He reached down and grabbed my head. I tried to pull away, but still my body betrayed me. He turned my head to one side and for the first time, I took in the rest of the room.
We were in some kind of basement. The stone floor was unfinished and the walls looked like foundation brick. But across the floor were spread body after body after body. I recognized most of them, various other members of the Survivor’s Club. Franz and Harry’s body were near the altar I rested upon, almost as if they had just fell away from it the way they had the bed on which they were murdered. But it was the cold dead eyes of Audrey, just a few feet farther away that caught my attention. She seemed to stare at me, but her lips were curled into a smile, even as her clothes were left bloody from the long slice across her jugular vein.
I wanted to panic and I wanted to run. My body could only twitch.
Saul chuckled at the slight amount of movement. He walked back into my line of sight and bent down to meet me face to face. I tried to spit in his eye, but managed only to let a thin vein of drool slip from my lips.
“I didn’t expect her to be so willful. She should make an interesting vessel for the power.”
“As will you, brother.”
Saul rose up and patted Solomon on the shoulder before me. He turned and walked from my view again. Solomon closed and once again twisted my head, this time lulling it to the other side.
From here, I could take in the other alter. Saul disrobed as he approached it. He climbed on it completely naked. He rested his head on it and crossed his arms in front of him, a mimicry of the position they left me in.
“I know you are fearful, Meredith. But know that you will be reborn as a greater being. You will become something more than just a lonely woman. Your future will be one filled with power and strength. And one day, you will be responsible for the very survival and propagation of the human race. But for now, just know that I do this out of care and love. I want to see you survive, even if I cannot.”
I still didn’t know what he was talking about, even as he rested a hand on my chest. It was cold, as if lifeless. But I felt something flow from it to me, as if some kind of energy was channeling into my frame.
No comments:
Post a Comment