Voices

I am in a church and it is night outside. The lights are out and the large building is lit by thousand of small white stick-candles. There is a long white table splitting the center of the room and many empty chairs around. The pews flank the table and there is a stage in the front with a podium and many stairs leading up to it. For a time there are other people within the church, all speaking to one another and a preacher preaches to the crowd. Soon afterwards I find myself all alone in the building and the candlelight dims. There is an odd breeze inside the building, and there are no doors or windows open and no ceiling fans. Before me, along the walls of the church, and encompassing the entire sanctuary, slithered an enormous serpent. It resembled an unnaturally large Burmese python. It was brown with dark spots and longer than a tree. Its head could swallow my body whole ten times over and it had a rattle along the end of its tail. It hisses at me as it slithers forth and comes to the center of the sanctuary, making its way to slip over the table and snake across it towards me. It tells me, in a voice I remember vividly, "I know you are afraid." My body was shaking and I was sweating. The serpent continues with, "I tell you, you will fail to spread the Word of God." I deny this and begin shouting at the serpent, angrily. Nevertheless its power increases and it stands up on its tail and continues to hiss and bare its fangs. It sprays venom on me, yet I am unaffected. I tell it to be gone, and it disobeys, saying, "You are worthless." I give another shout and unsheathe a sword from thin air, miraculously, and threaten to strike. The sword was white and gleamed like fire. It illuminated the entire room and the candles had vanished. The snake dissipates like sand in water, bursting apart and becoming thin air. I am left to stand and wonder... what had it meant.