Heresy

by Kyle Atwood

  “I’m sure you feel it, child. You have angered him. Brought us our doom. The only thing to make things right, is to deliver him a new child-- a new God born from the sperm of man. Blessed are the children of Giyago!”

  Bryan reaches his hand down and lifts up his robe and prepares to violate me. Just as I felt him getting close to me, the holy light guides me to the merciful darkness once more.

  --

  My vision returns and I find my legs carrying themselves forward through the forest again, running hard and blind through the unknown frontier.

  My foot catches a tree root and I fall forward. Oh shit.

  Silence. I can’t hear anything except for the wind and the grumbling of thunder in the distance. I need to find somewhere safe, I’m going to collapse at any moment. I wish I could sleep right here, but if the cult doesn’t find me, the jungle certainly would; at this point, I’d almost welcome it. No. I need to survive, I’m not sure for what just yet, but I have to.

  I stand up again and slow my sprint down to a jog and it isn’t much longer before I reach a small bat cave. I squeeze inside, discovering that, thankfully, the cave was bat free. I walk forward, feeling the wall and sliding slowly down a slight incline and stop when I hit flat ground. This should do. Tomorrow I’ll start my journey for freedom. Civilization has gotta be miles away, but if I succumb to the Amazon, it’s a lot better than dying and getting raped by that cult anymore.

  I shut my eyes and sleep comes a lot easier than I anticipated it to.

  Chapter 7:

  Lynn, you stupid cunt.

  I awake to find myself back in the village from before. The blood sky above swarms and convulses, like the vein of a heart pent up on adrenaline. This time, I find myself atop a hill, overlooking the village. To my left, I can see the faint glow of torches making their way up the only path that leads to me. Ahead of me, on the horizon beyond the village, I can see the giant twisted man and hear him-- screaming-- as he begins moving towards the village, using his hands to drag himself through the black water.

  I will rip you apart, rebuild you, only to rip you apart again.

  I will show you anguish unending, you whore!

  I am the collection of mankind’s sins and you shall be my prophet of pain, you bitch. A message to the Heavens, a message of fear. You dare defy your God, you ungrateful cunt?

  After the twisted man is fully submerged, waves raced quickly forward as he approached the village. I take another glance at the mob coming towards me, all smiling men. I slide down the hillside and break through a set of trees where I find myself cutting through two houses and stopping in the village center. Another mob of swollen, bleeding faces surround me as the twisted God emerges from the water and drags himself towards me.

  You belong to me. You’re soul and you’re filthy body, belong to me.

  The black tongue worms its way out of his mouth and begins flickering in and out of his lips. Frozen with fear, I fail to escape the clutches of four of the village inhabitants that lifted me above their head and spread me apart, showing all of me to God and the rest of his children.

  I will rip your womb from your cunt and make a child of my own.

  He tilts his head back and the black worm stretches out from his mouth and begins whipping around again, he tilts his head back down at me and begins pulling himself closer. I can’t help but to sit there and sob up at the sky, which seems to be pumping even faster now. The marathon of a heart before its body climaxes into oblivion.

  Hands begin crawling up my torso, feeling me, hitting me, and scratching me.

  Blessed are you, child. For your pain is my ecstasy.

  A chant began to grow from the throats of the crowd.

  “Giyago! Giyago! Giyago! Giyago!”

  God is so close to me now, the sky is crumbling! Here I shall die over and over again!

  As Giyago’s tongue began to slide slowly up my thigh, the red sky vanished instantly. The darkness was then broken by the familiar glow of the sun. Giyago retracts his tongue and growls at the radiance. How could the sun shine in a place like this? Each of the hands retracted immediately from my body, the four holding me dropped me to the ground and the entire civilization of this nowhere, began to scream as the sun got higher and higher in the sky.

  This is my domain! You have no business being here!

  She drank my blood! She is bound to me! Bound to this place! She is to carry my child!

  I find freedom from this prison you trapped me in and you seek to take it away once more?

  I shall kill you and take what is rightfully mine!

  Giyago pulls himself in the direction of the sun and as the sun grew larger, Giyago roars. His back splits open and large, black tendrils or-- spider legs grip the ground beneath him and elevate him. Before I am able to clearly see the owner of the shape forming within the sun, its holy light explodes once more and bathes my chaotic, painful world in darkness once more.

  Chapter 8:

  I wake up gasping for air, back in the cave, shivering. Have I lost my mind? None of this makes any sense. It all felt so very real. I guess nobody can really judge me for the shit I’ve gone through since I got here, I think anyone would be a little screwed up. One thing's for sure though, I’m back in reality and that means a number of things: I have a crazed cult probably still looking for me, I’m lost and naked in the middle of the fucking Amazon, and I am losing my mind. At this point, it seems all roads lead to one thing yet, for some unknown reason, I still have hope that I can get out of this shit alive. My stomach growls to remind me that I haven’t ate in hours, so there’s that factor too.

  I roll onto my side and clutch myself and sob, I’m not sad, I just don’t know what else I can do. The sky cracks with a loud blast of thunder, muffling my cries. Lightning flashes, scaring away the darkness for brief periods at a time. Now there is rain and a lot of it. Let it rain as much as you want. There’s no washing away the evil and innocent blood that has seeped into the soil here.

  I guess there is one thing that leaves me better off. I’m still alive. But I can’t help but question whether or not that’s a good thing. My mind slips back to the pile of dead women, raped and murdered in cold blood. There must have been thirty in that hole at least. Their families won’t ever see them again, they won’t be able to smile, hold their children, be held-- and so much more. So many lights snuffed out. For what? A crazed religion? Yes. That’s it. When people think they are guaranteed an eternity, something changes in them.

  I must survive. I have to make it back home and tell someone. Not just for me, but for all of those poor women, so that their bodies can go back to their families and rest in peace, should souls actually exist. Jesus, some of them were just teenagers, just barely fourteen some of them, torn from their parents and friends and then-- torn apart.

  I pause my thoughts as I let out a loud scream in frustration, grief, and pain. I don't give a shit if they hear me. I'll rip them all apart or at least die trying. Maybe the rain seeping into my little hide away hole will drown me.

  Speaking of the rain, the sheer chill of it is like a thousand knives stabbing into my back and side, forcing me to roll over and see that-- oh my God.

  Instead of water I find myself sitting inside of a small pool of blood, racing down from the cave entrance. So much fucking blood!

  Thunder cracks out again, shaking the cave. This makes no sense!

  I force my trembling arms and legs to lift me to my feet and walk up the slick path and stop at the cave’s entrance. Crimson coating every inch of the Amazon before me, drowning out the darkness and the healthy greens of the tropical forest. The distinct smell of blood chokes me out for a brief moment.

  I hold my hands out and watch them become instantly covered with the blood of God. It’s not real. It can’t be real.

  “It is, child.” I hear a woman call beyond the wall of blood and shadow.

  It’s her. The girl from earlier. The one from the basement.

  “She c
annot keep up this fight by herself for very long. He’s much more powerful than her. You have to purge him from your body and soul.” she said.

  She finally emerges from the wall of blood rain and stands just in front of me. I instantly notice how clean she appears to be. That’s impossible. There’s no way she’s real or this rain is actually blood. It’s nothing.

  “You are pregnant, child. The seed you carry is the seed of evil, death, and destruction. You must purge it from your body to be free from Giyago’s grip.”

  Giyago? Pregnant? I don’t fucking understand! This is all so broken apart! I decide to grant my broken mind acknowledgment.

  “How do you know I’m pregnant?” I say.

  Her eyes grow wide and she spins her body around, staring out into the abyss of trees before us.

  “There is no time to explain; they’re coming!” she states.

  “Who? The cult?”

  “No something far worse. Hurry!”

  She grabs my hand and pulls me into the rain and we begin running.

  “What the fuck is going on? I need a Goddamn explanation!”

  “You’ll get one! We have to get away from here first!”

  So we continue forward, sprinting into the unknown. It took me a moment, but I realize that she is going the wrong way. Back towards the direction of the fucking cult! No! I won’t let her take me back!

  I manage to pry my arm from her hand and fall onto my back. I try to scramble to my feet but slip on the slick ground covered with thick blood. I get to my feet once more and make an attempt to run forward, but the woman wraps her arms around me from behind and holds me tight.

  “They will get to you if you go back that way.” she says quietly.

  I begin thrashing and bashing the back of my head into her nose and simultaneously kick her wherever my legs could connect.

  “The Seekers are coming, child. They will take you back and you will not be able to return or escape.” she says, calmly.

  Nothing I seem to do is working against her! Not even a little! I can’t fight it anymore. It’s my fate to have my life taken away by this fucking cult. I stop my struggling and the woman lets me fall to my knees and sob. Before I could manage to shed my first tear, however, I hear something breathing in the blood mist before me.

  “They’re here!” the woman cries.

  In response, whatever was watching us from the darkness in front of us let out an ear piercing shriek. The woman snatches me up from the ground and we begin sprinting towards the cult’s camp. I can hear something charging from behind us, but I don’t dare look back to see what it is. It feels unholy-- unimaginable.

  When we reach the camp, it seems whatever was chasing us gave up and returned to the forest. I’m not sure why.

  We stop outside of Bryan’s office and the woman motions me towards the boat that I was brought in on. The water beneath its hull appeared as black as the water in my nightmare, except this water was aggressive, as if trying to topple the boat.

  “You must get on, Lynn. Once you get away from this area, when the rain stops, find a city and have them abort that twisted seed growing rapidly inside of you.” she says, “Do not stop until the rain does. Do you understand? That is the most important detail.”

  I nod.

  Jesus Christ. My heart is pounding. This all feels like a distant, fucked up dream But it’s real. It’s really happening! Despite being naked in the middle of a storm, my body is burning. The warmth of the blood and my panic is almos too much to handle. I feel a sudden nausea swelling up in my belly, followed by a torrent of vomit spilling into the blood soaked mud at my feet. The bile, however, was not normal as it seemed to convulse and was tinted a deep black.

  “Go! Go!” the woman said.

  Before I was able to turn around and run for the ship, a sharp jagged point burst through her chest, twisted, and was then ripped out from behind. For a moment, the wound did not bleed but she stood there, frozen, eyes wide for just a moment. Then, after that brief pause, she tilts her head back and lets out a trembling dying scream that seem to shake the world. She throws her arms back and, her once spotless body, was now getting covered by the blood rain and the wound began to finally ooze. She stood there frozen in that pose for a long time before her body collapsed into a heap and died.

  Standing behind the woman was the robed figure, the one I thought I killed earlier. But apparently not. It seems that, thanks to the rain plastering his robes to his body, he wasn’t much of a human at all. What the cloth seem to stick to was a large human skeleton with only a few patches of essential muscle tissue. In his hands was a large chunk of the coil that I had been strapped down to earlier, broken in half it seems. It looks like he wields his new found weapon with ease, which isn’t very good for me.

  Without warning, he charges, raising the coil up. I dive out of the way and his attack jams into the ground beside me. I give him a quick kick to the side of his head before standing up and trying to run away. Oh God. Have mercy on me.

  In front of me stood another figure, a monster made of skin, bone, and metal or something. Its two arms were long rusted blades jammed into the stumps. Its feet were the same way, except the blades were more of a javelin. The torso looked as though leftover skin had been stretched over a mummified frame and stapled together; the pelvic region was the same, where genitals should have been, it was just dried stitched up flesh. The monster’s face is anything but that; the face and muscle tissue beneath was ripped away leaving only a bleeding skull behind. A Seeker? Its head began to violently twitch before letting out a fierce shriek and begin quickly shuffling towards me.

  The robed man roars behind me and goes for another strike, but thankfully I dodge again and manage to run from him. When the robed man’s gaze meets the sight of the Seeker, he stops and drops the half of the coil, falling to his knees. I can’t help but stop and watch the scene as it unfolds. I imagine the robed man thinks he has just saw his God. The Seeker walks shuffles towards him, bends down and looks the man in the face, hisses at him and then rams its left arm into his chest and begins gnawing on his neck as the right arm continues stabbing him and ripping him apart. You deserve it, motherfucker! I turn towards the ship again, but before I am able to start running, three more Seekers stand waiting for me at the dock. I need to find a way to defend myself. I’m so close. I can’t have it end here!

  CRACK!

  A gunshot? There’s a sudden pain in the side of my chest too, an intense pain at that. Have I been shot? It can’t fucking end here. Please.

  I place my hand to the source of the pain and surely enough, there is a fucking hole. Sudden shock takes me and I fall to my knees and fall to my back, clutching my side. We just closed on a house. We were going to get married, start a family. Why did I have to die here? I was always such a good person.

  CRACK!

  CRACK!

  CRACK!

  CRACK!

  CRACK!

  More gunshots. Have I just been shot again and again? Zach forgive me. I won’t be making it home. I love you. No. I haven’t been shot again.

  CRACK!

  CRACK!

  CRACK!

  “You fucking bitch! Look what you’ve done!” I hear somebody shout.

  Standing above me is that son of a bitch Bryan Howard. Because of him I won’t get to live happily ever after. I won’t get to live for the others he’s killed, but neither will his piece of shit child growing inside of me.

  “I will make things right, you fucking cunt!” he states, bending down, spreading my legs apart.

  He proceeds to undo his pants and pull them down. No, you motherfucker! If I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die in peace! Get the fuck off of me!

  I summon up the strength to deliver a swift, hard kick directly into his groin and as he reels back, I try to crawl towards the dock where the Seekers -- use to be. He catches up to me quickly and flips me back over, then drives his finger directly into my bullet wound and twists. I feel the muscle pulling o
n his finger and tensing. Each time my heart beat forces out another spurt of blood he twists. I can’t help but to scream.

  “Fucking cunt! Fucking cunt! Fucking cunt!” He screams repeatedly, as he twists his finger.

  He positions himself between my legs once again and forces himself inside of me and begins thrusting as he twists his finger in the bullet wound. Let me die! Please let me fucking die!

  “May Giyago bless you with his grace and bliss, child! For he shall heal the woes of this world and hold you within paradise forevermore!” he shouts towards the sky as he begins thrusting quicker.

  I’m so sorry Zach.

  The world begins to die before me. Finally peace. Enough of this now. Before I slip off, I watch one of the Seeker’s blades protrude from Bryan’s mouth, then rip the entire top portion of his head from his body. Then the Seeker throws his body backwards and stands over me. Two more follow and as they get closer, the sky let’s out another cry and bursts into a bright white.

  Chapter 9:

  Floating.

  That’s what I’m doing.

  I’m floating.

  I feel good. I feel calm. I feel cured. I feel weightless.