The Red Center

The Handmaids were driven back to the Red Center from Fenway Park where they were made to believe they were being hanged. But it was a sick twisted scare tactic made up by Aunt Lydia in retaliation for refusing to stone Janine to death. It just started to rain, quite heavily, which wasn't a good sign considering what Aunt Lydia has planned for them.

The van stopped in front of the Red Center before the doors were wrenched open for them to get out into the pouring rain. Just as the last Handmaid was pulled out of the van, the ground began to shake violently, sending everyone into a panic and to the ground. Screams resonated through the air amid the rain and the earth quaking.

When the shaking stopped, the doors to the Red Center were blown off the hinges and embedded deep into the vans, terrifying everyone who was nearly impaled by them. All eyes turned to the entrance, to see bodies of Guardians and Aunts floating out of the building, their bodies unmoving but their eyes were wide open, giving them the impression of death if not for the subtle rise and fall of their chests. Gently, they were laid out on the wet ground outside the building before a silhouette slowly emerged from the Red Center.

Handmaids, Aunts, and Guardians' eyes widened at the creature that floated before them with their feet barely above the floor. In front of them was a being that reminded them of the Virgin Mary dressed in pure white garb. The person was female with a white cloak that covered their body and head much like the Handmaids'. Underneath was a long-sleeved white dress that reached their wrists and seemed to cover their feet. Hanging from their neck was a silver Christ on the Cross to symbolize their faith. Lastly, a white masquerade mask covering the upper pat of their face.

The white stranger stepped out into the rain with calm leisure strides, but the water didn't touch them at all. In fact, the rain was being averted away from the stranger and onto the ground. They raised their head to look at the audience before them, the lower part of their mouth was exposed and clearly feminine and a lock of strawberry-blonde hair escaped their hood.

The Guardians snapped out of their daze and raised their guns at the white stranger. "Get on the ground!" one of them commanded as they began surrounding her. She didn't stop walking, didn't even react to their shouts. "I said get on the-!" the stranger raised her hand to silence them. Simultaneously, their eyes glazed over and their guns fell from their arms. Her arm fell back to her side as the Guardians dropped to the ground as vegetables.

The Handmaids huddled together for warmth in the cold rain as they watched the masked stranger in fear and fascination. "S-Stay back." Aunt Lydia warned the white clad stranger with the cattle prod in her shaking hand, whether from the rain or from fear they could not tell.

The stranger stopped in front of them with a calm yet vacant expression behind her mask. "I didn't come here to kill you." she said in a gentle pleasant voice.

Aunt Lydia glanced at the fallen Aunts and Guardians on the ground. "Rest assured, they are not dead. I merely placed them in a deep sleep. That way, they can't hurt anyone." she explained in a reassuring tone before she held her hand out. The cattle prod flew from Aunt Lydia's hand, causing her to gasp at the sudden movement as the deadly weapon hovered in front of the stranger.

"It is very unbecoming, and a great insult to Him when you preach His word whilst hurting your charges to excuse yourselves." the stranger chastised Aunt Lydia before snapping her fingers, dismantling the cattle prod into tiny pieces as they clattered to the ground.

"What are you?" Aunt Lydia stared in shock, her mouth gaping open at what she and the Handmaids just saw.

The stranger watched Aunt Lydia with something akin to satisfaction. "I am but a mere servant sent from His kingdom in heaven. I am called many things, but you may call me the 'Saint.'" she introduced herself with a humble bow.

"'Saint'? Did you say 'His kingdom'?" Aunt Lydia asked in astonishment.

The masked Saint nodded, "Yes. Forgive my untimely appearance, but He wanted me down here in Gilead as a representative, to put a stop to these violent and insulting practices Gilead so proudly preaches in His name." she said with a look of disappointment on her face, "'Under His eye' as you say, and He has seen plenty."

Aunt Lydia shook at the implication before she tried to compose herself. "Rachel could not conceive-"

"-so she asks her husband Jacob to impregnate her handmaid Bilah in order to have children." The Saint finished for her as she stared hard at the Aunt. "Trust me, I've met her, and plenty like her who you have unjustly tormented in His name. He left this world having faith in humanity. I was sent here to correct some things."

They turned at the sound of approaching sirens before five vans screeched along with tires screaming on the wet asphalt in front of the Saint, the Aunt and the Handmaids. The Saint stepped away from Aunt Lydia as Guardians leapt out of the vans with their guns trained on her. With a shake of her head and a tired sigh leaving her lips, "I've only been here a day."

Before the Guardians could yell their orders at her to put her hands up, the guns in their hands fell apart in a dismantled heap. They looked at their weapons then at the Saint in shock when they saw her hand stretched towards them. All of a sudden, their legs gave out from under them, sending them to the cold wet ground. They tried to get up, but the lower half of their bodies was numb, paralyzed and useless.

"Please stay down, I have no wish to see you get hurt, or see you hurt another." The Saint gently said before turning her attention to the building that served as the Red Center. For a while, she stared at the structure in silence as she drew in a deep breath, tilting her head up towards the weeping heavens. "Thy will be done." she whispered as she summoned her power, lowering her head to stare at the building once more. With a stomp of her right foot, a fissure opened up in the asphalt and snaked rapidly towards the Red Center, growing larger as tremors began to shake what used to be a school to rubble and debris.

June and the Handmaids watch in stark fascination as the place where they began their forced training and enslavement was being destroyed before them. June could not help the smile that came onto her face as she watched one of Gilead's precious breeding prisons crumble in front of them. She didn't register the screams around her, whether from fear or elation at seeing the Red Center demolished she didn't care. For the first time, she felt happy.

June felt her fellow Handmaids tense up, bringing her back to the present to see the Saint approach them with a small yet benevolent smile on her face. Aunt Lydia tried to stand in her way, but was lifted off the ground by an invisible force and kept in the air. She stopped in front of June who, up close, saw the Saint's eyes were a bright blue-green beneath her mask. She no longer felt the rain pelting her, no longer felt the cold.

The Saint suddenly splayed her hand on June's abdomen. "It's a girl." she said with fascination, shocking the Handmaids around them at the sudden yet fearful discovery.

"What?" June exclaimed in surprise as the Saint closed her eyes. "Yes. A strong little girl she is. Much like her mother." Opening her eyes, she said to June, "Don't worry, your daughter will not grow up as a slave to Gilead." In her eyes, June saw genuine love and honesty, something down to Earth yet at the same time not of this world. Unsure what else to say, June nodded, feeling she can trust this woman.

With an encouraging smile, she stepped away from June, removing her hand in the process. Her smile vanished when she turned to Aunt Lydia who remained suspended above the ground. The elder woman's eyes were filled with fear at what became of the Red Center by the hands of this servant of God. The Saint kept her immobile as she brought the Aunt closer to whisper in the latter's ear, "By the word of God, I have a message for the Commanders of Gilead." she paused as Lydia shook in fear and from the rain, "'This is the beginning of the end.'"

Aunt Lydia was dropped gracelessly to the ground with a despairing sob as she knelt before the Saint who floated over to the debris of what was once the Red Center. Turning around with a swish of her white cloak, smoke and dust surrounded her in a thick cloud, obscuring their vision of her for a moment before it dispersed. All that remained was the destroyed Red Center.