(Talia)

I slowly wake up, seeing the sunlight peering inside the tree. I feel a hand slowly wrapped around my left hand which makes me turn; I see Seth lying next to me with such a handsome smile that can make me blush.

“Good morning, Talia.”

He has such a smooth voice, I love it.

“Good morning, Seth.” I greet him back.

“How did you sleep?”

“I slept great.”

“Good. Did you… enjoy last night?”

I blush at his question. “I did. Was I… good enough for you?”

I truly hope I was good enough for Seth. Due to the traumas that I have, I never thought I could do what I did to Seth, but I feel scared that my baggage might have got in the way.

“You… were more than enough.” He assures me. “You focused on me just as I focused on you. You have come a long way from your trauma.”

“It’s because of you, Seth.”

Seriously, I meant it. Because without him, I wouldn’t have become confident. Without him, I would be dead. Also, he seemed to know what he was doing. I’m curious…

“Have you done that before?” I ask. “It looked like you had experience.”

“To be honest, you are the first human I have made love to.” Seth replies.

“So, you have—”

“Yes. I have had other lovers in my existence; mainly in my realm, but it has been decades since. I can assure you there is no one else. Only you.”

I know Seth doesn’t have a reason to lie to me. There is honesty in Seth’s voice, and he has been the only person to be honest with me. I’d never thought I would have that in my life finally.

…

…

…?

What the…? I hear rustling outside, so does Seth making him perk up. He jumps off the cot and over me with his clothes forming onto his body and walks outside. I look to my side to see my clothes now clean along with some cloth. I get up and I put that on with my undergarments, then my dress and my stockings and I walk out of the tree.

(Seth)

I walk out of the tree and onto the patch of grass and not to my surprise, I see Arlena and Randall Jr. along with his mother, Mandy, then Tori, Delotti, Julia, Loretta, Rachel, Amanda, and plus one person with them I saw in the church who agreed with Ramondo being fired, Sebastian Comby.

“Hey, Seth.” Arlena greets me. “I’m sorry. Something told me—well, us—to come out here, and—”

“His idea.” I interrupt. “He wanted you to come here. It is okay. Talia is coming out.”

I then looked behind me to see Talia coming out of the tree, now wearing her clothes. The second she saw the group, the look on her face was of surprise and she looked at me.

“Seth, what’s going on? Why are they here?” She asks.

“Remember when I said some of the people wanted to see you?” I asked her. “Well, they are here.”

(Talia)

I’m surprised to see several of the townspeople here, especially Arlena.

“What are you all doing here?” I ask them.

“Something just told us to come here and find you.” Randall answers. “We were all worried about you.”

I scoff. I didn’t really believe that, but the possibility is there. “Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously.” Arlena retorts. “I asked Seth if I could see you. I was thinking about you and what you said to me that day. We had a meeting at the townhall a couple nights ago, and I—”

“I know.” I interrupt. “I was there that night looking through the window and I heard you… I heard from all of you. Thanks for sticking up for me, and for yourselves. That was great to see. But I didn’t hear anything from you, Sebastian.”

I’m confused why Sebastian is even here, so I look to Seth.

“The reason why Sebastian is here is because he saw something he did not wish to see.” Seth says to me making Sebastian nod in response.

“Anyway…” Arlena starts. “We all came here to find you and to tell you personally we are sorry. All the names we called you, insulting you, blaming you for everything, not including you in the events some of us have done, and even thinking you were a demon of a person and a… prostitute…”

I couldn’t believe that I heard those two words, “we’re sorry”. I never thought anyone would apologize to me. There is truth to it. I see the shame in Arlena’s face, even Randall’s, his mother’s, and the other women as well. Arlena was sincere, so I say:

“I accept your apology. I accept all of your apologies."

.   .   .

We all stood near the brook’s waterfall and continued to talk. The sun is now overhead, it’s now late afternoon.

“So, what’s been going on in the town?” I ask the others.

They started looking at each other with concerning looks on their faces.

“Well…” Arlena speaks, but she didn’t know how to say what she wanted to say.

“Some weird crap has been going on in the town.” Randall answers. “The majority of the townsfolk went to the church late last night. Now, you know how Elder Denby will remind us of what would be happening in the coming days, right?”

“Yes.” I answer.

“Okay. So, he told us we would be holding a memorial for Solomon, Sampson, and the guys that were with him on this day, which we did this morning after we found out about Ramondo, and he was added in as well. He told us that the day Seth escaped from the jailhouse, but he never said anything about going to church late in the night. Some of the boys were knocking on my door when Mom and I were sleeping. I opened it and they asked me if I and Mom were coming to the church. I told them no, and they cussed me out and walked to the church; and I saw the people walking in droves.”

“Really?!”

Randall nods in response.

“Same with my parents.” Arlena adds. “They woke me up in the middle of the night, telling me to put my clothes on so we can go to the church, I said I wasn’t going. Then they called me ungrateful and left the house to go to the church.”

Tori scoffs.

“The townspeople don’t even talk to me anymore ever since the townhall meeting.” She speaks. “They’ve been calling me all kinds of names and derogatory terms. I guess ever since Seth came into town and introduced himself, the people have been on edge. I guess getting their lies, secrets, and their hypocrisy exposed has got them spooked, they think going to church late at night and praying it all away is going to help them. That’s not how that works.”

“They were not praying last night.”

Seth’s comment made me look to him confused along with everybody else.

“What did you hear last night, Seth?” I ask.

“Well, only one of us was there last night.”

Seth looks to Sebastian who looked very uncomfortable.

“Sebastian. Would you care to tell us what you saw last night?”

Sebastian takes a deep breath and exhales.

“Where do I begin?” He speaks in a low and timid tone. “Well, I woke up and saw people walking into the church from my window and decided to get dressed and go. We went inside, I saw that the pews were moved to the walls and there was a fire pit set in the alter of the church. May I remind you all that we never have put a fire pit in the sanctuary. Never. Anyway, Elder Levi Denby was there, of course, Elder Levine Randall, Elder Trevor Bara, and Elder Diana Benson were there, but Elder Dominic Santine wasn’t there, nor was Mayor Morris Daniels, and Chief Gino Surran. Anyway, Denby said last night was a special night. So, Elder Bara sets the fire for the pit, Denby starts to preach about how everyone in the church is God’s chosen few and we had to fight the evil that is in Tinton, which I guess referred to you, Seth, along with excising demons in the town, which I, again, am guessing means the people who didn’t show up that night. And he said the reason why there was evil and demons in the town was because of you, Talia.”

Hearing all of this is slowly pissing me off because all of it is toxic lies.

“That’s bullshit!” I yell upsettingly. “Seth came into this town the night I was about to end my life!”

Everyone looks at me with shock.

“What night was that?” Ms. Amanda asks me.

“The night Solomon was found by Lana; an hour before, actually.” I reply.

Her fears were now realized. Since Ms. Amanda said she had a feeling I might have tried to commit suicide that night at the townhall, she now knows her concerns were a fact. Also, I’m sure Sebastian wasn’t finished.

“So…” He continues. “Elder Randall gave Denby a chalice and Elder Benson had a gold pitcher in her hand and poured something in the chalice. To me, it looked like wine, but it was such a dark red like color and thick like it was blood, and then Bara put something in the fire. It looked like… flesh? Any who, Levine and Diana poured the same liquid into cups and gave it to everyone in the church, they got cups as well along with Trevor. Levi started to speak again, raising the chalice, and saying God will give us our clarity and help us find the traitors and the ones responsible. He called Talia the child of the devil and Seth her hellhound.”

It is absolutely repulsing to be called out by my name again, by a “preacher”, and his flock believe his every word. Pathetic.

“Did you drink the liquid?” Seth asks.

“Well, no. Since Levi started speaking in a different language, I slowly left out of there. Luckily, the door was open, I dropped the cup outside and ran back to my house. I was creeped out. Also, not only could I hear Denby speaking in a different language from my house, but I also heard the others speaking the same language loud and clear. I don’t know what kind of language, but we were not taught that. And like what Seth said, they weren’t praying. What I heard sounded ominous. Sinister. It was chanting, and that’s not the kind of worshiping I grew up on.”

“They were chanting.”

We all look to Seth with bewilderment.

“Chanting?” Ms. Mandy asks him.

“Yes.” Seth replies. “Sebastian is correct, the words they spoke were not of reverence of your god, it was reverence of another kind; words that I know too well.”

“So… they were worshipping… the devil?” Tori asks.

“Yes. That false prophet chanted for power, and the more supporters he has, the more powerful he will be. Your fellow townspeople are now part of a cult. Consider yourselves lucky you all have defected from it. As I said, your hearts are worth more than what is to come.”

Ms. Rachel has a questioned look on her face.

“Speaking of people…” She speaks. “Has anybody seen Mayor Morris or Chief Surran this morning?”

Seth and I see everyone shaking their heads. I look to Seth.

“Do you know where they are?” I asked him.

He looks out in the distance in the direction of Tinton.

“They are hiding. The whole town is looking for them. They are in trouble.” He replies.

This concerned me, because both men are blamed for Seth escaping, and if they do find them, they are going to kill the mayor and Gino. But Mayor Morris doesn’t deserve that because he defended me at the town hall meeting. Gino, even though he has skeletons in his closet, a corrupt mindset, and even attacked Seth, he hasn’t attacked me, and it might be possible that he can be redeemed, if possible. I’m sure Seth is reading what I’m thinking, but before I could say anything, I see several people running in our direction through the sunflowers and stopping in our area. It’s the men that were with Ramondo the other night, Ronald comes in, followed by Jerry, then Aseno, Edward, Sammy, Robert, and then Alger, all out of breath. Seeing them here surprised me.

“W-what are you all doing out here?” I ask uneasily.

“The—The townspeople…” Ronald speaks breathlessly. “They’ve gone fucking crazy.”

“Yeah.” Alger adds looking to Seth. “They started calling us traitors because of what happened to Ramondo. We told Denby what you told us to say this morning; we couldn’t find Talia and we made up a story of how Ramondo was killed, his demeanor changed, and this afternoon, he snapped. We got called liars and traitors.”

“Denby ordered the people to attack us.” Aseno adds, also looking to Seth. “He told the people we were under your spell. They were intending to kill us, so we ran.”

Seth looks to the men judgingly, but he knows they did what they were told to do, but what they tried to do—no, what they were forced to do that night, he has to let it go, because now is not the time. He looks at me.

“Can you please find Mayor Daniels and Chief Surran?” I asked him.

Even though Seth is reluctant, he nods to me and disappears. I then look at everybody else.

“I didn’t hear anything about Santine.” I speak. “Does anyone know what happened to Elder Santine?”

“I have no clue.” Sebastian replies. “I haven’t seen him last night, nor at the memorial this morning.”

“He’s dead.”

I’m speechless at what Jerry just said; most of us are.

“Denby and the other elders just… ripped him apart and drained him of his blood. It happened before the people even went inside the church last night.”

No way… everything I’ve heard is now adding up. They killed Elder Dominic to use whatever parts of him as a sacrifice and drained his blood out to drink it… and used his flesh to burn… this is making me sick…