Shurod and the blood rock prophecy book 2
Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Dan’s body began to shake and the heat from the angel’s swords melted the ice that surrounded him. Chunks of ice fell off Dan, and his body began to thaw slowly.

Gapa and Sephri stop pointing their swords at Dan and slid them back into their belts.

“All we can do now is wait.” Gapa said.

Sephri pulled his long hair back into a ponytail except for the braided part. It dangled in front of his face and he blew out the side of his mouth to move it out of the way.

“How long do we have to wait Gapa?” Sephri said impatiently.

Dan’s cells in his body started to return back to normal. The water that was in each of his cells began to come to the surface of his skin. The water seeped out of his pores. His heart started to quiver until it finally pumped one time. Sephri looked at Dan amazed. “I heard his heart pump one time.” Gapa kneeled down at Dan’s side and blew in his face, “Come back Dan.” he whispered. Dan’s heart pumped again, “I heard it.” Sephri said excitedly. Then it started pumping normal. Dan’s eye lids flickered and leaned up and yelled out. The sound sent a shockwave, which caused both of the angels to be pushed back. “Was that supposed to happen?” Sephri blurted out. Gapa shrugged is his shoulders, “I have no idea, this is a first for me to.” They walked around Dan to see if he was hurt in any way. Dan opened his eyes and they were clear as water. “I can’t see.” Dan shouted. “I’m sure your vision will come back momentarily.” Dan closed his eyes tightly, and opened them back up. He focused on Gapa and soon his vision was restored. “Did we make it?” Sephri said, “Heaven ya!” Dan smiled and said, “I think you meant to say hell ya!” Sephri scowled at Dan; “No I meant Heaven ya.” Gapa smiled as well Dan and they helped him to his feet. Sephri looked at Gapa puzzled, “Why would he think I said hell ya.” Gapa chuckled and said, “It’s a human saying Sephri.”

“Oh, I never heard that one, that doesn’t make any sense.” Dan looked at Sephri funny.

In the distance, Dan heard voices and swords clanging together.

“What is all that noise?” Dan said.

“That noise is sweet melody to my ears.” replied Gapa happily.

“That sound you hear Dan is the sound of angels training for combat.” Sephri said.

They all walked up on a squad of angels and one of them turned around and saw Gapa, “Attention!” he shouted. All the angels that were there formed ranks and gave an angel salute, by standing up straight and pushing their wings back.

“At ease soldiers.” Gapa said.

The angels looked upon Dan and could not believe what they were seeing.

“Is this a human?” one of the angels asked?

“Indeed it is.”

“How can this be Gapa?”

“It’s a long story my friend, a very long story, now where is Goleg?”

“He is on his way here now, he had to deal with some sulfur eaters down on earth, that were trying to follow the human John and the female Shurod.” he explained.

“Jamie!” Dan said in an alarmed voice.

“I’m sure all is well Dan, Goleg can handle anything that comes his way.”

“I hope your right Gapa.” he coughed and spit out water from his mouth.

Bam, bam, bam, was the sound of someone beating on John’s front door. John thought to himself, “I’m not expecting any visitors.” He walked to the door, grabbed a 45-caliber handgun, and placed it at his side. He looked through a peephole and saw Jamie standing with a strange man.

“John, its Jamie.” she said through the door.

John unlocked the door and opened quickly and pointed his gun directly at Anar’s head.

“Who are you?” John demanded.

“John, it’s me Anar, put the gun down.”

John said, “I didn’t recognize you, did you get a haircut or something?” John placed the gun down at his waist.

Anar pushed John out of the way and walked in, “The Shurod needs to stay here with you for a while.”

“Why, what is going on?”

“I was attacked by some demons close to the lair.” Jamie said.

“What! Where was Dan?”

“Dan is away?” and she appeared to be apprehensive.

“Away, what does that mean? Is he ok?”

“Let’s hope so” Jamie bowed her head and looked at the floor.

John waved his arms in the air,” Whoa, whoa, whoa wait a minute, I need to know what is going on here.” John was starting to get upset.

Anar turned and walked out the door, “Keep her safe, I must leave now.” and he left.

“Jamie what on earth is going on?”

Jamie filled John in about Dan going through some special angelic training and that he might not make it back. John was deeply troubled at the news of Jamie’s words.

“Well, I guess mi casa, su casa” John said with a heavy oriental accent. Jamie laughed.

“What are you laughing at?”

“Oh nothing, it just sounded funny when you said that.” she snickered.

John rolled his eyes, “Are you hungry?”

“Yeah I could eat something.”

“Well let’s see what I have in the frig.”

Jamie butted in and said, “I would like to go out and get something to eat, if that’s ok with you. I haven’t been out to dinner in a long time.”

“What you no like my cooking?”

“No, no, it’s just I want something different.” she reassured him.

“I’m not sure that it is a good idea Jamie.”

“C’mon, John we will make it quick.” she said in a whinny voice and batted her eyes.

“Oh alright then, let’s go, where do you want to go?” he asked.

“I don’t know, you’re the one that has been living here in Jerusalem for months, surprise me.” she placed her hands on her hips, “Don’t tell me you never go out to eat.”

“Well, sometimes” John said hesitatively, “Let me get my keys and we will head out.”

“Awesome!” Jamie was excited about seeing other people; she had been cooped up for way to long without any other human contact for a long time.

After a short drive they arrived at a Jewish sandwich shop. John opened the door for Jamie and she thanked him, said, “You’re such a gentlemen.” and smiled softly at John. They ordered their food and sat down. John said, “Jamie are you ready to fight this fight with Dan and I?”

Jamie shifted he weight in the booth, “Well yes of course, I have started my training and I believe that I am doing quite well.”

A waitress interrupted them and said; “Here’s your food.” they both looked up at the waitress. They both thanked her and she walked off.

Someone opened the front door to the sandwich shop which made the bell on it ring. John looked back to see five young skate boarders come in the shop. One of them looked John dead in the eye. John seemed uneasy about these young teenagers but he focused back his attention back on Jamie, “So where is Dan these days?”

Jamie took a bite of her sandwich and then stopped chewing when she heard John’s question. “He is off doing some specialized training.”

“You don’t look to happy about it.” John took a bite of his sandwich and chewed.

“It’s dangerous what Dan is doing and there is a chance that he could be killed.”

John swallowed the bite in his mouth and wiped his chin off with a napkin, “What are you talking about?”

Jamie pushed the chips around on her plate and a tear fell from her eye. John placed the napkin back on the table, “I know Dan will pull through whatever it is he is going through.”

“I suppose you are right John” she leaned back in the booth, “I just know that I miss him and I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to him”

“I had a brother a long time ago; He got mixed up with a gang in Hong Kong many years ago. One night he just vanished and we never heard from him again.” John looked out the window at the cars driving down the street, “It’s hard sometimes not knowing what became of him.”

“This life sure isn’t fair sometimes is it?” Jamie said.

Across the street from the sandwich shop someone was watching their every move through a high powered scope. Omar had been tailing them since they left Johns house. He took out his cell phone and called Joe to let him know that he had found John and Jamie. Joe was happy about the news and told Omar to keep an eye on them and that he was going fly to Israel as soon as his leer jet was fueled. Joe instructed Omar not to harm them in anyway. Omar wasn’t happy with Joe because he wanted to avenge his brother’s death. He agreed and decided to get a closer look at his adversary and the girl he was with. He put his scope back in a black leather case and walked out the door.

They finished with lunch and Jaime asked John if they could just go for a walk. John agreed and they walked down the street making small talk. Omar followed them, but in disguise. He was replaceing out that his new shape shifting powers were indeed very useful. He took on the form of an elderly man and walked with a cane.

John would look around every now and then to make sure Jamie and him were safe.

Jamie noticed John looking behind them every so often, “Always working aren’t you?”

“What do you mean Jamie?”

“I see you checking things out.”

John chuckled and lifted his shoulders slightly, “Old habits are hard to break I guess. When you lived a life as I have you always try to expect the un expected.”

Jamie pointed, “Look over there.” she trotted off towards an ice cream vendor.

“What? Wait” John took off after her. Jamie touched her finger on her lips and tapped gently as she looked at the variety of treats, “Hmm, what kind should I get?”

“You are still hungry after eating that big ole sandwich”

Jamie frowned, “What are you trying to say?”

John fumbled his words, “Umm nothing, nothing”

Jamie glared at him; “I haven’t had ice cream in a while now” she reached into her pocket to get some money out, “Besides you don’t get much ice cream when you live in a cave.” she cut her eyes at John and moved her neck slightly.

“Yes I suppose your right about that.”

Jamie looked at all the choices, “I think that I will have the double chocolate brownie mud slide delight.” John made a weird face at Jamie’s selection.

“You sure you want to eat that?’

“Hush up John; you ought to try one for yourself.”

John waved both of his hands at Jamie, “I’ll pass, thank you very much.”

“Suit yourself.” The man handed Jamie the ice cream and she tore open the wrapper like a little kid and took a big bite out of it, “Oh this is good.” she offered John a bite, “You Gotta try this.”

“Let’s walk up this way, there is a park up ahead.”

With food in her mouth she mumbled, “Oh, ok!”

Up ahead there were people walking on the sidewalk. Some of them were jogging and playing games in the lush green grass of the park. There were families having a picnic and kids playing with their dogs. The sun was just perfect, not to hot but enough to make one look up into the sky close your eyes and feel the warmth on your face. A gentle breeze blew and the air smelled fresh as spring time.

Jamie and John sat on a bench and watched people walk by. John crossed his legs and placed his hands behind his head and leaned back. “Ah! This is the life right here.”

Jamie licked the last of the ice cream off the stick, “Yeah it sure is.” she licked her lips to get the remaining chocolate off.

John heard a noise coming from behind them; he turned around and saw the skateboarders pass behind them on the sidewalk. John looked at them cautiously, “Those boys are up to no good, I can fell it.”

Jamie hit John on the knee, “Not everyone is evil John.”

“No but a lot of them are.” John watched them as the cruised down the sidewalk. The one in front turned back to look at John, “See! One of them just looked at me.”

“Stop it already there not up to anything.”

“Ok time for us to go.” He uncrossed his legs and stood up, stretching his back.

“Aww C’mon I was just starting to relax a bit.”

“Nope lets go.” John placed his hand on the small of Jamie’s back and they headed back the car.

John had seen an old man earlier and noticed him again walking close behind them, “Something isn’t right”

Jamie huffed, “John please this is getting ridiculous already.”

“Let’s go through this alley over here; it’s a short cut to the car.”

“Are you serious?”

John grabbed her arm, “I guess you are.”

They picked up the pace and turned down into the alley. They turned the corner and John said, “Wait” he poked his head around to see if they were being followed. He looked and waited and saw the old man walking quickly without his cane, “Just as I thought.”

“What? What is it?”

“We are being followed.”

Jamie immediately began to get worried, “Who is it?” she demanded.

“Not sure but we need to move.”

Jamie sniffed the air and said, “Your right, something is going on here?”

“What do you mean?”

Jamie’s hair stood up on her arms and she looked around frantically, “I think there are some demons around.”

John pulled out two hand guns and pointed them at the corner of the building, “Lets kill those things.” John blurted.

Jamie heard hissing noises and her back pulsed with pain, “Yep, definitely demons close by.”

“How do you know?” John saw Jamie bend over.

Just then Jamie’s wings busted out from her back. John wasn’t expecting that at all, “Whoa, I didn’t know you had wings too. I just thought that you were just learning about how to kill demons.” John scratched his head with one of the hand guns, “Good we need all the help we can get right now.”

Jamie looked back at her shirt with rips in the back of it, “Dang it, I just bought this shirt not to long ago.”

Up on the walls of the buildings between the two alleys demons started to pop out and crawl around. John could see the demons without the special glasses, “What, I can see them!”

“You can? Without the glasses?” she said in amazement.

“Afraid so! a little gift from him.” he pointed upwards.

The demons began to surround them, and there were a lot of them.

“We need to move out of these close quarters so we will have room to fight.”

“Good Idea lets go.”

The two of them ran down the alley until they saw an opening. The demons scampered

after them and surround them again. John and Jamie got back to back. Jamie felt her

shards slip down into her hands, “You ready for this?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” he cocked his two guns to make sure they were ready to be used.

One demon lunged at John, and he answered the attack and jumped at the demon. He

soared through the air with his guns pointed at the evil beast and opened fire. The demon

was still coming at him as the bullets passed right through his body. John said, “Oh no.”

He was hit full forced by the demon’s shoulder and was sent flying backwards. John hit

the ground and slid on the pavement and bumped into the side of one of the buildings. Jamie was shooting her shards in all directions killing many of them, but there were too many. John rubbed the top of his head and sniffed. He smelled the foul odor of the demon next to him. The demon raised his hands and razor sharp spikes ripped through his skin. John looked up at the demon when he remembered that he had to change to switch on his gun so that it would shoot a D.R. round. The demon pushed downward with his arm. John flipped the switch and shot the demon in the head. The demon staggered backwards losing his balance and wiped at his head, “What trickery is this.” The demon round was buried deep inside the demon head. The first stage of the bullet broke open and began to mix with the secondary agent. The demon shook violently and exploded into pieces. Jamie heard the blast and turned just in time for a piece of the demons body to hit her in the face. She looked at John smugly, wiped it off with her shoulder, and continued to fire her shards. John wiped some of the demons fluids off him, “Gross, take that you piece of.” John was interrupted by Jaime yelling, “I could use some help over here.” John stood back up on his feet and sprayed a handful of demons with bullets. They screamed and yelled making all sorts of ungodly noises. Jamie cried out, “There are too many of them.”

They seemed to be coming from all over the place, crawling out of trash cans,

buildings and up from the ground. John yelled out, “We need to get out of here now!” Just then John and Jamie heard the sound of wheels rolling on the ground. They both looked towards the sound and saw the five skateboarders they saw at the diner. The sound also got the attention of all the demons. The skateboarders were in a wedge formation coming towards them. There was one of them in the middle and two on each side of him. The two on each side kicked their skateboards up and started riding horizontally on the walls of the buildings. The middle skateboarder was coming right at Jamie and John. Jamie huffed, “Now what!”

Each of the skateboarders transformed into angels and their wings shot out from their backs. The angel in the middle leaped from the skateboard and landed in the midst of about fifteen demons. With the utmost precision swung his sword and killed all of them. Swords appeared in each of their hands and they glowed brightly. The demons were surprised and didn’t have time to react and the angels went to work slaying the demons. Since the angels had the attention of all the demons. John reloaded his guns and started shooting demons in the back. Jamie also released her shards again killing many of the sulfur breathers. The rest of the angels skimmed the side of the buildings on skateboards slicing the demons that were on the sides of the buildings. One of the angels pushed his skateboard out from underneath his feet and sent it flying at a group of demons. He pointed his hand at it and it began to glow. It hit the demons like a bowling ball and it killed many of them and wounded a lot more. Some of the demons ran off since they were too wounded to fight. The angels were taking care of business and so were John and Jamie. The air was filled with a pungent smell of fire and brimstone, with a touch of spring freshness from the angelic presence.

One of the demons was sneaking up behind Jamie. In all the confusion she didn’t see it coming from behind her. Her keen sense of smell alerted her that there was one very close to her. She retracted her wings, fell onto to her back right between his legs and shoved a shard in his groin area, and the demon cried out in pain and vanished. She hopped back up and her wings came right back out. A demon was perched on top of one of the buildings and was aiming and arrow at John. The demon shot the arrow and it whizzed towards John. Jamie looked up and saw the arrow racing at John. She lifted her wing and her armor; she blocked the arrow from hitting John. Jamie hit the arrow like a baseball sending it back at the demon and hitting it in the head. The demon fell backwards and out of site behind the ledge of the building and then saw it had been killed due to the small explosion. John said out of breath, “Thanks for that.”

“Anytime partner.” she smiled then focused on five demons that were pointing bows at them. One of the demons shouted, “Fire!” all five demons released arrows at John and Jamie. Jamie saw the arrows coming at them and she raised her arms and shot each of the arrows with her shards head on. Each arrow disintegrated into a small cloud of dust. Jamie pulled her arm back down, she opened her hand and all the shards were back in her possession. She clutched them tightly.

John continued to shoot at the demons missing every now and then because they were so fast and agile. John shot his last round and the barrel of the action of the gun opened up to show that he was empty. One huge demon was running at John with two swords swinging them wildly. John looked at his gun, “Oh great!” he threw his guns down onto the ground and reached behind his back and pulled out two swords of his own. He met the demon head on and they attacked and blocked each other many times. John jumped over the top of the demon and landed behind him. The demon turned his upper torso around without moving his legs. John looked at him strangely, and then the demon turned his lower body around so that it was in line with his upper torso. John swung the two swords at the demon and the demon blocked the attack once again. They fought like two ninjas battling for supremacy. John’s swords sliced through the air clanging against the demons swords and sparks flew everywhere. The light from the sparks were as bright as the light given off by a welder and almost blinding. John dipped down onto his knees and sliced the demon in the leg. The demon howled for a moment and continued his rampage on John. John blocked and weaved avoiding the demons attacks. He ran towards a wall, jumped running up the side of it a few steps, and flipped over the demon once again. This time he flew over the top of the demon, he thrust his swords down and pierced the demon on either side of its neck. His momentum carried him over the demon and he pulled his swords out and looked back to see the demon die. John wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and went to help Jamie.

Jamie was still engaged in a fierce confrontation with many demons. She smacked a few of them with her wings sending them to the ground. They hit so hard that they left and indention in the payment. She put her foot on the chest of one of the demons and shot her shards at his chest. Another was coming at her and she lifted her arm up, caught him by the throat, gave him a quit head butt, and threw him off to the side. All four of the angels were fighting back to back guarding each other with their shields from the onslaught of fiery arrows and swords. The arrows bounced off in all directions with some of them hitting other demons. A demon attacked from above them and they shifted their wings so that they formed a sort of canopy above them. The angel’s main wing bone moved up their back and their wings flatted out. The demon bounced off and rolled on the ground. Both angels were armed with shards and swords, striking true with each weapon. One demon thought he would sneak up from beneath the angels from the ground. He slowly appeared in the center of the angels. All the angels had their back to each other, fighting off the enemy. The demon was just about to stab one angel in the back when he was met with four swords in various parts of his body. His body went totally limp and screamed out in utter pain and died on the spot. All the angels looked at each and one said, “I never seen that move before.” they all smiled because many demons had tried that trick over the centuries and had failed. One of the angels wiped his sword off on his garment, “Nasty creatures those demons are.” His garment was soiled with demon essence. After a few seconds the stain on his garment vanished. The angel wiped at his garment with his hands, “Ah nice and clean again.”

The leader of the angels bent down on one knee and folded his right wing in front of himself. He shot his feathers out from his wings slaying the rest of the demonic forces that were left. Goleg was the head angel in charge of the other four, and lead the attack. Jamie said, “Thank you, we needed that”

“Our Pleasure Shurod, John.” Goleg nodded his head at both of them.

John was confused about how this angel knew his name, “How do you know me angel.”

“It’s our job to know the warriors who fight for the cause of righteousness.”

John was happy with the answer and he felt like he belonged for once in his life. Goleg turned around and looked through the building and saw that Omar was about to make the corner in his clever disguise, “Shadow, on me.” he said quietly. All the angels disappeared in an instant and flew straight up into the air.

Jamie sighed, “They didn’t even say good bye.”

“Maybe they had other matters to take care of. I bet they are busy all the time.” her wings retracted back into her back.

“No doubt about that.” Just as she finished her sentence Omar turned to corner and the air from the angels leaving blew dirt in his eyes and face. He stopped and wiped the dirt out. John’s eyes lit up, “I think we have another problem.” he whispered. Omar spit a few times and was surprised to see the two of them standing there. He stuttered, “You dropped this back at the park.” he extended his arm out and handed Jamie a five dollar bill. “What have you two been doing back here?” Jamie and John were both sweaty and had dirt on their clothing. John was still holding his swords in his hands and spoke up, “We were cleaning up a mess back here”. Omar looked around and the whole area was destroyed from the fight they just had, “Well it looks like you still have a lot of work to do, by what I’m seeing.” John and Jamie scanned the area and John put his swords away. Jamie half heartily smiled, “Well I have had enough cleaning for the day, how about you?” she nudged John with her elbow, “Oh, yeah, yeah me too.” They walked off towards the street and Jamie looked back at the man waving money in her hand, “Thanks for the five dollars.” Omar just waved at them, “See you around.” Omar eyes squinted together and his nose flared in hatred for John, “Soon very soon.”. Omar turned around to walk off, when he transformed back into his real self. John stopped and went back to the alley and looked down where the old man was. He caught a glimpse of Omar’s back as he walked off. He was shocked to see what he thought was Bali, Omar’s brother. He took a double take, but Omar had disappeared around the corner. John thought to himself no way that could be Bali because he killed Bali in combat months earlier. He even saw the demon that carried him off to hell. John began to think he was seeing a ghost or maybe the evil forces at work were trying to confuse him.

Jamie came back down the alley, “What’s going on John.”

John turned around and he face had no expression on it at all. Jamie knew that something was up and she said, “You look like you just seen a ghost.”

“I think I did.” John replied thinking to himself.

“What was it?”

“Something from my past.”

“You’re past? What do you mean you’re past?”

John shook his head and stood there dumbfounded, “Let’s just get back to my place, I need to think some things through.”

Jamie knew enough not to question him too much at this moment because he was acting strangely, “Oh, ok John lets go.” They started to walk away, when John stopped again, “Hold on a second.”

“Hey where are you going John?” Jamie reached out and tried to grab his arm.

He ran back down the alley kicking a can as he ran. Omar was about to be on the main street when he heard the can bouncing around on the ground. He transformed back into the old man and turned to look back down the alley. John came running around the corner and stopped when he saw the old man. He pulled out his gun and pointed it at Omar, “Who are you?” John said forcefully. Omar was taken aback by John’s aggressiveness. Omar pulled out his wallet, “Here take this if you want it.” John appeared confused, “No, I don’t want your wallet, who are you?”

“I am Omar.”

John paused for a moment because recognized the name, but he couldn’t remember where he had heard it before. He discounted his feeling he had, “Did you see a big black guy walking down the alley?” John asked.

Omar looked over each of John’s shoulders and made a weird face, “Nope didn’t see anyone, are you ok mister?”

John placed the gun back inside his suit coat, “I’m sorry sir, I hope that I didn’t scare you.”

Omar cleared his throat, “Well you did a little. I have never had a gun pointed at me before.”

John looked at the ground shamefully. He tried to rationalize what he had seen and was mad at himself for threatening and elderly man, “Look I’m sorry if I disturbed you sir, I apologize.”

Omar got an attitude, “Do you always make it a habit to pull your gun on helpless old men.”

“I said I was sorry.”

“Sorry, huh you’re gonna give someone a heart attack waving that gun all over the place like a wild man.”

John turned and walked back towards Jamie. He waved his arm backwards and said he was sorry again for bothering him.

Omar turned and walked away and disappeared into the crowd of people walking on the street.

John walked up to Jaime when she asked, “What was that all about John?” she put her hands on her hips.

“I’m still not sure yet.” John rubbed his forehead with his hand.

“What do you think it is?”

John opened his mouth then closed it, “It has something to do with Bali, my old friend.”

“Bali? You mean that guy you killed.”

“Yes, don’t remind me please, it’s a painful memory that I play over and over in head each night.”

“You will figure it out John, let’s go home.”

“I hope so, its driving me crazy”

That night John laid down in his bed and fell fast asleep. He drifted off into a deep sleep and began to dream. He saw a black woman that was struggling to give birth to a child. John watched as the woman screamed out in pain in the hospital room. The doctors were trying to calm the lady down. The doctor in the room shouted out, “Check for vital signs!” the nurse check the baby and looked back at the doctor in panic, “Doctor, there are two babies here.” the doctor pushed the nurse out of the way and examined the woman. The machine that monitored the woman pulse flat lined and she passed out. The doctor yelled, “I need a crash kit here now!”

One of the nurses in the room busted out of the room. The sound of the machine grew louder and louder. The nurse brought back the items they used to help bring her back to life but she had already died. The doctor said, “Turn that off!” the nurse did and the room was silent except for the sound of all of them breathing, “Scalpel, maybe we can save the babies at least.” The doctor cut the mother open and delivered twins. He handed them to the nurse and they wiped them clean and wrapped them in blankets. The doctor looked at the nurse, “Is the father here?” he had a sad expression on his face.

“No sir, she came in by herself.” she fumbled through some medical papers, “It says here that she was a single mom.”

“What about emergency contact information, next of kin?”

The nurse once again looked through the papers, “There is nothing here sir, no next of kin information.”

The doctor took off his scrubs and mask, “Time of death 11:05am. Get a hold of someone in social services that can take care of these babies.”

John sat up straight out of his bed in a cold sweat and remembered that Bali had showed him a picture of his younger twin brother taken years ago, and his name was Omar.