My Maddie (Hades Hangmen #8)(44)

“Let him go,” I spat, as I licked along my knife. It still had the blood and slivers of bone on the steel from the asshole on the ground. He was dead. One of them was dead. Now, I needed to kill them all. All of them had to die for hurting Maddie and the baby.

And now Ash. Now they had hurt Ash…

“Put the fucking knives down,” the asshole holding Ash said. I heard movement from behind me. I tightened my grip on my blades, ready to attack. The asshole pressed his gun harder against Ash’s head. Ash closed his eyes. He looked dead. Like that, my brother looked fucking dead!

“LET HIM THE FUCK GO!” I roared. Someone moved behind me again. I turned, ready to slice into them, cut their skull in two. Then I froze. I stopped when something fisted my lungs. My fucking lungs wouldn’t work. The flames in my blood began to roar, fucking roar and burn me from inside.

A snake. No… he had a fucking snake…

The cunt in front of me had a gun at my face. But he had a snake around his neck. A snake, just like… just like… you’re evil, Josiah. The devil lives in your heart, demons run thick in your blood…

My fucking chest began to cave in and my hands shook. Shook so fucking bad I dropped my blades to the ground. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t fucking breathe! The snakes hissed. My blood began to run too fast in my veins. It was the evil, the demons inside my soul calling to the snake. You see, Josiah, you see how the devil’s own recognizes the blackness in your soul. This is proof. Proof that you are evil. That you condemn everything and everyone you touch. That the flames of hell run thickly in your veins. My poppa smiled. I didn’t know why he was smiling. You’re retarded. A heathen. An agent of evil that we will take down. My poppa nodded to Pastor Hughes. Do what you must. They brought the snakes forward, and the snakes sunk their teeth into my flesh…

“What’s the matter, asshole? You don’t like snakes?” I tried to get up, but my body was fucking burning, keeping me down. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t fucking breathe!

“Flame! What’s wrong? What the fuck is wrong?!” I turned my head to Ash. His face was pale as he looked at me. I had to help him. I had to get that cunt from behind my brother. Ash was trying to get to me, kicking his legs and trying to wrestle from his captor’s hold. No... He couldn’t come to me. The flames, the demons… they would get him. I would fucking do something to cause him pain. I couldn’t hurt him too. Mama, Isaiah, Maddie, the baby… I couldn’t hurt Ash too. “Flame! FLAME!” Ash’s voice cracked. I was on my hands and knees. I didn’t remember getting on my hands and knees. I couldn’t get up. I couldn’t fucking get up! “FLAME!”

A gunshot burst around us. The fucker who held Ash held his gun in the air. He flicked his chin to someone. Ash wasn’t moving now. He was a fucking statue. I tried to push up off the ground, but the flames held me down, like ropes around tied around my limbs. Like I was being tied to the hospital bed. Someone grabbed my hair and ripped my head back. I saw the snake’s dark eyes and mouth before my face. I tried to move the fuck away, but I couldn’t fucking move! “Fucker’s scared of snakes.” The cunt laughed. I couldn’t take my attention off the snake.

“Tie them up. Fuckers killed Jackson. Need to teach them a lesson.” Someone pulled me across the clearing, my paralyzed legs dragging along the ground. I smelled the smoke from the fire. Then I saw the flames. The bright orange and red flames climbing up to the sky. I heard the snake hiss. My fucking body started convulsing. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes, Pastor Hughes’s voice stabbed at my brain, speaking words from the bible, many different verses as he put the snakes on my skin. They slid over my skin, then sank their teeth into my flesh. Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died…

I gritted my teeth as I felt something being tied around my hands and feet. As something was wrapped around my chest and thighs. All I saw were the snakes climbing over me in Church. All I heard was my poppa’s and Pastor Hughes’s voices as they spoke scripture over me.

Please, Poppa, I don’t wanna be evil. I wanna be good. I didn’t mean to hurt mama. I didn’t mean to kill her and send her away. I didn’t want her to die. I never wanted her to die. Please, Poppa… please…

“Flame? Flame! Who are you 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.”