The Godsend Backfire: The Beginning by Harold Straugh (best e reader for academics TXT) 📗

off and my white hair flying about.  I cared about nothing except getting my hands on Judas. To be honest, I only wanted Jesus to live so Lucifer would quit asking me to do things, it never ended well for me and I did feel for him as well.  He had that effect on you.

I went back to the inner part of Jerusalem. I searched high and low and finally found him in an alleyway, kissing the rider.  I walked right up and snapped the neck of the rider, then pinned Judas up against the wall, by the throat.

“DO YOU NOT REALIZE WHAT YOU’VE DONE?” I screamed.

“Wha…aat are you..talk….ing about?” he struggled to speak.

“Jesus has been condemned to death and is on his way to be crucified!” I said and let him go.

“What? NO! I must make this right, I need to get to the high-priest,” he said.

I didn’t hesitate, I grabbed onto him and ran, stopping only to show him the crowd that was forming against Jesus, “See what you’ve done?” I asked, then took off with him again.

I not only took him to Caiaphas’s tent, I threw him into it. I heard Judas pleading, begging for Caiaphas to take the silver back and all I heard back in a response was chuckle. Judas came out of the tent, looking defeated, his head down low, he sighed.

“What have I done?” he asked.

I lost my composure and hit Judas hard in the chest, that sent him flying back.  When he hit the ground, sand dust flew up around him.  I walked over to him and grabbed him by the foot, he tried kicking his way free, but the grasp was tight.  I then flung him, he spun multiple times in the air and landed, once again, hard upon the ground. Some of the people came out of the tent, but paid no attention to them and went about beating up Judas. It was after the people walked away that I noticed a rope, rolled up, tied to the side of a horse.  I walked over and snatched it from the horse’s side.

I then, walked up to Judas. I remembered Noemi teaching me how to make a noose to snare wild game, and I pictured Judas as wild game. I made the noose and against his frail attempt at stopping me, I placed it around his neck and started to drag him. I spotted a lone tree what hat was in full view of a crowd just north of Mount Zion. I strung up Judas. I watched as he kicked and grabbed at the ropes. I watched as his gasps for air, turned to gurgles, then nothing.  I watched as his feet quick kicking and he pissed himself.  I was proud of myself, I almost enjoyed killing him as much as I enjoyed killing Lilith.

With Judas disposed of, I made my way back to the crowd and by the time I got there, they already had Jesus up between two other people. Here is something that will anger most people, Jesus wasn’t crucified on a traditional cross, it was more like a stake.  His hands were above his head, a spike through his palms, with blood running down his arms. He was beaten, his flesh was gouged out in spots, his legs were swollen. Then his feet had been placed on top of each other, like his hands and a spike driven through them as well.  He wore a crown of thorns on his head. The thorns must have been stuck in his head, because his head was bleeding in spots.  There was a sign above his head, written in three languages that roughly translated to, “Jesus the King of Jews.”

He was talking, but the crowd was loud, and I couldn’t understand him from where I was at. I tried to listen, but he was so weak, it was all mumbles.  It was upon that sight, with tears in his eyes, mumbling, bleeding, that I wept for someone else, the first time in a long time. I realized then that I cared more about him than what I thought, and he didn’t deserve the treatment he got.

He was on the stake for almost six hours before he passed. Multiple times in those hours I asked Jehovah why? I never got an answer as usual. Then the Roman soldiers started talking and one of them took his spear and speared Jesus in the side, just above his kidney.  Whatever blood that was left in his body, came spewing out. I put my head down and shook it, then felt an arm on my shoulder, when I looked over, there stood Lucifer.  He had been weeping as well.

“It’s horrible, but its all part of Jehovah’s plan,” he said.

“Are you that desperate to get back to Paradise that you think this is ok?”

Lucifer just looked at me with a baffled look on his face. I moved away from him, he tried talking to me, but I could take no more of what I was seeing and what he was saying.

I went and dug up my old clothes and bow and arrows and then fled. I used my speed and went until the temperature changed.  I came to a place where the ocean meet the land and I could see land in the distance.  I took a few steps back, ran and leapt. I landed on the banks of the new land. I ran some more and came to more ocean and saw another piece of land. I ran and jumped again and this time I stopped when I landed.

The night was upon me and I watched from a cliff, overlooking the ocean as the moon danced with the waves. I didn’t know where I was at the time, it is now known as Ireland.  It was empty, not a soul in sight in any direction I