The Light (Sequel to the Watty Awards finalist The Rebel) The Second Book of Or

Hey guys! I'm back!

Merry Christmas! This is your gift from me! And don't forget God's gift to us- Jesus!

Oh and pay attention to the song on the side, it's this book's theme song. Also, to show Ella's transformation throughout the book, I will be switching points of veiws from time to time, like I did in the preveiw at the end of the Rebel.

And the theme verse for this book is: "You are the light of the world; a city on a hill that can not be hidden." Matthew 5:14

Enjoy!

The Light:

The cold winter air seemed to crawl across my skin and through my body, and I felt frost growing on my heart. The sky was grey and think with clouds. It was so cold, I could smell it. The road was vacant, but I knew the stories of the patriots that once marched down it when it was just dirt. I breathed in the familiar air, and scowled at the feeling of the atmosphere around me that has been absent from my life for so long.

  Home.

  I walked down the empty, uneven sidewalk and remembered everything as I saw all the different landmarks. The old, abandoned school I once attended as a young child. The common in the center of the village that was once my bus stop. The giant tree decorated for Christmas all year long. The post office, the bakery, the playground... everything from the Victorian buildings to the gas station brought back memories of my childhood, and the teenage years of shopping and texting stolen from me by the war.  

 The colonial-aged church bell rang, signalling ten o'clock. I was surprised it still worked; however, the church was no longer a church- it was a prison. The other churches around town were burned to the ground, their ashes still piled in their parking lots.

   I began to wonder about my church. It was in another town near the New Hampshire border, but I havn't heard any word. It broke my heart, every time we rescued Christians from camps and prisons, I would look for anyone from my church family. I havn't found any, not a single person. Did the Change get to them? Kill them? Is he holding them in somewhere special, knowing I would want them?

  Water grew in my eyes and I bit my lip. Johnny came up next to me, quickly seeing my distress. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, caressing my arm. I smiled a tiny grin and let a tear fall, and I didn't bother wiping it away.

  Other than the churches, nothing has really changed, the town was exactly the same. Everything about it screamed 'small town' 'patriot pride' and most of all 'hick'. Not a country-hick, but a red neck-hick.

  I lead Johnny, Owen, and Doc across the street to the church. The street was so oddly empty and town was so oddly quiet, I knew our town was still suffering from Post-Dramatic Change Disorder.   After all no one expect the Change to come from a town called Churchville.

  The doors of the church were left unlocked, and I was able to push them open and step inside without setting of any alarms. Sitting at the lobby desk, eyes blood shot and tired, was a cop who looked up at me, then yawned.

  "Hello, miss Ariel." He said and stood.

   "Good morning, Officer Chip," I said. His black mustache and round figure where the same as they were  in the days of my childhood, when he came and spoke to my elementary school about starnger-danger and buckling seat belts.

   He pulled out his keys from his belt and walked to the doors that lea to the basement. "I was wondering when you'd show up." He twisted his key inside the lock and slid the bars out of the way, reveiling the doors behind them. He pulled them open, and my eyes fell upon a fellowship hall full of skinny, depressed Christians of all ages; the very same hall that I once attended Girl Scouts in.