The Wrath of Jeremy (22 page)

Jeremy said to David, “Yeah, I’d like to know
the same thing, David. Where are we?”

David reached his hand into the river and
pulled out water, forming his hands into a sort of cup. David
didn’t answer him, but just looked at the water in wonder.

Jeremy quickly became flustered toward him
for not answering his question. So Jeremy shouted out, “What do we
do now?”

Still David didn’t answer and all stood
quiet. He then swallowed the water he held in his hands. “That’s
sick, David, it’s salt water, not drinking water,” Gabriel
stated.

“It’s still water to me. Anyway, we have to
go to see Luke—follow me.” They all followed David without saying a
word, walking until they reached a sea that they remembered being
called “Dead”. The night became colder, and they felt as if they
were freezing while they tried to demand some heat from the
twinkling stars above by pointing their faces toward their light,
sealing their eyes, and hoping that one of the stars would admit
light to their shadows. Coming upon the Dead Sea, they walked
toward it while the light that shined by the stars became their
only guide through this place that was known to them as a desert,
and to others as the Holy Land. David’s last memory was to walk to
a cave that was next to the Dead Sea. After that, the mysteries
that were to be revealed were not in David’s mind.

“The last thing I remember is to go there,”
said David, pointing to a cave that was lit by three single
lanterns which stood on separate poles. “That’s it: after this,
everything we see our eyes will be equal to. I know nothing more
about where to go.” This became a bit of a problem for everyone,
knowing that they trusted David as their security blanket, because
he knew where to go. But now, at this defined moment, he was lost
as well, and all they could trust was David’s understanding that a
man by the name of Luke would tell them the rest.

They surrounded the opening of the darkened
cave, while Sam stood in the distance, showing tears of fear in her
eyes. “Why am I here?” She looked down at her reflection in the
sea, amid Mary looking at Jeremy and Michael, wanting one of them
to go and talk to her. Sam still gaped at the sea, saying to her
reflection, “I want to go home…. Why did you take me here?”

Craving to see what lurked in the cave,
Jeremy let go of his addiction toward the large opening, and walked
up to Sam, looking down at her reflection in the water and she saw
his.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be going home very
soon,” Jeremy replied, stroking her beautiful blonde hair and being
amazed that she allowed him to. “Nothing will happen to you, I
promise. We’ll all be going home very soon.”

Suddenly, Sam threw Jeremy’s hand away from
her hair, yelling, “Don’t touch me, I don’t even know who you are!”
She saw the hurt in Jeremy’s eyes, and Sam, being a kind and gentle
creature of life, felt bad for doing that to him, even though he
took her this far, without her knowing. “Listen, I’m sorry for
that, it’s just I’m under a lot of stress, especially at this point
where I’m in another part of the world wearing a stewardess’s
uniform and a scarf over my head,” Sam sincerely vocalized.
“Everything’s happening so quickly, and I don’t even have time to
catch up.”

“It’s alright, I understand, trust me, I do.
But I promise you, Sam, all of us will be going home very
soon.”

They stared at each other, with Sam somehow
understanding and believing that she could and should trust this
stranger named Jeremy. Abruptly, their silence was ended by a
voice, a deep, strong voice coming from the cave. “No you’re not!”
They turned around and faced the cave, seeing with the help of the
lanterns a man standing next to the flames, having warts on every
end of his face, and a brown, grayish beard that stretched a mile
long. He walked toward them wearing a brown robe for his clothes
and watched as their eyes opened wider while he came nearer to
them. “You have to stay till December twenty-fifth, that’s the big
day,” explained the man, having Jeremy walking up to him slowly and
everyone else staying where they were. With David’s last memory for
the direction of this mission being that of this cave, Jeremy felt
that he should be the leader now for this mission. So, Jeremy
continued to walk closer to the man, stopping right before the
lanterns.

“Are you Luke?” Jeremy noticed the man was
silenced after he asked who he was. But then Jeremy saw the man
nodding his head. “What are we doing here?” asked Jeremy. He held
out his hand to shake Luke’s wart-filled grip.

They listened attentively at the man of
strange qualities, waiting for him to explain the reason why
Jeremy, Gabriel, Michael, and David were drawn here. Mary wondered
the same, while Sam was trying desperately to catch up with the
mission that she didn’t know of yet.

“First, you have to find the maps in order
for me to tell you who you are,” Luke replied. He pulled out a
cross from his pocket and added, “This is your guide to where the
maps lie. Man has been searching for the Shroud and the Kerchief
for many years. But little did they know that the guide to where
they are has been right under their noses every time they visit the
Holy House on great Sunday, or every time they wear this holy
object around their necks for protection. Take this, and after you
find the Shroud and Kerchief, come back here and I will tell you
what will become of all of you.” Luke handed Jeremy the golden
cross that resembled something that came out of the Dark Ages. “I
see that Michael, Gabriel, Christopher and Peter have already begun
the first sign out of the signs.” Luke looked at the blood marks
engraved on Jesus’s feet, hands and crown that he wore and they all
followed his eyesight to the wounds.

“What signs?” asked Gabriel, approaching
Luke, concurrently staring at the cross which Jeremy held it in his
nervous, shaky hands.

“The signs that the wrath is coming. Many
people will try to harm you on your search for the two maps; people
who protect them will try to harm you. But always remember that you
can’t see or feel death.”

They didn’t quite understand the last part of
Luke’s words, yet Jeremy ignored that and demanded, “Listen, could
you at least tell us about some Testament that David was talking
about?”

A smile appeared on Luke’s image. “When you
find the second map, the map that the Kerchief shall hold, all of
you will know what Testament I and David speak of. But you, Jeremy,
you will not remember the Testament. After you find them, bring the
maps to me and I will allow you to release the memory that’s hidden
in your mind, and you will be allowed to remember,” Luke replied.
Jeremy put the cross into his pocket.

“I don’t understand, and for now, I don’t
even have the urge to understand that. All I want to know is how
shall we follow this cross? I mean, how shall we follow a cross
that’s just a cross?” Jeremy begged, noticing that Sam was
approaching them.

Luke’s eyes fell upon Sam’s beautiful face,
saying, “Ah, I’ve been reading the Testament that another woman
shall join you on the search. A woman by the name of ‘Sam’.”

“How did you know my name?”

“Like I said before, I read it…. And I see
another beautiful face has joined you, the Testament called her
‘Mary’,” Luke said, holding Mary’s eyes in his sight, seeing them
glowing with a bit of wonder in them. “Now go, and follow the cross
to where the maps are hidden. You have exactly one month and two
weeks to complete this. You must be back here on December tenth.”
Luke then turned around and walked back to the cave, surrounded by
all of them standing in the darkness and watching him closely.

“How do we use this cross, how does it guide
us?” asked Jeremy. The man’s back turned around slowly to face
Jeremy and his question.

“Mary and Sam, of course. They shall guide
you all, only the purest can use the guide. They’re virgins, and
they have the right to bear the cross and to understand its
directions,” replied Luke before Jeremy pulled the cross from his
pocket and handed it slowly to Sam.

“But I’m a virgin,” Jeremy declared, suddenly
looking at everyone in embarrassment. “I mean, I think I am!”

“Jeremy, like I said before, only the purest
souls can use it. Michael, David, Gabriel and especially you do not
have pure souls.” Luke then stopped his words and noticed Jeremy
was ready to say something, but he spoke over him before Jeremy
could release his words. “No more questions, you don’t have much
time, leave now. But one more thing I would like to say to you
before I retire to my cave. Be careful when you find the maps,
people will harm you like I told you all before. But never say your
names to anyone who asks, they will know who you are if you do, and
they will try to stop you…. When you find the maps, call out my
name and I will guide thee back to my home.” Luke walked back into
his cave and they lost sight of him.

“But wait, how do we use this?” asked Mary.
The three lanterns lost their light and stars became their beacons
again, leaving them alone and her question unanswered. She ran over
to the cave entrance and found that it was vacant. She came back to
where they all were standing and grabbed the cross from Sam’s hands
and just stared at it. She then looked at Sam’s long, blonde hair
and red, perfect lips, watching as Sam’s beautiful blue eyes closed
and tears squeezed out from them. Mary looked down at the cross and
said, “Well, I don’t know how to use this. Just because I’m still a
virgin doesn’t mean that I’m a whiz at directions.” Unexpectedly,
Sam grabbed the cross back, and as soon as her right hand touched
it, the cross glowed. She let go of it, and noticed that the light
ceased. She then grabbed onto it again when Mary said, “We both
have to hold it!” The cross initiated its glowing again and it shot
out a line of light, which resembled a sort of arrow, the direction
directly across the Dead Sea.

“Alright, I guess we have to go that way,”
said Michael. They started their journey to a place that was not
known to them, a place where they were to go to retrieve the maps;
maps that they didn’t know of. And as they walked, taking their
first steps, Jeremy looked up at the stars and prayed for God’s
protection, a protection that he didn’t know was with them the
whole time.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A
breath of cool air
brushed against Mary’s face, cooling her down as well as the rest
of them; they all felt exhausted from walking. The breeze brushed
against their sweat, beads of heated torture, turning it into a
soothing, cold brew, as their perspiration melted down their faces,
cooling their bodies down like heated ice. They wandered for two
days straight through the Holy Land that was one great desert, a
wasteland, a huge slab of gravel-like particles that smoldered in
the day, and froze in the night to their tired minds. Sleeping near
any vegetation they could find, hiding whenever they saw men with
artillery, and not eating at all, it became misery to their bodies,
wretchedness to their flesh that burnt in the scorching sun.
Luckily Jeremy found an old canteen near the cave that Luke
appeared at, filled with fresh water that mysteriously was
convenient for all of them to drink during their two days.

The boys watched as Mary and Sam would grab
onto the cross every so often to see if they were still heading in
the right direction. The girls became a part of the mission that
only David knew about, the mission that was concealed from all of
their thoughts, except for David’s. Even though David didn’t know
where to head to next, he still recognized what the mission was
for, deeper than what Luke explained to all of them in his vague
manner; he knew who they really were.

Another three days passed, and their hunger
and thirst, since the canteen had run out of water, commenced to
worsen as each day came in the inhospitable surroundings in which
they staggered. They were beat. The winds would kick up the sand
and place it ever so gently into their mouths, and they did not
have any saliva left to wash it away or spit it out. The heat would
allow them to sweat out most of the water they contained. Now it
was to the point where they didn’t sweat anymore, as if the heat
burned up all their sweat. Voices were barely audible to the human
ear, as their lungs and vocal cords became fatigued and sand-filled
from the journey.

“We’ve been walking for five days, guys, I’m
hungry and thirsty,” Gabriel yawned when they came across a sign
that read “Tel Aviv-Yafo”. They saw a huge cathedral in the
distance that surrounded a colossal village. Mary and Sam touched
the cross together again and watched the light shine toward the
cathedral, brightening their glossy eyes and causing most of them
to develop tears behind the gloss. Knowing that the light was
shining at the cathedral, they knew this was the first destination
that they were to go to, and they made it. They survived.

“Look, the light doesn’t go beyond the
cathedral – that means they’re in the cathedral,” Jeremy shouted,
following smiles that came on all of their features. They ran to
the village, laughing in their tones, apprehending the thought that
the mission was a cinch so far. “This is easier than I thought,”
said Jeremy. They didn’t waste any time, running with whatever
energy they had left. Each of them entered the village and looked
at the cathedral with astonishment and amazement all rolled into
one. “Wait a second, guys, before we go in, I have to go to the
bathroom,” Jeremy coughed, trying to speak and get out sand from
his throat simultaneously.

Mary and Sam walked up to Jeremy and said
together, “Yeah, I have to go, too!!”

Because the rest yearned to get this over
with, done for good, they showed frustration in their eyes,
agitation, and impatience toward the “bathroom” call. But they
understood their bladders, and gave them the benefit of the doubt.
David looked at the cathedral and then looked toward Jeremy,
saying, “Alright, we’ll wait right here until you guys get back,
but hurry up, please.” So Jeremy, Mary and Sam left, and the rest
waited, watching them go further from their eyesight until they
were out of view. David, Michael and Gabriel sat, exhausted, on the
steps of the cathedral, basically lying on them while pointing
their heads toward the bright skies with their eyes closed, feeling
the pulsating heat begging and fighting to break through their
eyelids and show its bright, God-like self to their pupils. But
they kept their lids sealed.