"Rahne! Over here!" Claire called as the Sinclairs filed into the small parish church that Sunday. As the minister's only family she was already seated in the front pew.
Rahne didn't like church services, particularly Reverend Craig's, but the whole of the village was required to be there each Sunday on pain of absolute ostracism. Her parents may have complained in private about the excessive influence of the church on their lives, but Reverend Craig's sway over the village was total and they dutifully attended church along with everybody else each Sunday. In any case it was easiest to face when Claire was there to pull faces with behind the hymn books. Jess too, usually, but today she was already at work scrubbing the walls outside.
It wasn't that Rahne didn't believe in God, or at least, she didn't think it was. God had been a constant part of her life for as long as she could remember between the trips to the Church on Sunday and the Reverend's tendency for impromptu sermons. Belief was the natural product of fifteen years of repetition of the message. Most of the time, she didn't even think about her faith, any more than she thought about breathing – it was just there, a part of her. She seldom prayed, either - for one thing, what was the point? Things had a tendency to work themselves out, after all, for better or worse. And then Reverend Craig's Lord wasn't the sort of God that granted wishes.
As she walked along the aisle, still wondering about God, she was stopped by Jamie MacLeod. "How's the ankle, Rahne?" he asked.
"Huh? It's fine…, what?" she said, confused. For the life of her, she couldn't work out what he was talking about.
"Really? It looked quite nasty when ye fell on it at the football match on Monday," he said conversationally.
Realisation dawned. "Oh, that! Nay, it's really okay, no major damage or anything," Rahne said, trying to think of a way out of the topic. Her ankle had been sprained badly, but it had healed perfectly by Thursday, thanks to her mutant abilities, although she wasn't about to disclose that.
"Aye? Tony was saying that it looked like ye'd sprained it…," he went on, with a note of something, possibly suspicion in his scent.
"Oh no, it looked a lot worse than it was, really," she said quickly, painfully aware of just how stupid she sounded. "Sorry, I have to go, service is about to start…." She dashed off to where Claire was sitting, leaving him gazing after her with a thoughtful expression.
As Rahne squeezed into the space between her parents and Claire, her friend gave a conspirational nudge. "Did ye hear about last night?"
"What about last night?"
"They found more dead sheep up on the moors this morning…."
Rahne froze – she'd been out again last night. "Where?" she asked, trying without much success to keep the worry from her voice.
"I dinna ken, but somewhere North of here."
"But what happened? How many did it get?"
Mr Sinclair, who had overheard the whispered conversation, leant over. "I wouldna worry about it, lass. It's most likely to be some farmer's dog gone stray – I hear that old McLennaghan's stock dog's gone missin'…."
"Well, maybe the killer got it too – surely it would ha' come home by now otherwise," countered Claire. "My father says that it's a demon come ta punish us for our sins." As always, Claire's usually particularly sharp mind always seemed to have a blind spot when it came to her father – the result of indoctrination from a young age, perhaps. "Anyway, why are ye so worried about it Rahne? It isna about ta start attacking humans…."
"Um, what? Oh… it's those poor sheep," Rahne said weakly. Lying had never been her strong point. Claire gave her a second searching glance for the day, but was prevented from asking anything more because at that moment Reverend Craig began his sermon. It was probably the first time in her life that Rahne had actually been glad that he started talking.
"Sin…," his voice boomed across the small church. "It pervades all our lives – our homes, our work, our… recreations." With this he sent a pointed glance at Rahne. "It is the work of the Church ta eliminate sin from the lives of its flock – but the Church cannot act alone ta remove this evil! It requires an honest and deep-seated commitment from each and every person present to eradicate it from themselves and make sure that it is eradicated from others." His eyes roamed throughout the parishioners, as if to dare each of them to confess their terrible misdeeds.
"Unfortunately," he continued, "we have been lax in our efforts at self-improvement. We have allowed complacency and apathy stand between us and our chance of salvation by our Lord. I can see the sin hanging on each and every one of ye out there in the audience," and he sent another pointed glance at Rahne, who looked away, trying to stifle a snort. So far this was the same fare that the Reverend dished up every week. "This mustna continue! We mustna let our foolish desires or moral compunctions interfere with our quest for total spiritual purity."
He looked around the church once again. "I can see the doubters in the audience – they're thinking that people really aren't so bad – maybe they just need a 'break', someone ta give them a chance?" He paused. "Poor misguided fools! Ye have ignored the evidence that is sitting right in front of your faces…. Your indifference has allowed a scourge ta invade the earth!" He was almost shouting now.
"And what is this scourge, ye may ask? I will tell ye – there are devils who walk upon our earth, wreaking havoc and destruction wherever they go! They have been sent ta us by Satan, who is intent on corrupting our hearts and minds! Everybody here knows what I am speaking of – the news media has termed these devils mutants, and claims that they are a special breed of humans, but we all know that they are wrong! The proof is in their own footage – didna one of these so-called 'mutants' even possess cloven hooves and a forked tail?" Once again, a pause for dramatic effect. "These arena humans, but demons that live among us, pass for normal people, all the while spreading their filthy corruption!" Flecks of spittle were beginning to fly from the corners of his mouth. Rahne tried to hold back her rising anger and nervousness, but she couldn't help the reflexive tightening of her knuckles around the hymn book on her lap. She hoped that Claire hadn't noticed anything.
Meanwhile, the diatribe continued. "Fear these devils and their debased ways! But dinna despair, for the Lord, in all his omniscient benevolence, has provided us with a chance of salvation! Ta redeem ourselves for our sin and our apathy we must begin a new crusade – ta drive out the devils from our world, and send them back ta the fiery pits from whence they came! At all costs, we must not allow ourselves ta be deluded into thinking that these 'mutants' are nae threat. And we mustna believe that we are safe here in Ullapool!" There was something of a collective gasp from the crowd. Rahne froze, frantically trying to process everything. Where did this come from?
"Aye, well might ye be shocked, but our isolation doesna free us from the demonic concerns of these devils – just look at the recent fiendish killings of our sheep, our livelihoods – is this not clear evidence of demonic behaviour?" Rahne saw her father mouth 'nay' out of the corner of her eye, but he looked to be in a minority among the parish, who always liked a good ranting sermon. She could feel her anxiety mounting "We must be on our guard against this demonic threat! But put your faith in God, mend your sinful ways, and He will protect ye from the scourge!"
There was more to the sermon, but Rahne couldn't pay attention to the words. Questions were tumbling around in her head, breaking her concentration without supplying any answers. Did Reverend Craig know, or suspect about her identity as a mutant? Did he know about her midnight excursions? What if she was the 'thing' that was doing these killings? What would happen if the other residents of Ullapool found out?
…..
Caught up in her musings, Rahne didn't notice that the Reverend had stopped talking until she was elbowed by her father. She got up quickly, and barely staying to pay the most basic of civilities to other people in the church she hurried out and almost ran back to her house. Her parents followed.
"What is it, lass?" asked her father.
"What is it?" she shouted. "Were ye not listening? The whole sermon about the evils of mutants and how we must eradicate them?" The anger and resentment that she had built up against the Reverend during his sermon now came bursting out at her parents.
"Aye, I know it sounded bad, lass," her father began, trying to placate her, "but Reverend Craig is always harping on about one thing or another – naught ever comes of it."
"Oh come on! You saw him up there – he was deadly serious! And no one was trying to disagree with him – not even you!" she yelled accusingly.
"Now really Rahne," said her mother, "you know we don't agree with him – we love you for everything you are, including your mutation – and we don't believe that you are any kind of devil."
That stopped her for a second. Her parents did love her, would support her to the end. She knew that without question. But even that knowledge couldn't put her at ease. "Aye, well right at the moment you two are probably the only people in this town who wouldn't think that if they knew the truth!" she yelled. "If they found out…."
"But there's no way that they will find out, lass."
"You don't know that! Anything could happen! And you brought me back here to this! I would have been better off being blown up in the Institute again!" Rahne realised that this was slightly over the top when she said it, knew that she was being unfair and melodramatic, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she would have felt more safe back in Bayville, even though they had been exposed there.
"We're here for ye, lass," said her father. "We're here to protect ye."
"And how do ye possibly think ye can do that? And what about if something happens to my powers that I can't control – who will protect people from me then?"
"We trust you darling," said her mother.
"Well, maybe you shouldn't." With this, Rahne turned and ran up to her room, leaving her parents behind with bewildered expressions on their faces.
NB: This has been edited after it was kindly pointed out to me that I hadn't given any time to Rahne's faith… Anyway, just thought I'd mention that.