Calan’s words kept repeating over and over in Kyle’s mind, no matter how hard he’d tried to evict them.
Use your head, son. Look around you. Who really is the evil god?
All you need to do is repent of the evil you’ve done, give your life to Jesus, and follow Him, and you’ll live forever in a paradise you can’t imagine.
Just ask the God of the Bible if He’s real. Just ask Him and be open for His answer.
Could Kyle be on the wrong side?
He also couldn’t shake Lord Aali’s reaction to the name of Jesus. Aali had always been in control, confident, sophisticated, never overreacting to any situation. It was one of the reasons Kyle admired him. He knew what he was doing and could be trusted. His temper tantrum today shocked Kyle and revealed a very angry, demanding tyrant, not the loving, caring leader Kyle believed he was.
Pure evil and hatred had burned in the man’s eyes. Orgod,as he claimed to be. What sort of god would order the crucifixion of a man, a good man by all accounts, simply for not bowing to him? Seemed rather arrogant to Kyle. So what if people refused to bow or take the stamp? They’d soon die of starvation anyway since they’d not be able to buy food. Why not leave them be? Let them fend for themselves. Though even that seemed cruel, but at least they’d be free. Yes, the stamp offered immunity from disease too, and those who refused it would be carriers, but only amongst themselves. What harm was that to the rest of the world?
Kyle was not too young to remember that the country of his birth, the United States of America, had once valued freedom—freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to pursue happiness in whatever form you desired. Precisely what Aali had promised when the Neflams arrived and appointed him leader. After all the wars, asteroids, meteors, pestilences, and famines, the world had been ready to unite under one wise, benevolent ruler who promised a utopia of freedom, plenty and peace.
Plopping on his couch, he dropped his head in his hands. He’d not really given the bowing and the Mark much thought before. He’d just figured Lord Aali would not demand something that didn’t benefit mankind. In fact, if Kyle hadn’t been so busy chasing Thomas and Tori, he would have already gotten it.
But that evil look in his eyes…Kyle could not shake.
Nor could he shake the love in Nyla’s eyes. Or Calan’s and now Thomas’s. Not just love for a friend or family, but love for an enemy, love for someone who wanted them dead. That’s a love that made no sense to Kyle.
Aali’s love, if he possessed any, was conditional. He knew that now. Obey or die. Those were the words of a tyrant—the exact thing he accused the God of the Bible of being. Jura’s love had also been conditional, as was Kyle’s father’s. At least he’d thought so at the time.
But this God, this Jesus, He taught His followers to love even their enemies. If this God loved His enemies, then how much more would He love those who followed Him?
He is a fraud, a bully!Voices filled Kyle’s thoughts.He will steal all your joy, your power, your money. He demands worship and then He will get you killed.
Maybe that was true. Following this Deviant God would cost Kyle everything. He blew out a sigh and stared at the bottle of pills on the table. More than one shrink had labeled him an empath, highly emotional, with an anxiety disorder. The pills calmed him down, leveled the mountains of confusion and disorder in his mind.
Grabbing the bottle, he snapped the lid and shook two pills into his hand.
That’s right. Take them. They always make you feel better.
But did Kyle really want to feel better? Or did he simply want to know the truth?
Thomas had said they were alike. That much was true. Which made it all the harder to understand his decision. Perhaps he was the only one to help Kyle make sense of it all.
Sliding the pills back in the bottle, Kyle capped it and set it aside. Then rising, he grabbed his coat and headed out the door, locking it with his wrist.
He had to talk to Thomas. This might be his last chance.
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Philippians 1:21
Chapter 34
I’ll take it from here,” Kyle told the guard who escorted him to Thomas's cell.
“Are you sure, sergeant? The ones that are going to be crucified can get pretty violent.”
Kyle smiled at the man who was near his own age. “I’ll be fine, corporal. Now back to your post.”
“Yes, sir.” The young man pointed to the cell ahead. “You can talk to him from the outside if you change your mind. The button’s right there.”
“I know.” Kyle grew impatient. “Good night.”
Saluting, the man marched away.
