"Watchman, How Much Longer the Night?"
A Story from
The Place: A version of Chicago.
The Time: Identical to our own, except... it is the time of uncertainty. Lucifer's agents move in the shadows, and pawns are pushed forward across the board. Cults and followers of the infernal are trying to open the way for the summoning of dark powers and turn the eyes of the world away from God, but secrecy is still foremost in their minds. The Legion can ill-afford to reveal its true nature while the souls of billions of human beings still sway in the balance between darkness and light.
It is the dawn of a New Millennium, a time of unparalleled connections between nations, vast material wealth, and spiritual starvation. The Legion controls a great many mortal agencies, bureaucracies, and secret societies and uses its influence within these institutions to quietly expand its power further, as well as hunt its enemies. The Anti-Christ is not yet walking among us, but that time may come all too soon.
Image Credits: Pat Loboyko.
Image & portions of this text ©2005 Scott Mitchell.
The Protagonists
". . . Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel." — Revelation 7:3-4
Arrayed against the awesome force of the Legion are the soldiers of light, the Sentinels, marked by God and torn from their former lives of comfort and illusion. The Sentinels are the recipients of Angelic visitations, during which they are invested with supernatural powers and the responsibility of hunting and destroying the forces of the Legion on earth. Scared, confused, and outnumbered by the Legion, the Sentinels must rise to the challenge that is their destiny. If they cannot drive the unrighteous from the earth by faith and force, the Seventh Seal will be broken, and the defeat of Satan will require the destruction of the earth, and with it, mankind.
