Heart Recaptured

by Tillie Cole

  “Brother Micah! We must proceed!” I searched for the source of the voice and saw my father gathering planks of wood.

  “I will miss this face, Delilah,” Micah said quietly and pulled himself out of me, only to grasp my legs and pin them down straight, tying around my ankles. I instinctively tried to move my arms, but they were raised above my head, tied to a long piece of wood.

  I was on a stake… I was bound to a stake!

  I immediately began to struggle as my father piled wood at my feet.

  By fire you shall burn. By boiling blood you shall be purified of your sin! Brother Judah’s words suddenly made sense. They were to burn me as a witch!

  Brother Micah secured my legs, then set to helping my father.

  Panic at my situation hit me and I shouted out in frustration, unable to free myself from my restraints. “Please!” I begged.

  The pain from my back made me delirious, the burned skin on my torso raw and agonizing. I was thirsty, my mouth dry from lack of fluids. I searched the surrounding area, but there was nothing in sight, just field upon field, a vast blanket of green and a small truck parked at the bottom of the hill that must have brought us out here to this secluded spot.

  Taking a match from a small linen sack, my father lit the flint at the bottom of the stake, and I watched the logs ignite slowly, a small flame beginning to lick at the wood.

  “No, please!” I shouted as I began to feel heat at my feet.

  Brother Micah and my father dropped to their knees, eyes closed, and held their hands up to the Lord.

  “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

  “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

  “They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.”

  Scripture slipped from their lips. Matthew, Revelation, Thessalonians…

  They were conversing with the Lord, too lost in the rapture of Glossolalia to hear my cries.

  The flames grew higher and any hope of me being saved from this horrid death departed.

  I closed my eyes and prayed it would be quick.

  Chapter Twenty

  Ky

  “Ready?”

  Smiler turned to AK and began unscrewing the fuse box to break the electric current running through the fence.

  The rest of us—Me, Styx, Flame, Cowboy, and Hush—sat back waiting, but I was fuckin’ desperate to get inside.

  AK and Smiler hadn’t been fuckin’ lying; this place was a damn military stronghold. Walls, fences, and lookouts stationed everywhere. So far, two guards had been taken down, one by Styx and one by me. The fuckers hadn’t even heard us coming, making it just perfect to surprise their stupid asses, slugging a bullet right between the eyes, the suppressors on our Uzis not making a damn sound.

  “In!” Smiler whispered, throwing the door of the fuse box on the ground. Taking his Uzi, he shot the fuckin’ thing to pieces.

  Taking the butt of his gun, AK tested the fence—nothing.

  Hush stepped forward with the wire cutters, ripping enough of the huge fence to allow us through.

  One by one we passed through the row of fences into a fuck-off great field. Sticking to the line of trees, AK guided us into the woods.

  “What now?” Cowboy asked.

  “We head north,” Smiler answered. “The blueprints showed most of the buildings in that direction.”

  “You lead. We’ll follow,” Styx signed, and we moved out.

  Sticking to the cover of the dark woods, we’d traveled a couple of miles when the sound of voices caught my attention.

  Freezing, I held up my hand, the brothers stopping dead in their tracks. I listened harder as all eyes fell on me. “You hear that shit?” I hushed out.

  AK frowned. “There’s nothing out here. Fields and shit.”

  The voices got louder, and stepping back, following the direction of the sounds, I saw what looked like flames not too far in the distance.

  “Looks like a fire,” I said, and the brothers gathered to look. “Why the fuck would there be a fire all the way out here?”

  AK turned to Smiler. “We need to check this shit out. The blueprints could’a been wrong.”

  But then a scream so loud cut through the strange low murmurs, a scream that sent ice through my veins. My chest grew tight, and when I heard it again, I set off running, ignoring my brothers behind me. That voice… that fuckin’ voice…

  When it sounded again, I had no doubt who it fuckin’ belonged to.

  LILAH!

  Pushing my legs as fast as they could go, I aimed for the flames, that creepy deep murmuring becoming clearer. It didn’t take me long to realize it was that fuckin’ strange-ass Bible talk shit that Lilah did.

  Hearing footsteps behind me, I glanced round to see Styx and Flame on my trail. Flame’s face was lit with excitement, Styx’s with concern.

  Raising my Uzi at Lilah’s screams, I finally broke through the trees and froze.

  Two men were flat on the ground, rolling around and babbling a language no fucker could understand… in front of a fire… a stake… a fuckin’ stake with a naked Lilah… screaming… in pain.

  “Lilah!” I shouted, tearing forward, hearing Flame’s angry roar and curses stringing from my brothers’ mouths.

  The men on the floor didn’t even concern me. Lilah, all I could fuckin’ see was Lilah, flames licking up a pile of wood, almost at her feet.

  Looking around, I saw Cowboy and Hush fuckin’ paling at the sight. “Cowboy, Hush! You’re with me!”

  Both brothers followed me toward the pyre. Lilah’s eyes were shut, a damn crucifix burned into her naked torso. She was beat, bloodied. I scanned down her body as Hush and Cowboy ran behind the stake and, one on either side, began slicing off the rope around her wrists and feet.

  Knowing Cowboy and Hush had the ropes, I started kicking at the wood around her feet. AK and Smiler joined me until a path had cleared enough for me to get through to my woman.

  “Lilah!” I called as I approached, but her head was lolling from side to side. Fuck, she wasn’t with it.

  “Ky, brother,” Hush called. “Her back’s been lashed to all hell, real fucked-up Jesus crucifixion shit.”

  I was visibly shaking with rage, and when Hush and Cowboy signaled the ropes were free, I lifted a limp Lilah from the stake, her blue eyes opening. “Ky? My Ky… you are here… but you do not really love me. It was all a falsehood… I am so sorry… sorr—”

  Lilah’s eyes suddenly rolled back and she lost consciousness. “Lilah! Lilah!” I called out, confused as fuck, but she wouldn’t wake up.

  Running out of the path of flames, I bent down, checking her over. There was blood everywhere. Burns, scars, bruises, lashes, and—

  No… fuckin’ NO!

  Blood staining her pussy… fuckin’ cum streaming out of her cunt.

  They’d raped her… They motherfucking raped her!

  Fists clenched, I laid Lilah on the grass, a fuckin’ red mist flooding my eyes. Ripping off my cut, I laid it over her body and turned to face the bastards spewing that psycho shit.

  Styx held some old fucker in his arms, the bastard almost shitting himself as he stared at us. But Flame, Flame was holding his blade to a man’s throat, his pig-sized brown eyes watching me with my bitch, my bitch that he’d tried to motherfucking burn.

  Flame was whispering something in his ear, something I couldn’t make out. But the dick-sucker in his arms was hearing it, paling and losing all the blood from his face at what our club psycho was spouting.

  Deciding to start with him, I walked straight up to his face and, throwing all my strength behind it, punched him clean across jaw. Flame threw back his head and laughed as blood spurted from the Jes
us-wannabe’s mouth.

  But the fucker bounced back.

  “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”

  His eyes flared as he coughed up the Bible.

  Gripping his cheeks, my face met his. “Nah, the soul that sins is gonna fuckin’ rip you apart and send you to Hades, motherfucker.”

  “Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.”

  “Fuckin’ kill him, Ky. Kill him or I will,” Flame hissed, his blade pressed so hard it started to draw blood.

  “She is a temptress, a harlot! She must burn. She must repent!”

  Turning my attention to the old fuck being held by Styx, I pounded over to where he stood, his face all high and mighty and proud.

  “You got something to say, Grandpa?”

  His wrinkled face reddened and he said, “She is born of the devil! She tempts anyone in her path. She must die! It is the only way to save her damned soul!”

  “Maybe you need to fuckin’ die,” I spat back and turned my attention back the other cunt. He was the one that had hurt my bitch, and he was the one gonna die first.

  “She was once my daughter! And she tempted even me!”

  Stilling, I slowly turned to the old man. Rage like I’d never felt before swept over me. Reaching into my boot, I pulled out my blade, marched up to where Styx held him, and slit his throat. Styx dropped his almost-dead ass to the ground, and I knelt down and said, “You pedo piece of fuck. You touched your own kid and then fuckin’ blamed her. Tell Hades I said hello, ‘cause that’s the only place you’ll be going.”

  As he gurgled on his blood, I stood, but not before I crushed his nuts and winkle-dick with my boot, smiling as he screamed out, the movement slicing his throat farther.

  Shock spread on his features as blood poured down his chest. I left the molesting fucker to choke. He deserved to die… slowly.

  “Ky!” Flame shouted. I jerked my chin at my brother, and his hand was shaking. “I wanna kill him. I wanna spill his blood… slowly. I wanna fuckin’ bathe in that shit.” Flame’s crazy black eyes were set on the Jesus in his hold.

  Walking back to the disciple, I looked into his eyes and said, “You fucked my bitch? You lashed her, burned her, and tied her to this fuckin’ stake like you’re some cardinal in the Spanish Inquisition?”

  He tried to give nothing away, but his eyes and nostrils flared slightly. That was all the confirmation I needed.

  “Flame,” I said, “take off that fuckin’ gay-ass white dress he’s wearing.”

  Flame frowned, but pushing the prick forward, he wrenched off that god-awful fuckin’ tunic and held it out. Glancing behind me, I spotted Cowboy and Hush with Lilah and said, “Cowboy?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Get this on Lilah. Cover her the fuck up so none of you fucks are staring at her pussy.”

  Cowboy took the tunic, and I turned back to the bearded disciple. “So you fuckin’ raped my woman?” I asked tightly, feeling fuckin’ sick at the image. I felt like my blood was boiling, fuckin’ bubbling under my skin.

  “She is a temptress and I am a blessed elder charged with her care… I was saving her black soul!”

  Pointing my Uzi at his leg, I fired and sent a slug straight into his thigh. He screamed, but Flame put his gloved hand over his mouth to shut him the fuck up.

  Next, I aimed at his right shoulder and sent another bullet into his flesh.

  Tucking my Uzi into the back of my leathers, I pulled out my serrated knife. “Flame, strip him.”

  The rapist on the floor began thrashing around, so much that I could almost smell his fear. Pussy. That was until Flame took his gun and smacked the butt into the back of his head. Flame sliced down the prick’s pants and ripped them clean off, the disciple’s goods all on show.

  “Ky!” Smiler shouted, and when I turned around, he was hovering over Lilah. “She’s in shock, bleeding bad. We need to get the fuck home before it gets infected. Kill the cunt and let’s go.”

  My eyes met Flame’s. “Cut his cock off, slowly, and fuckin’ choke him with it. And don’t stop until he’s dead. He doesn’t get to survive hurting my bitch.”

  Flame’s eyes lit up like it was Christmas, and I leaned down to the disciple to say, “You fuckin’ love your God so much, go fuckin’ meet him.”

  I stood and stormed across the clearing to retrieve my bitch. Hearing Flame tearing at the prick’s cock and the disciple’s pained cries had all us brothers wincing.

  “Fuck, Ky!” Cowboy said. “Did you have to be so fuckin’ graphic?”

  The cries soon became silent, and Flame made sure the fucker choked his dick down. The sputtering and gagging went on for a fuckin’ age until Flame suddenly roared out like the brother had just come in a bitch, and we all knew the disciple was dead.

  Flicking out his German blade, Styx walked to the disciple, hovered over his chest, and began carving a huge H in his chest—his signature Hangmen mark. He then did the same to Lilah’s old man.

  Prophet fuckin’ Cain would take one look and know who killed his pedo men. But I’m guessing the rat-brother would’ve known anyway. He had to know if he attacked us, a whole load of that prophesied evil he preached about so much would be dumped on his holy fuckin’ shoulders.

  War was coming. Not right now… but it was coming soon, and I’d be fuckin’ ready.

  “Let’s go,” Styx signed. Wiping the blood from his blade on the dried grass, he tucked it back into his boot. I scooped Lilah up in my arms, the blood from her injuries seeping through the tunic. Even in this state, she was so fuckin’ stunning my chest literally ached at how much I’d missed her. But fuck, what those bastards had put her through, her stunning body hacked up.

  Styx’s hand planted on my shoulder. “We’ll get our fuckin’ revenge later. Get your mind on your bitch and let me worry about the rest.”

  Flame joined us, wiping the blood from his hands on his leathers, the brother seeming calmer, and we ran for the fence.

  A gasp stopped us mid-step. When we turned as one, a redheaded bitch was staring at us, pure fear etched on her face. She’d run over the hill from the direction of the base.

  AK stepped forward and she stumbled back in fear, whimpering when she saw the two bodies on the floor. “No!” she hushed out, her cry silencing her voice. “You… you are the demons Prophet Cain warned of. A living army of Hades that wear black leather and kill our people without remorse. You rid us of our pure souls and send them straight to Hell.”

  “Fuck! Look at that. We’re even famous in the motherfuckin’ Garden of Eden!” Hush said dryly, not a damn bit of humor on his face.

  “Shit!” AK spat and met eyes with Styx. “I ain’t into killing women, but we can’t leave her to go running back to chief Jesus freak.”

  Styx ran his hand down his face.

  The bitch tore her gaze from the two corpses on the ground, then set her sights on Lilah. “Is she alive?” she whispered, and her face seemed to crumple in fear. But not outta fear of us, but outta fear for Lilah.

  Frowning, I held Lilah tighter and studied the pilgrim redhead. “Why the fuck do you care?”

  Getting to her feet, her huge green eyes roved over my brothers, and she said, “She… she is my sister.”

  “She ain’t got no sisters in this shithole. Her sisters are out there, away from this fucked-up pedo hell and under Hades’s protection.”

  Her eyes grew huge at the mention of Hades, but she quickly pulled her shit together and started shaking her head. “No… I am her blood. I am her sister, Phebe.” She lifted her shaking hand and pointed to the old guy on the floor, drowning in his own blood. “That… he was our father… You killed our father.”

  AK pounded forward and gripped her arm, putting the barrel of his gun to he
r head. “He was a fuckin’ pedo and deserved to meet the boatman. And now you will too. You shouldn’t have come looking, pretty girl. Now you gotta die.”

  “No, please!” she cried. “I was coming to help my sister. The things they did to her tonight… my people… Lord! I cannot bear it. Her screams are burnished into my mind. Her blood spatter from the stripes is all I can see…”

  My stomach rolled at her words and the shittin’ devastation in her voice. I gripped my woman even tighter in my arms and studied the redhead. She didn’t look like Lilah, nowhere near as gorgeous, but she was kinda pretty, and she clearly cared for my woman.

  “You must take her,” she said to me, ignoring AK. “You must take her away and never let them get her again. Protect her…”

  AK met my eyes over her head, and I nodded, telling him not to kill her. Christ! I was becoming a pussy of late.

  AK flicked off the safety of his 9mm and put his mouth to Phebe’s ear. “Listen, bitch, we’re gonna tie you up so you can’t go running back to Prophet Dumb-fuck and tell him we were here. Yeah, you getting that through your fucked-up little brain?”

  Phebe’s eyes closed, and I could see her hands shaking, but she nodded. “Just… just please get her away and safe. Next time, the elders will not fail to kill her, truly.”

  AK, casting a confused glance to me, marched the bitch toward a tree set off to the side of the pyre, halting when the bitch dug her heels in the dirt and politely asked, “Can I say good-bye to her?”

  I jerked my chin at AK. He wrenched the redhead toward me, and I saw the tears falling down her pale cheeks. Slowly reaching out, she ran the back of her hand gently over Lilah’s face and said, “Her life has not been easy. I used to pray she had been taken to a better place, but we were always told stories of the Cursed and their schoolings. And when I saw her again, I knew her life had been one of misery and pain.” The bitch welled up with tears and hushed out, “Be at peace, my Rebekah. Be happy. We shall meet again someday, whether in this life or the next.”

  As she dropped her hand, I said, “What did you call her?”