Grey (Now Published!)

Chapter 17

I keep my eyes on Duncan ready for my intervention, when suddenly, a strong hand grips my wrist, yanking me out of my charge and I am pulled back into the silence of group C. I stumble back into the crowd, turning to meet the calm eyes of Ruth. 

"Don't," she sneers. "Don't even think about it."

"Get off me," I say, trying to break my wrist free from her grasp. 

"Look around you," she says, "They're testing you."

I gently turn my head, gazing upwards at the oval of supervisors and leaders. All of them are staring at me, all of them are evaluating me, they're waiting for my reaction. 

"Every time a new member joins, Pastor brings the assembly forward," Ruth says quietly. "In every assembly, something like this happens. He wants to divide the pure from the sinned."

"What happened to new members that spoke up?" I ask.

"They were escorted out of here, and we never saw them again."

I flinch as the girl's screams once again bounce across the room. I turn away, clenching my teeth together as her cries for help push me to the edge. 

"The girl will be fine," Ruth says. "She'll be taken to medical. She'll heal."

"And the boy?"

"Pastor won't touch him, he likes to make the boys watch. He favors them. They'll both renounce their sins, and then they'll be free to re-join their groups. If their groups will allow them back."

I scowl at the word free. How is that freedom? How is being put back into a group a reward? By the sounds of group A, I suddenly get the feeling that the two of them belong there. And group A doesn't seem like the forgiving type. 

"What if their group rejects them?"

"They'll be downgraded," she says. "If group B refuse to take them then they'll be placed in our group, but only if we take them."

Suddenly, the screams of the girl drown out, and silence befalls the chapel--causing our conversation to be cut short. I turn around, my eyes flick back up to the stage and they land on the boy who has the face of someone that may as well had been beaten. Watching someone you care about endure such pain must be a greater punishment than the physical pain itself. The girl is still conscious, she's a fighter, she lays on her hip with her arms tight around her stomach as she cradles herself softly while whimpering. 

Duncan blows some of his fallen hair out of his face that sticks to his forehead by sweat, he stands over the girl's head, glancing down at her with a twisted smirk. 

"The only way to exile the devil, is to beat the devil!" Duncan shouts, igniting a wrath of praise from group A and B. "The female holds the devil. The sin of seduction. I do not blame this boy for falling for the devil's trap." He points his finger at the boy, making the boy turn his face away to gaze into oblivion. "It is not his fault that he was seduced. This slut took his attention from us. But now we have gained it back!"

I look around as the roars continue, hands are now vertically pumping through the air and not desperately reaching towards the terrified boy. He wants to look towards the girl, I see it in his eyes, he wants to crawl over to her and wrap his slim arms around her. He wants to take the pain away. But he can't, because he knows she would be the one receiving the consequence. I've never seen bravery like that. He has to leave her alone in the loneliness to save her--even though that loneliness will last a very long time.

"Settle down," Duncan says to his beaming audience. "The devil has been cast out. Her sins will be heard. I will redeem her, I will save her!"

The girl still holds her stomach, her head remains on the ground, she's too scared to move. One of the leaders gathers her up in his arms and lifts her from the stage. She's so tiny in his huge arms, such a breakable little thing. She doesn't make a sound, she just allows him to carry her away from the boy that is itching to see her.