The Third Heaven : Apocalypse of Kings

by Donovan Neal

  El Pneuma nodded knowingly then disappeared.

  Chapter Seven

  The Taken

  Carol was by the bedside of Elizabeth, taking a cold compress and dabbing her forehead.

  Elizabeth was dazed and slowly coming around. “Oh, my head is ringing. What are we doing in my bedroom?”

  “I think Michael or one of his flunkey’s slipped something in your drink,” said Carol. “That’s the only thing I can figure out. Something told me to look for you. I dunno I got worried I guess. When I went upstairs, I found you in bed with him on top of you and Sarah guarding the door.

  I knew that creep didn’t deserve you. I can’t believe he tried to get into your pants like that! And to think Sarah was just standing there! I bet she watched the whole thing. When I am done with them. I swear to Bob I will make the whole school know what they did”.

  Elizabeth sat up groggily from the bed her head aching. “Owww, don’t cause the room to move so fast. And no. We can’t tell anyone at the school what happened.”

  Carol looked at her friend in disbelief. “But Elizabeth if Sarah uploaded that video to the Internet….shouldn’t we call the police?”

  Elizabeth looked at her friend as if she was crazy and retorted back. “Oh heck no! I’ve got two years left at this school. I have to live with these people, and you know how those Jefferson girls are. They will probably try to corner me alone just to get back at me if I told. You know that’s how they are. No, you can’t tell anyone. Promise me.”

  Carol looked at her friend with concern.

  “Promise me Carol.” Elizabeth said.

  Carol looked at her and nodded her head. She clutched at her chest and her eyes grew wide. “Something is happening.”

  “What?” said Elizabeth. You look…strange.”

  Elizabeth’s voice trailed off as she watched her friend begin to give off a faint blue glow. The young woman backed up further towards the head of her bead looking at her high school friend in fear.

  “Carrol…Carol…are you alright?” said Elizabeth.

  Carrol squinted as she turned her head to look around the room. Her eyes burned. She rubbed them in irritation as if to remove sleep that clouded her vision. She slowly lowered her hands before her face and then lifted them high into the air as if to inspect them. Turning each over to its front then back. She was amazed that she could actually see through her skin, and watched her own blood course through her veins. She squinted as if to focus and Elizabeth and the four walls of her friend’s bedroom disappeared as if pushed to the side of her periphery and she could see miles beyond outside: looking past the walls of the Elizabeth’s home and could angels that flew hither and thither. She smiled in glee and awe but also became suddenly aware of the many daemons and evil angels that were also in her vicinity. She frowned in anger for the volume of them that she could see. But she also saw that many people within the area were also experiencing the change each equally attempting to make sense of what was happening to them.

  Carol breathed in and out slowly taking in the sights. She tilted her head as if to concentrate more on what she heard and realized that both her hearing and her vision were now amplified beyond anything she could possibly imagine. She could hear the rapid fearful heartbeat of her friend and opened her eyes to focus on Elizabeth.

  “It’s so beautiful…”

  She then gasped placing her hand over her mouth startled as she suddenly saw that an angel stood guard at their bed: his hand on the pummel of his sword.

  “Who are you?” Carroll asked.

  “Vantress.” The angel said.

  Carol then smiled, “Have you been here all this time?” she asked. Vantress nodded as he grinned.

  Carol focused her changing eyes on Elizabeth who clearly was afraid and spoke to her friend.

  “Carrol you are scaring me. Who the hell are you talking to? Because it sure as heck ain’t me.”

  Carrol could hear the quickening of Elizabeth’s racing heartbeat and replied. “Don’t be afraid Izzy.” She grinned, “You have an angel assigned to you! He is so beautiful.”

  Vantress smiled and his checks blushed. He then put his finger to his lips to ask for her silence.

  “I understand,” Carol said aloud. She then spoke to Elizabeth.

  Carols voice then changed as if many voices sung through her. “The Lord is calling me home Izzy. I can feel it. It feels so good…it’s…it’s like I am shedding a skin. I think I am about to leave very soon. I wish you could come with me. But I must go now. Remember when you think you are most alone Christ is there…surrender to him…” she paused as if her mind was elsewhere and then quickly came to herself and spoke. “It’s all so beautiful. I hope I will see you again. I love you.”

  And with those words Carol allowed the change that was quickly overwhelming her body to overtake her and she transformed before her friends eyes into a being of bluish light. She smiled one last time at her high school friend and her form took that of something akin to a willow-of-the-wisp.

  Elizabeth watched as the bright orb of luminance then shot through the roof of her bedroom and vanished before her eyes. She looked down to see the clothes that her best friend wore laying as a crumpled pile atop her bed. She then screamed uncontrollably, then fainted falling back in her bed.

  ✽✽✽

  Leto Alexander, leader of the human race; the Beast as named in the Bible and articulated by those familiar with his ruthlessness watched as two men in sackcloth made their way towards the court of the Dome on the Rock.

  “Leto Alexander, we are the witnesses of the one true God, and we call you to account and declare that you false.”

  Enoch leaned on his staff and Elijah helped him as they walked

  “Who are you? Leto asked.

  Enoch looked upon him and replied. “Your father knows of me. For he was there when death was defied and when El slighted him as the Usurper sought to take me as a prize. This one too is known of thy master. For he has raised the dead and stopped the Heavens from giving rain. We are Enoch and Elijah, and we are the two witnesses that stand before the Lord and declare the goodness of the Lord, and who call Heaven and Earth against you. To proclaim Leto Alexander that you are a liar. The enemy of the true God and to declare to the entire world that they that follow you will share your fate.”

  Leto laughed. “So you admit to be in league with the enemy of Earth and her people. I do not need to hear anything further for you are both dead men. Arrest them.”

  Soldiers immediately rushed to apprehend the duo, but when they reached within ten feet of the men, every soldier spontaneously combust. Each screamed as they fell over and died in agony. As they stood on the precipice of life and death, they could see into the realm of the unrighteous dead. Each emblazoned soul screaming as their spirits left their bodies and drawn into a realm of utter darkness to be consumed alive by Hell.

  Elijah spoke in sternness to the men who surrounded them. “Such will be to all who refuse to give the God of Heaven the glory due His name. Defy Him and a lake of fire and brimstone surely awaits you all.”

  Leto was incensed; I said apprehend those men NOW!

  Then the low rumble of "shoup, shoup” from canisters being shot from a gun could be heard, and two canisters of tear gas fell at Enoch and Elijah’s feet. A fog of greenish gas lifted around the men, and Henel James the reporter was too close to Enoch and Elijah and was overcome by the acidic taste of vinegar and coughed as he was overwhelmed with a sudden tightness in his chest. He collapsed to his knees, and as he looked up coughing, he could see Enoch and Elijah standing looking about curiously. Elijah looked down at him and seeing him overcome blew his breath on him, and the fog cleared from around the men. Elijah put his hand over Henel’s chest and he gasped for air able to breathe.

  “How did you do that?”

  Elijah was silent, and he smiled and turned to Enoch who acknowledged him and then opened his mouth to speak. “Behold the power of God!”

  And w
hen Enoch had spoken lightening fell from the sky and incinerated the holder of the gun of tear gas. A thunder clap burst overhead and all those near the soldiers were shocked and fell down unconscious as electricity raced through the ground nearby. The sizzle and the stink of roasted flesh was all that wafted in the air and the gun used to launch the tear gas had melted into slag on the ground. The skeletal hands of the solider that launched the tear gas still gripping his useless weapon.

  And while Enoch and Elijah made their presence known to Leto Alexander and stood as a prophetic voice against the Anti-Christ El Pneuma had arrived to recoup his people. His wings covered the whole of the planet as if cradling the blue orb in his arms, and when he did so he whispered but one word.

  “Come.”

  A wave of crystal blue energy enveloped the planet, and all eyes beheld in the sky a shimmering blue Aurora Borealis. Such was the brightness that even those on the daylight side of the planet saw a shimmering light dance in the sky.

  A light as bright the sun then swept from east to west over the sky and when it did Enoch and Elijah knelt, raised their hands and lifted their voices and proclaimed.

  “Behold The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

  Their voices boomed over the skies such that glass shattered in both cars and buildings and many that heard had to cover their ears for the pain. The words spoken were voiced in every tongue and every language, and there was nowhere on earth that the proclamation were not understood.

  Suddenly without warning. People from every tribe and nation found themselves changed and their skin flaked away to reveal a new body that lay underneath, and many suddenly floated upwards; lifting into the sky as they looked at their flesh which was now changed. Many vanished through the ceilings of buildings slowly rising. And all at once around the entire planet each and every one from around the globe burst into a ball of white light then shot up into the air in streaking rays of prismatic light. Clothes, dentures, glasses, and all manner of paraphernalia to assist the body of men were left behind in their wakes. Those that remained; that had watched them change and disappear; screamed in lament calling after them. Wives yelled after husbands and husbands after wives, children called out to parents and parents to children. Confusion gripped many, and discernment others as many had recalled tales of a Rapture. An event on God’s celestial calendar that would leave many of humanity behind to face His judgment.

  Pregnant mothers suddenly found their wombs empty, while hospitals around the world from infant ICU’s to hospice rooms emptied themselves of patients.

  Cars which traveled over the roads of men suddenly careened off course as their drivers disappeared behind their wheels. Planes fell from the skies plummeting to the ground causing death and destruction to both occupants and those below while military personnel throughout the Earth were suddenly absent without leave. Some firemen who entered into buildings never came out. Thousands of prisoners around the world incarcerated for all manner of crimes disappeared from their cells and before their captors eyes.

  Death and destruction accompanied the harvest of God’s children. For men in positions of power and first responders who were positioned to protect were suddenly absent: gone, leaving a vacuum of leadership and emergency personnel in their wake.

  Doctors disappeared in the midst of their operations while children across all continents lifted away to Heaven.

  But the body of Christ was not immune from the reaping as many churches were in session across the world. And even in services of worship some attendees were taken and others were left. Weeping and wails of anguish lifted from houses of worship across the world as the sinking realization swept across the planet that many who named the name of Christ were left behind.

  Wails, screams, and moans were heard across the Earth. For not since the slaying of the firstborn of Egypt was a lament heard on this wise throughout the world. For the Lord God had come to reap His harvest and he had taken his children home.

  Nevertheless many were fearful of the event and hid themselves thinking that aliens were abducting humankind; and many sought to escape what they perceived was celestial attack.

  Enoch and Elijah watched as some soldiers within their sight disappeared and Enoch spoke aloud for all within earshot to hear. “For the prophecy of the Lord hast come to pass for there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.”

  Henel James tried to collect himself looking around in disbelief at what he was witnessing and attempted to continue streaming live what he was seeing to the world.

  Enoch and Elijah somberly watched with those in assembled disbelief as people disappeared from their midst. Elijah then took turn to lift his voice and proclaimed.

  “Woe to you people of earth for your tribulation has now begun.”

  Leto frowned in disapproval looked down menacingly at the two men and angrily muttered in retort. “It would seem that your God has declared war. Very well, we will show him war.”

  ✽✽✽

  Henel James was a reporter for the Jerusalem Post. He viewed himself as a smart man: an accomplished man: a man, never given over to anything but the facts; let alone the superstitions and primitive beliefs of his religious family. Well read and educated at the Tel Aviv University he had given up on God years ago.

  Until, he: like many of those in Jerusalem; saw on national TV the two witnesses. He was an atheist, and the idea of an all knowing God that restrained him from his pursuit of women and the power of professional accomplishments did not align itself to his plans of success. And never in all his days did he think he would change his mind; not until two men in a flash of lightning and thunder appeared before the wailing wall of Jerusalem in sackcloth crying “Repent!” Bearded and muscular their voices echoed across the courtyards and made everyone pay attention as the boom from their words traveled for kilometers. And it was the extravagant lightning strike of their appearance and the volume of their booming voices that first got Henel’s attention.

  “Repent and believe the Gospel!” They roared. “For the time of His coming draws nigh!”

  Henel recognized a journalistic moment when he saw it; took out his cell phone to capture video. He watched as the duo’s spectacular visual and auditory disturbance caught the attention of the soldiers patrolling the area.

  “You worship but you know not what! For the stone which the builders have rejected commands your ear! He soon comes with ten thousands of his saints. Be warned for the Beast that lives among you has said “Peace! Peace! But alas, there is no peace. For he is voracious and comes to destroy this temple and will exalt himself above all things that are called God! Repent and believe in Yeshua the Son of the living God!”

  Here we go with this Yeshua again, thought Henel. He chuckled to himself. The two old coots were about to get what was coming to them as two soldiers with rifles raised: commanded them to come away from the wall. But the men seem undeterred and replied.

  “We stand before you as the two candlesticks of God and yet you come to us to snuff out our light? We will not be moved, and I have warned you to not interfere with the God of Heaven. For by our word if you would seek to do us harm know that His fire burns within and His wrath will not be turned if you do harm to his saints.”

  One of the soldiers chuckled and replied. “OK old timer, that’s enough. Let’s go.” And the solider went to grab Elijah by the arm and when he did. The old grizzled prophet opened his mouth and fire proceeded from it and devoured the solider where he stood. And he died screaming before the men, as his flesh erupted in spontan
eous combustion and his body was engulfed in sort of immolation.

  Immediately his partner drew her rifle and aimed it at both men. “On your knees now!” she yelled.

  But Enoch became angered and replied, “Hath thou not seen that God has sent us? But with thine own eyes will you still not believe. Hath ye not heard to touch not his prophets nor do them no harm?” And Enoch appeared puzzled glancing around as if he looked for others to answer his question.

  “I said on your knees now! You have three seconds to comply or I will fire. Three! Two! One!”

  Suddenly, the rat-ta-tat sound of an Israeli Micro-Tavor assault rifle sprang from the female soldier’s weapon. But the bullets just ricocheted mere centimeters from the old men and the projectiles were sent whizzing into the onlooking crowd. Enoch then spoke, “Because thou did not obey my word. You too will see the realm of the dead.” And immediately fire ushered from his mouth and like her partner before her, the soldier’s body erupted in flames and spontaneously combust.

  Henel dropped to the ground for cover. His cell phone still recording as he could not believe his eyes. Spectators and those surrounding the wall screamed and fled in terror from the combined flames and from the ricocheting shots that were fired. Pandemonium filled the air as the two old men touched the wall and sat down in front of it. The area cleared quickly as all men ran fearing for their lives.

  Elijah sighed and spoke. “Oh crooked and perverse generation. Did we not say we are but two witnesses to the glory of God? Did we not speak that the God of Heaven demands that everyone everywhere repent? Why then hast thou raged and imagined vain things? And who is this Leto Alexander that he doth defy the armies of the living God? Be not deceived for he too will meet his end in a lake burning with fire and brimstone. Hear us and let the words of our mouth serve as a warning to all. Do not take the brand that is the mark of the Beast. For he that takes the mark shall be lost, but he who believes until the end shall be saved.”