Demon Hunter

The darkness enveloped me, affording me little view except for my immediate surroundings. The smell of rotten eggs permeated everything and made it all but impossible to breathe. There were noises coming from the darkness—sounds like screech owls, and snakes hissing; dogs growling.

My eyes strained to see something, anything but the only thing they saw was terrifying. Looking around were what looked like cat eyes reflected in the dark. On, off, on, off. Moving to and fro and around me in rhythmic fashion. It was eerie.

Looking around, I could see myself stuck to a very large dead tree. Wincing in pain, I realized there were at least seven or eight arrows sticking out of me, of all different sizes. Every muscle hurt, every movement hurt. My situation was dire.

Again, I looked into the darkness and noticed something approaching me. Sensing its evil, I forced my body to still itself in spite of the pain and waited for it to appear. As my eyes adjusted, it came forth out of the darkness. My body relaxed, my mind became clear, and I steadied myself and waited for it to show itself.

A scrawny little alien-eyed demon struts up to me and in his snarkiest of tones hisses at me, “Gee, you look like you’re pretty stuck.”

I look down at him and in my most sarcastic of voices reply, “Yep. You sure do know how to state the obvious.”

That was my second mistake. My first one will be revealed later. With instant speed, he zips over and climbs up my body, using the arrows for steps, making me grimace in pain. When he’s high enough to reach eye level with me, he reaches back into his quiver, takes out another, larger arrow and slams it right into my left shoulder.

“Argghhh!” I scream.

“Maybe that’ll shut you up you mangy human.”

“Not if I can help it.” With a snap of my head, I lunge forward toward his right ear, biting down as hard as my jaws will allow, tearing off a huge chunk of his ear and spit it back at him hitting him on the side of his scrawny face.

"Arghhh!”

“Hurts, don’t it?”

“Be careful scum. I’ll gut you from stem to stern in a heartbeat,” His voice guttural, snarling.

That’s when the chuckles start. Within seconds I find myself in a huge giggle-fest, and regardless of my current situation, the laughter doesn’t let up. “You don’t have a heartbeat, Bone-head.”

He screams at me to stop, but I just laugh harder.

“Stop it now or I’ll…”

“You’ll what?” I snort. “You can’t do anything to me without His approval. And I just don't think today's the day.

~ ~ ~

In the last several decades, life on earth has gotten worse. We think we’ve become enlightened, but it’s the opposite. We’ve become so full of ourselves that we think we’re invincible. We live life on our terms, instead of understanding that every action has a consequence, either good or bad. We’ve believed the lies and deception. We have listened to the world in all its gilded glory and have become slaves to it—slaves to mankind’s desires, weaknesses, and sin. The presence of demons testifies that we’re not in control anymore. We are like lost sheep without a shepherd.

We’ve been goaded by the enemy for so long, we’ve forgotten where we came from. We’re not from here. The world is just a temporary residence, and while we’re in it there is darkness, hatred, evil, and pain. Oh yeah, pain…

~ ~ ~

For the moment, it’s useless. I’m here, pinned to this tree, with this evil thing crouching on the ground guarding me. He looks up to see me staring at him.

“Put your eyes somewhere else, or I’ll pop them out myself.”

He doesn’t scare me. None of them do. They used to when I was a newbie. But they all just blend together now, a band of ugliness—vile and disgusting. Smiling, I cough up and hawk a huge loogie at his head. It just misses, and he spins around toward me. Here we go again.

He launches up at me, but before he can put another arrow in me something behind him grabs his attention. He spins around and is instantly hurled through the air by a sandaled foot. Looking at the one who sent him through the air, I realize, it’s Him. It’s the boss. I breathe a sigh of relief.

“You look terrible,” he says, assessing my situation and the arrows piercing my body. “I’m glad to see none of them hit anything vital.”

“Yeah, I got luck on my side.”

“You’ve got me on your side.”

“Yeah, you’re my lucky charm.”

He ignores my impudence and gets to issues I’d rather not talk about.

“Do you know these arrows?” he asks.

“No. They’re just arrows. Some small, some big. The big ones hurt a lot goin’ in," I reply, instantly feeling stupid for saying something so obvious.

“They should.” He stares at me, and I can't hold his gaze. There’s an aura about him that makes it hard to keep eye contact.

“Do you know what those markings are on the arrows?” I ask.

“Yes. They’re from an ancient language the world no longer uses.” He traces his fingers over the carved shapes. “This one says, ‘Arrogance.’ With one swift move he breaks it and pulls it from my shoulder.

“Owwww! Are you trying to kill me or something?”

“If you were meant to be dead, you’d be dead. I give life and I take it, so rest assured, these evil beings can only bring harm, not death,” he says. “How come you were out here with nothing on but a shirt, a pair of pants, and some worn out old boots?”

“Didn’t occur to me I needed anything else. Why?”

“You didn’t read the book I gave you, did you?”

“I read it, sure."

He looked at me hard and long. I felt compelled to add to my statement. "It, uh... it didn’t seem to have anything in it that applied to me.”

“It has everything to do with you, Rob.”

That was the first time he used my name. It was unsettling--as if he knew me better than I knew myself.

“You can’t be a fighter in my army without knowing my rules and following them.”

“Okay,” I say. “I’ll read it. Right after you get me off this here tree.”

He reaches over, and one by one continues to break off each arrow, pulling them out and discarding them on the ground. The big ones had three-point prongs, guaranteed to make the recipient stick to whatever was behind him. Some were small, and he pulled those out easily enough. After the final one, he reached down and grabbed up a bit of dirt. He spit into it and rubbed the spit and dirt together. Then he put it on each of my wounds. Within seconds they were healed.

“Wow!” I say. “How’d you do that?”

“I’m the Healer.”

“So what are the names on those other arrows?”

“Are you sure you want to know?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“Because they were meant for you, personally.”

“Why?”

“Let’s just say they’re your faults, your weaknesses.”

“Okay. Well, let's have it.”

He looks at me softly. "There’s Arrogance. Pride. Lust. Greed. Envy. Strife…” My hand shot out to stop him. He didn’t have to finish. I got it.

“So what are you going to do now?” he asks.

“What you put me here for. Fight those little bastards!”

He looks at me sideways.

“Yeah. Sorry. Demons.”

“Be prepared,” he says. “The big ones are coming.”

“The big ones?”

“They’re the ones who have power to take whole towns and cities. Anything they touch rots.

“How do you want me to handle them?”

“Read the rule book. I’ll give you some grace time to catch up. But then you must be ready.”

“Okay. Ready. That’s what I’ll...” but when I look up, he's gone.

Rule book? Damn! I lost that thing a while ago. I couldn’t tell him that though. He’d have my hide for sure. Before the thoughts were out of my head, on the ground before me appeared a thick black book.

"Ahhh, the Rule Book," I said to myself.

While picking it up off the ground, my clumsiness gets the better of me, and it slips from my hands and lands face up, open to a page with highlighting on it. Way to go, Rob. I start reading.

Remember that first mistake? Yeah.

Ephesians 6:11: “Put on the full armor of God, so you can take your stand against the Devil’s schemes.”

The Boss has a sense of humor. After all, he put me here to fight these little creeps. But I guess the big guns are comin’ next. Better go figure out what this “Armor of God” is…