Chapter
4 – Brother’s Keeper Till the End
What’s this now? It must be another dream, so
I pray-
“This
is a vision of a possible future,” a voice says that sounds similar to the
Sufferer’s.
Possible
future? What do you mean?
“Enjoy
your time with your wife and kids. It will not last long.”
“Adler, it’s time to take the kids to school.”
“Huh?” I see my kids, a boy who looks like me
and a girl who looks like my wife. Together, we eat, and they tell me all about
our lives and today’s schedule. The details about everything go over my head as
I marvel at my kids, how beautiful they are, and the joy I take in just seeing
them happy. Since today is Bring Your Dad to School day, I get to go along with
my kids to school and be with them more. I watch as my boy intelligently describes
the human body, how medicines work, and his plans to make better medicine to
help people. My girl gets up and wonderfully sings a song from one of her
favorite shows that she dedicates to me. During this entire time, I tell my
kids how proud of them I am and how talented and smart they are while holding
back tears of joy and sadness.
The end of the day quickly comes, and as I
embrace my wife and kids in one big family hug, the feelings of joy switch to
feelings of desperation as I feel the time with them coming to a close. “No,
wait! Give me more time, please! I beg you!”
I wake up from the dream and see that I’m by
myself on a couch in the room of a rundown house with a leaking roof. That
dream felt too real to me and I have to fight the feeling of crying and hating how
my life currently is.
“I knew that would do the trick. Make a
person feel happy and they’ll forget all about serving their God.”
“Leave me!”
“You need me to be happy. Come to face me at
your ruined hideout, the church, alone, or everyone in town will die.” Before I
can say anything, The Light disappears. I didn’t hear a trace of my brother’s
voice in the Light, and yet, I still feel him within the Light. Taking the
Light’s words to heart, I immediately get up without waking anyone and head to
the ruined church.
“I’m here. It’s time to end this.”
“It is and you have a choice. You and I can
join forces. Break off the burden of the Sufferer and you will get the life
that I showed you in a dream. It’s what you want and you know I can give it to
you. This part of history isn’t a lie in that many before you who were blessed
with Necessary Suffering came to this point and accepted my offer. Your brother
may die, but if you sacrifice him for me, I spare your new friends in town and
make them forget about their dedication to the Sufferer so they’ll stay your
friends. I’ll even make that woman, Kami, fall in love with you on top of it.
She reminds you a lot of Morticia, your first love, doesn’t she? She has much
of the same style though she isn’t as shy.”
“I refuse! There’s more to life than being
happy and that dream just made me angrier than anything.”
“Then try to kill me without also damning
your brother or send your brother to Hell with me. He does deserve it after
all.” I leap at the Light, reach inside his heart, and attempt to separate him
from my brother. While I am doing this, he slashes and stabs at my face and
chest with his knife-like fingers. “Why suffer and die for someone that hates
you?”
“Because the Sufferer loves and is love, and
suffering and dying for someone is the greatest expression of it.” With a firm
grip on the Light, I rip him apart from my brother and throw him aside. His skin
melts into itself, becomes a black snake, and slithers into the ground.
All that remains of my brother is a bleeding barely
living man, and at the same time, the injuries that I suffered for him catch up
to me and make me fall to the ground. Mikheil holds me and says, “Why, Adler?”
“Because you’re my brother and I love you.
Our time here is about to come to an end.”
“It’s such a shameful, uneventful end.
Someone like you should’ve died more gloriously that the history books would’ve
written about for what you’ve done.”
“That doesn’t matter to me. All that matters
is doing the right thing and doing my best to save you.” I hold my bleeding
hand out to Mikheil. “Will you join me in Heaven, brother?”
“Stop calling me that! I don’t deserve to be called
your brother for what I did to you!” Mikheil shakes me when I don’t respond. “Adler?
Adler! Don’t let me now!”
“Adler is dead and by my side,” the Sufferer
says.
“No, no, no! Bring him back to me! I need him
to help me…”
“He has done everything and more. The final
choice is up to you.”
“…okay. Okay! I give myself to you. I truly
do and not just to save my soul, but because it’s the right thing to do like
Adler said. Don’t let my little brother’s sacrifice be in vain.” Mikheil soon
bleeds out and finds himself with me in Heaven.
“Brother!” I say as I run and hug him, “I’m
so glad that you got here.”
“Heh, I should be the one who is gladder than
you. Why do I still look like this?”
“Because those wounds that you suffered are
your treasure that got you into Heaven. They glorify you and will look better
once you get in here. At least you won’t feel the pain of it anymore.”
“Tell me about it. So, what do we do now?
What will happen on earth now that the Light has been defeated and it’s without
a king?”
“The Sufferer will take care of it, and if He
can break the Light’s control of it despite his once total control of it, He
can retake it once and for all. Our time is done and our reward awaits. Come
with me.” Mikheil takes my hand and enters Heaven with me where we will live in
true happiness and love forever with truth and love itself.
The End
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