Reconciled in the End

Chapter 28: Cleansing the Soul

     
After a causal breakfast and greeting of fellow residents in the factory main production line room, now commons, Siren stared at the fleeting glance on the opposite side of the room. Most everyone had gone to attend to their daily business, but Siren approached Tia directly. Tia sneered unhappily as the familiar figure approached. Thomas, in shock, lagged behind, trying to catch up. Siren already pointed to a side break room area to speak privately. A confident grin laced her face, and then she turned to Thomas abruptly.      

“Thomas, can you please leave us to talk,” Siren requested firmly, a scowl laced her face.

“No, I can’t, Siren…” he shot out swiftly.

Interrupting him, she snapped, “When have I ever demanded something more directly? Never. I want to talk with Tia privately and now. This is important, both to me and to Tia. Please.”

Thomas glared at Tia hatefully as he nodded and left a distance away. In another room, he was close enough to hear screams at least. Siren waited until they were fully alone before speaking. Tia crossed her arms and scowled back. The tension was thick in the air.

Sighing, Tia baited, “Whatever you were thinking, whatever you have to say, as much as I hate Thomas now, I hate you a hundred times worse! There’s nothing you say I’ll agree with.”

Siren leaned on the ledge of a broken wall, this world was in shambles. It wasn’t going to repair itself either, it was only going to get worse. In a cynical chuckle, Siren groaned, “This is the first time you or the others talked with me on the intellectual level I really am. I never, ever figured out why in the world you talked slow and unsophisticated toward me. I acted aloof, yes. I never wanted to stir trouble and never desired social functions, but I certainly could grasp that all and more. I am closed and distance in personality, not that I couldn’t grasp your lewd concepts or desires.
Thomas and I explored those secret things more than you knew. I wasn’t ignorant, I was ignoring you, because you, children, annoyed me. Yes, you all acted selfish and foolish like children. You wanted to get drunk and play. I had so much more I wanted in life. I wanted to understand the complexities of it. Then you all would come by, talking slow as if what you had to say was so beyond me. As if I was developmentally delayed. That was how naïve you all had been. Foolish.”

“Ha! You’re nothing but an evil snake!” Tia shouted in rage.

Siren lifted her hand. She had much more to say than to prove her own wickedness she knew she had in her being. “Yes, all sinners can be saved by grace. Tia, talking slow and demeaning me in the past isn’t a grievous wound to me. I honestly can’t say I’ve gotten along with you, but I don’t hate you. I especially don’t dislike you enough to see you tortured into eternity. I see you hesitate to join this new world order, to claim its registry. With all that’s in me, I implore you don’t do it! If you do, you damn yourself to an eternity of pain and suffering. What has happened to the World looks pale in comparison to what those in the final judgement will receive.”

Tia grit out, “Why in the world would you care? You ought to be happy to see me suffer forevermore. I wanted Thomas, and if I could, would try even now! I hate you for eternity beyond and you’re asking me something like this?! What a joke!”

Siren frowned, “I am deathly serious about this Tia. I do love Thomas dearly but even my love for him cannot supersede my devotion to my God. Luckily, Thomas believes the same as I, so there will never be an incongruity in our relationship. I see fear in you, you’re shaken by how the World has shattered. It is a scary place consumed with hate and fear. There is no love or peace. You sense that in your uttermost being. Your false sense of security had been ripped from you the moment the Tribulation came about, your position in the world gone. You see as well as I how the modern world order was supposed to make peace and unite everyone, yet we felt unease and discontented to the extreme. I won’t sell myself out for their short-term wicked comforts. 'A man can not live by bread alone by every word of God'. The fact that you hesitate means you feel the same."