Shawn
***due to sheer tedious of changing names for the polished version. Here is the rough draft. Lisa (Aaliyah) Bruce (Shawn) Shawn (Omarion), and Charlie (Nas) to avoid confusion.
“I shouldn’t have lost my temper like that,” Jasmine said. She took a couple of breaths and looked at the wall that Lisa made explode. She shook her head. “I’m trying to do the right thing, but I’m scared too. What if I’m not following the right path?”
Everyone in our group always thought of Jasmine as fearless. To a degree she was, but I knew she could be vulnerable. That vulnerability is one of the few things that attracted me to her. She always did what she thought was right and in accordance with faith. She is only human though and she is well aware of when she makes a mistake.
“I don’t know what the right move is,” I said. “But we do need each other. Now.”
“I”m going to apologize and we’ll figure out our next move. Tensions are still high, so maybe we should focus on calling these powers.”
I agreed with her and we started praying. After that, we meditated on our elements. I could feel the water inside my body. The ambient water in the air around us. The water inside everyone. The feeling washed over my body like a shower. The coldness set in and I started freezing. My limbs couldn’t move and felt numb. The cold tried to take over and I panic. I tried to focus on my friends, family, and god. The coldness was too painful though. The feeling of water and cold drown me. My heart races as I tried to move. Tried to open my eyes, but nothing happened. Is this what everyone was going through? Being attacked by their element? Why didn’t this happen when I used my power for the first time. Desperation?
The coldness of the room joined in. I still couldn’t open my eyes, but I could see water and cold energy submerging me. I thought I would die, either by drowning or frostbite. I didn’t think this would happen. Water I thought would be easy to call. How could I misjudge this element? I thought of water as calm and easygoing. I was wrong. Dead wrong. Water was what destroyed the world at one point. Noah and his family had to build an ark. Why did I think my personality could handle an element like that. Water was cold when it attacked as a tsunami. There was no feeling of water disasters. Like there was no feeling from the cold and water trying to kill me. I didn’t get the chance to tell Jasmine how I felt about her. To graduate.
My faith wavered as I remembered the night these cursed halos appeared. The Ibis flew around my memories. Egyptian pyramids flashed in my eyes. I thought about the power I manifested that helped free us from our restraints. That gave us clothes. Why didn’t the water attacked me like this then? I didn’t want to die. Not like this. Not to the water or the cold. I had to calm myself. If this is where I die then at least I helped. I focused on the good things I did in life. Helping Imhotep. The coldness started to waver. The drowning receded. I understood water in a way I never knew. Water was calm, but it could adapt. I had to respect that and I had to be like water. I had to flow and be cold. I thought about the woman Lilith and how I let her scare me. My life is meaningless if I let demons scare me. Now the cold and water joined with me.
My eyes opened and with my staff, I could feel my power. The power of word manifestation. I understood my power and how it worked. Water and the cold would follow me and I would respect both.
I turned to look at Jasmine and her eyes were glowing yellow. She lifted her sword and a burst of light emitted from the tip. Two frogs made of light hopped around before becoming real frogs.
“Well looks like you two managed to tame your elements,” Imhotep said.
“You didn’t tell us they would attack us,” I said. “I think Bruce is right about you.”
“They only attack you because you doubted yourself. I told you calling your power is a spiritual experience. If you doubt yourself, you can’t call your power. Remember that. In a fight, you will be able to call your weapon, but your power, if there is any doubt. Your power will fail you. You have to know yourself.”
Bruce, Lisa, and Charlie walked up. “So, if we doubt ourselves during a fight we can’t call our power. Even if it’s a little bit of doubt?” Lisa asked.
“Yes, that is a weakness of all angels.”
“Well, guess I’m going to be dead when this is over with.” Charlie joked.
“We should discuss what our plan will be. No doubt that Lilith knows we can call on our halos now.” Bruce said.
“Well, what are abilities?” Jasmine asked.
We discussed what our powers were. Bruce could manipulate cosmic energy. Charlie could open pathways. Lisa could create explosions. Jasmine created sentient holograms. I could make words appear and transform them into their depicted form.
“Looks like I’m the way out,” Charlie said clapping his hands. “We still don’t know what we will face once we are out there.
“Death by poison.” An ambient voice called out. The voice belonged to Lillith. She sounded pleased as a holographic image appeared. The suits you are wearing contain explosions. After all, you are still humans. You see, I need you all alive, but you want to escape. I need an army and you. You five are unique. I’m going to be opening the doors.”
The doors opened and we were in some kind of mansion. An abandon mansion outfitted to be more like a prison. Other prisoners walked around, aimless. They wore the same uniforms we had but in different colors. Some of them looked at us. Then two demons approached us. Bruce cut one down with his ax. Charlie took care of the other with his daggers.
“Killing demons won’t help you escape, in fact, your powers will be ineffective against them. You see, I believed that Nephilims can destroy God. I also believe in technology. Did you know the reason why we can create all these things, is because of man? The tree of knowledge. The fruit God didn’t want a man to eat from because of the secrets. Secrets like how to beat him.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” I said.
“True, but you and all these other Nephiliims will be my Army. I found out where you live. I know your families. So, you will do as I say. Or your families are dead. You owe me your lives. Remember that.
“Our families?” Lisa choked out in a whisper. “She knows where our families are.”
“She’s lying. She has to be. How could she know?” Charlie asked, but he didn’t sound optimistic.
“She means to use us as tools. We thought we could escape, but now she has us trapped. It didn’t matter if we got out of that room or tried to take her hostage. She had everything planned out.” Bruce said.
I looked at Jasmine and she looked like she wanted to cry. Her eyes were glass-like. She took a couple of deep breathes.
“Weapons. She is going to use us as her own weapon cache. Her private weapons to take on God. This is crazy.” Charlie said as he made a prayer-like gesture in front of his face.
“We are not her weapons,” Jasmine said. “We won’t be. If we are going to be weapons. It will be for God.”
“And how are we going to do that? She has us strapped to bombs. I don’t’ want to die.” Lisa approached Jasmine and looked her in the eyes.
Jasmine looked at me. I looked down and thought about the last few hours. I remembered what JAsmine said earlier and spoke. “We do it together. We need each other more now than ever. We have powers. We’ll figure it out, but we can’t put this all on Jasmine. We have to stick together.”
“I’m with it,” Charlie said.
“I’m in,” Bruce said.
“We don’t have a choice, do we?” Lisa said.
“You know I support you,” I said.
“Then we agree. We’re going to escape without dying.” Jasmine said.
“I’m with you too,” Imhotep said. Bruce went to say something, but Charlie and Lisa help drag him away. He approached Jasmine and me and extended his hand. “I need to find that woman. She is in here somewhere. A human. I’m sure Lillith is using her to create her own Nephillims. Help me find her and I’ll help you escape.”
“Thank you for helping us with the halos, but Bruce is right. I don’t know if we can trust a fallen angel.”Jasmine stepped back and stood next to me. I felt a sense of duty to protect her. I’ve never felt that way about anyone. When I looked at Imhotep, I could see something different about his demeanor. He seems sad. I know we shouldn’t trust him, but he is the reason we could use our halos.
“You know something about us too, don’t you?” I asked. “Earlier when I explain about the Ibis you seemed shocked. Then when everyone describes the animal they’ve seen you seem like you made a connection..”
The others came around as he started to explain. “I think I know how you required your powers.”
“It has something to do with Egypt? Most likely with the Egyptian Host, right?” I’m sure the others realized by now by our own accounts that we all had those images. The link between us, the elements, and halos connected us to Egypt.
“I believe so,” he paused. “The Ibis was the animal form of the Egyptian God of Knowledge Thoth. He had the ability to manifest matter by speaking.”
“What are you saying?” I asked, but I knew. He was implying that Thoth and I had a connection.
“Not just you. Each of you stated a specific animal with a specific power that relates to one of the Egyptian Gods. I’m saying that you are somehow related to them. You are the fallen angels of the Egyptian Host.
