Chapter 31 - Scarlett
Scarlett
I gasped, jerking up in bed when a flood of freezing water washed over me. Immediately going to wipe my face, my brain sent me into a straight panic until I remembered that it wasn’t Thomas who was doing this, and it certainly wasn’t Azrael.
Biting my tongue against the snarl, I forced my arms down and lifted my eyes as the water dripped down my spine and the goosebumps washed over my skin, hardening my nipples instantly.
Kat stood above me, an empty bucket in hand as I tried to will myself not to shiver.
“Take off your clothes,” he ordered me, his accent thick.
“All of them. When you are done, walk down the hall, down the stairs, and to the right. You will sit and behave yourself or face the consequences breaking Lady Elise’s rules brings. ”
Without another word, he turned and headed out the open bedroom door.
I glared after him.
Sit? Was this a mind game? Strip us naked to humiliate us? To leer?
Fine, I had been leered at my entire life. Naked? No, the only man that had ever seen me completely naked was Azrael. Not even Thomas saw me without underwear and a bra, but I wasn’t a person here and I certainly wouldn’t cower from their rules.
I would not give them a single inch. In fact, I’d show them exactly what I thought of their precious rituals. I couldn’t help but wonder how funny Lady Elise would find it when they saw their sacred symbol burned into my chest upside down.
I stood and jerked my soaking dress down to my ankles. A shiver shook through me, my nipples painfully.
They would see everything.
Everything Thomas had done to me. Everything Azrael had. The scars they had reopened that proved who I was and who I belonged too.
I had been wearing them with pride since the moment he had given them to me, and I would wear them with pride now.
I lifted my chin and with all the grace I was allowed, given my injuries, I headed for the door.
The hall was wide and lined in doors of varying peeling pastel colors. Pinks, blues, purples, greens, and yellows.
The floor was made of old boards that gave a little with each step, and I half wondered if the men I heard talking yesterday could even come up here for fear of falling through it. Maybe that’s why Kat was the only one who had come up since yesterday.
I counted a dozen doors from me to the winding stairs, but there had been another hall in the opposite direction, just a few doors down from mine, and my guess was that there were more doors down that way too.
This house was nowhere near as large as ours, but it was huge.
I couldn’t help but wonder why the Leaders allowed so many of their sons to keep going through their Favorites.
How many men and women in this place had Thomas’ pathetic friend sent here?
How many more were dead somewhere in these woods because they couldn’t control themselves?
It was horrifying.
Still, I wondered who had slept in my bed before they captured me. Were they buried somewhere in the trees? Had they torn them to shreds and turned them to ash?
Where was the graveyard?
Was there a graveyard?
I ran my fingers along the old wooden railing delicately as I walked down, the living area coming into view halfway down the spiral stairs.
It matched the upstairs well. Old, forgotten, hardly cared for.
There was a wide monitor, a television I assumed, sitting in front of several chairs and an old couch.
I couldn’t see the kitchen, but I did see two other halls as I reached the bottom.
One behind the stairs and one to my right.
I studied the front door before continuing on, seeing some sort of pad next to it.
A security pad, which meant that I would need to get someone’s hand if I wanted out, most likely Lady Elise’s.
I glanced down another hall, seeing more doors, these ones better looking than the ones upstairs.
I studied them for only a moment before taking a right. The hall was short, the room at the end opening into a space about the same size as Azrael’s office. There were no windows and yellow lights hung high above, flooding the room.
On one side of the room was a stage with a large wooden cross surrounded by white light that made it look like it was floating. Directly in front of that cross was an oak podium.
In front of it were three long rows of wooden pews, split down the center, people already filling them, completely naked, just like me.
On the other side of the room were old mattresses laid inches apart from each other. Each one was stained with questionable fluids, all thin and old. I didn’t have to wonder what they were used for.
One half of this room was made for talking about purity, the other half was meant for proving how impure we were.
I turned back to the pews and studied the people without emotion as I walked to the end of the third pew and sat beside a boy around my age. Thin, dirty, unruly hair. He was taller than me, but by the way his bones protruded from his skin, I knew he weighed far less.
I folded my hands over my knee, one crossed over the other, and sat up straight, chin lifted, gazing at the podium with a cool gaze.
“Pride isn’t something you should wear,” the boy whispered under his breath, pulling my eyes over.
He looked so sad, so…scared. “I know you want to clothe yourself in something to hide away, but you can’t. They take it all as disobedience. All of it.”
I searched his eyes before turning back to the stage. If pride got me punished, then let it. I had made a promise to myself never to shrink for anyone ever again. That included the people who thought they were untouchable.
We sat in silence for only a minute or two before I heard the heels clicking against the old wood, heavy feet behind her.
I looked over, giving a sharp smile to Lady Elise as she walked in, greeting me with a smile of her own.
“Wow, look how chipper you are,” she hummed, walking towards the stage.
“Welcome to the Gallows,” she said as she stepped up onto the stage.
“Take note, my pets, this is how you show up to roll call. Although, she is so very new, her husband trained her well, now it’s our job to break that training. ”
The boy beside me looked over, searching my eyes, such sorrow in his own before he turned back, his eyes cast down to the floor.
He didn’t have any tar in them, I realized, but I already assumed he wouldn’t.
My goal was to memorize faces, write down names, and see how many people were here working for Lady Elise.
If it was just Kat and the two men that just walked in, I could take them with ease.
I had my doubts they were anywhere near as skilled as Havoc or his brothers.
It would take me less than thirty minutes to kill them all if I could find a decent enough weapon.
After that, my hope was to find a phone and call Azrael.
“Now, for our newest addition, we’ll answer some basic questions, but seeing as how you refuse to speak, I will have to assume the ones you would ask based on the ones the others have,” Lady Elise began.
“The kids sent to us are killed immediately upon delivery. We don’t have time to deal with brats.
Anyone above 18 is kept. Most think that the older ones are harder to control, but most of the time, it’s the children that prove to be the biggest problem.
Screaming and crying. Pissing the sheets, not satisfying clients the way we need them to.
It’s just easier to kill them right off the bat. ”
Satisfying.
Satisfying.
I had often thought about what Absolution was, what they did here, and my suspicions were confirmed instantly by her choice of words.
This was exactly like the Back Hall, but so much worse.
Favorites were sent here to be punished for whatever law they broke, and what was the most sacred law we had to follow?
Remaining pure.
What better way to punish us for breaking their law than forcing us to break it over and over and over again? Condemning us to the Hell we deserve to fall in.
It made the rage burning within me flame.
“There is no leaving the house unless we say. The door is locked 24/7 and only Mack and I have a key.”
I had once considered cutting off Azrael’s hand to keep it with me, I held no hesitation cutting off one of theirs.
“No wandering around the house after the sun sets. Dinner will be at 6, evening service directly after, you will be washed directly after, brush your teeth, and be in your rooms when bathtime is finished. For the newest member, you are not to wander at all. Not until you are more…settled,” she smiled.
Not until she could trust me not to run.
“Breakfast is at 7am, service directly after, lunch at 12. If you miss a meal, you starve.” She tapped her sharp jaw. “What else?” she hummed. “Oh, you will wear whatever is in the closet in your room. Who were the last ones in there?” she asked, turning to the man on her left.
“Katie and Bethany.”
Lady Elise beamed. “Oh good, they had lovely clothes, didn’t they? Dresses, I believe, and I found you in a dress,” she said, turning back to me. “Do you like dresses?”
I only smiled. I would always love dresses. They wouldn’t change that. Not ever.
She chuckled. “Good.” She looked me over, her smile falling only an inch. “Mack, how long will it take for the bandages to come off?”
“Doctor said a week. Two at most.”
“Hmm, well, we’ll have her retrained by then.
“Pastor Gordan,” she called. “Pastor Gordan will be leading the sermons, which you will attend after breakfast every single day,” she explained to me as a middle-aged man stepped onto the stage.
“You missed breakfast today, which I will let slide because of the drugs you were under, but Kat will be getting you on schedule tomorrow.”
I wasn’t hungry anyway.