The Bliss.

Eden understood immediately, and she panicked. It had been months since she had even come across the Bliss, and it had always had adverse effects on her.

The Bliss went straight to her mind and instantly fogged everything up. That sickly green mist swarmed her and suppressed her, all she could do was lay down to try and stop her head from spinning but her body felt so far away. It was like her mind had floated away, just poof gone.

     The air around her was thick with that horribly sweet fog, making her head nearly float away from how light it felt. She stood up and found that her muscles were actually relaxed, her body didn't ache or fuss over the fact that she was standing. She hasn't felt this good in a long time, her stature strong, her legs capable of holding herself up.

     She breathed in deeply and her lungs didn't fight back or constrict painfully. All around her body she was engulfed by this sort of strange feeling...it was...warmth. Yes that was it. She was warm, like it was a nice summer day.

     Eden looked around her and found grass, and flowers in wild and breathy patches. She glanced to her left and she saw a pond of water, it looked so crisp and cool. She walked over and waded into the water, not caring if she got her boots and pants wet. She walked into the water until she was up to her waist and dipped her hands in the water.

     It was cool, refreshing, peaceful. Eden cupped her hands underwater and brought her hands up to her face, carefully pouring the water over her face. She wiped her face off with her hands and recoiled at the sudden sting in her hands. She pulled her hands away and opened her eyes, looking down at her hands. In scraggly letters across her palms, the word GREED was spelled out.

     The shock of seeing her hands made Eden jump back and fall over. But instead of falling into the water, Eden was on the shore. She looked down at her hands and the word was gone. She scrambled over to the waters edge and looked at her face in the reflection of the water.

     Her face looked normal, not pale and skinny, but more like the old her. The old Eden that first came to Hope County. As she looked at her reflection, Eden realized her appearance was morphing, fast. Before she knew what was going on she saw an ugly face looking back at her.

     Claus, she was Claus.

     He had that same ugly look on his face, the smug drunk expression with no feeling behind his eyes. He actually cracked a demented grin at her and Eden panicked.

     Eden scrambled back away from the waters edge, desperate to get away from Claus' likeness. She stumbled to her feet and ran away in the opposite direction of the pond.

     As she ran, her surroundings changed. She was no longer running through sweet smelling grass, she was dodging trees and ducking away from branches. She glanced behind her and when she looked back in front of her, Claus was standing there. Right in front of her.

     He extended his arms like he wanted to grab Eden but she ducked out of the way and ran in another direction. His voice echoed around her, booming in her ears.

     "Come on now, you know I love you! Come out and let's talk, you know I don't mean it when I'm mad!" But he didn't even seem like he was trying to be sincere.

    "No! I killed you!" Eden screamed as she ran.

Claus' laugh haunted her. That laugh meant so many things, that he was angry, that he was about to make her life a living hell, that he was about to become very very dangerous. "You silly girl," he always called her his silly girl, "ghosts can't die." Just as she turned Claus appeared in front of her, too close for her to avoid or slow down for.

Eden slammed into him and went straight through his apparition. Making him disappear in front of her. Eden could feel her heart beating in her whole body, anxiety pumping through her whole nervous system as she kept running.

     Then Eden hit a wall. She couldn't go back the way she came, the sound of Claus' laughter was deafening and getting closer. She pressed her back into the wall and crouched down low, squeezing her hands over her ears to try and block some of the sound.

The horror she was feeling got more and more intense as the seconds went by. She could feel her chest getting heavier and her body getting cold from her fear. Her heart felt like it was about to leap out of her chest, she squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to close out the world.

     She had been in the Bliss before, quite a few times, none of them had been as bad as this. She didn't know who had control over the Bliss, or if anyone even had any control over it. Maybe it was only led by what was happening inside your own mind, maybe that's why this time was so awful.

     The laughter died down and Eden cautiously opened her eyes, pulling her hands away from her ears. She looked around and saw a figure walking towards her, they were staggering, obviously in pain. As they got closer she could see who it was, Nick.

     In a panic Eden rushed towards him, the closer she got the more she could see. When she could actually see what had happened to him she froze in her tracks. He was bloody and beaten to a pulp, one of his arms was hanging freely from getting yanked out of its socket. He was a walking nightmare.

     Nick tried to mutter something and raised his good arm to point at Eden. Despite the blood in his mouth he still tried to talk. "...eugh." One half of his face was covered in fresh burns, like he hadn't been able to turn fast enough away from an explosion.

     Eden couldn't even ask him what happened, she was paralyzed.

     "You...did...this..!" Nick choked out through the blood.

     Eden shuddered and let out a sob, just one short sob before she choked up again. "No, no I didn't try-" Eden looked behind Nick and saw other people laying on the ground.

     Kim. Grace. Sharky. Hurk. Jess. Virgil. Eli.

     There must have been a dozen other people there too. All dead.

     Nick stopped walking and sank to his knees in front of Eden. "W...why?" He asked before he fell over. Dead.

     All of her friends. Everyone that depended on her. They were all dead because of her. Because she couldn't leave well enough alone. Because she couldn't let them be saved.

     Eden started hyperventilating from the shock. There was nothing she could do to stop herself from sobbing as she fell to the ground. She grabbed Nick and pulled him into her lap.

     Eden just clutched onto him and started screaming.

     "IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT! IS THIS WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANTED!" She didn't even know who she was screaming at, but it was the only thing she could do to keep herself from exploding from the pressure of her emotions.

     She was in so much pain she could feel it tearing at her seams, trying to pull her apart. It was like her heart was being overloaded with anger and hurt, she was actually amazed it hadn't quit from all the pressure. She couldn't hold back any of her screams, or her tears. She wailed like she never had before. She didn't even realize she was capable of feeling this horrible.

     Everyone was dead. It was all her fault. Everyone was dead. And it was all her fault. Everyone. Dead. Her fault. Her fault. Her. Fault. HER FAULT.

     Eden must have screamed for years, centuries, eons. Time was so slow and so fast at the same time. She couldn't have known how long she had been screaming, but her throat was horribly painful.

     She was covered from head to toe in sweat. Laying flat on her back on a cold floor.

     Her head was pounding. Her whole body was shaking from exhaustion. And all she could do was lay flat and stare at the ceiling.

     Her nose was running and her eyes were stung so badly from all the tears. And all she could do was lay there.

     The sound of footsteps coming near her didn't even bother her. She couldn't be bothered to react to anything. If someone came in a shot her right now she wouldn't have given a fuck. She was waiting, no, begging for someone to put her out of her misery.

     Water was splashed onto her face, and she coughed and choked out the water on pure instinct. Someone tilted her head to the side and held their hand against her forehead. Words were spoken around her, but she couldn't hear them. Not really. All she could hear was the repeating HER FAULT HER FAULT HER FAULT making her head spin.

     Someone sat her up and was in front of her face, talking to her. She couldn't see who, her vision was cloudy and dark, tunnel vision. She couldn't feel her body. She was completely numb. She could hear the sound of someone crying, wait was that her? Maybe it was.

     Eden didn't even understand what was happening around her, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore.

     Jacob walked out of Eden's room and shut the door. Her first trial was about to begin. Joseph let some Bliss into her room, and even though there was an air system throughout the bunker, the rooms didn't attach via the air system. That way the Bliss wouldn't affect the rest of the bunker, just Eden's room.

     Jacob waited outside her room, just like he always did. Even though he knew what was going to happen next would be awful he waited.

     The rest of the Seed siblings waited in the room next to the kitchen area, all sitting around that same table. They say for hours reading , just letting time go by. They had another 6 years to go, they weren't going to spend their time stressing or worrying.

     When the screaming started, it didn't stop.

     It echoed throughout the bunker, chilling even Johns blood. He never liked the 'Bliss'. It always felt...off. Torturing someone is one thing, destroying their mind from the inside is a whole new level of pain.

     Despite how loud it was, Jacob never once left her door. He just sat there, like a diligent soldier guarding a cage. He would occasionally scratch his face so that he could wipe a tear away from his face without showing it was a tear. No one was around him but he didn't cry, he was too strong for that.

     The howling of pain never faded, it stayed at the loudest level he had ever heard. As he listened he had only one thought in his mind.

     'Don't break.'

     He couldn't tell if it was a cruel thought or hopeful, but he just couldn't think of anything else. He had no idea what she was seeing, but he just prayed that it wasn't going to be enough to break her.

     She must have screamed for hours, but then she stopped. The silence that overcame the bunker was bone-chilling. It was like everyone was asking themselves the same question: why did she stop?

     John, Joseph, and Faith all appeared in a few moments after she had stopped. Jacob stood up and faced his siblings. 

     Joseph approached the door and cautiously opened it, he looked into the room and walked in. John walked in the room holding a large bucket of water and a bowl, he and his brother shared a glimpse but no words. Faith hesitated in front of Jacob. Jacob looked up at her and they made eye contact. 

     They had never been close. She was someone the Project welcomed in and Joseph saw a 'vision' that prophecized Faith's help with spreading the word of Joseph. He didn't really know how to talk to her so he mostly just didn't. 

     Faith looked into the room and back at Jacob. She gently placed her hand on Jacob's shoulder. "She is walking the path, and she will come out stronger because of it. This is the right thing to do." She said simply and gave Jacob a thoughtful nod. She backed away from Jacob and let her hand fall off of his shoulder. Faith gave Jacob a sweet smile, that same smile she gave all of her 'followers', and walked away from him. 

     Humming a song, Faith drifted back toward the main room. Jacob was shocked that in the face of something so cruel, Faith could remain perfectly content. Maybe that's why the Father wanted her to be one of his leaders. 

    Jacob looked into the room. Eden was laying flat on her back on the floor, her whole body shuddering from overexertion. Joseph was kneeling next to her, studying her as she lay there. 

     John was standing a bit further away from him, holding the book of Joseph and quietly reading in his head. Joseph rose and walked away from her. He placed his hand on John's shoulder and spoke to him. "Do not cause harm to the body, but let her soul feel the cleansing. Leave your sin out of this, John. This can only be done with a clear mind and a clean soul. Do you understand?" 

     John nodded and glanced back at Jacob. "Yes, Father."

     Joseph let go of John's shoulder and walked out of the room. He didn't close the door behind him, and he didn't say a word to Jacob. He just left and followed the same path Faith took out of the hallway. 

    Jacob walked into the room and stood along the wall by the door. He crossed his arms over his chest and stayed silent. John brought the bucket and bowl closer to Eden. 

     "Don't worry, brother, this part won't hurt." John said in his usual cunning voice. He glanced over his shoulder at Jacob. 

    Jacob didn't say a word, he just stayed quiet as he normally did. 

     John knelt down next to Eden and said a prayer, he dipped the bowl into the bucket of water. He pulled out the bowl and poured the water over Eden's face. She coughed and choked on the water and John set the bowl down. He tilted Eden's head and placed a hand on her forehead. He said another prayer, something along the lines of 'we must all atone for our sins', Jacob wasn't paying attention to the words John was using. 

     He had never seen someone get cleansed by John before, it was strange to see him stop gloating and simply work. He spoke the prayers as if he had done it a hundred times, he probably had. Jacob usually got the people that John had already cleansed and baptized, he never cared about the process. He was always focused on training soldiers for the Project.

     John grabbed Eden by the shoulders and carefully sat her up. He placed a hand behind her head to stop her head from falling to the side. He slid her back and up against the wall.

     "Deputy Eden, you will atone for the sins you've committed. You shall be cleansed by the light of the Lord and brought forth to the New World." John held Eden's face and spoke to her earnestly. 

     Eden shook her head and muttered something under her breath. John repeated another prayer and Eden started shaking. Jacob realized that what was actually happening was she was crying, but she was hardly making any noise. 

     John dipped his bowl into the bucket again, but this time instead of pouring the water over her face, he dipped only his thumb in the bowl. John continued praying and swiped his thumb across her forehead. 

     Eden cried and started mumbling too quiet for Jacob to hear what she was saying. John continued praying as Eden cried and wailed in agony. 

     Jacob did the unbelievable. He walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. He just couldn't stand there anymore watching Eden suffer. He felt like someone was squeezing his windpipe shut, his eyes burned from trying to force himself to stay calm. Jacob walked into the room right next to Eden's and shut and locked the door. 

     Jacob stumbled to the corner of the room and slumped against the wall. His hands were shaking, out of fear, anger, or pain he didn't know. He could hear Eden's screams echoing through his head. He started panting, trying to suck in a breath deep enough to stop whatever was happening. He heard Eden screaming and crying in his head, he heard their arguments, he saw her getting beaten and shot, he heard the sounds of soldiers screaming in battle. Guns were going off around him, bombs blew up somewhere near him. 

     Jacob tried to squeeze his hands over his ears. He sank to the ground and tried to hide. Everything was so loud, too loud. It was like he was on the front lines all over again. He was with Miller in the desert. He was an abused teen. He was a scared child. He was lost. He was in pain. He was afraid. He was getting suffocated by guilt. 

     The world was spinning out of his control and he couldn't do anything to stop it.