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  “Where are we going? I hope you have some sort of plan,” I whispered as we ran, our bare feet not making a sound.

  “I saw another hallway with a doorway at the end when we first entered,” Lettie whispered back.

  We turned another corner down another empty hallway. I was clean, had energy, and felt my adventurous spirit come back to life as we ran like silly schoolgirls. It was the first time in a very long time I didn’t feel the fear of the scratchers knocking. I allowed a smile to spread onto my lips as I ran down the hall beside Lettie.

  After some amount of running and many turns through this very large church, we arrived at a single room at the end of the hallway, just as Lettie described. The door didn’t have a handle, but it didn’t bother us. Lettie merely kicked the door open and it fell open. We quickly stepped in, shutting the door behind us.

  “Look at this room. It must have been the choir practice room or something. It doesn’t look like anyone has been in it for quite some time.” I turned and noticed a large organ in the far corner covered in dust. “There’s a church organ. I used to play,” I whispered with delight. It had been close to a decade since I sat at one—the day I became a sinner and denounced God—but my love for the instrument had never faded.

  Lettie smiled widely. “Go play something. I’ll lean against the door and make sure no one comes.”

  I nodded and stepped forward, brushing my blonde hair behind my ear. I sat down at the organ bench and jumped when it creaked loudly. I glanced back at Lettie who gestured for me to go on. I knew we would only have a little bit of time before someone found us. There was no way to disguise the deep, booming sound of an organ. But fuck it.

  I turned back around and faced the array of keys, ones that were covered in a thick layer of grime. I swept my hand down the keyboard to get rid of most of the dust and coughed while doing so.

  “Any day now,” Lettie teased in a whisper.

  With my back to her, I blushed a little and readjusted my hair again. I placed my hands over the keys and waited, waited for the energy to ignite my fingertips. Then, I was off.

  My fingertips grazed each key with a certain caress and music flowed out of the organ, sounding like a symphony. Even though it had been years, the music I produced sounded like it always did… haunting, eerie and yet very beautiful.

  I hit every key with the right amount of weight and the music shifted from loud to soft, from soft to loud. The sound of the music filled my rotting, decayed soul. Lifting me up, and up, and up.

  “Hannah!” Lettie shouted.

  I dropped my hands from the keys and turned around to look behind me. My eyes widened. Lettie had stepped away from the door, only because it had been forced open. A man stood in the doorway.

  A priest.

  A stern look on his face. No, not stern. It was fury that covered his entire rigid face.

  He held Lettie by the back of her shirt, and Lettie looked utterly terrified. She shot an apologetic glance to me.

  “I’m sorry. We were… we were just—” I began.

  “You both are supposed to be in the intake room, not in here!” the priest snapped at both of us. Still holding onto Lettie’s shirt, he stalked forward and jerked me up from the organ bench, pulling me forward.

  The priest yanked both of us down the hallway, and as we stumbled, I cast one last glance at the choir room, knowing I would probably never get to play on that organ again.

  “You were supposed to be keeping watch,” I grumbled as the priest practically dragged us down the hallway.

  “Your music was too loud. I couldn’t hear whether anyone was coming or not,” Lettie whispered back, her voice filled with venom.

  “Silence! Both of you,” the priest growled.

  “Where are you taking us?” I asked, not appreciating how the man was handling us nor the way he spoke.

  “I’m bringing you to the altar. Lucky you. Since you both are already out of the intake room, we might as well continue on to the next phase. I’ve wasted enough time as it is.”

  Lettie and I both stared at each other in horror.

  Next phase?

  “Have we been chosen?” Lettie asked. “To go… to go the other side? Last rites?”

  “Did you not hear me?” the priest snapped.

  “Who are you?” I asked, trying to shake off his grip to no avail.

  “Father Dane.” He stopped as we approached two large double doors. “But you already knew that. And you already know what is going to happen next.”

  Chapter 3

  In your mercy and love,

  blot out the sins she has committed

  through human weakness.

  Lettie and I followed Father Dane down the long aisle leading to an altar. He no longer had a grip on us, but that didn’t matter. We followed the man.

  Fools? Possibly.

  Out of options? Most definitely.

  The pitter-patter of our bare feet on the tile floor echoed through the large ornately decorated room. Pews on both sides of us were made of dark wood and had been polished clean. A large statue of Jesus Christ paying for the sins of man dominated the room ahead of us. Blood coursed down his stone-chiseled face, and his eyes seemed to be staring at me as we got closer. Warm light shone in through all the stained windows reaching from the floor to the high arched ceiling. The Church was most likely the only beautiful thing left in this godforsaken world we lived in. Decay and rot existed all around, but not here.

  Not here at The Church.

  Jesus continued to stare at me. Could he see?

  Could he see that I was a sinner? Always a nonbeliever? Could this statue see that I was a woman living in a damned reality with the hope that my sinner soul could somehow find salvation someplace else?

  “What are we doing?” I whispered to Lettie as we got closer and closer to the altar. I could smell burning sandalwood from the candles’ flickering light.

  There were two large tables made from slabs of wood on either side of the main altar that held a chalice, several silver bowls, a jeweled and carved dagger, strips of rope, and white linen fabric folded perfectly.

  “Your last rites,” the priest said as he continued to walk ahead of us, never looking back.

  Lettie glanced at me and silently smiled. She was doing her best to reassure me, but failing epically at it. This didn’t feel right. I didn’t feel right. Maybe it was because I was a sinner and Jesus fucking Christ wouldn’t stop staring at me.

  I shook my head and mouthed the words, “No.”

  She smiled again. “It’s going to be all right.”

  Father Dane stopped and turned to face us when we reached the altar. “Disrobe. Completely.”

  Now I knew this was wrong. To get naked as Jesus Christ continued to stare at me was just plain wrong. I didn’t need to be a churchgoer to know that getting naked in a church was just… sacrilegious or something.

  When neither Lettie nor I made a move, Father Dane said, “Hurry up. There are others waiting in the intake room. I don’t have all day.”

  “Do we have to get naked?” Lettie asked as she glanced my way.

  “Either you want the last rites performed on you, or you don’t. Which is it?” Father Dane scowled and his jaw tensed.

  I really didn’t give a fuck if I was angering him or not, but I saw the pleading in Lettie’s eyes as she began to take off her clothes. She wanted this so bad. Would my defiant act of telling a priest to go fuck himself ruin her chance of crossing over to the other side? If there even was such a place.

  Not being able to take the look of desperate plea on Lettie’s face any longer, I removed my dingy clothes and left them in a pile at my feet next to Lettie’s. Father Dane glanced at our bodies, but not in a lecherous way that most men would have. He simply wanted to make sure we were compliant with his orders.

  “Get on the tables and lay down. Put your arms over your head and spread your legs to each corner.” Father Dane wasn’t asking.

  “Letti
e…” I began as my heart thumped so hard it nearly knocked the air out of me.

  “Hannah…” She looked at me with her big blue eyes. “This is what we came here for. It’s what we want. The other side. The afterlife people have spoken of. Remember that. Don’t be scared.”

  I watched her emaciated frame crawl onto the slab of wood to one side of the altar and spread her limbs to each corner of the table as she waited for Father Dane’s next command. I froze in place, contemplating if I should run or do as the priest ordered. Run or die? Cross over or remain in this hell with the scratchers? End my misery or plunge right back into it by leaving The Church?

  With the eyes of Jesus Christ burning upon my shivering pale flesh, I climbed onto the other table and copied Lettie in her actions.

  Father Dane didn’t waste any time as he took the rope and secured my wrists and ankles to metal hooks on the edges of the table. I was spread wide and now completely exposed and vulnerable in front of the gawking statue I had grown to hate. But Jesus wasn’t alone in looking down upon me now. I could see the Virgin Mary casting her judgment on me as well as statues of other saints I couldn’t name because I was a sinner and didn’t know more than church 101 for sinners.

  Trying to ignore all the stony eyes upon me, I turned my head to see Father Dane secure the last restraint on Lettie’s ankle. Her little face appeared happy, content and not at all anxious or afraid like I was feeling. She turned her head to look at me and gave me one of the largest smiles I had ever seen.

  “We’ll be together soon, Hannah. I know it. We finally get to be lucky. No more darkness. Only light.”

  I nodded as I swallowed the lump in my throat. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next to make this ritual complete. I had no idea what last rites were and what they would entail. I was operating on blind trust or, more likely, just plain foolishness. But it was too late to back out now. Not when I was lying naked and restrained on an altar awaiting… death.

  I was scared.

  Sinners are scared.

  But I was so fucking scared.

  “Lettie,” I called, but my breath was so short it barely made a sound. “Lettie!” I tried again.

  And then it happened…

  I gasped in shock, watching Father Dane come from Lettie’s right while he opened his black robe to reveal his hard cock beneath it.

  “No!” I screamed as I struggled against the bonds. He was going to claim her whether she wanted to or not. Take her as she could do nothing more than lie there and take it. This was all a trap as I had predicted. This was a guise! Just so a sick fuck could lure innocent and desperate women in the hopes of something more right to him so he could have his way and then who knows what.

  He was going to fuck her.

  He was going to fuck me!

  And Jesus Christ was going to watch! At least Virgin Mary’s eyes were cast down and wouldn’t see the shame of me being stupid enough to actually put myself in this position.

  Father Dane was more monster than the scratchers outside the walls of The Church.

  I panicked as small whimpers of fear came from Lettie’s tense body. Though I could tell she was scared, she never once struggled or resisted against the bonds.

  “Stop,” I demanded. “This has gone too far.”

  “You asked to cross to the other side,” Father Dane said as he opened his robe wider.

  His cock wasn’t the only thing hard about him. His abs were ripped all the way to his firm pecs. If this were another time, another situation, and if I wasn’t tied to a slab like a piece of meat before the butcher, the man would be mouthwatering gorgeous. But right now, this handsome priest was nothing more than my captor, my predator, and possibly my killer.

  Taking a moment to close his eyes, with his hands steepled in front him in prayer, he then reached for an ornately decorated dagger that rested on the altar beside Lettie’s body. “That is why you traveled all the way here. Why you all travel to The Church. Salvation. Last rites. Crossing over to the other side with purity and the freedom from this dark existence as we now know it. All who are left in this world are sinners. I am going to free you of it all.”

  “We’ve changed our minds. Tie two other girls to these tables. Not us. We’ve changed our minds!” I demanded, but it sounded more like a plea than a command. “Allow someone else to cross over. Not us.”

  “The process has already begun,” he said without once looking at me or Lettie. His eyes were on the altar.

  As if Father Dane had suddenly possessed a superhuman power, he went charging toward Lettie’s body with dagger held high. Coming down hard, he stabbed Lettie in the chest, slicing down the length of her torso, then slicing a horizontal line across the first wound. He was carving a cross into her helpless body!

  “No! No!” I screamed so loud that the stained glass all around should have shattered. “No!” I could do nothing but watch in horror as Father Dane towered over Lettie’s limp, bloody body.

  I looked at the wound shaped like a cross, then to Lettie’s fluttering eyes, and then back at the wound again.

  “Allow the darkness to take over. Light will soon replace it,” Father Dane instructed Lettie as I watched the blood spurt from her wound with every beat of her heart. So much blood. So much fucking blood!

  “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me,” Father Dane said in a low voice as he completely disrobed. The candlelight flickering against his nudity helped conceal what a demon the man was with the spectacular visage of his outer being.

  Lettie swung her head left and coughed up blood. Then she gazed upon me with a wolfish smile. “It’s my time.” She coughed hard, cringing in pain. “I will see you on the other side, Hannah.”

  “I’m sorry, Lettie. So sorry,” I said, somehow physically incapable of shedding tears, but not feeling such agonizing pain since witnessing the change of William to scratcher.

  “Oh! It’s real. The other side,” Lettie replied. She coughed again as blood shot out with every hack. “Don’t be afraid, Hannah. I can feel it. I see the light in the distance. It’s there. It’s there.”

  Lettie coughed again, gagging on the bubbling blood filling her airway. She coughed again, and the light in her eyes began to fade. “Promise me, Hannah. Promise me you will cross over and find me on the other side. I’ll be there waiting. Promise me.”

  “I promise.” I nodded with my eyes clenched shut. I didn’t want her to see my fear or the fact that I didn’t believe that the other side truly existed. This was just a sick twisted ritual of a mad man.

  I opened my eyes when I heard Lettie gasp for air as her body slowly died.

  Lettie! Lettie! Lettie!

  Lettie! Lettie was dead. Dead! My head spun, and all I could hear was a high, blood-curdling scream. Someone was screaming. I was screaming. It was me.

  Lettie! No! No, please! Don’t leave me!

  I screamed over and over until there was nothing. Darkness. Defeat. My body finally decided it was time to shut down and give up the resistance against my bonds. Nothing existed but the beating of my broken heart as I stopped my struggle… to just allow Father Dane to kill me as well. End my fucking misery.

  It didn’t end with Lettie’s death. Oh no. That would have been too easy. Carving a cross down her tiny body was not enough for this sadistic man. Apparently that was just the beginning, because I watched as Father Dane climbed onto the table and straddled Lettie’s dead body.

  In shock, I watched as he violently pitched his hips, thrusting his rigid cock again and again into her limp, dead body. He was fucking my dead friend and there was nothing I could do but look on in horror. I couldn’t even scream for the thick blanket of mortification nearly suffocated me.

  “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned,” the priest grunted as he gyrated his body against Lettie’s lifeless frame. Groaning with every thrust, he added, “Accept this sinner upon your grace. Open
your arms so she may enter your paradise.”

  His palm rested on Lettie’s pert, blood-coated breast as he pushed into her. I couldn’t look away. I didn’t want to look away. I wanted to be like the statue of Jesus Christ staring at Father Dane as he fucked my friend. My friend. I would cast my judgment upon this man.

  “You sick fuck,” I said. Or at least I think I said. The ringing in my ears muffled all sound.

  Father Dane turned his head to look at me as he thrust in and out of Lettie, never pausing once. His eyes locked in a stare with mine as he groaned one final time, filling Lettie’s pussy with his evil seed.

  Chapter 4

  Gently wipe every tear from our eyes:

  in the name of the Father, and of the Son,

  and of the Holy Spirit.

  It was my turn.

  I watched Father Dane and his flaccid cock dismount from Lettie’s bloody slab and walk to the altar. He never looked at me once as he took the white linen, dipped it in the metal bowl of water and wiped his cock free from the signs of his heinous act. No amount of holy water could free him of the sin far worse than anything the Devil himself could do.

  Once his cock was clean, he then took the bloody knife and repeated the act of cleansing it of all signs of Lettie’s murder. Her sacrifice in the hope of something better.

  Maybe she was right.

  Maybe there was something better.

  Anything was better than where I was right now.

  When Father Dane turned toward me with dagger in hand, I knew right then that I wanted to die. Give me my bloody cross on my chest so that I no longer have to be in this hell. Even if there was no other side, nothing could be worse than this. Nothing could be worse than the scratchers. Father Dane. The Church. At least now, I could stop running from the darkness. Either I was diving head first into the black pit of nothing after, or I would truly see Lettie and my William waiting for me with open arms. Regardless, I was ready for my bloody cross.