One final smile is all I can give her before I’m pushed away again, up the long stairs, toward the temple. This place, where the people live that everyone in this community admire, will become my new prison.
I sigh as we get to the top, and the doors open as if they were expecting me. A hand nudges my back. My feet move automatically as if they’re used to being shoved around. But this is a whole new experience for me, and even though I’m horrified, as I should be, I also can’t help but gape at my surroundings. There are beautiful, old-looking tapestries all along the dark wooden walls. Carpets line the hardwood floors, probably to protect them from damage. Along the walls, between each door, are old, green lampshades with gold stripes, and in front of me is a huge, wooden staircase. All of it looks to be from the Victorian era.
“Come with me, please.” A woman stands atop the stairs, staring me down.
I stare back while the doors behind me close, and we’re left alone. I assume she’s an elder too, but they are only allowed to interact with the patriarchs. The rest of the people are apparently inferior.
Should I turn and run? Smash in the doors and leave? Someone will inevitably be guarding it from the outside, so what’s the point?
“This place is sealed off. Trying to escape is useless,” the woman says, almost as if she can read my mind. “Now come.” She beckons me.
I let out another sigh and go up the stairs, the red cloak around my shoulders weighing me down. When I’m right next to her, she turns around and walks farther down the corridor. I follow her, the silence deafening as we cross this mansion the people here call the temple. Is this where they live? Where they look from their windows and gaze out to the people? Where they plot their deviant schemes?
Will I be spending the rest of my days locked up in this place?
I shiver at the thought.
The woman stops in front of a door and opens it, revealing a marble bathroom beyond with beautiful showers and tubs. My jaw drops, but I immediately shut it again the moment I realize she caught me in the act.
“I thought the showers were the only place—”
“You think too much,” she interjects, smiling. “Step in.”
I do what she asks, and she immediately peels away the red coat, leaving me naked in the bathroom with a mirror right in front of me, and I’m not sure I can face the woman staring right back at me.
“Wait here,” she says, and she turns around and walks off with the red robe in her hand, closing the door behind her.
My body trembles from the cold, and I’m tempted to turn on the faucet and step into the hot tub. But I don’t because I know I’m not allowed. Am I that afraid of the repercussions? Or am I just scared of what might happen if I do what I desire, if I give in to my most basic needs?
He put me here on purpose, but why? What does he want me to see … or feel?
I look at myself in the mirror, at the woman I’ve been forced to become, and I remove my hands from my body to reveal the naked truth. The scar that rests on my belly is a harsh truth I’ve long refused to face, yet it’s the only real thing right now, the only visible proof I have left of my time beyond the borders of this messed-up community.
“Admiring yourself?”
The sudden voice makes me cover myself again, and I turn around to face him.
Noah was in the doorway to the left. How long has he been watching?
“Don’t stop because of me,” he muses.
My hands ball into fists. “Why did you bring me here?”
“Because I want you to feel good, and I know you’re probably longing for a hot shower after the grueling task of cleaning all those floors.”
Of course, he’d know about that. The elders tell them everything, after all. Nothing escapes the patriarchs, which is why I must be careful around him at all times, no matter how he tries to sway me into thinking he’s here to save me.
“Besides, I’m sure that ordeal with the prayers just now was rough on you.”
“You did that,” I say through gritted teeth. “Why?”
He frowns. “I’m confused why you’re mad. You made the choice.”
“I didn’t—”
“You were the one who stepped into my Jacuzzi, remember?” He raises a brow. “You chose me.” His finger points at his own chest, and then at me. “This was your own doing.”
I shake my head. “Don’t try to fill my mind with lies.”
“It’s not a lie. I told you, you had to make a choice, and you did.”