Sheep Eaters
by
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“It sounds like you need to move out of Jupiter,” he said. “I know we can help. I'll have my assistant set up some site visits to the two places you've chosen and we will see what we can do about transferring you. It should be a win-win for all involved,” he said.
“Thank you so much Bart,” Laura said.
“Don't thank me, thank Mr. Taylor,” he replied before ending the call.
Furies was quite upset with the turn of events. He knew it was time to have a talk with Solum.
“I think it's time to change tactics,” Furies said with a controlled temper.
“What do you mean?' Solum asked. “I mean, we have to DO SOMETHING ELSE!!,” he screeched, unleashing his wrath. “It's time to torment their every waking moment....and their sleep, more than before. I see now, the angels are trying to help Laura and Ryan get out of Jupiter...out from under our powers. It may be too late to stop them, but we have to do what we can.” Furies finished with forced decorum.
That night, Laura had a dream.
Laura and Ryan were sitting in the back row of a huge auditorium, with thousands of red velvet seats, and a large balcony. There was a long front stage with beautiful red velvet curtains draped across the stage enclosing it like a picture in a frame. At the podium up front was a man in a tuxedo holding an envelope. There was total silence as he opened the envelope.
“And the winner is...Dr. Laura Carroll!” the man in the tuxedo exclaimed. All of a sudden the crowd stood to their feet and began to clap and cheer. Confetti and colorful balloons started to fall to the ground. Laura stood up, surprised, and looked around. The bright spotlight had been swirling around the audience and had landed on Laura in the back row. Ryan prompted her to walk to the front.
“Go ahead honey, go get your award,” he said with a smile.
Laura walked up on the stage and a smiling blonde woman in a long black dress came out holding a large golden trophy in the form of a dollar sign.
“Please, take your trophy Dr. Carroll,” the man in the tuxedo prompted. He was still smiling and the crowd was going ballistic. Laura took the trophy from the smiling woman and started to smile until she looked down to see what the plaque below the trophy read:
“To America's #1 Loser, the Most Gullible, Ridiculous Woman of the Year”
Laura thought to herself, this can't be right and looked up at the crowd and realized everyone was pointing and laughing at her, not cheering for her. Then she looked at the man in the tuxedo and watched as his face started to change into a grotesque looking clown mask as he continued to cackle. His arm reached out with a long pale, decrepit bony finger and pointed at her trophy. Laura looked down as it turned into a slimy hissing black coiled snake and then disintegrated into black powder. Laura started screaming in the dream and turned to run backstage. She ran through the backdoor and the next thing she knew she was behind a thin white curtain sitting in a booth behind bars. She looked down and saw that she was sitting on a wooden plank with a large basin of water about five feet below her. She heard a voice amplified by a megaphone from in front of the curtain.
“Step right up...Step right up folks, for your chance to dunk the Most Gullible person in the World. Only fifty cents per ball, folks. Boy is she gullible. You can't believe it until you see it. It's beyond belief folks.” Just then the curtain opened and Laura saw a line of over one hundred people gawking and pointing at her. She was at an old time carnival and she was the main attraction. The people in line were holding wads of cash in their hands and they were fighting over who would get to throw the first ball. Just when Laura was bracing herself for her first dunking, she looked down and saw that the water below was no longer there. In its place were hundreds of black vipers slithering and hissing, with their eyes staring at her. As she started to scream she heard a voice calling 'Laura, Laura...'
Laura woke up realizing it was Ryan's voice trying to wake her up from a deep sleep. She opened her eyes and flinched as she saw Ryan's face. As the realization hit her that she had been dreaming, her heart rate started to decelerate as did her breathing.
“Are you OK Laura? You must have been having a bad dream. You were yelling out 'No' over and over again.” Ryan exclaimed.
“Yeah, I guess I was. I've never had a nightmare before, but I think I just did... And I thought my real life was a nightmare,” she said.
“What was it about?” Ryan asked.
“Oh, it's hard to explain...I don't even really remember most of it,” Laura said, not wanting to upset Ryan.
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About the Book
Who can you trust? The man brought up by an evangelist in a Christian home who spent most of his early life traveling with his family in a worship band? Or the so-called wealthy retired business man who is devoted to his children and wants to teach them the world of business transactions? In the spiritual realm, we are presented with a view of the motivations that may have lead to neither one of these men to be what they presented themselves to be.
Through the eyes of one of the couples that fell victim to the real-life Ponzi schemes and experienced the subsequent havoc they caused, we see a fictionalized spiritual realm and experience a glimpse onto the battlefield where a war is raging among the angels and demons to win the souls of those involved.
About the Author
Jill Van Horn is a family physician who lives with her husband and son near Greensboro, North Carolina. She enjoys reading and has decided to put her hand to writing a book as a new author. She bases her first book on a circumstance from her past that taught her and her husband about one characteristic of human nature that can cause the most well-meaning individuals to overlook good judgement and put their trust in individuals rather than God. Or can cause certain individuals to perpetrate acts towards fellow humans that lead to destruction. That characteristic is greed. She is writing this book as a warning to all about the seemingly increasing number of financial schemes that have been occurring in the present day. Her hope is to bring awareness to the fraudulent “wolves in sheep’s clothing” that try to take advantage of the unsuspecting “sheep”.