Page 67 of Drag You Down
“I can’t go home with you,” Levi says, not smiling back at me. “Eve is going to be frantic.”
I think back to how often she’d been going in and out of the apartment in the surveillance footage.
“She won’t even notice,” I say. “She’s busy with Zachariah, I’m sure.”
Levi recoils from me, but his eyes narrow. “Of course she’ll notice. I’m never gone like this. She worries if I’m gone for a few hours.”
“She doesn’t worry when you’ve been whipped bloody,” I say harshly.
There are people yelling in the background now, the ever-present noise of New Bristol.
“You don’t know anything about her,” he says, every bit as fiercely. “You don’t know anything aboutme.”
I meet his gaze. “I know that you are too good for this world, Levi. I know you’ve been taken advantage of all your life. I know that you’re being abused. I know that you’re afraid of the dark.”
“I’m not being taken advantage of or abused!” he retorts, his voice raising in volume. We’re attracting more attention from people on the bridge, who are slowing down to look at the spectacle. He takes a step back, away from me. “You’re wrong.”
“I’m not.” I grab his wrist. “Zachariah Carpenter is a con man, Levi. He went by the name Joshua Baker before. I have a paper trail of several other names he used. He had a cult out near Calamity City fifteen years ago. It looks like he decided to run the same scam again.”
He tries to pull away from me, but I only tighten my grasp on his wrist. “That isn’t true. You’re trying to make me doubt, and it isn’t going to work.”
“If he’s such a great man, why do all of you live in poverty while he has all the luxuries?” I ask. “Why does he have several wives? Not legal wives, of course. Polygamy is illegal in this state. What does God say about breaking the law like that?”
“You don’t know anything about what God says,” he retorts. For once, he doesn’t seem to have a bible verse at the ready. “You act like you do, but you don’t understand.”
I think back to all the mornings I’d had to read the bible, to all the times the ruler came down on my hand for quoting the scripture wrong.
I remember thinking how funny it would be if I broke the ruler overtheirhands, and how I’d make them quote scripture while I cut them open.
“I understand more than enough,” I say hoarsely. “I understand that bad people will say anything to justify their actions.”
The honking gets even louder, and somebody yells, “If you don’t move your fucking car, I will ram it over the side of the bridge, motherfucker!”
I ignore the commotion. “No man can claim to be a prophet, Levi.” I raise his hand to kiss the knuckles. He shudders. “Come back with me. It’s impossible to think here.”
He nibbles on his bottom lip, and his eyes are wary as they take me in. “No,” he says. “He’s not a bad man. He doesn’t go aroundmurderingpeople.”
I reach out and place my hand on Levi’s hip. “But he whips you bloody. He locks you in a basement.” I lean in closer. “What did you see in the dark, Levi?”
Levi jerks back, away from me, and for the first time, I see anger in his eyes. “You don’t understand. It’spenance. You don’t have faith. You don’t understand that sometimes you need to be punished for what you’ve done.” He meets my eyes. “You punish other people for what you eventhinkthey’ve done all the time, don’t you?”
I carve them up; I make them beg for release.
I make sure they can’t ever touch the innocent lambs of this world ever again.
And I drink in the scent of their foul blood, and feel the glee and arousal fill me.
I’m not one of the good people of this world.
I shouldn’t even be touching Levi.
But he’s mine, and I won’t let him go back to Zachariah Carpenter.
“We can debate philosophy at home,” I say, grabbing Levi’s wrist. “Ichabod will meow in agreement while I make breakfast for you. You must be starving.”
Levi pulls back more insistently. “I’m not. I just want to get home.”
Home is with me.
