Calliope's Place Animated Verse Links Latest News Into The Past Open Book Poets & Poetry Email Us Short Stories
A thunderclap ricochets off the dark clouds, moments after the pure white lightening lights up the old church steeple. The priest looks up with a smile and continues to lock up his Lord's house. He turns around and slowly walks down the chipped steps, when he is filled with a deep-seated feeling of sadness and loss. He pauses with a puzzled look upon his weathered face, he cannot put his finger on where it is coming from.
He turns his head around quizzically to look back at the church, and realises that the sadness and loss that he could feel was emanating from the old building. He stands stock still, on the final step, transfixed by the crucifix above the main entrance, as a vision enters him.
He stands in complete awe, the Lord God Almighty is sending him a message ! His time on this mortal plain is almost over, but everything will be all right because he will safe in heaven with his Lord. He makes the sign of the cross, bids farewell to St Bartholomew's and starts his short journey home.
He is about one hundred yards down the road when he sees a car speeding towards him, seemingly out of control. He knows that if he does not move, it will surely kill him, but what of his Lord's vision ? It told him that this was meant to be, it was his time, he would die and go to heaven. He cannot move and cheat the death that God has planned for him. The car hits him head on, he dies instantly without pain or regret.
He looks around the mist, looking for someone, a guide to show him the way. The mist starts to get thicker, turning into fog, and it is getting hotter and hotter, he starts to sweat profusely. What is happening, where is the shining light for him to walk towards, where are the angels, this cannot be real, why is he not in heaven, he should not be burning up, he should not be feeling pain.
He hears a deep rumbling of thunder, and a flash of lightening reveals a horrific sight, a sight beyond all of his most imaginative nightmares. Satan walks up to the priest slowly, with a ferocious grin on his face, and says to him "You didn't really think that you were going to heaven did you, suicide is a sin." The last thing that the priest hears is his own screams sending him deaf.
Copyright © Mediablast 2002
