Solomon was almost at Papa J's house. In his hand was a small box with an engagement ring in it.
He was in love. There was no other way to put it. Though they had only known each other for a short while, Solomon knew She was meant to complete him, and he was not letting Bianca go back without letting her know how he felt.
He had discussed his plans with her sister, and Lydia had given her blessings, ..but it was now left to Bianca.
Would she accept him or not. That was the question.
As Solomon packed his truck in front of the old community church, he could actually hear his heart beating in his ears.
He glanced up at the rear-view mirror and patted his dreadlocks down. He had just gone in for a nice grooming at the barber's.
This was it. Whether she rejected his ring or not, one way or the other, he would never be the same again. A happy groom to be or a sad and hopeless case for a long time to come.
Now to sum up the courage of leaving the truck and carrying out his proposal in front of everyone at the house.
'Hmmm', or maybe he would take her out for dinner at Le'Mango and propose in the private garden there. '
Yes of course'! .
Solo my boy!, you haven't lost your touch, he smirked to himself as he checked his reflection in the mirror once again.
Solomon finally got out of the truck and made his way towards Pastor Jacob's bungalow.
As he stepped unto the old man's veranda, he heard a lady's voice. It sounded so familiar.
Solomon crept silently to the side window of the left wing of the bungalow. He knew every inch of the house he grew up in. He remembered how he and the others children would ease drop everything being said in the sitting room from this particular window without casting a suspicious shadow because of the thick bushy edges growing on the fence across from it.
As he peeped in, he saw the women, David and Papa J, sitting and listening attentively to a woman who looked so familiar to him. There was another man sitting next to her, probably her husband.
Solomon tried to get a closer look at the speaker's face, but the light in the sitting room was too dim to make it out .
But that voice,..he knew that voice from way-back, _ but where ?.
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Jerub and two other angels were now in the company of Arimel. The angels had found a small cave for the lad to sleep in. It was right at the bottom of Kuna. Sheep herders used it as a stop over to rest and water their livestock when ever they passed under the mountain.
Zebu had collapsed at the bottom of the mountain. He had been descending for hours and was too exhausted to continue across the grassy part towards town. He removed Lila from his back, hugging the sleeping child in his arms as he himself dozed off.
Arimel and Jerub had carried both humans to the small and well hidden cave. Away from wild animals and the elements. But mostly, away from Saluu's hawk eyes .
The two sentinels, stood guard around the cave's perimeter. Unseen by both human and spirits.
The bird of prey still swooped around the mountain, hopefully looking for any trace of the boy.
With it were low ranking evil spirits, roused up by the angelic scent Arimel left behind when he entered into their territory. They darkened the skies above with their bat-like wings , shrieking at each other in frustration.
However, the shield around the angels was waning .The boy needed to pray or better still, praise. His short prayer had set in motion his rescue in the spirit realm.
Now the angels needed him to reach out to the FATHER completely, trusting his maker to see him through. There was very little they could do until he accepted the Savior. Right till that moment, it was the FATHER's mercy that had been operating on his behalf.
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Back at Pastor Jacob's, Doris' story was still unfolding. She had told her listeners how she had surfaced from the river and met Kemi, their former maid, waiting patiently for her at the river bank. Kemi was to be her guardian and mentor for the next five years, initiating her and teaching Doris about the things of the cult.
She had met others too, initiates, primaries, teachers and leaders. It was a well established organization, cutting across the whole world.
Even though she had stayed with Omiwa for only two months, above the water, she had been missing for almost six .
Her father had been placed under a spell through- out her visit under the river . When she arrived home, the man had greeted her as if she had never left , so did everyone living in the house.
" When I entered my bedroom that day" Doris recounted, "a replica of me was lying down on my bed, casually sipping on lemonade and reading one of my story books. She glanced up at me, smiled wickedly and vanished into thin air, ..i was so scared, but now fully aware of what I'd gotten myself into ".
"My word" whispered Amari,almost to herself, "a Spirit agent must have been disguising as you all the while you were gone".
"Yes", Doris continued, " right after i jumped out of the window six months back. Kemi later told me about the set-up ". " I found out the impersonator had represented me everywhere, copied all my notes in school up to date, written my promotional exams for me, and topped the class in my absence. In fact, Everything had been taken care of. I only had to continue from were I left off".
"For the next five years, Kemi trained and drilled me, ..punishing me severely when ever I messed any assignment up. She taught me the dark arts, how to project out of my body and the list goes on and on. But the one thing she hammered on was how to lure men into sin. That was to be my main assignment for the goddess. Recruiting men for the cult,ruining their marriages and making them as irresponsible and useless as possible".
" But why all this?" Fred asked, bewildered at what he was hearing, "why the emphasis on men?".
"That's easy" said David, " men are the head of the home,the priest who leads his family to Christ".
" Don't forget role model to the children, especially the male ones" Doris chipped in, "without the man at home, the woman would be miserable, ..too weak and depressed to pray".
"Only a little percentage of them ever command the evil one to release their husbands with the power of prayer and fasting". "Funny enough, many times we did encounter strong Christian women".
"However, let me correct your wrong notion .The emphasis is not on men, it's the family as a whole!" Doris said , "Some were assigned to the wife and some to the children".
" I see" said Fred, " once each family unit is destroyed, a nation is destroyed".
" I'am afraid so darling," replied Doris " the devil's plans for humanity's downfall have begun since he fell from grace".
"By the time I was in my twenties, I had destroyed so many marriages and recruited many young men and women for our kingdom".
"As a reward, I was given money, lots of jewelry and presented with tickets to travel to so many countries. When ever I returned I would be promoted in the cult . Within a short period of time, I reached the post of a vice, under cover as a prostitute to still lure more men".
"A vice,..what's that?" an inquisitive Fred asked, staring at his wife in a strange way. She had confided in him about her past but some of the things she was revealing tonight_he had never heard her speak of before.
"Next in line to be chosen as a high priestess,"replied his wife. In total, there are seven vices at a time. Only one would eventually be chosen at the beginning of a new year during a full moon ceremony. It only happened every seventy years. The goddess herself would test the seven and choose the winner who made it alive".
" My Lord!" Screamed Lydia, " you mean the tests were that gruesome?".
" They were," Doris replied sadly, " many of them died. The only one I ever witnessed before I left was the burning oven".
Everyone just stared at Doris in terror. Her story was truly a horror movie.
Pastor Jacob sighed and glanced over at Doris with pity for her . No wonder her husband had to bring her for counseling. The woman was depressed. Who wouldn't be after going through such ceremonies.
"The oven was a replica of the one in the Bible. The one Abednego and his friends were thrown into in Babylon. Omiwa loved twisted games of death like this".
" I don't understand" queried David .
Doris smiled, patiently ready to explain the complex thoughts of wickedness of her former Mistress.
"The test or rather- 'joke', was this ,..if the children of the Most High could escape the burning oven, those being tested for the highest post in her cult should also be able to conquer the hot fire and come out without being hurt"
"Wow, but how were they suppose to survive it?" asked a surprised David .
Oh, ..incantations of course, ancient ones" replied Doris, " the participants would have been reciting and practicing different ones all through the year before, ..hoping that the ones they knew would be useful to them when given any test on the day of the ceremony"
"Four of them were incinerated instantly, while the other two were severely burnt .
"Only Miri, the present high priestess, made it alive. That was almost eighteen years ago", concluded Doris .
"So anyway,why did you run away from the cult after reaching the top?" Bianca asked, as she stood up to switch the air conditioner by the sitting room window,on. The place was becoming a bit humid.
" Well" answered Doris in a low voice , "I became pregnant".
Her listeners weren't expecting this new piece of information, even Bianca stopped mid way across the room. Only Fred was not surprised. He knew this part of her past so well and how it hunted her.
For the remainder of the night, Doris told them everything. She left no stone unturned concerning her fling with a widower and later finding out she was pregnant.
"I was warned by Miri to abort the pregnancy if I didn't want Omiwa's wrath, but this was my first pregnancy and I didn't want to kill it".
"Unfortunately, the cult found out and made my life miserable, I was stripped of everything I had, chased out of the house the cult gave me as a gift and was placed in a one room apartment in the red district of town like a common call girl," Doris shook her head as she re-called her punishment. " As the suffering became unbearable, i started hating the unborn child in me".
She narrated how she had delivered a baby boy by herself and tried to throw him into Krotoa river as appeasement to Omiwa.
Her listeners were taken aback when she told them how the sack containing the child had been thrown back to shore every-time she threw it in.
To escape Omiwa's fury of a rejected sacrifice, she had taken the child to an orphanage and fled to a cult member's home for help.
"It was as if Jesus had orchestrated the whole thing. I meet my friend packing her bags. She told me she had just left the cult and was heading straight for your Church. She narrated how your Evangelical team came preaching beside the Shrine".
"To cut the long story short, Burma,had given her life to Christ and invited me to do the same. I followed her immediately and the rest is history".
Doris also confessed that her son was the same boy, Zebu, who was said to be possessed and had escaped to the mountains .
"She blames herself for the boy's misfortunes" said Fred, as he cuddled his wife to give her some re- assurance of his love and support.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. But before anyone could reach it, a muscular frame barged into the room.
Everyone was startled by the intruder, until they realized it was the farmer .
His eyes were red as hot tears streamed down his face.
"Why didn't you tell me you were pregnant Doris!," shouted Solomon. His hand dropping the engagement box it had been cradling all night.
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To be continued, please Vote if you enjoyed this chapter.