Page 38 of Like An Animal
This is for you, Jeremy. You may hate me, but at least you escaped with your life intact. I can’t say the same for myself.
The men get in the SUV and one climbs into the back with me, completely ignoring my existence.
“Back to the compound,” one of them says, but then the vehicle is silent except for the engine roaring. My body is pushed back as they take off, but I remain silent. I just sit back up and wait for the drive to be over.
A sack is thrownover my head and my hands are tied behind my back before I’m pulled from the van. I hear hushed whispers and comments that I can’t decipher from whoever is around me. It must be hundreds of people from the volume of the whispers.
“Silence!” a voice calls out in authority as I’m dragged until I come to a stop, dropping to my sore and battered knees. I don’t move as someone cuts away my clothes, leaving me naked, exposed and unable to do anything.
“We are gathered here to welcome home one of our lost and broken children, a child led astray by wickedness and desire, one who has crawled across broken glass to make her way back andpay for her sins.” A hand is placed on my head as I take a deep breath. “Give us your name, child.”
I’m not a child.
“Bronwyn,” I whisper my response, but before I can finish, a hard punch cracks across my face, but I’m not sure how they knew where my face was, hence the bag.
“You’re Godly name!” The man hisses.
I stretch my jaw before whispering a name I never wanted to hear again. “Mary Elizabeth.”
“Mary Elizabeth, offspring of the fallen advisor David, has returned to reclaim her place among the Daughters of Jephthah. Praise her and may God’s will be done!”
And the room rings out with men repeating, “May God’s will be done!”
Then, the sack is pulled from my head and I’m met with one of the most vile and disgusting creatures I have ever encountered, a sick smile across his face. “Welcome home, Mary Elizabeth. Are you ready to pay for your sins against me, darling?”
I humthe tune of one of Jeremy’s beautiful songs,Ghost, as the whip lashes against my spine, cutting deeper with every strike. My insides twist and nausea plagues me, but I don’t stop humming. The song seems to piss him off, but I keep going because his anger brings me solace.
I know the drill because it’s happened a hundred times before. They’ll beat me until I’m too exhausted to fight, then send in half a dozen men to let them do whatever they want to me. This is my "atonement" for allowing myself to be led astray,for letting Jeremy protect me from the abuse my father put me through.
They called it “conditioning” because this was always the plan for me. I wasn’t ever going to escape. The only thing that brings me any sort of comfort is that I know this isn’t what Jeremy is having to go through and that he’s still breathing.
I surrendered myself, did their dirty work, and it was all for him, to keep him safe.
CHAPTER 17
THE GHOST
One Year Later…
“Mary Elizabeth?” I lift my head as the high priest walks into my room, holding his head high.
“Yes, Father?”
“Tomorrow is your turn. You should prepare.”
They’ve been preparing, but I’ve been doing another sort of preparation. I’m getting ready to bust out of here. When I first got here, I knew I would make my getaway, but I needed them to trust me first. They do now. They think I’m brainwashed, but I’m a broken woman. You can’t brainwash someone who knows how to point it out–the techniques, the end goal and the way to avoid it.
I’m not like the other women and men here whose parents handed them over so they could abuse each other’s children.
They think you give as a child, so you can take as an adult. Jeremy gave me the ability to see the difference between conditioning and love. Jeremy loved me, cared for me, protected me. He never did any of the things they have to me.
“Yes, Father. I shall say my prayers.”
They want to marry me off to one of the higher ranking members, but I’m not going to go quietly into this trap. I can’t be tamed.
If Jeremy couldn’t break me, they sure as fuck won’t.
“I’ll leave you to it, child.”
