HOORAY! New chapter! This was a really hard chapter to write, to my surprise. Just one more with the apostles and then we're moving on to unknown territory. Enjoy them while they last.
ShadowBlaze: About the savior/savoir thing: I'm dyslexic in English, but not French, so words like that mix me up all the time. And about naming all the twelve, I wanted to kind of copy the Bible and I'm using them in the next chapter.
They killed him the next day. They strung him up on that cross like he was some toy. It disgusted Nana, rattled her to her very core. She was there when he died. He yelled, "Father, they know not what they do!" and died, just like that.
Nana screamed when it happened. She flung herself on the ground, crying, eating handfuls of dirt, before Peter and Simon picked her up and took her back to the house, kicking and screaming.
She spent three days in the dark upstairs, cuddled in the blanket that Josh slept in. Finally, Josh's mother, the original Mary, convinced Nana to go to Josh's tomb.
As they came near to the tomb, a wave of excitement washed over the women. Instead of a large boulder covering the entrance, an empty black hole greeted them. This meant one of two things: Someone was there, or Josh was right.
Nana ran towards the hole, Mary trailing behind her. She stopped outside and looked in. Hoping against hope, she entered and looked around, not having to wait for her eyes to adjust. She gasped, taking a step back into Mary. "What do you see, child?" she hissed.
"He's...gone!" the Magdalene gagged out. All that was left was the piece of cloth they wrapped him in. Her hands flew to her head, straightening the piece of fabric she had been using to keep her head out of the sun. This couldn't be, she thought. He'd have to be a demon. Her eyes grew wide as she looked behind her. Or a prophet.
Josh, in all his glory, came striding up to Nana and his mother. He was smiling and looked pleasant, almost content. "Ah!" he joked as he drew closer. "My two Marys. I should have known." He reached down and kissed his mother on her cheek. She looked visibly flushed and startled, but not displeased.
"Now, mother," Joshua said calmly, "go tell the apostles that I will met them at Joseph's house. Quickly, I will be there soon!" Mary ran off back in the direction they had come, leaving Josh and Nana very much alone.
"Magdalene," Josh whispered as he pulled Nana into his arms. "I told you I'd get out of it." Nana laughed into his ear, even though Josh was cold in her arms. But she was probably cold in his too.
"Do you have to go back?" she asked. She knew the answer already, and didn't wait for the reply. "Then you didn't truly get off, now did you?" This time Josh laughed. It was a sad laugh though, as if the answer was no.
He took her hand and they walked off in the direction Mary had run off in. "How are my apostles taking it?" he asked loudly, politely, like he hadn't just thrown his arms around this girl.
She eyed him out of the corner of her eye. "What," she inquired, "your death? Well, most are taking it well. Thomas doesn't think you're coming back, but most are all right."
Again, Joshua laughed. "I knew about Thomas. I was talking more about the fact that you're undead," he drawled. It was taking ever ounce of his composure not to spit in her face and demand that the demons leave her body. She was possessed, but she didn't act like it.
"I haven't told them," she murmured. She didn't want her only friends abandoning her because she was different. She didn't want to see their faces fall. She was everything they stood against.
The other chuckled. "Oh, my Magdalene, they will not leave you behind. They love you. They will be wary at first, of course. It's to be expected. But you will become something great to the cause. Trust me," he said around his smile.
The city was in sight by now. Peter was rushing towards us. He dropped down to his knees upon meeting Josh's eye. "Sweet Lord," he mumbled, "he did it."
***
Peter led Josh and Nana back to his house, back to headquarters. Mary, Josh's mother, made a feast for us, though Josh himself declined. They ate well into the night, until Nana was actually beginning to laugh at Mathew's jokes.
At about that time, Josh stood and proclaimed, "I told you I'd be back!" to much cheer and salutes. Thomas hung his head; he had already been branded as the doubter. "I need to tell you something about our little Magdalene tonight."
Mathew laughed. "Finally going to give her to us, huh Josh?" he scuffed. Al and Thad laughed with him, while Bart and Phil, the two thug brothers, punched them in the shoulder.
"No, no, no, I'm afraid not, Mathew. She's a demon," he said softly as he sat down. The room was silent again as the remaining twelve stared at her.
Uncomfortably, Nana stood and coughed before responding, "I'm not a demon, just undead. I'm a vampire. It's nothing to be afraid of. Just think of me like Josh, except I can't ever die." She waited for their reactions.
"So," James, Peter's brother, questioned slowly, looking very confused, "you're like Josh?" Nana nodded. Then the room exploded into claps. They obviously thought being like Josh was a good thing.