• I turned to face the monster, my friend Gabriel at my side. I heard the sound of his sword pulling free from it's sheath, and clenched my own wand at my side, tightly. I met the eyes of the hulking ogre-thing with defiance burning in my eyes. I called it's name in challenge.

    "Dredgaunt! Turn back!" I shouted. "Or else I shall slay thee! And that won't be pretty."

    He drew up about twenty feet from me, which was too close for my tastes. I shifted my legs nervously, ready to flee at the signs of a charge. You don't meet a train head on and live. Same for demons summoned by your spiteful archenemy.

    Dredgaunt just kind of flapped his jowls, making a noise I could only infer to be laughter. "Thou art not of a caliber, child wizard, to defy me!"

    I heard Gabriel's chuckle from beside me. "Whaddaya think, Harry? Figure we oughta show him exactly what we're made of?"

    "I thought Paladins of your sort couldn't attack if you weren't attacked first. I mean, you can't be Han Solo; I'm supposed to be Han Solo, with my bad boy good looks. Plus the wand's my blaster."

    Dredgaunt did not look like he was amused. Heck, I'd be surprised if he even got the joke, much less had the brain power to process sarcasm. You don't summon up demons like Dred to help you analyze Shakespeare.

    "I am losing patience with thee, child. Give thyself up and I will not be forced to kill thee immediately."

    I scoffed. "Next you're going to tell me that if I strike you down, you shall become more powerful than I ever dreamed possible."

    Gabriel lowered his voice and made it raspy. "Come to the dark side, we have milk and cookies."

    "Very well, then, child! You have chosen your way!" Dred shouted as he lowered his shoulder for a charge. I was ready though and as he started towards me, I leaped clear to one side and pointed my wand at his large purple figure.

    "Magnus Rocketum!" I cried. From the tip of my wand, what looked to be a bottle rocket of green sparks and fog spewed forth and shot straight for the demon-ogre. It struck him on his side, spinning him onto his back.

    "In Nomine Dei Patri!" I heard Gabriel shout as he jumped forward and drove his blade, I kid you not, a friggin real life greatsword, tip first into the demon's chest. The moment the blade touched the demon's coarse skin, white light shone bright from the blade, bright enough to effectively ruin my night vision. Occupational hazard from working with a Paladin, although I must say the trade off is well worth it.

    By the time I could make out shapes of black in the darkness, I could see the still form of the demon decaying rapidly, the sign of a otherwordly summoning. The demon wasn't so much dead as simply removed from his earthly vessel and sent back to where he came from. I looked over to Gabriel, who was wiping away a puslike substance from his sword with a handkerchief.

    I stowed my wand away in the front pocket of my sweatshirt and waited for Gabriel to finish up. When he bowed his head to pray for protection from more demons, I turned away and stared at some trash cans. I'm not that comfortable around people of true faith. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty sure there's a God out there, but I don't think that in the grand scheme of things, I matter all that much to Him. A few minutes later, Gabriel joined me at my side and we started walking.

    Gabriel didn't say anything and in reply, I didn't say anything back to him. After a while, he sighed as if about to say something he was afraid to. He didn't actually break the silence, so I figured I'd help my friend out and break the ice.

    "Something on your mind there, Gabe?"

    "Sort of. I'd like to talk to you about your faith, Harry. A-and mine."

    I wasn't comfortable with where this was heading, but I owed it to my friend to hear him out, at least to the point he could say what he was feeling. "Okay," I said. "Go ahead."

    "Well, I know you probably don't think about it often, but I'd like to share with you my testimony of Christ. Before I became a Christian, I was so angry all the time, I was frustrated that no matter what I did, I couldn't seem to please my parents or even myself. It got to the point that I didn't even know what I wanted out of life. That was when my Dad took a walk with me, and he taught me about the church. He led me to Christ and from that day I have had a peace inside of me that I can't explain any other way than to say it was the presence of the Holy Spirit."

    I stayed silent for a minute. I couldn't really reconcile what I'd been taught in my childhood with what he was telling me about his own life. It just didn't make any sense. My Mom and Dad had been Christians, but my Dad was a drinker and my Mom just cried alot. I didn't remember there being a lot of peace in their lives, or my own by extension.

    "I don't know, Gabe, that sounds great, but that sounds so different from what my parents went through. If there's a God who loves us and cares about us, then why did my parents not have that kind of peace, that kind of happiness?"

    At this point, I really wanted to know. The idea that it was as simple as changing religion sounded great, but I had my doubts. Gabriel was quiet for a moment, and I looked over at him. He was bowing his head and his mouth was forming word after word in fast progression. I wanted to avert my eyes like I had done so often as long as I had known Gabe, but this time I found that I couldn't. As much as I found it an invasion of his privacy and my own, I felt compelled to watch my friend as he prayed.

    He did that until we arrived at his house, at which point, without any prompt from me, he lifted his head. His eyes were bright, as if with inspiration. "Wait right here for just a sec," he told me. I didn't dare disobey. He went into his house and returned without his sword, but indead in his hand, he held a thick, worn looking Bible. He had it open as he rushed up to me, and his head was down, eyes fixed on the words he was reading. All at once, he started reading aloud. "'For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost,' Romans 14:17."

    He looked up at me, his face honest and eager. "Harry, I don't know why your parents didn't find peace, and it's not my place to judge that, but I do know that if you seek out Christ, and ask him to forgive you for your sins, he will forgive you and teach you how to be a man who has the Holy Spirit to be with him.

    I was shocked. No one had ever spoken to me so frankly and honestly with me about Christianity. I'm sure I looked pretty ridiculous with my mouth open and all, but if I did, Gabriel didn't say anything about it.

    "The scripture says that even while we sinned, God loved us and sent his son to die for us, so that we could have salvation." I looked away and I felt tears wet my eyes. All at once, I remembered every time I'd been rude to someone at school, or when I had stolen money from my parents to buy stuff I had wanted. The guilt and shame of all those wrongdoings hit me like a torrential storm and I had to steady myself, because my legs threatened to give way underneath me.

    "Can't you see that God is the only way to peace and happiness? When you feel his love, you feel better about yourself, you feel at peace, and you have this unexplained strength to endure anything! It's amazing what being a Christian has done for me, Harry, and I know it could do the same for you. What do you say? Don't you want to be happy, to know what you're supposed to do with your life?"

    "I-I don't know what to say. Of course I want those things. Teach me, Gabe. Teach me how to be a Christian."

    The smile on his face defied description. "Let's start with a prayer..." he said.