Hi, everyone! Yes, it's me again…Sakura! I'm working on 2 fics at once…my 13 Ghosts one, and now I've started a COTC one. I love that movie, and I devour ANYTHING from Stephen King! In this fic, I have developed the children into people, and not just twisted killing machines. It is similar to what I have done with the ghosts in 13 Ghosts. I also began the story with Job and Malachi as the best and closest of friends, and (sadly) they grow further and further apart as MalachI is taken more and more by He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Although I OWN NOTHING of COTC, I practically have the movie memorized…seriously, the other day I recited the whole scene to my friend Noah where Malachi said "Does He speak to you, Isaac?" to the point where Isaac is overthrown. Then Noah slapped me and told me that if I didn't shut up, I would end up like Isaac did, then he'd burn my DVD.

**The following song is not mine, it's from the original soundtrack to "Lost Universe," and anime series. I just thought it would be a nice prelude to the story with the same name, and it kind of sets the mood.**

Find the Rainbow

Looking up at a rainbow arch across the sky

Everyone smiles

Yet, they scornfully glance toward the coming rain

A rain that will give birth to a rainbow

Unaware, they firmly grip their umbrellas

I was born to walk in the rain

Rain on me, I want to scream

Everyone wants the peace of the world

I'll walk through these tangled paths amid deaf ears

Without stumbling, even if just for today

I want to walk, though I'm sad

It is unbelievably cold at times

And I find reality oppressive

But my believing heart is my refuge

And my happiness is undisturbed

The tears I want to cry, I turn into passionate sweat

And I resolve to follow my dreams into the future

I was born to walk in the rain

Whether I'm heartbroken or impassioned

Everybody wants the peace of the world

With a clear goal in sight

Toward the immaculate crystalline days

I go forward, until I reach them

Fragile victims, hatred and wars

Manipulated by the souls of the defiled

Chapter 1: Job

It was three years ago. I was seven and Sarah was five. There weren't any other kids in church that Sunday. They were all out in the cornfields with Isaac, the manipulative child preacher who had gotten kids even older than him to listen to his words. He was only nine at the time, and he had a fifteen-year-old guy called Malachi running after him and doing what he said. Dad didn't let me go into the corn with the others. He said he didn't like me hanging out with potential killers. I saw no problems with it whatsoever. Sarah didn't go either. She was home with mom playing sick; penny-under-the-tongue trick. Works every time.

After church, Dad took me to Hanson's Café, just like always. He went to call Mom because he was worried about the fever that Sarah didn't really have. I ordered my usual from Mr. Hanson; a strawberry shake. As I waited, I decided to spin around in my chair…oops, to fast…CRASH!!! I flew off my chair and went sailing into the pinball machine in the corner of the room.

A few minutes later, I woke up. No one else in the café seemed to have noticed, or even cared, except for one person. I was still dizzy, so I couldn't tell exactly who it was. But the person helped me up off the floor and sat me down at the bar.

"You okay?" the person asked. As I recognized the person's soft teenage voice and his silky wave of shoulder-length orange hair came into focus, I realized that it was none other than Isaac's high school sophomore disciple, Malachai Boardman. I figured that their meeting in the cornfield was over.

"Yeah…but my head feels like it got kicked by an elephant.

"So does my ribcage," said Malachi leaning back in his chair and lying a pale, freckled hand on his ribs, near his solar plexus. "But I know it's just because I just got clobbered by a flying kid." The two of us giggled a little, and Mr. Hanson delivered to me my shake. Malachi immediately took it.

"Malachi that's mine!"

"Oh, really? Thanks." He continued to take multiple sips of my shake, and he paid Mr. Hanson for another one, which he gave to me.

"Where's all the others?"

"Oh, they're coming. Where you're little sister?"

"At home…sick." When I said the word "sick," I made the little quote marks with my fingers.

"Penny trick?" asked Malachi. I nodded my head, and he continued, "Yeah. You'll come to find that you'll be using that one a lot when you get into high school…to many exams, no time to study…" But he trailed off, and glanced solemnly out a far window. I looked too, and I saw Isaac standing there, wearing a large, wide-brimmed, Quaker-style hat with formal church clothes. We heard the front door to the restaurant open, and in poured a few more guys about the same age as Malachi. One looked like he was hiding something up his sleeve. Another hand one hand suspiciously in his pocket, while the last one locked the door to the café behind him.

"Malachi, what's going on?" But when I looked over, my friend wasn't there. He was over at the pinball machine again, sliding something out from underneath it and slipping it under his belt. I peered mover the counter to Anne, one of the younger waitresses, who was busy pouring some powdery substance into a pot of coffee. And much to my horror, she went over to a table of innocent adults and poured it into their cups! I didn't want to look at what was happened, but I didn't have to. My attention was diverted from the ill-fated adults to the boys who had just entered the café.

"Amos, you take that side!" yelled a boy with slick black hair as he swiftly cut the throats of three different people with a jackknife that he had produced from under his sleeve…so that's what he was hiding. Amos obeyed, and took out about two more with a meat cleaver. But they were only killing grownups.

"Malachi, what are they doing? Stop them!"

"They're obeying the word of God. I cannot stop them," replied the red head seriously. That's when I saw the dagger. My own sweet friend, the boy who wanted nothing more than to grow up, become a biologist, get married and have two kids, a boy and a girl. The same guy with such good dreams and a promising future was now standing before me, slaughtering the adult citizens of Gatlin, Nebraska. From the looks of it, he was not enjoying it. Neither was I. I saw my father go down by Malachi's very own blade. Of course I wasn't enjoying it. I hardly noticed the people at the table choking to death on whatever Anne had mixed into their coffee.

Finally, it was all over. The kids were all wiping their weapons off on their shirts, dusting off their hands, and leaving, moving on to the next unsuspecting area of the town. One by one, they would take out each restaurant, each store, each home…until all the adults were wiped out. Soon, Malachi and I were the only ones left in Hanson's. I was younger then, so I didn't understand that by nightfall, both my parents and every older person I had known and had become close to were gone forever.

MalachI looked at me, and I looked at Malachi. In my eyes, he saw confusion. I his eyes, I saw terror, sadness, and regret. Did he know what he had done? Did he even know why he did it? Malachi looked down at the bleeding corpses lying sprawled all over the floor, and his stomach obviously couldn't take it. He leaned over the counter and threw up everything he'd had that day. He wiped off his face. I saw his eyes get glassy, and it depressed me. Never had I seen such a strong person like this. When I decided that I myself couldn't take it anymore, I ran up to him and hugged him as tight as I could. I could feel his heart beating heavily against my shoulder, and I knew-- he was required to do more of this evil deed. He wasn't done.

"Jobie…I'm so sorry…" my friend choked out. And he turned from me, ran to the door, and caught up with a group of others out on the road.

***Well there's chapter one…oh gosh, I just made myself cry… dang…well, I'll have chapter two up soon, just gotta get another tissue…lol***