“Fine,” Thomas grumbled. He leaned over towards me a second later, wrapping his hand painfully around my wrist. “I should start charging them for time with you, shouldn’t I?” he hissed at me, my eyes burning, the pain shooting up towards my shoulder. “The whore of Daylight.”
He was getting angrier as the days went on. I think it was a compilation of everything. The sons, the Leaders, Azrael choosing me as his Favorite, his father grabbing me in the hallway. Even he had been rougher these last two weeks. Three days ago, when he had come over, he had been drinking something out of a dark bottle, watching me while L.J. and a few of his friends from the other church shoved their cocks into my mouth. When they were done, he set his fourth bottle down,and did the same, but he had smelled different. Bitter. He had stumbled and grabbed onto my hair so tightly that when he was finally done and released me, some of my hair was still wrapped around his fingers.
He said it didn’t matter because I had to always wear a ponytail anyway, but it hurt so badly. Even today, I fought to scratch my head, to loosen the ponytail, but I had tried to do that this morning. I had tried to do a looser tie around my hair, and as soon as Thomas walked in, he tightened it.
Now every single hair was pulling everywhere. If I had just tightened it to where it needed to be on my own, maybe it wouldn’t hurt this much.
Pastor Masters said his prayer and his little goodbye speech to the congregation before Thomas pulled me up by the wrist, leading me to his father.
“What is it?”
“L.J. wants a go at her after the Leaders. He doesn’t want to miss out on his potential blessing just because Thorin is back.”
Pastor Masters sighed. “All right, I’ll explain to Azrael that he’ll have to wait.”
That boulder in my stomach grew.
“Great, thanks.”
“Mr. Thorin,” Pastor Masters said into the microphone.
I felt my skin grow hot as something electric zinged through my body. It was the first time we’ll have been this close since we started playing our game. I knew my place in this world, my true purpose, all I had to do was follow their rules until I could get tohisworld. His hysteria filled Wonderland.
Thirty Mississippi’s passed before his shoes appeared in the small circle.
“Pastor Masters,” He greeted, that lilt in full bloom.
He was back. Whatever had burdened his voice the Sunday before last was gone. Whatever had happened, it must have been resolved.
“Good to see you again, I saw you missed service these last two weeks.”
“I wasn’t feeling quite myself, but rest assured, I feelmuchbetter now.”
“That’s good,” Pastor Masters smiled. “Unfortunately, there’s been a slight change in the scheduling.”
“Oh?”
“It seems the sons of the Leaders wish to have their moment of blessing. They are aware that it will be at least four and a half years after the marriage before they get another chance with her, so they wish to have their moment as often as possible before the marriage.”
“Well, of course, we can’t have them missing out on their sacred blessing. How else will their futures be assured than having their cocks sucked by the Blessed One?”
“Is he serious?” Thomas hissed.
“Thomas,” Pastor Masters warned. “It isn’t a secret the sin that she’s committed, but we can’t have you lecturing another owner in front of their Favorite, let alone in front of the congregation.”
He huffed, his grip on my wrist tightening. “Whatever. So long as I get my legacy, I don’t care if hekillsher. I’m sick of dealing with this political bureaucracy.”
He turned and pulled me towards the Back Hall only for a cane to appear in his way, forcing him to stop.
Azrael was suddenly standing less than a foot from me, his body facing my shoulder, his cane across my path, the end touching the floor in front of Thomas. “I won’t appreciate any bruises on her,” he spoke chillingly, his voice sending shivers down my spine. “You understand, dear Pastor.”
The silence was deafening, and the electricity in my bones grew. I had thought about it every single day since he first came to this church. The tsunami the man with the warm eyes would bring to this place. I had felt electricity, shifts in the air, telling me that it was looming closer and closer and closer.
Today that feeling buzzed through my veins, causing my fingers to involuntarily twitch. I had heard once that just before a person dies, they have this moment where they seem like they’re getting better. In the books in my house, that feeling was told to be the Holy Spirit entering into their bodies, preparing them for the travel to Heaven. That if you don’t feel that before you die, you’re not going to Heaven.
I never considered that feeling happening in any other circumstance. Either I was about to die, or the Hatter was warning me that the tsunami was in the distance, growing and growing, bringing with it a storm they couldn’t stop.
He was preparing me, and I was ready.
