Chapter Two
1
Complete darkness surrounded Trevor. He had a feeling like he was floating through air. It was so dark that he couldn’t see his hands in front of his face. He was scared but felt completely relaxed.
He thought he heard a voice call out to him. A bright light appeared and then separated into seven bright lights. As the seven lights got closer to him, he noticed that they were actually seven golden candlesticks.
Trevor knew that he was dreaming. He let himself slip farther into the dream. It felt so real.
Soon a man stood behind the candlesticks but Trevor really couldn’t see all of him. Clouds started to form and surround the figure, and then the figure seemed to move closer. It didn’t take long for Trevor to fully see the man.
He had on a white garment that went head to foot with a gold girdle. He wore shoes that looked like they were made of brass. His hair and beard was white as snow, white like wool. His eyes seemed hold flames of fire.
The man and the candlesticks floated in air. The man raised his arms and then a book appeared. It was an old book that looked like it was sealed with seven seals. The book hovered over the man’s hands.
The men began to speak. “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.”
A loud crash brought Trevor jumping out of his dream and almost off the couch. He looked around not knowing what he was looking for. The sounds of the loud crash followed him as he was waking up, but he couldn’t see anything that could have explained it.
He lay back down and tried not to think about the crazy dream that he just had. He didn’t feel scared. He had never had a dream like that before. The dream did remind of something, but he couldn’t think of what it was.
He laid there smoking a cigarette wondering how he was going to find a job. If he could just find a job, then he wouldn’t have any worries in the world. It is funny how much life is depended on money.
It didn’t take him long to fall asleep again after smoking his cigarette. He hoped that things would just change already and get better. He couldn’t keep waiting for something to change.
2
Trevor woke up to the sounds of a thunderstorm outside. He didn’t know what sounded worst, the strong gusting wind or the thunder. His plans of walking around town and putting in more job applications had been canceled. It was a Friday morning to remember.
The weird dream that he had during the night was still fresh in his mind. He thought he would have forgotten it by now. He didn’t know what would have made he have a dream about some old man and a book.
After he went to the bathroom and had his first cigarette of the day, he turned on the television and started going through the channels. He decided to stop on the news and see how long the storm was going to last.
The weather man was saying that the storms were going to be bad and could last all day. There was going to be threats of tornados too. Trevor wasn’t worried about tornado threats, because his small town has never seen one.
The news switched over to other top stories for the morning and they were all about the weather. It seemed that bad weather was not only around his small town, but all over the country and a major part of the world.
There were reports of major earthquakes, tornados, and tsunami’s happening everywhere. Japan got hit with an earthquake around four in the morning. Earthquakes also seemed to be the alarm clocks for every California resident. There have only been five reports of deaths because of the bad weather. A tsunami hit the southwest coast of Australia.
Trevor turned the channel. He blamed the human race for the problems with the weather. We put a hole in the ozone layer, we use up all of our earth’s resources, and we change the landscape. We spill billions and billions of crude oil in our oceans. Then, we wonder why our atmosphere is changing around us.
He got up and went to his daughter’s room and woke her up. Ashley woke up right away and headed to the living room while cuddling her teddy bear blanket. Her long curly brown hair was sticking up in all kinds of directions.
Trevor turned on cartoons while Ashley got up on the couch. She usually sat on the couch and watched Sponge Bob while he got breakfast ready, but Trevor didn’t have anything for her to eat. He didn’t have any money for anything.
He let her watch her cartoons for a while before having her get dressed for school. He felt horrible and needed things to change. He couldn’t be happy even with his daughter around knowing that he couldn’t buy her things.
He hated the feeling of not being able to feed his daughter. He has been asking his ex to bring food when Ashley is dropped off to him. It wasn’t the kind of father that he always thought he would be.
Things had to get better. He didn’t know how much more he could take. Something good had to happen before he snapped.
3
Terry woke up and took her time getting dressed. Her body was in no mood to move fast. She brushed her hair and put on a little make-up before she walked out to the kitchen.
Her grandma usually had breakfast ready, but not this morning. Her grandma was in the living room glued to the morning news drinking her morning coffee. That meant that there had to be a big story on the news.
Terry walked into the living room wearing her black slacks and blouse hoping her grandma would say she looked lovely. Her grandma didn’t take her eyes off the television to even acknowledge she came into the room. It took several minutes for her grandma to say anything.
“Things aren’t right anymore,” Patty Olsen said. She took a drink of her coffee. “There are too many things going on at the same time.”
“What are you talking?” Terry wasn’t awake enough to listen to her grandma take nonsense. She noticed that there was a lot of talk of bad weather on the television. “Everyone’s just been having some bad weather.”
“All this bad weather isn’t just isn’t right,” she answered without looking. “All this bad weather hitting everywhere around the world on one day, doesn’t seem right to me. This could be the end of the world.”
“Everyone thinks the world is going to end when bad weather comes.” She looked at her grandma who was sipping on her coffee without looking at her cup. “Don’t be one of those people, please.”
“I’m not one of those crazy people,” she said. Her grandma finally looked at her. “I’m a Christian and I believe in what the Bible says, and that’s all I got to say about it.”
“Alright grandma,” Terry said. She knew better than to get into any kind of an argument about religion with her grandma. “We’re getting the rain that we’ve been needing anyways.”
“What do you have planned for the day?” Her grandma suddenly asked.
“I thought we planned on going to the store?” I have a real exciting life. “I should do some laundry done today after we get back. I got to wash my dress for church tomorrow.”
“That’s right,” her grandma said. “I got all caught up in this news program this morning. We’ll go here after awhile.”
“Well I’m going to go get some laundry ready.” Terry walked way suddenly not hungry anymore. “Just let me know when you’re ready to go.”
She started dreading spending another day off at home with her grandma. She just wants a boyfriend who actually liked her. She wanted Trevor to like her. He knew he wasn’t attracted to her.
She knows that Trevor still has feelings for his daughter’s mom, even though he says that he doesn’t. He goes over there all the time. He says it is just to see his daughter.
Terry was going through clothes and still thinking that she would never find true love. It seemed that finding love and being lonely was all that she ever thought about anymore, that and Trevor. She would never have the courage to tell him how she felt.
She looked at all her plain clothes. Her grandma wouldn’t ever let her wear anything that might catch a boy’s eye. She had to get new clothes.
“I’m stuck here for the rest of my life.” She said. She shook her head. “I guess it could be worse. At least I do have grandma.”
4
Trevor finished helping Ashley get ready for school. They had to walk in the rain to the bus stop. They had to cross the alley and then through someone’s muddy backyard.
He wished that he had an umbrella that they could have used. They were lucky to know the people who lived in part of the house where the bus stop was at. They could stand on their porch to wait on the bus.
When Trevor and Ashley went up onto the porch, Billy and Johnny came running out the front door to meet Ashley. The two blond headed boys were five and seven. They were full of energy.
Their father was an old gray hair man. Trevor felt bad for not even knowing the man’s name. He just call’s the man “Old man”. The old man stuck his head out the door.
“What’s up, old man?” Trevor kept his eye on Ashley, who was playing.
“What do you think about this weather?” Gerald said.
The old man was skinny with short gray hair and beard. He had a redneck way about him. He didn’t work and was trying to get disability, even though he was healthy to work.
Trevor didn’t like the old man because of the way he yelled at his two boys. In the summer time the old man and his wife can be heard yelling at the boys from across the alley. Trevor waited to go and yell at him.
“It has been a long time since we’ve had a storm this good.” Trevor sat on the step. “Wonder how long it will last.”
Trevor kept wishing that the bus would show up. He waited to go back and lay down. Standing and waiting for the bus wasn’t how he wanted to spend his morning.
“The weather man says things are only going to get worse throughout the day.” The old man seemed to be happy to share the new information that he had. “There’s going to be a lot of trees down because of this one.”
Trevor saw the bus coming and couldn’t be more thankful. He told Ashley goodbye and that he loved her. He stood there and watched the kids get onto the bus before walking home.
He was getting ready to walk through the yard when heard someone yell his name from across the street. He knew it was Melissa, a girl that he had known for all her life. He dated for a couple of day before she went to jail and then off to rehab.
Trevor turned to see the short long blond haired chubby girl coming across the street. She had been skinny before she went to jail and rehab, but appeared to have put on a lot of weight.
“What you up to?” She said. She smiled with her two front teeth missing. “I just got out the other day.”
“Just put Ashley on the bus,” he said. “Going to go home and get out of the rain.”
“Why did you stop writing me?” Melissa asked.
“Just did,” he said. “You wanted to start drama with me through letters.”
“Well,” she stared. “I heard you slept with my friend. How was I supposed to feel about that?”
“I done told you that I didn’t,” he replied. “I got to go. I have some things I have to get done.”
“Well, call me when you have a chance.” She gave him a smile, which wasn’t beautiful anymore. “I miss you.”
Trevor said okay and that he would as he turned and walked away. It was a lie because he knew that he wouldn’t. He didn’t want her around his house anymore. All she ever brought to his house was alcohol and trouble.
5
Robert woke up suddenly in a lot of pain. He couldn’t believe all the pain that ran through his face and ribs. He had no idea why he was hurting so badly. His brain seemed to hurt and it wouldn’t even let him remember how he got home.
He pulled the blankets down and noticed that he was naked. He also had some bruising on his left side rib area. “What the hell happened?”
He was able to sit up on the edge of the bed. He had to stop and put his hand over his left side. His ribs weren’t what were hurting the most. His face seemed to be throbbing all over.
“Oh my god,” he said. He tried to look over his body. “What did I do last night?”
He half expected someone to answer even though he was by himself in his bedroom. He didn’t know if he brought someone home or not. He doesn’t even know if he drove home or not. He never slept naked, so he had to bring someone back with me.
His whole body hurt and his face didn’t feel right. He suddenly got flashes of the fight that he had gotten into the night before. He didn’t even make into the last bar that he had gone to.
He had found the fight that he had gone out looking. He happened to walk into a guy who was also looking for a fight. The man had just gotten kicked out of the bar for trying to start a fight with someone else.
The man had come out of the bar yelling. Robert accidentally ran into the man. The man hit Robert before anything could be said.
The man had hit hard and Robert hit the ground. The man had gotten on top of him and just started swinging. He couldn’t get the guy off of him. The fight didn’t even last two minutes, but it was enough.
Robert wasn’t even going to try to get out of bed. He was in too much pain. It had been a while since he had lost a fight.
6
Terry couldn’t believe that the store didn’t have many people in it. She thought the store would be packed because of all of the bad weather all over the place. There were a few other customers that was stocking up for anymore strong surprise weather.
When they usually shopped they only used one shopping carts, but this time her grandma insisted on two. Terry thought that they were only going to get a few things. She didn’t want to spend all morning in the store.
“Why do we need two carts?” she asked.
“Because we need everything we can get,” her grandma said. “We need to get only things that will stay good for a long time. That means lots and lots of can goods. It is always best to be prepared, especially when hard times could be right around the corner.”
“You’re acting like it is the end of the world.” Terry chuckle a little as she started pushing the shopping cart. Her grandma grabbed her by the arm and stopped her. “What? You act like we’re all going to die tomorrow.”
“That is not something you should be joking about.” Her grandma had a serious look on her face. “The Lord could come at anytime. That’s what the Bible says.”
“Sorry.” That was all Terry could say. The look her grandma was giving stunned her. “But, this all seems a little crazy to me. Besides, we’re in a store.”
She let go of Terry’s arm. It was the way Terry was brought up to act. Patty Olsen wouldn’t take any bad talk about the Bible.
“Ok, let’s get everything we possibly can.” She went on as though nothing had happened. “I don’t want to be here too long, because things around here might pick up.”
Terry remained quiet as she followed her grandma around the store. She would go ahead and get the things she knew they needed. Then whatever her grandma pointed out.
The shopping cart was getting heavy from getting loaded down with can goods. She started dreading the upcoming task of putting things away when they got home. It would be the afternoon by the time they got done.
As she was shopping, Terry started thinking about her grandma. There was a possibility that her grandma might be showing signs of losing her mind. She thought about calling her aunt out in California and see what she thought about the situation.
It is never the end of the world. Terry thought as she grabbed cans of corn. But, at least we’ll be stocked on food for a few months.
7
Trevor spent the afternoon inside of the house. He didn’t want to take the chance of being outside and running into his uncle. He didn’t want to have to tell his uncle that he still didn’t have any money for the bills.
The storms still hadn’t let up. It wasn’t good weather to be going outside anyways. The thund
er and lighten weren’t going away. He was watching the latest weather news on the television.
There was a tsunami that hit Australia watch left the country devastated because they had an earthquake earlier in the day. The death count is in the hundreds. The world had never seen weather like this, especially all in one day. All the bad weather had caused supermarkets around the world to over flow.
Trevor was getting tired of watching all the bad weather. He had picked up the remote to change the channel when a knock came at the door. He got up and didn’t bother to look out to see who it was before answering, because he had hoped it would be Robert.
When he opened the door, he was surprised to see his uncle standing there. He loved his uncle, but his uncle was the last person he wanted to see. He still didn’t know what to say.
“We need to talk,” his uncle said.
Trevor had invited his uncle in out of the rain. The house was a mess and he wondered what his uncle could be thinking. His uncle had never come over just to visit.
His uncle Tim is over six-foot tall and was in decent shape. He had fallen out of a tree and landed on cement, which caused him to break both of his ankles. He recently had fallen down at the YMCA and found out that he had bleeding on brain. He has had three surgeries because of it.
“I can’t keep paying the bills for you to live here.” His uncle was trying not to look him in the eyes.
Trevor didn’t know what to say to him. He wanted to tell his uncle that things would be alright, but he couldn’t.
“I have to go see a lawyer about Bankruptcy on Tuesday.” His uncle wanted for him to say something, but he didn’t. “You need to have a job by then or I will lose this house.”
“Okay, I will do what I can.” Trevor wished he could say more. But, the truth was that the phone wasn’t ringing off the hook for job interviews, it wasn’t ringing at all. “If I don’t find a job by the end of next week, I guess I will move out.”
“I hate for things to have to be this way.” His uncle now tried to look into his eyes, but Trevor looked away.
They gave each other a hung and then his uncle left. Trevor hated feeling uncomfortable around his uncle.
Trevor spent the rest of the day stressing over where to look for work. He had done put in applications everywhere in the small town.
He did pull out his Bible and try to read some, but his mind just wouldn’t stay focused on it. He prayed for help finding a job to help himself and his uncle.
8
Billy was tired of the girl’s attitude. He should have never brought her home from a friend’s party. He tried to get down her pants in the car at the party, but she kept pushing him off. She was only teasing him at the party to keep getting her high.
She was the type of woman who would go home with anyone as long as she thought they had money that they could spend on her. Her name was Julie and Billy hated the name, but didn’t know why.
Girls like the one he has sitting on his couch tease men with the possibility of sex to get what they want, but then never put out, that way they don’t have to feel guilty about what they do. Billy knew how the sluts played their games. He had a game for her and they were out in the country, so nobody would hear them playing.
“When you going to take me home?” She asked.
She was drunk and could barely hold her head up. She still wouldn’t sleep with Billy. She wasn’t attracted to him at all.
She was nineteen and beautiful with short blond hair. Billy thought that her young beautiful body had been ruin by the tattoos that ran up the right side of her.
He could see most of them because of the short skirt and tank top she was wearing. He knew that she had slept with a lot of guys. Guys that was a lot worse than him.
“Why did you bring me all the way out here for?” She kept looking around his house. “I can’t even walk home from here”
Billy had talked her into coming out to his house, which was a mile or so outside of town. He could barely see while driving north out of town in the storm. Now, he just wanted to get some and get rid of her.
“I’m too drunk to be driving right now in this storm.” That was partly a lie, because the storm was too bad to be driving in, but he had done lost his buzz. “I’m going to wait a little bit before I go anywhere.”
“Then why in the fuck did you bring me out here?” She tried to sit up and show that she was mad. “This was a stupid idea.
“Hey, you are the one who agreed to come here.” He started for the kitchen.
“You lied and said that you had some weed.” She fumbled around for her cigarette pack. She didn’t even seem to notice that he had left the room. “You were thinking that I was just going to jump into bed with you.” She let out a little laugh. “I’m not just some bar whore.”
Just keep on talking bitch. He thought while he checked to make sure she wasn’t coming into the kitchen.
The girl was drunk and talking too much. She didn’t hear him getting into the kitchen drawers to get plastic zip ties for that were meant for trash bags. He took two yellow zip ties out and quickly put one end into the end of the other. Then quickly put them into his back pocket.
They both had their own distractions and didn’t hear the wind going crazy outside. If they had been listening to the radio or watching television instead of listening to CD’s, then they would have known that they were in the path of a F4 tornado.
When he walked back into the room, she barely had her eyes open while smoking her cigarette. She had her legs crossed and her short skirt wouldn’t stay down. Her ass check was showing and he liked what he saw. He hoped that she would pass out and make it easy on him.
“Can you help me to the bathroom?” She managed to ask.
Billy walked up and stood in front of her. He suddenly felt like he had a buzz again. He was going to teach her a lesson.
She tried to uncross her legs and her leg just flopped down. Her legs were spread wide open and he seen her pink panties. She could barely hold her head up and didn’t notice him staring between her legs.
I could take her right now. It took him a moment to fight the urge of forcing himself in between her sweet tender legs.
He knew that she would probably start swinging. She acted like she was a scrapper anyways. He wanted to make sure to have her hands secure.
He stuck out his hand for her to take and he pulled her up. She started to stumble away. He twisted her arm behind her back. He quickly reached into his back pocket with his other arm to get the zip ties.
“What the hell are you doing?” She was trying to turn around, but she was too drunk to get lose. “Fucking let go of me!”
“Don’t make this hard,” he said. But, please make me hard.
He had gotten her other hand behind her back, and then the lights went out. He fumbled in the dark till he finally wrapped the zip tie around her other arm and tightened it up.
She started screaming loud for help. There was no one around to here. No car on the radio would hear her scream. There weren’t any cars out tonight with the tornado coming anyways.
Billy pushed her down to the floor. Her butt was sticking up in the air. He kept one hand on her back pressing her face down into the carpet. He took his other hand and rubbed her butt.
“Did you think that you were just going to tease me and use me?” He looked down and saw that she was crying. “I always get what I want bitch.”
Her left side of her face was pressed deep into the carpet. Her tears were making her make-up run into her eyes on the right side. He wished that he could know what she was thinking. Was she even thinking anything at all?
Billy pulled down her panties and unzipped his pants. He let his hand off her back and then stood up to remove his pants. He started pulling them down when a loud crash came through the window.
A large tree branch from a fallen tree punctured Billy’s back and came out his chest. Julie ga
ve a final try to get free before she passed out.
9
Julie lay on the floor on her belly not knowing what to do. Her arms were still zipped tied behind her back. Her head hurt and she knew that she had passed out. The alcohol must have had still been running through her, because she remembered everything.
Billy had hurt her pretty badly and it really hurt her to move. She could see his lifeless body lying sideways on the floor with a tree branch hanging out of him.
There were times when she went unconscious, but she soon would snap to. Then the night’s events would flash before her eyes. Tears would always fill up in her eyes. She didn’t want to give up, because she didn’t know what would happen to her.
She didn’t want to think about what Billy would have done to her. She knew that he had planned to rape her. She didn’t want to know what would happen afterwards.
Would he have killed me to keep it a secret? Hot tears reformed in her eyes and rolled down her face.
She didn’t know how she was going to get the help that she needed. She wanted to go home. She wished that she had never come to Billy’s house.
Julie tried to push the bad thoughts out of her head. She tried to move her hands, but the zip-ties were too tight. She tried to stand up with her feet still zip-tied together. Then she figured out how to stand up.
She got to her knees and used the couch to push herself the rest of the way up. She got a sudden head rush. Billy had hit her in the head pretty hard. She didn’t think that she would be able to stand up. When she got to her feet all the blood ran into her head, and then she fell face first to the floor.
“Have you had enough?” A man was standing over. “Are you ready forgiveness?”
“Yes,” Julie was barely able to talk. “Please help me.”
Julie felt the zip-ties loosen up from around her wrist and ankles. She didn’t feel light headed anymore and she was able to move. She turned over and seen the most wonderful looking man she had ever seen.
“Who are you?” Julie asked. She looked at him with amazement. “How did you find me?”
“I am the one who was sent to give you a second chance in life.” He squatted down and brushed the hair out of her face. “Your sins will be forgiven here today, but you can’t ever go back to your old ways.”
“What?” Julie thought the wonderful looking man was crazy. “Do you think that you’re God?”
“No,” the man said with a smile. “I’m just one of his angels.”
Julie couldn’t say a word as the man stood up. The strange man was strange and confusing.
“Remember what I said to you,” he said. “Your sins are forgiven and you will go to Heaven. You go back to your old ways and you go to Hell.”
A bright glow sudden around the man and a pair of white wings appeared. Julie only blinked once and the angel was gone. She lied on the floor and cried.