Page 47 of Deathless
But I didn’t even feel my toes inside my shoes or my hands shoved into the pockets of my jacket. When the Dark Mother used my lungs to breathe, I couldn’t smell the trees, couldn’t get a sense of the air my body pulled in to stay alive.
I could still see and hear, but I got the feeling that was only because she allowed it.
Despite all the nothing I was able to do, I kept fighting. I willed my body to punch and kick. And because I had no use of my physical throat, I screamed endlessly inside my own head.
Get out! Getoutgetoutgetout! Get the fuck out of my body!
She ignored me, but I knew she heard. She was like a parasite that had infiltrated my brain. A squatter coming in to make themselves at home where they were not welcome.
It was the morning after she had taken full control, and we stood on the front porch of one house, watching RVs and Jeeps pull into the cul-de-sac where my motorcycle club once stood.
All the motorcycles were gone now, even mine. Someone must have taken it in the chaos of the evacuation, which was good. I didn’t want anyone in this cult touching my ride, not even if it was my own hand controlled by someone else.
The door to the biggest RV opened and a woman probably in her sixties came out, her gray hair spilling loose over her shoulders. She wore dark red robes that looked almost priest-like, with details in gold thread on her cuffs and lapels.
“Mother...” she whispered in awe, taking hesitant steps toward me. “It worked. Goddess in all of us, it worked!”
“I told you it would,” her goddess answered using my mouth. “Come here, daughter of mine.” She extended a hand,myhand, and the woman eagerly came forward. The Dark Mother held the woman’s shoulder and bent forward to kiss the top of her head from our elevated position on the porch.
I felt none of it. Not the solidness of a shoulder under my palm or the woman’s hair against my lips.
“You’ve done well for me, daughter,” the Dark Mother praised. “So well that I have a gift for you.”
“A gift?” the woman parroted. “Dearest Mother, seeing you in the flesh is the greatest gift of my life. I could not possibly ask any more of you.”
“Even so,” her goddess answered with a chuckle. “I’ve secured a man for a sacrifice tonight.”
The woman’s eyes lit up while dread filled my soul. “A sacrifice, how wonderful! We’ll make it the biggest celebration yet. For our new home and your new form.”
“See that you do,” my voice said, as if such a thing was to be expected and a human fucking sacrifice wasn’t absolutely barbaric. “This is far from over. They will attempt to take back these homes and this body.”
I was screaming all kinds of obscenities and wordless rage, but my parasite ignored me like I wasn’t even there.
The woman nodded sagely. “Should we wait before bringing the children, then?”
“Yes. Keep the children where they are for now. The men will try to reclaim their home and bring bloodshed, as they always do. And we must keep our future secure.”
Folding her hands in front of her, the woman made a noise of agreement. “Where is the sacrifice, mother? I’ll start preparations for tonight’s rituals immediately.”
“Come with me, daughter. I’ll take you to him.”
I felt something then. Not a physical sensation but a feeling being pushed at me so strongly, it felt like a smothering blanket. The Dark Mother was feeling smug, superior, and she wanted me to know it.
What is this?I wondered as she led the woman into the house.How can you have a sacrifice? He already died.
This one didn’t,she answered me for the first time, heading for the basement.
She must have allowed my sense of smell to reach me, because the air was thick with the tang of blood. The woman following had no reaction, like she’d been here hundreds of times. How many sacrifices had this woman overseen to have no reaction to human suffering and to manifest a goddess that controlled a human body?
Heavy lengths of chain wrapped around a man’s torso, tying him to the support beam in the center of the basement. There was a dark stain on the concrete under him, like a massive puddle of blood that had been cleaned up. What the fuck had happened here? The man’s head jerked up as soon as we came down the stairs, and the hopeful look on his face broke my heart.
“Rori! President! Thank God you’re here.”
The thing in my body reached up to grab a chain and pulled it, turning on the bare bulb and casting the whole basement in an eerie yellow light.
Immediately the man shrank away. “President, what happened? What’s wrong with your eyes?”
Ignoring him, the woman hummed approvingly at my side. “He’ll do nicely.”
