Shards by Shane Jiraiya Cummings Page B

would be a pretty thin book!
    April 16
    Easter was a massive
disappointment. I had to steal my only Easter egg. School organised
a Sunday church service but I weaselled out of it. It's like
they're trying to overcompensate for something.
    My palms bled, just a little
bit, at lunchtime. Lucia saw me wiping my hands on a napkin at
lunch and smiled that tight, smug smile of hers.
    April 20
    I read the Book of Revelations
tonight. I had to sneak the bible in from school and hide it from
Aunt Lucia. She stared at me like I'd been wicked when I came home,
but she didn't say anything.
    Abigail sat
on the window sill and watched me read---and what a load of shit it
was! Revelations my arse! Dragons. Lakes of fire. False prophets.
Plagues. That stuff is so last millennia. If I have my way, my
apocalypse will be like all the horror movies come to life.
Zombies, vampires (scratch that, vampires are pussies and can't
hang in my apocalypse!), and that guy with the hockey mask from
Friday the 13 th .
    I threw the stupid book into
the wastepaper basket in my room. It caught fire the moment it left
my hand. I scorched one of my pillows putting that damn fire out!
Despite the smoke, Lucia didn't charge in. She never even mentioned
it at dinner. I think all those robed loonies she calls friends are
distracting her.
    April 29
    God's still not answering me. I
stopped trying to talk to the other guy (my "Dad") a while ago.
    May 3
    I don't want to be the
Antichrist, not after what Lucia and her friends told me. Bunch of
robed freaks. I threw up and couldn't seem to stop. I think I fell
asleep on the bathroom floor but I woke on my bed. I don't remember
being carried. Abigail was there on my window as always. She sang
me back to sleep.
    May 7
    With all Lucia's talk of New
World Orders and smiting and punishing the do-gooders, I feel like
a pawn in someone else's chess game.
    If I ever have a say in these
things, here's a note to self: robes are uncool. Seriously.
    May 12
    Christianity is shitting me.
They tried to spring it on us at school today, some lunchtime
prayer thing.
    The visiting reverend started
praying, but I think he could tell I was annoyed. In fact, he
couldn't help but keep eyeing me off suspiciously. Beady little
eyes he had, like coals. He ran screaming from the room shortly
thereafter, clawing at those coal-like eyes. I think I saw smoke
between his fingers. Seems appropriate, doesn't it?
    Abigail was there, looking in,
watching out for me.
    We were all allowed to go home
early. God really is forgiving.
    May 17
    It's not just
the crows that hang around me like a bad smell. A pair of big black
dogs (Dobermans, I think) are keeping tabs on me. When I first
stumbled across them and they began growling, I thought they were
going tear my throat out. They charged at me and I just froze. The
world stood still. I mean really stood still, the drizzle shimmering in front of
my nose suspended in the air. But the dogs didn't attack me---they
ran past me and chased down a nearby guy in a robe. More goddamned
robed freaks! A dagger clattered to the ground when this guy
bolted.
    I don't know how it turned out
for the dude who dropped the dagger, but the dogs padded back to me
with blood on their muzzles. They kind of looked content.
    If I'm supposed to be this
Antichrist guy, I want some danger money. Or at least some fringe
benefits, you know, like getting laid. I think God's having a good
chuckle to himself/herself/itself.
    May 18
    God must be a woman a lot like
Aunt Lucia. A man couldn't have come up with such a convoluted
scheme to screw my life over. Well, not any man I've ever met. At
least I didn't see any robed freaks today. There were the dogs, of
course, and the crows, always the crows.
    May 22
    I don't know whether I'm
supposed to be AN Antichrist or THE Antichrist. Seems like a lot of
work for just one person.
    May 24
    There's so much sin in the
world. Wicked thoughts. Murderers. Rapists. Thieves. So much hate,
I can feel it welling