Rubbing his aching chin Judas pulls himself into a sitting position; shock and unbelief reflect from his brown eyes as he looks up at the figure that towers over him. Uncontrollable rage is radiating from his appearance, blue flames blazing from the depth of his eyes, tousled hair like a scorching wall of golden fire crackles upon shaking shoulders, cheeks burning with flush of anger moving restlessly the figure looks like an angel of revenge, sent from a place even darker than hell itself to extinguish the betrayer. "Jesus." Judas gets out astonishment and even a trace of fear shining in his eyes. The figure, devoid of any sign of humanity in tremendous furor, stares steadfastly at the sitting man. "You won`t get her. Not this time." He hisses, his voice distorted to a shriek of pain and viciousness. He steps threatentingly closer and Judas subconsciously raises his hands covering his head, as Jesus squats before him, his blue eyes boring like icy spears into Judas` brown, piercing them with an almost physical pain. In silence both man stare at each other, motionless frozen. Then the tension vanishes from Jesus` body; his face shows an expression of deepest despair and his blue eyes fill with tears as he looks at Judas. "Judas, must you betray me with a kiss?" He turns away and leans his feverish forehead agaisnt the cold marble of a column. "Jesus," Judas stands up. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" A vein protrudes on his forehead throbbing with growing speed. Jesus turns to him looking exhausted and tired, even his blue eyes loose their gleam, resembling empty holes. "Judas. "he waves his hands dismissively; obviously he doesn`t plan to continue to talk. But the more tired Jesus looks the more energy seems to flow through Judas. Resolutely he steps towards Jesus and grips his arm. "I wanna know." A malicious smirk grows on Jesus` llips. "Then I shall let you know. The truth is so simple and plain. You betrayed me long before you traded me." Judas looks at Jesus, questions shimmering in his dark eyes. "How?" A little mirthless laugh escapes Jesus ` thin lips. "So you really wanna know? Wanna know what it was about?" He pauses effectively, shooting Jduas a look full of contempt and scorn. "you thought you were the villain in a heroic tragedy, but you were only a puppet in a soapopera." Jesus gazes at the thunderstruck man gloating over his apparent confusion. "You wanna know what happened in the desert?`" Jesus asks and continues when Judas nodds without a word. "Do you remember why I left you, Judas?" The darkhaired man frowns. "You said you needed to meditate." "Meditate. Yes." Jesus snorts. "But you don`t know what happened before." "What happened before?" Judas asks emphatically slowly sensing that an unspeakable secret is just about to be revealed. "I asked Mary to marry me." Jesus places the bomb carefully and it detonates with destructive force, as he can see in Judas face, which looses every colour, so his eyes stand out like two dark buttons on a shroud. "Oh yes, Judas." Jesus nodds. "I asked her to marry me, go away with me and begin a new life with me far away from it all." He sighs heavily. "I wasn`t particularly keen on getting crucified. And she was my life. I would have done anything for her." His blue eyes darken as he remembers. "But she declined. Do you wanna know why, Judas?" His lips tremble and his voice gets a whining tone. "Do you wanna know why she didn`t want to go away with me? Why she didn`t even want to come to heaven with me, when I begged her to?" He wipes tears from his eyes and sniffles. When his look falls upon Jduas` frozen face, his features harden. "She was in love with you. You never knew, but she loved you. Oh yes, she loved me, too. I was her messiah, her leader, but she would never be able to love me as she loved you. That`s what she said to me." Judas eyes widen ins surprise and he looks shellshocked at Jesus. "Well, I went into the desert as you know. Guess whom I met there?" Jesus smirks evilly. "Luzi and she made me an offer I couldn`t refuse. Obviously she had seen you and she fell in love with you. Seems you`re a lady`s man, Judas. However, she wanted you, but to get you, you had to do something, something indescribable awful." Feeling an invisible fist being rammed into his stomache, Judas staggers back writhing with pain, as the past he thought he`s known shatters crumbles to dust before his eyes. Jesus gazes coldly at him. "Does it hurt? Good. Well, back to our story. I knew I had to bear the cross - literally in my case, and so I just had to make you betray me. Then Luzi would have you and Mary wouldn`t want you anymore." His facial expression changes again and tears flow down from his eyes like blue drops of blood and his voice cracks, as he looks at Judas selfpity and compassion in his eyes. "My Judas, it wasn`t easy for me. I loved you, my friend." He steps towards Judas trying to hug him, but Judas drodges his touch, his face stiffened to a mask of white marble. "But Mary." Jesus` blue eyes plead with Judas brown. "I loved her so. It hought she`d come to me. And I knew Luzi would be good to you." He calms himself to lighten the burden of guilt he has put on his shoulders so voluntarily. "So I did my best to upset you, to lead you to betray me. It didn`t take much." He smiles sadly. "But still Mary didn`t love me. I didn`t want her to..." he swallows and turns his head away, as he continues quietly. "She found you and buried you. She mourned for you like she could never mourn for me. At last I had to leave her behind, but I knew the die she`d die, she would come to me and she wouldn`t see you again." "How could you...?" Judas gets out flatly. Jesus raises his hands theatrically. "Love, Jduas, love makes us do the weirdest things. Maybe I deserve to fry in hell. But truth is I`m already there." His voice cracks again, choken by sobs. "And now you and her. I can`t bear it anymore, Judas." He cries bitterly. "I know I should let her go, she chose you - again, but I can`t . I can`t let her go, Judas." He gets silent looking at the petrified man before him. Judas returns his gaze with eyes, that glitter hard and coldly. "And now you want me to give you absolution." He laughs briefly, sensing the bitter irony and turns his back on Jesus. "I`ll go and look for Olivia. She doesn`t know the environment." "You won`t find her. You`ll never find her again." Judas swings round, grips Jesus shoulders and shakes him roughly, his dark eyes blazing fiercely. "What do you mean?" Jesus retreats and smoothes is clothes. "I sent Peter and Jacobus to find her. We don`t want to let her go astray again, do we?" he smiles slyly, before his features harden again. "They`ll take her to a place, where you won`t find her. But don`t worry," he pats on Judas back, who stares at him frozen in shock and anger. "she`ll be doing fine. She`ll return to her Stephen and after that she`ll come to me. I know she doesn`t love me now, but" he smirks triumphantly. "I have time to make her love me, much time, eternity so to speak." Judas pierces him with dark glowing eyes, then he turns round and hurries behind stage, without wasting one more word.