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She looked back to check on her charges and saw the whole population of Perdido Beach see her

Kids were spread all down the road, so for breath At the back of the crowd Zil and a handful of gun-toting thugs

Farther off, kids who had fled to the beach were being herded back onto the road

This second group fled from a different terror Fro terrified kids before him Some were in the water Others tried to climb over the breakwater and the rocks that separated Perdido’s main beach from the smaller beach beneath Clifftop

As the Prophetess had said The tribulation of fire The demon And the red sunset in which Mary would lay down her burden

Mary cried, "Come with me, children, stay with rown, forrounds of Clifftop To the cliff To the very edge of the cliff, with the blank, inscrutable FAYZ wall just to their left, the end of their particular world

Down below on the beach, Orsay sat cross-legged on the rock that had becoathered, terrified, around her Others were scra down the cliff to her

The sun set in a blaze of red

Orsay sat very still on her rock She see a muscle Her eyes were closed

Below her stood Jill, the Siren, seeht show in the west

"Are we going down to the beach, Mother Mary?" a little girl asked

"I didn’t bringsuit," another said

It was just minutes away now, Mary knew Her fifteenth birthday Her Mother’s Day birthday

She glanced at her watch

She should be troubled, she knew, afraid But for the first ti Mary was at peace The children’s questions didn’t reach her The concerned, anxious, upturned faces were far away Everything was finally going to be okay

The Prophetess did not stir She sat so calmly, unmoved by the madness around her, indifferent to cries and pleas and demands

The Prophetess has seen that ill all suffer a time of terrible tribulation This will come very soon And then, Mary, then will coel And in a red sunset ill be delivered

Orsay’s prophecy, as told to Mary by Nerezza

Yes, Mary thought She truly is the Prophetess