Mental Manipulations Ch. 08

Dwight walked around the room, fuming and throwing things, including a heavy metal object that bounced off of the door to the closet that I was hiding in. I continued watching him during his meltdown, and smiled as I saw him pull his .357 from the desk. Without checking it he tucked it into his pants, making sure that it was hidden by his suit coat. I smiled to myself again, knowing that everything was going according to plan.

A short while later, the music started in the sanctuary and Dwight walked out to start the service. I heard Rat's voice in my earbud telling me that he was in place. I gave him a double-click and then waited.

Peeking through the cracked-open door, I watched as Dwight spewed his twisted religious nonsense, this time going heavy on the gay-bashing. Finally, he stepped to his podium and I whispered, "Showtime," into my throat mic. I then took off my comm gear and stuffed it into my pocket, and waited for the fun to begin.

It took only seconds until I heard the sanctuary doors open, telling me that Rat had stepped in. I watched as Dwight's head snapped up and he gasped, seeing Rat standing at the back, just staring at him.

"GET OUT OF MY CHURCH!" he screamed at Rat, pointing a shaking finger at him. 'Who the FUCK is this guy?'

Rat continued standing there, staring at Dwight silently. Dwight looked at his goons, who were clearly reluctant to move. After a couple of seconds of inaction on everyone's part, Dwight reached under his suit coat and pulled out his handgun.

The entire congregation gasped in unison, with a few women screaming in fear as Dwight pointed his gun at Rat, who smiled at him but remained standing still. The way that his hand was shaking, I was glad that I had taken the first round from his cylinder. He would have been more of a danger to the people in his congregation, including Sarah, who was sitting in the front pew, then he was to Rat. As his hand started shaking more, and spittle started flying from his mouth as he screamed at Rat, and his goons for not going after him, I decided to step in.

"Put the gun away, Dwight," I said as I stepped out of the vestry. Dwight spun and pointed his gun at me, his eyes wide with both surprise and fear. I clearly heard Sarah gasp as I stepped out further.

"YOU!" he screamed. "I should have known!" His hand was shaking wildly now. 'Son of a BITCH! I knew I should have had him killed a long time ago!'

"Yes, me Dwight," I replied as I stepped towards him. 'You're right. You should have tried to kill me a long time ago. You couldn't have, but it would have been fun to watch you try.'

Dwight looked stunned and confused for a second. "Get back! I'll shoot you!" he screamed as he recovered, his hand still shaking.

"That's not a very Christian thing to do, Dwight," I replied calmly, stepping towards him again.

'Shit! He's not afraid!' he thought.

"I'm warning you!" he yelled.

"That's ok, Dwight. I'm NOT afraid," I replied. His eyes opened even wider, and then he squeezed the trigger.

That was when he made his biggest mistake. Upon hearing the empty click of the hammer, Dwight looked shocked and instead of squeezing the trigger again, he turned the gun and looked at it. That was all I needed.

I quickly took a big step towards Dwight and gave him a quick jab in his throat. He dropped the gun and fell to his knees, gasping as he grasped his windpipe.

"Oh my god! He killed Pastor!" I heard a woman scream not far from Sarah.

I quickly kicked his gun away as I squatted down over Dwight's body, hands at his throat, gasping for air. "He's going to be fine," I said loudly.

"First rule to carrying a gun, Dwight," I said just loud enough for him to hear, "if you're going to be stupid enough to pull it on someone, you'd damn well better be smart enough to know how to use it. Properly."

Rat was walking up the altar steps and grabbed Dwight's body, pulling him up onto his feet as his breaths deepened.

Dwight's thoughts were jumbled, between not being able to breathe, and not knowing what had just happened.

"I warned you, Dwight," I said softly as Rat held him up. "You just had to do the right thing, and none of this would have happened. Now, your world is about to crumble."

"But ... how?" he gasped, his voice raspy.

"Because you're not as smart as you think you are, asshole," Rat growled in his ear.

"Watch my six," I told Rat, not knowing how the congregation would respond to what was happening in front of them.

"They're all just sitting there," he quickly replied. "No one is moving a muscle."

I looked deep into Dwight's eyes for a second. 'Give them confession,' I told him. 'Tell them the truth, that you are a scam artist, that you are an evil man, with an evil past. Beg them for their forgiveness.'

'No!' he immediately thought, a confused look to his face. 'I can't do that! I'll lose everything!'

'You've already lost everything,' I replied. 'This is the only chance that you have to save yourself.'

'When you're done, tell them that you will wait there for the police.'

I saw the sense of resignation in his eyes as he realized that he had no choice. I looked up at Rat and nodded my head and he released Dwight.

Dwight then walked slowly to the podium, and started talking. For the next few, long minutes, he confessed to everything, from his real name and his scam artist and petty criminal past, to killing Sarah's parents, to multiple cases of adultery. I quickly sent him a message to not name any names about his peccadillos, and he stopped. "If Jack Wilson is here, I am ready to go to jail."

To my surprise, an older, gray-haired man slowly stood and started walking slowly towards the altar. Jack Wilson was the county Sheriff, and apparently a member of the congregation. Before he took Dwight away, I wanted to send him one more suggestion.

'When you get to the police station, you will confess to everything that you have done. EVERYTHING. You will tell them about your laptop, and give them your passwords. You will hide nothing,' I sent to him. 'You don't want a trial. You want to save Sarah the grief.'

'The sight of orange jumpsuits,' I continued, referring to the standard dress at the state pen, 'turns you into an oral and anal slut. You will BEG to be someone's bitch and his pass-around. And you'll love it!'

Jack made his way up the steps of the altar and reached out for Dwight's arm. "Pastor," he said, his voice shaky, "will you come with me please?"

"Sheriff Wilson, you heard him," I said. "His name is Dwight, and he's no Pastor." I don't know why I was surprised, but I was as Rat handed Jack a pair of flex cuffs, basically wide cable ties that act as handcuffs.

"I have to assume that you don't have your bracelets on you," he said softly. Jack just nodded and restrained Dwight with the military-grade strip of plastic.

Jack looked at me and nodded his head, taking Dwight away.

As the Sheriff led Dwight out of the church I knew that I had to same something to the still seated, and mostly silent, congregation. Then came the biggest shock of the day as Rat stepped up to the podium.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the congregation, you don't know me, and I don't know you, but I'm humbly asking for your attention for a couple of minutes," he started, in a tone that I had never heard from him before.

He then went on to tell them that there was no shame in their falling under Dwight's spell, that he was a practiced con man. Dwight was an evil man who had fooled many before he came into their lives. The best thing that they could do was to keep their faith strong and to pray for the recovery of his many victims within the congregation. He then asked for a moment of silent reflection, after which he led them in the recitation of The Lord's Prayer. In closing the prayer, he assured them that there would be services next week as usual, and that we would help Sarah pass along any news about the church.

I stood behind him, surprised at a part of him that I had never seen, or even known about. I looked around the congregation as he spoke and saw people stunned, confused, and a bit awed by Rat's speech. Sarah looked down at her hands folded in her lap, and I eventually found Betty, as shocked as everyone else but sitting tall with what was almost a smirk on her face.

When he was done, Rat and I went into the vestry and closed the door behind us. "What the hell was that about?" I asked him.

"What?" he replied. "I'm not allowed to have faith in God?"

"Of course you are," I told him. "I just never knew that you did!"

"Yeah, well surprise!"

"Surprise isn't the word!" I told him.

Just then, the door to the sanctuary opened and Sarah walked in. "What just happened out there?" she asked. "And who is this?" Her thoughts were all confused and jumbled. She had no idea what to think about anything.

"Sarah, this is James," I replied, using Rat's real name. "James is an old, and very trusted, friend of mine."

I then formally introduced Rat to Sarah, to whom he said, "Ma'am. It's a pleasure to meet you, although I wish it could have been under more pleasant circumstances."

"Sarah, I realize that this is all very confusing, but it would be best if you stayed with the congregation for now," I told her. "I promise that I will stop by your house to talk to you later." At that point I had no idea what I was going to tell her, but I was hoping that I could come up with something by then.

"Everyone is gone," she replied. "They're all outside, talking. I wouldn't know what to tell them anyway."

"Tell them the truth. You're as confused and shocked as they are," Rat told her.

'If THAT'S not the understatement of the year!' she thought.

"Sarah, you are a strong woman," I told her. "You have nothing to be ashamed of."

'That's easy for you to say.'

"I don't think that they will think the same way," she replied softly.

"Sarah, you are just as much a victim as any of them. More so, even," Rat told her.

'They know something that they're not telling me,' she thought.

"Sarah, please, sit down and listen to me," I asked her, guiding her to a chair.

Rat excused himself and went out into the sanctuary as Sarah and I talked for a few minutes. I explained to her that con men and abusers like Dwight rarely only had one victim, especially when they let their new found power go to their heads. "I promise you that if you were to talk to the rest of the congregation, you will find quite a few more people, mostly women, that he has abused, both physically and mentally," I told her.

"I'm not so sure that some of the women were abused," she replied softly.

"It may not have looked like abuse," I told her, "but I assure you that it was." I then went on to explain the Stockholm Syndrome to her, where abuse victims start to sympathize with their tormentors, sometimes even believing that they deserve what they are getting.

Sarah looked at me with a blank face for a couple of seconds before she replied. "That's a real thing?" she asked finally. 'That's how I felt for a long time! Maybe it WASN'T me!'

"Yes, it is," I told her. "It's actually a lot more common that you would think. Even strong, intelligent women like you can fall victim to it."

"I really don't want to go out there," she said a few seconds later.

"I know," I told her. "But you have to. You have to be strong, for them as well as for yourself."

'I don't know if I CAN be strong! That son-of-a-bitch beat it out of me!'

"If you hide in here until everyone is gone, then you're letting him win. He still controls you," I added.

She looked at me silently for a second, no thoughts in her head, before she nodded her head. "You're right," she said. "To hell with him! I AM a strong woman!"

"Yes, you are," I told her. I then went to the door and opened it, following her out into the sanctuary.

I walked with her to the front doors and looked at her before I opened it. She took a deep breath and looked at me, and then nodded her head. "I'm ready," she told me. 'Dear Lord, please give me the strength!'

I opened the door for her and she walked out into the sunlight. Most of the congregation was still there, talking amongst themselves in groups. To my greater surprise, Rat was talking to a group of them, looking like they were having a good conversation.

It only took a couple of seconds before someone noticed Sarah, and they started clapping. Soon, everyone was clapping for her and a few people came up to her and started talking to her.

I stepped up to her and excused myself. I then told Sarah that I would talk to her later, and that she could call me if she needed to. She smiled at me and nodded, and as I looked at Rat, one of the women with Sarah said, "Please, you don't have to leave."

I "heard" a lot of agreement to her statement, as well as some wondering exactly who Rat and I were, and just what had happened on the altar with Dwight.

"Yes, I do," I replied. "Sarah needs time with you right now."

I made eye contact with Rat and nodded towards the woods, and he nodded his head once, mouthing the words, "I'm good. Later."

After a short while, I made sure that everyone's attention was elsewhere and then slipped away to the back of the church and into the woods, where I quickly walked to my bike, stashed towards the park.

A couple of hours later, as I was sitting on my deck, looking over the lake and replaying the day in my mind, Rat came back and joined me.

"Wanna tell me what the hell happened back there?" he asked, handing me a beer.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," I replied. "You, talking like a preacher, and then mingling with the congregation afterwards?"

"Don't change the subject asshole," he said. "What the fuck did you do to Dwight that made him so compliant?"

"I didn't do anything," I lied. "Maybe his mind just caved in and he knew that the jig was up. He knew that he couldn't fight anymore."

"Don't bullshit me," he growled.

"Hey, you were there," I told him. "I didn't touch him after I punched him in the throat."

'What the fuck are you up to?' he thought as he glared at me.

"Your turn," I said, trying to change the subject. "When did you become a preacher?"

"I told you, there's a lot that you don't know about me," he said as he drank his beer.

***

A couple of hours later I called Sarah. "How are you holding up?" I asked her.

"I'm ... ok I guess," she replied. "I'm still a bit in shock."

"I can only imagine," I told her. "Would you like me to come over?"

"I would like that very much," she said, "but not tonight. I need some time to think, to go over everything in my mind."

"I understand. I'm here when you need me," I told her.

"I know, and I really appreciate that. I can't possibly tell you how much. I promise I will call you soon."

"Please do me a favor, and keep your phone near you," I said. "I don't trust Dwight's goons. I'm a little worried that they may come to the house in the middle of the night."

"Oh, you didn't hear," she replied. "Pas ... he gave them up, and they were all arrested. They're in jail with him!"

"Good. I'm glad to hear that," I told her. "Still, keep your phone handy, for me."

"I always do," she replied before hanging up.

I sat there alone, taking in the silence for a couple of minutes. I then decided that after everything that had happened over the past few weeks, I needed to get out of the house and decompress. Rat had retired to the room that he was staying in, the door closed and no lights on, so I went out for a long bike ride by myself.