Authors: Unknown Author

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"You're not tasting anything," Megan spat, her eyes darting around for anything she could use to defend herself.

"Things will be easier if you give yourself to us," promised the Slavis. "You will endure so much pain." It reached out with a three fingered hand.

"Fuck you." Forgetting about her nudity and ducking under the Slavis' outstretched arm, Megan attacked. She dropped low, moving behind the Slavis and delivering a series of rabbit punches to the area she hoped its kidneys were based.

The Slavis howled and staggered forward into the cubicle, losing all

balance. Megan didn't give the creature a chance to recover and slammed herself into it, forcing its head against the wall hard enough to break more than the enamelled tiles.

The Slavis bucked wildly as it slid down the wall but Megan held on tight, wrapping her fist into the sparse hair on its head and pulling back as hard as she could.

"Lets see how you taste," Megan screamed, sinking her teeth into the Slavis' ear. Hot liquid filled her mouth and burned its way over her tongue but still she bit down harder, ripping downwards on the flap of blistered skin.

The Slavis screamed as its ear and half its face peeled away, revealing tumorous tendons and muscle tissue. Megan increased her hold on the creature, wrapping her arm around its throat and choking off any further screams and forced its face down into the base of the shower.

Megan didn't acknowledge the sound of the door being kicked open, intent on punishing the Slavis for everything that had happened in the last twelve hours. She didn't see Harrison enter the room, closely followed by Kaci. She didn't see Ellen coming to grab her from behind, enveloped in the grip of anger as she bared her teeth for a fresh attack on the creature's neck.

"Get your fucking hands off me," Megan snapped, turning on her new attacker.

Ellen ignored the warning, pulled back her fist and lashed out with unexpected ferocity, sending Megan into unconsciousness.

The Slavis, thinking itself to be free, flipped around and glared at Ellen with seething hatred. "One of the chosen," growled the creature. "You're too late."

"Is that so?" Ellen replied, grasping the Slavis by the throat and pushing it back.

"Father Jacob is here with us," the Slavis taunted. "He now worships at the feet of a new God."

"The door will be sealed," Ellen whispered, reaching under her robe and retrieving the brutal blade hidden within.

"You do not scare us," hissed the Slavis.

"That is your mistake." Ellen spat, showing true emotion for the first time.

The Slavis began to laugh, a choked sound that Ellen quickly cut off. The tip of the knife sank easily into the Slavis' neck, the barbed blade pushing through the windpipe and onwards, severing the spinal cord. The Slavis screamed, the sound echoed by its siblings as they felt the passing of one of their own.

Ellen held the creature until it stopped thrashing. Only then did she pull the knife free of the Slavis' neck, tucking it back within her robe as she stood. She stepped towards Harrison and he recognised the look in her eye. He moved aside and allowed her to leave the changing room.

"It is time," Ellen said. "Bring the child."

thirty nine

For the briefest of moments Megan thought she'd awoken. It was dark and the damp cold of the floor crept through her heavy robe and began searching for her bones. She remembered the shower, the Slavis and the insanely hard punch Ellen had delivered to her face and, at this point, she realised she had to be dreaming.

Megan sat up and looked around, the shower room replaced by a corridor of stone. She blinked, waiting for her vision to acclimatise to the dim shadows cast by the burning torches lining either wall.

"I wasn't the first Father," Jacob said from behind her and she craned her neck to find him standing in the shadows. "Neither was he." Jacob raised a robed arm and pointed, a bony finger outstretched and trembling. "But he was stronger than I."

Megan turned her gaze as directed, not surprised to find that the corridor had shortened and that she was now stood at a large wooden door.

"He was called Jacob also." The sound of thunder shook the floor beneath her feet and lightning struck a negative upon her retinas, three figures against the brightness.

"The Almighty will embrace you in Heaven." The figure stood in the open doorway said, quickly making the sign of the cross above the lowered heads of the other two and then slamming the door in their faces.

"God bless you, my children." The figure secured the door, struggling to slide the heavy latch into place.

And then the Father Jacob of history turned away from the door and Megan saw the bundled child held in his arms. He looked directly at her, an immeasurable sadness in his eyes and then he spoke.

"Come with me and I shall show you." He pushed passed Megan and she fell in line, following him along the corridor as the sound of clashing steel faded away, replaced by the sound of sandalled feet against the cold stone floor.

Megan remained silent, glancing up to see the sky through the high windows, witnessing the clear sky of day being eaten away by a storm that had raged long before her lifetime.

As Jacob ran along the corridor the torches that lined the walls cast a flickering shadow, the black silhouette distorted by the jumping flames and giving it a haunted appearance. Megan took all of it in, surprised at the detail for what was only a dream.

"Dreams and memories are not that far separated, my child," Father Jacob panted without pausing. "Both hold meaning." Jacob's words were joined by a low chanting that echoed up to them from below.

They reached the top of the narrow, winding staircase and the bundle in Father Jacob's arms began to move. Like Megan the child sensed something was wrong. Jacob looked back at Megan and she saw the tears running down his cheeks.

"They are waiting." He took the stairs quickly, leading the way into the depths of the cathedral.

Megan felt her head spin and yet again the dream delivered her to where she needed to be and the pain eating away at the soles of her feet came without warning and she looked down to see the edge of her robe smouldering.

She wasn't the only one to be suffering, the original Brotherhood standing in a rough circle that she now completed, each one holding hands with the next.

None of them looked up as Father Jacob entered the chamber and ducked under Megan's arm, taking the child over to the stone seal.

"Forgive me for what I do," he cried as he let the blankets of the package unfold. "As my father before me I do what must be done."

Megan held her breath as the Brotherhood increased the tempo of the chant, raising their hands above their heads.

"This sacrifice is in the service of the many and I freely surrender my place in the Heaven's as part of my duties." Megan tried to break free of the circle.

"Mark of the first born," Father Jacob whispered as he run a finger over the vivid birthmark on the child's chest. "The chosen one." He drew the knife and plunged it into the child's stomach.

"Why?" Megan pleaded weakly.

The chanting stopped, only to be replaced by an inhuman screaming from somewhere deep beneath the ground.

"Purity is the only sacrifice," they all answered at once. "Purity is the key."

"The child," Megan cried.

"Now you understand," Jacob replied.

"They're going to kill the child." Megan's knees buckled and she feel away from oblivion.

Forty