Taken: Original Sin Book 1

by Hart, Stella

  “Now, we cannot reveal our everyday ways of life to prospective members, as we have many closely-guarded secrets. This makes our application process very long, stringent, and difficult. Every question we ask of you helps us to decide whether or not you’re a man who shares our moral code, without us having to outright reveal any of our secrets to you.”

  “I understand,” I said with a nod. No shit. It wasn’t like they were going to come right out and say, ‘Hey, we convinced all these young women the apocalypse happened so they’d be too scared to do anything in life other than serve us. Sound cool to you?’ to a non-member.

  Jacob leaned forward, a smile playing on his lips. “One thing we can tell you is that we don’t exactly believe in the same God that most other people in this country do. We believe in our own God. You see, every one of us spent years searching for a religion which would accommodate our personal needs and beliefs, and we all failed. But then I started to receive messages from above, and I knew what I had to do. I had to start my own church where men like me could be accommodated. A place where we could spread His true word and live like we always wanted to.”

  Translation: We’re all assholes, and we spent years looking for a religion which would allow us to be our own particular brand of asshole. Eventually we just decided to make one up to validate our misogynistic beliefs and allow us to subjugate and enslave women the way we always wanted to.

  I was trying very hard not to roll my eyes right now.

  “Are you ready to start the interview?” Jacob asked.

  I nodded eagerly. “I am.”

  “Like I said before, many of the questions will seem very general, and we won’t tell you why we’re asking them or give any indication if your answer is right or wrong in terms of what we want to hear from a potential new member. It’s all about us getting to know you and what sort of man you are.”

  “Okay.”

  “Let’s begin.”

  The first fifty or so questions were very basic. Where did I grow up, what did my parents do, what was my childhood like, where did I currently attend church, and so on.

  After that, the questions moved toward my views on society. There were a fucking shit-ton of them. I had to answer in a way I thought they’d like, but I wouldn’t be told if I was giving the ‘correct’ responses or not.

  It wasn’t easy. I had to be very careful to skate the line between what they wanted to hear and believability. If I sounded too crazy and fucked up, they’d realize I was full of shit and trying to worm my way in with an ulterior motive.

  “What’s your opinion on punishment in a society?” Elder Landry asked after I’d answered about two hundred questions.

  I hesitated. “I realize this isn’t an acceptable viewpoint to hold in most circles these days, but honestly, I think the world is too soft on crime,” I said. I held up a palm. “This is going to sound very Old Testament of me, but I believe infractions should be punished harshly as a deterrent. An eye for an eye, and so on. I know it certainly would’ve worked on me.”

  “What do you mean?” Jacob asked, brows drawing together.

  “Well, as you all know from the earlier questions you asked, my mother helped shape my faith from an early age. But when I was a teenager, I went through a stage where I abandoned that faith for a while. I wanted to be cool like the other kids at school, you see. I did a lot of bad things, and for the most part, I got away with it. Of course I eventually came around and returned to the straight and narrow path, but I believe my parents should’ve been stricter. To put it bluntly, if they’d beaten the shit out of me for the things I was doing, I would’ve returned to the correct path much sooner. But instead they let me get away with it for years.”

  None of what I was claiming to believe was even remotely true. In a basic psych course all freshman students had to take at the college I previously attended, I’d read multiple studies which demonstrated time after time that harsh punishment didn’t work as a deterrent. In fact, it made the criminal more likely to reoffend.

  However, based on the glimpse I got of the punishment dungeon in the New Eden shelter, I had a feeling the Elders wanted to hear the exact backward views I was claiming to espouse.

  “So you believe in strict rules and harsh punishment?” Elder Fontenot asked, scribbling down a note in front of him. I was right; he looked pleased.

  I nodded. “I do.”

  “What’s your opinion on women in the workforce?” Jacob asked a moment later.

  I feigned a deep sigh and rubbed my forehead. “That’s another one that’s hard for me to answer. Society makes it so difficult to say anything these days without inciting outrage.”

  “We’re the only ones listening, Mason,” Elder Fontenot said. “Even if we don’t like your answers, they will stay with us. Nothing leaves this room.”

  I pretended to mull over that for a moment. “Well,” I finally began in a faux-reluctant tone. “I believe in women working, of course.”

  A few of the Elders narrowed their eyes.

  “But,” I went on. “There’s a certain sort of work I think women are more naturally suited to. Housekeeping, child-rearing, cooking, and so on. I think it’s just basic biology that they’re more suited to that. So while I believe they should work in that capacity, I don’t believe they should work outside of the home. But try telling women that these days and see the response you get. Seething anger and outrage. They don’t want to be told they can’t be a lawyer or a doctor, even if that’s what they think they want to do. They hate the thought of being naturally submissive and nurturing toward men, even though that’s where they’d be happiest if they only let it happen.”

  The Elders scribbled down notes and murmured amongst themselves as I spoke.

  I scrubbed a hand across my face and continued. “It’s almost like… the way things are these days, the only way it could change for the better is if women simply aren’t allowed to know about everything that’s out there in the world. That way they wouldn’t be tempted to stray off their natural paths. Of course, that’s totally impossible, with all the rights, education, and technology available to everyone nowadays.”

  “Yes. One would think so,” Jacob said, a small smile playing on his lips again. I knew I’d said the right thing.

  I let out a dejected sigh. “Anyway, sorry for the outburst,” I said, pasting on a repentant smile. “I know my views can be quite strong.”

  “That’s quite all right,” Elder Landry said. He looked happy to be listening to me.

  Another extensive round of questions was asked. I must’ve been sitting here for over three hours now, answering query after query in regard to my worldviews, giving opinions on all kinds of matters, and discussing general subjects which hardly seemed relevant.

  “What do you believe a man’s place in a marriage is?” Jacob eventually asked. By this point, my eyelids were getting heavy from sitting stationary for so long.

  I cleared my throat. “I think a man’s place in a marriage is to be the head of the household. In control of everything.”

  “Could you expand on that?”

  I nodded. “A man should make all the decisions in his marriage, and he should guide his wife in her actions. If necessary, he should also correct her behavior. I believe that a woman’s place is naturally below that of a man in society, given their weaknesses. So while it’s a huge responsibility for a man to take on, it’s necessary for a properly functioning marriage, in my opinion.”

  “And how would you correct a woman’s behavior?”

  “The same way you would correct a child’s bad behavior, I suppose. Physical punishment,” I said with a nonchalant shrug. On the inside, I was shuddering. I didn’t mean this shit, but I still felt dirty saying it out loud. “I know it sounds terrible, but I believe submission should be forced by any means possible. Even violence. Sometimes pain is the only real way to teach creatures as naturally simple as women.”

  “Hm. I see,” Jacob said. He wrote something d
own, then looked up at me again. “Now, we already know what a woman’s place in society is, according to you. But I’d like to ask you something a little more general. What are women for?”

  I frowned. “What are they for?”

  “Yes. Aside from child-bearing, childcare, and household tasks. What are they for?”

  I hesitated again. “Well, I suppose I’d say pleasure. Amusement, too. For us men. It’s our world, after all.”

  Jacob nodded slowly and made another note. He and all the other Elders stayed quiet for a long moment after that. I began to worry I’d said something terribly wrong, but then Jacob cleared his throat and looked back over at me.

  “In our commune, we have certain beliefs and ways of life that a lot of people would not agree with. Despite the most rigorous testing and questioning, we can never be entirely sure that a prospective member will be happy and agreeable once he arrives and sees the true nature of our lives here at New Eden.”

  “Okay…” My forehead wrinkled. Was he saying they couldn’t be sure about me, and therefore I was out?

  “So despite all the questions and the generous donations we ask prospects to make, we require something else too. Something… hmm, how should I put this?” He trailed off for a moment. “A form of insurance, if you will.”

  “Insurance?” I lifted a brow.

  “Something that would ensure that even if a new member wanted to leave at any point due to a disagreement with us and our lifestyle, he wouldn’t feel the need to talk about it to anyone.”

  Comprehension dawned on me as I read between the lines. Of course. They wanted something to blackmail me with if I ever decided to try and screw them.

  “A secret for a secret,” I said. “Is that what you’re asking from me?”

  “You’re a smart man, Mason,” Jacob said with a broad grin.

  I leaned back in my chair, my pulse racing. Shit. I hadn’t been expecting this.

  Really, I should’ve realized they’d ask me for something along these lines. After all, they needed to make absolutely damn sure new members couldn’t rat on them to the authorities if they were doing any illegal shit (which I was sure they were).

  “So what do you have for us?” Elder Thibodeaux asked, narrowing his eyes.

  My mind whirled. Fuck. As much of a dipshit screw-up as I’d been in my younger years, I’d never done anything that would render me capable of being blackmailed. Sure, I’d done a few lines of coke in a club here and there, and other similarly illegal shit… but that was all stuff that most young, wealthy city guys experimented with at some point or another. Nothing that these Path of the Covenant guys would realistically be able to use against me if they felt the need to keep my trap shut.

  No, they wanted something serious. Something dark.

  I didn’t have anything to give them, so that meant I had to make something up. Something they could ‘verify’ in some way so they’d know I wasn’t lying, even though I was. Bonus points if it was something they liked hearing about.

  “There is one thing,” I said slowly as the first inklings of an idea seeped into my head. “But I’ve never told anyone about this. I’m not sure I can tell you, either. It’s pretty bad.”

  Jacob leaned forward. “As Elder Fontenot said earlier, anything you say during this interview will remain in this room. We’re hardly going to call the police on you and attract attention to our little commune, are we? That’s the last thing we want, given how much we value our privacy.”

  “I guess not.”

  “This is purely for our own insurance purposes, as I said before. We will not judge you. If and when you enter our commune as a new member, you will be reborn as a new man. Anything you did in your previous life won’t matter anymore.”

  I rubbed my jaw. “Okay,” I finally said, raising my eyes to the Elders again. “This is a long story. You might recall me saying a few hours ago that I went through a rough stage as a teenager?”

  The Elders nodded.

  “When I was seventeen, I got kicked out of my prep school in Manhattan. My parents weren’t happy, obviously, but instead of punishing me properly, they shipped me off to a private boarding school right here in Louisiana. St. Charles Parish. I was there for six months. I suppose they thought that was punishment enough, having to leave my friends behind.”

  That was actually true. I knew the Elders would look into my story, and they would be able to verify what I’d said by looking at old school records.

  “Anyway, the school was right near a massive wetlands area. I used to go for walks there after classes were done for the day. It was just something to pass the time, because I was so fucking bored being stuck out there.”

  I paused for a breath, and the Elders nodded again to show they were following me.

  “One day I was walking along and I heard a weird sound. I was near a heavily-wooded area, right next to one of the rivers. I followed the sound, and I came across a classmate of mine with a girl.” I paused, my lips tightening. “His name was Nathan Greer. He was attacking the girl. Raping her.”

  “What did you do?” Elder Fontenot leaned forward, his eyes flickering with curiosity.

  “I dragged him off her and started beating him up. The girl ran away before I could talk to her or help her in any other way. But the friend of mine from school… he was smaller than me. Weaker. He couldn’t get away from me. So I kept punching him. I just couldn’t stand the thought of what he’d done to this girl. She looked young. Definitely a virgin until Nathan attacked her. But after what he did, she was spoiled. Ruined. I believe a woman’s body is there for us to use in many ways, but not like that. Her virginity is for her husband only. Even though I was going through my wild stage and I’d mostly turned my back on my faith, I still believed that.”

  “I see. Go on,” Jacob said, eyes lit with interest. I knew he’d love that line about the girl being ‘ruined’, as much as it fucking disgusted me to say.

  “I killed Nathan with my bare hands,” I said. “He destroyed this girl for her future husband, and I was just so angry. I kept hitting him and hitting him and….”

  I trailed off as I thought about how to continue the fictional story.

  “When I saw what I’d done, I panicked. I thought I’d have to turn myself in. But then I started to think I’d done the right thing. Given him what he deserved. So I dragged his body to the river and threw him in. That particular area has a lot of alligators. I knew he’d never be found, and he never was.”

  “You’re telling us you murdered a man.”

  I nodded. Nathan Greer really did exist, and if the Elders looked him up, they’d have to believe my story. I didn’t actually witness him raping a girl, and I didn’t kill him, but I knew he was a real piece of shit. He’d been charged with sexual assault multiple times, but he got off scot-free because of his rich father. He was also mixed up with all sorts of shady drug-related shit. He went missing one day around the river I mentioned in my story, and he was never found. Most likely something to do with the aforementioned drug stuff.

  A simple internet search for ‘Nathan Greer St. Charles Parish’ would confirm all of this, and my story would look real.

  At least I fucking hoped so.

  “I know this may sound wrong to you, but that incident is actually what turned me back to my faith again,” I said.

  The Elders didn’t respond. I wasn’t expecting them to, as they weren’t supposed to give any indication of whether or not I appealed to them as a member. I could tell they were pleased, though. Their gleaming gazes said it all.

  “We’ll have to verify this story of yours. As much as we can, anyway,” Jacob said. “But it was very brave of you to tell us. I understand the risk you took in sharing it with us, and I just want to reiterate that we will never, ever tell anyone. Unless, of course, you give us a reason to do so.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Chastain.” A contrite expression was pasted across my face.

  Inside, I was smiling. My story worked on mor
e than one level. For one, I’d given them the dark blackmail material they’d asked for. Secondly, I’d let them know more about my supposed views on women and sex. Lastly, I’d let them know I was supposedly capable of violence in terms of protecting those views. Given what I thought I already knew about the cult, I was sure that was the exact sort of stuff they wanted to hear.

  The Elders asked me to leave the room for a few minutes so they could talk amongst themselves. Finally, I was called back in.

  “Thank you for coming to speak with us, Mason,” Jacob began. “And thank you for your patience despite all the questions. As is customary, we’d like for you to return to your regular life for a while, so that you may reflect on your reasons for wanting to join us out here. This also gives us ample time to discuss the answers you gave us today and decide whether we think you’d be a good fit or not.”

  I nodded. “Of course.”

  “If we decide we want you to join, you will hear from us in a couple of months, and you will be invited to live here at New Eden as part of a trial run.”

  I nodded again.

  Jacob smiled. “We’ll say goodbye for now,” he said, standing up. The other Elders followed suit. “But if all goes well, we’ll see you in eight weeks.”

  I returned his smile, and this time it was genuine. I didn’t need to wait eight weeks to find out how I did. I already knew.

  I was so fucking in.

  8

  Mason

  My headlights caught several weeping willows leaning on the edge of the road, overpowered by sudden gusts of cool evening wind. A small branch snapped right off one of them, and I had to swerve around to miss it.

  I was in my car driving on the outskirts of Amiens, not far from New Eden. The night was dark, oily. All traces of the heatwave I’d perspired through in November were gone, and the state was smack-dab in the midst of winter. Nothing like a New York winter, but still, at least it wasn’t a hundred degrees every day right now.