Series: The Un Series by Izzy Sweet
Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 109192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
“Why?” Sister Agatha demands.
Jeffrey glances at me, his face full of torment. “Because I know her. I like her…”
Hope flares to life inside me. Maybe I haven’t been completely abandoned. I could run, could try to make it out on my own, but there’s too many angry people in the cathedral.
But I might be able to escape if Jeffrey helps me with that rod.
Nodding her head in understanding, Sister Agatha’s eyes light up with a strange light at his admission. “Of course you like her. That’s what her kind does. They use their wiles and charms to seduce good, honest boys like you away from God.”
Jeffrey’s forehead wrinkles as he considers her words.
Sister Agatha grins. “Dear boy, you’ve passed your Judgement. You’ve been found worthy. You’ve been chosen as a warrior of God, and I know you feel this truth inside you. Know whatever you feel for her is false. It does not compare to God’s love. She is trying to turn you away from Him.”
Jeffrey slowly nods his head, but he casts another quick glance at me, and I can see in his eyes he’s not completely convinced.
Hoping I can turn him to my side, I plead, “Jeffrey, please help me. I just want to go home. I want to see my daddy.”
“See!” Sister Agatha says, and points her finger accusingly at me. “Even now, she tries to turn you from His grace. She wants you to forsake God for her. She wants you to join her in eternal damnation! Do you want to burn for eternity, dear boy?”
“No!” Jeffrey cries out, tears spilling down his cheeks as he shakes his head.
“You will if you listen to her!” Sister Agatha insists. “Look! Is that a forked tongue coming out of her mouth?! She’s speaking for the serpent! Her words come straight from the Devil!”
“What?!” I half-gasp, half-sob at the accusation.
But Jeffrey turns fully toward me, looking at me with a new kind of horror.
“If you do not use your rod, if you do not silence her, she will doom us both!” Sister Agatha cries out in despair, helping Jeffrey lift his rod up. “Hit her! Hit her now! Or we will both suffer!”
Moving her hands away, Sister Agatha breathes heavily as she waits for Jeffrey to do as she commanded.
Jeffrey hesitates again, his arms trembling so hard I’m surprised they don’t tremble right off his body, unable to bring himself to do it.
Seeing this as my last chance to stop this madness, I cry out to him, “Don’t hit me, Jeffrey, please! Hit her! She’s the evil one!”
Jeffrey’s eyes nearly bug out in surprise.
Sister Agatha shrieks out a triumphant, “See!”
I watch Jeffrey nod his head slowly in agreement.
Then his nostrils flare a split-second before he finally brings the rod down on me, cracking me across the back of my shoulders.
My body bends forward as the pain travels down my spine and arms.
But it’s the pain in my heart that truly breaks me.
When Jeffrey lifts his rod again and brings it down hard on my back with a loud crack, I know I can never put my hope or faith in another person ever again.
It will only lead to soul-shattering betrayal and disappointment.
THREE
ALENA
The Past
2 Weeks Ago
Boston
Darkness envelopes me, allowing me to float aimlessly in its passionless abyss. It cares not who or what I am. It cares not that I have sought comfort in it once again.
It simply exists without prejudice. Without judgment.
Welcoming me every night like an old friend with a hug of endless oblivion.
It’s the only thing I can count on to always be there for me when I need it. Sleep is my only escape these days, my days full of a thousand little torments.
Since the day the Prophet declared me tainted before the entire Boston congregation, Sister Agatha has made it her personal mission to make my life a living Hell.
Filling my waking hours with hard labor or mind-numbing tasks that rot my brain. If I’m not on my knees scrubbing at dirt so old it’s become a part of the stone, I’m on my knees praying to the Almighty.
Praying for what, though? It has never been explained to me.
Most people pray for God to forgive them. For their loved ones to be protected. For His love and guidance.
I have no loved ones. No one I care for, and no one who cares for me.
Not since everyone, my parents and God Himself, turned their back on me ten years ago.
According to the Order’s teachings, I am beyond saving. There is no eternal paradise in my destiny.
No hope for salvation.
Simply being born is an unforgivable sin.
I’m doomed to burn in misery for eternity when I pass from this earth.
What’s the point then? What’s the point in keeping me alive? I often wonder when I finally get to lay my head down at night.