Rooms - James L. Rubart [118]
Enemy.
Rick stopped twenty yards away and didn’t speak. His usual smile had flown, no hint of the typical laughter in his eyes. His being here was wrong.
Villain.
He glared at Rick, disgust joining Micah’s anger. There was no rationale for the feelings. Rick was the one person in the world who could help him work through the devastation his life had become. But logic had vanished. He could only react to emotions pumping through him.
Micah’s lips parted slightly, his teeth ground together, his eyes never leaving Rick’s.
Rick returned the defiant stare with an intensity Micah had never seen. And Rick’s body seemed different: taller, broader. The way the sun bounced off his clothes made it look like light came from inside him.
Micah couldn’t hold Rick’s gaze and dropped his eyes.
Rick took three strides forward and spoke with an authority that startled Micah. “Freedom is waiting to burst forth in you, Micah. You must not quench it.”
Anger surged like flashes of lightning inside him, and he had no idea how to rein it in. But he didn’t want to. It felt good. Very good.
“What gives you the right to tell me anything?” He hurled his pack to the ground. “You’ve done nothing but assist in destroying my life!”
“You’ve been listening to lies.” Rick took another step forward.
“Lies? Really? Your lies maybe?”
“You know what lies.”
“What are you talking about?” He turned his back and glared at the ocean.
“The voice.”
Micah whirled back. “I’ve never told you about—”
“The voice in your house? No, you haven’t.” Rick took another two strides forward. A large rock shattered into dust as his foot came down on it.
“You’ve been spying on me?”
“Why haven’t you told me?” Rick’s eyes flashed like steel.
“What gives you the right to demand that of me?”
“Why haven’t you told me?” Rick took another step forward.
“So that’s what our relationship is about? Me describing every intricate detail of my entire life? And what has it gotten me? Since I met you, my life has been destroyed. I’ve lost everything!”
Rick took another two steps forward, and the ground seemed to shake. “Ask yourself, why didn’t you tell me? So many times you’ve wanted to.” His voice thundered. “What held you back?”
“You know what’s going on with my life but won’t tell me. Now you show up here without warning and start attacking with some feeble courtroom cross-examination about what I have or haven’t told you.”
As Micah spoke, an invisible chasm split the ground between Rick and him. He couldn’t see it, but it was as real as the cape they stood on. Physically they weren’t more than five yards apart. In all other ways it was miles.
“You feel it right now, don’t you?” Rick said. “We can’t see it, but it is definitely there. Pushing us away from each other. Dividing us. Stirring up rage in you. You know in your heart I’m your intimate ally, but something is speaking to you right now, fanning the flame of evil emotion, telling you not to trust me. And you’re listening.” One more step toward him.
“You are the villain!”
“Now is the moment where you must make your choice. Right now. The truth or lies.” Rick took three more steps. His eyes never left Micah. Rick was now just six feet away. “There is a battle for your destiny in this moment, and you must decide whom to believe.”
“The same exact words my voice said to me!” Micah spat out.
“Yes, the exact words. Freedom is fighting for you, but you must make the choice. He cannot make it for you.”
“Why don’t you make it for me? The man with all the answers. The man with the truth.”
“Fight it, Micah. This is not you. It is the sin that dwells within you talking. Seek the truth!”
Micah heaved a tree branch over the edge of the cape and watched it float down toward the waves. It would be so easy to follow the branch down to the ocean.
“Don’t listen. The Lord is a sword and shield. Call on Him,” Rick said.
“I’m tired of it. Archie, Sarah, you, the voice—everyone has a different angle, a different spin for my life.”
“In the Truth there is no spin.”
“Whose truth? Tell