The Wrath of Jeremy

by Stephen Andrew Salamon

  Jeremy bawled out hard, with Luke hugging him tightly, and Jeremy’s teary eyes gaped at God and Michael, seeing them embracing tightly, not even noticing that the angel children in the distance were laughing non-stop at Lucifer’s descent. He caught the sight of Sam as well, still filled with sadness, and then amazingly her eyes met his own, smiling at Jeremy before she flew away into the blue-lit skies.

  Suddenly, Jeremy found himself back in the old cave, staring at Jesus’s eyes while his image stood on the Kerchief, having Jeremy’s own eyes hurting from so many tears. He swabbed his tears and dropped the Kerchief, wanting to run out of the cave.

  Luke grabbed onto his hand. “Jeremy, why are you running?” Luke asked as Jeremy fell to the ground, crying hysterically.

  “Luke, I don’t understand…I don’t understand why I’m here!” Luke sat down on the ground and began rubbing Jeremy’s brown hair like a father would a son, feeling Jeremy’s tortured mind, knowing he was overwhelmed with this memory, this curse of who he was or is. Jeremy didn’t want it to be true, he wanted it to be false, yearning for all this to be a dream with a nightmare attached.

  “You see, Jeremy, Jastian—” Luke said, before Jeremy interrupted him.

  Jeremy yelled out, “First off, who the hell is Jastian? Tell me, Luke. Please tell me. And please tell me why Lucifer fell.” And so Luke stood in silence with Jeremy, knowing that he was the key to Jeremy comprehending his life. He felt a new type of responsibility blowing in the wind, knowing what he had to do for Jeremy’s great adventure to go on. Luke watched Jeremy’s glossy eyes closely, seeing that he focused his confusion toward Sam, and knew that Jeremy’s reason for wanting to know more than one question was going to be a challenge in itself—a challenge that Luke had to take on.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  The darkness still shadowed the land, confining Jeremy’s eyes to the sandy ground. Feeling the cold breeze hastening against his eyes, it propelled some old tears away while new ones birthed, with Luke being their only witness. Gabriel, Michael, David, Mary and Sam lay motionless on the ground, sound asleep, while Luke stood up and lit a torch by the cave, trying to think of the right way he should answer Jeremy’s questions. They both knew that the others didn’t know yet that they had returned from being in the cave, didn’t know yet that Jeremy was crying from not wanting to remember who he really was. Again Jeremy wiped his tears away, watching them fall to the sandy ground. Suddenly he noticed that on his fingertips were long, dirty nails, that stood an inch higher than his normal short nails. He gawked at his long nails, shocked eyes filled with anxiety from the reflection of the nails, causing Jeremy to cry in a silent fashion, “What’s happening to me, Luke? Why are my nails long?”

  Picking up the torch, Luke placed it in an already made hole in the ground and turned to Jeremy. He answered calmly, “One question at a time, Jeremy. First, I want to tell you who Jastian is, for it is probably one of the most important things you should know.”

  Luke walked over to Jeremy and sat on the ground beside him, while the others still slept silently. “My Jeremy, Jastian is, or became, God’s father, his imprisonment of a creation not created by him, but by another God, having both good and evil powers, that stands outside God himself. Soon I will tell you how he was created, but not now.” Luke saw the way Jeremy’s eyes were looking, with more shock and disbelief in their brown depths.

  “I know, once you’re taught a certain way for a long time, you don’t want to accept new stories about religion. So I’ll tell you in a simple way. You see, before the earth began, God went up to Jastian, being that he was more superior than him, and said that he was bored and tired; he said he wanted something to be proud of, something that he could say ‘hey, I made that’. So Jastian gave him permission to make the earth, to take away the waste and void and fill it with life. He also gave him special instructions in making it. What scientist nowadays ridiculously call the theory of evolution was really God’s great powers at work—so great that they’ll never know how he did it. So, after God created it, guess what happened?”

  “What?”

  “He fell in love with it, like an artist falls in love with his work. But, as the years went on, he noticed the people he created were turning evil. That’s when he remembered what you did to him. He remembered how you went against him with the evil that evolved out of nowhere. He discovered that’s what the people of the earth were turning into; they were turning into Satan. So, he attempted to destroy it. His tears allowed the earth to be engulfed with one big flood,” Luke explained, seeing Jeremy drying his tears by wiping them away with his arm.

  “Is this the great flood story?”

  “Yes, it is. You see, the flood story is true, but most people don’t believe it. As he created the great flood, all the evil was washed away, but suddenly Jastian found out what God was doing. Jastian went up to him and asked why he was doing this. God is perfect, but when you have that much love inside of you, it begins to make you vulnerable, afraid that it will hurt you like you did to him. That’s when God decided to make a promise, a promise that he would never attempt to flood the earth again or destroy it. So he cast a rainbow across the sky as a signal for his promise. As the years went on, God noticed that the evil was appearing again. Every century, God would cry. He would cry because he saw the evil growing more and more, manifesting itself, knowing that, because it was in you, you were the cause of it. You have so many powers that the evil in you can create a life of its own, traveling to every person, just like God’s love.

  “It wasn’t until the Holocaust that was brought on by the ignorance of Hitler, and many wars before and after that, that he decided to deliver the wrath. But, Jeremy, God made a promise that he would never attempt to destroy the earth again, and God never goes back on his promises. In a way he can’t, even though he can,” Luke went on saying, as Jeremy’s stress was growing rapidly.

  “But I still don’t know why he chose us to deliver it,” said Jeremy in a stressed-out tone.

  “Alright, Jeremy, I’ll explain that to you, but, like I said, one question at a time. Now, the reason why Lucifer fell was the simple fact that he used the powers against his father, the creator; God had no choice. Why do you think that’s one of the Commandments? ‘Thou shall honor thy father and mother’? Well, it’s because of you,” Luke said, holding up his hands toward Jeremy’s face. His hands formed a bright light, with Jeremy seeing images in it. “Now for your last question, look into my hands, and you will see why; I will narrate,” he added.

  Without a sound, Sam opened her eyes by the distant sounds, looked to her left, and saw Luke and Jeremy, with light pulsating from Luke’s hands and Jeremy looking into it like he was in a trance. She got up and quietly approached them, sitting down on the ground right next to them unnoticed. She focused on the light as well and fixed her ears in a direction that was just right for her to listen to at least some of the words.

  Luke began with, “Ever since you were cast down to Hell, you would go to the boundaries of Heaven and pound on the golden gates of it. You would cry out for forgiveness, and God would hear your cries and begin crying himself.” Jeremy saw God crying in Luke’s glowing hands, depicting an old wise man with a long, white beard. “But still, he would never open up the gates for you. Sometimes Gabriel, David and Michael would laugh on the other side of the gates and say mean things to you, but you kept on pounding…. You would come back once every century, and do the same ritual, pounding on and on, and still the gates wouldn’t open. Until one day, when the gates opened before you could even begin pounding,” Luke explained, as Jeremy saw the gates being opened in Luke’s hands.

  “You see, it was during the Holocaust that the gates opened. You ran up to God as he stopped you from hugging him. Leaving the evil outside the gates, you pleaded for forgiveness, but God turned away and said he didn’t want your apologies, but he wanted your help,” he stated before Jeremy looked away from Luke’s hands.

  “You still didn�
�t tell me why he wants us to deliver the wrath!”

  “Listen to me, Lucifer—Jeremy, I mean—you made a promise to God that you would deliver the wrath for him. You have to allow God to break his promise. God told you what he wanted from you, and you agreed. He told you if you complete the mission, then you could come back to Heaven. You sold your soul to him, Jeremy. You all have to guide his army to complete the wrath. You’ll understand what I mean when you call out the words that are on the maps. You have to guide his army to the north, Gabriel has to guide the army to the west, and Michael and David have to guide the army to the south and east!” Luke paused when he noticed a confused look in Jeremy’s eyes. “You will understand when you deliver the wrath. All you have to do is allow God to step on the earth: you have to allow him to break his promise. All of you will open the gates on the twenty-fifth of December and all of you will guide his army.”

  “Wait a second, this is the 21st century! The Holocaust happened a long time ago: why did it take God this long to have us deliver his wrath, Luke? Why?”

  “You ask good questions. Every year that passes on earth means one single hour is passing in Heaven, or a single minute. Time is somewhat irrelevant up there. It doesn’t exist for a human who dies and goes there, but it exists for the angels who were born there. It’s very confusing, but you will understand it once you go there again. Jeremy, when God chose you, Michael, Gabriel and David to deliver his wrath, he really chose you for the task only. You alone could guide the army to the north, South, East and West: you have the power of a thousand angels. But since you are a fallen angel, your power isn’t so great, that’s why Michael, Gabriel and David had to be a part of this,” Luke said, still seeing bewilderment in Jeremy’s glossy eyes.

  “Listen, I also want to know why Curtis and Victor are chasing us. Do you know why?”

  “Oh, you mean Christopher and Peter? They are chasing all of you because they don’t want you delivering the wrath. When an angel dies, his soul goes to Jastian. After you killed them, their souls have been in Jastian’s Heaven ever since. Jastian still doesn’t want God to destroy earth, and he knows God is having you break the promise for him. That’s why he sent Curtis and Victor to make sure the wrath doesn’t go into effect. Even though God is right always, Jastian is somewhat stubborn, and likes to get his way.”

  Sam quickly ran and hid behind a boulder, seeing that Jeremy was getting up in a fury.

  Jeremy shouted at Luke, “No…no! I’m not going to help deliver the wrath. I’m sorry, Luke, but Gabriel, David and Michael could do it on their own. God is a loving God, and yes, he is always right, and this Jastian you speak of had better get a grip that God is the God of us. But I’ll be damned if I’m gonna do this dirty work just because those two up there can’t make up their minds!”

  “You’re already damned, and God is right always, that’s why he chose you to fix it, and make it right. Listen, Jeremy, they can’t do it without you. You have the power of a thousand angels; they have the power of only one. That’s why God chose you. He chose you because of your great powers that you will have once again when you become an angel, instead of a fallen angel. Once the eighth sign is alive, you will regain your full powers, and that will allow God to step his feet on the earth and finish the job that you all started.

  “He wants you back in his life, he wants you as a son again, and he wants this earth gone. That emotion began once you showed that you wanted to be back. He yearns to forgive you, even though he can’t, but by you doing this for him, it will prove your worth, your meaning, and your love for a God that your spoiled ass defied and hurt. You little bastard, you have to do this for him, prove your worth to him, show him that you will sacrifice everything around you for him!” Luke yelled out.

  The anger and rage were so great that Sam began crying silently. She turned to see if the sound woke the others, but saw them still asleep, knowing now that she was the only witness to this argument between good and good having evil in its twist. Sam stared at Jeremy for a moment, and started to tilt her head and feel her heart at the same time. She noticed an ache in her chest, remembering very vaguely a strong emotion that she once felt for Jeremy’s eyes, allowing her to shake her head in disbelief. Yet she kept on staring, trying to figure out this enigma between these new emotions she felt, and the argument between Luke and Jeremy.

  “I don’t have to do anything. Since I’m Lucifer, I say ‘no’,” said Jeremy in a sinister, condescending tone.

  Luke suddenly ran up to him and slapped him across the face, shouting, “Jeremy, if you don’t do this for him, he will cast you down to Hell again, and cast your mother and father down as well. Everyone whom you have loved or cared for will fall down to your world immediately. You sold your soul to him, and that was a part of the deal. If you break it, then you and all of your humanly loves will suffer in the world that you created; that world is called ‘Damnation’! Remember, Jeremy, you’re the evil one, not him! And also, on a new note, you wouldn’t want to lose your beloved Sam, who you now realize was your true heavenly love!”

  Tears started to fall out of Jeremy, and he moaned like an injured lamb, hyperventilating like a newborn child. He was confused about himself, the situation, the words and stories that he heard tonight. He craved a release, hoping that he could walk away from all of this without a problem. The anger he felt forced his eyes to close, and when they opened, the pupils of his eyes were red. He turned to Luke, calming down his voice and tears, and spoke. “Luke, why are my nails long, and why do I know that my eyes are red without me seeing them?”

  Sam, still crying but calming down a bit, watched as Luke calmed down himself, and answered, “Because the more memories that return, the more you become what you are—Lucifer. The more memories that return, the greater your powers will be.”

  Jeremy turned away, fatigued and sleepy, and squeezed his eyes, feeling his long nails disappearing into his own, short ones, and when his eyes opened they were back to brown.

  “So you know how to harness the small powers you have. But that won’t last, Jeremy, you are what you are, and the more you realize it, the more you will become it,” Luke noted with a small smirk to follow. “But I am impressed for now.”

  “I’m going to bed now. I’ll think about it and give you my answer in the morning, Luke. Right now I just want to get some sleep before I have a nervous breakdown, if I haven’t done so already. And about me becoming what I am, Luke—I’m Jeremy, and that’s what I’ll be.”

  Before Jeremy could even go back to the others and find a place to sleep, Luke held a cross up to him and said, “Before you go, I want you to complete the seventh sign. The sixth has already been completed because you now know who you are, and you will become it, Jeremy. It’s now time to complete the seventh.”

  Jeremy stared at the cross and saw the bloodstains on it, engraved in its steel. Luke then took a step toward Jeremy, when abruptly his eyes noticed Sam’s face, peeking out behind the boulder, seeing her tears reflecting in the torch’s light. “Why, hello, Sam,” he smiled, passing her and walking up to David’s sleeping body.

  During his walk toward David, Jeremy looked at Sam, knowing that she heard everything, and looked down in disgrace, ashamed to know that she heard everything that Luke brought out, embarrassed that her beauty witnessed the evil secret that lay inside of him. Then their eyes turned from each other, as if they realized the love they once had and feared it, and turned their eyes to watching Luke tap David on the chest. As they watched Luke attempt to wake David up, Sam’s eyes moved back to Jeremy’s face, and kept on staring, watching his reactions toward Luke, and watching even the way he was breathing, as if she was trying to connect her true past emotions to the present, and fall in love all over again.

  Yet she was disrupted by a shout from Luke, hearing him yelling, “David, wake up!”

  David, Mary, Michael and Gabriel shot up from their sleep and looked about with uncertainty. Their eyes saw Luke in front of them with a torch in
the background, lighting Jeremy’s depressed image and Sam’s tear-filled face. Sam stopped her emotions from surfacing and concentrated on what was happening.

  Jeremy walked toward Luke while passing by Sam, hunching over in humiliation, hearing her ask with nervousness to her sweet tone, “Jeremy? Is it true? Are you really him?”

  They both stared at each other, a form of mystical love echoing in their eyes, knowing that Jeremy developed a caring for Sam through this mission so far, and love from the past entwined in this fresh emotion. Sam also held compassion for Jeremy, and in this labyrinth of love from their ancient lives, both trying to connect it to the present, she felt the urge to connect in a spiritual rhythm that seemed blinding to their souls. It was hidden, just like Jeremy’s secret, and now that his secret was out, so was their love.

  But in his dark consciousness, he decided to keep that secret hidden away for awhile, not knowing what to do as he stared at her beauty with a question so honest, that it brought shivers up his own spine. At least Jeremy knew where their love derived from, seeing her as an angel crying out for him to stop hurting their father, yet she didn’t know a thing. They both were lost in their own eyes with this abrupt sentiment, and Jeremy was lost the most. Within her eyes, he saw yearning to help him be found. “I—” he answered, and then stopped, as Luke interrupted. They both moved their eyes once again to Luke’s silhouette, and put their feelings for one another aside for the moment. They were both so overwhelmed with this mission’s intent that holding another piece of the puzzle and figuring it out was just too much to handle right now.