Chapter 20: Beyond Understanding
In front of Nekare's canvas, Gray couldn't help but be in disbelief.
'A bunny? That's quite…surprising. I didn't expect that from her, I really thought she would draw something more eerie…'
'Well, this is way better than being spooked once more. Now that I can see her without the fear of being attacked, I can't help but think of her as a normal girl, except for the fact of her being a Nephilim.'
'I won't put my guard down, though…'
'Nonetheless, I feel my behavior being closer to her than Casanova's.'
'After all we both have just awakened our abilities rather recently, with her being first, since she improved it…'
'I wonder if she's having or had the same issues I'm going through?'
'I'm also curious if she too, named her ability.'
'From what I've seen with Casanova, it could he something somewhat common.'
"Psst!" A voice quietly hissed.
After turning around and noticing it belonged to his dear friend Rowan, Gray realized what great mistake he had just committed.
While many different thoughts streamed through his mind, he had been staring at her painting the whole time!
'FUCK!'
He immediately went away, sitting next to Rowan, covering his face with embarrassment.
"You have to calm down man…" his friend whispered, clearly worried for Gray's future love-life.
"Do you think she noticed my presence?" Gray asked, uncovering his face.
Rowan shook his head. "Nah, you can relax. She seemed too focused on her painting to notice you."
He continued, "You shouldn't stare at her for too long, though. If she sees you, she'll think you are a creep.You also look like a zombie for most of the day—it doesn't really help your cause."
Gray couldn't care less about Rowan's underhanded remarks about his appearance, his focus was flared towards ensuring that Nekare wouldn't think of him as a threat.
The thought of an invisible assailant stalking and lurking inside his home made his bones shiver.
Recalling of how he had to chase Nekare throughout the whole school to know her intentions made him not want to anger her in any kind of manner even more.
"I'm glad…" Gray softly said as he picked a brush and started to draw on his canvas.
Even though he never was a talented artist, he still decided to do his best, lest the art teacher would give him a mark based upon his work.
While he moved his brush from left to right, he subconsciously pondered on his past mistake.
'Why did I stand there like I dumbass… I should have at least said something about her drawing. It wasn't the best art I've ever seen, but it would've definitely helped to make me appear in a more positive light…'
'Every single interaction between me and Nekare has been horrible so far. And since now I know she wasn't a threat all along, I can understand just how rude i was.'
'I definitely acted like an asshole on our first meeting.'
He sighed. 'Well, I can't do anything about it now, can I? I doubt we'll ever talk again—unless something else happens, of course.'
'But wait, I've had a revelation that—from what I know, could predict a connection between me and Nekare…'
'I firstly thought that the connection might not be something inherently good, but since she doesn't want to harm me, could it be something not dangerous?'
'And if I recall the prophecy I've seen correctly, we seemed close…'
'…'
'Are we bound to become a couple?!'
'While I consider her as a fairly attractive girl, I have never thought of Nekare in 'that' kind of way. Did my fear cloud the most primal parts of my brain this badly?'
Gray sighed silently as he recognized the same pattern that had marked him across his bizarre week.
'Like always, I'm exaggerating… At most, we'll become friends, or something like it…'
'Am I going to try becoming her friend?'
He instantly knew the answer.
'Hell no!'
'I'm too scared!'
Sighing, Gray decided to focus on his art.
He moved his brush into a countless of different directions.
He then changed the colors, making them blend with the background and environment to create a picture bound to look pleasing for the eyes of the onlookers.
What before was only a few of lines and colored strokes scattered across the canvas, now it was staring to become the figure Gray wanted to portray the most.
This time, the muse of his art was his mother.
He focused greatly on drawing with precision the facial features he could remember, while he drew more superficially the parts he forgot.
He purposefully left out some details—the ones he forgot completely, and instead decided to leave them completely blank.
Initially, Gray wanted to draw the contents of his dreams, but was unsure if it meant activating Casanova's scroll.
Nonetheless, he decided to avoid it entirely.
He briefly thought of portraying The Monolith, but after he remembered the revelation of the end of the world, he quickly brushed it aside, lest he was to "fulfill" The Monolith's curse.
While he wasn't nor an artist, nor a person aspiring to become one, he felt that his drawing wasn't too bad for someone of his caliber. Nonetheless, he was aware of the many flaws contained in his drawing.
While he was trying to fix of the issues, the bell suddenly rang, signaling the beginning of break. Immediately after hearing it, Gray stood up, stretched his muscles, and decided to check Rowan's painting.
'Uh?'
To his surprise, his friend had tried to draw the Mona Lisa.
The drawing itself wasn't too bad, the only issue being its slight unrealism, especially the sheer size of the woman's chest.
Saying that 'they' were massive was an extreme understatement.
"Are you serious?" Gray asked, trying to refrain from laughing in his friend's face.
"What's wrong with it?" Rowan replied with great confusion.
"Is there something wrong with the colors? Or does her face look too weird?"
"You're looking at the wrong things!" Gray said, failing his mission to suppress his laughter.
"Uh?" Rowan mumbled.
"…"
"Ohhh…" he added, aware of what Gray had meant the whole time.
He grinned. "I had to add my own personal spice to the drawing, you feel me? Da Vinci would be proud of me, right?"
"Yeah, totally!" Gray said mockingly.
"Oh, and by the way, you still have to help me finding Veronica's new 'boyfriend.' Gosh, it hurts me to even refer to that abomination as such." Rowan remarked painstakingly.
Since his friend was about to nag him with his romantic issues, Gray nodded and swiftly changed the subject of their conversation.
"So, are you going to tell me what movie are we going to watch today?"
"No," Rowan said firmly. "It's a surprise. I can't let you spoil yourself by searching the title on the internet."
"Come on, just give me an hint!" Gray pleaded.
At first, Gray had thought that the movie was just one of the many stupid things that Rowan recommended brainlessly, but in that moment, his friend's bizarre silence about the contents of the movie activated his curiosity.
"Alright…" Rowan whispered, moving closer to Gray.
He swiftly looked around him, and after noticing that there weren't many people close to them, he began speaking.
"It's an highly controversial movie, it's even banned in some countries."
"What?!" Gray said, his tone of voice slightly higher than usual.
After a second, he calmed down and whispered to his friend, "Are we sure it's legal?
"I'm not too sure the legality, but from what I've heard in different cases, it should be. You don't know how difficult it was to find it," Rowan whispered.
"I'm down for as long as it's legal. If Kathy were to find out what we've been watching, I would surely get my head cut off," Gray was eager to see just what Rowan was teasing him about.
Rowan nodded in agreement. "That movie is really bizarre. The sheer realism it exudes is astonishing. I watched the first twenty minutes yesterday, and after seeing how downright creepy it was, I knew I had to watch it with you."
"I totally wasn't so weirded out that I had to share the burden with someone."
After chuckling, Gray couldn't help but ask for more info, "Anyway, how did you even get your hands on it?"
"Do you remember Robby Stagnatto, the kid from our middle school who was really good with computers and anything regarding the internet?"
"I have no idea." Gray shook his head ashamedly.
In turn, Rowan groaned with exasperation.
"Anyway, he gave me the file. Apparently, he found it browsing through one of the many group chats he frequents."
"Interesting..." Gray remarked once more.
"Should we go outside?" Rowan asked.
Knowing that break was going to end, Gray refused and told his friend they should just wait inside the art class.
Once Rowan agreed with him, they started talking about whatever came up in their minds to make the break less boring.
…
After a couple of minutes, class started once more.
Gray absentmindedly refined the parts of his mother's portrait while enjoying the moment of calmness he longed for all week. Never in a million years would he have thought of actually enjoying such a feeling inside of school.
Truthfully, only a few things could evoke that kind of sensation in him.
Such were: reading a book or a web-novel, talking with his sister, and listening to music.
Of course, both reading and listening to music were intertwined.
He loved partaking in both actions in the same times; furthermore, he created different playlists, all contained every song that made him feel every emotion of the spectrum, corresponding to what was happening in the book/webnovel.
His favorite songs for reading were: 'Among The Sef', 'Great Mother in The Sky', and movie soundtracks, especially the ones of Bram Stoker's Dracula—his all-time favorite movie.
After thirty minutes, Gray could say his painting was truly finished.
Satisfied, he gazed at it for some minutes, nourishing his mind with tranquility.
Once the art teacher rated it, he would ask to bring the portrait home.
'A Mother's Embrace' was how Gray called the painting.
Although the portrait wasn't depicting a true embace, the true point of the portrait was about her eyes and the affection contained within them.
…
Unfortunately, the strangely tranquil hours of art had to end.
Since the art teacher had to rate the drawings, every student went towards her desk.
Of course, Gray used this 'distraction' to peek at Nekhare's drawing again.
He however couldn't expect that Nekhare's drawing hadn't improved much from the last time he had seen it, which was bizarre since the last time was at the start of the hour.
'I guess she doesn't have much talent in this regard…'
Feeling slightly bored, he decided to peek at his classmate's drawings too, noticing that everyone had painted something unique.
One person drew elephants, someone else a couple of lovers, another drew a wonderful waterfall, while someone else a big breasted Mona Lisa.
'I can't believe he would show it to the teacher…'
Once everyone gave their paintings, they all went inside their class for the last hour of the day—religion.
…
On the teacher's lesson, Gray had to hold himself back from asking questions about the Nephilim, Cain's descendants, and such, worried that his innate curiosity might bring suspicions from Nekhare.
Knowing he was unaware of multiple theories regarding the whole species, he promised himself to buy The Book of Enoch—the same book who spoke about the Nephilim being the offspring if humans and angels.
Whilst the origin story was wrong, Gray preferred to read it regardless, hoping that the book would contain concealed information, meant only for the ones who were aware of the true state of the world.
Nevertheless, there was no harm in trying.
Matter of fact, there would be more harm in not doing so.
In his case, especially because he lacked any fighting abilities and skills, knowledge would be his greatest power and asset.
Because of that, he listened to teacher's lesson too, doing his best to unravel any possible concealed matter that could have been hidden by "someone".
'I wonder who really wrote this Book of Enoch…'
'While it contains Enoch in the name, like in various ancient texts and manuals, 'Enoch' could've possibly been just a pen name.'
'I really have to learn more about this man.'
'I have to know more about The Bible too.'
'Right now, I should be pretty good at knowing the Gospels and what comes after, especially The Book of Revelation.'
'The areas where my knowledge is pretty weak should be mostly in the Old Testament and after the Gospels…'
'I'm somewhat familiar with Genesis, The Exodus, and the Deuteronomy, however.'
'But what if there's more concealed knowledge hidden with different religions too? Should I have to read The Quran, The Vedas, and many more theological books?'
He exhaled. 'Ahhhh… This is going to be pretty difficult…'
'It would be greatly easier if the religion's teacher talked about them too.'
Since Rosano's population was mostly Christian—the same for all of Italy— the professors of religion spoke mostly about Christianity.
Due to his predisposition towards the theological matters, Gray felt it was a shame that only one religion was going to be spoken about thoroughly.
While his country defined itself as secular, it was hypocritical for the schools to only follow one religion out of the thousands that existed.
Although he enjoyed learning more about Christianity and had nothing wrong with it, he just wanted to have more knowledge in other beliefs to satisfy his curiosity.
For now, the professor and his class were stuck in The Book of Judges.
The man had brought his personal Bible like every other Friday and was starting to read Samson's story.
The professor briefly explained his story, and of how the mythical figure of Samson was born as a Nazarite—men consecrated to the service of God, under vows to abstain to alcohol, grow their hair out and avoidant of the defilement that came with coming into contact with dead bodies.
And to Gray's surprise, he also explained of how the Nazirite broke every single vow of abstinence in his life, most notably the one of not cutting his hair.
One student also asked, "But what's the point of doing so? Wasn't Samson's whole deal about the strength that came with having long hair? Why would he cut them off?"
'Strength, huh…'
'Casanova was right, every so-called "superhuman" in folklore and history of humanity could be considered as a Nephilim…'
'However, it doesn't mean they truly belong to their species.'
'Humanity's imagination tends to magnify the feats of a somewhat above average ability, turning the actions of these men and women into something way more glorious, and almost divine in nature.'
'Some religions may have started with these kind of augmented feats…'
The professor nodded, acknowledging the student's point and declared, testing his class, "Now, once we're done reading Samson's story, will some of you be able to understand what is the moral of this passage of The Bible and of why he decided to break his vows?"
After taunting the class, he opened The Bible and read it, starting with Judges 13:1, 'The Birth of Samson.'
"Again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of THE LORD, so THE LORD delivered them into the ends of the Philistines for forty years," he said in a solemn tone.
'That's something really common for the Israelites...'
The professor then spoke of how a certain man named Manoah had a wife who was unable to give birth, and of how The Angel of THE LORD appeared to her, and spoke of how she was going to give birth to a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb.
He also warned not to drink any wine and not to eat anything unclean.
The Angel then said, "He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines."
Once the woman went to her husband, she told everything to him. In turn, the man prayed to THE LORD, "Pardon your servant, LORD. I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born."
God heard Manoah and his Angel came again to the woman, but his husband wasn't there. She immediately went to him and said, "He's here! The man who appeared to me the other day!"
Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he asked him if he was the one who spoke with his wife.
"I am," he said.
"When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule that governs the boy's life and work?"
The Angel then warned her that she must not eat any impure, nor fermented foods or drinks.
Thankful, Monoah said to The Angel, "We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you."
But angel replied, "Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, prepare it to THE LORD."
Since Manoah didn't realize that whom he was speaking to was The Angel of THE LORD, he inquired for his name, so that they may honor him once his words came true.
The Angel then replied, "Why do you ask for my name? It is beyond understanding." Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to THE LORD.
As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the Angel of THE LORD ascended into the flame.
Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with faces to the ground.
Then, the man realized that he had spoken with The Angel of THE LORD.
"We will surely die!" he said to his wife. "We have seen God!"
Gray then came to a newfound understanding.
Like a virus, for us Nephilim—who once were normal humans, the contact with such arcane, and understandings beyond our comprehension—changes us and molds our existence to be a little closer with it, so that we may, one day, be able to understand it?