The Sunset Prophecy (Love & Armageddon #1) (27 page)

“
Here we go,” Adam said, as he squeezed back into his chair. His eyes darted in every direction. “These poor people have no idea what’s coming.”

Naturally aggressive and filled with confidence of an anointed hope, Matt swung first.
His left jab put Cesar’s supposed weakness of not protecting his left side to the test. Cesar blocked it with ease and returned with a flurry of three jabs. Matt blocked two of them with his glove and dodged the third with a quick, two-step bunny hop.

Matt countered with two jabs and a strong left hook at Cesar
’s right side. Cesar blocked one jab and his shoulder connected with the other, but was able to protect against the hook with his arm. Cesar slightly staggered backward, the crowd oohed and awed.

Ramiro screamed,
“He’s stronger, Cesar...
hijo,
remember,
distancia
.”

Cesar bounced aroun
d the ring in a square pattern, Matt danced back, following and eyeing him like a predator, looking for any sort of defensive lapse.

The bell rang and Cesar jocularly gave Matt a halfhearted swing, making him flinch, as he backpedaled into his corner.

“Jackass!” Matt said, retreating to his stool.

Jacob rubbed Matt
’s shoulders and then pulled down the bottom part of the helmet and rubbed grease on his face, near the jawline.

“
If he hits near your jaw, your headgear should slide a little. It will absorb some of the impact. Now hear me, wear him out,” said Jacob. “Did you see how he staggered back when you hooked him? Just keep attacking him.”

Matt nodded. His intense stare focused squarely on Cesar and his corner.

“Focus, Matt,” Jacob pleaded. “Don’t let him get in your head.”

The sound of the bell instantly launched both fighters simultaneously to the center ring as if they were marionettes. Cesar lunged at Matt first with a series of jabs, which Matt absorbed with both of his strong and well
-built forearms. Keelen cringed ringside. She used the shoulder of the person sitting next to her as a stress ball. The middle-aged man, with the stylish aviators, who felt Keelen’s nails dig into his shoulder immediately noticed her inherent physical beauty and didn’t mind offering his shoulder for Keelen to deflect her anguish.

Up above, Adam began biting his fingers, anxiously waiting for something, anything. He again radioed Tracy.
“See anything peculiar?”

“
No, not really. But there’s a reporter who has fallen asleep next to me. I don’t know if I should wake him up,” Tracy said, while taking notes for her feature.

After the mini
-onslaught from Cesar, he decided to dance around the ring. Matt chased him around, but when he made physical contact, Cesar wouldn’t give him anything, as Cesar didn’t fight, nor dance, instead he hugged Matt for the duration of the round. Both fighters’ heads butted ear to ear, as if they were two seasonally heightened rams battering each other’s skulls for gene propagating access to the hoofed harem.

“
What you doin’?” Matt mumbled through his mouth guard in the middle of their embrace. “Come on, man, fight.”

Cesar inconspicuously pulled his head away from Matt while they hugged, and butted the blonde bomber with his exposed brow
bone, causing a cut at the high point of Matt’s cheek. Matt pushed Cesar from his hug and yelled at the ref. It was a sneaky move for Cesar, but one that clearly paid off; the referee didn’t recognize its malicious intent.

Matt stepped back and favored his cheek with his glove. He ran up to the ref and showed him the smeared blood on his blue boxing glove. The referee rapidly rolled his arm in a circular motion, signaling that they keep fighting.

“That’s a point,” Jacob yelled from the corner. “That was intentional.”

Like an angry bull, Matt charged Cesar and abandoned any form of strategy, while launching a barrage of right and left hooks at Cesar, backing him into the corner of the ring. Matt unleashed an arsenal of uppercuts, trying to break his opponent. However,
Cesar maintained composure and weaved his head away from Matt’s punches. The bell rang. Cesar leaned into Matt’s chest and pushed him away. The crowd booed mercilessly at Cesar’s tactics. The referee got in front of Cesar and pointed his finger at him. “You can’t do that, you hear me.”

“
He was on top of me when the bell rang,” Cesar claimed, after spitting his mouth guard toward his corner.

Matt lunged at Cesar. The referee was there to hold him back with his other arm.
“You want to fight dirty?” Matt yelled at Cesar.

Both fighters retired to their respective corners. Jacob then massaged the gash underneath Matt
’s eye, applying cold pressure with an Enswell. “You need to protect the cut.”

“
That piece of...he’s dirty, Jacob. If he tries something, you need to let the ref know.”

“
I will, but you need to keep doing what you did to end that round. Tire him out.”

Adam
grinded his teeth and shook his leg nervously. He began thinking if he was also lied to by the Seraphim. “Israfel, you better come through,” he muttered to himself. Adam tapped his phone for Tracy. “How are you doing down there?” There was no answer.

Flashes of static began to flicker on the walls of the press box. The reporter, whose stringy gray hair jutted out underneath the rim of his wool fedora, still napped on the table overseeing the arena, while a terrified Tracy hid underneath the table.

After a minute or two, Adam heard her breathing on his phone.

“
Adam?” she whispered. “You there?”

“
Yeah, what’s going?” he asked.

“
There is some spooky shit going on here...”

“
What do you mean?” he said, while placing the binoculars over his eyes.

“
The walls are flickering, with some sort of electrostatic pulse,” she said.

Adam saw checkered flashes splashing from the interior of the suite.
“Hang in there, okay. I’m on way over there right now. Whatever you do, don’t move.”

The bell rang again, signaling the start of the third round. Both fighters sprang to action, but before anyone of them could throw a punch, the referee temporarily stopped
the fight. Everyone in the crowd groaned at the abrupt decision. The referee looked up toward the press box. He yelled at the judges, “Whatever is going on up there is going to distract the fighters.”

“
No, it won’t,” yelled Matt, who was eager to turn Cesar’s face into mulch.

“
What’s going on, Ref?” whined Ramiro.

The ref called both Jacob and Ramiro to center ring.
“We have to stop the match temporarily. I can’t have a fireworks display distracting everyone in the arena.”

Matt leaned over the ropes and waved at Keelen, who promptly stood up and traversed the row, so she could meet him at the ring. An usher saw her and quickly ran up to her, to let her know that approaching the ring was out of the question.

“It’s okay, she’s with me,” Matt said to the usher.

The usher backed off.

“How’s the cut?” he asked Keelen.

“
It doesn’t look too bad. I saw his head butt,” Keelen said. “What’s going on up there?”

“
I don’t know, it must be some type of electrical issue.”

Adam made his way to the other side of the arena, where the press boxes and suites were. He arrived at the door. The arena technicians showed up shortly thereafter.

Adam placed his hand on the door handle. The burly and bearded electrician asked, “Are the light fixtures acting up?”

“
I don’t know, but one of my employees is in there. Let me get her out,” Adam said calmly.

“
We’ll get it fixed in no time,” said the electrician.

With trepidation,
Adam opened the door. The static inside filtered out into the walkway as it had worsened. Adam’s eyes scanned the suite, knowing full well what was happening. He made eye contact with Tracy. “Come on, get out,” he said. Tracy got out from underneath the table and scampered toward Adam, quickly getting behind his large frame. The technicians peeked over Adam’s shoulders.

“
That ain’t no light fixture,” said the brawny electrician, with eyes widened.

As soon as Adam yelled at the old reporter who was still snoozing to wake up, his ears began tingling. He turned toward Tracy and placed a finger inside his ear,
and said, “My ear is itching.”

Tracy began picking at ear as well. She glanced at the technicians and they
, too, were playing with their ear holes. She said, “My ear is tickling, too.” But as soon as the words came out of her mouth, sound completely disappeared. She was suddenly a mute who could not hear her own words.

The technicians and Tracy opened their mouths in a repetitive motion
, like fish out of water. They tried to hear their own yells or vocalization. All sound had disappeared. The deafness lasted for a half-minute before a sudden piercing sensation overwhelmed their ear canals, then it was succeeded by the auditory main event. A pulsating and ear-splitting siren, similar in resonance and pitch like the ones that used to blare on the coasts during World War II and the like the ones that conditioned entire populations of people to fear the Soviet nuclear threat. However, it did not repeat, it began with a high-decibel shriek and crescendoed into a bone-shattering
basso profondo
, knocking everyone in the arena to the ground. It was now apparent that Israfel followed through with his divine purpose.

The spectators stood up from the sound-induced tremor. Bewildered looks painted their faces. A wave of chatter built up, echoing throughout the walls of the Olympic Hall.

Matt stood up from the mat. He assisted Jacob, who had fallen on his side. “You all right?”

“
Yeah, I’m fine,” said Jacob, loudly, as if adjusting his voice after walking out of a heavy metal concert.

Matt quickly raced toward the ropes, seeing if Keelen was
all right. He extended his hand out through the ropes as Keelen got up from the floor. “Come on, get up here.”

As she climbed into the ring, the first tremor hit. Everyone was thrown to the ground again. Concrete began falling from the ceiling and onto the seats, smashing unsuspecting spectators below. Blood
-curdling screams could be heard simultaneously with the thumping sounds of stone hitting the floor of the arena. Matt threw himself on top of Keelen. An instinctive reaction, but one which was ultimately an act of futility if both were hit with rubble from above.

Once the earthquake ceased, those who were not busy pulling loved ones or pieces of their loved ones from the fallen rubble, rushed through the exits of the arena with the
herd-like panic of a mindless stampede.

Thankfully, everyone in and around the boxing ring were spared by the descending crumble, however, as soon as they all got to their feet, the sound of metal beams bending
overcame the shocked silence that followed the tremor. The fighters and their trainers, Keelen, the referee, the scorers, and the privileged guests of
Estil
saw the ground beneath the seats, surrounding the ring, begin to sink. Thick dust kicked into the air, and the tearing sound you’d hear if Earth’s ground ripped open overwhelmed the panicked clamor of those left behind.

Matt wrapped his arms around Keelen
’s slim torso, as they both felt the hollowed substrate below their feet give way. The area surrounding the ring collapsed, crumbling fifty yards below ground, into a chasm that no city planner or civil engineer knew even existed. A thick, gray plume of dust burst out through the large hole where the ring once stood. A macabre silence settled below, once the last piece of rubble rolled down one of the piles of mangled flesh and stone.

The level where all the press boxes and suites were
located remained suspended. Adam pulled up Tracy from the floor. One of the technicians had a bloody gash on the side of his head and was helped to his feet by the technician. Adam looked through the open door of the press box. Two Seraphs had materialized from the static. One of them pinned the reporter on the ground. Its claws clearly knifed through the man’s back, as blood pooled out from underneath the dead man’s belly. Adam gnashed his teeth. His aura of flame kicked up through his flesh.

“
Hey, don’t even think about it,” Adam yelled at the winged beasts, as they eyed the wide breach in the center of the arena below. “Theolodus is mine!” he screamed at the Seraphs.

One of the Seraphs
creeped to the edge of the press box and spread its bat-like wings. It glanced back at Adam, shrieking loudly, before gliding down toward the chasm, its unholy partner following a second behind. Adam waddled as fast as he could to the edge of the press box. He watched the Seraphs land next to the chasm. They inspected the opening, circling it like wolves. Adam began climbing over the ledge. He noticed Tracy through the door of the press box. Her face was white. In shock, she wobbled and staggered before fainting to the ground. One of the technicians returned to pick her up and the group dashed away from the press box and through the interconnecting tunnels that led toward the arena’s eventual exit.