Abruptly, through the silence, and the sound of the humming engine being the only noise in existence, a voice was heard throughout the car, saying, “We have to clean this blood off of us before we reach the airport.” Mary turned her head and saw that it was Jeremy’s voice, and the sound of his word, “blood,” raped her mind, forcing her to summon up, remember the blood that poured out from the metal door at Grewsal. She began to bellow a soft moan and cry harder, forcing her own self to pull over on the side of the expressway and stop the car immediately.
“Listen, I think we should go to the police right now!” Mary screamed.
Michael gave out a crazy laugh, saying with sarcasm to his tone, “Ooh yeah, and what would we say to the police, Mary? That we saw blood pouring out of a door, that we saw angels of all fricken’ sizes, and that we experience the sight of seeing gargoyles come alive? Wake up, Mary, if we go to the police, you can make sure that’s a one-way ticket to a nuthouse, and we’re going to have VIP passes!”
Mary was too numb to argue, so she started driving again as her tears fell down still at a fast pace. All she knew how to do was drive at this moment, the stiffness of her memories contradicted her actions, really wanting to be the adult and turn around immediately, with the destination being the police. Yet she was frozen, and they were frozen as well, each in his own way. But Michael saw her tears and felt saddened by them, feeling that they were the adults now, and she was the child. The tables turned, forcing Michael to utter, “Listen, Mary, I’m sorry!”
Jeremy rubbed Mary’s tears delicately away from her eyes as he sat in the passenger’s seat, saying, “Yeah, Mary, we’re all sorry for you having seen that back there.”
Mary pulled the car over again and parked it on the side of the road, and just pointed her eyes to the front, not craving to make any eye contact at this moment for reasons that this situation was uncomfortable. She said, “Alright, listen to me, I don’t know what I saw back there, but I know it was real, at least I think it was. Whatever is going on here, I’m going to help you guys. I know this sounds crazy, but I’m going to come with you to the, the—I guess—Holy Land. It seems that you won’t be satisfied without going. So, since I’m your doctor and am supposed to help you—I don’t know how—I agree to this, but right now I need your help, too. I’m extremely baffled about this situation, but I know if I stay here, my mind is going to go crazy. I know you don’t have any money, so I’ll pay for our plane tickets.” Mary’s fear of knowing that she’d seen angels and statues moving about allowed her to be in a state of confusion once more, causing her voice to die, to stop its vibrations, and for her eyes to just stare out in front of her. She started the car again and began driving, saying in a very low voice, “Who are they?”
“Mary, it’s nice of you to offer us the plane fare, but we can’t allow you to come with us. I mean, why do you want to come with us? The reason why we’re going is to get cured of our sickness, or else die trying. Either way, we have to,” said Michael in the midst of Mary pulling into the airport parking lot.
“I don’t know why, Michael, but I’m responsible for all of you, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to allow you all to go to this place alone. If you say you’re going to get cured there, then I want to get cured, too; I saw everything that you all did, including statues of saints moving about,” cried Mary.
“Alright, let’s just get the hell out of here,” Jeremy’s voice said, not noticing that David had formed a grin on his face for all to see, yet no one knew why he was grinning, nor did they ask his reasons.
With no time to lose, or time that they didn’t realize they had, they ambled into the airport in a running motion and kept up their rhythm, with bewilderment still boggling their eyes. Everyone was basically confused about what just came to pass at Grewsal—everyone aside from David. He held a deep secret in his eyes, a revelation that wandered through the hearts of all, but only clutched the eyes of David.
Jeremy tried asking David questions, but he wouldn’t answer him; all he told him was, “Jeremy, all I know is who we are and why we are going to the Holy City, I don’t know anything else!” This triggered a brief tone of suspicion to strike at Jeremy’s nerves, yet they still continued to run, and Jeremy had no time or breath to keep up the question toward David, in order to break him of his clandestine-like secret.
They reached the front desk of the airport, and Mary turned around to face the boys, still shaking from the scares from Grewsal. “Alright, we’re only staying in the Holy Land for a few days, that’s it. Once we get back, I want all of us to go straight to the police; I don’t care how crazy our story is to them. I’ll definitely lose my job, but it’s worth it. Is that a deal?”
“Yeah, it’s a deal,” Jeremy replied.
“I would like five tickets to Amman, Jordan, please!”
Mary turned her eyes to face the airport worker, and gawked at the young man in impatience. The worker noticed bloodstains on her clothes and face, but Mary had forgotten they were there. “I’m sorry, ma’am, the last plane to Amman left three hours ago. The next plane leaves tomorrow: would you still like to purchase the tickets?” the worker asked as Mary looked at his name tag; it read ‘FRANK’. “Excuse me, ma’am, but are you alright?” Frank questioned, still perceiving the unknown blood marks on Mary and the boys.
She didn’t answer him, not knowing what to say while she looked at a glass window behind Frank and saw her bloody reflection: a feeling of paranoia took her over. Her voice was muted by her inadequate answer that she didn’t give just yet, and her eyes were stiffened by the memory of Grewsal that her bloody reflection reminded to her. The airport briefly became silenced to her ears, and the echoes of Frank’s question, over and over again, faded. Jeremy gently pushed her aside, knocking her out of the view of her reflection, and answered in stress, “Yeah, she’s okay. Listen, we have to leave now, are there any connecting flights to there? Listen, Frankie, it’s a matter of life or death!”
Frank began typing in his computer while looking at Jeremy’s bloody face, not knowing how to react to the color “blood,” not recognizing how to look at him with that color on him. Yet, remembering the word “Frankie” that came from Jeremy caused Frank to develop anger for him. “I’m sorry, sir, the next flight leaves tomorrow,” replied Frank with an attitude. He was debating whether or not he should call security due to the red he saw on them.
David slowly moved his eyes around the airport’s surface, with suspicion running through his pupils, as if he knew of something that was watching them all. So he forcefully pushed Jeremy out of the way and went up to Frank’s face in an intimidating manner. David stuck out his hand and touched Frank on the arm when suddenly a glowing light shined underneath David’s hand as it went into Frank’s body. “So, like this woman said before, we want five tickets to Amman, Jordan, please,” David said with strictness.
He released his hand from Frank’s arm. “Five tickets coming up,” Frank spoke, typing fast on the keyboard while they looked at David with suspicion. “Okay, I have to see your passports please,” he added as the tickets printed out.
They all looked at each other with shock, realizing none of them had passports. But David touched Frank’s arm again and asked, “Frank, we don’t have passports, is that a problem?”
“No, sir, it’s not a problem at all. Your flight leaves in twenty minutes.”
Gabriel, Michael, Jeremy and Mary looked at David with amazement in their eyes. “How did you do that?” Gabriel asked while they walked to the terminal along with David holding the tickets and looking over his shoulders. The blood from his hands melted off from his sweat and dripped onto the tickets, smearing some of the ink.
David turned around and stopped walking; he faced Gabriel. They all surrounded David and listened closely to his reply. “Easy, I know who I am. As soon as you, Jeremy and Michael find out the truth about who you are, then you will have the power, too.”
“Well, then, why don’t you tell us who we ar
e so we could have this so-called ‘power’ ourselves?” Michael asked. He forced out his chest, attempting to show his might toward David as well as make him feel inferior.
“Because, like I said to Jeremy, I can’t tell you who you really are, but I know someone who can. Listen, as soon as we reach Jerusalem, all the mysteries that you wanted to know will be revealed. All I know is who we are and why we are going to the Holy City, I don’t know anything else,” David replied, handing their tickets to the airline stewardess before boarding the plane.
“I’m sorry, but this plane is going to Europe, not Amman, Jordan,” the stewardess said with confusion in her words as she looked at all of their tickets and all of their bloody faces. “This is a misprint, I’m sorry.” Before they boarded the plane, David touched the stewardess with his hand. “My mistake, this plane does go to Amman, Jordan, I am truly sorry,” the stewardess said as David pulled his hand away from her young, black arm. Before they all boarded the plane, silence took over the airport, with Mary turning around to face opposite of the doorway to the airplane, and watching the long airport terminal in suspicion. It was as if she knew something was about to happen, as if the sight of Grewsal’s mishap allowed her senses to change, grow stronger, become an instinct on a clairvoyant level. As soon as everyone entered the plane, Mary noticed a flash of white light that took over the airport, making everyone who stood in its body freeze in a still position. She saw a gust of wind swirl through the building, winding all of its dust and papers into a huge, titanic cyclone that grew in strength and size every time Mary’s heart beat to a higher momentum. Her eyes widened at the cyclone, and she ran into the airplane and shut the door herself, trying to wipe her eyes, making herself believe that it was all in her imagination. “Something’s coming,” she noted to herself.
Meanwhile, on-board, David made sure to shake the pilot’s hand before going to his seat. “Oh, we better get some more fuel, Amman is a long distance away from here,” the pilot said to his co-pilot before David released his glowing hand from his grip.
Each one of them went into the bathroom separately and wiped the blood from their bodies, at least most of the blood. After they exited the bathroom, they sat down in coach and stayed there for ten minutes; that’s when the other passengers of the plane looked around the cabin in confusion. “Why isn’t the plane taking off yet?” one passenger asked before the pilot came over the intercom.
“Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, but the plane will be taking off for Amman, Jordan, in about ten minutes, thank you,” the pilot announced. All of the coach passengers got up from their seats and walked up to the three stewardesses.
“Great, now we’re gonna get caught, thanks a lot, David,” Gabriel said with sarcasm. David just turned away and looked out his window of the airplane.
“Just wait and see,” said David while Gabriel noticed all the passengers leaving the plane. David turned around to face Gabriel, adding, “Well, it looks like we have the plane to ourselves!”
“Who the hell are you, anyway?” Gabriel asked in a surprised fashion, watching the last passenger exit the plane. Mary examined the opened doorway to the plane in panic, remembering the cyclone of light that triggered her fears circling around in the airport for her to see alone. But the last passenger exited, and the stewardess closed the door, permitting Mary’s fear to calm for a bit.
Mary got up from her seat with Jeremy and Michael and they all walked over to David and Gabriel’s seats. “The question is, who are you?” asked David with all of them listening closely to his reply.
“Listen, I want you to tell us what the hell is going on, David, because I’m pretty confused here,” Michael yelled out. “Listen, I just got shot in the chest, but when I looked at it, the wound had vanished. I just saw two gargoyles chasing my ass, and to top it off, I saw people turn into dirt. Please tell us what the hell is going on!” yelled Michael. Abruptly, David looked out the window of the empty plane and, to his flabbergasted eyes, saw Curtis and Victor running on the runway toward their parked plane.
“Shit,” David shouted, seeing Curtis and Victor wielding a truck that had a staircase connected to the back of it.
“What? What happened, why did you say ‘shit’?” Jeremy asked with Mary crying again loudly.
“That’s it, I’m not coming with you guys, this is too crazy for me. I’m a doctor, for crying out loud, and I’m acting like a patient. This is all a dream, this isn’t really happening, it’s just a figment of my screwed-up imagination,” said Mary. She darted toward the front part of the airplane at top speed, not turning back for anything. She reached it, and tried opening up the door, but the stewardesses were desperately trying to shake her hand from off the door handle, making it difficult for Mary to escape with reasons that the stewardesses didn’t know of.
“Miss, please sit back in your seat,” one of the stewardesses said in a loud but calm way. Mary still tried to open the door of the plane. She craved to escape, like a young bird yearning to fly for the first time at the sight of a coyote’s bloody mouth holding its family in between its teeth, hunting its nest. Mary knew she was imprisoned in the airplane, and she walked right into it; at least that’s how she felt. She wanted to run, dart away from this bewilderment, melancholy, this fright that was forced into her soul’s eyes. She was losing herself inside of her own eyes, and all she could do was pull on the airplane door, hoping her adrenalin would be enough to break its locks and open it to freedom.
David ran up to her and pulled her away from the door, hearing her scream with fear in her tone, watching her whining to be freed. He pulled her back to her seat and said, “You can’t leave now, they’re out there!”
“Who’s out there?” Jeremy asked. He searched out David’s window with his trembling eyes while Mary sat there with panic in hers.
“Christopher and Peter, they’re trying to get on the plane,” replied David. Jeremy noticed Curtis and Victor walking up a staircase leading to the door of their airplane. The staircase connected to the airplane’s surface; they were knocking on the door and yelling to open it up.
“That’s Curtis and Victor,” said Mary with betrayal, upon hearing that David called them by another name, which made her mind feel warped with uncanny information. She looked out the window also and saw them pounding on the door.
“No, their real names are Christopher and Peter,” David stated. The locks broke off its steel and the door was pried open.
“I don’t understand, I don’t know what the hell is going on!” shouted Michael, seeing Curtis and Victor enter the plane. The door automatically shut and the locks levitated back to their original places.
“You see, Victor is Peter and Curtis is Christopher. Don’t you remember?” David asked. “Oh I forgot, you guys don’t remember anything!” Frustrated by none of them remembering, and, in turn, not understanding David’s words, David just kept quiet and watched the two men, with supposedly two names, walk up to all of them.
“Listen, could you at least tell us who Christopher and Peter are? I mean, please?” Michael asked, perceiving Curtis and Victor coming nearer to their bodies.
“I can’t, that isn’t the way the Testament wants it written. We have to follow the order that the Testament is going to write it in,” David answered.
“What Testament? Listen, what the hell are you talking about? We can’t even know what’s going on, how can we follow the way God, or whoever wants some Testament to be written, if we don’t even know it?” Jeremy yelled out in a stressed fashion.
“I can’t tell you…but you will find out as soon as we reach the Holy City!” David was stressed out even more, and his words showed it, being sick of them asking that question. David turned to face the front of the plane and saw Curtis and Victor standing directly in front of them. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Christopher and Peter I see before me,” said David in a snotty manner; Victor laughed.
“So, I see that one of the little shits has had some of his memory come bac
k to him. But it doesn’t mean that all of his memory will,” Victor laughed. “Plus, you refer to us as Victor and Curtis now, not Peter and Christopher,” he added in an angry tone, muffling his grin as it melted down to an evil glare. The cabin became engulfed in freezing cold, cradling Mary’s anxiety and clamping it to her worst fears, freezing her eyes open to the sight of Victor and Curtis, and keeping her sight on them.
Mary couldn’t take it anymore, this mystery of a quest and now Victor and Curtis adding to her frustration. So she got up from her seat and quickly questioned, “Victor, is your real name ‘Peter’? And you, Curtis, is your real name ‘Christopher’?” Her voice shook, trembling with tears ready to flush from her eyes again. Victor and Curtis started their laughing again, of course, enjoying Mary’s fears and taking in her agony.
“Listen, bitch, just stay out of it, you don’t have anything to do with this,” Curtis replied. They both took their seats while one of the stewardesses told them to fasten their seat belts.
“Well, as a matter of fact, she does have something to do with this. If she’s here, then she’s here for a reason,” David stated. The plane started its movement down the runway, shuddering and vibrating the cabin due to the engine and momentum.
Silence took over the cabin, a sort of forced stillness from all of them, as if they recognized they were wedged on this plane together, trapped against their own will of escaping from Victor and Curtis, by wanting to stay so they could go to the Holy Land for the cure of their minds. Each of them tried to see into the future, what type of ride it would be, grasping onto their eyes, closing them for a moment, and seeing what can’t be seen. But when the plane left the ground, the daunting yet serene silence was broken by Michael getting up from his seat and running over to Victor. Without a breath from anyone to have time to reach the freezing cold air, Michael started punching Victor, bellowing out, “You shot me, asshole!” David got up from his seat and heaved Michael away from him, while Jeremy and Gabriel watched Mary get up from her seat and run away from all of them in panic. Jeremy ran after her, while David tried his best to release Michael’s hands from Victor’s throat, seeing that Michael’s grip was so tight, it turned Victor’s complexion the color purple. Jeremy grabbed Mary by the arms and tried calming her frantic mind down a bit by pulling her close to him and wrapping his arms around her to embrace her in a hug.
The Wrath of Jeremy Page 14