Long Ago...Part 3: The Transformation

 ...That was the beginning of the end of life as the man knew it. 

And a new beginning for the man.

He stopped crushing the rebellion, and joined the very 'cult' he had sworn to eradicate.

The leaders thought he had gone insane. He told people of his experience with the Good Man. No one believed him at first. Not even the members of his new 'family'. They thought it was a trick, a clever ruse to maneuver himself into their inner circles to discover their secrets and get his hands on their leaders.
But that didn't stop him. He persevered until one man believed him. This man took him to the venerable leaders of the group-men who had walked by the Good Man's side while he was on earth- and convinced them that what he had seen, and the choices he had made, were real. The leaders accepted him with great rejoicing, knowing that a time of great suffering for their people at his hands had ended.

But word leaked out...and those he once served didn't hold the same views.

The very ones who had sent him off to murder and ravage with the calm assurance that it was the One True God's will, now sought him out like a rabid dog upon discovering he had accepted the Gospel of Peace.

For years now, he had been on the run, abandoning his house, possessions, prestige, power, authority, position in the religious circles- everything a man holds dear in this world. He sacrificed them all for a life of danger, abject suffering, brutal betrayal, bone numbing weariness, and perhaps one day an agonizing, painful death at the hands of his so called 'friends' from the past. Never secure, never safe, he constantly wondered when he woke up to a new dawn, if this was the last day he would live on the planet.

Why would he trade such a good life for misery? 
Many had called him a fool.

The man blinked and glanced around the room, moving from the guttering oil lamp, faint outlines of the moldy room fixtures, and the single sheet of parchment on the roughly hewn low table. In the eyes of the world he had nothing. But was this new life worth it?

A smile cracked his face “Completely,” he said aloud into the dark air. For all his life, it had been all or nothing. After his encounter with the Good Man, he had even changed his name, to reflect the new nature the Good Man had bestowed upon him.

Back in the room, he had weighed the cost. Every sacrifice was worth the price he would pay to be near the Good Man. And if that was all he ever received from the relationship... it would be enough.

 And now the Good Man had given him a new purpose. To build instead of tear down. To heal instead of attack. How strange, he thought- that I would bring life, where I once brought death. 
 This was why he sat in the dim room, writing so furiously. Those who worshipped the One True God and His Son must know the worth of the Good Man's sacrifice for them. And they must in turn tell others...others like he had once been. They must all know.

Left to himself and the One True God's presence, that is just what he was attempting now.

He picked up the quill again, and continued writing. He had just reached the last bit of empty space at the corner of the parchment, when the fading lamplight sputtered and the wick sizzled into charred embers.  
But it was alright. 
He had finished. 

 

 

To Be Continued...