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"Myrina, I'm sorry, but Jordy, Rick, and I have visited the basement and backyard several times over the last few years, looking for a hidden entrance or hollow walls. We haven't been able to find anything. Unfortunately.”
Gently, he stroked my cheek. At the moment of this touch, my smile died.It would have been too good to be true!
"Yes," I croaked, suppressing my disappointment. "Yes, that's too bad. But, well, there's nothing you can do about it."Quickly, I lowered my eyes so my brother wouldn't see the little tear that couldn't be pushed back. "Let's walk on quickly. Otherwise, the lesson will be over soon, and we'll have only seen this part of the tunnel," I tried to joke. My brother gave me one last worried look before nodding mutely and then turning to continue following the tunnel's course.
It wasn't long before we arrived at a fork in the road. On the right, the path ran into the darkness, and on the left, a little further back, I recognized a door Chris was now heading for with determination. He pulled an old-looking key from his robe and unlocked the wooden door.
The door swung open with a creak, and the light cone of the flashlight was lost in a large room. On a table, which had been pushed against the right wall, were candlesticks, whose candles the priest immediately lit carefully. The brighter it became, the more the objects in this room revealed themselves. With my mouth open, I looked around. At the very back, I recognized a makeshift boxing ring with sandbags dangling from the ceiling—also targets of various sizes and shapes.
In the middle of this self-constructed training center was a vast exercise mat, and in the corner next to the table, they had set up a screen.
"Behind there, you'll find your training clothes, and you can change! But hurry up; we only have half an hour before we have to go back!" Chris reminded me while he pulled a book out of his robe. Curious, I looked over his shoulder at the title.
“Chris!” I shouted indignantly, boxing my elbow into his side. “You’re going to teach me how to use knives with the help of a guidebook?”
“Now calm down, Myrina!” he growled at me, rubbing his ribs that had taken the blow. “We’re going to have to improvise. Since neither of us has any experience with this, we have no choice but to get the information on this subject from theliterature. In the past, yes, I would have watched a video on the Internet, but that’s no longer possible either. Don’t worry, sis! I’ve been studying this book for days and think I know how it works in theory. It’s time to try it out in practice now!”
Sugar-sweetly, I smiled at him. "Then you can be a target if you know your teaching methods."
"Um … well …" the priest stammered, his face red. "That's not what I meant."
Cursing, I went behind the screen, but my anger at Chris's naiveté evaporated when I discovered my old workout pants and a T-shirt on a chair. That's how much I had missed those clothes. I ripped off the impractical dress. A delighted sigh escaped me as I slipped into the sportswear.
Alternately jumping and stretching, I entered the large mat in the middle of the room. Chris was already waiting for me there, his nose buried deep in his book. Annoyed, I rolled my eyes, and when no instructions came from my brother, I performed some movements I remembered from my self-defense training.
My body needed a bit to implement the unaccustomed muscular effort. At first, I felt stiff and clumsy, but the more often I performed a sequence of steps, the softer and more flowing it became. I quickly forgot everything and everyone around me, completely absorbed in my memories of the steps and postures.
It was almost as if someone had turned back time, and I was the Myrina of old again. Free, sometimes a bit too cheeky, but above all, happy.
CHAPTER 8
The half-hour workout was over far too quickly. When I peeled myself out of my sweaty sportswear and put on the black dress, it felt as if I myself would close the lock to my golden cage again. As if I were snatching my newly acquired freedom away from myself again.
The way back through the corridors and up to the chapel was agony, and the room behind me seemed to pull at me, wanting me to turn around. At the same time, from the front, I felt the pressure of loneliness and oppression waiting for me. Every step cost me overcoming. At some point, Chris took my hand, squeezed it gently once, and pulled me the rest of the way. Apparently, he had perceived my inner conflict.
We had just climbed out of the confessional when we heard footsteps. I quickly smoothed out my skirt and ran my hands over my updo again. Because of the prevailing heat today, the sweat on my forehead would not appear suspicious. Chris had left the advisor downstairs in our training room. Only the key lay well hidden in a secret pocket inside his priestly robe.
Thomas was already standing on the gate's other side and rattling the locked gate in vain. Without haste, the priest approached the chauffeur with a patient smile and took out thekey that belonged to this lock. The two keys I noticed now were very much like each other. We had to mark one of them to avoid accidentally mixing them up. That would be fatal.
The gate opened, and Chris took me in his arms once again. After that, he looked at me seriously.
"Say the Hail Mary ten times every night and pray, Myrina. Praying will help you regain your purity. Only faith in God will be able to save you."
I lowered my head in mock embarrassment and nodded silently. "Go home with Thomas now, and we'll see each other again in three days," Chris added as he pushed me in the direction of the chauffeur, who eyed me critically. My brother's speech had started his head cinema, and he was imagining all the crimes I could have committed to lose mypurity. As soon as a certain gleam came out in his eyes, I knew where his thoughts had drifted.
This look had not escaped Chris either. He cleared his throat and approached the driver authoritatively. "Take my sister directly to my father's house. I will inquire about her later," he said calmly, yet the message behind it was clear.
A nervous twitch went through Thomas' body, but the greed did not leave his gaze. Nevertheless, I followed him to the church's exit and the car at a distance. The energy of the workout and the sequence of movements still tingled in my body, firing the muscles and alerting the nerves. However, it would not be conducive to our clandestine meetings if I knocked the driver down now. However, he had deserved it after the looks that undressed me.
Before dropping into the back seat, I looked at the cathedral and its eerie message on the portal one last time. Three days! Then, I could finally train down there again in the secret tunnels. The thought made me feel warm inside.
Thomas had turned the limousine around and was driving back the same way we had come. However, my view out the window was clouded this time by the memories of the training session in the church. Still, I noticed the driver watching me through the rearview mirror. I had to be very careful around him.
With the new world order, prostitution had been abolished, and the rate of rape had skyrocketed alarmingly. Even though no one talked about it, everyone knew about it—even me. Significantly, the women from the poorer areas were helplessly exposed to this danger every day.
It wasn't until we pulled onto East 70th Street, then once around the block to East 69th Street, that I could escape my chaos of thoughts. The car stopped in front of our house, and Thomas opened the car door for me. He glanced inconspicuously at the front door, but I hadn't missed that emotion. I braced myself as I climbed out of the limousine, but the chauffeur beat me to it. Swiftly, he took a step toward me and pressed his body against mine, trapping me between the car in my back and him.
The stench of sweat, mixed with a cheap aftershave, rose my nose, and I felt sick. Thomas was so close to me that I felt his breath on my cheek.
