Page 93 of The House Guest

Danny’s whole body convulsed like he’d been given an electric shock, his groin and belly rising from the bench a few inches before slamming back down. A terrible sound came from his throat, a scream of pain strangled by the strip of leather between his teeth.

‘Hold him down!’ Gabriel shouted, his voice muffled by the mask. Around him, I saw his followers put their hands over their noses and mouths to protect against the smell of burned flesh. But I guessed they had all seen – and smelled – this before. They had all been through it.

Gabriel lowered the cauterising pen again, touching the shaved area of Danny’s groin. Again, the young man convulsed, but Gabriel’s helpers held him flat. I didn’t want to look but couldn’t help myself. I had to see. It was like watching someone undergo dental treatment without anaesthetic, and I didn’t understand why they hadn’t given him something to dull the pain. Or perhaps pain was part of the experience. He would remember this experience forever. If he ever had doubts, he would recall what he had put himself through to join. If he found himself coming close to sympathising with a person he had been asked to harm or kill, he would remember his own pain. Perhaps he would see anyone who hadn’t been through this as weak, soft.

But right now, Danny only had one thing on his mind: the burning agony of a red-hot filament being drawn across his flesh.

The crowd had closed around Gabriel so my view was blocked, but I could hear Danny’s grunts. The smell had reached me now, and it was even worse than the noises. Brittany was right. It was like meat cooking – no, itwasthat, precisely; raw flesh sizzling and burning. The stench of seared human skin filled the room and I saw a young man near Gabriel gag. Another had gone green. I tried not to breathe through my nose, but then I thought I could taste it at the back of my throat.

I knew if I survived – and I really didn’t believe that was possible – I would never forget this. Would never get that taste out of my mouth, that smell from my nostrils.

At long last, ten minutes after it had begun, Gabriel stepped back and shouted, ‘One of us!’

The crowd roared.

Danny was helped into a sitting, then standing, position. His face was pink and streaked with sweat and tears. But he was smiling. Gabriel placed his palms on Danny’s cheeks and kissed his forehead. The crowd continued to cheer. Two of the helpers led Danny out of the room, followed by Marie.

‘What was it?’ I said to Brittany. ‘What did he brand him with?’

‘It’s a cauterising pen. Hurts like fuck.’ She grinned at me. Her eyes glowed with the mad fervour of a true believer. ‘You want to see?’

I nodded.

‘Show him, Emilio.’

With a smile, Emilio unbuttoned his trousers and pushed them down at the front to show me. Despite what I had just witnessed, I was shocked by the mess of scar tissue there, the pink lines and curves that covered an area about four inches in diameter.

‘What is it?’ I asked again. It looked like an incomplete circle with two mountain peaks inside.

‘It’s our symbol,’ she said. ‘The symbol of togetherness.’

And then I saw what it was. It wasn’t a circle and mountains. It was two letters: G and M.

Gabriel and Mona.

They were branding members with their initials.

Before I could say anything, the crowd burst into applause again. The crowd had reshaped itself into a circle around Gabriel. He held up his hands again to silence them.

‘Bring her in,’ he said.

Chapter 41

Eden came into the room. She was dressed up like all the other people here, though her dress was black and simple. As she came in, she nodded at Gabriel and Mona, who were standing side by side, and then her gaze cut through the crowd and found me. I glared at her but she didn’t react, just held my eye for a moment before stepping aside.

Ruth entered.

She was wearing a short white dress, and I gasped when I saw her. Over the years, I had seen her at her weakest moments: waking from one of her many nightmares about being a child who had been sent to live with a monstrous foster family, one that had terrorised and mocked her; comforting her when she came home from an audition that had gone badly. But I had never seen her like this.

She was hunched over, arms wrapped around herself as if she was freezing. Her skin was so pale she appeared bloodless. Her hair had been done, and she was made up like a bride on her wedding day – an analogy I tried to push away – but she was clearly scared. Weakened and cowed by whatever had happened to her here.

Eden leaned over and brushed a strand of hair from Ruth’s face. But she still stared at the floor.

‘Ruth!’ I called, but she couldn’t hear me above the rising hubbub, the ripple of excitement that ran through the room.

I pulled against Brittany and Emilio’s grip, desperate to get to her, but they held me firm. The crowd stepped back, clearing a space, just as they had when Danny had been branded.

‘Bring her forward,’ Gabriel said.

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