Battle of the Godless – Ch. 1 | KT OLLA

MICAH’S wandering eyes landed on the bare floor. And then he parted his lips to speak as the words came out in a mumble.

‘Mother, I was the one who robbed you!’

Rekah sat back in her chair conquered, as her devout son dropped that confession.

The aged woman wasn’t expecting those lines from her grown son, her good ol’ boy. Not when his heart was so clear for all to see.

It was a beautiful sunrise that morning in the distant mountains of Ephraim – the hill country spreading across the central parts of ancient Israel.

Yet that pretty sun rising daily on that Promised Land was only a mockery of what was quickly dying.

For it was the Age of Darkness in that land of Israel, when men had no law or king to light their paths.

 And in those darkest times like ours today, men made themselves good.

And made for themselves gods.

Now Rekah laughed off his son’s confession after his heavy words hit her.

‘Of course you’re the one, my son! Have you forgotten you stole away my youth when you suddenly wanted to be born?

‘Of course you’re my biggest robber, Micah!’

But Rekah realized just now that she was the only one kidding. For her son here was serious as life itself. And he wouldn’t budge over a small joke, it seemed.

Just then a small silence filled the gap between mother and son, and then the sober one picked up again.

‘Mother! Those one thousand, one hundred pieces of silver you lost recently. Those silver coins that made you place a huge curse on the thief—

‘I was the one who stole that money! I was the one who robbed you… I am sorry!’

The woman stared into her son’s eyes for a moment and then looked away and bowed her head heavily.

For just as those words fell from Micah’s lips, a new wave of silence poured into that bed chamber that was Rekah’s.

And like pelting raindrops in a storm, many thoughts beat on the old woman’s mind in that uncertain moment.

Nay, in that moment of truth.

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That small moment when time passed like the ebbs of sea, and a worried mother brooded on her son’s error…

That moment, the son passed over the events that led up to now within his mind. Along with the motives that birthed his actions.

But Micah wasn’t as disturbed as his mother – at least when he stole those silver coins initially.

Yes, the man didn’t bat an eye when his mother toiled searching for the money. He wasn’t moved by her sweat or touched for her loss.

Still the middle-aged didn’t rob his mother for anything at all. He didn’t take the huge sum to spend or squander it.

But that pious son that Rekah knew stole her money just because he felt like it. Just because he wanted to know how it felt to steal.

Truly, Micah had felt his life lacked the buzz and the thrill. Every day seemed to him like an endless bore, with no glitter or luster.

And so, he’d thought robbing his mother of her life savings would spice up his dull, empty life. Thus, when Rekah searched for her chested silvers for several weeks, he felt no regret at all.

He simply searched the house with her and watched his mother bother to find a fortune.

But old Rekah didn’t stop with searching. For when she saw that she couldn’t find her money anywhere, she placed a huge curse on the thief. And it was in her son’s presence.

Micah heard her mother curse a stranger that was her child, a robber that was simply him. But still the man wasn’t moved to return the money.

For he was beginning to feel the thrill in the twists and turns, so he didn’t want to let go of that sparkle.

Thus, Micah defied his mother’s curse along with the consequence, and went to his own house keeping the money still.

Then through the weeks that swept past like a fast racing wind, Micah did nothing else than stare endlessly at the stack of silver in his house.

Every day he’d sit for hours and gaze at the glister and luster in the silver chest.

He’d scoop out a handful and sometimes an armful, and then bow his head to sniff in the scent of glistening mints.

He did that for days, and weeks and a few more nights. But it didn’t take too long before the glitter in his eyes began to grow dull.

And soon, everything returned to the ordinariness he knew before.

Micah found nothing exciting in a pile of mints anymore. He found nothing interesting about life in fact.

His race had ended too soon, and his chase only climaxed in nothingness.

He felt vain and empty like at the first time.

Like air bubbles popping out of water and bursting the next instant. Only to settle with the fluid from where it’d risen.

He simply felt emptied.

And voided.