even real. The world has always been an ugly place. You aren’t doing anything.”
Cloud stares intently at me, like he’s trying to see into my soul or something. Knowing this idiot, he probably is.
“Such a beautiful offering. God will be pleased.”
“I’m not being offered to anyone.” I reach for the doorhandle. Thankfully, he doesn’t try to stop me. “I want to go home. This isn’t my thing at all. I mean, I love Alex and everything. He’s the one for me, but this...he can do what he wants but I’ll have no part in it.”
“Alex won’t want you if you don’t.” Cloud’s voice changes. It’s darker, more gravely. “You think he loves you enough to change his whole way of life? He doesn’t. If you walk away from this now, you lose him.”
This does give me pause for thought, but only for a moment.
“No, that’s where you’re mistaken.” Now it’s my turn to be smug. “Alex loves me. He loves me more than you guys. Just you wait and see.”
I don't know if I feel quite as confident as I’m making out as I stalk away, Alex does seem pretty invested in this nonsense, but he’s the one, isn’t he? I can make sure that he picks me over anyone else.
“Come on.” I grab his hand hard. “Let’s go to your tent. I want to see what you’re hiding away inside of there.”
“Wait...but you weren’t very long with Cloud at all. What happened? I thought...?”
“What?” I snap, turning to face him head on so he can see the redness of my rage. “That I would have sex with him just because he’s the leader of whatever this is? Alex, I haven’t even had sex with you...”
“Because you have to sleep with him first. That’s the rule.”
A snort of mirthless laughter erupts from me. “Is that what makes me your offering? Or am I really just a sacrifice to appease God?”
Alex pales. “He told you about that? Did you agree?”
I throw my hands in the air in frustration. “Do you even hear yourself? This is madness. Sheer insanity. Are you guys killing people for a God that doesn’t exist? Doesn’t that bother you? It’s murder. Full blown murder.”
“You haven’t seen what I have.” He pales. Even more so. “You don’t know. Not like I do. If we don’t offer God something, the world will descend into chaos, into Hell.”
“Some people might suggest that’s already happened.” My joke falls flat. Figures. “Come on, Alex, let’s get out of here, away from this. You can’t expect me to stay now knowing that crazy Cloud wants to kill me. Would you? If I’d had any idea this was what meeting your friends was going to look like, I wouldn’t have come.”
“Don’t I mean anything to you?”
“Don’t play the guilt card, Alex, you know you mean everything...”
“Then why won’t you stay? Let me be ‘the one’ tonight. The person who brings the offering and saves the world. Let me stop demons from roaming the planet.”
“You want to become ‘the one’ by killing me?” I reply flatly. “Isn’t being the one for me enough?” I tug him closer to me. “I want to be your wife, Alex, I want us to have a future together. I don’t want to die here.”
“If you don’t die, there won’t be a future.”
Okay, I’m not getting through to him at all. I need to try something new.
“It shouldn’t be me. It shouldn’t be anyone new. I should be someone from within the cult...group.” I correct myself quickly so as not to offend. “That will be a real sacrifice. And if it’s Cloud, then it might appease God forever.”
“But he’s our leader! How could you even suggest that, Juliet?”
“Because he’s your leader. That’s what makes it so good. It’ll free you from the shackles of God’s oppression.”
I don’t want to seem like I condone murder, but getting rid of Cloud will free all the people here. They’ll finally get their lives back, stop this madness, so it can only be a good thing. And if it keeps me alive, even better.
“I don’t know, Juliet.” Alex backs away from me, looking afraid, like I’m the monster here. “What you’re suggesting is insane.”
“Not as insane as killing me.”
I don’t know if I can convince Alex. This is years of him being brainwashed that’ll need to be undone. I can try, but I don’t have time to stick around in case I lose out and end up dead.
“I’m leaving, Alex,” I tell him firmly.