(If you're enjoying this one, please check out my other titles…The Chronicles of Narnia: The Red Queen in the C.S Lewis section, and, BloodRayne: Lessons in Blood in Games:Misc rpg and Harry Potter and the Daughter of Evil in the harry potter section….)
The Omen
Rebirth and Retribution :1
1980
NASA, Kennedy Space Centre, Florida
The young observatory assistant rubbed his eyes and cleared the lens. This couldn't be right? Could it? He picked up the phone unclear of what to say. The phone picked up at the other end.
"Yes?"
"Sir, ah, there's something you need to see."
"Well what is it?"
"I'm really not sure how to describe it Sir. I've never seen anything like it."
"Fine, I'm on my way."
It was a few moments before Dr Whitten arrived looking a little tired and unamused. His assistant knew better to interrupt him at this hour unless it was dire or utterly fantastic. The dark haired assistant began yapping on about a light anomaly, some convergence, or something. He was talking entirely too fast to be making any sense as he was pointing at the scope. Dr Whitten pushed his grey brown hair back and straightened his glasses to peer into the scope. He couldn't believe his eyes.
There in the sky, three unidentified light sources, he guessed possibly stars or comets; had appeared and were rapidly moving closer to together. He couldn't believe it. He turned to his assistant who was practically on the verge of hyperventilating with excitement.
"Please tell me you've been recording this."
"I have every possible spare system monitoring and recording as we speak." The assistant looked thoughtful. "Is it possible they will collide?"
"I don't know young man, but get the others in here ASAP. And I mean now."
"Yes Sir."
Italy, Rome, a convent near Vatican City
The woman gasped and clutched her pregnant belly. Her babies were coming. A nun muttered to her in Italian, trying to soothe her. The labour pains were growing stronger and more frequent, the woman feared she'd almost split in half from the pain. The sisters, who doubled often as midwives, crossed themselves often, despite some of them even used to be nurses. They had been doing so ever since she arrived and had examined her womanhood, and found that she was indeed untouched by a man. A virgin mother.
In another room, a number of sisters were discussing this miraculous birth along with the signs in the heavens above. The predicted convergence of stars heralded the birth of humanity's doom and its saviour. It had long been predicted that this sign would come.
The woman cried out again. The birthing pain quicker again. The same muttering sister wiped her sweaty brow and cleared her brown locks from her face with a cool wet cloth. She placed a rosary in her hands. Until her pregnancy, the woman had never been religious, not like mother. But for obvious reasons she was now.
She felt so weak now. She had seen the bloody cloths they kept taking away, trying to conceal them. She knew there was something wrong. Before Mother had turned her out for being pregnant and unwed, before she had been accused of lying about her virginity, she had helped her two married older sisters give birth. She knew that the blood shouldn't be like that.
"Nathalia dear," the older sister of four that were there, "We must remove the babies." She made a cutting motion across Nathalia's swollen belly. The sister had meant what they called a C-section. It was a cut through the abdomen to the womb to pull a baby free if a natural birth was having complications. Nathalia was scared but she nodded.
"Save my babies" she pleaded.
The older sister called for a few others. They brought fresh towels and a surgical kit. This older sister had been one of the proper nurses now here. A drug was administered as a sister held her hand. One placed a thick leather bound cord in her mouth to bite down on. Another held her shoulders down.
She bit down hard. She felt the wound. The room seemed to be spinning uncontrollably. She heard a gasp as she felt them pulling each child free. Two perfect boys. Nathalia feebly reached out to touch them. Her perfect little miracle boys. She had already told the sisters her chosen names. Her boys were her last thought. Nathalia slipped from consciousness.
The sisters worked fast. They tried to stop the haemorrhaging. They tried to keep her awake, keep her breathing. The older sister had even called her old boss, a doctor from the hospital. But nothing helped. Young Nathalia, who was going to dedicate her life afterwards to the convent, died from complications.
The older sister followed the doctor with the two babes. He needed to check them over for their health, and for their marks as well. The sister had told him of them.
"Let me see them" the old doctor said, reaching for the infants.
He saw that they were indeed healthy. No harm had befallen them. And they had the strange marks upon each crown, but each was different and not clear yet. He and the older sister had known what this meant. He offered observation at the hospital for the babies. The older sister, once his head nurse, consented. They discussed the infants future. Adoption was the only choice.
Back at the Kennedy Centre
Dr Whitten and his colleagues had watched the phenomena for an hour and a half. The stars, or comets, it couldn't be confirmed as yet; had rapidly hurtled toward each other. The measuring instruments assured them a collision was imminent.
It happened in a split second. It was almost like in slow motion. They slowed down at the last second, almost rotating around each other. Then in a great burst of light that forced them to turn away from the high powered scopes, the collision happened. When they looked again, the blazing light lingered a little, then simply dissipated. The sky had returned to normal again.
"We got all that didn't we?" Whitten asked. The assistant nodded. His mouth was agape in awe.
6 months later, the hospital orphanage
Doctor Bertollini stroked his small beard, white with age. Today was a day of hope. The twins in his care had people coming to see them. He had to make sure the American couple took the oldest child. The council had insisted on it. It was imperative that the prophecies were fulfilled. The American couple were due at two thirty. Another woman, the old sister from the convent, was coming at four. She had left the convent and had decided to take the other child in.
The clocked ticked by. At five minutes to two, a knock at his office door. A young nurse entered and announced the American couple were early.
Doctor Bertollini straightened his tie and jacket. It was show time. He wandered down the corridor to the room where they waited. He studied them for a second. The husband was a little older than the woman though still youthful with his ash blond hair and dark grey suit. The woman was a little shorter with slightly wavy darker pinned delicately at nape of her neck. Her light eyes had that spark of excitement and rubbed her hands together.