Zion’s lips pursed and he pulled out his phone again. He swiped through several thumbnails of memories. After a moment he paused, finger hovering over a spot. Definitively, he pressed on the screen and another memory was released into Oblivion.
“What did you release?” Clive asked Zion.
“The day I met Rachel” He said simply.
“What??” Clive’s eyes bulged.
“The Lord asks that we give all we have. After we prayed the other night, I felt compelled to release that memory of her. If it can save others…”
Before he could finish, dark things began pouring out of the tear with seemingly no end. Clive, Zion, and every local church member hit the grass face down as Oblivion was being emptied. Flattened ghosts of the underbelly of humanity were whirling around and seeking escape. Clive was unable to move from his spot due to the force of the release.
He was able to pull his face up from the ground just enough to see other things walking, slithering, and crawling from the depths. He glanced at his phone and could see glimpses of similar apparitions appearing for Harmony and Arrow. Clive expected to see zombies, ghosts, unnamed beasts, and large spiders, but what he didn’t expect was to see normal-looking men, children, priests, and grandmothers leaving the void.
To Clive’s relief, these apparitions disappeared surprisingly quickly. When the stream of darkness began slowing, Clive was able to sit up. He looked around the darkened landscape as apparition after apparition dissolved into nothingness. The only figure that remained was a slim man with tousled brown hair.
“Pat?” Doctor Clive rushed for the boy and checked his vitals. Even though he knew what Pat had done, he couldn’t just leave him.
“Don’t touch him.” A female voice commanded.
A queen stepped out of the tear and it melted behind her. She was very tall and her red hair flowed down to her waist. A sharp, dangerous-looking crown was in her left hand and she fingered it as if to say, “I’m ready to use this thing.”
Clive didn’t move from beside Pat, but he removed his hands from his body. Pat continued to breathe shallowly.
“I think he’s hurt. Let me check him, please.” Clive pleaded.
“He isn’t. Tumultus has simply taken over.” The Queen bent down beside Pat and stroked his still face with her long fingers. “I’m his wife, Justice.”
Clive couldn’t hide his surprise so he stared openly.
“What can we do?” Zion asked coming up behind Clive. The members of the local churches gathered around awkwardly.
“I fear he might be lost forever. I tried to stop this from happening but…” She swallowed hard. “…I wasn’t strong enough,”
Zion nodded and then said, “Lord, you are in control in this situation and we are begging now for your wisdom. Pat is lost to us currently, but we are not ready to lose him. Please set him free. Bring him back to us and free this man from under this demon as only you can.”
Clive had never seen a prayer answered in real-time, but he had never wanted something so badly before. He hoped the Lord would be gracious in this moment and bring Pat back to them.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
PAT STRUGGLED TO open his eyes. He was enveloped in a warm heaviness that he never wanted to wake from. The screaming had ceased and all he could hear was the pleasant buzzing of silence. He would have continued to lie there if the skeptical part of his mind hadn’t insisted he wake. He forced himself to drag his eyes open and pull himself to a sitting position.
He was in an indescribable place. He wasn’t certain why he couldn’t explain his surroundings, but no words were coming to mind. If somebody asked him where he had been, he would have simply said it felt familiar. There was solid ground beneath his body and light to see by. There must have been oxygen in this place because he had no trouble breathing, either.
He stood and began walking forward. Nondescript items passed him by and he paid them no mind. Nothing felt urgent or important in this place. He felt like he was floating just outside his physical body, so no painful sensations were felt in his flesh.
He didn’t even know how long he had been walking before he noticed a black dot getting closer to him. When he was near enough to make out details, he saw a man sitting on a bench. Without a second thought, Pat sat beside the man but said nothing.
“I’m so glad you joined me, Pat.” His words were gentle and the warmth reminded him of Zion.
Where was Zion?
“Am I dead?” Pat asked. It was odd how this hadn’t occurred to him before.
“No, not yet.”
“Am I about to be dead if I don’t change my ways or give all I have to the poor?” Pat laughed at his own joke. The man didn’t answer directly and Pat thought he had unintentionally offended him.
“Why do you continue to run from Me?”
“I haven’t…I don’t even know who you are.” Pat said earnestly. He wanted to impress this man for some reason.
“I think you do, but you refuse to acknowledge Me. I know you, Patrick Michael Sherwood.” The man’s features suddenly made sense to Pat and he was able to describe them. The man had a thin frame with wooly, pure white hair down to his shoulders. His nose was bent as if it had been broken and was very pronounced. His clothes were simple like something Pat would choose to wear.
“I think I would’ve remembered meeting you.” Pat said firmly and looked away into the white abyss ahead of them. His eyes were determined to find something to look at in this place, but there was nothing. “What is your name?”
“I go by many names, but all you must know is that I AM.”
“I am…what?”
“I AM the strength that you need. I AM the love that you seek. I AM the stability you yearn for. I AM what I AM.”
Without warning, the side of Pat’s head where the chip had been installed began to burn. He winced involuntarily and placed his hand on the healing wound.
“Tumultus, show yourself.” The man commanded.
The demon appeared a gruesome blot in this pleasant place. His treelike fingers seemed to spread throughout the space and eat up any available light except for the light that was surrounding the man.
“With all due respect…” Tumultus hissed. “This man is mine.”
