I chuckled and gave her a look. “Honestly, if you were in my condition right now, I would’ve left you. I really would have. You probably should do the same for me.”
Jenna huffed. “Fine, devil boy.” She looked offended rather than humored. “If I find him while you’re still waiting around here, I’m not going to tell him to come back for you.”
I snickered. I knew she didn’t mean that.
“Oh, and by the way,” she stood up and peered at me with her hands on her hips, “did you see Mira? She was lying right beside Prima Dona, and she wasn’t moving.”
I felt a stab of pain and sympathy, which hurt even more than my reopened wounds. Images of Mira’s unconscious spirit flashed in my head. I looked away and felt my eyes water.
Jenna looked at me with concern. “Zach…she wasn’t dead, was she? I mean…..her spirit was with Prima Dona, so she mustn’t be dead. Maybe….maybe Prima Dona could be looking after her.”
I winced and said nothing.
Jenna blinked and her glasses flashed. “I’ll be looking around this side. I won’t go any further pass those trees down that hill. If he comes back before I find him, just tell him to look for me around here.”
When I said nothing, Jenna turned and walked away. She headed down the hill to the left of us.
I faced forward and fell alone in my thoughts. Prima Dona was my own mother, and she had beaten me senseless. She just abused me here in the afterlife, just as she had done when I was alive in the mortal life.
And she wanted to grant me that “power” to resist the Satan Beast. I narrowed my eyes. She never wanted me to resist the Satan Beast. She wanted me to become like her so that I could follow her to Hell and reunite with Lucien, my father. My parents were both trying to drag me to Hell, and there seemed to be nothing I could do about it.
I looked up to the sky, expecting any of my saints to appear and give me advice, but no one showed up in this wide perfect place. Not even Saint Grenada showed up to scold me.
A black silhouette appeared in the sky—not an eagle—but a raven.
As the raven cawed in the sky, I felt the sudden urge to leave. This place was safe, but deep down I felt like I was being watched. I stood up, managing to hold up my weak, wounded spirit. I realized how damaged I was when the cool, refreshing breeze nearly tipped me over.
I was almost about to just drop dead on the grass again and let my spirit fade away. This was a happy place, fresh and luscious with life and plants. It was the perfect place for my spirit to die a second time.
At my right, there was a trickle of water that led into the trees behind me. Trying to steady my clumsy balance, I stepped around to face my right. I caught a dark shadow rush toward the trees and disappear.
Gasping, I forgot all about my pain. I rushed forward, limping as fast as I can, and headed toward those trees.
I entered a luscious forest, and passed by the crowding plants and bushes. I tried to find any trace of the Shadow Man. I came to a garden of trees. Everywhere around me, there were identical trees with apples growing from the branches. These trees looked so healthy. I had never seen so many leaves on one tree before.
A shadow rushed past the pathway ahead of me, and immediately, I stepped forwards. “Hey!” I tried to call out for the Shadow Man, but I hesitated. It may not be him. Who knew what kinds of spirits lurked in this place? “It’s me….Zach…” I slowly walked forth and looked around, examining all the apple trees surrounding me.
Finally, I stopped in front of one tree in the center of the forest. This tree was different from all the others. It had branches that were wider and taller than the other trees in the garden, and the apples that grew from this one seemed much brighter and shinier.
I stared at this tree with awe and wonder. As a spirit, we never ate nor drank anything in the afterlife since we didn’t have an earthly body that depended on such things. But staring at these apples gave me an ominous feeling. I was tempted to eat it. It looked so vibrant and inviting.
The leaves of the branch suddenly started to rustle. Something was creeping up the tree’s trunk. I narrowed my eyes as a red strand slithered up the tree. I gasped quietly as I recognized the creature as it slithered up to the lowest branch. It was quietly hissing. It was a snake. It was a red snake with gleaming blood-red eyes. It was slithering around a woman that happened to be sitting on the lowest branch of the tree. She was lying on her side, and she held one of the apples in her hand.
I widened my eyes as I recognized the lady. It was Prima Dona. She was leaning on her left hand. Her icy blue dress seemed to be freezing the branch that she lied upon. I could hear a cold crackling sound. Prima Dona was holding one of the apples in her other hand, and she was eying the red snake as it slowly slithered around her thin, long, icy body. Her facial expression was calm and narrowed, and her eyes had turned as green as the tree’s leaves. Her air type SoulBird, Madonna, was perched on a branch just above her.
The snake slithered around her body until it reached her shoulders. It stopped and gazed into her eyes. I suddenly recognized the snake’s red eyes. They were identical to my father’s.
I could help flinching and nearly stumbling over. Prima Dona, her SoulBird, and Lucien the snake, all heard me and turned their heads to face me. I wondered what my parents could be thinking to see their son in this condition. I was bloody and torn, bruised and beaten. And I bet neither of my parents cared.
Instantly, I ran around the tree and raced through the forest. I didn’t even hear my parents make a sound as I suddenly broke away.
I escaped that strange forest within a minute, and I found my way up to a clear river that rushed to the right.
To my right was a gray, silver rock that was shining from a beam of light that escaped from two white clouds in the sky.
I raised my eyebrows with hope. The Shadow Man was standing to the right of that rock, and he was facing straight up that dazzlingly bright beam of light.
I stood there, silent and motionless as I stared at the Shadow Man. I didn’t know what to say. I was a little embarrassed to approach him by myself in this condition.
“Zach, you’ve left your healing spot,” spoke the Shadow Man softly, still facing the sky.
I blinked. “Um…yeah….I was looking for you.”
“You could have seen me if you just remained where I left you,” the Shadow Man turned to face his dark, shadowy face at me.
“You mean you were already going to come back for us?” I asked.
“No. I never left you Zach,” said the Shadow Man carefully.
I sighed. “What are you talking about? As usual, you’re giving me very vague answers. I’m a stupid spirit here, and you know I’ve failed many of the tests in my academy. You need to be more specific when you answer my questions.”
“I have,” said the Shadow Man calmly. “As a matter of fact, I have been way too specific about myself. You’ve seen my actions. You should know who I am by now.”
I looked at him with my wounded eyes. “You have rescued us a couple times……from the house of Egbala nomads, and now from the Evergrown Tree. I am thankful for that….”
“But I’ve done more than that,” said the Shadow Man carefully. “I’ve rescued you through more dangers than you’ve noticed, Zach. Think about what I have told you. Think about faith, and what you’ve learned from its mysterious powers.”
“Faith….what has faith ever done to me?” I spoke with a low tone. “I was hoping to have met Prima Dona and was counting on her to save me, but apparently, I was nowhere close to having her save me. My faith failed. What kind of faith was that?”
The Shadow Man continued to face me. “That was not faith, Zach. You were foolishly overconfident about Prima Dona. You had been warned many times about keeping away from her, but you did not listen.”
I looked down and faced the river.
“Zach,” the Shadow Man was holding something in his right hand. I turned and saw that it was my rosary. I slowly to
ok a step toward it, and took the rosary. I stared at it in my hands.
“I wonder how you retrieved it this time,” I mumbled. At the top of the tree, Prima Dona had snapped this off my neck. But now it looked as good as new. It looked just the same as it had been since the day Hannah had given it to me.
The Shadow Man looked down at me and spoke in a softer tone. “Zach, think about it. Who am I? You’ve always wondered since the first time we met.”
I slowly lifted my wounded head up to gaze up at the Shadow Man’s shadowed face. I was starting to get my hopes up…
“You are in the Garden of Eden, Zach,” said the Shadow Man carefully. “Those apple trees that you saw are all part of the land of Eden. The Tree of Knowledge was the most distinguished tree, and it was forbidden for Adam and Eve to ever touch one of its apples. It was because of those apples that sin entered them and became part of the world.”
I shivered as I thought again about seeing Prima Dona and my father on that same tree.
“I have taken you to Eden. This land is placed west of the kingdom of Heaven, so you are very close to the kingdom.”
I recalled all the stories I’ve learned about Adam and Eve, and what the SoulBirds and the angels taught me. I was taken back to the memory when the Shadow Man had first spoken to me in that cave in Nawt. Then I went forth and pictured the way the Egbala nomads were mooning over the Shadow Man, bowing down to him as if he had them lost in some kind of trance. The Shadow Man even saved me from Lucien’s terrible fire in the Evergrown Tree, and now he had brought me here, and had rescued all of us from Prima Dona.
I even recalled the moment when I had lost the body of Christ on my cross when I was still in Zellux. Then it anonymously appeared back, after the Shadow Man had returned it to me in the cave. It was all so obvious now.
“Y-you’re Jesus, aren’t you…?” My voice was barely a whisper. “You’re the…Son of God…”
And slowly, the beam of light stretched out from the silver rock behind the Shadow Man. The light shone over us. For the first time, I could see the Shadow Man’s body starting to light up from the beam. His shadowy image started to fade away. I was no longer facing a shadowy figure, but I was gazing at the Spirit of a real Man.
The rosary in my right hand was shining, but the Spirit in front of me was shining even brighter.
I was so intrigued and awed that I thought my spirit would be lifted off the ground to fly away in the breeze. I was so stunned. His Spirit was so indescribable and powerful. I didn’t know whether I felt extremely wondrous or extremely shocked. Here I was, the son of Satan, standing in front of the Son of God. My wounded hands became even weaker, and I dropped the rosary onto the soft grass.
I slowly looked away from His gaze, suddenly feeling very ashamed. A tear started to form at the corner of my bleeding eye. The wound around it stung, but it was nothing compared the stinging feeling of regret in my heart.
Jesus wiped the tear from under my eye with His shining finger.
“It’s alright, Zach. I am here,” He spoke softly. The touch of His finger made the entire wound around my eye disappear. I gasped with surprise. I didn’t turn to ashes when He touched me.
I couldn’t help myself. I let the tears swell up in my eyes. I kept silent as the tears trickled down both sides of my thin, wounded cheeks. I didn’t dare to look at the Spirit in front of me.
But Jesus wrapped His arm around my shoulder, and gently held me close to His side. My heart was pounding like crazy, and this moment just became way too familiar. It was like those feelings I had felt when I was standing by the Ark and the Temple in Jerusalem. The light had killed me that time, but right now, the light seemed to be healing me.
The beam of light that was shining upon us was intensely bright, but pretty soon, all my fears washed away. I knew I was safe. Suddenly, I felt all my wounds start to heal. My spirit felt restored, and finally, I opened my eyes and realized that all my wounds were gone. I had never looked this clean before. I felt so…naked. There was not a single scar on my body.
I gazed up at Jesus with an exhausted expression. But my heart was full of gratitude. This time, I didn’t shy away from looking at His face.
As soon as I had my strength restored, Jesus took me to a quiet open meadow where the sky was bright and heavenly. The birds chirped all around us as we walked side by side through the meadow.
“This is the land of Eden,” He spoke. “The world you are in is located behind the golden gates of Heaven. The land continues inside of the kingdom of Heaven, and the Tree of Life marks the end of this heavenly Garden.”
“Heaven’s just up north….” I faced forward at the horizon that stretched far away ahead of us. The light intensified as the sky stretched farther, and I felt like I would be walking across this field forever, before reaching the golden gates to the Lord’s kingdom. “But what about the snake I saw in that apple tree? That was…my father. And my mother was there too! They followed us here…they are so close to Heaven…” I was suddenly so terrified. My father had been working to get this close, and now Heaven was just a distance away.
But Jesus looked forwards with a serious expression. “We are not in Heaven just yet. Half of this garden is located outside the golden gates, and the other half continues inside until it reaches the Tree of Life. Evil can enter anywhere, as long as it is outside of Heaven. But the closer evil gets to Heaven, the less powerful its power becomes. Prima Dona and your father are no harm to this place.”
I raised my expression. “So apparently they can hang around here without destroying a single spirit in this place?”
That was rather impressive. I faced forward, gazing across the meadow toward the shining brim of light far ahead of us. The light looked far, but not too far. I felt like I would be able to run across this meadow forever, and chase the faraway light until I reached the gates to Heaven. But I knew I was not ready. Jesus was turning to leave.
“Come, Zach,” He spoke gently. “There’s still a lot that you have to learn before you go any further. Follow me. Let Me tell you a bit more about Myself.”
As Jesus walked me back, I went through the most remarkable journey of my life. His Spirit was so strong that I felt like I could understand Him without hearing Him talk. Whenever I looked up at the light that shone above Him, I would see all kinds of images. I thought I was hallucinating, but I wasn’t. I was watching the history of His first arrival on Earth. It was like I was walking through the past.
Then when I looked forward, I realized we were approaching a dark forest. I looked around at the shadows and started to see images of the crucifixion. Christ was walking me through one of His darkest hours. It was all so disturbing and horrifying, and I wished I had never seen such images. I was relieved when it finally ended.
We left the dark forest and the light shone upon us once again. I walked through images of His resurrection, and then His ascension. And as soon as I watched an image of His spirit rise up in the sky, I heard His voice speaking to my side.
“Zach, the others have been waiting for you.”
And I looked forward. There was a small pool ahead of me, and my five guardians were relaxing in the cool water. Enoch and Gabriel were washing their faces at the shore, and Jenna, Cain, and the SoulBirds were playfully chasing each other. They all looked so happy.
And as soon as we approached them, everyone paused and turned their gazes toward us. For a moment, they were in a state of shock and bewilderment. Obviously, they were captured by the sight of the Man standing next to me.
But immediately, everyone was crowding around me. My guardians were in tears as they hugged me and kissed me. No one said a word, but we all exchanged hugs. Even Jenna and I hugged each other without exchanging the slightest glare.
Then they turned to Jesus again. He was gazing at us with a warm look on His face. He outstretched His right hand, and blessed each of the spirits. Jenna and Cain, who were the only Purgatory spirits besides me, were given a special blessing a
s Jesus rested His hands on their heads and spoke a prayer of forgiveness. After that, they were gazing at Him with gratitude and relief.
“My, children,” His voice was full of wisdom, “I must return to the Father. I hope My journey with you has increased your faith and knowledge of the Lord. You are now in the southern region of the Garden of Eden, and it is from here that you will get to meet with Michael, Hannah, and the band of angels that will fight against Satan’s Beast. But before I send you, I must return to My kingdom and prepare for your battle.”
The message concerned all of us. I was the most reluctant of them all. Jesus Christ had been traveling with us through our entire journey, and now that I finally found that out, He was already leaving.
“Lord…” Gabriel was the first one to speak to Him. “You are not going to send the Purgatory spirits back to Purgatory, will You? They will stick with us when we fight, won’t they?”
The five guardians were murmuring.
“Yes…” said Grenada softly. “They have become very much prepared.”
Jesus gave them a tender look. “They will stay with you,” he assured them.
Jenna, Cain, and I all exchanged relieved expressions.
“May the Lord be with you all,” said Jesus. The light was starting to intensify, and He started to fade away in the beam of light.
Then a beam of light took His Spirit up into the heavens.
That evening, we sat at a table that the guardians had set up by the pool. Apparently, those five angels had known about Christ’s presence all along. Even the SoulBirds knew about it. All the angelic spirits—the guardians, Enoch, Gabriel, Dewey, Pete, Lara, Truman, Micah, and Ace had known that the Shadow Man was Christ, and it was irritating to find out that they waited until now to reveal their secret.
But I was feeling too relieved and refreshed to get any more annoyed.
“The way to Primal is much safer from up here,” Enoch was explaining. “If we go toward the gates of Heaven, we can drop down when we are about halfway through. Then we will arrive in Primal without having to climb the Evergrown Tree again, or crossing the whole land of Pryde to get there.”
The Purgatory Saga #1: People of the Fire Page 29