Page 72 of Ashes

Whateverthiswas.

Was it life? Could I do life?

I’d give it a hell of a shot if it felt like this.

This high was definitely where it was at.

* * *

I grunted,my arms straining against the leather bands which held me in place on the bed. The drugs had worn off long ago, and I’d been given something else that intensified the agony in my body.

“P-please. No,” I cried out, my mind completely blitzed, confusion running rampant. I couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t.

The people in robes. In masks. I couldn’t see their faces.

It was dark. So dark.

I couldn’t tell if they were real or not.

They didn’t move like they were real.

They jerked and twitched before moving fast, almost like they were lagging, glitching.

And they kept praying in a circle around me.

It wasn’t a prayer I’d ever heard before though or a language I knew. I spoke both English and Spanish. This was neither.

Then there was the touching.

My naked body.

Hands on my groin.

“Mama,” I choked out. “Please. Please, Mama!”

Silence.

“Malachi, look at me.” Sully’s face appeared.

There were no masked people. No chanting. The room was bright white, not dark now. I wasn’t strapped down anymore.

I let out a whimper.

What the fuck was happening to me?

“I hurt,” I sobbed. “Please. It hurts.”

“I know,” Sully said gently. “That’s what it feels like when the demons fight back. If you want the pain to go away, you have to listen. Can you listen for me?”

“Y-yes,” I stammered, desperate to do anything to make this end.

He brushed my hair from my forehead. I shivered beneath my thin hospital gown.

“Pray with me,” Sully murmured.

He recited the Lord’s Prayer, and I said it with him, my voice trembling and nausea rolling deep inside me.

“Amen,” Sully finished.

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