“What’s that?” asked David. He heard a noise that came from behind them. “What’s that?” he asked again, hearing a second noise coming from in front of them. They walked slower and David grabbed onto Sam’s other hand, bearing in mind that Jeremy was holding onto her other. Each of their hands held tightly onto Sam’s, and their movement stopped for a moment, as their minds were too afraid to walk forward or backward. Rapidly, the noise popped out into its form. This made them scream loud, overlapping their echoes that the tunnel sent back to them. They closed their eyes in fright, not wanting it to be another monster or demon pet. Jeremy was the first to open his eyes, and his eyes focused on the sight of Michael and Gabriel.
“What are you guys doing down here?” asked Gabriel. He hugged Jeremy and David together, but Sam still had her eyes closed, controlling them to open very slowly.
“Well, what are you guys doing down here?” Jeremy asked as Michael hugged him and David together.
“We’re running away from serpents,” Michael replied.
“That’s what we’re running from,” Sam said. She hugged Michael and Gabriel together and they all moved in closer to each other.
“Wait a second, if you guys were the noise in front of us, then what was the noise in back of us?” asked David.
Through the darkness and scent of sewage, their eyes scanned the tunnel’s shape, and they pointed their perception toward every angle, concentrating on the movement of the water and seeing if every silhouette that stood around them moved or breathed. Their fright grew rapidly, hearing no sound at all, except the echo of their breaths and Sam’s whimper. Jeremy held her hand tighter, trying to make her tears end, but it wasn’t enough. The dripping water, the conversation of rats between one another was all that was heard, until they looked to the front of them through the silent water and the soundless air. There, with their breaths heaving for more air, their eyes saw Jastian’s serpent-like hand shooting up from the water with a low-toned giggle to follow his entrance, and dived back down into the muddy scum.
They began running away from it, trying to push their way through the water again, hearing Michael yell out over Jastian’s laughter, “Wait a second, me and Gabriel have been running away from this direction for five days, we have to find some other direction!”
“What do you mean? What’s today’s date?” Jeremy asked in puzzlement.
“December twenty-fourth,” Michael replied.
The serpent shot out from the water again and grabbed onto Sam’s backpack. She screamed out in terror and the echo traveled throughout the tunnel. Jeremy grabbed onto her hand while the serpent tried pulling her away.
“Take off the backpack,” Jeremy yelled, holding tightly onto her hand. As they fought, Michael twisted away from them and discovered a ladder that led up to a sewer cap.
“I can’t, Jeremy, the Shroud and Kerchief are in it,” she cried out as the serpent started ripping her backpack with its slimy teeth.
“Come on, Jeremy, we can get out this way,” Michael yelled out. “Just leave her, she was the one who lied, along with Mary,” he added in a sinister way. Jeremy turned around and looked at him with perplexity, noticing his revision of character and alteration of voice, as if someone possessed Michael to say that.
“I am not leaving her behind, and neither are you,” Jeremy roared, still pulling at her hand. Gabriel and David climbed up the ladder, opened the sewer cap, and left them down there to fend for themselves.
“Come on, man, just leave her be,” Michael said. He placed his right foot on the ladder and began climbing. All alone, Jeremy watched Sam’s tears of dread fall from her fear-packed eyes. He looked at her, like he was looking at a long, lost love, remembering his early worship for her, afraid for her life instead of his. He scanned his eyes up toward the hole and saw Michael, David and Gabriel’s heads looking down through it and then turned back to Sam. That’s when he pulled her harder.
“I am a sinner, Jeremy, let me go,” Sam cried out.
Jeremy sensed her hand loosening from his, as if she was letting go gradually, her pain was too great, wanting to be taken and destroyed by this serpent. Feeling her hand less and less, a teardrop plummeted from Jeremy’s left eye, looking at her with deep admiration, trying to find the right words to say that were true to his black soul. Jeremy cried, “I am a sinner of all sinners, and you helped pull me out of the salt. I will not let you go, I don’t care if we fulfill the wrath or not. I lost you once, I’ll be damned if I’m gonna lose you again.” Jeremy let go of her hand, punched the serpent in the teeth and broke the front part of its jaw, causing it to let go of Sam. The blood fell from his hands, due to the cuts he made when his fist scraped on the teeth of the serpent, but the pain was little compared to the agony that his eyes faced and will still have to face. He grabbed a hold of Sam and kissed her on the lips, kissing her with love in his thoughts, veneration that could never be broken. The serpent was still whining over his teeth, and this gave them enough time to ascend the ladder. First Sam and then Jeremy, they ran faster and faster up the ladder, reaching the top and feeling the stairs starting to melt away, like they were being melted by some sort of acid. Jeremy pushed Sam out of the hole, and, before the last stair, which Jeremy stood on, could melt he also jumped up and out of the sewer. They closed the sewer cap and gasped for air, thinking it was all over for now. Yet when they turned to the streets, they discovered millions and millions of people standing around them, keeping their distance, in silence.
Michael said, “I guess the protestors found us!”
Jeremy walked up to Michael. He felt the protestors’ confusion pushing against his morale, and he stopped and stared at Michael’s eyes. Jeremy then punched Michael in the face, yelling out, “You once called me a chicken, and look who’s the chicken now.” He ran up to David and Gabriel while saying, “Don’t you ever defy me again, don’t you ever turn your heads on me again when I’m in need of your help!”
“What’s happening?” a man from the crowd yelled. “Who are you?” The crowds’ voices started to be heard.
Jeremy, with tears of rage, faced the crowd and waited for their voices to end and silence to take over. Jeremy announced to the crowd, “The story we told before is the story we are now. We don’t have much time, people. Please, turn thy heads away from us and allow us to say the miracle!” Without a thought, the people miraculously started to turn their backs on them as if they now understood and believed in their mission, or some higher being was helping. Tears fell from Jeremy’s eyes, saying to the darkened skies, “Lord, please allow us to be in the Holy Land now, where we were when we met Luke. I pray that you send us a miracle now, a miracle that will allow Michael, Gabriel, David, Sam and me to go and lay our feet on the Holy Land once again.” Jeremy then turned to Sam and kissed her on the head gently. “Get ready,” Jeremy smiled while staring into Sam’s eyes. Light started to appear all around them, like a circle or cone, nesting their bodies in its brightness. They slowly began to see water through the light, realizing it was the Holy Land and the Dead Sea in the distance. The miracle was happening, yet suddenly, before the transportation could finish its undertaking, Victor and Curtis broke through the crowd, reached into the lighted circle, and grabbed onto Jeremy’s arms.
“You can’t do the miracle now, we are watching,” Curtis laughed out. Jeremy broke free from their grasps.
“I’m afraid you’re wrong, the miracle shall not be seen to the humans of this earth, you are not humans. The video cameras, or eyes, for which you sent to watch us, were only anticipated for human viewing, not for angels’ eyes,” Jeremy said. The light got brighter around them. Rapidly, Victor initiated his emotion toward Jeremy’s words, yelling as Jeremy noticed the water getting clearer through the light. Abruptly, the light vanished, and Michael, David, Sam, Gabriel and Jeremy found themselves by the Dead Sea once again.
“We made it,” Sam yelled out with delight. She noticed that Jeremy’s eyes showed shock in their gaze. “What’s
wrong, Jeremy?” she asked, turning around and following Jeremy’s eyesight to the thing that made his eyes full of shock. “Oh my God,” she said. In her view, millions, millions and millions of people stood in the distance, staring at them in silence. “Who are they?”
“Those are the sinners and non-believers who came to see this wrath. But, like we explained to them before, if they don’t believe before they see the magic that the wrath will bring, their souls will go straight to damnation,” Jeremy replied.
She watched different races, religions and cultures standing together in awe. “How many do you think believe in the wrath that you are going to deliver?” she asked.
“I don’t know, but we will soon find out.” Jeremy kissed her on the lips and then just stared into her eyes. “Well, let’s do this now,” Michael said. He looked at his watch. It read 10:53 p.m. “We don’t have much time, my watch reads the time of the Holy Land.”
Jeremy grabbed the backpack from Sam’s back, inhaled intensely, and opened up its flap, knowing that the contents will be the ending to their adventure, and the commencement of the end of existence itself. Embracing the pack firmly, and feeling his legs filled with numbness caused by mental strain, Jeremy felt his duty, his mission, coming full circle. They awaited the enchantment that was about to come, their eyes ever foretelling the enthralling magic that was in store for them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Catching their breaths, each of them rubbed their eyes and swabbed their sweat away from their faces, trying to calm down their nerves and settle in on this fresh, serene sight with desert landscape. Silence took over the panorama, their choking eyes saw that the rain stopped completely, and the ever-elusive sound of anticipating dread took over their mentality, starving their prayers and forcing them to wait for the next struggling chase. It asphyxiated their hope, washed away their scars of tormenting anguish, and opened up new wounds, as they knew something atrocious was about to take place. It was a mood, a new psyche they developed through the torturing days, or else mystical and melancholy-crammed nights, they were forced to endure, seeing what human eyes never should glimpse, and feeling so much torment that each of them was near the rupture of insanity.
Their voices were muted for a bit, each of them standing, looking at the distant land, breathing in and out; they waited for someone to say the first word. Each of them knew why they were here, or at least a subliminal reasoning that hid behind their aching souls, thirsting for the truth behind this new, mountainous road they were forced upon. Their eyes were glossy and fatigued, and they showed a form of pain behind them, as if struggle was embedded in each of their colors, etched by their destiny that was about to end, without them knowing how. All their glossy eyes could do was stare at the millions of people who came to the Holy Land in search of forgiveness, feeling each of their presumptions running high, questioning in their minds whether they were going to be forgiven, and even quizzing their own judgment of God. Yet, the people’s stillness and silence were ended by Jeremy’s proceedings. Jeremy, quickly with his intent, laid the holy Shroud on the shoreline of the Dead Sea, spreading it out and rubbing it, making sure there wasn’t a single wrinkle on its cloth.
David then grabbed the Kerchief and laid it next to the Shroud, staring at the two clothes and reading the Hebrew words that were written on the Shroud’s dirty body. “Alright, it reads that you are supposed to stand with your back facing the South,” David explained, seeing Michael’s confused face.
“Which way is the South? I can’t tell,” Michael stated. He bent down and tried to read the directions that were on the Shroud.
Jeremy also searched the Shroud’s words, saying, “Well, you see, there are four bloodstains on the piece of cloth, and this one bloodstain over here shows your name above it.” Jeremy’s eyes suddenly widened with wonder, his lungs stopped inhaling air and his heart started to beat more rapidly, noticing an actual map that was drawn through the Hebrew words. “That’s it, here is the Dead Sea. Can you see that?” Jeremy asked, pointing toward the Shroud. They all looked closely, taking a few steps back from the map, when instantly the words came tighter to form a shape of the Holy Land perfectly to their eyes. Smiles came to their faces, figuring out the enigma at the same time. This allowed them to think and act quickly.
Michael pointed at the map, toward his name, saying, “Alright, so I guess I stand here. This shows that I stand right by the shoreline of the Dead Sea!”
The boys read each of the directions on the map and began to understand its meanings more and more, and then took a few steps back to see the actual picture of where they were supposed to stand.
They all stood in their proper spots. Michael stood with his back facing the South, Gabriel stood with it facing the East, David to the west, and Jeremy to the north. Sam’s job was to read the time for them, grabbing Michael’s watch from off his wrist.
“Alright, guys, it says 11:01 p.m., you’d better get going,” she ordered. They noticed the wind was picking up, forcing them all to stare at each other in a fearful way while hearing Sam say, “This is no time to have second thoughts, just call out to them and deliver it. Do what you’re supposed to do!”
The boys all looked at the millions of people who stood a short distance away from them in silence, hearing their fears and wants: they felt their whispers of a judgmental nature. “We shall now begin it,” Jeremy yelled. The people, young and old, all knelt down quickly to the soiled ground, praying out loud for forgiveness to their God, with hope in their prayers that this wrath wasn’t going to happen. “This is your last chance to believe in us, to believe that we are the delivers of thy Father’s wrath,” Jeremy yelled out.
The people looked at each other with panic in their minds, some wanting to believe in them, but couldn’t, and others believing in them yet also feeling they shouldn’t.
Sam, with blustery winds blowing at her hair of grandeur, raced up to Jeremy, took him by the face gently, and embraced her lips to his, kissing his flesh, and hugged him tightly. “I love you, Jeremy.” Her words were simple, not complex, and the way she said them showed panic to her tone. Sam realized that this was going to be the last moment her eyes shined toward Jeremy’s, so she grabbed the moment, took it over, and made it theirs. She let go of his lips and gazed at his brown eyes, seeing a shield of tears forcing themselves to the surface as they faced her eyes of innocence.
“Promise me, Jeremy, that, whatever happens, you won’t lose me, ever. Please, whether we’re crazy or not, or whether this God really does judge us and take away everything we see around us, promise me we’ll find a way to be together. I love you, Jeremy, from the first moment I saw you, and I don’t care if you’re evil or good. But I just want you to know that if this does happen, and the earth does come to an end, and you go back to where you, you came from, I want you to know that I love you, and thank you for, for loving me. Through this short while, Jeremy, I fell in love with you, so thank you for allowing me to have that passion.”
She then stopped her words and saw a single tear fall from his left eye, and she reached out for it and permitted the teardrop to fall on her fingertip. It rolled down her finger and into her shaky palm, gazing at them both as they watched it.
“This is for luck. I’ll see you in a little bit.” She kissed him gently on the forehead and saw his silence, his smile and newly falling tears, knowing that he yearned so badly to say the same to her, but couldn’t. She stepped back and walked out of the circle that made up the boys, her smile fell on his eyes and sat down on the ground. “You can do it, Jeremy!”
Swiftly, with their minds set in a mode of completing their adventure, each of them took a deep breath, ready for their final task. Yet, before they could initiate reading the words of the Shroud, a man shot out of the crowd and yelled, “Those are sinners you see before you. All of them are sinners!” Jeremy turned around to face the crowd and all the boys’ eyes followed, transfixing Curtis in their views. “People of this land, come with me and help d
estroy them,” Curtis yelled out, stopping the people from praying. They suddenly started to follow Curtis toward the circle of boys. Jeremy could see the anger that the people had now, and he noticed them beginning to run toward them with rage in their stride, forcing him to think quickly.
“Sam, get in the center of us, now,” Jeremy yelled. Before he could finish his words, a man shot out of nowhere and grabbed her hard.
“I will kill her if you don’t break this circle you’ve made,” Victor screamed out. He held onto Sam tightly. Victor knew she was the only bargaining chip he had, threatening her life because he knew Jeremy loved her. And it worked. Jeremy started to walk toward her and stopped when he heard her screaming.
“No, Jeremy, just call to the angels, do it now, that’s the only way,” yelled Sam, crying out to his eyes. Jeremy stopped walking and ran back to his spot, looking away from Sam and concentrating his eyes on the Shroud. He felt her tears, her fears; Jeremy wanted to run and help, but knew this was the only way he could help her. He had to complete the wrath.
Victor dropped Sam while the people, including Curtis, reached the circle of boys in a frantic manner, screaming out hateful names. They all reached for them and tried pulling them away from their spots, but before they could even grasp onto any part of their bodies, Gabriel read the Shroud’s dominant, powerful words and yelled them out. “Thou shall now see God’s work being ended!” Gabriel’s voice echoed throughout the crowd, with a small, clear shield of smoke appearing suddenly and it surrounded the boys like a sanctuary, protecting them from the crowd of lunacy.
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