The Granting

A crackle of thunder snapped Raziel awake from his much needed rest. 5:55 slightly illuminated his bedside meanwhile the dark motel room was eerily quiet. Deathly still.

Another crackle...followed by a burst of light in the sky.

Raziel quickly sat up, holding on to his breath. The commotion taking place outside of his window was no ordinary storm. No rain. Raziel slid slowly from bed as his cold bare feet penetrated the layers of musty carpet beneath his toes. He peered through the glass and in utter disbelief, Raziel witnessed two lightning bolts towering over the land, both resembling golden giants. They had strokes that mocked human body parts.

Arms...legs...a head.

He blinked twice. It wasn’t a dream. The Lightning Giants slowly merged together by what appeared to be them holding hands. In that moment, a light so brilliant it blinded Raziel, took over and swept across the grounds below. In a flash it was gone. Raziel could see nothing. He could hear nothing...not even silence.

Is this what it felt like to not exist? Did Raziel just die?

Maybe.

Visions began to play in Raziel’s awakened eye. From birth, to adolescent. Teen aged to adult.

The painful vision of Raziel losing everything but his sanity flashed into the front of his memory. His heart ached as if it were happening all over again. The visions ceased suddenly. Now the deafening silence could be heard. He felt his heart thumping rapidly in his chest and throat was dry and tight.

Raziel opened his eyes to the dark damp motel room and dropped to his knees, sobbing uncontrollably. He cried for all the times he needed to but could not. Raziel released his all on the floor of that room.

Then he was done.

His body was weakened.

Raziel dragged his body back to the bed trying to understand what he had seen through the motel window and why did his entire life just flash before his eyes.

“What happened to me?”, he thought to himself.

Just as his head hit the pillow there was a loud and heavy knock at the door.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!...BOOM BOOM!

Raziel’s eyes shot open. Through the window he saw rain begin to fall. He glanced over at the clock by the bedside. 5:55 read the clock.

“NO...WAY No way it’s still 5:55!”, he gasped and whispered aloud.

Raziel’s palms were sweaty. He swallowed hard and got out of the bed making his way to the door slowly. The rain began to fall harder.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!...BOOM BOOM!

The knocks were harder this time. Raziel felt the vibrations underneath his feet. His hand trembled as he reached for the doorknob.

Raziel opened the door and to his surprise there was no rain. No one at the door. A black cat scurried away into the darkness.

“I’m losing my mind! I am losing...my mind!”

Just as he was about to close the door, he noticed a little black book just beyond the threshold. His knees cracked as he bent down to retrieve the velvet black book. After closing the door, he peered out of the window and saw rain streaming down. He was completely sure that he had gone insane now.

Raziel plopped down on the bed and switched on the light on the nightstand. The little black book contained a bookmark in the middle of it. Raziel turned to the marked page and there was a small note folded up. With shaky hands and a nervous mind, Raziel’s eyes frantically scanned the note in disbelief. It was his own letter that he had written and torn into tiny pieces back in Michigan just after he lost his family and everything he owned. He scattered the pieces into the river days ago.

“This can’t be real. This cannot be real. What is happening?”

Written in bold red letters on the bookmarked page were the words WISH GRANTED. UNDER THE BED AND IN THE CLOSET.

Raziel dropped the book and fell to his knees as he snatched the covers up from the side of the bed. He fell back onto his butt and began hyperventilating. He couldn’t believe his eyes. He blinked once. Twice. Three...four times. It was still there. Raziel rubbed his eyes. “Please wake me up now, please let me snap out of it!”

Nothing changed. The floor underneath the bed was covered in stacks of money from the top to the bottom. From the head to the foot. He stumbled to his feet and yanked the closet door open. The entire closet was stacked to the ceiling with cash.

In the letter Raziel had written, he expressed how he wished he had enough money to start a new life after losing everything he had and everyone he loved. He knew that it wouldn’t replace his family but if he had to go on without them, he wanted to go on living a life of luxury and peace.

When Raziel was able to calm his breathing and regain his composure, he walked over and picked up the little black book. He turned the page.

“Stay faithful and pure hearted”. The subtle demand was written in green letters.

He turned back to the previous message written in red. Gone. The page was blank. He flipped back to the message in green. Gone. That page was also blank. He searched every page of the book one by one. Nothing. It was completely blank. Raziel began to laugh hysterically. His laughs turned to cries...then laughs again. He wasn’t sure how to feel. Whether or not anything that had happened in the recent past moment was real was still not clear. One thing that was clear though, was that Raziel was $500,000 richer.