The Sect (36 page)

“When our parents died in an accident, a plane crash, things changed for him. He moved along on his own path and indulged in things that were beneath him. One of them was the oldest profession there is. It wasn’t as though he sought company with affluent individuals. He lived on and wandered the streets, lowering himself to the whims of men who underpaid him for the service he provided.
 

“One night, a man he serviced decided he wanted more than what my brother was willing to provide and didn’t want to give him payment. That man was the same theology teacher that had changed my brother before. He stabbed my brother at least twelve dozen times and left him for dead in an alley.
 

“Before he was attacked and descending into a world he wasn’t born of, I climbed. Eventually building this place to help others such as my brother. To help those who have lost their way. The cure to sexual deviancy and violence was to free them from the oppressive mindset. I’m sure you think money is my motivating factor—maybe the accolades, but I assure you it’s not. Watching people ascend is what serves as my payment. A place like this takes quite a profit to run, so take a profit, I must.”

“And the deaths? Your form of population control?” I asked, looking up at him with my hatred for him on my sleeve.

“Sacrifices have to be made for the greater good. The men who come here act upon the sins that weigh them down. The ones who are allowed to remain in the house are a crucial piece; their sacrifices allow them to ascend to a place our members will never reach. The parents of those who have ascended in the final phase learn to look at the world a little differently. They look at everything with the eyes I gave them—with appreciation for things they took for granted.”

I thought the story of his brother sounded eerily similar to that of Noah’s. I wasn’t sure if Noah paraphrased and stole Reven’s story or if it was the other way around. If both sides were true, I had discovered what drew the two men to one another, commonality. His reference to the priest who abused his brother reminded me of the newspaper article I saw Noah reading many sunsets ago. It also reminded me of the priest who had hurt Noah. My eyes glinted as I wondered if I was once again grasping at straws. “What happened to your brother, Reven?”

His smile disappeared as he extended his arm to me. “It’s time. Are you ready?”

“What…
happened
to your brother, Reven?”

“He died.” Wincing, he grabbed my arm, pulling me to stand and marched me down the hall.
 

I reluctantly fell in step until we neared the door, the door Reven couldn’t take his eyes off of. Suddenly, I felt faint and less than willing to face what I had to. I collapsed to the floor and scattered to the wall. I wanted to fight. I wanted to run. I didn’t want to give in and accept that this would have to be my fate.

The door to the room opened and Noah stepped out.

“No. No. Anyone but him,” I stood to run. Noah grabbed my struggling body, wrestling me into the room coated in dark plastic sheeting with a steel table holding two large metal business cases. A chain dangled from the ceiling, holding leather cuffs. Noah easily subdued me, yanking my arms up, and securing them to the restraints.

His hands lingered at my waist, holding me like he used to when he tried to comfort me. I was in misery over wanting to hate him and lacking the ability. I looked to the man I loathed for assistance, but he was no longer in the room. Closing my eyes, I sucked in a sob.

Noah turned to the table fingering the cases. He opened the first one, containing various sex toys and a blindfold. On top of the blindfold was the small leather-bound book, the Rebirth Doctrine.

“Did you read it, Keaton?” he asked, without turning around.

“Yes,” I croaked.

“Did you see the last line?”

“I don’t remember it,” I said, my voice quivering with my sadness.

He touched the book, looking at it with for a moment as he fingered the binding. “That’s too bad.” He swiftly grabbed the blindfold and brought it over my eyes, knotting it in the back. His hand on my jaw made me jerk and jolt. He held me steady and the warmth of his lips flittered around my nose. His breaths quickened as his lips touched my Cupid’s bow. His hands clung to my hips as they did before he took me on the bed or the floor. I wished he would stop touching me, but I couldn’t tell him to—even if I knew that denying him would make him recede. It would probably be the last gentle touch I would ever feel. The gentle touch that made me feel his emotions through his hands. The lack of visual stimulation reminded me of the last and probably only good moment here I would remember.
Sometimes we have to close our eyes to see the truth
.

The cognition made me gasp. “Noah?” I whispered hoarsely.

His heavy sigh made me believe he knew the question I was going to ask. “Yes, Keaton?”

“Was it you that night?” I asked, my voice fading and cracking.

“I directed Nadine to distract Reven that night. It wasn’t Reven who took you that night, Keaton, it was me. My reason?” He kissed my lips gently and briefly. Shock and too many sentiments to name prevented me from commenting or reciprocating. “Love is the pain of pleasure. Pain is the pleasure of love. It’s not the last line in the book, but it is the last thing you need to know.”

Tears tickled my cheeks as a strained sob became hitched in my throat.

The heat of his form and the pressure of his presence disappeared. The door closed, indicating I was alone. I could hear hurried footsteps at the door, but they never arrived, only passed by, fading into the foreground.

I’d known all along—feeling it in my gut—though fighting with the idea that he was with me.
 

His last words didn’t make sense. A man who loved me would’ve never allowed me to die.
 

Something told me the last line in The Doctrine would be the key to deciphering everything that confused me about Noah.

I’d never see the last line in The Doctrine to know what he or any of it meant.

My wrists began to protest against the tight grip of the leather as it began to bite into my skin. The door opened, sending a steady stream of frigid air into the room. My body tensed, the invisible pressure on my spine became stifling. I knew in that moment, the person who held my fate in their hands had arrived.
 

The door latched closed as his heavy steps advanced on my position; they stopped for a moment. The clicking of the case and the creaking of it opening filled my ears. More metal clicking and grinding was heard. His steps lay closer to me, slowly, purposefully. I felt the cold, heavy metal piece press against the side of my neck and slide down my body.

The man before me sighed heavily as though he held on to a burden and was finally able to rid himself of it. “Fuck, did I miss you, angel. I’m going to enjoy every moment of this. You and me, like it should’ve been. To the end.”

My heart froze, and I couldn’t breathe. I knew the voice. The voice of the monster who ruined my life. “G-Gregory?”

The blindfold was removed and the glint of his smiling brown eyes made me scream. He immediately covered my mouth and shook his head. “You know how I hate it when you do that.” He waved the metal piece that touched me before around, a gun.

I screamed louder, angering him. He clutched the barrel tightly and swung. The blunt force hit the side of my head, forcing my body to sway. Warm liquid trickled down the side of my head and I was rendered too woozy to scream.

“This has been a long time planning, angel. Don’t fuck this up for me. I paid a lot of money to get to this point. My life savings actually. I have nothing left.” He shrugged with a smile. “I had nothing left without you in my life anyway. I got ready for you. I killed so many women before you. More than I wanted to. I kept telling them I was ready for you, but they kept telling me to wait for some reason. Finally, we’re here…” He sighed and grabbed my head while holding the gun. “Shit, I thought this would be easier.” He lifted my chin, his eyes frantically searching my face. “Say something, angel. I’ve missed you so much. Waiting for you to get to this point was so damn hard. I was going out of my mind. So out of my fucking my mind I had to borrow from my dad to get more money to kill a few bitches while I was here. I thought it would make me feel better.” He dropped his hand from me, placing the barrel of the gun at my heart. “You were supposed to die that night. We were all supposed to die that night together, but you ran. I didn’t plan for that. Fuck, you screwed it up for me. It’s lucky my father was a member here so we could get a second chance, right?”

“Y-you’re the reason I’m here?”

He nodded with a smile. “I gave them your name. They took too long before they approved my request. Ten fucking months, Keaton. That’s how long I waited for you. I guess they don’t normally take that long or take requests. Back in October, they told me they had you. I guess…we just kept missing each other here.

“You should thank me, don’t you think?” he sneered. “I saved you, angel. Now look at us. Me in my tux and you in your wedding dress. So what if we don’t have the paper or the ceremony?” He rolled his shoulders, cocking his head to the side. “This is good enough. I bet we’ll look beautiful lying together…dead.” He looked over his shoulder and pointed to a spot by the window. “I’m going to lay you right there after I kill you and fuck you until I can’t come anymore, and then I will die right alongside you. I’ve asked them to bury us together, but…I don’t believe them when they said they would. They better.”

I tried to struggle as my hazy, weakened state began to clear the way for pure adrenaline.
 

“Why are you in such a rush to die? Can’t I enjoy you first?” He took a step back, ogling my breasts. “I remember the night of your graduation. Shit, I relive it every day. Do you remember?” He continued without waiting for an answer, “I picked you up in my brand new Tesla Roadster. It was fire engine red with a black racing stripe. I know you remember, you loved that car, and I promised I would get you one once we both graduated college. Then”—he clutched the gun tightly, pressing it firmly against my chest—“I remember you pissing me off. I wanted you to be close to me, but you wanted to go to Georgetown and whore around with your friends. We made love that night, and so I thought it was enough, but it wasn’t.” He dropped his hand. “Why didn’t you just do what I wanted you to?”

“Made love to me? You raped me on the hood of your car and wiped the cum from your cock on my dress. Don’t you recall me running out of your car when you dropped me off? Don’t you recall banging on my front door and me threatening to call the cops if you didn’t leave? I wanted away from you. I wanted away from you before you raped me because I knew something wasn’t right with you. I didn’t want to be with you, Gregory. You’ve been chasing me all these years, thinking I would be with you. You had to pay some cult lunatics to take me and bring me here in order to get your attention. Why can’t you see that there is something wrong with you, and nothing wrong with me?”

He growled and spun like a madman, running his hands through his hair as he called me every derogatory name he could think of. He took several shaky breaths as he stared at the floor and placed the gun back over my ribcage. “I think I’m ready for you to die now.”

“If it means I never have to see you again—” I coughed, my throat was suddenly irritated. The more I tried to clear it, the more I choked on something dense. It wasn’t emotion….it was something else. I glanced at the door noticing a plume of smoke seeping through the cracks of the door. “Please. Kill me.” I began to choke again, calling his attention.

He looked over his shoulder at the door, muttering, “What the fuck is going on out there?”

Alarms resounded, alerting to a fire with an irritating beep. The both of us looked up to the ceiling at the white circular cover hiding the sprinkler system. A sprinkler system that for some reason was malfunctioning. Banging on the door pounded at a fast and violent rhythm.
 

The door fell down from the hinges, bringing plumes of smoke into the room. The dense cloud cleared just enough to show Noah standing there with a gun raised. Gregory was barely able to say one word before Noah hooked his arm around his neck and forced Gregory to face me while he held him in a chokehold. Gregory dropped his gun and it slipped down to the ground.

“Apologize to her for everything you put her through,” Noah demanded. “You tried to sully an angel and failed. Apologize.”

“Fuck you,” Gregory spat, straining to breathe.

The gun slipped down, pointing to Gregory’s groin. The sound of one shot going off rifled through the air. The bullet hit him right in his crotch. His body jerked as a fast spreading red spot began to soak his tan colored pants. He screamed out in agony, cursing and screaming his apology over and over again.

“You’re not forgiven,” Noah growled with a skewed smirk. “You don’t deserve atonement, nor do you deserve forgiveness. You deserve to burn in fucking hell.” Holding the gun to his head, he pulled the trigger. Gregory jerked to the left, blood and other matter expelling from the side of his head.
 

I choked on bile and fear as I watched Gregory slip out of Noah’s hold and fall to the ground.

Noah spat on his corpse and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
 

I stared down at the monster who destroyed me, now dead in a heap on the ground. I looked up at Noah with tears streaming down my cheeks while stuck in complete and utter befuddlement.