One of the most difficult things that I have ever done in my life was to shoot an opossum. It was staggering around in our yard during the daytime, drooling. I only had a .22, and it took several shots to before the animal died. I remember shooting it once or twice, and it hissing at me. This was not what I expected. They were head shots. In my mind, I pleaded with it: “Just DIE! Please! I shot you in the head!” It just kept walking and glaring at me, hissing. We had chickens, and it was headed in the direction of the coop – and then it turned towards me and started walking faster. The look in its eyes was eerie, and scared the hell out of me. The bullets hadn’t stopped it, and I didn’t want to risk being bitten. I couldn’t wait. I charged it, kicked it with my boot and knocked the opossum off of its feet. It began to fight and bare its teeth and hiss with everything it had – and it was a strong, large opossum. When you’re in a fight to the death, you can’t give up or you get bitten. Your mind goes into a different mode and you just fight. There were moments when I thought that the opossum had started to die and give in – and I lessened the pressure of my foot, only to find the animal’s strength to return in full. Finally, I was able to position my right foot behind it’s neck – its head pointing to the left. With all my weight, plus the force of every muscle in my leg, I stepped down. It still fought, staring at me the whole time, even as I moved my foot back and forth and could feel the bones crushing beneath my foot. I swung the gun around and pushed it down on the head of the opossum. It took at least four more shots before the animal finally stopped moving. Even then, it twitched. The eyes never closed. They just kept staring at me, frozen in their creepy sickness.

The only other time I have had seen this look in an animal was with a white male cat. It kept coming back and murdering the kittens in our barn. He had a brown eye and a blue eye, and his fur had a manginess. We were in the barn, and the cat snuck in and was fighting to get to the room where the new kittens were in their box. I watched as Dad had a similar fight with the cat as I did with the opossum. Again, there was a creepiness and the animal just refused to die.

This morning, I had a dream about a person with whom I have had recent difficulties. My mind played back his words and his mannerisms. As I talked with him, the blue and brown eyed cat – the one killed in our barn – was visible, lurking in the corner. It jumped at me and gave me the look that has haunted me for years. As I fought with the cat, I looked over and the same look was in the eyes of this person.

I sat straight up in bed, the hairs on my neck standing on end. I was covered in sweat.

The look in this person’s eyes, which I have seen in my dealings with him, is the very look that these two animals had. It is a creepiness that I cannot place. Perhaps the scary part is the similarity between this person’s playing innocent and the weird mannerisms of the animals. There is a sickening sweetness to this look. It is as if the animals were speaking. It is coupled with slow, lame mannerisms that they use to try to fool you into thinking that they are too weak to harm you.

I recently saw the movie Sin City – and I do regret seeing this movie. I realized that it was the same mannerisms again, though in real life, more so than the movie, as the priest before he died. It’s the feigned innocence. “I’m just an old priest… I am so frail… please don’t kill me.” Yet, you know that if he isn’t killed, all sorts of evil will ensue.

When I awoke, I felt an overwhelming urge to pray for this person. I felt I had to pray that whatever had a hold on him would be crushed. I prayed that I would be strong and not let down my proverbial foot behind his neck, and that he would be held accountable. I felt as though I was praying for his soul. I never have felt this way before when praying for someone – as though it was a fight to the death.

It is nearly an hour later, and I am still shaking inside.

I can’t stop thinking about the story of the serpent in the garden. Genesis 3:1 ; 2 Corinthians 11:3 ; Revelation 12:9