Chapter 1: The terror of the night

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky. It was the favorite part of Rachel Yoder’s day. She wished that she could share it with her husband, Amos. She wished the whole world could see it. To the rest of the world, it was a normal starry night with a few stray clouds. She was one of the few that had eyes that could see beyond the normal spectrum. She could see angels, demons, and the souls of the dead.

That is what the “ dancing clouds” were. The souls of those who had died that day were sorted at midnight according to their ultimate or penultimate destination. The evil fell like lightning penetrating the earth, the penitent shed their tears like rain, and the good soared to become one with the heavens. In some ways, she could see the dead more clearly than the living. Heat signatures partially obscured the faces of the living.

Electric machines also created heat fields. A normal school or office setting left her effectively blind. When her family visited the Amish when she was 10, she found out they eschewed most sources of electricity. She begged her parents to let her live among them, as this was her best shot at a “normal” life. Reluctantly, they found a family willing to take her in.

She worked hard on the farm and in the house. She went to their house church and quilting bees to fully embrace their culture. In the fall, she would follow the harvesters putting the sheaves on the mule-driven wagon.

When she met Amos during their Rumspringa, she confessed to him about her “gift” before accepting his proposal. It was important that he know what he was in for. She showed him the doctor reports concerning her eyes, lest he think it was some kind of witchcraft. He trusted her word when she described the spiritual matters that she saw. He also kept her secret.

The clouds were particularly heavy this night. A multitude of people must have died this day. Was there some kind of battle, or tragedy that caused so many to die? Sheet lightning illuminated the whole sky. The winds tossed the tree limbs. Thunder roared like the drums of war. The thunderclouds made the night pitch black.

“Looks like a storm is coming,” said Amos as he crept up beside her carrying his hurricane oil lamp. “I’ve never seen that much lightning in my life.”

Rachel's eyes detected the damned souls forming an army instead of entering the earth. “That is not good at all,” she said. The angels and demons met in a fierce battle that went back and forth until the winds formed a tornado that headed straight for their place.

“We need to get into the basement, now," yelled Amos over the din.

Their guardian angels, Rufus and Daniella, stood with swords drawn and wings overshadowing them. The house shook and the windows rattled from the fierce winds. The ground trembled as the army of the damned approached their farm.

When Amos heard his brother call out, he rose to open the door for him. Rachel held him back exclaiming that it is not him but a ploy of the evil one. He stared long and hard at her. There was a tornado coming and he wanted to let his brother inside. He couldn’t be that heartless. She desperately begged him, to test him first. “It is not him,” she insisted.

Amos asked his brother to recite the Lord’s prayer in Deutsch. He screamed “Let me in.” But Amos responded, “You’re our bishop. You should be able to say it.” Instead, a string of expletives cursing God spewed forth and the demon beat on the outside of the house.

The winds collapsed the house and Rufus and Daniella supported the center beam to keep it from falling upon them. “Burn her. Burn her,” the army of the damned chanted. The house debris caught on fire and fed by the winds, the flames reached great heights. Amos and Rachel held each other and repeated the words of Psalm 91 over and over. “I shall not fear the terror of the night.” Finally, the tears of the penitent came and extinguished the flames.

The next morning, Amos and Rachel left their basement to find everything as it had always been. They pondered if the previous night had been physically real, or spiritually real, or had it all been an illusion. Was today an illusion?