My Maddie (Hades Hangmen #8) - Tillie Cole Page 0,61

talking to? What’s wrong? Flame!” I rolled my head to the side. My brother was tied to a tree next to me. He looked across the clearing. “Flame, what the fuck? Look. They have a bitch in a cage. Naked. Christ, Flame. Her fucking mouth is sewn together. Who the fuck are these people?”

“I didn’t mean to kill you, Isaiah,” I whispered to him and my vision blurred. My cheeks felt wet. “You were crying and you wanted me to hold you.” I tried to look at my hands, but they were tied up. That was good. With them tied, the flames wouldn’t be able to get to him again. I didn’t want to kill Isaiah. Not again. Somehow, I had him back with me. I wouldn’t hurt him again. Isaiah was free from flames and evil. He wasn’t like me. He didn’t have demons in his blood. He was good. That must have been why he was back beside me. With me now.

“Flame…” my brother’s voice shook. “You’re scaring me. You’re fucking scaring me. We have to get out of this place. We have to fight back.” I tried to clear my eyes. But when I did, we were back in the cellar. No. We were in the Church. I saw Pastor Hughes and poppa coming towards us. My heart started thudding when I saw the snakes in their hands. They had three. Three snakes. I didn’t want them on my skin. I felt the flames, the evil writhed under my flesh. Suddenly, Poppa and Pastor Hughes were in front of me. “Please, Poppa,” I cried and felt my throat grow too thick to swallow. “I’ll be good, I promise. I’ll stop being a retard. I’ll stop being evil.”

“Poppa? What the fuck are you talking about, Flame? Poppa’s dead!”

“Leave him the fuck alone! Don’t touch him. Don’t you dare fucking touch him!” I said when they looked at my brother.

But Poppa and Pastor Hughes only laughed. There was another man behind them. He was here with the snakes; he’d brought them to me. To check if I was still evil. To see if I still had demons in my blood. I didn’t want to be evil anymore. I wanted my poppa to know I was good. Then maybe God would stop me being retarded, if he knew I was good. Maybe he’d help me understand people. Maybe I wouldn’t be different. If He knew I was good, the devil would leave me alone.

I froze when Pastor Hughes brought the snakes before me. “What the fuck? Who the hell is this cunt? Fucking psycho who’s scared of snakes?” He laughed. “What’s with all the cuts on his skin?” He reached out and touched my chest. I clenched my jaw so tight it made my teeth ache. I didn’t like to be touched. People only hurt me when they touched me. Or I hurt them.

“Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me! The flames. The fucking flames! I need to let them out. I need to cut them out. They need to be released.”

“Flame. Be quiet!” Isaiah shouted from beside me. I’d never heard his voice before. He’d died before he could speak.

“Cut them out? Flames need to be released?” Poppa said, laughing. He lifted a knife. My cock got hard the minute I saw the blade. I hissed and tried to move, to hold my cock. He liked me to release myself. He liked me to bend over so he could release himself inside me. It hurt. But that was the devil, he said. The devil fighting the honest people of God who were trying to help me. If he pushed himself inside me, then maybe he wouldn’t do it to Isaiah. But I was trapped. I couldn’t move.

“What the fuck! He’s hard. Sick fucker’s gonna come just at the sight of the blade.”

Poppa got closer with the blade. I watched the knife as it pressed to my skin. The minute Poppa pushed down and broke the skin, my cock started throbbing. Poppa… Poppa always made the evil come out of me. In the cellar. He came into the cellar and made me better with his holy seed. He helped me release the evil too. He was trying to save my soul.

“This how you like it, sick fucker?” Poppa asked and sliced the blade along my skin on my arms. My teeth clenched and my eyes closed in relief, as I felt the flames drain away and rush down to my hard