(No problem, just wanted to give people the opportunity).
"Where's my manner," says Elijah, "Mark, Luke, Mary, meet Dex, Bruce and Theira. They're good people who helped me out at the vigil. Like you, something is happening to them."
"Now Reverend," says Mark, "this is all crazy. You seem to think that we've changed some how. I admit that strange things are happening, but that does not make it the work of the Lord."
"Your right in a way Mark," Elijah sits down at the table, "this was not started for a Godly purpose, but I believe that it is the Will of God that now directs us."
He takes a few minutes. "I didn't want to tell ya'll this right now, but I think I must." He looks over to each of you, then his flock. "Luke, do you remember Tabitha?"
"That young woman with the small child?"
"Yes, that's her."
"Is she alright? She was doing so well at the center."
"Yes, she was. I worked it out the social services to have meet her child in a public supervised place. The boy loves baseball, so they came with me to the game."
"I lost track of Tabitha during the chaos. I was carrying young Thomas at the time. After we got out, I sent people to look for her. Theresa, one of my assistants," he says looking to you, "found out that she was taken to Grady."
"After making sure that Thomas was cared for, I went to see her." He bows his head, his pain radiating from him. When he looks up, you see tears on his face, "she was so badly beaten." He takes a handkerchief out and wipes his eyes, and takes a deep breath.
"I knelt down by her bed, and began to pray. The nurse had told me that she had not awoken, but when I raised my head, I saw her looking at me. Her hand twitched, and I somehow knew that she wanted to hold my hand. I did, thinking of saying a prayer, but that is not what happened."
"As I held her hand, my mind was suddenly filled with visions." He shakes his head, "they were just scattered images, fleeting glimpses of people and places. Then I heard her voice, 'we are children of God, as is this gift, but he released to cause chaos. You must stand against the chaos.”
“She passed out, and I left the room dazed, no, frightened.” He shakes his head, “when I returned, she had passed. I couldn’t stand with her during this trial. I knew something was happening to me, and to others. Like you Mark, I mistrusted this. I saw it as a sign of the end of times, but now I know that we are needed to stand against the coming chaos that Tabitha saw.”
“Then is this the rapture? We’re not the faithful to be taken up? Is this a test of our faith?”
“I have struggled with these same questions Mary, and read Revelations again and again today. All I can say is what is in my heart. I have heard of no one being taken up into heaven, but there is a darkness coming. Theira has seen it in her visions, and yes, she has visions. Whether this heralds the coming of the anti-Christ or not, this is a darkness that opposes the Will of God, and we must stand against it.”
