Eternity (7 page)

Chapter Fourteen

That night, I couldn’t sleep again. Thoughts of Rafe and Michael and the prophecy spun a web in my mind. Not the eerie futuristic dreams to which I’d grown accustomed or the disquieting nightmares about the man with the black hair. Instead, I had a vivid dream in which Rafe, Michael, and I flew the skies together in a mad race to halt the ticking of the end-days clock. By the time morning arrived, I was so confused.

I mean, how could I simultaneously dream about Rafe, love Michael, and worry about the end of the world?

That morning, I drove myself to school instead of riding in with Michael. I needed a car for my meeting in town with Rafe just before Michael’s Friday night football game. In lieu of our car ride, Michael and I planned on meeting at my locker before class. Normally, I was excited to have my few minutes alone with Michael in the morning, but today I felt something very different as I approached locker number twenty-four. Dread.

As if I’d betrayed Michael by enjoying my time with Rafe. Like he once betrayed me.

We couldn’t afford this distraction. So I pretended nothing was out of the ordinary, something I’d gotten awfully good at doing. I painted on my smile as I walked down the hallway toward my locker, where Michael was waiting, and kept my lighthearted banter going for a while once we met. Only when he leaned in to kiss me good-bye did I start to tense up. Would he be able to read my conflicting thoughts about Rafe through our kiss?

At the same moment his lips lightly touched mine, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I spun around to see Ruth. I was never so thankful to have an intimate moment interrupted.

“Sorry, guys, but I needed to catch you both,” she said, blushing at having to disturb us.

“Don’t worry, Ruth,” I rushed to reassure her. “What’s up?”

“I think I found something. Can you meet after school today?”

“Of course,” I said, immediately relieved at the thought that the waiting might be over. I’d have to cancel my meeting with Rafe, but I felt a certain relief about that too. Maybe if he was out of sight, he’d be out of mind. I really, really needed him to be out of mind.

“I can’t,” Michael said.

Ruth and I stared at each other—and then at Michael—in surprise. What could possibly take precedence over this?

“What?” I asked.

“It’s Friday. I have a game. Remember?” He actually sounded irritated that we’d forgotten about his football game.

“Right. Football,” I said.

“You are coming to the game, aren’t you?”

“Of course. But couldn’t you meet us beforehand?” I was incredulous. How could he think about football at a time like this? Maybe it was the little sideline fan club that he couldn’t do without.

“Ellie, you know that Coach Samuel has the team eat an early dinner together then has a strategy meeting before the game. Can’t we meet after the game?” He was intractable. “The team is counting on me, Ellie.”

“It’s not exactly like we’ve got limitless time, Michael. And a
lot
more people than those on your football team are counting on us. Remember?” My tone was every bit as irritated as his.

I could tell that he was about to retort—sharply and uncharacteristically—when Ruth interjected, “Why don’t we meet at the Daily Grind
after
the football game? I don’t think a few extra hours will make that much difference.”

“Are you sure, Ruth?” I asked.

“I think so.”

“Can you make it there after the game, Michael?” Even though I tried to ask him pleasantly, the annoyance hadn’t altogether disappeared from my voice. It was clear Michael heard it too.

“Yes, Ellie. I’ll be there,” Michael said before storming off.

Ruth and I rolled our eyes in disbelief at Michael’s behavior. Even though I knew that Michael and I were supposed to act normally, his slavish insistence on playing football and his concern for the team was beyond normal. He’d never been so gung ho about it before.

What was happening to
my
Michael? One of the things that drew me to him initially was his inner confidence. He did what he wanted—what seemed meaningful and true to him—without worrying about the social consequences. Like spend Saturday night at the Odeon movie theater watching an indie film all by himself. Something no self-respecting upperclassman would do, especially not a football player. Now he seemed strangely motivated by the impact of his actions on our classmates and his team. Almost to the exclusion of our
real
goal. He wasn’t simply playacting a normal teen anymore.

I debated discussing this change with Ruth. Certainly, she had to have noticed the alterations in his personality over recent days. On balance, I decided against it. Ruth had enough on her plate without worrying about problems between me and Michael. The ones who were supposed to be saving the world.

Chapter Fifteen

I cancelled my meeting with Rafe and confirmed plans with Ruth to go to Michael’s game after our fight. It seemed the right thing to do, even though I definitely didn’t feel like witnessing the adoration from the fans or Michael’s own blind devotion to the game. For the first time since we started dating, I hadn’t seen him in the hallways between classes, and I knew he must be avoiding me. We needed to be in sync in the coming days, so I needed to forgive him. After all, I had done some things deserving forgiveness too, although he didn’t know about them. Like dreaming about Rafe.

After killing some time in the library after school, Ruth and I headed over to nearby Bethel High School stadium in our separate cars. The stands were packed, as Tillinghast was playing its fierce rival team from the rural Bethel Township. We had to jockey for seats in the bleachers among the hundreds of students, parents, teachers, and local supporters.

Even though I’d seen Michael run out onto the field before, for some reason, the way he looked struck me. His physicality reminded me of all our long nights together. Long nights that seemed a long time away. He literally took my breath away. I held it, waiting to see what he would do.

The first few plays disappointed, but not because of Michael. Again and again, Michael was in position as wide receiver. Still, none of the other players managed to pass him the ball. I watched as the clock ticked down to the end of the first quarter, and I could feel the frustration in the fans around me.

Then, with seconds left in the first quarter, the center tossed the ball to the quarterback. The quarterback held the ball tightly in his grip and readied his throw. He scanned the field, looking for one of his guys to be open. Most of his players were caught up with Bethel’s team near the end zone. All except Michael.

I saw the quarterback nod in Michael’s direction, and then release the ball. As Michael prepared himself to catch the pass, a massive pileup of guys landed right in front of him. The football sailed through the air toward Michael, but it seemed impossible that Michael could jump high enough to catch it.

Until he did.

I watched as Michael lifted off from the ground with grace and speed. I’d only ever seen him get such height during our late-night meetings.

The crowd cheered wildly as Michael caught the ball in midair and scored a touchdown. As he ran back to the sidelines, I watched the back of his coach’s head as he reached out to give Michael a high five. Michael’s face shone with pleasure at the roar of the fans. I saw that Michael wasn’t thinking at all about the end days or Nephilim or even me. He was reveling in his own glory. Reflected glory, that was, from the coach, his teammates, and the fans.

But there was more, and I was furious.

“Wow, Ellie, Michael is amazing tonight.” Ruth interrupted my thoughts. I heard awe in her voice.

“Yeah, he’s amazing, all right.”

The anger in my voice was irrepressible, and Ruth turned to me in surprise. I didn’t dare explain why I was so mad at him. I knew what everyone else didn’t.

Michael had used his powers on the field.

Chapter Sixteen

How
dare
Michael? After all his lecturing about our not using our powers—not even to figure out this end-days puzzle—to protect ourselves and our parents from the other fallen angels, Michael had used his powers for a high school football game. It was unbelievable.

The more I thought about it, the madder I got. Anger always made me quiet, which Ruth understood all too well. When I was silent on the walk from the stadium to the parking lot, she knew better than to ask why. Even though I’m sure she was insatiably curious for the details.

We hopped into our separate cars, fortunately for Ruth. The ride alone to the Daily Grind gave me time to think. I was still furious at the risk Michael had taken, yet I knew we needed to be aligned. Maybe he had a good reason for clinging to his football successes, I told myself, and I simply didn’t understand it. Even though, for the life of me, I couldn’t conjure up an acceptable explanation for his using his powers on the field. By the time Ruth and I met up at the coffee shop, I had cooled off enough to be civil and wait patiently for Michael.

Ruth and I watched as the coffee house clock hit nine, nine thirty, and then ten, all the while making pathetic attempts at small talk. Michael never showed. I called him repeatedly on his cell. He never picked up. All my hard-won equanimity started to slip away. It was one thing for Michael to punish me with the cold shoulder, but it was an entirely different thing for him to ignore his enormous responsibility to humankind because he was mad at me. After all we’d been through in Boston, how could he disregard the stakes?

“I don’t think we should wait any longer, Ellie,” Ruth finally whispered.

“I know, Ruth.” I sighed. “Talk to me. What did you find?”

She passed me one of her famous binders. Flipping it open, I faced charts and graphs and statistics, as well as a few heavily highlighted newspaper articles. My head was still too muddled with anger at Michael to sort through it all.

“Can you give me the layman’s version?” I asked.

Ruth laughed; it was the first sign of levity from either one of us since we arrived at the Daily Grind. She whispered, “Sure. As you know, there are six seals left. If you disregard the final seal—the emergence of a very scary end-days leader—we have famine, widespread disease, economic depression, revolutions, and persecution of Christians.”

She sounded like she was spouting off a grocery list. A very terrifying grocery list.

“Wonderful,” I said.

Ruth ignored my cynicism and plowed ahead. “I looked at worldwide trends and anticipated environmental events. And at first, nothing jumped out at me as a potential sign. Then I came across a few articles predicting a potentially catastrophic climatic event.” She pointed to the articles in the binder that were covered with yellow highlighter.

“What was that?”

“There’s this enormous volcano under a glacier on an island off the coast of Greenland. Most people ignore it, because you can’t see it and it has only erupted two times in the past couple of thousand years.”

“Yes . . .” I said, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Well, in the past few months, it began rumbling.”

“Rumbling?”

“Yes, rumbling. Even though the volcano’s workings are too mysterious to make definite predictions, the articles put together some scientific data suggesting that it will erupt. Very soon.”

I thought back to Ruth’s tutorial on the Book of Revelation, and I felt relieved. Disease, famine, revolutions, economic crisis, and persecution of believers made the end-days list. Yet, I didn’t recall her mentioning volcanoes. “A volcanic eruption isn’t one of the seven seals.”

Ruth shook her head, and the look in her eyes was of a quiet intensity. “No, it isn’t. But, if that volcano erupts, do you know what will happen?”

I was almost afraid to ask. “What?”

“The articles describe an enormous ash cloud that will drift over Europe and Northern Africa. At first, airline flights will be canceled across the two continents, since it’s unsafe to fly with all that debris in the air. It will seem a nuisance for travelers and a financial threat to the travel business. Then, a domino effect will occur. Necessary medical supplies will be unable to reach hospitals and doctors, resulting in the spread of disease. The food business, which depends on air cargo shipments to deliver its products to consumers and markets, will suffer; and vast quantities of produce and refrigerated products will spoil. If the ash cloud is thick enough, the sun will be blocked, leading to loss of crops and farm animals. This would inevitably yield a food crisis.”

“Oh my God, the volcano will break open at least two of the seals at once: famine and disease.”

“Potentially.”

“How likely is this volcano to erupt? And when?”

Ruth opened the binder and drew my attention to one of her many charts. “Very likely. Scientists think it will happen quite soon.”

“Why haven’t we seen any of this in the news?”

“No one is looking for it. Except us.”

I took a look down at the articles. I’d been too engrossed in Ruth’s delivery to give them more than a cursory glance. “Hold on a second, Ruth. These articles are all from newspapers like
Year 2012: End of the World
.”

She nodded. “I know. It looks like the ravings of some conspiratorial, doomsday kook, right?”

I nodded back.

“To be sure it made sense, I showed this stuff to my dad. He said that sometimes these publications are right on the money. They’ll take reporting risks that the big news houses won’t. Plus, he checked out the science, and he said it looked pretty sound.”

“You talked about this to your dad?” I couldn’t keep the anger from my voice. How could Ruth not understand the critical importance of secrecy?

“Calm down, Ellie. I told him that I had a school project to try to identify the next major environmental catastrophe. You know, on the heels of the earthquakes. He was all over it.”

“All right,” I said hesitantly. “Thanks for all your hard work on this, Ruth.”

Ruth gave me a small smile; even though the news was troubling, she was clearly proud of her efforts. While I appreciated them, her delight surprised me. I wondered if she had forgotten what would happen to
all
of us if she was right.

“Did your dad also tell you how we can stop a volcano?”

The smile disappeared. “Well, we can’t stop the volcano itself.”

“That’s what I figured.”

“But,” she hastened to add, “we can prevent some of the more significant devastation. We might be able to stave off the famine or some of the more virulent diseases. That way, we would be able to stop at least a couple of the seals from breaking.”

“And how would we go about that?”

Ruth pointed to her binder again. “By showing this to the authorities. So they can prepare against food shortages or a health crisis.”

“So, Michael and I would waltz into the White House with your binder, and they’d immediately mobilize the foreign governments.” I shook my head incredulously. “No government on the planet is going to listen to the apocalyptic warnings of two teenagers.”

Ruth looked down at her lap. I’d taken all the wind out of her sails with my criticism, and I felt bad. As I started to apologize, she said quietly, “True. Maybe no one would listen to two regular teenagers. What about two teenagers who can fly?”

Ruth had a point. I bet some authority figures would take a few minutes to peruse Ruth’s binder if Michael and I flew into their offices, before they hustled us off to a scientific lab for examination. If Michael and I revealed our true natures, we would not only risk our freedom but also the main thing we were trying to protect by pretending to be normal—our parents. Then again, maybe Michael had already taken that risk by using his powers on the football field. I was confused and overwhelmed, and I desperately needed to talk to Michael.

Where was he?

“Michael promised me I wouldn’t be alone in all this,” I whispered, mostly to myself.

Ruth reached over and gave me a big hug. The sympathy forced my guard down even further. And I’d been working so hard to keep it up.

“What’s going on with you guys, Ellie? You and Michael seem so mad at each other.”

My voice quivered a little. So much for being a strong, biblical creature. “I still love him, Ruth. The real Michael, the one I met a couple of months ago. But right now, I don’t understand him. And I really don’t like him. He’s changed so much recently. Haven’t you noticed?” It felt disloyal to say aloud the words that had been running through my mind.

Ruth was reluctant to answer; I could tell. Still, I needed to know what she thought. Had I become fickle? Were Michael and I just growing apart naturally, not because of any big alteration in his personality? Was something—or someone—coming between us?

“Please, Ruth. Tell me what you think,” I asked again.

“Of course, I’ve noticed, Ellie. He’s way into football, much more than he ever was before. That seems strange under the circumstances. And he’s so good at acting normal that it sometimes seems like he’s forgotten that all this supernatural stuff happened. It’s almost like he’s—” She stopped, clearly fearful of going too far. Michael was still my boyfriend, after all.

“Yes?” I prompted her.

“It’s almost like he’s lost his compassion,” Ruth said slowly.

“I know,” I answered quietly, letting the sad truth of the words sink in. “I mean, the other night Rafe and I were walking through the school parking lot, and without even blinking, he went over to help some stranger fix his flat tire. The old Michael would have done exactly the same thing—help out another human being in need. I’m not so certain about this new Michael. Would he be too worried about being late for practice?”

Ruth looked at me with eyes askance. “Who’s Rafe?”

“Just some guy I met at that committee to raise money for the earthquake victims.”

“You don’t say his name like he’s ‘just some guy.’”

“Well, he is . . .” I said, sounding defensive even to my own ears. “We’ve been working together on getting food donations for the big fund-raiser.”

Ruth’s voice grew low and deadly serious. She looked scared. “Ellie, you cannot let anyone come between you and Michael, no matter how confused you are about him right now. No matter how crazy obsessed he is with football. You cannot mess up things with the guy who’s supposed to help you save the world.”

“I won’t, Ruth. I promise. When I look into Michael’s eyes, I know that he is my soul mate. And I know we will stand together when the end comes,” I said to placate Ruth. And myself.