CLASH

What that Make It Works

“Why are you here, Pastor...?” Asked Andrew, seeing the preacher takes the seat next to equally surprised Bryan, having the very same question as his interrogator was….

“I’m representing my client, and he will not answer any more question before consulting with me….” The preacher said….

“Look Bryan…. If you have nothing to hide, then you don’t need any representation, and you can speak freely… You’re a free man” Said Andrew, stared to get annoyed by the preacher that seems always there to interfere with his investigation

“Am I…?” He asked, lifting his cuffed hands…. “I’ll take the representation of Pastor Luc….” He said and shut his mouth….

Andrew grunts under his breath, but then he proceeds…

“Okay, now let’s be blunt….” He said, pulling the cell phone that shows a quickly trending video, showing him, kneeling over the wounded officer….

“You can pull this off…. Can you change someone’s face….?”

****

“You watched to many horror movies….” Said the preacher… “No man can change someone face….”

“No man can heal stab wound like that…” Shot Andrew….

“That’s where you are wrong, officer…. Men can” The preacher said….

“I don’t know what is the relevance between your question to your case, but tell you this…. Throughout history, there are records of men that heals….” The preacher continues….

“Oh, and what record that might be? Some shaman doing rituals in some faraway foreign country in foreign continents in some deep jungle somewhere…?” Said Andrew sarcastically…

“If you call Peter and Paul as shamans then yes, they are, despite the fact that they lived not in the jungle somewhere…” Said the preacher, that makes Bryan tries to hide his smile, looking at the baffled agent who didn’t expect to get that kind of answer….

“And again, even they can’t change someone face....” The preacher continues….

Andrew huffs, and change his subject…

“Did you have any connection with Samantha, the assistant of your father…” He said, pressing on the last phrase….

Luc nods to Bryan who then said…

“Not until the day I saw her at my father’s dressing room at the stadium…. And my connection was when she had me escorted out the stadium….”

“Look, Sir…” Said the preacher, interjecting the interrogation….

“Obviously you think that you might have something that put my client, here, under this accusation…. But as far as I see, there are no motives, especially for your late partner…. My client doesn’t even know he existed….” He said, before looking at Bryan and said….

“This interrogation is over, Sir…. And my client has been bailed out…. So, I would like to ask you to kindly remove the cuffs from his hands… He is free to go….” The preacher said, pulling his chair back and stood next to Bryan who looked the beaten agent, who reluctantly opened the handcuff off his wrists….

Just before both men leaves the interrogation room, the preacher stopped a moment and say….

“Word of advice, Sir…. Extremist will do anything if his or her faith were to be made a mockery…. Even asking the dark power to do the bidding”

And with that, Andrew sits in silence as the door of the interrogation room was closed….

The problem is that the footage showing her with the pastor also was a solid evidence….

But the mention on asking the dark power makes him remember his interview with the preacher that Samantha assisted…

They both say about the same thing…. One who asked the help from dark power…. But who….?

****

“Bryan…. Do you want to go home right away….?” Asked Luc, as they both off the building….

“Why are you here, Luc…? How come do you managed to pop up and interfere with my life…?” He asked….

“You can ask your neighbours…. They are the one contacted the law firm, and they appointed me to represents you…. I’m the only one available at the moment, so here I am….” Said Luc, handing the letter of appointment….

“Look, I’m going to having meal…. You are free to go, man…” Luc said and went to a diner across the building, leaving Bryan, unsure what to do, and then run across the road….

“I need answers….” He said…

“And you are hungry…” the preacher said, entered the diner, followed by Bryan who groans as he hears his stomach growls…

****

“Thank you….” Said Luc as the waitress pours him his refill of his coffee, and cleaned their table….

Bryan looked around, making sure that everyone around at the diner is minding their own business when he tilted his body forward a little then asked the man before him in a low voice…

“What is going on….? What is happening to me….?!” He asked to the man who then put his mug down the table, demanding an answer

“What do you mean...? Nothing happened to you…” Luc said, sipping his coffee…

“You saw that video…!” He snapped with surpassed voice, “What the hell is that…?!”

“Yes, but still, nothing is happening to you…. All I can see was you pressing your hand on that officer throat, and nothing more… So, I don’t even know what is going on, and whether something is happening to you…. You don’t even tell me what is going on…”

Bryan looked around one more time, lowering his body forward even more, and now almost whispering…

“I heal that man….”

Bryan looked at the sceptical face of the preacher….

“What do you mean, you heal the officer….”

And Bryan told him….

****

“So, you are saying that a voice told you to say that phrase, and you heal the man…?” He asked….

“Yes….” Bryan said, emphasizing his answer….

But when he met by the silence from the preacher, Bryan asked….

“Then….?” He asked, with his arm opened in question, on the table….

“What…? What do you want me to say to you…?” Asked the preacher…. “You want me to say that you are blessed? You are chosen….? You don’t even believe…. You don’t even believe when you saw me saying the exact same phrase you said back home, under the pass…”

Bryan groans in frustration, leaned his back to the chair….

“The man near the entrance…” Said the preacher suddenly, that makes Bryan turn his gaze towards an obese man, taking a big bite on a delicious brisket, before sucking on the ribs, cleaning it to its bone from the juicy meat…

“You can try and yell that sentence, with the power of the Morning Star, and see if you can revive him….” Said the preacher when suddenly the obese man grabs his chest, groans and fell on the table, with his face crash on the oily meal in front of him….

Bryan was unsure, yet his body seems to have the mind of its own, as he went to the man, putting his hand on his chest, as if he was doing CPR, and he keep repeating the sentence, with nothing happened at all while some from the panic crowd already calling the ambulance to save the man

The preacher sniggers and approaches him…

“No wonder your live is miserable….” He said, as he ushers Bryan off the unconscious man as the crowds gave the room to the preacher, thinking that the man will give the last rite for the man…

They were looking at the preacher who put his right palm on the man’s chest and said in calm voice…

“With the power of the Morning Star…. Live….”

****

Bryan looked in awe as the obese man gasps for air, sitting straight up, looking scared, confused, looking around him, looking at the dazzled faces….

Some of them praises the lord…

Some, started to upload the video online

Some, thanking the preacher for reviving the man, as the man taps Bryan’s shoulder, and went off the diner, just as the paramedic comes, and still taking the man to the hospital for further observation….

****

The ride to the slum neighbour was filled with a complete silence…

Bryan was still trying to grasp the scene he witnessed….

Why my words are not working…? What’s wrong…? What’s the different…?

His mind filled with questions as their ride make a stop in front of a small shop that was converted as a church, which was looking pale, deserted….

****

The preacher grunts as he shouldered the door until it creaks open and allowing the two enter its nave…

To his surprise, despite the vandalized exterior, the internal of the church was quite clean and tidy… Quite different from the one Luc had brought inside back home

The only thing that was off was the cross that fall to its left side…

“The bolt is loose….” Said the preacher that makes Bryan blushed, because he already thinks of devilish explanation the preacher will tell him

****

Bryan was surprised once again when they both enters the small study….

He saw numerous volumes of books which some looked ancient; he even saw old parchments and scrolls filling the room….

“Did you read all this…?” He asked, sceptically….

“Yes… I have got plenty of time….” Said Luc, as he pulled a parchment enclosed in a Plexiglas and studied it,

****

“What do you mean when you say by no wonder your live is miserable…” Asked Bryan, to the busy preacher who quickly occupied with the parchment, and seems to forget the existence of his guest….

“Huh…? What…? Oh…. Yes….” Said the preacher, putting the parchment in the table and looked at the man….

“Tell me, why do you think that you were unable to do the very same magic you did at the station….?” Asked the preacher that makes Bryan swallows hard, and then with bitter voice he answered…

“I lack of faith….”

“Hah…. Nonsense….” Said the preacher that surprised the man…

From his early days, he always told and teach that they need faith for miracle to happened…. Believe that with faith, God will answer…

“What you lack, is your will….” The preacher said…

“You must have been told that you are created in the image of god, therefore you should already have the divine power in you…. And what you lack, is your will, your drive….”

“But, doesn’t our live has been destined….?” Answer Bryan which met by the snigger from the preacher…

“And why in the world you come to your father for help….?” The preacher asked that makes the man’s heart thumping, realising what the preacher just said to him….

“Human wanted to have things goes their way, that’s in their nature…. That is what their will… And people can choose whether they wanted their will, their wishes to happened or not….”

“But or will, our wishes, and our desire…. Isn’t that just our fleshy desire, and not God’s…?” Challenged Bryan, somehow tries to protect the faith he already forgot about…

“Then back to my question… why bother…? Why did you drive for miles, hoping that your father, you knew will reject you the moment he sees you…? Did you wish for God to change his heart…?”

Bryan was silent… The preacher was right…

“Look, changing a heart requires more than just faith, Bryan… It needs proof, especially nowadays, when everything was about visual…”

“Even back then, when they presented with miracles, they still don’t believe….”

“Then, what should a man, do, Luc…? What Can I do…? Part of me wanted to take everything as God’s test for my faith… But part of me, wanted exactly what you told me…”

“Did God, test, Bryan….?” Asked the preacher that makes Bryan stunned, part of the words he had been preached is that God doesn’t test….

“Like I said, Bryan, if you truly believed that you were the image of the God, then you should already have the grain of that divine power within you, what you lack is the will and power to make it happened…. In the station, that was a message to make you realize what you already had…. Now, it just what will you do about it…”

Bryan’s mind went back to the station and then at the diner, and the guilt he feels…

He did tries to save the man…. Yet somehow the miracle he had in the station was not present….

He wanted that miracle to happened….

He wanted that power….

“How, then Luc… How can I have that power back…?”

The preacher looked at him seriously and asked the man….

“How far will you go to have it…?”

****

Bryan was struck with the question….

“What do you mean…? Do I have to undergo some rites, or sacrificial…?”

“You said it like it was a bad thing… Do you ever read your bible…?” Asked the preacher….

“Baptism? The last supper….? The cross….?! The bible, up to the new testament filled with rites and sacrifices…. You just wanted to have the easy way….”

“But He sacrifice Himself so I don’t have to….” Argued Bryan

“Like I said… the easy way…. Tell that argument to all the disciples and the martyrs….”

Another argument that silences Bryan….

“So, I have to suffer, to die to gain the power….?”

“Did I tell you that….?” Answer the preacher….

“All I am saying is that you have to have the will, the drive, and the true purpose, true desire for the power to fill you….? And no… don’t give me the nonsense about you want to do good, or helping people…. Tell me what is that you truly desire….”

Bryan looked sharply to the preacher before saying….

“I want my father to pay….”