The Forgotten Angel ✔️

Chapter 12: Visions of Truth

He knelt down in the chapel, knowing he had plenty of time to kill before the Basilica was closed, and he prayed. He prayed to God for over an hour, conversing with God, and thanking Him in the end for showing him a sign.

Minutes before the Basilica was slated to close, and the security personnel were conducting a sweep of the church, Luke hid in the bathroom stall. He waited there for over an hour, mostly texting Nellie about school work and planning their next potential date that Friday, which was tomorrow. Forty minutes into his wait, he heard footsteps coming from outside the bathroom. Luke was at the furthest stall and as silently as he could, he stepped up onto the toilet seat so that no one could see his feet from the large gap American bathrooms left for people who sought privacy to move their bowels. When the security guard came in, he whistled a tune that sounded like an old Michael Jackson song. He stopped at the entrance of the bathroom, looked around and then closed the door and continued to whistle down the hall until the sound slowly faded away.

Luke breathed a sigh of relief and stepped down from the toilet seat. He waited another twenty minutes and then felt the coast was clear. He ascended upward towards the upper church and was engulfed in darkness. Except for a few dim lights at the exit points of the Basilica, the place was enshrouded in darkness. Luke could almost blend in the dark, and congratulated himself that, although he was in a rush this morning, he was also smart enough to wear black.

Luke took a pew in the middle of the Basilica and sat down waiting. He didn't dare turn on his phone, for fear that the light from it would cast a spotlight to anyone that entered into the building.

Two hours of sitting blindly in a church made Luke lose faith in the dream. No one had come, and Luke was kicking himself over the time he wasted there. Stupid! Why would the same people come back twice? Complete waste of my time.

And just as he stood up to leave he heard a door unlock. It sounded like an iron block had been shifted through a circular tunnel. The scraping noise was loud enough to send Luke's heart to drum up some suspenseful beats. He tried to pinpoint where the sound was coming from while bent down in his pew. Like a periscope, he stuck his head up atop the pew and scanned the environment.

Nothing in front of me, nothing to my left or right, oh shit!

Luke ducked below the pew as he saw a light shine from behind him. Did they see me? His heart was in his throat, and he struggled to keep his sweat from dripping down from his forehead towards the ground to create a loud drip that would echo across the silent Basilica. While lying on the ground he scooched underneath the bench to hide from view. The footsteps grew louder, and from beneath the pew he saw two candle lights fade in and out as the two people inched closer to him. Luke was covering his mouth now, trying his best to control his breathing.

The light shone like a searchlight on his pew, or maybe Luke was just overreacting. As quickly as the light focused on his pew, it disappeared and continued forward.

Luke's body shuddered at the thought of almost being spotted. Had he waited a couple of seconds longer, those lights would've illuminated his figure and he would've been caught. Who were those two people? Luke was actually hoping they were just security guards. If he got caught by security guards, the worse they could do is kick him out, maybe report him to the university or possibly arrest him for trespassing.

But if they were more sinister people, then they could do so much worse. Being arrested was preferable to being dead.

I'm leaping to conclusions. For all I know, these people aren't even that crazy. He slowly moved his way out from beneath the pew and stood up slowly. He spotted them walking up the side steps towards the back of the grand altar, right below the image of Jesus in scarlet robes. Luke tiptoed after them, but he didn't trust his shoes. He took them off and walked with his socks, trusting his stealth, since each step he took was like walking on a cloud.