Blood and Beasts

Chapter 26

***Trigger Warning***

***Graphic body mutilation***

There was a cardinal rule that Jack had learned as a child, and even now in the midst of the most frightening and horrible situation he could ever imagine, this rule pounded through his mind. If you were lost, you were suppose to stay where you were until somebody found you. He couldn't exactly be sure if this applied when one was stuck in another dimension, but it was the only rational plan he had left to hold onto.

So despite strong impulses to run and scream and delve deeper into madness, Jack had convinced Rachel and himself to stay put. They sat on the sharp black stone floor, backs to each other and only lightly touching (the incredible unease of being seen in this state still threatened to overtake more rational thought), wrapped their arms tight around their legs, and waited.

It was impossible to know how long they waited like that because it was impossible to gauge time in that place. There was no sky, only thick clouds of smoke that burned the eyes. There was no sun or moon, but sometimes lightning or even fire flashed through the haze. Sometimes it seemed very close and Jack could feel his skin start to burn. The floor they sat on shifted. Rocks crumbled away and a leg or buttock would fall between a sharp crack in the floor. Their skin would cut deep, urging them to move, to find another place to sit and wait, but Jack still had enough of his mind to know that in this place, no matter where they went, pain would be waiting for them.

And so they simply waited, as best that they could. Him and Rachel talked a bit. They didn't always have the mental fortitude to listen, or to even fully grasp what they themselves were saying, but the bits of noise helped to reassure each other that they were still there. Rachel told Jack about her family, her parents and her sisters. She told him about her schooling and the essay she was writing. It was nice to talk about things so far removed from all the horror around them.

Jack told her about his childhood, about the small farming community he'd grown up on with his mom and dad and half-siblings. Jack didn't mince words when talking about this community he'd been part of. He understood now that it had been a cult. It certainly wasn't in the same league as something like the Imperial Cult, but they had their own peculiar practices.

They had been a deeply religious group, close to Christian, but with a much heavier focus on preparing one's self for the imminent rapture. The sect was led by a few men, Father Mathias being the head of them, and each man took a number of women as his wives, for their role was to take care of the men and to give them children that could be raised to serve God in his holy kingdom once the rapture came. At least that was the best Jack could remember of the sect. He had been fairly young when they had left and his mom preferred not to talk about it much.

His mom had been one of Father Mathias' younger daughters, through one of his younger wives. Once she had reached puberty she was married off to Father Bartholomew, an aging man who was only half a decade younger than her own father. She was the fifth of Bartholomew's wives, and the youngest, and by the age of fifteen she gave birth to Jack. There had been complications during his birth and both he and Bethany had nearly died. Their survival was hailed as a miracle, just as the birth of another son was hailed as a miracle. Bethany had been sly though and used these complications for years to come as the reason she could not get pregnant again. It was true that pregnancies didn't take hold in her easily, but the few times they had she took care of them in secret. One of Bartholomew's other wives helped her, one that was only ten years older, but understood the pain Bethany felt living in these conditions. Still it was the only life she knew, and where else was she to go?