places her hand into his larger one.
“Will you marry me?”
Timothy’s head snaps straight as he hears the words and looks with shock into her hazel eyes, and sees the sincerity within them. “But... I just said I was as....”
“I know that, but you and I can fight it, with the help of God, together.”
“I love you too, Christa,....... and if you really want me, yes I’ll marry you.”
THE BATTLE FIELDS
:October 25
:2:41 a.m.
The clashing sound of thousands upon thousands of swords crashing into each other vibrates over yells and cries of the forms that wield them. Timothy finds himself looking up at the forms of dozens of men and women around. All are wearing white garments, much like the ones worn by Roman soldiers. Over this vestment is a blue breast plate, and upon all their heads is Trojan-like helmets, but with a broader neck-guard, and no mane-like form going back over the top. In their hands are short swords, which seem to glow with energy of their own. In their other hand is a shield, and upon the shield he sees a white star of David against a blue background. Lying over the star is a red cross.
“Let me help you up, brother,” a man says as Tim looks up to see the tall black man before him and takes the outreached hand.
“Where am I?” Timothy asks.
“This is one of the battlefields of Right and Wrong,” the person explains.
“This is where all the people of God come to fight the evils of Satan. We fight for our salvation, as well as for the salvation of others, and it is through prayer that these battles are fought.
“But if these battles are being fought through prayer, why are you wearing armor and carrying a sword?”
“For the same reason you are.” Timothy suddenly looks down at his own clothing and sees that he too is in armor.
“This is a spiritual battle, and so this is a spiritual battlefield,” the individual continues. “This is the armor of God we are wearing: the vestments of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, as well as the shield of faith, and most importantly the sword of the Spirit.”
“But what about our shoes?” Tim asks, remembering the verse from Ephesians. `And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.’
“Look for yourself,” the man says gesturing toward the ground. As Tim looks, he sees the only difference in all the people around him as they push their way towards the sound of the fighting.
The person before him is wrapped in large strong sandals with large over lapping leather straps going up his calf to just below his knees. He looks at others in the throng that seem as if they might be bare foot. He spies one man who has set himself upon a boulder, and is rubbing his feet through the thin sandals that are so thin they appear to be almost transparent. Timothy then looks at his own; they are strong looking, but at the same time the straps upon them look thin and weak as if they might tear at any moment.
“With time they will become stronger,” the man remarks then disappears into the crowd of blue and white forms. Tim tries to find the man again, but he cannot. So he turns his attention toward the sound of the battle before him. He feels his right hand resting upon the hilt of a sword, and he looks down at the gleaming grip. He grasps the sword with his left hand and draws the two-and-half-foot-long sword from its sheath. He looks at the gleaming instrument and looks at the words engraved upon the blade.
“Through Truth and Faithfulness, shall a Christian honor his LORD, JESUS CHRIST.”
Timothy turns his head in the direction of the conflict before him. He, too, then begins to walk toward the front, which is a line that divides the good from the evil, a boundary between those of
God and those of Lucifer. As these very thoughts pass through his mind, Tim sees the horde of the evil one for the first time.
He stops quickly as he looks at the creatures before him. Grotesque forms, some ape-like, while others are human- like in their basic appearance. He looks at their deformed faces, which make him feel the need to vomit, but he fights this sudden and unwanted urge. He watches the fighting before him as he stands upon a ridge a short distance from the conflict. Unexpectedly a new form appears in the midst of the children of Satan. The huge form stands over all that are around him, both good and evil. His features are dark like those about him but not marred with the deformities of the others.
At the moment of his appearance a breach opens within the lines of the creatures of the devil sending hundreds of Christians into the opening directly in front of the enormous being.
Suddenly the colossal form draws forth a immense broadsword, with fire leaping from the gigantic blade. He begins to swing the fiery weapon back and forth into the blue and white warriors before him. Tim hears the screams of the injured individuals.
Rage builds within him, and so he charges down the ridge toward the giant. He pushes those around him aside. Within a few seconds Timothy pushes his way into the breach forging his way through the retreating soldiers, ever advancing toward the towering creature.
CLANG! Is the first sound he hears, from the moment he first started rushing down the hill until where he now stands, with the giant directly in front of him. The being’s fiery sword is inches from his face as the heat from the flames sends pain into his entire body.
“So, we meet again Timothy Browning!” His voice bellows out, as the huge form pulls back the sword that had hit the small man’s sword only seconds before. Tim looks up puzzled.
Confounded at the statement the creature had just made, he looks at the dark face from behind his sword, which he holds tightly within both hands acting as an outgrowth from his shield.
“When last we met, I hit you with the side of this blade.”
“So that’s what knocked me out of the sky.”
“Yes, and now I’m going to use it to bring you back,” the giant says as he lifts the sword over his head and begins to bring the mighty blade down in a chopping blow.
CLANG! The sound reverberates through Timothy’s ears once again, but this time it sounds somehow different.
“Enough, Dion! Take your horde and be gone, you traitor!” another massive voice says Tim opens his eyes, realizing the fateful blow he was expecting never came, and there before him stands yet another giant. He looks up at the broad back of the creature that stands between him and Dion and is awed by it.
“Very well, you puppet to God, I will go,” the first giant says, and turns to his followers.
“Quickly, take our prizes, and move back!” bombs forth the command. As he does so, the second giant instantly vanishes. Dion notices the departure of his counterpart from the corner of his eye and stops his turn back towards his disciples. Timothy notices this but stops his defensive moves when he sees the behemoth looking in another direction. There what the small man sees in this direction shocks him. Several of the hideous creatures run up to some of the fallen forms of their enemies. They drag Tim’s fellow soldiers behind the evil one’s lines. Other soldiers quickly run forward and surround the other fallen forms as the creatures try to take them. The horde sees the oncoming warriors and quickly retreat to their lines as they drag those they can with them.
Timothy looks at one of the fallen still in the hands of Dion’s followers. It is a woman who is bleeding badly from the wound she received from the giant’s sword. He looks on in sudden disbelief as her helmet falls from her head allowing her long straight black hair to fall freely.
Unexpectedly her hair begins to shrivel. The breastplate falls from her limp form exposing the white vestment beneath, now red from the blood. He is immediately sickened, as the garment suddenly turns black from the red stain outward. Then the woman suddenly lifts her head revealing a now hideous face, where only a moment before there was a charming one. Tim hears yells and screams as he looks at the other followers of Satan. He looks on to see the ape-like creatures jumping joyfully about, as the newly deformed human-like creature joins in
among them and turns to face her new enemies.
Timothy then looks at the trail of fallen armor upon the blood soaked ground and is amazed as one of his fellows begins to pick the armor up. The soldier then quickly walks over to one of the horde that lies injured upon the battlefield. She places the helmet upon the creature’s head, and within seconds the creature’s features and vestments change to that of one of the soldiers of God.
“Do not look so joyfully upon that scene, Timothy Browning,” the mammoth voice of Dion pierces through all other sounds upon the battlefield. “For your armor can be given to someone else.” Timothy looks up at the giant form just in time to see his fiery blade swooping toward him.
He begins to move in a defensive fall as he is caught totally off guard by the sudden attack, but he is too late. The sword hits him in the side, and Tim feels the blade cutting deep into him as the blazing steel cuts through his breastplate as if it were paper.
:4:49 a.m.
Timothy suddenly awakens from his dream, sweat running down his entire body like a shower.
He sits up right as the pain thrusts through his abdomen accompanied by nausea erupting within him.
“Tim, are you all right?” Christa asks as she sits up beside her new husband, the concern on her face barely visible in the dark of the hotel room.
“Are you having withdrawals again?” she says in a tone