by Bryan Davis
Walter clutched his chest. It felt like his heart was ripping in two. Hot prickles ran across his skin. Such awful pain! Who could stand a minute in that fire, much less an eternity? As he imagined himself in the lake, fear rifled through his body—a dagger that peeled away the lining of his stomach and shredded his bravado. He felt like a cowering pup. If he had had a tail, he would have tucked it between his legs and whined. This is what Ashley must have felt in the stairwell to Hades, the gut-wrenching nausea of naked exposure while trapped deep within an inescapable pit.
“Let the first condemned soul approach!” the lead angel boomed.
Walter jerked his head back to the prisoners. Morgan stepped forward. Her stare, red and flashing, locked on his. An evil smirk dressed her face with insolence, but she said nothing.
Unable to pry his gaze from Morgan’s wicked glare, Walter intertwined his fingers and twisted them painfully. She had never looked so evil, so hate-filled.
The angel’s glow brightened. The light seemed to ooze into Walter’s body, soothing his stomach and quelling his shakes. That helped, but Morgan’s stare kept the shivers running up and down his arms.
Opening a book that spread over his palms, the angel looked at Morgan. “Your name is not written in the Book of Life, so the Lamb has sent you here from his judgment seat where he condemned you to the eternal fires. Justice does not demand that I explain the Lamb’s sentence, so I do this for the sake of the two witnesses who can testify against you if called upon. They will bear this witness to the race of humans and hybrids, not for the purpose of proving your guilt, for your sins against dozens of generations are already well known. Their witness will serve to give the waking world hope and renewed confidence that, even though there is much evil and suffering in their realm, justice will ultimately prevail.”
Morgan spat at his feet. “Jehovah is pure cruelty! Any so-called god who would condemn someone for all eternity is worse than cruel. He is a hateful monster. If all of you angels had joined my lord Lucifer in his quest to unseat that tyrant, we would be enjoying wisdom, freedom, and the pleasure of our bodies. You would”
“Silence!” The angel closed the book and pointed at Morgan. Her lips melted together, and her face withered. Within seconds she looked like a hairy prune—dark, warped, and wrinkled.
The angel’s eyes blazed with white fire. “I need not defend Jehovah-Sabaoth to you, but for these witnesses I will proclaim the truth. Every man, every woman, every ancient witch who suffers in the second death is a faithless rebel. They are liars. They are murderers. They are idolaters. They are stumbling blocks to those who seek the truth.” He pointed at Morgan again. “And you, Lilith, are the symbol that represents all of these sins. A day will come when Hades will give up its dead, and all of your kind will join you in the Lake of Fire, but you and these other nine must go now.”
The other two angels grabbed her arms and dragged her to the edge of the platform. As they passed by the bench, Morgan’s dress swept across Walter’s arm, boiling his stomach once again. Then, picking her up, the angels threw her into the lake.
Walter grimaced, expecting to hear the sounds of horrible agony—a blood-curdling scream or a lamenting wail, but not even the tiniest splash erupted from the lake, only a strong sulfur odor that quickly diffused. Morgan’s wrinkled head bobbed to the surface, her face in red flames as she joined the other crimson beacons in the eternal black void.
The lead angel’s voice boomed again. “The rest of you come forth!”
The other nine shuffled forward. Most seemed well dressed and groomed, making them look like respected professionals who might be gladdened by the company of angels, but their terrified faces and shaking bodies revealed the horrible truth—they feared the torture that lay ahead.
Nodding at his colleagues, the lead angel said, “Bring the millstones.” The two angels flew away, returning only seconds later with ropes and nine stone discs. They tied a wheel-like disc to the neck of each of the nine, leaving just enough rope between stone and neck to allow both the wheel and the prisoner to stand upright.
The lead angel reopened his book. “You are of the liars Yeshua decried when he said, ‘But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.’”
As the angel closed the book, his glow brightened again and arched over the trembling prisoners. “You have caused many little ones to stumble. You are entering Perdition in this manner so that these true witnesses may testify that all who bring such offense will earn a place in the Lake of Fire.”
The two angels began pulling the nine and their millstones to the edge of the platform, some kicking and flailing their arms.
His throat constricting tightly, Walter watched each condemned prisoner’s feet drag across the star’s spire that pointed toward the lake. The six men and three women poured out anguished wails but no words—no protests of innocence, no pleas for mercy, no curses. One by one, the angel picked up the millstone and pressed it against the prisoner’s chest before throwing both in.
When the last of the nine plunged into the lake and disappeared into its depths, Walter covered his face with his hands and wept. Shaking so hard his ribs ached, he peeked between his fingers at Yereq. The giant just sat and stared at the setting sun, wide-eyed, a single tear tracking into his beard.
The lead angel sat next to Walter. “Many questions are in your mind. Do you care to raise them?”
Walter licked his dry lips and tried to stop shaking. It was just too awful! Those poor souls would suffer in those flames forever and ever and ever! They could never get out, not in a million, billion years.
Looking out over the black turmoil, he spotted Morgan’s face, her mouth agape in anguish. Was she right? Was God really a cruel tyrant?
He shook his head hard. No! It couldn’t be! If God sent those people here, then it had to be the right thing to do, no matter how pitiful they looked, no matter how horrific an eternity of punishment would be.
As the sulfur fumes again assaulted his nose, the nausea rekindled and his shakes worsened. The angel spread a wing over him, immediately calming his nerves. Sniffing, he gazed into the angel’s radiant face and squeaked out his words. “I guess … I guess they had a trial, didn’t they?”
The angel’s wide brow lifted. “Indeed, they did. They went before the judgment seat, and their deeds were exposed. They knew their guilt, so, as you witnessed, all but one had no words of protest. There is coming a great judgment day when all will come to the judgment seat in like manner, and even the thoughts and intentions of the heart will be laid bare.”
Walter swiped his sleeve under his nose. “What about MorgI mean, Lilith? Can you answer all that stuff she said?”
The angel’s eyes blazed again. “She is Lucifer’s personal minion, one who willingly worships him. She is like a rebel angel herself, so she was well versed in attacking the light of truth. Like the serpent of old, she twists the minds of those who are foolish enough to listen.” As the fire in his pupils settled, his voice eased into a gentler tone. “Eternal punishment is not cruel; it is deserved. Every condemned soul has resisted the call of God and rejected the light he was given. As a created mortal, you cannot understand the severity of lifelong rebellion against the immortal Creator. Living without surrendering honor to the Life-giver is the very heart of rebellion. It is the worship of self, the sin that leads to all others and establishes the heart of pride.”
Walter again gazed at the flaming heads in the lake, reading the agony in the screaming faces that represented horribly tortured minds. As a new wave of nausea boiled inside, he pushed his palm against his stomach and bent over. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
The angel stroked his back. “As all men of compassion become when they consider the destiny of the unrighteous. We angels celebrate the judgment, for we see what you do not see, yet cannot feel wha
t you must feel when you sympathize with their pain.”
Walter swallowed back an eruption of acidic bile. The burning sensation refreshed the pain he felt for those in the black fire. Their burning was far worse, a scalding torture that enveloped their entire bodies, but they couldn’t swallow it away.
He glanced again at the silent screamers, the angel’s words echoing, the heart of pride, the heart of pride. As one of the women floated closer, in his mind, a new face covered hersAshley’s.
The thought of her in that horrible lake stung his heart. He wanted to ask the angel, but should he? Could he bear to hear the answer he dreaded? He closed his eyes tightly, trying to shake away the image, but he couldn’t. He had to know! He just had to!
Clearing his throat, he looked down and twisted the toe of his shoe against the platform. “I have a friend … Ashley Stalworth. She has nightmares about going to Hell, so … I was wondering …” He looked up at the angel, trying to keep his voice from squeaking. “Is she in your book anywhere?”
The angel nodded sympathetically. “You are concerned about her destiny.”
“Uh-huh. She doesn’t really have much faith, because she’s kind of … I don’t know how to say it …” He twisted his shoe even harder. “Maybe it’s like you were saying before … I guess she has a heart of pride.”
The angel reopened his book, flipped through a few pages, and ran his finger along an entry. “She has not yet made her final decision, so her destiny is yet to be determined.” He looked again at Walter. “Your prayers and the prayers of others have ascended on high, and Yeshua is calling Ashley to himself. Whether she responds to his call is ultimately up to her.”
Walter caught a glimpse of the book, but the angel didn’t seem to mind. The page was filled with beautiful but unrecognizable characters. He clenched his fist and set his hand on Yereq’s knee. “But we can help, right? We can tell her about this place and warn her!”
Yereq shook himself out of his trance and turned toward Walter and the angel. “I am ready to serve in any way I can.”
The angel stood and drew a flaming sword from his robe. Its dazzling blade dwarfed Excalibur’s both in size and in brilliance. Walter trembled, and he could feel Yereq shaking the bench.
“What emotion do you feel?” the angel asked.
“Scared.” Walter edged farther back in his seat. “So scared I’m getting sick again.”
The angel swiped the point of the blade within an inch of Walter’s nose, so close he felt the scorching heat. He lurched back, nearly losing his balance, but Yereq caught him before he could fall.
Giving Walter a stern look, the angel’s voice boomed. “Does the sight of this blade cause you to love me?”
Walter could barely breathe, but managed a weak shake of his head.
The angel’s sword continued to blaze. “Fear rarely creates a heart of devotion. It is love that begets love. Since Ashley is a skeptic and already lives in fear, telling her of this place could drive her even further from the heart of God.” He put the sword back into his robe. “If, however, the faithful show her the love of a perfected heart, her skeptic’s heart of stone will more easily be made into one of flesh.”
As if cued by the vanishing sword, Walter’s throat loosened, and his nausea eased. “How do I show her that kind of love?”
“Sacrifice. Since you are one of Yeshua’s lambs, sacrifice is the one and only word you need to know and perform. She will see his face in you.”
Walter pushed himself to a standing position, but his legs still shook badly. “So how do we”—he nodded at Yereq“—get back to the world above?”
The angel produced another sword, just as large but without flames, and gave it to Yereq. “God still has a purpose for this Naphil, but he must remain here battling the wandering devils until a later time when I will restore him to his proper place. Those devils will eventually be swept into the Lake of Fire, but for now they are well suited for preparing Yereq’s heart, mind, and body for his upcoming task.”
Feeling much stronger, Walter smiled at Yereq. “Is it all right if I tell Sapphira that he’s okay?”
“You may, if you wish, but for Ashley’s sake, I advise against it. It would be better to avoid all mention of the lake of fire if you hope to replace her fear with love and hope.”
Walter sighed. “She has a lot of fear. That’s for sure.”
The angel spread out his wings. “And that is why you were brought here.”
Walter didn’t bother to ask what he meant. He already knew. He could finally feel Ashley’s greatest terror, the darkness of the abyss, and now fear and love combined to stoke a raging fire in his soul. He had to show Ashley what love was all about—the sacrifice of a devoted heart. He had to make sure she would never have to fear this place again.
“Come,” the angel said, reaching out his hand. “I will take you back to your friends.”
Chapter 12
No Escape
Twisting around on the witness bench, Walter hugged Yereq’s bicep. “Take care of yourself. I hope I’ll see you again soon.”
Yereq patted him on the back. “You are the warrior I had hoped for. It will be an honor to fight with you again someday.”
Walter stood and touched the angel’s hand. Darkness immediately surrounded him. Wind rushed through his hair and clothes. Before two seconds passed, a light appeared over his head, a bright hole in the sky. As his body rose toward it, cold drizzle fell on his hair. “That’s the pit I jumped into,” he said out loud. When he neared the surface, he slowed down, finally stopping near the top.
Two hands reached down, both slender and feminine. When he grabbed them, he surged upward and lunged into daylight, toppling over Sapphira and Karen before rolling along the wet grass. When he came to a stop, cool fingers swept across his cheek. He looked up to see Sapphira’s sparkling blue eyes.
Karen joined her, kneeling at his side. “Are you all right?”
“I am now.” He sat up and glanced around. “Still no sign of Ashley or Roxil?”
Karen shook her head. “You were gone so long, Gabriel flew down to check things out, but he hasn’t come back yet.”
“How did you fly up the hole?” Sapphira asked.
“I don’t think I’m supposed to tell. Let’s just say I got a lift from an out-of-this-world driver.” Walter climbed to his feet and helped Karen and Sapphira to theirs, but his legs still felt so wobbly he could barely stand.
“I’m not sure anyone fell in,” Sapphira said, blinking away droplets on her eyelashes. “Roxil is too big for the hole, so if she didn’t transport through the portal, maybe Ashley didn’t either. Maybe it’s because they have dragon essence.”
Walter straightened his scabbard belt and adjusted Excalibur. “Gabriel has dragon essence, and he came through. Why wouldn’t they?”
Sapphira stroked her chin. “I’ve been thinking about that, but I haven’t figured it out. Ashley and Roxil were as close to me as anyone, and I’m sure I made the fire column big enough to envelop all of us.”
Walter focused on Sapphira’s stunning blue eyes, hypnotizing and tranquil. Both of his hands trembled. Was it her enchanting beauty that made him shiver, or was his heart still stirred by the tortured faces in the Lake of Fire? He clenched his hands into fists to calm them. “We both saw a bunch of dragons enter this dimension,” he said, “so we know it’s possible.”
“Yes,” Sapphira said. “I don’t think I told you that I helped create the covenant veil so they could pass” Her face suddenly turned almost as white as her hair. She spoke slowly, in monotone. “Roxil couldn’t leave the land of the dead, because she never affirmed the covenant.”
“Affirmed the covenant?” Walter repeated. “What are you talking about?”
“Jehovah-Yasha. The Lord is my Savior. She has to believe that to pass through. Maybe we have to make another veil and get her to agree to the covenant. Maybe the threat of staying in Hades forever will c
onvince her to try.”
Walter shook his head. “I remember that part of your story, but I don’t think trying to scare her is the right way to go about it.”
“But we have to give her a chance.” She drew close to Walter and Karen. “Will you both go with me? It will take two to make a veil.”
“I guess so.” Walter stood near the edge of the hole. “But Roxil can cool her heels for a while. I want to wait for Gabriel to come back with a report. I can’t tell you what I saw at the bottom, but I hope he doesn’t try to go all the way down.”
“I’ll watch for him.” Sapphira nodded at the trail of giant tracks leading into the woods. “I wonder what we should do about them.”
Walter scooped a beetle out of a footprint’s puddle and set it free on the grass. “If they start causing trouble, Larry will hear about it. He monitors all the media outlets.”
“But we can’t contact Larry without Ashley,” Karen said.
Walter grimaced. “Right. No communications except for … Wait!” He fished in his pocket for his cell phone and flipped it open. “It’s showing a signal, but just barely.”
Karen peeked at the display. “Give it a try.”
“I’ll call Billy. He can check with Larry for me.” Walter punched a speed dial and held the phone to his ear. “Billy! It’s Walter.”
“Talk louder,” Billy said. “It’s really fuzzy.”
“Yeah, I know. Listen. I need you to monitor Larry’s media input. Find out if there’s anything going on with the giants. They might be causing trouble.”
“The San Francisco Giants are causing trouble?”
“No, not the baseball team, or the football team, either. Real giants. Here’s what happened. We had an argument with a dragon that was born at the beginning of time, so Karen fell into a hole that went all the way to Hades, but the hole turned into a spiral staircase, so Ashley and I climbed down a zillion steps to Hades looking for her, at least that’s what the Italian words on the wall said, something from a bad comedy. When we got to the bottom, we found a bunch of giants who grew from the ground like plants and ate worms three times a day, and they were hanging inside antigravity walls for centuries, but this old-as-Methuselah teenaged girl came along and showed us this guy with dragon wings by sprouting fire from her hands, then the giants woke up, and I sliced a leg off one of them, making his boss really ticked, so they climbed out of Hades and went stalking off to make trouble somewhere. In the meantime, this Methuselah girl wrapped us all in a flaming cocoon and shot us out of the ground, but now Ashley’s missing.”
