“It’s not hard, Daniel. I begged probably hundreds of times, and each time you said the same thing. Tell your mum what it was.”
“Noooo,” he sobs. “Please.”
Gritting my teeth, my nostrils flare as I hold my hand out, and a second later a gun is placed in my palm before I jam the barrel to Daniel’s temple.
“No!” Elizabeth screams, and Daniel whimpers.
“Please, Abbey. No.”
“Tell her! NOW!” I scream, jamming it harder, and he rushes out the exact words he used to say to me.
“Shut up, you fucking ugly whore. No one cares about you.”
“Noooo!” Elizabeth howls, and Daniel’s head snaps to the side as Ringo’s fist slams into it, releasing his pent up rage over what was done to me.
“Please stooopppp!” Elizabeth cries. “He was manipulated by his father. He’s the real monster!” she chokes, coughing past her tears. “Daniel was so distraught after learning that you were his… cousin. He didn’t know what to do and knew he didn’t want to marry his cousin, but he was worried about the baby’s safety. That has to count for something!”
“It just means he was creeped out about finding out he raped his cousin. And as for Bobbi’s safety,” I scoff. “He already admitted that he pushed me in the hopes that my baby and I would die.”
“No. No. No.” Elizabeth cries as Daniel groans on the floor. “He wanted to save the baby. When he found out that Minister Banes was going to cut your baby from your body at the ceremony, Daniel knew he had to put a stop to it.”
I freeze at her words, running them through my head a few times to make sure I heard them right.
“Did you just say Banes was going to cut Bobbi from me? At the ceremony to marry me to my own cousin?”
“Yes. Yes. That’s exactly what was going to happen.”
“Are you making shit up?” I ask, not wanting to believe her, but deep down, everything is screaming that this is the truth.
“No, I’m not making it up,” she sobs. “That’s what the ceremony was for. Why my husband had been so obsessed with the two of you. Daniel was to be anointed with the blood of your womb, taking the gift of your life and handing over a new life to Banes where he would raise her in the church. The cult. Karl told Daniel that your baby was the next pure vessel for the prophet, which Banes promised Karl would be Daniel.”
“The fuck!” Ringo snaps. “Are you fucking saying that they were going to make Daniel the next leader of the cult?”
“Yes, Banes was going to make Daniel his apprentice.”
For a moment I can’t speak, her words weaving together to create a picture of pure vulgar evilness that’s too unthinkable to consider.
Yet, I need to know.
“Bobbi was to be the next pure vessel?” I ask, and when Elizabeth nods, I feel bile burning the back of my throat. “The pure vessel for the prophet, which was meant to be Daniel… right?”
She nods again, shame washing over her expression, and I glance down at Daniel, who’s lying on his side, crying silently, staring at nothing.
“Does that mean…” JD’s question trails off as I nod, and as vulgar as it is to say, I need the words confirmed.
“Bobbi was to be Daniel’s pure vessel, for what?”
Elizabeth sobs, shaking her head, and when I glance down at Daniel, I find his soul crushed eyes on me as he answers.
“To procreate pure children, the vessel must be the prophet’s daughter.”
I fight the urge to gag as the Sadists in the room start yelling, completely disgusted, and as crude as Daniel’s words are, they don’t actually surprise me.
The things I’ve learned about my mother and her cult family are the sickest form of depravity there is, and just remembering how Banes, my grandfather, had been with my mother, trying to get her pregnant to have his pure children… that shit is pure evil, and there’s no place for it in our world.
“Put him on his knees,” I order, and Mex and Murf move to do as I’ve asked as I lock eyes with Ringo.
“I can do this for you, Angel. You don’t need to.”
