Three years later, he has built a quiet life around other people's dying—sitting beside hospital beds, holding strangers' hands, and offering the one comfort he can still say without lying: loud doesn't mean wrong.
Then, at 8:41 on an ordinary Tuesday night, every television in the world goes black.
A message appears.
YOU WANTED PROOF THAT GOD EXISTS.
NOW YOU WILL MEET HIS ENEMY.
What follows cannot be explained away as terrorism, mass hysteria, or coincidence.
A dragon crosses the moon.
The dead begin appearing in impossible places.
Children dream of a gentle stranger who knows their names.
And across the world, ordinary people are being offered impossible bargains—each one promising exactly what they want most.
Elias soon discovers that his daughter's name has appeared on a mysterious list of the living.
Now, alongside a grieving boy, a defiant hospital chaplain, and a handful of people who refuse to look away, he must find out why.
But the deeper Elias gets into the mystery, the more disturbing the truth becomes.
Because this may not be a war between Heaven and Hell.
It may be a test.
And if it is, the question isn't whether Elias still believes in God.
It's what he will choose when someone finally gives him a chance to see whether God was ever listening.
Some questions are dangerous to ask.
Some answers are worse.
Hale is a writer, musician and movie maker. He lives in Dallas with his wife, their five daughters and their dog Navy