(3) The Remaining

by Dequincyx

Clare arrives back in Chicago, Illinois after venturing out through a world she no longer recognizes. Once back home, she finds that most of her friends are gone...while few have been left behind. The CPS worker must find answers as to what happened. Clare and her friends may have survived the aftermath of the vanishings, but can they survive as...The Remaining?

5. 3 (4)-Bruce Barns

(4)-Bruce Barns.

Clare drove onto the property of New Hope Village church-the same church Irene, Raymie, Jackie and Tommy attended-where she parked her car. She figured she'd keep her promise she had made to Irene last year and go to the church for herself. She knew it wouldn't bring her or any of her other missing friends back, but she had to keep her promise she had made to her friend. Even though the disappearances were UFO-related and not something that God had pulled off.

Clare then saw another car parked on the church parking-lot, meaning that someone else was here too. Inside the church most likely. She got out of her car, closed the door, ran up to the church and went inside...where she saw a man sitting on the front pew.

Clare walked down the aisle and stopped when she made it up to the front pew where the man was sitting. She instantly recognized him. "Pastor Bruce Barns?"

The man then turned to face Clare, revealing himself to in fact be Bruce Barns. "Clare?" He said before he stood up. "Oh, my goodness."

Clare had seen this man here at the church everytime she had come here with Tommy. He was the assistant pastor of the church while pastor Vernen Billings was the head pastor.

"Thank God you're still here. When Tommy and all of those millions of people around the world vanished, i thought that God had-"

"He did, Clare...just like he promised. "Like a thief in the night"." Said Bruce, cutting Clare off.

"What?" Clare asked.

"It's all true." Said Bruce.

"Then why are you still here?" Clare asked. This made no sense. If this global vanishing act was in fact the Rapture, why was this assistant pastor still here? Why were so many other religious people still here? "I don't understand. I mean...you were here every Sunday. You worked here, you preached here."

"That's not what mattered." Bruce said.

"What?" Clare asked.

"I knew the words of the Bible. I can quote them chapter and verse, but that's not enough. You have to believe." Said Bruce.

"Believe? Believe in what? In a God that supposedly killed countless people in the result of the vanishings? A God that supposedly grabbed Tommy and most of my friends and ripped them out of this world?! A God that supposedly kidnapped all children under 13 and left the teenagers here to suffer?!" Said Clare.

"He took them to protect them!" Said Bruce, referring to the millions of people who'd vanished.

"From what?" Clare asked.

"From the darkest time in the history of this world! Persecution...war...and seven years of darkness. He took them to Heaven." Bruce answered.

"And what about the rest of us? What about me, what am i suppose to do?" Clare asked.

"It's not about what we do, it's about asking for forgiveness, it's about turning our lives over to-"

"STOP IT!" Clare screamed, cutting Bruce off. "The God my pastor talked about would never do something like this!" She said before she began running off.

"Clare, wait!" Said Bruce, making Clare stop in her tracks and turn back and face him. "Listen to me, please."

"Listen to you? Why should i? You didn't even listen to you!" Said Clare before she stormed out of the church.
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