Heavens Battle

         5/19/16 A. Castelli
Writing Prompt: Upon entering the gates of heaven you learn God is a totalitarian dictator. You are quickly snatched by an underground rebel group led by Satan.

As I ascend towards the swirling vortex of bright light, I catch one last glimpse of my weak and aged body. I, or rather it, lay peacefully in my bed holding my wife's picture. She left the earth almost five years ago to the day. I can't wait to be with her again. I really hope that I am going to the same place she has gone.
         The light pulls me in, like the current of a river. I feel an immense pressure around me, which is strange to me, I thought at this point that I was a spirit, a soul without a body, a floating apparition, but no, I feel solid. Going through the tunnel of light, I begin to see images, like a computer monitor, but just images on the walls of the tunnel. These appear to be instructions of how to cope with my new form. I begin to hear the instructions playing in my mind. With the audio and visual instructions, I learn that I can manipulate my spirit into any form, at anytime I want from my previous life. I also realize that I can stay in the light as lang as it takes to accomplish this transition. The instructions also teach me that I can see people how I remember them and in any form no matter what form they chose, as long as they were already in my memory.
         I decide on how I will look and practice switching between that and my current age of 83. My wife and I met when I was on leave from the Marines in 1945. I imagine that she would do the same, as that was our happiest time together, our whole life was great, but those are the times we always remembered together. As I master the skills of form manipulation, I begin to emerge from the lighted tunnel to a sort of staging area. I float down to the floor in an open glass walled building that reminds me of an airport, high ceilings, glass walls, escalators and hallways everywhere I look. I see a lot of different people, which I assume have just arrived from the same journey as me.
         From my travel through the light, I learned that I should follow the red scrolling signs to departure gate E. As I make my way toward the E hallway, I pass a mirror and catch my reflection. I see myself as a 20 year old Marine veteran of WW II wearing my faded pale green BDUs. I look at myself and think how I cant wait to see Carolyn. Over my shoulder in the mirror I notice a man and a woman watching me. They also are watching everything around them, obviously looking for something. I turn toward the hallway and begin walking, keeping an eye on them, now following me. I don't think they realize I notice them, because they are very occupied with the people around them, yet still following me. I get to hallway E and notice a crying coming from the double doors just to the left of the hall entrance. It sounds like a child crying. My curiosity gets the better of me and I try to look between the slightly ajar doors to get a visual of the child. It is pitch balsk in there and before I could pull my head away from the door, it swings open and I was tackled from behind into the room.
         The next thing I know, my hands are bound and I am being carried by two huge men down a dimly lit corridor somewhere not in a public area of the building. My mouth is gagged and I try to scream.
One of the men says "If you get us caught, we will all suffer."
I take his advice to heart and go along with the ride. Not five minutes later, I am in the back of a carriage being driven from the building. In the bed of the carriage, one of the men cuts free the bonds that hold my hands together and with my free hands, I remove the gag from my mouth. The driver of the carriage is the other man that carried me down the corridor. I glare at both of them, the driver looks over his shoulder at me and says nothing.
The man that freed my hands looks at me and says, "Sorry for the theatrics. Carolyn is waiting for you."
I assume that I wasn't in danger anymore since I was free, but maybe the danger did not lye with these men. What was the reason they took me from what appeared to be the normal way of doing things, at least that's what the instructional information told me.
We rode for what felt like hours, through streams, in and out of woods, across fields and into a forest type area. I noticed no other signs of human life until we reached the cottage. The little house backed up to a small hill that backed up to a mountain. When we pulled up front, a woman came from the side of the cottage to take the reigns of the horse. I noticed it was the same woman that was following me in the arrival building. I was instructed to go inside and wait in the front room. Inside, I sat down by the fire on the hearth and waited. In walked the man that was following me in the arrival building, offered me something that looked like coffee to drink and said "sorry for the shove through the door mate. Hope I didn't rough you too bad."
" I am alright, just a bit confused of what's going on" I said.
The man extended his hand and said "I am Liam, a soldier like yourself. We fight for the resistance."
"Resistance against what?" I asked.
Liam said "God. I understand you are Catholic, but everything we have been taught on earth was a lie. And if you find that hard to swallow, Satan is the leader of our resistance."
I literally spit my coffee out and said "WHAT? You fight for Satan? If that is so, let me speak with him."
"We will meet him soon, but for now I should fill you in on the Truth." As I heard the words I knew it was her. Carolyn was standing in the shadow of the door and walked into the room. She looked as I had imagined, a 20 year old beautiful woman, but dressed in similar clothes to my BDUs. Although smiling and happy to see me, she had a look of fear on her face.
"What Liam said is true, Satan is actually the good guy here. I am his first Lieutenant, soon to be replaced by you. He has been waiting for you, so has God. We were just luck enough to get to you first." She said.