• Chapter 3: Miranda’s Destiny Revealed

    Brad walked into the somewhat large brick house with Miranda following close behind him. “I’m back!” he greeted.
    “Already?” asked Maria.
    “Yea. Where’s Ralph?”
    “In his study, researching the star you saw last night,” Maria answered the demanding question.
    He walked to the study with Miranda following him. “Hey Ralph…”
    “Brad!” Ralph said, interrupting while looking at the book before him. “I looked up the star, and found a possibility that…” Ralph stopped as soon as he looked up and saw Miranda standing in the doorway. “It’s true,” was all he could say as his brown eyes met her youthful green eyes.
    “Ralph, this is Miranda. I found her on the side of the street. She said something about a destiny different from all of ours. I thought you might know what she was talking about, so I came here.”
    “Miranda, could you give Brad and I time to talk, please? Make yourself at home. You can watch television in the living room, if you want. Change the channel to what ever station.” Once the beautiful, black-haired woman had left the room, Ralph grabbed Brad by the shoulders and stared him in the eyes. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? You’ve become part of her destiny now. Are you ready to handle that kind of responsibility?” Ralph frantically questioned with an extremely worried look in his eyes.
    “It can’t be that hard. Besides, what’s so ‘special’ about her?”
    Ralph paced around the room, running his hands through his hair. He stopped, looking through his many bookshelves, only stopping when he found the right one. He took it off the shelf and began flipping through the pages. He turned the book around to show Brad the illustration on the page.
    When Brad saw it, he was shocked. It looked very similar to Miranda. The only difference was that in the picture, the figure was holding a small, shining globe-like object in one hand and a serpent in the other. Before her was a representation of the earth. She was looking at it, seeming as if she was deciding which of the objects to put on the earth. “What are those?” Brad asked, pointing at the objects in her hands.
    “They’re representations of good and evil,” Ralph replied. “You see, Miranda has power over both and evil. Should I just tell you the entire legend?” Ralph sighed when Brad nodded. He knew he had to learn about her destiny, but he was tired and didn’t feel like going through the whole story. He knew he had to, though, because Brad didn’t have enough initiative to read the stories for himself. “Well, It says a 25-year-old girl shall be sent to earth in the form of a shooting star, which is probably what you saw last night. It is said that she holds the power of 10,000 suns. She can make anything happen, whether it is either good or evil, which is why the picture in the book is the way it is. If you choose to stay with her, your responsibility will be to protect her, since you probably aren’t the only one that saw the shooting star, and many people do know of this legend. It will put your life in extreme danger. Do you wish to protect her?”
    “Yes. I can’t leave her. I just have two questions, though. Where is she from? When I asked her, she told me that I wouldn’t believe her if she told me. And the other question is: why did she come here in the first place? Is the world ending or something?”
    Ralph had a small smile come across his lips when he heard the first question. “I wouldn’t have believed her, either. Actually, I doubt you’ll believe me now. She’s from the center of the universe. She came here to check if the world is so vile and money-hungry that people would either enslave her or kill her. If either of these happen, the world will end as soon as she leaves. If neither happens, she will give the world a blessing. No one knows exactly what the blessing does, but it is considered very important for a world to receive a blessing,” Ralph explained.
    “Wait, don’t the people who are trying to kill her know that they’ll cause the end of the world, and when the world isn’t here, money is useless?” Brad asked.
    “They do, but they don’t. As soon as they hear about the power, that’s what they think of before they either continue to read, or they just leave the book. They get so consumed with greed; they don’t understand that they will end the earth. It’s kind of like a curse; well it is a curse. No one knows who put it on, but you can’t even tell them. When you do try to tell them, they just act like they can’t hear you.” He paused a moment to see if Brad had any more question. After none were asked, he said, “Now why don’t you go find Miranda? I’m pretty sure she’s wondering what’s taking so long.