A New World

Chapter 10 - Friends?

Hayato stared back at the first sentence. He's read it over for the fifth time now to soak it in. Slowly he continued down the page, closely examining the words and sentences he was able to make out.

Chapter two to three were in even worse shape but there was enough information there for Hayato to come to the understanding that the focus was on seven churches he's never heard of before. "Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira? Are these actual places?" At first glance, the book seemed to have a historical value, but this wasn't what he needed, at least not now. Seeing that he wasn't getting information pertaining to his dreams, he grew impatient and began skimming the text through to chapter five until something caught his eye in verse five, "But one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals."

Lion of the Tribe of Judah? Was this the lion in his dream as well? Without knowing much, Hayato could tell that the first few chapters had a large focus on Jesus, dubbed as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, one of the twelve tribes of Israel - a fact that was well known to the everyday person.

He paused and rested his back on the porch bench, staring at the blue, cloudless sky, pondering the relation of the text to his dream. This had to be the answer to who the lion was from his dream or else his dad wouldn't have given him the book hoping he'd search through it for answers. It had to do with Jesus and it had historical value but according to his dad it provided information regarding the future as well, meaning it was also prophetic in nature. If this was true, why was he just discovering this wealth of information now? What was the true nature of this book?

He carefully flipped to the next page, curious to see what more was written in its worn pages. What met him was beyond his expectation. His eyes ran through the page to see judgment after judgment being detailed. These were all things similar to what he experienced in his dreams over the past year. His dad wasn't exaggerating when he said this book had the answers to both the past and the future.

The pieces were slowly coming together in Hayato's head. The gap of time revealed to him by his dad which also corresponded to his dreams was what he was reading about in these very pages. However, there were still a few oddities left to decipher such as the dragon and woman in his dream. Were those in the book too? He flipped the page once more excited for the next piece of information that would be revealed to him, but to his dismay discovered that the remainder of the book's pages were missing. As usual, the truth always eluded him by a few steps. So close and yet so far away!

Suddenly he heard voices and laughter in the distance grow closer to him. He closed the book and looked up to discover it was his mom, Joyce, and Ephret from the rally. As they got closer, Hayato saw another familiar figure with them, dressed in all black. "Blake?!"

With an inviting but not overly cheery smile, he waved to Hayato. "Hayato, how nice to see you again. I wasn't aware this was your mother."

Grace approached Hayato, beaming from ear to ear but quickly changed her expression to chastise her son for the commotion he caused at the rally. "Honey, it was rude of you to leave so early. Especially with how Blake cordially invited you to speak with him on the stage like that."

"It's no problem Ms..."

"You can just call me Grace. I told you earlier as well," she said giggling.

"Oh I could never treat such a respected individual as yourself with such crass."

"Please Blake, feel free to call us by our first names. We're all part of the same cause after all." Joyce exclaimed with Ephret in agreement.

"It would be my pleasure."

The atmosphere of all this was nauseating to Hayato and he was still feeling unsettled about Blake and his experience at the rally.