Free Revelations by Julie Lynn Hayes Page A

please, tell me what is this I feel, what must I do…
    “Master!”
    The spell is broken. I can feel Judas’ disappointment in me, once again, as he swears under his breath and moves away from me, leaving my hand flopping in space. I pull myself together as best I can, turn to face the newcomer. “Simon,” I greet him with a smile. “Is all well?”
    “Yes, but it’s almost time,” he says, grinning at me most ingenuously. Like the child he is sometimes. “Mary M sent me to find you. She said she thought you were here.”
    This only produces a longer string of oaths from Judas. Kyrie eleison , I sigh to myself. Oh my little firecracker, how easily he’s set off—but mostly he is noise and smoke. He means no harm, and yet he manages to hide the best part of himself from everyone else. Don’t ask me why. I do not claim to understand that man. My life would be so much easier if he and Mary would get along. As well as he and the other apostles.
    “Thank you, Simon, I’m coming.” He envelops me in a great bearlike hug, before returning to the building behind us. I can’t afford to linger now, and perhaps it’s wisest that I don’t.
    I have to go in now. Yes, I truly do. Now. Go. In.
    But before I do…I move toward my irritable Judas without pausing to think about what I’m doing, impelled by something I don’t truly understand. Something inside of me is urging me, and I find I cannot do other than obey…I put my hands on either side of his lovely face, pull him toward me and…

    …and I lock our lips together in a kiss. Not just any kiss, but the kiss to end all kisses. Not that I’ve not kissed Judas before, I have, and others as well. But this is different and I very well know it. My lips are afire from this kiss, and I suspect his are as well. He’s trembling in my grasp.
    And as quickly as I began it, I end it. And coward that I am, I draw back from him, noting the very confused expression in his beautiful eyes. “I have to go,” I whisper, and before he has a chance to react, I’m safe within the confines of the tent once more, trying to hide the fact I’m trembling from head to foot.
    What did I just do, and why? And why do I want to still be out there, doing it again?
    Father, please, talk to me?

Chapter Eleven: Judas
    What the fuck just happened?

Chapter Twelve: Mary Magdalene
    There’s a good crowd tonight. A very good crowd. Friendly enough, the little I’ve seen of them. Not too sophisticated and yet not too backwoods, I think. Other than a few who gawp at the band, their mouths open in amazement, doing a bit of a dead fish impersonation. But you get those everywhere.
    I look up in surprise as the boys begin a new song. Some sad melody, about someone who loves a person he can’t have. Oh, so that’s how it is, is it? I have to smile, in spite of myself. I can definitely guess who that’s aimed at. I hope he’s listening. And writhing. It serves him right. Am I too open in my hatred of that man?
    Mary stands beside me. She lays her hand upon my sleeve, and I bend closer to hear her words through the music. “Appearances can be deceiving…” Nothing more. I can’t even be sure what she’s referring to, but I have some idea. From the corner of my eye, I notice Jesus re-enter the tent. Simon must’ve found him, just where I’d known he would be. Where I’d known they would be, actually.
    He’s heading toward the back of the stage now, and even from here I can see his agitation, most apparent in his flushed cheeks. Seconds later, I see Iscariot.
    He’s looking a bit wild-eyed himself—guilty, even, as if he’s just committed murder in the first. He seems to be even redder than Jesus. He looks as if he’s trying to beat the devil himself in his haste to be inside. At first I think he’s following the Master, but no, he’s heading away from him now, and I lose sight of him in the crowd. Not that I care, of course, but now my curiosity is piqued. I exchange glances with