The Disciple

Chapter Nine

 I hear voices as my eyes are still shut. Thinking I must be crazy, I open my eyes as I see my parents talking to a man in a white coat. My eyes still blurry, I see another person standing behind my parents. My vision then promptly becomes clearer as the person standing behind them is none other than James. I look around the area only to find myself lying in a hospital bed.

"Where am I?" I ask James.

"Relax Tristan, You're in Highland Park Hospital." James answers.

"Oh Tristan you're awake." The doctor says as he walk in.

My parents then leave my hospital bed as they grab my things and head outside to grab something to eat. They leave James and I to talk as I try to gain my composure on everything that has happened.

"So what was the last thing you remember?" the doctors asks.

"The last thing I remember was us at Denny's, hanging out with Jeff and we met a girl named Gina. Then the casino owner ends up finding us and chaos breaks out. After that everything just seems like a blur. I do remember a ninja entering the scene though. I think he was one of the Dreamers. Anyways, how long have I been out for?" I ask as an officer arrives.

"Its been two days. It's already Sunday." James answers.

"What!? So what have you been doing the past two days I was out of commision?" I ask in shock.

"Well while you have been resting, I went to talk to Gabriel who offered to train me to control my powers and teach me how to use them properly." He answers.

"How did that go?" I ask.

"Well it started that day you got picked up by the ambulance. Gabriel surprisingly knocked on my door and asked me if I would like to learn how to control my powers and how to wield the cross properly which meant I would have to take part in a mentorship/discipleship program with him." James says.

"That sounds like hard work." I reply.

"It was, but I went and took me two days to do. Anyways on Friday, we started reading verses from the bible and then meditating on them. It took me awhile to memorize all the readings, but it was like doing homework. Afterwards, we practiced with the blade as I had to spar with him. He beat me every time until he begin playing the Newsboys song "That's How You Changed The World." While the song was playing I was able to get the better of him. Kind of like a Jedi Knight in Star Wars. He also taught me how to regain my sword by using my hands to reclaim it." James says.

"Oh cool. That's it?" I asked.

"On Saturday, I was practicing to read thought. That's why I couldn't visit you yesterday." He answered.

"Oh okay. So what am I thinking now?" I ask James.

"You're thinking about how you're going get rid of your headache right now." James says.

"Close. I'm actually thinking about where I'm going to order cheeseburger from." I say jokingly.

"He also told me that the guys that attacked us with the casino owner are called the Loyal Followers of Abaddon." James says.

"Who's Abaddon?" I ask.

"No idea, but he sounds like a bad apple." James answers as we walk out of my hospital room.

The nurses arrive and takes an old man away. His daughter sits quietly in the waiting room as she sees her dad being carted away back to his hospital room. The daughter's face then goes from a smile to a frown. At first James and I just ignored the situation and started to walk away. From a distance, we could hear the daughter sobbing. Her face dripping with tears as her cries are heard throughout the whole hospital. James then stops me from taking another step as I glance at him with a curious look. Looking back we see the daughter blowing her nose with a tissue.

"We're going back aren't we?" I ask James.

"Yes." He answers.

We walk back towards the direction of the sobbing daughter who is still blowing her nose on her tissue. I can tell that she can hear are footsteps getting closer and closer. She stops and looks up at us. Her eyeliner smothered around her face and her tissued filled with her faint lipstick. SNIFF! SNIFF!

"Hello miss." I greet her.

"Who are you guys?" She asks.

"Well I'm Tristan and this here is my friend James." I answer.

"We couldn't help but have a feeling that you were in trouble. Would you care to talk about it?" James asks.

"No, that's okay. I'd rather keep my private life to myself." She says as she continues to sniffle.

"Oh I see. That's okay. Would it be okay if we pray for you then?" James asks.

"Sure I would like that." She replies as James closes his eyes and clamps his hands together.

"Dear Lord our Father I pray that whatever is wrong with this young lady, will remain happy and the positive energy I transfer to her will be in effect. In Jesus name Amen." James says.

"Thank you." The young lady replies with a smile on her face.

She stands and drops her handkerchief right in front of us. Looking up at the ceiling, the daughter smiles with joy and positivity. I glance at James as he picks up the piece of cloth on the floor. He hands the handkerchief to the nearest nurse who takes it and places it in her pocket. The nurse then, proceeds to smile as she takes out something from her left pocket. In her left hand appears to be some sort of walkie talkie. I could tell something wasn't right as she glances back at us with a suspicious look on her face. Her name tag read Jessie as she ends up power walking towards our direction. James and I turn the other way as we run back to my hospital room.

After a five minute run back to my hospital room I quickly lock the door and close the blinds. James looks at me as if I was losing my mind. Puzzled, James walks up to me trying to calm me down. I quickly take off my hospital gown and put on my boxer's as James place his hand over his eyes.

"WHOA! Tristan what are you doing?" James asks as I put on my pants.

"Something was off about that nurse." I say as I put on my shirt and shoes.

The two of us head towards the lobby where I check myself out of the hospital. The moment we leave we see the daughter who was crying about her dad. She looks at us with a smile on her face as she waves bye to us. Her father emerges in a wheelchair dressed in street clothes as glances and greets at the two us. Both father and daughter end up hugging as from the looks of it, the dad gets out of the hospital.

"It's a good thing we prayed for the daughter." James replies.

"Yeah." I say back.

"So are we exercising tomorrow?" James asks me as we exit the hospital.

"Yeah we can. I wanna shoot hoops for a bit too." I answer.

From the corner of my eye the same suspicious nurse continues to stare at us as if we had done something wrong. We make it to the parking lot as James tells me that my parents have already left. He offers me a ride back as I gladly accept. I look back at the hospital wondering why that nurse kept staring at us. Thinking to myself, I thank the Lord to have a friend like James to count on anytime I need anything.