Chapter 1.2

The second part of chapter 1, enjoy~

“Hi, Jonathan, long time no see, so these are the kids from the orphanage?” the man asked.

“Yeah, we’re on a 1-day trip, we went to the St. Pater’s Cathedral, and now it’s time to visit your museum, Brown. And by the way, this is Ms. Scarlett, our senior counselor.”

The man greeted Ms. Scarlett.

Then, he turned around and said “Well, kids, I’m the curator of this museum. I’m glad you are interested in the paintings of my museum.”

Alex pursed his lips. Not at all.

 “As for this one over here, let me explain to you what it’s all about. In the Book of Revelation, an epic war between God and Satan that took place in heaven before the Fall of Man was recounted. Satan and the other depraved angels, known as fallen angels opposed God and they challenged him in strength and power. Eventually, they were defeated and Satan was caught by an archangel called Michael.” He pointed at the angel in the painting.

Some of the orphans got bored and started gossiping.

The curator didn’t care and continued “The benevolent God gave Satan a chance to repent but was rejected. God became so angry that he banished Satan and his minions from heaven and they were thrown to hell.”

“Well, end of story, any question?” he asked.

Not a sound came out.

Seconds later, Samuel raised his hand up. “As far as I know, Satan was an archangel, and then he turned against God, but what were the reasons of his betrayal?”

“Indeed, Satan was an archangel, but pride blinded him. Other than God, he was the most powerful being that ever existed, much stronger than his fellow archangels. However, he wasn’t satisfied with what he already had, he wanted more power, he wanted his throne to be higher than the clouds over the Earth, he wanted to surpass the almighty God.  When God created Adam and Eve, he refused to bow down to mankind and resented God ever since. Eventually, he decided to overthrow God.”

Samuel seemed to be quite satisfied with the explanation given. Others remained silent.

 “Okay now, kids.” Mr. Jonathan said. “It’s um…half past three, all of you can walk around and have a look at the paintings and sculptures, just make sure you don’t break anything or make too much noise, we’ll meet at half past four, in the entrance .”

Within half a minute, the orphans diverged, some went to the Renaissance Art Section, some went to the second floor accompanied by Ms. Scarlett, while others went to the washroom nearby. Mr. Jonathan and Mr. Brown could be seen standing in a corner, probably chatting or having some sort of reunion.

“Alex, let’s go see the Renaissance paintings, I’m sure they’ll be pretty cool.” said Samuel.

As the two friends were walking along the corridor of the Renaissance Art Section, Samuel seemed to be enjoying very much, while Alex was completely annoyed.

Samuel pointed at a spot where a painting was hung. “That’s a fabulous masterpiece by Renaissance Master Leonardo Da Vinci, I've never thought of seeing it here. Awesome!”

“Awful you mean?” the free thinker grunted.

A small glossy bronze label could be seen slightly under the painting.

ANNUNCIATION, 1475-1480

LEONARDO DA VINCI

 

“This is one of the greatest creations of all times.” said Samuel. “Pretty cool, huh? What do you think?  ”

Alex stared at his friend with an unpleasant expression on his face.

“Look, Sam, I know you like these things very much, but the problem is, I don’t. The only thing I like is basketball, you know that.”

Before he could respond to Alex’s words, he sensed someone coming towards them.

It was the curator Mr. Brown, and along with him was Mr. Jonathan.

“I see the two of you like this painting of Da Vinci.” Mr. Brown said.

 “Yeap, I love his paintings, every single one of them.” replied Samuel.

“And why is that so?”

“Um, I don’t know, I just like them, I was dazzled by their beauty since I first saw them in books.”

“So do you know who Da Vinci was portraying in this painting?”

“This one is Gabriel and that one is virgin Mary. It is depicting Gabriel, who serves as God’s messenger foretelling the birth of Jesus Christ to virgin Mary. Am I right?”

“Yes.” Mr. Brown looked quite impressed. “Do you know that Gabriel is one of the seven archangels under the service of God. Not only did he foretell the birth of Christ to virgin Mary, he also foretold the birth of John the Baptist.”

“He is also the spirit of truth and the messenger of God. He was the medium for the connection between God and mortals.” said Samuel.

“You do know quite a lot” praised Mr. Brown. “If you’re really interested in these religious paintings, there’s a whole lot more on the second floor.”

The whole archangel topic was making Alex insane. The restlessness and boredom within him was about to make his body explode like a C4 bomb. He couldn’t stand it anymore and action had to be taken.

“Excuse me, I’ll have to……um……” 

“Don’t you want to see the other paintings?” asked Mr. Jonathan.

“Um……I haven’t eaten since morning, I need to go get some food.” said Alex and he made his escape.

After escaping from the infernal dialogues, he bought a tuna sandwich from the vendor machine beside the reception. While eating, he looked through the windows and saw vehicles galloping on the bustling streets, the beeping sounds of vehicles could be heard even he was inside the museum.

It was as usual, lots and lots of pedestrians walking along the streets, motorists honking one another, traffic lights turning green and red. It was how a city should look like.

Everything was just as usual, nothing extraordinary.

Alex sat on a bench and glimpsed at the clock hanging on the wall, it was four o’clock sharp. Oh, great, 30 minutes more and I’m out of here, he said to himself. Then, he fell asleep.

In his dream, he was in an unfamiliar place, the barren ground was filled with black soil, plants were dried and trees were withered. The air smelled like death itself and he could sense evil lurking in this no-men-land. The sky began drizzling, water drops were falling from the clouds. The sky was dark, then slowly, it began turning into mild crimson. A flash of seemingly intensified lightning materialized, and was followed up with an extremely terrifying thunder, as though God was punishing the deserving sinners for what they had commited.

Alex tilted his head upwards, and he saw the weirdest thing he had ever seen in his entire life. Four persons with silver body armors were floating on the sky holding swords. They remained stationary on air, like helicopters, except they had wings on their back instead of rotors. In front of them stood a creature, a creature which looked like a mutated were-wolf with leathery wings, it had dark brown translucent skin instead of fur covering his entire body and pointy horns on its head. The glowing red eyes of the monster was staring right ahead at the four of them.

What the hell?

“Who are you? Foul beast.” one of the angels questioned the monster.

The creature said nothing but it smirked wickedly.

 “Who send you here?” the same angel questioned him again in anger.

“That is not your concern, angel. Step aside and I shall spare your worthless lives.” said the monster in a demonic voice.

“Pretty smug of you, do you really think you can defeat the four of us alone?” said another angel.

“Uriel, there’s no need to do some much talking with him.” said one of the angels who looked like their leader. “Leave now or we will have to destroy you.”

“So arrogant of you, Michael, arrogance will be the reason of your defeat.” said the monster.

“It seemed like you aren’t listening, I will tell you one last time, leave now!” the same angel yelled.

Having no sign of leaving, the monster looked quite amused as it was looking at the furious angels.  

The monster waved its clawed hand.

In an instant, the ground began to shake violently. The vibration was terribly powerful, making the ground cracked open within a short while. Then, a mammoth creature rose slowly from the cracked-opened pit. The creature was humongous, taller and larger than any animal Alex had ever seen.

Alex watched the creature in fear as it was roaring in dire anger.

The scene dissolved and then a new image was formed.

This time the place was a chapel, a very old chapel.

Alex could see a man wearing a black robe standing in front of a stone obelisk on one end of the chapel. The obelisk looked ancient, like it had existed for thousands of years, even earlier then the birth of Christ. Some tiny unknown words were carved on the obelisk, and a creepy black circle formed of some other bizarre marks and symbols were printed on it.

Alex couldn’t have a proper view of the man’s face as he was wearing a hood.

 He walked nearer to the obelisk and placed his palm on it. Then, he mouthed something, probably some kind of spell, and a black intensified energy was erected from his palm.

In the next instant, the obelisk exploded into pieces.

A thick layer of smoke appeared as the obelisk exploded. Inside the smoke, Alex saw a faint outline of a person.  

“I have come for you, brother.” said the hooded man.

The dream faded.

Alex opened his eyes.

What was that? Alex thought for a while.

Merely a dream, yeah, a stupid dream. The whole archangel topic is probably the reason I dream about those retarded angels and monsters.

He looked at the clock again 4.20 p.m.

Oh, crap! He told himself.

Author's Note

Any constructive comments will be appreciated.

Reviews

[Druella]

I like the story and where you are going with it. If you are putting more context to the dream later in the story then it is good, but if that is the end of it then it leaves a bit of wanting to it. Enough to make the reader curious, a bit more depth to what you have already written would grab the reader even more so. Keep going with it.

[Abd-afeez]

I really enjoy this. But the dream i wished it really finished with what happened in the end. The scene of the museum and the dream quite made a beautiful contrast. Thanks for sharing this.

[Coyote Poetry]

A outstanding story. Story line was educational. Flow of story kept me wanting to know more of the boy knowledge. I like the surprise ending.