Navigator, Chapters 15 & 16 – A Sunday Story

Posted bySuzette BenjaminPosted inPoetry
Image credit: © LovePik

Chapter 15

As the protective bubble crafted by Isabella’s sword which she carried about in her half angel half human bloodstream began to tear apart from the blow…

Metty (Isabella’s guardian angel, Methesaleh) sprouted his angel wings and lunged towards Isabella who at that moment attempted to make a break for it by exiting the bubble. Inexplicably the already massive hand grew even larger and covered the two’s escape.

The crushing blow to the protective bubble accomplished its intended misdeed…

Isabella woke up dead.

And Metty, with his wings wrapped around Isabella’s now lifeless body, appeared to have suffered a mortal wound from the massive fist in the gilded gauntlet’s impact on his wings and his back as he tried to shield Isabella.

Meanwhile.. the massive fist in the gilded gauntlet began its ascent into the watery void (above the now exposed expanse that once was sky), from whence it had come.

Isabella “rose” up from her body feeling rather strange. She felt incredibly lightweight. Not floating but sensing that the height from which she now saw everything was beyond (in height and depth) her normal view of things.

She touched her face and limbs. Everything seemed normal except…she sensed that…that she was d.e.a_! She couldn’t bring herself to think of that word. She spoke out loud in distress:

“Am I really dead? Is this what it is like? Am I dreaming? Hello, Methuselah are you okay? Isabella asked as she tugged his lifeless body.

Isabella called out again. “Hello… is anybody here?”

Suddenly she felt sadness as a pain in her gut (but deeper inside than that). She recognized the feeling as remorse. The pain was so severe, Isabella doubled over holding her midsection.

She felt remorse, not at the list of things she had not accomplished, to her that was ego; but, she believed that her remorse was because her life had been cut short of the great potential her soul was capable of fulfilling.

Suddenly Isabella was startled out of her despair by a familiar voice, that of her recently departed grandmother Clemora.

Clemora’s voice seemed to rise up from Isabella’s feet and filled Isabella’s entire spirit body with unspeakable joy:

“Hello, little one. No this is not the end. It is a stop sign along your pathway nothing more. Remember your courage. You did say to Methuselah that you were up for this, right?“

Buoyed by her grandmother’s words and the reminder of her agreement to take on this journey wherever it led, Isabella directed her attention to the soaring fist in the gilded gauntlet somehow propelling itself unaided upward.

She reached up for her sword hovering over her head.

Suddenly, Isabella realized that the firey bits and chards of the still-falling sky that wreaked havoc all around her were now floating through her spirit-body with no ill effects. She chuckled, gobsmacked at this new discovery/ability.

As per usual, Isabella reached up her hand to grab the flaming sword’s hilt. But this time…eerily, she felt her entire being become the hilt of the materialized flaming sword she normally carried about in half-human half-angel bloodstream. It felt like flying a two-story kite with the prevailing winds.

Isabella giggled at the discovery and spoke:

“Well sword, this is a new feature, hmm.”

Wielding the flaming sword now was even easier Isabella noted. The sword responded to her thoughts!

Immediately, and with no effort, Isabella soared upward arriving instantly within close proximity to the massive fist in the gilded gauntlet currently high in the dark atmosphere (for there was no sky/expanse.)

And with one swing of the flaming sword (including Isabella as its hilt!), the massive fist in the gilded gauntlet was severed with precision, in two halves.

Both pieces plummeted to the ground. One “half” whacked Metty’s seemingly lifeless body still draped over Isabella’s bloodstained body, in the back of his head.

And then…

…amid the crashing clamor of the severed parts of fist and gilded gauntlet careening to the ground, a voice:

“Ouch, ouch, oy vey, Madre de Dios, sacré bleu, ow, ow, oww! Did I die again? Who hit me?” Cried Metty (Methuselah).

Isabella dropped from the sky. And with one thought she was standing over Metty rolling over alive and well on the ground. She smiled a sigh of relief (she wanted to hug him, but his body language indicated that he was not the hugging type.)

Rolling over on the ground and standing up smartly in one move, Metty shuttered his wings into his shoulders. He looked down on the ground at Isabella’s blood-stained lifeless body. Then he looked at her “risen” spirit body, standing next to him. He tilted his head:

“You look none the worse for wear…at least in your consciousness and spirit body.”

Looking down at her lifeless body one more time Metty continued:

“You did say you were up for this, Navigator (Isabella).”

“I know, I know, someone else recently reminded me of my words as well.”

As the two walked away from the scene of Isabella’s demise, bits of the sky still plummeted down to the ground around them; but, these firey dart-like projectiles no longer had any effect on either of the two souls.

Isabella’s curiosity and spycraft kicked in. Her mind raced with questions. The first one popped out before she could stop it. She asked Metty:

“Does this sort of thing happen here in Shangri-la often? I mean the whole sky falling thing, the fist in the gauntlet doohickey, etc…?

Chapter 16

“Yes, every night at the exact same time, actually!” Metty replied matter-of-factly as he shrugged his entire body and suddenly was pristine and cleaned up as if, voilà, nothing had happened to him at all.

“Well, excuse me but you…you could have told me this little tidbit of trivia earlier!”

“Would you have taken up this adventure, if I had?”

Before Isabella, now in her spirit body and consciousness could reply…

Suddenly the scene changed…

…the falling firey chards and hellish destruction that once surrounded them changed to a boardroom with twenty-eight men in freshly pressed elaborate business suits.

In the brightly lit room, there were thirty chairs around a large acacia wood table. All twenty-eight men already seated, motioned for Isabella and Metty to the two vacant softly cushioned wingback chairs.

Isabella noted before she took the seat offered her around the boardroom table, that her once-tattered tee shirt and sweatpants were now sparkling white and in pristine order.

She recognized the twenty-eight men around the boardroom table as the same men at the hookah bar she had visited earlier upon her arrival in what she later discovered was Shangri-la in the present time and not Morocco in the seventeenth century.

The twenty-eight men were now completely sober and dressed in business suits that sparkled with intricately embroidered linen and jewels.

Incredibly, the twenty-eight began speaking in unison.

The resultant singular “voice” sounded like a rippling brook in sync with its currents:

“Let us welcome our newest member to the council. A government spy of some skill and keeper of a special stone (Templar Stone).

She would like our help to close The Door to the invisible Dark Realm she opened with a forbidden spell in an attempt to save her human life. Shall we proceed?”

Now that we have your attention as a member of Shangri-La (meaning as a ghost/spirit form)— in exchange for restoring your human body intact—we need a favor.

We owe not you but your ancestors a great debt for their unflinching battles over generations against evil, often at great sacrifice.

If you agree. We will immediately “arrange” for The Door to be sealed for good. Madame Setho Zang’s valid claim notwithstanding, you can hardly be expected to keep your oath to her now that you are…um.. our condolences by the way…um… ‘deceased.‘”

“What are the terms?” Isabella suddenly chimed in.

Kicking Isabella under the large boardroom-style table with his left foot to her right foot, Metty casually settled himself in his seat.

Quickly sitting up straight on the lavish indigo cushion seats of the high wing back chair at the boardroom table, Isabella understood straight away what Metty’s “nudge” meant. The present offer was a courtesy. This was not the time for negotiating a collective agreement.

“Oh um sorry, yes, yes, I agree. Thank you!” said Isabella realizing the gravity of her situation, sheepishly glancing at Metty, who pretended he was ignoring her.

Meanwhile elsewhere…

On the main boardwalk on Jumeirah Beach, Dubai.

Suddenly, the still-opened Door appeared, its dark void encircled by the flaming hand still writing, the incantation Isabella had spoken letter-by-letter.

A dark shadow in human form but only visible as a silhouette walked out. He carried in his left hand the silhouette of a massive hammer almost half his size.

Startled briefly at The Door’s sudden appearance Setho Zang, queen of the harpies, still in female human form, resumed her now all day into what was now close to midnight hunt, up and down the Jumeriah beach’s coast, searching for Isabella.

Setho Zang was confident that her valid claim against Isabella in exchange for saving her life would be fulfilled by the return of her immortal son Maatu from his banishment (by God) into the abyss.

Moving swiftly and with purpose, the “shadow” silhouette man who had stepped out from the still-opened Door approached Setho Zang.

“You have no authority to collect me or to banish me, Gabriel. I have an unfulfilled oath, that must be satisfied. I am not leaving. Not even you can make me!”

Said Setho Zang, with a toss of her head and with all the bravado she could muster. For even speaking the name of The Chief Archangel at God’s left hand had caused the queen of the harpies considerable disquiet all the way to her core.

The silhouette shadow (Archangel Gabriel) did not reply. He quietly stepped sideways to make the path clear for Setho Zang to see The Door.

In a split second, The Door itself pulled Setho Zang with a sudden gale-force gust. Kicking and screaming the queen of the harpies was banished to the abyss.

No one heard her final screams which she apparently repeats, some say even now, in the abyss: “No, this can’t be. I was so close to having it all, the world and my son back!”

Then Archangel Gabriel stepped inside The Door.

As thunder rumbled in the distance…he raised his right hand and plucked a nail handed down to him by the blood-stained hands of another somewhere unseen inside The Door.

As The Door closed, its permanent last nail was placed on the inside. (As opposed to the placement of the salt nails that had been affixed earlier on the outside of The Door).

With one blow of the hammer in his left hand, Archangel Gabriel sealed The Door from the inside…for good.

The force of The Door sealing shut picked up a great swell of sand from Jumeriah Beach rising high, swirling in a vortex-like tornado inside a sandstorm.

The few innocent onlookers walking along Jumeriah beach’s boardwalk would have missed the entire spectacle, had they blinked, for it was over as soon as it began.

In the next moment…all was quiet on Jumeriah beach but not for long…

At the exact moment that The Door was being sealed shut for good …another spectacle transpired.

In the near distance from Jumeirah beach across the Dubai night skyline, the Burj Al Arab hotel building erupted in colorful lights.

The hotel’s entire “ship-sail” facade became a moving light show of one giant bedazzling and bejeweled watch.

The image of the watch, the exclusive Graff Diamonds Hallucination moved about the screen/facade twenty-eight stories high as if gently swaying in the cool desert breezes.

Suddenly the watch’s bezel began sprouting numbers that appeared one at a time, and then dissolved, counting down —10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1, to the New Year!

****To be continued in two weeks on January 8, 2023, ***

___________

Previous Chapters:

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14

Published by Suzette Benjamin

Positive thinker, inspirational, writer, faith

90 thoughts on “Navigator, Chapters 15 & 16 – A Sunday Story”

  6. 📚appeared to have suffered a mortal wound from the massive fist in the gilded gauntlet’s impact on his wings and his back as he tried to shield Isabella.💔

    Oh no 😢
    What a fight
    The word appeared sets me at ease.

    Like

  7. To be quite honest, the story took a spectacular turn of events in the most convincing fashion where Isabella lands in the form of her spirit body. And in no uncertain terms do I consider it a twist in the plot, neither is it an afterthought; it was destiny and I am so in awe of the wording and exclusion of the word “from” in the sentence
    “She woke up dead”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you for your gracious support and comments. So pleased with your word “spectacular of events”…glad it was interesting!!
      Yes, I mentioned in my reply that this line had an introductory intent of the upcoming storyline. Thank you for noting Why “from” was not included 👏

      Liked by 1 person

  8. 📚As the two walked away from the scene of Isabella’s demise, bits of the sky still plummeted down to the ground around them; but, these firey dart-like projectiles no longer had any effect on either of the two souls.📚
    Wow, this is deadly serious stuff. An illuminating manuscript into the authority of the spirit body.

    Liked by 1 person

      7. Yes, such a long drive from the airport to Pretoria
        But of course we had to pop into the shops as well.
        It’s a 50 minute flight and a 45 minute drive to here. Lol.

        Liked by 1 person

  9. 📚into the watery void (above the now exposed expanse that once was sky)📚

    Sent chills along the spine.
    I’ve seen dead lakes and waterways before and it is an eerie sight.
    The thought of the entire sky as the abyss makes me shudder

    Liked by 1 person

  10. 📚Isabella “rose” up from her body feeling rather strange. She felt incredibly lightweight. 📚

    I can see this event clearly in my minds eye. I’ve seen it in a dream. The lightness and the agility I would think is incredibly difficult to explain.
    Lightweight suffices.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. 📚Everything seemed normal except…she sensed that…that she was d.e.a_! She couldn’t bring herself to think of that word. She spoke out loud in distress:📚

    What just happened there at the speed of light, I ask myself since it must be entirely a different experience for everyone who woke up dead.
    But is so defining that she could not get herself to say the word.
    Is it a shock, a surprise to wake up dead, or is the secret knowledge encoded in the spirit and the soul released upon waking up dead?

    Liked by 1 person

  12. 📚Suddenly, Isabella realized that the firey bits and chards of the still-falling sky that wreaked havoc all around her were now floating through her spirit-body with no ill effects. She chuckled, gobsmacked at this new discovery/ability.📚

    Sheer Joy, as true self is being revealed to her

    Liked by 1 person

  13. 📚“Am I really dead? Is this what it is like? Am I dreaming? Hello, Methuselah are you okay? Isabella asked as she tugged his lifeless body.

    Isabella called out again. “Hello… is anybody here?”📚

    Must be a similar feeling coming through the birth canal.
    We as adults cannot remember our first cry.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. 📚She felt remorse, not at the list of things she had not accomplished, to her that was ego; but, she believed that her remorse was because her life had been cut short of the great potential her soul was capable of fulfilling.📚

    This
    And also possibly a moment of sadness leaving behind all the people she loved?
    I wonder if there is a moment like that?

    Liked by 1 person

  15. 📚”Hello, little one. No this is not the end. It is a stop sign along your pathway nothing more. Remember your courage. You did say to Methuselah that you were up for this, right?“📚

    I fully trust this moment, a loved one is on standby, or everyone who has ever loved you is there to welcome you.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. 📚Buoyed by her grandmother’s words and the reminder of her agreement to take on this journey wherever it led, Isabella directed her attention to the soaring fist in the gilded gauntlet somehow propelling itself unaided upward.📚

    There is so much content in this paragraph
    It is a book on its own. For me it is about the agreements we make
    And being “remembered”

    Liked by 1 person

  17. 📚As per usual, Isabella reached up her hand to grab the flaming sword’s hilt. But this time…eerily, she felt her entire being become the hilt of the materialized flaming sword she normally carried about in half-human half-angel bloodstream. It felt like flying a two-story kite with the prevailing winds.📚

    What a fantastic picture
    No wonder we often encourage one another to be light, what you possess inside of you and what you can become. You are the sword.

    Liked by 1 person

  18. 📚The sword responded to her thoughts!📚

    Wow amazing powers released

    📚And with one swing of the flaming sword (including Isabella as its hilt!), the massive fist in the gilded gauntlet was severed with precision, in two halves.📚

    Amazing Courage and Strength.
    All fear has disappeared

    📚One “half” whacked Metty’s seemingly lifeless body still draped over Isabella’s bloodstained body, in the back of his head.📚

    This whole process of waking up dead still in full action

    📚“Ouch, ouch, oy vey, Madre de Dios, sacré bleu, ow, ow, oww! Did I die again? Who hit me?” Cried Metty (Methuselah).📚

    Hilarious 😂

    Liked by 1 person

  19. 📚Isabella dropped from the sky. And with one thought she was standing over Metty rolling over alive and well on the ground. She smiled a sigh of relief (she wanted to hug him, but his body language indicated that he was not the hugging type.)📚

    In the blick of an eye, we would not see either😊 Methuselah is so funny. I wonder why he isn’t the hugging type

    📚Rolling over on the ground and standing up smartly in one move, Metty shuttered his wings into his shoulders. He looked down on the ground at Isabella’s blood-stained lifeless body. Then he looked at her “risen” spirit body, standing next to him. He tilted his head:

    “You look none the worse for wear…at least in your consciousness and spirit body.”📚

    This is such a beautiful scene. Earth is left with the pain.
    And Methuselah charmingly compliments Isabella.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. 📚“Yes, every night at the exact same time, actually!” Metty replied matter-of-factly as he shrugged his entire body and suddenly was pristine and cleaned up as if, voilà, nothing had happened to him at all.📚

    Of course people wake up dead, but at the same time?

    📚In the brightly lit room, there were thirty chairs around a large acacia wood table. All twenty-eight men already seated, motioned for Isabella and Metty to the two vacant softly cushioned wingback chairs.📚

    The acacia wood has a symbolic meaning, it denotes immortality of the human spirit. Acacia wood was as well used to build the wilderness Tabernacle.
    So there are two extra chairs.

    📚She recognized the twenty-eight men around the boardroom table as the same men at the hookah bar she had visited earlier upon her arrival in what she later discovered was Shangri-la in the present time and not Morocco in the seventeenth century.📚

    So she was in paradise already, she just didnt know it?

    📚The twenty-eight men were now completely sober and dressed in business suits that sparkled with intricately embroidered linen and jewels.📚

    I love the look of the business suits.

    📚Let us welcome our newest member to the council. A government spy of some skill and keeper of a special stone (Templar Stone).📚

    Special Emmissary

    📚Now that we have your attention as a member of Shangri-La (meaning as a ghost/spirit form)— in exchange for restoring your human body intact—we need a favor.📚

    So what does this imply. Only certain people who wake up dead are restored to their human body?

    📚We owe not you but your ancestors a great debt for their unflinching battles over generations against evil, often at great sacrifice.📚

    Their souls cry out…

    📚If you agree. We will immediately “arrange” for The Door to be sealed for good. Madame Setho Zang’s valid claim notwithstanding, you can hardly be expected to keep your oath to her now that you are…um.. our condolences by the way…um… ‘deceased.‘”📚

    🙂 wow, yes of course

    📚The present offer was a courtesy. This was not the time for negotiating a collective agreement.📚

    A bit of the old mind operating

    📚Setho Zang was confident that her valid claim against Isabella in exchange for saving her life would be fulfilled by the return of her immortal son Maatu from his banishment (by God) into the abyss.📚

    She wrestled for the impossible, how sad

    📚You have no authority to collect me nor to banish me Gabriel. I have an unfulfilled oath, that must be satisfied. I am not leaving. Not even you can make me!”📚

    She recognizes Gabriel for all the while she was in purgatory?

    📚In a split second, The Door itself pulled Setho Zang with a sudden gale-force gust. Kicking and screaming the queen of the harpies was banished to the abyss.📚

    Her eternal fate. Utter and complete despair, eternally, werping and groaning, crying out. She would not be saved.

    📚As thunder rumbled in the distance…he raised his right hand and plucked a nail handed down to him by the blood-stained hands of another somewhere unseen inside The Door.📚

    I see the marks

    📚With one blow of the hammer in his left hand, Archangel Gabriel sealed The Door from the inside…for good.📚

    It is done. Accomplished

    📚The few innocent onlookers walking along Jumeriah beach’s boardwalk would have missed the entire spectacle, had they blinked, for it was over as soon as it began.📚

    Wow. Quicker than the twinkling of an eye.

    📚The image of the watch, the exclusive Graff Diamonds Hallucination moved about the screen/facade twenty-eight stories high as if gently swaying in the cool desert breezes.📚

    This part of the story is going to be very interesting
    Those Diamonds are out of this world!! Spectacular Sight!!!

    📚Suddenly the watch’s bezel began sprouting numbers that appeared one at a time, and then dissolved, counting down —10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1, to the New Year!📚

    Till then
    👏👏👏👏

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Regarding: the acacia wood.
      Yes!! Spot on with all you said. Indeed there is the symbolism of immortality of the human spirit! Well said.

      Yes, what we expect paradise to look like is not what we find. Amen!

      Yes the ancestors cry out for justice in the form of their legacy progeny.

      Your gifted for discernment is awesome> Yes “a bit of the old mindset at work there looking for angles”

      Setho Zang in her three hundred year of misdeeds would have come across Gabriel …hence her stint in the Dark Realm for their misdeeds locked away behind the door.

      Re: “I see the marks”…Amen! ✝

      That watch is beyond epic…indeed aptly named…”Diamonds Hallucination”

      Until 8 January for more to come…

      Blessings to you. Thanks for your wonderful support and reading of the stories. You are amazing in your thoughtful reflections and your efforts to read and make sense of the storyline.
      I thank you most sincerely. 💖💖😍

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Ah yes, this gives clarity to Setho

        I can’t wait to read the next tick of the Diamonds Hallucination

        You are welcome, a suspense-filled, eye-opening and soothing read.

        My pleasure 💖💖😍

        Liked by 1 person

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