Jonah - Part 2

There was one young boy of only six by the name of Nim who could recognize the evil around him for what it really was. It repulsed him. He dreaded the day of homecoming. The heads terrified him, and the stench of death turned his stomach. Nim loved the other children in the compound and the motherly figures who took care of him. Their compound had dozens of women which meant there were dozens of children.

While there were some who seemed to love the cruel and grotesque practices of their culture, many were just as scared as he was. They dreaded joining the military. They were frightened of the lifeless faces on the body-less heads. These children wanted to play and laugh and learn like any other child. Instead they were spat upon or kicked aside if they were ever seen. Detesting the men who were returning from war. The men they were destined to become. 

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One unfortunate evening, Nim was in the kitchen when the men returned. While he hid out of sight he saw the men beat the eunuchs and concubines before taking them away to have their way with them.

It scared him so much that he ran away. He didn't know where he was running until he reached the edge of the river. He felt safer there than at the compound, so he stayed there until morning. Too young to fully recognize the danger of the wild beasts of the land, but wise enough to know the beasts of his home were worse.

This became a place of refuge for him.

Nim quietly retreated to this spot over the next five years each time there was a homecoming of warriors. He escaped the stench of death and the victorious bon fire rituals. 

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"Adah, you need to comply or your beating will be worse. The king is god and this is his direction." Mahlah advised her friend.

"Oh, Mahlah, there is no god. Not on this earth or in any other realm. If there were a god we wouldn't be put through all of this." Adah refuted.

Nim overheard this debate and made him think about God in a wholly new way. A god in any other realm? He had never considered this. He pondered on this often and found himself hoping it were true and finally decided to try talking to it.

One evening when he had escaped to the waterside. He figured that if it were at all possible for there to be a god in any realm, then it might be possible for it to hear him.

He had no idea what prayer was, let alone how it was supposed to look or sound. He just opened his mouth and this is what came out:

Oh God of heaven and this world, if you are real please hear me. My heart aches because of the awful practices of my people. I am sick at the thought of going to war and bringing back the heads of the men that I would be required to slaughter. This cannot be right. Please save me and my people! 

This may not have been a perfectly uttered prayer, but God is a God of miracles. God knows and loves each one of us. God most certainly did hear this heartfelt prayer.

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God knew this young man's heart and he knew his people were able to change because they, too, were children of God.

When Nim finished his prayer he stood up and looked at the water rushing past him. An overwhelming feeling of peace entered his heart and mind and goosebumps raised on his skin. As he turned away from the seaside an angel appeared to him. 

"Blessed are you, Nim. You have shown great faith. God knows you and loves you. He is proud of you."

Nim's mouth fell open. 

The angel continued, "You will construct a vessel."

"What's a vessel? And how do you make one?"

"You have the resources around you. It must be air-tight and modeled after the design which I will show you."

Nim was utterly exhausted after this interaction that he fell to the earth and slept for two days. When he awoke he thought it had been a dream. But then the reality of it set in and he felt the urgency to go and tell his peers at the compound. 

When he stumbled back into the compound he confided first  in his closest friend, Mara, a girl a few months younger than him. She was the only one who had noticed him missing. She had worried that he had been trampled or taken when he didn't return after the first day. She advised him not to tell anyone else or he would be killed. She had so many questions.

"Are you sure it was an angel? How do you know it wasn't evil?"

"Yes. I know it was and I cannot deny what happen. He stood in front of me in the air, surrounded by light. He spoke to me and taught me about God."

"But how will building a vessel help us?"

"Yeah... I thought that was a very strange, too." 

Nim was dumbfounded as to why this was the answer to his prayer. How on earth is a vessel supposed to help him? Much less save his people.  

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Jonah Chapter 2

7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

Jonah - Part 1

There are many theories about the story of Jonah and the whale. Many debates as to what may have actually happened. Questions concerning the fish that swallowed him. Was it a whale? A fish? A different creature all together? How could Jonah have survived for three days? How could he have been swallowed without being crushed? Why would God choose to save such a wicked city? Could it just be a story the Lord uses to teach his people?

In my opinion it is true and it did really happened. Let me tell you my idea of how it could have gone down.

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Nineveh, as you may know, was an astonishingly wicked place, full of people doing evil with little to no redeeming qualities. 

Infidelity was not an option because marriage was nonexistent. Unfortunately, this subjugated prisoners of war, strangers who stumbled into their massive city, and even the poorest and weakest of their own people to become eunuchs and slaves and concubines to satisfy any and every carnal pleasure. As if that wasn't enough, exploration with animals and objects were also common. 

Of course children were produced. Baby boys were used to build their army. They were taught at a very young age to be bloodthirsty and carnally minded. They were fed on raw meat as children and whipped if not promptly obeying.

When the girls reached the age of 13 they were welcomed into a compound where they would earn their keep by cooking, cleaning, and performing for the men of the household. When boys reach the age of 13 they would join the military to become fighters, spending the first few years growing stronger and learning how to fight. Their end goal was to torcher and decapitate the enemy. They practiced on each other, sometimes fighting to the death, as well as with large wild cats. The boys who did not prove themselves strong enough were sent to join the girls at the compounds.

Nineveh was known to be merciless. In order to feel powerful they did all they could to further the pain from their hands. They beheaded the men that they killed during battle to keep their families from identifying them. The heads were brought back as trophies. They would burn them in a bonfire to honor and worship their king.

The king was sly and cunning. He made sure to teach his people that there was no other god than him. Telling them not to pray to an imaginary nymph, but to bathe in blood and call out his name. He wanted to be known as the most powerful being alive. In his efforts to prove this he wrestled lions and skinned prisoners alive. He ran a murderously efficient empire to terrify both his own people and anyone else who heard of them. The king was proud and vain, and encouraged his people to be likewise. The wealthy wore in fine and elaborate dress and jewelry.

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Jonah Chapter 1

2 ...Nineveh, that great city, ... for their wickedness is come up before me.

The (fictional) True Crime Story of Cinderella - Part 13

This charming couple decided on a one month long engagement. During this time they went shopping, to social events, and dinner with his parents. Suspicious, Cinderella said little, and acted as gentile as she could, considering she had never been in society. 

She tried to buy the most affordable options, but her prince of a fiancé insisted she get the finest and best they carried. She ducked her head to avoid prying eyes, but Emmerett smiled to the crowd and waved. And at dinner she sat uncomfortably at the table with the rest of the family. She was served her food and waited upon as if she was a princess. She couldn't remember a time when she sat at the table and ate dinner with a family.

As much as she was hesitant to trust them, she liked the way it felt. She wanted to like them. To keep them.

The wedding was as grand as their three-day party had been. Scrumptious food. Elaborate decorations. And the most exquisite dress she had ever seen. And it was hers to wear.

On her wedding night her new husband approached her with gentle kindness. He wasn't rough or aggressive like she had feared. He kissed her tenderly and this time it tasted like cream cheese frosting. His cologne smelled sweet to her and drew her in. She was nervous to be close to him, but didn't want to escape. Before she let him undress her she couldn't stop herself from asking, "How many girls have you brought here?" She was afraid he had brought Anastasia here that awful night of the party. 

Emmerett looked confused. "To our wedding suite?"

"No." Cinderella didn't know how to proceed. She huffed, "Why did you choose me? Why am I here? Is it because I wasn't as easy as those other girls you kissed at your party?"

"Other girls? I didn't kiss any other girls-"

Cinderella's mouth fell open. And she stormed across the room. "You didn't kiss any other girls? You didn't seduce anyone else like you did to me that first day?"

"Seduce you? I was enchanted by you. Cinny, you're amazing!"

"I forgot something at my home."

"This is your home."

"It's not my home without my friends. I need to go get them."

"I'd love to meet them."

"Likely not. No one ever likes to meet my friends."

"Why? If they're friends with you I'm sure we would get along."

"You really want to meet them?"

"If it's important to you, of course." He approached her slowly and tried to lead her back to the bed.

"Let's go now. This is their favorite time of day."

"Now?"

Cinderella left the room and went directly to Emmerett's car. Emmerett followed behind her.

When they arrived at her house she told him to have a seat and wait for her to return with her friends. She then grabbed a basket and walked out the back door. First she went to she shed to collect a box of poison. She wrapped that in a kitchen cloth and put it in the bottom of the basket and laid another cloth over that. Then she went to her mothers grave and foraged for a mouse. They loved to play at night so it was easy for her to find them.

When Cinderella stepped inside her house with the basket Emmerett's eye brows went up as he peered inside. His mouth formed an "O" and he let out a high pitched noise that surprised hi new wife. He reached in to hold one. 

"I didn't know you had pets. We can bring them home and let them live in the courtyard sanctuary. They would be the perfect addition to the flowers and trees."

"You like my friends?"

He smiled and let out a soft laugh. "I knew there was more to you, and I'm sure I will never stop being surprised by you. But yes. When I was a kid I used to bring them inside to show my mother. She was not amused." He took her hand that was not holding the basket and kissed it. Then he scooped her up and carried her upstairs to the bedroom. 

The following week was full of newly wedded bliss. They took a trip to New York City where she saw buildings that went all the way up to the sky. They listened to jazz music and saw the city from from the Queensboro Bridge. It was spectacular. 

When they returned home she decided that she must have had the best time of her life and nothing would ever compare. This felt like the ideal time to even the score. She baked her favorite cookie recipe with a very small amount of rat poison added. She would not be lied to, and she knew that he kissed the most evil girl who ever lived. Emmerett was happy to see Cinderella settling in to her new home. He gladly ate two cookies hot and fresh from the oven. 

Mr. Cadmotter entered the kitchen and Emmerett offered him a cookie. 

"I'd be delighted, thank you." Mr. Cadmotter took a gooey one from the middle of the pan. Cinderella's face paled as she watched him eat it. He was always kind to her and had never kept a secret from her (so she thought).

"These cookies are as delightful as you are, Ms. Cinny. I have enjoyed every encounter I have had with you. I do apologize for not stepping in sooner with that misunderstanding, but I'm glad it has all worked out."

"What misunderstanding?" Emmerett asked.

"Oh, on the second night of the ball. What a disastrous night." He turned to Cinderella, "I had been asked to keep an eye on you, because Emmerett knew you were the one he had been looking for after the first evening. I watched you both feel betrayed by the other."

Emmerett and Cinderella were intrigued. Mr. Cadmotter felt uncomfortable as he shifted his eyes from one confused face to the other. He took another cookie from the tray and as he backed out of the kitchen suggested, "You should discuss what happened that night."

The newlyweds stood in awkward silence for what felt like an eternity.

Finally, Emmerett admitted, "He's right. I was jealous. I watched you dance with every man in the room other than me. It hurt. I had already had a bad encounter so I distracted myself with too much to drink. I'm deeply sorry for my behavior."

Cinderella glared at him. "I only avoided you because I saw you kissing another girl on our balcony." she scolded. 

He gaped. "You saw that?"

"You lied to me! You said you didn't kiss anyone else."

"I didn't. She kissed me!" He protested. "That girl was crazy. When I couldn't find you in the ball room I went upstairs to the balcony. She followed me up there and cornered me. She was a flirt and was obviously only interested in me for my money. She grabbed my collar and kissed me. I tried to be polite but I had to hide in the restroom for 20 minutes to escape her."

Cinderella looked like she was about to throw up. She reevaluated her choices from the last two months. Then she looked at him and kissed him more passionately than she ever had. "I love you, Emmerett." Then she took the tray of cookies and dumped them in the trash.

"Hey, I was going to eat those."

"You don't need those." Then she took his hand and led him upstairs to their room.

The (fictional) True Crime Story of Cinderella - Part 12

Cinderella left the sisters huddled together in the cold, too weak to follow her, and went inside to clean up. First she straightened the house as she would have any other day. She lit the fires and swept the floor. Then she rearranged the rooms removing the frivolous trinkets that belonged to the false owners who had previously resided in each room. When she was finally done she had three sacks of useless trash ready to be disposed of. She dragged them out to bury them alongside the corpses that once valued them. 

When she returned Drisella was cold and blue. She would never again breathe a hateful word to anyone. Cinderella tugged her ankles and heaved her across to the pit. She exerted more energy trying to move the plump little piggy.

Anastasia was cold but still alive, barely. She was still covering her eye socket. The bleeding had slowed, and she seemed to be delirious.

"Okay. I'll be your friend and we can be sisters. I love you, Cinderella." 

Cinderella froze at her words. "You mean it?"

"Yes, of course I do." She spoke slowly and was deliberate with each of her words. "We're practically twins. And now with mother gone you'll be allowed to be a lady like me. We'll be best friends!" She put her blood-stained hand out. 

Cinderella drew close to her and knelt beside her taking her hand. Anastasia gripped her hand as tight as she could and with her other hand she thrust the same knife that had killed her mother into Cinderella's chest. Cinderella fell backward. 

The two girls laid on the cold ground with cold hearts. One dying from being poisoned, the other not dying. Cinderella looked down at the pairing knife protruding from the fleshy joint of her left shoulder and pulled it out. 

"You wicked liar!" She cried and Shoved it into Anastasia's other eye. 

Anastasia didn't cry. She didn't move. She was completely still. And at last, her games were over.

Cinderella stood up and realized that her tormentors were gone forever. That her home was now hers and no one else's. 

She finished her work, filling the pit with every unwanted thing that had ever been brought into her home. Before she covered it with dirt she removed the dirty smock she was wearing. The cold air bit at her bare skin, but she didn't mind it. She was free, and nothing else mattered. 

Sore, exhausted, and freezing she made her way back to her home. Just as she reached the door she heard a vehicle coming down the driveway. She watched for a moment to see who it could possibly be before realizing she was completely naked except for her boots. She rushed through the door and spied through the window. The car had stopped next door at the Taylors house.

She bathed and dressed quickly. She took a brief moment to look in the mirror and was proud of what she saw.

She didn't wear a dirty smock or a fancy evening gown. For the first time since she was 5 years old she wore everyday clothes. Clothes like those she dressed the mistresses in nearly everyday of her life.

There was a loud knock on the door. She opened it with wet hair dripping onto her fresh blouse.

"Good afternoon miss, we are here to speak with every lady who lives in this house." A kind man in a black suit announced. 

"This is my house. There is no one else living here."

He nodded once and produced the glass slipper from his pocket. "It has been requested that every young lady try on the impeccable shoe."

She gasped at the sight of it.

"If I may?" He knelt and lifted her freshly washed foot without waiting for her to answer. A strike of shame shot through her. She had been vigilant in hiding her feet from everyone since the day she cut off her toe. 

The man was not disgusted, however, but after slipping it on to her foot he turned to the car and beckoned the others to join him. Mr. Cadmotter got out and opened the door for Emmerett McCune. Both Gentlemen joined the first on the porch.

"Cinny, it is you!" He fell on her, embracing her tightly, nearly crying.

She felt two things. First, pain. Her wounded shoulder throbbed at the pressure. And second, fear. She was scared that she would have to marry him. An idea fizzled into her mind. She's had to work hard her whole life. He is very rich. If she married him she wouldn't have to labor ever again. 

The next morning Cinderella and Emmerett announced their engagement, but she schemed to kill him after they married if he mistreated her.

The (fictional) True Crime Story of Cinderella - Part 11

When they arrived home Cinderella was already making soup. It was full of vegetables and meat ready to mend their upset tummies. Carrots, onions, celery, garlic, and potato. It also had pigeon meat and and another serving or two of rat poison. 

Cinderella was glad to see the ladies too sick to stay at the ball any later. It meant her plan was working and she would soon have succeeded in freeing the world of these retched monsters. Madam's symptoms weren't as bad as the mistresses, which made Cinderella nervous. She hoped it would still work on old women.

Cinderella served them their soup while they rested on the couches. They didn't have the energy to climb the stairs to go to their rooms.. 

"Everything will be okay if you just eat this soup. I made it special for you." she directed melodically.

By the next morning Madam was also relegated to her bed as well. They were all weak and pale, almost green. Cinderella suggested they take a small walk around the garden to get fresh air. Madam glared at her. 

"You really are a buffoon, aren't you." she wheezed, "Unlovable, hideous, disguti-h-h-hing twit" She coughed out a small amount of blood.

Cinderella took the opportunity to speak over her, "Not everyone thinks I'm ugly. Emmerett McCune thinks I'm beautiful."

Madam rolled her eyes. "You have such an imagination." She patted her mouth with a tissue, "No one can see past your callused hands and your scarred back. I have made sure of that!" 

Cinderella looked at the woman who was once her step mother. "You did all this to make me repulsive? Are you jealous of me? Of my mother? Well-" she pulled the sapphire amulet out of her shirt, "my mother is proud of me. She granted my wish to let me go to the ball."

Madam was shocked to see such an exquisite piece of jewelry. "Who did you steal that from?"

"My mother left it for me."

"Your mother never had jewelry that expensive."

"No, I mean at her grave. I'll show you." 

Madam scowled at her. "You want me to leave my bed to see your mothers grave. You really are the stupidest child."

Cinderella left to check on the other girls. 

Anastasia was lying on the floor with her lower legs on the seat of the couch while Drisella was curled up in a ball at the one end of the other couch. She had vomited on her pillow at the other end. Cinderella stroked the hair out of Drisella's clammy face. 

"Don't touch me, freak."

"I don't know why you always call me that."

"Uh, what else am I supposed to call you? Slave-girl? You're a freak."

Cinderella straightened, "Your mother says you will feel much better if you get some fresh air. She wants you to sit in the garden with her. Would you like me to help you walk out there?"

"Ugh! Why does she ask so much of us?" Anastasia slowly pulled her knees to her chest and rolled to her side. Her stomach gurgled.

"Come now, you don't want to make her cross."

Cinderella helped them walk outside. They walked all the way to the shed before Drisella slumped to the ground and whined, "Where is she?!" 

"Well actually, I wanted to tell you about something amazing that happened to me. She pulled out the necklace again and told them, My mother sometimes grants my wishes. She brought my mouse back to life when I was a little girl, and she gave me a dress and this necklace so I could go to the ball!"

"I guess I could call you crazy. A crazy freak." Drisella almost laughed.

Cinderella ignored her and said a wish out loud. "I wish you ladies would be my friends. I wish that we could be sisters. I wish we could all love each other. And if you will, I wish for you to recover."

This time both girls did laugh.

"We could never love you. You're disgusting." Anastasia mocked.

"So you can't see past my scars and imperfections?"

"What is there to see? That's all you are."

At that, Cinderella got something from inside the shed. It was the glass slipper. Anastasia's face drained of whatever color was left, and she glared at Cinderella.

"Where did you get that?"

"Mr. O'Leary gave it to me on my last day of work with him."

Anastasia lunged for it, but Cinderella shoved her to the ground.

"That's mine! Emmerett said he would marry whomever had that shoe! Give it to me!"

Cinderella's face scrunched with with puzzlement. "He wants to marry me?" She was surprised, flattered, and then concerned.

"You are the ugly ones." She said to them. "You treat me like you hate me and expect me to do everything for you. Well, I've had enough." 

Then she stabbed Anastasia's right eye out with the heel of her glass slipper. Anastasia shrieked, lifting her hands to the wound but blood spilled through her fingers.

"Now you wont have to see how repulsive I am."

Drisella's eyes grew almost as big as her fear and she tried to scoot away. Cinderella jumped on top of her. She may be petite, but she was also strong, much stronger than these lazy girls, especially in their weakened state. Then Cinderella stabbed her left eye out. 

Too weak to run, or even walk, the sisters crawled to each other screaming and crying and leaning into each other.

"You are evil." Cinderella declared, Standing over them triumphantly, holding the bloody shoe. "And evil can't win."

"What is this god-awful racket out here?!" Madam scolded as she stumbled out to find her daughters.

"Mother!" "Mother!" The girls called, hoping to be rescued.

Cinderella smiled, knowing her plan had worked. She slipped into the shed to wait for her. As Madam got to the side of the shed and could see the sight of her daughters holding their faces covered in blood she hurried to them.

"What is God's name has happened here?!" 

Cinderella emerged from the shed, this time with the same rope she uses to tie the chickens feet when she butchers them. "Step Mother, you joined us out here near my mother's grave. How gracious of you."

Madam turned her head to look behind her at Cinderella, then her body pivoted and her arms spread out protectively in front of her children. Cinderella laughed this time. Amused by the powerlessness of these people who have had so much power over her through her entire life. 

"You foolish woman. You think you can save them. You are the one who taught them to be like this. I gave them a chance and they wouldn't take it. Now you all must perish."

Madam lunged at Cinderella but Cinderella caught her in the lariat loop of her rope pulling tight to restrain her arms. Then she secured the other end on the hook hanging from the shed. She then tied her feet and retrieved the ax. 

"The first time I ever had to kill someone it was at your request." She said as she paced along Madam lying on the ground. "It took me a long time to perfect it, but over the years I have learned a lot. I learned how to tie their legs and slit their necks."

Madam gulped.

"Mostly I learned that you are evil. And there's no more space for evil in this world."

Cinderella played with the axe as she spoke, easily holding the handle in her right hand and bouncing the flat end in her left hand. 

"Do you remember when you told me to cut off my toe?" Cinderella asked, and then let the head of the axe fall on one of Madams feet. Three screams erupted at the action. "Come now, Step-Mother, there is worse pain. The pain of losing a parent is sharp. Sharper than this axe, even. I have lost two parents, even three if I count you."

"I was never your mother."

"No, you weren't. Were you?" Cinderella got the pairing knife from the shed and knelt down next to Madam. She leaned over her face and asked, "Why have you always hated me?"

"Pff. What is there to love. Your father was a scoundrel, but he loved me. We got pregnant with Anastasia before he knocked up your mother. Then you stole him from me. Thank goodness your mother died, or-"

Cinderella slit her throat. She would not listen to her mother being disrespected. She stood and turned to the sisters. Drisella passed out. Anastasia was sobbing uncontrollably. "Oh stop it. You never once heard me cry and I've gone through a lot worse than you have." 

Cinderella unhooked the rope from the shed and started pulling it, dragging Madam's body to a pit that she had prepared for their grave. She shoved it in with her foot and walked back to the house.

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What is phosphine?
• Phosphine is a gas formed when water or acid mixes with rat poison that contains
zinc phosphide.
• Zinc phosphide is a chemical compound of zinc and phosphorous.
• When rats swallow poison with zinc phosphide, it mixes with stomach acid and turns
to phosphine gas.
• Phosphine has no color.
• Phosphine can smell like garlic or fish, but it can be in the air even if you don’t smell it.
• Phosphine stays close to the ground when it is in the air. 
You can get headaches, nausea, and diarrhea.
• You can get dizzy or drowsy.
• You can get chest tightness or a cough.
•  You can have trouble breathing.
•  Your gums can be pale and can bleed
• shock,
• convulsions,
• coma,
• a weak heartbeat, or
• low blood pressure.