The Very Last Snipe Hunt - An Unexpected Ending

A Prophetic short story ... What if it were true?

As teenagers, my cousins and I would often initiate a new friend by taking them Snipe Hunting on their first visit to our family property on Edisto Island. It was great fun, but could be terrifying for the unsuspecting Newbie (True story).

For Polly, it was the most terrifying of all, because this would be the very last Snipe Hunt. Ever (Fiction with an element of Prophetic truth).

Photo by Rosie Sun on Unsplash

It was the pitch-black darkness of a new moon.

Polly had assumed they were trying to play a joke on her, so she played along.

She gently tapped the paper bag with the stick and softly called for the Snipes. They had said this was necessary to catch them. They said it might take a while.

She had walked about a half mile when she realized she was alone. Where were the others? They had not said anything about this part.

After a half hour with no results, she decided she had enough. But, now she had no idea where she was or which direction to go to get back to the house.

She was completely lost. It was so dark that she could not even see the individual trees around her.

She became frightened when she began hearing sounds out in the woods. Was that a stick that broke, a crunch of a footstep or was it just her imagination?

Just then she heard something far off in the distance. It sounded like trumpets. Who would be blowing trumpets out here?

Faint at first, then louder and louder, sounding from all sides. A blinding bright light appeared as the trumpets reverberated through the air, enveloping her.

What sort of cruel joke were they playing on her? Her heart pounded.

Shaking with terror, Polly fainted.

Of that day and hour no one knows, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only ... Matthew 24:36

Photo by Uta Scholl on Unsplash

The rays of sunlight were streaming through the morning mist when she woke. Why hadn’t they come looking for her?

Although she was still somewhat anxious, her shivering now was from the cold.

Getting her bearing, she made her way to the dirt road that led up to the small cluster of houses along the tidal creek.

It was so quiet. The cars were still there, but the house was empty. The boats were still tied to the dock.

Where was everyone? It was as if they had completely vanished. If this was a joke, it had gone way too far.

Shrouded in a cloak of dread, Polly drove along the road in a frantic search for any clues. Observing the houses, she finally saw a man and woman just standing out in the yard looking scared and confused.

When she stopped to ask if they had seen her friends drive by, they told her that several of their own family members were missing. All their belongings were still where they were supposed to be. Nothing had been disturbed. No note was left. It was as if they had just vanished.

This frightened Polly even more. She asked them to ride with her. They stopped several times to talk to others who told them the same thing. They were all puzzled and scared.

Finally, Polly turned into a church parking lot to turn around. A man wearing a clerical collar was standing on the church steps, mouth gaping, staring in shock toward the cemetery just beyond. They followed his gaze. Their fear became terror at the sight before them.

Many, but not all, of the graves were open.

Polly remembered reading in the popular Left Behind novel series of an event like this where many people had vanished without a trace. She had laughed at the absurdity of that.

She wasn’t laughing now.

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 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built houses … Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. - Luke 17:28, 30

Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. - 1 Corinthians 15:51-52

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. - 1Thessalonians 4:15-17

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