CHAPTER 34

Tonight’s Entertainment

Billy stood in the back of a room watching an enormous projection TV. Seated there were a half a dozen guys and a couple of girls. They were watching one of the many movies in the Axe-Head series (do not ask which one; they are all pretty much interchangeable). Billy had heard of them and was mildly curious. Joining the movie-watching crowd seemed like a good way to ‘lay-low’ until he could talk to Chloe again. He looked up at the screen and was instantly drawn into the action.

Some movies have to be seen from the very beginning. This was not one of those. As expected, Billy already knew that he did not have to be bothered with ‘plotlines’. The plot was simply this: a group of beautiful and sexually-charged young adults retreat back into the woods for some unsupervised immoral activity and are then killed off in a variety of gory techniques by some big brute with an appreciation for axes, large knives, and other pointy objects.

At this particular point in the movie, a lovely young woman was wearing her boyfriend’s shirt (pretty much all she was wearing as far as Billy could tell). She was looking all over the farm house for her friends and was having no luck.

Some of the guys in the room with Billy sat up in their chairs and became very excited. In spite of the boys’ enthusiasm, the two girls in the room started talking about something unrelated, trying their best to rise above the noise. Billy overheard what the boys were saying. “Is this the part where …” “Yeah, yeah.” “Quiet, you two. This is the good part.” Billy would have preferred to have someplace else to go – especially if that involved talking to Chloe. But fueled by his own curiosity, Billy decided to stick around as the movie played itself out.

The girl in the movie walked outside into the rural nighttime scene, still calling out for her suspiciously absent boyfriend. (Billy may logically presume that her boyfriend had already met his untimely demise in the film.) Everything was lit up with blue moonlight. Somewhere behind a wall of fog, the sound of a motorcycle began to get louder. The girl fearfully turned to see where this noise was coming from. Suddenly breaking through the eerie fog, the silhouetted form of a man riding a motorcycle was headed toward her. He was swinging what looked like a lawnmower blade on the end of a chain. But rather than seeking shelter, the young woman took off running down the road away from her pursuer and screaming like an idiot.

Several of the boys in the room offered commentary in regard to her lack of intelligent thought and offered her an alternative course of action, which was hopelessly ignored since viewers are incapable of communicating with movie characters. It was clear to assume that this actress’ part in the movie was just about finished, unless her body made a brief and frightening cameo in the last reel.

Something down inside Billy strongly urged him to consider leaving the room. He kept telling his head, this is just a movie, this is just a movie. But apparently his legs did not get the message. As curious as he was, he did not want to see what was about to occur next. He made his way to the door doing his best to leave the room without drawing attention to himself; this was not an issue considering how focused the others were on the film. Perhaps he could find Chloe. As he made his way into the hallway, he could hear those watching the video. They formed a loud choir reporting the kill with their yells and moans. The first of these sounds started low and crescendoed into an inescapable declarative chord. “OHHHHHH!!” “OHHHHH!!” Billy’s curiosity was satisfied. The celebration of violence with no purpose would have to continue without him.

Billy came to this party really hoping to blend in. His little experiment was not working at all. The longer he stayed, the more uncomfortable he became. He imagined Curtis catching up with the others, his arms busy carrying pizzas and soft drinks. That was the kind of fun that he understood.

But alas, he finally saw Chloe again. He managed to get her attention. She responded with a bright cheery smile and a comforting wave. Both Chloe and Bre began to make their way over to him. Just before they reached him, two of her more inebriated guests bumped into each other in full view of their hostess. The result was a spilled beer on the carpet and some cursing on the part of Chloe. She then quickly ran off to get something to clean up the mess.

Her choice of words certainly gave Billy pause. What she said was not particularly strange. People may not speak that way at his house, but this was language that he heard many times a day from other students. Plus, you cannot turn on the TV without hearing it as well (maybe it was a television rule somewhere). But he always pictured Chloe as some kind of perfect girl, an angel among us. Somehow hearing her swear tainted the vision he had of her, made her appear earthy and soiled in terms of her character and personality.

Oddly, it was not the idea of her cussing that bothered him as much as it was her casual attitude toward the word hell. When she bawled at her drunken guests, she asked what they thought they were doing and did so emphasizing the word hell in her sentence, perhaps to add weight and passion to her outrage. It suddenly occurred to Billy that people who use the word hell so easily as an expression must not take the reality of Hell very seriously. But previous conversations with his parents, listening to his pastor, and reading his Bible had given him a disturbing mental image, one that cannot be taken lightly.

Side note: This culture has, in fact, stopped using a capital letter H when writing out the word hell; and yet, the rules of English make it clear that we capitalize the names of proper places. Maybe the English language no longer sees Hell as a real place.

Cartoons and movies always poke humor at the concept of Hell, primarily falling in one of two possible categories. The first one is of people getting up in Hell’s version of morning, punching a timeclock, and working under hot, subterranean conditions with demons tormenting them with their little pitchforks. This shows Hell as a bummer. The second category presents Hell as a bunch of drinking buddies gathering in a dark cave for a screaming heavy metal concert featuring pentagrams and goats’ heads. Everyone is partying it up with the devil for eternity. Little goodie-two-shoes are not allowed, but it looks like a blast. This is usually accompanied with images of heaven filled with a bunch of bored people sitting on clouds strumming on little harps. This idea depicts Hell as an awesome treat and Heaven as a dull and unexpected punishment. But these notions are manmade misconceptions and lead to false ideas.

The Bible says that Hell was not made for man. Someday the devil and his army will be cast into Hell where the wrath of God will be poured out onto them. Mankind was tricked into sin and thereby suffer the torture and agony that was meant for the devil. The heat is beyond our understanding. The Scriptures also speak of worms that torment and painfully gnaw on their victims without any kind of relief. Those who are there are thought to be gagging and drowning in the toxic fumes. The claustrophobic darkness, loneliness, hopelessness, despair are all on a level that cannot be measured by earthly standards. There is no relief, no day and night cycle, and no hope; only eternal pain and eternal regret. But one thing that is often overlooked is that God’s presence is not felt there. People have no appreciation for God’s ever presence until it is taken away. And simply put, that is what makes Hell unbearable.

The other idea that always seemed to short-circuit Billy’s brain is that of eternity. All songs, movies, books, even video games have an ending point. Eternity does not. If Billy took the longest amount of time he could wrap his head around and multiply that by a million, it still would not even come close since there is no end. Then a thought overtook Billy’s mind. At any given point in eternity, you can still say, “This is only the beginning.”

So how can people use the word hell in such a glib fashion? How can someone trivialize something as serious as that?

Billy began to look around the room. Now all he saw were the hollow eyes of people who were headed to Hell. They were busy having their own version of fun and not facing the reality of their spiritual peril. He knew that he was supposed to warn them somehow, but he was afraid. How could a person witness to a bunch of people who were fairly intoxicated anyway? Suddenly, a wave of fear struck him in the gut. He knew that he had to leave the house. A voice inside said, Do it now. Don’t even wait.

He remembered how to get to the outside door and quickly made his way through to the main hallway. He seemed to float over to the door. He did not even think about Chloe and how rude this may appear to be. The only thing on his mind was exiting this house of spiritual death. His hand reached out and turned the knob. He gave the door and gentle pull, but to his surprise the door closed again. A severe chill leaped up his spine. Did demonic forces just close this door? This is like a scary movie. He looked over and Chloe had closed the door by leaning on it.

“You’re not leaving yet are you?” Her voice was rather flirty and friendly.

“Well, I was … uh …”

“The cool part is just starting.” Chloe grabbed him by the arm. Her touch did not exactly affect him the same way that it did before, but she still managed to lead him into the room with the big TV. “Everyone, it is time for tonight’s entertainment. I’ve already asked Bre to bring everyone into the media room.” She leaned him up against the wall as she began to address the others. “Hey! Everyone! Come in here.” About two dozen people or so were already filing into the room. “Come in and find a place to sit.” With the remote, she paused the movie that was on. Those watching it began to moan a little. “Don’t worry. This will only take a few minutes and then you can get back to your stupid movie.”

The last of the guests walked in. Wesley himself was standing in the rear of the room, always within Chloe’s peripheral vision.

“Alright. Is everyone in here? Good.” Chloe made her way up to the front of the room just in front of the enormous lit-up image. “Folks, I have made a video for tonight’s entertainment and I think you are going to love it. I have a copy of it right here.” She held up a disc and quickly replaced the one already in the player. “But just so you know, with the aid of Billy here …” She gestured toward Billy and motioned him to come up to the front where she was. “ …I put it on the internet so anyone could see it.” She again turned to Billy. “Billy? Why don’t you come up here and be one of the first to watch it? Right here in the front?”

Billy was reluctant and even a little shy, but he walked over to Chloe. Something in the back of his mind was telling him that he should not have even come, but he thought that he would go ahead and do this thing – whatever it was – and then make a gracious exit. He sat front row center, exactly where Chloe indicated.

In the meantime, the other guests were wanting to clap. But they did not exactly know what they would be clapping for, so they refrained themselves.

Chloe started the video, quickly spun toward the audience, and gave an excited little clap. “Showtime!” With that, she was out of their way and running to the back of the room where she could observe those in attendance.

A video selfie of Chloe filled the screen. The picture featured her sitting in the driver’s seat of her car. “Hi, everyone! Chloe Chastain here and I am coming to you from the home of Billy Harris.” The camera panned to the side to reveal the front of Billy’s house.

Billy felt the heat on his face from blushing. He tried to smile a little, but he was quite ashamed of his house. And there it was, being projected on this big wall in all of its ugliness before everyone’s eyes. Sitting there in Chloe’s house, his house looked even smaller and more unattractive than ever.

The image moved back to Chloe’s face. “But the question that you may be asking yourself is ‘Why am I here?’ The truth is that I’m wondering that myself.” She gave a hint of a laugh and continued. “I happen to know that Billy has a bit of a crush on me.”

Billy had a full straight-up blush going on now. The crowd gave out a loud collective, “Awwww …” A couple of the guys sitting around him even gave him a gentle nudge.

With that reaction, it was difficult to make out the next thing that the video said. But the video continued to play, not waiting for the crowd to get quiet. “ …plus, he is a hopeless nerd.” She rolled her eyes and dropped her smile. The tone of her voice altered. “His dad is a jerk of a teacher. I’m guessing that his mom is some scary hag too. And their house looks a bit run down in this creepy neighborhood.” A few in the crowd chuckled.

Billy was no longer smiling. A sense of extreme hurt and discomfort swept over him.

“Well? Shall we go see just what kind of a dump this is?” The camera followed her as she got out of her car. The image swung back and forth a bit when she was walking. The image was taken from about waist high. It seemed to look like one of those undercover detective news shows, as if a hidden camera was part of her purse.

Everyone in the room was busy trying to make out the image that they were seeing. Billy had no trouble; it was clearly his front door. He saw the image of himself opening the door. His awkwardness led to more snickers from the group of guests. As the Billy on video kept trying to convince Chloe that they had another house, a pricier house, the few chuckles grew into louder, uproarious laughter. Billy faced the floor and began to wish that he could vanish. When he finally looked up again, he saw the image of him lifting his underwear off the floor and trying to tuck it into his pants. The room roared.

While nearly everyone was enjoying the video, Chloe had acknowledged that her phone was vibrating in her pocket. She pulled it out and noticed that it was her father calling. She pressed the ignore button and slid it back into her pocket.

Praying while driving was an old habit of William’s. Even with the noisy fan belt, he considered it a quiet place and a solitary place when he was driving alone. He prayed for his son. But his prayer seemed incomplete until he had prayed for himself, prayed that God would bless him with wisdom in this situation - - a prayer that he was used to praying as a godly parent.

Billy had no idea that so many people were praying for him that night. His mom was on the couch at home having prayed. And his three friends had also just finished praying. This would never occur to him because his thoughts were only on his own schemes and his own pleasure. Now, his thoughts focused only on his own misery.

The Billy on the video grabbed a paper towel and spin the entire roll. It kept unrolling and unrolling. The more it unrolled, the more everyone laughed - - everyone except Billy. Surrounded in close quarters on all sides and yet he felt such loneliness. This was actually worse than just loneliness, because all the attention was on him looking like an idiot.

Billy had had enough. Without even giving it any thought, he rose to his feet and began the slow, shameful walk toward the front door. Everyone remained laughing at the video which was still not over. People pointed at him as he walked.

He heard Chloe speaking to him in a loud voice. “What’s wrong, rich boy? I thought this is what you wanted: to be more popular.” She followed him to the front. As he walked out, she stood in the doorway yelling. “Check it out! You’re the life of the party! THANKS FOR COMING!” She slammed the door behind him. By this time, the video was winding down. Chloe ran in front of everyone and was casting her shadow on the screen. “He tries to pass himself off as being filthy rich, but you should see his house.” Everyone was still laughing so Chloe spoke as loudly as she could. “I promise you, if his house were to burn down - - and I mean to the ground, it would be a service to the community!”

This last sentence had everyone in hysterics … almost. Two people were not laughing. Bre did not know what to make of this. Maybe it was because she had not been drinking as much as the others. The other guests had been sufficiently loosened up. But Bre stood in the doorway watching everyone with a sense of horror. In her heart, she did not approve of how far Chloe had taken this little gag of hers.

The other non-smiling face in the room belonged to Wesley. He observed Chloe as she walked Billy to the door and as she returned back to the front of the room. At the sound of her making that crack about the Harris’ house burning down, Wesley was furious. He also began a deliberate march toward the door.

Chloe noticed him as he exited the media room. Her smile fell from her face as she gave chase. She caught up with him at the door. “Wait! Wait! Wesley!” She ran past Bre, who was not enjoying any of this. “Wait a minute, Wesley. Where are you going? The party is just getting good. So what did you think of my hilarious video?”

He was thoroughly disgusted with her and did not care if she knew. “Do you want my honest opinion? Or would you like me to tell you what you really want to hear?”

Chloe was shocked. “You didn’t like it?”

“Chloe, sometimes I am convinced that you are the most vicious person that I know.”

Bre looked away. She was well in listening range, but she just could not face either of them at that moment.

Chloe forced a smile. “Come on, Wesley. Snap out of this. It’s a party. We’re supposed to be having fun.” Her voice reverted back into a more sultry tone. “And I still owe you that VIP tour of the house.”

She began to put her arms around Wesley’s neck in an attempt to reel him back in. Wesley had other ideas however as he pushed her arms away.

“You just pulled this guy apart in front of all these people. You would’ve destroyed him if you had the chance, and all because his family is somewhat poor. Why don’t you save your little tour for someone who isn’t as squeamish as I am?” He looked past her at the door and started walking. He did not look at her as he passed. “I’m going home.” The door closed behind Wesley.

“Wesley?” Not all of her guests had seen this little drama unfold, but there were just enough to make her realize that she had made a fool of herself over Wesley. She felt an immense cry coming on. There was no preventing it at this point. She quickly ran upstairs to get away from everyone and be alone. Even Bre kept her distance.

Wesley angrily stepped away from Chloe’s house and stomped his way over to his car. Within a few seconds, he turned on the ignition and sped off. He did not notice that he was being watched the entire time.

Billy had no way home, so he had been standing from around the corner of Chloe’s house. The sun had gone down, but there was still plenty of light to see. Now what was he supposed to do? He could spend the better part of that evening walking home. Instead, Billy pulled his phone out of his pocket and called the first person he thought of …