The stench and filth of the dark city alleys made it difficult to breathe, but it was in these narrow passages where I could increase the distance between us. It had just rained too, which would make it even harder for him to turn corners on the damp and slightly oily asphalt. Nobody should have to live like this, constantly on the move, never being able to stop, it just isn't normal, but then who the fuck knows what's normal anymore? I chant my new mantra in order to keep my breathing rhythmic and even. I can't afford to pass out from exhaustion, not now, not when he is so close behind me.
"There is no rest for the wicked."
"There is no rest for the wicked."
"There is no rest for the wicked… "
I hardly notice the pain in my legs any more from all the running. Over the last few months my body has come to terms with the fact that I am now a runner. I used to joke with people that "I only run when being chased, or eat something that doesn't agree with me." Now I can't even remember why anyone ever even remotely thought that was funny. It fact, it has been exactly six months to the day that I've even heard the sound of laughter.
It was all those people in Times Square, laughing at me, laughing at how wrong I was, laughing that I misinterpreted what I was 100% sure was absolute fact. I couldn't understand it at the time, because it wasn't the math I was wrong about, it was the translation. I had the dates all right, but what was actually going to happen was all wrong. As I turned a sharp corner, almost slipping myself, I go over it again in my head like I have done countless times before.
The idea of the "Rapture" is a reference to the "being caught up" referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when in the End Times, the Christians of the world will be gathered together in the air to meet HIM. "Rapture" is derived from Middle French rapture, via the Middle Latin raptura ("seizure, rape, kidnapping") from Latin raptus, "a carrying off." The Koine Greek text of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 uses the verb form ???????????? (harpag?sometha), which means "we shall be caught up" or "taken away," with the connotation that this is a sudden event. The dictionary form of this Greek verb is harpaz? (??????). This use is also seen in such texts as Acts 8:39; 2 Corinthian; and Revelation 12:5. The Latin Vulgate translates the Greek ???????????? as rapiemur, meaning "to catch up" or "take away." English versions of the Bible have translated rapiemur in various ways: The Wycliffe Bible (1395), translated from the Latin Vulgate, uses "rushed."
The Tyndale New Testament (1525), the Bishop's Bible (1568), the Geneva Bible (1587) and the King James Version (1611) have "caught up." The New English Bible, translated from the Greek uses "suddenly caught up" with this footnote: "Or "snatched up." The Greek verb ?????? implies that the action is quick or forceful, so the translation supplied the adverb "suddenly" to make this implicit notion clear."
But I know now that they were all wrong, it wasn't Rapture, it was Raptor. I know, because I can feel his hot acrid, rancid breath on my neck this very moment. My mind turns back to the Book of Isaiah.
"There is no rest for the wicked."
"There is no rest for the wicked."
"There is no rest for the wicked… "
I can hear the all too familiar clicking of his razor sharp talons on the pavement. The sound of his grunts and odd vocalizations not far behind me seem deafening. I turn my head to see just how close he has gotten, which would be my final mistake as I trip and hear my ankle actually SNAP! At least I know now that the running will be over with, not to mention everything else.
As I lay prone on the ground and wait for the inevitable end of my days, I run the translations again in my mind as the events finally unfold. The Raptor is now upon me. The Raptor rushes me. The Raptor has caught me. The Raptor has seized me. The Raptor is coming. I am suddenly drowning in what can only be described as millions and millions of year's worth of pent up prehistoric semen.
It is at that instant that I realize that my actual final mistake was the mistranslation of the word "coming," and the sudden awareness that no one in the world could have ever prepared for this.
