Snap out of it, Evelyn. She didn’t come here for this. With a deep sigh, she opened her eyes and studied the sermon in front. No, there was no going back. Only the path forward. Only through defeating this mob could she find peace again. If not for her benefit, then her daughter’s.
The sermon winded down within the hour, with a mix of Amens and Hallelujahs. An offer was made from there. Free milk to any who wanted to join their Holy Communion. Courtesy of the congregation. It was supposed to have been divinely ordained by the blood of the Lord and everything. The workers all rushed in without question, but Evelyn kept her distance. Even if she’d been in the mood to taste some unpasteurized milk, HBRS cross-contamination guaranteed a death sentence. She hung back and chatted with other Beholders instead, doing her best to feign interest while planning her next move.
“Oh!” Father Abraham called out. “For any of y’all who have questions about our little community, you’re welcome to speak to me myself. I’ll be the at back of this tent, where I usually go for prayer.” He chuckled. “I only ask that you come in one at a time. These conversations don’t quite go well when everyone’s clamoring at once.”
Evelyn raised an eyebrow. She’d planned for this to take longer, but could it really be that easy?
Others rushed to the front, brought in by the sermon that had opened their minds. Evelyn waited in the back this time. If this was going to work, she’d need all the time she could get…
One by one, the Pandemonium rezzers filed into Abraham’s part of the tent, or ‘the Holiest Place,’ as they called it. Shockingly, no Inquisitors remained nearby. Abraham seemed to not give himself the slightest bit of protection. When each rezzer exited, they came out beaming, laughing, or springing tears of joy. But not one of them faced any scrutiny as they strolled the way they’d come. As if Abraham had no security whatsoever beyond that which guarded the entrance to their camp. What the hell’s this guy thinking?
Evelyn’s turn came. She threw on her headdress and sunglasses, took a deep breath and marched through.
Far removed from the lavishness of the Lodge, Abraham’s quarters stood as its foil. A rug sat at the entrance, more to rub dirt on than to stand as decoration. Only a desk sat inside, oak and plain, without the slightest bit of adornment. A copy of their Bible sat open on top, with a single candle for light. Incense burned elsewhere, and tools were leaned haphazardly against the wall, caked in mud. Was this the home of Pandemonium’s greatest threat?
“Ah,” Father Abraham hailed, “is that you again, Eva? I thought I saw you hanging back when it came time for Communion, and now you’re the last one here. You’re quite the patient one, aren’t you?”
She slipped into her practiced, gruff tone. “Guess you could say that.”
“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Oh? And why is that?”
He laughed. “Well, for starters, you managed to repeat a sermon back to one of my Friars with more accuracy than he could recall himself. That’s quite the feat for someone outside our community.”
She shrugged. “What can I say? Been reading a lot of the Holy Word since I got it.”
“I hope you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read.”
“I have,” Evelyn admitted. “It let me connect with something I thought I’d lost for good.”
“That is His power.”
“Indeed.”
He tilted his head. “What did you want to ask me about, Eva?”
She mulled the thought. “I guess I don’t have any questions for you. I just wanted to see this place for myself. You know… To see if it’s as genuine as your people say.”
“My people,” he repeated with a laugh. “They’re just people. No more complicated than that.”
“There sure are a lot of them who believe otherwise.”
“People believe in all sorts of things, whether you try to convince them otherwise or not. The goal isn’t to wonder why they believe. It’s to question what you’ll do for yourself.” He turned his head. “You know, this does make me remember a certain lesson I haven’t read for quite some time. If you’ll excuse me…” He marched over to the desk and started flipping through his Bible.
Now’s your chance. With Abraham’s back to her and none of his guards else in sight, there would be no time better to strike. Evelyn quickly drew the pistol from one of her boots and the suppressor from the other. Within moments, the two were combined. With the added grease for the suppressor, her subsonic rounds might as well have been whispering.
“Here we are,” Abraham said, his back still to her. “‘And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.’”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Revelations, 20:12,” Evelyn repeated. She removed the safety, a subtle click resonating in the tent.
But Abraham did not turn. “Tell me, Evelyn. In these hours of revelations, what will your own book say when the time of judgment comes?”
Her heart skipped a beat. “You knew!?”
“I couldn’t know for certain when the mother of the Chosen One would come to me in the flesh, but as I told you before, it was inevitable that this moment would one day come to pass. The Lord selected you on your path, just as He selected me.” He chuckled. “I must say, that’s quite the ensemble you’ve got there. No wonder why you were able to fool us so easily. You look as corrupted as everyone else, just as the Lord intended.”
“Shut up!” she snapped, her voice sharp but low. “Don’t act like this is all part of some divine plan.”
Father Abraham turned to face her, his countenance as relaxed as ever. “Why wouldn’t it be? The Lord guides us all. Are either of us supposed to be an exception?”
“This has nothing to do with God. You’re just a madman attacking an innocent family. My family!”
“I suppose that is one way of looking at it. But like I said before, people believe in all sorts of things.”
She grit her teeth. “Tell me this, Abraham. What’s to stop me from putting a bullet in your head and walking out the door?”
“Nothing other than your own conscience, as far as I can tell. I am by no means a fighter, and I would surmise that no one else knows you’re here right now. Killing me and getting away with it would be as easy as swatting a fly.”
His lips relaxed into a thin line. “But, perhaps you should consider what you’ll lose. You speak of family, of safety, of innocence, and it is clear that you want to protect this more than anything, but I just have to ask… Did you even listen to a word I said today?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I mean, I didn’t prepare for today’s sermon. I only let His words flow through me for a change. And yet, they could have found no better destination than into your troubled soul, Evelyn. To have come all this way by yourself, despite the risk? I can’t imagine how lonely you must feel to have even considered that as an option. Why, you must really think you’re the only one left in the world right now.”
The pistol shook in her hands. It was like Abraham could read her mind. Evelyn knew how this would end the moment she left the Lodge. Come down here, put a bullet in the leader of the Beholder’s head, and get killed trying to hightail it out. Evelyn wasn’t naive enough to think there would be any other way. But it didn’t matter. With Abraham out of the way, a confrontation would be forced between the Beholders and Pandemonium, and their little camp would get wiped off the face of the earth. And then the threat would be over. If there ever was any chance for Liam and Leah to make it out of this, it would be through this execution. No matter the cost to her.
But damn… Evelyn did not want it to end this way. Right when she and Liam had started to patch things up, he’d been ripped away. Leah too. Now she was by herself. Alone.
With no one to give her the love she craved.
Father Abraham sighed. “You are not alone, Evelyn.”
She snapped back into action. “I swear, I’ll purge you if you say another word!”
“Then I won’t. God speaks to all of us. All we have to do is open our ears and listen.” He stared deep. “Ask yourself this, Evelyn. What is He telling you right now?”
She could barely see straight. Coming down here had all been so simple, in a world where everything became so simple. Fight. Kill. Survive. Repeat. Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop. Otherwise, nothing remained but death. A quick, unavoidable death. Evelyn had spent so long living this reality that she’d forgotten any other way. Even Liam could not break this cycle. He’d only become the latest element to it. They were all still trapped by the mortal dangers that the Hollowing created.
Until a Bible came back into her life. Just like that, Evelyn got a taste of the beyond again. Of the everlasting love that she deserved. That they all deserved. The more she’d contemplated their circumstances, the more it made her wonder…
Could this really have all been random chance? Could her survival have been no more than a fluke in an otherwise quick and bloody extermination? All of this death, and struggle, and pain, and destruction. Had it all just happened because someone forgot to tighten a lid in a lab?
Her chest tightened as doubts flooded her mind, more than she’d ever had before. Was Evelyn truly supposed to follow Mother’s vision? Did her life mean nothing more than to produce children mindlessly so that her children’s children’s children could be strong enough to reclaim the surface? She’d always been repulsed by the incestual bonds that would have to be formed, and it was only at this moment that she could realize just how disgusting that would be. Humanity reborn as a cruel and calculated creature without morals, just as she’d become to survive this long. Was this what God would have wanted for His children? Did He really not watch over them like Mother thought?
And more than anything, Evelyn didn’t want to die. Not in this miserable place, with a hole in her chest where her heart was supposed to be. Oh, how it was all coming out, right here and right now, and she couldn’t stop it.
Father Abraham raised his arms. “You have nothing to fear, Evelyn. God loves you. Even here. Even now.” The wind picked up outside, cutting through the roof of the tabernacle. Rays of light flourished over his small form.
God speaks to us all, he’d said. Evelyn closed her eyes and opened her ears. The pistol fell from her hands. Yes, she could hear it. Not in a literal sense, but in the depths of her soul. The Lord was here. In this room, watching over her, where He’d been the whole time. Why wouldn’t He be? She deserved His love just like everyone else.
Father Abraham embraced her. She did not resist… Did not think twice about the risk of infection. Her arms merely slid back as Evelyn hugged him back. So soft and accepting, in a world that had always been dark and cold.
He rubbed her hair. “It’s okay, Evelyn. It’s all going to be okay. You’ve found your way back in God’s light, where you belong.”
Evelyn let go of the fight, and the tears flowed free.