Welcome to Gaia! ::

Prelude

“Is anyone out there?” A hopeless voice called. Darkness, nothing but darkness. Brooke felt her breath becoming deeper, her heart pounding faster. She knew something was going to happen, she’d had this dream before, many times. She tried to wake up, tried to escape, but she couldn’t. A door opened, leading into a dusty kitchen. She tried to resist the pull, but couldn’t, and was forced to walk in, struggling with every step. A horrific vision she couldn’t cut out of her mind was in that kitchen.
Her father stood over her mother, both hands in tight fists. Her mothers screams were filled with terror and pain. He wouldn’t stop, no matter how much Brooke begged him to. The screams turned to moans, and blood began to pool on the floor. Brooke ran for a phone and dialed 9-1-1. Nothing happened. There wasn’t a ringing in the phone.
“ANSWER!” Brooke screamed at the top of her lungs. “Help me! Help Mommy! Help! Please!”
She awoke, screaming. As her eyes squinted open, her mouth-still screaming-was dry. Her mother was sitting beside her on the small bed, a worried look on her face.
“Did you have the nightmare again, sweetie?” She had dark circles under her eyes from little sleep. Brooke nodded. This was like so many mornings. She’d start screaming, her mother would come in, try to wake her, unsuccessfully, then wait for her to wake up on her own.
“Baby, I wish I could help you, I can’t bear to see you like this.” Brooke’s mother, Alison, brushed her daughters light brown hair out of her eyes. With a wet rag, she dabbed the sweat from Brooke’s face.
“I know. This is just something I have to outgrow.” Brooke sat up, and rubbed her eyes, even though she wasn’t sleepy.
“You’ve been having these nightmares since you were five, honey. I hope time will help you soon, so Matt and I can get some sleep.” Alison clasped her hand around her mouth. “I’m sorry. That sounded insensitive.”
“I don’t blame you, Mom.” Brooke threw her covers off and stood up. She sighed as she looked out the window, at the sun coming up. It cast rays of deep red and purple throughout the sky.
“Can’t you please just tell me what they’re about?” Alison pleaded with her daughter, as she did after every time Brooke had the nightmare.
“It’s too scary. Something between you and Jacob.” Brooke hated to call him Dad.
“That’s all you’ve said in the past. Tell me, maybe I could help you.” But Brooke would never tell. The story was too horrifying to speak of. She responded in silence.
“Alright. You’d better get ready for school.” Alison stood up, kissed Brooke on the head, and left the room.
Brooke slipped on a blue T-shirt and jeans, and left the room to head downstairs. The sound of her older brother, Matt, pouring cereal filled her ears.
“Hey, Sis. How are you feeling?” He had already poured her a bowl. Matt was only this nice after she’d had the nightmare. He was the only one she’d told about the things she saw in it, he was the only one that had endured more pain than her because of their father.
“What do you think?” She whispered, and grabbed a carton of milk out of the fridge. “Milk?” She asked.
“Sure, thanks.” Matt got out two spoons and stuck them in the bowls while she poured the milk.
They sat down to eat in silence, just like every morning. Things never changed much in their household, but the Trevors were fine with that. Continuity was safety to them.


Nine years before, when Brooke was five and Matt was eight, their father started abusing their mother. He’d just been laid off from his job, and he’d recently started drinking because of it. Their mother-who’d done nothing wrong- would end up with bruises and scars all over her body.
Alison filed for divorce after six months of the abuse. She had won custody of the kids, but she never told anyone about the abuse, except for a therapist. Matt and Brooke knew, but Brooke didn’t understand at all. Matt was the one damaged by it. He saw most of the abuse on his mother, and was once hit by Jacob, breaking his nose. Matt was quiet, and only loud when he felt strongly about something.
Brooke later understood the things that had happened to her mother, but could only remember what happened one time her mother had been abused and she’d seen it. The time in her nightmare. Multiple times she’d heard crying and yelling from the room her Matt and she’d shared. She knew something was wrong when her older brother, usually so strong, would pull his covers over his head and start sobbing. Brooke could do nothing to help him if she didn’t know why he was crying.
Two years later, Jacob was finally out of their life, but not out of their minds. He’d moved to California to try to start over and rid himself of his guilt.
By then, Brooke’s sleep had been haunted by the nightmares for a year, and she was beginning to understand them. Her mother had been trying so hard to get her family back on their feet. She worked two jobs; a full-time job as the secretary for the middle school Matt would attend in a year, and she worked nights in a hospital as a part-time nurse. No matter what, she couldn’t seem to make enough money to give her children everything she wanted to. There was nothing she could do to give them peace of mind.

Chapter One

The sound of slamming lockers filled Brookes ears. It gave her a feeling of contentment, because she could no longer hear the moans of her mother in her head. She also couldn’t hear her best friend walk up behind her.
“Brooke!”
Brooke jumped and turned around. “Dang, don’t give me a heart attack, Lisa.”
“What are you talkin’ about? I was calling your name for the past five minutes. Don’t tell me I scared you.”
“So you want me to lie?” Lisa fell into step beside Brooke.
“Hey, are you busy Saturday night?” She looked desperately her friend’s face.
“That’s family night. My mom, Matt and I stay home and watch movies. I’ve told you this before, remember?”
“Oh, right. I just wanted you to come over. Rebecca is having her birthday party and I don’t want to be surrounded by eight-year-olds all night, so Mom said I could have a friend over, and since you’re my best friend…” Lisa’s voice faded out.
“Don’t try to guilt me into this. You know there’s only one way I can get out of family game night, and that’s if-”
“If she has to work, I know.” Lisa interrupted, .
“Right. I doubt that’ll happen because, she can usually get off work on Saturday night, unless someone’s sick. ”
“Couldn’t you tell her the reason why I want-no, need you there? I’ll go insane if I don’t have company! Plus, hasn’t Matt been skipping it a lot lately?”
“Mom will probably say that your little sister’s birthday party isn’t a good enough reason. Look, I’ll ask her, but I don’t think that it’s gonna work.” Replied Brooke, coolly, ignoring the last comment.
“Well, I gotta get to class.” Lisa, disappointed, headed toward her classroom.
“Hey, it’s only Thursday. Maybe she’ll have to work!” Brooke called after her. She hated to leave her friend disappointed, but there was nothing she could do.

Brooke dropped her loaded backpack onto her counter and ran to the ringing phone.
“Hello?” She managed to squeak into the receiver before falling over after such a sudden stop. “Yeah, Mom, I’m fine, just stopped too quick. So, what were you calling about?” Brooke held the wireless phone up to her ear with her shoulder as she pulled out a heavy folder from her backpack.
“No, I haven’t started dinner yet. I didn’t know if you were going to take us out or bring home take-out. No, I didn’t know we were low on cash. Okay, I’ll get started on it then. What do you want to eat?” She slapped the folder on the kitchen table. Sometimes she felt like there weren’t enough hours in the day to take care of a mother, and older brother and do schoolwork.
“Fine, fine. I’m on it.” Brooke angrily pressed the ‘end’ button on the phone and grabbed a can of corn and a bag of leftover chicken legs. She hummed to try to cheer herself up as she heated up the corn and chicken. Matt finally came into the kitchen and slammed the front door behind him.
“What’s wrong?” Brooke asked, timidly. She knew not to make her brother mad. He loved her more than the world itself, but because of his experiences when he was younger, his head could get pretty messed up sometimes.
Despite her efforts, Matt already was mad. There was nothing she could do about it.
“Tammy just yelled at me.” Tammy, Matt’s girlfriend, was a total rebel. She’d been the one to start Matt on drugs and drinking, and even got him to skip school multiple times. Alison wasn’t fond of Tammy, to say the least.
“Why did she yell at you?” Brooke asked, stirring the corn in a pot.
“For a stupid reason. I told her that I thought we should take a break for a while, basically, I wanted to break up. She wouldn’t let me.”
“That’s dumb.” Brooke said, pouring the corn into another bowl. She started to set the table, as Matt sat down. He combed his hands through his hair and closed his eyes, relaxed. Then he suddenly opened them, remembered his girlfriend, murmured a few unmentionable words and went up to his room.
Why is my life so messed up? Why does Matt have to be such a jerk?!? Brooke thought. Her thoughts started to bubble up, her self-pity ruling all her senses. Inside herself, she grew angrier and angrier, with her head starting to boil. It grew inside her like a bottle of carbonated liquid that had just been shaken. Finally, she blew her top.
She ran. Running through the door, down the hillside that led to her house, and to a bubbling creek far from her home. She collapsed and began to cry, her anger melting into sadness. On her knees, she grabbed at the dirt and pebbles by the creek. Tears ran down her cheeks and landed in the soil, forming mud. She cried for the first time in a long time, and over that time her tears had built up inside of her. She’d been afraid to show her emotions because to her brother, crying was a sign of weakness. Since her brother wasn’t there, she wasn’t afraid to cry.
Minutes turned into an hour. Nearly dehydrated, Brooke couldn’t cry one more tear. She pulled herself together with a deep breath, and tried to relax. The crying felt good, it seemed to wash her clean, and wipe her jumbled mind clear. She laid on her back, her arms to her side. She wriggled her fingers in the soils, and paused when she felt something. It was smooth and cool. Her curiosity was high, and she dug out the object. A black rock, with light blue specks on it laid on her hand. She’d never seen anything like it! It seemed to be polished, it was so lusterous. Brooke rubbed it, and felt the smooth surface of the rock, holding it with care. It seemed special, so smooth and cool that she couldn’t let herself put it down. Sliding it into her pocket, she decided to go back to the house.
The chicken and corn she’d heated up had become cold when she left it alone, so she had to heat it up again. Mom will be home any minute! She thought to herself. She hurriedly put both in the microwave to reheat it and began setting the table from where she’d left off before. Just as she finished placing the third fork beside a plate, she heard her brother thudding down the stairs noisily.
“I’m going out.” He yelled, and grabbed his jacket from a chair. Matt quickly walked out the door and off the creaky wooden steps. Seconds later, Brooke heard the car engine start up and she saw it pull out of the driveway and away from the house. She blinked, and then began to put away one of the plates and one set of silverware. It wasn’t strange when her brother did this, because it happened quite often. Neither Brooke or her mother knew where he went on nights like this, nor he would tell them. Alison had given up on trying to find out, because Matt would never tell her.
The food was heated up and Alison still wasn’t home, so Brooke pulled out her homework again and began working on it. She hadn’t figured out three algebra problems when Alison had arrived.
“Hi Baby, sorry I’m late. The traffic was worse than usual today, I think there was an accident.” Alison sat down in her chair. “Smells good, Baby!” She looked around and noticed that there were only two places set at the table. “Is Matt out again?” Her voice was full of disgust.
“He’s really upset, Tammy wouldn’t let him break up with her.”
“That’s definitely not good. I’m glad he doesn’t like her anymore, though.”
“It’s kind of scary, how she’s so controlling that she won’t even let them break up. I never knew he was so submissive to just let her have her way, either.” Brooke served the chicken and sat down next to her mother.
“Yes, it is pretty weird. I worry about him so much lately!” The table was quiet for a few minutes.
“Mom, Lisa invited me over to her house Saturday night. I told her I can’t, because it’s Saturday night, and that’s family night.”
“Why does she want you over?” Alison asked, in the middle of a bite of corn.
“Rebecca is having a sleepover, and there’s going to be a lot of eight-year-olds running around. She needs some support from someone her own age.”
“I don’t know. Matt hasn’t been coming lately. I’m just wondering if we should cancel family nights.”
“No, Mom! We need those family nights, just on a different night.”
“Okay. Fine, you can go to Lisa’s then.” Alison continued eating.
“Yes!” Brooke pumped her fist in the air with satisfaction. “Thanks, Mom! I need to call her to tell her!” She stood up, kissed her mother on the head and ran out of the kitchen. There was a phone in her room, and she hated talking on the phone to people in front of her mother. She grinned widely while dialing Lisa’s phone number. She hadn’t been to her best friend’s house in a while.
“Hi, is Lisa there? Yeah, I’ll wait while you get her…hi, Lisa! I can come! Yeah, I’ll talk to you more tomorrow. Okay, bye.” She hung up the phone and flopped back on her bed. She’d been through a large amount of emotions that day.
Brooke opened her eyes the next morning to the sun shining through her window. Despite the happy appearance of the day, Brooke knew it would be difficult. She had a test that day that she’d forgotten to study for.
The only thing that kept her motivated to get on the school bus was that she was looking forward to seeing her crush, Peter Lankin. Peter was kind to Brooke, and she’d been wondering if he liked her as much as she liked him. She obsessed about him as often as possible, but she saw him too much during the day to scribble “I love Peter” and “Mrs. Brooke Lankin” all over every object she owned. He’d been sick the previous day, making her want to see him all the more.
She gathered her things, shoved a piece of roughly buttered toast into her mouth and ran out the door to make the bus that had turned around the corner to her street. When on the bus, Brooke sat in the front seat, in a corner, where she always sat-nobody she knew rode the bus- and looked out the window. She enjoyed watching the hills roll by and singing tunes under her breathe. Within fifteen minutes the bus pulled up to the school and she jumped off and headed inside. She was caught up in the flow of eighth, seventh and sixth graders and barely made it to her locker because nobody would let her out of the large cluster of people.
Once she’d finally squeezed out, she looked to her left along the row of lockers. She knew exactly which locker belonged to Peter, and though there were many people between them, she could make out his mop of messy, dark brown hair. She smiled, grabbed her books and walked over to him.
“Hey, Peter.” She said coolly. She didn’t want him to know how much she missed him the day before. “I noticed you weren’t here in history class, because I wanted to compare notes with you.” Nice, she thought, pleased. Now you gave him a reason for noticing he’s not there, instead of just missing him. “What happened?”
“Oh, I just had a slight temperature and a sore throat. Nothing too bad. I coughed a lot though.” Peter closed his locker to face her.
“That’s too bad. I hope you’re feeling better.” Brooke smiled warmly.
“Yeah, thanks. What’d we do yesterday in history?” Peter brushed his hair out of his eyes.
“We had a debate on the civil war.” Brooke recollected. “It was funny, because the teacher ended up choosing people to debate on the southern side, everyone was for the north.”
“But I thought you said we took notes…” Peters dark eyes showed confusion and suspicion.
“Oh…” What now? Brooke panicked. “I…uh…took notes on the debate.” She hoped that he didn’t notice the unsure note that coated the statement. Now she had to see if she’d actually buy the lie.
“Oh. Okay, well I have to go. Gonna be late for Algebra.” Peter hurried off, and Brooke went in a different direction, but turned sharply when she heard giggling behind her.
“Smooth.” Lisa smirked. “You were a regular Elvis Presley.”
“Keep that attitude up and I won’t go to your house on Saturday.” Brooke threatened.
“Fine, fine. Have fun in science!” Lisa headed off to Algebra.
She’s so lucky! Brooke though. She’s in Peter’s first hour class.
The school day slowly passed by, but finally she got to breathe the sweet relief of freedom.
“Can’t wait for tomorrow night!” Lisa said, nearly singing as she ran up to Brooke.
“Lisa, I’m just spending the night. No big deal.” Brooke shrugged.
“Yeah, but I hardly see you on weekends.” Lisa’s shoulder-length, curly black hair bounced along as she walked quickly to keep up with Brooke’s long stride. “About that, are you okay with going to church with us on Sunday morning?” Brooke stopped quickly at the question and looked at Lisa’s big, brown eyes.
“Church?” She didn’t know what to say. “I’ve…I’ve never been to church before. I…sure. I’ll come.”
“Yay!” Lisa jumped with pleasure and pulled Brooke into a hug. “This is so cool, I’ll introduce you to some of my friends from church, and…yay!”
“Jeez, Lisa, you’ve never acted like this. Get off!” Brooke said, while laughing. She squirmed out of Lisa’s grasp.
“Fine, fine. I have to go.” Lisa smiled. “Call me tonight if you need to know something.” She waved and jogged off to her bus.
“Church.” Brooke pondered the thought. “Church. I’m going to church. Brooke Trevors is going to church."

Chapter Two

Saturday night, the girls were snacking on popcorn while lying down on the floor. They had a movie playing, but they weren’t paying attention to it.
“Please, please, please tell me who you like!” Lisa begged. She was lying on her back, staring at the ceiling and stuffing popcorn into her mouth.
“No!” Brooke squeaked. “We go over this every day!”
“Why do you have to be so protective?” Lisa pleaded. “I’m your best friend.” She paused, thinking of a bribe to tempt her friend. “I’ll give you ten dollars.”
“Ten dollars?” My secret is worth more than ten puny dollars!” Brook said, faking offence.
“Well, I spent all my money at the museum today! I have nothing else to bribe you with.”
Brook placed her finger on her chin, pretending of think of something. Truly, she know what she wanted from Lisa. Brook wanted to know who she liked.
“Hmm…Quite a predicament, I’d say.” She smiled. “What do I want…I’ll tell you who I like if you tell me about your crush.”
“What? Oh, who I like?” Lisa sighed. “Fine. You first, though.” She rolled over on her stomach and crawled over to Brooke. He looked as if Brooke was going to whisper her crush so quietly that it was going to barely be audible, although talking in such volumes was not needed, since the TV would drown out any secrets.
Brooke paused. Shed never told anyone about Peter.
“It’s Peter Lankin.”
“Peter Lankin? I knew it!” Lisa smiled and turned her hand upside down, pointing at Brooke. “He goes to my church! You’ll see him tomorrow. Hope you brought something cute to wear!”
“I brought three outfits actually, because you didn’t say exactly what I was supposed to wear. I brought a T-shirt, some jeans, and flip-flops, then I brought this really cute top that I can wear with the jeans with a leather belt to spruce it up, and then I brought my dress from Easter. It’s a little small, but it’ll work.”
“The second one is fine. I’ll lend you something if you need it.” Lisa said, as if it wasn’t that important. “Really, people wear T-shirts and sweatpants and stuff all the time, but I think it’s good to look nice for church.”
“Oh. Okay. Now, back to the secret telling. Who do you like?” Brooke grinned with anticipation.
“Dangit, I was hoping you’d forget.” Lisa’s face fell.
“Oh, no. I wouldn’t forget something like this. Come on, just tell me!”
“Fine. I like…popcorn!” Lisa screeched. She grabbed a handful of popcorn and threw it in Brooke’s hair. Brooke paused for a short second, realized what had happened, then grabbed more popcorn to throw. The girls both squealed with delight, and laughed.
When the bowl was nearly empty, they heard a quick knock on the door.
“Lisa? Brooke? Can I come in?” Said the voice.
“Your mom!” Whispered Brooke. Instantly, she began grabbing popcorn off the floor, bed, chairs and her own hair.
“Holy crap, we need to pick this all up! Hurry!” Lisa copied Brooke, picking up as much popcorn as she could.
“Girls? Are you all right? I hear a lot of shuffling noises.” Mrs. Correcko asked, loudly.
“Yes, Mom, we’re fine. I just…I…” Lisa paused and glanced around the room to find something to blame the noise on. “I knocked over my trash can.”
“Oh, alright. Well, it’s time to go to bed, girls. It’s 11:30, an hour later than I usually allow Lisa to be up on Saturday nights.”
“Yes, Mom. Okay.” Lisa said, throwing some popcorn in the trash can. “Love you!”
“Love you, Lisa. Goodnight, girls.” The girls heard her walk away from the door.
“Thank gosh she’s gone. Mom would have flipped out if she’d seen this mess.” Lisa threw the last of the kernels into the trash can.
“We could have eaten a lot of those.” Brooke said.
“Fine. Then eat them!” Lisa grabbed a handful and threw them back at Brooke’s face, playfully.
“Eeew! Now they’re contaminated by your trashcan germs!”
“Fine. Lets get ready to go to sleep.”
“Oh no, you aren’t getting off that easy! Tell me who it is.” Brooke said, grabbing Lisa’s arm.
“Who is what? Wait, what?” Lisa looked stunned.
“As if you don’t know. Who do you have a crush on?”
“Oh. You’ll see him tomorrow. He’s really cute!” Lisa writhed out of her friend’s grip, and headed towards a clothing drawer. “Bed. Now.” She pulled out some pajamas.
“Fine.” Brooke pulled her own out of a bag. “I brought my favorites!”


“Brooke, you look really cute! You’re going to totally grab Peter’s attention.” Lisa fluffed Brooke’s hair up in front of her shoulders.
“Thanks, Lisa. But aren’t I supposed to want to go because of God or something?”
“Oh no, my dear.” Lisa made a face and spoke with a thick Transylvanian accent. “We just tell you that to lure you in, then we suck your blood!” She giggled and tickled Brooke’s sides.
“Hey! You’re messing up my perfectly groomed hair!” Brooke choked out, in between fits of laughter.
“Girls, are you ready yet? We’re going to be late!” Lisa’s mother said through Lisa’s door.
“On it, Mom.”
“Sorry, Mrs. Correcko, we’ll be down in a second.”


“Whoa, Lisa! This place is…huge!” Brooke gasped as they pulled up to the Living Water Baptist Church.
“We’ve been remodeling.” Lisa said, beaming with pride.
“This is the kind of thing that’ll intimidate a person…” Brooke whispered.
“I hope not, we’re not about that at all here.” Lisa ushered Brooke inside and up the stairs to the youth department.
“Hello, Lisa, it seems you’ve brought a friend!” A man in his late twenties greeted the girls. He was a brunette with a goatee on the center of his chin.
“Yes, Tim, this is my friend Brooke Trevors.” Tim shook hands with Brooke.
“Nice to meet you, Brooke. I’m Tim, the youth Pastor here. I hope to be seeing more of you in the future!”
“Nice to meet you too, Tim.” Brooke thought about what he’d said. It seemed so cheesy when she replayed it in her mind, but coming from him, it seemed sincere and warm. He’d really meant it.
“He’s really cool. He makes learning about God fun, and easy to understand, too.” Lisa guided Brooke to another section of the huge youth room. “That’s strange, Peter and Robert are usually here by now…”
“Robert, so that’s his name?” Brooke smiled. “Finally, the great knight in shining armor has a name!”
“Oh, shut up.” Lisa looked around. “There they are, just coming in the door.” Brooke turned around. When she saw Peter, her heart skipped a beat. He seemed to look better than ever, his hair was still messy, but it looked wonderful. Whoa, girl. Don’t get too ahead of yourself. He’s just a guy. Her thoughts told her, but she couldn’t stop thinking that he looked amazing. It was really strange that he wasn’t popular at her school, because to her, he looked like a model, especially at that moment.
“Hey Peter, hey Robert.” Lisa smiled as if they were all best friends. She elbowed Brooke in the ribs.
“Hi, Peter…and, Robert, is it?” She held out her hand for him to shake it, but he gave her a hi-five instead.
“Oops, I can’t believe I forgot to introduce you two. Robert, this is my best friend Brooke. Brooke, this is Robert.”
“What, I don’t get a ‘best friend’ title?” Robert asked, jokingly.
“How about ‘boyfriend’?” Brooke whispered through her teeth, just quiet enough for Lisa to hear. Lisa blushed, and kicked Brooke in the leg, just lightly, so the boys didn’t notice.
“How about we all go sit down, so we don’t have to just stand here?” Peter suggested.
“Great!” Brooke yelped, a little too excited to follow Peter’s caring thoughts.
As the foursome was walking the short distance to the chairs, Peter moved so he was next to Brooke.
“So, did Lisa lasso you into coming here, or was it your idea?” He asked.
“The first one. Rope and all.”
“So did you go to church before, or is this a one time thing?” He seemed interested, but it felt to Brooke like she was being interrogated, even after only two questions.
“This is my first time…my family isn’t the church-going type.”
“Really? Why not?”
“Um…Peter, can you please lay off the third degree?” Brooke murmured.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry, I’m just really interested in…people.” He turned toward the empty podium at the front of the room.
Brooke thought about what he’d just said. “I’m just really interested in…people.” What did he mean by “people”? Was he calling her people? Or did he seriously mean people in general? Was he some kind of freaky psycho stalker that just followed random people around and asked them questions? No, it couldn’t be. Peter was too good for that.
Brooke looked to her side. Lisa and Robert weren’t talking either. The silence was uncomfortable, and it was obvious it was smothering all four of them. Other teens were chattering away like old friends, making the silence between the foursome even worse. Luckily, Tim walked up to the podium and began talking about dates of events and parties the church was having.
“Now, let us bow our heads and pray.” He said, and turned his face to the ground. Brooke looked around. Everyone else was doing the same, so she mimicked them. She’d heard about prayer, but never really actually prayed before. “Father in Heaven, thank you for blessing our church with all these great kids. They’re becoming wonderful people, blossoming into the flowers you created them to be. I pray that they will forever walk under your sight and protection, and that they be willing to do whatever you want them to do, Lord.” This prayer was beginning to sound like a cultish chant. “Lord, thanks for letting everyone who is sitting here be here with us and You. Amen.” The rest of the people murmured “Amen” after he did. “Alright guys, today, we’re going to be talking about this one ‘dude’ named Daniel.” Tim made air quotes around the word “Dude” and tried to mimic the common male, teen voice.
Tim continued on with the story, but Brooke couldn’t focus on it. She kept thinking about the prayer, and how it sounded strange. Tim sounded like he was talking to a person, but a very esteemed, holy person. An esteemed, holy God.
Shivers ran down her spine, and she got Goosebumps. Brooke was about to excuse herself to the bathroom, but as she stuck her hands in her pocket, she felt something. Pulling it out, she saw the black, shiny surface, and in the lights, she could make out the blue specks. Her rock. It relaxed her, and she no longer thought about getting up. She glanced over at Peter, and saw that he was looking at her, in a confused sort of way.
“Are you okay?” He mouthed.
Brooke nodded, and smiled. “Thanks,” She mouthed back. He nodded, and turned back to Tim, who was speaking about the Daniel story.
“Then, even though the King had decreed that no one pray to anyone but himself, Daniel went up to his room and prayed to God, thanking Him, just as he did three times a day, every day. Some of the King’s administrators saw Daniel, and told the King of what he’d been doing.
“The King had favor with Daniel, and didn’t want to have to throw Daniel in the Lion’s den for disobeying his order-as that was the punishment for breaking the order-but, he had to obey the rules, after all, he’d made them.
“"So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions' den. The king said to Daniel, ‘May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!’ Then the Bible says ‘A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel's situation might not be changed. Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him. And he could not sleep. At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions' den. When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, ‘Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?’
Daniel answered, ‘O king, live forever! My God sent His angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in His sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king.’
“The king was glad, and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.’”
Tim closed the bible, and stared at the group of teens. “Can you believe that? God saved Daniel, because Daniel had stayed right with God. Now, I’m not telling you to go break a bunch of rules just because you pray every day. That’s not the point of this. The point is to show you just how great the power of God is.”
Brooke began zoning out, again, this time, it was about the story. Could God really do that? That story couldn’t be real. One thing was real, she wanted to come back.