The funny thing about epiphanies is - they arrive too late. Always subsequent to wretched outbursts from shock, anger and other equivalent emotions. And that's probably why they feel so self destructive.
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Oliver was staggering towards his destination, epiphany in one closed fist and a bottle of whiskey in the other. All the while not quite grasping how everything suddenly could go so fast spiraling to the underworlds.
After he had managed to put his smelly foot in his mouth, getting whacked in the face by Elli, beaten by his future in-laws and then getting thrown out of the house instantly - he had wandered around the town for some hours in a state of distraught. Then, he found the bar and had a heart to heart chat with a few bottles. And now, as his head felt much clearer after the whiskey kicked in - he knew suddenly who was responsible for this serious blunder he was in. He was suddenly aware of who could give the answers he needed and probably make everything alright in a blink of a eye.
He just needed to confront Him. The big-bad God, of course.
And so, determined like hell, Oliver approached the huge, white building with wobbling steps. Despite the intimidating, heavy doors staying ajar, he knew the gates were opened day and night for all that wanted to come and whine.
Oliver was not a regular in a church, he had not been into one since a while now. But this was a dire situation and God needed to be confronted.
Grunting, Oliver pushed opened the doors and stumbled across the threshold, he steadied himself right before hitting the marble floor. There were empty benches around, the more brighter lights were turned off at this late hour but there were some dim lights that still illuminated the place. Candles lit before the cross and the atmosphere had the serene, spiritual feels to it - which of course Oliver failed to notice.
"WHY ?!" Oliver shouted standing straight, eyes blazing. "Why did you do it to me?"
He took another sip of whiskey, put it down on an empty bench at his side and then walked down the aisle.
"Why this happened? This greatest blunder in the f***ing history of blunders?" He demanded throwing up his hands as he stepped up on the alter. "Why she's pregnant? Damn it, why am I not the father of that baby but an unknown ass-butt who can possibly make a grand entry anytime and take Elli and the baby away to build a happy family of three and more ?!"
Feeling raged, Oliver banged his fists into the podium but the blasted thing so utterly heavy that it didn't break like he had wished. He groaned in agony.
His hands hurt!
But then he looked up at the cross and remembered his resolution to confront the God, and so he closed his mouth and went back to looking rough and tough. "Now how will Elli and I get our happily ever after? She's finally said it - that she loves me but it's clear she loves her baby more! Her baby gets all her love and what do I get? Her slap, a sack full of stinky insults, and assault from the goons she calls her family!"
He dragged a hand down his face while gripping the podium with the other for his head was spinning now. "What do I do now?" he moaned to himself. "They threw me out! The entire family's bloody crazy! Why don't they understand I just want my Elli."
His face hardened and with a vigorous look he slowly looked up. "It's all your fault. It was your plan - you took my mommy and sent a sadistic bitch who ruined my life along with her equally sadistic - bully of a son. And now you're taking Elli away too and ruin my heart in the process. It's your favorite game messing with me."
"You destroyed my life," Oliver declared. A evil glint appeared in his eyes. "Now I destroy your home."
It feels good to have a purpose in life. And for that night Oliver kinda found that - feel good - purpose.
Soon, Oliver was the troll that was dead set on destroying the sacred house as an act of revenge and heartbreak. His foggy brain lead him towards the candles, he ripped them and smashed them. He pushed the small- lone lectern beside the main podium off of the alter with an enraged scream, broke a few benches - with some difficulty, yes, but somehow he was successful.
"Why so angry, son!"
Oliver froze, his hands paused around the fourth bench. Who was that!
He gasped, as realization hit him and he turned around to look up at the alter. "Jesus Christ? You can talk!"
-- -- --
The Marques family had a late dinner with blank looks, none knowing how to exactly react to this situation. The shock needed a few kicks to wear off.
It was the shocking news of pregnancy that had Daniel and his sons somewhat immobilized, but it was heartbreak for Elli that made her look so aloof.
She'd just got up from her chair and was turning around to leave for her room, but making her halt on her steps Misha opened his mouth thus breaking the silence that had fallen upon them since Oliver was kicked out.
"Thank f***, we kicked out that scoundrel. At first I thought he was lusting after me, but the truth turns out to be even more horrible than that," Misha's nose flared as he could finally speak his heart out and no blackmail and no Oliver could stop him. "I can't believe he's after my sister too. How more sick can that moron get!"
There was again absolute silence as people slowly tried to get the head or tail out of the new revelation.
It was quite the day of crucial and incessant revelations.
Elli just simply sighed and left. That was Misha alright, the writer with the craziest imagination skills.
And despite Elli's attempts to block her heart and mind from all thoughts of Oliver, she was once again thinking about him. The random thoughts and memories that had him in it - both good and bad ones. She thought his whereabouts at that hour of the night and most importantly the way he had declared his love for her. It was hurtful and so downright disgusting, true. But still he said he loved her and she couldn't help but wonder - what would it have been like if she had disclosed the truth long before he arrived? What if he had behaved more maturely, tried to be a little understanding and patient? Would they've been happily in each others arms at this very moment knowing they loved each other.
There were just too many what ifs and they hurt even more than the reality as Elli kept bounding from one thought to the other.
The moment she laid her head on the pillow the tears began coming out until she was choking into the pillow. What happened to her resolution to not cry anymore over that fool?
That man was so infuriating that it was hell when he was with her, but then why it hurt even more when he was not! Why this love thing have to be so confusing? Making her feel so strong one second and then utterly weak, vulnerable the next.
Now, at this moment she understood in a way Emma's plight while encountering this big-bad love and Brandan's too. Love was such a contradicting a**hole, it messed with people's head and life beyond all levels of tolerance.
--
Oliver slapped his ears, blinked several times but everything seemed unmoving before him on the alter. He quickly stumbled up the alter to have a closer look of that huge cross.
"Holy shit! This is miracle!" he muttered slowly to himself.
Someone coughed from behind him, the sound seemed intentional as if to grab his attention.
Oliver whirled around with a pale face at the same time some lights of the church were turned on, he squinted through the sudden brightness and found a male figure strolling towards him from one of the switchboards. The man was wearing the white garb of the priests. "No, son, I'm definitely not Jesus. Just Sebastian... the priest of this church you're trying break down."
Oliver huffed out a breath and plopped down tiredly at the edge of the alter. "Hell! For a second you just freaked the shit out of me," he drawled, eyeing the whiskey bottle on the bench he had kept earlier.
Apparently, father Sebastian was eyeing it too with deep frown. "You know, for interrogating and threatening God the way you did I should call the cops. I see you've already managed to destroy a few things here," he commented looking back over at Oliver who'd dropped his head in his hands.
"Call whoever you want to. Cops or vamps - I don't care," Oliver looked pretty vulnerable there and adrift. "But tell Him to give me answers first."
Quietly father Sebastian came up and sat down beside him. "Answers that you really don't need?"
Oliver looked up squinting his eyes against the fluorescent light that was giving him a throbbing headache. Before he could open his mouth though a throaty chuckle escaped the priests thin lips, the crinkles around his mouth and eyes getting further defined.
"You're mixing up your past and present, getting confused yourself when there's no confusion in real, and then you go and inquire God about all the silly things. How is that not stupid?"
"It's not silly and I'm not stupid!" Oliver defended straightening up with his elbows taut on his knees, but his voice sounded weak to his own ears.
"Maybe not," Father Sebastian's eyes sparkled with mirth. "But you're definitely jealous of a child who has yet to come to the world and then you're definitely insecure of that unknown -," he coughed and smirked. "Man - who's the biological father of that child. By the looks of it, son, this mess you're in is your own doing. Isn't it?"
The epiphany began to slowly pour down all over Oliver and his shoulders hunched with the burden. What he had said and then what Elli had said came rushing back into his ears and rang like more thousand of slaps. Now, what kind of jerk he was really?
Letting the silence stretch, the old priest looked down the long aisle.
"I was shocked," Oliver whispered after what felt like hours. "I... I didn't mean," he stuttered. "I shouldn't have...," and he huffed a breath out failing to voice his guilt, drowning in the horror of self loathing.
Another realization slowly crept up it's ugly head in his soul, in his fears and insecurities and shock over the news of Elli's pregnancy - he had just successfully transformed into something alike her step mother back there. A mother that never could accept him as her own, a mother that hurt him in some worst possible ways and became his living nightmare.
Oliver realized that he'd not just hurt Elli but he'd also made his step mother win, yet again, even when she was not alive now and was a ghost from his past.
That baby under processing was a part of his Elli, he would undeniably love that kid. But then why did he have to go ahead and say such mean things without even thinking for a second! Why?
"I ruined everything, didn't I?" he croaked dragging his hands down his ashen face. "I'm really stupid after all."
Father Sebastian sighed and patted Oliver's knee lightly, consolingly. "That's why the term redemption exists."
And Oliver was thinking about if the Marques' had that window of their kitchen still open. His luggage was still inside the house which he hoped they hadn't yet burnt down. For redemption was the second step, the first was to enter into that house again.
--
Let's just say, Sebastian the priest saved the church. Let's see what Oliver does next...
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