Come

Psalm 30: Keep moving forward

Elsa:

Noah rose up out of his wheelchair, magic surrounding him like an evil aura. I trembled where I stood, weak in my knees. I could feel the fear from everyone around me; none of us could move.

Except for Anubis.

Noah lunged for us, but just as he was about to grab me, Anubis punched him on his face. Hard.

Noah drew back and fell to the floor, trembling in his overgrown clothes. And I couldn't remember why I was scared of him; his body looked like one of a child's.

Anubis rubbed his fist. "I've been wanting to do that for quite a while!"

Noah froze. "Titus?"

He grinned. "Finally! I told you I'd be cursing you for a thousand years. What took you do long?"

"Titus...how are you acting so calm? I killed someone you loved...how can you forgive me?"

"Easy, I never hated you. Sure I was angry with you, but that is easily forgiven."

"But....there's no worth for me anymore. I'm going to hell."

"No you're not. What took me hundreds of years to forgive will take God only a split second. C'mon now, let's go home." Anubis extended a hand to him.

Noah paused, deciding if to take it. But after a little bit, he pulled out a green vial.

"I'm sorry Titus," he said with tears in his eyes. "But I just can't forgive myself."

Anubis, eyes wide, tried to reach for the vial. But Noah drank the vial and collapsed.

Anubis caught him before he totally fell though. He checked for a pulse, and after a little while, he closed his eyes and bowed his head, making a cross on his chest.

We won a battle, but we may have lost a child of God's.

-----

Come, they told me
Barabababa
A newborn king to see
Barabababa.

It was a little over a month after the fight with Noah.

Reiji had asked the bodyguards to tell the truth: that Noah had committed suicide. Sadly though, none of the bodyguards seemed too devastated about Noah's death.

And we haven't heard from the country and being charged with Noah's death, so that's good I guess.

And now it's Christmas. But we lost a child of God.

Then, he smiled at me
Barabababa.
Me and my drum.

We finished the Christmas service, and I was about to leave when-

"Elsa. You haven't been well lately."

Anubis was there. He held out his arms. Tears whelm up in my eyes, and I ran into his arms, hugging him and crying. "U-u-uncle Titus...." I sobbed. "Noah, God lost him because of me!"

He rubbed my head. "Elsa, that's not the case. Maybe Noah realized that he can forgive himself at the last second. A thousand years of death can hurt a man, but I've had worse."

"But-"

"If I spent my time lamenting over everything that I could've prevented in order to save a life, I would still be crazy be now. It was his choice, not yours. All we can do is move on. Okay?"

I nodded, still not totally satisfied.

It was later that night when I felt like I could forgive myself.

I was outside, when Ikuto came up to me and hugged me from behind. "Anubis said that she were feeling down. Wanna talk?"

I nodded. "Even though Noah was evil, we still lost him."

He turned me around with a stern look in his eyes. Then, he kissed me full on the lips.

When we broke apart he leaned his forehead against mine. "Elsa, there's nothing we could've done. Anubis tried to save him and failed. The only thing we can do now is try to save other people right now. Amy's parents. People around the world who don't know him. Those who believe that their life is worthless." He moves his mouth to my ear and whispers the last part. "Like how I thought before you changed me."

I started to cry again. Both Anubis and Ikuto were right: just keep moving forward and helping others.

--author--

I have to say, I did not expect this to happen when I wanted to write this today. I wanted Noah to commit suicide. I wanted Anubis to punch Noah. But the whole thing about Noah saying that he didn't forgive himself? That was certainly not planned.

A little about Noah: around the time I first came up with this book two years ago I was angry with this ex-friend, so I turned him into the opposite of what I knew he wanted to be in my book: a gay man who hates God and commits suicide.

But for those of you who have read the caravan of hope, you know that I made the main evil dude a good person. I feel a special thing for villains.

I wanted it to be like that with Noah. Besides, Galatians 5:14, which I was planning for the title of this chapter to be, says to love your neighbor as yourself. This means to forgive and love those who have different morals than you, especially if they live a life of sin (if only the guy I based Noah off of fully understood that....)

Anyway, epilogue next chapter. This epilogue will have some backgrounds on how each of the characters started. It should be in the last chapter part, which is a Jeremiah chapter, but I've already written it and am too lazy to fix it.

Okay bye I'm tired. I'm hoping to finish the book maybe tomorrow or Monday.