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Faith Awakened

By Grace Bridges

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Prologue
Between Two Worlds

Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight. I tore my eyes away from the deep vermilion sunset blazing through the high windows.

What does it matter? We won’t be here to enjoy the day tomorrow. A thrill of joy coursed through me at the thought, but there was no time to enjoy this prospect just at present. This is it!

“Get a move on! No dallying!” My voice sounded sharper than I meant.

The factory hall was lit painfully with neon tubes, and there was a rushing of feet as my companions hurried to enter their sanitised cabins. In a haze born of anxiety and haste, I helped one or two into their tactile suits and prepared the narrow but sharp and bone-puncturing connector. I worked as carefully as I could under the pressure, and as far as I could tell, everything was in order.

Moving from cabin to cabin, I activated each one. Xu was first. She smiled at me nervously from the bench, and I patted her shoulder. I pulled the headgear over her face.

"Climb that mountain, girl!" She flinched as I pushed the sensor carefully into her skull at the hairline above the forehead, then I flicked the switch, shut the door and moved on.

Anna already had her facial sensors on, which meant she couldn't speak. But she could still hear me. I bent down to whisper.

"It's in the hands of our Awakener now." She nodded, lay back and waited for me to insert the needle-shap probe. A cry of pain, muffled by the machinery in her mouth, shot daggers to my heart. I activated her cabin. She won't feel any more pain now.

Noah had his suit on, but was fumbling with the zip, so I helped him get it all the way up, then adjusted his headgear. I guided him to lie down on the bench, then in one fluid movement I shoved the insert into his brain and pressed the switch, ignoring his surprised gasp.

"Three down, three to go," I muttered, exiting his cabin. This feels so strange! Like a dream... but no, I must get on top of my feelings to finish this. Do not drown in the strangeness.

Toni sat on the bench in the next cabin, hope and fear fighting across her features. I took her in my arms, pressing my cheek too hers for a moment. A sob escaped her, and I grabbed he shoulders to look her in the face.

"Don't be afraid!" I hugged her one last time. "I'll see you on the inside. Now lie down here." I held the sensor at the right position, then inserted it as gently as I could. I felt her body go rigid with fright, and she began to moan. Quickly I switched on the system, stepped out, and shut the cabin door with shaking hands.

Passing the empty booth that would be my own place of rest, I came to the last one. My heart hammered even harder as I saw that Peter already lay prepared on the bench, headgear and all. I loved him, but we had already said our goodbyes, and we would surely meet again somewhere in another life. He flinched a little as I inserted the probe, but he made no sound, and I laid my hand on his rubber-encased shoulder before reaching over to the switch on the wall. He gasped as the coolants began to reduce his body temperature. Soon he would be gone, and I knew I had better get a move on as well. Now came the hardest part: activating my own booth.

With a last glance upwards at the glorious redness of the sky outside the window, I entered the cabin and shut the door, making sure it was sealed properly. Pulling off my clothes, I stepped into the tactile suit, zipped it up, and lay down on the narrow bench. The wiring and tubing seemed to be in order, so I reached for the headpiece, placing it over eyes, ears, nose and mouth. I breathed once through the tube and took up the brain probe in rubber-clad fingers. My heart began to beat wildly. This was not going to be easy – inserting the needle by touch, when my hands were inside the thick rubber suit. But hesitation might kill me. Then my fingers found the spot where the wound from my test run had not healed over yet. Guided by the old pain, I clamped my teeth together and shoved it in. Pain threatened to rob my consciousness, but I reached out my hand and groped until I found the switch on the wall. Soon I would be gone, too – I would escape this dark world to live my life in Paradise. In truth, that is what I believed. I flicked the activator to "on".

The temperature began to drop then, and I remembered the fear that accompanied a departure from real life. Colder – colder – I was about to black out, but something didn’t feel right. It was the probe! It felt awkward somehow. Was it in straight? Maybe the scar tissue was getting in the way. But now there was no time left. Before I could take another breath, gentle birdsong began to come to my ears. The probe functioned after all. The jabbing pain in my head disappeared as the cold swept over my body, and I floated away contentedly in a sea of blackness to a better world.

The world of Faith.

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