Read Online The New Guard (Crossroads Book 1) by Matthew M. Johns - Free Book Online

father that he was back on Earth and that he would one day
be called back to the Crossroads. I was also the one who informed him that his
parents had died in a car accident the day they did not pick him up. I helped
him contact some authorities and we were brought to his aunt, his only
surviving relative. It is her house you all called home.”
    David
scratched the Beagle’s ears and smiled at it. “I restarted my life on Earth
finishing off high school before my aunt passed away. She left me the house and
a small bit of money. I worked odd jobs for the surrounding farmers and at
times in town. I met your mother there. She had just graduated from college and
returned home. We courted, much to the ire of her parents, for she came from
money and I did not. However, after many months we got married, settled into
the house, and started having children a few years later.”
    This time
when David fell silent the Beagle did not speak up. After only a few moments of
silence, Nic spoke. “So there is a center to all creation and this is it?”
    David
nodded. “Not exactly the center, though it is a close enough analogy to work.”
    Nic
continued, “You’ve been here before and now we're trapped here?”
    “Yes,”
David replied.
    “Mom is
here, right? Just in another part?” Deborah asked a hint of longing and dread
in her voice.
    “That is
correct,” David said. “It would seem the crossings are becoming more and more
random. For the longest time the crossing to Earth was at Bethel in Israel, but
the continued wars in that area and here at the Crossroads helped create
instability. The woods surrounding our house had not previously been a
crossing. As we crossed through, it shifted on this end, separating us from
your mother. It appears that the opening at each end can also vary in size from
as small as a staircase to as large as our woods.”
    “Your
father surmises correctly,” the Beagle once again spoke up. “The apertures at
either end expand to allow or disallow flow of traffic. Your mother and unborn
sibling were also called forth, so the doorway was widened. However, the
doorway doesn’t move only because of instability. Sometimes a crossing moves
out of urgent need. Our recent experience was a mixture of both. You were
called forth, so the doorway moved to the woods outside your home. The decay of
creation and unstable governance of both Earth and the Here Between caused the
exit point to fracture, separating us from your mother.”
    “You keep
saying we were called forth,” Mel said, “but we were attacked. Who, what were
those things? Was that part of a greater plan to bring us here?”
    David
leaned forward, placing both of his hands on the blade which rested in his lap.
“First and foremost, God does not propagate evil and chaos to show his power
and fulfill his purposes. Creation has been broken, and He has given us all the
gift of freewill; our abuse of this gift is the thing that produce evil and
chaos. However, even though God does not perpetrate these acts, He will use
evil and chaos to shape heroes and inspire great, good deeds.
    “Next,
you must understand that I was always destined to return to the Crossroads.
There have been few cases of those who have visited the Crossroads, returned to
their planet of origin, and not returned to the Way World at some later date. I
also bore the Sword of Truth, which is a weapon not long left out of the war of
good and evil. This is one of the greatest battle grounds in the struggle of
the light versus the darkness. I have only recently suspected that my entire
family would return with me.
    “Those
who attacked us were agents of the Void. They were Dark Riders, sentient beings
and animals linked directly to and powered by the Void. They somehow found a
way to use the crossings to get to Earth and precipitate an attack. This is
unusual; the Void prefers to work through Satan to perform attacks on the
outlying worlds, and the Void Riders are unique to this