Both Uriel and Michael, the long-haired brother, stared intently at each other for perhaps a few seconds too long. Glenda could sense a heavy tension hanging in the air—a tension that was quickly and suddenly broken by Gabriel, the short-ponytail brother.
“Uri! Long time no see, bro!” Gabriel greeted with an overly joyful smile as he hugged Uriel with an almost overpowering affection.
“Ugh…Gabe…you’re hugging too tightly…can’t breathe…” Uriel whimpered, feeling Gabriel’s powerful hug almost crushing his ribcage.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Gabriel said with a hint of embarrassment, releasing his younger brother before adjusting his glasses. “It’s just that I haven’t seen you in such a long time. Man, I really miss you, bro! How long has it been? About a year, maybe. Damn, have you grown taller? You seem a bit taller since the last time I saw you.” Gabriel then turned to look at Glenda standing next to Uriel and gasped with shocking delight. “Oh, snap! Who’s this? Is this…your girlfriend? Damn, Uriel! You sly dog! You got yourself a girlfriend already! And such a hottie as well. Way to go, bro!” After patting Uriel on the back, Gabriel warmly greeted Glenda with a handshake. “Hey there, I’m Gabriel and this is Michael. We’re Uriel’s older brothers. Nice to meet you. What’s your name?”
“Umm…it’s Glenda,” Glenda uttered awkwardly, mildly taken aback by Gabriel’s radiant personality.
“Ooh, Glenda…that’s a nice name,” Gabriel said with a welcoming smile. “Anyway, come sit with us. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”
Feeling that they pretty much have no choice in the matter, Uriel and Glenda sat with Michael and Gabriel at one of the tables in the diner. There Uriel and Michael continued staring at each other in a tense silence—a moment that’s starting to feel more and more awkward the longer it’s dragged on.
Meanwhile, Glenda gazed upon the two men in front of her with a mixture of fasciation and anxiousness. So these were Uriel’s brothers, huh? Now that she’s able to view them with a more discerning eye, she could sort of see the family resemblance.
Perhaps the most intriguing part about these three brothers was that they all have white hair. Glenda had always assumed that Uriel had dyed his hair white, but apparently that was not the case as it seemed more like a rare genetic trait that's shared amongst the family. Either that or dying their hair white had become sort of a family tradition for them.
After a long period of uneasy silence, Uriel was the first to speak.
“What are you doing here?” Uriel asked, a hint of friction in his tone.
“Can’t an older brother simply want to check on his younger brother out of genuine concern?” Michael replied. Although his voice was calm, it also bared a hint of sternness to it. “Why do you have to make it seem I was here with an ulterior motive?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because you almost always do. How did you even find me here?”
“We have our ways. God always guides those who are faithful to what they seek the most.”
Uriel rolled his eyes. “God?” he scoffed. “Yeah, more like a private detective or something. How much did it cost you? I bet it was a lot of money.”
Michael narrowed his eyes with just a hint of aggravation. “Tracking you down was actually not all that difficult for us, to be honest, although you seemed to have put quite the effort into making it difficult.”
“Uhh, yeah. That’s quite literally the definition of ‘running away from home’, which is what I am doing, by the way. What I’ve been doing for the past year, in case you haven’t noticed. Trying not to be found was kind of the point. Or have your brain been so clogged up with religious bullshit that you can’t even take a hint.”
For a moment, Michael said nothing. Instead, he paused to take a sip of coffee from the cup in front of him, his movement ever so regal and composed. “Uriel, I know we haven’t seen each other in almost a year now so the habit of familial courtesy might be slightly lost on you, but the least you can do is show me a little respect.”
“Oh, so you’re expecting a welcoming party now?” Uriel said annoyingly. “Wanting me to congratulate you for doing such a spectacular job in finding me here? When I don’t even want to be found?”
“If it were up to Mom and Dad, you would have been caught and returned home the moment you ran away,” Michael said, his tone becoming slightly more hardened. “Instead, you are left to your own devices, left to roam freely and do whatever you please until now. Do you know why? It’s because I have convinced them to. I’ve convinced Mom and Dad to let you be free, at least temporarily. If we were to take you back home by force, you'll simply try to run away again. Instead, I suggested that they should let you wander the world freely for one whole year, giving you time to cool down and reflect on your life’s choices. Hopefully, by the end of that year, you’ll finally come to your senses and return home of your own volition.”
Uriel contorted his face into a hurtful look. “‘Come to my senses’?! Is that what you think of me?! You think I left home out of some sense of juvenile impulse?! Nah, man. I’ve thought about leaving home for a very, very long time. Been thinking about it ever since I was a child. I never wanted to live the life Mom and Dad chose for me. I never wanted to become a priest. I ran away from home in order to escape all that. You know that.”
“Just because you’ve spent a lot of time thinking about a decision does not necessarily mean it is always the correct one. Every decision has repercussions, Uriel, and you have failed to see the repercussions of yours—repercussions that you have yet to fully understand. Even now, you are still young and naïve. Only with the guidance of God will you be set straight to your truly destined path.”
“Oh, don’t give me that preachy bullshit you’re always on about! I am sick and tired of it! Besides, I’m 18 years-old now! Nearly 19! I’m pretty much a full-grown adult! Can’t I at least be allowed to make my own decisions?! Can’t you for once stop treating me like I’m a goddamn child?!”
Running out of patience, Michael suddenly slammed his palm onto the table as he got up from his seat, his raised voice now more hardened and serious than ever. “I’ll stop treating you like a child when you stop acting like one!”
Right as Michael stood up from his seat, Uriel stood up as well—facing his older brother with a fierce, mean look. The two of them glared angrily at each other for a good couple of seconds, to the point where it gave off an aura of intense hostility. While the commotion they’d caused was not too particularly loud, it was still noticeable enough to attract the stares of some nearby onlookers within the diner.
Gabriel looked at the both of them nervously, afraid that they might start a fistfight right then and there. Even Glenda felt a strong sense of worry and anxiousness in her heart when she saw the two brothers argue. Glenda had heard about Uriel’s strained relationship with his family, but this level of animosity was simply unprecedented even for her.
“Woah, woah, Mike…calm down, bro. Chill,” Gabriel urged softly as he gently guided his older brother back down to his seat, pacifying him into a more tranquil state.
“Uriel…” Glenda muttered as she tenderly tugged on her boyfriend’s arm. Uriel could see his girlfriend’s worrying expression and so decided to calm himself into a more composed state before sitting back down.
“Tell me the honest truth, Uriel,” Michael said, returning to his calm demeanor. “During this past year that you’ve been away, you never once thought about going back home? You never once have any regrets about your decision?”
“No regrets whatsoever,” Uriel declared with proud confidence. “So far, I’d say I’m doing pretty good for myself. I’m going to college now, studying evolutionary biology, and even got myself a beautiful girlfriend.” As Uriel said that last part, he curled his arm around Glenda—indicating that she was the ‘beautiful girlfriend’ he was talking about—which made Glenda blush a little. “All in all, I’m pretty happy with where I am in life and certainly a lot happier than if I were to stay with Mom and Dad and follow their advice.”
“Oh, really?” Michael gave him a piercing cold stare before pulling out a roll of newspaper and slapped it onto the table for all of them to see. The frontline article of the newspaper was revealed to be the same article detailing the shooting incident at the campus of River Rock University, back when Uriel heroically tried to take a bullet for Glenda from some assholes who were harassing her. Back then, the whole event was highly sensationalized by the media to the point where the story presented became more and more distorted from the actual truth—though part of it was by design to conceal Glenda’s succubus identity. “Is this what you define as ‘doing pretty good for yourself’?”
Both Uriel and Glenda looked at the newspaper with shocking astonishment. Looks like the cat’s out of the bag now.
Regardless, Uriel collected himself into a more reassured state. “I don’t see how this is relevant to the point I’m trying to make here.”
“Uriel, you were shot! And nearly died!” Michael emphasized harshly.
“Oh, please! Like I have a lesser chance of being shot if I became a priest! I mean, have you seen the South Glade Mission Church?” Uriel argued. “Besides, I came out of it alive, didn't I?”
“It’s not the fact that you’ve been shot that I’m even the most concerned about. It’s the fact that you didn’t even bother contacting us when you were shot. You didn’t even put us as your emergency contacts.”
“What?! How did you—?”
“We’ve checked with your college beforehand, Uri,” Gabriel explained with a hurtful expression, as though he felt slightly betrayed. “We knew that you didn’t put any of our numbers on your emergency contacts list. Man, to think that you didn’t even consider calling us when you were freaking shot. You could have died back then and we wouldn’t even know about it! Imagine how shocked and terrified we were when we finally found out. Mom and Dad were worried sick about you. We were nearly scared to death!”
“And what exactly would that have accomplished, huh?” Uriel protested. “How exactly would contacting you guys have helped me in that particular situation?”
“We could have at least transferred you to a better hospital,” Michael pointed out. “Possibly increasing your chances of survivability. It’s not like we don’t have the resources to do so.”
“Yeah, after which you’d immediately drag me back home. No thanks. I think I’ll take my chances.”
“Uriel…I’m disappointed in you,” Michael said, looking at Uriel sternly. “I thought, as brothers, we would learn to trust each other more. I thought our bond was stronger than that.”
“Yeah? Well, I’m disappointed in you as well,” Uriel countered rudely.
Michael was slightly taken aback by that comment. “Whatever do you mean?”
Uriel looked at Michael solemnly, as if he couldn’t even recognize the person in front of him as his own brother. “You’ve changed, man. You used to be cool. Me, you, and Gabe—we used to be close. We used to hang out like actual brothers. You guys remember those times, right? But now, ever since you've grown up, ever since you’ve become an adult, you’re becoming more and more like Mom and Dad. It’s like you became a completely different person. You’ve changed, Michael.”
“Changed?” Michael let out a soft, barely audible chuckle as he slowly shook his head. “No, Uriel. I haven’t changed. I’ve simply transcended, simply becoming a truer version of myself. When a sheep becomes a wolf, that is change. When a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, that is transcendence.”
Uriel stared at him in stunned silence, feeling as though Michael’s mind was in a world of his own and that no amount of logic would get through his thick skull. “Whatever, man,” he said with a dismissive scoff. “Anyway, if you’re trying to convince me to go back home, you might as well be wasting your breath. I am not going back, not even if you put a gun to my head. We’re done here.”
And with that, Uriel grabbed Glenda’s hand and got up from his seat, proceeding to exit the diner.
“Uriel…” Michael said right as Uriel got up from his seat. “...If it were up to Mom and Dad, they would have me drag you back home, by force if necessary. I’m offering you the choice to come back home on your own two feet because I respect you as a brother.”
Uriel didn't even turn to look back at Michael as he replied with unyielding conviction. “If you truly respect me as a brother, you’ll let me live my own life.”
Uriel and Glenda then walked out of the diner, with Michael and Gabriel watching them depart from their sight.
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Fanatical cult members or leaders what a horrible family to grow up in.
Thanks for the chapter a