Part 14 - Naja Haje Abyss

          “Have a drink,” it said in a raspy voice.

Suddenly a giant hand reached out to me and lifted me back onto the stairway. It swept in front of me and the glass of water went flying in midair and disappeared.

“You will die if you drink that, it is poison. Seek My face, have faith, and I will provide all you need.”

“Yes Lord God,” I said; how I knew it was the Lord, I cannot explain. I picked myself up and that’s when I noticed that the last two hundred and twenty-two stairs went down like the first. I sighed with relief and thanksgiving, and did not even bother to count. Though still in the wasteland and heat, I almost flew downward. About twenty steps from the bottom I descended into blackness, and once again spiked walls formed on both sides of me.

On the last step I saw candlelight and a half coiled black and white serpent with its head standing four feet off the ground. “I am Naja Haje. You cannot enter or you will surely die.”

The serpent hissed and spit at me as I backed up several steps, petrified. I hate snakes. When I was thirteen, a friend and I were hiking when a rattler bit my friend and killed him. Now, I thought for certain I would meet with the same fate.

Behind the snake was a gigantic room full of books piled very high. Most of them were black but some were burgundy, white, navy or brown. At the top of the heap stood a giant with a three-inch nose ring, and hanging from the ring was an ugly troll with a wart filled face and sharp pointy ears. His head was surrounded with two rows of eyes, mean eyes that moved constantly and saw everything.

In the troll’s hand he wielded a six-foot razor sharp sword. The sword spoke through a pair of bulbous lips attached to the end of the blade. The lips on the weapon moved as it talked, while the giant and the troll remained mute. As the eyes on the troll moved around, the giant moved accordingly giving the rapier a wide range.

I did not know what to do until I remembered, again, the vision in Windoline’s eyes of me kneeling. I turned my back on the snake, knelt on the stairs and prayed. I listened and waited then jumped up and shouted, “Jesus the Christ, The Son of Man has bid me come.”

With that the serpent let out a shrill scream, slithered off his step and into the pile of books. As soon as I put my foot onto the mound, the sharp sword began to roar hideously.

“Out! Out! I command you to leave.”