“Is that how you're justifying this?”
“Yes.” He answered, and I nodded again.
The boy was handcuffed to a chair. He had been observing the underground cell he was in, but when James and I entered, he looked at us; I saw distinct, unshakeable fear in his eyes. I watched as he took a deep breath, knowing he was trying to steady his nerves. My own rattled loudly, urging me to turn back. I had always been cold but I had never physically harmed a defenseless human being. Yes, I had killed to defend myself and my siblings. But I had never hurt one who had no chance, as was the case with this handcuffed boy. I did not know many who were capable of such brutality. James was right in saying that they had unjustly attacked us. But if we had the guns, would we not have followed a similar course of action?
James and I sat down in front of him in the wicker chairs that Don had left. As we studied him, he only glanced up once or twice.
“Freaks...” He muttered but his voice was trembling so severely when he said it that I could not take offense. I looked at James, sensing the same reluctance in him to move forward with the questioning. He was meant to utilize his great strength to cause pain. I was meant to enter this boy's mind to ferret out what we needed to know. I took no joy in trespassing into the thoughts of another. My own stream of consciousness ran deep, powerfully consuming any silence that might have surfaced from its depths. I did not need to dive into the endless stream belonging to another person.
“Tell me about yourself.”
It was the only point to jump off from. He looked at me now and behind the fear in his eyes, I saw great defiance.
“Your name is Christian.”
“How do you...”
I touched my forehead.
“I can read your mind. I do not wish to do that, as it can sometimes be very painful.”
“Painful for you or painful for me?” He asked softly.
“For both of us.” I answered, “My boyfriend here,” He was understandably shocked to learn that James and I were a couple, “He is very, very strong. Any answers that we need desperately will be retrieved, either through my ability to read your heart and mind or through brute force. I do not wish to use either method. I would much prefer talking civilly.”
“Are you two Don's lapdogs? Are you his muscle?” He asked in a voice of condescension that required more bravery than he actually felt.
“No. We are unappreciative of your attack on us. Three of our number were killed. They stood very little chance against your guns.”
“And we stand very little chance against your powers, or whatever you call them.”
“By powers, do you mean the two I have just described?” I asked.
“What the fuck do you think I mean?!” He bellowed at me and I will admit, I jumped slightly.
“Hey!” James lunged forward and grabbed the front of Christian's shirt. The young boy looked up at him, into his blazing red eyes, and his terror could not be masked anymore. He stammered out a few indiscernible words as he heaved back and forth in his chair with each tight breath he struggled to draw in.
“James...” I stood up, grasped his hands and pulled him away from the boy. Very gently, I sat him back down in his chair.
“I highly suggest you watch your mouth, you understand me?”
Now that the threat of immediate bodily harm had dissipated, the boy was beginning to regain some of his earlier steel. His eyes narrowed as he looked between the two of us, clearly trying to determine what we were going to ask him next. To keep him from straining himself in his attempts to guess my question, I asked one.
“What do they tell you about what's happening to us here?”
After barely a pause, he answered.
“They're calling it 'Satan's Gift' where I'm from.”
“What else do they say?” I asked.
“They say that you all have aligned with the devils that roam this land.”
“The city-dwelling natives, you mean.”
“The man who attacked our campsite is who I mean.”
“Well, I would like to reassure you, for your own mind, that we were evolving for days before we came here. In some cases, people had been evolving for weeks.” I explained, “You all would, too, if you just...”
“We don't want to evolve!” The boy exclaimed hysterically. His eyes were ablaze with self-righteous anger. “We are humans, created in God's image! We will stay the same because it's what God intended!”
Oh, we had us a devout believer. This was bound to be interesting...
“The only reason why we're even still alive is because God wants us to be. You all take these powers and allow this 'evolution,' as you call it, to happen. We will never do that.”
“No one is asking you to.” James snapped at him.
“That's what the man who attacked the campsite said. He told us we had to accept the change or we'd all die. We'd rather die than be freaks like you! It's wrong! It's...” He stammered for a moment in his fury before settling on an appropriate adjective that would make his point strongly, “It's unnatural.”
I countered his best effort easily.
“Actually, my dear, it is the most natural thing in the world. Our changes happened through no pact with the devil nor through any requests of our own. They just happened.”
“You're lying! You aligned yourself with him! He gave you these powers. If you're with him, then you're against God!”
“Listen, we are not fans of Adam, either. But as far as we know, your leaders are not the most Godly of people, either. You have aligned with the other natives, haven't you? The ones from the cave?” I inquired, only to be met with quiet on his end. “Come on, Christian, you were so eager to talk only a moment ago. I was enjoying our conversation. Let us continue it nicely.”
The silence continued.
“Don't make me hit you.” James warned him airily.
Still, he did not speak. James stood up quickly and grabbed the front of his shirt again.
“Yes! Yes!” Christian exclaimed, “They believe in the same things we believe! They don't have any powers! They can fight, but that's it! They don't follow what the other man says!”
“See? Was that so hard?” James asked calmly as he sat back down.
The boy was trembling and trying to decide between James and I whose power could cause the most pain. I gave him just a short minute to gather himself together before asking my next question.
“What goes on in your camp? Is it as uptight as we have heard?”
“No. There is nothing wrong with the way we live our lives.”
“Tell me about it.” I put my head on my hand and observed him closely.
“We pray a lot. We pray for good fortune and for victory against all of you.” On the last part, he grimaced in disgust. “I'm not going to apologize for having faith. If that's what you want from me, don't hold your breath! I'll never renounce God or Mary and Rich!”
Interesting!
“We want to know about your way of life up there. That is all.” I assured him. I even held up my hands to signal surrender.
“We live the way we're supposed to live. The Bachums protect us because God protects them.”
“That's what they say?” James raised a skeptical eyebrow, “Seriously?”
“It's true! Your ability to fight didn't save your people, did it? They've been touched by God. That's the only reason why more of our people survived.”
“Sure.” James replied, “You must be their most pious follower. I'm sure not everyone feels as strongly about this nonsense as you do.”
“Believe me, they do!” The boy snapped indignantly, “We know that we're living the right way.”
“You believe that you can decide what the right way to live is?” James's anger was growing again.
“No, your master decided that! He decided that the way you freaks live is right when he said that only one of our sides will walk out of this!”
“You are referring to the war for our place here?
”
“What else would I be referring to?! God, they said that you're so smart! You ask the stupidest questions!” He shouted at me again. “Just like a woman, isn't it?! Just like a c...”
His foul word was cut off just after the first sound of it could alert us to what he was about to say. Every muscle in my body had tensed in preparation for it and my eyes had shut by their own accord. When I opened them, I discovered that James had grabbed him again.
“I dare you.” He snarled at him, “I dare you to say it. I dare you to call her that!”
“Look at you. Her big protector. You're going to die defending her. No bitch is worth that. I have a wife that they gave me.”
I had gently sat James back down in his seat.
“If it came down between me and her, I'd hold her in front of me just so I could run away. I'm not ashamed of that, and I don't have to be. No bitch is worth my life.”
“What a big man you are, Christian.” I hissed in dangerous, venomous rage. “God or Gods, you are no older than my younger sister and you have been forced to get married. You have been convinced that you are allowed to speak and feel this way about women. Do you have a mother, Christian? Do you have sisters?”
“No. My mother is dead. It's just me and my wife now.”
“Well, I weep for her, believe me.” I continued angrily.
“Yeah, that's just like a bitch, too. Weeping, I mean. I make mine weep everyday...”
“You need to drop those people and come to the right side.” James told him before turning to me, “Shit, even Adam is better than what he is dealing with, baby.”
“We'll never bow down to that disgusting man the way you all have! We'll always stay true to our God. It will be you that is smited in fire!”
“Is smited a word?” James asked me, simply to aggravate Christian. I could not suppress a small smirk now that such intense dislike for that boy had grown inside of me.
“The world has already been 'smited.'” I told Christian sarcastically, “Rather, it was smote. Whatever the correct grammatical usage of the term, our world is gone, destroyed by man.”
“No. It was God's reckoning and it will follow us here! You all think you're safe. You think with your powers, you are out of His reach. He will destroy you for aligning with that man! He will cast you into the deepest layer of hell!”
“Desperation and fear yield such interesting results.” I mused out loud incredulously, “Were you this devout on earth?”
“No,” He growled, “I was bad. I was selfish and evil. I stole from people and hurt my family. I went to jail twice. The Bachums have made me see how wrong I was. I have received my lashings and been born again.”
“Lashings?” James and I asked, in equal shock.
“We have all paid the price for what we did on Earth. We are as pure as the Lamb now.”
“I sincerely doubt that.” I rolled my eyes. He lunged forward.
“Stupid girl! You think you know everything! You think you know what you're doing! You think you've got a handle on everything, don't you?!”
“That was very repetitive...”
“Where I'm from, you wouldn't even be allowed to speak!”
“So, would you call your camp a patriarchal society?” I asked calmly. My cavalier apathy to his anger only fanned the flames.
“Women do what they're told. That's how it should have been on Earth. That is in the good Book. Women are submissive to their husbands.”
“Gross...” I whispered, making a face to convey my disgust. I looked over at James. “Honey, do you want me to be submissive to you?”
“No. How very boring that would be.” James replied with his head rested against his hand.
“You can poke fun at us. You can chide us for what we believe. But we're right. There will come a time when you all are grasping for the holy light and it will go dark on you! God will not pull you from the black abyss and...”
“This is insanity.” James cut him off mid-sentence and addressed me, “Those people up there will end up killing themselves before we even get the chance.” He turned back to the boy, “I guarantee you, my spunky friend, that there are plenty of people who can still think for themselves just waiting to overthrow your beloved leaders. You need to prepare for that. You'll find that once they're out of the way, you'll be much better off. Which brings me to my next question: Besides guns, exactly what defenses do you have?”
“Why would I tell you that? Why would I help you?”
“Wouldn't you like to live?” James asked calmly.
“James, we cannot punish him for what he believes. I am not angered by the things he said. I am profoundly stunned that people would go along with such stupidity but then, I do understand. They were afraid for their lives. They turned to those who offered them safety in return for blind allegiance. They need to believe in all of this divine protection nonsense in order to sleep at night.”
“I don't need your defense.” The boy shot at me suddenly.
“Darling, I was not defending you. I was simply explaining your delusional ramblings out loud to myself.”
“Your father believes. At least someone in your family of trash believes. I pity him. He tried to lead us but failed. The reason why he failed is because through his seed, he bore children of Satan. That's what Rich told him when he got his lashings.”
“My father got lashings?” I pretended to be overjoyed at the idea. Secretly, I was; I never imagined that he would ever suffer physical pain at another's hands the way that he had forced me to suffer and now, I was learning that he had. It was petty and childish to feel that way but then, I could not question the giddy feeling that rose inside of me as I thought of it.
“How could he possibly have known, though, that you all would turn out to be such freaks?” Christian continued as though I had not spoken, “I feel bad for him.”
“You shouldn't. If you'd like to talk about evil and hell, then know this: That man will have a throne right next to the beast you believe has claimed us.”
“He has relented. He has received great punishment for his evil ways. That red-headed woman with him received worse. And your mother, if she were here, would have learned her place very quickly. She would have received the absolute worst of it.”
“Well, thank God she didn't make the trip.” James replied, and the tone of his voice provoked a laugh in me.
“You think I don't know who you are?” The boy shot at me. He was desperately trying to needle me into an emotional meltdown. I merely smiled at him and tried not to giggle at his display of what was essentially an overcharged, religion-themed show of team spirit.
“I know all about your life on Earth. So, let me ask you this,” He grinned in sadistic glee,
“Did what happened with your father's best friend turn you on to older men? Is that why you're with him?”
Consider me needled.
Any time that event was brought up, I immediately felt a surge of bile skyrocketing from my stomach into my throat. I had to stop myself from lurching forward. I had to stop myself from grasping my head as dizziness shredded my brain to string that blew in some cranial breeze. The challenge of stopping all of those bodily reactions to the reawakened trauma blinded me to James's ascent from his seat. I had no time to stop him. By the time I had recomposed myself enough to see clearly, he had lunged forward over the table and tackled Christian backwards.
“James!” I stood up, but it was too late. He was pounding his fists into the boy's face, mumbling obscenities in that animal rage we were slowly becoming accustomed to experiencing. When the screech that preceded sure bloodshed escaped his throat, I hurtled over the fallen table and grabbed a hold of him.
I possessed not a fraction of his strength. Though I was capable of fighting to the death and winning with ease, I could not match the pure force of James's newly evolved strength. Pulling with all my might only pained me. He jerked forward and ripped into the boy's neck.
The scream that filled the roo
m was short-lived, followed by a gurgling sound that forced me to turn away. I closed my eyes, grasping the leg of the overturned table; it was the only thing close that I could use to steady myself. I listened as James's heavy breaths were drawn in and released, waiting for the loud expulsion of murderous fury. Sure enough, a moment later, he roared, and the force of the sound extinguished the torches, leaving us in darkness.
“Is he dead?” I asked the black room.
“I lost control.”
“That's not what I asked.”
A long moment of silence followed my statement. I looked up, my eyes adjusting to the darkness, enabling me to see clearly. James was knelt over the boy's twitching body, checking for a pulse.
“He's gone.”
“That certainly was not what Don had in mind when he asked us to use our powers to gain answers.” I was lighting the torches back up with my lighter.
“Well, I don't care what Don thinks. Were you not listening?! Did you not hear the things he was saying?”
“I heard them. His insults were directed entirely at me. You had no reason to kill him. I understand that you feel it was for my sake...”
James turned and stormed out of the room.
“Get out of my way!” He shouted at Don as he passed.
“What happened?” Don asked me as I hurried past him after James.
“He lost control.” I repeated James's earlier words; it was the only choice explanation for what had just occurred.
“Is he dead?” Don demanded, “Did you even find out what I asked you to find out?”
“He was never going to tell us what their defenses were.”
“Why did James kill him? What did he do?”
“He made some personal slights against me. We found out about their way of life, but that's...
“Their way of life?!” Don repeated in incredulous anger, “What good will that do us? Knowing about their way of life isn't going to...”
“I am sick of being yelled at by weak-minded men.” I snapped, both in conversation and in feeling.
With that, I pushed past him. As I walked past, a door swung open beside me. Adam walked out calmly, wiping blood from his mouth and licking his fangs. I was simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by that man whose swagger and charisma never failed him, not even after he had just taken a life.
The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) Page 66
