Twisted Sacrament

by Zoe Blake

  “Taken?” she asked, reaching her hand up to find it, but there was nothing there.

  “Like all of those here.” The voice moved, disorienting her. “You can see it.”

  Something reached in, tapping like a piercing headache behind her eyes, and then she saw flashes. Rubble near a collapsed wall. Her home. Her father putting her and her younger sister in the basement. The shouts, the gunfire, her sister crying quietly on the floor as Danielle picks up a baseball bat. The door opening at the top of the stairs, but it isn’t her father. She screams for her sister to run, watching as the man puts his gun away while he swaggers down the stairs, unafraid. Danielle shouts, swings the bat, but he catches it, ripping it free of her hands before he hits her with his fist. Pain blooming across her cheek. From the floor she sees her sister scrambling up the shelves, out the window, but there is someone there and Mary screams.

  “STOP!” she shouted, the memory cutting off with a sudden disorientation. Tears in her eyes, Danielle tried to sit up while floating in air and found it impossible. Listing in the void, her chest ached with the pain of fresh loss. Then, like a flick of a light, she remembered her father’s name. Isaac. “What happened to him? To Mary?”

  “I can only show you what you once knew, what they took from you. I do not know everything, Danielle.” A soft purr from underneath, and then she felt warm, hard muscle behind her as large arms wrapped around her. “Perhaps their holy crusade was not the best memory to return at first. How about this?”

  Sitting in snow, tying the laces on skates as Heather and Landra shout at her to join them. Clumsy steps onto the ice and then she is flying with cold air whipping her hair, chapping her lips, but it doesn’t matter because everything is perfect. The sun is bright, glistening off the ice on the trees, and her best friends are racing her across the pond.

  “Ice skating… interesting.” The rumble in the thing’s chest faded as it exhaled against her hair. “A much better memory.”

  “Yes. Thank you for that.” Swallowing, Danielle wiped her eyes and tried to turn, but the thing wouldn’t let her. Instead, she began to trace her hands over the arm wrapped across her body, trying to understand what it was, but all she could tell was that the dimensions were wrong. Strange. “Exactly how big are you?”

  “I am as small as I can make myself and still have substance.” Another low laugh. “This memory is good.”

  Before she could tell the thing to wait, to give her a moment to breathe, she was tossed into it. Someone is kissing her, softly, with a hand on the side of her neck. On a bed in the afternoon sun, he leans up and grins and she feels his fingers glide down her body. Teasing a breast, lightly pinching her nipple until his mouth replaces it, sucking it in as she parts her thighs so he can slip his fingers inside. Somewhat clumsy, but there is so much excitement, their hearts are racing, breath coming too fast as she moans and he kisses her to keep her quiet. ‘Now?’ he asks, and she nods, a blush heating her cheeks, and then he’s between her legs. Kissing, easing in slowly, gently, asking, ‘Are you okay?’ between kisses until their bodies meet, fitting perfectly. No pain, just fumbling, new pleasure. ‘I love you’ he says, like he always does, with a kiss to her nose and then her lips. ‘I love you too’ she answers, and it’s true and good as he moves inside her.

  The vision ended just as abruptly as it had begun, leaving her with a tingling in her skin that had her smiling. She was still able to feel his lips on hers. Christopher’s lips. A slightly younger version of the man from the café, which meant they had stayed together. Her first love, her first time with a man had been good. The thought made her happy and sad — bittersweet. To know she had love, but it was already gone.

  “There are more of those memories.” One large hand moved between her thighs, and she gasped as one thick digit slid inside without any pain. “More, where he is better. I can show you them while I touch you.”

  Shaking her head, she tried to close her thighs, but her legs wouldn’t move any closer together. “I want to know everything. Everything they took.”

  “I can keep the bad memories away, give you your childhood, your Christopher, your—”

  “No!” Grabbing at the thing’s huge hand, she tried to pull it away, but there was no moving it. “Stop, please, I just want to know my life. You said you would give back my memories, give back what they took.”

  “And you gave yourself to me.” A low rumble as a second finger tried to work in beside the first, too big. Whimpering, she was about to argue when it spoke. “If you want to know more, here.”

  “Wait!” she shouted, but it was too late. A thump behind her eyes and she’s on her knees, hands bound with chain to a pole behind her back. There are more women to her right and left, but too far away to be of help to each other — and talking to each other earns punishment. The man in front of her has his pants open, his dick in hand as he approaches and grabs her hair. ‘Open up’ he demands, and when she clenches her jaw, he backhands her. Ears ringing, she’s ripped upright and this time he shoves in, instantly choking her. ‘Hit me with your teeth and I’ll take them out.’ There are so many men like him. One after another. Her lips are bruised, split, throat aching as another tells her to ‘Open’ and she does without argument. His cock goes too deep, too fast, forced into her throat and her stomach heaves. She throws up, but it’s nothing more than water and seed, because that’s all she’s had, but the man hits her, kicks her before someone else pulls him back. She’s bleeding and crying, praying to God for help.

  Ripped back to reality, Danielle sobbed, jerking in the tight grip across her ribs as she tried to escape the men from her memories. Free of them now, but she was still trapped in the darkness, aching as her body strained to accept the thing’s fingers, feeling the thick digits moving in and out as the memory made her throat ache in sympathy. She wanted to scream, but she bit her tongue instead of yelling and cursing at the thing like it deserved. It could hurt her, easily. With more memories, with its strong body, and she knew she was still just as powerless as she had been chained to the pole. After a minute or two, she licked her lips and whispered, “I… didn’t remember that.”

  “I know,” it rumbled low. “It was from shortly after you were taken.”

  “How long ago?” she asked, gasping when its fingers pushed deeper. There was a twinge as it stretched her, but she had a new threshold for pain after the cardinals.

  “Hmm…” The creature’s other hand slid to her breast, and she couldn’t help but clench around the fingers buried deep when it pinched her nipple, tweaking it just like Christopher had. “Five or six years ago.”

  Danielle’s heart stuttered, her head swimming. “That’s impossible.”

  “It is true. You just do not have the memories.” A low rumble as those fingers rocked in and out, the wetness easing their path. “There are no good memories from this place to give you back.”

  That was easy to believe. Eden was Hell, but part of her still wanted the memories back, just to know what had happened. What had been done to her body, to her, but she didn’t say it aloud. “Why can’t I remember?” she whispered.

  “You are human. Your body was never meant to be healed like that, Danielle. Each time you were injured, they put you in the water, but it has been too many times, and the water cannot heal your mind. Just your body. So frail and mortal, you have been damaged so often, so easily.” As if to make the point, the thing spread its fingers inside her until the stretch had her whining and clawing at its hand. A hot exhale brushed over her hair and down her front as it returned to simply thrusting them. “It is not surprising your mind is broken.”

  “But they said Go—”

  The thing growled, arm tightening until her ribs creaked. “What they call their baptism baths is a power stolen from me.”

  “What? How?” Twisting her head, she tried again to look at the thing, but there was only the hint of some kind of shadow in the black.

  “They fill this chamber with water. Some trick
with the runes they used to bind me here resulted in some of my power leaching into the water.” A low, rumbling chuckle buzzed against her back. “I believe they discovered the effect on humans by accident after they tried to drown me, and now they give credit to their god.”

  “It was all a lie.” She knew it, she felt she’d always known it. That the priests, all of Eden was just a corrupt hellhole.

  “It is, and you are correct. You never believed them. Such a smart girl, Danielle.” A gentle touch turned her face, but her eyes closed before she could see anything in the dark. Unable to open them, she felt its mouth on hers. So much larger, but it tasted sweet as its tongue teased hers softly, and a moan slipped from her as she rocked her hips against those delving fingers — until a third tried to fit.

  “No, st—” Cut off with another kiss, held with one strong hand, she whimpered as the thing forced her legs wide, bending them toward her chest. In the new position it was able to work the third in the first little bit, steadily stretching her as she tried to plead for the thing to stop.

  “You gave yourself to me, Danielle. I will not be patient much longer. Open for me.” The thick fingers pushed in and she gasped, tears springing to her eyes as the thing’s hold on her became complete for a moment. In empty air, she was left floating while the thing’s tongue slid over her clit and three painfully thick digits thrust at her bruised cunt, trying to stretch her even further.

  Just as an orgasm was about to crest through the torment, she regained control and screamed, “STOP!”

  “You would rather not have an orgasm?” it asked, a feral growl under the words, and then she fell.

  Danielle had no idea how far she’d fallen, only that her shoulder hurt and she’d hit her head. Disoriented, she pushed herself up with a weak cry. “You said you wouldn’t hurt me,” she accused staring up into the black, and the only response was low laughter for a minute.

  “I never promised that. I promised to fix what they had broken, to return your memories. That was our pact.” Another rumble that shook the ground as she swallowed the lingering taste of charred candy from its kiss. “If you want your memories, Danielle, you can have them.”

  Something snapped behind her eyes, like the pop of a rubber band, and then there was only pain. A surge of pure agony as she screamed. Screaming, always screaming. They like it when you scream. A rough hand bends her over the side of a bed a second before the man shoves his cock in her ass. So much pain. Now she’s hanging by her wrists, thick cuffs, but one wrist has already broken, and the baton is still in his hand as seed leaks down her thighs. ‘Piñata time’ he laughs before he swings and breaks a rib. Then a man is shouting, yelling, and she doesn’t know why. Doesn’t know what she did, but then he’s kicking, punching. Face down on the floor he lifts her ass and starts to fuck her as she sobs, bleeds. A man on top of her, inside her, thrusting so hard her cunt hurts — but then he’s someone new — again — again. Her throat, her pussy, her ass, a hundred, two hundred, three hundred, there’s no counting. Some hit her, hurt her on purpose, some just use her for the warm body. Now she is standing in a hallway, and a girl is dead. Bloody, the shape of her skull is wrong. A priest tells her to pray. Shivering, she wakes up in the baptism baths over and over and over and over. Sometimes the men want her to serve them before she goes to the priest. Before the priest fucks her on the floor, another on her knees, another fucks her throat. There is someone whipping her, she can’t see them, but she wants to die. She wants to die. She just wants to die.

  Tear-streaked, Danielle screamed and gulped air in the pitch black. Sobbing hysterically, she tried to fill lungs through broken ribs that were not broken anymore. Confused, nothing felt right as she scratched nails over stone, on hands and knees. There was so much wrong, though not wrong anymore, but her mind could still remember the burns on her hands that taught her not to steal food. Everything seemed to be happening at once, and also be over, and eventually there was nothing to do but cry and scream as the memories tried to sort in her head. All of it worse, so much worse, because people had done it. Humans.

  “Yes,” the voice answered, smug and self-satisfied. “You really do it all to yourselves. This place was not my idea.”

  “I can’t,” she whispered, too afraid to live with what could happen — what had already happened. “I want to die.”

  “No, there is no chance of that.” The thing lifted her from the ground, spreading her thighs wide to fit between them. Purring, it kissed her, all burned sugar sweetness with the tangle of its tongue. “You are mine; you gave yourself to me.” A trail of kisses down her throat as it continued. “You are never going to die, Danielle. I can fix you, just like I said. Mentally and physically. If I hurt you, and that will happen, I can heal it. Sometimes you will accept me, and sometimes I will take what I want.”

  “Please just kill me,” she begged, whimpering as the thing lifted her and its massive cock pressed against her entrance. “No, no, stop!”

  “I can fix it,” it purred. A sharp pull at her hips and the head popped in, a searing ache as her cunt stretched. When she tried to put her leg down to push away, they were suddenly back in the air, floating as it forced another inch or two in and she screamed.

  “Don’t hurt me anymore,” she whimpered, begging as the pain spiked and ebbed.

  “This feels good, Danielle. Stay with me this time, feel it all.” It growled low, arms wrapped behind her back as it thrust deeper. Something tore and she screamed, hiccupping on a sob. “Yesss… feel me inside you. I will hear all of your sounds eventually, and perhaps in time you will even bear a child like they planned. Although it would never serve them. It would be ours.”

  “No…” Shaking her head, she felt something deep inside shudder. Confused and lost in the pain as it lifted her a bit and then pulled her down by her hips again. Her sob of pain was echoed by its satisfied groan.

  I will never bring a child into this hell.

  “You would be glorious swollen with child, filled with my seed.” It purred and traced sharp nails down her spine. “It could even make you stronger. There are so many possibilities for us.”

  “Why?” she whimpered as it moved inside her. “Why a child?”

  “A child might let me escape.” Sliding her up and down its shaft, she shuddered as with each downward thrust a little more made it inside. “I have never bred a human before, but we have all the time we need to see if it is possible, Danielle.”

  “Please… no…” Crying, she found her arms trapped behind her back, unable to move them as it controlled every inch, every movement.

  “If you play nice, I can give you pleasure with the pain.”

  Desperate, she nodded, and tried to relax enough to let the thing’s massive cock inside her. Its hand moved between them, rubbing her clit in deft circles, pleasure blooming out until the pain was manageable. Thinking of the torrent of memories still trying to find a place in her head, she shuddered. “Was it all a lie? Everything?”

  “What your priests told you?” The irritation in the thing’s voice was clear.

  “All of it. God, Satan, Heaven, Hell… is any of it real, or was it all a lie?” She cried out as it rolled them so she was on her back, once again on the stone floor. Knees bent high, it slid another few inches in successfully. There was just her scream of pain as her body shook to adjust. “Pl-please, just tell me.”

  “Heaven and Hell?” The thing laughed, a low and disturbing sound directly by her ear, and she couldn’t stop the tears. “And, what would I be in that dichotomy? The devil?”

  Maybe.

  It didn’t need to be said aloud, the thing could read her mind. Knew her better than she knew herself. As it started to fuck her, still not all the way inside, she hovered between pleasure and pain and knew that the thing could control all of it. Every sensation, every memory, everything. It was choosing for her to suffer right now, just like it had chosen to dump the most horrific memories into her mind at once — and this was only the begin
ning. Still trapped in Eden, still doomed to suffer, to remember or forget on a whim.

  Danielle would have to beg for the good memories, would have to ask it to take the memories of Eden back. She wanted to forget ever being baptized in Eden.

  There could be a different memory for how she ended up here, something new, because whether it existed or not… this was Hell.

  And she was damned.

  The End

  Author’s Note

  Feel a little hollowed out, lovelies?

  Well, I’d love to talk to you about Baptized in Eden or any of my dark and fucked up stories over in the Dark Haven, my Facebook reader group. Come join us and ask all the questions your black little heart desires. You’ll also be one of the first to know when the standalone, extended version of this story is ready to go!

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  About Jennifer Bene

  Jennifer Bene is a USA Today bestselling author of dangerously sexy and deviously dark romance. From BDSM, to Suspense, Dark Romance, and Thrillers — she writes it all. Almost always delivering a twisty, spine-tingling journey with the promise of a happily-ever-after.

  Check out Jennifer’s Website

  Also by Jennifer

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  Vengeance and destruction are all he has left.

  Security Binds Her (Thalia Book 1)

  I’ll break you down. It may take time, but I will.

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  Cold, ruthless. I’m a monster, but there’s no one else to save her.

  For more of Jennifer’s books, check out her website!