The Loop (Book 2)

Cult

"Evelyn, how nice to meet you once more." Javier asked, his English mixed with a little French accent.

The other three was panicking, frantically trying to escape from their bounds while Evelyn stood rooted to the ground, her eyes wide.

The men in the robes kicked their legs, causing them to fall to their knees. "Kneel before the High Preacher"  ordered with a cold tone.

"Never!!" Cass grunted angrily, trying to stand up only to be knocked out cold by one of the men in robes.

Suddenly, a woman wearing revealing clothing entered the hall with a dozen civilians marching behind her. They seemed to be in a daze, as if unaware of their current situation.

When Javier saw her, a brief look of annoyance flashed on his face but it disappeared as fast as it came. He faced the woman behind Evelyn and gave a gentlemanly bow as he greeted

"Welcome back, maîtresse Freu."

The woman, Freu, nodded and hummed a happy tune as she led the civilians through a set of large wooden doors.

Before the door closed, Freu called with a soft tone, "Javier, can I have a talk with you? Privately?"

"Of course, mon maîtresse" Javier smiled.

Just as the doors closed with a loud noise, he broke character and clicked his tongue in annoyance and anger.

"Tsk, annoying pests," said Javier before he raised his tone,"Take them away!!"

Once the men in robes heard their order, they immediately went to work and dragged the four of them away.

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The group was shoved into a medieval like dungeon and was left alone. The torch on the cobblestone walls did little to light the small cubic space.

"Cass, are you okay?" Jennifer asked worriedly as she and Olivia tried to wake the unconscious girl with shakes and slaps.

"Oh shut up!!" Cass angrily sighed before sitting and laying her back onto the wall after crawling to the darkest corner of the dungeon.

"We need to get out of here as soon as possible. I don't think we'll stay untouched for long." Evelyn quickly said with a rushed and saddened tone of voice.

She stood up and went to the entrance of the dungeon and tried to pry open the padlock but to no avail, it barely budged.

Though it barely budged, she was stubborn and continued to roughly tear the lock while Jennifer and Olivia sat opposite each other.

The sound of metal scraping and clanging made Cassandra scuffle her hair and stand up angrily.

"Won't you just stop it-"when she was about to pull Evelyn back from the grills, she saw tears streaming down her face.

She then realized that Evelyn was shivering terribly. Cass was speechless. She didn't know what to say so she simply knelt down and embraced her in silence.

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"Hey, wake up!"a man wearing a uniform black coat ordered as he hit the grills with a metal rod, waking the four if them from their sleep.

He waved his hand at Evelyn and Jennifer and the other men behind him immediately unlocked the dungeon and dragged the two away.

He grinned at the glaring Cassandra and the scared Olivia before waving and going up the narrow stairs.

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Soon, they arrived in a small room with a altar in the middle that was surrounded on all four sides with four men wearing robes.

The four that stood around what seemed to be an altar resembling a coffin started chanting prayers in short mumbles and murmurs.

One of them held a staff that reached his waists, also the one who was standing on the altar, opened one eye and smiled as he welcomed his two guests.

"Welcome to my humble abode, Cursed Ones"

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