This is a world not unlike our own: people still struggle, sinners still need a Saviour, the Good Shepherd still reaches out to them…however, the gifts received upon salvation are different, although no less potent, than ours.

Radiance

Sunrise.

It was, in Brandon’s mind, the most beautiful part of the day: when the sun broke through the darkness of the night to start a brand new day.  He’d often sit on his roof and watch it, as he did today.  It was a phenomenon he could relate his life to.  Even though it happened when he was fairly young, he’d been lost in the darkness when his Lord had come and brought light and freedom to his soul.  In addition to salvation, he was also given a name and a gift.  His new name was Radiance, given the ability to emit a holy, evil-banishing light, as well as being able to travel as a living beam of it.  Now, even though Brandon knew he could never repay his Savior, he sought to bring Him glory through his words and actions.

Once the sun had fully risen, Brandon got down from his roof.  He was meeting a few friends later that morning, and didn’t want to keep them waiting.

Brandon hardly noticed the other people as he walked down the streets of the city.  His mind was focused on what was ahead.  He was beginning a new part of his life, and whenever he thought really thought about it, a sense of dread came over him.  He’d be far away from everyone he’d known for his entire life, cast on his own to either sink or swim, and he honestly wasn’t sure which he’d do.  Brandon knew he should trust God, but it was…difficult.  There were so many things to think about, so many things to prepare for—

Wait.

The Spirit whispered that something was wrong.  Brandon immediately halted his train of thought and started looking for something off, continuing to walk to avoid suspicion.  Everything seemed fine, until he looked to the top of one of the higher nearby buildings.

Two figures sat on the edge of the roof, gargoyle-like silhouettes against the sky.  They didn’t move, not likely blinking, silently watching the hustle of life below.  There were occasionally people that did this, but few sat crouched on the knife’s edge between balance and falling to a grisly death.  No, there was something unnatural about these two.

Radiance had work to do.

Still looking like just another face in the crowd, he crossed the street and walked behind the building where the two watchers were perched.  In a blast of light, Radiance shot up to the rooftop, some thirty feet behind the two.  They were too preoccupied with their scoping out to notice him, even as he walked towards him with his right hand glowing and ringing like a resonating crystal.

“Looking for someone?” he asked.

As the watchers spun around in shock, Radiance saw what he was dealing with.  They were humans, yes, but their pupils were a fiery red, and they had a feral, sinister manner about them.

Demons were controlling these men.

They looked at Radiance first with surprise, but it soon turned to utter hatred and abhorrence.  They knew who he stood for, and knew there would be no dissuading him.

They didn’t want to fight here, though.  One of the demons grabbed the other by the shoulder, and then they both…melted into the first demon’s shadow.  The shadow then moved, over the roofs of buildings and across streets.

Radiance quickly burst high into the sky, keeping track of where the demons fled.  They were heading towards an old warehouse; not surprising, if the demon of shadow gained power the more darkness he was in.

Radiance laughed lightly to himself.  Let them try to eclipse the power of God.

The demon shadow soon merged with that of the building, and Radiance shot through a window, right into the middle of the main room.

It was still fairly early in the morning, and the sun’s light hadn’t yet touched this part of town; it was dark, and the demon of shadow knew it.  His voice echoed around the room in a malicious cackle.

“Are you afraid of the dark, Disciple?” he asked mockingly.

“Not when I have a Light with me!” Radiance shouted back, and let loose an intense blast of brilliance that obliterated most of the darkness in the room, exposing the demon and causing him immense pain.  He screamed with agony, then gritted his teeth in anger.  The demon then spread his arms, and from behind him tentacles of darkness shot out, darting towards Radiance like spears.  He responded with shafts of his own, firing short beams of light that blasted away every tendril that approached.

What Radiance didn’t notice was the other demon.  With talons now instead of hands, he crept up slowly behind the disciple. When he finally got close, he leapt towards Radiance with a bestial yell, with a talon outstretched towards him.

Radiance spun around to face the fiend, but he was too late.  The demon’s talon caught hold of his head, and Radiance fell screaming deep into himself…

…Brandon was suddenly 6 again, the day he’d gotten separated from his parents in a huge mall.  All he could do was sit and cry, desperately hoping someone would find him…

…Then he was 13, when his family had moved to a new church.  Everyone there seemed to have such a tight bond.  He wanted that so badly, but couldn’t bring up the courage to talk to them…

…Now he was in a classroom with dozens of other students.  Brandon hadn’t been here yet, but feared this day might come.  It was a science class, and the professor was mercilessly tearing away at the thought of Intelligent Design.  Brandon knew he should stand up for what he believed in, but couldn’t find his voice…

…Now there were no more memories, no more visions of the future, only endless, oppressive, chilling darkness…

But just when Brandon thought he would lose his mind, he heard something from the deepest reaches of his being.  It was only a whisper, but a whisper that could silence a hurricane.

I AM with you.

The demon of shadow was starting to get anxious.  It usually didn’t take this long for his counterpart to break his victims’ minds and give them a heart attack.  Of course, he couldn’t really tell either way: when the demon of fear latched onto his victim, both of them froze in place like statues, while the real damage took place within.

Suddenly, the demon of fear cried out, and was thrown against a wall as the disciple unleashed a flash so bright that it was like another sun was right there in that room!  It was too much for the demon of shadow.  He melted into his own diminished shadow and fled, leaving his failure of a partner behind.

The demon of fear wouldn’t be so lucky.  He could only writhe in anguish as the shining believer walked towards him, filled with a righteous anger.  Radiance straightened his hand and forearm, and a blade of light extended off of them.  He plunged that blade deep into the demon, not harming the human at all, but searing the spirit controlling him.  Radiance then brought the blade, with the demon stuck on it, up through the man’s shoulder, taking it out of the man and tossing it into the air.  The demon in its visible form resembled something like an inky fog, in no definite shape.  Now that the fiend was exposed, Radiance gathered light on the tip of two fingers, like a small blue star, and threw it at the spirit of fear.  Once inside the cloud, the star burst, dissipating it and the demon that held its shape.  The spirit hadn’t been destroyed, but it would be a while before he could possess anyone.

Now Radiance had to help the man that’d been possessed.  He was waking up now, and would be weak for a while.  Even worse, if that demon returned, it would bring several more with it, and the man would end in a worse place than he started.  Radiance walked over to him, his visage softened into a loving expression.

“Come with me,” he said, reaching out to the formerly possessed man.  “I’d like you to meet a few friends of mine.”

As they walked out of the warehouse, Brandon realized something.  In every memory of fear, every dark part of his life, even in his anxieties over the future, God had never left him.

And He never would.