Have A Little Faith (Faith Seed) (discontinued)

12. Hope County's Complaints

After Faith agreed to meet some of the locals with Marcus, he began to pick the location and think about all of the ways that this could go. It could go really well and Faith could see the harm that the cult causes, or the more likely version is that they wouldn't give Faith the time of day and refuse to have a civil conversation. Marcus wouldn't even blame them if that acted that way but he wanted this to go well.

Faith met Marcus at his trailer and they climbed into the car. She began fiddling with her fingers nervously and the hunter noticed instantly, he reached over and placed his hand on hers. She sighed before smiling at Marcus. Eventually they pulled up at the bar that Marcus very occasionally visits.

"Aren't you worried that people will turn against you or judge you or something?" Faith asked, frowning at him.

"I'm not exactly popular and don't have anyone to loose. I don't care what people think anyway" he assured her, quickly kissing her before they climbed out of the car.

"Are you ready for this?" Marcus asked as he took Faith's hand and they walked towards the front door of the bar. Faith nodded and smiled up at him before he pushed the door open and they walked in. Nobody turned to face them, so far so good.

There weren't many people in the bar. A man sat on his own at the end of the bar, drinking from a beer bottle. A woman and a man sat a table in the corner, talking quietly between themselves. three men sat at a booth on the right wall, the loudest table but not loud enough to disturb anyone. This was about as busy as it got around here.

"How are we going to do this?" Faith asked quietly, turning to Marcus with her back to the bar, squeezing his hand a little.

"I guess we ju-" Marcus began but was interrupted by a voice.

"Marcus?" A familiar voice asked. Sara, the girl from the bar. She walked over to them with a smile, she had just come out of the bathrooms, not noticing Faith. Faith kept her back to the other woman. "This must be the girl you're seeing" she smiled and Faith nearly rolled her eyes, hearing the flirty tone in her voice.

"Sara...yeah, it is" Marcus nodded, looking down at Faith and raising an eyebrow at her.

The light haired woman took a breath before turning to face Sara. "What the fuck is this Marcus?" Sara asked, glancing at Faith and stepping away from them.

"Look. It's complicated, she's not-" Marcus began to speak but was interrupted.

"No. You want to loose your god damn mind, then do it. But don't bring her around here" Sara snapped, getting the attention of everyone else in the bar. One by one they stood up and walked over, standing beside Sara and looking at Marcus and Faith defensively.

"She doesn't want to harm any of you. I have brought her here to talk to you actually. She wants to listen to your side of the story, to your complaints, to how her family has effected your lives. This could be a positive thing, just give it a shot?" Marcus asked, trying to defuse the situation.

"It's true. I want to hear what you have to say, I want to know why you hate us" Faith nodded, speaking up and trying to look confident and smile slightly.

"Alright, I'll go first" Sara huffed and crossed her arms, obviously not too interested in hearing Faith out. She was more interested in making her feel guilty. "I lost my job yesterday. The store was loosing customers everyday because they were being turned into angels or soldiers or just being kidnapped by John. We were loosing business and the place finally closed down. I can't get a job anywhere else because they either can't afford to pay another employee or they are closing down as well. I can't even support myself" she told Faith, raising an eyebrow at her and maintaining a hard glare.

"It's not our intention to force people out of their jobs-" Faith attempted to assure the woman but was only interrupted by a scoff.

The man who was sitting at the bar stepped forward and looked at Faith and Marcus. "I took my family to Holland family for a fishing trip, we didn't even live around here. One day, I went fishing on my own, my daughter wasn't feeling too well so my wife stayed with her. When I got back, they were gone. The next time I saw them...they were so drugged up that I could barely even recognise them. My own wife and daughter didn't know who I was. Your family took everything from me. You took everything from me" he told her aggressively, tears forming in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I don't-" Faith tried to speak but was interrupted again.

"I had two brothers, they were twins, younger than me. Jacob got his hands on them and put them through his god damn trials...both of them passed. But they had to make a sacrifice. He made one of my brothers kill the other, he's a soldier now and would kill me if he was ordered too. How can someone do that?" Another woman stepped forwards and asked, looking at Faith with hatred and sadness in her eyes.

"That's not what I-" Faith shook her head and Marcus could tell that this was upsetting her, but he knew that she had to hear it. She had to understand. He squeezed her hand, hoping to comfort her in some way.

"Stop making excuses, tell us the truth" Sara snapped at her.

"I don't collect or choose the new members, they come to me and I just show them the path. That's my role. I don't hurt people, my brothers' methods...are very different to what I do" Faith tried to explain.

"You hurt people everyday, you take our jobs, our friends, our families, our lives" one of the men that was sitting in the booth spoke up.

"It was never my intention to hurt anybody in anyway. I just want to help" she tried to defend herself again.

"We live in fear everyday because of you and your brothers" another man told her.

"John might be the sadistic one, but you are truly evil" the final man of the three spat at her.

"Hey! Come on! She's here to talk" Marcus warned them, sensing the rising tension and pulling Faith behind him slightly.

"She doesn't care about us! She is trying to manipulate us and you. You're probably drugged up to" one of the three men shouted, stepping towards them.

"Trust me, I'm not. I just tried to hear her out" Marcus assured him, pulling Faith behind him a bit more as the man got closer.

"Then you are just stupid" he scoffed and reached his hand out to grab Faith's arm.

"Back off!" the hunter barked and pushed the other man away by the chest. Faith was even surprised, she quickly grabbing Marcus' bicep as if to hold him back. He glanced down at her and began to calm down. "Come on Faith, let's go" he took her hand in his and walked her out of the door, listing to the mumbling coming from the crowd and realising that they had barely managed to get a few feet into the bar.

"I'm sorry, this was a mistake" Marcus apologised as he walked her towards the car.

"No, it wasn't. I feel so stupid" Faith admitted as they both opened the doors of the car and climbed in.

"Why?" he asked as the car doors closed, they both just wanted to get out of there as quick as possible.

"I didn't realise how blind I was. I thought that I was helping people and that they were happier in the Bliss. I didn't realise that I was causing so much pain. Joseph always said that this was right, that we were doing the right thing. But all of people had so much pain because of what we have done. Does everyone feel this way?" she asked, looked over at Marcus as he drove away from the bar.

"By now, most people have been effected negatively by the Project. Even if they haven't, they don't like it, they fight against you" Marcus told her honestly, he wasn't going to lie to her.

"Joseph always said that we were making things better, but what is the point of any of this if we are hurting so many people and destroying so many lives?" Faith asked, she sounded so lost and heartbroken. Marcus couldn't help it when he reached over and took her hand in his, he still thought that there was good in her. He believed that she didn't want to hurt people. She had been manipulated and mislead.

"I think you need to stop listening to Joseph...I think that Joseph should start listening to you" Marcus glanced at her and she looked down at her lap, wondering if she had been wrong this whole time and thinking over Marcus' words.