Chapter 37 Azrael
Azrael
I could feel her presence in the passenger seat of my La Voiture Noire. There was no fear wafting from her. No hesitation, just quiet anger.
I had awakened something inside of her, something she was using to fuel her as naturally as a vehicle filled with gas. Which made me wonder, yet again, what those SSRIs were changing within her.
I picked something more fitting for her Sunday service. Still following their rules so they wouldn’t be able to say a thing about it, but something she would feel more confident in to handle what would happen today.
Her hair fell around her in long, beautiful waves.
She must have cut it at some point herself because the front was slightly shorter than the back.
Once we married, I would ask her if cutting her hair was something she wanted to do.
They didn’t allow it here, but if she was my wife, I was allowed to change her in any way I saw fit.
They didn’t have to know that it was her choice.
I had found for her a near floor-length black dress with a black collar, and lace sleeves.
It had come with a silver chain belt that hung across her hips haphazardly but did not squeeze her body in any other way.
The skirt was so pleated that if she decided to spin around, it would reveal everything.
A part of me wondered what she would look like dancing around in this dress. A witch, I think, dancing on the graves of those who burned her at the stake in another life.
She sat in the passenger seat with her hands folded on her lap, the perfume wafting from her skin as the air from the crack in the window gently played with her hair.
She kept looking up and back down. Over and over again, staring a little longer each time, worried that those outside of the car would see her being such a sinful woman.
I had half a mind to tell her that nobody cared enough to look into the car and see her, but she was so beautiful, I had to hold my tongue, knowing that if they did catch a glimpse of her, they would certainly stare, unable to help themselves.
Perhaps she was a witch, cursed for all eternity to have such divine, incomparable beauty.
Today was the first time she had seen anything but the ground in years. I found myself wondering what she was feeling other than her newfound perpetual irritation at the realization that she was to marry someone who felt lust for her.
It was hardly a hiccup. It didn’t matter to me if she was willing or not, it was already set in stone.
I didn’t even feel the need to tell her that she was just as lustful.
Unable to control herself when she felt that need between her legs, urging her to touch herself.
She had cast the first stone when she herself had been just as sinful as I.
For 10 months I was locked away in that asylum, but I had still been allowed outside every few months. It was for their own ‘cleansing’ purposes, trying to save my soul, but I had still seen everything.
Scarlett? She hadn’t even looked around her own house in nine years. What was she noticing now that she never had before?
I studied the world through the windshield. City streets, towering buildings, cars everywhere, streetlights, street signs, thousands of people walking around, enjoying the blue skies and warm sun of a calm March morning.
I straightened then and glanced over. I knew exactly what she was seeing.
Her eyes weren’t on the sky or the cars or the signs, they were locking onto the people.
All of those people, men and women alike, children, walking around free.
Wearing whatever they wanted, not going to church or worshiping at home.
All of them smiling, laughing, talking on their phones, absolutely uncaged.
Her eyes of green, gold, brown, and black were shifting as thoughts ran through her head. They hardened and softened and hardened again. So much freewill that had been stolen from her. Ripped from her soul before she could even form memories.
Today, she would walk into the church and realize how much of a cage it truly was.
“Every kingdom, even this one, even mine,” I began, “requires a certain aspect of what’s called ‘politics’.
To go into the true definition of it would take too much time, so I will go into a simplified version.
It’s a messy game of power. Who gets it, who keeps it, and what that person chooses to do with it.
“It’s how societies make decisions about laws, resources, and rights, usually through debates, conversations, and elections.
These days nobody wants to talk, and those that do get targeted by others who would rather not hear their opinions.
At its best, it’s people who want to solve the problems, at its worst, it’s manipulation, corruption, and endless arguing dressed up as leadership.
“In this world,” I continued, keeping my voice low and serious, “the people who run your world steal children and lock them up until they are compliant. They use their power to hurt, harm, and kill. To rape and mutilate. In the real world, the politics are just as messy but far more harmful because the general population is making a choice to believe in the narrative. It’s like your church but on a much larger scale.
The laughter and smiles you see outside of your windows are ignorant ones.
The adults usually have an inkling that something is wrong, but they choose not to do anything about it, and those that do choose destructive, hateful ways to address it rather than talking rationally.
“My world,” I went on, glancing over to find her eyes locked on me, “is different in only one aspect: No harm comes to the children, not if I can help it. I manipulate to achieve my agenda, but my agenda is to shut down places like these, whatever the cost. To rid the world of the tar-filled people. Your role in the politics of my world will be the same as mine. When I am done with you, we will be at equal standing. The Queen of Hearts and the Hatter, ruling, controlling, this hysteric Wonderland.”
She watched me carefully for a second longer before turning back to the road, her jaw clenching slightly before releasing, her hands fisting and releasing.
I turned back to the road. I didn’t ever want my own children, I never had, but not only had they stolen the ability from her, but they had stolen it from every girl within the Church of Daylight.
They didn’t have that right. My sinning doll should have had the choice to breed her own little monsters if she wanted.
Had that been an option, had she wanted a child…
Perhaps I would have given her one if only to see that smile.
But they had stolen that from her. What else had they done? Did they give vasectomies to the male Favorites before they sold them?
Yes, I was the Devil that walked the world. I did everything in my power to manipulate everyone and anyone I could to ultimately achieve my mission, but children? It was a line I would never cross.
Even I have some morals.
The moment the church came into view, I purred softly in her ear, “Eyes down, little sinner. We must slip into our roles.” This would be her first true test of her will and perseverance. I looked forward to seeing how she would do knowing now what they had done to her.
I turned into the nearly filled parking lot a few moments later, people glancing to watch as I pulled into a spot and shut off the car. “Remain where you are. There is no rule in any book stating that you must open your own doors.”
Without looking back, I grabbed my cane and climbed out of the car, not caring to glance back towards the church as I walked around the front of it and opened her door.
She kept her eyes down as I took her chin in my antlers and guided her out, releasing her only when she was clear of the door.
I shut the door behind her and locked it before finally turning to the church.
They had all stopped to stare as we made our way across the parking lot towards the sidewalk on the other side, her pace keeping in time with mine.
I didn’t waste time greeting them as I reached for the door, opening it for her without hesitation.
“Opening a door for a Favorite?” one of the Pillars commented. “Blasphemous.”
“You’d be surprised, Mr. Langston, what one is willing to do if only shown a slight bit of respect,” I replied easily.
Scarlett walked inside the church and waited, her body reacting to the atmosphere around us. Tensing, prepared for whatever they would do to her.
“How dare you,” Mr. Langston huffed. “I am a Pillar of this community.”
I glanced back his way, giving him a sharp smile. “As am I, and you’ll find that despite how short my time has been compared to someone of your standing, I hold something you never will.”
He had puffed his chest out, his wife gripping onto their children with white knuckles. “And what is that?”
“Intelligence.” I straightened. “Read the books, Mr. Langston, you’ll find that the laws you claim to follow are nowhere in any book this church, the Founder, or the Elders ever wrote.”
With that, I turned on my heel and rejoined Scarlett who was still waiting patiently for me just inside the doorway, several Pillars staring and whispering while the regular congregation mingled and laughed.
Ignorant.
“Come,” I told her, and we started for the sanctuary.
Sometimes, I would purposefully speak a little too loud about questionable things just to see if even one person turned their head, questioned what I meant, but there was nothing.
In four years, not one person of the regular congregation asked a single question.
I suppose it was for the best. Who would want to take the risk of defamation for what’s right?
The soulless were screaming so loud, they were drowning out the world in their meaningless, hateful speech, and those who actually had something to offer the world were too scared by sinister words to speak up for themselves.