The One Path

The Portal & The Panther Tombs, Tomes, and Sages

The One Path

one_path_cover Who are you, Thomas, and what do you want from me?��

Thomas said, ��You may find this hard to believe. I still find it hard to believe myself, but I am God��s last prophet.��

The pope looked at Thomas, scrutinizing him closely. Thomas could see that he was looking for a sign or some indication that what he claimed was either true or false.

His Holiness walked up to Thomas, reached into his robes, looked him in the eyes, and said, ��Forgive me, Thomas.�� He pulled a small ornate bat from under his robe, and he whacked Thomas squarely on top of his head. Thomas fell over and hit the ground like a dropped sack of potatoes.

When Thomas finally regained consciousness, he found himself lying on a very comfortable couch with the pope seated across from him still holding the ornate stick. As Thomas��s eyes began to focus, the pope held up the hand-carved wooden bat and said, ��It is a religious relic, given to Saint Peter by Christ.��

Thomas looked at the pope and said, ��Your Holiness, you could have just asked me, and I would have told you that I am not a demon.��

The pope eyed Thomas with a new respect as he asked, ��Why would you say that, Thomas?��

��I can only assume that you thought that I might be a demon, so you hit me over the head to see if I healed quickly like a demon or slowly like a man. Is that truly a religious relic of power?��

The pope laughed and said, ��Saint Peter called it daimon ksilo. I believe the term to be old Greek, and in translation, it would be called a demon stick. Apparently, Jesus had a sense of humor. Peter wrote in his memoirs: ��When I questioned Jesus on how I could tell if I were talking to a demon or a man, he gave me the ornate stick that I pass down to my successors. My Lord said, ��Hit the suspect demon over the head, and if he heals faster than a man, he is a demon.”�� You, Thomas, are obviously a man with information that only popes have possessed in the past.��

Thomas said, ��I am just glad you didn��t kill me to see if I disappeared into the nether.��

Larry S. Gerovac was born and raised in the Midwest. He is a first generation American, U.S. Navy Veteran, ex-Air Traffic Controller, and a retired nuclear worker. He loves science, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. His goal is to entertain readers for many years with some truly out of this world stories.