Trying to ignore all the stony eyes upon me, I turned my head to see Father Dane secure the last constraint on Lettie’s ankle. Her little face appeared happy, content and not at all anxious or afraid like I was feeling. She turned her head to look at me and gave me one of the largest smiles I had ever seen.
“We’ll be together soon, Hannah. I know it. We finally get to be lucky. No more darkness. Only light.”
I nodded as I swallowed the lump in my throat. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next to make this ritual complete. I had no idea what last rites were and what it would entail. I was operating on blind trust or just plain foolishness. But it was too late to back out now. Not when I was lying naked on an alter awaiting… death.
I was scared.
Sinners are scared.
But I was so fucking scared.
“Lettie,” I called, but my breath was so short it barely made a sound. “Lettie!” I tried again.
And then it happened…
I gasped in shock, watching Father Dane come from Lettie’s right while he opened his black robe to reveal his hard cock beneath it.
“No!” I screamed as I struggled against the bonds. He was going to claim her whether she wanted to or not. Take her as she could do nothing more than lie there and take it. This was all a trap as I had predicted. This was a guise! Just so a sick fuck could lure innocent and desperate women in the hopes of something more right to him so he could have his way and then who knows what.
He was going to fuck her.
He was going to fuck me!
And Jesus Christ was going to watch! At least Virgin Mary’s eyes were cast down and wouldn’t see the shame of me being stupid enough to actually put myself in this position.
Father Dane was more monster than the scratchers outside the walls of The Church.
I panicked as small whimpers of fear came from Lettie’s tense body. Though I could tell she was scared, she never once struggled or resisted against the bonds.
“Stop,” I demanded. “This has gone too far.”
“You asked to cross to the other side,” Father Dane said as he opened his robe wider.
His cock wasn’t the only thing hard about him. His abs were ripped all the way to his firm pecs. If this were another time, another situation, and if I wasn’t tied to a slab like a piece of meat before the butcher, the man would be mouthwatering gorgeous. But right now, this handsome priest was nothing more than my captor, my predator, and possibly my killer.
Taking a moment to close his eyes, with his hands steepled in front him in prayer, he then reached for an ornately decorated dagger that rested on the alter beside Lettie’s body. “That is why you traveled all the way here. Why you all travel to The Church. Salvation. Last rites. Crossing over to the other side with purity and the freedom from this dark existence as we now know it. All who are left in this world are sinners. I am going to free you of it all.”
“We’ve changed our minds. Tie two other girls to these alters. Not us. We’ve changed our minds!” I demanded, but it sounded more like a plea than a command. “Allow someone else to cross over. Not us.”
“The process has already begun,” he said without once looking at me or Lettie. His eyes were on the alter.
As if Father Dane had suddenly possessed a superhuman power, he went charging toward Lettie’s body with dagger held high. Coming down hard, he stabbed Lettie in the chest, slicing down the length of her torso, then slicing a wound in a cross-like fashion. He was carving a cross into her helpless body!
“No! No!” I screamed so loud that the stain glass all around should have shattered. “No!” I could do nothing but watch in horror as Father Dane towered over Lettie’s limp, bloody body.
I looked at the wound shaped like a cross, then to Lettie’s fluttering eyes, and then back at the wound again.
“Allow the darkness to take over. Light will soon replace,” Father Dane instructed Lettie as I watched the blood spurt from her wound with every beat of her heart. So much blood. So much fucking blood!
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me,” Father Dane said in a low voice as he completely disrobed. The candle light flickering against his nudity helped conceal what a demon the man was with the spectacular sight of his outer being.
Lettie swung her head left and coughed up blood. Then she gazed upon me with a wolfish smile. “It’s my time.” She coughed hard, cringing in pain. “I will see you on the other side, Hannah.”