text: ‘Thou shall not suffer a witch to live.’ - Exodus 22:18 "This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like chrysolite, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel." - Ezekiel 1:16 Reuben Kane gazed long and hard above, deep into the silent afternoon sky. When he was a child he imagined he would find God there, idly lounging in the soft-cushioned clouds, half-listening to the prayers of those he created. Little Reuben would speak to God, the one way conversations we all had. He would ask for material possessions; the latest, most expensive bicycle, a new phone with a digital camera and the shiniest shoes he could think of. Yet Reuben sprouted from the fields of the poor, so naturally he aged without the things that he happened to plea for. Over the course of time the prayers became more desperate, more needed, and still the sky was silent. Even when Reuben promised to give something back to the heavens, the gates remained firmly closed. After years of wrestling with his faith, he concluded that we were alone in this universe, merely a fluke and nothing more. It didn’t take the mind of a great philosopher to understand this. After all, the universe was full of unheard prayers floating through space like a searching signal bound for extra-terrestrial life, words withering through the black of nothingness. There is no God, Reuben thought on this afternoon, his eyes now fixed ahead of him. He opened the car boot and removed the backpack and tent, hauled them over his shoulder and made his way into the dark of the forest. It was something of a suicide hot-spot, located one hundred miles from civilisation. Two rusting vehicles were collecting fallen leaves in the car-park; abandoned by their troubled owners who drowned in the sea of trees, their pain too much to keep them afloat. Reuben pondered this for a moment. He wondered if they, too, had shared the elements of doubt that he felt as he stood at the foot of the forest. These doubts he was quick to shake. He had always known that it would come to this, even before his loss of faith, there was that stalking unhappiness that followed him everywhere. There was no room for consideration, or hesitation; he had come to accept his failures, and he was determined this was not to be one of them. *It would take something extraordinary to change his mind.* Reuben followed the trail for a while. He'd already passed at least three signposts urging hikers to abide to the track, with the vastness of the forest making it too easy to get lost, but he had no interest in reading them. He was, however, taken slightly aback by a certain sign in particular, which was accompanied by a yellow telephone. It read: *Suicide Prevention Helpline, 0800-212-TALK, You Are Never Alone.* It’s such a sweeping statement, ‘Never Alone’. Reuben had spent all his years surrounded by people but had always felt the cold of loneliness; and these things made it sound so simple. Perhaps it was, but Reuben had passed the point of wanting to find out. After a further forty-five minutes of strenuous hiking, he made his way off the trail into the unfathomable warren of trees; and soon after, he stepped beyond the point of no return. He watched as the merciless night invaded the forest, beginning its massacre of the unarmed soldiers of light. There was no option but to set up camp before darkness conquered day. He remembered the camping trips he took with his Father, when he had last felt the golden warmth of happiness. They would go up into the mountains in his Father’s beaten-up Volkswagen, what he called the ‘hippy van’, and spend entire weekends fishing what seemed to be bottomless lakes. Once they’d caught the fish, the biggest being a fifty three pound coy carp, they’d always place it back into the water; but not before taking a trophy photograph. ‘None of God’s creatures deserve to needlessly die’, his Father would say. They would spend the evenings staying up late. Reuben’s Father would retell old ghost stories that had been passed down through the Kane family, each Father passing off the experience as his own. These stories seemed rich with truth, and Reuben was always too afraid to sleep afterwards. His Father would stay up and remind him that God was watching over him - something that turned out to be a lie. Reuben assembled the tent the way his Father had taught him; first creating the frame by joining the poles together, then fitting the cover and staking down the edges. He thought it fitting to spend his last evening on earth recreating those youthful trips of happiness, or at least trying to. Yet there was something eerie about this forest, something more than the fact that countless people had come here to take their own lives. *Ghosts daren’t whisper in this forest*, Reuben mused, as he noticed the unnatural silence, which was soon joined by a thick blanket of mist. Deep down he knew there was nothing to be afraid of; come the morning he would be dead, hanging from one of the trees - so what else was there to fear? There were the stories he’d read on the internet while he was researching the location. Some people believed that the spirits of the dead were forced to remain in the forest, forsaken by both heaven and hell. It was a myth that was absolutely terrifying in principle, but completely irrational as far as Reuben was concerned. He was no longer a child up in the mountains with his Father. No, he was a man now, and the strain of life was much more frightening than any horror story. He was close to calling it a night when he saw a bright and beautiful red orb hovering high above the trees, as the mist thickened into a deep and bone-chilling fog. It was like a dead star was falling gently and silently to earth. Reuben found himself moving directly towards the source; almost against his will, the intensity of the illumination becoming stronger with each step, as if the forest was shrouded with an overspread of fire. It was getting closer; falling faster, yet there was no sound - not even the croaking of crickets in the forest, or the flapping wings of evading birds. There was nothing. He was all alone - Reuben Kane and the noiseless ball of fire, which would soon be directly above him. Is this a divine intervention to stop me from taking my life? He thought, as his hurried heart hammered his frail chest. It can’t be. God doesn’t exist. He can’t exist, Reuben whispered. He stood still now, almost in a trance. The object, whatever it was, was now just four hundred feet from earth and the light was burning his eyes, but he couldn’t shut them. No matter how hard he tried his eyes would not close. He just stood there helplessly, absorbed by the mystery of what was coming towards him. What he thought to be one powerful orb of light was in fact three separate lights spaced apart from one another in the shape of a triangle. In between the lights was a solid black base, which was now just three hundred feet above an awestruck Reuben Kane. It became clear that the object was not the handiwork of man. He was certain now that he had been wrong, that his faith in God should have remained devout. What were the chances of such a random occurrence on the eve of his planned suicide? There was absolutely no doubt in his mind: *This was a sign from God.* Just two hundred feet from the soil, the plummeting object gained ferocious speed, forcing Reuben to turn and run. It crossed over his head and Reuben, panting and panicking, was almost swept off of his feet by the force of its passing. He craned his neck to check where the object was, but it had disappeared into the mist. No longer were the bright red lights revealing its whereabouts. Then he heard it. The thunderous boom as the object collided with the earth. It was like a flash grenade had exploded before him, like a wind had passed right through him, knocking him back and ringing inside his ears, as if they were trying to receive a signal. Disorientated, he leant against one of the trees while he regained his composure. He felt the buzz of excitement racing in circles around his stomach, coupled with the hungry curiosity of discovering exactly what had crashed down to earth. He made his way towards the direction of the noise, timidly trudging while reassuring himself that this was his salvation. *God works in mysterious ways.* He was walking for at least five minutes and at first he thought he had walked right passed it. Then he saw it, a huge hole in the earth. The crater was at least forty feet deep and eighty feet in diameter. Within the crater was a large pyramid shaped object, something not of this earth. Reuben carefully crawled inside of it, navigating the curved earth which was burning his feet through his shoes. When he reached the bottom he was mesmerised. The black pyramid practically filled the crater. On closer inspection he saw that the craft was covered in strange yellow markings that were strikingly similar to the hieroglyphics found inside Egyptian tombs. Reuben was filled with joy. He knew that this discovery would give his life meaning. This would make him rich and loved by everyone! Thank you, God! He exclaimed, his words drowning out the sound of the pyramid opening. The entity stood two feet taller than Reuben and was directly behind him. Reuben felt its breath against the top of his head and jolted round. Filled with fear he looked up deep into the black eyes of the entity, every inch of his body paralysed, but his brain. The entity raised its hand and released a blue beam that shot straight through Reuben’s chest, striking his heart and ceasing its beating, his last thought was *why?* EDIT: Formatting.