The Temple

by Emily Shore

  I never miss an opportunity to kiss Serenity goodbye. Never know if it might be my last time. This time, I kiss her harder. One moment to taste her before pulling away to escort Sunshine up the auditorium staircase toward the vent shaft opening.

  I might be built like Hercules, but even I have my limits. Won’t be going down that shaft again, especially not with a fourteen-year-old girl attached to my back. Slow and steady through each vent shaft level wins the race. Since it’s night, the exhibits will be packed, which gives us one plus and one minus. Plus: busy time means enough noise to cover up the sound of our movements. Minus: Lina might not be alone.

  “Going down, Sunshine,” I instruct her just before lowering her at a vertical angle.

  For her first time, she sure is fearless. Bet she’d squeal going down the slide if I didn’t warn her not to say anything. Once I join her on the lower level, we peek through the cracks to see a crowd of men below our heads taking in the sights of the Arabia Level.

  Sunshine kisses my cheek. “It’s Parasol.”

  “Not until I get you out of here,” I remind her. “One mission at a time.”

  “Aww, you didn’t even blush.”

  “You’re welcome,” I keep my voice low and motion her forward.

  The vent shaft on this level doesn’t connect to the training room, but it does to the room next door. Unfortunately, it’s a client interaction room—in use. The moans immediately flood the shaft, and I smack my hands over Sunshine’s ears.

  “I’m fourteen, Sky. Not five,” she whispers, eyebrows lifted.

  Be that as it may, it doesn’t mean she needs to hear it.

  “You’ll thank me later.” Even if she can’t hear the words, she’s read my lips, judging by the roll of her eyes.

  “Now you’re blushing,” she points out but fortunately doesn’t giggle.

  Another moan followed by a high-pitched shriek.

  Except this time, Sunshine rips my hands from her ears and leans in closer, eyes narrowing to see through the vent gaps. I keep my eyes on her, not who she’s looking at. Sunshine lets her guard down. Eyes steeped in recognition…and pain. I should’ve predicted this could’ve happened. Age requirements be damned. This shit has been going on for generations. Security doesn’t care. Chaperones don’t care. Managers don’t care. Everything’s available for a price.

  Even after the bed stops shaking, Sunshine doesn’t. Her hands continue to tremble because we both can hear her friend’s whimpers. The whimpers she can only make now the damn sex buyer is out of the room. A series of gasps follow. A sudden squeal. And finally, a sigh loud enough to swallow the room before I hear footsteps, a door opening, and the shower starting.

  Sunshine nods to me, so I open the vent shaft and lower her into the room. A few minutes later, her friend Lina opens the door to the bathroom, a wisp of steam puffing around her robed body.

  “Sunshine!” Lina startles, eyes drifting back and forth between the two of us, tugging her robe closer to her skin.

  Even under the circumstances, Sunshine doesn’t wait to grab her friend and pull her in close. Sunshine’s scars soak up Lina’s tears as she asks her again and again, “What happened?

  And I have a feeling we’re going to be here longer than I thought.

  * * *

  She keeps her distance from me. That’s fair. Sunshine directs her to the couch in the corner of the room.

  “The first day, it wasn’t bad at all,” Lina begins to explain. “They gave me a room, new clothes, showed me how to use the NAILS and the BODY. I was the youngest but not the only trainee. The second day, the chaperones took us to the training studios and taught us to dance. They said I was learning well. Then, things changed…”

  Shadows etch into her voice, and I cross my arms over my chest, mouth grim because I can see where this is going.

  “They said they needed to teach me how to dance right. How to move my body in a different way. I knew it was expected. And they said it was empowering. Just like all the mags across the country. So, I learned to dance that way. And when the BODY was programmed with lingerie outfits, I knew it was all part of the training.

  “But the next time I went to the studios, there was an audience. And the first time…it happened, the older girls…” Lina arches her neck, straining to get the words out, “they told me, ‘Well, what did you expect?’.” She gestures to the room.

  “Do you want to go with Sunshine?” I don’t hesitate to ask her. Damned if I’m taking an extra risk.

  Lina meets my eyes for the first time, but they almost cause mine to tip. Too ashamed of my own fucked up Y chromosome that makes up almost half the population.

  Sunshine speaks for me. “Sky’s a…friend. He can get us to the Sanctuary.”

  Lina balks at her. “That’s why you’re here. You’re gonna get us killed, Sunny! You’re gonna ruin everything.”

  “It’s already ruined,” Sunshine points out. “I saw what happened, Lina. You don’t want to be here. They lied to you. They don’t care if the law is broken.”

  “And how do you know we can trust him?” Lina jerks a finger toward me, and I don’t try to defend myself. I have no grounds.

  “Because the Swan does.”

  Lina pauses, studies me, eyes jerking back to her friend. “You met the Swan?”

  “It’s a long story. If you come with me, I’ll tell you all about it.”

  29

  R e p e r C u s s i o n s

  Serenity

  “Where is she?” Force confronts me in my room.

  I don’t move from my place on the balcony, imagining the gold in my dress fusing to the marble floor. I’m immovable.

  “Who?”

  “Don’t play coy with me,” my father warns as he progresses up the stairs. “I’ve searched the Penthouse floors. I’ve checked surveillance. You accompanied the child to your shark tank. After which, she vanished.”

  “People disappear in the Temple all the time,” I goad him with well-timed irony.

  “And the disappearance of a fertile girl does not reflect well on the Temple. Or the Centre.” He reaches the last step, brows positioned low.

  I hoist my chin high. “You couldn’t care less about her. You’re only sore because I one-upped you this one time.” Turning to face him, I lodge a verbal cannonball at my father. “Because for once, something didn’t go according to your precious plan.” I rake my nails into the balcony behind me.

  Force advances toward me until his shadow eclipses me like black frost. “Was it Luc?”

  I keep my mouth shut.

  “I’m not going to ask again.”

  I give him nothing.

  “Very well.” My father drops his arms to his sides. “You want to play this game? You forget I’ve been playing it much longer, Serenity. And someone else accompanied you to the tank room.”

  Bliss.

  The lower door of my bedroom opens to reveal my sister.

  “Good girl, Mara,” Force commends as she enters the room. “You always come when you are called.”

  Panicked, I zero in on Bliss, almost regretting inviting her to say goodbye to Sunshine…until I realize she isn’t speaking. Then, I comprehend what’s going on. My father doesn’t want the truth from Bliss; he still wants it from me.

  In Force’s hands is a whip.

  No.

  He turns his back, which is a mistake. My mistake is assuming he’s unfamiliar with my patterns because he sidesteps me when I charge. Air can’t hold my weight, and I tumble down the stairs, knocking my head into one of the railings.

  Each fall is unique. Like a snowflake. I never get used to them. All the lights around me blur, and every movement is unbalanced. The opposite of yin and yang. It’s just all Yang teetering on the world’s axis. Someone’s taken a battering ram to my temple. Reaching up, I feel blood. Pain infects me. For the first time, I double over, whimpering, coughing—so close to vomiting. The floor pirouettes, the walls join its dance, and I can’t get up wit
hout risking falling more.

  It turns out I don’t have to because Force scoops me up from the floor.

  “Now look what you’ve gone and done.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Bliss following us. It’s the first time I read concern in her eyes.

  Force doesn’t brush the hair from my eyes when he lifts me into his arms and heads for my bedroom. All he does is rub his thumb across the wound on my forehead, causing me to flinch from the pain and whimper again. My vision still refuses to clear. My throat feels full of acid. I croak out the only word I can define with my father. “No.”

  “Hush now,” he orders as he puts me down on my bed. “You’ve brought this on yourself. We bring out the best in each other; we bring out the worst, too.”

  Even lying down, I’m riding on some warped merry-go-round. My father’s figure stretches, languid. Something thuds in my ear repeatedly. Nausea envelopes me. He wanted this to happen. To teach me a lesson. This is my punishment.

  My father orders a medic and splicer since the floor practically bludgeoned my head. All my butterflies are dropping, wings fluttering in and out. Too weak to fly. He stands to speak to the arriving medic, and I double over, coughing again, feeling bile rising in my throat. A minute later, a searing pain engulfs my temple just near the wound, but Force keeps me at bay with his hands holding my shoulders down.

  “You’ll be numb soon,” he coos in my ear.

  His voice is too muffled.

  All my butterflies rear up, lightning smacking their wings back and forth as my father brings the splicer to my forehead and starts stitching up the wound himself. Bruises forming on other parts of my body overshadow the dimming pain of my head. My mind still feels puffy—thoughts more like swirling cotton balls. But each one is heavier than a paperweight.

  Then, I feel a sharp twinge in my arm.

  A sedative.

  “We have a few minutes left,” Force declares and stands, directing Bliss to the middle of the floor. Up until now, I haven’t realized she was standing on the other side of the bed, her eyes pinpointed on me. Just after Force’s command, she purses her lips. She’s hesitating. Because of me.

  My fall wouldn’t deter my father. No, it only strengthens his resolve. Do this now while I’m too weak to fight back. If I tell the truth, he’ll hurt Sky. If I say nothing, he’ll hurt Bliss. Worse than ever before.

  Bliss kneels.

  Force walks toward her.

  “No,” I moan. I clench my eyes, try to move, but my body feels heavier than my shark. I’m running out of words, too.

  It’s too difficult to fight. Lightning can’t counteract the sedative.

  “Tell me the truth,” Force turns, urging me one last time.

  I squeeze my eyes shut, feeling one tear battle its way down my cheek.

  Force raises his whip.

  I open my eyes. And there is Sky with one hand clenched around my father’s, warring with him for the whip. And winning. Like the half-cocked devil he is, Force tilts his head to observe Sky just before ordering all his Penthouse security. At once, Sky shoves him back, assuming control of the whip. Sweet adrenaline bursts inside me, giving me just a minute or two at most. Enough to see Sky is tempted to use the weapon, but I already know he won’t. Because he’s not me.

  Sky chucks it instead, glances once at Bliss, and then makes a beeline straight toward me. Somehow, I muster up the energy to crawl onto my hands and knees, but I don’t make it out of the bed.

  Security has arrived. All I can do is watch.

  Bliss watches, too. She hasn’t moved once from her knees.

  I hear a thud as Sky body slams a guard to the floor. Five more wrestle him to the ground. There is my father studying him, recognition in his eyes; he remembers Sky from the retreat.

  Sky takes out another security guard until two more arrive. Seven against one. Finally, they stun him, but thanks to the Garden, he’s built up an immunity to electric shock. They must pin him to the floor, muscles holding down every inch of him. Only after they manage to accomplish this feat does my father approach.

  “Force—”

  “Quiet, Serenity,” my father orders before directing one of the men to raise Sky’s jaw. “I want to see him.”

  “If you so much as touch him—” I gasp out the words. “I swear to God, I will feed you to my shark.”

  My father rubs his jaw, clearly intrigued. “All this time, believing you were just a stubborn colt that just needed the right man to tame her.”

  “If you so much as touch him, I swear to God, I will feed you to my shark.” I can’t come up with more than the same repetitive words. It’s taking too much effort to stay awake.

  “All this time selecting suitors with care—” he goes on, unhindered by my words, “Screening endless ones, trying to find the right one, and you’ve been hiding him the whole time. Seems we both have secrets.”

  I claw at the bedsheets, adrenaline waging a war against the chemicals assaulting my body. “If you so much as touch him—”

  He holds up a hand before squatting to scrutinize Sky, tilting his head, tilting it more, Force’s smile an infection that plagues his face. All the muscles in Sky’s neck tense with need, craving to harm the man who has tortured my family. Who has tortured me. Sky’s jaw is harder than diamonds in the rough. His eyes like the earth ready to crack open and swallow my father whole.

  Force narrows his eyes, matching Sky’s before he slaps his legs and rises. “Well, I suppose there’s only one thing to do with him…”

  “Force, I—” I get ready to repeat my statement, reiterate it, but my father interjects.

  “Invite him to dinner.”

  I pass out.

  To be continued……

  While Serenity and Sky endure Force’s relationship tests, Bliss must contend with her own struggles. She has worked to become the perfect Yin, consumed by the ghosts of an abusive childhood—ones she believes she can never conquer. But when a dangerous secret threatens the twins’ family, Serenity must become Yang and risk losing her heart—while Bliss must learn to trust hers.

  Available on all platforms May 6th, 2019. Get your copy today!

  Acknowledgments

  As always, I say a big thank you to my husband for being ready to listen to me read my books to him and to bounce off ideas or brainstorm out loud. You’re my sounding board and my sticky note board all in one.

  To Francine Rivers for Redeeming Love because it inspired me to tackle Bliss’s voice when before, this book would have only been from Serenity’s viewpoint.

  NANO: This book and its second part was one big blur in NANO month. All 130k plus. And I’m still not sure how I managed to write that many words in one month, but NANO gave me the deadline and the pressure.

  A special thank you to my oldest daughter for taking long naps so I could have time to write The Temple and The Temple Twins in the month of November.

  To the CTP Team: you’ve gone through some major trials and you’re still fighting and still working. A big thank you to my editor for getting this edited so fast, especially when I’ve been so delayed in getting the edits back on time! Sorry not sorry for the cliffhanger.

  To all the anti-trafficking organizations out there in the trenches doing intervention, rescue work, awareness, prevention etc. Especially to Exodus Cry for my training, which helped shape the discussion questions for this book. And to Rachel Moran and her incredible work, Paid For, which helped Bliss evolve and also gave new light to the discussion questions.

  To my street team, old and new members alike. You are so valuable! Please keep reading because I depend so much on you!

  To my Savior for strengthening me on this journey and giving me the drive to stick with it. I’m so glad I didn’t stop writing.

  About the Author

  Emily Shore is a MN author with a B.A. in Creative Writing from Metro State University and was a grand prize winner of #PitchtoPublication, which led her to working with publishing professio
nals. Her novellas Ruby in the Rough and Ruby in the Ruins are her first indie-published anti trafficking works. She is signed with Clean Teen Publishing for her anti-trafficking dystopian The Aviary. For every book sold, a personal donation will return to trafficking rescue.

  Throughout the years, she has connected with rescue organizations, activists, and trafficking survivors and injects truths she's learned into her books for youth. She loves motivational speaking on the issue of sex-trafficking and was recently featured at the 2018 MLA and MEA. Please contact her through her website if you would like her to speak at your local school, library, or church. In her spare time, she loves attending any abolition events, baking, painting, and spending time with all the girls in her life.

  Emily lives in Saint Paul with her husband and two daughters. They are in the process of adopting a little girl from India.

  Discussion/Essay Questions for The Temple

  Discuss or write about Bliss’s words, “There is no way to soften the blow.” Bliss lives in the Temple with the most advanced technology and amenities and yet, this statement is revealing. Was abuse for slaves any less painful because their masters still fed and sheltered them? Does Bliss suffer less because of her environment? Consider this in regard to “high-class” prostitution. Is it the environment or the acts done that matter?