The Godsend Backfire: The Beginning

by Harold Straugh

  It got close enough, I could see it was female, it had no shirt on and her breasts were exposed. She was missing her legs and seemed to be charred badly in spots. She chomped her jaws and bared her fangs at me. She hissed and swiped, and I tried to wake Wretch up, but he wasn’t moving.

  “Wretch you blasted donkey! WAKE UP!” I yelled as I got up, the vampire was inching closer. I prepared myself to kick them in the head when Wretch shot up out from his slumber, neighing and bucking in a circle. He caught the vampire twice in the face with his hooves, stunning her. Then, the sun appeared, and I witnessed for the first time the effects of the sun on a vampire.

  She caught on fire from the inside, flames bursting out her eyes and mouth. She reached out for me as her skin caught fire and the horrible smell of burnt flesh came to my nose. Soon, she was pile of ash and the small tide from the lake came in and washed them away. I looked back at Wretch and he was back asleep.

  Then Al Hubarb and some other villagers came out to me, looking, “What was all the screaming about?” he asked.

  “The vampires can’t take sunlight, if any were bitten that you buried dig them up now and expose them to the sun,” I said.

  The villagers looked at each other and then at me, “You heard what he said,” Al Hubarb said.

  There were ten graves that were made the night before. The villagers started digging them and I stood there and watched. I then felt something hit my foot and when I looked down there was crude shovel. It had a rough wooden handle, that was curved in various spots, a spear looking shovel blade that was tied to the handle with coarse twine. I looked up and there was Wretch, looking at me, he had brought me the shovel.

  “You are an odd little animal,” I said and picked up the shovel, taking the hint. Using my strength and speed, I dug out two graves in what would be about thirty-minutes. When I reached the body in the first grave, I didn’t even have much of a chance to uncover it before it burst into flames. The second body didn’t burst into flames, but I noticed a large claw mark on their chest and as a precaution, used the shovel to remove their head from their body.

  I was worried using my gifts that the villagers would be scared but they were still thankful that I had used them to help them. I was done with my second grave when I felt something touch my arm. I looked down and it was a little kid. She was about four-feet tall, long brown hair, beige skin and big, brown eyes.

  “Why does your skin not redden in the sun? Why are you so white?” she asked.

  “I do not know,” I said and was honest, besides being born from and angel, I didn’t know why, I just existed.

  “Do you turn into a monster like the other two?”

  “No, I don’t suppose I do,” I said and started digging out the third grave as flames started shooting up out of one of the others. I looked over and three people were at one grave as one scrambled to get out of the grave before the flames got him. Then, just was the child was about to ask another question, the woman who offered me to stay in her hut the night before took the child’s hand.

  “Come Desmir, leave the man alone!” she said.

  “Oh, she’s no bother!” I said, but the woman gave me a strange look.

  I went and washed off in the lake and Al Hubarb, came up to me, “I’m off to the bazaar I will be back. If you get tired, use my hut, don’t go to Jezaberri, (he rolled the r’s) she’s not good. She lives in the but over there,” he pointed to a hut that was separated from rest. I didn’t know at the time, of what he meant by saying she’s no good, but over the next couple of nights I observed her taking different men in her hut.

  I looked away from the hut, as Al Hubarb left, and walked back over to the lake to wash my face off. It was then I noticed some of the villagers wading out with spears. I observed as they stood perfectly still and they would jab their spears into the water. Sometimes they would produce fish, sometimes they wouldn’t. The fish they did produce, they would hurl towards the bank or put them in a basket. After a couple of hours, they quit and then went to the hut that reeked of fish and cleaned their fish there. I don’t know why I was interested in their habit, at time I didn’t feel hunger either, I just was.

  Some other villagers took off in to the wooded areas and soon came back with multiple, dead, large rodents about three-feet in length, grey fur, two large, front teeth and tail, twice as long as their body. Once again, I watched the process as they cleaned their kill. They took a curved blade and inserted just above the pelvic bone and slowly pulled upwards towards the rodent’s chest. They had no issues reaching in and removing the rodent’s insides, which they rushed, afterwards, to the lake and washed off. They wasted nothing, they kept the teeth, the fur even the feet. Everything was kept and cleaned and soon they had a fire going, with the animal on a spit, which one person oversaw rotating, to keep from burning.

  I watched as they feasted, some offered me food, but I refused, as normal. I thought about why Derium and Mylicous needed to feed, I also thought why they were the way they were. All they ever told me was Jehovah was responsible.

  The sun felt good that day, it wasn’t hot like nowadays. Some of the people headed to the lake to bathe and at first, I was embarrassed. They would simply strip down naked in front of each other and bathe. Jezaberri made sure to walk in the path of my vision and slowly stripped down in front of me. She was skinny but her behind was rather robust, she had her breast’s covered, then dropped her clothes, revealing somewhat small breasts, she was oddly disproportioned, but to me she was beautiful, it was the first naked girl I had seen.

  The men weren’t shameful either, some would strip down yards from the lake and run quickly, their penises flopping back and forth. Some were luckily like that, and some were not. There were some men and women who were a little modest and waited until they got closer or in the water to disrobe.

  I turned my attention back to Jezaberri, who was, belly deep in the water, still looking at me. Her left hand was under the water and she was washing herself, quite forcefully between her legs. I found myself staring at her gently bouncing breasts

  “What do we have here?” I asked myself, then felt a tap on my shoulder.

  “Trust me my friend, I had her once and pissed a few days later that felt like a thousand suns,” a random, naked villager said, his penis just inches from my face

  Then, out of nowhere, I had dirt thrown at my face, I shook it off and looked. Wretch stood there, making that awful noise and stared at me, an indention in the sand where had used his hoof to throw the sand at me. The villager I was talking to took off into the water.

  They seemed to shun Jezaberri but if the men were going with her, weren’t they just as guilty as her of whatever they seemed to be shunning her for? I thought also how long humans had been on Earth as well. I still didn’t know the whole story of how Jehovah came to be over Earth, just what he told me. I then thought of Jehovah, I hadn’t heard from him, I prayed to him and got nothing in response. My thought was interrupted by once again, a tap on my shoulder. I was expecting to see another, flaccid penis in my face, but when I looked up, I saw I fully clothed Al Hubarb.

  “I have clothes for you my friend!” He said and dropped them by my feet. I got up, picking up the clothes as I done so.

  “I thank you!” I said and looked at the garments. There were coarse pants, that were white, red, knee-high boots, a button up, white long-sleeved shirt and long, white cloth. I looked at it oddly.

  “You will use that to wrap your face and head, just leave your eyes exposed, which, I could only find these” he said and tossed me two, red glass disc, “Here I will help you,” he said and started wrapping my face with the white fabric. As he wrapped around my nose, then the top of my head, he placed the two, red discs over each eye. It was uncomfortable, but I understood Al Hubarb’s concern.

  “Are you staying, and wanting me to go to the Hall?” he asked.

  “Yes, I figured a few more nights wouldn’t hurt one bit.”

  I took the garments o
ff, back down to the original white clothing I was sent down in. White seemed to be my color. I finally went into Al Hubarb’s hut where his wife, pregnant, greeted me. He took my clothes and put them on a woven chest.

  “This is my wife, Arlenius, we are due anytime for our baby. Something tells me you’ve never felt a pregnant belly before. Something also tells me you’ve never touched a woman before,” Al Hubarb laughed.

  “Al, that was not nice,” she playfully slapped him on the shoulder, “Here!” she said and took my hand, and gave me an odd stare, “your skin feels so hard,” then she placed my hand on her stomach.

  I instantly felt a heartbeat, then I heard the heartbeat. I felt something deep within me and shut my eyes. Suddenly, a picture formed in my mind, I could see the baby, so tiny, and horrible looking, in the fetal position. I could see the blood flowing from the umbilical cord into the baby. I smiled, then I noticed the baby’s eyes, they were open and looking at me. It kicked and that’s when I noticed it was a boy. It kicked again, and I took my hand off.

  “That was amazing,” I said.

  “Did you feel it?”

  “Feel it?....I saw him,” I said.

  “Him? I’m having a boy?” Al Hubarb said with excitement in his voice.

  Arlenius put her hand over her mouth with tears of joy in her eyes, “Are you sure?”

  “Do you not see the baby when you touch her stomach?”

  “No, you have a gift, you are a Godsend,” Arlenius said.

  I figured they would taken back by my gifts, maybe even turn on me, but Derium’s and Mylicious’s actions were making things good for me.

  “I’m going to give birth anytime soon, maybe you will be here for it,” Arlenius said.

  “Maybe I will be, but if my brother’s actions keep up, I will have to leave.”

  “Brothers? You’re related to those creatures? Where did you all come from?”

  I hesitated, then spoke, “Now isn’t the time, maybe one day I will return and tell you everything,” I said.

  There wasn’t much more said so I left the hut, the sun was setting and for the night there wasn’t any commotion from my brothers. The night went quick, I spent it leaning up against Wretch, staring off into the sky. When the morning came, Al Hubarb was up early and came my way with my clothes.

  “Go in the hut, change into just these, my wife won’t look I promise,” he joked.

  I took the clothes and walked to his hut where his wife had hung up a sheet and told me to go behind it. There I stripped down, completely naked, my white, marble like skin was beautiful. I took notice this time of penis as it rested to the left of my scrotum. I turned around to grab my pants and heard a gasp. I looked up and there stood Al Hubarb’s wife, looking, like I was told she wouldn’t do. She quickly put the sheet back and I quickly got dressed. I used a piece of twine to tie my long, white hair into a pony tail and tuck it under my shirt. I then wrapped my face as Al Hubarb had shown me. I put the glass pieces in and everything turned red. I walked out and looked at Al Hubarb’s wife and just nodded at her and said nothing.

  Al Hubarb was waiting for me when I walked outside. Thing’s went from a dark red, to a bright red, “Are you ready, we have half a day walk head of us.”

  “Half a day, I can use my speed…..” I went to say but Al Hubarb interrupted.

  “NO! you can’t just show up places, I’m sure that’s what your brothers are doing. If you show up suddenly somewhere, people will get suspicious” he said, a little haste in his voice.

  “Can’t I just go to the outskirts and slow down before I get there?”

  “Once more, no, it’s busy, people will notice if you just show up, just trust me, plus you can take in some of the sights, you’ll enjoy it.”

  I nodded then called for Wretch, “WRETCH!?” he came running towards me and stopped. Al Hubarb took one of his donkeys as well. He said it was for the way back because he always ate too much at the Hall and didn’t feel like walking back and then loaded up with the donkey with fish and meat, He wrapped his face as well then spoke, “We offer peace to Gomorrah, they will have stuff we like, it’s not like the bazaar where we pay, we trade for peace as me and Abakanazar say.”

  “Abakanazar?” I asked.

  “He’s over Gomorrah like I am over Sodom. We often trade goods and try to keep the peace. Sometimes his men come here, they aren’t supposed to unannounced. There have been few times it led to violence, and he’s usually good about punishing them.”

  “What do they want?”

  “We have more women than they do and our fish our better even though it’s the same lake. The fish here don’t swim up there for some reason.” He explained.

  Now as I’ve said, back then, Sodom was green with a rich soil for gardening. Al Hubarb informed me he sold fruits and vegetables at the bazaar and that was something else that didn’t grow well in Gomorrah.

  We walked into some woods and there was path, the lake was to the left of us. We walked and talk he explained to me much information about the relationship between Sodom and Gomorrah. It was summed up as, Sodom will trade food to for fabric and not have their women kidnapped, raped or both. Not the best deal in my eyes, I already didn’t like Gomorrah.

  As we walked the trees thinned out and the dirt got more and more sandy until it was a fine, dirt sand mix with patchy grass here and there. I noticed more and more people, in fact there were many people among the trail. I noticed a large building off in the distance.

  “That’s the Hall,” Al Hubarb said pointing to large building.

  We finally came to Gomorrah and the building was so much larger than I thought. We walked past a lot of people who stared at me, I assume because of my red, glasses. We walked right up to the Hall, which was constructed of rough-cut, Ulmus, the supports were whole Ulmus trees that had been stripped downed of limbs. The Hall had a piney smell to it though and Al Hubarb informed me they used pine tar and mud in between the planks to help seal it from the rain.

  We tied our donkeys to a post outside. He opened a great, wooden door and there a lot of people in there some other villagers from Sodom and I guessed the rest were from Gomorrah. There was long, wooden table in the center of the Hall, where a man was sitting his garments were heavily decorated with gold and silver chains and little trinkets here and there the made noise when he moved. He was a rather large man at that, by today’s standards he’d easily push the scale at three-hundred lbs.

  “Ahhh!” the guy threw his arms up, “Welcome! come in.”

  “That’s Abakanazar,” Al Hubarb whispered through his cloth and started to unwrap his face, I reached up to unwrap my face, “No! Not here of all places,” he said. “Just stay quiet, let me do the talking then we will reveal you, okay?”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “Thank you Abakanazar!” Al Hubarb said as he took the rest of his garment off his face. It was almost like a hijab, but not of Muslim people.

  The place was noisy, then Abakanazar spoke up, “Is your friend going to take off his face garments? Or is he going to be rude?”

  “First let me explain about him. Has your village been attacked by a wolf and a bloodsucker? Because ours has.”

  Some of the crowd quieted and listened, some them shouted, “Yes!” and Abakanazar nodded his head, “This man here, helped fight off against them. How? I don’t know, he was a Godsend though. I warn you he does not look like us, but is not like them. Abakanazar, do I have your word, he will not be harmed?”

  “If you helped you fight them off, will he help us?” he asked.

  “I will,” I said.

  People gasped when I talked, “Your voice, sounds so different, so majestic,” Abakanazar said, “You have my word, reveal yourself.”

  I took the red, glass disks out first and handed them to Al Hubarb. Some of the people who were closest to me gasped and whispered, I heard the word, “Demon” come to my ears, “I assure you I am no demon.” I proceeded to wrap my face, only to get more gasps from p
eople, I pulled my hair out of underneath the back of my shirt. The crowd started to get rowdy again.

  “QUIET DOWN!” Abakanazar said, “If he was going to kill us, something tells me he would have already. What are the other two and what are you?”

  “I don’t know for sure, I’ve been told children of angels….”

  “There are no such things as angels, just demons!” a woman spoke up from the back, then the crowd parted as she made her way forward. Then, appeared in front of me an elderly woman, hunched over, walking with a cane. She bad black hair and many grey streaks, she looked to be around a hundred years old.

  “Shut up witch!” Abakanazar said, yes witches existed back then

  “You’ll see, he will be our downfall,” she said and looked at me.

  “Just like the sea will become dead and fire will rain from the sky? I’ve heard this my whole life,” Abakanazar said.

  “You’ll see, that’s all I’m saying,” she said and wobbled back into the crowd.

  “Sit enjoy some food, friend. Al Hubarb, I take it you brought fish and meat?”

  “I did,” he said then looked at me, “You might want to force yourself to eat, he gets really offended if you refuse to eat.”

  We went outside, I was going to help Al Hubarb with the meat and fish and noticed my donkey was gone, “Where’s Wretch?” I asked.

  “Oh, he’s known for getting off posts and running around, but trust me, he will come back, always does.”

  I helped him load in the fish and meat and took a seat next to him and Abakanazar. Other people sat at various tables throughout the Hall, some enjoyed the company, but you could pick up on the hate some had for others. I watched as the meat and fish were cooked up, some from what we brought in and from different set of meats and fish from them. The put everything on a plate and passed it around and they simply plucked what they wanted and put in on their plates. Then came the vegetables, I grabbed whatever, but most memorable, I grabbed onto a round vegetable and placed it on my plate.