Chapter 39
10:40 By Kelvin P. Bik
10:40 Synopsis: Learned and self-controlled, a teen awakens to find himself inexplicably lost in a barren land. He is alone, or so he thinks. Many things are planned for him: by enemies he does not know and by friends he cannot recognise. How then is he to find a way home without knowing who he is or where he must go?
Text copyright © Kelvin P. Bik, 2014. All rights reserved. Cover design copyright © Kelvin P. Bik, 2014. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Quotations designated (NIV 1984) are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc®. All rights reserved worldwide.
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For my Father in heaven Hallowed be Your name forever.
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If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,� even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. Psalm 139:11-12
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39 Joshua stood, quivering. His mind was on fire, his body even more scorched and scotched by sharp pain and dull throbs. Somewhere in the distance, just beyond his hearing, were voices he couldn’t distinguish but spoke in such urgent tones that he knew the final hour was at hand. The man who was not David smiled. It would have been an attractive face, but Josh could only see how cold and reptilian the eyes were. “So silly, isn’t this?” said the man. He stood at the very edge of the roof, stretching wide his arms. “So clichéd even.” “What is?” asked Josh. “Even if you can return to that world, what would become of you? All that pain, all the disabilities to come. Poor, poor boy.” Josh shuddered. The man was lying. He must be. “Lying, am I?” said the man. Josh started. How did the man know what Josh was thinking? “Of course I know. I can read you like a book. I’m very, very good at this, you know. Now, tell me, do you really want to go back? I know how you love to think about things, to read, to learn, to know. How will you learn with a brain that is eternally damaged, my son?” said the man softly. “Then again,” he said with a knowing smile, “how will you look at things? Will you be able to see clearly again? Or what about your ears? What good are you to anyone with one busted ear?”
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Josh felt his heartbeat accelerate. What was the man talking about? But before he could think things through, images flashed in his mind: the road at night, dim with orange street lamps. Josh, eyes heavy, was on the verge of dozing off on the upper deck of his bus. Then came that sound. A ripping, a sudden crack, and suddenly, the glass window shattered. The man smiled, more radiant than ever. “Do you now remember?” he cooed softly. Josh felt his eyes well up with tears. He blinked them away furiously. He would never cry again in front of that creature. “And what of your Ma? Your Po-po? How much will they have to pay? Already, they are struggling with your poly fees. Do you really think they can cope with your medical bills?” Josh bit his lower lip till he could taste blood once more. “And oh, how about your precious little Sarah? Do you really think she could love someone as crippled as you are?” smiled the man. He clasped his hands as if in prayer. “Or what about Joel? Silly, silly boy. Praying so hard. What will happen when you wake up and he finds out that you are broken, body, mind and soul? What will happen to his little… faith?” He spat out the word “faith” as if it were an obscenity. Josh stood his ground. He knew not why, but he must not crack before the man. “Come now,” said the stranger. “Let us be reasonable. Let us make a deal.”
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Josh did not reply. The man stared into Josh’s eyes, smiling. Josh fought back. The man’s eyes were hypnotic, poisonous even. “You can’t read my mind,” cried Josh inwardly. “You’re lying. You must be. God, help me!” “Thinking of your Pa again?” said the man. “He can’t help you. He is beyond your reach. It was so, so easy to take him.” Josh’s eyes widened suddenly. He didn’t know what just happened, but the man didn’t know Josh’s thoughts. He didn’t. Josh felt like laughing and whooping, like the day he ran naked in the rain, but he quashed the euphoria. The battle was not yet over, and the man – whoever he was – was far more powerful than Josh was. “What deal?” asked Josh shortly. He needed time. Time for what, he wondered. The man unclasped his shining hands. Then stretching his arms out wide, as if he were being crucified, he said, “Worship me.” Josh could not answer. He didn’t know what to answer. “Worship me,” repeated the man seductively. “This world has been given to me. I can do what I will with it. Worship me, and I’ll heal you. Then you can go back to your Ma and Grandma, to your Sarah and your Joel, to all your friends.” He smiled, radiant like a sun that Josh couldn’t stare at for fear of becoming blind. “Worship me, for that is all I ask of you,” said the man.
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The wind began to rise again. Joshua smiled. It was a child’s smile, innocent almost with a touch of gravity. Unbidden, an unfamiliar answer came to him. “It is written,” Josh spoke softly but clearly, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.’”1 For a moment, time stood still. Then with a roar, the man ran forward, his face contorted in rage, his arms in sudden flames and raised to strike Josh. The teen stood his ground, eyes widened as though senseless. “Abba!” he cried.
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Matthew 4:10
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The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. Mark 1:12-13
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Chapter 39
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