Heart Recaptured (Hades Hangmen, #2)(29)

“I… I never knew such a place could exist. We heard stories, of course, but my imagination could never have dreamed up this spectacle.”

People of all races, shapes, and sizes thronged the busy streets. Some were dressed sinfully, some in garments I did not begin to comprehend. Many were holding machines that Mae had told me about, “cell phones” she had called them.

“So? What d’ya think?” Ky asked. “Could you see yourself living here?”

Shaking my head profusely, I answered. “No. Absolutely not. It is too full. I would be fearful of everything, behaving wrong, of the unknown people I passed.” Taking a breath, feeling exhausted through overstimulation, I said, “If I were to reside outside of commune—”

“Which is gonna have to happen,” Ky interjected.

“Yes, okay,” I replied. “I would prefer to live somewhere quiet, away from people who would stare at me and make salacious advances. I would like to live without the fear of sin, without too much noise, without too much strife.” As I cast my gaze out of the window, I added, “I would like to live pain free.”

Ky said nothing in response, but his knuckles betrayed his emotion as they turned white with the intensity of his grip on the wheel.

The more we drove around the city, the more tired I became. Ky would point things out to me and explain what they were, things called museums that housed ancient artifacts from around the world, cinemas where people would meet and watch “movies.” Of course, I had never watched a motion picture. Ky had to explain what a television was.

I found I could relate to nothing out here.

It all felt so… so… big to me. Too much.

After hours of all-consuming life-altering experiences, I turned to Ky. “Can I request that we return to the compound now? I have grown tired and I feel I have had more than I can handle in one day.”

Ky nodded his head, clearly aware of my desperation, as I sank back into the depths of the seat. He clicked a button on the wheel, music suddenly blaring through the vehicle. Every space seemed alive with fast, heavy beats. I leaned my head against the door as the loud noise permeated the very air I breathed.

Bright lights made the city glow like a lightning bug, and the darkening starless sky signaled the arrival of many unsavory characters on the streets. This place, I decided, was most certainly not for me.

I preferred the quiet county lane of the compound. I preferred the moonlit sky of the compound, where the stars were visible everywhere in the sky, unaffected by the artificial lights this metropolis boasted. I preferred solace to bustle, green to concrete, and quiet to noise.

Sighing in stress, we pulled to a stop at a red light, meaning that the vehicle must halt, when suddenly a large white building came into view. One look and it took my breath away.

It was a structure of pristine white stone, a towering building that dominated the high stairways on which it sat, showcasing its beauty to the city’s residents. Arched colored windows beamed in the dark, casting a rainbow on their white stone surroundings. Lights on the high, tiled roof, illuminated every perfectly sculpted masterpiece. A set of wide wooden doors featured front and center. But most beautiful of all, a white marble statue of Jesus Christ stood out front, the Crucifix, an image serenely poetic in its art.

“Please, can you stop the vehicle,” I requested, my palms flat against the window glass.

“What?” Ky looked surprised as I turned to see him frowning.

“Please!” I urged. “Pull over for a moment.”

Doing as I asked, Ky stopped at the side of the road. Then all I could do was stare.

“What is that place?” I asked in awe.

Ky leaned forward, his arm brushing against mine, and replied, “A church.”

“A church?”

“Yeah, you know, where folk like you go to pray and sing and all that f*ckin’ dull stuff.”

Shock ran through me like a current. “People of God?” I asked, watching as a woman carrying a baby entered through the wooden doors.

“Yeah, Jesus worshippers, Bible freaks, folks like you,” he answered, clearly becoming frustrated.

Gazing at Ky’s handsome face, I said, “I do not understand. This is a church for Christ? People come here to worship?”

Ky nodded slowly, like I was ill of mind. “Yeah, what ain’t you getting, sweet cheeks? Church. God. No f*ckin’ fun.”

“It is not that I do not understand the worship element, Ky. It is the fact this church exists outside of the great fence… outside of The Order. Is that what you are telling me?”

“Well, now it’s me that don’t understand,” he said, looking from me to the church and back again.

Fighting back panic, I said, “Prophet David told us we were the last people on Earth who were faithful to God, that all on the outside were evil sinners that rejected the Lord and his message. This was the reason we were segregated from the outside, to protect our beliefs from those who live to destroy us.”

Ky’s face contorted into anger. “Lilah, there’s a million f*ckin’ churches across this country. Religious folk are everywhere, of all kinds of faiths. Prophet David was lying outta his wrinkled loose ass.”

“But how… I…” I trailed off, unknowing how to defend my late prophet’s scripture when I was seeing the evidence of his untruth with my own eyes.