Lord of Prayer

·

Who am I?

Where am I?

Where did I come from?

Where am I going?

What am I supposed to do?

Old Jack posed one question after another to his Soul. He was in a daze, his memory like an old jalopy with a windshield caked in dust, fallen leaves, and mud. Through that grimy film, his past was exceptionally blurry and difficult to recall.

But then, all of a sudden, the jalopy’s wipers struggled to life, slowly sweeping away the debris and wiping the glass clean.

As if he had finally broken through some kind of restraint, the obscurity, haziness, and confusion in his memory gradually faded. Old Jack felt his mind had never been clearer.

In an instant, scenes from his past life flickered before his eyes like a revolving lantern.

·

“Jack Reeves.”

At the very beginning, a woman with a blurred face held a swaddled infant, whispering gently, out of breath, “This is your name…”

A loud cry echoed through the delivery room, announcing the arrival of a new life into this World.

At the age of eight, the federal moon landing program was underway. On a live broadcast, Jack watched the rocket soar into the blue sky and saw the images transmitted back from its camera: a magnificent azure planet and the boundless, vast Cosmos.

From that moment on, he developed a keen interest in the Cosmos and began pestering his parents to buy him aerospace models, like remote-controlled helicopters, lunar rockets, and moon rovers…

His father was surprisingly agreeable. The very next day, he took him to the biggest mall in the city and bought a ton of exquisite models, much to little Jack’s delight.

However, once they got the models home, his father snatched most of them for himself.

At fourteen, Jack met a girl who loved the starry sky. With his handsome looks, cheerful personality, and passion for astronomy, he quickly befriended her, and their bond deepened over time.

They often lay on the roof counting the Stars, and to this day, Jack still remembered one night in particular.

It was a muggy night, but the weather was surprisingly clear. The sky was a cloudless black canvas, and you could clearly see the brilliant Stars scattered across it just by looking up.

On the roof, the girl beside him gazed up at the stars, her eyes twinkling with excitement. She was so beautiful—like an arrow from Cupid’s bow, striking the young boy straight in the heart.

Shortly after his fifteenth birthday, Jack eagerly confessed his feelings to her, only to be gently turned down. Soon after, she transferred to another school.

Jack was heartbroken. After asking around, he found out her family had won seven million US Dollars in the lottery, and her parents wanted to move the whole family to a big city.

The night before she left, a saddened Jack found her to say goodbye. To his surprise, she suddenly burst into tears and hugged him tightly.

It turned out she liked him too, but she had rejected him because she knew she was leaving and couldn’t change her family’s mind. In the end, they said their solemn goodbyes, and she gave him a kiss.

For many years after that, they never contacted each other, and Jack was never able to truly get over it.

At eighteen, Jack got into a prestigious university with excellent grades.

At nineteen, Jack started dating a girl. Before long, spring break arrived, and he invited his girlfriend and eight other classmates to go camping in the countryside.

However, what should have been a fun and relaxing camping trip turned into a terrifying, bloody tragedy.

On the first night of the trip, a classmate went to relieve himself and vanished without a trace. While searching the area where he went missing, Jack and the others discovered a set of strange tracks.

They were strange because they were clearly wolf tracks. A normal wolf’s paw print is about eight to thirteen centimeters long, but the tracks they found were even larger than a human’s foot…

Terrified, the group immediately called the police and hurried back to their campsite. But when they arrived, they discovered that the three people who had stayed behind were also gone, and the same Wolf Claw tracks were at the scene.

A wave of Fear washed over everyone, including Jack. They wanted to escape in their car, but its tires had been slashed.

They pulled out the firearms they had brought with them and waited at the campsite, trembling, for more than ten minutes. And then, “it” appeared.

It was a Werewolf, the kind you only see in movies. Its body was covered in thick fur, and it was taller and more muscular than any football player from his school. Viscous blood dripped from its savage, gaping maw, and fresh bits of flesh were stuck between its teeth.

Jack knew his missing friends had been eaten, and that this Werewolf’s next target was them.

It was a night Jack would never forget. For the first time, he came into contact with Supernatural Power, witnessed the true face of the World, and understood the bloodshed that came with it.

After a brutal fight, Jack managed to kill the Werewolf with a shotgun, but his girlfriend and all his other friends died at its hands.

Exhausted, he fell asleep in the car. He didn’t know how much time had passed before a tapping sound on the window woke him.

Looking out the window, he saw a group of Special Agents in black suits and sunglasses.

Two months later, after completing his training, Jack officially joined the supernatural division of the FBI.

At twenty, Jack partnered with a senior agent for his first mission. They arrested a Cultist and interrogated him, extracting intelligence about a massive Cult. By the end of that year, he participated in a raid on the Cult, and the mission was a resounding success.