Drowning From Sin

Behind the Story Trivia-This originally was meant to be its own standalone story until I realized that it was too short to be anything more than an extra as you’re about to read. The idea for the primary story in this book then came to me and I thought it would be best to include this story with this one to show you the original story that came to me for this series.

Prequel Story

What happened? Where did all this blood come from? I was tending the fields of my family’s meager farm until an unavoidable flood of blood washed over us. I know I was praying for water since our land has been in a drought for generations, but this isn’t what I expected. It carries me in its strong currents along with everyone it comes across, and in the chaos, I lost sight of my family and don’t know where they are. Because of this flood, I’ve been to many towns, cities, kingdoms, and over mountains that I never thought I’d visit, so it seems to be a worldwide flood.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I could reach the sun or moon at this point. If all this wasn’t strange enough, the skin on my body isn’t rotting and falling off anymore, but parts of my body are black while other parts are different shades of red. When someone sinned, their skin started to decompose until it fell off and the only way to stop that from happening was to repent and do true penance for that sin. Now, it seems like my sins blacken my skin and hold me in place in this flood. Looking further down, I see people with darker bodies that look like they’re going further into the darkness.

Another strange thing is that I don’t feel like I’m “drowning” as the travelers and merchants called it. Travelers and merchants that my family traded with talked about the ocean, the fish that lived in it, and the seemingly endless length of it. I told one that I would love to explore its depths, but they warned me not to because I could drown if I didn’t come up for air. This could be drowning. I wouldn’t know. It’s more like my breathing is slowing down every few minutes. When I open my mouth, it fills with blood, which I’m assuming is part of drowning, but I’m not breathing in the blood through my nose. This hardly even smells like blood or rather it smells like roses that were bleeding human blood, and not the rotting kind of roses that I’ve been given by travelers and merchants.

The animals below us on the mountains don’t seem to be bothered by what’s happening. In fact, the rot on them is gone and they aren’t swept up in this flood. Even the trees and grass on the mountains look fine and are restored by the blood. From what I’m seeing, this blood is restoring the consequences of sin. My lower half was rotting before because of my sins and is now black and feels like it’s holding me in place as I said before. I can’t go up or down because of it and I’m not sure what to do to get rid of it. Maybe I should’ve asked the travelers and merchants to bring me to the ocean so I could’ve learned how to swim, but I see people doing something similar to how swimming was described to me and it isn’t making them move at all. Rather, it seems like their swimming is just making them descend faster.

Looking at the surface of the water, I see people walking around as if the blood was a solid surface. One of them seems to be a traveling man I met who stopped by and asked for a drink of water. This man had all his skin on his body and seemed to be clothed with light. He was apparently a man from the tribe that struggled with God and had a special way to have their body restored, but that tribe had since been spread among the nations because they worship foreign gods. I heard much about him since it was said that he could heal the sick and forgive sins. He restored my body and the bodies of my families when we repented of our sins. Maybe the same thing would happen if I asked him for forgiveness.

It doesn’t seem to be exactly a good idea though. The few people that I’ve seen restore their bodies to a complete red either shoot up to the surface or shoot straight down. I can’t stay like this forever so trying something is better than nothing since it feels like my life is slowly being drained from me. Besides, I’ll have to ask for forgiveness of my sins soon or later and must answer for them to the God of truth. After folding my hands in prayer and praying for forgiveness, I shoot up to the surface by some mysterious force. As I near the surface, I slow down and see the people on it. So, the traveling man I met from before is walking on the flood. He’s reaching out for me through the water, and yet, his immaculate hands aren’t stained by the blood. I reach out to meet his hand but am quickly sent back down.

Why is this happening now? What did I do wrong? It might’ve been because I stopped praying. My entire body was turning a light red, but now it’s turned darker, so I go back to praying, close my eyes, and place the protection of my life and soul in God's hands. Doing so, for some reason sends me into the depths of the flood and end up on the surface of it. Finally, I can breathe normally again. I can also see how I really look in the reflection of the blood. There’s hair on my head now? No, it’s still blood. Weird how I have pigtails just floating above my head not that I’m complaining. What’s this design on me?

“Madeleine Albinia,” a familiar voice says from behind me.

“Oh, it’s you. Thank you for hearing my prayer and bringing me out of the flood,” I say before taking a better look at the man. He truly is clothed in a light that’s like the manifestation of grace His feet, hands, and side are pierced and constantly bleeding. “Who are you really? You’re no ordinary man. You’re something like a god.”

“I am who I am. I am no mere god, but the only God and the way, the truth, and the life.”

“I…I…I don’t know what to say other than how may I serve?”

“I will make you the foundation of your own kingdom because of your faith in me.”

“A kingdom? I’m only a helping hand on a farm. How will I be the foundation for a kingdom?”

“Do not worry because I will teach you and even when I leave this place to be with my father, I will always be with you.”

The God of truth then teaches me His ways and all about Him. We meet many people who become part of my kingdom and its allies. We even come across my lost family, which I’m very glad to see again. The flood of God’s holy blood slowly goes down over time. While on the surface of it, doves bring us bread that God claims to be Himself, so we eat His body and drink His blood to sustain us. Even in His presence, I find myself failing, but my skin never turns black like it once did and at worst turns a dark crimson. It amazes me that He’s there to forgive me every time I mess up and do sin against Him.

The last I saw of the people below the flood was their corpses rising to the surface as the waters darkened. Over time, the blood in the flood kept darkening until I could no longer see them. When the flood subsides and our feet finally touch dry land, we can’t find any trace of the bodies. We can’t even find God who was with us, and yet, we can still sense His presence among us. I look up to the sky to see it tainted a red and the sun shining a light red on us. So, the flood did touch the sky after all. After going our separate ways, with our allies and deciding where to build our homes, we get to work and what God told us to do.

The flood of blood unexpectedly came out of nowhere and changed the entire world as we know it. Many have died because of it while others like I have changed. Though sin and rot still exist in the world since we all still fall to sin every now and then, the grace, beauty, and mercy of God is soaked into every fiber of reality and is clearer to see than ever before. I’m not sure how I’m going to build the kingdom that God wants me to. After all the weird and strange events, I know that He’ll never abandon us and always give us a way to escape from the chains of sin and make the sufferings of life worth it.