“That song is a lie!” the dark prince called from the hillside. “You’re a fool to believe it. I have better ways, better roads, many of them. Choose what you like. Let me show you. Come my way! Come back to Babel, then follow me to the great kingdom of Erebus!”

He sounded like a carnival barker inviting men into his house of mirrors. A gust of wind blew back the willow branches, and suddenly he turned and saw me watching him. My blood chilled. As I looked on helplessly, he stepped off the hillside like a hang glider, his body transforming into a flying beast, a hell-hawk, claws grasping the air.

He flew toward the willow and circled over me. I saw the weathered scales of his underside. I was overwhelmed with the putrid smell of ancient rotting flesh, caked with blood and desiccated human body parts. I saw on the scales of this filthy, gluttonous beast the dried residue of his sickening drool.

The thunderclaps of his flapping wings deafened me. He parted his razor teeth and descended. I choked on malevolence and felt strangled by doom. Just as the beast opened his mouth, just as I smelled his wretched breath, his head yanked backward, and he disappeared.

Why had I been delivered from it again? And why did I feel so certain this rescue would be my last?

Disoriented, I walked out from under the willow branches, feeling as if space and time had turned inside out. A familiar figure was walking toward me, returning from his obligations.

“Joshua!”

I smiled and walked toward him. I extended my hand. When I got close and looked at his face, I recoiled, standing for a moment in stunned silence.

His face was a mask with two holes in it. His eyes were not radiant blue. They were the dark dull eyes of a shark!

I turned and ran until I could run no farther. I covered my twitching face. I saw a shadow and felt as if a giant spider lurked behind me. Looking up, I let out my breath when I saw Shad.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I stammered.

“About the one who calls himself Joshua? I tried to. You wouldn’t listen. It was as if you couldn’t hear my words. You thought me mad and malicious too, did you not?”

I nodded slowly.

“This time he could not keep you from seeing him as he really is. But don’t underestimate him. He won’t give up.”

I didn’t know what to say—I was trying to process it all.

“Look at the image-bearers who have forgotten who they are,” Shad said. He pointed down to the roads and the people who walked them in a trancelike state, zombies following the crowd.