Turn or Burn (19 page)

Jameson whipped his head toward him, gritting his teeth. Then, after a couple of seconds, he left his position and walked up to the young man. With the iron still in one hand, he raised the other hand and backhanded the young man across the face.

“Not another word out of your mouth, Elvin! She is a sinner.” He shook his head in disgust. “You poor, innocent boy, you have a lot to learn.”

Elvin shut up. He appeared to be way out of his element.

Jameson went back to his position and took the safe end of the poker with both hands and raised it high in the air. “
Behold He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him.
” Jameson crossed himself and continued, “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!” He repeated it several times, and the other two men standing there were crossing themselves, whispering their own prayers. The woman screamed and her body writhed as she desperately sought to free herself. He began to bring the glowing red iron down toward her stomach, and I kicked and screamed, but there was nothing I could do, either.

The iron met her skin just above the waistline on the left side, and she screamed loud and deep. The dogs howled. Smoke rose and the smell of burning flesh assaulted me. Jameson screamed, “You are free, child! You are free!”

He removed the branding iron from her stomach. It peeled off the skin and a large blister rose up.

Her crying seemed to slow now, and she stopped pulling at the rope wrapped around her wrists and ankles. I could see blood at one wrist where she had tried to rip her way free. She was in shock, and I was surprised she hadn’t passed out.

There was nothing I could do. I was utterly helpless.

Jameson returned the glowing stick to the fireplace and walked back slowly. “You see, Mr. Knox. It’s as easy as that. Ms. Dorachek is free. Her path will still be rocky, but she is free now to walk it.” He came around the table again and reached out and stroked her face. “Isn’t that right, Ms. Dorachek?” He leaned over, staring deeply into her eyes. “Isn’t that right?”

Scared, she shut her eyes, and it looked like she was squeezing them as tight as she could, as if the harder she squeezed, the further away she could be. I pulled again at my binds, but I knew I was wasting time and energy.

He continued to stroke her face. “It’s time we choose whose side we’re on.” Then he looked up at me. “Whose side are you on, Mr. Knox?”

He nodded at one of the men, and they ripped the tape from my face. I took a huge gulp of air, and then opened my mouth and stared at him. “You crazy son of a bitch. I’m going to kill you!”

“Now, now, that’s no way to speak. I’m just asking whose side you’re on.”

“Look at me,” I said. “Look me in the eyes. Deep in the eyes.”

He did.

“
I will put a bullet in your brain
.”

“I think you need to be cleansed,” he said. “You’ll be fine soon. Perhaps even walk with us one day. That’s the plan.”

I glared at him.

“It all begins on this table,” he said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife. Then he began to saw at the rope holding the woman’s left wrist. Speaking to the two other men, he ordered, “Gentlemen, clear Ms. Dorachek from the table and get her resting on the couch. We have more work to do.”

“You’re a lunatic,” I said.

He looked at me again. “Mr. Knox…you’re next.”

“You get his neck, Elvin,” the Canadian said. “Hold him tight.”

A hand went around my neck. They covered my mouth back up. Then the Canadian unwrapped the rope around my chest and freed my ankles. Elvin squeezed tight, following his orders. I’d be damned if they were going to burn that mark on my skin. Though my opportunities of getting out of it were dwindling away.

I was angry with Francesca. Where was she? If they’d caught her, then she would have been right here with me. A poisonous thought kept creeping into my head.
Had she led me to them? Was she part of it?
But that made no sense. How could she be involved in all this? Unless they had been targeting me long before Ted had brought me in, which would also possibly implicate Ted. I didn’t want to believe it. Either way, I didn’t need any answers right at the moment. I just needed Francesca to walk in the door and start pulling the trigger.

They started to lift me and I went dead weight. Wasn’t about to help them. Not that they needed any. They lifted me up and slammed my back onto the table. Jameson held my hair tight by the scalp while the two men tied my legs up near the corners. Then they came up and did the same with my arms, wrapping my wrists tightly and cinching them down. I could feel the rope cutting the skin, just like it had done with the woman.

I was pulling at all four corners when Jameson said, “There’s no use. The Lord has a plan for you, and it begins here on this table.” He leaned down and unbuttoned my shirt. “Don’t bother fighting it.”

I stared him in the eyes, not letting him win this battle. The other two had backed off now, watching Jameson at work. Elvin looked terrified but he certainly wasn’t intervening. Once Jameson had unbuttoned my shirt and pulled it away from my chest and stomach, exposing flesh, he stepped away and went to the fireplace. I eyed the window and thought I caught a flash of movement, but I stared longer, and there was nothing. I looked at Elvin and the Canadian, and they were now calm and reverent, waiting on the ceremony.

I heard the iron being pulled out of the fire and then Jameson’s boots moving back toward me. Then I saw the red glow. I pulled harder on the ropes to no avail.

I didn’t have any options.

He stood on the side of the table, and just like he’d done with the woman, Ms. Dorachek, he held the branding iron high in one hand and began to dip his hands in the bowl of holy water. As he threw his hand at me, water splattered across my chest and face, and he began to speak in a near chant. “By the power vested in me by God, I now step into your life and pull you away from the path of the devil. May you sin no more!” He reached in and threw more water at me, spewing more bullshit out of his mouth, throwing more and more water.

He raised the iron even higher and took it with both hands and began, “
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned
. May the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit cleanse your soul, Harper Knox. It is our path to save even the weak ones, so says the Lord.”

I shook and pulled and screamed through the tape as I stared at the red-hot triskelion hovering just above me. Sweat was rolling down the side of my face and I turned and twisted, but they had the ropes so damn tight that I was helpless.

He kept repeating the same words, “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” as he lowered the branding iron down toward my abdomen.

You’ve never seen someone squirm so much in your life. I had twisted so far to the right side—away from him—that I’d just about disconnected my femur from my hip. That’s when the Canadian got pissed. I felt him slam my knees against the table, straightening my legs. Then he hammered a fist into the side of my knee, which hurt like hell.

A lot of demons were coming up inside of me, stirring this nightmare. My brain was losing control. The feeling was all too real and familiar. I could hear those voices from the past, the two Afghanis attempting to interrogate me, ignoring the fact that I couldn’t speak their tribal babble, hitting me with a metal bar in the shins relentlessly, bringing pain that I can still feel from time to time.

Then the burn of the branding iron hit me. Hard. Seared right up from my abdomen to my skull. For a moment, I didn’t know where the iron touched me. My eyes welled up with tears, and I could hear the muffled sound of my own yells.

Jameson’s eyes met mine. He was still holding the iron down, pressing it against me. My eyes went from his eyes, down the length of the iron, to the left side of my abdomen. As he began to pull away, I saw what he’d done to me. He’d marked me just like the rest of them.

It was a mark I would live with forever. The triskelion.

I finally settled down as he stepped away from me and returned the poker to the fire. I looked at my stomach again. The blister had swollen up more than an inch from the skin. He came back and poured some water from a bottle into my mouth. I welcomed it.

As I swallowed, he said, “What happens now, you’re wondering.”

I looked at him. In fact, that was what I had been wondering.

“Now, your education begins. How you will be used, I do not know yet. We’ll have time to figure that out, but there is plenty of work to do. We need people like you. But I know you’re going to take longer to break than the others. Still, no one is unbreakable. Not for God.” Jameson looked at his two men, pointed his finger at me, and said, “You keep a gun on him.”

The men nodded.

Then Jameson said, “Take them home. I will see you there. Keys are in the car. I’ll take the dogs.” As he stepped away, he crossed himself and said to me, “See you on the other side.”

With that, he walked out of the cabin. I heard a car start and then the gravel churn as he sped away.

“I don’t know if I like this,” Elvin, the weak one, said.

“Get over it, boy,” the Canadian replied. “You’re going to get yourself killed. Now, get his arms tied back up behind him.” He picked up a gun off the kitchen counter and pointed it at me. “You make a move, I’ll shoot you.”

I was in pretty bad shape, but without the gun, I could have taken them. With it, there wasn’t much I could do. Elvin cut me loose from the table and tied my hands back behind my back. Then he draped some kind of bag over my head. Everything went black. The air got tight. I slowed my breathing.

They opened the door and led me out.

“Steps,” one of them said to me. After missing the first one, I found my footing and worked my way down.

They led me across the gravel and pushed me into the trunk of a car. It had to have been that old Mercedes.

“Elvin, don’t just stand there,” the Canadian said. “Are you an idiot? Go get her.” A minute later, they threw the girl on top of me. She was awake now. Crying badly. I could feel that they’d covered her with some sort of wool blanket. I moved over so that she slid to my side. I felt her back against my chest.

Then the trunk shut.

“Doubt is the devil’s sword, boy. It will happen soon enough. Get out of your head. Have faith.”

“But—”

“But nothing! You keep your mouth shut and do as your told. You’re lucky to be one of us. Don’t forget that.”

Their voices turned to murmurs when the car doors shut. Then all I could hear was the sound of the motor as they started the car and the woman crying next to me.

“My name’s Harper Knox,” I said. I could taste the mildewy odor of the bag wrapped around my head. It must have been burlap.

She stopped crying for a minute. I waited for a response.

Nothing.

“I’m one of the good guys. What’s your name?”

After a few seconds of silence, she said, “Leanne.”

“Well, Leanne, I have no idea what’s going on right now, but I’m going to figure a way out of it. Do you have any idea who these people are?”

She mumbled no.

The car started up and the driver peeled out, leaving in a hurry, taking on the bumps with little care.

Once we adjusted to the speed, I asked, “Are your hands free?”

“No. They tied them.”

“We’re going to be okay. People know where I am. We’ll get out of this. How’s the burn on your stomach feel?”

“It hurts.”

“Mine does, too.”

Out of nowhere, a shot rang out and a second later, we hit something. Full-blown force. I shut my eyes. The impact slung me into Leanne, and we both hit the top of the trunk as the car started to roll. The two of us bounced up and down, slamming against the top and bottom and sides. A sharp pain stung my shoulder and arm.

The car finally settled with one final jolt that threw us up into the air. We both came back down hard, and I heard the breath get knocked out of Leanne. The car was upside down.

The open door alarm was beeping repeatedly.

We both squirmed around a bit, finding—as best we could, considering the circumstances—more comfortable positions. I was closer to the lock of the trunk. She was right up next to me. I stretched out tall and felt my right shoulder swell with pain as I tried to find some oxygen in that claustrophobic burlap bag. I pushed at the trunk, hoping it might give, but we weren’t going anywhere.

There was silence for a while, then footsteps. Someone was coming closer to us. Then a key in the lock and a click. The trunk suddenly unlatched and opened, sending us tumbling down onto the earth. I pulled at my bound hands and shook my body, trying to shake the bag off my head. I could not see a hint of light.

Someone came toward me. Stood above me. Pulled the bag off my head. The sun hit my eyes sharply and I couldn’t see for a couple seconds. I took deep gasps of air.

As my vision cleared, I looked up at a figure standing above me. A woman.