A Warrior's Journey (26 page)

The SUV, as the vessel was called, was
filled up with the smelly fluid that it needed to operate and
parked outside. They had all agreed that it was for the best to
only travel at night. After we had cleaned up and were preparing to
depart I was mildly surprised when Evette asked me if I would like
for her to drive. To which I gladly replied yes.

I had thought to occupy the seat across from
her so that I could study how to drive this vessel more
efficiently, but I was beat out by Larc, who slipped into the seat
before I could blink.

If this infatuation was what love was then
count me out of it I thought to myself. Trying all the while not to
admit within myself how envious of him I was for the woman he had
found and corralled off for himself. But still it wasn’t right to
be envious. I was still only sixteen and he had waited a lot longer
than I had for the right woman to come by.

We drove on through the night. We stopped
briefly once and to my surprise Larc took over the driving
position. To let Evette rest of course I’m sure.

By dawn’s early light I could see that we
were climbing in elevation and that the countryside around us was
more rural in appearance. Evette was driving again and we were off
the more major roads that we had been on and were now on smaller
less repaired roads. We passed other vessels often, but they didn’t
seem to pay us any attention. About midday Evette pulled the vessel
over at a place where they sold the smelly fluid for the SUV.

Evette turned to Larc, “Do you have any more
money for gas?” Larc pulled out the rest of the money that he had
and gave it to her.

“Is that enough?”

She looked at it for a second and then said,
“It should be but we’ll need money for the return drive and
food.”

“We’ll find a way even if we have to walk,”
Replied Larc.

“It’s a long walk.” Evette said almost too
softly to hear.

“When do you think we will arrive where
these Bible’s that you say exist are?” Larc asked.

Evette visibly swallowed uncomfortably and
took a moment to respond. Larc and I shared a look of shared
meaning.

“We’ll be there in the morning,” Evette half
choked out.

I didn’t think for a moment that Evette’s
somewhat nervous hesitation was an early sign of a betrayal of us
on her part.

What then?

There had to be someone or something at
wherever Evette was taking us to that she did not want to face
again. Old enemies or perhaps family.

It seemed quite certain from her earlier
statement that she had walked to the city from here. I could see
that Larc was thinking along the same lines as I was. Whatever it
was in Evette’s past it was taking all she had to drive back
towards it, if the white knuckled grip on the steering wheel was
any indication of the internal distress that was taking place
within Evette was any evidence to go by.

As evening was approaching Evette directed
Larc to drive down a dirt lane.

“There’s a fisherman’s cottage a couple
miles up this road. There shouldn’t be anyone staying there this
time of year.”

Soon a cottage beside a still lake
materialized in the evening gloom and as she had said it appeared
to be deserted.

We piled out of the SUV grateful to be free
of it and to stretch our legs some. Evette walked up to the door
followed by me and Larc. She pulled a loose rock out of the wall
beside the door and pulled out a key from the void.

“How did you know the key was there?” I
asked curiously.

“I used to come here with my mother
sometimes as a kid.” Evette said softly, as she stepped into the
darkness of the interior of the cottage.

A light came on illuminating the interior
space. In a word I would describe it as ‘homey’. The cottage
consisted of just two rooms and a small water closet.

It was agreed to that Evette and the
children would have the bedroom, while the men slept on the floor
of the main room.

Tomorrow was a big day and we couldn’t count
on getting any regular sleep in the days to follow so we all turned
in early. But after riding in the SUV for days I was too rested to
sleep, as well as to tense about what would happen the next day. I
was getting ready to pray about my concerns of the morrow, when I
heard some sort of muffled cry coming from the other room.

I got off the floor quickly and went to the
doorway of the other room. Evette was moaning and turning in her
sleep on the edge of the bed. Should I wake her?

She seemed to go still and stopped moaning.
Guessing that her nightmare was over and the best thing was to let
her sleep I went back to my bed on the floor.

Little did I know that was the cruelest
mistake I could have made, because she was deep into the worst part
of the nightmare! It was one of the worst she’d ever had, full of
darkness.

Not ten minutes later I heard a slight
rustling from the bedroom and then I saw her standing there. A
little moonlight glowing into the room from an outside window
showed me enough to see that she was shaking like a leaf and
hugging herself with her arms. It looked like she wanted to come
further, but something was holding her back.

I leaned over and tapped Larc’s arm. He was
instantly awake, but lay quiet and still trying to discern his
surroundings. It was a skill that every warrior would do well to
cultivate.

I pointed and whispered at the same time,
“She needs you! I’m pretty sure she’s been having nightmares all
night.”

I had hardly finished, when Larc was already
on his feet and gliding off toward Evette silently. I got up too
and followed at a distance.

My skin crawled the closer I got to her at
the sensation of something very foul within the place. I didn’t
know how I hadn’t felt it before, because I felt the wrongness of
it so strongly now, as it polluted the space with its presence.

I could even now see the form of what was
haunting Evette silhouetted in a dark corner of the room.

Evette was moaning and crying pitifully as
Larc approached her, “Please! I can’t make it stop! It’s killing me
and it won’t leave! I’m going crazy! I….”

“No you’re not!” Larc said firmly as he
enfolded her with his arms holding her to him securely.

I stepped up behind Evette and hugged her
too.

Larc pulled her chin up, “Evette do you want
us to pray for you, for peace and freedom from this tormenting
spirit?”

“Oh God please yes!” She sobbed crying into
his chest. I started to pray for her, even as Orhanin and Thanic
came out of the room behind us to stand with their hands on Larc’s
and my shoulders saying prayers of their own.

Glancing back I saw Talaric standing back a
way’s looking unsure, as he stared from us to the dark presence in
the corner of the room.

This was important for him to experience and
I held out a hand to him, as I kept a hold of Evette with the
other. Hesitantly he stepped forward and took my hand and I watched
him jolt with reaction to the touch I felt flow into him.

He didn’t let go, but stepped closer, as if
wanting to be a part of what was happening and I was glad for him
beyond words for that decision.

The power and presence of God is a wonderful
thing to experience, especially when you can feel it ripple through
you as a tangible feeling strong enough to build faith on, despite
whatever the circumstances may be at the time.

In that moment there is no denying the
Creator and that He is exactly who He says He is. I felt the
strength of His Spirit upon us so strongly, I for a moment, thought
I was back with my father in the cultic temple praying out against
the priest’s dark words and intentions towards us.

The Creator’s Spirit rippled through the
atmosphere like an unseen river that could be felt with a renewing
tide of good pleasure, as it washed through us to Evette dispelling
the fear, the anxiety and the darkness along with its passage into
a new soul conquered by eternal love. This compelling moment of
spiritual warfare both helped strengthen me in my own faith and the
rightness of the mission we were engaged upon, even as it dispelled
a myth that I had been becoming to believe of the people of
Earth.

I had begun to think that surely the Creator
would have nothing more to do with such a people that had seemed to
reject Him as completely as the people of Earth that I had met so
far seemed to have.

I was wrong, because it was undeniable how
freely the Spirit of the Creator flowed into Evette, as she
received it in sobbing waves of words known only by her Creator in
a personal language meant for just her spirit and Him to
communicate by.

I don’t know how long we stood there
praying, but there came a moment that we knew when to stop and we
faded away from Evette, who still cried softly in Larc’s arms.

She broke away slightly from Larc and turned
toward us, “Thank you!” and then she turned back to rest against
Larc’s chest and lean into his arm’s grasp of her completely spent
of energy.

The corner of the room was empty, because
there was no place for darkness to dwell here or continue in the
spirit of torment against the power of the living God, whose
sovereignty is over all powers and principalities.

Larc made to move slightly, but quickly
stopped when Evette said, “I don’t want to go back to bed. I know
it’s okay now, but I just want you to hold me.”

“Well that I can do honey!”

Evette’s ears perked up at the mention of
‘Honey”. Larc scooped her up in his arms and she didn’t resist.

She didn’t know why, because it went against
everything she had ever experienced with men, but she trusted him.
Larc moved to the door of the cottage and opened it, and stepped
out into the cool night air.

“How about an early morning stroll along the
lake?”

“That sounds nice.”

As they neared the lake she wondered if she
should get down and walk, but his hold on her hadn’t loosened and
she craved the body heat that seemed to roll off of him in endless
waves keeping her warm in the cool morning air.

As they reached the lake shore his hold
loosened as he set her on her feet in front of him. Together they
stared out at the still lake that bore a watery reflection of the
moon.

Evette broke the silence, “Your God is
amazing!”

Larc let his arms creep back around Evette
and was glad when they met no resistance.

“I have the distinct impression that He’s
the God that you serve as well Evette. I heard you praying.”

Evette sighed, “I haven’t prayed for a very
long time. Not since after my mother died.”

Larc paused before asking, “Why did you stop
then?”

“It didn’t accomplish what I had wanted it
to do for me so I stopped. Perhaps I was foolish to do so, but that
was how I felt at the time. My mother meant the world to me. Later
with what happened to me I thought that God must surely hate me. So
I walked away from God almost entirely.”

“The children?” Larc asked.

“Yes they were my one and only tie to
reality. Them and Mama. She kept after me to pray, but I never did
and now she’s gone!”

Fresh tears started to fall and Larc held
her a little closer.

“She may be gone, but I’m sure she would be
proud of you! As is the Creator!”

“How do you know what He thinks of me?”

“Well I don’t exactly, but these things I do
know; He has never forgotten you, He doesn’t hate you, He loves
you, and fourthly you’ve put your life on the line for those
children for years and the Creator looks kindly on those who care
for children and put their lives on the line on behalf of others.
However, if I was you I wouldn’t let this opportunity to reopen a
relationship with the Creator pass you by.”

“I know.” She said softly.

Some time passed by. It was hard for Larc to
let the time pass by without asking the questions that he wanted to
about her past. It was best for her to talk about it in her own
time he figured. He contented himself with the feelings of just
being near her and holding her, both of which were major
victories.

‘God help me reach this beautiful woman and
help her where she needs help most. Help her like me too please.’
Larc prayed silently.

“Why are you so different from the way other
men are?”

Larc paused a moment and then said, “I had a
good mentor growing up and the Creator has taken me firmly in hand
on a number of occasions to keep me on the straight and
narrow.”

“You like me don’t you?”

Oh boy here I go thought Larc, “Yes I do,
there’s a lot to like both inside and out. I don’t intend on
letting you get away.” He responded honestly.

“You intend on taking me back to your
world?”

“Yes I do.”

“That wasn’t our original agreement.”

“I know that. Things have changed
though.”

“What would I be there to you?” Evette
asked.

“My wife, my friend, my lover, the bearer of
my children, and my sole companion for the rest of my life.”

Evette didn’t protest at Larc’s domineering
words or the stated finality that he spoke them with. These
strangers were very much elementally male in its truest sense and
not at all removed from the warrior mentality, where you took what
you wanted only limited by one’s own strength and ability to hold
onto the object of their desire.

Evette had always wondered what would happen
one day, if it happened, when there would be a man genuinely
interested in what she had to offer. Whatever that might be she
wasn’t sure. Her skill set wasn’t exactly conducive to married life
and the building of a home, but some deep feminine part of her
yearned for the chance to at least try.

What gave her pause in the making of the
decision was what men required of their women physically. The
thought of all that entailed in terms of being physical left her in
chills and unwanted remembrances of the past. Larc would be no
different in his needs, but she knew it would be different with
him, but it was a hard decision to have to face anyway.