Page 17 of Matteo

Nora covered her mouth, laughing even harder.

“It’s hideous,” she bumped her shoulder with my own.

The organist began to play, as the preacher finally decided to join his flock, coming out of his office that was off to the left.

“Thank you for coming this morning to Mount Ezra,” his voice boomed, oddly comforting. “Let the congregation say Amen and then we will begin our Sunday…”

The church seemed to be lit on fire after that, the air buzzing like electricity moving through the particle of air. My pulse began to race with every single word, my body had grown tense and sweaty.

“And our Father, God, he had seen fit to bring back a face we haven’t seen in a mighty long time,” the aging preacher smiled out over us from his place in the pulpit.

My stomach was pulled tighter than a sailor knot, watching as he turned to a man who had come to stand next to him.

The fucking devil had come back to church.

He was dressed up in his Sunday best, looking slicker than a can of oil. The suit he wore screamed Armani, and tailor. A hush hit the churchgoers.

“We welcome back Pastor Justin Jefferson…”

His beady fucking eyes seemed to find me. The same ones that had leered at my young body when I’d just been a scared young girl. Instantly, I became her again in that crowded church, fourteen and fucking terrified. Remember his filthy fucking words, letting them echo around in my head like a tin can being kicked along a street.

“Pretty things like you are born to bring me like me heaven…”

My throat felt tight and constricted. I couldn’t swallow and I couldn’t breathe.

It was that way the entire service. Relief didn’t flood my tense body until I was standing up, ready to shove through the crowd of people.

Nora was tight on my heels calling my name.

“Rain! Rain, wait up! What’s the hurry?”

My hand clutched at my chest, feeling the tightness starting to fade.

Taking a second, I pasted a smile on my face. Spinning to meet my sister’s face as some of the churchgoers went past, I found concern in her features.

“I’m…I’m fine,” I murmured.

She bit at her lip. “You seemed tense the entire sermon. Like you were about to come out of your skin or something.”

I shook my head. “I’m fine.”

Before we could say another word to each other, my mother was calling to us both.

He was there with her, my mother, and he had a grin on his face as he approached.

“Rain and Nora, the two you remember Pastor Justin, don’t you?” She was blissfully unaware of the monster beside her, her voice clear as a bell.

Bile wrenched itself loose into my mouth, which had started to water. There was a storm inside of my stomach as it churned. Fighting back the urge to vomit, I stepped back pulling air into my chest.

If my sister noticed she never said a thing, a smile carving itself on her face to match my mother’s.

“I could never forget these two,” the charming snake that had been in the Garden of Eden smiled at both of us. His voice was smoother than a river rock worn down by the current. “You’ve both grown up.”

The need to get away overwhelmed me.

I just wanted to escape from this nightmare.

Chapter 7

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