I knew we couldn’t go through with all this again. I couldn’t put Ari in danger like that… I just couldn’t. But I also knew that no matter how much I warned her of the risks that she would only do it all over again, even if it meant she would get caught right alongside me.
So that’s why I knew that from now on we both needed to make sure we made no more mistakes. We had too much riding on being allowed to leave in a month’s time.
Just one month.
After years of suffocating with what felt like the Fathers’ hands around our necks we would finally get a chance to breathe clean pure air for the first time. Air that hadn’t been polluted by lies and blind devotion of the worst kind. The kind that infects the mind and poisons the good right out of people.
The type that killed our mother.
I closed my eyes against the anger that one thought invoked within me and exhaled as I turned my back to the window letting go of my bitterness…for now anyway. But that’s when I felt it. Those hands around my neck squeezing the breathable air from my lungs as panic started to seep in.
My eyes snapped open and I took in the dark room trying to make sense of the cold dread. Was it the vision? Was it my old fears coming back to haunt me? Then it hit me as a voice penetrated the room and all other fears before now seemed lost in a sea of insignificance.
“Hello Katie.”
That’s when I felt it…That’s when I felt the ice. So I said the only thing my fear would allow me…
“Hello Uncle.”
Chapter 5
A Crimson Moon
Sat here now staring at the Divine Judgment passed down by God was as unnerving as awaiting my own judgement. Studying the two neighboring cities as they were completely consumed by fire and brimstone offered little comfort and I was starting to hate the painter John Martin. I shook my head for where my thoughts were leading to for the millionth time, wondering where Ari was.
Once I was caught red handed I had expected my punishment to have been delivered down there in the basement, however this didn’t happen. After finding him sat at the base of the staircase in the dark and on a rusty school chair waiting for me, I had expected him to lash out when he stood. But to my surprise and trepidation my Uncle had done nothing but motion for me to precede him up the stairs. I had done so slowly, waiting for the physical ‘catch’ that getting too close to him could mean. But he had simply let me go to climb the stairs only to find my mother waiting for me.
I don’t know what was more surprising in fact, to find I wasn’t half beaten yet by my Uncle’s hand or that my mother remained silent during the whole thing. She just handed me a black bag and led me to my sister’s room which was in the attic. I had hoped to find Ari in there waiting for me, but it was empty.
“Where is Ari?” I asked but my question was ignored.
“Get dressed. The Ritual starts soon.” These were my mother’s parting words to me as she slammed the door, locking it behind her. I dumped the bag on the bed, finding every scrap of clothing I owned in there. I wasn’t sure what their game was by putting me in here but when I looked around the small room it didn’t take me long to find the thin mattress that had been thrown on the floor. Part of me was delighted that I had been moved up here but the distrust in me quickly killed all hope that losing my own room was my ‘punishment’.
I tipped all the clothes out onto the bed and grabbed the only other dress that I owned. It was a thick black woollen dress that was only to be worn during the leaving ritual. I laid it out and after fishing out fresh underwear I started to undress. I walked to the chipped ceramic bowl that sat on a wooden desk next to a battered copper jug.
The crude washing station was situated under the window and stood only in my underwear, I began to shiver. But it wasn’t the cold that penetrated my skin that caused this. And even when I poured the freezing water into the bowl, picked up the slither of soap and began to wash did it affect me. No, it was none of these things that racked my body to shake and forced the tears down my cheeks. It was looking out into the night to see the full moon high above the barn. The abandoned barn I had found solace in to escape the pain I would now feel tenfold. Because I knew something was coming. Something bad would find us of that I had no doubt and the lights coming from that usually dark barn told me as much.
They knew…everything.
So here I was, sat awaiting another cold moon to shine and illuminate the horrors to come. Sat here staring at the sight of destruction wondering what my own would be. The only hope I could hold on to was that they didn’t know Ari’s part in all of this…but if that was the case, then where was she?
I flinched when I heard the bolt slide back on the door behind me.
“It’s your turn.” My mother said and my lip curled in disgust before I faced her. I didn’t say a word but when I stood I straightened my back and showed no fear, something I knew from one look at her she was disappointed with.
I wanted to shout and scream at her. Inside my mind I turned my head to face her as I walked past and snarled the words ‘You’re sick!’ but my lips never moved. In another thought I lashed out and attacked her smiling the whole time. In fact, every step I took closer towards her I had time to play out a number of scenarios in my mind, none of which I would do but I certainly found it helped.
I followed her down through the house and for the first time I realized just how stark it was. There were no pictures on the walls or ornaments dotted about the place. I was suddenly hit with the vision of another home, one filled with warmth and character. Family pictures decorated the walls, along with art work that I knew came from a family member and was placed there with pride. Then there was an attic room, much like the one Ari and I now shared. Only this one was exactly how I imagined decorating my own room, should I ever get the chance to own such a thing. A bed with a thick purple quilt bursting with scatter cushions to match looked like it would feel like heaven. Books were laid out without worry of being found by prying and judging eyes. A small heap of worn clothes were left without fear of a reprimanding hand and the sin of jealously hit me hard. That was the life I wanted, the life I craved so badly that it almost felt like my life stolen from me.
I shook the confusing thoughts from my mind as I continued to walk the depressing proof of this life, one that I lived instead of the one I wanted. I didn’t think I had seen a single flower enter the house and amongst all the grey, a flower would have been something you wouldn’t have forgotten. It was like a soulless island void of colour, hoping that the world beyond couldn’t touch it with its beauty, in fear it would lose its intense power of misery.
We reached the front door and as I touched the door frame I noticed the only decoration I had seen, which was a simple wooden cross nailed to the wall. I don’t know why I was drawn to it the way I was, as I had never noticed it before.
“Come on, stop stalling!” My mother snapped and as soon as the words were out, the cross spun on its nail and swung round so it was upside down. I knew this to be the Petrine Cross and one that was a sign for the Antichrist. I looked back to my mother and for one split second saw a monster staring back at me.
It was like my mother’s human face was fighting with the demon inside of her. As though her shadow was coming alive and trying to free itself from the confines of her body. The demon shook all around her and vibrated away from her face, showing me another demonic one screaming to break away. Its eyes were distorted holes dragged to one side as it tried to pull itself free. The mouth was the same, open wide in what looked like a death call, one void of any features that would be classed as something coming from a human. No teeth, no lips, nothing to suggest other than the true nature of this beast belonged in Hell…
And it was coming from my mother!
“What are you staring at, you insolent girl!” She barked making her face snap back to normal and when I looked back to the cross I saw it too was back to its usual position. Was I losing it? Had that all been in my head or was something
of a higher power trying to tell me something. Even if this was so, I didn’t need a vision like that to know I shouldn’t be trusting my mother, or following her as I was doing. But I had little choice. I needed to find Ari and I had the worst feeling in the pit of my stomach that was exactly what I was going to find right behind my mother’s steps.
“Nothing.” I mumbled wondering what my face had been like when seeing her like that. It had been as if her skin had excreted an evil vapor, one that was forming another side of her…the true side of her.
I continued out through the front door looking up automatically at the moon. It was as if one of the gods was holding a flash light down at the earth and homing in to watch this new horror play out. Well as far as I was concerned he was free to jump in and save my ass at any moment.
Although nothing they preached to us suggested for one moment that the Gods cared for us, if anything they were perceived as more cruel than anything else… that, of course was if the stories told were to be trusted. In fact, Ari and I believed this wasn’t the case at all and we were only led to believe these things as another form of control. Just another way for them to use fear as a tool to get us to do as they saw fit. It was sickening to think about it but the warning signs were all there as plain as day.
So I closed my eyes for a moment as if trying to absorb the power the night held. I needed to be strong. Ari needed me to be strong. So I opened my eyes and screamed! I screamed out in utter terror as that brief strength left me. I felt my body start to shake and convulse with a fear like no other. The sight before me was Hell and the work of the Devil and it was no longer below us but surrounding where I stood.
Bodies all around me were strapped to X shaped frames and they were screaming. All eight girls were naked, bleeding and on fire with their flesh melting from their bones. None of them had passed out like you would have believed or at least died from all the smoke they surely inhaled. No, it was as if they were being forced to stay alive until there was nothing left. And then one by one with their last dying breath, they each held out one arm that the flames couldn’t touch and pointed a finger at me. I shook my head walking backwards as they each blamed me for what was happening now.
“No...! No, no…NO!” I first shouted my denials before screaming them. Then one by one the light went out, leaving one black charred body after another, until no flames surrounded me. I let out an almighty scream, damning the Heavens above only to find my reply was a full moon that turned red…
A crimson moon.
“I won’t tell you again!” For once the sound of my mother’s voice was welcome as it transported me back from that Hell, one I didn’t understand. Why was I being shown these things? What was I supposed to do? It felt like there was something the Gods wanted me to stop but without seeing these thing in the real world then I remained clueless.
“Where are we going?” I asked as we walked away from the direction of the barn.
“To the feast of course.” I faltered in my step and looked back at the barn to see the lights were still on. I knew walking away from it was a mistake but when my mother grabbed my arm and yanked me to follow her, I felt I had little choice. But wait? Did I really have so little choice…what would she do…kill me?
“Run…run to her, Keira.” A voice spoke to me as if searching me out from the back of my mind. Keira, I had heard that name before? Where had I heard it…think Katie…think, Keira? But wait, that wasn’t my name. Then why had it come from my thoughts as easy as thinking to breathe?
“No.” I found myself saying out loud. My mother, who still had hold of my arm, gripped me tighter and turned her head to look at me in disbelief.
“What did you say to me?” Her voice changed into something terrifying but for once I wasn’t scared of her. I yanked my arm free feeling the scratch of her nails tearing at my skin.
“I said NO!” I repeated leaning into her face and witnessing the change from anger to shock. I decided not to wait around for her to retaliate but instead I turned on my heel and did what my heart told me to do.
What I needed to do.
I ran towards the barn with everything I had in me knowing deep within my soul that something was happening. Something that had to be stopped! I needed to get to that barn before it was too late.
Before…
“Ari! Oh god no. Ari I am coming!” I shouted when I heard her screams coming from inside the barn. I reached the doors and wrenched them open not realizing that they had been locked from the inside. I don’t know where my strength came from but right at this moment I welcomed it, even if its source was borrowed from the very Devil himself!
I suddenly came to a standstill there in the doorway and the sight that met me was without a doubt the very core of where my nightmares lived. Ari was naked and strapped to the X frame we had seen being wheeled in there earlier that day. Her back was marred with bloody lines from the whip that one of the Righteous Bloods held in his hand.
He had been torturing her and she had been gagged until recently as I could still see the bloody twisted material, slipped down to around her neck. Her wrists and ankles were red raw from her efforts in trying to escape. But this wasn’t the only thing that turned red raw as a bloody mist overtook me, something sharp and twisted… and I snapped.
“That’s it Bitch, scream for me…I like it.” He whispered in her ear after forcing her head back by her hair. So I quietly stalked closer and grabbed an old rusty pitchfork that was lent against a beam. I was moving with only half my mind as my own as though another part of me was possessed. I felt like my limbs were drumming with an energy like no other. As though my blood was singing with every step we took and before I knew it I was crossing over to the dark side.
I grabbed his hair from behind, wrenched his head back with that same strength borrowed and whispered,
“Scream for us Bitch… we like it.” And then I forced the pitchfork up under his chin, impaling his head on the wooden pole. Blood spurted from his mouth and forced his lips and cheeks up like he died smiling. It was a haunting sight but one the other side relished in and instead of screaming at the sight of what my hands had done, they simply dropped his head like waste, letting his body follow.
“Katie?” Ari asked, barely able to lift her head up to look at me.
“It’s me Ari…I’m here now.”
“What is going on in…?” I heard my mother’s voice coming but before panic seeped in a strange impulse kicked in. I flung my arm out and looked just in time to see the doors to the barn slamming shut before my mother could enter. I saw the chain I had snapped wrap around the handles like a snake and hold there against my mother’s banging. I had no clue how I had done that, or any of this for that matter but I knew now was not the time to waste in wondering.
“Are we going to die now, Kay Bear?” My sister asked finding my eyes for the first time and I held her face in my hands to answer her.
“No, Ari, we already died here…now it’s time for us to live.” I then kissed her on the forehead and went about getting her down from the ungodly device. I hated heard her hisses of pain and they grated along my spine like fingernails dancing on my backbone. Once I got her down and let her weight fall into me I knew now there was only thing left to do.
“Wait here. I will be back.” I ran to the ladder and this time climbed it with no problems. I found the stuff I had stored, grabbing the blanket and water flask that still had a few mouthfuls left in it from when Ari had refilled it for me. It was a lot darker up here but at least I could see what I was doing thanks to the oil lamps that had been placed below. By the time I got back down to Ari I knew we didn’t have long before our mother had no doubt told the Fathers we were in here.
“Wh…what are we… going to do?” My sister’s hoarse voice croaked out the question. I knew there was no way we could escape, not yet anyway as Ari was in no condition to run cross country, let alone stand up on her own.
“I have a plan. It may sound insane but we have no choi
ce.” She nodded once and said the only words I needed to hear…
“I trust you.” After these words of encouragement, I got moving. I tried not to gag when I had to put my foot onto the Righteous Blood’s head and pull him free from my own implement of torture. I then dragged him as much as I could up against the X frame and put the whip back in his hand. Then I rushed back to Ari just as we started to hear voices approaching.
“We need to scream Ari. Do you hear me? We need to make as much noise as we can so that everyone from the feast hears us. We need everyone, not just the Elders or this will never work.” She understood what I was trying to say and at the same time we started to scream for help.
“HELP US!”
“HE’S TRYING TO KILL US!” I added banging on the door knowing it would hold with the chains still in place.
“Everyone will hear them.” I heard my mother’s voice say to someone in warning and sure enough she was right. The next thing we knew we could hear others coming to our aid.
“HELP US, WE ARE TRAPPED AND HE’S TRYING TO KILL US!” I shouted again and then I knew it was time to get rid of the evidence…the only way I knew how.
“Still trust me?” I asked as I held up the oil lamp I had unhooked from the nail.
“Torch it.” Ari replied making me smile. So I did just that. I threw the lamp aiming at the dead Righteous Blood’s feet, satisfied when it exploded around him.
Soon the flames engulfed him and for a few horrifying moments I was taken back to my vision, knowing now what it had been trying to tell me.
They wanted me to do what I couldn’t do for them.
To become…
My sister’s savior.