Spiritual Departure

I waited till exactly 12:00 to get out of my car at St. John's. Shaking, I walked to the entrance. The huge double-doors welcomed me to the church. I had to rethink my decision if I was really going to go in there. I didn’t know who was in there or what they wanted. Still shaking, I slowly and steadily tipped toed inside. I popped off the ground like a cat when the double-doors slammed together making a violent ruckus. The only light that shined in the church was at the end of the long walkway. It was a note that

When we arrived at the house, I stood there for about five seconds before knocking on the door. They didn’t answer at first, so I knocked again, harder, and then saw the handle start to move. My stomach filled with butterflies as I watched the door slowly open. The face that greeted was one of a two year old, and as I looked up I saw her father standing over her.

After a few more minutes of waiting Anna decided to get out of bed and walk down to the food court to see if her father was there. After getting out of bed, Anna found a note taped to her father’s chair that she hadn’t seen before scripted in scribbly letters saying Based on your actions he might come back don’t tell anyone about this and he will come back unharmed. Anna hurriedly found the bag of her clothes that her mother had delivered overnight and pulled on a hot pink mini skirt and a white long sleeve crop top. After getting dressed Anna opened her door and stepped outside, there was no one anywhere to be seen. She continued to walk down the hall and there was still no noise and no one in sight. She walked straight to the elevator and went down to the first floor where the food court should be, but there was no one there either, the hospital had been abandoned and she was sure that the songbook and the object that played her melody the night before were somehow behind it all. She ran back up to her room as carefully as she could trying not to hurt her arm, and once she arrived at the door she grabbed the music book off the desk beside of her bed, tried to flush it down the toilet, and stuffed her cell phone in her bag of clothes that her mom had bought. She was about to pick up her bag when she heard a new melody right outside of her door. La, La, La, La, La, La. La, La, La, La, La. La, La, La, La, La. La, La, La, La, La, La, La. She wanted to see what was making the noise so she carefully opened her door and peeked through the opened crack. There nothing was there! She grabbed her bag of clothes and ran down the steps as quickly as she could but then she heard a voice behind her, “Aaaaannnnnnnnnnnaaaaaaa!!!!” the voice moaned “Aaaaannnnnnnnnnnaaaaaaa it isn’t safe at your house!!!!” said the voice. She spun around and saw a scrawny old man

Despite his better judgment advising him to do otherwise, the boy crept forward a little further, just enough to get a better look at the peculiar passerby. Suddenly, the stranger’s gaze turned down the alley and locked with his. The boy froze, eyes wide. His mind went blank from fear and he forgot for a moment where his hiding place was. Once the memory abruptly returned to him, he flung himself backward into it and sat very still, closing his eyes and praying silently to whatever deity was

I was in a place I was not familiar with, however, I would soon fall in love with. When I stepped off the giant steel contraption, I was greeted with a hot summer’s air. We then got into an old rusty van with the stench of cigarettes. Two hours later we finally reached our destination. Our destination was no resort on an island. Our destination was a small village out in seclusion. We walked around the village meeting the natives. As we was walking, I looked over my shoulder and saw a young lady. I glanced at her feet and noticed the red dirt overtaking the color of her skin. My preacher and I went over to her mud hut and told her about Jesus Christ. As my preacher was speaking, a little girl peaked her head out from her momma’s tattered skirt. I motioned her to approach me and handed her some candy. Her little smooth hands snatched the candy from mine. I welcomed her with a big grin and she returned with the same. Just to see one little girl smile made my entire

Makayla dropped Lacey off at daycare and then was off to work for the rest of the day. When it was finally time for her to go back home for lunch she wasn't feeling right about the whole thing but she did it anyway. She packed up her office and went home for the two hour lunch that she had every day but little did she know she wasn't returning to work today. When she got home she could feel a presence in her house but she wasn't quite sure what it could be and she didn't know if she wanted to find out, so she walked into the kitchen and started making her lunch. Forgetting the bad feeling she had walking through the door. She sat down to eat her lunch when she heard a loud knock coming from upstairs. She was scared but she reminded herself that it was her house and she shouldn't be scared in her own home. So she walked up the stairs and looked in all of the rooms and checked out every little thing that could have made the noise. She walked back downstairs and now she was very frightened. There was someone in her house and she could feel it so she rushed around trying to find out what it could have been. That's when she saw it...him. There was a big shadow in on the wall and she had no idea who it could be or why they were here bit she did know one thing, they didn't belong here! She walked back into the kitchen to get herself a weapon and tried to walk back up to the space when she was grabbed and

Until finally this lady’s reflection appeared on water. She said Adam would be taken to visit anyone he desired to meet. 10 mintues later the wall shattered and the paint peeled off like nail polish. A bright shinning light came through it. He couldn’t see anything. He was blinded by the shine. He covered his eyes with his right hand, peaking through his fingers, squinting his eyes, and his heart beated faster than the speed of light. Finally he adjusted to the light, he then walked towards the wall. He noticed a hand reaching out to him. Adam reached out and grabbed it. He was quickly rising up. He was up with his father. It was peaceful and cloudy. There wasn’t many people around. It was weird you were able to see everyone else on earth. At the same time it was creepy. Surprisingly Adam was not scared but

“I’m still cold” ““I’m kinda hungry” “We should go somewhere else” They all seemed to say at once. One of us suggested going into the church which we all agreed on then eventually got it up and went. Whoever suggested it was smart because walking into the church was like feeling the sun after being locked in a freezer for years. We all sat in these chairs that were at the front entrance of the church. I looked around observingly and noticed every detail in that room. It was my first time in a church and I treated it as a job to remember everything about that room. The chairs we were sitting in were in the front room of the church to the right. To the left were bathrooms and there was so much red. I had never seen so much red in one room. The carpet was red the cushioning on the chair was red. I stood up while everyone else sat around talking about where to go next. There was a table in the room behind some chairs that held business cards and pamphlets. I read the names of the people in my head and tried to determine the relationships of the people in the picture. Dylan walked up to me and stood there with me without saying a word. He seemed to be analyzing the pamphlets

“You took longer than usual. Did you take a detour? Make out with any cheerleader’s boyfriend?” Evan asked. “I heard it was you. How could you seduce such a reasonable young man and use him to satisfy your own sick needs?” Steven asked as they switched places. It suddenly dawned on her that the only ones who would create rumors about her were her own brothers and suddenly she became furious. “Why would you do that?” she screamed at them. The boys flinched, they didn’t expect her to retaliate. “Do you honestly hate me that much that you’d allow a bunch of girls to beat me up over something I didn’t do? I ran for my life because of you. I was so scared, but I had no reason to be!” Her breathing seemed to echo throughout the house as they stood in surprise to Elora’s outbreak. She couldn’t take it, she wanted to cry. She was not a toy to her evil twin brothers, she did not want to be played with and pushed around. She let them fall. She sank to her knees and cried. The boys parted as her mother came running up the stairs. She too seemed truly surprised to find her daughter crying. She ordered the boys to their room and helped Elora to her feet. She cooed sweet things in her ear and wiped her tears away. They went downstairs and prepared dinner together.

In the corner of what looked like an old small warehouse, a door was propped open, and under the third floor window was a big blue and white sign saying, “Igelsia Christiana: Servicios Billingues Domingos/11AM.” It was 10:50 am, and there were only two other cars in the lot. I remembered that Hispanics have a different time orientation (Sue & Sue, 2013), and I chastised myself a bit for worrying so much about being late. I also wondered how long I might be one of the few people there before the service started, and I contemplated just waiting in the car. However, I got out and went to the ground floor entrance. I opened the solid metal doors into a dark foyer with a decommissioned elevator to my right and what looked like a makeshift, community health clinic entrance to the left, I thought, “I am literally in a back alley building.” The place was completely empty and quiet. Again, I thought about going home. I saw another blue sign on a door to a stairwell and remembered that it seemed like the church was on the third floor. I opened to door to the stairs, and light, music, and the smell of coffee and food flooded

I tried to remember what had happened but I just couldn't wrap my head around it. I struggled to my feet and i looked around and saw nothing but black walls and a door. I walked up to the door and tried to open it and it shocked me. There was nothing around me to try to hold to get the door open. So i stood there wondering if I should try again and I did. This time it actually worked it didn't shock me it just. I walked outside and and saw children running around playing. As i stood there the people around me stood there like nothing happened like there wasn't a women standing there like nothing was wrong. I stood there for a couple seconds thinking what led me into this place. As i stood there all the little kids went past me and they were all playing like i was invisible. The weird thing is that all the kids looked like katherine. I thought that was very strange. So i started down the street and all the homes looked the same,cars,clothes,and the way people lived each child had there own home. But the weird thing is that when the children came out of there homes they would carry bottles with them. Finally I got to this little shop called “Little womens

A girl, with her auburn hair woven into an intricate pattern that fell down her back, reclined on a wooden bench, which moved ever-so-slightly when she shifted in her seat. She had been waiting quite a while on this rickety bench, which was positioned to face the enormas lake before her. Rachel's life, which was filled with the mundanest people imaginable, was praying, on that rickety bench facing the lake, that something extraordinary would manifest in her life.In the occurance that someone walked by her bench, Rachel would look up hopefully, thinking that maybe this would be a person to add some color into the dull gray that was her existance, but she was dissapointed everytime because whoever passed would lower their gaze and quicken their

It was about 1:55 PM and I was a bit nervous to go to Fatimah’s place for lunch. I was standing around the area where she lives, which consisted of townhouse grouped together. Finally around 2:00, I knocked on her door. A couple of seconds later, the door opened, but no one had greeted me immediately. I peeked inside and saw a very cozy living room with a wide-screen TV playing Chicka-Chicka Boom Boom short clips and toys stacked in the corner. Fatimah immediately came around and welcomed me inside. I asked her where I should take off my shoes and she told me to put them off to the side inside the house. I looked over to my right and her two children were sitting next to each other on the right side of the couch and were staring at me with big, round eyes. Fatimah had told me to sit down on the couch and told me the food was almost ready. I took off my jacket and I offered to help, but she said her husband was almost done cooking. When Fatimah went towards her husband I slowly turned towards her children; the little girl was back playing on her iPad and the little boy was still

The morning was wet and gloomy. Hunter and I approached the church, the wind was blowing at his tie, and sweeping through my dress. We walked into the house of God and found our spot on the hard pews. Shortly after our classmates found their seats and joined us. They stood alone with their sponsor behind them. Waiting their turn to walk up to the bishop and speak in front of the church. Yes, Hunter and I walked up to the bishop alone but when we both returned, we returned to someone, unlike our class mates.

Going into youth group time was the next activity on the agenda. Nobody wanted to be in that situation including myself because of room 202. Like every youth group time, we started off with simple questions like, "How was your day?" and "What stuck out to you most?". Out of nowhere, a girl in the mix of everything said she had something on her heart she needed to share. Karissa explained on how multiple times, she would harm her body by cutting herself and attempting to end her life six times. She spoke on how she was always in and out of hospitals because of the harm she would pursue on herself. This not only shocked everyone in the room, but it also caused everyone to weep for her. Brad Starn, the youth group leader, then talked after and