The Seventh Seal

By Paul Caetano

Over two millenniums ago, the end of the World was prophesied and written by John in his Bible Revelation Book. Inspired by God, his story tells the Earth destruction on a non-precise future date, starting by the opening of a book locked with seven seals. How and when would it happen? The literally imagination of the events of John´s book is described in this fictional action-adventure story.

Petrorius, the futuristic largest city of USA, centralizes the dispute between good and evil; where an impossible love story can save the world. Mix of action, adventure, hope, science-fiction, religious and fantastic old-and-future features, our story will take the readers´ imagination to an unforgettable journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728315669

Paul Caetano

The author has already written and published three fiction books, based on his creativeness by finding solution in his major professional area: finance & accounting. Writing, for him, is a way-out stress, where he can transfer his thoughts and wishes to the readers. His writing style is visual: as you read, you can get-into-scene, being even more involved by the story, eager to get to the end page.

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© 2019 Paul Caetano. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/16/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-1567-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-3233-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-1566-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019907575

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Chapter I The Revelation

Chapter II The Prophecy

Chapter III The Impossible Love

Chapter IV The Seventh Seal

Chapter V The Pursuit

Chapter VI The Redemption

CHAPTER I

THE REVELATION

Patmos Island, Aegean Sea, 96 AD

The night is falling.

A dense fog covers the sea. The last rays of the sun grant an orange colour to the sky over the waters. The sea is calm, and the sound of the waves crashing on the beach rocks mingles with the cries of the seagulls looking for shelter to spend the night.

The sea is a tireless, indestructible and mysterious giant who, for millions of years, has played its role of renewing life in every wave that is formed, in every living creature that is born and fed, and in every grain of sand that is reshaped when the waves crash on the beach.

The ocean has witnessed so many events on the face of the earth – good and bad, constructive and destructive, life and death. And at that night, it will once again witness something great that was about to happen.

Slowly a spot of light is formed amid the mist and gets clearer and clearer, as if something approaches the beach. A seagull, already nested, raises its head to decipher it. The light gets stronger, and now a large, silhouetted canoe is coming towards the beach. The sound of the oars hitting the waters can be heard when the figures of three men standing on the boat are perceived. Two of them are wearing uniforms of the Roman Empire, and the third has a long robe of raw linen covered by a navy-blue mantle.

While four other soldiers are paddling, one in the front holds a lantern and guides them to avoid crashing on the rocks. Now, closer, the physiognomy of the man on the blue mantle is clearer. He has a long beard, long grey hair, dark eyes, and a cracked skin due to suffering. His hands are tied by a thick rope. The coldness of the mist does not seem to disturb the serenity in his face.

Memories go through his mind.

A typical house of Jerusalem. Several people are dressed in long tunics while eating and conversing around a long, rustic, wooden table. He’s got His head reclined on Jesus’ shoulder, his master. How comfortable it is. How much protection he feels when he is near Him.

He’s sitting on the grass of a hill, and an immense multitude is fascinated by the words Jesus is teaching. How comfortable it is to hear His words, how fed I was in those sermons. How could everything ended as it had? They never harmed anyone.

John is kneeling and embraces two women who are weeping beside him. Drenched in tears, he raises his eyes and sees his beloved Master, who loves him so much and who has done good practices spread over, as ealing sickness, forgiving sinners, preaching peace and love to others. But there, in front of him, He is dying while nailed to a cross as a thief. John wants to withdraw Him from there, but he knows he cannot, for a multitude is claiming for Jesus´death.

The persecution of Christians. The killings in the game arenas. The death of Thiago, one of his brothers. The scourge of Peter. The fear, the escape, the betrayal.

Now he stands before the Roman court, accused of acts that he did not commit. He looks around. Everybody is shouting, Condemnation! You’ll die! The Sanhedrin of the Pharisees is assembled. The trial. The injustice. The emperor points his finger towards him and pronounces the sentence. You will spend the rest of your days trapped in an island.

The shake of the boat makes him return to present. They stop at the sand.

The Roman captain descends into the shallow water and, wielding the lantern, commands him to descend. He obeys, and while the other soldiers throw their little luggage into the sand, the captain unties his ropes. Without revealing despair, he looks around silently. There is nothing but rocks, sand and saltwater.

The captain returns to the boat and, with a sarcastic smile, exclaims farewell in Latin. Then he adds, "Ask your master to come and get you out of here, John!"

The soldiers laugh and then row back to the original craft.

As he sees them moving away, another memory comes back to take his mind.

Eleven disciples are around Jesus in a house in Jerusalem. Jesus has just appeared to his disciples after his resurrection.

Peter points to John, who is a little away, and asks, "Master, and what about this, what will it be?"

Jesus looks at him serenely and replies, "If I want him to stay until I come, why do you care? You follow me."

The light of the lantern is almost not perceived amid the mist, and it represents the last sign that John – the most beloved of Jesus’s disciples – will have of the Roman civilization. He is doomed to spend the rest of his days as a prisoner on that deserted island. However, he says goodbye with a smile on his lips for he knows that this was predestined from the beginning when the Master called him.

- - -

John ties the door, made of palm leaves, to the stakes of the entrance of the shelter that he built amid the rocks. In fact, a small cave carved by nature, with a flat rock under two other larger stones, forming a natural shelter. He looks pleased with his work. Although elder, he still has enough energy to live there.

He enters his modest shelter and checks if everything is in order. A small stone serves as a table and desk. A longer stone, covered with cloth, is his bed. Alongside it there are two parallel stones containing a bamboo grill that heats his food, and it is based on fish and bread. A lot of scrolls are piled up in another corner, next to the canvas bags that brought them. The small water reservoir that he found in a nearby creek completes his furniture.

Well, he says to himself, the life of a castaway is not so bad.

He kneels and thanks God for everything he has received that day.

- - -

John walks on the deserted beach. The day is very hot. The noise of the waves crashing in the sand is the only companion to break his loneliness. He stops to contemplate the greatness of the ocean. A big fish jumps out of the water and dives back in – as if it wanted to draw John’s attention.

"Yes, my partner. I got your message. You are strong and beautiful thanks to the strength that the Creator has given you. Thanks, I give you, Lord, for the strength you gave me to bear such a sacrifice. This is a tiny sacrifice compared to what your Son suffered for me on the cross."

Tears begin to come out of his eyes and drain through his beard. He begins to ponder about his life.

Why don’t things come out the way we’d like them to? Why don’t they happen the way they need to happen? Why do they take so long? Why don’t they come up at the time we want or need them? It seems that the more we desire something or someone that would make us happier, the more we want something to happen in our lives to motivate us to move forward, the more it seems that it never arrives. And a prolonged wait weakens the heart.

What causes anguish in a soul is not the problem itself, but the prospect that it does not evolve into a solution. We look to the future – a lot of times so small when compared to our entire existence – and see the same situation we are in today. And it slaughters, discourages and saddens because worse than suffering a pain – whether physical or emotional – is not seeing it diminishes every day passing day, going towards its end. And this also weakens the heart.

Couldn’t everything had been different? Couldn’t everything just follow the normal course of life and have a happy ending? Why so much sadness on earth? Why so many diseases, so much inequality, and so much greed? Christ could have been accepted by the people based in their miracles, in their preaching, and in the supreme good that they have always done. But this was not the will of his Father. And here comes the answer to everything that we think that does not appear or does not come as we would like, for under the sun everything is under his divine command.

To us, mere mortals, temporary passengers here on this world, it is up to us to obey and ask for a lot of patience. To wait.

How many hours, how many days and how many years have passed on the island? He doesn’t know because he can’t count time. And even if he could, this isn’t important. The important thing is that he spends the time in peace.

Until one day…

- - -

It’s the beginning of another night on the island. John is in his stone shelter and has just set a fish to toast on the grill. He kneels to give thanks for the meal, closes his eyes, and starts praying.

Then he hears a voice. "John!"

He opens his eyes and looks around.

Nothing.

He closes his eyes again and concentrates on thinking.

After a few seconds, he is again awakened by the same voice, now a little sharper, coming from outside. "John!"

Frightened, he rises and realizes that several rays of light are penetrating the entrance of the cave. He doesn’t know what to do.

Come on out! I need to talk to you.

Slowly, he pulls the door of palm leaves and goes out to the beach. But he must cover his face because the light looks stronger than the sun.

A loud voice like thunder speaks once again:

- John. What you see, write it in a book and send it to the seven churches that are in Asia: Ephesus, and Smyrna, and Pergamon, and Thyatira, and Sardo and Philadelphia and Laodicea.

John takes his hands off his face to see who was talking to him. The light is intense, but he can get used to it. What he sees is the most impressive image he’s ever seen in his entire life.

There were seven gold candlesticks. In the middle of the seven candlesticks, One, like the son of the man, is dressed down until his feet with a long dress, and is girded on his bosom with a gold belt. And His head and hair were white as white wool, like snow, and His eyes were like flames of fire. And His feet were like the shining brass, as if they had been refined in a furnace; and His voice is like the voice of many waters.

And He had in His right hand seven stars; and from His mouth came out an acute two-wire sword; and His face was like the sun when it shines at its maximum strength.

John does not bear such a sight and passes out. But the Spectre puts his right hand on him and says:

- Fear not. I am the first and the last. I am the one who liveth and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore. I have the keys of hell and death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.

John recovers consciousness, enters his tent and picks up some blank scrolls to write the letters that that terrible and dazzling figure would dictate …

- - -

United States, Washington, D.C., sometime soon.

The president of the United States is writing a memo on his desk, alone in his office at the White House. It’s a hot summer afternoon and the air conditioner is operating at its most capacity.

Suddenly, he feels something cold on his back. I need to lower the air, he thinks. He turns to do this, but he stops, frightened, when he sees the figure of a man covered in a white linen tunic from head to toe, like