Stephen Harvey

The Gift

Our story begins with a Brazilian family from Rio de Janeiro. For several years, they were loyal members of a local sect, known as A Igreja do Sacrificio Santo – The Church of the Holy Sacrifice.

The family had two children; a boy, aged eight, and a girl, aged nine. They lived in a very run-down area, and had attended their sect’s meeting hall daily for the past ten years.

On the tenth anniversary of their joining, the couple were summoned to a special meeting, where they met with the Chief Elder.

“To reward you for your faithfulness,” the Elder said, “we would like to offer you a gift.”

“What gift?” asked the father.

“We want to give to you the former Darkhill Residence, which has been in our church’s membership for the past twenty years.”

He was stunned. “The Darkhill Residence?”

“Yes. It is a great mansion which has been uninhabited for the past twenty years. Its former owner, a wealthy merchant, was one of the founders of our church; and in his will, he wanted to hand over all his belongings to God’s children.”

“We have decided to give it to you, in order to ensure the best opportunity for the conscious evolution of the… next generation.”

He struggled for breath.

“You want my family to have the mansion, just like that?”

“Yes indeed. It is what God wills.”

“Is there a catch?”

“There’s no catch. You only have to obey our Rules.” The Elder reached into a drawer and pulled out four pendants with bluish-green crystals on the end, and handed them to the two parents. “You and your children must wear these at all times. They are a symbol of our agreement.”

“And one more thing,” he said to the two parents. “No one who is not one of God’s children is allowed in the house. In fact, they are not allowed anywhere near the house whilst you are there. And no one is to know who gave you this house. Do I make myself clear?”

The couple nodded, in an utter daze.

The children were in awe at the sheer size of the mansion - it was truly massive. It had been carefully prepared for their arrival by the leaders of the sect.

The church generally frowned upon all forms of luxury, regarding them as time wasting and a frivolous distraction from spiritual matters. This had not been any problem for the family before; yet now, in the luxurious surroundings of the mansion, they began to feel a little uncomfortable. How could they possibly keep to the Rules?

As the family settled in and became more accustomed to the luxury, the church Elders summoned the parents after one evening service.

“I sense that you are having materialistic thoughts, and are not dedicated enough to God,” the chief Elder told them. “If you do not change your ways, your whole family will have to face the fires of Hell!” He then gave them a very stern warning, saying that if they did not obey the Rules to the letter, they would pay greatly.

Although they were greatly alarmed at the savagery of the Elder’s voice, they solemnly nodded in agreement.

“We’ll be keeping a very close eye on you,” the Elder said, then dismissed them.

After being dismissed, they talked to each other.

“How can they know what we are thinking?” asked the mother to the father.

“They just know,” he said. “It is the power of God. You are not having doubts, are you?”

“No, of course not.”

“Good. You don’t want them to sense that, do you?”

On the way out of the meeting hall, the parents noticed a man amongst the congregation they couldn’t recall having seen before. Who was he? He was tall, with mousey-coloured hair. They noticed the Elders staring at him as they left the building.

Several weeks later, whilst the children were away at school, and the father was away, the family had a knock on their door. It was an old friend of the mother, who answered the door. When the woman saw her, she screamed.

“So it’s true then!” she gasped. “You’re living here!”

The mother nodded.

“How in the world?”

She hesitated, remembering the Elder’s strict warning, then decided to tell her.

“My church gave it to us as a gift,” she said. Her friend stared in amazement.

“Why don’t you come in?” she finally said. “I’ll tell you all about it.”

As the woman cautiously left the house an hour later, one of the Elders was spying on her from behind a bush. He crept away stealthily, then called the Chief Elder on his mobile phone.

“She’s just left the gate now,” he said.

“Thanks for your good work,” they told him, then hung up.

The Elders were furious about what had happened, and the Chief Elder had a heated discussion with his fellow leaders at the sect’s nearby Headquarters. They rapidly arrived at a decision.

“Hello, Dart,” said the Chief Elder on his phone. “I have a special mission for you to carry out for us…”

“Yeah, alright. When will I get my money?”

“It’s waiting for you right here.” He held an enormous sum of money in his hands.

That same day, the two children were walking back from school alone. They were over half way home when they noticed a car speeding towards them. The car stopped. A skinhead man jumped out and grabbed the eight-year-old boy. He had a cannabis-smoking skull tattooed on his right shoulder.

“Let him go!” screamed his sister, bravely resisting him. As she was kicking and screaming, he thumped her hard on the back of her head, knocking her out. Both children were dragged into the car, which then sped off into the distance.

Half an hour later, there was a knock at the door of the mansion. The mother opened it. It was one of the Elders.

“We have your children,” he told them.

“You have broken the Rules, and now you must pay for your disobedience with your children’s lives.”

The mother was absolutely hysterical.

“Please don’t harm my children! Please!” she cried. “I’ll give you anything! Anything! You can have this mansion back, and we will do anything for you! Just don’t hurt them!”

The man then uttered a sickening laugh.

“We don’t want your mansion back,” he said. “Your children are already dead.”

She gasped.

”You have sinned against God, so you deserve to be punished. We have carried out His punishment. We are the bearers of His wrath. And it will not be long before you can see your children again in Hell.”

With that, the man let out a gasp, then dropped to the floor, dead.

The mother stared at his corpse on her doorstep, then ran inside and picked up the phone. It was dead. They had cut her phone line.

She panicked. She knew that she would never made it to the police station alive.

Suddenly, she heard sirens in the distance. It was the police. They pulled up on her doorstep.

“Come with us,” they said, weapons in hand.

The mother was escorted to the police station, where she met with her husband. There, they saw the mousey-haired man.

“I am Officer R,” he told her. “We’ve recovered your children.”

“My children!” she gasped. “Are they alive?”

“They are critically ill,” he told them. “They are in intensive care in the hospital. They were injected with poison, and they had just stopped breathing when we got to them. Luckily, we managed to resuscitate them, but they are still unconscious.”

“Your cult’s Headquarters have been raided, and we discovered enormous quantities of crack cocaine hidden in the basement. It appears that your Chief Elder is the leader in a major drug smuggling operation, and we have been after him for some time. He and the rest of the Elders have been detained.”

“I know you and your husband are innocent. The mansion was a ploy used by the Elders to frame you. I knew I was taking on a great risk in infiltrating your cult, and have put my life in great danger. I discovered that the rest of your flock were completely oblivious to their schemes.”

He paused. Finally, her husband asked him,

“How were you able to track down our children in time?”

He smiled.

“The crystal pendants. They are a tracking device used by the Elders to trace your every move. Every word you say is recorded by them, and sent to the Headquarters. Luckily, I managed to break into the Headquarters and steal the relevant frequencies. I could track all of you, and when I heard your children’s capture, and the Elder’s message, my officers had the go-ahead to raid the Headquarters.”

“Our forensics experts have yet to investigate further, but we suspect that your messenger had been injected with a time-delayed poison, which would have given him just enough time to deliver the message.”

The parents were taken to the hospital, where they saw their two children, lying side by side on life-support machines.

“How are they doing?” the mother asked the doctor.

“They are still critical, but their condition is stabilising,” he said. “They are very lucky to be alive.”

The parents sat by their bedside for several hours. Finally, the doctor approached them.

“Their condition seems to be improving,” he said, “but time will tell.”

The mother looked at her children, looking so innocent lying there, and somehow knew that they were going to be all right.