Fear the Wicked

by Lily White

  A chorus of voices became louder the closer I approached, and I was genuinely surprised that I hadn’t yet been spotted or encountered. Perhaps enough time had passed that Jericho was complacent in the misguided belief that I would never return, that I would never think to find out what happened to my former parish.

  His complacency was good for me. It made it easier to sneak up and in position. Through a small window I remembered that looked into the sanctuary, I peeked in and damn near froze in shock.

  Jericho stood at the altar speaking a blessing that had no roots in the faith. Instead of the relics and religious symbols that used to cover that altar, a woman was laid out over its surface. The entire fucking town was sitting in the pews praying in unison with my twin brother, not a single one of them concerned about the naked woman lying beneath him.

  My world spun around me at that moment, reality twisting and bending before finally snapping back into place. What the hell had Jericho done to make everybody believe blasphemy like this was okay?

  The prayers ended, the parish growing quiet as the parishioners rose from their knees to resettle their bodies in the pews. Jericho’s smile stretched his face as he lifted his head to face them.

  “She’s possessed with the demon of lust,” he called out, his hand resting on the poor girl’s shoulder. I craned my neck and narrowed my eyes in effort to recognize his victim.

  Molly Harrison was stretched out before him, a fourteen year old girl with the face of an angel. Her blonde hair was swept back so that it fell from the table’s edge, her body exposed to the eyes of the parishioners. And rather than appearing afraid or embarrassed for exposing herself to the entire town, she lay there with a peaceful expression.

  “But she can be saved. Just like we’ve saved the others before her. We are powerful as a united front. We’ve eradicated the other demons. One by one, we are freeing this town of the evil that attempted to consume us. On our own, and individually, we were weak, but together we can face down any of Satan’s demons and send them back to the darkness from which they sprung. Who will assist me now in ridding this young girl of the lustful sins that infect her?”

  How in the name of all that’s holy had Jericho pulled this off?

  The answers wouldn’t come to me no matter how hard I racked my brain. The only thing I could comprehend at that moment was the force of my building rage. This wasn’t what the faith was about. I’d spent twelve years teaching this town about what God intended for his faithful and none of it allowed for something like this. Yet, in a few months, under Jericho’s control, the townspeople had become nothing more than the brainwashed members of his cult.

  “My son would like to help,” Addy Marks called out as she raised a shaky hand into the air. “I know he’s young, but I believe it would do him some good to see how much of God’s power is inside him.”

  My eyes rounded into saucers. Addy’s son, Jeremiah, was only seven years old.

  Jericho grinned like a fox in a henhouse. “Send young Jeremiah up. Don’t be shy, young one. We all have the power of God inside us.”

  The boy pushed from the pew where he’d been sitting beside his mother. His brown hair was cut short to his skull but still managed to look wild. Dressed in a white shirt that was freshly ironed and brown slacks that matched his shoes, it was clearly obvious he was frightened by the changes that had taken place at his parish. His mother, having noticed his hesitancy to approach the altar where Jericho stood, reached out to prod him along by pushing her hand against his back. She whispered something to him that I couldn’t hear, but the words had been enough to spur him along. Slowly he walked up the center aisle, his head turning this way and that to see the rest of the parishioners smiling over at him.

  I had to fight not to reach for my gun and shoot Jericho before the boy could reach him. But unfortunately he was too far away for the weapon I had. All I would do is alert every person inside the building to my presence.

  Once Jeremiah reached the altar, he reached out to accept Jericho’s hand. Led around the side, he was positioned to stand where Jericho had previously been, a blade pulled from a jeweled box by my evil twin and placed in the boy’s hand.

  “Now, young one. What do we know about sin?”

  Jeremiah’s voice was so tiny that I could barely hear his response. “Sin is bad.”

  Jericho laughed. “From the mouths of babes. Yes, young man, sin is bad. You are right in that. And how do we get rid of it?”

  Shifting his weight from foot to foot, Jeremiah looked less convinced of the answer he was about to give, but still he held on to the handle of the knife and looked over the naked body of the girl laid out on the altar in front of him. It was most likely the first time he’d seen a woman without clothes. “Through pain,” he finally answered, shifting his weight once again.

  “Yes,” Jericho crooned, “That’s very good. It shows that you know how to listen. You’ve watched me release the sin from a woman’s body, right? You know what to do with the knife.”

  One would think that Molly would be struggling against the fate Jericho had assigned her, but instead, she lay on that table smiling up at the man who was convincing a small child to hurt her. I shook my head, far too focused on what was occurring at the altar to notice much else.

  Slowly, the boy raised the knife that looked far too large for his small hand, and with a sweeping motion that was clumsy at best, he brought the blade down to run it over Molly’s body. It wasn’t enough pressure to kill her, just enough to slice the skin, and Molly’s mouth opened as that blade ran over her body, the scream tearing from her throat filling the entire parish.

  After a few seconds, Jericho took the knife from Jeremiah and whispered something in his ear. The boy smiled up at him before turning back to the parishioners with pride shining behind his eyes. Everybody clapped and began praying again while Jeremiah returned to his seat. Jericho took a cloth to clean the blood from Molly’s wound and also to clean the blade.

  “This is just the beginning of her purging of the sin in her body. As many of you know, it will take a week at least to rid her of all of it. She’s made the first necessary steps by stepping up and confessing the evil thoughts in her head. She’s exposed herself to our scrutiny and begged for our forgiveness as a body of the faithful so that she may again be right with the Almighty. After today, I’ll take her to the compound to continue her path to the light. But I want to thank you all for your strong faith and the help you are giving me in freeing this town from the evil that has plagued us for far too long.”

  People applauded his words and began shuffling around to get up from their pews. I watched and identified many of the townspeople, but also recognized the uniforms worn by Jericho’s cult family. Knowing I had to leave before anybody walked outside and saw me, I began to turn around when one particular face caught my attention.

  It was the face of an angel.

  The face of a woman who couldn’t possibly be standing among the living.

  And as shock burst inside me, weakening my knees as recognition took hold, I understood for the first time the game that had been played against me.

  Anger rushed in to replace the shock, my hand reaching for my gun only because the feel of the cold metal against my fingers comforted me.

  There, standing among the parishioners and members of Jericho’s cult, was a truth that shouldn’t have been possible.

  My heart constricted to the point where it felt like it wasn’t beating, my breath held in my lungs until they burned and forced the air out. My head swam and reality shifted again when my mind finally caught up to what my eyes were seeing and I recognized Eve was still alive.

  JOSHUA

  I was so tired of that arrogant prick who thought what he was doing was God’s way. For so many years, he’d led the family to believe that he was holy. I hate to admit that even I’d been fooled by his smooth, proud voice and promises of salvation at Heaven’s gates. My parents still believed it, as did the rest of the fami
ly, but I wouldn’t be fooled any longer.

  How he’d convinced us all of his power was simple enough, only because he kept us weak, kept us blind and kept us separate from the world around us. He drove fear into the hearts of every person who lived in that compound and had convinced them all that the only way to God was through him. And even during all the small excursions into town that he’d allowed, he wouldn’t allow us to stray far, wouldn’t allow us to pick up a book or watch a television claiming that all the knowledge thrown out in the world around us was placed there by the Devil to deceive us.

  I’d gone against his rules on the day I swiped a bible from a vendor’s table at the market. Elijah had been too focused on Eve to notice what I’d done. After stuffing the book into the bag I carried, I’d smiled and pretended like business was the same as usual. We were there to pick up a few items we couldn’t produce on our own and within an hour we were walking back to the compound.

  Always with the walking regardless of how exhausted we all were. It seemed like we were starving more than we were fed, but he’d told us to ignore the way our stomachs grumbled.

  It’s the demons making you believe God hasn’t provided, he’d claimed. But if you place your faith in the power of the Almighty, you will see the truth of their deceptions.

  Lies, lies and more lies, yet the family sucked them up and truly believed that everything Elijah did was for their own good. I was tired of the lies, tired of being tired and hungry, tired of wearing the same thing day in and day out while I sweated to work the gardens and train the dogs that were intentionally kept starving just like us so that they were bloodthirsty.

  I wasn’t an avid reader, I’d only been taught how to read until my parents had dragged me to the compound, so it took me a long time to work my way through the pages of the Bible I’d stolen. Elijah would have claimed my desire to read was prideful, and maybe it was. I noticed that he was the only one who knew what the book said, and I figured that’s what made him so holy and powerful. I wanted to be as loved by God as him, and I’d wanted some of that power for myself. But after struggling at night when nobody was looking, reading against the glow of candlelight, I realized that many of the lessons Elijah was teaching were just plain wrong.

  God loved every human equally, we were all his children on this Earth and not one person was placed above the other when it came to his love for us. The savior wasn’t the man leading us to his version of the light, it was the one who died on the cross for all our sins, promising that if we would just love each other as much as him, we too could receive God’s favor.

  So, why was it that Elijah was teaching us to judge every person who wasn’t like us? Why was he filling us with so much hate? And why did he think it was right to use the words written in the Good Lord’s book to commit evil in God’s name?

  None of it made sense and I wished it hadn’t taken me so long to see it. I could blame that length of time on the fact that I was a slow reader, but it didn’t excuse me for my ignorance and what I’d already allowed to happen simply because Elijah told me it was right.

  He’d pulled me under his wing after deciding to marry my sister. He’d promised me that she was meant to help him begin the war that would rid all of us of the evil infecting this world. After instructing me to run her off on the night he was supposed to officially marry her, he’d convinced me to stay at the compound and let her run off by herself into the woods. For a full week I didn’t know what was being done to Sedra, or Eve as he made us call her. I didn’t realize until it was time to collect her from the parish that Elijah had allowed her to sleep with his own brother. It wasn’t until we walked to the parish that day that he’d told me the truth of what he’d done, but even then he’d convinced me it was all God’s plan, that her sacrifice was as beautiful and holy as God’s own Son.

  Slowly, the truth had come to me, and during that time I’d watched my sister become weaker and weaker with the teas she’d been drinking. I realized over the week that she was at the compound and Elijah stayed at the parish that if I didn’t get her away from him, eventually she would die.

  After watching the service today and seeing what he’d convinced a child to do to another child, I was finally to a point where I understood that there was no other choice but to run away. I didn’t know where we would go or how we would get there, but I had to believe we’d find our way. So while Elijah was distracted by the townspeople talking to him, I approached Eve where she stood silently waiting.

  “Hey, Sis. How are you feeling today?”

  She turned to me and the light pouring through the windows sparkled in her green eyes. I noticed her health was returning ever since Elijah claimed to have purified her by crucifying that man at the compound. What most of the family didn’t notice was that at the same time he’d purified her by killing another, he’d also stopped giving her that tea. I noticed, but kept my mouth shut. I had to keep pretending I was still the ignorant believer in the lies he’d spread since the day I’d met him. Speaking up would only position me directly in his crosshairs and I’d never be able to escape with Eve. I couldn’t even tell my parents because they were so far gone in their belief in Elijah, they would run to him in the misguided belief they were saving their daughter from the evil that infected me.

  “Joshua,” she wrapped her arms around me and gave me a strong hug. It made me happy to notice that her bones were no longer as obvious beneath her skin as they had been just a few weeks ago. “I’m so happy to see you.”

  Laughing, I reached up to rub at the back of my neck, my muscles were tied in knots because I knew this might be my only chance to get her away from Elijah. “Me too. I was wondering if you’d like to take a walk with me? You know, just so we can talk and catch up.”

  Turning immediately to look at her husband, Eve’s mouth twisted with indecision. A few tense seconds passed before she looked back at me and smiled. “Elijah looks like he’ll be busy for a little while. And I’d like to go outside and get some fresh air. But we have to stay on the parish grounds. I’m sure he’ll be looking for me once he gets done talking to all those people.”

  Thankfully, the backyard of the parish was large and bordered by the woods. If I could get her far enough away from the building, there was a chance I could quiet her while dragging her off. If there was enough distance between us and the building, nobody would hear her arguing as long as I covered her mouth. I hated the thought that I might accidentally hurt her just to drag her away from the true danger - Elijah.

  “That sounds good.” Offering her my arm, I waited for her to wrap hers through mine and allow me to lead her from the building. My heart was racing with worry, but I wouldn’t let it stop me from at least trying to save my sister.

  Stepping outside, the warmth of the sun brushed my cheeks, birds singing from their treetop perches as people shuffled off to their cars or to walk down the sidewalks toward their homes. Fortunately, nobody noticed we’d wandered out and I led Eve around the side of the building and across the yard toward the line of trees at the back. I knew of an old hunting lodge that was hidden deep inside the forest, one that would only be a roof over our head and nothing more, but it would have to be enough until I could figure out where to take Eve to keep her away from Elijah.

  My beautiful sister was silent as she walked beside me, completely comfortable beside her older brother that had always looked out for her. She’d never been one for constant conversation and I was thankful for her silence because it gave me the time to think. Was she strong enough to walk the distance to the hunting cabin? Would she complain and fight against me once she found out I didn’t intend on letting her return to the compound?

  It couldn’t matter. If I had to knock her out and drag her, I would.

  Approaching the forest, her arm tightened on mine, her head swiveling back to glance at the parish. “Aren’t we going a bit far? Elijah will worry if he can’t find me.”

  I patted her hand with mine, a friendly smile pulling at my li
ps. “Elijah knows you’re with me. I told him before I found you inside the sanctuary.”

  The lie appeased her and she kept pace with me, unconcerned by the distance we traveled away from the safety and security of the building.

  While my thoughts were distracted by the questions racing through my mind, I felt Eve break away from my hold suddenly, her eyes rounding and her mouth pulling into a smile as she hurried her steps toward the woods. Confused, I chased after her, my eyes locked on her rather than on what she was running toward.

  I should have paid better attention to my surroundings, should have listened to the name that fell from her lips the instant she let go and ran away from me.

  If I’d done so, I wouldn’t have been taken by surprise when the hard barrel of a gun was pressed to my head and a deep voice growled, “Either you two are coming with me, or I take Eve and leave your dead body for the family to find.”

  ELIJAH

  After the night at the compound where Richard and the sheriff of this small town lent their hands in nailing a man to a cross and lifting him above the pews of my sanctuary to let him die slowly, the sheriff and his brother, Gentry, had been instrumental in bringing the town around to my cause, in convincing them that the only way to combat their misfortune was to destroy the evil infecting this area.

  In truth, there was no special evil they had to worry about, nothing remotely different than that suffered by the rest of the world, but in the weeks they’d distanced themselves from the news, television shows and other lifelines to the world outside this rural area, the townspeople had sunken deep into my insanity, the seeds planted in their heads over the months I’d played the part of parish priest finally blooming into hysteria that I would use to my ultimate advantage.

  While standing by the altar, I shook the hands of the idiots who truly believed I could deliver Heaven to them on Earth, the ones who thanked me endlessly while not realizing that they were being used as a means to my end. The deaths were stacking up, the nightly ceremonies we held while sacrificing the poor condemned souls that hadn’t done anything to deserve the methods of their death, and the entire time, I documented the town’s activities via the security cameras I’d installed and kept hidden from the family. Not one person knew their faces were recorded for eternity taking part in the cruel and heartless destruction of liars and thieves, rapists and other such violent types.