Church Whore 3 Read online

“No, I need to find my family!” Lizzie said, pushing him away from her. She spotted Edem in an ambulance and jumped in. “Edem! Oh my God! You’re okay!”

  Edem removed the oxygen mask from his face. “Lizzie, where’s Mama? Is she okay?”

  “I don’t know. You’re the first one I’ve seen. I don’t know where anybody else is. I don’t know if anybody’s okay. The man said some people have already gone to the hospital.” Tears flowed down Lizzies face. “Edem, why is this happening?”

  “We got to find Mama. We got to find out if she’s okay.”

  “I’ll go look. There are still a bunch of ambulances left to check.”

  “Lizzie, be careful. I love you.”

  “I love you too,” Lizzie replied and gripped Edem’s hand. She then continued to go from ambulance to ambulance. She was horrified as she walked past dead bodies in body bags and began to hyperventilate. She was so scared that some of her family was in those body bags.

  After going to four ambulances she finally saw Mud and jumped into the ambulance.

  “Ma’am, you can’t be in here,” The EMS worker tried to tell her.

  “This is my brother, and I need to make sure he’s okay.” Lizzie reached out and took ahold of Mud’s hand. “Mud, open your eyes!” she pleaded.

  Mud opened his eyes. He seemed dazed and confused. He was trying to speak but the oxygen mask was preventing Lizzie from understanding what he was trying to say.

  “Don’t talk. I’m just glad you’re okay. I’m trying to find everyone else. Edem is in the next ambulance, but I haven’t found anyone else yet.”

  Mud kept trying to speak but his hands were so weak that he couldn’t remove the mask from his face.

  “I love you, Mud. I’ll be back.” She kissed her brother on his forehead before exiting the ambulance.

  Lizzie stood outside of the ambulance. In the midst of the chaos she looked around, and it look like a war zone. There were lines of ambulances and fire trucks. They were still bringing bodies out of the pavilion. She didn’t know what to do. Her heart began to race even faster and she found it hard to catch a breath.

  The same fireman spotted her and went over to her. “Ma’am, come on. Let’s get you checked out.”

  “No! You don’t understand! My family… I need to find my family. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know who’s alive. I don’t know who’s dead. I just need to find my family!”

  The fireman put his arm around her and guided her to an empty ambulance. “She needs to be checked out. She keeps repeating herself. I think she’s about to go into shock,” he advised the EMS workers.

  They put a dazed and confused Lizzie in the back of the ambulance. Her eyes were wide open but they had a blank look to them. She could hear everything that was going on around her, but she could not speak. As much as she tried, she could not open her mouth to respond to the many questions they were asking her. All she could do was stare off into the distance, seeing everything but not being able to do anything. On the inside she was screaming, I need to find my family!

  As the ambulances pulled off in a rush to get everyone to the hospital, she could hear the church members off in the distance singing “I Need You to Survive”. The more she listened to the choir singing, the more tears fell down her face. Her breathing slowed down after a while, and she slowly began to breathe at a normal pace. She didn’t have the strength to fight the EMS workers, and allowed them to put her on the stretcher and tend to her. All she could do was pray that her family was safe.

  Inside of the pavilion the sounds of the choir singing had sent chills up the firemen’s spines. Once outside the burning building, two of them looked at one another. “Man, do you see this?” one said.

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” the other fireman replied.

  “I sure hope everybody survives, because I haven’t been to church in years. But I think I might go to this one.”

  “Yeah, and I might have to join you.”

  At that moment another ambulance raced past them on the way to the hospital.

  ________

  Memory tapped on the window of Lacey’s truck. “A lot of ambulances have left. You might want to go on to the hospital. I asked them where they were taking them, and they said the ones that are alive are going to Wesley Long Hospital.”

  “Okay, thank you, Memory.”

  Lacey saw Madear walking up behind Memory.

  “Oh, baby, I’m so glad to see you!” Madear hugged Lacey so tight that it almost hurt. She then placed her hands on either side of Lacey’s face and said, “It’s going to be okay. You know that, right? It’s going to be okay.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Madear, I think we should all go to the hospital,” Memory interrupted.

  “Okay, baby. I’ll go tell the church to head up to the hospital.” Madear said, and headed back in the direction where the congregation had been singing.

  “Lacey, I can drive if you want me to. I’m sure Madear can catch a ride with someone,” Memory offered.

  “Thanks, Memory but I’m okay. We just I just want to hurry up and get to the hospital so we can know what we’re dealing with.”

  Chapter 2

  The victims of the fire flooded Wesley Long Hospital, and one by one, concerned family and friends began to arrive. The waiting room was so full that security had come and asked some people to clear out. Most of the congregation gathered outside of the hospital in the parking lot. They could not in good conscience leave the hospital without knowing what was going on with the church family.

  Lacey was so wrapped up into what was going on that she didn’t pay attention to the absence of Ruthie. “Wait a minute. Has anyone seen Ruthie?” she asked.

  “She wasn’t inside the pavilion?” Madear asked.

  Lacey was getting concerned. “No. We all left out around the same time.”

  Felicia pulled her cell phone out of her purse. “I’m going to try to call her,” she said.

  Ruthie’s phone continued to ring until it went to voicemail.

  “She’s not answering. I don’t know where she could be. Let me text Tricia to see if she’s heard from her.”

  “I just texted Tricia, and she said she thought she was with us,” Lacey said. She then tried texting Ruthie hoping she was too upset to talk on the phone.

  “Maybe you should ask someone if she’s here. I mean, you never know and it couldn’t hurt,” Memory suggested.

  “Yeah, I think I will,” Felicia said and got up. She walked up to the nurse’s desk and said, “Hi. We’re missing a family member. Is there any way that I can find out if my sister-in-law was brought in as one of the victims of the fire? Could you check to see if she’s been admitted?”

  “What’s her name, sweetie?” the nurse asked.

  “Ruthie Blanks.”

  The nurse typed the name into the computer. “Yes, she’s here. She’s in Room 357,” she informed Felicia.

  Felicia let out a sigh of relief and hoped that Ruthie was okay. “Oh, thank God! I hate to bug you again, but is there any more news on the rest of the Blanks family?”

  “So far there’s nothing in the computer, but that’s a good sign. That means they’re still working on them. But I promise you, once we have any information on your family members we’ll let you know.”

  Felicia dropped her head. “Thank you!” she said.

  The nurse put her hand on top of Felicia’s and said, “Mrs. Blanks, we’re all praying for you.”

  “Thank you so much. We really appreciate it.” Felicia walked back into the waiting room. “I don’t know why, but Ruthie is here. She’s in Room 357. Let’s go.”

  Lacey got up to follow Felicia. She looked back at Madear and said, “As soon as you get word on anybody, call me and I’ll come back down.”

  “I got you, baby. You just go make sure everything is okay and y’all stay calm, cuz like I said, God is in control, so you just deal with what’s in front of you right now and let Him han
dle the rest.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” Lacey responded and hurried to catch up with Felicia.

  ________

  It seemed as if it took them forever to go through the maze of Wesley Long Hospital to reach Ruthie’s room. When they entered the room, Ruthie laid in the bed asleep. Lacey and Felicia walked to either side of the bed and they both held onto each of her hands.

  Ruthie opened her eyes.

  Lacey smiled as she looked down at her. “Hey, stranger!”

  “Where’s Edem?” Ruthie asked. Her eyes pleaded for an answer.

  Felicia shrugged her shoulders and said, “Honey, I’m sorry, but we don’t have any information on anybody yet. What are you doing here anyway? You left when we.”

  Ruthie cleared her throat and pointed to the water. Lacy poured her a cup of water and handed it to her. After Ruthie guzzled down the water as if she was dying of thirst, she began to speak. “I left something at the office so I came back, and that’s when I saw that the pavilion was on fire. I called 911, and I started freaking out. I’m sorry I didn’t even I think about calling you guys. I was just trying to get to Edem, but before I could get there the windows exploded and… oh my God!”

  “Calm down, hon,” Lacey said as she caressed Ruthie’s hand. “But are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine, and the babies are fine. They just wanted me to get a little rest because my blood pressure was a little elevated.”

  “Well that’s understandable,” Felicia said.

  “I just can’t believe this is happening. Why? I mean, who would do this? There were locks on the doors of the pavilion. This was not an accident. Somebody meant to kill them, and they might ty to kill us!” Ruthie was getting upset again.

  “Wait a minute!” Lacey said with a confused look on her face. “Are you sure you saw locks on the on the doors?”

  “Yes, big thick chains were on the doors with a padlock on it, so this was no accident. Somebody tried to take our family out.”

  “Who…” Felicia couldn’t even think straight. She had a look of horror on her face. She stared at Lacey and shook her head in disbelief. She wanted to freak out, but she didn’t want to upset Ruthie any more than she already was.

  Chapter 3

  Sheila and her husband were in the middle of making hot passionate love. Her husband’s tongue roamed the insides of her kitty. Sheila moaned out in pleasure as she gripped the side of Jamir’s ears. She exploded, and all of her love juices came flying out of her.

  Jamir kissed her thighs after slurping up every last drop of what his wife had to offer. After he put a passion mark on her thigh, he slowly moved up her body making his way to her stomach. He took his time and kissed her pregnant belly. He made his way to her ample breasts which seemed to have doubled in size since the pregnancy. He knew her nipples were sensitive, so he just grazed them with his tongue. He planted sweet gentle kisses on her neck before making his way to her mouth. As their tongues did a dance, something on the TV screen caught Sheila’s attention.

  It was a live news broadcast about the fire at the Pavilion at First Assembly. As she was in the mist of kissing her husband she gasped and mouthed, “Junior!” She pushed Jamir off of her and he looked at her like she was crazy.

  “What is wrong with you?” he asked.

  “Look!” Sheila pointed towards the TV. She grabbed the remote off of the nightstand and turned the volume up:

  “…Tonight has been a tragic one for the congregation at First Assembly. Lives were lost as the Pavilion structure of the mega church went up in flames…”

  “Oh my God!” Sheila exclaimed as she rubbed her protruding belly.

  “Baby, maybe you should call somebody,” Jamir suggested.

  Sheila was in a daze and couldn’t think straight.

  “Baby, did you hear me? Just call him. I’m sure everyone is alright.” Jamir didn’t seem to be too concerned.

  Sheila didn’t respond. She just jumped out of bed.

  “And where do think you’re going?” Jamir asked her.

  Without answering, she went into the bathroom to take a quick shower so that she could get dressed and head to the hospital.

  Jamir became serious because he did not understand why Sheila was so hell bent on going to the hospital.

  When she came out of the bathroom she quickly dressed and put on her shoes.

  Jamir shot daggers at her with his eyes. “So you’re really going to jump up and leave to go running to the hospital to check on your Pastor instead of just making a simple phone call? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?” he asked.

  “Jamir, I have to check on Junior and make sure that everybody is okay. The church was on fire. That’s my church family.”

  “I know that’s your church family! I’m not trying to be insensitive, but I’m your family too, and I don’t want you to go to the hospital. I’m sure the rest of the church is already up there. You probably won’t even be able to see anybody.”

  “Well at least my presence will be there. I need to go. I hope you understand,” Sheila said as she grabbed her coat and headed on out the door.

  Jamir couldn’t believe her. He let out a grunt before plopping back down staring at the ceiling.

  ________

  “Yes, I’m trying to find out if there’s any information of any of the Blanks family,” Lacey said to the lady at the reception desk.

  “Let me check for you.” She looked at the computer screen and confirmed that information was available for Edmund Blanks. She gave Lacey his room number and said, “Just head straight through those double doors, make a left and you should be able to find the elevator with no problem. When you get off the elevator, the room should be right there.”

  “Thank you so much,” Lacey said, rushing off. The weight of her own pregnancy slowed her down, but she was walking as fast as she could. She was so nervous because she didn’t know what to expect. What if he had been burned? No, they would have said something I think. All she could do was pray that Mud was okay. She debated on calling Tricia, but she wanted to see him first.

  The faster she walked, the harder she breathed. The baby was kicking her like crazy. Feeling her baby move inside of her womb made her think of the fate of her own husband. She didn’t know what she would do if anything happened to Junior. They have been together since high school and married early. Through all the trials and tribulations they’ve been through, she still loved her husband dearly and didn’t want to live without him. And if God gave her a chance, she would make sure he knew that.

  Before she knew it, she was getting off the elevator and quickly located the room that Mud was in. She was so happy to see that he was resting comfortably in the hospital bed. “Mud, I’m so glad you’re okay! Do you know anything about anybody else, Junior? Mama? Anybody?”

  Mud sat up in his bed at the sight of Lacey. “Boy am I glad to see you! I haven’t seen anybody. I keep asking questions, but no one is telling me anything.”

  “What did they say about you? Are you okay?”

  “Yeah I’m fine. I just had a lot of smoke inhalation but I’ll be alright. Have you talked to Tricia?”

  “Earlier. As you can imagine, she’s freaking out. I didn’t want to call her until I made sure you were okay.”

  Sitting up completely, Mud swung his feet around and got out of the bed. “I know she has to be scared out of her mind.”

  “That’s why I’m glad you’re okay.”

  “So, who’s here with you? Felicia and Ruthie?”

  “Ruthie was admitted. Felicia is with her now.”

  “Ruthie? What is Ruthie doing here?”

  “Evidently she headed back to the church to get something she left behind, and that’s when she saw that the church was on fire. She’s the one that called 911. She ended up collapsing, but everything’s fine. The babies are fine too. They just wanted her to rest for a while before releasing her. But Mud, Ruthie said that the doors of the Pavilion were chained and padlocked.”

/>   “Come again?” Mud was sure he didn’t hear her right.

  “Mud, you heard me.”

  “So, are you trying to tell me that somebody tried to kill us… again?! Ah, hell nah! I have to get home to be with Tricia. What if something happens at the house?” He looked around the room for his clothes. “Where are my clothes?” he fussed.

  “Calm down, Mud. They’re probably in that bag right there,” Lacey said, pointing to a bag on the other chair.

  Mud picked up the bag and went into the bathroom, still talking. “We need to find everybody else.”

  I have been trying, but like I said, they’re not really giving us much information. Just go be with Tricia and I’ll keep you posted on what is going on here.”

  Mud came out of the bathroom completely dressed. As he was putting on his shoes a nurse entered the room and said, “Mr. Blanks, what are you doing? You should be resting. You need to lie back down.”

  “I’m fine. I need to get home to my wife, and she needs to know what’s going on with the rest of my family.”

  “I can’t let you leave until you finish your treatment.” The nurse then grabbed his arm, trying to get him back in the bed.

  Mud looked down at his arm then back at the nurse as if to tell her not to touch him. “Who’s gonna stop me?” he asked.

  The poor nurse became so scared from the look her gave her that she backed away from him. She looked at Lacey as if he was crazy, and all Lacey could do was shrug her shoulders.

  “Honey, just let him go. You won’t be able to stop him,” Lacey warned her.

  The nurse could tell that neither one of them were playing with her. “I need you to sign the AMA paperwork so I don’t lose my job.” She left out of the room and returned ten minutes later with the paperwork.

  “You were just in time. I was about to leave, job or no job,” Mud said as he scribbled his name on the paper and left out, leaving Lacey and the nurse standing there eyeballing each other.

  “We really don’t mean to be disrespectful, but this is been a rough day for us as I’m sure you know. A church was set on fire, and we don’t even know the outcome of any of our family. As you can see, I’m pregnant and I don’t even know if my husband is alive or dead, because no one has told us anything! We’ve been here for a long time worrying.”