If there’s one thing I hate about Sundays it’s waking up for church. I don’t mind going, it’s just the whole waking up early thing I don’t like. A new family moved in down the street (met them at Denny’s after church, The Jacobsons?). They seem okay though I don’t think I’ll being seeing their kids at school (their son Steve is about Jack’s age while their other two kids look like they’re still in elementary school). Jack went out this afternoon. I think Dad’s still bugging him about getting a summer job before he goes back to college next fall.
The Thompsons (yeah, way off on that one) came by earlier tonight asking if we were going to church today. Apparently they saw us on Sunday (they came BEFORE moving into their new house) and thought we’d be going tonight as well. Luckily dad answered the door and politely told them we weren’t (he’s the reason we go anyways since he went as a boy). Spent the rest of the night playing online.
May 14
Jack left today. I don’t know where he went but he just said he needed to go. Said that he heard it in a dream. It happened right after the broadcast. At least that’s what everyone online is calling it. Dad called it some sort of global mental telepathy or something like that but he’s always been too much into sci-fi and junk. But it was like everyone, everywhere was hearing the same thing at the same time. I swear I saw a figure too. Like a man except he had wings, but not like a bird or angel. They were different. Just different somehow. Mom and Dad said they didn’t see anything, but they did hear it, the broadcast that is. It said the world was going to end. That the rapture was upon us and soon we would all be judged. That he would judge us. I thought it was just me, until I realized I was in my parents’ arms, all of us sitting on the living room floor. Their faces were wet with tears. Jack though, Jack was standing in the doorway. A duffel bag was slung over his shoulder and Dad’s rifle was in his hand. I remember just staring at him in the doorway. He said he needed to go, that he had a dream about this and that he needed to go. He said he would be back in a week, the same day the world was supposed to end. My parents just stared at him without saying a word. I thought he was nuts. I chased him out the door but I froze when I got to the porch. I didn’t even see which direction he went. All I could see was the sky. The afternoon sky covered in black clouds which still haven’t cleared. No rain has fallen yet, but still I can hear a rumbling from above. I don’t know what’s going to happen but I’m scared. My parents haven’t left the house. They just sit by the phone with the radio and news on (everyone says to carry on normally but I know they don’t believe it).
Note: I taped Jack’s crucifix to the bottom of the page (I found it on the steps outside). He’d probably be pissed if I lost it.
May 15
The sky hasn’t cleared yet, but the booming is getting louder. At certain times, I can see a faint glow in the clouds (sometimes it’s just one, sometimes many). The storm is all over the news and it seems like it’s happening everywhere, even in other countries. I think everyone else is trying to stay calm though I can see how tense they are just walking around. I don’t think anyone’s gone to work. I know my parents haven’t. Me and a couple of my friends tried to go to school today, but someone burnt it down. I just wish they had waited for Mr. Wallace to finish cleaning the classrooms. He really was a cool guy (even promised not to turn us in after he caught us smoking stoges that one time).
May 19
I know it seems like I would want to log down every day and everything I do until the world ends but for some reason I just didn’t feel like writing. I’ve been trying to carry on with my day normally though the constant lightning show is making it a little hard. Yeah, not just clouds anymore (the lightning is even red!) Luckily no one seems to have gone into the full-on-end-of-the-world mode. Well, except for the Thompsons who just moved in the other week. I mean, I think they’ve already abandoned their house because I always see them preaching on the street with their three children or else hanging out at church. Dad makes us go for about an hour every other day now (though I don’t even know if it’s going to help). The other day there was a slight earthquake and the McGrady’s house fell down. Luckily it was the only one on the street that did. Dad and a couple people went over afterwards (I assume they found all of them because they dug 4 holes in the backyard). I don’t know. I’m just really hoping Jack’s okay. Yeah, stupid tangent but it just popped into my head.
May 21
JACK’S ALIVE! HE’S ALIVE! WE ALL ARE!
It was the morning of the supposed final day of humanity when we woke to the sound of a helicopter outside our house and a convoy of black SUVs. I stood behind Mom and Dad as they approached the door. Then we heard Jack’s voice. I pushed through and opened the door and there he was. He was Alive!!! A bunch of other men in black suits were getting back into their cars but I didn’t care. My brother was home! We had a huge dinner that night. It was mostly canned food and bottled water. It was the best meal I’d ever eaten.
I know I should feel like there could be nothing better than having my brother back home, but I feel like something’s wrong. He wouldn’t talk during the whole meal. He wouldn’t tell us what he saw or what he did. A whole week’s worth of being gone from home and supposedly battling the Rapture and he won’t tell us anything. He still had that duffel bag but I could see the hilt of a sword sticking out the top. The only question he answered was about the crucifix around his neck (he said he found it). But I mean he must have some story to tell. Something must have happened. He just won’t tell me anything.
May 24
Everything is kinda settling back to normal though it still feels awkward. No one is going to work or school (I think they’re going to start rebuilding next month). Nothing strange or paranormal has happened since we thought the world was going to end. We’ve heard reports that the government was going to start sending out agents to collect information from everyone to assess things (whatever that means). But until then we all seem to be carrying along fine. We missed church on Sunday because of the celebrating and stuff but it seems like the Thompsons are gone. For a while they were on the street, preaching and stuff. I think they still think the Rapture is still coming. Or at least that’s what they would shout at people as they walked past. Except for me. They kinda just stared. It was really weird. Speaking of weird, it was a sword that Jack brought home. He just has it sitting in the corner of his room, point down. I walked in there last night when he was in the bathroom. It shines on its own and somehow hasn’t stabbed through the carpeting yet it feels sharp. Just being near it, its its like I don’t know… can it be called “pure happiness”? It’s like I just feel happiness when I was near it. Jack however, he just stares at it, eyeing it like it’s going to come to life or something. He still won’t tell me where he got it, just that “he won it” whatever that means.
May 28
Someone arrived to see Jack today. He looked like he was the same age as I was. Said his name was Mark and he was looking for his brother Tom. That Jack might know where he was. I tried to tell him that Jack wasn’t talking to anyone but nothing would make him leave. I showed him to Jack’s room and a couple of minutes later he left. I asked Jack about it. He said Mark was just the first of many and that if anymore came to just let them in. “Especially,” he said, “if her name was Laura.” (who was she?) I asked him what had happened and for a while he just looked at the sword. Then he looked at me and I thought I could make out tears in his eyes but I couldn’t be sure (the only light in the room was glowing from the sword). People began following him wherever he went though he didn’t know exactly where he was going. He couldn’t tell me what happened but he was the only one who made it to the end of the road. He said they didn’t understand why he was going through all this trouble even when he told them. He said he was afraid, afraid to die. He said they didn’t understand
June 1
Jack Jack I want to write it, but I don’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it. Jack’s dead. They came to the house today in their robes. At first it was just the Thompsons but then more showed up. They watched the house, but we were so busy we didn’t pay attention. They said they were believers. They said Jack had damned them, that he had damned us all. There was nothing anyone could do. That he had cost them all salvation. They were willing. They had accepted their fate and Jack stopped it, stopped it all. They said it was his fault. I couldn’t watch as they as they beat him. He didn’t make a sound except to say that he was ready. I couldn’t understand. Sorry it’s just too hard. The next part. I heard a shout. One of them tossed aside a red can as a flame snaked its way to Jack, lying motionless on the ground in the street.
The flames engulfed him as it is engulfing our house now. I can feel the heat of the flames now as it consumes the hallway outside my bedroom door. The crackle and pop of the wood drowns out the sirens as the flames march closer and closer. I can still hear mom and dad’s screams outside my door, but it’s too late. They just don’t know it yet
*I actually thought about writing several of these pieces to turn this into a series (I actually have two more that I'm working on) but, truth is, I'm bored of these already. Maybe I'll come back to them later.
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