Adrienne Alisandre
Silver and Vail sit with me, holding my hand on the couch downstairs. I'm shaking, I can't stop shaking. Everyone in the house, fully aware of what happened. Except not knowing the whole story. That'd I'd told him to take me. I'd told Eldritch to take my innocence. I'd let him do it. What the walked in on though was different. Because at that point, after his breakdown to the goddess for his sins , he'd forced himself back inside of me. Called me names, blaming me for the sin we both took part it.
I feel sick. I feel sick because a man's blood was now soaking the sheets of my bed, mixing with the blood of my virginity that was no longer able to be sacrificed to the goddess in proper form.
I feel sick because the desire that burned inside me, the heat between my legs, is still there. How can I possibly want more at a time like this? I just watched Gwyn...Eldrtich's wife, murder him. While his dick was still inside of me. Punishing me for "making" him sin.
Was I a product of the devil? Was I not truly an angel like he said? Was I just a test to the men around me? Did I lure him and seduce him? I should have told him no. I should not have allowed him to take me. I couldn't be angel. He's right. And angel would have said no. And angel would have stopped him. I wasn't an angel of the goddess. Whore. I was whore like he said.
Vail holds my one hand, rubbing the back of it with her other...Silver...Eldritch's daughter...and Vaughns sister...holds my other hand....her other hand stroking my back as I sit there in a robe, staring at the floor , wondering what will happen. Would I be shunned ? Would the goddess strike me down? She hadn't yet. But maybe she would still.
I hear the shuffle of steps behind us, my head slowly turning and I flinch as I watch my father, Astor, Vail's father..Altair..., then my brother Varin......and then Vaughn...all carry the body of Vaughn's father Eldrtich...through the house and outside, wrapped in the soiled sheets of my bed.
"Come" My mother says, making me turn my head towards her as she holds out her hand.
"We must cleanse you of him." my mother Marianne says. I just blink.
I look to Gwyn, Eldritch's wife. Cora, Vail's mother standing beside her.
"We must do it quickly before his sin takes place." my mother says, my friends helping me to stand.
Gwyn...Elrtichs wife...holds out her hand as well. And Cora, all three mothers standing there with waiting hands.
"Mom.." my voice cracks. "I need to talk to you." I say. She shakes her head.
"Not now Adrienne, we must be quick." she says, taking my hand I just shut my mouth.
Do I tell her, do I tell anyone my part in what happened? That minutes before they'd found Eldritch ontop of me calling me a whore while he "punished" me...that I'd welcomed the sin. That maybe I deserved to take my last breath tonight, just like Eldritch had, for disgracing our goddess.
I follow my mother Marianne...Gwyn Asmodeus...and Cora Helborne...our mothers...down the steps, to the cellar of the castle. Stone steps beneath our bare feet as Vail Hellborne and Silver Asomodeus, my two best friends...help me walk...my limbs still shaking.
We hit the bottom of the stairs and my mother whispers a spell into the air, that bring light flickering withing the walls, as tiny flames come to life , and light up the stone pool infront of us. Steam rolling off the top of the water, like a magic hot spring beneath the castle.
I watch as the three of our mothers, gather salts, and herbs from the side of the room, sprinkling certain amounts of each into the large round pool , embdedded in the ground of stone.
I watch the three of them strip down to nothing, my brows pinching. Cora Hellborne looks to her daughter Vail...Gwyn..to her daughter Silver Asmodeus...giving them both a nod, and gesturing to remove their clothes.
"She will need the help of all of us to cleanse her." Cora Hellborne tells us as I watch my friends remove their clothes.
I watch our three mothers walk into the pool that slowly inclines, deeper towards the middle, shallow at the edges.
"not yet.." my mother says when the girls step forward, taking my hand to guide me to the pool.
"We must bless the waters...spell them for her cleansing before she enters." Gwyn Asmodeus adds.
I just watch, confused as to how a woman could seem so unaffected by the fact she just shot her husband. Her husband who was having sex with me...a virgin angel. How she seems to hold no grudge towards me at all, and I realize I have a million questions and none of them appropriate for right now I suppose.
Vail squeezes my hand, and I look to her , she gives me a soft pitying look, her thumb carressing the back of my hand. There's a soft apology in her eyes, as if she thinks it's her fault , for leaving me there in my room with Eldrtich after he'd caught us together. I shake my head only once, dismissing her guilt. The heat burns between my legs as I think of kissing her. Of how badly I want to right now, not caring how inappropriate it is.
Our mothers begin chanting, my mother saying one thing, Gwyn another...as Cora hums, singing a low quiet chant of something else, all in the secret tongue that I've yet to begin to learn. I have no idea what they're saying. I assume they are calling to the goddess, blessing the waters, I dont know. I've never learned or known what is required of an angel that sacrifices herself against the will of the goddess without her blessing.
I wonder what the guys are doing right now....or what they're going to do with Eldritch's body. Will he be burned as is required of our goddess in our time of death? Or since he has comitted perhaps one of her most forbidden sins..will he be required a burial...for his bones to forever remain in the ground, will he be cleaned...his bones taken to the catacombs to be scattered or placed among the bones of traitors and sinners or bones of humans who do not covet the goddess as we do?
I inhale as black steam rolls over the top of the water. Rolling over the natural white steam, making into disappear and my bones fucking shake, my skin prickling as if the air in the room is nipping at my skin.
"Bring her." my mother says to Vail and Silver.
"We MUST cleanse her for the Goddess!" Gwyn lifts her hands towards the stone ceiling.
All three of them turn and walk back up the pools incline as Vail and Silver bring me closer to the water, my skin hotter and hotter the closer I get, and my stomach turns, because it's clear that this cleansing, this ritual will not be pleasant for me.
I scream the second a lap of water hits my toe, burning the flesh as I jerk back, but all three mothers, latch onto me, dragging me into the water.
I scream louder than I ever have, but the steam over the water, is inhaled into my throat, and burns me on in the inside just as pianfully as the water is burning my calves...my thighs...my hips...my torso.
It's a searing pain and feels like my skin on fire. Nobody else affected but me, as I flounder, my body so vulnerable, that it takes nothing for the three of our mothers to submerse me, to hold me under the surface as I scream into the water. Everything burns. I'm going to die. What if they're doing the wrong spell? Because they don't know that I'd told Eldritch to take me at first. That I'd sinned just as greatly as he had.
Im dragged from under the water by their arms, our three mothers voices chanting the same prayer at this time, their voices loud, frantic and then I'm plunged under again.
Dragged back up, limp with agony, as I gasp for breath, but no relief comes as the steam still burns my throat and lungs, I keep my eyes shut, and feel my body pushed back under the water, held for longer. I scream into the water, barely able to form a struggle, I can hear the chanting in the water, other voices that don't belong to anyone here with me. So many of them hundreds, female and chanting the same prayer that our mothers are saying.
Over all of them I hear one..a single voice that stands out against all others....
"You are not devil made. You are as perfect , and imperfect as I intended you to be. Eldritch has failed you, has failed his family, and above all has failed me. You will not suffer for his sin. You will not suffer for the weakness of his will. You will not speak of it, for it was not your sin my angel. You are not here to be forgiven, for there is nothing to forgive. You are here to be cleansed of the poison of him inside of you angel. You belong to me angel, you are mine, and you will sacrifice yourself to me at the altar in standard ceremony. For you are mine, and you are reborn anew...Adrienne Alisandre...you are the angel chosen...you will be more than just my angel....but the next goddess in wait...you are goddess made....goddess blessed....goddess incarnate...and you are saved from the poison of Eldritch Asmodeus."
I can't breathe. I'm not breathing. I'm still underwater.
My consciousness fades. So does her voice.....and everything goes black.