The Ascended - 1. Chapter 1

I smiled at my gorgeous boyfriend as we slowly made our way towards my place after school. It took so much mental control to suppress my hard on but I managed it, somehow. I had to put my arm around him as we got closer, I wanted him, I NEEDED him and NOW! Any contact with him was better than nothing! I don't know WHAT made me do it, I knew people might see us but I wanted him so badly. I missed the heavenly feeling of having his warm body sliding back and forth against mine, the total safety I felt when I was in his arms. I started to kiss him on the lips with gusto and slowly slid my hands around his waist, pulling him into me with no resistance.

It was at this point that the most horrible few minutes of my entire life were set in motion.

As I was kissing my precious Aiden, I noticed footsteps and loud voices coming from the alleyway across the road. Aiden had obviously heard the same thing as I did, because we pulled apart in unison in an attempt to hide what we had been doing. The horrified look in his eyes was enough to break my heart; I couldn't bare the one I love being so upset. I slowly turned around towards the alleyway, but the damage was already done. What they had seen became obvious by the look of shock on their faces and the sudden silence. They had seen us. We were going to be mocked and terrorized by the entire school. I'll be honest, what happened next surprised me; I never thought anyone would hate someone for the orientation as much as this group of teenagers did. These were people that I had grown up with as a kid, people I had trusted to have my back. I hadn't been very close to them recently but the connection was still there.

The shock and awe that was mirrored on the faces of every member of the group was short-lived. It's like someone flicked a switch, the expressions changed to anger and hatred. Hatred and fear of those who are different, those who are happy and of those who have a loving connection that THEY will NEVER understand. I've always found it ironic that humanity's great strength is our ability to be unique or different in every possible way. It's seems that many individuals like to treat it as our greatest weakness; this diversity is forever used as a weapon to fuel hate. Personally, I think everyone needs to learn to embrace how each of us is different so perhaps we can learn something from each other.

Aiden and I picked up the pace and quickly headed towards my house, I didn't want this to get out of hand. I just wanted him with me and I didn't care if anyone else knew, as long as he was okay. Our attempts to move faster were in vain, however, because they slowly walked towards us, carefully attempting to surround us so there was no escaping them. Eventually there was no way around them anymore. It was simply the two of us standing in a large circle of eight or so teenagers around our age. Why was no one else in the neighborhood doing anything? The place was deserted, but there must be SOMEONE around who's watching this happen. There was silence... No cars went by... No one came to our rescue... We were alone.

"…pfttt everyone thinks the new kid's a fag, but not you too, Ian. What the hell, man, you used to be cool…" Jared sneered in a manner that suggested he was talking to something he just discovered on the bottom of his shoe. It's ironic how I could be his childhood friend for so long and then he could simply betray me because of my sexuality. I guess it was my fault in a way for losing touch.

"…It's not what you think…r-really…he's not…I am…b-but…" stuttered Aiden. How could they do this to my Aiden? How dare they make him scared and ashamed of what we had together? I had to say something, I was just so shocked and Aiden knew that. Even at this point, when Aiden was in real danger, he tried to deflect the blame onto himself. God, I love that boy!

"It's exactly what you think; I'm gay, so get over it and leave us alone!" I said with a hint of resistance. I just wish it didn't have to come out this way and at this time. I could see him getting angrier and angrier; it was a huge mistake to make a fool of him in front of his friends. I should have just left it alone and tried to get away but I guess they wouldn't have allowed that anyway.

"Alright fine, we'll teach you faggots a lesson! We don't want you homos anywhere near us, or in our neighborhood!" snarled Jared as he kicked me in the stomach, knocking the wind at of me. I was caught off guard and I wasn't expecting it at all but I quickly regained my senses and fought back while I was still able to. I buried my knee into his stomach, throwing him backwards on the pavement, winding him temporarily. Next to me, Aiden was fighting off another big guy. This wasn't going to last. The rest would surely join in soon. They wanted us to hurt badly and they didn't care how that happened. I lashed out and punched Jared in the jaw with an almighty crack and he hovered for a moment before falling to the ground unconscious with a thud. Now I know in the movies everyone makes it look REALLY easy and painless but my fist was on FIRE! I wouldn't be surprised if I had broken a few fingers! I didn't have much of a chance to think about it though, because my actions seem to infuriate the mob around us. They grabbed both of us and dragged us kicking and screaming to the alley across the street they had come from. Here they wouldn't be disturbed; here they could do to us WHATEVER they wanted to.

An anger-powered fist repeatedly impacted against my face while several others attacked me from all around. Two other large guys held me down while my 'punishment' was carried out. It wasn't because I owed anyone money, it wasn't because I had picked a fight with the wrong people and it wasn't because they wanted to rob me. Well in a way they did want to rob me of something; they wanted to rob me of my boyfriend. That's right, you heard me correctly. If you haven't already guessed by now, I'm a homosexual, a faggot, a gay and every other word that represents a savage attack on my sexuality. Hatred can have so many disastrous consequences for so many. One must ask ourselves what we ever did wrong. What has caused our sexual orientation to not only become the butt of people's jokes, but an insult to all those who are accused of possessing our orientation? As I ask this of myself, the hate crime taking place, with me at its core, does not falter. It is unending, the agony everlasting.

The unimaginable torment and suffering that my body is undergoing is meaningless in comparison to another deep agony inside of me. This deep seeded emotional distress continues to send pang after pang of excruciating pain that is swept over me as I watch my one true love endure blow after blow to his beautiful form. I just can't bear to see him in pain.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" I screamed out in anger, while flailing helplessly in an attempt to fight back, or at least hold them at bay. They weren't listening; this group of teens had already made a silent, unanimous decision that they didn't want faggots in their neighborhood. They were willing to go this far to remove me from their lives... even if it meant beating me and my boyfriend within and inch of our lives.

"Please... please you can hurt me as much as you want just... leave him alone..." I say, now begging and pleading with tears running slowly down my face. They just continued to hit me with blow after blow to every part of my body. That's when my boyfriend, my Aiden started to cough up blood all over the ground... as tears slowly leaked out of his eyes, disappearing into his blood soaked face.

My yells and plea's to stop were useless, they never faltered, they never checked to see if they had, in fact, done us damage beyond repair. It took a while before I came to the realization that they never intended to stop. They were going to keep destroying us until our bodies and our minds were sent off into the abyss forever.

A final whimper escaped Aiden's luscious lips and all life left his body. He ceased moving and yelling... he was gone. I screamed and howled in agony louder than I ever have as the one I love was no more. I kicked and punched out and like a madman, but it was all in vain. They just returned the favor, harder and faster.

It's often said that your last moments alive are a divine experience as some speak of visions or their life flashing before their eyes. In reality, the fact that the brain is getting no oxygen makes it work harder, using all resources to try keep the body alive. This makes all of the body's senses flux, making all the information in our brain pass us by in an instant, everything we have ever said, felt or experienced. Arguably, any divine experience with a heavenly being can be explained away as ones sub-conscious trying to deal with the inevitable death that is approaching. The last image that I ever saw, that will be forever etched on my retinas, is the look of constant terror engraved in my lover's face and the looks of satisfaction in the eyes of our murderers'.

…and then… there was nothingness… I honestly can't explain it. It's like your body's gone and what's left of you is floating through the void... an infinite amount of nothingness. It's not like you are alive. You don't feel, you don't see, you're just THERE, moving through the infinity of darkness. You are not a conscious being, you are a collection of thoughts, experiences and emotions that were felt what seems like millennia ago. However, as an incalculable amount of time passes, the nothingness noticeably evaporates around me and my consciousness slowly returns to me. I was me again, at least in some small way. It took me a while to realize that I was lying on the ground somewhere. It was a bit disorientating at first and my mind was flooded with confusion. How can I be here? I'm dead… Or… maybe I'm not? My eyes timidly opened again and I found myself in a small room filled only with darkness.

"Hi there, Ian," came a calm voice that belonged to a hooded figure who literally appeared out of thin air. He radiated a brilliant glow that filled the room with light. The darkness was still there but it's like he subdued it for the time being. "Now the answer to your first question… Yes, I'm afraid you are dead, and in response to your second… no, I'm not God."

"How did you know what I was going to ask?" I questioned him, a little shocked.

"You don't think that everyone that comes through here isn't thinking the exact same thing. Of course it IS always funny when some of the Middle-Eastern men start demanding their virgins." He paused with a small grin that appeared and disappeared before I could really be sure it had been there in the first place. In other words, the joke was obviously losing it's hilarity after being repeated so many times.

"Now there are a few things you need to understand. Firstly, and most importantly, there is no DIVINE being, well, at least not anymore. You see, many centuries ago a being of unimaginable power created a race of beings that would do unimaginable good throughout the universe. At the time, galactic war threatened to devastate the entire universe, at least the parts that are inhabited. After creating these being that were destined to spread peace and prosperity throughout the universe, he discovered a fundamental flaw in his plan. This flaw was time. This new race of beings was taking far too long to develop into the powerful beings he had intended. The other problem was that once a certain period of time passed, these beings lost all of their knowledge, experience and wisdom in death. Sure, they could record their history and hope to learn from it but over the generations, the information was lost. He set out to create a system whereby those who 'died' were simply transported into a new system of being, where they could fight to restore balance to the universe at large."

"Wait… wait, I'm confused. What about all of these other religions? Buddhism, Christianity, etc. Isn't there any kind of basis to them at all?"

"Many of these religions have a basis and have similarities to the way things actually happened. Christianity is probably one of the ones that had the most substantial and essentially correct information. Jesus Christ was a REMARKABLE man; he was created to remind man that there was something AFTER, something to look forward too. Heaven originally wasn't supposed to be a place where you lived happily forever. Ironically, the most important piece of information was 'lost in translation' over the ages. There are, of course, clues of the original meaning, but as usual, humanity has chosen to ignore it. The Hebrew word for heaven has a more literal definition of "on high", which is far more to the point. Simply put, it refers to what actually happens after death. Some refer to it as being "on high", some refer to it as eternal enlightenment." What a concept! Was this guy for real? "When one ascends, their body mutates and evolution accelerates millions of years to the point where the perfect form is created. An enlightened one also gains a huge amount of information based on what others among the populous know, those who have experienced and persevered the most in life, have the potential to be the most knowledgeable and powerful."

"So what? I never have to read a book again?" I asked, half joking.

"EXACTLY! You, in particular, have experienced so much heart ache and agony; I doubt your knowledge will be limited. You will truly be great," he said excitedly. "All information is open to you once you have let go of your burden and truly accept your place as one of us."

A question was on the tip of my tongue, I just couldn't remember, it was almost like someone was trying to make me forget to ask it. My memory of someone was being suppressed enough to stop me from asking. Something important… I just couldn't remember. It's the most infuriating feeling there is.

"Ahh it seems your starting to remember how you got here, which means it's time for you to start on your journey."

"What journey?" I asked a little puzzled.

"For you to FULLY ascend you need to embrace the pain you have experienced, you don't forget it. You and everyone else that has ascended will learn from it. I know you have many more questions, but you need to go back to the important moments of you life. The good moments and the bad ones, you MUST understand how you came to be where you are now."

As soon as this was said, the mysterious cloaked figure disappeared, the light around him vanished and I felt the darkness envelop me once more. This time it only happened for an instant and then I was back in my original body again. I was sent back down to earth again, to a day in the past that I remember so clearly. Time froze and a familiar voice echoed in my mind. "Remember these are memories you have already experienced. You cannot change them, you have to understand their meaning and move forward. Otherwise you are doomed to repeat the memory in your mind forever."

Everything unfroze and the fresh morning breeze swept across my face sending a chill through me that wasn't unpleasant, but still managed to send a shiver down my spine. I reluctantly slammed the front door shut and plundered towards the garage with my past self fully in control. It was incredibly strange, like being on autopilot, feeling everything yet having no control. I looked in the side mirror of my parents' car in the driveway, I was reminded that I was your average 15 year old with scruffy brown hair and blue eyes, while wearing a look on my face that told anyone walking by that it's Monday morning. Even after I supposedly have become this 'all powerful being', it is still difficult to understand how anyone could ever enjoy going out for a morning stroll at this point of the day when they could be snuggled up, fast asleep in their beds. For some strange reason, I keep thinking that it didn't matter what my outlining features were. My past self seemed to be sure of his supposedly unsatisfactory appearance. I found myself starting to think that even if those who cared about me refused to admit the truth, they were simply trying some feeble attempt to spare my feelings. At least those who make fun of me are honest enough to give me the truth about my appearance. Just after thinking it, I realized that it must be my thoughts from the day in question, back when my self esteem was at its lowest. I have to be careful not to let them take over my conscious thought because I don't want to be the way I was.

At that point, the thing that seemed to be bothering my past self the most, in the back of my mind, was his, or rather, our sexuality. I have to keep reminding myself that this is me! The word still almost seemed dirty and wrong to my past self. Even after three years, I hadn't managed to come to terms with it. My Aiden sure changed that. It was infuriating, however, because I had to battle my past self. I kept thinking, "Maybe I'll never come to terms with it." The dominant fear that my past self seemed to have was anybody finding out about his sexuality. The very idea of anyone finding out scared him more than ANYTHING else.

That's a feeling I understand well. It's like finding that you failed the most important test of your life, or finding out a loved one has passed away. It meant back then I had to keep that part of myself deep inside of me; my sexuality made a liar out of me everyday. I think deep down I felt I would turn out like one of those perverted old geezers who has a family but looks at any cute guy's ass when his wife and kids aren't looking. The sad thing is his wife and kids are the ones who suffer. His wife goes without the proper love and companionship of her husband and his kids lack a father who is in a healthy and loving relationship. His wife loves him and in some way, he might be trying to believe he loves her, but naturally, it's not the same.

My past self continued to autopilot me into grabbing his bike from inside the garage, then jumped on it and setting off towards school. I say his bike because I really don't consider myself to be this guy, I mean he's ME, but he's not me. I'm dead and all. As houses shot by, it became evident, as always, that it was a newer part of town; one of the many new subdivisions that take forever to build. It's always the same; the new houses look so similar to each other it's almost like everyone conforms to a secret code of conduct. This pristine part of suburbia became less evident as I left the new subdivision and rode towards school and older buildings started to whizz by.

The school gate came into view and we rolled through the gates into the desolate bike stands, where everyone had their bikes locked up. After thrusting my bike into the stand and securing it with my lock, the school bell rang reminding me, as always, that I was late. So I sprinted to class at speed, in a vain attempt to avoid the punishment that was given when anyone was late to English class. 'Late' was the word my teacher liked to use to describe anyone who was even two milliseconds after the bell. The word never seemed to fit, in my opinion. I always thought 'delayed' or 'overdue' was a better way of putting it, but it's not like you could ever tell him that. It's interesting how so many of my past self's opinions are forced on me. And even though this was only a year or so ago, they felt so foreign and different; almost like there was no way that this head was once my own.

The classroom door squeaked as he skulked into the classroom at 8.32am. For a brief moment he thought that, just maybe, he could get out of being late. I knew ahead of time, of course, that there was a detention waiting on my desk. Sure enough, when I sat down, my past self groaned loudly as he saw the yellow ticket waiting in front of us.

"Thank you, Mr. Domani, for joining us…" said Mr. Smart with a scowl that could have possibly burned a hole through me and my past self. DIVINE BEING OR NOT! I just hoped the good part of this day would come quickly, because I needed to feel again what it felt like to first meet my Aiden.