The small family frantically wandered through the forest for quite some time. Emunah was struck with an idea, and immediately navigated his family through the forest he now knew well. They walked for hours and hours in the darkness. Emunah was a seasoned navigator, but as a human he had trouble finding his way through the dark. "I hope this is the right path" he thought to himself, taking a glance at his weary wife holding their now sleeping child. She walked with a cloth wrapped around her and the baby so she was able to carry her without tiring her arms.
"Are we almost there?" Shemesh was becoming increasingly impatient. She never did enjoy her sleep being disrupted. On top of that, she was tasked with a midnight hike by force.
"I love you dearly, but you are beginning to sound like a child woman" Emunah was annoyed by her impatience. Couldnt she see he was doing his best? Couldnt she see how many people's lives he allowed to be taken in exchange for HER safety? His snappy mood made her become quiet.
Soon the night sky became a lighter and lighter hue of blue. The sun was trying to wake the earth. Emunah was exhausted but relieved as now he was sure he was headed the right direction. The lightening of the sky paved a smoother way to the now close destination. Finally Emunah spoke again, "we are here…" He knew were he was by the looks of nature around him. Every plant around was still very young in age which only meant one thing, they were regrown. Emunah took his wife by the hand and led her through some tall bushes, out of the forest. They stepped onto poorly kept grounds of what looked to be a field of grain crops. The sound of almonds crunched under their feet as they walked past the almond tree, towards what was left of a path, overgrown by weeds. Emunah was flooded with memories the moment he stepped into the town's center. Flashes of his childhood appeared in his mind, a time when he was happy and carefree. He watched the invisible child version of himself run by laughing and playing. He then remembered the night it all happened, the night his world was turned upside down. Then he remembered his wife, and looked to her to read the expression on her face. She was dismayed by her environment and covered her mouth in disbelief.
"What happened here" she asked Munah. He took her by the hand and led her down a path too familiar to him.
"Death, destruction." he coldly said over his shoulder as he led them to their new home. Emunah walked up to the remains of his childhood home, and fell to his knees at the sight. There were only about a foot high of walls standing, and everything else was covered in weeds and the decomposition of the debris from the fire years ago. Emunah began to sob loudly and uncontrollably. All the trauma had finally hit him at once like running face first into the largest boulder. Shemesh gently kneeled beside him, being careful not to discomfort the baby, and tried her best to comfort her husband. One hand stroking her swaddled sleeping child, the other rubbing her husband's back. She sat and began to weep with him. Together they mourned the life they left behind, they mourned the death of the people they loved. They mourned the peace that was stolen from them.
The sun had finally come all the way up, and the morning was bright and warm. After they pulled themself together, they came up with a plan.
"Where will we go ? no place is safe now. Surely they will be looking for us to have our heads" Shemesh pleaded. Emunah agreed with her statements.
"You have a point. Maybe we can seek refuge in a nearby town? Surely they will take us in when they see this little face" Munah smiled and gestured at his beautiful daughter.
"Yes…or they will turn us in for ransom…If there is a ransom. we cannot gamble our safety for a maybe" Shemesh continued to plead. She had no idea what to do, so she looked to her husband as the head and leader of the home. Emunah grew quiet and thought for a moment. He looked around the abandoned remains of the town Mishkan. His eyes darted slowly from home to home, tree to tree, grass to blade. He looked his wife in the eyes and said, "why dont we just stay here?..." Shemesh stopped talking to Ahuva and stared at the man with confusion.
"huh?...How would we do that? There is nothing here and no one. Surely if we dont starve we will go mad just from only conversing with one another! Why should we stay here like sitting ducks awaiting our demise?" She heavily questioned the plan. Emunah stood to his feet and pointed at the cistern they were sitting on.
"You see this? I MADE THIS. With my two hands. I am not a child anymore. I can rebuild our home…THE WHOLE TOWN EVEN!" Emunah became excited at his idea the more it grew in his mind.
"Yes! Yes! Thats what ill do! Ill rebuild the whole town, you will see woman!" he exclaimed. Shemesh was now giggling at the childlike excitement her husband portrayed.
"Yes, well that's all fine and well, but what will we do for community? You know that is very important not only to us but to her" She nodded towards the smiling cooing baby that bounced on her lap. Emunah knew she was right, no child should have to live the way he did. Especially his own flesh and blood.
"I promise you, i will figure that part out. For now my wife, i need to focus on making sure we can survive. We need somewhere to sleep and something to eat." he pointed at the sun, "time waits for no man. I need to get started now while the sun is high." With that he walked off foraging for the days dinner, and items to build all the tools he would need for the hard work he had up ahead.
Emunah spent day and night building, chiseling, mixing, and applying resources to build a home for his family. The first day he focused on repairing the remains of the hut they would reside in. He of course found the old place he and his mother used to stay at, and chose to revamp it from its original look. He added an extra room, separated the cooking area from the sleeping area, and made walls that were way more sturdy than those before. He even added a few extra windows to look out and vent the smoke from the warming fires. He took all the knowledge he learned from the tribe he led, and applied it to the tasks at hand. A few weeks went by and he had done pretty well to have been the only man working. Ahuva was now walking so this gave Shemesh a free hand and a few free moments to help her husband tend the garden. She was proud of him and the hard work he put for just for them. Although she could not help but feel worried about the terrible night terrors her husband often had.
One morning, Shemesh and Ahuva were in the fields tending to the garden. The sun was barely up, but this was the coolest time of the summer to tend to chores. As she worked, pulled weeds, and planted more seeds, she looked up in horror.
"Oh no! Where is Ahuva!?" Shemesh shouted. She had been so deep in her work she forgot to watch the newly mobile child. "Ahuva!!!!! Sheli!!! Sheli!!" she shouted, hoping the baby would come running at the sound of her voice. She heard nothing. She ran all around the fields and could not find her daughter. She decided to check the bushes nearby and hurried along at the thought of the child possibly having eaten poisonous berries by now. She plowed through the bushes and stopped when she saw it. Her heart dropped to the bottom of her stomach as she watched a mysterious woman hold and interact with her infant daughter. The woman was tattered and dirty. Her curly black hair was all over her head in a nest of a mess. Her golden brown skin was splotched with patches of dirt and dried blood. She wore a brown ripped dirty worn out dress and no shoes on her feet. She stopped singing and swaying with the baby once she saw Shemesh.
"Please…please… give me my child." Shemesh pleaded. The woman looked insane and as if she would take off running with the child at any moment. The women stared at Shemesh and then looked tenderly at the child in her arms. She looked back at Shemesh and gently placed the child on the ground while keeping eye contact with her mother. Shemesh ran to scoop up her child and quickly backed away.
"Wha..what do you want?" she said shakily while holding Ahuva tightly to her chest. The woman had a crazed look on her face and she held up the palms of her hands.
"Please mam… i just need some help." the woman dropped to her knees and began to cry. She wept so loud and hard you could hear her heart breaking with each scream and tear.
"SHEMESH! SHELI! WHERE ARE YOU?" Emunah was heard shouting, slightly panicked.
"Over here! Quick! We need help!" She shouted back. The woman remained on her knees with her face buried in her hands, pooling with tears. Emunah burst through the bushes and froze when he saw what was happening. He told his wife and child to step back as he cautiously approached the weeping dirty woman.
"Mam…woman…are you.." Her head shot up to look at Emunah and it stopped him in his tracks.
"MUNAH??????!!!!" The woman shouted with pleading eyes. Emunah jumped back, a bit frightened and on guard. "What if she is a spy sent to kill me" he thought. He took a step back, preparing to hurt the woman if necessary. "GET OUT OF HERE, GO BACK HOME, NOW!!" He turned and shouted at his family. Shemesh took off with Ahuva in hand.
"WAIT NO PLEASE! ITS ME! IM YOUR MOTHER!" The woman pleaded for her life sensing it was in danger.
"My mot…Tikvah?? Is your name Tikvah?" Emunah asked, heart pounding out of his chest. Before she finished nodding her head yes Emunah ran and grabbed up the woman in the strongest bear hug. He could tell she had been starved as she was as light as his baby girl. He easily lifted the frail woman off the ground when hugging her. They both hugged and kissed cheeks with heavy tears.
He flooded his mother with questions the moment they stopped showing affection.
` "are you okay!? Wait of course you arent! Where were you? Why didnt you come back fo rme? What has happened to you?" He was so excited he couldnt decide which answer he wanted first. She asked if they could eat before she explained herself and he happily obliged.
Later that night, they all sat around the fire in the rebuilt hut. It was the only standing building in the entire town. They made tea, and a small meal of bread as that was all there was to harvest after a short time. Tikvah did not mind the meal, it was better than the air she had been eating before.
"So, you want to know the truth? Are you sure?" Tikvah asked the couple as she sipped her tea. She adoringly stared at her grandchild and asked once again, "Are you sure you want to know? This is nothing for the ears of the faint of heart." the couple nodded in unison vigorously.
"We must know mother, i must know what happened to you"
Tikvah took another sip of tea and wrapped up in the blanket Shemesh made from hemp. She looked at the ground, and then at the fire as if being hypnotized by it's dancing flames.
"Son, do you remember the book i was reading you. The night…the night everything happened?"
"Yes mother, I still have it! It remains my only happy reminder of my short childhood." Emunah beamed with pride he had taken such good care of the book. Although by now it was barely hanging on by its threads.
"Well…" Tikvah continued. "That book is no fairytale. It is real son. It is a very important book and the fact it survived this long tells me the truth it holds, is all the more righteous." The couple looked confused. Tikvah continued;
" That book, my son, is the story of us, the story of Life. Perfect it may not be, but it is a collection of all the things seen and heard from people of our kind."
"Our kind…poor?" Emunah thought out loud. Tikvah chuckled at this notion and shook her head.
"No son…Human." The couple now laughed at the woman and her crazy tales. Tikvah got upset and slammed her cup onto the clay floor, almost waking Ahuva.
"THIS IS NO JOKE. YOU LAUGH? YOU LAUGH? Perhaps it would be just as funny if YOU were to be taken as the bearer of monsters!" Tikavah shouted pointing a boney finger at Shemesh. The couple stared quietly, the baby stirred a bit from the noise. Tikvah froze with the finger pointed as a tear rolled down her cheek and she stared blankly. Her mouth curled into a sick scowl, as she threw her head back and let out a deep belly laugh. The couple was now frightened, almost regretting their choice to help the crazy woman. Tikvah rested her pointed arm, and sipped her tea. her voice now calm once again.
" (deep breath in) you have no idea what pain is. You have no idea what sorrow is. This? This is nothing. This is a paradise compared to what my life has been the last 17 years." She looked down at the cup and closed her eyes. Another tear escaped and rolled onto the floor. Tikvah took another breath and began to speak with her eyes closed, and silent tears falling.
"The things, the things they did to me… that night I was taken. I was tied up and a sack was placed over my head. I was raped and beaten for hours and hours. When they were done they tossed me into a cell...…..at first i didnt know what was happening to me, to my body, until i heard some of them talking…..talking about their grand plan" she took another sip of tea.
"Plan? For the kingdoms? For the lands?" emunah asked.
"No my son….for the entire earth." Tikvah's tears had picked up the pace and were falling quickly and freely from her eyes to the floor. She took another deep breath, inhaling the smell of soot from the fire.
"It had only been one day since my attack, and i felt sick. So sick i could not eat, sleep, or become comfortable in any manner. I noticed during this time the creatures who call themselves men, stopped touching me….If i knew what were to come, i would have begged them to take my body in exchange for this punishment." Tikavah paused once again, clearly in emotional pain as she mentally re-lived her struggles.
"It was the most odd experience, painful to say the least. I was sick because I was with child…except it was no child. That was when I realized the 'men' were not men at all. They couldn't be. I have had a child before and the pain was nothing like this. The pacing was impossibly fast as I doubled in size only one week later. Before I knew it, I was screaming in pain for hours and hours until that THING got out of me. I could feel it ripping me apart from the inside before I was ready to birth it. Once it was out, I felt no motherly love for this creature…." The couple was disgusted by Tikvah's words.
"Mother! How dare you speak of my sibling in that way??? Have you no shame as a mother?" Emunah sternly and quietly exclaimed.
"YOU WILL NOT CALL THAT THING ANY CHILD OF MINE!" Tikvah shouted and quickly calmed her emotions.
"Son, you do not understand. But one day soon you will. The plan they have is already in effect and soon, the whole world will change. The whole world will be under their rule. You see, they use us to birth these creatures that will one day soon become their army. They are bigger and stronger than any man ever could be" She had all the seriousness in her voice when she spoke. The couple giggle again but a lot lighter this time.
"Look mother, if there are these big scary creatures bigger than man you say? Why haven't we men SEEN them yet?" Emunah asked tauntingly.
"You haven't seen them because they keep them hidden away until the plan is ready to be completed. There is a secret underground place where they keep them and ...." Emunah put his hand up to interrupt his mother. Clearly she had become crazed in all the terror she was forced to endure. He loved his mother still, so he would not turn her away. However the nonsense she spewed had become too much for him to bear witness to.
"That's enough mother. I hear you. How about we worry about these monsters when they pose a threat? In the meantime let's focus on rebuilding our lives. " he tried his best to sound earnest and loving. Tikvah saw through her son's words and understood it was time for her story to end for the night.
"I understand. I sound insane. But do me a favor, read that book. I mean really read it. There is information inside you will one day need. Now, let's get some sleep. I have something to teach you about, in the morning, in regards to this town…there is a reason I brought us here to live all those years ago."
The little broken family retired for the night in their makeshift beds near the fire. For once, there was a total peaceful feeling in their lives that none of them could quite explain.
The next day, Emunah set off to hunt for food in the forests, and the women chose to spend the day tending the crops and preparing dinner. The time alone gave Shemesh the idea to pick Tikvah's brain a bit more. Ever since she shared parts of her story, something about it did not sit well with Shemesh.
"So what was the lesson you were to teach Munah today? Am I allowed to be apart of the secret?" she asked hopefully. Tikvah dug the make-shift hoe into the ground;
"Sure, actually I would be delighted if you knew about this too. It will benefit the family as a whole.." Tikvah paused to catch her breath before she continued. she took a glance over at Ahuva and smiled at the innocent joys on the child's face while she chased a butterfly.
"well ill start the lesson now if you like..we do have a many of hours to spend together this morning, why not..." Tikvah sat down on a nearby boulder to take a short break. Her old age and malnourished body could barely handle the manual labor.
"This town, before it was destroyed, was a special town. This place has a very wonderfully strange energy, power to it....The crops always grew year round even when you would think they should die. There are special places that literally will grow food no matter the time of the year. The people here were so lively and joyful. Not to mention they were so very kind and generous...." Tikvah smashed the tool into the dirt, sifting it. "mmph....We all took care of each other and loved one another as if we were one large family. There is a feeling in this place....a spirit."
"like a ghost? a dead person?" Shemesh asked as she too dug her tool into the soil. Taking care to make sure she kept an eye on little Sheli.
"no my daughter.....the thing we all have that makes us a 'ghost'. a spirit. The thing that keeps us alive and awake. The feeling you get when something wrong is going to happen and you can feel it in the depths of your being...It is like an energy with a mind of it's own, the town. They would say that it was something Munah and i brought with us as the town was dwindling before we arrived...I did not believe them until i learned why i was chosen for what happened to me..." Shemesh stopped plowing and stared at Tikvah with anticipation for her next word. Tikvah continued to work as she spoke;
"It was then I realized no matter where my son and I would reside, these strange peaceful feelings and occurrences would happen all over again. I used to believe it was just our luck of finding nice places to live. But I was wrong, it was much more than that.... Have you ever thought about how and why we are here?" Shemesh shook her head no.
"I really never had the time to think of such things," she answered. Tikvah laughed,
"Yes, I too was the same way. The men truly don't understand how hard it is to be a mother, am I right?" tikvah smiled and Shemesh nodded wildly, finally feeling understood.
"Well I can't lie to you, I have no idea why we are here or how we truly became alive. But i did one day have a dream. I had a dream that something spoke to me. I could not hear it nor could i see it. But as odd as it sounds, I KNEW it was speaking to me and my spirit understood and conversed with it. It told me that i need not worry about anything because all things will work out for the good....Now considering what ive endured, i did not think much of this fairytale of a dream." The women both stopped for a break now and sat on the ground with the baby girl.
"But then, then, I was able to escape. It was insane how it happened. almost like getting up and walking out of the door. Then after my escape I starved wandering the forest for days. I thought surely I would die, although this was not a bad thought considering it was better than what I went through...and the moment I lay on the ground pained from hunger, waiting for the angel of death to come for me. " Shemesh was confused,
"angel? what is Angel" Shemesh asked, never having heard such a word.
"oh....ill explain later.... Anyways, I lie there waiting for my death and all of a sudden a beautiful little child stumbles up to me and drools all over my face! " Tikvah playfully picked up Ahuva and made her laugh.
"I surely thought a wild dog was going to eat me for dinner. But I opened my eyes to see a face that reminded me of my own. And this little face led me to my baby boy I had lost so many years ago. And that's when I knew....it was real. it was all real. it WAS me who carried this special beautiful spirit. Oh how grateful I am that it follows me.!.....So, I began to think. all the time i was forced to spend alone in my life i always did one thing. one thing that somehow seemed to bring me everything i needed in this life. no matter what i was dealing with." Tikvah sat the baby on her lap and smiled at her, beaming with joy.
"WELL??.... what is it?" Shemesh was eagerly awaiting her answer.
"huh?...oh!... I simply told whatever invisible thing that brought me here, thank you. Now I know how silly I must look when I talk to the invisible air. But i'm telling you my daughter, it works! Every single time I speak something into the air around me, good things happen. Now I must be honest and say they don't always happen quickly....I did after all spend 17 years captive. But i was always somehow treated better than the other slaves. I somehow always got the least harsh punishments and was treated the most fair, given the circumstances. But once I began to shout at the air in anger for my situation, asking the air where my help was? where the supposed special spirit was? my escape began to unfold before me without hardly any complex planning of my own. it just happened." Tikvah stood up to start working again after resting up a bit. Shemesh followed suit.
"Are you saying you have some sort of magical powers? Are you of Cainite descent?" Shemesh got excited. Tikvah's entire face expression changed,
"NO! HOW DARE YOU EVEN ACCUSE ME OF THE SORTS. APOLOGIZE RIGHT NOW FOR ACCUSING ME OF SUCH BLASPHEMY!" she shouted. Shemesh was shaken and in shock and babbled out a stuttered apology to Tikvah.
"Don't you know what those people do? They are evil and they sacrifice children! Only pure evil will spill the blood of children. AND to do it in the guise of love!? How absurd! I would never be associated with the likes of those people. they are truly barbaric in their ways! worshiping the golds and metals that come from the earth! I don't know how right or wrong it is but I DO KNOW nothing good comes of anything that tells you to murder your own blood and allows you to do so!" Tikvah finished her rant and saw the pale brown face of Shemesh turn red with embarrassment and anger.
Emunah tried his best to calm the tension between the women of his life. After their spat, they made sure to keep their distance from each other and rarely spoke. Shemesh was being stubborn outwardly, but deep down she knew some of the claims Tikvah made were true. Why DID they have to sacrifice a child for the great Baal and Baalat? Why did they go through such turmoil and strife when there was some invisible force that seemed to listen to pleas of the needy and genuine. These things may have plagued Shemesh but she still felt Tikvah did not have to be so rude about her delivery. Tikvah on the other hand was feeling no remorse as her stubborn ways kept her feeling as if she was the only person who could be accurate. Emunah was disappointed in both women but more or so his Mother for being so mean and closed minded to the opinions of his wife. She was not the kind gentle woman he very vaguely remembered.
One day, Emunah set off to neighboring villages to seek help rebuilding the town. He knew he could do it, but he also knew he was just one man. Although afraid of the outcome, he chose to venture out for assistance. Tikvah bid him a farewell as he set off into the forest on foot. She spoke into the universe as he disappeared from her sight;
"Oh please, please spirit of peace. Please watch over my boy, and please dont allow us to ever lose one another again." She said out loud to the air. While he was gone, Shemesh decided she would be the bigger person and attempted to mend her differences with Tikvah. She decided that she would simply take some time to understand where the woman was coming from instead of being so personally hurt by her trauma-filled words.
"Tikvah? I know you do not care for the likes of me very much, but i was wondering if you would tell me a bit more about the Cainites and the men who took you captive." Shemesh crossed her fingers that the woman would accept her subliminal wave of the white flag. Tikvah stood up straight, and stopped washing the linens to respond.
"Well… I suppose you truly don't know about these things since you have found the nerve to ask…. Sit down my child and allow me to tell you what I've learned in my many years on this earth…" Tikvah made a soft place to sit in the hut. The sun was highest in the sky so the women were attempting to evade the harsh hot rays. In the shadows of the hut they sat, and Shemesh listened.
"When I was a little girl I was told there were bad people in this world. I was told that it was very important to pay attention to whom you choose to follow as your leader….make us a cup of tea child. I shall be speaking for a while." Tikvah ordered. Shemesh happily got up and began to prepare the tea as Tikvah watched Ahuva play in the corner, as she continued her plight.
"You must assume i am such a wicked woman to go against your obvious way of life and beliefs….you didn't have to tell me, it was all in your demeanor when you heard me speak the truth...anyways, I mean no harm to you when i speak harshly on your kind. I just have heard so many things and seen even more...The Cainites were known for their reckless and wicked behaviors. Their ways of life revolved around evil acts and seeking great rewards for such. Your day in age is not as bad as when I was a girl, so I've heard, but there were many many sacrifices back in my younger times. The people were beginning to become few in number so they chose to seek out their sacrifices through wars and pillaging other towns and villages. So many women, children, men, and animals were taken and killed. Their blood used as an offering to what they call their God…." Tikvah took the clay cup of warm liquid and pressed it to her lips. She craved the taste of tobacco leaves, she had learned how to burn and inhale them from an herbalist. It usually calmed her down when she felt so wound up. She continued;
"The Cainites came into my village and they killed my mother and father before my eyes. They slit their throats and drained their blood into strange bowls as I watched life leave my parents eyes. Before they got me I ran as fast as I could away from that place and hoped to never see one of those people again…..I was later told, in my adult years, the purpose of the slaughters were a sacrifice to grant a prayer for a rise in numbers. They were attempting to rebuild their community and not shockingly, the rituals worked. The People grew in numbers and were able to carry on generations. I stopped hearing about them once I became a very young woman, shortly after my first bleed. It was rumored they all hid away in the forest because the king at the time had a ransom out for their arrest, for their crimes of course. But that Baal thing, it protected them for all these years. They still are out there somewhere, obviously as you know….you are of their descent." Tikvah finished her story along with her last sip of tea. Shemesh was sitting silently in awe. Her world slowly turned upside down. All these years, all this time, all the lies. Has everything she been taught and lived one big lie? Did she give away her first born son for no reason besides wicked motives? Had she been a pawn her whole life for the agenda of some Golden God? Her head was spinning. Spinning with questions and confusion.
"Insane, diabolical right? Wait until I tell you who Baal truly is…" Tikvah interrupted the thoughts of Shemesh. Just then, Emunah was heard shouting in the distance. Letting the women know he had returned safely.
"That was fast," the women said in unison. They went outside to greet Munah and saw him yards away waving at them. However, he was not alone, he had: 7 men, 4 women, and 7 children following close behind him.