Part 13, Naja Haje Abyss

         Thoughts of Jesus gave me courage, and I stepped bravely onto a large stone. I ignored the whispers and concentrated on the Name of Jesus. Then I waded to the cascading water and walked through, enjoying the coolness as it soaked me from head to toe.

I was soon past the falls when I saw a narrow opening. I walked over to it and looked down; there before me were hundreds of stairs. The access was only big enough for me to stand with my arms to my side. There was a sign, which read, “WARNING: Certain death awaits all who enter.”

I trembled for a moment and then with trepidation took my first step. Immediately spikes poked out of the wall on both sides of the dark stairway, and I heard hideous laughter coming from behind me.

I stopped for a moment, took a deep breath and called out, “Jesus, The Son of Man, has bid me come.”

I had no idea where that came from. I did not plan to say anything, but I could not help myself. However, the instant I said it, the laughter stopped, and I felt a cool breath of air through the dank, stale place. I persisted downward with my arms close to my side and counted my way. “Thank you, Lord. Thank you,” I said as I continued to count, one-hundred and one, one-hundred and two, and one-hundred and three.”

Gasping and nearly out of breath I reached a platform at the bottom of step two hundred and twenty-two. The stairway now headed upward. Suddenly a huge black spider half my height, stood in front of my face. Its evil stare froze every nerve I had as it spun its insidious web to block my way.

I decided to repeat the words I’d said before, “The Son of Man has bid me come.”

With that, the spider withered, fell to the ground in a ball, and a macabre sound came forth as it writhed in death. I walked right through the web and began to count the next set of steps up, and the walls disappeared. I climbed the narrow stairway with no sides and nothing to hold on to.

All around me was wasteland accompanied by extreme heat, horrid jackals and ugly hyenas. They howled at me as I ascended the steep stairs. I began to gasp for air half way up—my tongue stuck to my throat. I could not count out loud any longer. I laboriously plodded one foot in front of the other until both feet begin to feel like lead.

Unable to go further, I bent to my knees on the next step and remembered that I had seen myself kneeling in Windoline’s eyes. I bowed my head and prayed, “Dear Lord Jesus, please help me.”

As I tried to stand, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and a cool drink of water was given me. It refreshed me, and I was able to walk to the top of the four hundred and forty-fourth step without feeling the heat.

“Thank you Lord Jesus.”

At the top I rested for a few minutes in a chair next to a table, which had a tall glass of ice water sitting on it. When I reached for the glass, the chair broke and I fell, but not to the ground far below. I clung to the step with my fingers digging in as I heard the terrorizing laughter again, accompanied by whispers and heavy breathing on the back of my neck.