Chapter 23 Scarlett #3
I lowered myself to my knees, spreading them out so I could sit on my ass on the ground.
During my stretches, I had discovered that this position not only felt nice on my hips, but also on my spine and the joints in my knees.
I smoothed out my skirt all around me, slid my hands over my thighs, and felt the muscles in my body begin to relax.
They never relaxed much, but in this position, it was like my body could breathe.
My eyes fell shut again, the exhaustion sweeping over me.
I heard a shift in the seat, the warmth of his eyes spreading across my skin, my chest, my waist, my legs. “This is your favorite?” he asked, something shifting in his voice.
I did like it the most, and isn’t that what ‘favorite’ meant? The thing a person liked the most?
I tapped my finger once.
“Why?” he asked quickly. “No,” he corrected himself. Azrael went silent, but the air had changed, and I wasn’t sure why. I didn’t think I had done anything wrong. I had followed his rules, but I could feel the difference like a blanket on my skin.
He was quiet for so long, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time slide through me. I felt the urge to look. I wanted to see him. I wanted to see why he had gone silent. I wanted to see what had made the air change.
I didn’t hear anything except for our soft breathing. There were no zippers being drawn or panting or grunting. He was sitting in front of me, and that was it. Both of us just…sitting.
“The thing is, little sinner, I don’t get paranoid, but I also don’t believe in coincidences.
Everything is a choice, everything is said, done, breathed, acted on, for a reason.
” He paused. “You were brought here for a reason. I don’t care what thing you put behind it, whether it be your God or the universe, you were given to Thomas Masters for a purpose, and I have found it. ”
A purpose?
My purpose was to be Thomas’. It was to marry him, have his children, and be given back to the church. That was my purpose.
“But I won’t tell you what it is until it is necessary. Tell me, what is Thomas’ purpose? His plan. To marry you? To breed you?”
I tapped my finger. That was my purpose, there was no mystery about it. I was to have five children that he would take away from me, and then I was to be donated to the church.
“That was a test,” he told me. “I saw you in the hallway, little sinner. I saw the good Pastor fondle you. I heard what they had to say. Trust requires the truth, which you have given me.”
Did he think I would lie? I didn’t think I had ever lied in my entire life. I wasn’t allowed.
“Did you know that this church, your church never purchases anyone at those conventions? They never trade; they only sell. The only time they bring others in is during those auctions, unless, that is, the children of the members have come of age. 6 now. Younger and younger every year. Did you notice that there aren’t many like you here? ”
No, because there were. There were girls and boys just like me here.
I wasn’t sure how many, but it wasn’t a small amount.
They were simply given more freedoms. They spoke, looked people in the eye if the time called for it, but they were just like me.
The Leaders just hadn’t taken favor in them like they did me, so their owners had more say in what they did.
I’ve heard that some have even become Pillars. Even now, I didn’t think I would ever choose to be a Pillar, but I had my doubts I would ever be given that choice anyway.
Azrael was quiet. “You’re smart—”
Was I?
“—you would have seen it, so what have I missed?”
He sounded as if he were angry at himself for missing something. Why? Nobody was perfect. God was, but us little humans? We were sinful creatures. Here to do God’s work whenever it was called of us, nothing more.
“Are there others like you here?”
I tapped once.
“Married?”
Some, not all. I lifted my finger only a little and tapped.
“If you know how many, count them off.”
I tapped my finger slowly, counting the ones I knew of in my head. “One…two…three…”
When I was finished, the chair shifted. “23. So I was right, this church has been going on far longer than the auction has.”
Of course, it has. The Church of Daylight began in 1991.
The Founder established it here in Seattle, but there were only a few members then, the Elders.
It’s grown every year since. Some believed that the Church was founded in 2015, the same year as that first auction, but that’s just when it became more public.
I wasn’t sure how difficult that information was to find, but I did know that not many people really asked questions anymore.
It existed now, what did it matter the year it was founded?
“What year was it founded?” he asked me.
I tapped once, paused, followed by a nine and then a pause, another nine, and finally a 1.
“And how many churches?”
I tapped my finger seven times. He should have already known that.
“Testing your knowledge,” he said almost to himself. Azrael stood, his steps silent as he walked up to me.
A nervousness filled me, followed by a feeling of sorrow. I could feel him waiting, watching. I pleaded to God that he wouldn’t want me to open my mouth. I didn’t think I could handle anymore cum.
“Trust requires patience,” he explained, his voice low as he hovered over me like some kind of dark god.
“I have very little and so very much at the same time. I fear it’ll be difficult with you simply because you do as you’re told no matter what happens.
You don’t care about the punishments. You don’t care about the consequences.
You do it because you’re told and that, my dear little sinner, is called faith, and you have put yours in the wrong people. ”
I felt those metal branches slide around my jaw, forcing my head up until my neck was craned back, until I was sure that if I opened my eyes, I would meet his.
“I need a faithful little servant, and you need a god you can believe in, a new purpose, but the thing about this god is that he is vengeful and possessive. He is unforgiving and seeks out blood and carnage. He doesn’t like to share, especially when he finds someone possessing everything he needs.
Which makes this a very big problem, don’t you think? ”
All he wanted was information, that much I was beginning to realize, and he believed I had that information. I didn’t know why he wanted it or what he would do with it, all I knew was that I was now his Favorite, and rules were rules.
Well, I suppose there was one other thing; all his attention was now on me. Every ounce of it. Rules were rules, but even if they weren’t, I would have given him everything he wanted. So long as those eyes stayed on me and only me.
I tapped my finger once, feeling that strange pulse between my thighs again. A heartbeat. An ache.
“The rivers will run red soon, until then, let’s look at this like a game,” he purred, that lilt back and stronger than ever.
“I like games. The more intricate, the better. So, here’s how it will go; we will abide by their rules and regulations, the titles they have put in place, but that will all be make believe.
Pretend. Because the truth is,” he went on, crouching down to my right, allowing me to lower my head just a little, “from here on out, you’re my pet.
I own you. You are my doll to manipulate and use. My little sinner.”
That flutter happened again.
Make believe? Games? I never got to play games growing up, all I was allowed to do was color. I never had toys, not after the age of two. I was never allowed to play make believe because it was childish. Were we really going to play a game?
“Something made you change,” Azrael said, his voice studious. “Do you like playing games?”
I tapped my finger. I wasn’t sure, but I still wanted to play. Even through the exhaustion, I felt something inside of me shift.
“What do you like most about them?” he asked. “The puzzles? The toys? The stories? The pretending?”
I tapped my finger four times. All of it, I think.
“Oh?” I heard a smile touch his voice. “And which do you like the very most? The toys?”
No. I mean, I never really had them, so I wasn’t sure. I suppose that wasn’t the entire truth. I liked stuffed animals. I remembered a stuffed bear I had, or my mother must have told me about it because I did remember it. I used to hug it all the time. I must have liked it.
“The stories?”
I did like stories, but the only stories, except for my favorite one, that I was allowed to read were about the church, and I didn’t really like those stories.
“Pretending?”
I tapped my finger. I imagined in my head all the time, and that was sort of like pretending, I would assume. I loved making up stories. Sometimes, I laid in my bed at night and pretended I was somewhere far away from here.
“In my world we call that an alias. A secret identity,” he told me, his voice softer, chilling. It warmed my skin, sending shivers across my arms. “If we’re to pretend, then you need to pick a new identity. Someone from a book, perhaps?”
My heart thudded and I tapped my finger. The Queen of Hearts, that’s who I wanted to be. More than anything else in the world. I wanted to be her.
Azrael was quiet a moment. “You were allowed a book when you were younger, one book, so I’m assuming you want to be a character from that book. But which one?” He paused, studying me carefully. “Peter Pan?”
“No.”
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?”
“No.”
“How about Snow White?”
“No.” I didn’t know what any of those stories were.
He was quiet for a long time. “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?”
My heart skipped and I tapped once. “Yes, that one.”
He pulled his cane towards him, stretching my neck.
“Chaos in all its glory,” he hummed. “But it’s not Alice you want to be, is it?
No, you are far too smart to be someone who tumbles down a rabbit hole and drinks potions placed on tables.
Certainly not the Absolem or the Cheshire Cat either. The Mad Hatter, perhaps,” he mumbled.
For the first time in a very long time, I felt something bubbling in the pit of my stomach.
Something that gave me energy and made my insides shake.
Excitement. I felt excitement. Nobody had ever talked to me about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Not one person. Mother hated the book I had chosen, and I wasn’t allowed to have any friends.
Thomas certainly wouldn’t hear any of it, and then I lost my voice.
To be able to have someone who knew the story talk to me about it? Of course, I was excited.
“Oh, I know,” he purred, lifting my jaw up, exposing my throat. “The Queen of Hearts. You do look so lovely in red, little sinner, it must be her. I guess I picked the right clothes for you after all, didn’t I?”
I felt the muscles around the corners of my lips twitch, and I knew exactly what that meant. A smile. I felt the want to smile. I tapped my finger again.
“Such a good little sinner,” he sang in pride, causing my bones to zing.
“It seems we’ve both been looking for the same things, haven’t we?
So that’s who you are then. You are Scarlett, the Queen of Hearts, and I will be your Mad Hatter.
Outside of these walls, we are pretending.
Abiding by the laws of the people who run this world until we can escape back to mine, back to Wonderland, but don’t mistake the names, little sinner.
You must understand that I will enslave the queen for the information she has on her crumbling Kingdom, and the Wonderland we are escaping to is not the Wonderland you remember, but something much more fitting for your pretty little mind.
Do you understand what I have said to you? ”
I tapped my finger, feeling something warm behind it. Something electric. If I had to name the feeling I suddenly felt, I would have called it joy.
“Good. Soon, I will tell you your true purpose, but not until you are ready. It is not what you think though. It has nothing to do with that horrid little creature who calls himself your betrothed.”
Suddenly, I felt his warm breath tickle my lashes, causing that flutter to shift into a throb between my legs, causing my fingers to flex against my thighs. His breath smelled of the same mint that still coated my tongue.
Our mint.
Our tongues tasted the same.
“The red paint is blood, little sinner, and we’re going to drown the whole world in it.”