The auditorium was buzzing with noise as it always did when there was no one on stage. The noise didn’t bother him, it was to be expected from The Wayward Children of America. “Shall I introduce you Sir?” the man standing next to him asked. “Get them to quiet down for you?”
“No,” he answered, “they’ll quiet down on their own.” He stepped out onto the stage emanating power with each step and causing a wave of silence to wash over the teenagers and young adults who were looking at him with awe. Every step he took echoed across the room and the tension and excitement increased ever more. He finally stopped at the center of the stage and took his place behind the podium and looked at all of the people waiting eagerly for him to talk. With a smile he picked the headset up off the podium and put it on and spoke. “Good evening, everyone.”
“GOOD EVENING!” the entire auditorium responded in near unison. Barely a soul in the entire audience was anything less than ecstatic to see him. His smile widened in what they would interpret as pride in them.
He was silent for moment looking out on them, surveying them, admiring what he had built. “How many of you are returning this week?” he asked. A large boom of cheers and applause sounded as all of his followers assured him of their loyalty. “Good,” he praised them, “That is good. And how many of you are new?” Another, but much smaller, round of voices sounded off, as the most courageous of the shy assured him his numbers were growing. His smile faltered, as it always did at this point. “Here’s another question,” he began, “How many of you were forced to come here today? How many of you came from a broken home which you were taken from and were then sent to uncaring homes until you were forced to act out and then punished for things outside of your control? How many of you have been victims of circumstance and injustice?” The room was quiet aside from the shuffling a few nervous feet. “It’s okay,” he continued, “You don’t have to say anything, simply raise your hands...go on, you’re not alone.” A single hand rose slowly standing alone in the audience until it was joined by another, and another, in seconds half a dozen hands were raised and nearly two dozen by the end of the first minute.
His smile returned, larger than before, “Good evening,” he repeated his eyes shifting across the newcomers, most of them smiled in return. “I would like to welcome each and every one of you, I would like to welcome each of you into our family. I know most of you did not choose to come here, you were ordered by the state, but let me tell you this; that does not matter to me. What matters is that you are here now. Through one way or another you have found your way here and maybe you don’t feel it now, but you have found your way home. You have found a place where I swear that you will be accepted, you will be loved, you will be free, and, if you work hard enough, you will be adored. Now I know that those of you who are new may be intimidated by this place, by me, but there is no reason to be, many years ago I was where you are now; lost, alone, weak, scared, and now, after years of hard work, through my own efforts I have built this place and many others like it to reach people like yourselves to draw out the inner power of the people that are stepped on, the people that are ignored and blamed for things outside of their control, the people that make up this society yet are given no credit no reward, no thanks from their government. People like you who are seen as disposable and thus are tossed aside and thrown out with no direction.” At this point he had begun to pace, drawing with him the eyes of each patron, his voice was steadily raising. “They toss you aside because they see no way to use you, and for the longest time they had nowhere to even throw you, but then I came along, I offered to take you off their hands, and apathetically they handed you over! But what they never knew was that I do not take you in as an act of charity or pity. I offered to take you in because I saw what they refused to see, what they were afraid to see. I saw potential. No. I saw power. In each of you I see a power that is unbelievable, immeasurable, and eternal. They thought you were nothing, but tell me this; are you nothing?”
“NO!” the entire crowd called out with rage and caused the room to shake.
“That’s right,” he assured them, “Not a single soul in the room is nothing. Each of you has the power to change the world so imagine what all of you can do together! Imagine what you can do with a single goal, a single leader, not above you but beside you. Imagine what you can do to this world if you all stand under one flag, one symbol, one man.”
The audience began cheering and whooping, shouting his name, begging him to be that leader. “No,” he said silencing them, “I am not that leader, I am only a herald, I am only the one who prepares the way for them, but until then I will lead, of course.” They cheered again, thankful for his guidance and love. “For those of you who do not know, this leader will be one like no other, one of immense power, one who will come soon. I know he will come soon, I do not know when or from where, but I have seen it and I have felt it! I built what I did in order to bring about the new world for him, for us! I will be his guide and I will be his herald, but I do not believe I will be him.” The crowd was listening intently, even more so than before.
“This leader,” he continued, “will revive the world, will reveal the unknown, will draw the power of each individual out and renew the lives of everyone he touches! And through it all he will still be counted as one of you! Hell, for all I know he may be one of you! He may be in this crowd right now! He may be listening and hoping it’s him! He may have just arrived today! How many of you would like it if he were here today?”
They cheered in ecstasy, so many of them eating his words with their usual hypnotised enthusiasm, so many of them wishing to be the one he spoke of, but he knew there was no one like that in the crowd today, no one who he could guide to lead the rest, no one who truly stood out. He resumed his speech. “Time will tell, but we have a lot of work to do right now. We have a narrow path to walk and I will guide you as best I can until he arrives or stands out among you. There will be tests and there will be trials that will draw him out whether or not he is here today but if he is then I have only this to say; do your best in the trials to come and I will recognize you the moment you do.”
