Page 34 of Wreck and Ruin
If there is no heaven or God to save us, what is all this for?
“Maybe. I am in two minds about it. I get that we all need to have something to believe in. And I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with that. I just know how unrealistic it would be for God to come down from His throne, or whatever the fuck he sits on, and fix everything. He just sits up there and lets us do the fixing, damning our souls to Hell in the process,” he sighs. “That boat that I told you about? The one that I blew up. Was connected to this place, these people,” he says, explaining the events that led him here to me.
A sob ripples out of me as pieces of a puzzle I hadn’t been aware of all fall into place. I am just a small detail in a very dark, very twisted story. I was starting to learn that Father wasn’t the man I thought he was, but knowing he was doing this with others shatters my heart to pieces. Bile rises in my throat, and a few beats later, I am bent over in a corner of Ezekiel’s cave, heaving into one of the buckets that I am grateful I cleaned yesterday.
“I am so sorry, Airlie. I am so sorry that this is happening to you,” he says, his voice distant over my wrenching and the pounding of my broken heart in my ears.
“I know what I have to do. I will get the keys. I have them hidden between some rocks in my cave. I will set you free, Ezekiel,” my voice shakes as tears blur my vision.
I am so scared that something bad will happen to him. I am so afraid that I will go back to being alone. Something tells me that if he isn’t successful in getting us out, being alone will be the least of my concerns.
“Thank you, baby. I promise I’ll come back for you. The minute I am free of these shackles, I want you to wait here. I don’t want you to see what needs to happen up there. Do you hear me?” He cannot be serious.
“I am not leaving you!”
“Baby, you have to listen to me. It isn’t safe. If they touch you, I will lose my damn mind. They will see that reaction and use it to their advantage. They will see that I love you, Airlie,” he pleads.Admits.
The pounding of my heart in my ears ceases, and my vision blurs until the only thing I see is him standing before me, telling me that he loves me. I cannot speak. My mouth moves, but all words evade me as I gaze into his eyes.
He loves me.
I want to say something. I want to jump into his arms and tell him I love him, too. I step forward, but a slow clapping noise surrounds us, pinning me in place.
“Awe, how cute,” a man's deep, menacing tone fills the cave, and both mine and Ezekiel's eyes shoot to the cave's entrance where one of the men, Jeremy, I think, stands, leaning against the stone.
“To think I almost missed the show.”
“What show?” this voice comes from a woman.
Not a woman.
Someone ungodly.
Evil.
Ursa.
Chapter19
EZEKIEL
Boiling hot rage courses through my veins in a matter of seconds before piercing its claws deep into my bones as I stare at the piece of shit leaning against the entrance before me.
I recognize his voice.
It’s kinda hard to forget the sound of one of the men responsible for torturing and raping the one I love.
The woman, whose voice sounds like someone dragging their dirty nails along a chalkboard, strides inside without a single care in the world, and my thoughts spiral.
I need to play this carefully.
If they touch a single fucking strand of hair on Airlie’s head, I don’t care if I have to chew my own fucking hands off to free myself.
I will do it.
And I will kill them all.
“You’ve been a bad girl, Dove,” the dickhead says tomygirl, and I imagine all the ways I am going to flay the skin from his soon-to-be shattered bones and use his hide as fucking doormat.
