Page 8 of Remorseless Sinner

I looked around desperately, attempting to crawl toward my parents.

“Don’t let them do this! Don’t let them give me to him! You know what he’s done!”

“Saul has been forgiven,” Pastor Mickelson said, and I was astonished to see a rictus of a grin stretch across his face as he looked at my stepbrother. “He has made himself right in the Eye of the Serpent.”

“Redeemed,” the Congregation began to chant. “Redeemed in the sight of the Eye.”

“Gracie, where is your forgiveness?” my mother chided. “You know the Eye wants us to forgive all sinners who beg for mercy.”

I hadn’t seen Saul beg for mercy

I didn’t think he was the kind of man who begged

How had he managed to fool the Congregation into thinking he had changed?

His boot on the back of my dress did not move.

As long as I had known him, he had been wicked, blasphemous.

He had been sent here by the Eye to tempt me.

So how was he getting them to do what he wanted?

“Mom, can you not remember what he did to me?” I hissed, looking around nervously. “Dr. Meier caught him on video tampering with mybirth controlpills! We saw it ourselves!”

“Oh, honey, now Dr. Meier thinks even taking those pills in the first place was wrong. Even if they were to regulate yourperiod, they probably made you open to this whorishness and fornication.”

“Then why did Saul steal my pills?” I insisted, but she was already shoving me back toward him.

“He explained that,” Mom said. "To the satisfaction of the whole Congregation. He was afraid they’d tempt you into immorality.”

I felt a flash of hot, angry fury.

Godsdamn Saul

I was saving myself for marriage. EveryoneknewI was saving myself for marriage.

The Congregation began to hum in appreciation, the hiss of degradation now transformed into the hum of approval.

So that was going to be it, was it?

I was to be assigned to my stepbrother and married off to him.

The pressure on my dress suddenly decreased and Saul stepped around my prone body to stand in front of me, placing his foot firmly on the front of my skirt.

I gazed fearfully up into his eyes, my heart hammering in my chest.

“Come, Gracie,” Saul said, his eyes boring into mine. “It is now my job to curb your wanton behavior. You will soon be too busy bearing my children for this nonsense.”

And acting on pure prey instinct, I grabbed my skirt in my hands and ripped it, shredding the material to free myself, and then I ran, out the door and into the fragrant spring grass.

There was a stream somewhere. I knew there must be, because I had heard it babbling.

If I only went a little ways into the forest, I’d be fine.

I had to be.

It had to work.

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