Thread: Though They Walk Through The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death (Quix & Aurelia)

Immediately Adam felt the familiar touch, the scream silenced, and the trembling of his body subsided. Releasing a loud sigh, one eye blue remained on the screen, unable to peel itself away, as the other moved to his sister. I had a bad dream, he whispered, melding his body into hers. Simply her warmth against him made him feel safe and secure. The absence of Eve in his life had been a nightmare, with the boy trapped between contacting her, and fear of the wrath she'd be forced to face if caught. Fear had won, but still, he'd always kept an eye on Eve and when her eighteenth birthday approached dared to return to the city and pleaded for an anonymous pupil at her school to deliver a letter. As he'd waited at the designated meeting spot, dying to see and talk to his little sister for the first time in over two years, Adam had quaked in his boots, and attempted to devise a plan to escape from their Father's henchman, who he was sure would follow. But, for once, David Magdalene's omniscience had failed him. Or maybe not, and he'd possessed a greater purpose in allowing them to reunite. As the man had lectured on numerous times, The Lord works in mysterious ways. Adam had cried tears of anguish and joy and almost broke her in half with how tightly he'd held her, kissing his sister again and again the sole female in his existence whom he trusted and cherished like no other. Eve would always be there for him, unlike his Step-Mother. Mary had not beaten them with the belt or the cane as David had, but unable to bear children of her own, had been responsible for the adoption after he and Eve's biological parents died when they three and one years of age respectively. What their birth names had been Adam couldn't recall, as the use of them had swiftly been banned and the young children reprimanded if they addressed each other by anything except Adam and Eve. They'd become the property of David and Mary, their former lives obliterated, personalities to be remoulded in their new parent's image. See how obedient, how perfect my children are, how polite and respectful, listen to them recite the Lord's Prayer. My little miracles. Their Step-Mother would laugh on the odd occasion Adam or Eve spoke out of turn, and remark, Children will be children, to her churchgoing peers. However, what those peers couldn't know - then again, possibly they did -, is that when they returned home, she'd duct-tape the miscreant's mouth shut and lock them in the hall closet, to be left alone in the pitch black darkness, sobbing and crying until David arrived to remind them of their place in God's family. Whilst the latter was the power-hungry, sadistic megalomaniac in Adam's and Eve's lives, the quiet evil hidden behind Mary Magdalene's Saintly demeanour was equally to blame for the night-terrors that plagued Adam. Will we ever be out of his reach? Adam wiped away a tear as the channels flipped, barely catching the banner that filed across the screen before the remote crashed against the cupboard and Eve's screamed filled him with pain. It was his turn to comfort her, as she just had him. Caressing her cheek, he kissed the top of her head, and tenderly pulled a lock of hair behind Eve's ear, consoling his sister. It's okay, you switched it over in time, I'm sure he didn't recognise us. Then the words that had scrolled across the bottom of the television coalesced in his sleep-deprived brain, and Adam reared back with widened eyes in a pale-faced expression of terror. As rain continued to tumble down on the roof, the twenty-six year old's voice, repeating an oft-heard promise, seemed to emanate from a vast distance and not be his own. The day approaches where you and your brethren will be judged, where the righteous ascend to the Paradise of Heaven, and the sinners descend to Hell to be tortured for Eternity. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. David called it The Rapture, but to Adam Magdalene it would always be the infinitely more fearsome sounding Armageddon. Did you see that, Evie? What if he becomes President and sends us all to Hell?