I awake disoriented wondering why I seem to be floating.
As my senses take in the water, the dark woods, the earthy smell around me, I realize what I must do. I had dreamed deeply of being surrounded by angels who restored my life and comforted my traumatized spirit. Now I remember their words.
“You will live Lucia – it is not your time to leave this Earth.” The gentle-voiced angel with flowing blonde hair had spoken this to me just before she returned breath to my lungs.
Another angel – one with dark-haired beauty and a warrior’s spirit – had spoken into me words of courage. “You know what you must do now Lucia,” she said. “You must face him and show him you have been restored in the healing waters. You will face the hooded one, and this time, he will be the one to know fear. Take courage Lucia. Righteousness is on your side.”
It is impossible that I am lying here shivering in this stream of water – alive despite the death that was intended for me. But I know my life was spared for a reason. The angels restored me that evil might be put in its place. When the hooded one brought me here to die, he did not know or care that the place he had chosen was sacred. These waters – thermal springs from the Ouachita Mountains – were created for healing. Nature would not allow them to be used for the opposite purpose.
I do not know how long I have been here. It could be hours or it could be days. I look down and see I am dressed in my favorite Levis and my turquoise sweater. Feeling cautiously around my throat, there are tender areas caused by the strangling hands of the hooded one. He had choked the life from me – or so he thought – and left me to decay in the shallow water of the stream.
I was in the hospital parking lot when the hooded one grabbed me. His hot breath sour with hatred fell on my skin as he lunged at me from beside my car and grabbed me with an overwhelming strength, then careened my protesting body into his vehicle. I was blindfolded and my hands and mouth duct-taped faster than I could imagine. Sheer terror surrounded me as he started the car and drove into the fading sunset of night.
He spoke with a voice surprisingly high for someone of his size. He was elated, high on the adrenaline of capturing his prey. I sensed he was manic. Insanity was in his eyes.
“I’m glad you decided to go out with me,” he gloated – his eyes boring into mine from the reflection of the rearview mirror. “I’m taking you where I take all my best girls. Somewhere we can be alone and enjoy each other.”
I had thought he would rape me or torture me for hours, but he did not. We drove to a very secluded area where he opened the car and forced me outside. With a hunting knife held in his hand, the hooded one led me along a make-shift trail deep into the pine woods.
He was dressed in dirty jeans and work boots with his arms and head covered by a dark hooded jacket. I did not see much of his hair because of the hood. But his eyes – they were always visible. I looked into them briefly hoping to find a hint of regret or compassion, but all I saw was a feverish evil of elation, followed by a vacant look of unfathomable emptiness. I had to turn away.
He had me sit down on a rock by the stream, which was quite wide in the area where we stopped. We had been there but a short time when he was taken over by anger.
“You are just like the others. You don’t really care for me. Women are all the same. You’re selfish. You’re liars. You lie to me - don’t you?”
I tried to answer, but no words could come out of a mouth shut by duct tape. There is nothing I could say that would have appeased him anyway.
In fairly swift order, he threw me into the stream and began overpowering me. I tried to fight back, but I was bound and frightened. He choked me, and losing consciousness seemed a blessing.
After a bit, I found myself rising up – my spirit leaving my body to float around the area. I looked down and saw the hooded one still angrily thrashing my body. I would have expected to feel sad or frightened, but I did not.
I became aware of a spiritual presence around me – an intense light and peace. Two angels came to join me. I wanted to go with them further in to the light, but they told me it was not yet time. They explained I must stay to stop an evil presence from doing more harm.
And so I awoke with divine resolve. I had experienced the peace that surpasses all understanding and felt its aura still.
The tape is gone from my mouth and hands now and I can move more easily than I would have imagined.
I hear the hooded one speaking in the distance. Somehow police have arrived and he is trying to explain his presence in the area legitimately. I run toward the road startling the patrol officers who are even more surprised when the hooded one suddenly begs to go with them.
“Get her away from me,” he screams. “I killed her and now she’s back. She’s come to do me in.” He turns toward the officers with open arms and willingly accepts handcuffs and leg shackles.
As the hooded one shakes in terror, I begin to explain to the police how I recovered from near death in the healing waters. As I speak, I hear the faintest whisper of angel wings in the wind.