The Wrath of Jeremy

by Stephen Andrew Salamon

  “If you are telling the truth, then why would our sons actually take on this so-called ‘delivering of the wrath’? Why can’t the Lord do it himself?” Jeremy’s mother asked quietly, being afraid that her speaking would upset Curtis and Victor.

  The two men stared at her with a sinister glare, raping her mind’s eye, giving her a feeling of worthlessness and sinful qualities. Curtis, his evil glare still on Jeremy’s mother, answered, “Because all of your sons made a promise to God that they will deliver his wrath. But your son, Jeremy, made the strongest promise of all. That is all I shall say!” Laughter, a stifled giggle came to his voice, baffling their already confused minds as they yearned to grasp some understanding, but none would come to their minds.

  This new and abrupt information stunned their souls, as they prayed and hoped that Curtis and Victor were insane and that their words were nothing more than their insanity showing through. But Jeremy’s mother, still with tears falling from her parched eyes, looked at Curtis’s smile and listened to his laughter, and then gazed at his eyes, knowing somehow that he was telling the truth.

  Curtis kept on giggling, repeating as more tears flushed out from the parents’ eyes, “That’s all I shall speak!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  In the darkness of the cave, Luke lit a single candle for Jeremy to be able to see, and placed it on the sandy, wet floor, where it balanced as the sand pushed against the bottom of the candle’s wax, holding it tightly and firmly. “Jeremy, wrap yourself in the Shroud and look into the eyes of Jesus,” Luke’s words echoed, handing the Kerchief to Jeremy. “Concentrate on his eyes, and you will see who you really are.” Jeremy looked deep into Jesus’s eyes on the holy cloth and wrapped himself in the Holy Shroud quickly, waiting for some reaction from the cloth, wanting to see something unusual, to prove to his eyes that all this was really happening to his frame of mind. He gazed at it while he pulled the Shroud closer to his body, tighter and firmly, hearing Luke’s echoing words, “Concentrate…concentrate!”

  A minute passed, and nothing happened or occurred, but after the minute died, Jeremy’s sight suddenly caught the vision of children laughing and playing while they held hands tight and sang out with the ground being clouds of Paradise, “Ring around the…pocket full of…ashes, ashes, we all fall down.”

  Jeremy’s flashback commenced with a tight, blinding pain shooting toward his temples, forcing his hands to immediately wrap themselves around his own head, fighting the pain and trying to keep his eyes wide open, not wanting to miss a thing. It was as if something was trying to penetrate his subconscious, and pull itself into his mind. He felt excruciating pain, like a bolt of lightning was penetrating his frontal lobe. Or else, something was trying to exit his mentality, his psyche, through Jeremy’s pain being the evidence of its memory-like life form. Abruptly, through Jeremy’s sudden screams, with his eyes beginning to bleed dark red, the pain ceased to show itself, and Jeremy’s eyes perceived a new surrounding, finding himself looking at six angel children, recollecting that he saw them before. The only difference was the children were a little bit older now, with their size depicting that of teenagers.

  “I’ve been here before,” Jeremy whispered. He walked closer to the angels, seeing their bodies of beauty falling rapidly to the ground with laughter following, motivating him to smile toward this innocent, playful moment. As he chuckled a bit, his eyes moved toward the sky, seeing that it was filled with planets of different colors, shapes, and stars that were larger than normal, twinkling over a great sunlight with no sun to be seen. Rainbows danced and filled the air with colors of beauty, and mountains and foliage filled the distance, clothing it with tranquil elegance that lit up Jeremy’s eyes. He wept about the elegance, and didn’t even notice that his eyes were leaking at all. Mirror-like ponds sat far and near, and green grass paved the ground all around Jeremy’s newly naked feet. He saw birds of all colors and shapes frolicking in the great distance, singing a high pitch that was soothing to the ear.

  Through the exquisiteness of this realm, Jeremy distinguished his own tears falling over his face and toward the ground. Following their clear, delicate plummet, falling upon his bare feet, and rolling off toward the green grass below, puzzlement came to his freshly washed eyes, wondering where his shoes went. But then he looked over to the children again, listening to what they were saying and forgot about the disappearance of his shoes, being in a sudden state of peace, yet it disappeared before his very eyes when he remembered the reason why he was here to begin with.

  “What do you want to do now, guys? I’m tired of playing this game. How about you, David, what do you want to do?” one of the angels asked, Jeremy’s eyes widening with shock, noticing that the angel resembled Michael.

  “I don’t know, how about we see if Lucifer is still up to the challenge that he supposedly said he would do? Actually, the challenge that he said he would do for the past seven years,” the angel, Christopher, stated with a snotty tone, pushing Lucifer against the other children like a ball.

  “Stop pushing me,” Lucifer cried out, having the other angels pushing him back and forth like they were playing human tennis.

  “Come on, Lucifer, you told us you were more powerful than Father….prove it!” shouted Michael in a nasty manner. Jeremy walked even closer to the children and when he came nearer, he realized that, out of the six angel children, three of them resembled Michael, Gabriel and David. This caused greater torment to his eyes, confusing them greatly, and he squinted, not believing or deeming true what he was seeing or feeling.

  “My God,” Jeremy mumbled, apprehending the distinction, understanding that they were Gabriel, David and Michael for sure, bringing his eyes full circle, and rubbing them twice to get a good, realistic view. He then strolled closer to the children, while they still pushed Lucifer, but harder now, and Jeremy saw the struggle in Lucifer’s beautiful eyes. He felt sympathy for him, even though his mind was taught that he was and still is the soul of darkness. He wanted to see this other angel they called Lucifer more closely, as well as the other two angels, trying to see what they looked like, but suddenly Lucifer started running away from the children, freeing himself from the circle and darting in the opposite direction. The angel children began chasing Lucifer with impressive speed and Jeremy started running after them, trying to keep up with their rhythm.

  “Get back here, you chicken!” the angel Michael yelled out. Jeremy ran faster and faster, with his peripheral vision noticing small light-like fairies running beside him.

  He turned his head and saw the fairies racing with him, on both sides of his face, and he heard one of the fairies say with a high-pitched voice, “You better hurry, you don’t want this memory to get away!” Jeremy shook his head and kept up the momentum, sweating and feeling his muscles throbbing, seeing that the angel children were disappearing from his eyes, due to their great velocity. Jeremy then turned by a large tree, thick as a house and tall as a skyscraper, since this was the last spot he saw the children running to, and turned by the tree. Once turning, Jeremy found himself directly in front of a tremendous castle that was levitated on a cloud, with sparkling, glasslike crystals that made up its body. As soon as he saw this cliché of a castle, he noticed the children again, chasing Lucifer up the stairs of the palace. That’s when he yelled out their names, while panting like a dog, hoping his voice would reach their innocent ears through the beauty-like foliage that hung all around the staircase.

  “Gabriel, Michael, David, leave him alone. It’s me, Jeremy!” But they didn’t hear him, or else they didn’t want to hear him. He then looked closer at the other two angels, the angels who were named Christopher and Peter, and saw their faces, bringing an ailing feeling to his stomach. He said in shock, while a tear came from his left eye, “My God. Curtis and Victor?” Puzzlement was his new way of thinking, and it was so tremendous that Jeremy wasn’t about to stop and try to put the enigma together. Instead, he scurried up the stairs behind them, having their bodies stil
l chasing after Lucifer as jealousy in their minds kept up their stride. Swiftly, Jeremy observed Lucifer stopping in his tracks and rotating around.

  Lucifer’s body shone more light from it, a radiance that could be observed as bright and beautiful. Jeremy stopped and looked up at the children, squinting and trying to get a good view of what was happening. Through Lucifer’s radiance, his glow and light, Jeremy could feel his rage building, anger and turmoil growing, showing Jeremy that every time Lucifer’s light grew, it meant his inevitable rage and fury was birthing itself to a higher state of acrimony and bitterness. Jeremy was far from the children, but the heat of the rage was pulsing in his mortal flesh, so that he had to take twenty steps back down the staircase in order to put up with the sight that he wanted to see.

  “Leave me alone!” Lucifer cried, feeling Christopher and Peter grabbing him by the wings. Christopher and Peter began plucking feathers from Lucifer’s wings, while Lucifer wailed and cried out for help, crying blood from his eyes, showing his white teeth from the shouts being so great; yet no one complied. Lucifer turned to Christopher and just watched his actions, helpless to the tormenters, seeing him plucking out his feathers, watching the blood from the tips of the feathers traveling down Christopher’s hands as his eyes peered at Lucifer, grinning at Lucifer’s pain.

  A newfound rage built in Lucifer’s mind and soul. Sealing his eyes shut, he lifted his fist toward Christopher’s face, hearing the echoes from the other angel children’s laughter soaring through his ears, vibrating his rage to a torturing frolic.

  In the distance, Lucifer opened his eyes, and there, in the Eastern skies, was a young, beautiful woman, crying toward his pain, and he just stared at her, like he was in a trance, being ashamed of the actions taken forth by him. Jeremy, still a great distance away, noticed that Lucifer was staring at something, so he followed his eyesight to the young woman, an angel, fluttering in the skies, seeing her feel pain for this man of powers. Jeremy heard Lucifer whispering, “I love you, Sam. Don’t watch me, please.”

  Jeremy knew he was far away, yet he could hear his words, and when he turned to the young woman, seeing her beautiful white wings hunching toward her teary eyes, Jeremy heard her say, “Run, my love.” The young woman flew with greatness, away from the palace and disappeared into the colorful multihued rainbows that decorated the skies. Jeremy then turned to Lucifer, seeing him shut his eyes again.

  “That looked like Sam,” Jeremy noted, remembering Sam’s beauty and the beauty of the angel, with the same name, bellowing out her love toward Lucifer.

  Staying still, feeling the pain from his feathers being plucked, vanishing to a numb sensation, allowed Lucifer’s right fist to rise up high in the air and punch Christopher in the face. Christopher, in shock from his actions of battle, lost his balance on the marble stairs and fell, grabbing onto Lucifer’s wings for balance, but pulling out a clump of feathers, and fell down the stairs screaming. Lucifer turned to Peter while Christopher fell past Jeremy, and punched him also in the face, causing Peter to fall down the stairs and roll past Jeremy as well. Sudden tears came to Lucifer’s eyes, with a frozen sensation being inside his soul, screaming out, “No! It was an accident, I swear it was!” All Gabriel, Michael and David could do, enduring their paralyzed, shock-filled minds, was look at him with foreboding shock on their holy faces, not comprehending Lucifer’s actions, not understanding what had just taken place. The angels ran down the marble staircase in search of Christopher and Peter, crying with panic, swallowing their tears from the forceful wind that rushed against their faces because of the ferocious speed they took on. Running faster and faster, they reached the last step, and found them lying on the ground, mangled, with death on their faces. They felt great bereavement for them, not speaking a word for their first ten breaths, aching inside for their eyes seeing death for the first time.

  Lucifer, his tears flowing with elegance, pouring out from his undefined colorful eyes, as fast as he could run, shot down the staircase and heard Michael bellowing toward him, “You killed them!” Jeremy watched intrigued, seeing Lucifer pass by him in panic, feeling a gush of wind rushing against his face, and feeling Lucifer’s pain and fear in the wind he created, forcing Jeremy to squeeze his eyes shut, not able to put up with the pain that Lucifer created. As he passed, he noticed the side of Lucifer’s image briefly, making Jeremy run down the staircase after him, rushing to see his face. Jeremy began rubbing his eyes and wiping his tears away, coming up to them at the bottom of the staircase. He was now able to get a good look at Lucifer’s facial features.

  A subtle brush of wind darkened over Jeremy’s face, with a tinge of coldness, forming goose bumps on his flesh. Jeremy stood straight up, and his eyes pierced through the wind at the face of Lucifer, and began to cough on his own mucus. A shield of undefined tears blanketed his ogling, yet Jeremy still gawked at this man’s face in awe. Nervousness traveled through Jeremy’s bones, stifling his voice, numbing his soul, as words came out from his mouth in a whisper, saying, “My God.” After he spoke, a scream, a wail, came from Jeremy’s voice, seeing his own image on Lucifer’s face, caused his own blood to freeze with terror, forcing vomit to exit from Jeremy. He started to hyperventilate, moving about to catch his breath. Jeremy kept his eyes on Lucifer, not believing what he saw. It was as if he was staring at a mirror, seeing his own reflection on another person’s image. He was structuring his own panic, rebuilding his own nerves to great heights, only to have them plummet to their death. Jeremy’s eyes closed to show the pain he was feeling on the inside.

  Suddenly, Jeremy’s benevolent eyes saw Luke through his tears of struggle, and Luke patted him on his shaking back, saying, “Yes, Jeremy, you are him. The one you see before you is the one you see in a mirror, a reflection—you.”

  Jeremy fell to the ground, wiping the vomit away from his chin, and cried, “I don’t understand, Luke, I just don’t understand! What’s happening? Please, please tell me, please say something that I’ll understand, please, Luke, I don’t want to be confused anymore. Please, tell me what’s happening, and why that guy is me!”

  Luke squatted down on the grassy ground to be eye level with Jeremy. “Here, just watch, and listen.”

  They both stared at the angel children and heard the angel David yell, “I’m telling Father!” David began running up the staircase with the other children and Lucifer followed, chasing after them in panic while Jeremy and Luke strayed behind. Jeremy and Luke watched from a distance, as the angels reached the top of the stairs and entered the castle of beauty, disappearing from their view, but they still climbed. Finally, reaching the top of the staircase, Luke opened the doorway that resembled a golden gate with beautiful, porcelain statues of angels at either side of it, moving their statue-like bodies around, depicting that they had life in them. They both walked into the doorway, and once entering, they saw nothing but pure white light, brilliance that didn’t harm their sight or make them squint, and heard sparrows singing a beautiful melody. The light then ceased, and so did the sound from the sparrows, and they walked through a hallway that stretched five hundred feet in height, with gray walls and English writing covering every end of them, from top to bottom, and left to right. Jeremy watched this writing on the gray, gothic-like walls that made up the hallway, and amazement was captured in his mind. Then, with their legs still moving deeper into the hallway, their eyes came across a portrait of something, of people, a titanic painting, which seemed to look like a family picture.

  Luke’s finger pointed toward a person in the picture, saying with pride, “That’s you, Jeremy!” Jeremy saw his image on the portrait, standing right next to a man who seemed to look like the cliché of Jesus, with long hair and a beard, seeing that Jesus’s hand was on the shoulder of the man who resembled Jeremy. “That was you, a long, long time ago.” Tears once again came down Jeremy’s face, staring at the portrait, trying to remember this realm, this moment. Luke saw the tears in his eyes, and explained with even greater pride, “You we
re God’s favorite…you were like his son…. You and the redeemer, the Savior, Jesus, loved each other tremendously. Like brothers, you were, almost as if you shared the same soul, but didn’t.”

  Jeremy listened through his own weeping, and then shouted, his cries echoing through the hallway for infinity, “I don’t understand, the Bible doesn’t say any of this!”

  “The writing that you see on these walls makes up the real Bible. Man has never seen the real Bible, and they never will until they pass through this hallway that you and I are in now. This is the true Bible, with all the answers. The Bible that Man has written, through the voice of God, has only a few writings that are true within it, the rest was written and altered by the wise, with God’s permission to do so. The Bible on earth is, of course, the real word of God, a short version of these writing on the walls. But this that you see before you is the soul of Heaven, the soul of the Bible of everlasting life. These writings have an infinite amount of pages, created by the true genius that we call ‘Father’,” Luke explained while looking at Jeremy’s tears falling. “These writings that you see before you are called the Unbounded Testament, the Testament that embarked on its writings since the beginning of time. It is the only real Testament….” He slowly began to walk down the hallway, following the writings on the wall, adding, “We are in the past now, Jeremy, the past where these writings first began.”

  “Why am I here? Why am I here in this hallway, Luke?”

  “Because this is the only place where I could explain who you really are to you…. You see, Jeremy, you are different from Michael, David and Gabriel. The difference is that you have all the power of a thousand angels, and they have the power of only one. Jesus already gave them a small part of their memory back of who they are and why they were sent to deliver the wrath; all they had to do was look into his eyes. But he didn’t give it to you. The reason is, because you went against his father, your father, our father, and therefore you and he are enemies by right. In order for you to believe me and believe who you really are, I had to take you back to the place where it all began.” Luke suddenly paused, but then added, “And where it all ended.” Luke paused yet again. “Jeremy, your name is ‘Lucifer’.”