They Will Run You Down

Thirty-Four: Haven

"Just give up, girl. You're only playing yourself out," the man on the right grumbled in annoyance.

Harley could then tell that she was being lifted up a flight of stairs. Two pairs of heavy feet echoed in the tall, empty stairwell. Harley continued to kick, gaining more momentum now that her feet had stairs to push off from.

Nearly causing the two men to lose their balance and fall backwards, one of them growled, "Grab her legs!"

Harley's captors adjusted their grip and hoisted her completely off the ground, one holding her top half, and the other her legs.

Still she fought and struggled, unwilling to give in or give up.

After being carried up two more flights of stairs and down a long, carpeted hallway, Harley heard one of the men knock on a door.

"Come," a male voice instructed.

The man at Harley's feet let go of her legs, dropping them carelessly, while the man holding her arms propped her back up onto her feet. She heard the door open and was dragged inside, despite her struggling against the forward momentum.

Harley was then pushed down into a chair, her hands still cuffed behind her and the sack still covering her head.

"That'll be all, gentlemen," the new man said and with that, Harley heard the door close behind her.

She sat quietly, hearing only the sound of her own breath in her ears. She resigned herself to wait until she could at least see before planning her next move.

"What's your name?" The man asked deadpan, breaking through Harley's thoughts.

She didn't answer.

A few moments passed quietly before suddenly the sack that veiled Harley's head was pulled off. She squinted, the sudden flood of light burning her eyes. But before her stood no man, only a desk and behind it a large window looking out over North Sydney.

From behind, Harley heard the man begin to speak once more, "You, woman, are the Devil's gateway. You are the unsealer of that forbidden tree. You are the first deserter of divine law. You are she who persuaded him whom the Devil was not valiant enough to attack. You, woman, who destroyed so easily God's image, man. On account of your desert, that is death, even the son of God had to die"

Harley frowned and slowly turned herself around to see who she assumed, after his diatribe, must be Father Douglas.

He stood tall in the center of the room, his hands behind his back as he gazed at Harley with an arrogant expression. He looked no older than forty with dark hair and a short beard. He was dressed in regular clothes, jeans and a black shirt. It wasn't what Harley was expecting, although she wasn't at all sure what religious people were supposed to look like.

"What's your name, girl?" He asked again.

Harley held his gaze for a moment, her brow furrowed, then without word she turned back to face the window.

Father Douglas began to speak again as he made his way around Harley to his desk, "Thus the woman, who had perversely exceeded her proper bounds, is forced back into her position"

As Father Douglas sat in his chair, Harley scanned his desk for a letter opener or paper clips to pick the lock on her cuffs but the desk was immaculate, holding only neatly stacked books.

She turned her attention to the room, looking to one side then the other, if not for a weapon than simply to analyze her surroundings.

"You seek to master this situation, I can see that, but I'm afraid you've come to the inevitable end of your personal sovereignty. I feel it important to firstly inform you that you won't be leaving Haven. The sooner you accept this, the easier your transission will be. We don't let our women back out into the world. They are needed here and so are you needed here. Haven is a place where God's will has been received and heeded. A new beginning. A fresh start to correct the mistakes that led humanity to its downfall. We here have returned to living as God intended," Father Douglas informed as he rested his elbows on the desk and pressed his hands together in front of his mouth.

Being that Harley didn't plan to stick around long enough to find out what that meant, she kept her mouth shut and continued to search the room.

"Look at me when I am speaking to you!" Father Douglas roared as he slammed his hands down on his desk.

Harley turned back slowly, glaring at the Father with hatred.

"Woman is a misbegotten man and has a faulty and defective nature in comparison to his. What she cannot get, she seeks to obtain through lying and diabolical deceptions. One must be on one's guard with every woman, as if she were a poisonous snake or a horned devil," Father Douglas prattled on more intensely than before.

Try as she might, Harley could no longer keep herself together and with a loud snort, she laughed in the face of Father Douglas and his sanctimonious mysogyny.

In an instant, the Father's face flushed with red and he shot up from his seat, veering around the desk toward Harley. She barely had a moment to react before he raised his arm and backhanded Harley across her cheek, "You will learn your place!" He yelled before grabbing Harley's chin in his hand and tilting her head upwards so he could glare down on her, "In pain you shall bring forth children, woman. And you will turn to your husband in submission and he shall rule over you. Do you not know that you are Eve? God's sentence hangs still over all your sex and his punishment weighs down upon you. You are the Devil's gateway," he spat viciously, his jaw clenched tight.

Without a second thought, Harley hastily pulled her knees up to her chest and forcefully rammed her heels into Father Douglas' stomach. With the wind knocked out of him, he flew backwards and landed like a sack of potatoes on the top of his desk which sent the books upon it tumbling to the floor.

Still seated, Harley quickly slid her cuffed hands under her bottom and shifted her legs so that her arms were then in front of her instead of behind. She jumped up from her chair and picked it up just as Father Douglas stood back onto his feet and she wasted no time swinging around to bash the Father across his side and head with the legs of the chair. He unwillingly accepted the blow and dropped to the floor from the force.

Harley let go of the chair and dashed over to the door. As she scrambled to heave it open, she glanced behind her to see Father Douglas picking himself up, his eyes feral and murderous. Harley hastily wrenched the door open to pass through but instead of an empty hall, Harley ran directly into the arms of someone who'd been standing in the threshold. She looked up to see a younger man, maybe thirty-five, with the same dark hair and intense gaze as Father Douglas.

"Carson, grab her," Father Douglas growled breathlessly as he straightened up.

Harley tried to shove the man named Carson out of her way but he had already dug his fingernails into the flesh of her arm, holding on with a painful grip, "She's a pretty one," he smirked as he looked down upon her, too close for comfort.

"Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, brother. Bring her back in," Father Douglas ordered as he rounded his desk and took a seat.