45. Celine #2
“Absolutely not. Now is not the time to play hero, Esther. We’ll find another way out,” Alex disagrees with her plan.
“What other choice do we have? You two are the ones that need to—” She gets cut off by two strong hands that grab her shoulders.
Her eyes expand as the man yanks her away from us, roughly pulling her from the comfort of being hidden behind the pew. As I watch them take her away from me, it’s like I can feel her fear as if it is my own.
She reaches out silently, begging for our help. Begging us to stop them from taking her. From killing her. My chest heaves, and my eyes are ripped from hers as Alex jumps into action. He immediately grabs Esther’s wrist and tugs her arm, causing the priest to stop mid-movement.
The man has begun pulling Esther to her feet, causing Alex to stand with them, and he tries to get a stronger grip on her by pushing the man away.
Help him.
In an instant, he loses his hold on her as another priest tackles him from the side. Alex gets body slammed into the floor, and a loud thud mixes with the haunting screams throughout the room. The priest lands on top of him and tries to pin him down, but Alex fights back.
DO SOMETHING!
“Let me go!” Esther screams at the top of her lungs.
Her voice snaps me out of whatever trance I was trapped in. When I look at where she is, I see her thrashing so wildly, desperate to be released. She moves so violently that another man has to come and help detain her.
My body is burning with rage, and I can feel the blood rush to my head, giving me the adrenaline to charge at the man who is trying to hurt Esther.
“Let go of her!” I yell.
With my eyes glued to the one who is holding her, I begin charging at him. I hadn’t realized that the priest who came to help him control Esther was no longer there until I was met with pain as his hand struck my face.
His hit is so powerful that my body twists, and my knees hit the floor. I catch myself with my hands, stopping me from my face hitting the dark tan carpet. My ears begin to ring as the pain grows.
A pair of worn-out boots steps into my line of view. The priest squats down, entangles his fingers in my hair, and jerks my head back to force me to look at him.
I can barely make out the light echo of a man in the background who curses, “Don’t you fucking touch her!”
The deranged man with the death grip in my hair brings up his other hand and aggressively clenches my cheeks together, causing me to wince from the extra pain he is causing me. A light squeak escapes my lips as his fingers dig into the already tender spot from being slapped.
He lets out a low chuckle, and it’s in this moment that I know he is just as insane as Father Keaton. They all are.
His lips curl upwards, and he says, “Stupid girl. Know your place.”
Before he stands, he spits in my face. I bring up my hand, wiping away the fluid as I hold back a gag.
His shoes disappear from in front of me, and when I look to watch him walk away, he stops.
Spinning on the heel of his boot, he gets closer to me, and to hopefully keep me down, he brings his shoe to my ribs.
I collapse to the floor and gasp for air. I hear another mutter coming from the distance. “Fucking bastard.”
Through blurry vision, I see Alex finally get out of the man’s hold. He turns around and hits the guy so hard that it knocks him out. Alex doesn’t waste a second; he races over to the priest, who is still standing over me, whose face is lit up with satisfaction at the pain he caused me.
That is, until he is met with Alex’s fist.
With one punch, the priest is stumbling back.
“I fucking,” Alex seethes as he throws a second punch, and the man hits the floor, “told you,” with the third punch, Alex tightly grips the man’s shirt, lifting his upper half off the floor, “not to,” the fourth punch is the final blow, and the man’s head hangs, “touch her!”
Alex screams at the unconscious priest’s face before dropping his limp body to the ground. He doesn’t take a breath before he turns to me. When I look into his eyes, I see a flash of anger mixed with regret and sadness that he didn’t get to me in time.
He kneels, wrapping his arm underneath my shoulders and gently lifts me up. I hiss through the pain; my ribs surely broken from the impact of the guy’s boot.
When I stand, my vision and hearing fully return. Chaos surrounds us in every direction, but I frantically look around the room for Esther. The two men are trying to push her to the steps that descend into the water, but she hasn’t given up. She fights with every muscle in her body, and so do I.
I pull out of Alex’s hold, knowing he’ll be right behind me as I run down the aisle towards the pool. Esther manages to get out of their clutches, spins around, and uses her nails to scratch at their faces.
Hope flares in my chest seeing her fight back, but it quickly deflates when I see Father Keaton reach for her hair, wrapping it around his wrist. With a hard tug, she falls back, the water splashing over the edge.
“Esther!” I roar and keep pushing past the other women who are fighting for their lives. Ignoring the ache in my body, I find every ounce of energy I have to get to her.
I need to save her.
She can’t die.
She breaks the surface, gasping for air as Father Keaton places a hand on her chest. She looks at me, fear in her eyes, and before she is thrust under the water, she yells, “Run!”
From here, I can see her body flail, and a guttural scream leaves me. Alex wraps his arms around my waist, holding me back.
“Alex, let me go!”
“I can’t, Celine. I can’t. I can’t let you go.” He sounds like he is crying, and when I look back at him, I see tears rolling down his face. “I won’t lose you, too. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“But Esther—” I whisper.
Tears slowly drop to my cheeks as he shakes his head again. I’m unable to tell if I’m still breathing right now as I look back at the water, seeing her still thrashing around.
Don’t give up, Esther.
For once in my life, I do something I never thought I’d do. I pray.
Please God, if you exist, don’t let her die.
Alex keeps apologizing as he starts pulling me backward. “I know she is important to you, but you are important to me,” he says, his voice breaking. “I’m sorry, but I need to save you.”
Esther’s fight begins to slow, and in an instant, her body goes slack. The floodgates open as I let the tears rapidly fall down my face, and a sob leaves me. My pain, my heartache, my anger. All of it echoes through the room.
Father Keaton lifts his eyes to mine at the harsh sound and smiles grimly as he brings her to the surface. Seeing him with so much pride in his expression makes me want to rip his eyes out so he can no longer see the hurt he is causing me.
Men grab her and take her away, and I don’t take my eyes off of her until she is out of my sight.
“We need to go now, Celine,” Alex demands assertively, but I can’t feel my feet. I can’t feel anything.
I’m numb.
I don’t know what to do with myself right now. I just saw a man whom everyone thought they could trust murder my friend. A man who is supposed to dedicate his life to helping others. And yet, all he has done since I’ve been here is cause pain and havoc on the women in this convent.
The women who are here to serve God, to find their faith. To keep their hope of decency within the world alive. Only to be dragged into a pool and held down until their lungs are filled with water, painfully taking away their lives.
He took them from this world. A man who had deceived them and committed the sin of all sins. What kind of hatred and evil has to live inside someone that they can go through with something like this with no regret?
With excitement in his eyes.
Father Keaton is pure evil
“Celine,” my body is now facing Alex’s, and he gently cups the side of my face that isn’t covered in a bruise. “Celine… baby, look at me.” I glance up and see the tears welling in his eyes again. “Can you hear me?” I nod. “Okay. Good. Because I need you to do exactly what I say.”
His head nods with mine, then he turns to gesture at the two women huddled in the corner.
“There were ten women in here when we started, and now, there are only three. It’s only a matter of time before these men come for you. We need to move, and we need to move now. Take my hand and do not let go. Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” I whisper.
Alex presses a light kiss to my forehead, grabs hold of my hand, and slowly walks us along the wall. I turn my head to look at the two women in the corner who are sobbing as they kneel and pray. It amazes me that even in this cruel situation, they continue to do so.
At least Father Keaton couldn’t take away their faith in God.
One of the priests approaches them and tears the women away from each other. The woman still kneeling in the corner reaches out to her friend, her eyes burning red as she watches them head towards the stage.
The woman in the man’s hold doesn’t go down without a fight.
She is throwing her arms, smacking the man in the face, and as the struggle continues, Alex walks us slowly along the wall.
Father Keaton is out of the pool and too focused on the man getting the shit beat out of him to notice we are making a run for it.
My attention turns back to Alex when we reach the stairs, undetected by Father Keaton and somehow by the other priests. They must be entranced by how unhinged this woman is.
Quietly, we climb the stairs. Father Keaton is facing away from us, so we take the opportunity to step onto the stage and head for the door to the right.
Just as Alex has his hand on the knob, the room goes silent enough for us to hear the click of metal. My eyes lift to the wooden door, heart stopping in my chest because I know exactly what that sound is.
A gun.