“But what?”
“Mae, she did not look well. She met my eyes, but her expression was not right. I fear… I fear she is fading. I think she has been there for a long time. We were ordered to deliver dinner to the guards at a new location and… and we… saw her, Mae. My goodness…” She failed to finish her sentence, her pale hand covering her mouth.
Feeling as though my heart had just been ripped in two, I set off at a run.
“Mae!”
I glanced behind me and spotted Lilah chasing after me. Thrusting out my hand, I grabbed hers and asked, “Where is she? Show me!”
A long moment passed before she said, “I shall lead.”
We headed down a tree-lined path and over two gardens. My heart raced, my pulse throbbed, my stomach churned, and a light sheen of sweat spread across my forehead.
Turning in the direction of the altar, we passed through the forest rather than risk the exposed path that would lead to the ceremony and the waiting congregation. As we neared the forest edge, I spotted a stone building: a stone building with a small black-barred gate. And just through the iron bars of that gate was a body, the slight frame of a young female lying face down, unmoving on the hard floor.
A sob clawed its way from my throat as I burst from the trees, my legs moving of their own accord.
My sister.
Approaching the rear of the building, I was about to break the tree line when I was knocked down and roughly pulled back under the cover of the trees. I scrambled to be free, clawing at the skin of the person who held me back.
“Salome, it is Delilah. Stop!” she whispered gently but firmly.
I froze, tears streaming down my cheeks. “What have they done to her? She is not moving!”
Delilah held her hand to her mouth, lips trembling, shaking her head in sorrow. “I do not know. I do not know what has been done.”
As I scanned the area, I could not see a guard. I ran to the bars of the gate. Clutching the thick steel rods, I whispered, “Bella?”
My sister lay on the floor, dirtied and bloodied, her body too thin and her black hair matted in clumps. The twitch of her finger signaled that she had heard my voice. With painfully slow movements and great effort, Bella managed to raise her head just an inch off the stone floor and then I noticed scripture painted along on the ceiling of the cell.
“Revelation 2:20,” I whispered out loud.
“Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols,” Lilah recited from memory and my stomach churned.
My hand automatically went to my mouth. What had they done to her? She was so thin.
“M-Ma—” Bella tried to say my name, but her voice was almost non-existent. She tried to open her eyes, but they were bruised and swollen shut, her crusty lashes covered in a mass of dried blood.
“I am here, Bella. Lord! I am here!” I said, slamming myself farther against the iron bars, reaching through as far as I could to grip her boney finger with my hand.
Bella exhaled and her lips curved into a broken smile. “I am glad.” She coughed and moaned in pain, struggling to move an inch. “I am glad you found me before it was too late.”
“What have they done to you?” I hissed as I gazed at her battered body. Huge pools of dried blood covered the stone floor, her dress was ripped at the back, and her skin was marked with deep gashes from the leather lash. But the bottom of her dress… the blood… Oh no… they… I… could not even think it, let alone ask her if she had been taken against her will. Handprint bruises covered every inch of her thighs. There were discarded whips leaning against the wall at the back of the cell.
“Disobeyed…” she whispered. Bella tried to crawl closer to me, my hand now fully encompassing hers as I aided her tired movements.
“Disobeyed what… who?” I questioned as she resettled near the gate, smiling weakly as she inhaled the fresh air of the late afternoon, the sun warming her cheeks.
“Gabriel… disobeyed in my duty… to be with him… resisted… he said I was selfish…” Her brows furrowed in confusion. “I cannot… remember the rest… It is all blurry…”
Sucking in a sharp breath, I whispered, “No, sister!”
A quiet sob slipped from her throat, but the tears could not escape her swollen eyes. “I cannot remember… anything… I think… I was drugged… I…”
“Bella, I am so sorry…”
“Shh… it’s not your fault…” Wincing, biting back pain, Bella managed to shuffle slightly closer, then settled back, only to say, “Gabriel has taken every part of me since I was a child: my innocence, my body, but never my heart. He is not worthy of my love, Mae. The disciples never gave me the chance to find the one man in the world who deserved it. Gabriel is a bitter and twisted monster.”
Pressing my stomach flat to the mud, not caring if I soiled my wedding gown, I leveled my gaze to look straight at my sister’s swollen blue eyes, eyes just like mine. “Bella, you are pure of heart. You are a good person, no matter what he did to you.”
“You are right, my sister, and I will meet our God with a clear conscience,” she rasped in a barely audible, gravelly voice.
My muscles tightened and my breath came in short, sharp bursts. Meet our God?
Lowering her hands, then gripping the iron bars, I frantically pulled at the gate. Lilah joined me. Even working together, it did not move an inch.
“Bella, I shall get you out—” I assured her as we shook the gate harder, but to no avail.
“Stop… stop… I am dying, Mae…”
“No!” I cried in despair as I slumped down to the ground once more, Lilah this time following suit.
Stretching out her boney hand, I grasped my sister’s fingers once more and kissed the broken skin on her palm.