The Forsaken (The Chosen Series Book 2), Patricia Bell [e textbook reader .txt] 📗

After several more minutes, the woman looked back up at her. “You’ve had quite a time.” Her smile was genuine, but Rachel had a hard time taking her seriously amidst the green chunk flopping up and down on her two front teeth.

“So, where should we start?”

Rachel sucked her teeth as if the leafy green was stuck to hers instead of the woman’s. She shrugged. It was going to be a long hour.

The woman looked down at Rachel’s protruding belly. “Why don’t we start there?”

Chapter 5 ― Malachi

Malachi grabbed a stack of quilts to load into the truck. He couldn’t help but think about the scene that had happened only months before. The incident plagued him each time he came to the storage building to load the trucks for market.

The vision of his brother, Jacob, zooming by at top speed in the passenger seat of a community truck. That girl was in the driver’s seat. She’d been the one to lead his brother to the depths of hell. None of it would have happened if it weren’t for that devil’s spawn. And now his brother was dead. They were all dead. And she was to blame.

“Is the truck loaded and ready for PSP in the morning?” Brother Aaron asked as Malachi swung the last load of quilts into the bed of the truck. PSP was the Phoenix Swap Meet where they sold goods to the locals. Many of them used the acronym and all the men who went on the trips knew what it stood for.

“I am tending it to it now, Elder Aaron.”

Elder Aaron had been the one to race off after them and come back with the news that they were all dead. Malachi hadn’t been able to look the man in the eye ever since. And it wasn’t because he blamed him, it was because he blamed himself.

He’d treated his brother harshly. He always had.

The last conversation he had with his brother had been an argument. And that plagued him over time and time again. He’d been furious that day. Jacob had put his entire family under the scrutiny of the elders by sneaking out to see Rachel and eventually impregnating her. He’d shamed them all, and Malachi had been so angry with him.

Not so much for what his brother had done, but more so because the High Prophet had seen to it that Jacob was rewarded by allowing him to marry early instead of punishing him for his indiscretions. And, in turn, he had forced Malachi to wait another year for a wife.

For years Malachi had awaited the day to have his own home. To get up from under the heavy rule of his father and have wives of his own. And Jacob had ruined it all.

But now Jacob was gone, and it all seemed so senseless. Malachi jumped into the bed of the truck to situate the goods so they would be secure for the morning trip to market.

Elder Aaron stood against the wall and watched Malachi. “You are much like your brother, Malachi. I fear soon the two of you will meet again.”

Malachi turned. “My brother is dead.”

Elder Aaron nodded.

“What are you saying, Elder Aaron?” To question an elder was unacceptable, but the man was goading Malachi, and he was in a foul mood already.

“You are a wayward soul, Malachi. You have the devil inside of you.”

It was common knowledge that Jacob’s soul had been damned to the fires of hell. The elders preached of it on Sacrament, rubbing it into their faces, placing the fear of God into their hearts.

“I have done nothing wrong, Elder Aaron.” Malachi placed the canvas cover overtop the quilts. “You cannot condemn me for the acts of Jacob.” Before he even spoke the name, he knew what he was doing. Jacob, Jonathan, and Rachel’s names were forbidden to be spoken ever again.

“You dare to speak the name of the son of Satan?” Elder Aaron walked closer. “Your name shall soon be written right next to his.”

“The list is getting longer by the day, Elder Aaron. Soon we shall have none left to choose from.”

“Your father shall be hearing from me.”

Malachi stood and smiled. “I am sure he will welcome your visit, Elder Aaron.”

Elder Aaron was a harsh man, but he was smart. He would not visit Malachi’s father and admit to him that he deemed himself worthy to condemn a man’s soul to hell based on the acts of his brother.

Malachi jumped down from the truck and left Elder Aaron standing alone to watch him leave. “Blessed day, Elder Aaron.”

Chapter 6 ― Abigail

At the sound of her father’s voice, every eye in the building looked up, and every hand stopped working.

Shaking in terror, Abigail stood up.

“Yes, Father.” Her voice was barely above a squeak.

Her father said not another word, but instead, he turned and walked back out of the building. Abigail turned to face Tabitha. Was this it? Was her fate to be just like her sister, Rachel's? Was she doomed to die in the desert?

“You must go,” Tabitha whispered. “Do not keep him waiting. You will only fuel his anger.”

Abigail nodded and rushed to the front door where her father was sure to be waiting directly outside. Sister Rhoda looked away as she passed. Abigail continued on shaky limbs out the door and into the hot evening sun. The sun beat down on her like an oven as she searched for her father. She found him leaning against the side of the building in the only shade available. The evening temperature had already exceeded a hundred degrees several times in the week. It was going to be a hot summer. She’d picked a fine time to be fleshed-out.

Lifting her dress from the ground, she hurried to her father. As she approached, he did not look at her. Instead, he turned and walked to their nearby home. Abigail followed. As she searched her mind for the words to say to her father, she remembered