Chapter Two

Rook's POV

A man will lead the White Horse onto the land of the Prophet and so the Collapse shall begin.

…onto the land of the Prophet…..

….Collapse shall begin…..

Rook got ready absentmindedly as those words the whispers spoke rolled over and over in his mind. Leaving him feeling like a livewire brushed his body instead of the water he showered with this morning. He didn't realize it but he got dressed in his hunting gear instead of the usual police uniform, strapping up his forearms and legs before hiding the hunting knives his father gave him on his sixteenth birthday. He wondered if his father got whispers too now, because he would in the past gift him with something he needed long before he realized he needed it.

….Collapse shall begin…

Shaking his head, Rook tried to ignore the persistent itchy feeling over his shoulder blades that popped up only a few days ago. He inspected his back but found no signs of irritation or wounds that may have lead to the feeling and shrugged it off as bad feelings connected to the whispers.

He skipped breakfast and made his way down to the sheriffs office. However when he arrived there, there was a vehicle he didn't recognize parked out front.

"Morning, Rook!" hopping out of the truck next to him was Staci, though the whispers liked to call him 'Peaches'. Rook always caught himself before he called the man that, feeling like the name wasn't his to say.

"Morning."

He watched as Staci looked him over, smiling. "See your going hunting after the arrest, huh Rook?"

"Arrest?"

"Yeah," Staci nodded and walked with him into the office. "the arrest of Joseph Seed is happening today, remember? The big old Marshal from Washington is here with the documents and everything!"

Staci walked ahead of him to open the Sheriffs office door for Rook, something he always insisted on doing. They walked into the office to see the Sheriff standing behind his desk conversing with a dark skinned man dressed in tactical equipment. Hearing the door open, the Sheriff looked up.

"Ah Rook, here at last. Here's the Marshal I was talking about yesterday. We leave in an hour."

A man will lead the White Horse onto the land of the Prophet and so the Collapse shall begin.

Fuck.

Sheriff POV

He knew taking Rook on was going to cause issues when the Marshal arrived. He was sixteen almost seventeen and he was sure that in the good old Washington police departments that was too young. But here in Hope County, the age of the boy wasn't a huge issue. The crime in this county was low and the crimes that were committed was more along the lines of petty theft and minor drug use. Nothing like the high risk crime in other States or County's. For that, he was grateful.

No matter the boys age, he was capable if a little spacey. But that wasn't detrimental to his ability to perform the duties expected of a Junior Deputy. If anything, the boy was more than capable to run the Sheriffs Department single handedly. He didn't know how the kid did it, but he seemed to know when all the drug dealers were re-supplying and passed that information onto him and they made their busts. If Rook was any less capable, he would be suspicious over how the boy got the information, but wasn't worried as his father was a good man and raised a capable son.

Now onto the Marshal however, was kicking up a stink over the lack of resources and that fact that they were taking along a sixteen year old on an important arrest.

"Marshal, I'm going to stop you there." holding up his hand, he wished for patience and silence from the fuming man in front of him. "I know the boy is young, don't need to remind of that. But as I told you before you decided to turn up with the warrant, we don't have the resources you want to perform this arrest. So we're the best you've got for backup in Hope County. If that was a problem for you, you should've brought more than just yourself as protocol would've told you - "

The clicking of the door opening cut him short as the boy he was mentioning and Deputy Staci made their arrival. Shooting a quick glare at the Marshal to keep quiet, he informed them to prepare to leave in an hour. The helicopter was prepped and ready to go, they just needed to gear up.

Looking over Rook however, looked like the kid was already ready to go, despite the lack of uniform he was ready to go in hunting gear. All the kid needed was the bulletproof vest to cover the cameo and he was uniform enough to go.

Rook's POV

Rook was glad the Sheriff let him wear his hunting gear, though he did insist to wear the Departments bullet proof vest so as not to break too many more procedures. Though why the Sheriff bothered to pretend he followed them in the first place must have been due to the Marshal being here.

The Marshal must have been giving the Sheriff grief over my being here….Rook knew that he was young, too young to be an active member of the police force, but knew that in Hope County they were less likely to make a point of it, however a Marshal from Washington was sure to point that out. He already had, making a point to show the 'kid' the footage that lead to the drafting of the investigation and ultimately to the issue of the warrant clenched in the Marshal's fist.

The Marshal thought that showing Rook a video of the infamous Joseph Seed or as most like to call him 'The Father' poking out someone's eyes for "betraying" the flock was going to make him back out, the man was mistaken. Even without the whispers, Rook knew he needed to be there for the arrest.

The helicopter flew past a monument of Joseph, causing a mixture of reactions in the occupants. Some were fearful, disgusted or cautious. Rook found himself hearing the whispers again;

…onto the land of the Prophet…