Page 84 of Ezekiel
The questions came so quickly, I couldn’t tell who was asking what or when. My hands clenched into tight fists at my sides as I worked to stave off the rising need to run.
“Hey, everyone! Quiet down!” Malachi’s booming voice barreled over the onslaught of questions. “Have a fucking care, would you? She’s asleep down the hall, though I doubt it now with how loud you lot just got. Tits, ass, and pussy cracks. Calm the fuck down!”
“Is she okay?” Delilah asked, concern etched in her voice. “That’s the first and most important thing.”
“Yes, and no. She’s physically okay, but she had no memory of being kidnapped until tonight. She had such a good relationship with her parents. And now to find out they stole her?!” I scoffed derisively. “I can’t even imagine.”
“But do we know they were the ones who took her?” Ollie voiced.
“No. Not for sure. She remembers being in the dark, something like a hood over her head. Being afraid. No, not afraid… just —”
“Terrified.” Talia’s voice scratched roughly from the doorway. We all turned to look at her in utter silence. In a breath’s space of time, Delilah and Ruth went to her, wrapping her up in their arms and holding her close. The same way I wished to.
“What can we do?” Ruth asked her, a hand stroking my wife’s back.
“I don’t know,” Talia sighed heavily. “What is everyone doing here?”
“Love, we had a plan to leave this place, but this information sheds light on something we did not know about. I haven’t told them many details yet, but they needed to know,” I explained gently. Taking my outstretched hand, she moved into my arms, wrapping herself around me. Just having her there beside me again calmed my hypersensitive nerves and anxiety.
“We aren’t trying to pry, Talia, but if there is something going on with the church, or the Elders, or whoever… we want to know,” Ollie added.
“We need to know,” Levi corrected. I swear I could see the wheels in his head already turning.
“Okay, then. Let’s talk. But first, if someone could get me a drink. Something tells me it’ll need to be strong in order for me to get through this night.” A soft smile played at her lips, and my pride for her unbreakable strength in that moment was boundless.
“I got you,” Malachi grunted from his seat.
“Let’s all have a seat and get comfortable,” Levi suggested.
“It’s going to be a long night,” Talia agreed. We gathered around Malachi’s kitchen table, pulling up chairs and settling in for the discussion at hand.
“I don’t even know where to begin,” Talia spoke, taking a sip of the drink Malachi had prepared for her with a slight grimace. He had made it strong alright. I offered to make her something a little more palatable, but she shook her head no, claiming that she would need the bite and the liquid courage.
“Start from the beginning. Anything you remember will be helpful,” I reassured her, my hand running slow circles over her back in a gesture of comfort.
“I’m not sure I can. Everything is hitting me in bits and pieces. All disjointed and confused. I remember darkness more than anything. Like being under something,” she began.
“Like a hood or a blanket? Or more like a mask?” Levi asked.
“A hood. It wasn’t around my whole body like a blanket would be, nor was it tight around my face like a mask. I remember men’s voices. Honestly, that’s what I remember more than anything else. Their voices,” she stated with a shiver. I wanted to pull her into my lap and just keep her safe.
“Do you remember the voices well enough to recognize them?” Levi asked again.
“Have you recognized them around Zion?” Ollie added.
“No, at least not at this point. You would think something would have jogged my memory before now,” she exhaled in exasperation.
“Whatdidtrigger your memory?” Ruth asked. Talia looked over at me, taking my hand. I squeezed it in reassurance, trying to show her I was here; that I had her back through every step of this.
“We were in the middle of a scene,” she began, her eyes meeting mine almost apologetically. I squeezed her hand again in reassurance. She had done absolutely nothing wrong. “Zeke took away my — wait, am I okay to talk about this?” she asked, looking towards me for approval.
“Of course. You can discuss as little or as much detail as you want. You’re safe here,” I reassured her.
“Zeke had taken away my senses. We had been working on that. Each scene we had taken one sense away or focused on it in some way. Tonight was the culmination of that journey. He controlled them all,” she explained. There was an underlying passion to her voice, an awe that spoke of just how much she valued and revered our play time. It made my chest swell with pride.
“I’d had no issue before, in any of our scenes,” she continued, but I needed to interject.
“You did, actually,” I spoke up. “The last two scenes we took part in, you were close to an emotional break. A bigger one than I would have expected, given the fact that your relationship with your par—er, well, with the people who raised you, seemed to be a much better one than any of us here.”
