The two stood on either side of their commander and took off their ski masks. Nika screamed as recognition descended.
“You asshole!” Mark yelled. “You fucking cunt! I’ll kill all of you! What the fuck is going on here?”
The leader continued as if he heard nothing. “You know Penny,” he said. “She’s the one who sold you the house. She’s also the one who alerted us to your presence. Do not be angry with her. She understood what her Savior required of her, and obeyed.”
Penny could do nothing but smile, her braces a numb throb in her gums.
“And you might remember Rafferty,” the man said, gesturing towards the tall man. “He helped fix your window. Ironic, since he’s the one who broke it.”
“You son of a bitch!” Mark yelled, straining against his adhesive bonds.
Rafferty crossed his arms and said nothing.
“And my name is Edward,” the leader said. “I am merely a servant of the Lord.” He tapped Rafferty on the shoulder. “Bring me the man.”
Penny began bobbing up and down on the balls of her feet. It looked like she was about ready to dance.
Rafferty walked slowly behind Mark’s chair. He bent his knees slightly, placed his hands beneath the seat and picked the whole thing up, Mark and all. Mark screamed for fear of falling. Rafferty carried him a few feet before placing him in front of Edward.
Again, Edward knelt. Mark stared at him, a look of stone defiance on his face. “Tell me something, Mark,” Edward whispered. “Why did you marry that woman?”
Mark hocked an oyster-sized phlegm wad onto Edward’s cheek.
Edward slid the loogie off of his face with a finger and flung it onto the ground. “Rafferty, start digging,” Edward said. With a nod, Rafferty picked up a pick-axe and a shovel and walked off.
“I will ask you again,” Edward said. “Why did you marry that woman?”
“Are you going to kill us?” Mark asked. “If you’re going to kill us, at least call her by her name.” He could hear Nika crying softly behind him.
Edward raised his hand, peeled off his work glove, and smacked Mark across the face, rattling his jaw. Mark’s teeth smashed together.
“I’ll ask you one final time,” Edward seethed. “Why did you marry this woman?”
Mark swallowed a mouthful of blood. “Because I love her.”
Edward sighed and patted Mark’s knee before standing up. “You’re wrong,” he said, like he was talking to a child. “I know that you don’t know you’re wrong, but Mark, can I call you Mark?
Mark did not respond.
Edward went on. “Mark, this woman has bewitched you. They call it being ‘in thrall.’ It’s where the word ‘enthralled’ comes from. What I’m trying to tell you is she has cast a spell on you. She has manipulated you with magic.”
“Wow,” Mark said. “You’re insane. Completely out of your mind.”
“Then why else would you have married a Negro?” Edward screeched, spinning and pointing over Mark’s head at Nika. “No self respecting white man would dare marry a black woman!”
Mark tried to stand up, but was bound too tightly. He wanted to kill, he wanted to break free, leap and strangle the life out of the raving man in front of him. Yet all he could do was talk, and his lack of control over the situation made him feel impotent.
“What century are you living in? What does that matter to anyone except backwards assholes like you? And why the fuck do you care?”
“Calm down, Mark,” Edward said. “You’re not offending me. You’re offending God.”
Mark shook his head. “Unbelievable.”
Edward jumped, landing knees bent, face to face with Mark. “You have mixed the bloodlines, Mark. You have been enraptured with a foreign woman. God is not pleased. And He has allowed us to sit in judgment of you.”
“You’re insane.”
“I am the burning sword of the Almighty God and His wrath will come down tonight! How’s it coming, Rafferty?”
“Halfway there,” Rafferty said.
“Move to Phase Two,” Edward said. Rafferty grunted in assent. He walked to the wheelbarrow and pushed it out of Mark’s sight.
“So!” Edward said as he began to pace. “I ask you a serious question, Mark.” He stopped in front of Mark. “Do you repent?”
“Repent? Of what? Being married?”
Edward stomped on Mark’s foot. Mark felt the bones shift and crack. He stifled a scream.
“You have broken the laws of God Almighty, Mark Pendleton, and now you are on trial! God is the judge! But I am the jury. And the executioner. So tell me, how do you plead?”
“Wait a minute,” Mark said. “You’re mad because I married an African-American woman? She’s from Georgia, for fuck’s sake, she’s not foreign!”
“Do you repent? Will you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and cast this witch aside?”
“I thought divorce was a sin, too.”
“I didn’t say anything about divorce,” Edward said.
From behind him, Mark heard the sound of hammer hitting nail, nail penetrating squeaky wood.
“What are you doing?” he asked, again struggling against his bounds. “What the fuck are you doing back there?”
“Your cursing is irksome and pointless, Mark. This is a holy tribunal.”
“There’s nothing holy about it,” Mark whispered.
“I’m a little tired of this game now,” Edward said, “so you need to tell me what you’re going to do. The choice is yours. You can repent, or you can face the judgment of the Most High God.”
Mark spat. “Fuck your God,” he said. “And fuck you, too.”
Edward exhaled. “So be it,” he said. “Rafferty! Position, please.”
Rafferty again picked up Mark’s chair with him in it, and carried him across the yard. He could see Nika trying to reach for him, pushing against the layers of duct tape, unable to move. He knew she was crying. “Don’t be afraid,” he said to her as he passed. “Don’t give them that.”
“Stake him,” Edward yelled, “while I talk to the witch.”
“I want to talk to the witch,” Penny said. “I want to talk to the witch, too.”
“Come, Sister Penny,” Edward said. “You can bear witness.”
Rafferty put the chair down and looked up. He cocked his head, then moved Mark forward a couple of inches.
“You don’t have to do this, dude,” Mark said. “Come on. We’re cool, aren’t we? We’re cool.”
Rafferty snorted. “I do what God says,” he said. “Not you.”
“Nika!” Edward cried. “So lovely to meet the Whore of Babylon! I’ve read so much about you, witch. You sorceress. You are a blight upon the earth.”
“What are you doing to Mark?” she asked, sniffling.
“Never mind that,” Edward said. “Worry about yourself. Worry about your soul. Worry about how long eternity is, and what spending it in hell with your father is going to be like.”
“My father?”
“Satan is your father,” Edward hissed. “And you are a child of hell and the Devil.”
“You don’t even know me!” Nika said.
“No,” Edward agreed, “but she does.” Penny stepped in front of the Pastor, between him and Nika, and knelt down. At first, Penny put her hands on Nika’s knees. Then she raised up, her face twisted into a hate mask, and began punching Nika in the breasts. It was hard enough to hurt, left right, left right, like a boxer working the rhythm bag. Nika yelped. It was a quick volley, five seconds at the most, then Penny suddenly stopped and pulled back.
“Oh, oh, oh,” she said, laughing maniacally. “I am so sorry. I’m not sorry. I can’t help it. When I see you, I just want to… do things… want to touch you! Want to kiss you. I’ve never wanted to kiss another woman in my life. You freak!” Penny held her hands over her mouth and kept talking, through her bent fingers. “How do you do it? What is this magic? Are you from hell? Have you seen it? You need to tell me. Talk to me before
I send you back there!”
Edward placed a soft hand on Penny’s shoulder. “That’s enough,” he cooed. “That’s enough, Sister.” He bent in front of Nika and whispered one word.
“Confess.”
***
Rafferty whipped out a pocketknife and sliced the duct tape from around Mark’s left ankle. He stripped it off, leaving rings of glue residue around Mark’s pants leg. Instead of letting him go, Rafferty held Mark’s ankle in his strong hand and slipped a loop of rope around it. He did the same thing to the other ankle, pulling the rope tightly around it.
“What’s going on, man?” Mark asked. “What are we doing here?”
***
“I don’t understand what you want me to confess,” Nika said. “What are you doing to my husband? What is Penny talking about? I don’t understand what’s going on here!”
“Let me spell it out for you, sorceress,” Pastor Edward said. “The people you are descended from threatened to divide the kingdom of Israel in half with their strange ways and foreign gods. Your very existence is an affront to God.”
“Nobody thinks that!” Nika yelled.
Edward bent over and leaned in, nose to nose. “What makes you think I’m alone in my thought processes?” His breath smelled of old Italian food and cigarettes. “There are millions of people out there who feel the same way I do. People who read the Scriptures and believe in them, and take them seriously as the law of their hearts, all across this Christian nation, understand that a white man should never, ever marry a nigger.”
This is a nightmare, Nika thought. Some kind of fucked up Old South King James nightmare, and I’ll wake up soon and I’ll be in my bed with Mark and everything will be fine as soon as I wake up.
Wake up.
Wake up.
“Here’s the thing,” Edward said. “Whether you realize it or not, you are an abomination in the eyes of God. You and your entire race. Raised in witchcraft, bred in sin. And you must not be allowed to tempt white men, or innocent white women, like Sister Penny.”
“This is a joke. This is some kind of practical joke, right?”
“Convert. Follow the laws of the Almighty God or face the consequences.”
“How do you know I don’t?”
“Because you infected me!” Penny cried. “You made my hands burn and my skin tingle, and nobody could to do that to me but a witch!”
“Maybe you’re just curious!” Nika said. “It’s okay! A lot of people don’t find out until later in life what they really need.”
“Confess!” Edward yelled.
“Please,” Nika said, the tears starting up again. “Please just leave us alone. We didn’t hurt anybody. We just moved here.”
“You don’t understand,” Edward said. “You don’t even know what you are. Confess. Repent. Leave this world in good standing.”
“How can I repent from something if I don’t know what it is?” Nika said. “How can I confess things I don’t know I’ve done?”
“Your logic isn’t going to help you, witch,” Edward said. Penny hopped around him, like a monkey on a leash, ready to strike again when given the word.
“What are you doing to my husband?” Nika whispered.
“Oh, him,” Edward said. “We had thought there might be some hope for him, but he’s stubborn. It’s as if he doesn’t want to be free from your spell, witch. I admit a grudging admiration. You’ve done your work well.”
“I don’t care what happens to me,” Nika said. “Just let him go.”
“That’s not how this works, witch,” Edward sneered.
“I’ve got him ready,” Rafferty called.
“Good,” Edward said. “Prepare the sorceress.”
***
“Oh,” Nika moaned. “You dug up my yard.”
The monsters had savaged the ground, putting holes and trenches where her gardens were going to be. There were ropes and pulleys attached to the standing stones. It looked like a miniature strip-mining operation.
Mark was staked to the ground, like a villain in an old Western movie left to die in the desert, waiting for the scorpions to come. Nylon ropes stretched from his ankles and wrists to giant steel dog-ties, corkscrewed into the earth. Above him, one of the beautiful standing stones was leaning, held back only by the rope in Rafferty’s giant gloved hands. The henchman had shoveled enough dirt out to loosen the giant rock and had installed carabiners and pulleys to keep the weight manageable. The end of the rope was wrapped around a tree, which was holding a majority of the weight.
“This is how it starts,” Edward said.
“You’ll never get away with this,” Mark yelled.
“Yes,” Edward said, shaking his head. “We will.”
Rafferty loosened his grip on the rope and the giant stone dropped about a foot. “Whoa!” Mark involuntarily yelled.
“We’re far past that point,” Edward said. “Penny, cut the witch loose. Be careful with her. I’ll be there in a moment.” While Penny did as she was commanded, Edward walked to Mark, prone on the ground, and straddled him.
“I feel for you, Mark Pendleton,” Edward said. “And I can understand why you think I’m a monster, why the people in my congregation are monsters. I assure you, we are not. I’m going to give you one more chance, because I feel a certain amount of empathy for you. It didn’t have to come to all this, these machinations, this folderol. Will you come to your senses? Will you follow the Lord and rid yourself of the evil that surrounds you? Get rid of that woman?”
“If I say yes, will you let me go?”
“Of course.”
Mark was silent for a moment before speaking. “I think I would rather die than turn my back on my wife. So my answer is ‘No, you cocksucker.’”
Edward stood up straight and frowned. “Rafferty, touch him.” As Edward walked back towards Nika, Rafferty slowly lowered the stone until Mark could feel it on his ribs. He had promised himself he wouldn’t give these people the satisfaction of hearing him scream. So much for that.
“Get her down, get her down!” Edward said. Penny had Nika on her feet, arms wrapped around her back, as they were in the kitchen. Nika was bending forward, trying to flip Penny over her head. Edward walked behind them and kicked Nika in the back of her knee, sending her sprawling to the ground.
Edward dropped to his knees and grabbed Nika as she tried to crawl away. He caught her by the ankle and dragged her towards him. Nika grunted with the effort of escape, and one of her fingernails broke on the scrabblepatch yard. Her finger stung and bled.
Now Penny was helping, her strength increased by zealous fervor, her bleeding smile wider than ever. “Flip her,” Edward said. “Get her on there.”
Nika was swinging wildly, but she was no match for Penny’s furious movements and Edward’s sheer strength. They turned Nika over. Now instead of lying on the hard ground, she was on some kind of wooden structure. Penny sat on Nika’s chest like a ghoul. The bitch was heavier than she looked, and Nika couldn’t kick out from under her weight. Edward seemed to be everywhere at once, on one side, then the other, securing Nika’s wrists to the wood, her arms stretched taut. Then he was at her feet. She tried to kick him in the face but he caught her by the heel and slammed her foot down on to the wood. Nika howled in pain, and Edward crossed her ankles and finished tying her down.
When Nika was secured, Edward gazed at what he and his faith family had done. Nika was still trying to fight her way free. That would end soon enough. Mark was moaning in pain, but he had brought that upon himself. The time for second chances was gone. No more sympathy. Edward wondered how Moses had felt in the desert, melting down that accursed golden calf the Israelites had built while he had been on Mount Sinai, receiving the Ten Commandments. Always a fire to put out, always a need to remain vigilant. Doing the work of the Lord was a non-stop job.
“The Lord is merciful,” he said, with his head bowed. Then, again full of the gravitas of his mission, he raised his hand and began pointing.
“What are you doing to him?” Nika screamed. “Let him go! I don’t know why you’re doing this to us.”
“Because you are a witch, and he refuses to leave you to follow the Lord! Because of you!” Penny taunted. “You did this to him. Are you happy now? Are you?”
“Let’s show her what we’re doing to her beloved husband,” Edward said. “Help me get her in place.”
“But we haven’t…” Penny started, and Edward raised one finger in acknowledgement.
“That’s right, Penny,” he said. “Well, bring me the supplies.” Penny bounded over to the wheelbarrow, rummaged for a few seconds then came back.
Nika felt the sharp point of the spike in her left palm. She instinctively clutched at it, trying to determine what it was by touch. It was cold, metallic. When Edward brought the mallet down, driving the spike into the ganglion of nerves in the center of the hand, Nika came close to passing out. When Edward did it again, she did faint.
“Thank God,” Edward said. “Maybe she’ll stay out.” Penny handed him the second spike, and he moved to Nika’s right hand, pounding the giant nail through her palm. Nika twitched but did not wake up.
It was when the third spike, easily six inches longer than the first two, came down on her anklebone, shattering it, like a diamond in the hands of a poor jeweler, that Nika roared at the impact, feeling the bone shards travel through her skin, the blood shooting from her wound. Edward ignored her cries of pain and hit the spike a second time, sending it through her other ankle, destroying the bone there, too.
If only this were Christ himself instead of a small-town witch, Edward thought. It would have been an honor to crucify Jesus and bring about the new dispensation. He wondered if Jesus screamed. Surely not. Edward couldn’t imagine the hope and salvation of all mankind being a pussy about a little pain.
“Is this one all the way through?” Edward asked. Penny bent over to check.
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