THE OFFERING

nathanielorion:

The pomegranate juice on Cain’s hands and the lamb’s blood on Abel’s are the same red. But there are tears running down Abel’s cheeks, hot and fast and guilty, because his hands were the ones that caught his animal when she tumbled out of her mother. He wipes at his face, smears blood on his cheek by accident. He has never been more ashamed. He has never looked more like his father.

Spurned, unadored by God, with ruby pulp in his clenched fists, Cain resembles their other parent.

Prove to me your love, says the hungry God.
It is not a sacrifice if you lose nothing in the giving. 

Cain puts down the fruit, breathes through the dread that washes over him, and looks at his brother.