by Erin Trejo
“I was only joking. This room is soundproof, baby. Scream for me, Rose. Fucking scream for me.” Grabbing the headboard, my hand right next to hers, I use it as leverage to slam into her. I plunge so deep I fear I might hurt her but that’s what I want. I want her to walk around tomorrow and remember me and only me inside of her. I want to impale her on me so that we’re one. I want every piece of this girl to belong to me and only me. The harder I thrust, the closer I get. Fire courses down my spine as my balls tighten. I lower my face to her shoulder, licking and kissing her tender flesh before I bite hard enough to draw blood. Rose screams as her orgasm wraps her in its grasp and pulls her under. My body jerks as I release and fill her full of the evil that lives inside of me. My tongue slashes over the blood on her shoulder and my eyes roll back in my head. My cock keeps jerking inside of her until I’ve spilled every last drop of darkness into her. When we’re both spent, I pull out and wrap my arms around her waist to lower her back to the mattress.
“Shouldn’t I go back to my room?” she whispers softly.
Anger surges inside of me. After what we just shared, she wants to run? That’s not happening. I lower myself down behind her and sigh as I nuzzle my face into her hair. I don’t know what it is about her that calms the rage in me, but I’ll take it.
“Everything has a purpose. What happened to your friend was to serve a bigger purpose. I want answers, Rose. I want to know what you were about to give her. My secrets. You belong to me and you were going to give her my secrets.” Anger seeps into my words and my arms automatically tighten around her. It isn’t until her hand wraps around mine that I realize what I’m doing. I slowly ease the grip I have on her and she pulls in a deep breath.
“There are many cults as I’m sure you already know. Not all worship Satan.”
“I knew as much.”
“Ours was the opposite of this. It worshiped God. So much so that you weren’t allowed to think about anything else.” We both go silent for a second and I’m not really sure how to respond to this. Luckily, I don’t have to. Rose begins to speak again. “We were to have children for God. As many as he wanted and with whatever man he chose for us.” I’m not liking where this is going already. Something doesn’t settle inside of me the way it should.
“And you had children?” I don’t miss the sob after I asked the question. She nods her head and my stomach drops. Rose? My Rose bore children for another man? I lick my lips, taking deep calming breathes because I don’t want her to stop. I need to know what happened to her.
“I had three.”
“How old are you Rose?” The question has lingered. I knew she was in college, but her age wasn’t something that I checked into as deeply as I should have.
“I’m twenty. I had the first one when I was twelve.” Anger eats at my insides. We’re sick twisted fucks but we would never impregnate a child at that age. My hands tremble with rage when Rose rolls over to face me. I keep my jaw locked in place, unsure of what I may do or say if I move at all. “What’s wrong?”
“We don’t do that here.”
“You kill people! That isn’t much different!” She screams at me for having the audacity to say that to her.
“We sacrifice, there’s a difference, Rose.”
“No, there is not! They didn’t ask to die, Kellin.”
“Where are they?”
“Who?”
“Your children, Rose. Where are they?” I watch her eyes for any chance she may be lying but there is none. This is her truth. This is her reality. I stole her from one hell and drug her into mine.
“When you have them, they take them. We never see them. They are to be God’s children, not our own. The babies are taken care of by the head wives until they are old enough to be placed with elder families,” she says before gasping for air. The sobs rip through her small frame, shaking her to the core.
I’m not a good man. I’m not a godly man. I’m the devil she didn’t choose to dance with, but now that I have her, I don’t plan on letting her go. I wrap her in my arms and pull her body closer to mine. The heat is stifling but if we suffocate, we will do it as one.
“They were girls. All three of them,” she whispers.
“How do you know?”
“I heard the elder wives each time I had one. Do you know how hard it was to go on with life knowing that your little girl could be the next in line for the same fate? Do you have any idea how much that hurts?” She cries harder after this last admission.
I can’t wrap my mind around any of this. How dare they use a child that way? Impregnate her and then steal her child? Listen to me! I’m a fucking hypocrite at best. Rose is right. We aren’t much different.
“I don’t know what to say to you. I don’t know what I can say to make it right.”
“It isn’t God’s work. That’s the sickest part. They claim that God is holy and gives us the best life possible but that’s all a lie. Why would God do that? Why would he take from us and never give in return?” Her questions are ones I have no answers for. I don’t know God. I don’t know what they believe but I do know that it will never happen to her again.
“I will never understand taking a child from its mother.”
“Yet you do it. You steal women for slaves. They are someone’s children, Kellin. You are sick. You are no different than they are,” she says softly, sadly.
I keep her body pressed against mine long after she drifts off to sleep. I didn’t get all the answers I wanted from her, but the time will come. I didn’t want to force anymore out of her after what she did tell me. Her life wasn’t normal. Then again, is mine? I’ve never lived outside of these walls and I don’t know what the world holds out there. If you don’t believe in everything you were taught as a child, where does that leave you?
I close my eyes and let the darkness do what it does best. It pulls me under and holds me hostage, unable to take a breath. That’s where I belong.
Twelve
Rose
Her seat is empty. It has been for days. My stomach is sick with the thoughts of what they did to her. Kellin said it was for the best, that his father would have prolonged her suffering if she had been sacrificed. I couldn’t even imagine. Now I pick at my food as Barb, one of the other slaves, sits next to me chatting with her friends. Slaves. I can’t believe that Kellin had the nerve to be angry about what happened to me, yet he is out right now scouting for new slaves. It makes me sick to even think that I care about him. Yet I do. Somewhere deep inside of me, I do care and that’s the part of myself that I hate the most.
“You’re very quiet today,” Barb says, pulling my attention.
“Just thinking is all.” She nods her head as if she understands but she doesn’t.
“Have you heard the rumors?”
“What rumors?” I ask.
“Rumors about the younger men. They are saying they plan to kill the King.”
I almost laugh in her face. I’ve seen the way Kellin, Rory, and all the other younger guys act. He is their leader. There is no way that they would do that to him.
“I don’t believe that.”
“I don’t know if it’s true or not, but that’s what a lot of the slaves have been saying,” she adds.
“Then you obviously don’t pay attention to the teachings here. No one is allowed to touch the King,” I hiss in her direction.
“She is correct. Is there reason you believe otherwise?” His voice sends a chill down my spine. I don’t turn to look at him, but I nearly leap out of my skin when his hand comes to rest on my shoulder. If Kellin is the devil, then this is where he was bred. I can feel the darkness without having to see it.
“No, King,” Barb says quickly, looking back at her plate.
“Very well. Slave, would you accompany me?” I know he’s talking to me and I wish I could crawl under a rock, but I can’t. So instead, I nod my head and stand from my seat, turning to face him. It shouldn’t shock me at how similar he and Kellin look. It isn’t as if
this is my first time seeing Don, but their resemblance is uncanny. Don offers his arm and I loop mine through as he leads me out of the dining room.
“Am I in trouble for something?” I dare ask.
“Why would you think that?”
“You have never spoken to me before,” I answer. Don chuckles darkly and my stomach flips upside down.
“That is reason to believe you’re in trouble. In fact, it’s the opposite. You defended me back there. It wasn’t unnoticed.” We keep walking when I notice it’s in a direction I’ve never been before. As slaves, we aren’t allowed down this way. I take it all in as we move through the halls and the massive staircase.
“I was only doing the work of Satan.” I’ve learned the rules here and I do my best to obey them even though I don’t believe in them. I won’t let them know that. In fact, catching the attention of Don might have been the best thing I’ve ever done. This may be my way to escape.
“Very good. Very good, indeed. You have learned well, 6106.” I nod my head once as he pulls his arm free of mine and shoves a door open. I try not to hesitate as I step inside, unsure of what lies behind those doors. I gasp when I enter and see the Queen, Ebony, strung up on the wall in chains similar to what I was in the basement.
“She wasn’t following orders. Did you know the Queen here has a thing for my son?” My head jerks in his direction, a mask slipping over my features to cover the shock. He isn’t with her. He wouldn’t do that to me. Would he?
“I wasn’t aware, no.” He nods his head as I look back over at her. She doesn’t raise her head, just keeps her focus on the floor in front of her.
“She does. She chose to be my Queen, did you know that?” he asks, looking over at me. Once again, I shake my head. Who the hell would want this? To be the Queen?
“She did that as well. Now it seems she is rethinking her choice. In our coven, choices are made and bound by the blood of our sacrifices. Our Unholy will give us all that we desire,” he says as he picks up a small knife and walks toward Ebony. I stand in shock of what he may do. Fear gnaws at my insides as he presses the tip of the knife into her flesh and slowly makes a small cut. “There is such a ritual that says two hundred small cuts will allow the sacrifice to bleed out slowly. It will prolong the death, but it makes Satan happy.”
“Why is that?” I risk asking even though my throat feels like it’s swollen shut.
“You’re inquisitive. I like that. Satan enjoys it because he slowly gains more power through the blood of our sacrifice. It isn’t a blast that happens all at once, it’s a slow trickle of a life slowly being depleted as he absorbs it. In essence, it’s a tradeoff of sorts. He puts us in a higher position, giving us wealth in many forms and he gains the utmost power.” I swallow hard as he cuts Ebony once more before setting the knife on the table. I watch as Don pours himself a drink and walks back toward me, motioning for me to sit on the small sofa in the room.
“Is that what she is?” I ask, hoping I’m not out of line.
“No. She is being punished for her behavior. Satan has shown me the way and now I will see fit that her punishment is carried out. Just as my son had to repent for his wrong doings,” he says, bringing the glass to his lips.
“What did he do?”
“He went against me, the King. I was placed in this position by Satan himself. He gave me his blessing, blessed me with the money and power to build this coven, and that’s what I’ve done. We are one of the wealthiest covens around and one of the most respected as well. We train our slaves according to the Satanic bible and we let him lead us.”
“Why am I here?” He chuckles and it makes my stomach roll.
“You’re here because I’d like to know more about you, 6106. It seems some of the younger men have taken a liking to you.” That sparks my interest. No one aside from Kellin has come near me.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You wouldn’t. They have no right to approach you without speaking directly to me first. They are to train you and I see they have done a good job.”
“I still don’t understand why I’m here.” His smile slowly hardens as he looks at me intently.
“You are here because I want you here! Isn’t that reason enough? The King has asked you here!” His anger causes me to jolt slightly but he doesn’t comment on it. I clasp my hands together in front of me and look down as he seethes with anger.
“Look at me, 6106.” I slowly drag my gaze up to meet his and the evil is evident. This man truly believes he’s the king. “You haven’t addressed me properly since you’ve been in here. Stand up, lean over the bed, and pull your robe up.”
A strangled sob gets lodged in my throat as I shove to my feet. I walk slowly toward the bed, lifting my robe as I move. When it’s bunched around my waist, I bend over the bed like I was told. Don moves around behind me for a second before he’s so close I can feel him. He runs his hand over my ass causing bumps to form on my flesh.
“Are those bumps of lust or fear, Slave?”
“Fear, King.” Asshole. He would love it if I said lust, but I feel nothing but hatred toward this man.
“I can see why my men are so infatuated with you. You are one beautiful woman.” He hums as his hands keep moving over my ass. I try not to cringe and pull away even though every fiber of my being says to run. Ebony lets out a soft sob and when I open my eyes, I see her staring directly at me.
Don moves, his hand slipping between my thighs. I cringe, acid biting at the back of my throat as his finger roughly presses into me. I have to curb the urge to cry or scream. I want to grab that knife and plunge it into his neck, but I know I’m not close enough. The thought alone makes me smile even as he violates me with his fingers.
When he finally pulls them free, his hand slams against my ass. I yelp but quickly lock my jaw tightly. Closing my eyes, I hear his jeans unzip before something, I assume his robe, hits the floor. Ebony’s mouth hangs open, her eyes full of tears and regret. Then his hands are on my ass, pulling my cheeks apart before he thrusts into me so roughly, I nearly throw up. The pain rips my body in two as he thrusts and plunges into a place that no one has ever been. His hips slap against my flesh and fresh tears flow from my eyes. Ebony sobs along with me as I’m violated by him. I can feel him swell inside of me before he pulls himself free. He moves into my line of vision, standing in front of Ebony. Jerking his cock, he comes all over her as he grunts.
“You will be the death of me, Queen! You will carry my child, or I will sacrifice you to the Unholy! I will ask him to give me a new wife that will bear my children! Slave 6106 get the hell out of this room!” I quickly stand and pull my robe down and rush from the room as tears fall down my cheeks. My body aches as I make my way down the hall as fast as possible. I’m nearing the stairs as Rory climbs them. We share a look when his eyes slowly lower to my feet. A sick look crosses his face. When I look down at myself, I see it. He made me bleed. Red droplets of blood land on the floor at my feet and when I pull my gaze back to Rory’s, I see the rage.
“Did you fuck him willingly?” he asks, his teeth clenched.
Is he insane? How could he even think that? Ignoring his question, I move past him and down the stairs as fast I can move. I don’t stop until I’m back in my room. There, I slam the door closed and scream. Taking a second to collect myself, I walk into the bathroom and turn the water on, filling the tub. I strip this disgusting robe off my shoulders and let it fall to the floor as I stare in the mirror. Maybe those numbers will be my escape from all this. Maybe I’ll willingly let them take it all away.
My escape doesn’t last long. The door bursts open, and masked men grab me.
Thirteen
Kellin
“Clean her up. She’s a mess, and if the King sees her like this, it will be your head on the altar,” I say as I point at one of the newest girls. She went insane in the cell. She clawed at the walls until her nails were broken and her fingertips bled. Not that I blame her at all, anyone in thei
r right mind would fight. I walk out of the cell exhausted from the night I’ve had. I was out of the compound all week and made it a point to take in as much as I could of the outside world. It was interesting watching people just go on about their days not seeming to care one way or another. It intrigued me to say the least. What also intrigued me was Rose. The way I kept thinking about her, imagining a life outside of this with her.
“What the hell took you so long?” Rory roars as he jogs down the steps.
“Did you miss me that much?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. I watch as he runs his hand through his hair. Somethings wrong. “What is it?”
“Your father has lost his mind that’s what it is. Do you know he has Ebony chained up in his room?”
“Did you expect any less after what she did?” She got herself into that mess. She knew the consequences of every one of her actions and for me to go against my father right now wouldn’t prove smart on my behalf.
“Are you kidding me? So we leave her to that?”
“It isn’t death, Rory. We don’t really have a choice at the moment. She needs to keep her mouth shut and her ass in his bed, not mine.” I brush past him and climb the stairs two at a time until I reach the top. I know he’s still behind me.
“He’s going to make an example of her at the ceremony tonight,” he adds. I figured as much. Although I hate to watch her go through that, she did this to herself.
“And we will stand there like always. What is your problem Rory? This can’t be all about Ebony. This has been going on for a long time now. She made that decision.” When I cross my arms over my chest and turn to look at him, I see it. The look in his eyes. There’s more he isn’t telling me.
“I saw 6106 leaving his wing. She had…”
