Prologue:
Someone once told me, “Everyone has a
destiny” Most people never reach it; others get close but fall short. And the
few who do sometimes need a little push to get things started. For my friends
and me it seemed to be more like a shove off a cliff.
Chapter 1:
My High school was always so boring. A
Jesuit High School means every month we had mass, of all the boring things to
sit through. You would think that since the school shared the campus with a
college that there would be something interesting going on. Of course, the
opposite was true. The good thing was that I had the whole day free; all of my
teachers were out. So there I was,
sprawled on the lawn near the church.
The church only had one floor not
counting the endless basement. However it was taller than our school that was
three stories high. The ceiling of it was massive and it showed from the
outside. Gray stones and stained glass all along the walls. Lying down on the
lawn I could see a few trees and the top of the flag pole that stood in front
of my school.
“Hey, Steve! Stop
spacing out and get OVER HERE! The Mass is about to start…”
That’s Devin, one of the few friends
that I actually had at school. He was dark skinned with nappy hair that we made
fun of occasionally. My hair was the opposite; it was straight and shoulder
length. We were about the same height, but I hated being so tall.
I was so out of it that I hardly heard
him the first time. After screaming again I came to… just about.
“Is the mass
starting yet?” I asked with hardly any enthusiasm.
Joking around, he punched me in the
head and started to laugh. I didn’t have much time to react, I was still dazed.
“I’ve only been
screaming your name for the past five minutes! Come on lets go, it’s gonna
start!”
He ran in ahead of me and I chased
right behind him. Of course in a Jesuit system there has to be assigned
seating. Devin’s homeroom was on the far left and mine was right in the middle,
practically staring at the priest.
The
Cathedral in which mass was conducted was in the standard shape of the
crucifix. At the head of the cathedral was the altar; the rest of the room was
basically filled only with seats. Compared to the school, the Cathedral was
very glamorous. Behind the priest, where gave his homily, was a nice portrait
of Mary with angels around her. The portrait had a gold background. I always
thought the gold wasn’t needed. On top of the frame was a statue of an angel.
It was wooden and worn. It was standing with a sword with a stern face. There
were others around it but they didn't have close to as much detail in it as the
one in the center. It seemed to be older
than the church, disregarding the fact that the church itself seemed to be
older than the campus itself.
The
Service was about to start, and it was time for our little “tradition.” My
friends and I would always very calmly look for each other and give a
ridiculous smile. I saw Devin sitting on the left. I found Berto and JD behind
me in the same section but on separate rows. They were the biggest of us all,
along with the tallest. Berto was tan just like me but had tight curly hair,
and JD was dark skinned like Devin. I found Ross, who is two years younger than
I, sitting on the right. He had light skin and was slightly shorter than the
rest of us, but he made up for it with his personality.
We
had just finished making fools of ourselves when the priest started. I wanted
to sleep so badly but the Deans had eyes like hawks. They wouldn’t let you just
sleep without giving you detention. So as usual I decided to space out. It was
the next best thing to sleeping. My mind wandered to what homework I had, to
all of the jerks who weren’t my friends and wouldn’t leave me alone, and to my
family who sometimes I can do without. It seemed as if an hour had passed, but
the damn priest was still doing his stupid chant.
That’s
when something caught my eye. The angel, the one with the sword… it was…
different. I quickly brought my eyes back to focus and realized that there were
waves in front of it. They looked like heat waves but they weren’t, the central
air was blasting. I would say it was as if I was the only one who saw it but
that wouldn’t be true. Everybody noticed it and started talking amongst each
other. The whispers built until it was a low roar.
The
priest stopped and turned around. He was so shocked, but it seemed like he knew
what it was. Just then, lightning came from the waves and started striking
spots on the floor and wall, leaving black burnt spots where they hit and
setting other spots on fire.
“What is this?”
Someone screamed.
After that, the
whole cathedral went into a screaming riot. That’s when a hole appeared.
Everyone was silent as it grew and grew; a warm purple light was coming from
it. A though of how beautiful it was rushed across my mind, but what came out
of it wasn’t…
