by Donovan Neal
Eridu smiled at his work. For centuries he had tracked the scent of Micah’s descendant’s across the earth. From the hovel that was Qumran, Israel to the township of Commerce, Michigan. From, the Roman Empire to the United States of America had he traversed the globe. The angelic, vengeful, and long arm of Marduk to the house of Ben Judah. He was excited that soon his time in the trivial destruction of these humans would end and he would again be elevated to serve his master.
Working the field of human souls was grunt work reserved to the daemons. Not one who had once ferreted out the spies of the Host who scurried like rats from his presence upon their discovery. Not for one who was a ruler of ancient cities named after him. Not one whom the Sumerians once worshiped. Now his name was a historical after thought. A name wiped from the pages of human history. A name now reduced to see to the destruction of a human female. Eridu was a hunter, a destroyer of angels and men alike. Only once had a mark for assassination escaped him. And Eridu had longed to find and destroy the one angel who escaped with his master’s correspondence with Lucifer: Vantress of house Harrada.
Never did it occur to him that after centuries he merely would have to attend an adolescent house party.
“It’s been a longtime nemesis,” said a familiar voice.
Eridu turned from his observation of human teenage mating rituals and faced a voice he had not heard in many a year.
Vantress appeared to Eridu’s and sight and continued. “Did you think that I’ve forgotten your killing of Olen? Now that I finally have you I will have my revenge. You will pay for what you did to him.”
Eridu chuckled, and “It was my understanding that vengeance belongs to God. Have you come to present your credentials to me as God Vantress? Are you here to vie for title of God as Lucifer? For it would seem that if you seek to do me harm that you are presented with a choice. You may indeed attempt to seek your vengeance upon me but I perceive that you are not here for me. I see the hand of El in that he has given assignment. And could it be no less that you are here for the maiden? My sweet, sweet mark? Is it possible that fate… no that is such a human means to explain what they refuse and or cannot understand. We both know we are here because God has willed it. I wonder what El in his wisdom would have you do?” Eridu smirked.
My orders are clear; they are to undermine the Horde. To disrupt and destroy your operations. Wherever you would seek to sow your tares and or plot your fiendish schemes.”
The angels began slowly circled one another floating over the myriad of students in the room. Each one oblivious to the angelic presence that occupied their space.
Audrey tapped the dancing Elizabeth on the shoulder and offered her more gummy bears. Elizabeth smiled and took several into her hands and gulped them down. Audrey winked at Mike Gains and he nodded in acknowledgment.
Vantress moved closer to Eridu and drew his sword. “I will not let you have the maiden. She is not yours to possess.”
Eridu replied. “She was mine to destroy the moment her forefather dared place himself as an obstacle to my master’s will. She is dead in her trespasses and sins, and soon she will know the
eternal reality of that separation from God. Of course the question remains. Do you think yourself powerful enough to stand between the Horde and its prey?”
Eridu then pulled from his side an urumi: a small whip like weapon of comprised of several flexible blades.
The two angels stared each other down, awaiting any movement from the other. Eridu cocked his head to the side, glancing at the continued state of Elizabeth as she became increasingly flushed and inebriated. He smiled and continued to move Vantress further away from the lass and incited him.
“You should know Vantress that the sons of men are adept in the arts of destruction. They rival even the Elohim in their creativity to invent weapons. In my travels I have studied the arts of war and it was in the continent of India that I came across so interesting a mind that I used him to forge a weapon that with it killed nine men at once. I was of course inspired no less than by Michael’s own sword. I so look forward to watching your skin bleed against its edge.”
Vantress moved towards his enemy as his body phased through dancing students. “No Eridu, it will be your death that I truly hope will go slowly.”
Eridu backed away slowly phasing through walls until he was standing outside by the pool. Dozens of party goers swam in the lake and frolicked about unawares of the invisible celestial confrontation in their midst.
Eridu looked at Vantress with confusion, “You act as if the lass is in danger. Does she not rest in the arms of the one she desires? Would you rob her of this opportunity to know the pleasures of the flesh?”
“Think me not naive spawn of Satan. Your attempt to mislead her will not succeed.” Vantress said.
Vantress phased through the same wall and materialized enough to disrupt the circuitry in the dwelling. Immediately everything went black and the music came to a screeching halt.
Mike Gains stopped dancing as Elizabeth collapsed in his arms commenting on how sexy he looked and that she noticed him eying her during the school year. “So what are you gonna do about it big man? You not scared of a girl are you?”
Mike looked at her and a beaming smirk scrawled across his face. “Oh I’ve got something to show you, I think we should go upstairs.”
Dozens of students turned on their cell phone flash lights and continued to chat and go outside to enjoy the outside breeze. Audrey came over to Mike and whispered, “I think she’s ready.”
Mike whispered in reply, “Ready or not here I come.”
Audrey laughed and groped his crotch in the darkness to inspect him, “Yeah I think you are.”
Mike then lifted Elizabeth’s arm over his shoulder and walked her up the stairs into his bedroom.
✽✽✽
Vantress launched himself at Eridu thrusting forward with his sword. Eridu then extended the segmented blades of the Urumi and it reached towards Vantress’s face making the battle hardened angel turn to avoid the weapons cutting edge.
With a snap of Eridu’s wrist the blades recoiled as he swirled them around his person. Gyrating his body to keep Vantress at bay and to prevent his own self-injury.
Vantress pressed his attack closing the distance he brought his sword up to his face and when he did so the flexible blades of the Urumi found the steel of Vantress’s blade preventing them to down the angel.
The blades coiled as a whip around the swords edge, and Eridu and Vantress weapons were now interlocked with one another unable to untangle from the other.
Clouds gathered overhead as the disruption of their attack upon each other slowly began to tear at the physical realm and moisture slowly accumulated in the upper atmosphere.
Each angel pulled in a tug of war to gain the advantage over the other.
“I must admit,” said Eridu, “I did not think it would be so easy to distract you from your charge. You have become much more gullible since last we met.”
Vantress struggled to hold unto the sword and replied. “You talk too much.” He then released his grip and Eridu fell backwards with both sword and Urumi flailing back towards him.”
Vantress launched himself towards the Eridu landing atop of him.
Accosted Eridu now found himself lying on his back with Vantress pummeling him in the face.
Blow after crushing blow did Vantress smite Eridu’s jaw, chin, nose and forehead. Pummeling him until the angel drew blood.
Lightning flashed, and a bolt found its way into the ground where the duo battled. A tree caught fire and a sudden downpour of rain descended and doused the flame as quickly as it had erupted. In the lightning flash's aftermath; Paschar the Grigori stood and yelled at Vantress.
“Vantress! Vantress! You fight a ghost. A projection of the thoughts of your own mind! Vantress wake up, for where is thy charge?”
Vantress looked at Eridu and his bloodied face laughed at him. Vantress then looked at his own hands, and his knuckles were blue w
ith his own blood. Bruised and cut from the abrasions of slamming his fists into the ground. He quickly realized that he had been fighting a phantom. A ghost made real by the projections of his own mind.
He slowly gained his composure, his breathing heavy over the vanishing body that was but a projection of his own mind made real. He grimaced in angst and rage and raised his bloodied hands into the sky.
“ERIDU!” he cried. Lifting his frustration and anguish into the rain.
Back at the home of Michael Gaines Eridu lifted his ear towards the distant cry of Vantress and heard the howl of his nemesis from over a mile away. While eager to correct the failure that was Vantress. He returned his gaze towards his work at hand. A work that would free him to return to his master’s grace. A work of sin he had incubated for many years. The fruit of which was now in full progress. Eridu stood in nodding approval of Michael Gaines as the young man proceeded to defile the intoxicated Elizabeth Foley.
✽✽✽
“Elizabeth!” said Carl Peterson. “Elizabeth where are you?”
Carl Peterson called after her friend who noticed her absence after the house lights had gone out.
“Lord please help me find her.” She said under her breath. “Please let her be OK.”
Immediately in the spirit, a prayer cloud came over the bedroom of Michael Gaines. It glowed and light emanated over the duo and Eridu stood to attention as he noticed that a prayer shroud grew in the room and the angel drew back in fear. For it was a clear sign that a believer in Yeshua was exercising their covenant power to invoke divine intervention into the Earth. The angel turned and fled for the prayer cloud expanded and soon would cause acidic like burns if he did not depart.
Suddenly Vantress appeared, and he hovered over Michael Gaines and the angel waved his hand and the boy’s abdomen spasmed and he began to vomit, and phlegm and puke projected from his mouth as he hurried from the room to find the nearest restroom.
Vantress turned to see that Eridu stood in the doorway and scowled. He unsheathed his sword and stood at the bed where Elizabeth was undressed mere feet away from the opposing angel. The cloud of prayer forcing his enemy to back away.
“You will not have her.” Vantress declared.
Eridu smirked and replied, “Tonight… no,” he said shaking his head. “But such was never my intent.”
Both angels then heard a “click” sound that came from the corridor near the door that Michael Gaines had left wide open.
Eridu smirked as Sara Jefferson walked through his phased body and captured video on her cell phone of Elizabeth partially undressed with her bra off. An eavesdropping sentry ready to spread gossip and slander to the dazed Elizabeth Foley. Vantress realized that she protected the bedroom door from prying eyes, all while she uploaded humiliating images of Elizabeth’s compromised state to Snapchat.
Eridu smiled at the young woman and spoke, “Though the daughter of Ben Judah will not be assaulted today, her humiliation will be enough to bring her to the brink of despair. I have followed this one a long time but know that you will not deter me in her death. I will have her. And you would be wise, angel of God, to be by her side; for upon my return know on that day you will not fight an illusion.”
The dread angel then turned and floated through the walls out of sight.
Vantress stood over the side of the bed of Elizabeth, sheathed his sword and the Grigori assigned spoke to him appeared and spoke. “Be wary Vantress for this one has learned how to project illusion to your own mind. It is a dark art the Horde has mastered. Many of our brethren
have fallen to such trickery. Be careful and mind your thoughts or he will surely use them against you.”
Vantress nodded. “I will not succumb a second time.”
“Elizabeth are you up there?” called the voice of Carl Peterson.
Sarah Jefferson hurried to exit the room and the two young women stood face to face, with Carol blocking Sarah’s exit.
Carol looked beyond the doorway into the room to see the unconscious Elizabeth sprawled out in the bed, and that Sarah slowly tried to conceal her cell phone. Its camera’s recording mode still visible.
“You witch!” Carol hollered. She then pushed the girl against the door frame and wrestled the phone from her hand and threw it against a wall.
Carol shoved passed the now fuming girl and ran to the bed and shook Elizabeth but she was unresponsive. Carol then immediately took her own cell phone and dialed 911. Sarah grabbed the broken pieces of her cell phone and hurried downstairs.
“Come on, baby… please don’t die on me. Lord, please wake her up.”
Vantress floated over her physical shell and watched as the young woman’s small prayer lifted into the air. A glowing aromatic cloud that smelled of jasmine. It hovered for a moment then crystallized into a golden gem and Vantress watched as the gem shot towards the Third Heaven.
Immediately, Vantress could see what Carol could not and the room brightened as if someone had raised a dimmer light in a living room. Suddenly, Elizabeth sat up in the bed coughing as she gasped for air.
Vantress whispered to El Pneuma, “Thank you my king… thank you.”
✽✽✽
El looked grimly upon the cauldron of the saints prayers. They incessantly wailed and screamed their discontent. Ghostly howls and laments intermixed with pleas for the Father’s help sizzled from the vessel. Like a boiling pot of heated water it whistled into the air the groaning of saints that could not be uttered. El then crouched near the basins overflow, cupped his hands and collected the steaming water that spilled onto the floor of the throne room, and when he collected the water it seemed to evaporate into his hands.
El then stood. His lip firm, his face hard as stone. He then looked away from the wailing vessel and turned his eyes away from the lavar and Michael heard him whisper to Yeshua. “What we do. I will do no more.” Michael did not understand what the Lord meant and noting Michael’s look of confusion; El spoke to his chief prince of angels.
“Come most beloved of angels… walk with me.”
Michael nodded and followed his Lord who merely waved his hand and the Trinitarian God vanished and Michael found himself standing with the Godhead in a dimly lit room. The room was lit as if by candlelight and Michael’s eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. His vision cleared, and he saw that within the room were billions upon billions of small vials. Each was illuminated with a small pinprick of light inside and each vial was corked. Michael strained to see the contents of the small containers and was taken aback by what he beheld. For each jar contained the tears of the Lord’s people. Michael looked over and around him; for all over the starlit-like room was rows of small tear bottles: each adorned with a precious jewel and draped in small links of gold and silver. Michael watched as the Godhead took within each of their hands the tears they had collected from the saints at the lavar and gently placed them one-by-one within a bottle. Crystal immediately formed around each tear encasing it in the finest glass. And Michael marveled for even the ceiling of the room was adorned as a chandelier in the tears of God’s people. The Lord stared solemnly over each and every one. And when each tear was at rest within a bottle Michael could hear the faintest sounds of weeping. The sound saturated the room in a child-like melancholy of cries. It was a weeping that was faint but almost out of the perception of hearing lest the room be full of wails. The three members of the Godhead then took a pen and wrote within a journal set upon a dais: the names of each person from whom the tear was from.
Michael watched this personal ordinance of God and was touched that the Lord would allow him to witness one of His most intimate of private times. The Lord then spoke staring down at the book and placed his hand over his face as in grief.
“I will write no more names in this book. The season for my people to cry must now end,” said El.
Yeshua immediately followed without missing a cadence, “It is therefore a time to rend…”
El Pneuma chimed in accordance. “A
time to make war…”
Michael stood quietly and El turned to him and spoke in anguish and replied, “The world has turned its back to me. They despise my name as their creator. The imagination of mankind has become vain, for in pride have they lifted themselves up. They have changed my truth and have worshiped the creature more than the creator. They desire in their lust to live in delusion, therefore, I will give them the desire of their heart and will revel in their strong delusion that they might know the impact when God is not there.”
The three then became one and turned their collective face from the dais. And when they did so; the room vanished and naught but galaxies and super-clusters was all that could be seen and Michael floated over the floor of the universe.
El stared at the Creation He had molded by his loving hands, and his eyes focused on the one planet in a solar system he had aligned perfectly to support the life of his greatest creation: a creation now amok in defiance of the Lord’s will; a creation that had unleashed destruction and sin into the world.
Michael watched his father closely: watched his expressions and mannerisms taking care to note the Lord’s body language.
The Lord grimaced with gritted teeth as he stared down upon the Earth
Michael watched as the Creator of the Universe seemingly wrestled with a pronunciation of judgment. For Michael knew mercy was quickly dissipating for mankind. He then looked to Yeshua whose mannerisms mimicked the Father. El Pneuma hovered above them both and his great wings were spread abroad and dwarfed the room.
Michael then saw El take a deep breath and his chest rose and fell as if in resignation he could not withhold what he would do any longer. The Creator then spoke. His eyes fixed on the planet Earth. “Michael of the Kortai,” said El.
Michael snapped to attention. “Yes, my king.”
“Make ready my troops.”
Michael nodded and replied. “Yes, my king.”
El then looked to the Holy Spirit and spoke. “El Pneuma, it is time; bring our children to us.”
