A booming thunder crashed in the distance.
A lighting that tore the night sky into two unequal halves followed almost simultaneously.

Deborah opened her eyes, panting like a hart pursued by a tiger.
An urgent message.
More scary was how her dream had merged with current reality-the thunder was an echo of the one in her dream. Both had startled her awake.

Deborah knew she rarely ever remembers her dreams in such vivid details. Even more rarely did she have something akin to a nightmare.
This was one of the ways God used to speak to her if and only if it was an emergency.

Shaking, she tapped Jeremiah who was sprawled on the bed beside her. He moaned and rolled over.
She put on the bedside lamp and glanced at the neon clock.
12:00am. On the dot.

The wind howled like a banshee, past the window.
Something was off.
Again, she tapped Jeremiah more intensely and called his name.
"Jay! Jay! Wake up!"

He groggily sat up to look at her. Concern slowly filled his face when he saw how agitated she was.

"Deb, darling? What happened?"

"I- I had a terrible dream. It looked so real."

The look on Deborah's face was enough to make Jeremiah take it seriously.

She relayed to him how she had seen destruction, chaos and blood everywhere and how Ella seemed to be in the middle of it, crying for help.

The mention of Ella heightened the urgency. They knelt down, held hands and began to pray prayers of authority.

The wind storm advanced. Thunder and peals of lightning scarred the sky, brightening up the black night.

"Jay," Deborah said when they had rounded off and he was cuddling her on the bed. She was trembling from the after effect of memories of what she had seen in her dream and had asked her husband to hold her when they were done praying.

"Hmm? What's it, darling?"

"I'm still feeling really uneasy in my spirit. Can we call Pastor Mike?"

"But it's terribly late. Won't we be disturbing him unnecessarily? And besides, we have already prayed. Don't you believe that God has answered us?"

"I do. I do. I just feel like... I don't know... Like our spiritual mentor should know. And fast. If you had seen what I saw, Jay..."

"Alright then, darling."

Jeremiah got his phone out and called the pastor's home line. The man picked on the first ring. Which was odd for this time of the night.

"Hello Pastor, we're so sorry to-"

"Son, you and your wife have to come right away. Something is happening. God revealed it, not in specific details, though, to me while I was studying the scripture late into the night. And my wife had a dream to confirm it." Jeremiah looked at Deb who was by now wondering what was being said on the other side of the line. Incredible!
"We've been praying but I just felt God wants to involve all of us. I was just picking u the phone to call you when yours entered," Pastor Mike said.

The line was breaking. The bad network was most probably due to the interference of the storm.

"Meet us... Church auditorium. Be here... As fast as you can."

"Yes sir."

"What happened?" Deborah asked as he dropped his android phone on the bed.

"We have to get going." He said as he got off the bed and went over to the adjacent closet to get something warmer to wear in this chilly weather. Deborah did the same.
"Apparently, God revealed something similar to them."

Deb was definitely in deep thought as she wore her woollen jacket over a black free gown.

They went outside and were suddenly confronted with the reality of just how serious the storm was.
The thunder was so loud and the lightning was so bright.
Debris blown about by the wind cluttered their lawn.
How in the world would they be able to navigate a car in this weather at night? Deb worked her hand into Jay's and he squeezed back to assure her.

A car's headlamp shined on them. A car was approaching, at a rather high speed too. The tires squealed against the tarmac as the car parked. Out came Matthew who looked so relieved and a bit surprised to see them ready. He gestured for them to come over.

Deb and Jay looked at each other in shock. This was getting serious.
They gathered themselves and entered the windy environment. It was already beginning to drizzle.

They entered his sleek vehicle which was wonderfully warm and cozy.

The AI system welcomed them. "Where are we headed to boss?" it asked.

Matthew replied, "Burning Light Ministries Auditorium, Coasta Hera." He glanced at the couple who sat at the back to confirm if his hunches were right. Jeremiah nodded back in response, too stunned to speak yet.

"Hang on." Matt said as he held the steering wheels right and the state-of-art quadricycle zoomed of at ultrasonic speed.

As he began his tale of what had led him here, Kristel, Manuel and Jael, the guardians of Matthew respectively, Jeremiah and Deborah, saluted each other and flew like comets with their wings, just inches above the car's roof.

~~~

The two girls tiptoed up on the cold, narrow steps. Ella wondered about what had happened in the cell they were leaving behind, for good hopefully, and what awaited them up on the surface.

Rouge seemed to be breathing heavy too. A bundle of nerves. Cold. Out of breath.

They got to the only barrier between the conquered prison cell and the unknown.
Uncertain, Ella tried the knob of this ancient-looking, massive metal door. It clicked open with a loud noise, hinges worn and rusty.
Surely, some persons would be up there. Had they heard the noise? There was no way Ella would allow them to be thrown back into that dungeon.

She motioned for Rouge to be quiet and tried to pry her head out for a survey, all the while praying in her spirit for a clean and easy break from here.

She saw three guards in black sprawled in a settee. They were asleep, snoring loudly like pigs.

Ella and Rouge emerged carefully. Their second observation was that there was a mighty storm brewing outside. If not for the light that shone inside, they would have been plunged into thick darkness up here like down in the cell.
Gusts of wind blew violently and raised the curtains and other light materials in the room. Lighting and thunder intermittently did their thing.

Ella felt urgency and unease in her spirit. Coupled with the stress and unnatural things that had transpired so far, she was feeling quite edgy.

Okay, so they'd crossed two barriers unnoticed. Maybe the main door would also be open and they'd simply stroll out to freedom.
They got there and much to their dismay, it was locked. Three times over, Ella could guess. Rouge grunted in frustration.

They had no choice but to find those keys. Ella's best bet was that it was safely guarded by one of those sentinels. Problem was which one and how were they going to get it?

"Lord, help us," Ella whispered. It was unnecessary to lower her voice. Even she couldn't hear herself above the howling of the wind and all the thunder.

Ella turned to Rouge and motioned for her to stay put right where she stood, crouched beside a wall by the door. Rouge shook her head vigorously, her eyes wide.

Please don't go, her eyes said.

Well, what choice did they have?
Ella gave her a trembling smile and used her trembling hand to pat the trembling girl.

"Pray," she mouthed.

I will. Please, be careful, Rouge's eye said.

Ella had seen few movies with ninjas and their stealth but never had she thought one day she'd need those skills. On the fore muscles of her weak toes, she slid forward, careful not to stumble against anything.

As she touched the snoring man's belt with careful hands, he stirred. She withdrew.

Please, please, please, don't wake up.

Why couldn't she have an enchanting voice to lull all of these guards to a sure and deep slumber till they got out of here?

The key jingled dangerously as she grabbed it.

From nowhere, the man awoke abruptly, held her hand in a death grip and let out a loud string of cuss words. He was so fast and so strong. He'd reacted out of defensive instinct and years of training.

Ella cried out in shock, fear and pain as his fingers bored into her wrists, threatening to draw blood.

Her heart almost tore into two. This was way, way worse than staying in prison.
Now they'd torture them or molest them for sure. God of heaven!

The other sentinels stirred. Seeing the situation, they shook out of their sleepy daze and reached for their weapons.
Guns!

Ella's heart cried that Rouge was wise enough to have escaped.
She turned her head towards the door side, to check if Rouge had been smart and had somehow hidden herself.
Rouge was still there, frozen in fear.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...
They were so done for. God Almighty!

The sentinel she had tried to steal the keys from, obviously the boss, looked in her direction and smirked evilly.

No, no, no, no, this cannot be happening. Redeemer, deliver us. A tear leaked out of Ella's eyes as she shut them and despair overtook her faltering mind.

"Thought to sneak out like teen chicks to a slumber party, huh?" the leader growled as he leaned closer to Ella's face.

Ella cringed.
His eyes were still puffy from sleep and incredibly dark. He had a small scar that ran above his nose.

Ella could smell his breath, a mixture of alcohol and a flavour of gum she couldn't place. She felt like puking.
By then, one of them had gotten hold of Rouge, who was squirming unsuccessfully to free herself.

He slowly brought out pistol which had been safely tucked in his waistband holster.

"You little urchins! How dare you try to implicate us?"
He brought the gun's tip under Ella's jaw, pulling her by her hair and tilting it dangerously back.
She felt as if her spine would give way and her head would snap off any moment.
Her courage had melted away and she was trembling from head to toe.
She could hear Rouge's cries of terror as if it came from a far distance. She herself couldn't even utter more than whimpers.

"You were meant to . I'm sure the boss will double my reward. Any last words?" Ella's throat was high-temperature dry. No coherent words formed in her mind. A wicked smirk crept up the guard's scarred face.

A loud gun shot resounded.
Ella dropped like an autumn leaf to the cold tiled floor.
Her eyes were wide as if in a silent scream. A small bloody hole was tunneled from her lower jaw to her mouth cavity and out her nose.

"Nooooooooooooooo!!!" Rouge screamed on the top of her lungs.

**********
Author's note: Oh no, no, no. Ella's dead?😳🥺😰💔

Smirks in wicked triumph.😏😏😏
APRIL'S FOOL!!!😂😆

That's not the end o. Just wanted to give some of you a shocker. Did I accomplish my aim?🤭
God forgive me for this. Forgive me, my precious readers. I just wanted to try being the wicked pen wielder. He he he...
Here's the real ending of this chapter. Enjoy.👇👇👇

~~~

He slowly brought out pistol which had been safely tucked in his waistband holster.

Rouge knew then and there that she had to act fast or it would be the sad end for them both.
With a mighty roar like a lioness, with no idea where the strength came from or what on earth she was doing, Rouge shook out of her still- slightly-groggy captor's hands.

They were not going to lay a hands on them. They were the Lord's anointed!

Rouge posed in a aggressive I-dare-you-to-come-close stance.
Oh, now she knew the value of those karate lessons she grudgingly took at school.

Lord, what do I do? This is crazy! Rouge thought as she faced the man who held the gun, staring amusedly at her as if he was watching a guinea pig cycling hard on a miniature ferris wheel in its cage.

Lord, what is she doing? This is a dead sentence.
Ella screamed in her head as her heart pounded.

"You will not touch a hair on me or my friend," Rouge said. She was shocked that her voice was steady, strong, controlled.
A power stirred inside of her, building up, gaining momentum as it pulsed. Slowly, she relaxed as she allowed who she had now come to know as the Holy Spirit to take charge, for she could sense that this unusual and rather deadly courage was his doing.

"Really? And who says so?" The amused man said, crossing his hands over his large chest. His gun was hid under his left armpit now.

"The Lord of Host."

The man laughed and the others joined.

"I command you in the name of Jesus to let us go or face the wrath of God," Rouge said.

"You must be kidding me right now," the man said, in-between his laughter. "There is no God!" he growled, his face suddenly morphed into vicious anger. It looked almost... Demonic.

Ella stood very close by, sending prayers up desperately, faster than missiles.

"There is a God. Only One God. And His name is Jesus!" Rouge said.

Rouge began to feel the hot sensation gather in her palms again. Her lips parted in an unnatural language. She spoke with a timbre of authority, enunciating each spiritual syllable as the Holy Spirit placed in her tongue.

She targeted her palm towards the sentinel in charge.
Fire headed straight for him, spiralling in a violet-blue swirl without missing its target. He howled in pain and shock when the fire hit him on the hand that held the gun.

The other two, stunned in fear, scrambled to help him. Ella scooted up to her friend.

"You will give us the key now or worse will happen," Ella threatened, feeling the presence of God take over her too.

One of the men shakily took the key from the tortured man's belt and threw it at them.

"Thanks. When Mr D comes around, tell him he was wrong. My God has saved me from the pit of lions. I'm never, ever going back."

With that final word,the girls moved slowly to the door with their backs, Rouge still in fire-mode while Ella tried the keys in the lock. The poor victim was still writhing on the floor. Seemed like they were having trouble putting out the fire. Ella kinda pitied him.

"Let's go," Ella said to Rouge.

Outside, everything was pitch dark and stormy.

God, what now? Where now?

I will bear you up on my wings, beloved. Ella heard the voice of the Redeemer in her spirit.

Their angels dived down on cue from the Lord of Host and appeared before Ella.
She gasped at the suddenness of their showing up. It was so unreal that Ella began to think maybe she was dreaming. She blinked severally.

The four warriors looked fierce and battle ready, glowing so brightly that the light stung her eyes.
Rouge apparently couldn't see them, as she was still groping and asking Ella what was up.

Griel moved forward.

"Daughter and chosen of the Most High," his powerful voice said, "we are here at your service." He bowed his head. Ammiel, Haliel and Pagiel did the same.

Too stunned, Ella just gaped. This whole sequence of supernaturals was too fast and much for her to absorb all at once. She felt like she would explode anytime soon.

"We have to take you now. The flames have been ignited. Only you can stop it," Griel said.

"How-?" Ella was not to surprised that her voice was up in a squeak.

"There's not much time for questions. We leave immediately. Trust the Redeemer," Ammiel said.

Their words calmed her down and one look into their fiery eyes, she knew she could trust them.

"Uhnmm... Red, don't freak out, but I think the weirdest thing so far is gonna happen," Ella said to Rouge.
The girl was clearly not getting it, with the way her face was scrunched in confusion.

Griel and Ammiel flanked both sides of Ella and held her shoulders.
Pagiel and Hammiel did the same for Rouge. The girls both could feel the spiritual current flow into their bodies.

"For the Lord of Host and for his chosen ones," the angels chorused.

The whole bunch disappeared.

**********
Author's real note: Yup! No scam this time around😄. This is the actual ending of this chappie. Every bit of it was fueled by the Spirit of God, to whom all praise is due.🙌🔥🔥🔥

Adrenaline is pumping through me🤯. I mean, bam! What's more supernatural that teleportation by angelic flight?😬
Sigh, the worlds and actions I create ehn...😏 How I wish that was the reality. How cool would that be?🥺 Sigh...😪

I mean, it's not too far fetched. 🥴
Peter broke out of prison by the help of angels. Elijah actually wielded fire powers many times. And Phillip did actually teleport by God's spirit.🔥
So yeah, everything in this chapter is backed up by scripture. 🌝😇

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Happy new month, lovelies. I love you all. 💖💖💖