The Wrath of Jeremy (34 page)

“What are you doing with our son? Get your
hands off of him!” Jeremy’s father yelled out, pulling Jeremy away
from Curtis’s grip; Curtis cleaved off twenty strands of Jeremy’s
hair from the pull.

“Your son is going to see some people now,”
replied Curtis. He grabbed Jeremy again, this time by his shoulder,
while Victor punched the father in the stomach. They began walking
away, but Jeremy’s father and mother ran up to all the other
parents who were lying on the ground, trying to help them up in
order for them to help get their sons back. The men grabbed
Michael, David, Gabriel, and Mary and Sam as well, and ran away
quickly, while Jeremy’s mother and father were fighting to help the
parents up from the ground. As soon as they all stood up, they
watched their sons being carried off by the men, including Curtis
and Victor, hearing them screaming out for help, yelling, crying
and kicking, yearning to know why these men were taking their sons
away. They walked toward them, not knowing how they were going to
get them to release their sons, when all of a sudden, Jeremy’s
mother noticed the Shroud lying on the wet ground. She walked over
to it and picked it up, while her eyes came across the Kerchief.
She picked that up also and ran back to the parents, seeing that
they all stopped in their tracks, being too afraid or confused to
go after their sons while the men still held them.

“What do we do now?” Michael and Gabriel’s
mother asked, crying on Jeremy’s mother’s shoulder.

“I don’t know anymore, Dolores, I just don’t
know.” They all walked into the night that was really day, knowing
they had to find their sons again. They ignored the fear they felt,
not realizing that more fear was to come in the nearby days, that
their mortal eyes would see just what immortal’s mask beholds:
Evil….

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

T
he days passed, as
they should, witnessing every day being a rebirth to the vanity of
rage that each boy retained inside their bones, their flesh, tapped
with disarray that their weary eyes strived to cope with. The
renaissance of every day that agreed on its passing with the hidden
sun, being still sheltered by the Divine powers of God, and the
clouds that shot out their antagonism with their black color, were
still present. The sky showed its darkened life to all who feared
it, shouting out its rage of ambiguity through the winds of
despair. To the boys, before their eyes, time was like an eternity,
ambushing their own secrets about the wrath, not wanting or needing
to break it out and tell another, but coveting to make some
reasonable sense out of it, other than it being the word of God.
“God” was more to them now than just a hollow name, but a creature
of greatness, a divine deity that held magic inside of its letters,
opening up their minds in fear, knowing now that a Being so great
did exist in their eyes, not just in their imaginations; the Being
knows of them. As their hearts beat faster through this adventure,
with twists of abyss-filled challenges, five long, dragging days
passed, and the thoughts of the wrath went through all the boys’
minds: every second of every dark day that approved its ending and
beginning, to every breath that came in and out, mostly with tears
attached with nothing to stop them. For Jeremy, his endeavor was to
put this conundrum, a puzzle crammed with broken pieces, together;
the puzzle of why he was chosen, preferred by God as the one for
this great duty.

The Lord made a promise that he would never
attempt to destroy the earth again… Jeremy thought. Those words
continued to strike at his soul, since his bearing was obstructed
by confusion and his attitude was covered by his terror. He
repeated those words over and over again, his body sitting in a
small room, mirrors at every end, watching him, taunting him.
Seeing his own reflection everywhere, looking back at him like a
hawk searching for its bloody prey, Jeremy became overwhelmed with
self-doubt, with his own reflections gaping at him with malicious
perceptions. They teased him as if they belonged to other people,
judging his supposed insanity through his dark, sleepy brown
eyes.

“Then, when the Holocaust came, including
wars, he determined he had to pass judgment on the souls of the
earth and therefore take on the wrath,” Jeremy said to himself,
turning away from the mirrors and forcing in on a small window that
framed the state capital in the distance. Lightning lit up the
capital, still murky due to the sinister clouds, yet Jeremy just
stared at it, wanting to gape at anything that didn’t show his
reflection. He fought his words, trying his hardest to make sense
of all this, craving to repeat in his own words what he had
learned.

“Okay, but since he made a promise, he had to
have some other person or persons deliver it for him and allow him
to break his promise. Luke said that I used to go to the gates of
Heaven and pound on them every century, trying to ask for God’s
forgiveness. When the time came for God to decide on how he would
be able to get past his promise and deliver the wrath, the gates
opened for me and I begged him for forgiveness. That’s when he told
me his plan, and I accepted it. He said that I would be able to
come to Heaven once again if I deliver this wrath. I’m the only one
who can deliver it, because I have the closest powers to God. So
now I have to decide whether I want to deliver it and be the cause
of killing the whole world, or not deliver it, and be the cause of
my loved ones, including me, to go and burn in damnation,” Jeremy
said out loud. He was frustrated with so many thoughts that he felt
nostalgic, feeling his lips twitching a bit by a miniature seizure
coming on, due to his thoughts flowing so greatly.

He got up from a wooden chair and walked
toward the window, saying, “And Sam, this love I have, or had, but
have again for her, is strong, and she’ll burn as well. I can’t
tell her any of this; I have to keep that life a secret from her,
yet I don’t feel that love for her completely, like Luke said I had
for her. That’s because I don’t fully remember my life as Lucifer.
I can’t let her burn, she’s too beautiful. I do love her—damn.”

His frustration grew rapidly, intensely, and
his voice rose more and more. “Let’s see, Curtis and Victor were
sent here to make sure we don’t succeed in delivering the wrath;
they were sent here by Jastian. God’s father, Jastian, doesn’t want
his son to go through with the wrath,” Jeremy said in a medium
fashion.

He stared out the window toward the streets,
seeing people of all races holding up picket signs that read, “The
End Is Near”,. Jeremy looked closer at the people and discovered
there were hundreds of thousands of them waiting outside of the
building he was in, raising their voices in a high, raunchy harmony
that was so loud it drowned out any capable understanding of what
they were saying. He saw police against the doors with shields in
their hands, trying to fight back against the people who were
trying to break through the entrance, beating them over the heads
with any weapons they could find, trying to keep order amongst the
chaos that the darkness showed.

“Who’re the good guys here, and who’re the
bad guys?” Jeremy asked out loud, with his tears starting to fall
again. “I don’t understand, God, I’m Lucifer, but I’m delivering
the wrath for you. You’re a good guy, but then what’s Jastian? He
can’t be the bad guy,” cried Jeremy, fearing this exasperation was
going to get out of control.

Just as his nerves were ready to burst, the
door to the room opened up. A cold draft entered once the door was
fully opened, causing shivers to travel through his flesh. Jeremy
turned around and saw a man with beautiful almond skin holding a
briefcase in his left hand, draped in a suit of elite material and
shoes that gave out an aroma of fresh leather. He sat down in
Jeremy’s chair and just smiled at him, as if he found some humor in
Jeremy’s reactions of exhaustion and drowned out, submerged nerves
that were still trying to grow in him.

The man cleared his throat, held a piece of
paper in his hands with a list of names on it and spoke: “Alright,
Jeremy, I have to talk to you urgently. I heard Michael, David,
Gabriel, Sam and Mary’s story about what the hell is happening and
why they went to Amman, Jordan. I already talked to you yesterday
and you told me the same thing. Jeremy, I can’t accept your story
about you all being the deliverers of God’s wrath.”

Jeremy began pacing up and down the room,
pleading, “But it’s true, all of it is. Listen to me, Josh, I want
to not believe it, but I know what I saw, and I know now what I
am!”

Josh got up from his seat and threw his
briefcase on the floor with infuriation and anger, yelling,
“Jeremy, if you say you’re the cause of the sun being black, and
the seas being drained, and Grewsal vanishing to dirt, then your
crazy ass is putting yourself on the line here!” Josh grabbed
Jeremy by his arm and guided him to the window in a fast manner.
“Look at that, some of those people are believers of your story and
some aren’t. Some of those people believe your lies!” Josh screamed
out before Jeremy pulled away from his clench. “Ever since this
story leaked out, those extremists and the chaos that’s already
occurring have doubled, all because of you!”

“They’re not lies, I’m telling the truth,
Josh. This whole thing with the rain, wind, drained seas, Grewsal
and the sun, those are our doings; we caused that to happen!”

Josh grabbed onto Jeremy’s arm again and
pulled him up to the window once more, screaming with rage, “Look
at those people! You’re going to have to tell them all of your tall
tales, those are what the people out there are going to expect to
hear from all of your mouths!” Josh then let go of Jeremy and
walked back to the table, trying to calm down, attempting to
breathe more slowly and construct his posture by standing up
straight so he could take breaths more easily. “Okay, listen to me,
Jeremy, just let it go, let this whole story go. If you don’t, you
will pay for it. This story of yours has reached the minds and eyes
of the entire U.S.A. and almost the entire world. If you say it was
all a lie now, it won’t be too late. But if you keep on saying that
it’s true, then when December twenty-fifth comes and the wrath
doesn’t happen, this world who believed all of you will hate you,”
said Josh in a calm fashion, picking up his briefcase from the
ground.

“You got Sam Anderson involved in this, you
got Mary Callahan involved…last but not least, you got all of your
parents involved. Every single one of your parents says that Curtis
Henderson and Victor Hayes said the same story that you all speak
of. But Curtis and Victor deny that, and look what happened; your
parents are in a mental institution in Kansas City. The reason why
you boys aren’t in that same institution is because of all those
people out there,” Josh explained, pointing toward the window.
“Some of those people believe you all, and, like I said before,
some don’t. They are the reason why you were spared from going to
Kansas City!”

Josh then paused after he noticed Jeremy was
starting to cry, a sort of weep that only a man with innocent
bewilderment would give. Jeremy put his left hand up to his face
and felt the tears that fell from his eyes, not wanting to cry
anymore. He then took his hand away and looked at the wetness on
the tips of his fingers, seeing cuts on his fingers that were
caused by the cross back in the Holy Land.

Calming down from the tears that he saw from
Jeremy, Josh said in a subtle way, “If you let your story go now,
Jeremy, and say it was one big prank, then your parents will be
allowed to leave the institution, and everything will go back to
normal again. That’s the deal. I admit, the seas being drained
caused me to believe your story a little bit. But just a little.
Wanting to understand the unexplainable would cause anyone to be
desperate enough to turn to your story. Everything that happened to
the sun, seas, and Grewsal happened because of nature, Jeremy.
Scientists will and are going to find out what happened very soon;
they have to. It’s all a part of evolution. Anyway, just say that
you all are lying and I promise you that your lives will not be
harmed because of this little prank,” he explained as Jeremy kept
on looking at the cuts on his fingers.

Jeremy walked up to one of the mirrors,
emulating his reflection with its large, clean body of glass, and
looked at his cuts in the image closely. He then turned to Josh’s
reflection as he wiped his tears away with his other hand. “Do you
believe in that?

“Believe in what, Jeremy?”

“Evolution? You mentioned it.”

“Yes, yeah I do. Why?”

“Did you fail to realize that evolution is
only a theory that man, somehow, some way acts as if it’s a proven
law, one hundred percent true? Accessing something that’s seems so
simple to our eyes, versus the complex strategy that believing a
God could only do it, allows us to accept it, to believe, to teach
it, and to honor it as the truth. I remember my teacher taught me
about evolution and he used it just like you used it; like a proven
law, preaching it to us like it was a law of science. Even the
science books taught it like it was a law. It’s a theory, Josh, a
theory that caused the existence of God to be argued upon, as if
science became the new religious belief that one goes to first,
instead of going to a God they should believe in. And what’s the
Bible, Josh? Is that a theory? No, it isn’t, it is the word of God,
but people still argue that it could have been written by anyone.
If science taught the Bible the way they do evolution, everyone
would believe it. But because the Bible is true, it doesn’t need
anyone to defend it. Go figure.”

“But on a deeper, more personal note, ever
since I discovered who I really am, and why I was sent to this
earth, I realized that my sickness was not a sickness at all. When
Jesus told all of us that we would be cured if we went to the Holy
Land, I thought ‘Hey, why not go? I’ll be cured and everything will
go back to normal.’ But now I realize that we were never ailing to
begin with, they just forced that into our heads, just like that
damn evolution being a law when it’s not… I thought I was crazy for
a while, but now that I see the cuts on my fingers, I understand
that it all happened and it wasn’t a figment of my imagination.”
Jeremy’s voice came to a stop and a smile of relief came to his
face, absorbing the truth of his sanity with a zealous feeling. He
turned around to face Josh and showed him his smile.