Chapter 4: Welcome Amanda Steward
“But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
Mark 13:32

Amanda smiled her trademark toothy, overly ecstatic smile. She shrugged her shoulders nervously in her baby blue gown and inched to the edge of her chair. Amanda looked over to Emmanuel with large blue eyes. He thought she looked stunning tonight. Her blonde hair was pulled up in a tight bun with a large white flower bonnet, her makeup flawlessly covered her face as her blue dress impeccably covered her body. He watched as she grabbed her drink, nails colored to match her dress.
   
     Trying not to blush too hard she gazed at her boyfriend of 2 years. The dim lights shaded the room in an amorous blanket; lit candles were placed sporadically and ferns added to the elegance of the restaurant.
 Emmanuel looked back at her,“So I said to him, ‘I’m not doing that! That’s not my job!’ and he just walked away without a single word.”
 Clapping her hands joyfully she smiled, “Finally! He was a creep, anyway! You should have been ruder. You should have just done as I told you.”

“What?” Emmanuel asked. “Call his mother?”

Amanda laughed, “I mean it would have worked. He wouldn’t be pushing you around anymore. But I’m glad that you stood up to him. I’m so proud!”

Emmanuel looked at her for a moment and said nothing, only soaked in her beauty and amiability. Breaking the moment, he smiled. “And I’m very proud of you too.”

“What did I do?” she asked.

“You don’t have to do anything,” Emmanuel shook his head. “I got you something.”

  Amanda’s heart dropped into her stomach as Emmanuel reached into his pocket. Had he finally noticed the more-than-obvious hints that she had been dropping? Was he finally going to ask her to marry him? Amanda’s body tensed; she couldn’t breathe. A sour taste boiled up in her mouth as her eyes grew large and wet. Her blue nails arched at the white tablecloth as Emmanuel pulled a large box from his pocket.

It was a slightly large box for a ring, Amanda thought, but didn’t care as she brought the box closer to her. Her heart beat loudly in her chest as she flipped open the box. Dropping her jaw, tears bundled up at the corner of her eyes. Inside the box was a large diamond ring, sitting on crinkled white paper. It had been the same exact ring Amanda had been dreaming about ever since she saw it in a catalog a few days earlier. She was breathless. It was so perfect her body was trembling. Her lips pinched themselves together as she tried to keep her composure.
“Yes…”

Emmanuel smiled.

“Yes. Yes! YES!” Amanda repeated as she cried. “Yes, I’ll marry you!” With those words, she leapt from her seat and threw her arms around Emmanuel, sitting on his lap. Amanda forced kisses onto his lips as he pulled away slightly.

Looking over to her with a raised eyebrow he frowned, “Amanda…. What are you talking about? I just gave you a necklace…”

Looking back she was breathless again. “No. No, you gave me a wedding ring.” Amanda turned and reached for the box holding it open, exposing the ring. “That’s a wedding ring, Emmanuel,” Amanda’s voice suddenly became stern.

“I bought you a necklace…” Emmanuel began.
 “No, you bought me a wedding ring!” Amanda slammed the box on the table as she stood from Emmanuel’s lap. “Do you think that’s funny?”

 “Amanda…” He tried to get his words out.

“So what are you trying to say, you don’t want to marry me?” She shook her head. “So you buy me a wedding ring but you don’t want to marry me! That is sick. Just sick!”

“Amanda!” He repeated. “The jeweler must have made a mistake and put the ring in there!”

 “No,” Shaking her head she threw her pocketbook over her shoulders. “I think you made the mistake... Or maybe I made the mistake... I mean. Somebody here made a mistake and it wasn’t the jeweler! This whole thing is a big mistake!”

She stomped home, ignoring Emmanuel’s repeated calls. Slamming the door behind her, Amanda’s fingers arched as she grabbed her forehead and screamed at the top of her lungs.
 
       The apartment was average size and filled with completely random items, mostly things she had appropriated from her college dorm room. There were Barbie dolls, a large purple clock in the shape of a cat, a dying cactus at the windowsill, moldings of sculptures she had made in class, and a bookshelf. Her apartment looked like a garage sale.

 A tall redhead walked out into the living room and stood before the plastic green couch, turning towards her roommate. “Mandy…baby, what happened?”

Christine crawled up beside Amanda, squeezing into the chair with her. Amanda lifted her wet face from her hands and threw them around Christine. “Oh my goodness, Christine. Emmanuel just did something really mean!”
 “Men, I should have known. The pseudo backbone to every society. What’d that egotistical, condescending, thinks-he’s-all-that-because-he-has-a-flap-of-skin-between-his-legs do? And baby, where is your coat?” Christine asked.

Amanda’s face became blank, as though she had just become suddenly aware. Plainly, she parted her pink lips to speak, her expression unchanging. “I must have left it in the restaurant. I thought it was a little cold outside…”

“Aw...” Christine rubbed her shoulders. “What happened?”

 “Stupid Emmanuel!” Amanda clawed her hands. “He makes this whole big deal like he’s gonna give me something and he does. I open it and it’s a freaking wedding ring! So I start screaming like a psychopath ‘Yes! Yes! Yes, I’ll marry the fudge out of you!’ And he’s like ‘Um…what are you talking about? I didn’t give you a ring, I gave you a necklace. Are you crazy? Blah blah blah.’ Is that supposed to be funny, Christine? Because it’s not!” Amanda hyperventilated and struggled to control her breathing.
 
       “No sweetie, it’s not.” Christine frowned. 

        “See! We’re not the crazy ones here!” Amanda threw up her arms. “You know it’s not funny. I know it’s not funny. The American people know it’s not funny!” Sighing heavily she ripped the clip from her hair and released the long blonde locks that curved around her shoulders.

  
      “I just…” Amanda paused. “I just wish some times I knew what he was thinking, you know? I just wish I could get inside of his head and shake things up a bit and be like, ‘You want me. I know you do!’ Gosh, I just would like…like I could just… I mean if I was him I would want me, you know? I’m good! I mean I just wanna… I wish I could just….”
   
     As the words left her mouth, Amanda could feel energy rise within her. Her skin was crawling, like tiny fingers pushing beneath her skin. Christine watched wide-eyed as Amanda began to change. Though an artist was repainting her, smoothly, Amanda’s skin, hair, and features gracefully shifted naturally.
        Within a few moments, Amanda sat in the very same chair, a little taller, a little darker. She sat as Emmanuel, hair and muscles bulging out of her blue dress. Christine fell back, falling from the chair and inching herself backwards until she hit the plastic green couch. Amanda looked over to Christine and spoke in her boyfriend’s voice. “What?”
  
      “Oh my God!” Christine spat before she stood and charged out of the front door, leaving it open behind her.
    
    Amanda stood to follow Christine, but the seams of her dress ripped at its sides. She looked over her body, now hairy, taller, and manlier. She ran to the bathroom. The face in the mirror had not been her own.  It only lasted a few seconds as her body tingled and she returned to normal.

        She sat there, on the cold yellow tiles of the bathroom floor with her fingers in her wild blonde hair and her blue dress torn in several places. Surrounded by a white picket fence in Staten Island Amanda was raised by strict Christian parents. Her family’s beliefs followed her all her life. A small bathroom prayer craft hung just above the bathroom mirror. God must have temporarily changed her. It must have been God teaching her a lesson for acting up in the restaurant. What else could it have been?

    After hours of sitting on the bathroom floor, Amanda repeatedly and unsuccessfully called Christine but quit after several tries. She needed to speak to someone.

        “Hello?” his voice cool and calm.

         Amanda knew he was upset; by the ring in his voice. “Sorry for being crazy…” she apologized immediately.
  
       Emmanuel paused for a moment, “I’m sorry, too. The jeweler must have switched the jewelry by mistake. You can keep the ring if you want.”
   
     “No,” Amanda answered quickly. “You should return it.”
  
      “Are you sure?”” Emmanuel asked.

       Amanda watched her cat, Catlin, jump from the couch and scurry across the room. “Yes, I’m sure, but there is something I have to ask you before we move on from this. It’s something that I’ve been wondering for the past few hours and it’s really been bothering me...”

        “What?” Emmanuel sighed.
  
        “Do you have my coat?” she asked.
 
        Emmanuel laughed loudly as Amanda joined him. “Yes, I have your coat.”
 
       “Good! It’s just that it’s my favorite one and I got it while I was in Boston and I don’t see myself going back there any time soon!” she laughed.
     
   Amanda awoke the next morning, rushing over to Christine’s room.  The door was wide open and it was empty. Christine had not come home that night. Getting dressed Amanda wore a baby-blue shirt with a huge smiling cartoon kitten on the front, form fitting blue jeans with flowers in the stitching and a butterfly necklace covered in rhinestones and fake gems. Within 10 minutes she was driving her green company jeep. Chefy’s was in a brick building and it only took up one floor. She walked in, eyeing twelve tables, covered in a white sheets and a small plants. Collecting her platters of meat and cheese Amanda rushed off to her appointment.

          “Em!” she squealed as she rushed to the elevator. “Hold it!” Inside was a man with curly black hair. “Thirteen, please,” she said placing her bags on the floor.
 
      He pressed the button. “Hi, yeah, do you know where they’re shooting the new Michael Barron movie?” the skinny boy asked, pulling his long white sleeves over his fingers.
        “Yeah, same place I’m going thirteenth floor,” she told him. He turned his direction to the glowing numbers above them. Amanda took advantage of this time to pull out a wedgie, hoping he wouldn’t notice.

        When she got to the thirteenth floor, she bid him departure and set up her stand. She picked an area in a hallway where a table was already prepared with a white tablecloth. Opening her bag she placed a black plastic tray of cheese onto the surface. Amanda opened a pack of napkins, folded them, and placed them about the table. Her job was done. “I’m exhausted.” she frowned. Just then, she saw the scrawny man from the elevator walk past her.
 
       “Hey!” she yelled. He looked a bit preoccupied, but that didn’t stop her. She walked straight up to him and tapped him on the shoulder and he plummeted to the floor. He had fallen into her table of food, knocking over everything. The crowd gasped as Amanda kneeled next to him, trying to wake him up. Failed attempt after failed attempt, she settled on calling the hospital. She pushed past the huddling crowd to an empty and clear space where she could get a signal. Picking up the phone, she began to dial when she saw the boy standing before the elevator fading in and out of transparency like a ghost.

        “T-This is i-impossible…” his voice was garbled as he attempted to touch the elevator but his fingers slid right through the button.  Amanda’s jaw dropped open. She shook her head and opened her mouth to say something—anything—but before anything could escape her mouth, a burst of energy entered the room. Amanda couldn’t tell where it was coming from or what it was, she could only feel a strong wind blowing through the office building. 
Ezekiel faded and Amanda ran to where she had seen him fall. Her bottom lip quivered as she saw Ezekiel glowing in a white light, and wearing a long, white robe. Growing from his back, Ezekiel had large gray wings. Amanda turned to the others around her and they were still and immobile, as though they had not seen what was happening before her. Ezekiel’s body lifted off the floor. Amanda could then feel her own body beginning to rise as she looked at her hands and realized she was glowing as well. She too was wearing a white robe and tan wings were sprouting from her back.
 

        When the light faded, the 4 stood alone in the office building. Their clothes had been their own and they were all wingless. The building was empty and the lights were off.  The 4 exchanged glances. A dark sheen blanketed the sun that once shined through the large hallway. Their hearts beat readily in their chests and their eyes were wide and wet. No words could be formed. Silence crept awkwardly around the room. Amanda looked up towards the others not knowing what to think or say. Her voice cracked a bit as she spoke, her eyes large and wet. “That was cool, but isn’t anybody going to say anything?”
 
       Ezekiel lowered his head as Aurora took a step forward. “What the hell is going on?” Aurora looked around her, her heart racing. “What was that? Well, somebody better say something!” Aurora’s voice had begun to get loud and irritated as she swung her arms out wildly.
 
       Neil looked over towards the other three. “I don’t know what to tell you except that whatever happened it’s obvious we’re all a part of it.”
  
      Aurora ran to the window beside her. Numerous hours had passed and it was night. The empty building was void of all light, save the luminosity of the stars, red moon, and city lights cast into the room. A thunderous neigh echoed through the halls as a man dressed in a pure white robe appeared standing, gazing outside of the window facing the city streets. After 3 neigh sounds, 3 other men appeared. The 4 men stood silent at first, their heads hooded and their backs facing the others. Aurora looked to Neil then back to the men by the window. These hooded men had an aura about them; a dark, malevolent aura that caused those surrounding to remain silent. The chalky sour taste in the mouths of Ezekiel, Aurora, Neil and Amanda forced their silence.
         “This is the Descended Radiance?” Odium finally spoke. “The angels descended onto earth as the fists of God?” He chuckled a bit. “Hail the Champions of the Light! Acclaim the Advocates of the Sacred Blood! Give heed to our counterparts, the other half of the grand design! Four beings of superior strength! All possible heavens and hell will shake in their revelation!” Odium turned to the 4. “Funny, I sense no real power here. Perhaps the power of these angels is not their own? Or perhaps you have no power at all?”

        Neil took a step forward. “Who are you? Do you know what just happened to us?”

        “We are students of the Forsaken,” Odium spread his arms open, his white hood still covering his face, hands and feet. “We are the acolytes of the darkness, the first seeds to be planted in what must come to pass. We are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” Odium paused for a moment. “I want you to breathe in this world, every fiber, every molecule, every piece of dust. This world is the devil’s oyster. It always has been and always will be filled with the Forsaken and the Sinful; the darkness that is in all blood can never be cleansed! Open your arms and accept the Forsaken into your blood! Walk with us and you will not be killed.”
 Odium stood with his arms open, but he was still and unmoving. The 3 Horsemen behind him stood immobile as well. There was a long silence between the 8. Neil looked to Aurora who had been standing behind him, then to Ezekiel who had been standing a few feet behind him as well, then finally to Amanda who had been ducking behind her turned-over concession table. The other 3 Horsemen turned around and extended their open hands towards the 4.







La'Von Gittens
NoV'al Publishing
Divine Apocalypse: The Beginning of the End