Chapter 2 – Evil’s Hour
Today is just another day in the
busy life of Camille, a wealthy business owner. Times are tough as the world
gets more faithless and expensive to live in. Her business that makes and sells
clothes of all kinds, watches, and other accessories is still one of the
richest in the region, however, her profits still take a noticeable hit since people
can’t afford to buy as much. Because of this, Camille calls a meeting to make
some major changes. She includes people from management and those who work in retail
so she has an idea of what’s going on in all areas of her company from the top
to the bottom.
The meeting begins and ends faster
than everyone in the room expects primarily because most people agree with Camille’s
course of action. Employees will be the same as always so prices will go
down. This decision is made in the hopes that customers will buy more and when
they do, this money will cover their employees’ raises. Money is also being
given to churches, charities, allied organizations, and marketing so that their
public image is one of a strong company that continues to put its customers and
supporters first. A month passes and the company manages to survive, but their
competition is still a problem. Rival businesses countersignal Camille’s company
by giving money to secular organizations and conservative allies that push
against the traditionalists by wanting to keep the current trajectory of
society and the way it is.
“I’d rather not live in a world
where business, profit, and pleasure are all I live for while my sense of right
and wrong is secondary and bendable to my needs,” Camille argues to herself as
if talking to her opposition.
In her mind, Camille would do
anything to keep the world and her family and friends safe from the impending
changes of the future. There is no price high enough nor is there such a thing as spending too much energy trying to do what is right.
“Why, God, do You let this evil continue
to spread and take root in the minds of so many?” Camille prays. “It reaches
every corner of society. Even the children aren’t safe from it.”
While watching and managing her
business in the store, a thief tries stealing some clothes and jewelry. Her store’s
guards go after the thief who has backup waiting for them outside. Despite
having backup, Camille’s guards are able to beat up the thieves and take the
merchandise back to the store, however, the cops catch what is happening and
convict both the guards and the thieves. It’s decided in court that the guards
used excessive force on thieves since the thieves were nearly beaten to death. As
a result, the guards have to serve time in jail and Camille’s company has to
pay the medical bills of the thieves plus an additional expensive fine. The
news portrays this situation as Camille’s company beating up desperate individuals
and the court’s decision as the right one. Unfortunately, there is nothing
Camille can do to get out of this, and has to grit her teeth and deal with it.
“Was I set up? Could this be part
of someone’s schemes to bring my company down?” Camille thinks to herself. “God,
why do You give such important positions of power to the worst of us? Why do You
let them write the law and convict and let go as they please?”
Retribution seemingly comes one day
when a nearby small business allied with Camille’s competition is stolen from.
The owner chases the thief down the street and as the thief passes Camille, the
owner begs Camille for help.
“I’m sorry. The help I would
provide is too extreme according to the law. Catch him yourself or call the
cops,” Camille says.
The thief runs faster than the owner
and greatly increases the distance between them.
“Please, the cops won’t make it
here in time and that thief stole so much that I’ll be ruined if I don’t get it
back,” the owner pleads.
“That’s your problem, not mine,”
Camille says before walking back inside her store.
Afterward, the news reports the
closing of the small business. Camille is slandered slightly by them for not
helping the owner, but she shrugs it off and is glad that she has one less
business to worry about. In her mind, justice was finally served after such a
long time. Speaking of justice, Camillie wishes it would happen within her own
church. Priests and bishops preach the unity of religions as if they all worship
the same God in different and legitimate ways. This is done to get
more people to come to church and avoid being discriminated against, however,
fewer people come to church and care about the faith now that the clergy is
making it seem like the differences in religion don’t matter and that faith as
a whole doesn’t matter in turn.
Unlike the other matters, Camille
doesn’t have any influence in the church she can use to get these clergy
members out of their office. Even if she could, she knows that she’ll be
slandered even more by the media and called a hypocrite of her own faith. She
already is facing this criticism, but avoiding adding more to it is better than
actively accruing more. All she can do now is make her thoughts known to her
local priests, bishop, and fellow believers and pray and hope that the situation
will change.
“Please rescue people from their willful
ignorance, wants to be popular, and cowardice of oppression. If not, then bring
Your judgment upon them so that others know the rewards of lies, falsehood, and
evil. They hardly deserve the slightest shred of mercy anyways. They’re the
reason why good and evil mean nothing and why fewer people act in any kind of
moral or virtuous way in these current times,” Camille prays.
Stressed out by constantly thinking
about everything and what to do causes Camille to go to bed early tonight. While
trying to sleep, she feels a calming darkness overcome her. When she opens her
eyes, she sees this darkness begin to cover everything around her. She tries to
run away, but she can’t so she backs herself up against a wall and grabs a lamp
to defend herself with.
Feeling a presence in front of her,
she swings the lamp where she thinks this being is while saying, “Begone,
devil! You face a God-fearing woman!”
“I am the God you’ve been praying
to. I am here to answer your prayer of punishing the wicked,” the voice in the
dark says.
“Are you now? Why did You come to
me like this?”
“Because you told Me to punish the
wicked and I am here to punish you.”
“Me? What have I done?”
“Let me show you.”
A mirror appears in front of Camille
that first shows her mirror image and then shifts to show festering diseases in
her mouth, hands, chest, and head. A brown and dark green liquid comes out of
her diseased parts as it seems that the disease in her is spreading and festers
as if it has a mind of its own. Seeing this is enough to make her recoil in disgust
and scratch at herself as if trying to remove the disease.
“Why do I look like that?”
“Your hatred of your enemies and
actions have done this to you. You do not act out of love, but out of
self-interest just like those you hate.”
“How is that? Show me what I’m
doing wrong.”
The darkness shifts and reveals
that Camille is in a small house. She sees the owner of the small business she
saw that was stolen from. This house is a rundown wreck and the family in it is
a dirty and miserable one. Despite feeling like she is in the building and
smelling everything in it, no one notices Camille. In fact, they can
walk through her as if she’s a spirit.
“Can you stop moping around and get
a job or do you enjoy seeing your family starve to death?” the owner’s wife
asks.
“Who will hire me? The people who
gave me my business think I’m incompetent and untrustworthy for running my
business so poorly and being stolen from and their enemies hate me even more,”
the owner says.
“I don’t know just find something and
stop being so useless or I’m taking the kids and we’ll find someone else who
isn’t a sad waste of a man.”
“…okay.”
Now the owner seems even more broken
and walks into a room and closes the door. Seconds later a loud noise is heard
from the room.
“What are you doing now?!” the wife
yells before going into the room and discovering that her husband has hung himself.
Camille is slightly bothered by
this sight while the wife is in a panic and tells her kids to not see what is
happening. Darkness covers the scene as the muffled screams and crying of the
children are heard.
“If you had helped him that day he
was stolen from, this wouldn’t have happened. He would have begun to see you
not as an enemy, but as a friend and would have come to the faith as a result,”
the voice in the dark says.
“I…I’m sorry, but it’s not my fault
he killed himself. That was his decision!”
“Since you are in the business of
hating those who oppose you, then maybe you’ll hate these unrepentant sinners
as well.”
Again, the darkness transports
Camille to a room. This time it’s one belonging to Camille’s friends who are
her business partners. The room is finely decorated with religious paintings
and statues and has the best furniture money can buy. Everyone in the room
enjoys the feast made for them by their servants and is drunk on wine to the
point where they start getting up and dancing around the room, eventually
knocking down one of the statues of the Blessed Mother.
“Look what you did. You’re going straight
to Hell,” one of them jokes.
“Pfft. If I am, then so are you. I’ll
just confess it and donate some money as my penance,” another says.
“If you can do that, then so can I,”
a drunk says before breaking more statues, “I’ve been meaning to get rid of
these ugly things after Camille and those priests came by.”
“What if they come around again?”
“Then I’ll buy more. Buying these hardly
takes a lot out of my profits. Besides, even if they do ask about them, then I’ll
put on a sad face about being drunk, breaking them, and ask them for forgiveness
and they’ll shrug it off.”
“What a bunch of idiots! Why do we
even bother working with them?”
“Because without them, we wouldn’t
have all these nice things so that’s at least one thing I can genuinely thank
God for!”
The drunks continue to laugh and break
things as the darkness surrounds Camille again.
“I…didn’t know they were really
like this,” Camille admits.
“Did you? A sinner shows their true
nature in ways that are out of their control such as when you were uncharitable
to the poor man who hung himself,” the voice in the dark says.
“Then if I am such a horrible
person, end me here and now and give me my just reward!”
“Not yet.”
“Why not?”
Yet again, the darkness fades away
and transports Camille to a location. This time she is in front of a house in a
poor and dirty district of the city. She looks around and after reading the
street names and address number, she recognizes that she’s at the home of a
loyal and faithful worker.
“Not you too!” Camille says before
walking through the door as if it weren’t there.
Inside, Camille finds a well put together, but small house. One boy is praying, another is studying, and a third
is making dinner.
“Oh, thank God!” Camille says.
The boy that is praying coughs
before continuing to pray.
“Robin, can you stop praying and
get some rest? You’ll pray better if you do so,” his brother asks.
“Let me finish my daily prayers
first I’m almost done and I’m sure dad needs them,” Robin says.
“You need them more than dad. Have
you even been praying your sickness away?” the other brother who is studying
asks.
“I have, but if God wishes me to
continue being sick, then I’ll gladly accept it and offer it up for my sins and
the sins of others.”
“You better not offer it for that
tyrant of a boss that dad has. Camille is why we can’t afford
repairs to our house and enough to feed us. It feels like I have to fast every
other day.”
“She’s also the reason why dad has
a job and is able to give us things, so I thank God for her,” Robin says before
their dad, Oliver, walks in somewhat bloodied.
The boys are shocked to see their
dad in this condition, but he handwaves it away, and then says, “It’s fine.
You should see the other guy.”
“What happened?”
“Just some desperate guy wanting more
than the change I can offer him.”
“You shouldn’t give them anything.
You can’t afford it.”
“What did I teach you? You have to
give even when it hurts to.”
“You also taught us to stand up for
ourselves. Why didn’t you do that when Camille left your raise up to chance?”
“Because I trust her and it’d be
better to work at a place that isn’t going out of business.”
“It’s too rich and popular to do
that. I think-”
“I think we should continue praying
and being thankful for what we have,” Robin interjects.
“Thank you, Robin.”
“You’re both as useful as carpets.
Mom would be ashamed of you if she were still here. Robin isn’t too far behind
following in her footsteps if you don’t do anything soon,” the studying brother
says before going into his room.
As soon as Robin starts coughing
again, he comes out of his room, gives him his medicine, walks back in, and
doesn’t come back out until dinner is ready, a meager feast of a small chicken
and some fruit. Darkness covers the scene as Robin starts violently coughing
and his family tries to help him.
“That child’s sacrifice holds back My
great justice that thirsts for vengeance against the wicked such as yourself.
He will soon pass if not helped and nothing will save you or your business. You
deny your workers their due wages because you are afraid of losing business,”
the voice in the dark says.
“It’s like how Oliver says. I’d go
out of business and he’d be out of a job if it didn’t keep their wages the same.”
“I would’ve kept your business afloat
for his sake and the sake of the others who are faithful to Me, but seeing as how
you are still not moved to fully repent, I’ll have to help them find a better
employer.”
The darkness around Camille quickly
disappears as she sees her store burning in front of her.
“I understand now,” Camille says on
her knees, “Not only because of my store burning but because of what You’ve
shown me. I accept my punishment. Take whatever You want. Just spare those who
deserve better, especially Robin, Oliver, and his family.”
Camille’s store continues to burn for a few more seconds until they are put out by a sudden gust of wind and a
harsh rainstorm.
“I accept your confession as you
have made it from the heart with all honesty. Go and sin no more.”
Camille blinks and finds herself in
her room. She gets on her knees again to thank God before getting dressed and
going out to assess the damage done to her store and make some changes. Using
her own money, she pays for people to repair her store. Additionally, she makes
cuts to her management to fire those she knows are dishonest and cuts her
own and the salary of management to give the lower-positioned workers better
pay. After which, she sends letters out to her competition as olive branches to
apologize for any slander she’s said against them and asks if they would like
to collaborate for future projects. She receives letters a few letters back
from these people accepting her apology and expresses their interest in working
together much to her surprise.
To help the family of the owner who
killed himself, Camille pays for his house to be cleaned, gives them money and food,
and offers the wife a job, which she accepts. Once a
week of changes are made, she makes time to go out to Oliver’s and surprises
him with gifts and enough food to last them a month. While there, she sees Robin
and goes up to him. She kneels and holds his hands in hers.
“Thank you so much for your prayers,
Robin,” Camille says.
“Thank you so much for everything
you’ve done for my family, Ms. Camille,” the now-healthy Robin says. “If I may
ask, can you hear my dad out? He’s been meaning to ask you something important.”
“What would that be?” Camille says while
turning to Oliver.
“Hey, I said that was between us. I’m
not ready to ask her about that,” Oliver says.
“Just spit it out. You know I’ll
listen to you no matter what you say.”
“Okay…would you like to go out to
dinner sometime?”
“He wants you to marry him.”
“Robin!”
Oliver is now blushing as Robin is
laughing.
Stunned by this and elated at the
same time, Camille says, “Yes, I’d like to go out to dinner with you. You can
marry me afterward.”
“I uh…I’m honored. Thank you! I’ll
be sure to take you somewhere nice.”
“Make her pay for the dinner! She
has enough money,” one of Robin’s brothers says.
Camille and Oliver’s family laughs together
before they pray and eat dinner as one happy family. Even though her company
won’t do as well as it used to and the fear of going under will keep bothering Camille,
she decides to put her full faith in God for once and never make excuses for
actions again.
