celloscribe922

Author's Note: Ok, this is my first officially posted story on LJ. *Ques clapping and listens to crickets* Well, ok then. This story is rather DARK. It focuses on one man, Alec, and how his life descends into darkness. There ARE religious themes in this story, particularly in consideration to the presence of God in people's lives. This is a story of good and evil and love and the impression they make on people. I hope you read this regardless of your religious affiliation and try and see what the story is about. There is  some graphic GORE and VIOLENCE so please, if it offends you, either don't read it or skip over it when it comes to that part. Enjoy!

The Beginning of the End

 

Since the dawn of time, people have feared the End. Whether it be the end of a job, a relationship, or a life, people wish they could postpone it. For me, however, the End cannot come soon enough. My name is Alec Mcdowell and I am the bringer of the End of all Ends; The End of the world. I didn’t always desire this. Once, I had a family, a career, and faith. Once, I was actually foolish enough to believe myself blessed by God.    

  My wife, Maxine, was the kindest and most beautiful woman on Earth, inside and out. My son, Jacob, was smart, handsome, kind, and had a heart of Gold. My daughter, Alexandra, had a smile that could melt even the coldest of hearts. Max had complications with her pregnancy with Jacob, our first born, and we were told that she would never be able to bear any more children. But then, 12 years later, came little Alexa, our little miracle. She had the ability to make me smile no matter how foul my mood. I prayed to God every day, thanked him for what he had given me, and asked him to guide me as he had always done.

  The first thing I lost was my career; our economy had gone to hell in a hand basket, and my company had gone bankrupt. But I did not waiver; I prayed. And then, on one cold winter’s night, my wife was driving home from her work when her car hit a patch of ice in the road. She lost control of the vehicle, and the car went into a tailspin. It blasted through the guard ail, flipped, and broadsided an oak tree. Her head smashed the driver’s side window, the force causing internal bleeding of the brain. By the time the paramedics arrived, it was too late to save her. My wife, my soul mate, my light in the darkness, and the mother of my children, was dead.

  Despite this, still I prayed. Not one month later, my son, Jacob, was brutally murdered while defending one of his friends from her drunken sociopath father. And I wept, and wept, and cried out to God “Why?” but still, I prayed. The only thing I had left was my baby, my precious Alexa. My job, my wife, and my son were all gone, and though I longed for them, I still had Alexa to care for. I prayed. I prayed because I still had Alexa, because I still had something to live for.

  For three years following the deaths of my loved ones, Alexa and I healed and prayed. During these three years, I managed to support the remainder of my family and tried to carry life on as normally as possible, even though two very important people no longer resided in this world. Alexa grew into a loving, smart, and beautiful child. She reminded so much of my beloved Maxine that, sometimes, it was painful to look at her.

  One day, while Alexa and I were reading in our living room, a blinding light appeared before us. I remember hearing Alexa’s screams as she was torn out of my arms.  I fought blindly; my hands searching the air for my little girl, my baby. “Alexa!” I called out to her but there was no answer. I stood but fell to my knees from some unseen pressure, as if gravity had made me that much heavier. Windows shattered and I raised my arms to shield myself from the sharp onslaught. I called out to Alexa once more, but it was not she who answered me. “Be silent!” I fell silent, reason returning to my mind as well as caution.

 

  The light faded and my eyes readjusted to behold a tall figure, long blond hair fallen loosely about his shoulders, garbed in what appeared to be an ancient gladiator’s uniform. A gold leaflet crown adorned his head and jet-black wings sprouted from his back and snapped open. A cascade of feathers fell to the floor and I was intimidated. “I am an angel of the Lord, and you may call me Michael. Your daughter is safe, and will remain so. You are a good man, Alec McDowell, and God, as well as your wife and son, await you in Heaven. Your daughter, Alexandra, has been chosen by God himself to do His bidding.”

  Though I had the sense that this was supposed to be some kind of honor, I could not help but think to myself that those who were chosen by God, did not have very happy endings. I asked, rather boldly ”What can she possibly do? She’s only 5 years old!”

Michael smiled, revealing two rows of perfect teeth; Pearly white and sharp as knives.

  “She is to be the beginning. The dawn to a world that has been in darkness for centuries. She has been chosen to be the new sacrificial lamb. Lucifer has put a plan into motion, a plan which will open Hell’s Gates wide to the world and flood the world with all manners of evil. If you think there is evil in the world as it is, then you’re in for a rude awakening. Alexa can prevent the Gates from being opened. She is very special, Alec. Her soul is strong from tender love and prayer, and her heart is innocent and pure. But only when we use her soul to rid the world of darkness can the world be saved.”

  I frowned, my heart growing cold. “What do you mean ‘use her soul’”

Michael looked at me with black, unblinking eyes.

“She must die. Once her soul is released to heaven, then we can use it. But as of now she is still a living human, which makes her a subject to free will.” I felt as though I was suffocating. The walls were spinning around me and vision blurred. Tears, thick and numerous streamed down my face. My baby. My miracle. The only thing I had left worth living for in this world was to be willingly given, willingly murdered, so that people, wicked and innocent a like, could achieve salvation.

  “No,” I shook my head violently. “No. Why is my child to die for those who don’t deserve to be saved?!” I screamed at him, throwing caution to the wind. “You have taken everything from me! Everything! I will not let you take her too.

“You have no choice in the matter. It has been decided.”

I called out to my daughter, ready to search for her. He came at me with supernatural speed, slamming me into the wall. The mirror shattered at the impact, glass shards digging into my skull and blood staining the back of my neck. “You will not interfere! Do not attempt to seek her out or the consequence’s will be severe.” He bared his teeth at me before vanishing in a flash of white. I slunk down the wall, gasping for air. There were red bruises where his fingers had grasped my throat, and a searing dull ache in my shoulder; he had dislocated it. I knew instantly, however, that he had taken my Alexa.

  I screamed in fury and took my anger out on the house. My hands grasped the back of my head, pulling glass shards out of my skull. I picked up one of the kitchen barstools and threw it into the sliding glass door over looking the pool. I went to my Jacob’s room, which hadn’t been touched since his death, and picked up his aluminum baseball bat. I smashed the furniture to pieces until the floor was covered in debris, if you took one false step it was likely you’d have a spear through your foot. I went through every room in the house, smashing every mirror, destroying anything I could get my hands on.

  I roared in agony and pain and sank to my knees, sobbing. “Damn it all to hell! I want my daughter back!” I stood screaming to the Heaven’s. “Do you hear me? Well, do you? I want my daughter back goddamn it! You give her back to me!” 

“Do you really?”

My head swiveled, seeking out the voice. “Please, I’ll do anything! I don’t care what it costs.”

“And you would be willing to forsake your God, the God that you have so faithfully prayed to all these years?” I stood cautiously, wary due to my previous encounter. “Yes, if that’s what it takes. Ask anything of me, I’ll do it! Only, please, give me daughter.”

“I cannot give you your daughter directly. While my power is just as powerful as your God’s, maybe more so since I hold sway over the human Earth, I am not a corporeal being. I can, however, place that power into your hands, if you pay the price.”

  My heart stopped for a brief second, contemplating what price would have to be paid, before damning the consequences. “Anything. Anything it takes!” A sinister chuckle filled the room and, if it were possible, I swear I could have heard him smile.

“There are three conditions that you must agree to for this arrangement to work. First, you must agree that once you have your daughter, you will turn her prayer away from God and toward me. Second, to prove that you mean to follow through with our deal, you will murder Michael, God’s personal crusader and golden boy. Thirdly, you must swear to me that you will live to do as I command. If I say jump, then you say ‘How high?’ If I tell you to kill this person, then you will do as I wish. Are my conditions clear?”

  “Like crystal. Give me the power to get my daughter back, and you’ll get what you ask 10 fold.” There was a blinding light around me, black this time, but I did not shield my eyes. The light closed in and I felt it sewing itself into my very soul, weaving its way through my veins and engraving itself into my body. Pain filled every inch of my being, my skin growing hot as though too close to an open flame. I screamed, choking as I fell to the ground. My back felt like it was literally breaking in two, and I could hear the snapping of bones as they broke and reformed. Pain I could handle, but this was pure agony and torture. My skin tore wide from my back and I passed out briefly, the searing flames too much to handle. Once I awoke, long, silver wings had appeared on my back. “What the hell are these supposed to be, a joke?” I snarled, unable to control my temper.

“Michael is not likely to come to you again, and so, you must go to him. Your daughter is with him, and I suggest that you hurry.” I could feel the power rushing through my body, to the tip of my wings. I walked out the door, my eyes towards the heavens. And, with a feral smile, took off.

  The sheer speed was incredible, even faster than the speed of light.

Some unknown instinct guided me to them and I touched down in a palace of white marble and alabaster stone. There, my daughter lay unconscious on an altar, Michael standing at her head, dagger poised to strike. With an agility I was unaware of, I drew his sword from his belt, feeling triumphant from the look of disbelief and fear that crossed his features, and knocked his legs out from under him. The dagger fell from his hands and I, with my free hand, grasped the back of his head before slamming it into a pillar, blood smearing the blinding white walls. His golden hair stained red, his leaflet broken.

  His wings opened wide as he tried to escape from me, but my speed was far greater than his, as was my strength. I caught him and slammed him into the wall once more, reveling in the cracking sound of his bones snapping.

  “You will burn in hell for this!” he spat at me, his last words.

“Well,” I replied, my eyes cold and emotionless, “At least I’ll be warm.” My blow was quick and smooth, blood pouring from his throat and mouth. I felt victory, and power, and the desire for more. My attention turned to my daughter Alexa and my cold heart melted, as it always had. I took his sheath and fastened it around my waist, sword in place, and then took half of his broken leaflet, fastening it onto my head. “Daddy?”

I turned to look at her and my anger melt away, my power submerged below the surface. “I’m here, sweetie. I’ve come to take you home.”

She frowned at me then, the first time she had ever done so. “Michael said God needed me, Daddy.”

I resisted the urge to snarl. “He did, honey, but not any more. Now, someone else needs your prayers and love.”

  Her face brightened at this prospect. “Who, Daddy, who?”

I paused, picking her up in my arms, before saying “Well, you can call him Light-Bringer.” She looked at me with wide eyes, contemplating it.

“Is he going to bring Light to the world?” I contemplated this and briefly wondered if, somewhere in her mind, she had meant it to be an ambiguous term. “All manners, sweetheart. He will bring knowledge, understanding, and fire to the world. And when the fire comes, the world will be re-forged and even better then before.” She smiled at me then, her eyes starry. “Really? How do you know?” I kissed her forehead, shielding her from the sight of Michael’s corpse. “He showed me, dear. I have seen the future of the Earth and it is glorious. We, you and I, are going to bring about the End of an old, corrupt, and unjust world to make way for a better one. One that doesn’t involve a God, at all.” She frowned again, looking slightly confused. “But if there isn’t a God, doesn’t that mean it’s the End?” I smiled at her. “Yes, pet, it does. And we are the beginning of the End of all Ends; The End of the World.”

 

The End

 

Yes, it's true, I have returned! :) It's been a few months since I've been on, mostly because I've been kept busy with school and the like. Despite my having owned this account, I still don't know how to use it very well, lol. It's a bit like exploring your own backyard when you haven't been there to play in several years; you forget what it's like, how to use the things in it to have fun. Im sitting here at my desk, drinking Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey out of my left hand, and coffee with with 3 cream and 2 sugar from my right. Yes, I'm weird. If you're going to tolerate anything I write you should probably get over that a.s.a.p. I am a fencing student and love it- I, being the meist me I can be, call it pirate training. My friends and I fence shouting out lines from 'The Princess Bride' and making up some of our own, but, really, can you blame us?

I will probably, inevitably, wind up posting some of my short stories on here either fanfiction or story's of my own creation. Feed back is ALWAYS welcome, though I happen to be a strong critic of flamers. If you don't like my story, that's fine. Comment on it, offer suggestions on either plot/character development or my grammatical errors (because I am not so arrogant as to assume that my piece is perfect), but DO NOT say things like "This Sucks" or "OMG THIS IS SO EMO!" or "OMG HE'S LIKE TOO PERFECT".
I will usually warn you in an author's note ahead of the piece if the story is going to be overtly dark or if some characters will be OOC, so please don't complain about something I mentioned in the author's note. That's about it for now, I suppose. Happy reading! I will now post a short story that I wrote for my English class. Enjoy! ;)