28/XXVIII. A Longing In My Heart (Remastered)

“Him? What the hell just happened? Why is one of our suspects in the custody of the MET?” The chief banged the table so hard that the paper bounced up in the air.

“Sir, someone released a security tape anonymously. These tapes were taken in Mister Ward’s penthouse.” One of the IT personnel nearly tripped running in to the meeting room.

“What? What kind of videos-“

The IT personnel didn’t even let the chief finished and played the recording on the big screen.

When it came to the children’s sexual tapes, one of the older superintendents excused himself for being nauseated.

He vomited in the trash bin in the hallway.

“Those children were at the same age as my grandchildren!” One of the oldest general slapped the IT personnel on his arm. “Stop that!”

The IT personnel stopped the video from playing, shrugging himself back to the entrance of the door of the meeting room to avoid being hit again.

“That pedophile!” The chief flared through his nostrils. The whole room visibly glimpsed upon the chief’s fury for the first time.

It wasn’t their first to see that kind of human stain, for years, the MI7 has been monitoring dangerous individuals over the years, their movements, tapping through their phones, listening on their conversations and many more.

Some were elusive, and fought with loopholes in the law with tongue-twisted lawyers, some bribed the court’s judges, and many intimidated the jury, but no one will ever escape justice forever.

People always wondered why the rich escapes the laws of the land more easily than the poor, the answer was simple – leverage.

Leverage or power over another and the survival of the fittest, the strong against the weak has always been the law of the land, ever since sin thrived on Earth.

The wild animals will fight for their desires, and the weak will be left eaten or half-dead beaten.

“We’re not yet done with Mister Ward’s investigation. Make sure you bring him to our building and get leverage – make sure someone would go against that son of bitch! NOW!”

The chief’s orders were absolute. He held power as if the orders were coming from the Queen, and the Prime Minister.

“Yes, sir.” Mayer jumped out of her chair and walked out of the room hastily, there’s no time to waste, nearly tripping out of her way to the door.

------------------------------ / / ------------------------------

It has been a thousand of years since Michael experienced evil-evil.

When people have been broken, depraved, and abused, they have the tendency to turn the negativity in their lives into something evil.

Humans usually succumb to wrath, lust, pride, greed, gluttony, sloth and envy, in times of difficulty.

Tempted by the wiles of the devil, they take pleasure in sin, telling themselves that the devil made them do it, and that it’s only a small thing.

“Come on! I only gave them their freedom! They’re free to do whatever they want!” Lucifer mocked the archangels in God’s throne room.

They’re openly lying to their hearts, normalizing sin as the norms of the world so that they won’t feel ostracized by the established punishment from the laws of God and laws of the land.

They’re foolishly telling everyone who would go and speak up against sin to not discriminate, or bully them, knowing fully well that what they’re asking is the twisting of sin, not forgiveness of their actions.

They try to reason to themselves, and gather in large numbers, killing the very righteousness of God directly and indirectly by shutting down churches, and getting rid of the Bible in their education system.

The humans tend to close their hearts and hardened them, like the Pharaoh of Egypt, and the devil established false Christianity to produce more hatred in this world, openly destroying what God stands for.

Arthur had open access to the internet and everyday his heart felt heavy seeing statements that mocked God.

“God was the one responsible for the flood, the plagues and the natural disasters.” Said one internet troll in a post. “If you’re looking for black jack and hookers, I’m here.” And it donned a common picture of the devil, as the troll continued on his post.

And just that one post affected everyone’s hearts that read it. They may take it light, some may take it seriously, and fools believe the words of other fools, creating hatred and spreading it like wildfire.

What one post did not include was that God had to send the flood to get rid of all evil except Noah’s family because of the human’s way of life.

Moses, the writer of the Pentateuch, described in the book of Genesis, that in the times of Noah, evil proliferated the land.

Murderers, fornicators, cannibals, thieves, and many sinners dominated the land, and bloodshed gathered and nearly extinguished the human race like offering chicken to the piranha pond.

If left unchecked, they would destroy Earth and its resources for a few years going forward obliterating everyone and every animal on the planet.

God had to step in. He had to do something for the survival of His creations, His beloved creations.

He did so by saving most righteous man and his family and instructed Him to build a vehicle for his family and the animals that he would need to breed in the future.

How about the plagues, you ask?

When the nation of Egypt enslaved the people of Israel, the chosen nation of God, they had no reason to do this, and there’s no warranted action from the Israelites to have been treated this way.

They should be grateful that Joseph, one of the forefathers of Israel had saved Egypt from its brink of destruction in the seven years of famine.

But were they grateful? No.

They became afraid of the number of Israel, their power, and what did they do to the people of Joseph? What was their grateful spirit did?

They enslaved them. One of the darkest parts of history – people only ever remember the plague, the punishment of Pharaoh’s hardened heart, but did the humans wonder how many years of suffering and hardships did the Israel had under the Egyptians slave rule?

And natural disasters, what of it, you may ask?

Nature only ever returns what was given to it. If you plant a seed, water it, and care for it, you’ll receive a fruit in time.

If you only cut trees, and not replace them, you’ll receive a flood in time.

If you throw garbage into the ocean, and set the planet on fire through pollution, you’ll receive a tsunami and a hot wave in time.

Natural disasters were a way of nature saying, “Hey, you’ve abused me too much, it’s time I give you back that abuse.” Many people die in these disasters, it’s truly sad and awful losing a loved one, some may put the blame on God, asking why, some coldly move on broken and spilled out, and some advocate and try to make a change for a better tomorrow.

------------------------------ / / ------------------------------

One of those advocates was written third on Arthur’s list, Rosie Ann Drake, a single mother, who entered the competition and made it to the finals in the festival.

Michael strutted at the front porch undetected and invisible.

He phased through the wooden walls and gazed upon the simple lifestyle of the family.

One small house, with a similarity to a studio unit, a kitchen, a living room, the dining area, are all in one room.

The bedroom was only hidden through colorful, rainbow drapes, and the only one room that has a separate wall and door was the bathroom and toilet.

At the corner of the living room, a telephone ran through the walls out the house back to the breaker down to the lower part of the home.

Beside the telephone, a picture frame reflected a beautiful and joyful picture of Rosie Ann and her one year old son.

Rosie Ann Drake, with a background of homicide, special case of self-defense, viciously raped by a coworker, she fought to flee herself from her sexual assailant, and accidentally killing him in the process.

Jury and judge found her not guilty of homicide, which was strangely filed by the district attorney against her for a so-called justice called about by the rich family of the deceased victim.

“Spoiled prick.” Michael squinted as he read the articles about the scandalous trial.

Public Attorney’s Office assigned a good lady attorney to represent Drake in the joke trial, and counter-filed a lawsuit against the deceased victim’s family for bribing the D.A.’s office in that trial.

Rosie stood in court and stated that she truly loved her sexual assailant, Ryan Moore.

The two had a romantic relationship, however, Ryan always mentioned sex to Rosie even though she reiterated that they entered the relationship within the physical boundaries and that she wanted to reserve her virginity to the person she marries in the future.

After consistently pushing the limits of Rosie for about a year, Ryan had enough, and one company party last December 2007 gave way for his sexual innuendos.

Drugging Rosie and touching her while she slept, Ryan assaulted the noble lady, and as she woke up from her daze, she realized what had happened and what was happening before her eyes, and quickly used her hands to pick up what she can feel using her palms.

She can’t simply overpower him – they’re both hammered, the difference was that Rosie was drugged, while Ryan was just drunk.

With pain throbbing all over her body as Ryan assaulted her, she struggled to even lift a finger, but knew she wanted to survive, with a blunt adrenaline rush, she quickly grabbed the pen beside the bed over the nightstand, and straightly plunged it into Ryan’s neck.

With blood squirting all over him, Ryan still tried to held onto Rose and strangle her, but his strength rapidly left his body as he attempted to put pressure on his wound.

Even in a daze, the girl fought her destiny to be killed that day, and stumbled running out of the hotel room that Ryan rented.

Security sprang up to their feet and swiftly assisted the girl that collapsed in the elevator upon seeing what happened from the hallways to the elevator from the monitor of the CCTVs.

The girl was quickly identified by her face to be the one that came in with the son of the owner’s hotel.

Police and the medical staff of the nearby hospital handled her case delicately as to not ostracize the rich family, but still stay within the boundaries of the legal justice system.

The girl became a superstar overnight proving that even the richest family in the city can be broken down by scandal, and injustice.

Media and the social media online speedily supported Rosie and the reputation of the rich family, the Moores, plummeted publicly and privately among their social circles.

The DA’s office received many death threats as they had gone against Rosie and took the bribe of the Moore family to prolong and file a case against a rape victim.

After the success of Rosie against injustice, she was also able to prove that the Moore did bribe the DA and the DA filed a resignation, and went into hiding to avoid the public eye and punishment for the bribe.

The Moore, shunned by both the public and close relatives, went into hiding as well, bankrupt, and their assets frozen due to the criminal charge, and no one had seen them since.

Rosie became visibly pregnant in the course of the joke trial within the five months they fought in court, and she decided to keep the baby.

Jessiel gave her blessing to Rosie, the kid had no resemblance to Ryan, but got his beautiful face from Rosie.

Michael looked closely around, and there were no hidden doors, no hidden contraptions, but there is one hidden box underneath the wood-boards of the house.

He approached the boards carefully and quietly as the two were visibly sleeping in the bedroom.

Phasing through his hands through the board and underneath the home, he held the box in his hands with the intention of clearing its mysteries inside.

He tried his best to silently open the tin box, but unsuccessfully did so, popping it open as the sound echoed through the neighborhood.

Surprised by the sound of the metal clashing, he almost threw the tin box to the ground, barely being able to hold it in his hands –like playing hot potato with himself, in the dark alleyway back of the house.

He sighed softly, tilting his head towards the box he held carefully in his hands, and examined its contents – newspaper articles, cuttings, and clippings of her joke trial and one journal with the writer named, “Rosie”.

Michael softly and gently closed the lid of the box and phased through the wall to the hidden contraption on the floor and teleported back to Arthur’s room.

Apart from her kindly endeavors in life and pursue to happiness with her son, there’s nothing left that I could find from this one. Arthur pondered in the midst of the investigation as he remembered the days he met the high priest, Melchizedek.

------------------------------ / / ------------------------------

“My lord, why hast thou approached my kingdom?” The king of Salem bowed his head in reverence of the Archangel.

“I am but a messenger of God Almighty.” The temple glimmered in the midst of the night as Michael descended upon the physical realm and materialized in the temple center of the city of the kingdom of Salem, besides the palace of the king.

“I am a lowly servant of God Almighty, I know that I am not worthy, however, if I can know His message and your name, I would be blessed more than anything.” He tried to lift his face from the ground and as his eyes met the light of the angel.

Michael swooshed his hands and he transformed from an angel to somewhat his human disguise.

“Do you yearn to be blind? Desiring not to see any of this world that God has created?” Michael’s steps echoed in the main chamber to the outer priest chamber.

“Ahhhh… that light, that was your glory, was it, sire?” Melchizedek was shaken to his core. His eyes were still adjusting to the bright light suddenly shutting off.

“Yes. This place wasn’t so bad at all. I am pleased with temple.” The angel’s words pumped up Melchizedek’s words, not in an arrogant way, but in a joyful way since the king and his ancestors have built the kingdom of Salem with the principles and fear of God.

“My people, they drew their blood building the temple upon my father’s design.” His statements showed Michael how many years the kingdom spent to build such a beautiful and intricate building.

Michael frisked his fingers gently at the table of the altar, and looked eye to eye with the high priest.

“I assume you are aware of the war that’s going on from outside your kingdom.” Melchizedek gasped and surprised, but immediately regained his composure and answered the angel. “Yes, I am.”

“You’ve been maintaining peace and order here in Salem.” Michael opened one of the reading scrolls on the altar.

“Yes, I couldn’t have done it without the help of God and my people.” He smiled at the messenger.

“Arise. I have a message from the Almighty.” The man smiled from ear to ear, eager to hear what the message of God was as he sprang from his feet from the carpeted floor.

“Yes. Thank you.” Michael smirked as he saw Melchizedek’s smile - pure, innocent, and full of hope.

“Abram brought victory and retrieved all of Sodom and Gomorrah, one of your allies. God wants you to meet him in victory, celebrate with him, and guide him. He is God’s chosen.” The angel materialized a scroll in his hands and gave it to Melchizedek.

With his open hands, the high priest gladly received the scroll, and as he lifted up his eyes, the messenger vanished out of his sight – never to return to the kingdom of Salem.

Abram returned the goods and all of Sodom and Gomorrah, Salem, and Sodom, along with the other kingdoms celebrated that night, and the high priest brought out food for everyone – serving hospitality to the chosen of God.

“Keep the goods to thyself, Abram.” The king of Sodom has spoken in the banquet. A direct insult to the man that brought the whole kingdom back to its feet – Melchizedek calmed himself amidst the silence.

“I have vowed unto the God of heavens not to take anything from you, my king, lest thou say that you made me rich, however, do reward these remarkable men who helped in our victory.” He humbled himself in front of the kings and even escaped the spotlight by emphasizing the efforts of others.

He truly is the chosen one. Melchizedek grinned and chuckled quietly from within the crowd as he observed the kings and Abram from afar.

The night truly was too long for the celebration, not too long for Abram as he returned and retired to his tent quite early.

He sighed and sighed all night long, and as he laid down his bed, he remembered his wife, Sarai, waiting for him back from Canaan.

A vision came to Abram, in the form of the spiritual world activating with Michael and Abram’s soul inside.

“Sire!” Abram called out from beyond the void, he glimpsed a bright light.

He looked at himself, no physical form, only a staggering light, and a reddish-gold thread that extended upwards as far as his eyes can see.

Michael heard his voice, and squinted his eyes, “Interesting.” He teleported where Abram’s soul was and in a moment, the two came face to face.

“What are you doing here, Abram?” His gentle, cold and soothing voice calmed Abram down.

“I do not know.”

“Something’s on your mind. What is it?” Michael’s concerned voice warmed Abram’s.

“Sire, I know that I am still alive, and I have these many wondrous things, however, I don’t have an heir to pass everything to.” Michael sweetly smiled, and approached Abram’s soul, he reached out to the light, and hugged him in his bosom.

Abram, seeing this, and glancing to the glory of the form of the angel, wept in his heart.

“That’s why I’m here!” Jessiel suddenly appeared as the two were getting chummy with each other. Michael got surprised, but maintained his poker face, hugging Abram’s soul.

“Jessiel, do you have any mission for today?” Michael turned around, unsurprised, and that disappointed Jessiel a bit.

“Aw… You’re hugging him.” The angel of blessing tilted his head as he sweetly smiled upon what he feasted with his eyes.

“What are you here for?” Michael let go of Abram’s soul upon sheer embarrassment.

“I brought someone.”

Maloriel popped right out the back of the wings of Jessiel.

Two bright lights – they must be messenger of God as well. Abram mumbled to himself as he distanced himself from the three.

“You’ve been closely monitoring me, is there a reason for that?” The angel of curse spoke quietly and looked up to Michael with her puppy eyes.

“You were made in my choir – the Seraphims, new fledglings, and-“ Michael sighed, he didn’t want to lie to his sister and brother. “One of large contributing factor was your power.”

Maloriel thought it through, her power really was a curse on her.

She was constantly feared upon, even by the angelic choirs, and the Captain of the hosts always monitors where she goes whenever there’s a mission.

“Why just me?” She bowed her head, her eyes turned glassy as she was near weeping.

“You? I monitor all new fledglings.” Michael crossed his eyebrows, surprised and irritated at the same time.

“Wha- what?” Maloriel was just surprised as the Captain, speechless, and- “I…”

“We’re monitoring all fledglings to avoid another Rebellion, I, Jophiel, the Archangel of Powers, and the choir of Powers are closely monitoring the newly created fledglings to avoid another blood-shed.” Michael sighed and looked away from the two fledglings.

“Who told you that you’re the only one that I am monitoring?” Michael appeared agitated, but Maloriel wanted to clear things up.

“I thought it was Raphael, but it was an animal on Earth.” Maloriel squiggled with her finger motioning the shape of the said animal.

“An animal? A long, slithering snake?” Michael turned around to face them and as he did, he saw the angel’s fingers scrawling something.

“Ye-YES!” Her shout echoed and surprised both Michael and Jessiel. Their eyes wide opened, and as it did, Maloriel turned down the notch of her voice gently, “Y-yes.” She bowed her head once more.

“That’s not Raphael. It’s Samael.” The captain gritted his teeth, and based his fangs in front of the two.

“Sa-Sa-Samael, as in Lucifer?” The two new fledglings cowered in fear of their Captain, and the devil.

Even mentioning his name in front of the captain is… Jessiel’s thoughts trailed afar as he glanced over to Abram’s soul.

“Let’s put that aside for now, we’re here for Abram.” Jessiel brought back the two angels to the current reality as Maloriel was clearly being swallowed by fear, and Michael by wrath.

“Agreed.” Michael sighed heavily and turned his eyes to Abram.

“Abram, come near.” Michael called for him. Upon hearing his gentle voice, Maloriel surprisingly calmed down – she never knew how much the Captain loved the humans, but now she understood why Michael turned to anger upon knowing Lucifer’s involvement in her missions.

Abram’s soul approached the three brimming white lights, compared to his own, it’s a tiny speck.

“Sire, what do you require of me?” The spiritual realm cracks within – a soul that was not supposed to be there roamed freely around.

“The laws of this world will collapse if you stay here, before I return you to your body, my brother and my sister were given messages to deliver to you.” He turned to Jessiel and Maloriel.

“You’re familiar with me - I am the angel of blessing.” Jessiel stepped forward to approach the human soul.

“And I am the other side of the coin, Maloriel, the angel of curses.” She stepped out from Jessiel’s shadows.

“We’re here to deliver a message.” They marched and talked to him in unison.

“Abram, the Lord God hath said, I WILL GIVE YOU AN HEIR, OUT OF THINE OWN BOWELS SHALL BE THINE HEIR. AS THE NUMBER OF THE STARS IN THE SKY ARE COUNTLESS, SO SHALL BE YOUR CHILDREN.” Jessiel stopped and looked at Maloriel.

“KNOW OF A SURETY THAT THY SEED SHALL BE A STRANGER IN A LAND THAT IS NOT THEIRS, AND SHALL SERVE THEM; AND THEY SHALL INFLICT THEM FOUR HUNDRED YEARS. THAT NATION THAT THEY SHALL SERVE, I WILL JUDGE.” Maloriel’s countenance changed drastically as she described the future of Abram’s heir and people.

“BUT KNOW THAT WHEN THEY COME OUT FROM THEIR BONDAGE, THEY SHALL COME OUT WITH GREAT SUBSTANCE.” Jessiel continued.

Abram gasped as he heard it himself.

“Let’s get you back.”

And in one moment, he awoke from his slumber, face full of sweat, and relieved, as if he joke woke up from having a nightmare.

“What…”