The Beginning of the End by Lorana Hoopes (readict txt) 📕

“Will do.”

Raven stared at her phone for a minute. What did all this mean? The virus wasn’t as deadly as the media was saying, at least from Candace’s viewpoint, so why spread that it was? Fear was the only answer, but why keep the people in fear? And why stop a treatment that could help people? It looked like Raven was going to have to spend a lot more time in the dark web.

She’d just put in a search for Ramidil when a knock sounded at her front door, sending her jumping and quickly backtracking out of the dark web, erasing her footprint as she did. It was doubtful someone was onto her already, but she had no idea if anything she’d been looking into was dangerous or not.

After closing the laptop and placing it on the coffee table, she crossed to the door and opened it to find Jason standing on the other side. She knew him well enough by now to know that the long expression he currently wore did not mean good news.

“Jason, what’s the matter?” she asked as she ushered him into her living room.

“I think I’m about to be unemployed,” he said, his shoulders dropping.

“Yeah, I heard.” Jason worked part time as a bartender and part time at Brian’s gym as an instructor, but with schools closing, he must assume, like Raven did, that bars and gyms wouldn’t be far behind. Raven hoped he would want to do more with his life one day, but she could see that the gym was his passion, and he had confided to her that he was hoping that Brian would leave it to him when he retired.

“What am I going to do if they close, Raven?” he asked as he plopped down on her couch. “I don’t have much money saved up.”

Actually, that was probably an exaggeration. Though she cared for Jason, maybe even loved him, he had an awful habit of spending money as soon as he got it, sometimes even before he got it. She’d heard him ask Brian for a draw a few times, and he’d even borrowed money from her a handful of times though he had appeared to be making progress on that area the last few months.

Raven sat down beside him and placed a hand on his arm. “We’ll figure it out, but I’m worried, Jason. I think this may only be the beginning.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let me show you.” Raven grabbed her laptop and pulled up the information she had been looking into before. “Remember patient zero?”

“Yeah, what about him?”

“He’s in a psych hospital now and his family has disappeared.” She pointed to the story as if indicating he should read it.

“Okay, that’s a little weird, but it could all be coincidental,” Jason said slowly.

Normally, she liked that he didn’t jump to conclusions, but this time it was important he understood what this might mean. “Right, but remember how he claimed there was a part of his day he couldn’t remember and the doctors all claimed it was a symptom of the virus?” Jason nodded, but it was clear he still wasn’t following. “Well, there was also a woman who claims to have seen him taken that morning. She came forward and days later, she wound up dead.”

“Okay, we’re getting into a weird category now,” Jason admitted. “What are you thinking?”

Raven held up a finger before grabbing Kat’s letter from the coffee table and holding it out to him. “Honestly, I’m thinking this.”

An expression of exasperation that she’d rarely seen cross Jason’s features contorted his face now. “Raven, not this again.”

“I’m serious, Jason. When I was watching the news about this virus last week, I felt like maybe it was something more, and I was reminded of Kat’s letter. She said hard times were coming and they could be anything. Anything that would send people looking for a savior. Plus, I just got off the phone with Candace.” While Jason hadn’t officially met Candace as Raven hadn’t convinced him to join her at church yet, she had spoken of the woman often. “She told me that they’re being told not to use a treatment that appears to be working. She also said that the virus doesn’t seem as deadly as the media is claiming.”

“Okay, but what does that have to do with Kat’s letter?”

“What if this virus, the media coverage, all of it, what if it’s to create enough fear that people begin to look for a savior? What if this is the beginning of the end she spoke about?”

Jason shook his head and sighed. “I don’t know, Raven. We went down this path before, after she left, remember? And we came up empty.”

Raven placed her hand on his knee. She knew that nothing had seemed to happen right after the disappearances. At least nothing like “the tribulation.” “I know, but what if it was because the time wasn’t right?”

Jason’s brows knitted together. “The time wasn’t right? Everything had fallen apart; how could the time not have been right?”

Raven wasn’t exactly sure what she meant. It was just something that had been tugging at her brain. “Kat told me once that God worked in His own time. I didn’t start seeing the dark shapes until Kat came into my life, and maybe that was so I would believe her. Then they left, or at least I stopped seeing them, but maybe that was because whatever was being set in motion hadn’t happened yet. I think I saw one again today. Behind the governor at the press conference.”

“Okay,” Jason said with a sigh, “Let’s say that’s the case. What are we supposed to do about it?”

“Yeah,” Raven bit her lip again, “I still haven’t figured that part out yet.” She’d been posting videos weekly on the TruthSeeker site, and she knew people were watching them and finding local churches, but she felt like she should be doing more. But what?

Gabe Cross looked up from his microscope and motioned