her go.  That she was my world.  He just laughed.  His black eyes sparkled.  It was the moment he had been waiting for. 

My sister tried to assure me that the police were doing everything they could, but it was clear that their hands were tied.  I stormed out of there.  My sister tried to stop me.  She knew I shouldn’t be alone, but I left anyway.  I didn’t know where to go.  I couldn’t go home.  I couldn’t bear to be with my sister’s family.  So I went to church.  I hadn’t been there since Easter, but I had nothing left.  I prayed with all my might.  I begged God to save her.  I lost it.  I even threw my wallet at the altar and screamed begging for help.  Nothing.  I would give God anything to have her back.  To have both of them both back.

Exhausted, I left and headed for the nearest bar.  I didn’t plan on drinking.  Looking back, I don’t know why I went there.  I just didn’t want to go home.  It hurt too much.

After a couple of drinks, a man named Jacob sat down next to me.  It was like he had been waiting for me to have a few.  He freaked me out.  Jacob’s clothes were two sizes too big and much too pricey for the bar we were sitting in.  He must have been the only black man for miles.  He was completely out of place there.  Actually, he looked like a drug dealer.  The whole place had their eyes on him.

Jacob laid it all on the table and got right down to business.   He told me that he had people inside the jail and that he could find out where my daughter was.  He didn’t brag and announce it to the whole bar.  He just matter-of-factly spoke.   I instantly believed him, not because he scared the heck out of me, because he knew my story with perfect detail.  He didn’t ask me for money. I just had to give him the okay.  What did I have to lose?  Hell, I didn’t actually have to believe him.  I nodded and mumbled, “okay.”  But after he left, I had to wonder who he was and why was he trying to help me?

It was two days later when I saw him again.  The day I buried Heather.  It was the first night my sister had left me alone since I had woken up in a police cell the morning after my visit to the bar.  Jacob rang the doorbell late.

I felt very uncomfortable letting Jacob in my house.  There is something unsettling about him, not to mention he claimed he could get my daughter back.  I might not have let him in at all if it hadn’t been for the rain.  Before I could invite Jacob to take a seat, he started to cry.  Yes, he sat there crying.  The scariest man I ever met sat there and cried like a baby.  Between his tears, he squeezed out that his team had not been able to get the location before they had beaten Jackson to death.  I awkwardly padded his shoulder.

I made tea for him.  It felt good to wait on someone.  I hadn’t made tea since the last time Avery had had a sore throat.  I wasn’t upset with him because I didn’t believe him.  Heck, I didn’t even know if I believed Jackson was really dead at that point. 

Jacob calmed down and told me of the Morning Stars.  He told me that his organization fights against angels and helps answer prayers for people, like myself.  He told me that angels will cover up Jackson’s death as a suicide and if they traced the incident back to me, my memory would be erased. 

As far as I was concerned, Jacob was a lunatic.  I figured since he was calm I could get him to leave without incident.  But then he said something that trumped any disbelief.  He said that there was still a chance to find Avery.   He told me about an angel that could be summoned to find her.  Crazy or not.  I am willing to try anything.   So here I am…..a desperate father going to summon some kind of angel.  Why?  Why not?  I can’t really lose anything.  That and Jenna was so crazy I think she might actually be right.

I got a call from the police station early the next morning.  They said that Jackson committed suicide.  It was released to the media an hour after they told me.  I guess I’ll follow Jacob for a while.

Journal Entry 1

I decided to write this journal because Jacob said I should.  I was told memories get erased by angels.  I don’t know how much I believe that, but I do know he is my only chance to find my daughter. 

I’m scared to death because I am about to come face-to-face with an angel, and yet I know it’s not possible.  Is it?  I guess the only thing I do know is that I have no other options.  I leave tomorrow morning.  Gun and all.

Background

Andrew’s journal is a   free book   posted as a continuing blog.  It creates a prequel to the series and will continue through the timeline of the book, The Angel Hunter.  It is intended to be read before or after Lucille’s first adventure.  More Details can be found at www.angelhunter.info

Andrew is a hardworking man caught up in an extraordinary world where angels are evil and God is nowhere to be found.  For better or worse, he joins a secret group called the Morning Stars.  His job is to find people with legitimate prayers and help answer them.  Something that no one had been able to do for him.

This journal is his personal account of these adventures and was posted by an unknown source.