Children of the Archangels

CHAPTER 29: SEVEN DAY CHALLENGE

Jesus went 40 days in the desert without food. Luke thought he could make it through seven days with only a little food.

Then he realized that even while doing absolutely nothing, he got really hungry pretty quickly.

For seven days he went with only one meal a day, and the meal wasn't even good. Cow eyes, goat guts, bat wings—all five-star quality Chef Boyardee approved. But Luke took the Dean's advice to heart and savored every meal, no matter how gross it looked. In the end, it kept his stomach from trying to digest itself for another day.

For seven days he went without indoor plumbing. Luke quickly found out that shit literally starts to pile up when one neglects such important waste treatment matters. The only bright side to this was that he hardly ate and drank, so he hardly had to relieve himself. But the smell in the room was about as bad as living in a sewer pipe.

For seven days he went without talking to anyone but himself and God (if He was even listening and not ignoring him for failing at life). He had a lot of time to think—about what he had done, his life, his goals.

He knew one of his goals was to get back with Nellie and go bowling with her. Ever since he was a teen, when he dreamed of having a beautiful girlfriend he could cuddle with, he'd always wanted to take this girl out on a bowling date. If Nellie loved bowling, then it'd a fun competition. Whoever lost had to pay for dinner. If she was bad at it or hated it, it'd be even better. He'd stand behind her, wrap his arms around her waist, and help her roll the bowl down the lane. They'd probably only knock down a pin or two, but it was the closeness he'd get with her. That's all he wanted. Nellie was so far—he wanted her close again.

The one thing they did allow in the room was a pen and a notepad. It was delivered to him with his cow eye soup on the first night. He used it to make a list of things he wanted to improve upon—sort of a late new year's resolution. He wrote down what abilities he possessed so far. It wasn't a long list, but Luke knew it could grow. Already he had the Undying Sear, a flame that left a burn mark that stung forever. He could also shoot that Lightning Flare that nearly killed Victor. He could coat his body in lightning and surprisingly not fry out his nerves. He also wrote down things he wanted to learn, from who his parents were to shooting an arrow correctly.

Finally, he decided to write a letter to Nellie. He wanted to tell her everything. He wrote about how he could light up the darkness with electric sparks. He'd love to show her one night while they laid down on the campus grass and stare at the stars—or what they could make of it in all of the D.C. light pollution.

He wrote about how his new roommate was less of an ass than Kevin was back at D.C. Luke hated Kevin's snippy remarks and how he just seemed to pick apart his life like he knew what made Luke tick. He cursed Kevin's knowledge of psychology.

He wrote about the prophecy and how she was dating a guy who would determine the future. The prophecy wasn't exactly clear on when Luke had to make this decision to "push or snap the wheel of vengeance," which Luke took to mean putting an end to evil. He also didn't know who the parent or the child was. Is God the parent and the Satan the child? Was Jesus the shepherd and hell a star? He had no clue.

He wrote about the monster he was close to becoming. But he promised and underlined in the letter that he'll never allow himself to lose control over himself like that again.

He concluded the letter telling her about the open house opportunity that meant she might be able to come visit him soon. He wished her well and hoped she responded back telling him everything he had missed.

When writing grew exhaustive, Luke played around with his powers. In one week of confinement, he saw his powers advance light years ahead. He was able to summon both flame and lightning like gloves on both hands. The walls were charred with black marks as he shot beams of fire and electricity at them, constantly improving his mid-range attacks. There was a hole in the wall from where he managed to coat his left hand in electricity and made a fist that pulverized through the brick wall.

After chewing through the little meat that came on bat wings, Luke imagined a bat in his hand and started to shape a flame into a poorly shaped image of a bat. He got close, but the face was still lacking detail, and he could barely hold out the image for long. He tried to create other animals like a dog, or a cat, but animals with many limbs were very difficult. The easiest thing he could make was a caterpillar. He tried to do the same with lightning, but it was too difficult to corral. Somehow, the fire was easier to maintain and keep under calm control than the lightning.

But then he tried to make weapons, and he found that lightning was easier to shape into a weapon than fire, but it was hard to keep it intact for more than a few seconds. He created an electric knife in his hand and tossed it across the room. It disappeared before it could strike anything.

But Luke knew with more practice he could master these abilities. He was going to take his time at SGA seriously from now on, and he'll carve times like this out of his day where he can just practice solo.

And when the week was up, and the doors opened up to a hallway of light flooding in, the Dean saw Luke sitting down on the ground meditating with a flame in one hand and a ball of lightning in the other.