I stumbled backwards. What was going on?

"You can still be with them..." I whispered to myself, hand going to my mouth. What did it mean? Be with them where? In heaven? Heaven doesn't exist, and God would not send a demon like the preacher to deliver his messages.  God would not want me to kill myself either. Was that what this message was saying? All I had to do was kill myself to be with them?

But I already knew that. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I didn't believe in the afterlife. You had one chance on this world and after that, you're history. They were history. I couldn't get them back. I would never be with them again.

"You can be with them..." I muttered again. Could they still be alive? No. There had been an accident. A truckdriver fell asleep behind the wheel and slammed into the car. All three were pronounced dead on arrival. I hadn't seen the crash, only their dead bodies at the morgue. Their dead eyes and cold skin still haunted my dreams.

My fist suddenly slammed into the message on the wall. My knuckles were white. My whole body was shaking. It was all a fu**ing joke. Someone playing me. Making a fool out of me. Having some fun. That damn preacher! 

I slammed my other fist into the message, uselessly. I charged out of the room, and into the garage. I returned with a chisel. I furiously and angrily chipped away at the message, grunting as I ran the chisel back and forth.

I didn't stop till the entire message was gone, replaced only by a blank space. I was sweating, breathing heavily, and my right thumb was bleeding from where I had accidently cut it. I didn't care though. The message was gone, and so was my anger. I sighed, left the room, closed the door and went into the kitchen. I dropped the chisel onto the table and sat down. Why would the preacher leave such a cryptic message? Was he trying to convert me? Strange way. How did the preacher even do it without my knowledge? He couldn't have left it when he was here, he must've broken into the house, left the message and took the necklace. 

I shook my head and rubbed my eyes with my hand. It wouldn't have been hard to do, I always kept my doors unlocked. This was one effed-up preacher, thats for sure. I suddenly had a bad feeling, as I thought about the message in my little girl's room.

I stood up and grabbed the chisel. I walked to my little boy's room. I hesitated before opening the door. Had he left other messages?

I gritted my teeth, and opened the door.  The room was similar to Angela's room, only painted in blue. I had let Trevor's things lay as they were, not picking them or planning on it. There were action figures and lego's all over the floor, along with a plate with which he had used to steal cookies and eat them secretly. His bed had matching teenage mutant ninja turtles sheets and blankets, which were all messed around from when he had last slept in them. 

I fell to my knees and dropped the chisel as I looked above his bed on the wall. I put my hands to my eyes as I began to cry. "Why?" was the only thing I could ask.

The same message as before, chipped away with probably the same knife, lay above my little boy's bed.

YOU CAN BE WITH THEM

I tried to remember what the preacher talked about, what he asked, anything. But he asked so many questions, about so many things, I couldn't remember any specifics. He seemed interested in the church. Asked alot of questions about it. That was the only thing I could remember. I stood up and wiped my eyes with my arm. The church. Maybe they knew him, or he would be there, or something. There has to be something. 

I washed my face, threw on my raincoat and got in my car. I started it, and breathed in deeply. This preacher was messing with my life. I needed to find him. There was only one clue I had.

The church.