ANGELS AT WAR – PART 2 – CHAPTER 9

Posted on October 18, 2026 by Johnathan Embers

ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 9

CRICKET KARR AND THE ROCK STAR

CRICKET

CONFESS YOUR TRESPASSES TO ONE ANOTHER, AND PRAY FOR ONE ANOTHER, THAT YOU MAY BE HEALED. THE EFFECTIVE, FERVENT PRAYER OF A RIGHTEOUS PERSON AVAILS MUCH. (James 5:16)

“That was TMI, wasn’t it?” Sully asked with a look of concern.

I couldn’t help laughing after wearing a look of astonishment. “Well, yes. But that’s okay.”

He had just described kissing my sister in his dream, complete with detailing drool on his arm.

But my astonished expression was more in regard to what he said before about his guide up the mountain calling himself Jack Querida. Coincidence? The angel in my own dreams had called himself Querida, minus the Jack, as well as minus the lumberjack appearance.

“What did you mean when you said, ‘Sully, you’re almost there?’” he asked with a very inquisitive look on his face.

“Well, Sully, it wasn’t actually me in your dream. It was your mind imagining me.”

“Yeah, right,” he said with a frown, looking away for a few seconds. Then he looked back at me. “I guess what I’m getting at is, can you interpret it? You seem close to God.”

“Well, I don’t think I can interpret, but a couple things you mentioned are in the Bible. Two things you mentioned as a matter of fact. Me telling you about a narrow road and only few make it, and seeing your wife again at the second coming of Jesus and the resurrection.”

I showed him from the Bible. Matthew 7:13-14, as well as 2 Thessalonians 4:16-18.

“Wow!” he exclaimed and sat back pondering for a minute. Then he shifted directions within his dream. “There was something more disturbing in my dream than the way it ended.”

A pained expression spread across his face. “At the bottom of Poppy’s tombstone, in my dream, there was a name. Jesse Parker.”

I recalled the name from when Violetta and I watched Sully’s biography. “He was like a father figure when you were a teenager.”

Sully nodded, still wearing the pained expression. Then he laughed without humor, shaking his head. “He was both the best and worst person during my early teenage years.”

“Your biography painted him very favorably,” I said.

He nodded again. “Those that take the liberty of telling about my life only know the public side of my relationship with Jesse. They see a wonderful man that helped and mentored a troubled youth who had no father. What they don’t know is the secrets that only me, him, and Poppy knew. Now possibly you might know.”

“Why do you say possibly might know?”

“Because I don’t know if I’ll be able to find the words. Like I said, he was the best but also the worst. Until Poppy, he was the most important person to me besides my mother. He came into my life when I was thirteen. He taught me music, the guitar in particular. He was a physical trainer, and he worked out with me. He was a mentor, big brother figure two or three times a week for two years. But then when I was fifteen, something changed.”

Sully broke eye contact with me and began to chew his lip. I supposed this was the crossroad of whether he could tell me why his mentor was also the worst. I gave him space. He looked at me and said, “Let’s just get on with what you wanted to show me about the Bible. You know, why you can supposedly trust it and what not.”

I was a little discombobulated by our conversation thus far. But poor Sully. I myself was troubled by his dream, and he is the one that experienced it. He was the one that had a difficult aspect of his youth resurface in his night vison.

But I did not pry. He would tell me if or when he was ready. I showed him a study guide from Amazing Facts ministries entitled ‘Is There Anything Left You Can Trust?’ I told him he could easily find more study guides online on numerous subjects absolutely free. Of course with his money, I don’t think free was a concern.

There were twelve subjects discussed in the study guide we looked at. I like to keep Bible studies at no more than an hour so one does not get too overloaded trying to process information. So we only got through about a third of the lesson, due to plenty of discussion. The topics we looked at were: What does the Bible say about itself? How did Jesus demonstrate His confidence and belief in Scripture? Do Bible prophecies confirm inspiration? Can we expect scientific statements found in the Bible to be accurate?

“That was really interesting,” Sully said after I closed our study with a prayer. “You exceeded my expectations.”

“Well praise God!” I said cheerily. “Do you now have more faith in the Bible as your guide in life?”

“Big step that way Cricket, big step.” Then he studied me intently for several seconds. “Would you mind if I told you about Jesse and me?”

“Of course not,” I shrugged.

“The thing is, you have to keep it to yourself, top secret. So do you promise to not tell a soul?”

“I promise. But if it is this troubling to you, maybe you better keep it to yourself.”

“No,” he blurted. “Things are twisted in my mind. I need to talk to somebody I know is close to God and doesn’t just have some title with their name.”

“Okay,” I shrugged, feeling humble that he saw me that way. Then my toes curled. I got a clear vibe that this Jesse fellow violated him somehow, someway when Sully was an adolescent.

“So, like I said,” he began. “Jesse and I bonded over music, and we worked out together, you know, weight lifting programs and what not. As a matter of fact, it was at a workout in his garage when our relationship took a dramatic shift. I had just done a set on a weight bench. It was hot, I was wearing only shorts, and kind of jokingly I struck a bodybuilder pose as I looked in a mirror.

“I noticed Jesse looking at me with this super serious expression. He said, ‘Sully, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something. You’re really becoming quite the man!’ He tossed me my shirt and asked me to put it on. Then he told me to have a seat. He said what he had to say I needed to keep to myself; it was something not even his wife knew.

“He told me he was bisexual. That his high school sweetheart was a guy and they had been in a secret relationship. When they graduated, his boyfriend went into the military, and a year and a half later was killed in Afghanistan. He often wondered if it was some kind of punishment.

“I told him that was ridiculous, and being open minded, I told him I didn’t think any different about him after his revelation of being bisexual. Although I was in fact rather surprised. He never did anything inappropriate with me up to that point or gave me any indication he was, you know, bi.

“For the first time, he told me he loved me. Although it felt a little weird hearing this, I told him I loved him too. This really sad smile came onto his face and he said, ‘I hate to do this Sully, but I’m not gonna be able to get together with you anymore.’

“Now his revelation about being bisexual did surprise me, but you know, to each his own. But suddenly ending our friendship? That stunned me! I asked why. I didn’t care about his private life. He said over the last few months, inappropriate desires for me had been getting stronger and stronger, and he needed to keep his distance from me.

“I didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t making a play on me. I wasn’t gay, or bi, or whatever, so I wasn’t about to suggest, ‘hey let’s just get it on.’ So I got mad. I told him it wasn’t fair. Told him he was selfish, even though he had spent hundreds of hours teaching me, talking with me, training me. And boy had he trained me in a certain way without me even realizing it. He played me like a fiddle.”

Sully leaned back in his chair, took a deep breath as he put his hands behind his head, and sighed.

“What do you mean he played you like a fiddle?”

“Well, long story short, the next couple weeks were tormenting. I missed him big time. I dreaded the future without him. I read things, looked at things. I thought, what’s the big deal? I could fool around with a guy. Jesse was nice looking, and in great shape. Shoot, I don’t have a girlfriend I figured, it might be kind of fun.

“Sixteen days after our last get together, I called him. In a nutshell, I told him I was willing to fool around. He turned me down. I pleaded with him. He said I was too young. I said but I’m giving consent. He said the age of consent in Arizona was eighteen, and I was fifteen. I grew up outside of Phoenix in case you didn’t know.”

“I remember hearing that on your biography.”

“I continued to beg him and he relented. But he told me we needed to be very, very careful and keep it top secret. So, we resumed our friendship, but now there was a very different dynamic. It was meeting Poppy, my future wife, that eventually got me away from him.”

“I still don’t understand what you meant by he played you like a fiddle,” I said.

He chuckled and said, “You are so astute spiritually, but pretty naïve carnally. Don’t you see? He manipulated, groomed me even, to the point that it was actually me that not only asked, but begged him to turn our relationship into one of, shall we say, an intimate nature.”

“How did Poppy get you away from him?” I asked.

“I was extremely shy around girls. My perverse relationship with Jesse only added to this big time. The weird thing is, because I could sing, play guitar, and I suppose was pretty good looking, chicks dug me. Then when I shared a science lab table with Poppy our senior year of high school, my life radically changed.”

“What was different about her than other girls?”

“She had this brightness in her personality, not unlike you,” he smiled fondly at me.

I felt like I blushed. “Do I?”

“You sure do. Anyway, at first I was quiet around her, just like other females, even though she always tried to have dialogue with me. Although she was bright like the sun, I noticed that sometimes a dark cloud enshrouded her. She was broken herself and she saw it in me. One day after the bell rang, she grabbed the crook of my arm. She says, ‘you need to get away from that guy I saw you with the other day.’

“I couldn’t help expressing an astonished expression when she said this. She looked at me with such compassion and nodded knowingly. She said, ‘you’re wondering how I know? Let’s just say like can detect like.’ She began to walk away and this time I grabbed her by the crook of the arm.

“We got together, talked, and we just clicked. We rapidly became soulmates. She confided that she had been sexually abused by her stepfather. She and I started seeing each other, and it wasn’t long before, this time, I ended the friendship with Jesse.

“It was ugly. He pulled every manipulative trick out of his hat. But Poppy gave me the courage and the words of what to say. I threatened telling of our relationship to the powers that be and that did the trick. He disappeared from my life, and this time I was okay with it.”

“You never saw him again?”

“I saw him in passing a few times, but we never talked. A year later I heard that he and his wife divorced. But a few months after Poppy passed away, I looked him up.”

“What for?”

A menacing look came into Sully’s eyes. “In the aftermath of her death, I was angry, confused, and lonely. I was also on a lot of substances.”

“What did you say to him?”

“I asked him if we could get together.”

I recalled Sully saying Jesse’s name was on Poppy’s tombstone in his dream. What did that mean?

ANGELS AT WAR – PART 2 – CHAPTER 8

Posted on October 12, 2026 by Johnathan Embers

ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 8

CRICKET KARR AND THE ROCK STAR

SULLY SAGE

FOR GOD MAY SPEAK IN ONE WAY, OR ANOTHER, YET MAN DOES NOT PERCEIVE IT. IN A DREAM, IN A VISION OF THE NIGHT. (Job 33:14, 15)

“Why are you giggling?” Violetta asked. Her face was inches from mine as her eyes glared lazers at me. The urge to kiss her was overwhelming, but it already felt like she was going to break my arm as it twisted unnaturally behind my head.

“I know something you don’t know,” I told her.

“What?” she replied. Her large, lovely blue-green eyes squinted suspiciously.

“I too have studied martial arts.”

My words threw her off guard, and she relaxed just a little. Before what I told her could sufficiently sink in, our roles were reversed. She now found herself on her back with her arm twisting unnaturally. “How do you like it now?”

“I like it just fine,” she replied with clenched teeth.

She slipped out of it somehow, and we grappled for a minute. She was good, very good! She rolled away from me and sprung to her feet. She crouched in an attack position. I did likewise, and began to say, “Look, Violetta, lets…”

Right when I began to speak this, she went where I was unwilling to go with punching or kicking. She came in fast and low right when I began to speak and rise from bended knees. She meant to slug me in the abdomen, but the blow went low and landed on my male reproductive system. The lightning bolt of pain felt like it blew the top of my head off.

I hit the ground with a thud, and curled in a fetal position. One positive that came from this experience of excruciating pain was that it showed me a different side of Violetta for the first time. She crouched by my side and put a hand on my upper arm. She bent close enough to my ear that it tickled when she spoke. I guess she thought noise would add to my misery. “Sully, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you there… Are you alright?”

“No,” I groaned.

“What can I do to help?”

“Nothing… Except… Stop… Being… Violent.”

It felt like hours before the pain began to subside, but it was probably only minutes. I rolled onto my back, took a deep breath, and sighed. I looked at Violetta. Although her face looked very concerned, I said, “You’re mean.”

Her hand covered her mouth, her eyebrows raised, and her eyes actually looked merry rather than the fierce gaze I had become accustomed to. She apologized again, but giggled as she did so.

“You think it’s funny?”

“You have to admit it is kind of funny.”

“No, I don’t!”

Now she outright laughed. Then like a switch was flipped, her fierce demeanor returned. “This all started when I saw you pointing a gun at yourself. How dare you contemplate something so selfish! Especially right before Callie and Jeremey’s wedding!”

“Violetta, it had no bullets. And I was just looking at it, not pointing it at myself. I was gonna throw it into the river.”

“Oh,” she frowned. There seemed to be genuine meekness in her countenance before she scolded. “You still should not handle a firearm so carelessly, regardless of whether it is loaded or not.”

“Yeah, I know, you’re right,” I admitted, as I put one arm under my head and another over my eyes.

“Is there anything I can do? I truly feel bad.”

“Mouth to mouth resuscitation,” I replied mildly.

“Yeah, you’d like that wouldn’t you?” she replied testily. “In your dreams, fella.”

“I need some type of resuscitation, that’s for sure,” I said, surprising myself.

The physical pain must have caused my emotional pain to resurface. That unbearable feeling of being alone, especially in a crowd. Ever since my wife died, I had nobody to truly confide in. I was paranoid. I didn’t even fully trust my cousin Jeremey, even though he was the closest thing to a brother that I had. I had watched him eagerly ride the coattails of my celebrity too many times.

But the Karr sisters were like a breath of fresh air. It seemed neither were impressed with my celebrity status. But they came at their indifference from two different angles. Violetta’s whole attitude toward me was hostile like, ‘you really think you’re something.’ Which made me ponder, do I? I suppose my obnoxious reaction toward her attitude only fed her harsh approach toward me.

Cricket, on the other hand, treated me with subtle pity. This was actually worse. She also was so honest. But it came across with gentleness and meekness. Even the first time I spoke with her, I detected something different. I even hinted at my emotional despair. Now I just gave Violetta a similar hint and instantly regretted it. What was it about the Karr sisters that was urging me to open up?

“What do you mean you need to be resuscitated?” Violetta asked.

I sat up and hooked the crook of my arms around my knees. Her countenance was neutral, but curious. It had been a long time since I felt like I could trust somebody, like I did Poppy. Oh how I missed her! I couldn’t stop my eyes from welling. As a matter of fact, the effort only opened up the spicket. I felt embarrassed and tried to cover up. “Oh the pain, you throw quite a punch.”

With a sympathetic tone approaching her sister’s, she asked, “Is it really from the punch?”

I nodded.

“Fair enough,” she replied, and picked up my gun. “Once again, I’m truly sorry. I didn’t mean for our little sparring match to get out of hand. Since you’re incapacitated, do you want me to throw this in the river for you?”

“Go for it.”

She threw it like a frisbee, and as it sailed through the air, it reminded me of a boomerang. It made me wonder when my dalliance with death would return. I had to stay strong for at least a few months.

“I need to get going,” Violetta said. “You gonna be alright?”

“Do you really care?”

“Look, I meant it when I said I was sorry.”

“Wow, so you do have a compassionate side. Must be Cricket’s influence.”

She smiled. It wasn’t a warm and fuzzy grin, but pleasant enough. Especially since during or brief acquaintance, I had become accustomed to seeing her pretty lips pursed and her lovely eyes narrowed. “That’s truer than you realize.”

In the midnight hour, my mind rotated back and forth pondering the Karr sisters as I laid in bed. No woman had moved me like my Poppy did. Now a pair of sisters both had come the closest, yet in different ways. I couldn’t sleep so I watched some reruns of ‘The Andy Griffith Show.’ Then I played some games on my phone. Some time after four I drifted off to sleep and ended up having the most profound dream of my life.

I was walking in a beautiful meadow. Long grass shimmered and sparkled in the sunlight. I marveled at the majesty of the rich green grass with golden tips waving and twinkling in a gentle breeze with a powder blue sky above. A majestic mountain loomed in the distance.

Suddenly I came upon Poppy’s tombstone. I was puzzled because this wasn’t the correct setting, as beautiful as it was. Then Cricket seemed to appear out of nowhere. She sat atop Violetta’s mare, Ivory Bell. She asked, “Would you like to see her again?”

“Would I ever!”

“You can, at the second coming of the Lord Jesus, when the righteous are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. The dead will rise first. Then we who are alive will be caught up with them. Therefore you will be with your beloved Poppy again. Isn’t that a comfort?”

“Yes, yes it is,” I replied.

I told Cricket about my dream. Keep in mind, at the time I was not a student of the Bible. I had only thumbed through it a few times. So I was absolutely blown away when she shared 2 Thessalonians chapter four with me. In particular, verses sixteen through eighteen.

“Follow me to the mountain of panic and peace,” Cricket had said in my dream.

“Panic and peace? That’s a contradiction.”

“That’s because narrow is the road, and difficult is the way, and few make it to the top,” she explained, paraphrasing Matthew 7:13, 14.

“Come,” she said, waving her arm in a follow her gesture.

She galloped off and I began to run. I was surprised at how fast I moving, yet Cricket, on the back of Ivory Bell, began to fade into the distance. I ended up at a twenty foot gate made of wrought iron. I couldn’t get it open. Then I heard a deep soothing voice.

“Would you like entrance?” a bearded man asked. His attire was that of a mountain man or maybe a lumberjack with red flannel shirt, tan Carhart pants, and work boots. His face was friendly, his gaze strong but gentle.

“Did you see a young lady on a pale horse?” I asked.

“I did. She’s at the top. Now would you like entrance?”

“Yes, please.”

Although I had pushed on the wrought iron gate to no avail, he pushed it aside with ease. “Who are you?”

“Jack Querida is my name,” he replied. “Helping people negotiate the mountain of life is my game.”

“Will I make it to the top?”

“If you turn your eyes upon Jesus.”

“Is this the mountain of life? Cricket called it the mountain of panic and peace.”

“I suppose it could represent both. For now let’s call it an allegory of the mountain of life. Cricket is at the top. Go to her, and she will guide you to the Way the Truth and the Life.”

“What’s that?”

“You’ll find out. For now follow me. Stick to the trail and you will make it to Cricket. But there is one rule. That rule is to keep your eyes on the trail up the mountain. Do not look to the right or left. The farther we go, the narrower the road gets. Therefore the further you will plumet if you take your eyes off the path.”

The journey began. The more distance we covered, the more narrow the trail became just like he said. When it narrowed to the point of needing to place one foot directly in front of the other, I stopped, placing my hands against the cool rock of the mountain. I fully understood why part of the name was panic. “Jack!”

“I’m here.”

He had been in front, but now he was behind me! How did he do that?

“Keep looking up the trail. You are almost there.”

I kept moving along, hating how high and precarious it seemed. Then I saw Cricket twenty feet away on plateau, sitting on Ivory Bell. How did they get up there? A halo of light was behind her, making her look angelic, but her countenance was somber. “Cricket.”

She didn’t speak, only waved her arm in a come motion. The path was now so narrow I couldn’t put one foot in front of the other. I could only scoot. I was terrified! I was only ten feet away from Cricket when I came to a narrow opening, just wide enough for a body to squeeze through. Keep your eyes forward, Jack had instructed. But when a voice spoke, the unexpected sound caused my head to look in the opening.

“Sully!” It was Violetta. She looked just like she did when we grappled in black running attire and her strawberry blonde hair in a single braid. Her arm stretched toward me. “Take my hand.”

I did, and the next thing I knew I was in a small cave with her. I laid on my back with my breath coming in desperate gasps. It was so hard to breath! Violetta scowled at me. “Get a grip.”

Her hand reeled back and she slapped me. But I didn’t feel a thing. She did it again, but once again I didn’t feel it. She sighed and said, “You poor thing. You do need mouth to mouth resuscitation.”

Her head lowered toward mine and our mouths connected. She began to kiss me and it felt so real! I was kissing her back and it wasn’t unpleasant at all, quite the opposite. But we had barely begun when Cricket’s voice put a stop to the brief passion. “Sully, you were almost there!”

I jolted awake and my eyes blinked at sunlight streaming through the cracks of the window shade. I was laying on my back, and my arm was covering my mouth. No wonder I was having a hard time breathing. Scowling, I grabbed a tissue and began to wipe away slobber from my arm. I wasn’t making out with Violetta; I was kissing my own limb as I dreamt.

I looked at the digital clock on the nightstand. It showed twelve twenty in the afternoon. I jumped in the shower, and at just before one PM, I made my way downstairs. To my surprise, Cricket was there by herself sitting at the kitchen table reading. Her sandy blonde hair was pulled back with a clip. Her blue gray eyes seemed to twinkle. Not for the first time I marveled at the atmosphere of peace and brightness that seemed to always surround her. She wasn’t as pretty as her sister, but she was more beautiful, if that makes sense.

“Good morning,” I said.

“Good afternoon,” she replied with a giggle and a warm smile.

“Yes, I suppose it is afternoon. You should have let me know you were here.”

“No big deal. Callie said you would probably sleep past noon.”

“I guess my body is still on touring schedule. Are you here by yourself?”

“I am now. Callie and Violetta just left.”

No sooner had she said this, when Violetta burst through the screen door saying, “I forgot my tea… Oh, hi Sully.”

“Violetta.”

She eyed me cooly, then picked up her travel mug. I watched her mouth connect with the container and take a sip. Then she licked her upper lip and said, “Hot.”

“Yes,” I said, as I eyed her mouth. Kissing her in my dream felt so real! I perceived her aiming a frown at me. “Those insulated mugs hold heat rather well.”

She nodded, said bye, and just like that her appearance was in and out like a lovely vapor.

“Are you ready for our study?” Cricket asked. “Or do you want to wait awhile?”

“I’m ready,” I said, pulling out a chair and sitting across from her at the rectangular table. “But let me ask you something first. What do think of dreams?”

ANGELS AT WAR – PART 2 – CHAPTER 6

Posted on September 28, 2026 by Johnathan Embers

ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 6

CRICKET KARR AND THE ROCK STAR

CRICKET

EVEN IN LAUGHTER THE HEART MAY SORROW, AND THE END OF MIRTH MAY BE GRIEF (Proverbs 14:13)

“Oh, it’s you,” Violetta said to Sully as a less than friendly greeting.

“Nice to see you, too,” Sully replied as he sat on an upside down bucket.

“Is it?”

“Not really.”

“Get off that bucket. I need to feed the horses,” Violetta ordered.

“Get a different one.”

“I want that one.”

“Too bad.”

Well this wasn’t starting off too well. They began to have a standoff as they both gave each other stink eye. Correction, half of it was a sit off. “You pompous jerk,” Violetta finally barked. “Why don’t you go back across the road? You’re Jeremey’s guest, not ours.”

Sully had told me he wanted to get along with Violetta, since they were going to be paired up as bridesmaid and groomsman at our cousin’s wedding. But it sure didn’t seem like he was helping himself. I curled and uncurled my toes in my New Balance sneakers. I silently prayed, ‘Lord what do I do?’

“I’m going fishing,” I said, thinking of the Apostle Peter’s words in John 21:3.

“What?” Violetta and Sully said at the same time. Then Violetta added, “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“You’re supposed to say I’m going with you.”

“When’s the last time you went fishing?” Violetta asked.

I looked up at the rafters as I tried to recall. “Last summer with Grandpa.”

“Is Mom running the flower shop today?”

“No, but I got a few hours before we open.”

“I need to feed the horses,” Violetta said as if it were an all-day endeavor rather than the approximately thirty minutes it actually took. “Now get off that bucket. It’s the one I like to use.”

“I’m quite comfy,” Sully said with a little smirk. He seemed to be enjoying getting Violetta riled up, but I was cringing inwardly. He didn’t know one of Violetta’s biggest weaknesses was a quick temper, ESPECIALLY when in conflict with a macho man prone to cockiness.

“I said get off!” My sister demanded and shoved his shoulder.

“Make me,” Sully said, folding his arms.

“Make you? What are we ten?” she replied fairly calm. This remark gave me momentary false hope.

Sully stuck his tongue out at her, and she shoved him with two hands this time. “Get off!”

“Children, it’s only a bucket,” I playfully scolded. “Violetta, I’m going to the tack room to get you another one.”

“I want the one he’s sitting on. It has a mark, so I know how much grain to put in.”

Sully laughed mockingly, causing her to really get her ire up. My mouth dropped in surprise when she tackled him. They rolled a couple times on the dirt floor. Now Violetta is a martial artist, specializing in Brazilian Jujitsu. In seconds she had him pinned. His eyes were wide as he said, “Wow, you’re strong.”

“Yeah, well I wouldn’t test me any further.”

Violetta’s eyes were like lazers boring into his as she sat on top of his belly. He held her gaze, but his eyebrows raised comically meek. He said, “This is weird, people typically adore me.”

This was where I saw the icy hostility in Violetta begin to break just a little. I could see a smile try to curl upward from her pursed lips. I could also see by her clenched jaw and narrowed eyes that another part of her was resisting the merriment she was beginning to feel. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

The barn door opened and Cousin Callie came in. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped when she saw a fierce-looking Violetta sitting atop Sully with his hands and arms pinned behind his head. Callie attempted to come to Sully’s rescue. “Vi, what are you doing?”

She hooked Violetta under the arm pits and pulled her off of Sully. Violetta demanded through clenched teeth, “Let me go!”

The two best of friends, who were also cousins, now began to grapple. Callie too had been a martial arts student. I tried to stop them. “Children, children!”

The door opened and Callie’s older sister Cecielia entered. When she saw her sister and cousin rolling on the dirt floor and me looking like I was doing a funky dance around them, she became my tag team partner. C. C. was a year older than me and five years older than Violetta and Callie. Although a laid back hippie-like art teacher, she was also the oldest of the Karr cousins and grew up being our boss at family gatherings.

C. C. clapped her hands a couple times, and horse bodies came to attention along with my sister and her sister. When she ordered the two women to stop, they obeyed immediately. After sorting out the situation, she gave another order. “Vi, tell Sully you’re sorry.”

Like a five year-old being scolded for taking a toy from someone, Violetta looked at her feet and said, “Sorry.”

“Sorry for what and to who, Vi?” C. C. said, not satisfied with Violetta’s apology.

“Sorry for tackling you,” she said, then looked at him and said his name rather snarky, “Sully.”

“You should be,” Sully replied with mock indignation. “But I’ll take the high road and forgive you.”

“Mr. Sage,” Cecelia now addressed Sully. A smile played at her lips. Although she had a bossy side, and I’m sure she kept her high school students in line, she was also fun loving and detected that the skirmish just broken up was likely not all that serious.

“Ma’am?” Sully responded.

“You should apologize to Violetta as well,” Cecelia suggested. “It sounds like you were provoking her.”

“Sorry.”

Cecelia sighed and said, “For what and to who?”

“Sorry for provoking you, Violetta.”

“Now you two shake,” Cecelia ordered.

Violetta actually offered her hand first. But Sully smiled warmly and opened his arms. “We can even do better than that. How about a hug?”

Violetta’s eyes narrowed and she took a step back. Cecelia suggested, “That’s a nice gesture, Vi. Now give the fella a hug.”

My lips parted in surprise as I watched Violetta step into Sully’s embrace. Although Violetta had a general dislike, bordering on hatred for a certain type of male, she had in fact dated a few guys. However, just to be clear, they were guys that were not her type. But I had never seen her participate in something resembling physical affection, as in a hug with a man she was not related to.

I felt a twinge of something as I watched their arms go around each other. I don’t think it was jealousy. But Sully was a great looking guy. He reminded me of a feral version of Ashton Kutcher. He also had a charm and cool about him that had probably developed over countless performances as a musician.

When I observed the two step toward each other, I thought it would be a two second pat-pat on the back. But again to my surprise, Violetta’s arms looped around his neck. Sully’s hands clasped around the small of her back. They did make a gorgeous couple.

Believe it or not, I was never jealous that Violetta was prettier than me. I was actually pleased that I had the same parents as someone so lovely. Besides, it’s hard to resent a person who you know would not only give you the shirt off her back, but lay down her life for yours.

The harmonious feelings between the previously bickering pair wouldn’t last. An eruption was on the horizon of peacefulness. Sully, a few inches taller than Violetta, bent his head and kissed her cheek. She pushed away from him. “What’d ya think you’re doing?”

“Making peace,” he said with a smirk.

I think it was the smirk that motivated Violetta with her next spontaneous move. Behind the grin was, dare I say it, a demeanor of cockiness. With both hands she shove him hard in the chest as she bellowed, “Creep!”

Sully stumbled backwards and tripped over the bucket he had been sitting on. He fell hard on his rearend. I don’t know if it was my imagination, but I think I felt the reverberation. Even Violetta’s lovely large blue green eyes widened, and a hand went to her mouth.

“Violetta!” Cecelia scolded. “Help him up.”

Violetta offered her hand and Sully took it. But instead of allowing her to assist him, he yanked her down and she landed on top of him. Laughing gleefully, and beginning to roll her backside to the floor, he declared, “Who pins who now?”

Sully was over six feet tall and probably approaching two hundred pounds. He appeared surprisingly fit for someone who seemed to be a self-indulgent rock star. Violetta was five foot nine and maybe one forty soaking wet. But she was strong and knew self-defense. She rolled along with Sully rather than resist him, then rolled halfway around again and she pinned him again. But this time she began to twist one of his wrists in an unnatural position. His vocal emission went something like this, “Ow, ow, ow!”

I squinted my eyes to make sure I was seeing correctly. Violetta was smiling, then giggling. But Callie grabbed her left arm, Cecelia grabbed her right arm and hoisted her off poor Sully. When the dust settled and was brushed off as well as possible, Cecelia tried making peace once again. This time she held a fly swatter and waved it back and forth. “You two shake hands and only shake hands. Any deviation will garner a slap with this bug terminator. Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Sully said. Violetta nodded.

As they shook, Sully said in a very debonair manner, “I do apologize for provoking you, Miss Karr.”

“And I apologize for getting a little violent.”

Sully chuckled. “If that was a little, I better not ever provoke you to a lot. Cricket called you a pistol, but I’d say you’re more like an assault rifle.”

Violetta frowned so I piped up. “I believe that was a compliment, Vi.”

“It was,” Sully confirmed. But then sort of disqualified his statement saying, “For the most part.”

The four of us Karr women all pitched in and had the half dozen horses fed and watered in under ten minutes or so. When we finished, I didn’t see Sully in the barn. He wasn’t outside either.

Querida, via visiting me in my dream, had instructed me to share God’s love with Sully. But I had barely got started when Violetta, and then the other two Karr sisters, interrupted us. I was about to begin a search for Sully when my sister grabbed my arm. In a low, secretive tone she said, “Cricket, come here.”

“What for? I need to find Sully.”

She frowned. “What for?”

I shrugged. “I want to talk to him about God.”

“Him? God?”

“Yes, so please be quick. What do you want?”

“Come over here,” she instructed, leading me over by the corner of the horse barn. “Come close. Now sniff.”

She began to flap her arms like she was doing the chicken dance. “Vi, what are you doing?”

“Sniff,” she ordered. “Do I stink?”

Reluctantly I did as requested. “Not really.”

“Not really? That’s not a NO.”

“Well, you don’t smell good. You went for a run, and then tried to beat up Sully in a horse barn. You’re all sweaty. Do you expect to smell like you just stepped out of the shower?”

“I didn’t try to beat him up. We just had a playful skirmish. Now how bad do I stink?”

My brain momentarily got stuck on the word playful before the word skirmish. Why playful skirmish instead of just stand alone skirmish? Why was she concerned with body odor?

“Cricket, how bad?” She inquired impatiently.

“You smell… Earthy.”

“Earthy? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you went for a horse ride, then a run, and then rolled around on a dirt floor. Trust me, he was probably preoccupied with your skirmish. I don’t think he noticed any possible B.O.”

She put her hands on her hips. “PROBABLY, you don’t THINK, any POSSIBLE. You’re not giving me a definitive answer.”

“Vi, what’s the big deal? You don’t like him anyway.”

She bit her lip, nodded, then said, “Alright, thanks, I’ll talk to you later.”

I grabbed her hand. “Vi, I was just inches from your fanning armpits, and I didn’t think, ewe gross, that reeks… It was just earthy.”

She smiled and gave my hand an affectionate squeeze. “Thanks.”

She turned to catch up to the other Karr sisters. They were working on another barn, preparing it to host Callie and Jeremey’s wedding. I looked around for Sully, and noticed Grandma was still on the porch. “Grandma, did you see where Sully went?”

She frowned. “Who?”

“The strange young man.”

“Oh him. First he went over to Jeremey’s for a couple of minutes, then he went that way, toward the river.”

The family farm was bordered on the east side by a river. There was a low maintenance road between a corn field and some woods that led to the water. It was about a half a mile or so mile from the house. I pursued.

I saw Sully standing on a bank of the river with his back to me. I stopped and gave pause with what I noticed in his hand. It was a gun! I began to step toward him again and prepared to call out. Then he began to lift the gun up toward his head!

“Sully, NO!” I bellowed as adrenaline surged through me.

ANGELS AT WAR – PART 2 – CHAPTER 5

Posted on September 21, 2026 by Johnathan Embers

ANGELS AT WAR

CRICKET KARR AND THE ROCK STAR

CHAPTER 5

CRICKET

AND IT SHALL COME TO PAST IN THE LAST DAYS, SAYS GOD. THAT I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT ON ALL FLESH; YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS (Acts 2:17)

Querida came to me in dreams. When he did such, it was in an angelic form, albeit mostly veiled, and he called himself only Querida. It was his voice that was distinctive. Clear and melodious, comforting, strong, and soothing, like a rippling brook.

The couple times I think I met him in person, it was the voice that made me wonder, is this Querida? When I encountered him in my dreams, he always announced himself. Every time I was instructed to minister to someone in need. Every time the situation turned out to be real. Every time he gave me scripture to look up. The day after Sully Sage arrived in a Lear jet was no exception.

That night Querida came to me in a dream. It was as if he were standing in front of my open bedroom window. A breeze was blowing the curtains and obscuring the white glow of his form. He said, “Behold, he stands with a pale horse and death and hades follow him. Go, give him the words of life.”

“Who stands with a pale horse?” I asked. “Do you mean Ivory Bell?”

Ivory Bell was Violetta’s beloved light colored Palomino mare.

“He who metaphorically used to ride a white horse wearing a crown, conquering and to conquer, now stands with a pale horse, contemplating death.”

“Don’t you mean sits on a pale horse?”

“Like I said, I’m metaphorically speaking, just borrowing from Revelation chapter six,” he replied, specifically using parts of verses two and eight.

“What does this mean?”

“Go to Sully Sage.”

“Where?”

“Your aunt and uncle’s farm.”

“When?”

“Now.”

His word NOW was like a snap of the finger. I sat bolt upright in my bed; my nightgown slightly damp with sweat. My window appeared the opposite of my dream. Whereas my dream had it open and the curtains blowing, reality had it closed and the curtains drawn. Dawn’s sunlight streamed between the sides of the curtains.

I looked at my clock, and it read five minutes before six. I dressed, ate a quick breakfast and headed to my cousin Callie’s family farm. Jeremey, Callie’s fiancée, lived on an acreage right across the road. That’s how the two met. Friendly neighborly banter quickly turned into a special chemistry leading to romance.

My Auntie Emma and Uncle Walt’s farm had been my grandparent’s homestead at one time. As a matter of fact, Grandma still lived with them. So I was very familiar and welcome there. Grandma was sitting on a bench swing on the front porch reading her Bible. Her eyes rose in surprise as I climbed the five steps in front of the renovated farmhouse. “What are you doing here so early, Dear?”

I bent down and kissed her check. I refrained from saying that I was on a mission from God. Instead I told her, “I woke up early and felt compelled to see the horses.”

“Oh dear,” Grandma frowned. Then with a conspiratorially low voice, she said, “That strange young man staying with Jeremey just asked if he could go into the horse barn. He told me he used to have horses. Why don’t you sit and, how do you youngsters put it? Hang out until he leaves.”

I marveled that Sully was in the horse barn, even though I never doubted Querida’s messages in my night visions.

“It’ll be okay, Grandma. I’ve met him, and I’ve already talked to him a little bit about God. I’m hoping to share some more.”

Grandma was all about sharing her faith. “Well then by all means go. I’ll be praying for you, Dear.”

“Thank you Grandma.”

I don’t know why I behaved sneakily. But I slowly opened the horse barn’s door and winced when it squeaked a little. But in the early quiet morning, a little was a lot. Just as Querida had said, Sully stood in front of a pale horse, Violetta’s beautiful light colored palomino Ivory Bell.

With the noise of the door, Sully turned to look at me. I was surprised to see tears running down his cheeks. The thing that took me off guard was his being alone, gently stroking the nose the horse in front of him, and weeping.

Violetta had shown me a video of Sully singing one of his songs live. It was a heart wrenching rendition of dark and depressed lyrics with loss, but ending with a tiny glimmer of hope. His voice was deep, powerful, but anguished. Yet his face was stone cold, his eyes were dry.

I had a lump in my throat as I listened and watched the video. My eyes were welling. When I glanced at my sister, her eyes glistened. But she chewed her lip, fighting back any more moisture coming to her windows to the soul. So I was amazed that Sully could sing so emotionally, yet appear emotionless.

I opened my mouth to speak. What words were to come out I don’t know because Sully spoke first as the sleeve of his t-shirt assisted with eliminating the fluid from his cheeks. “Man, my allergies! Lots of hay and dust in here.”

“Yes, high pollen count right now, too,” I added, feeling compelled to help him save face with his embarrassment. My own allergies were in fact affected by the pollen.

“Yeah, boy,” he said, stuffing his hands into the back pockets of his jeans.

“Yes indeed,” I said, and feeling awkward, I mimicked his gesture of hands in back pockets by jamming my hands into mine as well.

“Beautiful sunrise,” I said after several seconds of uncomfortable silence.

“I suppose so.”

“Out for a morning stroll?”

“Something like that,” he said. Then he looked at Ivory Bell, then back at me, and then back at the palomino. “I saw a woman riding her this morning out of my bedroom window. The sight of it reminded me of… something.”

“What kind of something?”

He looked at me with a concerned expression, as if he was wondering if he could trust me with a secret. He attempted to change the subject. “So, Callie lives here with her parents?”

“For the time being. Jeremey proposed not long after she graduated from college. So she figured she might as well keep living here until they tie the knot and move in together.”

“That nice old lady on the porch, surely that’s not her mother?”

I found it interesting he called her a nice old lady, and Grandma referred to him as a strange young man. Although she did so not mean spiritedly. “Her grandmother. Mine too. She lives with my Aunt and Uncle as well, which would obviously be Callie’s parents.”

“I see. Do you know who was riding this horse?”

“It had to be Violetta,” I told him. “That’s her side by side parked outside the barn since she only lives about two miles from here. And Ivory Bell is her horse.”

“Oh,” he replied, pulling his hand off her horse’s nose as if it were hot.

I giggled. “She’s not gonna care if you pet her horse.”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “She clearly doesn’t like me, so I don’t want to take my chances.”

“Trust me, she doesn’t dislike you.”

“Could have fooled me.”

“You just have to understand her.”

“Okay, so help me understand her. Jeremey tells me she and I are gonna be paired up.”

“Paired up?” I frowned. “Paired up how?”

“You know, in Jeremey and Callie’s wedding the week after this. I’m a groomsman and she’s a bridesmaid. We’ve been paired with each other to walk her down the aisle together. You know, her hand on my arm and what not. So it would be kind of nice if she didn’t look at me like she wanted to vomit.”

I didn’t really know what to make of all that. Was it significant? Anyway, Querida came to me in a dream instructing me to give him words of life. But I felt the need to understand his tears. I didn’t buy allergies. I also wanted to know what was behind SOMETHING. Sometimes to get people to open up, you need to share something of yourself.

“Violetta and I lost our brother a few years ago,” I told him. “She’s been pretty bitter ever since.”

“Jeremey mentioned something about Callie having a cousin who died,” Sully acknowledged. “I’m sorry. How did he pass away?”

“It’s complicated, but it was ruled a suicide. Personally, I suspect an accident, but Violetta believes it was murder.”

“Who does she think murdered him?”

“I’m not gonna say who she suspects, because that’s all it is, her suspicion.”

“Could she be correct?”

“Yes, it is possible, but not likely. Like I said, I believe it was an accident. Or maybe negligence would be a better description. He was quite intoxicated.”

“Can I ask how he died?”

“A running car in a closed garage.”

“I see.”

“Our brother was bullied because some people, mostly popular jocks, thought he was gay.”

“Was he?”

“I don’t know, he never talked to me about it. But there was an incident that got him labeled as such. But when he talked to me about that, he said it was something that never happened, It only looked like something happened.”

He opened his mouth to ask me about the something with my brother. But I asked him about his something with Ivory Bell first. I was quicker at the verbal exchange. “Can you tell me about the SOMETHING when you saw a woman on Ivory Bell?”

He shrugged, yet eyed me a little cautiously. “My wife… I mean my former wife… Actually, you see, I was married; but Poppy, my wife was killed in a car wreck a couple years ago.”

“Yes, I was aware of that. I’m so sorry.”

He nodded. “She always wanted a pony or a horse as a girl. When I, ya know, made the big time so to speak, I bought her a couple. They both looked similar to Ivory Bell here. When I saw the woman wearing a running outfit riding out there, it felt strange.”

“I’m sure it was Violetta,” I said.

He nodded, but his expression showed distaste. I perceived it had to do with Violetta reminding him of his wife. It seemed the resentment, animosity, or whatever it was between them, was mutual.

“For some reason Poppy liked to wear running attire when she rode, even though I bought her actual horse riding outfits. Then when I saw, you know… Violetta…”

“Violetta frequently likes to go for a run right after a horseback ride.”

“I see.”

“Can I ask you something about a song of yours?”

He arched an eyebrow. “You listen to my music?”

“No, not usually,” I said. But before I could continue, he started laughing. “What?”

“You are so genuine, Cricket. Have you ever told a lie?”

I bit my lip and looked at the rafters. “I don’t recall a lie I’ve told off hand. But I don’t want to tell you I haven’t, only to have the Lord bring one to mind I need to confess.”

“You fascinate me,” he said, then picked up a nearby bucket, turned it upside down and sat. “I figured you were a Christian right off the bat. Not just in name only either. My Poppy became a Christian a couple months before your Lord let her be violently killed. She supposedly gave her life to Him… So let me ask you something. Where was God when a drunk driver plowed into her car?”

I felt his pain. So I didn’t try to hide a tear that leaked from my eye. “The same place He was when His Son sweat great drops of blood, was violently beaten, whipped, spit on, and nailed to a cross.”

I could tell he was affected by my response. Which way or how much I didn’t know. But I would have to wait to find out as a familiar voice interrupted our dialogue.

“Cricket, are you in there?” Violetta said as the walk in barn door opened. Violetta entered, wearing dark blue stretch pants with matching sports bra. A baseball cap was backwards on her head while her face and arms were slick with sweat as she returned from a run.

“Good morning, Sister,” I greeted cheerily.

“Morning,” she said with a little smile. “What are you doing out here so early?”

No sooner had she said that when she spotted Sully sitting on the bucket. She stopped in her tracks, her smile evaporated and her eyes narrowed when she looked at his hand scratching Ivory Bell’s chest.

ANGELS AT WAR – CHAPTER 21

Posted on July 27, 2026 by Johnathan Embers

ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 21

ARCHANGEL QUERIDA

VANITY OF VANITIES, SAYS THE PREACHER; VANITY OF VANITIES, ALL IS VANITY (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

“What did I tell you, Querida?” Vermillion said with satisfaction. “Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.”

I began to move away from my adversary, but my former friend followed me and used a human expression. “What’s the matter, cat got your tongue? Hang on a minute, I want to show you something.”

Although I knew he wanted to gloat, or point out something negative, I stopped. His team was brewing something very bad, and I thought he might give me a clue. But that wouldn’t necessarily be the case. Vermillion was very shrewd and had planned diabolically well.

The two adulteress neighbors had been sneaking around for eight months, stealing time wherever and whenever they could, including Jenny’s basement, Justin’s minivan in a secluded park, and even a few times in a pay by the hour motel.

They became addicted to the adrenaline as much as their lust for each other. The deceptive thrill of the forbidden fueled their blinded minds. Their carnal passion made them like dogs chasing their tails. They couldn’t get enough and they couldn’t stop. Lust doesn’t completely fulfill like real love does.

“Notice how the two illicit lovers are so relaxed and lingering,” Vermillion said and then giggled maliciously. “They think they have arranged the perfect tryst, but a violent storm approaches.”

For the first time since the adulterers consummated their illegitimate relationship, their significant others were supposed to be out of town at the same time. Jenny’s husband Jimmy was camping with a church youth group. And Jill supposedly went to her parents’ home in Des Moines for the weekend.

“I’d say old Jenny has fulfilled the seductress from Proverbs chapter seven quite accurately in a modern sense,” Vermillion declared rather pleased. “Her husband is gone for a couple days, taking a sleeping bag with him. She put her best sheets on the bed. She kissed her lover aggressively when he stepped into her home. Then they took their fill of love until the morning. But that’s where it ends.”

Tragedy was about to strike, and I needed to confer with my team.

“Off to consult with Althea and Liam?” Vermillion inquired, referring to Jenny’s and Justin’s guardian angels.

I ignored him. Even when people are not in a right relationship with their Maker, they are still afforded protection most of the time. This does not mean that if they do die, they are awarded eternal life. Salvation is a free gift, but it can be rejected.

This rejection is rarely a person consciously proclaiming, ‘no I do not want salvation.’ It is almost always a person doing their own will rather than God’s will. Jesus said if you love Him, you will keep His commandments. (John 14:15) Maybe the biggest danger is procrastination. The Bible declares NOW is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Human existence is strange in so many ways. One of them is fear. So often a person will worry for nothing. They develop anxiety over a possible situation, and then it doesn’t comes to pass. Then there are those without a care in the world when a sudden, unexpected calamity overtakes them.

Jenny and Justin relaxed in bed after committing adultery for the umpteenth time in the last several months. Familialarity with their sin had reduced their anxiety, guilt, and shame to an occasional itch. Whereas in the beginning it had been a flaming boil. Then a little time had allowed carnal passion to put a warm compress on the discomfort of a guilty, worried conscience.

The more they indulged, the less they were convicted by their sins. The more they indulged, the more the excitement of the next encounter replaced the feelings of betrayal they once had. Vermillion’s team also gave them an extra sexual thrill at chasing the forbidden.

Like a drug, it had become addictive and deceptive. But in the end, unlike love, it was unfulfilling. Oh, they told each other they were in love. They felt their shared secret gave them a special bond. But even if their relationship developed into leaving their spouses for each other, how could a cheat ever truly trust a cheater?

They had become hardened under the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:13) With their spouses gone for a couple days, they were both enraptured by an exciting first involving their illicit relationship. After months of sneaking around, and their typical tryst being a fast thrill, they now had two full days to drink wine and consume lust. For the first time they were going to sleep together in the truest sense of the word.

But what they hadn’t accounted for was one of their spouses becoming suspicious. Distrustful to the point they had hired a private detective. One encounter being exceptionally incriminating. With a telephoto lense he captured the two lovers arriving separately at a cheap motel, but they both entered the same room.

I need to be careful with my next wording, but there is a famous human saying about a woman scorned. The two lovers were about to experience this in the full sense of the phrase. After hours of intoxicating wine and passion, they fell into a deep sleep.

In the early hours of the morning, they didn’t hear Jill Phillips sneak into the Stetson house. As she slowly made her way to the lover’s nest, a demon whispered a poem into her head. It was a rhyme composed more than a hundred years earlier regarding Lizzie Borden and the axe murders of her father and stepmother. Only Jill and the demon changed the words to fit this current crime.

“Jill Phillips took an axe,” her lips muttered. “And gave her husband forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave his lover forty one.”

I watched with bated breath. We are not always allowed to interfere with fallen world activity. Vermillion sidled up next to me again. “Funny how human lives play out, isn’t it?”

I looked at him and then back at the drama unfolding.

“How come you’re not running interference?”

I remained silent.

“I get it,” he said, and then laughed diabolically. “They made their bed and now they need to sleep in it… Permanently!”

“We’ll see,” I said hopefully.

“Who would have thought it would be Jenny and not Jimmy that betrayed their vows two and a half decades after promising them,” Vermillion said with a mockingly, sentimental tone as he began a little biography. “I mean, Jimmy was the one that was a player, while Jenny was a plain Jane, nerdy bookworm. Their marriage sure puzzled his old drinking buddies. After all the ravaging beauties he bedded, he up and marries someone who looked like she stepped off the set of ‘Little House On the Prairie.’

“They said behind his back, ‘he sure married down.’ But things shifted over the years. He quit smoking and became a nibbler. Gluttony can be subtle, can’t it? And it often goes overlooked. After all, everybody eats. So in only a few years, his six pack abs transformed into a little keg. His hair began to thin.

“Jenny, on the other hand, really got into aerobics after having two kids. She started running. She ate well. By the time the Stetson’s reached their twentieth anniversary, Jimmy was bald and overweight. Jenny was toned, fit, and habitually got blonde highlights streaked through her light brown hair. She wore outfits that showed off her shapely legs. People began to think, ‘ole Jimmy sure married up.’

“Then you have the Phillips. High school sweethearts. Prom king and queen. Home coming king and queen. Head cheerleader to his quarterback. While a teenager and in her early twenties, Jill’s tendency for weight gain was held in check. A voluptuous body with an exceptionally pretty face made her the envy of many girls and the desire of most guys.

“After birthing two children, it took Jill great discipline with what she put in her mouth, and much effort at exercise to return to a semblance of what she had been. But after a third child, an unexpected pregnancy at thirty something, she threw up her hands in defeat. She put minimal effort into exercise, and no longer held much discipline with food.

“She hated the failed attempts of girlfriends to disguise disapproval when she indulged comfort food in front of them. She resented non-disguised disapproval from her mother. And she despised her husband’s not so subtle hints. She hated the older woman next door and how she seemed to purposely flaunt her hard body in those spandex shorts. Yet she hid her roiling jealousy over her husband running with Jenny, because he had petitioned her many times to join him herself.

“So he didn’t notice that she noticed his friendship with the woman next door grow cozier and cozier. What happened to them? To her? She had quite literally been a queen to his king. Now over the last year especially, he avoided intimacy with her. This lack made her feel all the more like a dumpy old hag. And it was all because of a woman that was technically old enough to be his mother.”

“Are you about finished?” I asked.

“Quite!” he said and then bellowed with maniacal laughter. “And so are the love birds.”

I couldn’t help what happened next. Earth is a sin filled, fallen planet. I get filled with righteous indignation when God is blamed for Satan’s doings. Heaven and unfallen worlds are perfect. This place with wars, famines, and so much cruelty is ultimately the result of the war in heaven, caused by Lucifer’s rebellion. Yet people at large call natural disasters, ‘acts of God.’ To use a human term, Hogwash!

So when a person becomes a Christian, they become a rebel, in a sense. They rebel against their selfish tendencies and the ways of this world. Humans are warned that they are pilgrims here, and that all that live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. (2 Timothy 3:12)

But Jesus encourages, “be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) There is also the comfort with these words of the Savior. “Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.”

But the two lovers were not living Godly in Christ Jesus. Not only their human lives were at stake, but their souls were in jeopardy as well. So I cringed when the vengeful woman, with a sharp axe raised above her head, brought it down swift and hard on the shadowy, sleeping target.

ANGELS AT WAR – CHAPTER 20

Posted on July 20, 2026 by Johnathan Embers

ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 20

ARCHANGEL QUERIDA

YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY (Exodus 20:14)

“Are you disappointed she didn’t confess?” Vermillion asked. His tone was surprisingly neutral from what he usually spoke to me when he wanted to gloat or boast.

“If you don’t have expectations with sinful humanity, you’re not disappointed,” I replied.

“Is that why you’re side rejoices over one sinner that repents?” he asked with a mocking tone as he referred to Luke 15:7 and 10.

“Why do you seem disappointed?”

“I’m not. You know my side prefers sin and secrecy over truth and honesty.”

“You must not be confident that there will be a second indiscretion.”

“Oh, it’s not that at all. Now that she didn’t confess, she, I should say they, are gonna disregard the warnings of Proverbs chapter five about adultery. I just felt the confession would have been interesting to watch.”

Now I knew why he was neutral. To use a human expression, he wanted to have his cake and eat it too. He wanted to see the possibility of marriages destroyed with the adultery coming to light. At minimum marriages damaged. But he also wanted to see his prediction of rinse and repeat come to fruition.

It had not even been an hour since the woman defiled herself with a man who wasn’t her husband. To add severity to the sin, the man she went to bed with was married as well. He was also the father of three young children. To make the iniquity yet more precarious, he was her next door neighbor.

She had scrubbed herself aggressively in the shower after the encounter. Not only did she wish to scrub the sin away, she wanted to make sure any possible scent of her paramour’s cologne was gone. Then, facing her husband less than a half an hour after she dried off, he had leaned toward her and asked, “What’s that smell?”

Her guilty conscience warned her that he suspected. In an effort to get her sin off of her chest, she blurted, “I have something I need to tell you.”

He walked past her to the gas stove. “You didn’t turn the burner all the way off. So what did you need to tell me?”

“How careless of me,” she said, looking at the stove with a frown as her brain scrambled for something to ‘tell’ him. “Um, there’s a light bulb burned out in the bathroom.”

“Okay,” he said laughing. “You made it sound like something more urgent than a burned out light bulb.”

“I just didn’t want to forget. You can reach it, but I’d have to get the little step ladder from the shed.”

The next day, the woman got a text message from her young lover about going for a run. She made an excuse to not go. The following day the same text and made the same excuse to not go. The third day he called. As she looked at caller ID, she sighed and decided she couldn’t evade him forever. She might as well face the music. Yet she didn’t push answer in time. It went to voice mail, and he left a brief message. “Please call me within the next few hours. We need to talk, and Jill and the kids won’t be home until at least seven thirty.”

She paced the living room nervously biting her thumb. Why was she hesitating? Did she actually want another tryst, even though she felt compelled to tell him their fling was a mistake? She wanted them to get back to normal. But what was normal? Flirting and lusting had become normal, and then that led to the point where they crossed a line!

No, she determined to not only tell him it was a mistake, but that they needed to stop seeing each other altogether. Their relationship needed to be strictly a wave across the fence followed by a ‘hello neighbor, nice day.’ Then maybe their indiscretion would fade over time. She sighed heavily and picked up her phone. She might as well get it over with.

“Hey,” she greeted softly, rather than her usual perky attitude.

“Hey,” he replied with his own low tone. “Were you trying to avoid me?”

“Why would I try to do that?” she asked, half joking and half serious as she tried to dial up a more lively vibe.

“Because something pretty big happened between us the other day.”

“Yeah, Justin, about that. We… ya know… made a mistake.”

“I thought we made love.”

“But we are both married.”

“I know.”

There was a long awkward pause. “Justin, I can’t have an affair. I love my husband… I think we need to stop running together, hanging out together.”

“I completely understand. I felt terrible as well. But I do not want to lose our friendship.”

She didn’t either. She hated the thought of their relationship being reduced to ‘sure could use some rain’ over the fence.

“So, how about it? Let’s go for a run and try to get back to normal.”

“Okay,” she replied with both a grin and a frown. “But I only have about a half hour, then I need to get supper started.

“That’s fine.”

As Vermillion and I watched, my opponent became giddy despite the woman putting on loose sweat pants instead of her usual painted on spandex shorts. She also pulled a large t-shirt over her head, covering the tight sports bra.

Despite a resolve to just be friends, she felt a sense of skepticism. How could they go back to normal? Before their sin, they had a mutual attraction and a playful flirtation. Now that they gave in to the desires that resulted, would that just go away? Was it possible? They had opened a door. The question was, could it be shut before the illicit winds of lust opened it wider.

But it seemed to work! Their playful banter was still present, but the sexual innuendos that had evolved over the previous months were absent. The chemistry was still there but held in check. Maybe just friends could work. They were well behaved and polite, and this seemed to give Vermillion great delight. He told me. “It’s the little things, Q, that build up to bigger things.”

As their run ended, Justin followed her into her garage. He held out his hand to shake. With a boyish grin he said, “Thank you for accompanying me, Mrs. Stetson.”

“Thank you for escorting me, Mr. Phillips,” she replied with her own grin. But then for some reason, she spontaneously winked at him.

Their hands were still joined and Justin’s grin faded as he contemplated that wink. Then for some reason he spontaneously pulled her hand toward his face. With eyes locked on hers, he kissed it. Her pulse began to quicken, but so did her conscience. She jerked her hand from his but smiled coyly. “Are we gonna be able to remain just friends?”

With a suggestive low tone, he growled. “You tell me.”

“We have to,” she declared and gave him a playful shove. “Now, I think we both need a shower.”

“So, are you suggesting we take a shower together?”

“Justin!” she said with hands sternly on her hips, but a little smile curled on her lips. “I mean you in your house and me in mine. We can’t go down that road!”

“We already did.”

“Well, we need to realize that it’s a dead end.”

“So let’s park and stay there awhile.”

“Look, Justin, I don’t think running together and hanging out is gonna work. There seems to be just too much chemistry between us, and now that we, you know, got to know each other in a way reserved for our spouses. I mean, don’t you feel guilty? I know I do.”

She hoped bringing up their partners would deter him, but it only added fuel to his fire. “I do, but there’s another side of the coin. Both of the spouses you mention are terribly out of shape. And ironically, trying to initiate sex with mine is like trying to pull her teeth. And you admitted that yours has recently developed certain problems. Which is also ironic since his wife has to be the hottest fifty something on the planet.”

His compliment made her suddenly wish she was in her usual attire rather than frumpy sweats. He was clearly willing to pursue an affair, and she found this prospect both alluring and disturbing. Determined to focus on disturbing, she said, “Justin, it just isn’t right. We both took vows.”

“True enough, but you were willing to break them the other day. How come then but not now?”

She shrugged. “I gave into desire.”

He grinned and took hold of her hand. “So give in again.”

“I can’t.”

“But why? I thought the other day was absolutely amazing! Forgive me, but you seemed to thoroughly enjoy yourself as well. So why am I now repulsive?”

“Trust me, you are anything but repulsive.”

“If that’s the case, I still don’t get it.”

“Don’t you feel guilty, Justin? I mean, not just for our own spouses either. I don’t know if I could look Jill in the eyes right now.”

“You’re over thinking this.”

“You didn’t answer me. Don’t you feel guilty?”

He shrugged. “Of course I do. But you’re worth it. The guilt will fade with time. We are both just freaked out by the newness of our secret love.”

He loved her! Did she love him? Why were there so many mixed feelings? She realized they were still holding hands and she pulled hers away. She tried a different approach. Although she skipped church more often than she went these days, she said, “I’m a deaconess in our church; I was head deaconess for more than a decade. Do you realize how humiliating it would be if we got caught? Look, I’m already late getting supper going and I need to shower first.”

“Run tomorrow?”

She bit her lip and looked at her watch. “We’ll see.”

Vermillion couldn’t keep silent. “Do you see why we usually win with fallen humanity, Querida? She is clearly more concerned with getting caught rather than the sin itself. But I guess that should be obvious since they’ve already done the dirty deed. Watch what happens next.”

I knew what his team had in the works and it wasn’t good. The thing that made it all the more despicable was they were using the good heart of the adulteress’s husband. He was one of those people that many others rely on when in need. The type of guy that would give the shirt off his back when someone was in need.

The adulteress’s mind was completely absorbed with her paramour and their dialogue. So she gave a little start as she dried off from her shower when her phone sounded off. Then she recoiled for a second as she reached for it and saw her husband’s name on caller ID. It was as if he knew her thoughts. It was as if he knew about her fling. But he couldn’t, could he? The guilty mind sure can be paranoid.

“Hi, Honey,” she said cheerfully, yet her hand trembled slightly.

“Hey, Babe,” her husband cooed lovingly, calming her instantly. “Have you started supper yet?”

“I was about to. I was just drying off from a shower after a run.”

She bit her lip. Every once in a while he asked if she ran with Justin. Never out of jealousy, always simply conversational. But he didn’t ask about their neighbor; he went right into the reason for his call. “Jared Anderson forgot to turn his lights off on his car when he got to work this morning, so I’m going over to his office to jump start him. By the time I drive over there and get him going, I won’t be home until around eight, give or take.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll wait an hour to start supper.”

“Thanks, Babe, love you.”

“Love you, too,” she told him.

Her heart pounded with excitement. She scrolled her contacts for Justin’s number. She was about to hit send, when my team pricked her conscience. She groaned and tossed her phone onto the bed. But she had freewill, and sometimes when carnal desire gets rolling, it’s hard to stop. Us trying to influence the conscience then becomes like trying to stop a Mack truck with a butterfly net.

My team’s job becomes easier to a large degree when people stay grounded in the Word of God, coupled with prayer. It’s been said, and I agree, that prayer is the better half of study. When this is practiced, humans experience a very high success rate with victory over sin.

Spiritual things have been compared to food and water. Jesus said if anyone thirsts let them come to Him and drink. (John 7:37) He also called Himself the Bread of Life. (John 6:35) How often does one need to eat and drink their physical food? As with physical nourishment, so with the spiritual sustenance. One needs it multiple times a day.

On the other hand, beware. The enemy does double down on those that are serious about God. The Bible warns that those who live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. (2 Timothy 3:12) The demons don’t need to work hard on the people that already don’t care about following God.

Unfortunately the adulteress, someone still considered a church leader, had back slidden from devoted prayer and study. Her daily devotion had become reduced to a halfhearted thirty second prayer before bed. But her mind did anguish and wrestle with her dilemma over her potential lover for almost five minutes. But time was waning, she needed to make a decision.

Having forfeited her strong connection with God, Vermillion’s team was able to harness her carnal desires. One of the first things they did after taking a hold of the reins was convince her that another dalliance was meant to be. Justin was right about them deserving each other. But was there still time?

Almost frantically she picked up her phone. Justin’s name was still up and she hit send.

“Hey, Jenny, what’s up?” his voice said into her ear.

“Jimmy won’t be home until around eight… Do you want to come over?”

Seven Sallie Showdown

Forces of good and evil battle for Seven Sallie's soul

Tag: angel

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