Prologue and Chapter 1 (Gabriel)

A Chapter by ArchAngeL009

Previous Version
This is a previous version of Prologue and Chapter 1 (Gabriel).

Prologue

Who created the world? Who gave birth to Adam and Eve? Why do we even exist? Why?

Human, a species born with great intelligence yet can be brutal and violent at times, is capable of great impression and easily controlled by emotions. Unlike other wild creatures, we, humans do not acquire great strength or speed, but are naturally gifted with something else, something more precious, something more valuable, something that let our ancestors survived eons ago when they were not even fully evolved from primates. Intelligence was given. It is their capability to reason things out intelligently that prolong their existence until this present day. It’s also the reason why they are different from animals and beasts. It allowed us humans instead of other creatures to dominate the world for millenniums.

As time goes by, humans got wiser, cleverer, and simultaneously they yearn for inner peace. People began meditating and seek the way of truth. Are there mystic beings with even greater capability than us? Maybe they have supernatural abilities that could possibly make things happen. Do they live above us? Above the clouds and on top of the sky, observing us at all time? Are they what we humans today worship as Gods?

Various religions and beliefs started to emerge in different places among different races. Christians believed God is the father of Jesus Christ, the saviour of mankind. Likewise, Muslims believed Allah (the name of God in Islam) had given a task to Muhammad, the prophet to salvage mankind. In Greek mythology, Gods were mentioned and described as imperfect beings, they had anger, envy, love and compassion just like us humans. On the other hand, Buddhism, Judaism and other religions also have different ideology and beliefs of their own..

However, the existences of Gods are yet to be scientifically proven by humans. So, do they really exist? Or are they just some imaginative beings made up by our ancestors? Who knows? Or should I say, who cares?

Chapter 1

“Hey, Alex, wake up man, we’re leaving!” A pale-looking boy awoken from his sweet dreams, opened his eyes and saw his friend, Samuel Jackson crowing at him. He stood up unsteadily from the wooden bench, observing his surroundings sleepily with his soulless eyes. It was a moderately huge hall filled with beautifully-carved benches which looked ancient and dilapidated. A magnificent Jesus statue hanged on the wall painted in milky white, was gazing at him steadily with a gracious look and in the opposite of Jesus stood a reddish-brown door which was old and massive. A large group of people consisted of kids, adolescents and adults were pacing through the only entrance and exit of this sacred place.

“You’re really pathetic! Do you want to get scolded from Ms. Scarlett again?” shouted Samuel.

The boy, Charles Alexander wiped his eyes and stared at the four-eyed blonde-haired rascal wearing a plain white T-shirt and blue Bermuda shorts standing cockily in front of him.

“Samuel, what’s the matter? You know what will happen if someone shouts at me, don’t you?” grunted Alex. What he said was utterly true, he used to beat people up during his past times as entertainment, no one except the counsellors of the orphanage dared spoke to him in this way, unless they wanted to make themselves his punching-bag.

But, Samuel was an exception, he was Alex’s best buddy and only friend since childhood, they slept together, they had fun together and they even shared their personal feelings and admirations towards the girls they liked to each other. However, Samuel was someone totally different, he was an obedient, sincere and knowledgeable prodigy who often gets compliments from his tutors and counselors from the orphanage, all in all, a decent juvenile he was. Unlike the outrageous and quarrelsome Alex who frequently picked up feuds and fights with the other orphans, little Sam was just too gentle to fight. He never fought with anyone before in his entire lifetime and he often ended up being a prey of the big bullies from the orphanage, though they were more likely to get bruises and wounds after Alex knew what they did to his buddy. Lots of people wondered how did two teenagers with entirely different personalities, behaviours, temperaments and passions (if Alex had any) got along with each other.

“Whatever. Now, are you coming with us, or do you wish to stay here?” said Samuel softly while he was chuckling at Mr. Jonathan, one of the most sensible and understanding counselors who was making gentle but petty paces towards the two of them. Alex forced a wide but insincere grin to appear on his face when he noticed Mr. Jonathan.

Mr. Jonathan was a six-footer with fairly brown curly hair and hazel-brown eyes. He seemed more like a missionary than an orphanage counselor as he loved telling stuffs about God and Christ and boring religious fables. However, his first name was never revealed to most of the orphans.

“Why aren’t the two of you moving along with the others? Is there any problem?” asked Mr. Jonathan.

Samuel glimpsed at Alex for once and turned his head around to face the counsellor.

“Of course not, Mr. Jonathan, we apologize for the inconvenience we have caused.” replied Samuel politely.

“Yeah, everything’s cool, dear Mr. Jonathan.” muttered Alex.

Both of them realized that the church was almost empty at that moment, the whole place was filled with echoes of their voices. The other orphans and the other counselors were already outside, waiting for the bus to arrive under the blazing sun which was hot enough to roast a turkey without using fire.

“Okay then, let’s move it.” said Mr. Jonathan cheerfully.

When everyone felt that their bodies were beginning to scorch under the gigantic flaming ball hung on the cloudless sky. An extremely low-pitched honking sound emerged from somewhere nearby, despairing frowns on everyone’s forehead faded, grim looks were replaced with joyful smiles. The arrival of the bus gave indescribable reliefs to every single one of them, their torments were finally over after an eternity.

“Okay, now, queue up and get in one by one!” ordered Ms. Scarlett in a bossy tone.

No one from the orphanage seemed to like her, maybe because of her cockiness, or maybe because of her monstrous look. The plump lady stood firmly with a list of the orphans’ names in her hands, making sure everyone wasn’t missing. On the air-conditioned bus, everyone found their own seats and began to settle down. Yes, very much settled down, settled down for about a few nanoseconds, and then every single corner of the bus was filled with various sounds, sounds of some girls chit-chatting, sounds of some boys screaming and shouting and playing around. Ms. Scarlett transmitted her demonic voice from her immense mouth as she unhinged her jaws. “Keep your mouths shut unless you want to sleep with empty stomachs tonight!” The formidable voice high-pitched enough to shatter a fortune teller’s crystal ball echoed all over the bus, and slowly, it faded, in exchange was complete silence.

After a short while, Mr. Jonathan made his way towards Alex and Samuel, he sat down on an empty seat which was adjacent to theirs.

“So, do you find the visit to St Peter’s Cathedral interesting?”

“Yes, Mr. Jonathan, I really love the church, it’s magnificent.” replied Samuel excitedly.

“I’m glad you like it.” Mr. Jonathan exhibited a delightful smile and said “What about you, Mr. Alexander?”

Alex which was lying on the inner-seat beside his pal tilted his head to face the counselor. “Me? Ah, I don’t care. As you can see, I’m a free thinker, so, I’m not really interested in that crappy church and those dim-witted grumpy old priests back there.”

Samuel quickly elbowed his buddy to stop the outrage he was causing. “Erm, Mr. Jonathan, what Alex’s trying to say is……” The bus halted abruptly and violently, making everyone except the bulky bus driver himself fell forward and had their foreheads knocked on the seats in front of them, some who were standing and fooling around even lost their balance and fell to the ground. Various curses flew out simultaneously.

Alex peeked through the transparent glass window and saw a seemingly old but spectacular building stood majestically across the solid pavement. Lots of buses, cars and a handful of limousines could be seen in the huge parking lot. While tour-guides and tourists were moving in and out through the main entrance of the gigantic structure.