ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 17

ARCHANGEL QUERIDA

DO NOT LOOK AT THE THINGS WHICH ARE SEEN, BUT AT THE THINGS WHICH ARE NOT SEEN… (2 Corinthians 4:18)

            “Where do you think this is all gonna go, Querida?” Vermillion asked, not trying to hide his malicious delight.

            “Hard to tell.”

            “It does look pretty bad for poor ole Jimmy, doesn’t it?” He asked with mock sympathy.

            “It doesn’t look good, but I’m hopeful that the truth will prevail.”

            “There you go with hope again. The problem is Jimmy’s history as a philanderer. Jenny and Lucy were both willing to overlook that history, believing he could change. But boy, oh boy, when Lucy and his brother walked in on Jimmy and Ginger! Talk about entertainment!”

            Vermillion cackled. The demonic realm had scored a sizable victory. You see, when Ginger, who was Jake’s girlfriend, rejected the call to repentance on the last night of the Bible prophecy seminar, she became open to demon possession. In human terms, for her situation with a rebellious heart, it was the last straw.

            Please understand. When Vermillion’s colleague Cinnabar entered Ginger, it wasn’t solely because she rejected a petition to accept Christ at the seminar. It was just the culminating act that had begun when she was fifteen and joined a party playing with a Ouija Board.

            This was a game that was no game. She thought she was playing with the mysteries of the spirit world. Instead they would play her. That seemingly innocent game led her to an interest in the occult. That interest in the occult led to closing her mind to Bible truth and opening it up to demonic control.

            When Jimmy got Jake interested in Bible prophecy, a part of Ginger’s soul wanted deliverance from the powers that gripped her. She felt like something wasn’t right with her soul. To look at her you would never know that the demonic realm was slowly, decisively taking her over. She worked in administration for the school district, liked to party on the weekends, and enjoyed going out on dates. But secretly, she met with a small group practicing black magic.

            Once her soul was given fully over to rebellion, Jimmy unfortunately was to fall into the crosshairs of the demon that controlled her. Cinnabar used her infatuation with Jimmy, coupled with her hostility to discourage these four brand new converts to following the Lord.

            Although Jimmy had a status as a womanizer, he had some personal rules as a lady’s man. Not only did he avoid dalliances with other guy’s gals, he shunned fooling around with any of his buddy’s ex’s as well. So imagine how it appeared when on the eve of getting baptized, two weeks after the Bible prophecy seminar ended, he was caught in a compromising position with Ginger.

            After Jenny revealed to Jimmy that he was the father of her unborn child, his brother Jake had played mediator. Jake was one of those people that was considered a jack of all trades, but master of none, except two. He was a talented guitarist and singer, and he also had a gift for playing peacemaker. He especially had the ability to listen and understand. This aptitude would be  challenged due to his brother’s incident with Ginger.

            At the end of the Bible meetings, Jake and Pastor Samson had managed to unify the tricky triangle his brother found himself in with Jenny and Lucy. Through prayer and reasoning, they achieved establishing Jimmy’s two girlfriends as girls who were just friends. Then the foursome of Jimmy, Jenny, Lucy, and Jake met with the Pastor a half a dozen times for more in depth Bible studies to prepare for baptism.

            Although Jake was a nice looking young man, he wasn’t the male specimen like his younger brother. He often thought that if he had his brother’s movie star looks, or his brother had his talent, it could be a star in the making. Quiet and introspective compared to his charming, social butterfly of a brother, Jake had always struggled to find ‘the one’ when it came to females.

            As he got to know Ginger, he felt like he had found his soulmate. The problem was, he was smitten with her physical beauty and over looked the little signs that defined a self-centered character. He was blinded by her shapely figure, long red hair, and striking blue green eyes.

            In the early evening of Friday, August 24, Cinnabar led Ginger to Jimmy’s trailer. The demonic realm knew that Jimmy went fishing with his roommate. They also knew his roommate was gonna camp at the lake and that Jimmy was going to be home alone. Ginger not only had a desire, but an obsession in her demon possession to seduce Jimmy.

            But when she got there, she discovered that no one was home. Inspired by evil, she went to her car, retrieved a knife, and cut his phone line. With supernatural help, she found a spare key under the deck in a small magnetic case, clinging to a bracket. She was then instructed to leave for a few hours.

            When she returned, she parked her black Datsun 280Z next to Jimmy’s pickup truck. She found him sound asleep in his bed. She crept back out to her car. She retrieved an empty four pack of wine coolers and placed them on the deck table along with half a pack of Virginia Slim cigarettes. She tiptoed back to Jimmy’s room and quietly disrobed every stitch of clothing. She sat in a desk chair and waited.

            On the other side of the mobile home park, Lucy made a phone call. “Hey, Jake, sorry to call so late but something weird is going on with Jimmy. You know how he was a no show at Bible study tonight. Well, now he’s not answering his phone and his answering machine isn’t picking up my calls.”

            “Oh well, I wouldn’t worry. When I got home from Bible study, I discovered he left me a message on my answering machine. He said he got off work early and was going fishing with his roommate. He said he might not make the study. Kind of odd since we’re all getting baptized tomorrow.”

            “Yes it is, and here’s another weird thing. I thought I would see if he was there and still up, so I just drove by his place a few minutes ago. His truck and his motorcycle were both there. But there was a black sports car in the driveway, instead of his roommate’s truck and it looked all dark inside his trailer.”

            Jake felt a chill go up his spine. “Was it a Datsun 280Z?”
            “I don’t know,” she replied, and then described a couple features of the vehicle.

            “That sounds like Ginger’s car,” he responded as he felt his adrenaline spike. “What would she be doing at Jake’s at only minutes before midnight? Something seems fishy.”

            “Do you think she’d hurt Jimmy? Something seemed off with her to me. I sensed something evil.”

            “I don’t think so. But how about I come over, and we check it out?”

            Vermillion could tell I didn’t like the situation either. He was also concerned that their demonic strategy might be derailed. He asked, “Are you not going to try anything to stop Ginger?”

            I wasn’t about to tell him we had instructions not to interfere. I fully trusted God. If human beings could see the end from the beginning, they would see everything God does is right and necessary. That doesn’t mean it is not difficult to watch those we care for go through trials and hardships. However I said, “You forgot to mention Cinnabar.”

            “Ginger is doing it willingly; Cinnabar is just assisting.”

              “Why does she need to assist if Ginger is doing it willingly?”

            “Obviously, being human, Ginger can’t see the bigger picture. Like cutting the phone line, planting the empty alcohol bottles, where the spare key was hidden, and when to set Jimmy up for the fall in his bedroom.”

            “You might as well have just admitted your side uses control and force. Jesus is a Gentleman; He stands at the door and knocks for entrance to the soul.” (Revelation 3:20)

            “So we’re playing it smart and your side isn’t.”

            “You can’t see the unfairness? Once again you can’t have love without freewill.”

            “Once again it comes down to justice,” he replied bitterly, and then departed hastily to watch over his minions.

            At half past midnight, Lucy and Jake parked his Mustang in front of Jimmy’s trailer. After they negotiated the steps of Jimmy’s deck, Jake shined a small flashlight’s beam onto the table with the light illuminated the empty bottles and pack of cigarettes. Both were favorite brands of Ginger.

            They noticed the main door was wide open. After giving a pull on the screen door, they discovered it to be unlocked. Jake flipped on the kitchen light. “Jimmy?”

            Ginger got up from the chair and laid on Jimmy’s bed. Jimmy stirred, and when his brother’s voice was closer as he called a second time, Jimmy blinked sleep from his eyes and turned on a bedside lamp. He gave a start when he saw the naked woman in his bed. “What? Who? Ginger!”

            She sprung on top of him. He bellowed, “Get off me!”

            “Ready to give them a show?” she asked with an eerie purr that gave him goose bumps.

            He scrambled away from her. He had been sleeping in only his shorts. As he rolled off the bed, Ginger clutched them from behind and they slid down his legs as he fell to the floor. Right as he was pulling them back up, Jake and Lucy looked into his room.

            Jimmy’s startled face took in their startled faces. Then he looked at the naked woman in his bed, and then back to his brother and Lucy. He opened his mouth to speak, but Ginger’s voice filled the room instead. “Oops, I guess we got caught.”

            “It’s not what you think,” Jimmy tried.

            “Oh yeah, what do we think?” Jake asked with surprising calmness. “That Ginger just roamed in off the street and climbed into bed with you?”

            “That had to be what happened,” Jimmy tried again. “I swear, I was asleep a minute ago… Alone!”

            “Jimmy, we saw the wine cooler bottles and her cigarettes on your deck,” Jake said crisply.

            Lucy had been breathing hard, then emitted a little squeal and ran from the place. Jake ran after her. She began to walk briskly toward her home, her arms folded in front of her, frowning as if in deep thought. Jake caught up to her. “Lucy, wait.”

            Lucy kept walking but looked at Jake with a bewildered expression. He said, “Listen, Lucy, let’s not jump to conclusions.”

            “Jump to conclusions? I know what I saw.”

            “I know, I know. But the thing is, I’ve never known Jimmy to sleep with his buddy’s ex’s, let alone his brother’s ex, and only a little more than a week after Ginger and I broke up.”

            “Come on, Jake. I saw a naked woman in his bed, and him scrambling to get his shorts on. Plus you saw the empty bottles.”

            “Yeah, I know it looks bad, but there just has to be an explanation.”

            “I’d say it’s one of two things. He either decided he doesn’t want to give up his old life, or he’s under some delusion that you can have something like a bachelor party before one gets baptized.”

            “I’m going with a third option, and that’s that there has to be some explanation.”

            “Even though I can’t believe what I saw; my eyes saw what they saw.”

            “Let’s say you are right. The simple truth of the matter is that both you and Jenny agreed that your relationship with Jimmy should just be friends for the time being. And Ginger is no longer my girlfriend.”

            “Oh, I’m so confused!” Lucy said as she clutched her forehead with her left hand.

            “So you still had, um, feelings for him?”

            “I don’t know,” she whined. “But the reason I was trying to call him tonight was about that night of indiscretion he and I had.”

            “So you wanted to make sure everything was good between you two before you were baptized?”

            “I guess that’s part of it,” she shrugged. “Because things just got more complicated for Jimmy, Jenny and me. And on the day before we all supposed to get baptized together no less.”

            She sighed heavily and looked up into the starry sky. Jake gave her a minute. But she remained silent, so he asked, “Does Jenny know that you and Jimmy, you know, went all the way?”

            “I don’t know if she knows, but she’s going to know.”

            “What’s that supposed to mean?”

            “I went to the doctor today… I’m pregnant.”