State Crusaders
A fictional short story about thirteen strangers meets with Paul Revere at midnight. (This is my first short story on the internet.)
Underneath the benevolent moonlight, thirteen strangers who wears a dark navy cloaks and carries a glimpses of a shiny red rose emblem brooches on their right shoulders ascends from the darkness.Their rose emblems represent the United States’ own national flower. Someone from long ago once said, “We present roses to those we love, and we lavish them on our altars, our civil shrines, and the final resting places of our honored dead..” As the thirteen strangers stand in a circle around the Brewer Fountain in Boston Common park. One of them reached inside their cloak’s pocket. The stranger shows to the group, a quarter shows of a minutemen and the text that reads “Massachusetts;1788”.
Then, the stranger begins to talk with his soothing calms voice and said, “ Good evening crusaders. We may not like to be here tonight. But, it has been a traditional for the past three hundred years. Please state your state representative and toss them into the fountain. We shall wait for our silversmith rider to come with lanterns at midnight.” One by one, each mysterious cloak strangers reach out their quarters inside of their pockets. They followed the direction. Each stranger says their state names in order from the dates when they were formed, “Delaware,Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina,New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island.”
As they throw the coins, their faces look concerned about the uncertain future. They knew that they sign away their identities and their names lost forever. As they watched their quarters make ripples in the fountain. Then, one of the strangers decided to put down his hood. He looks like your average spoiled teenager.He gave it a sigh and scratched his scruffy bed-mess brown hair. His blue eyes glaze into his cloak pocket. He grabs something from his pocket, and it was a luxury phone.
He started texting right away, the text reads; “ Hey baby, I can’t wait to see you later after this dumb meeting. I miss you, sexy.” Then, he checks his personal contact name. His name used to start with the letter J.The name itself changed into Delaware without his own fingers touching it.He looked upset and whispered, “ Fuck man,why do I have to be a state crusader?” Suddenly, he gets a smack from the back of his head from the stranger who spoke earlier. The stranger put down his hood. He was a tall African-American man in his early thirties.
As you can guess, he had the same fate as Delaware. His name is Massachusetts. Massachusetts said,“I believe you should keep your phone in your pocket. While we wait for our signal.” Delaware gets extremely angry and yelled, “ We are fucking waiting for a dead guy! Who…who..who how long does God decide to keep him!? Before he gets a choice between heaven or hell.” Another stranger put down their hood. The stranger appeared to be an alluring woman in her mid-twenties. She has golden blonde hair as if she was touched by the sun god, Helios. Her angry green jewel eyes stared at Delaware.
She said, “ As a signal light, one if land, and two if by sea.” She clatters her black heels by walking back and forth. she looked up at the sky and said,”
“Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.”
Delaware started to laugh hysterically. He stops laughing and said, “ Listen, old lady. Nobody cares about a fucking poem!” Then, she walks up to Delaware. As she beginning to walking, her cloak begins to disintegrate like a phoenix bird was turning into burning ashes. She wears a crimson seduction dress. Delaware’s eyes stares at her lovely bosoms. She puts her right hand on his chest. Delaware begins to feel the warmth from her hand, but there was a strong resentful energy coming as well. Delaware feels her fiery state power and it was incredible strong. Maybe stronger than his own state power. He became somewhat scared of her.
She aggressively said,“ It’s a reminder for you that silly poem is our messenger. He is rather important person to tell us what we are fighting for, you dummy. We do not have a choice. We are bound here by fate tonight. Just like your pathetic old name. We threw away our names or our souls as you could call it.By the way, my name is Pennsylvania, but you can call me Pen for short.”
Pen puts her right hand away from Delaware’s chest and walks away. Delaware feels relieved. However, he just keenly interested in Pennsylvania’s seduction body as she walks away from him. Then, the thirteen strangers turned their heads over. They heard a horse neigh from the distance of the park. Paul Revere was riding towards to them.
A little unknown where Paul grasped between life and afterlife realms. With a little bit of freedom, He chose himself to appear as an forty year old man that he was once were. An eighteenth century townsfolk man who leads his first midnight ride against the British army. He stopped his horse and he dropped down to greet the strangers. He appeared to be holding two lanterns in his hands. One of the strangers started to kneel down. He started to panicked and cried. The stranger in a man’s rapid voice said, “I am not ready for this. I am not ready for this.” Massachusetts kneels down with him and pat his back to comforted. He feels sympathy for the man. He said“I know. We all are not ready for it.”
Paul walked in his dead ghostly form to the strangers. He looked at all of them. He smiled sadly. But, he lowers his face down by tipping his hat. Then, he looks up with a strong will of confidence to all of them. “ Good evening, Crusaders. I have come here to deliver a message to you. You shall battle them by the sea. It will not be an easy task. My advice for you, is to keep that memory alive. It is your strongest will and power to defeat it. ” said Paul. He climbed back to his horse and nodded his head to everyone. Then, he disappeared into the night.
In the foggy distance, they can see Paul climbing up into the old church tower and putting up the two lanterns once again. The lanterns glows and gleams throughout the fog.Then, the old church tower’s bells rings at midnight. Each of the strangers releases their unique state powers. They went towards to the Freedom’s Trails. Delaware turns himself into a volcanic lava rock man-form. He clutched his hands with frustration. Pen snaps her fingers to form a small fire and clicks her heels together. She looks down at her heels and her heels generate waves of fire. She smirked and felt confident of her powers.
Massachusetts drops his cloak to the ground. The cloak turns into a black disfigured shadows and he puts his hand up front at it. A welding sword and gun appeared from the shadows. He grabbed it and took a deep breath. He walked with the others into the darkness of Freedom’s Trails.This significant road marks their journey as State Crusaders.
