Aberrant: In the Beginning - In the throes of sleep and fear

[Michael Peters]

It’s the same reoccurring dream. He’s been having it since the events in Egypt, with Ra. Seeing that much power, that much hubris in a being that once was a man… it strikes a chord in people. In Michael, it terrified him on a spiritual level, made him reconsider what faith is. If belief in the Almighty can be reduced to its most basic description: “having faith in a unfathomable power greater than yourself”, than how far away are Novas from being Gods?

Could Shelby be considered a God?

Could Michael?

The dream is the same, night after night. Michael finds himself seated in a pew, in a cathedral of massive proportions, with hundreds of others. The stained glass is cracked and broken and the night sky is visible through the breaks. Everyone is screaming, ranting and crying. The only light in the cavernous structure is a shining figure at the pulpit, glowing with what feels like the love of God Himself. This angels bearing is noble… but prideful. The figure begins to speak, its words drowned out by the sudden wailing of the crowd as they hear the sound of its voice. Michael finds himself in the aisle, stumbling towards the figure, trying desperately to hear him.

Suddenly, he is at the base of the altar. The crowd goes silent. Michael looks around, and they are all staring at him, their faces rapt with awe and fear. Seated in the front row are familiar faces: Juno, Fang, King, Caryn… and his wife. As he focuses on her, she begins to weep. The voice of the angel booms from behind him.

“Michael! Stand! See your wife restored to you, beyond death.”

The figure gestures theatrically towards the woman, as she hides her face in her hands.

“Am I not the Alpha? The Omega!? The beginning and the end?”

The crowd roars its assent, shaking the windows with the volume of their screams.

“Those that oppose you? Removed from Gods creation!!”

The figure gestures and a flash of light erupts silently, filling the cathedral, annihilating a section of the crowd. Survivors near the blast rush to fill the space, anguished they were not chosen.

“Everything you ever wanted… everything…”

Michael tears his eyes from his dead wife, her tears now as blood, and finds himself staring into a familiar cruciform mask, now inches from his face. The mask flows like mercury, revealing his own beneath, his eyes now glowing with golden light, as if his whole body was suffused with it. A cruel grin stretched from ear to ear on the others face.

“Just like Ra. Just like others. We’re going to run this damn world. Forty days of darkness? How about forty days of light! We can shake the foundations of the world, remake it at our whim!”

The Angel Michael grabs his shoulder, a painful grip, and turns him to face the crowd, their faces slack with adoration.

“Everything…” he whispers, staring, his eyes roaming over them as if they were meat.

Michael is powerless. He tries to struggle, but the dream-logic locks him in place. Forcing him to endure the horror as the crowd turns on itself in a frenzy. He watches men and women kill each other in a desperate attempt to earn the Angels approval.

Michael wakes, the sound of his wife’s agonized screaming still echoing in his ears. His bedclothes stained with sweat. Hands shaking, he pulls out his Bible, the cover dusty with age, and turns to a dog-eared page. Daniel 12.1. His wifes favorite passage.

"At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”

Running his hands through his sweat soaked hair, Michael returns the book to the dresser and goes walks to the bathroom. As he turns the shower to its hottest setting, he is filled with a single thought.

“No. I will not let that happen.”