Satan's Vessel

1.

With a wince, Kaitlyn shifted in her seat. They'd been driving for hours, only stopping once so the angels could buy some food for her. It was incredibly boring and yet incredibly tense.

It was hard to forget what Zeke had told her: Once you step outside, our enemies' heads will turn and the darkness will irrevocably creep towards us

Kaitlyn chewed on her lip, suddenly wishing that Jacob was close, though she didn't know how he would have fit into the pickup alongside the rest of them.

As it was, it was uncomfortable enough with the five of them. Zeke and David were big men. Sitting on either side of her, they took up most of the back seat. She envied Samuel and Catherine sitting in the front. She envied the fact that they could all see. The blindfold was starting to get a little suffocating and it was making her eyes itch. When she had agreed to wear it, she'd thought it be an easy thing to deal with, but it was really hard not knowing what was going on. It was making her more and more anxious that she couldn't see the world around her, even if that world was only the inside of a car.

'Could I have some water?' she asked.

Zeke pushed the bottle into her hands. Kaitlyn unscrewed the lid. She tried to be careful as she drank but the pickup felt every bump and dip, making her choke and spill water down her front.

She screwed the lid back on and handed the bottle back. 'Thank you.'

She rested back into her seat as she shook out her wet shirt. The seatbelt kept cutting into her throat and the cushion of the seat was so old she could feel the springs beneath, but she could deal with all that. It was the boredom that was the worst. They couldn't even have the radio on. Not after last time.

'How much longer, do you think?' she asked.

'Sorry, Kaitlyn, you know we can't tell you that,' Samuel answered.

'Right,' Kaitlyn mumbled.

They'd already been driving for so long she couldn't be sure whether it was daytime or not. She couldn't be annoyed at them. It was her own fault that she was forced into this situation. If the angels were smart, they'd throw a sack over her head and knock her out with some sedatives.

If they were smarter still, they would just kill her. She thought about the pack of razors in the back tucked away somewhere amid the rest of their supplies. It made her remember the razor in her pocket.

The thought that she'd almost revealed their location to Satan himself still made her break out into goose bumps. The shame of it sat like a ball of lead in her guts. She touched her pocket.

Tell me where you are, Kaitlyn.

Kaitlyn shifted in her seat again but this time it wasn't out of pain. She squeezed her knees together as she began to heat up. Her hands were starting to sweat. She wiped them down her pants.

'Are you all right, Kaitlyn? Did you need to stop?' It was Samuel. He must have been watching her through the rearview mirror.

'Yes. I'm all right. I'm just ... tired.'

'You can lie down,' Zeke told her. 'Here.' He undid her seatbelt with a click. Gently taking her shoulders, he eased her head down into his lap. David picked up her legs and laid them across him. Kaitlyn didn't know if it was such a good idea. It was making her palms sweat more. The two angels felt so warm, and she was much too close to Zeke ... in that way. It lit a fire inside her. Such shameful thoughts rose up in her mind that she almost sat up again. But then Zeke started brushing his fingers through her hair, gentle strokes that reminded her so much of her mother, and she started to relax.