by Matt Koceich
“Okay, here goes.” She closed her eyes. “One…two…three.”
“Open her eyes,” Josephine said.
Wren couldn’t imagine who she was speaking to. But then, she opened her eyes and the whole world shifted. Her brain was flooded with images she had never seen before.
She was standing on sand, and a great wind had begun to blow around her. She looked at Josephine and felt her mouth drop open, wider than her eyes had gone. The lady was glowing, and her red shirt and jeans were gone. Wren thought she might be wearing a white shirt and pants, but she really couldn’t tell for sure because of all the light that was radiating from Josephine.
And wings?
Yes! Josephine had wings with white feathers!
“What’s happening?”
“Don’t worry, child. As I said, you have nothing to fear. You are safe here.” The lady moved her wings ever so slightly.
Nothing she had ever felt in her short life compared to what Wren was feeling now. It wasn’t fear like being scared of bad things. She was in awe of what her eyes saw. Past Josephine, out across the valley, a dark cloud swirled. As she watched, the cloud broke up into pieces. Wisps of black smoke-like bands moved in random patterns of flight over the valley.
Apparently sensing Wren’s apprehension, Josephine stretched out a wing. “Hold on to me!”
Wren grabbed the wing.
The black bands slowly morphed into shapes—the shapes of men—and all landed on the valley floor around them. She squeezed Josephine’s wing tighter. Josephine turned so that her back was facing Wren.
“Get on!”
Get on?
Wren let go of the wing and grabbed on to the lady’s shoulders. Both wings shot out and pushed down, lifting her and Josephine up into the air.
I’m flying!
Unbelievable!
“What’s going on?” Wren shouted over the rushing wind. The valley looked smaller and smaller the higher Josephine flew. Cold air rushed across her face, blowing her ponytail around like a pinwheel.
“Hold on!” Josephine kept her wings stretched wide as she banked to the right.
Wren looked in that direction and noticed they were almost directly over the Philistine army.
Josephine pumped her wings two more times, and they flew out past them. Wren looked down and saw the dark shapes on the ground were moving toward the Israelites. But then one of the figures turned and walked in the opposite direction toward the Philistines. This dark shape was much larger than all the others.
Josephine adjusted her direction to follow the track of the large one. “That’s Ra’zeil. He’s a leader of the enemy’s army!”
Wren watched as the shape in question swirled around the giant named Goliath. After a few swirls, the dark moving cloud morphed into a dark giant the same size as the superhuman from Gath. Josephine pumped her majestic white wings a few more times and changed her course so they could watch the two giants.
“What are you?” Wren asked her.
“An angel!”
An angel? “Awesome!”
But her excitement of flying with an angel was quickly erased.
She looked down and saw the dark figure engulf Goliath completely. Simultaneously, the dark shapes that had been marching toward David and his brothers stopped. They all turned and faced her. She looked down and could see the figures all had purple eyes.
In unison, all the dark shapes out on the valley shot up, off the ground, and flew right at Wren.
CHAPTER 6
They came fast, like black missiles set out to destroy her.
“HOLD ON!”
Josephine darted to the left, and Wren held on with every ounce of strength she had in her. The darkness shot past them, missing them by inches.
“I’m going to set you down on that cliff. There’s a man there who will help you. Stay with him until I return, and don’t be afraid!”
Josephine banked again and flew in the direction of a steep rocky formation. Wren looked back and saw the black mass change direction and resume its pursuit of her and Josephine. She still couldn’t believe what was happening. She wanted to find her dad but didn’t think he was in this place. She had no idea how to get back to him. For now, survival was the most pressing issue on the agenda.
Josephine corrected her flying course one last time and headed for a wide ledge that protruded from the cliff face. She took Wren there and set her down safely, all the while keeping an eye out for their enemy.
“I will come back for you. When you’re ready, start climbing. Soon you will find my friend. Be brave!”
And just as quickly as they had landed, Josephine took off into the wide blue sky.
Wren looked up and saw the task ahead of her. The cliff face reminded her of the rock-climbing wall at camp last year. Hating heights with a passion, she’d refused to participate even though her friends begged her to do it. She still said no to the rock wall after several kids called her a chicken.
Now here she was, thousands of years away from camp and her friends, and anyone else for that matter. What was the point of all this? How did she get here?
The answers would have to wait because of the dark form that began to take shape in front of her. The shadows moved and swam around to make the outline of an adult. It had to be one of the smoke creatures that Wren saw coming up from the valley.
She turned and started to scale the side of the cliff.
“I’m not here to hurt you.” The words came from the shadow below her. She ignored the thing and kept climbing up the wall.
“Your little picture book will sell a few copies to your friends and family, but that’s it.”
How did this thing know about the book? Wren found another ledge and pulled herself up on it. She sat with her back against the rock.
“Face it, you’ve got nothing. Nothing.”
She started to argue with the creature but decided saying nothing was the best defense. It couldn’t be human. The thing somehow knew about her.
“You don’t have to say anything. That’s okay. I know you. Your mother passed away from cancer, and your father is checked out. Your house burned down and took your little picture book with it. I’d say all of that combined means you truly have nothing.”
How does this thing know about that stuff?
Wren kept her eyes on the creature and her mouth closed.
“I came here to offer you something better than all of the pain and loss you’ve been given.”
The sound of the thing’s voice was calm and inviting. Part of Wren wanted to speak now. She was interested in the offer of anything that didn’t involve cancer, dying, or loss.
“Leave her alone, Ra’zeil!”
This new voice came from above her. She looked up and saw an older man who had long brown hair that reached his shoulders and a beard that looked like it had been growing unchecked for years.
“Mark Grant. You do have a way of annoying me. Please don’t interrupt. I’m almost finished.” The one named Ra’zeil inched closer to Wren, while the man named Mark began repelling down the cliff to join them.
She was trapped between the dark shadow man and the new man named Mark. Wren wondered if he was the friend Josephine mentioned earlier.
Ra’zeil kept climbing. “Wren, how would you like to help me?”
Mark Grant jumped down and joined her. “Don’t listen to him. He’s a liar. They all are.”
Now the dark one was a foot away from her. His body swirled like a hurricane trapped beneath an invisible layer of skin. Dark smoke churning in the places where a person’s body would be. “Wren, you deserve to be done with all the yucky stuff. Let me show you a different way.”
The last word wasn’t fully out of the shadow man’s mouth when the one named Mark ran at him. “Leave the girl alone!” He put his head down and rammed into the shadow’s middle. The force carried both men to the edge of the cliff.
“Wren, go! Start climbing.”
She was mesmerized by w
hat she was witnessing. It looked like the two men were about to go over the side.
“Climb!” Mark yelled back to her while he wrestled the shadow man.
Wren hesitated.
“Now, before it’s too late!” Mark continued his fight against the darkness.
She shook her head and went for it. She used her right hand to grab hold of a rock and pulled up. She took her left hand and used it to grab a new rock higher than the first. A gust of wind threatened her grip, but Wren held on. The only mistake she made was when she looked down to see the struggle between Mark and Ra’zeil. It broke her rhythm and she lost her momentum.
She was stuck halfway between where she had started and the ledge that Mark had come down from. Wren couldn’t hold on. Her strength was slipping away, just like her hands from the rocks.
The sounds of the struggle continued below her.
Her left hand slipped off first.
Her body dropped and slammed against the rocky cliff. Hanging by her right hand was harder than anything she had ever done in her life.
And then she couldn’t hang on any longer. The last ounce of fight she had left in her disappeared. Her right hand opened, and Wren’s body gave in to the gravity that had been trying to yank her off the cliff.
She fell and shut her eyes…
…waiting for the ground to take her away.
CHAPTER 7
She closed her eyes and waited for the impact.
But her body landed in outstretched arms.
She looked up and saw that the person who had caught her was the same young man who had wrestled the lion and the bear.
“David!”
He set Wren down, and she shook her head. “I thought that was it.”
“You thought what was what?”
Wren smiled. “I meant that I thought I was going to die.”
“Oh, no, child. It’s not your time. There’s a lot of kingdom work to do. We need to hurry. We don’t have much time. Let’s go.”
Wren followed David over a rocky path that went around the cliff. After a short amount of walking, they reached a cave.
“Do you know those two people who were fighting?” Wren was still a bit freaked out about the shadow man.
“What two people?”
“You didn’t see a dark-cloud-looking dude and another man over there? They started wrestling.”
“No. I got distracted back at camp arguing with my brother. When I went to look for you, you were gone. Someone told me to try here on the mountain. That’s when I saw you trying to climb.”
How could he not see them?
“Can we go back to the camp?” Wren didn’t like the looks of the dark cave.
“Yes. But first I need to show you something. Plus, the Philistines sent troops to patrol this mountain. If we return now, we will surely be caught.”
Wren followed David into the cave, surprised that enough natural light was present to make her able to see where they were.
“Here.” David sat on the ground near a large stone. Next to the stone was an object that resembled a small leather journal.
“This is a weird scroll of some kind. It has drawings of people that dress like you do.” David handed the book to Wren.
She opened it and was shocked to see drawings of people, young and old, who were dressed in clothes from her time.
One drawing startled her, and she dropped the book onto the cave floor. David bent down to pick it up. “What?” He looked at her with a puzzled expression etched on his face.
“This picture here.” She turned the pages and pointed to the drawing. “This is my mom!”
“Your mother? That is very odd. Maybe it just looks like your mom.”
Suddenly, two Philistine soldiers appeared in the cave’s entrance, each bearing an ominous silver sword.
And behind them stood the shadow man.
CHAPTER 8
“Don’t move!”
They were trapped. The shadow man slipped around the soldiers and entered the cave.
“Go,” David told Wren. He stepped forward to intercept the newcomers.
She had no choice but to turn and head deeper into the darkness. She couldn’t see a thing, so she stretched her arms out in front of her.
She bumped into walls and only managed to move a few feet before the entire cave lit up like the morning sun had risen inside the stone walls. In reaction, Wren’s eyes slammed shut.
“Don’t move!”
She felt a hand clamp down on her arm. The hand belonged to one of the soldiers. She saw that the other soldier had David.
What is the point of all this?
Why am I here?
None of this makes sense!
“Bring them back to the camp. Keep watch until Goliath can deal with the girl,” the shadow man said.
She didn’t understand what all this meant. The soldier pulled her out of the cave. She saw David being led away by the other soldier.
The soldiers led them down a path that made its way to the bottom of the hill. The whole time they walked, Wren kept looking for the shadow man. He never came out of the cave.
When they reached the place where the dusty path gave way to the prairie, Wren could see the giant again. He was standing out in front of the Philistine army facing the Israelites. Hands raised like he had just crossed an imaginary finish line.
“THIS DAY I DEFY THE ARMIES OF ISRAEL! GIVE ME A MAN, AND LET US FIGHT EACH OTHER!”
The giant’s voice sounded like it was being pumped through a siren. It was deep, loud, and scary. His words shot through the air and hit her ears like heavy rocks. Each one powerful in its own way.
This is why the Israelite soldiers are afraid!
God, please help me get out of this place!
The soldiers led them deep into the Philistine camp. Wren watched as David was shoved into a tent. Her soldier led her a little farther before pushing her into another tent.
Inside the tent, Wren sat on the ground and buried her face in her drawn-up knees. She could not figure out how or why she was trapped in this otherworld. At first, she thought it was cool to be able to experience a Bible story. But now, stuck in the enemy’s camp, no part of this bizarre trip was fun. Wren felt just like she did when her mom passed away from the terrible cancer.
Being caught in the Philistine’s camp made her stomach churn under the wave of nerves that crashed over her body. This was also just like when the school bus turned onto their street and she saw the fire trucks.
Overcome.
And just like with all those real-world problems of pain and loss, she had no answers here either.
“I understand. Believe me, I understand.”
She heard the words. They were spoken aloud, but no one was with her in the tent.
“All things, Wren…all things are possible.”
What’s happening? I’m hearing voices that are not real. I’m hearing a man speak, but no one is in here with me.
“I’m here with you, Wren. Just believe.”
The ground beneath her rumbled. The tent poles shook. She stood and nearly lost her balance but steadied herself before falling. She wanted to find the owner of the voice.
She peeked through the opening of the tent and saw the group of soldiers who had been guarding her. They all stepped back to let the giant pass by.
Goliath was back!
Each step he took toward the tent shook the ground harder the closer he came.
“WHERE IS SHE?”
Oh Lord, please keep me safe!
Wren looked around for a way out, but there were guards all around the outside of the tent. She could hear the soldiers telling the giant where she was being held.
And then the ground stopped quaking. And the loud siren voice stopped booming. And then came the silence.
But it was only the calm before the storm. The eye of the hurricane.
A massive hand pulled back the tent flap. Wren instinctively jumped back and pressed herself into the corner, h
olding down a scream so she wouldn’t give away her position.
The giant’s hand moved back and forth. Back and forth. Back and—
The huge hand found her.
“COME OUT!” Goliath screamed.
The hand grabbed her in a tight grip and pulled her out and up into daylight.
Staring into the eyes of the hideous giant man, Wren discovered a terrible new truth.
All things were not possible.
Goliath smiled.
Tightened his grip.
Her body couldn’t do a thing against his power.
“Please, God! Help me!”
CHAPTER 9
Caught in the giant’s clutches gave Wren a feeling of horror much worse than when the bus turned the corner and she realized it was her house that was burning. Back there, her father could buy a new house and solve the problem. Here, there was nothing she could do. A hopelessness so deep—she felt like she was drowning—smothered her soul.
God, please help me. Lord, make this stop!
She was confused, because this was not how the Bible story went. Why was this happening?
“YOU ARE JUST LIKE THOSE ISRAELITES!”
Goliath’s words and foul breath washed over Wren in a sickening wave that crashed over her failing hope. It was bad enough that in the real world she had lost her mother, her house, and basically her father. But now, here in this otherworld, she was about to lose her life too.
Please, God! I can’t do this anymore. It feels like You’ve left me alone. Please help me!
For some reason, at that exact moment, she was overcome by the thought of her mother. She remembered a story her mother had told about a butterfly. Thinking about the story always made her believe that God really does care.
Wren’s mother was a schoolteacher before the cancer came like a thief and took it all away. Rachel Evans taught fifth-graders how to read and write. Mostly she tried to get them excited about learning any chance she got. The school she worked at was smack-dab in the middle of a very low-income section of the city. The parents saw Mrs. Evans as a glorified day-care provider. Whatever she wanted to do with the students was fine by them. As long as she didn’t call and ask for parent-teacher conferences.
