“No!” I screamed, throwing my hands forward, repelling the light away. Darkness spread from my fingertips, building into walls that created the fortress around my Heart and Mind. I strengthened them as fast as I could, throwing ammunition, lies, betrayal, hardship, pain, and abuse into a series of walls that I extended outward as far as I could see. 

The light brightened for a moment, and my Heart cried out seeing it, but it retreated again. Pain ached everywhere, and I fell backward, trusting the strength of my defenses, backed with the superior power of my Mind to hold against the attacker. Gathering my remaining strength, I built a tower of darkness beneath my feet, rising to survey the battle above the wall. Below, the light seemed to dance, shrouding out any other objects in its brilliance. I felt rather than saw the reverberations cracking through my walls, and I threw more of my attention and force to those areas. 

I was alone, no one to help me fight this battle. All the people I loved had left me for the other side or for another fortress, leaving me vulnerable and exposed. My barriers were cracking, and I threw even more force behind them. Lies, envy, and hatred whipped around me, hastily created to mend the fracture in my wall. I didn’t like doing it this way, but I need to, I told myself. 

However, the increase in attention on the wall made the base beneath me unstable. It faltered, sending me plummeting to the ground. With a mighty crash, my fortress was broken apart, and my tower fell. 

Terrified, I ran to the center of my soul, where my Heart beat in time with my footsteps. Glancing behind me, I saw the light sweeping towards me, and I did what I could to throw up barriers to keep them back. 

The darkest parts of my soul swirled around me, forming a tightened barrier around my Heart and I. I pushed against the tiny space with all the might of my Mind, willing to fight for as long as I had to for survival. I could feel the ache within my Heart, the pain caused by seeing the light. 

I braced myself and waited for the light to attack my final barrier. For hours I waited, my Mind tiring from the strain. Silence reigned from outside my shell, and I wondered if the Attacker had given up. 

Yet, as if summoned, I heard a voice, and I noticed a gap smaller than my finger at the base of my barrier. “I love you,” the voice said. In the background, I heard a triumphant song, a thousand voices crying out. 

The lyrics seemed to carve a line right through my barrier, and for the first time in years, I wept, unable to tell exactly why. In my moment of weakness, my barrier shattered, scattering all my darkness away. I was helpless before this King of Light. My Heart beat wildly, sending thrumming, aching joy throughout my entire being. 

Light engulfed me, and I could not see anything in its brilliance. Unable to fight any longer, I gave up, resigning myself to service of this King. Yet even as I relinquished, I felt strong arms lifting me up. 

“You are my child,” the King said, and I could feel His might pushing the last of my darkness away. Yet in His presence, I felt stronger than I ever had before. 

And strangest of all, as he carried me to the thousands of others who followed Him, I found myself singing along to the song of worship they cried out.