by RJ Pritchett
Rebellia placed her right hand around the front of Orion’s neck and her left hand rested on his forehead. She let the anger spew out of her as the man she touched shivered and grimaced, trying his best not to scream, “Faye,” she murmured to herself immediately after the man let out his first squeal to remind herself who she was doing this for.
You think Faye would want this? Vivian’s voice somehow entered her head. Would Faye have wanted this?
“What made you come with me?” Rebellia asked as she and Faye sat together in the middle of the forest, both huddled around a small campfire.
“I don’t know... it seemed like the right choice, I guess,” Faye shrugged. She looked around to see nobody else. “I kinda expected more people to come though. I think they were scared of leaving him… I think they were afraid because Orion doesn’t really seem like a bad guy, and he’s pretty much guaranteeing everyone help into Heaven.”
“They’re afraid because Orion got them thinking that going against him, is going against God. He pretty much tells people that he is their only way of salvation. He’s trying to be a God, and I can’t believe we’re the only ones who could see that.”
“I’ve always been sort of aggravated with Orion, but what happened to that girl Courtney crossed the line for me. I told him not to let her use that gun. We both told him, but he only listens to his God, I guess.”
“People that think they know everything should know if they’re about to make a bad decision,” Rebellia said, shaking her head. “Yeah, but whatever… those people back there can stay there and continue to be his slaves if they want to. I’m not in the business of freeing slaves that don’t want to be free.”
“I honestly don’t think they necessarily want to be his ‘slaves’, people probably didn’t want to sacrifice everything they had for something… unknown. We don’t even know what’s next for us. We’re just… seeing what’s out here. I think Orion believes we’ll just tuck our tails and run back to him eventually.”
“We can’t go back,” Rebellia said, “we can never go back. Fuck him and fuck them. They don’t see the vision, but I do. I’m gonna create something that we can all call home forever. I’m going to create a world like none other… correction, we’re going to create a world like none other.”
“What is this place going to be like?” Faye asked, smiling as if she was readying herself to imagine it.
“I want it to be like Heaven. Yup, I want my own version of Heaven, where God doesn’t make the rules, and people are invited in no matter how fucked up their past is. Well, unless they’re an evil dictator, a racist, or a serial killer, but they’ll probably get obliterated before they can open their eyes in a world like this. I want my world to be the utopian society without a ruling government telling people how to live I want it to be a paradise for the people shunned by God for petty things. But, there will somehow be order… you know. It’ll be challenging, and probably a never-ending process, but I’ll be here until it becomes a reality.”
“But… you can’t control how long you stay here. Once God calls you, that’s it.”
“If God calls me into Heaven, it’ll be the worst mistake of its immortal life,” Rebellia chuckled, “I have a few things to say to it already.”
“It?”
“God,” Rebellia said, “God is bigger than male or female. God has no gender. God has no ethnicity. God has no sexuality. The real God isn’t the person they’re praying to on Earth. It’s something much bigger.”
“Wow,” Faye said, “You really believe that?”
“Very strong hunch, but then again… I don’t know everything. Unlike some people we know, I can admit that I may be wrong. But I’m pretty sure I’m not wrong on this one. I guess I won’t be able to prove it until the time comes and we’re in Heaven speaking with a genderless God.”
“Wow…” Faye said, visibly speechless.
“I’m not trying to make you believe the same things I do,” Rebellia said, apologetically. “I’m just-”
“I know,” Faye said, looking down at her shadow that was created by the campfire, “I knew that once you said that there’s a possibility that you could be wrong. It’s like… you’re really… what’s the word they call it? Woke. Yeah, that’s it. You’re really woke.”
“Ugh. I hate that word.”
“Why?” Faye asked.
“Because everybody uses it for the most ridiculous reasons. There’s so many fake woke people in the world that being ‘woke’ is now looked at as a joke. People cry out at everything just to fit in with the conscious crowd. Most people are so ‘woke’ nowadays, that they sound like they have insomnia. Blabbering nonsense during every- I’m serious!” Rebellia chuckled as Faye interrupted her with laughter, “It really irks my soul.”
“Okay, how about this? You’re very conscious of… the world and the way it works, and what you’re saying sounds like it make sense, but you’re not trying to impose your beliefs on me. That’s much different than Orion telling me what he thinks of the world, and his word being unprinted bible scriptures.”
Rebellia chuckled, “He must’ve been one of those fake woke people when he was alive.”
“I don’t think he was,” Faye said, shaking her head just a little. “Orion was never really on Earth if the rumors about him are true.”
“What do you mean?”
“He couldn’t be one of those fake woke people because he was never really a person to begin with. When I first got here, a couple of the older people in his group told me that he was aborted while his mother was pregnant with him. You didn’t hear that rumor?” she asked when looking at Rebellia’s confused face.
“No,” Rebellia said, wrapping her arms around her legs. She now held her knees and thighs to her chest, “he told me that he never lived life, but I just assumed he thought his actual life meant nothing. A far theory in my mind was that he was an archangel, or something created by God for one sole purpose, to police this world-”
“He could be,” Faye said, “Now. But if those rumors are true, it didn’t start that way for him. They told me that in confidence, so I don’t know if I should be telling you that because it was never confirmed… but we’re together now, and Orion is now our common enemy, so I guess it’s fair to at least speculate on his origin.”
It was that moment where Rebellia thought about another common enemy they both shared… Quentin. The bearded guy with short black hair and the bluish eyes that stared at them as Rebellia and Faye walked away from Orion’s home base. He told her something in confidence that she promised not to tell before he even told her what it was. She thought about revealing it until Faye looked her in the eyes, then it all went away.
“You know… I didn’t expect it to be like this… you know, the afterlife,” Faye said biting her bottom lip, “I always expected to just grow wings and just fly into Heaven after my death. Living happily ever after with a bunch of my dead family members… not like this. We still feel pain, I’m not surrounded by any of my family members, I have no wings, I see no angels, no beautiful music… only the horrible sound coming from that piano Orion has in the basement. How is it that everybody sounded horrible on that thing?” she laughed for about two seconds.
“I hated that thing with a passion. I almost broke it one day.”
“We’ve all been there before,” Faye laughed, “but as I was saying, life after death was always imagined different when I was alive.”
“What’s your story?” Rebellia asked, “Everybody has one. What’s yours?”
“I was bullied at school… a lot,” Faye said, “like every day because… mainly because of my looks.”
“… What?”
“Yeah,” Faye said, nodding, “I had this horrible skin rash on the right side of my face; I had glasses; I wasn’t beautiful by teenage high school girl standards.”
“But… look at you,” Rebellia said, practicing what she preached, “you’re… beautiful.”
“Thank you. In this
world, everything goes away. Hair dye, skin rashes, bad eyesight, pimples, diseases, all of that. This is the beauty that life covered up. My dad always told me that it was what’s on the inside that counted.”
“Cliché as fuck,” Rebellia smiled.
“I know,” Faye nodded, “but it ended up being the truth. This is the real me and I’ve should’ve seen myself this way before I died. I should’ve known that my true beauty was always there. The bullying got so bad that I almost killed myself. I didn’t though. I ended up getting hit by a truck. Possibly a drunk driver, or someone who just wasn’t paying attention. Or maybe I just wasn’t paying attention when I crossed the street… I could have sworn the light was red, but… why are you looking at me like that?”
“…” Rebellia didn’t say anything for a solid four seconds. “Like what?” she asked, adjusting her facial expression.
“Never mind, Reby,” Faye sighed and rolled her eyes.
“Reby?” Rebellia said, “That’s a new one.”
“Yeah, short for Rebellia… and it actually sounds like a normal name,” Faye laughed.
“Yeah, I guess it does,” Rebellia said, looking up at the stars that weren’t blocked by the trees. “Truthfully, I still don’t know my real name or anything about my life previously. I’ve been here a while and there has been no progress. I mean… I guess it’s a good thing since I don’t want closure. I plan on living here forever. I might disappear if I ever get closure and I don’t want that.”
“Yeah,” Faye nodded, “you might. I’ve seen it about a hundred times.”
There was silence…
“You know…” Faye said, looking into Rebellia’s eyes, “if I had another chance to choose between you and Orion, knowing that nobody else would come… I’d still be here by your side,” she placed her hand on Rebellia’s shoulder. Rebellia loosened her body up and now her feet were kicked out, her arms behind her as she sat, smiling at Faye.
“And I’ll be just as happy as if everybody joined my side,” Rebellia said, unable to get the smile off her face. “Whether it’s only you and me against the world, or the two of us with an army against the world, we’ll win either way.”
Faye moved to her knees and hugged Rebellia without warning. In a sudden moment, Rebellia turned her head and their lips met for the first time. Faye wrapped her arms around Rebellia’s neck as she pivoted her body to a more comfortable stance. Their lips never separated. With their eyes closed, the two girls kissed for what felt like an eternity.
“Ahhh!” Rebellia screamed when she could no longer feel Orion in her gloved hands. He was no longer in her grasp and the room was finally quiet from his vibrating screams and the zaps of electricity coming from the gloves she wore. She was in a state of shock. If she still had a stomach, she would have vomited at that moment. She felt light-headed and almost collapsed on her way out of the room. When she finally made it to the giant door, she unlocked it and pushed herself outside. A feeling of liberation rushed over her when the light touched her.
Chapter 14 (Moment of Clarity)
“Thank God for granting me this moment of clarity.”
Her eyes were in a daze. Life was absent from those dark brown eyes although her body was slightly animated. She stared blankly at nothing in particular, clutching a handful of grass that held on to the soil tight, blinking and occasionally sighing. The battle was over and she survived it, but oddly enough… she didn’t feel like she won. In her mind, she lost. She lost everything within a matter of moments and struggled to find something to keep her moving from underneath the willow tree. She didn’t move a muscle for three whole days.
“What?” Faye asked, disgusted by Rebellia’s suggestion, “that’s ridiculous.”
“Hear me out,” Rebellia whispered, “if we carry on the way we’re carrying on, God can fuck up everything by splitting us apart. I love you too much to leave myself vulnerable to that option. I know how my love for you makes me feel, and I’m afraid of falling victim to it. We rebel, God calls you up and then what? You know how crazy I would go if that were to happen, Faye? I can’t have that happen.”
“You’re breaking up with me,” Faye concluded, “just admit it.”
“I’m not breaking up with you. I can never stop loving you. But I want to spend more time away from you if that makes any sense. You saw what happened with that new guy and his girlfriend? They were inseparable until she got called up, and now he’s a fucking mess. What if that was a sign from God? What if that same fate awaits me if I keep-? I just don’t want to end up like that guy. Please, Faye. Don’t take it the wrong way, I’m not breaking up with you. We should at least… take a few steps back. I feel like our relationship possibly could get in the way of what we’re trying to create because if you were to go… I’m going right behind you. I would give up everything for you, Faye. This dream that I have would shatter without you, and I’m sure the Almighty God knows that. We can still be together, but we have to stop getting too attached… I sound like an asshole right now. We have to… damn, I can’t find the right words anymore.”
“Rule number one in Rebellia’s guild: Love is canceled,” Faye said, jokingly, “I get it. I really do. But your worries worry me because I know you’re supposed to be the foundation of this whole thing we’re working on. You’re showing weakness and fear, qualities I didn’t know you had. The Rebellia I know and believe in will never stop fighting until she gets obliterated, or until the job is complete. If you were to get obliterated or called by God, you know what I would do?”
“What?”
“I would get my ass up off the ground, dust myself off, and continue to make your dream a reality in your honor. I wouldn’t cry for too long because tears won’t water the seeds you planted. Sitting around like that guy, feeling sorry for myself is not what it’s going to take to get the job done. No. The Rebellia I know and love isn’t afraid of anything, whether it’s the police, the United States government, the pastors, the Pope, or God him- itself. You stood up against Orion when everyone else was afraid to. You questioned his leadership and his way of running things. You have this crazy idea of turning this ‘temporary’ world into an eternal society where we are as free as we can possibly be, and you just admitted to me that you will give up on that vision if I were to cross over. Are you serious? Does this vision mean that little to you that you would just give it up like that? Seriously, Reby? You are supposed to be Rebellia: the rebel with a cause. This world we’re building is your cause… whether I’m here or not, we left Orion to make sure this world becomes a reality.”
“I finally found you!” the sudden voice caught the two women off guard. Rebellia reached for her gun and aimed it directly at the voice.
“Whoa! Sorry about that,” Quentin said with wide-eyes, “I was just so happy.”
“What are you doing here?” Rebellia asked.
“Did Orion send you?” Faye asked.
“No. I left. I left the same night you left, but I was way too late. I couldn’t find you for days. But here I am. I want to be a part of this… whatever you’re doing. When you told Orion you were leaving… I don’t know what it is, but I felt that shit on a spiritual level. In my head, I was with you, but once I saw that girl go with Orion, I was like…” he froze, “that’s how I was like. I didn’t move. She was the only one that went with you and I was sure that I made the right decision, but as I sat there, thinking about what you said and what Orion caused for that little girl… I wasn’t sure that I made the right decision.”
“You son of a bitch!” Rebellia said, squeezing the weapon she held firmly in both hands. Faye jumped at the sound of the gunshot, and her eyes widened at the sight of Quentin’s body hitting the ground he once stood on.
“What the hell, Reby?”
Rebellia smiled, “You’ll thank me for that later. Come on, grab this guys legs. We’ll carry him to the cabin.”
The lone willow tree that stood in the center of the grassland in between the forest and the sem
i-destroyed building that once was Orion’s prison. Vincent and Daphne were the last people to be held there and they would indeed continue to be the last people to be held there. It wasn’t a prison anymore, it was a pile of broken rubble and melted metal. Rebellia’s expression didn’t change as she stared blankly at what was left of it.
Although her exterior was statuesque, her mind was racing at a hundred miles per hour thinking about Faye. She wondered what Faye was doing at this exact moment; she wondered if Faye was angry at her for not telling her about Quentin; she wondered if Faye would even remember her at all. What if upon entering Heaven, all of the memories from this world is erased and we start anew? What if I don’t exist anymore to her?
When that thought crossed her mind, a single tear rolled from her eye and onto her fanny pack. The fabric of the pack absorbed the tear, leaving a wet spot where it landed. Another two tears were not far behind the first one and they just continued dropping afterward. She sniffled but didn’t wipe them away. She allowed the tears to fall.
When her eyes dried up, she went back to being motionless and emotionless. Her stoic expression kept the feelings at bay. It has been three days since she hobbled towards the tree and flopped down at its base. She didn’t get up, nor did she have any intentions to. She didn’t know when she would move from under this tree if at all. Her whole world came crashing down when Faye left.