Hissers II: Death March (13 page)

Not really, she thought, but being in a bit of a food coma made it hard to argue.
“I suppose. What is it, like, some kind of game?”

“Not a game. More like entertainment. But we hope we learn lessons from it too. See
, we don’t have televisions in this house. Which wouldn’t matter now since anyway since there’s no electricity but even so, Michelle and I see no point to mindless entertainment that’s full of violence and sex. Instead we have story time after dinner every night, as a way to blow off steam, much like the ancient Greeks did. You know what a parable is, right? It’s a life lesson taught through story. Well, just like the Greeks did, we use these parables as a way to shape our moral fiber. Just because society is breaking down, doesn’t mean this family will. Right, kids?”

They nodded. The way they did it like automatons made Amanita want to slink away, but she sat still. So they were a little weird, she thought. Big deal. They’re home schooled, maybe a little strict with chores, but they’ve been nothing but ni
ce, despite Harold’s relationship with the two dickheads who kidnapped her.

“
Don’t suppose you could just act out an episode of
Teen Vampires of Beverly Hills
?” she said.

“Afraid not. But some of our stories are full of mysticism and the unknown.”

“Somehow I doubt it’s the same, but I’m too stuffed to care. Sure, count me in.”

“Then it’s settled. Everybody do your dishes and meet near the fireplace.”

With that the children rose from the table and proceeded to wash their dinnerware. No one seemed to speak to each other, and the children were oddly respectful of each other’s space. Only Luke and Kelly seemed to break protocol and splash a little water on each other with a laugh, but Michelle put an end to it quickly.

Amanita used this time to sneak into a couple adjacent rooms. She was looking for car keys, in case Harold got tired and reneged on his deal, but didn’t find any. She did, however, smell a thick acrid stench coming from somewhere, but she couldn’t place it.
Until she stepped through what she’d assumed was a closet. At the far corner of a dark room full of glass bottles and two extra stoves (which seemed very weird) she found a menagerie of glass beakers and Bunsen burners. Must be for home-schooling science class, she figured.

She moved on, ending up in a small study. It was almost pitc
h black, but she could see a handful of family portraits hanging on the wall. Harold and Michelle were in all of them, but they didn’t seem to contain the whole family at once. There was Harold and Michelle with a very young Eunice. And there they were with Luke and Kelly. Michelle had done well to keep such a trim figure after so many children. In every picture she looked skinny and happy. Working on a farm—or whatever you’d call this place out in the woods—was sure to make anyone lose their baby birthing fat. At the sound of Harold’s voice, she snuck back out and grabbed a dirty dish, ran it under the faucet.

“Where’d you go?” Harold asked.

“Got a little lost. This place is bigger inside than it looks.”

“We make good use of our space, yes. Are you done with that dish? Just place it up in that cabinet there. C’mon now, kids, hurry up and finish.
Time’s wasting and tonight’s story isn’t going to tell itself.”

Ten minutes later everyone was seated around the fireplace on cushions. The living room was bare except for
handmade wooden bookshelves and two small couches. Harold took one of the books down and sat on a stool in the middle of all the children and his wife. He held the book up for all to see: SOULS OF THE SINNER. The children beamed and Kelly even clapped. Amanita hung her head and thought, shit, not a religious story. She’d had a suspicion it might be like this, but she’d prayed (no pun intended) that it wouldn’t be. She had not been raised as a religious person, and while she respected other people’s rights to worship as they saw fit, she certainly didn’t want to be preached to right now.

Just deal with it, she told herself. Then you’ll get a good night
’s sleep and can get dropped off in town tomorrow.

Harold opened the book to a predetermined page. Amanita almost blanched when she saw the picture of the author on the back of the dust jacket. It was Harold. A little younger, but definitely him.
The nerve of him, she thought. The guy had written his own book on morality and was teaching it to his kids as entertainment. Great, she thought, just great. Not only will this be a religious lesson, but a religious lesson taught by an egomaniac.

He began to read
, his face serious and his tone somber. “Tonight’s story is entitled ‘The Whore and her Punishment.’”

Amanita felt a wave of fear wash over her. This was too weird.
Luke clapped and the sound was an eerie echo that reminded Amanita how far from any main road she was.

“When the gods of space built the Earth and her many dimensional prisons for sinners,
” Harold spoke, “they made an especially special place for the souls of the whores. For it was foreseen that the whores and their offspring would ultimately ruin the Earth and corrupt the souls of all who lived upon it. The whore walks free of man’s commands, insolent to all rules and her proper servitude of God. She dishonors the world with thoughts of carnality, lust and chemical dependency. She is indecent and proud of the blasphemous use of her body. She opens her legs for personal gain, and not for the love of her creator, who built her womb but for the purpose bearing fruit. Fruit that’s sole purpose is to spread the word of God and the heavens. And in so twisting the purpose of her body for pleasures of the flesh, for monetary gain, she spreads disease from her wicked insides. Disease such as has now reared its head upon our land. Pestilence, decay, virus, and death. Yes, Children, we suffer now because of the whore. The dead have come to claim us, to slay us as punishment for having allowed the whore to roam free for so long.

“Though the whore will bring about the downfall of civilization, man has created punishments to appease the spirits that would use the whore as a conduit to evil.” Harold stopped for a moment and looked at his children. “Does anyone know what these punishments are?”

Kelly raised her hand. “I know. I know.”

“Go ahead, dear,” Michelle said, looking at her daughter with a profound sense of pride.

With a curled finger, Kelly counted off the answers. “The whore should be tied to a rock for forty days. Then washed with steel wool to rid the filth from her soul. Then she is asked to repent—”

“And if she doesn’t?” asked
Timothy, the oldest boy.

“If she doesn’t,” Kelly continued, “she is burned to save her soul.”

While Harold and Michelle nodded their approval of this answer, Amanita glanced side to side, wondering if there was a way she could excuse herself and get away from this macabre sermon. But before she could speak up, the eldest daughter, Eunice, addressed her. “Amanita, are you okay? You don’t look like you’re enjoying the story.”

Amanita let out a nervous chuckle. “It’s, ah, not my thing
. But I’m okay.”

“Have you had sex?
” Eunice asked.

Amanita blinked, embarrassed and
a little insulted. “No. Of course not. Not yet, I mean.”

“Yet?” Michelle asked. “But you’ve lain with a man in your mind, have you not. You’ve touched yourself and thought about the
lying serpent between a man’s legs.”

This questioning was improper, and Amanita felt her entire body flush. “I don’t think that’s any of your business. I’d like to go lay down now.”

As she stood, so too did Harold. “Please, Amanita, we’re not trying to make you feel uncomfortable. Please just sit back down. It’s just a story.”

“A parable,” Kelly said. “A lesson, right?”

Harold smiled. “Yes, dear.” He kept his gave on Amanita. “Trust me, Amanita. Just sit back down. It’s ok. There you go. I must apologize for all of this. We just don’t get many guests here is all and I believe my wife has spoken out of turn.” At this, Michelle turned away and muttered an apology.

“But she must have had impure thoughts, Father,” Eunice said
, taking up her mother’s cause. “You said all women are whores except for us. And she bares her skin where she should not. I can see how tan she is on her womb. When she was washing dishes I saw it. Which means she has bared it to the world already. A woman should never reveal herself to anyone unless at her husband’s command. This is what the Great Book says. So if she is browned there, then she has bared herself. She is a whore. ”

“Yeah,” said Kelly. “She’s a filthy whore, Daddy.”

“It’s true, Dad, you said that.” This last from Marcus, the oldest boy, who was eyeing Amanita with a new found sense of hatred.

Amanita felt herself scoo
ching backwards on the floor. Something was happening here and she didn’t like it. Just a few minutes ago all of these people ate dinner with her and asked her about her life. No one judged her. Now they were looking at her with madness in their eyes.

Harold rubbed his chin. “
It is true, Amanita. You’re tanned in places that only your husband should see.”

“I’m fourteen,” she replied, her lips trembling now. “
I used to lay out in the sun with my friends. I don’t have a husband. Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’ll marry her,” Luke said, a wide smile on his face

“No,” Harold replied. “No, you’re too young yet, Luke. No, I think Marcus should marry her.”

Marcus went wide-eyed. “But she’s a whore, Dad, I don’t want to marry her!”

“She won’t be a whore if we cleanse her,” Kelly said. “We can clean her, right, Daddy? I want her to be part of our family.”

“Okay,” Amanita said, standing up. “
Fuck this. Thanks for the dinner. I’m outta here. I’ll find my own way back to the road.”

“Hold up!” Harold yelled. “You don’t excuse yourself in this house until we’re done talking.
And you don’t curse under this roof. Now sit down!”

Amanita shook her head. “Nope. Goodbye.” She sprinted for the kitchen, rounded
the table and almost had her fingers on the back door when she felt a dozen hands on her.

“Hold her still,” Marcus said.

“I’ve got the whore,” Eunice added.

Michelle’s face appeared in front of Amanita’s. “You’ve insulted my husband, and after he took you in and fed you. You have proven that you are possessed by the devil himself, so sayeth the Great Book.”

“Let me go! Let me go now! You people are fucking crazy!”

“Hold her still,” Michelle said.
“Keep the whore from moving.”

“I’m not a wh
ore! Let me go, you crazy fucks!”

“You
are
a whore,” Eunice said, grabbing her by her hair. “You dream of the devil’s cock. But we will save you and then when you marry my brother you will find the love of the Lord.”

“
Let go of me you goddam freaks!”

Harold stepped into the room. “Baby girl?”

“Yes?” Kelly asked.

“Get the steel wool. Luke, get some rope. It seems the Devil tricked us tonight and invited both a whore and a demon into our house.
She is both and I should have known better. The devil made the dead walk and when he saw us surviving on our own out here, serving God and building our new family to cleanse this world’s sins, he sent this thing in under the guise of friendship to poison us.”

The children cheered and clapped as Michelle, Eunice and Marcus dragged Amanita outside and over to a large boulder in the yard.
Amanita kicked and screamed but they held her fast. She lunged at their hands and tried to bite their fingers but someone backhanded her across the face and she saw stars. Her back slammed against the boulder. “Stop!” she screamed, throwing a punch at Marcus’s face. She missed and the boy punched her in the stomach. She doubled over, gasping for air, aware of someone draping a rope around her now. Somewhere in the distance she could hear Harold preaching and Michelle instructing the children how to tie knots in the rope.

With a hard tug, the rope went taut and flattened Amanita to the rock. Tears were cascading down her cheeks. “Please don’t! Please stop! Just let me go! Help me!”

“No one can hear you out here,” Harold said. “So stop yelling. This is for your own good. When you are cleansed, you and Marcus will be wed and help us build a brand new world of penitent acolytes. Then the plague will pass, the undead will perish, and we alone will reign in the name of the Lord God. Kelly, take her clothes off.”

The little girl
moved toward Amanita and began to pull down the zipper on her jeans.

“Don’t touch me you fucking little bitch,” Amanita yelled.

For this, Marcus punched her in the stomach again, driving the air from her diaphragm. Only this time she was tied too tightly to double over and suck in breath. Instead, she felt her eyes roll back in her head and her bladder let go.

“She peed her
self, Father,” Eunice said. “Doesn’t the Great Book say that whores bask in their own filth?”

Harold held up his own book and shook it in front of his face. “It does indeed, daughter. Quickly now, before the demons
leap from her and try to possess us. Kelly, get her clothes off.”