Will Barry Survive His Encounter on the Bluffs? Barry finished loading bullets into the gun and waited. Not here, the demon said, putting words directly into Barry's mind. Out on the bluffs. Barry nodded and obeyed. He was on automatic pilot now. Everything in the last thirty-two years had led him here. At the moment of decision, the moment of reckoning, it was his body and mind obeying commands and doing what he was told, the "good boy" down to his final moments on Earth. Barry's hand began to shake, the gun gesticulating wildly back and forth in front of him. Steady yourself, Barry, the demon said. You need to do this. It's the only way you'll feel better. The whole thing felt surreal...like he wasn't really standing on the Bluffs in the Palisades, looking out over the gorgeous Pacific Ocean, listening to a big giant red demon with a steel gun in his hand. He thought of Patricia then, their first few dates back in college, making love in the afternoon to Van Morrison's Tupelo Honey and skipping class to go out to the Reservoir and drink Coors Light cold from the can. How had things gotten so bad? He raised the gun and fired. The bullet exited the chamber, heading at the speed of light towards his brain. **************** It took Jeff Rahim Bronner ten years to craft this story from his experiences as a student of Shadhiliyya Sufism. He won a scholarship to the University of New Orleans' MFA Program and is now a Muqaddam Murabbai Ruhi in the Shadhiliyya Sufi Order. This is his first novel. You can reach him at jeffbronner.com
