Chapter 5 Scarlett
Scarlett
It was the annual auction tonight, and the room was far more crowded than I had ever seen it.
Two years ago, we had to move to a different location, and by how many people were in attendance tonight, I had a suspicion that they would have to move again.
I was required to attend because Thomas was required to attend. My betrothed, my owner. The man who took me under his wing and forced me to learn his way of life.
Their way.
And now I was here again, like clockwork, watching the next batch of lost souls get sold around the Church of Daylight.
Some of them would be Favorites recycled through the seven churches and their branches, some would be new blood, sold to the church to pay off a debt or offered up for a comfortable life somewhere on the hill.
The new ones would fall for the kind smiles and promises of a better future, and the seasoned ones would know exactly what to do in order to get a better Pillar for themselves.
Although their choices were never good.
I knew, deep in my heart, that I should be feeling something for them, especially the younger ones, but something inside of me had been broken for so very long.
I no longer had the capability to feel anything at all. Not even sorrow for the kids that didn’t know any better.
This was their fate. They would either live by the laws of Daylight, or they would be carted off to Absolution and never seen again. It’s just how things worked in this world.
But if they were chosen, all they had to do was follow the rules. If they followed the rules, maybe they wouldn’t get the lashings I had gotten.
Or maybe they would. Maybe they would all have the same scars I now had.
The truth was that I couldn’t be sure how it would actually end for them. We weren’t allowed to speak to each other. Not unless our owners permitted it, and mine never did.
Thomas had been fairly kind to me until the day my mother had died.
The second I became a ward of the church the warning slaps turned into lashings.
The kind touches all became cruel. The Leaders started to show their true colors as if they had all been afraid that she would have taken me away from them if they had said the wrong thing.
The leashes were cut the second they buried her, and I had adapted as quickly as I knew how.
Today was different though. Today, I could feel a new pair of eyes on me from where we stood on the far-right side of the room. We were near the front of the stage, but still a healthy distance away.
Despite the fact that he always wanted to stand close enough to see the stains on their clothes and hear the whimpering of the new ones, Thomas never bid on anyone, even though he preached about saving them all the time to the other sons of the Leaders.
His father, however, Pastor Masters, liked saving them.
He liked redeeming them, giving them the ‘wings of God’.
The ability to flourish, to stay out of Absolution.
I knew nothing about Absolution, even now. I didn’t know exactly where it was or what happened when you got there, but I did know it was somewhere I never wanted to go.
The weight of those eyes came and went, but they were always warm. They weren’t cold like most I’ve felt over the years, and they certainly weren’t as chilling as the eyes I had seen at 9 years old. Although no gaze had ever been as chilling as his.
I had to follow the rules and keep my eyes down, so I wouldn’t see who was behind me, but I think even Thomas knew that tonight was a night I would gladly take my punishment so long as I could see the faces on that stage. I had to see their faces. I didn’t know why, I just…I needed it.
So when the room went silent and Pastor Masters greeted the room, I prepared myself for the inevitable. My body tensed, my stomach twisting. I’d get a few lashings across my back, more scars to add there, but the pain would be worth it.
“God says love is everywhere. In the air we breathe and the words we share, but more importantly, He says that there is no greater love than the innocent love of a child. Unfortunately, these children have committed a great sin, and it is our job to save them. We must show them the beauty of love and forgiveness. Teach them the ways of God and His everlasting grace. We do have returners tonight as well, some who are very eager to find their new home. With that being said, here I give you this year’s group. ”
Soft claps erupted around the room and my eyes lifted instantly, lingering on nothing and no one but that line of children they were ushering on stage. None of them younger than 12 this year, no older than 17.
17 was a little old to be up there though which told me that he was definitely a Favorite here for the second time. After tonight, if no one found him good enough, he’d be shipped off, never to be seen again. At least not by the people at my church.
I could see the fear in some of the children’s eyes, but also a glassiness in others.
They must have been drugged to be put up there without screaming.
I wondered what debt their parents were trying to pay off or which of them had been born into the church and were now being sold tonight for a paycheck so their parents could live comfortably.
Thomas’s hand wrapped tightly around my wrist, a sharp pain erupting up my arm.
My eyes shot down, my heart pounding. They would be treated well, I knew they would be. All they had to do was follow the rules, that’s all. If they followed the rules, everything would be fine.
~ ~ ~
June 23rd, 2019
My favorite story was Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. When I was growing up, I was only allowed one book outside of the books the church provided, and at 4 years old, that’s the book I chose.
I had loved everything about it since the very first sentence. Alice and her bravery, the white rabbit, all of the friends she meets along the way, but my absolute favorite character was the Queen of Hearts. Mother always questioned me.
“She’s the villain. She’s violent and ugly inside and out.”
But she was the queen. She was powerful and her dress of red, white, and black, was always so beautiful in my mind. It never mattered that she was thought to be the villain in everyone else’s eyes, I loved her.
I had reimagined the story a thousand different ways.
Pretending that Alice was the villain, encroaching on Wonderland, uprooting the lives of all those around her while they tried to live.
I imagined that Absolem and the Hatter, the twins, the hare, and the white rabbit were all the Queen’s friends who helped her and loved her.
They never wanted Alice in Wonderland, not even the white rabbit.
I imagined that she ruled powerfully. She beheaded all those who wronged her, and her friends loved her even more for it. For protecting Wonderland. For protecting their home.
My mother hated how I viewed the book so much that she threw it out, but I had read the story so many times, written my own versions, that I didn’t need it anymore. I had my own.
Sometimes, I liked to imagine that I was the Queen of Hearts, and the church was my punishment. All my friends had disappeared, and I was all alone. My colors were stolen, my cards were gone, and I was enslaved to the rulers of this world.
But it was all just a fairytale in my head. It wasn’t real.
I could feel those eyes again today, warm, prickling the back of my neck.
I knew why he was staring. It wasn’t hard to guess.
All new members stared at me because of my condition.
Most thought I dyed my hair but quickly learned that I was born this way.
Born as the Blessed One, the Chosen One.
Born to serve this church, mind, heart, and body.
I was never a fan of new members because a lot of the time they were visiting from other churches, hoping to get a moment alone with me, but this one was curious.
Did he talk to Pastor Masters yesterday?
Did Pastor Masters invite him to church?
Had he bid on someone? He wouldn’t have been allowed without a signed contract to at least one of the Daylight churches, but then again, I saw the feet of all the people who walked up to collect their little projects.
None of them belonged to those eyes. I would have known.
If he were close enough to me to collect his purchase, I would have felt his eyes like a burning heat, but they had remained distant.
So, if he didn’t go to the auction to bid, maybe he had just come to inspect how this one was run. It was the first, after all. The first one of seven to be founded.
Usually they sent Leaders to inspect other churches, just to get an idea of how to run theirs better, but he could have been a Pillar too.
I suppose there was a chance he was a regular member who was going through the initiation process of becoming a Pillar, which would explain his presence last night and his not bidding.
Before anyone could become a Pillar, they had to go through unknown tests. Some knew about being tested before they joined the church, others just wandered in off the street searching for a good church to call home.
Thomas had once said that we were advertised in specific places so that we could bring in specific people.
I wasn’t sure what exactly that meant, but by the looks of the people here, I knew he was telling the truth.
Everyone here was rich and beautiful. High members of society.
The elite, Thomas had said to someone once.
That made sense to me only because of how much we went for at the auction.
Nobody from the normal part of the city would ever be able to afford us.
I guess ‘saving people’ came with a price.
There were different levels of passing when it came to being one of them.