Scapegoats

The forest is dancing with the shadows of fire. A small, squat building sits in the middle of a town square. It’s an old church with doors and windows hastily nailed shut. Bright orange flame bursts from the basement, and shortly engulfs the whole building. Dark figures ran out from the basement, they tried to break the doors. The fire spreads, licking up the sides and the roof of the building. From the church, a hymn is heard, and in seconds it becomes a death scream. The church is an inferno, fire whipping and dancing, swirling and swirling in the half-burned carcass. The figures around it try to get in, but they are stopped every time by the wall of fire. When this is over there is nothing except charred timbers and an awfully sweet smell of burning pork.
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“Welcome brothers, sisters and friends. We came here today to remember those not with us and start the new era out of the ashes of the old one. In the old times all that we knew were lies.”
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Day One of the End. Dear Diary. What to do? The “Best Part” Machine Parts Plant has started and stopped construction in our town for over a year, and now the new plant is finally abandoned, just standing there, two miles from town. There are no more jobs, any work went under with the “Best Part.” Women gossip, men fight, babies scream, and teenagers can’t get away. 100 miles to the next town, 200 to the highway, and Father Luke has the only car. And he has his sermons, day in and day out. I put in this Diary the transcripts of every sermon.
“Brothers and Sisters! Praise the Lord! And let me hear you Praise the Lord with all your might. We are his Chosen. His Children that he will take to Paradise! But only if we’re worthy! We must be worthy of this honor. And what stops us? Our children!”
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“In the Beginning of it all came the Friend who helped us get out of the web of sleep and laziness. His voice was a lonely one amid the lulling gardens of our Enemy. But to whom did people listen? The Enemy. Who treated them like slaves, but still they flocked to it.”
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Day 14 of the End. Dear Diary. Father Luke becomes crazier by the minute. Every day there are Revivals, Spirituals, We-are-Holier-than-Thou-Fests, Fasts, Prayers, Prayers, Prayers. And our parents and grandparents do nothing but stay in Our Blessed Lord Savior’s Church and pray. For us this town has no way out. We are dragged to every sermon possible, and we listen, but we do not hear them.
“Our children are the source of our problems! They are disobedient, disrespectful, full of vices. They accepted Satan into their lives! Our Lord and Savior Jesus said: ‘Children shall honor and obey their Mother and Father!’ because by disobeying, they disobey the Lord!”
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“Since that time the Enemy tries every which way to restrain our Friend and deny us the truth. The Enemy supplied the People with a Book in which the creation of the world was recorded in such a wicked way as to turn the Enemy into a Friend, and our Friend to Enemy.”
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Day 16 of the End. Father Luke shifts the blame for everything to kids. To him, children, especially teen-agers, are the root of all evil. He thinks that we would bring the country to its knees and give it to Satan. The confessions of countless people being the victims of some Satanic cult convinced him even more. And since the big Satanic scare months ago, people are still jumpy and ready for witch-hunt. And I’m not surprised. When mothers in almost an entire state kept their kids home, and thought of nothing but the “threat” of Satanists, brought on by some coincidences and some gossip that spread beyond belief. 
“Are we going to stand by and watch our world go up in flames as the Antichrist comes and tears it to pieces? And the ones to bring him in are our very own children. Yes, our own flesh and blood betrays us, succumbing to the Devil’s lure.”
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“But we must be smart to separate the lies from the truth. In every single lie, there is a grain of truth. We must find it. And you ask how we would do it? By doing something that the Enemy surely hates. By asking questions, doubting and demanding answers.”
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Day 18 of the End. Father Luke said in the last church meeting that modern music is the root of evil, and the only appropriate thing to listen to is the “Word of God.” According to him, all that we do is evil, and we are evil through and through. I can’t understand why no one notices that Father Luke is crazier then usual. But our parents support him and encourage him even more.
“We might be too late already! The Antichrist might already be here! Yes, here! In our country! For you must have surely heard and seen the uproar when the poor, defenseless girls confessed to being victims of Devil worshipers!”
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“And you may ask how did I know what to do? I didn’t really, but do any of you have a better idea? No. So, let’s continue. The only way of knowing what’s real and what’s not is to demand proof. And not the kind of proof like ‘everybody says it so it must be true,’ but real proof, supported by real evidence. To survive we must learn how to be objective.”
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Day 23 of The End. Since the electricity, running water and decent plumbing went under with the construction, the work is harder the ever. The jerks laying the waste disposal pipes to the factory cut off all our pipes and electricity. Also their junk is so heavy and dangerous to move. They promised to get rid of it, but in the winter, when the ground is not so spongy. Yeah, right, and in the winter they’ll say: wait for spring, when the ground thaws. So, we’re back to the old paraffin lamps, water pumps and outhouses. Like 1992 never happened at all.
Parents do nothing but stay in church all day! That means we must do all the work. There’s a kitchen garden to weed, water to drag home from the pump, washing to do, firewood to split. And three younger sisters to watch. At least they don’t give me much trouble, we get along pretty well. Why can’t our parents forget about their f-a-i-t-h for an instant and be the responsible ones. I’m only sixteen, I’m way to young for this.
“We all saw it and tried to stop this epidemic, but the corrupt government fought us every step of the way! Our revelations were called hallucinations and our faith was questioned again and again! We were interfering, so the Devil worshipers started to corrupt our youth! The young people of this town are corrupt, perfect for the conversion to Satanism!”
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“And how can we tell the truth from lies? The lies might seem strong, but somewhere there is a loose brick, something that the Enemy overlooked, or thought not to be important. And the greatest help to us are the Two Sisters: Logic and Reason. Logic helps us sort through rubble of ideas and thoughts and Reason shines the light on our superstitions and exposes them.”
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Day 28 of the End. Father Luke searched for Satanists again today. He can’t seem to stop. He also doesn’t care that we have almost no contact with the outside world, except for papers the library orders and a battery-powered ham radio; he thinks Satanism spreads like a flu. He went to the library looking for “Bad Books,” anything about the occult or with fairytales in it. He didn’t find anything.
Axe must have stolen them. He’s the only one interested in more then the Bible and witch-hunts.  I’m starting to worry about out our town. Sheriff Hallings and his deputies support every craziness of Father Luke. Father Luke blames everyone in the government for bringing this epidemic upon unsuspecting citizens, and calls those who question the claims of fanatics “militant heretics.” That includes everyone: scientists, government, news reporters.

“Our faith and our way of life are in danger. We live in the times before the end! We must prepare ourselves for the Coming. And if our Savior came today, what would he say? I’ll tell you what! He would say: How unfit you are. He would say that we value our comfort more then his teachings. That we had forgotten what the Bible said!”
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“What we need now is the same light to shine on the Enemy and the Friend. And what we find? The Enemy lies and manipulates to hide behind Truth and Faith to make us do what it wants. It had started wars, murdered people and led to witch-hunts. All of this happened because the Enemy wanted the Truth to work only for it. Before it came here the people understood what it means to have Truth, Logic and Reason. They were sighted, but the Enemy brought Blind Faith.”
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Day 36 of the End. Father Luke has gone over the bend. He searched Axe’s house today. Mostly his room, not the whole house. I came to support Axe. When we all busted into the room I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was bare. There was a bed, a bare desk and that’s it. Axe used to have enough weird and somewhat occult stuff to fill the whole house, not just his room. He stayed on the bed looking smug while Father Luke screamed about Satanism and Axe selling his soul to the Devil.
“And what did the Bible say: The child who disobeys its parents, the child who is lazy and follows the voice of Satan, shall be condemned to death. And did we do any of this? No. We allowed the cursed seed of Evil to impregnate our innocent children. We allowed it to grow, we allowed it to blossom and spread further. And now we should be ready to reap what we have sown. We sowed neglect of the Teachings of our Lord and Reaped the Satanic evil.”
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“Before the Enemy came people lived in relative Peace, without persecution and in touch with themselves. The Enemy made people its slaves and to scare them into obedience created the bogeyman of Satan. And to give them hope it created a son, naming him the Messiah. The Enemy gave its son the words to say, but one day he said one thing, the next another. All of it was written down in the Book and then rearranged and forgotten. When the priests of the Enemy read the Book they take the parts they need and forget the rest. But if you really sat down and read it you would find slavery, incest, murder, genocide and rape. This Book talks about the Enemy supporting the rape and murder of nations.”
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Day 57 of the End. It’s been weeks since our parents did anything but fix up the church and pray. And drag us to prayers every Sunday. Now, for two weeks at least, they have this new game. Kids go under the church floor, in the basement, so they won’t bother the parents. We have had about enough of this, so Axe helps us to dig a way out of the basement. Today it gets all the way through but it’s very narrow and uncomfortable. Also there are more and more boxes in the basement. Where do they find them?
“And who shall bring this evil to us! Our own children. They have taken the Devil into their hearts and sheltered him there. Our children are stuck in sin and will only be washed clean by the Lord. The oldest ones need go to Purgatory, not to Hell. And we will do that by giving our lives to our children, by helping them repent. For the Lord Jesus did give up his life for the sinners of this Earth! We are weak mortals, the worms under His feet, but we must, Must! follow his example. Our children will go to their eternal reward, but with their hearts going toward the Lord! We will help them with it. They will repent! They are already coming to this church every Sunday and we pray for them! But now they shall be saved! And you are worried about younger children. Why? The innocent souls shall be saved either way! And their souls will go to the Throne of the Lord and stay by his right hand. We shall save all of them from the Devil by cleansing their souls.”
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“In this Book women are treated like slaves and child-bearing machines, children are killed for having their own voice, and the ones listening to the voice of our Friend are destroyed. People are unable to handle their own problems, so the Book finds a scapegoat for them. It used to be other religions, other people, and even imaginary ones. Now it’s us.”
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Day 62. The End. Today the unspeakable happened. In the morning every child was dragged to the church. Everyone including babies. All were left in the basement. The parents started praying, and we heard what they were saying: “We shall save our children by cleansing them, by cleansing their souls! We shall cleanse their souls with the Fire of our Lord! The Lord shall cleanse them and accept them into his fold! We shall pray for them! And give our lives to them, to save them! And let the fire come now! Now I take this torch and light the cleansing fire of Our Lord! Take us into our fold and bring Salvation to the lost souls of our children. We pray to you, and follow your will! We bring us unto You, and pray for your Salvation!”
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“But we must forgive them and live the life we want. What we need is to deny everything the Enemy has brought us. Let’s focus on the teachings of those who followed the Friend. The true power of Nature and Science. The teaching of our Friend, who was smart enough to hide them. We have clues; we just need to figure it out. And the first clue is the name. Our Friend was hidden behind the mask of Satan. Since this is the reflection of him we can easily figure it out. The reflection is Satan, and the real face is Lucifer, the First Rebel.”
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The End. Sometime Later. It did really happen. Some kids got scared, so when the fire got started Axe, me and about ten others went back in and tried to get them out. We lost thirty five kids out of 150. We tried to open the doors of the church, but they were locked from the inside. What happened to the parents I can’t think about. Why would they do it? Why?
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The End. Even Later. We are gathered at the abandoned plant. That’s where Axe hid all the books. I take this journal with me, to remember. Remember all of it. Linda Elizabeth Rainworth
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The speaker steps into the light, revealing a badly burned face and hands. He’s sad, almost crying. “And now we shall remember those not with us. I, who the Enemy called Joseph Alexander Madison and whom friends call Axe, remember Mary Katherine Trason, taken as Madison, who I called Mom; I remember Garry Ferdinand Madison, who I called Dad; I remember Inna Jane Madison, who I called Sis. They died today. Let the Rebel Friend Lucifer be with them. Now you start, Lin…”
“I, Linda Elizabeth Rainworth, remember Jane Susan Rainworth, who I called Mom. I welcome to us the one the Enemy called Ely Anna Rainworth, my sister, who I called Rain. The Enemy took Mom, but our Friend the Ever-Luminous Lucifer is with her, and I’m with you, Rain…”