Heaven's Gate

Continued from The Hardest Thing From Here, April 30th archive.

The great army drew near rapidly. We were hopeless before it. We had neither weapons nor way to oppose it. Singing praises seemed such a futile and useless thing, but what else did we have?

I felt the blood rush out of my skin. My voice surely quivered and the sound of others singing with me drowned out in the din. Nonetheless, I held my stance. If my words did anything, they became a prayer...and then the enemy was upon us.

I felt them go through me. They were warriors great and strong and fierce in appearance. At the very moment I felt sure to die they passed through and around me as if I wasn't there. I felt their ugly presence and I saw them wound and slay many of the others with whom I had marched, but they went by and through me as if I were not there.

I looked at Daniel. He too was invisible to them. He stood braced for battle, greeting the enemy straight on, his dagger drawn; but they ran right through him. He was as surprised and as shocked as I, to say the least. I looked about and saw that a few others, women included, were untouched by this fiercesome force.

"Keep singing," I called out in a loud voice. "We must keep singing!" Our voices grew again in strength and then we saw collectively a most unbelievable scene. Out of the sky in a burst of light came an army of chariots with fearless horses and warriors strong, charging forth into this ghastly mix with such speed and power that this whole army of the enemy panicked. Many of its warriors were killed right there, almost immediately. Others of them were dismembered or crippled by the swords and spears of this angelic host. They turned and ran back across the plain in hordes. And just as they had passed through us on the come, so they ran through us on the return. We who sang were left untouched. Not a single hair on our heads, nor a shred of our clothing was touched in the battle.

The enemy that had set so quickly upon us had been disippated and slain in a cloud of dust and light that receded to the east as fast as it had come.

I looked about at the fallen and lifeless forms. They were as beastly and horrible in death as they had been in the onslaught, but they were dead. They lay lifeless all about the fields. Sadly, among them were many people who had marched with us.

As the cloud of war moved off in the distance, Daniel asked, "Why is it that some of ours were slain? I saw some of these demons throw balls of light, electric light, and when they hit someone, the person fell."

How I knew the answer, I don't know. I simply said, "Fear. They threw fear and those who took it in accepted death."

"Weren't you afraid?"

"I was...and you?"

"Yes, but I sang anyway."

"And these women and those over there, I think they sang too. However it happened, we have just seen and been part of an angelic battle...and we have victims among us. Yet we have moved through it. Did you feel it, Daniel? Did you feel them pass through you?"

Daniel nodded and swallowed. His eyes were wide with excitement. "I did."

###Dwayne K. Parsons