William held her down until all the color left her forearms. Then he plunged himself inside the girl again. I imagined it to be me inside my unknown girl, the one from my drawing, warm and connected. The monster and his masterpiece. Two people cracked open to let each other inside.
My hand slipped into my trousers, and I grabbed my cock, squeezing tightly and tugging it. Everything inside me felt heavy, as though I was drenched in a warm, comforting embrace.
The girl repeatedly cried for him to stop, but a grotesque grin stretched along William’s face. Perhaps this was the way it happened, I thought. Though was it always pleasurable for one yet painful for the other? No wonder most women were always reserved and didn’t engage in promiscuous behavior. This was why men, too, must learn control.
The young woman’s breasts bounced out of her torn clothing from the jerking movements. William grabbed one, and my head fell back to stare at the starry sky.
A buzz shot up my spine, wrapping its hot fingers around it. My body spasmed, one more iron-grip jerk, then hot semen filled the palm of my hand. The sensation was fleeting, but I felt peace, happiness. If only for a moment.
My shoulders sank. My entire body melted.
William’s harsh stare cut through the window’s opening, and our eyes locked. I ducked beneath and pressed my back against the hogan.
I shouldn’t have watched. The act was too intimate, only for the gods.
My breath came out sharp and loud.
Then a door slammed, shaking the exterior walls.
Seconds later, William was standing before me, peering down.
“What do we have here?” His harsh words echoed into the night. “Do you think you are a man? Do you consider yourself brave enough to endure a woman and fuck her? You will learn!” He towered over me, spit flying against my cheek as he launched forward and snatched my arm in his fist. He yanked me off the ground, but I pulled away from him and stumbled back.
“You cannot escape this,” he seethed. He was right. There was nowhere to flee, and nowhere to hide. If I resisted, it would only make the situation worse for me, disobeying Chief Etu’s sworn ally. So, we stared at one another until William’s laughter chilled my core. “I will take you to Chief Etu. It’s time for your Rite of Passage.”
Words clung to my throat, but nothing would come.
Don’t speak,don’t say a word, Mother reminded me from within, a chant inside my head as I followed William across the land toward the fire.
The commotion pulled tribal members from their hogans. One by one, they gathered while flames from the fire painted a glow across their questionable expressions.
Chief Etu broke through the crowd, with Bly following close behind.
“William?” he called, but the Chief’s dark eyes were on me. Chatter and hushed words scattered the land, and Chief Etu held up a palm to quiet them.
Mother emerged from our hogan, wrapping a cloth around her sweaty body. “Stone!” she cried. “What happened? Chief Etu, please! What are you doing with my son?”
“All this time, our assumptions have been correct. You have a monster living among you!” William shouted, and the people I’d been walking with every day exchanged glances. “A disgusting, wretched wendigo. You cannot trust him with your women. I saw it with my own eyes. Only moments ago with Dezba.”
Tribal members gasped.
“My daughter?”Bly shouted in his native tongue, his jowls shaking.
Scowling faces turned to me with spears and arrows in their eyes. A tell that what I had done was damning.
I’d imagined my Rite of Passage by circumcision many times. Becoming a man and a part of a tribe was always something I desired. I knew it would be painful, I had witnessed many circumcisions before me when other boys had become men, but this was not how it was supposed to be done.
Fear catapulted inside me. I looked at the ground. It was all I could do.
The string of events happened too quickly. I was snatched up off my feet, and the grain sack’s thick twine was pulled tight around my neck and hooked to a tree. I hung there with my sack cutting into my flesh, unable to breathe. The toes of my shoes scraped dead leaves, trying to find ground as I clawed at the twine for air.
Bly pulled a knife from his leather sheath.
Mother’s sharp cry echoed off the branches.
Hot flames reflected off the dagger when he hovered it over the fire. My trousers were yanked down, and linen piled around my ankles. Then he waved the sharp dagger in front of me, causing my body to freeze in fear. A cool summer breeze made my skin shiver, but I hung deathly still in the cold.
It happened instantly. Fast. A swipe of his hand, a slice across my flesh.
