2 Chapters From my Newest Story

Epic
Chapter 1
Light. A blinding light. That’s all that greeted me when I opened my eyes. This place looked strange and unfamiliar, like something out of a strange child’s story. Pearly white gates with a ticket booth in front of them and a man dressed in all white standing in the booth.

As I stood up, my body seemed to be called to the booth. My brain didn’t want to go, but my body decided it was a great time to ignore the commands from the brain. The man inside the booth smiled at me as I approached him.

“Name?” He asked, looking down at a keyboard.

“I – don’t remember,” I replied, a foolish look emerging on my nervous face.

“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me your name,” The man said looking up. He examined me for a moment, studying my every feature. The exact length of my hair, the amount of inches my nose stuck out, the ridiculous slantedness of my teeth. He examined everything.

“What – what are you doing?” I asked, not quite sure what was going on.

“I was told to look out for you,” He replied, quietly and very solemnly.

“What?”

“Enter.” The man slowly exited the booth. He took me by the wrist and led me to the gate. He pulled a large golden key from inside his white robe. Slowly and carefully he stuck the key into the keyhole. Using all of his force, he turned the key clockwise until a loud click emerged from the lock. It fell to the ground as the man turned to me.

“Once you’re inside, go see the man upstairs,” He whispered to me as he ushered me inside.

The inside of heaven was nothing like I imagined. Sure, I had been fed those ridiculous stories as a kid. “Oh it’s gonna have golden paved roads with anything you could possibly think of. And there’s gonna be angels at every corner, dressed in all white, with long wings and golden halos.” Well to tell you the truth, I never believed in any of that. I just thought heaven would a bleak page of nothingness. Not alive, but not dead, wandering endlessly searching for some hope that was never even there.

Boy was I wrong.

Beyond the gates of pearl was exactly what the stories said. Golden roads, think Wizard of Oz golden. Everything was exactly like the stories were, except for the angels. There were no white robed men with halos. Instead there were men dressed in all black, leather jackets and slacks, leaning against the buildings. Think secret service mixed with a biker and you’ll get the angels.

The angel known as Gabriel made his way down the golden brick road, headed straight towards me. He stood at 6 feet even, had close-cut black hair. His wings stuck out of the leather jacket, folded-up, as if he was getting ready to fly. His face, while happy, looked tough, but fair. He didn’t look like the person you’d want to toy with.

“Ah, you’ve arrived,” He declared, opening his arms, expecting an embrace. It was a strange sight, I’ll admit. A man dressed in a leather jacket, with black slacks, heading towards you and wanting a hug. Not something you see everyday.

“Hi,” I said, unsure of what was going on. “Why is everybody greeting me like this?”

“You don’t know,” Gabriel asked, a puzzled look beginning to creep onto his gorgeous, flaw-free face.

“Know what?” I replied, confused as ever.

“No matter,” Gabriel exclaimed, the smile returning to his face. “You’ll find out soon enough.” He turned away from me. “Now, if you follow me, I’ll show you where to go.” I did as I was told. No use in angering angels. They’ve got to have some influence over the big man; I mean there’s thousands of them, and one of him. I just don’t wanna get banished from heaven so soon.

We followed the path of the golden road for what seemed like miles. On either side of the road, was what seemed like paradise. Every building and store you could possibly think of, houses that were as grand as the most expensive mansions, lined this grandiose street. But what stood in the middle of the “city” put everything else I’d seen today to shame.

A palace, taller than anything I’d ever seen, reaching as far as I could look up, covered with gold. Gabriel led me straight to the front door. It felt as though an aura of awesomeness surrounded the palace. It felt as though something extraordinary was about to happen in this place.

The inside was almost as grand as the outside. I say almost, simply because the lighting of the inside of the palace left something to be desired. But that put aside, the palace would have knocked me over, if I hadn’t known whose palace it was.

Why don’t you take a moment and guess. It’s alright, I’ll wait.

Yes, I was in the palace of the almighty God. You know, the being with the ability to destroy the entire human population with the wave of his hand? To answer your question, yes, I was scared beyond belief. But that didn’t matter, I was seeing him anyway.

Gabriel led me through several maze-like hallways. God does a good job of hiding himself in this palace, although I have no idea why. The central room of the palace brought an amazing amount of light. So amazing that it explains why the rest of the palace has an absence of light.

God was sitting in a large throne in the middle of the room. Directly in front of him was a large television screen. From where I was standing, I couldn’t see what He was watching. God saw Gabriel standing at the edge of the hallway.

“You may enter,” He said in a voice strangely calm for a being as great as He.

Gabriel slowly advanced towards God. He motioned for me to follow him. God stared at me with a smile.

“I see you brought him here,” God said quietly to Gabriel. “It’s about time.” He motioned for Gabriel to stand towards His right. That’s when I noticed it. If you read the bible, it will tell you that Jesus, God’s only son, is seated at the right hand of God, but today, there was an absence of the Son. But that was only the beginning of the strange things to come.

Chapter 2
God smiled as I made my way to the front of his throne.

“My son,” God began, “welcome to heaven. You couldn’t have arrived at a more crucial moment.”

“What do you mean crucial?” I asked, becoming more and more suspicious.

“Before I explain that, can I ask you a question?” God said, his look not changing. I nodded my head and he continued, “Do you remember how you were killed?”

If there was a mirror in front of me, I’m sure I would have seen a terrified reflection of my face staring back at me. The images of the recent events flashed back in my head. I was standing on a bare street. It was pitch-black dark and I had just stopped from running a great distance. Running from someone in particular. It was obviously not my lucky day. The guy caught up with me.

“You made a grave mistake by coming here, Jesse,” The masked man said. “It will be the last mistake you ever make!”

“NO!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I dropped to the ground, my knees getting soaked as they landed in a puddle of dirty water lying in the middle of the road.

“And why should I give you any mercy? You’ve only brought my life hell!”

“Hell is something you’ll never know until you arrive there!” I yelled with an attempt to distract my attacker long enough for me to make a stunning getaway. It failed.

After the words left my mouth, the man lifted his masked head. I swear I heard a laugh come from the general area of his mouth as his finger, which had been lying on the trigger the entire time, ever-so-lightly let itself push the trigger down.

A large cylindrical bullet emerged from the barrel of the gun. It cut its way through the wet nighttime air and lodged itself into my head. I fell backwards into the puddle of water and blacked out.

“All I remember is getting shot, then waking up here,” I lied, not wanting to divulge the details of my death.

“Don’t think that just because you’re in heaven doesn’t mean I don’t know what you’re thinking, Jesse,” God reminded me with a smile.

“Alright,” I began, “even though I think you already know this, I’ll tell you what happened. Let’s see, where do I start? Well, I’d been in some serious crap by this point. Investigating friends because my employer told me to.”

“The police?” God asked, sounding genuinely interested.

“Yes, them,” I replied. My mind raced back to the moment I returned from my mission.

I walked into the squad room of my precinct. My captain was the first to greet me.

“Officer Crist, you look terrible,” He said.

“I know. This was a terrible idea,” I replied. “They’re mad at me. Threatened my life.”

“Then we’ll put a protective detail on you,” The captain offered.

“It won’t do any good,” I said, trying to make it as clear as possible. “You don’t know them as well as I do. They’ve done loads of research on us, they know every trick in the book, and some not even thought of yet.”

“There’s gotta be something we can do!” The captain argued. “We can issue a warrant for their arrests!”

“We can’t do that either,” I said grimly. “I didn’t get enough evidence to even get a search warrant.”

“Damn!” The captain swore as he slammed his hand onto the desk.

“The only thing we can do is try and hide and always be on the lookout,” I said as I left the conversation and went to my office.

I continued. “So my friends, you know, the ones I investigated, were very mad at me. The night after the investigation I walked out of the precinct and was jumped.” Again, the images ran themselves through my brain, this time bringing the pain with them.

I slung the door shut behind me and began to walk towards my car. My bed was calling my name, encouraging me to grace it with the presence of my body. I made it to my car when I heard him.

He attempted to surprise me, but little surprises me anymore. That’s when I felt the sharp pain of a knife piercing my side. I spun around and struck the man in the head. I bolted off to my right and ran out of the parking garage that my car was parked in. I ran until I reached a motorcycle.

I may be a cop, but that doesn’t mean I can’t engage in a few illegal activities, such as hotwiring a motorcycle in order to not die. I mean, come one, that shouldn’t be frowned on at all.

So I hotwired the bike and quickly rode out of the garage. I took the road and headed towards the east. I don’t know why, but I thought I’d be safe at the beach. My attacker was somehow faster than me.

Twenty minutes into my journey, I caught the first glimpse of his headlights in my mirror. He was rapidly gaining on me. He kept driving until he was right on top of my bumper. That’s when he suddenly pumped the gas and literally tried to run my bike over.

I was flung off of it and crashed into the road. It took me a minute to stand up. By that time, my attacker had exited his vehicle and had proceeded to point a gun at me. I ran again, continuing to the east. I was a better runner than my attacker was. But that didn’t matter; even all good runners get tired.

“So I ran, I stole a motorcycle and headed east. He caught me, knocked me off the bike, and shot me. And here I am,” I finished my story with a sigh.

“And you don’t think that possibly this could have all been planned?” God asked, hinting at something greater than me just pissing a couple of people off.

That was when something crashed through the side of the room.