Battle for Heaven's Right (First Draft)

Here I am, or rather there I lie.

Down on my back in a coffin.

Yet instead of being surrounded by mourners,

I am surrounded by the purest white.

No sun, no ground, no space to be seen.

Just me, my suit, and my coffin.

I see myself lying there as though in third person.

I command myslef to get up, screaming, begging, helpless.

Finally i hear a booming voice call my name and my body wakes,

Yet still I don't see though my own eyes.

For they are clouded over by white as pure as my surroundings.

Suddenly a firey creature appears from the white.

He smells of smoke and his name is evil.

He calls my name and horrified I stumble foward.

I shot to tell my body to stop.

Then I realize, evil is trying to steal my soul.

I tell my body to run but the beast strikes with a sword of smoke.

The pain is nearly unbearable but my body my body shows no wounds.

The counfused beast strikes again and again, but my pain numbs with each blow.

In the blink of an eye I see myself go from helpless, to warrior.

My sheild bears a cross and my sword says "TRUTH".

It is time to defend myself at the oppressor of my soul.

With each successful blow I land, I hear scripture quoted in a foreign voice.

Then I see my mouth moving with the scripture and and light pours forth.

When it is time to finish the beast, my sword drops on the weakened best,

And even as the creature is slayed I shot, "I AM HEAVEN'S CHILD!"

As the creature's body fades out of the white abyss,

The white dissolves to reveal a word that must be Heaven.

I have crossed the barrier between heaven and hell and made it to my eternal home.

My eyes change to their normal blue,

And as they blink I return to a view that is familiar.

But at the same time, what I see has never been seen by them.

Before me stands God, with him Jesus, and all around is the Holy Ghost.

In unison, all three speak the words I have lived to hear,
"Well done though good and faithful servant.
Thou stood up for me what no one else could.
Thou served me when no one else would.
And thou lived for me as all others should.
The battle you just fought was your life.
Even as the demon struck you with temptations,
You still resisted and fought knowing I would never fail you.
Well done Paul, well done my servant of the cross."

Through the tears of joy I see streets paved with gold.
A sea, clear as crystal shimmers in the distance.
The gates of heaven, made of pearls unbelievably large.
Walls, made of of diamonds and the purest stones.
But the greatest thing it that the light,
Comes not from stars, but always radiates from the Holy Trinity.
I have found my peace. Not the calm before the storm, but the silence after.