CHAMPIONS (The Lost Chronicles of Eden, #1) [Published]

04: CRANKY PRIESTS, NOISY KIDS, AND MEDDLING NUNS MAKE UP A GOOD FAMILY

Someone’s watching him again.

It had been going on for months now. He felt like he was always being followed, but every time he looked, he couldn’t see anybody or anything. He felt eyes that watched his every move. a presence or two that followed him everywhere he went. a distinct smell that reminded him of burning metal, flowers and the sea.

He couldn’t complain, though, because he’d never felt safer than when the weird presence was around him. It was as if they were there to guard and protect him.

Like the angels that Sister Margaret always told him about. “You’re here again,” Gabriel said out loud as he raked the dead leaves to one side of the churchyard. “I felt something earlier during class. Something bad, but it went away when I felt you arrive. So, thank you for protecting me.”

Of course, they didn’t answer. They never did. Heck, if it weren’t for their warm, protective — if not a bit restless and irritated at times — presence, he’d have asked Father Andres to perform an exorcism on him a long time ago.

“Gabriel, you rascal! You left your pants on the floor again!” Speaking of the devil. Or  the enemy of the devil, when you consider his vocation. Father Andres Galvez was a known exorcist in their diocese.

“Sorry, Father Andres! I thought you wanted these leaves off our grounds, ahora mismo?”

“You do not talk back to your elders, you insolent boy! I thought I raised you better than that!” Gabriel could see the good old priest charging towards him, waving his discarded pants like a victory flag. “What is this?” he asked as he approached Gabriel.

“Uh… my pants?”

“I know these are your pants! What are these things doing lying discarded on the floor of your room?”

“I was in a hurry to finish the task you gave me.” Gabriel waved his hand at the unkempt churchyard.

“The task I gave you three days ago,” Father Andres  seethed. “What did I tell you about leaving things on the floor?”

“Pick them up and put them where they’re supposed to be,” Gabriel answered, rolling his eyes at the priest, who raised an eyebrow at him. “You do not discard, you do not abandon, and you do not forsake,” he recited.

It had always been the priest’s credo. It would explain why he and 15 other orphans were staying in his church, eating his food and living under his roof for free. Gabriel always thought that if he could, Father Andres would adopt all the abandoned children scattered all over the city. Or the world.

“Do not rush,” Father Andres lectured. “Be mindful of all the things that you do. It is when you hasten that you forget the things that matter. Like order. Discipline. Character.”

“Yes, Father. I won’t be so careless again in the future.” Gabriel hung his head to express his acquiescence, but inside he was rolling his eyes again. The priest was a few years short of hitting 80 years old. In his old age, he took every opportunity to turn the simplest things into deep, insightful lectures about life.

“Do not think for a second that I did not hear the mockery in your tone, young man,” Father Andres said. “One day, you will acknowledge the significance of my lectures. I only hope that I’d still be alive to say, ‘I told you so.’”

“Oh, come on, Father. You’ll live to see my grandchildren,” Gabriel joked as he took the pants from the priest. “You’ll outlive all of us, I think.”

Father Andres hid the smile that threatened to split his usually stern face. “Clean your room after you finish cleaning up the yard,” he groused before he walked back inside the church. Gabriel propped himself on his broom as he watched the elderly man with a fond smile.