3-05-2024 7:55pm

Chapter 37: The Confrontation..."Deceptions in the Air"

Beth Callahan Editor

Cover by Peter Poast Publications with Photo by Junior Cruz

Similar to what newspapers in the 19th Century did the www.warrencountypost.com. will publish a chapter a day from the book Deceptions in the Air. This fictional book is a blend of reality and conspiracy with a mix of Biblical Prophecy. My hope is that you enjoy the story, while it puts a desire in your heart to seek Truth.

Chapter 35: The Confrontation

"Bob,” Alex said before taking another deep breath. “I did not marry Marcy.”

“What?” the senator said with an odd look, then adding, “I don’t understand.”

“Bob, I married the woman whom I have always loved. The woman who helped me understood what love is... what love is about... I married Brianna Taylor.”

The senator’s devilish grin turned into a snarl as his eyes began to slowly grow into a serious look of dismay. Slowly, he walked around the small compartment of a room. He stopped and began tapping his fingers on the dressing room’s counter.

“You married the reporter?” the senator spewed out. “What in the hell were you thinking?”

“Bob, she’s not what you think. She loves me. She would never do anything to jeopardize me. She had that chance on national TV and didn’t. I can win her over… she’ll come to understand the importance of this project and how it will bring the needed peace to this world,” Alex answered with complete confidence.

“Where is she?” the senator asked.

For a moment, there was silence.

“I don’t know,” Alex said tripping over his words.

“What do you mean... you... don’t... know?... Isn’t it your honeymoon night?” the senator asked sarcastically, while snickering.

Alex grew quiet at first. Then, giving the senator a painful look, he answered. “She’s gone. She was bombarded with too much information on the project from Maureen and Steve. I think it overwhelmed her, and she had to get away.”

“Stop!” he yelled at Alex. “I don’t think you realize how you have jeopardized this project. She is one of those foolish people who are incapable of understanding the importance of a One World Religion and how it will bring peace to this troubled world. I told you after you talked to her the first time in Michigan... No, actually, I ordered you after your Michigan fiasco, to stay away from her!”

“What? You did no such thing! And, who are you to tell me who I can talk to anyway?” Alex angrily shot back.

“Alex, my son,” Bob said in a calmer and softer voice as he placed his hands on Alex’s shoulders as though trying to control him. “Have you forgotten who made you? Have you forgotten who you belong to?”

Alex pushed the senator’s hands off his shoulder.

“What are you talking about? No one, I mean... no one... owns me! I’ve earned everything I have… legally and through hard work,” Alex said as his jaw tightened and the words slipped out through gripped teeth as he was now face to face with the senator.

“Alex, are you a fool? Who do you think got you all those grants? If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be who you are, nor would you have anything!”

The senator's face grew even closer to Alex’s.

Alex began to feel very uncomfortable as a strange presence began to overtake the senator’s demeanor.

“Alex, my son,” said the senator, this time with a very peculiar and calm voice, “I’ll take care of this. You just keep working on getting everything ready for this new projection date. We already launched a few holograms earlier this evening to see how they bounced over the night sky. All seemed to go well. The sheriff’s phones were ringing off the hook. People were calling in about UFO’s and strange visions over the ocean. You’re doing a good job for me Alex. You will be well rewarded when it’s all said and done.”

“What do you mean you’ll take care of this?” Alex questioned.

The senator, noticing the anxiety in his voice, realized he needed to calm Alex down, since it was Alex who held the entire project’s success in his hands.

“I see this is very stressful and emotional on you. Let me help. Tell me where you think your bride might be heading to. I will have my men go retrieve her for you — so that the two of you can talk and work things out. I’ll even have my buddies over at the state patrol and sheriff’s office on the lookout for her too. We’ll keep it quiet. No press… what an oxymoron that is… retrieving a reporter without any press,” the senator chuckled.

Alex felt very uncomfortable because of the way the senator was acting... also, because of the way he used the word retrieve.

“Bob, she’ll come back on her own. The love that the two of us have… it’s hard to explain. It’s…”

But before he could finish, the senator finished it for him. “It’s as though it isn’t coincidence at all, but some sort of divine intervention that keeps bringing the two of you together.”

“Yes,” Alex said, noticing an eerie change in the senator’s voice.

“It’s as though it’s been ordained, maybe specially created, maybe as though two forces are working against each other… one to keep you apart and the other struggling to put you together,” he further explained eerily to Alex.

Alex watched as the senator’s pupils began to dilate and grow hollow, looking as though his soul had vanished... as this voice was only using his body to speak from. As coldness began to fill the room. For some odd reason, this took Alex’s memory back to the time when he was at his church youth group and the youth leader shared whenever in fear... Call upon the name of Jesus. The demons shutter at his name!

“Bri and I have something very much in common that keeps us together,” Alex said, while continuing to look straight into the senator’s eyes.

“Yes. What is that. Alex?”

“We both love Jesus as our Lord and Savior.”

The cold began to leave the room as the senator’s pupils went back to normal. It was as though something left the senator’s body.

“Yes, that’s right. That’s how you plan on saving yourself,” the senator said, adding, “Alex, I know how much you want peace in this world. You’re a very kind and peaceful man. This project will bring the peace to the world that is so needed. We just need to get your new bride to see how peace is so important for the survival of humankind.”

“Bri believes in peace,” Alex agreed while keeping his eye contact straight on the senator, for he wanted to be sure he was speaking to the senator and not to the eerie strange-voice creature. “She believes in the peace that Jesus taught.”

“Yes, Him. You keep bringing Him up. But, Alex, don’t forget many of the great religious leaders of this world taught of peace. I think once we get your new wife into one of our special learning seminars, she’ll be … let’s say… more understanding of our cause,” the senator said firmly while he, too, kept his eyes locked into Alex’s.

Alex’s mind began flashing back through all the things he had learned at summer Bible camp when he was young. The teachings of how a false peace would be taught in the last days causing many to fall away because of the deception that they would be taught by highly educated people whom they trust.

Then Alex began recalling many of the letters Bri had sent him over the years. They were filled with her love and faith in Jesus. Her love for Him is so great that she was even willing to sacrifice her love for me. She will never change... and she shouldn’t, Alex thought to himself.

“Bob, if she doesn’t change her way of thinking to see that we are right, what will become of her?” Alex said needing to hear what he already knew and feared.

“Alex, you’ve seen the plans,” he answered. “People who are unwilling to change for the good of mankind are like cancer cells. We can’t let the cancer cells destroy our plans… for mankind to continue living on this beautiful green earth, we must be willing to work together, not against each other. Those, who will not conform to this openness of thinking, will need to be rejuvenated. This will allow them to come back in a form that will allow them to find the inner peace of human harmony that was lost when the human race fell from the Creator.”

With grandeur and excitement, the senator continued... “The Creator is a loving being who wants all of us to find the inner peace that draws us to become as He is… to become His child, which then, we too become a god…those who fight this beautiful rebirth that all were born to experience will need to be born again. So, if by some chance the cancer, as we call it, has eaten her inner being where she cannot accept the truth as it was meant to be, we will rebirth her, so she can experience the love... the freedom... the peace... that all were meant to experience.”

As the senator talked, Alex’s conscience spoke to him… My God, I have fallen into that deception that Bri and the other believers warned about. I am the main one helping the deceiver. How could I have been so ignorant? What have I done? What have I created?

The more the senator talked, the more Alex’s soul stirred within him. He knew he needed to stop this project before millions of lives were lost. He, also, needed to contact Bri and let her know she was in danger. And, somehow... he needed to find a way for God to forgive him.

“Bob, let me see if I can contact Bri in the morning. We had a pretty bad fight, but I know she is reasonable. She’s tired and emotionally drained. I said some pretty harsh words to her. But our relationship has gone through 30-years of on-again, off- again, cycles. But, no one said love is easy. Did they?” Alex said, hoping the senator would fall for his explanation... giving him the time needed to somehow contact Bri and warn her that she was in danger.

“No. They didn’t,” the senator agreed, adding. “So how do I calm my daughter down who thought... you were the one?”

“Bob, you know I care deeply about Marcy. But with Bri, there’s … I guess the best way to describe it is, well... obsession. I’ve never been able to let her go. I don’t want to live life without her anymore. She really does complete me. You understand that, don’t you?”

“Unfortunately, I do. But Alex, we need her to be with us on this project. I’m trusting you that her love for you is more than anything else is in the world. And, she will do as you say,” Senator Donovan said, flashing a serious glance towards Alex.

“Bob, she didn’t destroy us when she had the chance … twice on national … no, worldwide news. She’s not going to do it now… I think she was mad at me for bringing work with me on what was supposed to be our time. You know those television people can be a little selfish. They think the world revolves around them,” Alex said, while praying the senator was believing him.

“Okay, Son,” the senator said to Alex slapping him on the shoulder. As he placed his hand on the doorknob, he turned and added, “I’ll wait to hear from you tomorrow. I know women can be irrational at times, which brings me to my daughter. She’s just upset that it was you who rejected her. I know she has an appetite for men… unfortunately, she got that trait from me… only mine is women.”

Alex smiled and patted the senator on the back as he opened the door. “Thanks for understanding. You know you’ve been like a father to me, Bob. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.”

“Well, I’ve learned a lot this evening!” the senator said as he opened to door to walk over to his daughter.

“Marcy, Alex is right. He doesn’t deserve you. You are too good for him, and you do deserve much better. Let’s head down to the restaurant and see if a glass of wine will help. Then, you can cry on your daddy’s shoulders all you want till something good comes along.”

Watching Marcy and the senator head for the elevator, Alex closed the door. “Oh Lord, what have I done?”

Once on the elevator the senator looked at his two associates. “Start tracking Alex’s phone. Any contact with that reporter, I need to know about it. We need to find her and see what she knows… if anything. And, if she does, what's she planning on doing with it.”