Rapture

Chapter 2 how it works

I wake up early to get my sisters out of bed, mom stays asleep as usual.

I grab our big bucket and fill it up by the lake. I've heard of the maliks having water the comes from the walls inside their home when they bathe but I bet that's a myth.

I hall the water from the stream and carry it back.I come back to find Mary and Genny awake. "It took you long enough." My sister Mary said. I pull the bucket in and set it aside. Genny and Mary bathe while I shut my eyes. It isn't appropriate for a boy to look at a woman's body.

I wait until they are dressed. I then bathe myself and leave the water for mamma. Mary and I walk Genny to school. I can image the maliks now. The get on their transport gadgets and get..what is it called...driven to school. My mama tells me I shouldn't know so much about them but I do. You see my best friend Peter has snuck out to the malik's territory and he's seen it all. I warn him that he'll be killed if he's caught but he says he isn't afraid of death.

After dropping Genny,Mary and I head to our school. Its just an old church building but that's where I get educated if that's what you call it.

I can image the maliks and their school the big rich buildings with floors and floors filled with more than just a teacher to teach all subjects. Experts in every subject.Many classrooms and chairs so we don't sit on the floor. I would want that but I Can't , to want more than you have is a sin.

We get there late and have to take the seats on the floor. I wait until Peter and John come and sit next to me.

"Noah...you wouldn't believe what happened!" Peter shouts as he takes his sea next to me. "They found a body.In the trees." He says bewildered by the death.

"Who's body?".I ask. " Jude's". He says. Jude?

Jude was one of my friends. He was a sweet little boy. Very calm very quiet. Jude...I never would of thought. "He be hunged." John adds in. Hung? Well I've head that's one of the worst ways to go. Hung? Not Jude. He's too quiet.

"What'd he do to be hung?" I ask my question in a whisper. The whole village will know about it by the end of the day but I dare not speak so relentless of the dead.

"No body knows...been dead since last night, heard he been killed." John whispers following my act. "Killed?" Killed? Jude killed? No. How wrong, in- sensitive, cold, sinister, only demons from Hades would do such a thing. To tie a rope around one's neck and let them die slowly and painfully. To watch as the air flowed from their lips but not go back in. To see the face go pale then blue. To see the struggling feet and kicks of fight to breathe. Seeing the feet quit moving and lips stop trying to open for air and the body go limb. To watch someone die is a big sin only evil can produce. No human can do so for we've all heard it before... Thou shall not kill.

I look at Peter. He trembles. He knows the commandment. Teacher comes in. Ribi, we call him. I sit on the floor and await the lessons. I dare not cry for Jude. I dare not weep the dead.

Jude had never been bad. We was unnoticed. He always sat in the back and never said a word. But Jude was special. Jude never once said a mean word in his life.

But Jude knew things. Jude knew people. The maliks to be exact. Jude...communicated with them. He called them friends. Jude had a lot of friends. He was warned not to talk to them. He still did. They had told Jude things. Things a rapha was not suppose to know. He had informed others on what he was told. Yes Jude was quiet but he was sneaky. Now he's dead. Jude....oh Jude, I dare not weep the dead.

..............................

Mary had headed home to make the lunch and I went to get Genny. I walk slowly and alone everyone runs pass me. No need to waste my breath.

Joshuah.

Change your name.

Change your speech.

Be obedient.

Servant.

Anointed.

What was that? The voice. The change your name voice. Who was that? I turn around and analyze my surroundings. I'm alone. Then who was-
Joshuah.

There it is again. Joshuah? I'm Noah. Who's Joshuah? "Hello!" I shout thinking the person will just come out. They don't. No body seems to be around. The voice was...like nothing I've ever heard before. It was..it was..I don't know what it was. Not a child. Not a man. Not a-

Oh I have no time to think of voices, Genny's waiting.

I make my way over to the back of the little school yard. I jump over the metal gate and jump over the muddy puddle. Everyone left. Genny's probably alone. I reach the back with the trees. More like a forest. No surprise, we live in the forest. I call out her name bur Genny doesn't answer.

Into the forest. She's in there. I hear her voice faintly and follow until I reach her.Her back is turned towards me and she stands in front a tree. She's mumbling. Her lips are moving so quick almost inhuman like. I've never seen her talk so fast. She's whispering. To the tree? "Genny? Genny?"

She quickly turns towards me as if I've caught her being rebellious. Maybe I have. "Genny, what are you doing?" I ask her.

"I'm talking to my friend Noah." She answers.