The Inner Circle - Chapter 5

Note: Please see The Inner Circle - Chapter 1 for proper credit where it's due.

Chapter 5
Waking up Blind

Daylight broke hard that morning. The feel of the warm glow on Deacon’s face felt like he caught a hard right hook. He barely slept that night. He tossed and turned with the heavy thought in his mind that something could be wrong here. His sense of religion was battling with his instincts. He wanted to believe that nothing was wrong within the Circle, but he also felt that was something amiss. He sat up and rubbed his. When he moved his hands away he was staring directly out the window.

The sun was too bright and he had to duck his head to avoid the pain. He stood up and paced around the bed, trying to get his pupils to return to their proper size. After the spots ceased from flashing his vision returned. Then he realized there was something wrong. In an organization based on God and community, Deacon didn’t feel it was right to have secrets. Now he needed to decide what he was going to do. Was he going to up and leave, weather the storm and see what happens, or approach Herald.


Regina sat at the table near the window, watching the burning, orange ball rise into the amber colored sky. She sipped a cup of coffee, trying to guess where her husband went even though he left before dawn. She looked at Clara, sleeping peacefully with a smiling, stuffed lion tightly held near her face. Regina needed to get Clara out of her for good. But again, she couldn’t do it.

She put her head down into her arms. She must have dozed off, as it was dark when she awoke. Clara was watching a public access kids' show. When Clara saw her mother asleep she had closed the blinds and shut the curtain. The only light was from the television and that made things barely visible anyway. She looked over at her daughter staring intently at some singing and dancing puppets. There was her reason to stay. Clara wouldn’t be able to survive in a world in the care of a mother with nothing. There was no way she was going to give her daughter up.

They were safe here. At least her daughter would be able to grow up with little hardship in life.


Deacon stood before the window, smoking a cigarette. He was hoping that Regina would decide to leave this lie. He knew he couldn’t convince her to go because it was too big of a decision. He wouldn’t respect her a bit if she let someone chose what she and her daughter should do with their lives. But, still, he begged to something, he wasn’t sure if it was God, but he begged that he wasn’t begging in vain.


Regina sat on the bed behind her daughter, watching and laughing at the TV show. Clara turned to her and asked out of the blue, “Mommy, why’s daddy always gone?”

“Well, Clara, you see, daddy is a busy man. He’s busy doing everything he can for God.” Clara just nodded and turned back to her show. Regina was surprised that Clara still even cared about her father, after all, he was a stranger to her. It was good that Clara still loved her father even though she’s seen him do and say many things that cause children her age to despise parents. She loved her father even though he’d changed so much after he learned that he was to succeed Herald. With the appearance of Deacon Trellman, he had changed again, and for the worst.

This brought her to thinking again. Judd had left them behind in order to pursue his desire for control. She felt they were stranded here, not free in God’s grace. She went into the bathroom and began to cry about everything on her mind. The worry for her daughter, the worry of what would happen if they went away, the worry about her husband, the worry that she wasn’t making the right choices. What wrong? She wondered if it was her fault somehow.



Deacon was sure that this whole thing was false. All of this truth and Holy Ghost and everything he was promised were a lie. The ‘truth’ was built on the greed that Herald had for power or maybe he was making money someway. The ‘truth’ was built on weak people’s faith. Everyone in this mansion was blind to what the real truth was and he felt stupid. He felt so stupid. He felt stupid that he believed in Herald’s hypocrisy. Herald couldn’t have been what he claimed to be.

Deacon gave up his friends and family for nothing but a dream. A far shot that he wasn’t sure that he could kill himself over believing. He felt unfaithful. Not unfaithful to God, no. He felt unfaithful to life.

The Inner Circle - Chapter 6  (18+) Deacon talks with Herald. The plans for Clara are reveiled. #855131 by Abominae