Chapter 8 Scarlett
Scarlett
We had to come to church early today, I wasn’t sure why. I just knew that nobody else was here except for the Leaders, the children of the Leaders, and me.
I had always wondered why they weren’t in attendance at these meetings more often. The children of the Leaders, of which there were six, all sons, knew almost as much as their fathers did about this church, yet Thomas was the only one in attendance for the majority of them.
They each had Favorites too, although none of them were allowed to go to these meetings, just me. I think it was because I had been the first of them to be picked.
I couldn’t be sure though. They didn’t discuss Favorites often.
“The one who held the party was dealt with,” Mr. Alascer said.
“Good,” Pastor Masters replied. “And the fliers?”
“All taken down,” Joseph Kels replied. “I can’t believe Marcus did that,” he muttered. “Starting a rumor that the church was abandoned just to have a party there?”
“It caused a lot of problems,” his father agreed. “We have since taken care of it, although the reputation will be hard to rebuild.”
“I say we tear it down and build another one,” L.J. Nelson suggested. “It wouldn’t take us more than a few months.”
“But the reputation still has a mark,” Mr. Kels replied icily. “How do we repair that? The Leaders of that church lost some kids, and that poor girl—”
“She’s been Claimed,” Mr. Alascer seethed. “She’s one of them now.”
“That is just a rumor,” Mr. Edgars muttered.
“The scar has been reported,” Mr. Nelson seethed. “She belongs to one of them now. She is a part of them. Which means she’s protected by them.”
“She’s your daughter,” Mr. Young reminded him bitingly, causing my interest to pique. “You should have taken care of her when you had the chance.”
“It was your suggestion to let her live and have my fun,” Mr. Alascer snarled. “I should have never listened to you.”
A terrible mistake to make for one so new.
I had never heard of a Leader being sent to Absolution, usually that was reserved for Favorites or children not sold at auction.
Everyone else was excommunicated, never to be seen again.
But given the circumstances, it wouldn’t be an outrageous decision to send him there for what happened.
“But you did,” Pastor Masters replied, “and now we have a greater problem to deal with. The Family has hold of her, and while she may not remember what happened during her time in Absolution, there is a very good chance that one day she will, so we need to take precautions.”
“How?” Mr. Edgars asked. “They have more power than we do.”
“We need to send a message to the Elders and let them know what’s going on. Tell them that we’ve already taken care of the problem in California, but that other measures might need to be taken.”
“You can’t be serious,” Thomas said, standing up from the pew. “You’re suggesting that we take on The Family? We won’t survive that.”
“Speak for yourself,” L.J. responded. “We have the numbers.”
“Have you been paying attention to anything?” Thomas seethed. “Every person who disappears, every whisper in the darkest of allies. It’s all about them. The people in our world fear them.”
“There are thousands of us,” L.J. replied. “More if we train some of these Favorites to act as our shield. It wouldn’t take more than thirty minutes to rid the world of them, then we would truly be kings.”
Someone scoffed. “This is not a goddamn battlefield,” Thomas swore. “This is real life. We won’t meet somewhere and fight to the death, they will pick us off one by one. None of you can be taking this seriously, right?”
“We don’t have another choice, Thomas,” Mr. Young replied.
“We have to find another choice,” he argued.
“The whole underworld knows of them, yet nobody even knows who they are,” he pushed.
“We would be fighting ghosts. It’s a lose-lose situation.
Father, you have to see that. The Shadows are impossible to fight.
Nobody even knows what they look like, nobody knows their names.
All we know is that she is now one of them. ”
He was right, even I had heard of the Shadows and their strange ritual before, I was intrigued by it.
By all of it. A story whispered through the world this church lived in.
The Shadows, the sons and daughters of the infamous Malachi Adler, untouchable by all, feared by all.
They could ‘Claim’ someone if they decided that man or woman were worthy enough.
They branded them. I only knew about it because Thomas had brought it up to his father in private once.
He worried that one day, The Family would come after us, and now that Mr. Alascer had made this crucial mistake with his daughter, Thomas’ fears were coming to light.
Despite Thomas’ fears, however, he liked the idea of branding Favorites. To the point that he pushed and pushed, telling Pastor Masters how that would show the world that we were truly dedicated to the life of God, to worshiping him for all of eternity.
Pastor Masters had said absolutely not. We would not follow in the footsteps of The Family. Even if the rumors of that ritual were false, we could never partake in an idea that came from them.
One late night, however, when the world was silent, I remembered having a dream about being branded.
But it wasn’t by Thomas or anyone in the church, for that matter, it was by a faceless being.
One with horns and a shattered mask. A fallen angel, I had told myself.
A dark guardian of all things evil and vile.
I had broken the rules on purpose the next day just to punish myself for ever having such a dream.
So now hearing Thomas talk with such disgust about that very same ritual, it was contradicting.
But, I suppose, he always liked to contradict himself.
There were four Mississippi’s of silence before Pastor Masters spoke again. “Alascer, you’ve taken care of all the loose ends?”
“They took care of many of them,” he responded flatly. “I’m working on the rest.”
He sighed. “Very well. We’ll send a message to the Elders, what they do after that is out of our hands, for now, no traveling. No anything. Stay under the radar, keep quiet, don’t make any waves. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Sir,” sounded throughout the empty sanctuary and I couldn’t help but wonder if God had echoed their response or if he was watching on in silence, just like me.
~ ~ ~
December 24th, 2019
I didn’t expect to feel his eyes tonight, not on Christmas Eve. Yet there they were, lingering over me, warming me, making me want to shiver.
I have found myself looking forward to his monthly visits. Sometimes he even came more than once a month, and those times were my favorite.
I wasn’t sure if Pastor Masters had spoken to him yet, but I did know Thomas’ mood was getting increasingly worse every time the sea came to church.
I didn’t know if he was kind or cruel. He never said much, but I did know that when he came, it felt like the sea came too.
The sea in all of its infinite, unending power.
When people refer to the sea, they give it a female gender. “There she goes,” they’ll say. “Her waves are going to be rough during this storm.”
But that’s not the case, I know this for certain.
He is the sea and the sea is him.
I wondered how many ships have crashed in his waters. How many storms had he unleashed upon this world.
I wouldn’t mind him unleashing an unrelenting storm upon this place, even if the water’s drowned me.
Especially if the water drowned me.
Death would be kind in a world like this.
~ ~ ~
January 29th, 2020
Good morning, Charles,” I heard him say.
“Mr. Thorin,” Mr. Alascer greeted with a smile “Good of you to join us this morning. I haven’t seen you in some time.”
It was something they always said. He was always gone a few weeks, but I suppose they might be noticing the same things I was.
He had been changing since October. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but then I realized something important; since when does the sea ever stay the same?
It doesn’t, it ebbs and flows. It breaks off into rivers and channels and peninsulas, reaching far and wide, swallowing up cliffs and glaciers and lands.
It never stayed the same, it couldn’t afford to.
I think something was put into motion long ago and I am only just getting a taste of it now; the salty taste of something brewing.
But today, I could hear it. It wasn’t a trick of my ears or something that could be misconstrued.
Something was definitely different in his voice.
Something…darker than before. As if the sanity that had been slipping from his grasp every day for a lifetime had slipped a great chunk more since the last time I felt his gaze.
I couldn’t help but wonder what had changed.
What was so different?
Things had shifted at the church lately too.
Since Thomas told Azrael to speak to his father, the tides had shifted.
The last time a change like this happened had been the day my mother died.
The tension grew thicker, hands grew rougher, words crueler.
Last time it had been the gain of power over me that had caused it.
What was causing it now? Could they sense Azrael’s power like I could? Were they finally tasting it?
He hadn’t yet been down that hall, but something told me he wouldn’t dare pass that door until he got the information he wanted first. Still, the questions grew.
Would his voice still be the same once he passed the threshold?
Would I ever feel his warm eyes on me again after he walked back there, or would his gaze turn as cold as the rest of them? Would his gaze cause my stomach to twist and my soul to crumble?
I hoped not.
“Oh, the daffodils have been blooming, and their puzzle will soon be solved,” Azrael hummed.
Riddles. I liked riddles. I liked them and I hated them at the same time.