Background

She was born in 1976 in a rural village in Romania during the height of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s totalitarian regime. Her family was devoutly Christian, clinging to their faith in a nation where religion was highly monitored. Her name, Parascheva, chosen by her mother, outed them, but their devotion stubbornly prevailed. She was quiet and observant kid, just obediently going through all the rituals of Church. Fasting, prayers and services. All she knew. There was no place for childhood. She was destined to be the next soldier of God, and there was no other future for her in her parent's eyes. But as Parascheva got older and wiser, she started to see the true potential of religion and its authorities. No mere guidance to spiritual, but something greater. A way to have power and control. As she reached her teen years, she showed a great sign of brilliance. She could recite entire psalms from memory, just to turn to her parents and question the logic of forgiveness and righteousness. She spoke about their faith a little, but when she did, it haunted them. Her father, set on the goal to make his daughter understand the true grace of religion, started taking her on missions. She would travel with him and his group, bringing food and scriptures to elderly believers, praying over dying patients. She would see the devotion of people. She would hear their pleads for God to save and spare them. And when God didn’t answer, she wouldn’t even flinch. They weren’t worthy of Gods saving. This world was riddled with unworthy diseased, and with each death, each unheard prayer, her point prevailed. Noone was ever righteous in her eyes. Not all the saints and martyrs she met or heard about, not even her parents. Only she was. But that all changed, when she met her. Non believer, yet absolutely divine. Unyielding spirit, even though all the hardships and loss. In her, she saw the true potential. With her by her side, they could cleanse this world of the filth. Where others would see love, she saw a covenant. Bond between two angels of judgement. And as their time together passed, Paraschevas devotion to her only intensified. She would follow her everywhere. And as they started their journey to America in the year 1995, on their own path of redemption, her lover's righteousness gave her the power to face her own darkness. But God wanted his soldier back, and when the apocalypse started, she would start to see the daisy's harshness as the true divine justice. For her, it wasn’t apocalypse. It was the slow path for this sick world to cleanse. And as years passed, the world slowly ending, she would travel by her lover's side. Still devoted, obsessed.