The Wrath of Jeremy

by Stephen Andrew Salamon

  Jeremy then sat down in the chair, adding, “When I first saw Christopher and Peter, I mean, Curtis and Victor, I felt that they were the bad guys and I still do. When I saw Michael, Gabriel and David for the first time and found out they had the same problem with seeing statues as I did, I knew they were good guys, but only because I knew I was good. It wasn’t until I saw them pushing me and teasing me in Heaven when I thought that maybe they’re the bad guys. I mean, they were the cause of me being cast down to Hell; well, they were partially to blame, it was mostly my fault. Yet I found out that I’m Lucifer. So, in a nutshell, I really believe that no one is the bad guy, it’s just bad and good working for the good, which is God,” cried Jeremy.

  Josh walked over to him and began petting his brown hair, like a father would to a son.

  “This is supposed to be the wrath of God, when in actuality this is my wrath. Michael, David and Gabriel need me because I have the power of a thousand angels. But overall I still am called ‘Lucifer’. When God touches his feet upon the earth, we’re supposed to regain our full memory, but I’m afraid to regain it, Josh. Since I’m Lucifer, that means I’ll have the memory of all the malevolence, evil, dens of iniquity, and evil doings I did, and the memory of what Hell really looks like, and I don’t want that memory ever. Once I regain my memory, will I be evil or good? Will I want to go and live in Hell, or will I want to live with my father who is known as ‘God’?” Jeremy cried out.

  “Well, Jeremy, since you pounded on the gates of Heaven every century, that means that you do want to be with God. And if you are going to Heaven, then I think the memories of Hell will go away once you go there. If your story is true, and if you are Lucifer, then I just want to say that you are the gentlest Devil that I’ve ever seen,” Josh said in a joking way. Jeremy gave out a silent laugh.

  “Do what you have to do, Jeremy, but be careful. Sometimes, in my situations, when my boss tells me to do something that seems wrong, you still have to think twice about doing it. I guess that’s your situation with God. One time, my boss wanted me to bust a drug dealer. I went to the dealer’s house and discovered it was my own son who was the dealer. Jeremy, I had to decide whether I wanted to give up my son’s freedom, or allow him to deal out the drugs that kill people every day. I love my son dearly, but I decided to bust him. If God told you that either you deliver the wrath, or else your loved ones and yourself shall burn in Hell, then I would personally think about my loved one’s freedom, or the freedom of many innocent souls, very carefully. In the end, I would save the people’s souls and allow the ones I love and me to go and burn in damnation. But that’s what I would decide. Yet, he is God, and he is the all-knowing,” Josh said when suddenly the door to the room opened.

  “I sold my soul to him, I have to deliver the wrath with the others,” argued Jeremy, feeling his mind becoming baffled once again. He started thinking that maybe Josh was right and that maybe he shouldn’t deliver the wrath.

  “Personally, I know many of people who sold their souls to you before and they still ended up asking God for forgiveness. What I mean to say is, you could go both ways. You can sell your soul and still have a chance to be forgiven. Just like you said, Jeremy, there’s no good or bad,” Josh said in a kind way with his words of a sublime nature.

  Subsequently, a woman walked up to Jeremy, asking in a strict manner while pulling out handcuffs, “Come on, your plane is going to leave soon. I suppose that you don’t have any second thoughts about this talk show, do you?”

  Jeremy looked at Josh and watched his mouth turn to a smile. Jeremy turned to face the woman and replied, “I never was thinking about having second thoughts. My answer is ‘no’.”

  She placed the cuffs on Jeremy and they all walked to the entrance of the building, perceiving the people outside as they tried to bust their way in through the thick glass doors. They opened the doors and Jeremy, Josh and the woman quickly sprinted through the crowd of people, racing in one direction as the crowd caved in toward them and made it harder for them to move. As they ran, police officers were hitting the people who tried to get their hands on Jeremy, as if Jeremy became an overnight celebrity, protecting his safety.

  “You’re going to burn in Hell, go back where you belong!” a man yelled out in a sophomoric way as he threw an egg at Jeremy, but missed.

  “I believe your story, please save me!” a woman screamed out, holding a sign that read in red ink, “SAVE ME, ANGELS”.

  “Bring back the sun please, please bring it back,” another woman yelled. Jeremy saw a car in the distance, feeling Josh and the woman officer pushing him toward its direction, knowing that was the car in which he would escape from the people. The crowd began to push more toward Jeremy and allowed them to go from running to walking, fighting their own legs to move and their feet to lift off from the side walk.

  “Jeremy, just keep on moving, we’re almost there,” yelled Josh in fear. It allowed Jeremy to hear his yell in an echo form from the disarrayed fright he felt himself. It was as if terror filled his mind like water, and he could only hear the echoes of the people’s pleas, yells and Josh’s words.

  “The road to salvation is very narrow, and the road to damnation is wide and full,” a man vocalized loudly before they reached the car. They opened the door and jumped inside when abruptly Jeremy saw Michael, Gabriel and David already in it.

  “Are you guys alright?” asked Jeremy.

  The car started moving, and its momentum caught the eyes of the people, causing them immediately to drop their picket signs and chase after it. “Yeah, we’re fine, how about you, are you okay?” Gabriel asked in a shaky manner.

  “Well, I’ll be okay when this is all over.” The car drove off past a sign that read: “Welcome to Washington, D.C.” The thoughts in each of them were the same, the thoughts of finding a way out of this so they could complete their mission. Yet, as the car drove off, none of them came up with a solution, a plan, or a way out, triggering the enigma to breed and grow.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Stormy winds still cast themselves across the land, in the midst of which the Empire State Building swayed, its massive iron moving slowly back and forth among the other mammoth New York skyscrapers joining in this dance, with Mother Nature as the conductor. Through the winds, the rain, and the blackness that was considered daylight stood a small window to one of the silver monsters, a skyscraper that Mary and Sam stared out of. They gave a look of concern as if they were trapped in a fortress with the window being their only escape to the authentic world. Mary and Sam, still grasping trepidation pouring imperceptibly out of their gaze, sat in a room that was parallel, similar to Jeremy’s, being surrounded by their reflections through mirrors that gawked at them, holding eyes behind each one. Psychosis was beginning to birth in their minds, mixed with insanity brewing in their eyes, growing at a rapid pace from the sight of these mirrors. It literally forced their eyes to gaze out the window, with their acuity fading in on the great Empire of New York. They were high up enough to cast their eyes over all that New York detained.

  They were sitting down in wooden chairs, with a single table of rusted metal draped with a fancy velvet red cloth in the middle of the otherwise empty room. Mary got up from her seat and stretched her legs, keeping her eyes on the streets of New York, feeling fear in the pit of her belly, and her eyes moved downwards and focused on the city sidewalks. That’s when she saw what looked like millions and millions of ants, yet they were people, protestors with anger and puzzlement in their minds. “Are all those people here because of us?” Mary asked, looking closer at the people and comprehending that the streets were full of water, reaching the height of two inches so far. The rain fell faster, with her words continuing, “When is this rain ever going to stop?”

  She then turned around and walked across the room, passing Sam’s fear-filled body, passing the massive mirrors that her eyes tried to avoid by looking straight at the other end of the room. Once reaching the other side, which held a bro
wn door that was locked, Mary pivoted her body of nerves and walked back toward the window. She sat down next to Sam again, moving her seat so she was directly across from her, and placed her hands over Sam’s. “I can’t believe I’m not on the other side of those mirrors,” she said.

  “What do you mean?” asked Sam.

  “This is a mental ward. This is the place where they interview mentally disturbed individuals. There are doctors and, probably in our case, police officers on the other side of those mirrors, watching us and tape recording everything we say,” Mary answered, turning her eyes toward the mirrors and then forcing them back and placing them on Sam again.

  “What’s going to happen to us, Mary?”

  Mary grabbed onto Sam’s hands and began squeezing them; it was as if she was Sam’s mother. “I don’t know, Sam, I mean, I know what they’re going to do to us, but I don’t know what the people out there are going to do. I’m scared, too.” Mary then looked toward the small window, adding, “We are supposed to go on that stupid talk show, and I know they’re going to make us look like jackasses. I never would have imagined that I would be going on The Frederick Redone show as a guest. I mean, the only guests he ever has on there are mentally disturbed patients with a story to tell! They want to make fools out of us, I know it. If they make us look like fools, the panic in the people will lesson about all that is happening, including our story. We’re the scapegoats for them, that’s it.”

  “What do you think is going to happen to us?”

  “Personally, I know the doctors and the main people who work in this certain facility are not going to do anything. They’re just gonna hear our story again and probably try to make us realize that this is one big joke, and that this whole ‘wrath’ story is nothing but a figment of our imaginations! I wish it was.”

  Sam’s tears began to show, falling at a fast pace. “What happens if it is? What happens if this whole ‘wrath’ thing isn’t real? Mary, what happens if we are crazy?”

  Mary hugged Sam in a tight embrace, and felt the girl’s tears flowing down her back, trickling down her spine with warmth to its texture. “Listen to me, Sam, I’m a doctor, and I know for certain what I saw. This isn’t a figment of my imagination. If I saw it, and I know I’m not crazy, then that means you aren’t crazy either!”

  Sam pulled away from her hug and got up from her chair. She walked closer to the window and began weeping more as she saw the people literally waiting for them outside in the New York streets, like hound dogs waiting to hunt down their prey. Through the bars of the window, Sam reached down and opened up the window, feeling the cool breeze flushing against her tears and drying them, only to have new tears to follow as she heard the wind carrying the voices from below up to her ears. She then looked up at the sky and saw nothing but dark, mixed in with falling rain and lightning, causing her to turn away from it in a fast motion, being as if the sight of the exterior world harmed her eyes.

  “You know, that was my first job—as an airline stewardess. I was all nervous inside because I didn’t want to screw up on my first day. Before my parents died, they told me to always try not to screw up at a job, especially your first day. I was so afraid of screwing up, Mary, I didn’t want to make any of the passengers mad. But when Jeremy, you and the rest came on, all of a sudden I wasn’t afraid anymore, I wasn’t afraid of screwing up. When my friend, Theresa, got shot, I was so afraid, but I wasn’t afraid for her, I was afraid that I would get shot, too. But then I did, and David took my wound away; that’s when I knew something special was happening to me. And right before I passed out, I saw Jeremy, and he gave me a look of security, like everything was going to be okay. I still remember that look for some reason. After this whole journey happened, these people behind these mirrors tried their hardest to make us believe that we’re crazy. But every time they do, I just think about the time when David took my wound away, and the kind stare that Jeremy gave, and then I realize I’m not crazy,” Sam explained as Mary smiled at her.

  “Sam, what do you think would have happened if you weren’t on that plane?”

  Sam paused and looked out the window again, scanning down at the people and replying, “Well, I would probably be down there with all of those people. I would probably be picketing with signs that read ‘The wrath is coming’ or ‘Liars’. You know, before we came in this building, I read a lot of those picket signs down there, and most of them read ‘Liars’. Why do they read that?”

  “Because all those people are afraid. They’re afraid that we might be telling the truth. But, like we told them before, we don’t know anything except for what we saw. The only people who know the real story are Jeremy, Gabriel, Michael and David. Even Curtis and Victor, whom I used to work with, seem like they know a lot about this ‘wrath’ deal. The boys have said Curtis and Victor are angels called ‘Christopher and Peter’,” answered Mary, putting her hands on her face, feeling frustration growing. “My God, we do sound crazy, this whole thing is crazy. I shouldn’t be here right now!” Mary yelled out.

  Suddenly the door to the room opened, and a young woman stepped in, carrying a briefcase in her right hand, and a cup of coffee in her left, with a balanced cigarette hanging over her coffee, lit and ready to be ashed. “Well, ladies, hello again, I hope you had a good twenty-minute break,” the woman said, sitting down in Sam’s seat.

  Mary looked at the woman with concern and spoke, “Listen, Katie, we’ve already told you everything we know, you’re not going to get us to change our minds about something that was real!”

  Katie began smiling as she listened to Mary’s answer. “Well, Mary, I’m going to discuss a few things with you now, and you decide if you still want to stick with the original story or not,” Katie said in a sinister fashion, opening up her briefcase and pulling out a stack of papers.

  “What things?” asked Sam while approaching her.

  Katie took a deep drag of her cigarette and exhaled, “Well, let’s begin with this talk show. Now, since you two girls were considered hostages, you can go to the show and say to the whole world that you were lying and the reason why you lied is to not make the boys mad. Therefore, after that, your names will be cleared and you can go on living a normal life, with fifteen minutes of fame and who knows, maybe some celebrity status that will break open new careers for both of you.”

  Widened eyes took over both of them, and Sam shouted, “But we weren’t hostages, and this whole incident wasn’t a lie: it was real!”

  “Well, whatever. Curtis Henderson and Victor Hayes have decided to go along with our plan in clearing your names. You see, when they also go on the talk show, they are willing to lie and vouch for anything that you say. Other than the truth of what you two speak of now, they will agree with anything. Now Curtis and Victor told every radio and news station this incredible story. But directly after the news was spread, Michael, Gabriel, David and Jeremy agreed immediately to go on this talk show. Personally, I feel that these boys are lying, only because they were so eager to get on that talk show and tell the world their outrageous story, live. Personally, I feel that they just want attention,” Kate explained with attitude.

  Sam yelled, “But they don’t want attention, it was Curtis and Victor who told everyone this story to begin with! If anyone wants attention, then look at Curtis and Victor. I mean, directly after we got back from Jordan, they told everyone about this wrath. Michael, Jeremy, Gabriel and David didn’t tell a soul!”

  “Yeah, honey, but how do you think they got the information about this ‘wrath’ story? You see, the boys told Curtis and Victor everything about it. Therefore, the boys did want attention,” Katie said with anger toward Sam’s pitch.

  “No, the boys didn’t tell them at all!”

  “You actually expect me to believe that? Listen, Curtis and Victor knew every detail about the ‘wrath’ story, even before the boys came forward and spoke to our professionals. The only way possible that Curtis and Victor could know all this information is if the boys told
them,” Katie yelled. She took a sip of her hot coffee and a strong drag from her cigarette that was burning down to the filter.

  “No, Curtis and Victor knew because—,” Mary said, but couldn’t finish.

  Katie’s loud roar drowned out the rest of Mary’s words. “Don’t even say it, Mary! Curtis and Victor are not angels who lived in the past and got killed by Jeremy and now work for some God that I’ve heard of. You told me this story over and over again and it still doesn’t make a bit of sense to my brain or anyone else’s brain for that matter. Curtis is a very good and well-trained doctor who cares about his patients. He is not an angel who was sent to stop the boys from delivering some sort of wrath. Victor is a well-trained nurse who also cares for his patients, and he of all people doesn’t look like an angel. Now, the reason why Curtis and Victor told the whole world about this ‘wrath’ deal is because the boys told them to! That’s it! Case closed!”

  Sam ran up to Katie, took her hot glass of coffee away from her and threw it against the mirrors, screaming, “That is a lie. If you think about it, Curtis and the other asshole want to keep the boys away from the Holy Land, and they can’t do it alone. So, the best thing to better their mission against the boys is to tell the world about it, and allow the world to also stop Jeremy, David, Michael and Gabriel from delivering it. It’s so simple, but you people are so pig-headed and gullible that you would believe anyone who is considered a doctor or a nurse!”