Rule 13 - Eisley
The world seemed to pause as I stared down at the clergy member. The actual priest of this town. It took me a long moment to tear my eyes off the middle-aged man with a stern face to scream and leap off Kansas. I rushed for my clothes and, as if my scream was the catalyst, the room went into a panic.
Everyone was screaming and yelling now. Only unlike just moments before, it wasn’t of joy and excitement, but of anger and fear. I straightened my dress and rushed to Kansas’s side.
“Oh my god, what do we do?”
“I don’t know! Where’s the fucking hammer?” he shouted. His brow was drenched in sweat and he looked on the verge of going unconscious. “Constantine, will you get me the fuck off this thing?”
“Hold on.” Constantine put his hand up and walked over to the Priest. “Father, it’s good to see you healthy and out of the hospital.”
“Yes, well, when you came to my room and told me how you’d taken my place while I was ill, I gathered the strength to return. I see my gut was right. You are not a man of god.”
I was frozen to the spot, watching the two men stand toe to toe. The priest had no idea who he was messing with. Constantine would slash his throat without a second thought. But the priest didn’t look scared. A slow, wicked smile slid over Constantine’s lips. He shook his head.
“No, no, I am not.”
A woman screamed and promptly fainted to the floor. Everyone from town had paused in their panic to watch the scene.
“I was given no choice. The townspeople felt an absence and I was told to fill it. I was only doing what I was asked.”
“They didn’t ask you to condemn them to hell!” the priest spat. “What have you done to my town?”
Constantine threw up his hands and laughed. “What have I done? I gave them life! I set them free from a world of judgment. They no longer have to abstain from the pleasures of life.”
“The pleasures like this?” The priest pointed to Kansas, still nailed to the cross. “This is blasphemous. How dare you.”
“How dare I?” Constantine laughed. “How dare you. All of you.” He turned to face the townspeople. “You didn’t know any of us, and yet the moment our car broke down, you looked down at us in disdain. It wasn’t until I was mistaken for a priest that you gave us a chance. We had no intention of hurting any of you. We just wanted our car fixed and we’d be on our way. It was you who did this to yourself.”
“You’re not an actual priest?” A man from the crowd stepped forward.
“Do I look like a fucking priest?” Constantine shot back. “Fuck no, I’m not. I know absolutely nothing about Catholicism and Christ.”
“Then none of this was true?” a woman asked.
“Everything I said was pulled straight from your precious Bible,” he told her in response. She didn’t like that. None of them appeared to be happy about that answer.
“Eisley, please find the hammer,” Kansas called to me. I blinked and looked around. I’d forgotten about him. I spun back and began looking around. Who had done this atrocious act to him?
Someone in the corner stood suddenly and it caught my eye. Mitch held a hammer high in the air.
“You lied to me,” he snarled. “You convinced me to sin.”
“You just needed an excuse to finally break free and pretend to fuck your mother. All of you were looking was for an excuse and I gave it to you,” Constantine told him.
Mitch ran toward me, hammer high in the air.
I screamed and fell to the ground, but he was faster than me and swung down, hitting me in the shoulder. The hammer hit bone and I heard the crunch of my shoulder blade.
“Oh, that was a mistake.”
I was in too much pain to move, but I heard Constantine’s boots as he stormed over to Mitch. Mitch pleaded for him not to hurt him, but it was too late. As my body began to heal itself, closing the wound and fusing bone back together, I waited on the floor and listened as a sickening slice filled the air and a body dropped to the ground, gurgling. Constantine returned to me, lifting me up.
Everyone returned to their former state of panic. Screams ran out, a gun went off, and sirens were coming from outside.
“Jesus Christ,” Constantine muttered. He plucked the hammer from Mitch’s dead hand and went to Kansas, yanking all three nails out with lightning speed. Kansas screamed with each one, but the moment he was free, he sat up and jumped off the table. He yelped from the pain as the holes bled freely while he tried to put his clothes on. His wounds were healing fast, like mine had, but it was still a painful process.
“We need to go.” Constantine grabbed my hand and waved to Kansas.
“How?” Kansas asked, buckling his belt as we fled through a door in the back. Another gunshot went off and the door behind us exploded into splinters. I screamed as I ducked, and Kansas pushed me forward. “Come on, keep going.”
Constantine led us through the back rooms, down the halls and stairs I didn’t know were there. We’d only been here a little over a week, but he navigated this building like we’d been here for years. Finally, we saw an emergency exit. He pushed through it and I flinched at the brightness of the outside sunlight. When my eyes adjusted, I gasped.
“The car. It’s fixed?”
“Yeah baby, let’s go.” Constantine opened the door and urged me inside quickly. I looked in the back and saw our luggage. Kansas hurried to the other side and we looked out to see what was holding Constantine up.
“Are you coming?” I asked. My stomach knotted, worried he’d tell me no. Had he gotten a taste of how power and religion mixed could corrupt? Would he want to stay and try to persuade this town or one close by to let him lead them?
Had he turned into his father?
Was he the new Sinister Minister?
Constantine didn’t look my way. He put his hands on his hips and sighed.
“Should we burn it down?”
“No!” Kansas and I shouted in unison.
Constantine shrugged and turned to get in the car.
“I mean, it was worth a shot. I think I might be becoming a pyro,” Constantine joked. He shut the door, turned the key, and we sped off just as people were bounding out of the door, shaking their fists at us.
He reached for my hand and entwined our fingers.
“Are you... okay?” I asked, needing to know his heart and mind were back to normal.
Constantine didn’t speak for a moment but then nodded. “Yeah. You know, it was fun for a little bit, but I think I may have taken this whole thing a little too far. They just really irked me. I don’t need their thoughts and prayers. I don’t need saving. I just want to be treated kindly.”
Kansas snickered from his side of the car. “Okay, Mr. After-school Special. I’m fine, too, by the way.” He waved his hand. It was bloody, but the holes from the nails were gone. “Thanks for that, fucker.”
“Anytime, pal. You know, I will say, that may be the hottest thing I’ve ever seen, you splayed out on the cross while our girl fucks you. I wouldn’t mind trying that position out sometime.”
“As long as I get to be the one to hammer in the nails.” Kansas laughed.
“Deal. What do you say, princess?”
My men looked at me in the middle, and I inhaled deeply.
“Just keep religion out of it and I’ll be down for just about anything.”
The End