While some of the other girls swooned at him for being a handsome, strong man of faith—I recoiled. Especially since I could feel his lingering gaze on me more times than was appropriate.
My pen sat lightly in between my fingers as I scribbled down notes absentmindedly, knowing that if I appeared studious and busy, he was more likely to leave me alone.
But today, I had no such luck, because a moment later, he pushed off the desk, closed the Bible and started walking. His shadow sliced across my desk as dark and ominous as the clouds outside looked.
“Are you finding this lecture particularly interesting that you need to take notes?”
My pulse skyrocketed knowing that if I answered incorrectly, I was looking at being restrained and humiliated again.
“I thought—” lightning streaked across the sky and stole my focus. The lights inside the classroom flickered and the thunder rumbled beneath our feet. The sight made Pastor John take on a sinister hue. The shadows cutting across his face revealing his true nature.
He smiled then. One lacking in warmth and filled with malice.
“You know what I think?” He asked then, not waiting for my explanation. “I think it’s time the class take a little trip outside and test our faith.”
My breath caught in my chest. Rain was pelting the windows and the storm looked downright deadly. He was out of his fucking mind.
“What’s the matter, Eve? Don’t you know that God will protectus?” He asked as lightning flashed again plunging the classroom into total darkness.
We headed out into the storm altogether, following the deranged whims of a man that would willingly put us in danger, all to test the limits of his faith and ours.
We were so fucked.
CHAPTER 5
CAIN
Thick globsof mud rained down on me from above as my classmates helped carry out Pastor John’s instructions to bury me and several others alive in the middle of a torrential downpour. I should have known today was going to go to shit, because Pastor John had been in far too good a mood to be trusted.
The mud coated the entirety of my torso, submerging me further into the ground. If I lost my shit now, I’d only be punished in some worse way, though I wanted to fucking scream and claw my way out. Several others had and ended up strung up on a cross until dawn as their punishment. I didn’t feel like joining them. What I wanted to do was grab one of those shovels out of my classmates’ hands and whack Pastor John across the face with it. I wanted to bury him with it.
It was a sick fuck who thought burying kids as a test of faith would be a good idea.
This theology class was run more like a bootcamp for Jesus, always placing us in extreme survival situations that flooded our nervous system with adrenaline and conditioned our brains to become compliant. They molded us into their own personal religious soldiers, intent on terrorizing us. Trying to make us apart of God’s Army, as if that was something an all-powerful celestial being needed.
“Dig, sinners!” Pastor John yelled as a flash of lightning tore acrossthe sky. I counted one, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, until the ground shook with the rumble of thunder.
Soon, the mud was caked up to my chin and the panic I’d been fighting off took hold. It made the muscles in my limbs vibrate while my breath came in short, desperate pants.They wouldn’t really bury us alive. Would they?
“Lean not on your own understanding!” Pastor John yelled into the wind. “In all your ways!! Acknowledge Him! If you’re feeling scared, give it to the Lord!”
“Yes, sir!” We called back. But the action of opening my mouth to respond caused the mud to enter, making me cough. I spit it out as best I could, but my tongue was left with a fine coating that tasted of wet earth. I had to fight back the urge to vomit. If I did, I’d probably drown in it. The pressure of the rain and mud held me captive in this makeshift grave. I didn’t know how much longer I could hold out.
They wanted us to face our fears and lean on our faith, but I had none to spare. Any faith I might have had, was stripped from me the moment I saw just how depraved these men and this place were. They presented themselves as the epitome of morality yet had no problem traumatizing people for their own twisted pleasure.
“Now, pray for your salvation!” He called out.
“Our father, who art in heaven!” We yelled, screaming the Lord’s Prayer into the storm. More mud was heaped upon me, so much that it was getting harder to see and even more difficult to breathe.
But when I opened my eyes, Delilah stood above me. An angel in a sea of chaos.
Lightning streaked across the sky behind her, tearing open the dark clouds. My words came out louder and with more conviction as I stared up at her, trying to decipher that stricken look on her face. Was she scared for me? Worried that she would be put in the earth next?
Whatever it was, grounded me until the dirt covered my body completely, and I was swallowed up by the dark. Breath escaped me. My lungs were crying out for air, but all I found was dirt. I had been buried alive. Those bastards actually did it. And I’d taken it. I hadn’t fought back.
Time ticked by. I wasn’t sure if it was seconds or minutes, buteventually, rough hands hoisted me out of the grave to my relief. If I had stayed down there any longer, I would have broken. Or fucking died.
Chunks of wet mud heaved themselves out of my mouth as I vomited into the grass. Shivers wrapped around my body and an immediate relief nestled into my cold, clammy skin.
