9/IX. Darkest Days (Remastered)
“Important! This is very important to our family, please, please find my missing girl, I’m begging you, she… she had been missing for about twenty four hours now, I have already asked everywhere, where she might have gone. We have asked her school, her friends, her close friends, her teachers, please.” A middle-aged man, about aged forty, cried out to the policeman at the reception desk, his wife beside him, weeping as he tries to coherently report the case of his missing daughter.
Another case of a missing girl, but this time, it wasn’t a child, but a high-school student, usually, this kind of cases were shrugged off as a case of stow away rather than kidnapping since it was just twenty four hours away, but since there were multiple kidnapping cases of the children just last month, this one was escalated to the higher ups to avoid any public panic.
Sergeant McMillan just entered the building and right then and there, fate gave him the opportunity to hear the couple’s woes.
“Excuse me, I’m Sergeant McMillan, can we talk in my desk please?” He walked them through the police station maze back to his desk on the far right corner of the room.
“Thank you so much.” The man held his wife in his arms as they navigated through the room full of desks of the officers and detectives.
“Can you tell me more about the events that happened before your daughter’s disappearance, and do you have any pictures of her?”
“Yes…” The father eagerly cooperated with McMillan, and gave him the middle-school yearbook that they had in the mother’s hands.
“My… my daughter also had… something on the world… wide… what was…that? Web? Something like that… but we don’t know how to get in… in the internet, or the latest news and photos in there, but I know something about it, this is her notebook.” The father brought out the crumpled thin notebook from his back pocket and gave it to the detective.
“This will be very helpful, thank you so much for coming in. Here is my number. You can all me anytime, I will make sure to deliver the news of my investigation to you.” The detective handed over his calling card to the couple.
“Thank you so much, please… please find our daughter.” The mother held McMillan’s hands tightly before the two left the station.
“I will do my best.” McMillan whispered as he saw them walk away out the room.
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As McMillan traced the steps of the missing girl, he soon found out that there’s nothing he can do to save the missing girl.
[SFX: Radio static Kshhhhhhk KssssshK]
“This is Sergeant McMillan. We have a 10-54 here at 200 Santa Monica Pier, directly under pier. I need an ambulance, and officers to set up the perimeter.” He quickly radioed-in the floating and bloating dead body hitting the rocks under the pier.
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After about twenty minutes, the police and the ambulance arrived at the scene, and secured the perimeter, the lower-ranked officers instructed the people to scatter off from the scene, and they established parameters using blockades and the crime scene yellow tape.
“What happened here?” The Los Angeles Police Department Homicide Division head Lieutenant Hakim Scott appeared for the first time at a crime scene.
The child-kidnapping cases from a month ago gave him heat from the higher-ups due to the publicity of the case, and now kidnapping cases turned homicide or murder, he’s now prioritizing it over paper-works.
“Jamie Lee – missing girl, her parents reported her missing about 12 hours ago, I followed up on the last point of contact to friends. It’s at the school gate, her high school, and they saw her speed away with a boy in a motorcycle, and the friends heard that they were going to the pier. I got here and some of the locals spotted the body from up the bridge this sunrise, about thirty minutes ago, I got down, and confirmed that it was a body and called in. Looks like blunt trauma, but I think I need to dig deeper on this.” McMillan brought out his notebook he had about the investigation he had been doing for the past twelve hours ago.
“Good job taking this case. Work is not done. We need to find out how this happened. Where is your partner?”
“Sir, I thought he informed you, he got really disturbed by the children’s kidnapping case, he told me he requested for a psychological leave.”
“How about that trainee of yours that sticks to you like glue?” Scott asked him again.
“Uhm, sir, the officer is inexperienced in seeing dead bodies. I didn’t call her attention on this discovery.”
“You should train her stomach for these kinds of things. Oh! Yeah, I remember. Detective Gale!”
“Yes, Lieutenant?” A blonde petite fair-looking maiden approached the chief, with her formal clothes on, the woman looks pretty as if chiselled by God himself.
“I need you to assist McMillan in this case.”
“Lieutenant, Sir, I… I don’t need a partner.” Greg wanted to work alone.
“You nearly died from that last case because your trainee got psychologically shocked with parts of dead children.”
“Then why a woman?”
“Excuse me?” She snapped on that rude comment.
“She’ll be just fine.”
“Okay.”
“Where do we start, McMillan?” The arrogance showed off immediately as the Lieutenant vacated the premises, Gale must have been pissed off, she assumed that Greg wouldn’t take her seriously because she is a woman.
“My name’s Greg, Gale, and I was just worried about the same situation, if you were to see a dead body…”
“You don’t have to worry about me, Greg, I’ve… I’ve had my fair share of dead bodies.” She looked away in disgust.
“Okay.” Her gesture clearly showed opposite from what she claims to be.
“So, where do we start?” Gale pulled out her small notebook and pen.
“The cameras, they’re all over, we need to request access to those videos.”
“Don’t we need a warrant for that?”
“Let’s check first how cooperative the owners of the stores are here.”
“Sure.”
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Months and years went by, Michael stayed on Earth, checking on the environment and the animal kingdom, making sure that no animals would threaten the life of the humans in the plains.
Adam began caring for the sheep in herds to be their primary food source and cloth source in the cold days, while Eve and Cain gather up sticks and woods to create fire and cook food for the family.
A new set of ‘humans’ popped up at the south-eastern plains, but Michael doubted their humanity, it looked like the angels that were in Hell had access to Earth and changed their appearance to one more nearest humanlike.
Eve began teaching Cain planting in the fields, and seven years gone by so fast and Cain had a little brother, Abel.
Michael visits the couple now and then, but he does not appear to the two children.
The two got glimpses of the armoured knight as they pretended to be asleep several nights as Michael was visiting.
Eve continued to pass on her knowledge of planting and nurturing the fields to Cain, while Adam taught Abel how to care for the herd.
Upon the end of a decade, the two men were able to sustain the fields and the herds without the need of their parent’s guidance.
At one night of the full moon, Michael visited once more to see the family in the plains.
The wings flapping echoed around the empty lands as he arrived near the tent.
“Adam…”
“Shall we go?”
“Hmmmm.” Adam and Eve stepped out, while their sons pretended to continue closing their eyes at the absence of their parents.
Abel was now a twenty-year old young man, while Cain aged twenty-seven years old.
They do not have any squabbles, but they do compete immaturely most times for their parent’s favour as they present their fruits of labor on the table to eat.
“Father and mother always go out when we hear and see the armored knight visit.”
“When will be able to meet the guy?” Cain replied to Abel, they were both curious, but Abel spoke his mind freely like Adam.
“I don’t know, shall we listen to them?”
“What? No, that’s rude.” Cain was more morally ethical as Eve taught Cain of the do’s and don’ts of how he should behave.
“Rude?” Abel does not seem to care for proper behaviour.
Though he tried to stop his brother, they both listened in on the conversation of the adults.
“How are the children?” Michael approached Adam and Eve as he tucked in his wings.
“Pffftt.. hahhahahahah…” Adam burst out into laughter and tears as soon as Michael asked the ridiculous question.
“Kids, they’re already grownups, Mikhail.” Eve followed up on that end.
“I’m sorry, for me, all of you are still kids. It still was not a long time that we were just in the Garden, and I’m teaching everything to both of you.” He crackled up a smile.
“We’re doing fine, the kids, no, my offspring are skilled now, better than we are, they are working the fields and herding the sheep and lambs.” Adam softly described his children.
“That’s good to know.”
“Mikhail… do you think… do you think we can well, talk to Him?”
“To Him?”
“Yes, the Light.”
This was the first time that the two offspring heard of the Light, and the Garden, it was a puzzle for them to solve.
“What is the Light?” Abel whispered carefully in the closed tent.
Michael had an inclination about the two being awake sometimes when he visits the couple.
He tried to hide, but he knew that the two children were awake most of the times.
“I don’t know, shut up…” Cain irritably answered Abel’s inquiries through whispers as well.
Michael heard the two and smiled as if amused as Adam and Eve wondered at his reaction. “Isn’t it time to tell the children about everything?”
He looked up to the two parents who were a bit hesitant in informing the two children about what happened in the past.
“Do you think they’d understand?” Eve particularly expressed much worry especially for what she did back in the Garden.
“They’d understand eventually.” Michael reassured Eve, he was sure that there will be squabbles and misunderstanding upon revealing the past, but people understand, and it would be best not to hold back the two children from meeting God.
“Cain! Abel! Come out here, I know you, two, are awake!” Teeth gnashing, and his eyebrows curved forming an arch, Adam’s facial expressions showed agitation at the very least as he called for his two sons.
“Oh, no…” Cain whispered as he try to get back to sleeping, Abel decided to come forward but Cain tried to hold him back from exiting the tent.
“Come on! Let’s go!” Abel tried to drag his brother out his tent desperately as he stepped out himself, with his hands holding Cain on the inside of the tent, he smiled conspicuously at the three outside the tent.
“Hi Mom, Dad, and…?” His eyes wandered from the armored knight’s feet up to his helmet, seemingly the first time he had seen armor and cape.
“Mikhail. My name is Mikhail.” The knight offered his hands for a handshake and Abel, and as he reached out his hands to accept the handshake, Cain slowly came out of his tent to timidly face his parents and the angel.
“Abel, and this is Cain.” The youth looked back and stretched out his arms as if showcasing his brother who was embarrassed on finding out that their parents knew that they always sneak to listen to their conversations.
“Cain, come here, son.” Adam’s irritation was swept away as he observed two of his sons approaching the angel.
“Father, mother, we have been listening for some time now when Mikhail visited some nights. We wanted to know who he is.” Cain timidly confessed to his parents as he shook the hand of the stranger.
Mikhail began telling the story of the Garden and the seven days of Creation, he skipped the story of the angels as he felt that it didn’t matter to the whole history of the humans.
“So… God… God… created everything of this? Father, mother, me and Cain?” Abel’s eyes glimmered in curiosity and awe, and the angel can feel the enthusiasm as well from the kid. But his joyous face is different from what he saw in Cain.
Sourly, Cain replied with, “So… we’re working hard to eat and survive because… because…” Eve bowed down in shame, it’s what she expected, maybe Cain will put the blame on her, for everything.
“Because of that damn snake?” Adam and Eve looked surprised as they both looked at Cain in wonder.
“Pfffttt… hahahhahahahhaha!” His parents burst into laughter as Cain wondered why, Abel also felt puzzled as he did not chime in on the laugh.
“What?” Eyes confused as he looked at his parents laughing at him, the two of them looked at each other perplexed by their parents’ reaction.
“Nothing, Cain, thank you, both for understanding.” Eve inched closer and tightly hugged her boys, her eyes closed intently as tears run down her cheeks.
“Mom, I’m sorry, did we make you cry or something?” Abel worriedly pulled back and wiped the tears from the cheeks of his mother, panicking as he tread closer to her.
“Nah, this is tears of joy.” She firmly held Abel’s hands as the three hugged each other, Adam joined in the family bonding.
Michael smiled from underneath his helmet, and as courtesy, he lifted up his helmet and revealed his humanly face to the two men.
Jaws dropped, as their eyes laid upon the beauty of the first other person in the world, though he cannot be classified as a person due to his biological nature, however, the aesthetics of God’s creation were fully realized as their eyes feasted upon the physical form of the Seraphim.
A blonde young man, maybe between age of Abel and Cain, double-chinned, icy-blue eyes, calming to the one piercing the depths of the mirror of the soul, and a muscular build as suggested by the bulging golden armor he has on his body.
The helmet covered most of his face, the eyes were the only ones that can be viewed from the outside, and given the shadow and darkness within the helmet, they thought his eyes were greyish black.
“Ma… marvelous.” Abel stayed quiet the whole time, but Cain did as much as utter one word to praise the beauty of God’s Creation.
“Thank you.” His soft words gave warmth to their heart, something that the two never felt before.
“Dad… is… is this what you felt when you were with the Light? This… warmth… this…”
Cain could not explain verbally what he just felt, a rush of wind, soft and gentle cold breeze went by, his words didn’t exactly came across to Eve that time, but Adam understood what Cain was trying to say, he felt it as well, when he was created by the Light, from dust, he was molded, and God gave His breathe of life to Adam, the warmth flowed at his body as if he was a giant ball of sun.
“Yes, son.” He replied, teary eyed, and smiled blissfully at his two sons, this was what he wanted a long time ago, to share the warmth he felt back in the Garden.
He never thought that the two will experience ‘the warmth’ as Adam was still alive. “Thank you, Mikhail, I never thought this would happen in my lifetime.”
“You’re still too young, Adam, you’ll be here for a very, very long time.” Michael paused for those moments, as the Oracle gave him visual images, blood, everywhere.
It was about a split second, but he definitely saw it, especially when his eyes were focused on the two children.
His countenance change for a minute, the smiling, not a care in the world, angel, suddenly became grim, and the smile disappeared from his face.
The warmth that the two felt vanished as the angel changed his facial expression.
“What’s wrong?” Adam felt the sudden change as well. He broke apart from the family hug and approached the mystified angel.
He was as puzzled as the angel that saw the Oracle, a future where there’s blood everywhere.
Clouded with misjudgment, there’s no need for the family to be worried, he thought, then replied to Adam, “Nothing… nothing’s wrong, don’t worry.”
“I will fly up again and talk to Father, then, we will make arrangements for the two kids to meet the Light.” Michael sighed as he mentioned the arrangement to Adam.
That sigh got Adam worried more than the reassurance that Michael just told them, he didn’t raise his concern much as he knows Michael was always there to help them. “Sure.” He replied nonchalantly.
“See you in a few days.” Michael stretched out his four wings, and the glory and the light attached to the wings reflected in the dark plains that night as he flap them and travelled back to heaven.
SFX: WOooooooooSh!
The dust and gravel flew in all kinds of directions as the angel disappeared from their sight. Adam and Eve first went in to the tents to sleep and rest, as the two kids still observed the night sky.
Cain and Abel tried to withhold their emotions and feelings, but they longed more, more for the warmth, for that light that their eyes have glimpsed for the first time, and that beauty.
“That’s… extraordinary. Have you ever felt something like this, brother?” Cain articulated his feelings to the best of his vocabulary.
“No… I… this is the first time.” The two seemed like adrenaline is shooting up the roof, eyes dilated and sparkling like the stars, their heart racing, and too excited to go back to sleep.
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Back in Heaven…
“Father, I seek your audience.” Michael kneeled before the throne room. He wanted to speak in behalf of humanity, Adam, his friend, and his family, he was not expecting much since the last day that God has descended, but he hoped for a better future for the family, especially for the children.
“Michael, the Power of God, God permits your audience with Him.” The Cherubs guarding the Throne Room declared as the Throne Room door opened.
“COME FORTH, MY SON. WHY HAST THOU RETURNED?” The Light spoke for the first time after declaring the punishment of the humans.
The Silver City residents kneeled down as the heard the voice of the Almighty echoed around their home.
“Father, the humans, they wish to reconnect with You. They long for You, for fellowship with You. I speak in behalf of humanity, would You hear me and my prayer?” Michael’s voice, pleasant to the ears of the Creator, softly caressed Light’s heart, he longed for the broken fellowship to be reconnected as well.
“I HAVE NO MEANS TO GO DOWN AND DESCEND TO THE SINFUL WORLD, HOWEVER, I CAN SPEAK WITH THEM THROUGH THEIR SACRIFICE, A BLOOD SACRIFICE.” Michael’s worried heart lightened up, glad that at least at some form the Light will be able to reconnect with the humans and vice versa.
“I… I will inform them, Father.” He strode happily out of the Throne Room and flew descending on Earth.
It was almost a full complete day on Earth on a difference of 7 minutes in Heaven, while a minute on Earth is six hours in Hell.
SFX: Flap! Flap! Flap! Woooosh!
The two children got up from farming and herding and immediately ran towards home, they knew that sound, they recognized that sound, the sound of the wings of the angel, the warmth that they longed for, it’s not too long they have been searching for whatever they can do to quench the thirst for that warmth, but they couldn’t find any replacements, good thing that the angel returned after a day, or else they would have lost their minds trying to get off of other things.
“Mikhail!” The two tightly hugged the angel, still stuck with his wings on his back, he was as happy as the two had seen him.
“I missed you, too, guys.” He happily welcomed their hug.
“So… what did God say?” Adam lighted the gathered sticks outside of his tent to warm them up of the cold night breeze.
“He wanted a blood sacrifice.”
“Blood sacrifice, what… what does that mean?” He shook his head upon learning the requirement of how the Almighty can fellowship with them. Perplexed by the word, “blood”, the humans wondered as much as the angel did.
“Sometimes, Father, He wants us to figure out on our own what He meant, and we can figure it out, in due time.”
“Due time! No need for that! I will prepare my blood harvest with the sweat and blood I do from farming, and Abel will prepare a lamb for sacrifice, with his sweat and blood in shepherding, right?”
Cain retorted from Michael’s answer to the puzzling requirement, but proceeded on deciding the details for them.
“What do you think, Mikhail?”
“I don’t know.”
That blunt answer worried Adam a little bit, but he trusts Cain for that, he is already a man, one that is skilled enough for their plants and fruits to usher in his best harvest.
“Dad?” Abel asked for a second opinion.
“We will help you set up the sacrifices tomorrow, don’t worry.” Adam smiled to reassure his two sons.
Cain and Abel smiled as their father and mother gathered near the warmth of the fire and Michael join them in the campfire seats.
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Back to the present day…
“No… no, no, no, no, NO!” Mister and Missus Lee wept as the coroner slowly lifted up the white cloth covering Jamie’s body.
“I’m so sorry for your loss, Mister and Missus Lee, Detective McMillan found her this morning. After your report on the precinct, he immediately followed and investigated about the last tracks of your daughter, and he found her under the docks at the Santa Monica bay area.” Missus Lee wailed as the coroner told the two the circumstances in which they found their daughter.
“A body belonging to a missing teenage girl was found under the docks by a detective this early morning, from the reports we got, her parents reported her missing 36 hours before she was found under the docks in the Santa Monica pier.”
SFX: [News in the background]
“Have you taken your medication, Arthur?” Matthew shook the prescription bottle, it appeared the same number of meds yesterday.
“Someone killed her.” Arthur looked intently at the monitor screen, and his eyes darted from left to right, as if he’s immersed in his thoughts.
“Art? Are you talking about the missing girl?”
“Can we… can we go to the Ferris Wheel?” Arthur pointed at the wheel at the back of the reporter displayed in the television.
“The pier?”
“Pier! Pier! Ferris Wheel!” Johnny chimed in.
“Alright, we’ll go after we eat breakfast, okay?”
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“I’m done!” Cain shouted happily, he laid out his best harvests of fruit, figs, pomegranates, herbs, plants, fruit of his sweat and blood on an altar maid by his father, Adam.
“I’m done too!” Abel also carefully dissected and brushed the blood of the lamb at the altar of stones made by his father.
“What do you think?” Adam was a bit afar off talking to Eve and Michael as they observed the two at the top of a hill.
“I will answer your inquiries the same that I have answered previously, I don’t know.” Michael was still a bit skeptic about Cain’s understanding of the requirement.
“I just don’t want the kids disappointed, you know.”
“I know.” Michael felt Adam’s anxiety as well. Minutes passed and the clouds that dimmed the skies from beyond the Garden has cleared up for the first hour, a cloud shining that came from the direction of the Garden started to descend upon the Hill.
“Is that…?” Eve stepped out of the bushes as she tried to discern if the cloud of pillar of Light is the Almighty.
“Is that what I think it is? Mikhail?” Adam’s jaw dropped, the two children were excited as well, tapping their feet off the ground as the cloud approached.
“I think so.” Michael tried to keep his composure, but the four humans were excited to see what God has in store for them.
The enthusiastic expressions faded away quickly from Cain’s face, as the cloud passed his offering, the pillar of Light stopped at Abel’s, which made Abel jumped with joy.
The rays of sunshine from the cloud gave warmth to Abel’s heart and mind, while Cain froze in disappointment.
“Oh, no… Cain.” It’s as if his hard work, farming, and harvesting were shunned, compared to his brother’s work of leading the lamb and the sheep to a safer place, his work was much more strenuous due to plowing, caring for the plants, herbs, for the fruits, making sure that no bugs or insects eat them, every day.
‘Misery wants company.’ That was true and in this case, seeing Abel happy with the warmth of the Light embracing him, Cain’s heart was filled with malice, imbued in his heart, the true meaning of hatred, coldness, and animosity.
It was the first time Michael seeing the transformation of this innocent child to a dark, shallow person.
His spiritual eyes could see malice, shadowy, dark mist that surrounds the eyes, the heart, and the mind, floating around whispering in the ears.
A fallen attached himself to Cain, the human, a small critter whispering in his hear, feeding on his hatred, an Obsession.
Michael shifts his head several times to the left and right to ascertain what he sees, but it didn’t change, the other two humans, Adam and Eve, doesn’t see the creature so they’re puzzled by what Michael was doing.
“Is there something wrong, Mikhael?” Adam added to Eve’s worries.
“There’s… something on Cain.” He tried to squint his eyes, unbelieving by what he sees.
“Cain’s… disappointed, look at how he darts his eyes to Abel and the lamb.”
“Come on, Eve, let’s comfort him.”
Before the two could approach the altars at the hill, Cain looked and walked away from the presence of the Light.
The parents followed Cain back to the tent setup, and left Abel at the altar, he was still high on whatever the Light does on the physical body-looking happy and joyous as an uninvited guest popped up.
“Pssssssssss…t!” A snake slithered near Michael at the foot of the hill, hidden underneath the shadow of the bushes.
“Sam? What are you doing here?” Michael noticed the snake resembled the one he talked to at the beach near the Garden, hence, he assumed that it was his brother, Samael.
“You’re clearly clever, brother, why are you asking me that question.”
“Are you here to stop this reunion?”
“I’m not, but I was going to warn you, I guess I was too late.” The snake lies once more.
“Late about what?”
“Don’t you think His visit here on Earth causes friction for everyone?”
“Friction?”
“That kid who walked away, his negative spiritual energy was way off the roof, Hell got Obsessions high on alert and can materialized based on pure malice and hatred.”
“Obsessions?”
“You know, our new names and functionsssssss…” The devil tried to set up a new system of functions and names in Hell.
“You seem to have been weakened?”
“Well, I wasssssss just regenerating my physical body, no need to worry about.” The sheer amount of energy to possess another animal, may have taken a toll on Samael’s body.
“Why are you telling me this?” Michael seemed to be uncaring and unmoving at Samael’s provocations.
“Cause it is fun playing with you.” He goaded and retorted back.
“Sam.”
“I can’t wait to lay down all my pieces in this chess game.” The devil has setup the war, and he has setup his pieces.
“Everything is at stake and you have the time to joke, I will take you on, I will make sure to fight for humanity, for their cause, and for their-“