The Return of the Man of GOD

Hey people! I hope you are having a great week - The weekend is almost here....Happy Friday! Without further ado, I present to you the final chapter in this "Man of GOD" saga! I really do hope you've enjoyed the ride if you've managed to come this far! I certainly have enjoyed writing the story. Perhaps I will pick it up from here in the future!


The Return of the Man of GOD

1.

The days went by, then weeks and months, but no one saw or heard from Johnny. Every night, before she went to bed, Cynthia recounted all the facts in her head. A missing persons report had been filed the day after Johnny had disappeared. Abidel had been charged with kidnapping, though he had not given the police any meaningful leads to Johnny's whereabouts. What was even stranger was that his identity could not be traced. His name drew a blank in all the police searches, he was of no known fixed address, and he certainly wasn't a citizen of the United Kingdom. As far as the authorities could tell, he wasn't a citizen of any country for that matter. According to him, he was the citizen of another world. Another kingdom. According to the police, he must be the member of some kind of crazed deep undercover sect; if they could find this cult then they would apprehend his accomplices and uncover whatever hole they were keeping Johnny, dead or alive. After six months, no one could deny the possibility that Johnny may not be found alive. Under normal circumstances, she would agree with the police's version of the story. But her other-worldly dreams and Abidel's accurate knowledge of them made her doubt common sense. What if he really was from another world? What if Johnny was really there right now, valiantly attempting to bring their baby back? She was deep in these same thoughts she'd had every day since Johnny disappeared when she heard a knock on the door. She looked through the peep hole. It was Detective Carter.

"Good afternoon detective," she said as she opened the door. "Please do come in."
"Thank you Cynthia. How are you keeping?"

"I'm okay, thanks. But obviously my mind will never be at rest until I know what's happened to Johnny. Do you have any new leads yet?"

"No, unfortunately we have nothing yet. We have people working round the clock to make sure we find him. We're doing everything we possibly can."

"Has Abidel given us anything? Or is he sticking to his original story?"

"He's stuck hard and fast to his original story. A real nutcase, that one is!"

"I know you're a sceptic, but what if there is some truth to this story of his? After all, in half a year, your best detectives and secret service agents have failed to prove that he is from planet earth!"

His lack of objection betrayed the fact that he didn't entirely disagree with her. In fact, if she could read him correctly after six months of knowing him, she could tell that he was holding something back. "What are you not telling me detective?"

"I think you need to sit down for this."

"Don't tell me to sit down, just tell me what you've got!"

"Well, I was going over the autopsy report for your baby."

"And?"

"As was stated in the coroner's preliminary report, the cause of death was perinatal asphyxia which resulted in cardiac arrest. Unfortunately, the coroner died shortly after and was unable to complete his report, but these documents were recently found in his home."

"What do they say?"

"It seems that there was a discrepancy with the time of death. According to this, the coroner was investigating the possibility that the baby died sometime before the time of birth, up to seventy-two hours before."

"How is that possible? I had a scan the day before the delivery - my baby was alive and healthy!"

"There is more. As you can imagine, DNA tests are usually not conducted during autopsies, especially when the course of death is natural as was the case here. I decided to take some DNA from frozen samples from the autopsy to conduct a maternity test. I have conducted the test with three different samples this week, and each time the results were conclusive. There is a ninety-nine point nine percent certainty that you are not the mother of this child!"

Cynthia's head spun. She felt dizziness clouding her mind so she sat down to catch her breath. "How could this have happened? How could you let this happen? My baby has been out there somewhere for six months and you let me think he was dead?"

"Please understand this, the cause of death is only revealed in about forty percent of autopsied stillbirths. The new coroner who took over the file would have had no reason to keep the file open after the cause of death had been determined! There is no way anyone would have thought to do a maternity test unless they had suspected foul play!"

"Or unless they had listened to Abidel!" She got up and grabbed her coat. "I am going to speak to him now to find out everything I can. If you can't do your job right then I will have to find my baby and Johnny myself!" Her words were ignited by the suddenly new possibility that her baby was out there. Alive. Somewhere. But before she could get past Carter to the door, she burst into tears. She grabbed the detective tightly and wept into his chest.

"Shh, don't cry," Carter said, trying to console her. "We will find your baby, and we will find Johnny. But there's nothing you can do right now, it's the middle of the night. Get a good night's rest and we'll speak first thing in the morning okay?"

After a few minutes, she resigned herself to staying at home, at least for the night, and slumped unto the couch exhausted.

"Is there anything I can get you?" Carter asked as he readied to leave.
Just then, he got a call and answered his cell phone before Cynthia could respond to his question. He listened to the call attentively and after a few seconds, Cynthia could see his eyes go wide with utter shock and disbelief. "Okay, we will be right there!" Then he hung up.

"Quick, put on your coat. We're going down to the station. Now!"

"Hold on, I thought you said nothing can be done tonight?"

"That's changed. We need to hurry down now. I will explain on the way!"

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2.

Emperor Melek sat in his courtyard playing with his new toy. The gift that Johnny had brought him from the other world. The I-pod. He skipped from one song to another excitedly taking in the deluge of new sounds, beats and percussions emanating from the earphones. This garage music as Johnny had called it was certainly fascinating. The Oracle on the other hand wasn't so impressed. Johnny and Beza had taken the baby he had tried to pass off as the Chosen One to return him to the other world, and for the first time his grand plan slipping away from him. He strode across the room, deep in thought, ignoring the Emperor's playful antics with the I-Pod.

"Your Majesty, I do not believe that we should have allowed them to leave with the baby," The Oracle finally said, turning to face the Emperor.

"I allowed them to leave. I, not we," the Emperor replied without looking up, too engrossed in uncovering the secrets of the I-Pod. "I believed my wife when she said that baby could not be ours. They shall return him to his world and bring our boy back here."

"Why does thy highness believe that they shall return with thy child? What incentive does this Johnny of London have to find the child when he returneth to his own land?". At that question, the Emperor looked up at him and put the I-Pod down. Now that he had the man's attention, the Oracle pressed on, "If thou had kept one of them prisoner, the other would have had to return with the baby! I suggest you go after them and stop them before it's too late!"

"You speak with reason, but I don't think that would be necessary. I am sure they shall return with my child..." as he spoke, he noticed the screen of the I-pod flashing with the words BATTERY LOW. Without further warning it went dead, and try as he may, he could not turn it back on.

The Oracle realised that his was his moment. "Your Majesty, now thou hast seen with thine own eyes the deception of Johnny of London? How can thy trust him if even his gifts are filled with lies? You must give chase. They are only three days ahead of us. At full stride, we can catch them before they reach the gateway!"

After several futile attempts at turning the I-pod back on, The Emperor threw it on the floor in frustration. "Ebed-Melek!" he called for the General of his Royal Guard who was never far away. "Quick, take 100 of the Royal Guard and saddle a horse for me. We set off for the Path of the Oracle immediately!"

Beza and Johnny were near the Oracle's hut when they saw the Royal Guard approaching from the plains of Masai at full gallop in the distance. They hurried into the hut and lay Johnny's baby on the table in the middle of the living area. Beza knelt by the child and said a quick prayer. Beza rose and was leaving the hut to confront to fast approaching men when Johnny grabbed his arm.

"I'm not going back to my own world, am I?" Johnny had considered this outcome for a while but had waited until the last possible moment to confirm it.

"As you know, for one to be able to cross from one world to the other, another must cross in the opposite direction. Right now, only Abidel awaits to cross from the other side. The Emperor's child died just before crossing over, and too much time has passed since then for it to be part of any exchange now."

Johnny had prepared himself for this moment for some time. Given the choice between he or his baby returning to London, there was only one option. The baby would return to Cynthia to restore her joy after being misled to think that her baby died at birth. When they stepped outside the hut, they were face with The Emperor, The Oracle, Ebed-Melek and his Royal Guard.

"Where is the child?" The Emperor thundered.

"He is in my hut!" The Oracle screamed, "We may be too late. Quick, seize them and kill them!" When the Emperor and his men hesitated, the Oracle hissed and his eyes turned black as the clouds above them went dark. "Then I guess I have to do it myself!"

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3.

"We're on our way to the prison," Carter told Cynthia as he sped down the highway, "It seems like Abidel has escaped his cell!"

"What?! How is that possible? How will I find my baby now?"

"From what I've been told, he just disappeared into thin air. There was no sign of a break out and no one heard any noise or commotion. Only the cries of a baby."

"The cries of a baby?"

"Yes, it appears that a baby was found in his place in the cell this evening. I've been informed that the child is approximately six months of age!"

Cynthia's mind spun. What if this was her baby? Could her pain and anguish at having lost her child during labour finally be over? It took two days for the maternity test to come back, and it confirmed that this was indeed her child. She'd missed out on six months of his life, but now she had the rest of his life back, which is more than she had realistically hoped for until Detective Carter got that call. The months and years rolled by and Abidel was never seen again. Johnny was never found either and the official search for him was called off a year after he disappeared. Cynthia thought that whatever world Abidel had returned to, Johnny must be there also. From time to time she wondered if he was happy, and prayed that one day she would see him again, that her child would know his father. And she called the child Johnny, in memory of him.

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4.

The Oracle's hands rippled with energy. Johnny could see what looked like electricity coursing through the man’s veins and palms, finely poised to discharge bolts of lightning in their direction. "What are we going to do?" he asked Beza, as the Oracle approached them, the winds and rain seemingly at his beck and call now slamming into them.

"We're going to stall him. Buy some time, but I don't know how long I can hold him off for!"

No sooner had Beza spoken did Abidel come crashing out of the door behind them. With the Oracle bearing down on them, Abidel stepped forward and lifted up his staff. Suddenly, a wall of fire came crashing down from the heavens, separating them from the Oracle, the Emperor and his men. Motioning to Beza and Johnny, Abidel led the way for their escape to Low Earth. The wall of fire followed them every step of the way, burning up everything in its wake including the Oracle's hut. Low Earth would now be there safe haven - having already been banished from High Earth once, there was surely no way back from this.

The Oracle's plan had been thwarted for now, and his hut, the portal to the other world, had been destroyed. However, with the unwitting Emperor's help, he would continue his plans to bring the abomination that would reek utter desolation to the ends of High and Low Earth. Once he used the Emperor and his armies to conquer Low Earth, nothing would stand in the way of his opening a new portal to Earth and taking hold of that world too! And there were only three who could stop him now. Abidel, Beza and Johnny. That Man of God, his clueless assistant and their new apprentice.