Peter Inglenook

Oh, dear Lord! Help us, save us! We are sinners. You've darkened our skies, our world is cold now. There has been no sun, the plants are dying, our food... how shall we grow our food...?
Some say it is because our hearts have become cold, because we do not care about each other anymore. Because we do not care about you. Others tell us that this is Armageddon, the end of the world.
I am afraid. I am afraid for myself and for my masters. I am afraid of the pain and the suffering that are to come.
When I was a little girl, I used to play with my brothers and sisters on Sundays after church. We had a very small house, so we mostly played outside. Our favourite game was hide-and-seek. We used to have a lot of fun hiding in the strangest places. One day I was the one who had to go looking for the others. I found most of my brothers and sisters easily. My oldest brother Thomas was hiding behind the huge oak tree in our neighbour's garden. I then found little Marianne in the shed and Sarah between the wood blocks behind our house. It was easy enough for all of us together to find Matthew, Paul and Samuel. The only one still hiding was my sister Anne. We looked for her everywhere, near our house and then in the whole village. She was not to be found. She must have discovered the perfect hiding place! After a few hours of searching I told my brothers and sister that we should give up. That we should just wait for her to come home once she had realised that she would not be found. That she had gloriously won our game. But she didn't. She just didn't come home. In the evening we got really worried. And of course by that time our parents had realised that Anne was missing. They spoke little, they exchanged troubled glances. I didn't sleep well that night. Again and again I was woken by nightmares, or because I thought I had heard Anne come home and knock at the door.
The next morning, while we were having our breakfast, Mr Potter, the school teacher, came to our house. He was pale. He told us that his wife had found our dear Anne floating in their pond when she had gone there to feed the ducks. That our dear Lord had taken her home, that she had been beyond saving. Mother broke down. She couldn't stop crying. Father left the house and came back only much later. I looked at my brothers. We knew that we were to blame. Had we looked for Anne just a bit longer, we might have found her in time to save her. But we hadn't. We had killed her.
I have killed my own blood. I am ready to suffer before my Lord. I am ready to face Armageddon. Oh Lord! I am afraid!