Fallen Daughters: A Dark Romance

by Alta Hensley

  There were no men. Maybe they were the wise ones. Lettie had said The Church only took women and that right there should have been the warning bell needed to run, and to run fast. But no, we just continued on.

  The women, young and old, kept bumping into me as we made our way down the narrow hall. I did my best to control my irritation. I didn’t like crowds, especially when the fear of contamination lurked around every corner. If the scratchers found this place, it would be a blood bath with only one way in or out. Claustrophobia closed in around my ease of breathing.

  As we reached the intake area, we were directed by a nun to a sign in at a table and then to an area with a sign hanging over a table that read ‘Nourishment’. My travel mates and I quickly walked to the table with our mouth watering for long overdue food.

  I carried a shallow dish of slop in my hands and I carefully kept it close to me, trying not to spill. Each woman only got one bowl filled to the brim, and each drop spilled was a drop wasted. The food actually appeared to be a stew with meat and potatoes, but I still considered it slop due to the clumpy gray fluid. This thick, and most likely tasteless, meal wasn’t going to be the best in my life, but at this moment, I held heaven in my hands.

  “Hurry up, ladies. Time to eat and take your baths in the holy water,” a nun shouted as she stood behind the table dishing out the bowls. “Father Dane will make the decision if you are appropriate for our church or if you must return to the street. I advise you all to clean yourselves to the best of your ability. He hates filth. Only the clean and the pure can cross over.”

  I glanced in the direction of the large bath basins filled with water—holy water—and rolled my eyes. The murky water was a far cry from the running water Lettie bragged about. Trying to clean months’ worth of dirt off everyone’s body would be more than those inadequate tubs could handle.

  I sat down in a pew with warm light shining down upon me from a huge stain glass window and gently sipped my slop from my bowl. It tasted like glue and chicken flavoring, but I ate all of it anyway, enjoying the feel of substance hit my stomach.

  “There you are.”

  I glanced up to see Lettie as she sat down next to me and leaned against the pew as if the back of the seat was the only thing keeping her from crumbling to the floor due to weakness.

  “Where’s your slop? Did you eat yet?” I asked, worried about my friend.

  Lettie smiled and nodded. “I was so hungry I could have ate three more bowls.”

  I took the final sip of mine, wrinkling my nose at the awful taste.

  “Do you think we will make the cut?” Lettie whispered as we watched all the women scurry around. There had to be at least twenty of them by now. The numbers of desperation grew.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. I still can’t quite figure this place out.”

  Lettie nodded. “All I know is they fed us.”

  “We better take this chance to get as clean as we can,” I said, standing up. Even if we don’t get chosen to cross over, I wanted to get clean, or as close to clean as I could get.

  “I hope they don’t separate us,” Lettie said. “I want to cross over to the other side with you. I’ve never had a friend like you.”

  I shrugged off the kind and vulnerable confession. “We need to just focus on getting accepted inside.”

  We both made our way to a water basin and washed layers of grime off of every exposed part of our bodies. I shamelessly lowered my pants and washed between my legs and over my ass as well. I nodded for Lettie to do so as well. Even if The Church did not grant us entrance, I would walk away feeling fresh and fed.

  “I think we should take a look around,” Lettie whispered as we finished washing. Her face lit up with an undeniable grin. “People are still in line for food. We have plenty of time.”

  I tried to not smile, but I couldn’t help but let one corner of my mouth turn up. Lettie always did have an adventurous and mischievous soul.

  “Attention!” one of the nuns shouted as she swept through the room. “Attention, ladies! Bath time! Cover your skin in the holy water. We don’t have time for you all to waste. One hour until decision time.”

  “Come on, this is our chance, Hannah,” Lettie said, tugging on my sleeve.

  I rolled my eyes, but gave Lettie a push and we headed off down one of the nearest empty hallways. As we ran, the shouts of the nuns and the mumbling of the women faded.

  “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 adventure 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 spread onto my lips as I ran down the hall beside Lettie.

  After some amount of running and many turns down 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 aside. 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 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 dust. 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. Then 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 grew 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 the door had been forced open. A man stood in the doorway.

  A priest.

  A stern look on his face. Fury 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 yanked me 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 yanked us down the hallway.

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

  “Silent! 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 alter. 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.”

  38

  In your mercy and love,

  Lettie and I followed Father Dane down the long aisle leading to an alter. Our pitter-patter of bare feet on tile floored echoed through the large ornately decorated room. Pews were on both sides of us made of dark wood and polished clean. A large statue of Jesus Christ paying for the sins of man mastered the room ahead of us. His eyes, with blood coursing down his stone-chiseled face, staring at me as we got closer. Warm light shown in through all the stained windows on the high arched ceiling. The Church was most likely the only beautiful thing left in this God forsaken world we lived in. Decay and rot 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 the alter got closer and closer. I could smell burning sandalwood from the candles’ flickering light.

  There were two large slabs of wood on either side of the main alter 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 snapped as he continued to walk ahead of us and never looked back.

  Lettie looked 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 alters. “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. What 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 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 alter and lay down. Put your arms over your head and spread your legs to each corner.” Father Dane wasn’t asking.

  “Lettie…” 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 spoke of. Remember that. Don’t be scared.”

  I watched her emaciated frame crawl onto the slab of wood and spread her limbs to each corner of the alter 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 on the alter 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 alters. 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 watching down upon me now. I could see 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 constraint 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 it would entail. I was operating on blind trust or just plain foolishness. But it was too late to back out now. Not when I was lying naked on an alter 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 alter 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 si
de 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 alters. 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 alter.

  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 wound in a cross-like fashion. He was carving a cross into her helpless body!

  “No! No!” I screamed so loud that the stain 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,” 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 candle light flickering against his nudity helped conceal what a demon the man was with the spectacular sight 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 the change of William to scratcher.

  “There’s an 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.”