Chapter 7

“Eric, Eric, honey, where is everyone at church?” April Goddard looked around at where the Wednesday night prayer meeting should be.

The sanctuary was empty, not a soul in sight ... but that couldn’t be, right? Not unless ... no, that wasn’t possible. It just ... didn’t make any sense at all. She was saved. April knew that she had gotten right with God, had received Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior, right? So, no, it couldn’t be the Rapture, not with Pastor Denny gone. She was sure that he and his heathen wife would be left behind, if anyone was. If anyone was less than Christian in their private lives, it was the pastor ... the very young pastor.

Well, maybe that was the issue. He was just too young and immature, an easy target for the Devil in his lusts. Perhaps he wasn’t lost, after all, just a weaker Christian than a pastor should be. But Ellie ... no, there was no way that Ellie was truly saved, right? So, no, it couldn’t be the Rapture.

And then April saw it ... the empty clothes all over the pews. Every set of clothing ... empty. So, unless people ran off in the nude ... it had happened ... the Rapture ... and she, April Goddard, had been left behind. Oh, where was Eric? Surely, if he was here, he could make sense of this. Then again, if he was here, he was every bit as lost as she turned out to be ... but how ... How was that possible? How could she have failed to truly convert and give her heart to the Lord?

Where had she failed? April ran out, crying now, desperate to make sense of it all. She screamed at the sky, shaking her fist at Heaven and Christ. What had she done wrong? How had she failed to repent well enough to please and satisfy God? What in the world was this, a really awful nightmare? If so, why hadn’t pinching herself woken her up?

In spite of herself, April stopped when she saw Ellie Marshall, who hardly surprised her by still being around. Ellie fought back a chuckle and did her best to seem sincere in her terror over being left behind. She cried on April’s shoulder, her own sister, everything innocent on the surface as the pastor’s wife led her back to her trailer. April didn’t even put up any kind of fight, which would have been very suspicious in the past. Now, however, she was so shaken and scared that she was like sheep to the slaughter.

“Oh, Ellie ... I’m ... so lost ... so doomed ... what did I do wrong? How could I have been so blind? How did I miss the Rapture? How did I fail to repent and convert ... what did I do wrong about my rebirth? I was supposed to be this ... great Christian, and yet I wasn’t even a believer at all. I am damned ... to be left behind now, that means that I can’t ... repent now. God will send me a ... strong delusion, to doom and damn my soul. It’s over.

“We’re both going to Hell, Ellie ... to spend eternity with the Devil, and the Beast, and the False Prophet ... and we’ll both end up taking the Mark of the Beast ... and being tormented by the judgments of the Great Tribulation. We’re going to be judged and cast into the Lake of Fire, both of us, just like Dan Logan,” April wept in pure panic over her surprising eternal destiny, even as Ellie cradled her.

And then gave her some whiskey to drink. Needing a bracer, April seized it to swallow the shot, letting it burn her throat just as the flames of Hell would someday burn her flesh. Forever ... cast out into outer darkness ... with weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. What would she do? What else could she do, but soothe her pain and terror with strong drink?

Then she felt it ... the kiss. It came on so fast, so strong, yet she couldn’t stop herself. April didn’t know who kissed whom first, but somehow, her lips touched Ellie’s. Her own sister’s. Then again, she was already damned, so ... in for a penny, in for a pound. Take that, Jesus Christ. You want to reject me, fine. But I’ll go to Hell with a smirk, knowing that I broke so many of your damn commandments, including by making out with my own sister.