by BOLA ILUMOKA
During the operation, Dennis had another dream. He found himself in the midst of hundreds of people inside a large indoor open area that looked like a quadrangle. He saw several stores on his right and left with teams of people streaming in and out of the stores. It dawned on Dennis that he was most likely in a very large shopping mall.
He could see the faces of happy children walking with their parents, couples in love walking hand in hand, and young women addicted to shopping sprees carrying bags of their recent purchases. Everybody seemed happy and extremely delighted. Dennis wondered why, then he looked up and saw an electronic banner saying ‘Welcome to the Grand Opening of the Milton Plaza Mall, the biggest in the USA’. It’s a celebration, he thought. He imagined that there would be a lot of consumer deals on that first day to encourage purchases by customers. It was quite a grand opening.
Then he just remembered that he was in a dream and when he had dreams like this, it was for a reason, something bad was going to happen. He then began to look around for tell-tale signs of anything bad about to happen but he couldn’t spot anything.
If only I could fly so I could see everything that is happening, he thought to himself. Just as soon as the thought crossed his mind, he began to start flying higher and higher, far above everyone in the mall and he had the vantage point now. None seemed to notice him or the fact that he was flying. As he turned around mid-air, he suddenly spotted someone wearing a black suit , black tie and black sunshades. It was Nero. What’s he up to this time around, thought Dennis. He was moving in the crowd with a determined look on his face and it was obvious he was on a mission.
He was carrying a back pack over his shoulder. I wonder what’s in there, thought Dennis. As soon as the thought occurred in his mind his vision was immediately magnified and he was able see through the bag. In the bag was a large bottle without any particular label. In his mind he asked, What’s in the bottle? Immediately he did that, the contents of the bottle were almost revealed to him, but Nero stopped and looked in his direction and swiftly threw a punch in the air at Dennis who was several feet away. Though Dennis was nowhere near Nero, he felt the punch and it was so painful that he momentarily lost his ability to fly and he crashed to the floor of the mall in the midst of the teaming crowd.
He immediately picked himself up. I need to fly, he thought again. He instantly flew into the air again above the crowd. His eyes scanned for Nero, but he was gone and out of sight. He had literally vanished from the crowd. As he kept on looking for Nero, he noticed that various people in the crowd started coughing and gasping for air. Some were vomiting while some of them were having seizures. Many of them had collapsed to the floor with some unconscious and a few were already dead.
It then dawned on Dennis that a chemical or biological attack was taking place in the mall and there was nothing he could about it. Since this was a dream, he knew it was yet to happen. He didn’t know when, but he knew where because he had seen the name of the mall. He looked around at the carnage and death and said to himself, “I have to stop this from happening.” The dream ended and he woke up.
On opening his eyes he couldn’t see clearly. His vision was blurred, but after a while it began to clear up. He was lying down on his back, face upwards to the white light in the ceiling. From the little he could see, the walls in the room were white and he could slightly see some medical equipment close by and a drip running into his veins. What am I doing here, he asked himself. Then all his memories came flooding back. He remembered seeing Lucy the witch plunging a serrated knife into his chest aimed for his heart with the sound of gun fire exchange in the background and that was the last thing he remembered.
He rightly assumed that the police or whoever had saved him in the nick of time and he was convalescing in a hospital somewhere. He was glad. He also wondered what had happened to Lucas and the others who hadn’t been sacrificed by the coven yet. He also mourned for those who had been killed already. If the law enforcement enforcers had just come twenty minutes earlier they would have still been alive by now. That reminded him, the dream he just had, there was going to be a terrorist attack, a whole lot of people were going to get killed if he didn’t try to do something about it.
He still felt weak and found it difficult to move his body. He wanted to sit up, but he wasn’t able to. Fortunately for him he was being monitored by CCTV and a nurse came in to see him as soon as she noticed his movements. A few specialist doctors came in shortly after her to check on him.
After the doctors had done their routine checks on him, he was asked by one of them, “Is there anyone you would like us to call or whom you would like to see?”
Dennis only wanted to see one person. “Can you get me Supervisory Special Agent Marcus Gates of the FBI?”
“That shouldn’t be a problem Dr Riley, he’s already on his way. He specifically told us to notify him as soon as you come around. He was here when we successfully completed your surgery.”
“Glad to hear it,” replied Dennis.
SSA Gates arrived within an hour with a colleague to ask Dennis a few questions. He knocked on Dennis’s hospital door gently and stepped in with his colleague. Dennis was awake and sitting up. “Hello Dr Riley.”
Dennis was still a bit weak. “Hello agent.”
“Heard you wanted to see me,” said Gates.
“That’s right,” responded Dennis.
“That’s good, because I want to see you too. I have a lot of questions for you.”
“I promise to answer all your questions,” said Dennis. “But you have to do something for me first.”
SSA Gates and his colleague looked at each other with a questioning expression, then Gates looked at Dennis with a cautious look. “You want to make a deal?”
“This isn’t about a deal.”
“Then what is it?”
“There’s going to be a terrorist attack.”
Gates became sharp. “What are you talking about? You’re kidding, right.” Gates couldn’t believe his ears.
“I’m dead serious. It’s going to be a chemical weapon attack.”
“How do you know this?” asked Gates.
“Does it matter?” asked Dennis. “All that matters is that it’s going to happen.”
“When and where?”
“At a new mall on its grand opening.”
“Do you know the name of the mall?” asked Gates.
Dennis’s memory was a bit fuzzy. He put his right hand on his forehead trying to remember, and then it came back to him partially. “I think it’s called the Mil-something mall.”
“The Milton Plaza mall,” said the agent that came with Gates.
“That’s it,” confirmed Dennis.
“You know the mall?” Gates asked his colleague.
“Yeah, my sister just got a job in a store there,” he answered and he looked very disturbed.
Gates noticed that his colleague was worried. “Don’t worry, we’ll stop this. We’ll halt the grand opening.”
“I’m afraid it’s too late. The grand opening is today,” said his colleague.
Gates didn’t say a thing. He stormed out of the hospital room with his colleague closely behind him. As he rushed through the hospital hallway, he started making calls to Homeland Security and other relevant agencies.
Chapter 12
From Dennis’s hospital room he was able to watch the breaking news. It was reported that a terrorist plot to kill several thousand people with cyanide gas was foiled by a team of FBI and Homeland Security agents. The only lives that were lost were that of the terrorists. Five were killed while two were in critical condition in an undisclosed hospital. Dennis wondered if the two remaining terrorists were in the same hospital with him. Well it didn’t matter to him. He was just glad that lives were saved today.
Dennis was still feeling tired. He felt extremely drowsy and decided that he could have bit of sleep time. He gradually drifted off into sleep. While asleep, he had another dream and it was extremely Luc
id. He was tied to a stake on an open field of land. He looked around, but didn’t see anybody. Then he saw a black coloured SUV coming towards him from a distance. The SUV stopped several feet away from and out came Nero and five other men in black suits.
“Nero,” said Dennis. He was afraid, but he tried to hide his fear.
“Dr Riley, how nice to see you gain,” said Nero as he smiled wickedly.
“I see you’ve brought friends along.”
“I thought I’d bring them along, the more the merrier,” said Nero.
“What do you want, why am I here, why am I tied up like this?”
“I’m sure you know why we’re all here. Today will be the last time you will meddle in our business.” Immediately, rifles appeared in the five other men’s hands while a sword appeared in Nero’s hand. “I lost a great harvest of souls today because of you. Because of you, my masters are angry with me and I’ve fallen out of favour with them.” As he was saying this, the five men lined up in front of Dennis with their rifles trained on him. “This time, you will not escape from me.”
Joshua, Joshua, where are you. I could do with your help like right now.
“I know what you’re thinking Dr Riley. Joshua and his friends can’t save you. They’re busy. My forces have been dispatched to keep them distracted while I deal with you. Nobody can save you now.”
“Then do what you have to do,” said Dennis.
Nero raised his sword up signalling for his men to aim at Dennis.
Rain, rain, thunderstorm. Were the thoughts that Dennis created in his mind. Immediately it started to rain heavily with loud thundering.
Nero laughed. “Is that all you can do? Some dreamer you are. You are totally weak.”
Dennis concentrated more on his thoughts. Lightning strike, lightning strike. Immediately, lightning struck one of the riflemen and he was immediately turned into black ashes.
There was a look of genuine surprise on Nero’s face. “Impressive, but not strong enough.”
Dennis screamed, “Earthquake!!!” The ground began to shake terribly and the earth opened up and swallowed two more rifle men with the two remaining executioners barely escaping.
Nero laughed his demonic laughter. “Now we’re talking.” Nero brought down his sword and said, “Fire.” The two remaining riflemen fire the rifles at Dennis who was still tied to the stake.
Just as the executioners fire the rifles at Dennis, he screams “Wind!!!” Before the bullets could reach his chest, a strong and mighty wind blows the bullets away and carries off the two remaining executioners.
Unlike the five executioners, Nero was too strong for Dennis. He was able to resist the strong winds that Dennis created. “Now that is just plain annoying.” Without wasting time, Nero flies towards Dennis with his sword aimed at Dennis’s heart.
Before Nero could reach him, Dennis screams “Tornado!!” and immediately, a massive tornado lifts Nero and Dennis of the ground pulling the stake that Dennis was tied to out of the ground. Both Dennis and Nero are caught up in the massive tornado.
A struggle ensues between Dennis and Nero, but Nero is very experienced and is able to easily have the upper hand. He cuts Dennis several times until Dennis is extremely weak and bloodied. In a last ditch attempt to save himself, Dennis makes a shield materialise between himself and Nero, but Nero cuts through it and destroys it completely. Nero plunges the sword into Dennis’s chest and it comes out through the back. Nero smiles wickedly as he twists the sword and pulls it out of Dennis’s chest. The tornado, rainstorm, lightning and thunder stops immediately and all becomes calm again. Nero allows the very weak and dying Dennis to fall to the ground from a high distance above the earth.
Within moments Dennis dies and Nero flies away. Just at that moment, Joshua and the others get there, but they are too late, Dennis is already dead.
All the while during the dream, Dennis was going into shock at the hospital and he was having multiple organ failure. The doctors battled to save his life, but the moment Nero thrust the sword in him and he died in the dream, his physical body also died in the hospital. The doctors couldn’t save his life. SSA Gates was immediately notified of Dennis’s demise and he came around within an hour and ordered that Dennis’s remains be deposited in the hospital mortuary.
Epilogue
Dennis remembered the last few moments before he was killed by Nero. One moment he was alive, the next moment he wasn’t. He felt like crying, but he couldn’t. His whole life had gone without him doing the things he wanted to do. He felt unfulfilled and this made him very sad.
He briefly watched as the doctors tried to revive him. He watched as they covered his body with a white cloth indicating that he had died and there was nothing more that could be done to revive him.
He floated around the room, but no one could see or hear him. He was definitely dead and there was nothing he could do about it. He felt like touching or talking to them, but it just wasn’t possible. This was too much for him to bear.
When he had finished mourning his own death, he felt an upward force pull him up at such an unfathomable indescribable speed that all he could see was streaks of white light. He didn’t know how he knew, but he knew he was being taken up over a long distance in a very short while. He arrived at his destination in under a second and what he saw next baffled him.
He found himself inside a court room styled room. The colour of the walls were white and the room was very bright. At the judge’s bench sat a handsome man wearing a white rather than black robe. He had white hair and white beard not because he was old, in fact he looked young and fresh.
He sat at a counsel table, next to him sat a man in a well-tailored immaculate suit. At the other counsel table was sitting a man in a black suit.
“What is this place?” asked Dennis.
“This is where you get judged after you die, we decide what should happen to you here.”
“What?” Dennis asked.
“By the way, I’m your counsel,” said the man offering to shake Dennis’s hand.
“And who is that?” asked Dennis shaking the counsel’s hand then pointing at the man in the black suit.
“He’s the prosecutor, more appropriately your accuser.”
“Accuser?” asked Dennis. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Don’t worry, I’m your advocate. I can make The Judge see things my way. He always listens to me.”
Dennis felt warm and glad about his counsel’s assurance. “What’s your name?” asked Dennis.
“The name’s Emmanuel, you can also call me your advocate.”
“Let’s proceed.” said The Judge. “Do you know why you’re here Dr Riley?”
“I’m not sure.”
“To simply put it, we’re here to decide whether you go to heaven or hell.”
“No kidding?” asked Dennis.
“The prosecution can make their statement now,” said The Judge.
The accuser in the black suit stands up and walks to the front of the bench. “Thank you your honour. Dr Riley here is a failure. He deserves no good reward. The only reward he deserves is punishment. He failed to use the gifts given to him, and many who should have benefited from his gifts will now suffer. My argument is simple, he never fully aligned himself with the authority, your authority your honour. He stood on the fence until he got killed. He did what was convenient for himself, he did only what he liked. When last has he prayed, apart from the time he was being transported from the court house? I strongly move that he be sent to outer darkness where he will be punished for all eternity.” The accuser then goes back to his seat.
“The defence please,” said The Judge.
“Your honour, on behalf of Dr Riley, I ask for mercy and leniency. What the accuser has said is true, but I ask for grace to be given to Dr Riley. I believe he has missed his opportunity and he is quite remorseful.”
Dennis nods vigorously.
The advocate continues speaking. “He departed earth too early befor
e his appointed time. I strongly believe if he had more time, he would have changed his ways completely. Look at the fact he did his best to ensure that all those lives in the new mall were saved from a horrible untimely death at the hands of the Soul Mongers, putting himself at risk of reprisal attacks from the enemy that eventually resulted in his death. Your honour, it is within your power to give him a second chance. It’s not too late for him to make good use of the gifts given to him in order to redeem himself. I rest my case.”
The Judge looked at Dennis for a brief moment which seemed like an eternity for Dennis. “This is my judgement. In light of the facts presented before me at this moment, I have decided to give Dr Riley a second chance. Besides, he is yet to finish his term on earth, so his death was premature. I hereby rule that Dr Dennis Riley be returned back to continue with his life in order for him to fulfil his purpose and that he should start with his first task.”
“What task?” asked Dennis looking at The Judge, then Emmanuel and then back to The Judge.
The Judge continued. “You will go and rescue a man who has been held in bondage by the Soul Mongers for twenty years now. He has been in a coma for this same time period, but his soul has been locked up in Babylon. If you can release him from Babylon, he will immediately wake up from his coma.”
“What or where is Babylon?” asked Dennis.
“It’s a city in the Spirit Dimension and several million souls dwell there, it is just as real and organised as your physical world,” said Emmanuel.
Dennis was briefly shocked and quickly recovered. “Who is this man?”
“Your father,” said The Judge.
“I think there is a mistake here,” said Dennis. “My father, Miles Riley has been dead for seven years now.”
