l.
Malachi is red, but he is always red. Especially when Outlanders come to town, when people try to disturb him, to reverse everything that has been done by Isaac and him, and of course He Who Walks Behind the Rows.
When Outlanders came to town, Malachi began to question everything he has done for He Who Walks Behind the Rows.
ll.
She was not a child, but was not yet at the age of killing. The man she was with, they had killed him quickly. He hadn't even tried to defend the girl, and she did not show remorse at his death.
"I did not know him." She told Isaac when he asked, when he took her to the clearing in the cornfields to watch her companion be burned.
Even Isaac did not know what to do with her at first, the girl was only fifteen, and they had never killed one like them before. No, it was always adults who wandered into Gatlin, always adults who questioned their ways. This girl stared them down, looked at the cornfields and seemed to see through them, see all the way down to He Who Walks Behind the Rows.
Even as they came after her, she did not look scared, did not utter anything but a few quiet whimpers, until they realize how young she was.
And the children would not kill one of their own, Isaac had said, and so the girl was spared.
lll.
Her real name was Delilah, after her grandmother, she said.
"He Who Walks Behind the Rows has told me you will keep your name, for it holds great prophecy to us all." Isaac said, standing up and placing a hand on her shoulder, the man burning in the background behind them. "Behold your new sister, Gatlin, for she is close to He Who Walks Behind the Rows. This child, a mere girl of fifteen, and an Outlander no less, will lead you all to greatness, alongside of me, and He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Malachi will show you to your home, Delilah."
Delilah did not question what this boy knew about her, but he was as important as these kids were dangerous. Children were so easily swayed, so easily distracted and hidden away-she should know, she was a child herself.
"Delilah," A voice spoke to her, a voice seeming to come from the cornstalks itself. "What are you, where do you come from?"
Delilah didn't answer, pretended not to hear it. The corn may know the children of Gatlin, but they did not know Delilah, the Outlander who came to stay. She would keep her secrets close, use them as protection.
lV.
Malachi was opposed to it at first, he didn't like an Outlander living with them. He was the greatest warrior, and she was the greatest mystery, however, and according to Isaac it only made sense that the two lived together, at least for the time being.
It was a big house, and she kept to herself. It was no surprise that, only a month after her coming, Isaac ordered them married.
"I'm sorry," Malachi admitted the night after the announcement in the clearing of the corn, where Delilah's companion still stood, rotting, mounted on a pole.
"Don't be," she assured him. "He Who Walks Behind the Rows wanted to keep me close, and he is doing it through you."
She started to walk ahead of him then, walk towards the house, close to the cornstalks despite the darkness growing around them, and the danger of the fields as well.
They would be married, they would commit the ultimate sin, but he would never understand her. She was pure, untouched by the murder he had committed, all the children had committed, against their parents and all the other adults. But He Who Walks Behind the Rows had chosen her, and Malachi knew that somehow, she would be the first of them to enter the cornfield, and never return.
But Malachi also knew, that it was likely she would be the first to walk out on the other side. She frightened God as much as she frightened the children of Gatlin.
V.
"Isaac,"
The voice called to him, seeped in through cracks in the walls and holes in the windows, and entered through one ear, then fell out the other. It was as flitting as the wind, as cold as frostbite.
It was the voice of God, the voice of He Who Walks Behind the Rows.
"I want her, I want her next." God said. Isaac knew who he meant, who he wanted. And Isaac also knew Malachi would never give her up so soon.
"She's pregnant." Isaac said. Ironic how, the first time he had dared to cross He Who Walks Behind the Rows, it was for the protection of an Outlander.
"I don't want her spawn either, Isaac. That baby will have Outlander blood, and will not believe in me; it will cross me as often as she had, holding no fear. It is bad to hold no fear for me, Isaac. I thrive on fear, live on it."
"Malachi won't allow it." Isaac said, straining for his voice not to quiver, not to shake like a child's.
"Maybe I should have chosen a stronger ruler."
And then the voice of God was gone.
Vl.
Malachi didn't believe they would do it at first. She was only fifteen still, and with child.
A child that was half his, a child that was a part of Gatlin.
They all gathered to watch her enter the cornfield. Most of them didn't know her, or hated her already for being an Outlander, for being an intruder to the town that they kept around and entertained for much too long.
Malachi was sure he was not the only one hurting, the only one urging for her to defy He Who Walks Behind the Rows. All you had to do was take a look at Isaac, at his pained eyes as he ordered the girl, only a year younger than him, to be sacrificed to their God, God of the cornstalks.
Malachi kissed her goodbye one final time, knowing he would join her in only a few months, then Delilah, with a hand on her small stomach, walked into the cornfield with her head held high.
Vll.
She was not scared the day she walked into Gatlin, and she was not scared the night she walked out, right onto highway.
I always entertained the idea of some of the less strong believers, the children who had a lot of doubt in He Who Walks Behind the Rows (kind of like Job and Sarah in the original) were not taken by him as sacrifice, but were allowed to leave Gatlin through the cornfields. This was my take on that. xx.