Eden's Gate

Chapter 3 - Watch out Eden's Gate. I'm coming for you.

"My Children. We must give thanks to God. The day I have prophesied to you has arrived. Everything I've told you has come true. My soulmate has been brought to us. The authorities who tried to take me from you, who tried to keep my soulmate away from us, are now in the loving embrace of my Family. Save for my soulmate. But my Angel will be found. She will be returned to us... and in the end, she will walk beside us, she will see her glorious purpose." As I came too, I panicked. Joseph's voice filled the air, chilling me to the bone.

Please, no! Anywhere but with them! I cried in my head, struggling against the zip-tie restraints securing my wrists to a bedpost.

"I am your Father. She is your Mother. You are my Children. And together, we will march to..." I turned to face the voice. A man stood with his back to me, a radio playing Joseph's voice stood below an American Flag. The man turned the radio off before looking at me. Approaching me, he spoke.

"You know what that shit means? It means the roads have all been closed. It means the phone lines have been cut. It means there's no signals getting in or out of this valley." He sat on a chair before continuing. "But mostly, it means we're all fucked. The goddamn 'Collapse'... they all think the world's coming to an end, now. They've been waiting for it, for years. Waiting for somebody to come along and fulfil their prophecy and kick off their goddamn Holy War. Well, you sure as shit kicked." He sighed before leaning closer. "The smartest thing for me to do would just be to hand you over." He contemplated it. My face went white at the thought of being back in Joseph's presence. I watched as he stood up and took his knife from his pocket. He knelt and cut the restraints, freeing me before getting back up. "Get out of that uniform. We need to burn it. There's some fresh clothes there." He pointed to a wardrobe behind us. "When you get changed, you come see me. We'll see if we can un-fuck this situation." He sighed as he left. I stood up from the floor, rubbing my wrists.

Better get dressed I thought opening the wardrobe. I shed my deputy uniform, tossing it to the side. I pulled a red button-up shirt and light blue cargos from the wardrobe and got dressed. I took my black hair out of its ponytail, running my fingers through to get rid of some of the tangles, before pulling it back into a ponytail. I pulled on my black boots before looking at my wrists. I needed something to cover these up with. Searching through the drawers, I found a roll of bandages.

These'll do I thought, wrapping them around my wrists, being sure to cover my soulmate marks thoroughly. Once I was happy, I shut the wardrobe and made my way out of the room, and down the hall. I walked into the room with the man, the walls lined with maps and information on The Seed family. I turned around to find the man next to me.

"I didn't properly introduce myself back there. Most folks call me Dutch." The man, Dutch said.

"I'm Jasmine, but most people call me Rook," I said, holding my hand out. Dutch nodded and shook my hand with a firm grasp.

"I've been trying to piece together what's happening up top. It ain't good. Little I can gather is that your partners are alive, for now." Relief filled me when I heard my companions were ok. "Seems they've been split up. Each one handed off to a different member of Joseph's 'family'. Your other soulmates, I guess. I saw your marks when I brought you here." I took a step back, my head down in shame.

"Yes, they are." I looked up at Dutch, a fire present in my eyes "But I refuse to be theirs. They've done terrible things and I won't let them continue." I wasn't about to back down. I would take the Seeds down if it was the last thing I do. Dutch looked at me before a smile graced his lips as he nodded.

"Good to hear, Rook. I suppose you'll want your friends back. I get it – I got friends that been taken, too. Problem is, there ain't no help coming. Nobody knows what's going on here and they won't know until it's too late. There's gotta be people out there willing to fight back against this cult. We just... we need to show 'em how... We need to build us a resistance."