Chapter 3 of YOU and HIM: New snippet

This is the newest draft of YAH. Please feel free to tell me what you think! Do you prefer this draft or the older one? I'm curious to know!

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Chapter 3

“Restrain him!”

“Don't let him escape!”

“Hold him right there!”

There's a cacophony of voices as chaos bursts into the church through the double doors.

Adam trips over his feet on a raised piece of carpet rolled out through the center aisle, his elbows banging painfully on the ground, copper flooding into his mouth upon accidentally biting his tongue. 

He flips onto his back trying to kick at the hand reaching for his ankles, jerking him forward and into their grasp.

Tears sting at his eyes, but he forces them back as he puts up a fight as they wrangle him into a standing position, pinning his arms behind his back.

Adam: Let me go! 

He screams as they cover his head in a burlap sack, fear entrenching him in a thick sludge that weighs down his limbs.

He's shaking so hard his teeth chatter. 

But he has to remain strong. He has to.

It's the first thing he was taught.

If you lose to fear, it's all over before the battle even starts. 

Adam: Let me fucking go!

He tries kicking a leg out, but he's shoved onto the ground and he's half drug in what feels like the opposite direction of the double doors. 

Adam stumbles up the stairs leading up to what he's sure is the altar and he realizes they cornered him here for a reason. 

But he doesn’t understand. 

He'd done nothing wrong, nothing that would warrant this so why?

He grunts as he's twisted around and shoved into something hard, causing him to bow at the waist. 

What-?

A fist grabs the back of the burlap sack covering his head before shoving his face into something cold that steals the breath from his lungs and causes him to gag.

He can't breathe.

He can't breathe.

He tries bucking his captors off of him, choking on what he now realizes is water as it floods his lungs and stings his nostrils, his attempts at breaking free useless.

There's soft chanting above him. 

A hymn? A prayer? Something else?

He can't tell, their words muffled as he silently screams into the water, trying to keep himself conscious. 

But the world is starting to fade.

The darkness creeps along the edges of his vision, threatening to overtake him—

Right as he's pulled out. 

He coughs and retches, his body desperate to expel the water from his body as thin rays of light peek through the burlap sack. 

Adam tries warding off his captors, but he's forced back into the water, the gasp that leaves him allowing more water to enter his system.

How long are they going to do this?

Until he passes out? Dies?

The second time around, he's weaker than the first, worn down and his body screaming for air. 

Someone help me. 

It's a pathetic thought. 

A weak one.

Maybe that's why he's forced to endure this torture? They know he's still weak?

He's brought up again as his body sags, his legs giving out from a second round of enduring this torture.

A single word slips from his lips.

Adam: Why?

He hears the sound of footsteps coming down the aisle. A shadow moves and he knows someone is approaching the raised dias. 

???: Because this is the punishment for complete disobedience. 

He recognizes that voice.

He'd know it anywhere. He tries calling out, begging for Him to get them to stop because he gets it, he understands-

But he's submerged once more, the salt of his tears mixing with the water as his cries are lost beneath the surface, his voice stripped from him as he's held in place.

And as the world goes dark for the third and final time…

Adam opens his eyes, brushing away the memory as he sits positioned between the church pews.

Before him, he watches as the scene unfolds, a man who is not him this time begging for forgiveness in between his face getting thrust into the holy water.

He keeps his expression neutral.

It's not the torture that bothers him.

He's damn well acquainted with it, but he knows what this message means.

It's why he was called here.

Not just for a meeting.

But to see what disobedience leads to. 

A reminder to not stray.

For Adam, his first experience with a “cleansing” was meant to deter him from acting out and betraying those he was loyal to. 

That he's still loyal to.

This man, though, won't get that sort of mercy.

There's no chanting. No prayer. Nothing for the man who's going to die because he went against the oath. 

The man gets pulled up again by the scruff of his neck, gurgling noises coming from his throat as he struggles to speak, water staining his button up. 

Drowning Man: My family…!

He shouts.

Drowning man: Let me at least see them at least one last-!

He's dunked back under, cut off before he can finish, though it's a request many give before they're about to die. 

They always want to see their family before they're killed. 

Adam knows because he's killed more than enough people on his own to recognize every plea, speech, demand, they can drum up in their time of dying. 

And yet…

He never saw you coming.

Drumming his fingers along his thigh, he checks his phone on reflex for news about your current condition.

Nothing from Saffron.

According to him, you're still recovering from surgery.

It went smoothly as expected, but you haven't woken up yet.

According to what Saffron told him, you went into Hypovolemic shock after your aunt shot you which is why you ultimately ended up passing out.

Then he tried to go into explanations about your fucking X-ray and other medical jargon that Adam didn't give two shits about.

He just wanted to know if you'd fucking live.

And Saffron never gave him a direct answer.

Adam: Fucking useless. 

Adam mutters as his eyes skirt back up towards the robed men who are now carrying a dead corpse down the steps of the dias like pallbearers would a coffin during a funeral. 

He watches as blood drips from the man's lips, likely from when he'd accidentally bit his tongue or mouth in a panic. 

His glassy gaze stares at the mosaic painting above and Adam looks up to find it depicting the exact moment when his namesake was tempted into taking a bite of the fruit from the tree of knowledge alongside Eve. 

What a fucking annoying reminder.

He looks down sharply, his jaw ticking in annoyance.

Another message? Or a coincidence?

But there were often no coincidences with Him.

Adam learned that long ago.

When the double doors shut, Adam pulls himself up from the pew before heading to approach the confessional booth. 

He takes a seat on the wooden bench before crossing his arms and leaning back against the wall, waiting for the sound of another person entering the booth on the opposite side.

It's about ten to fifteen minutes before he hears the click of the door and the square window is opened to reveal wire meshing.

Adam: Saffron told me you called him. He said you wanted to see me. 

???: Now, Adam. That's not how we conduct things here. You know as well as I do what a confessional booth is for.

Adam's eyes cut towards the window.

How much did He know?

Adam: What are you implying?

There's a soft, almost amicable chuckle from the other side. 

???: Nothing of the sort, but surely there's something you'd like to share. After all…

He pauses and His fingers drum along the wooden bench from His side of the confessional.

???: You never told me you were injured. Imagine my surprise when I found out through the media outlets. I feared for you. Worried. And yet not a word out of your mouth.

???: I must say…it feels like you're hiding something from me, my child. 

Adam doesn't react. 

He'd already seen this coming from the moment Saffron informed him that He wished to see him.

He's already prepared himself for it.

Adam: What would I be hiding? I got injured. It fucking happens.

???: Language.

The voice hisses from the other side. He's always been a stickler for that sort of thing. 

Adam opens his mouth to respond when visions from earlier filter into his head and he clamps his mouth shut, knowing arguing won't get him anywhere.

There's a moment of silence before He sighs.

???: You must know I'm only asking because I'm concerned about your well being. Don't you trust me?

Adam: You're the only one I trust.

Adam answers, his voice quiet and subdued. 

And it's true. 

For many reasons…

It's true.

???: Then lay everything bare to me. Don't hold back, my child. 

Adam closes his eyes.

He should tell Him.

About You.

About what went wrong and how you turned the tables on him.

About the thoughts plaguing him, keeping him up at night from the first time you kissed him, to your body getting pressed up against his within that small ass trailer.

He aches to come clean.

To unload his inner demons.

To share his fears of giving in.

But…

Adam received an order to kill you. 

And if He finds out you're still alive, there's no going back from it.

It doesn't matter if you possess knowledge about any of the women in the picture. 

You. Will. Die. 

He—God—will order him to do so.

And there's nothing he can do to save you, because if he doesn't follow through once he's admitted he failed to kill you the first time…

The man from earlier flashes through his head. 

Yes.

The warning is clear as day, just short of gutting the fucker and spelling it out with the man's innards.

Don't disobey me. This is what will happen if you do. 

???: Adam?

He hesitates.

He probably doesn't know about your escape the first go around so he'll dance around the truth as much as he can.

Then he'll do what he set out to do.

Adam: I honestly don't know what to tell you other than it's been handled. 

???: Are you saying you completed things with your most recent target?

Adam: The photo was sent, wasn't it?

???: I don't appreciate how hostile you're acting. 

Adam: Forgive me. I'm just frustrated and tired. I stayed up through half the night working on new lyrics.

All of the new songs he made were drafted within a small notebook he kept in his back pocket while he sat in the waiting room, wondering if you were going to live or not.

He kept tossing them away in frustration.

All of what he wrote…

Kept finding a fucking way to center around you.  

Even while unconscious, you were so fucking annoying to deal with, thoughts of you creeping into his head, unwarranted. 

The dreams he kept having weren't helping.

He was getting frustrated with their growing eroticism.

And the guilt that came from his attraction to you.

But he would do right by God.

He just needed time—that's all. 

Or at least, that's what he keeps telling himself. 

???: You do not need to take your frustrations out on me, but because I love you, I will forgive you. Though I expect better behavior in the future. Even I have my limits. 

???: Do you understand?

Adam: Yes. I'm sorry.

???: Are you certain?

The way His voice goes flat when delivering the question makes his hands shake.

The calm before the potential storm.

If Adam didn't tread carefully, who knows what it could lead to.

While God could show mercy, He could also be extremely cruel. 

Adam's voice shakes just a bit as he speaks.

Adam: Yes, Father. I'm certain.

God: Very well. You may now go. But remember this my child…

He pauses and Adam can feel the shift, a change in the air that's so suffocating, he has to keep himself still in order to keep from clawing at his own throat. 

Dread swells inside Adam's stomach as He speaks. 

God: I always find out the truth. And if you're lying to me, you know what will happen. Do I make myself clear?

Adam's heart thunders in his chest.

Adam: Yes…I know that better than anyone. 

God: Then you are freed from your sins, by God's will. You may go.

Adam forces himself to stand up on shaky legs before ripping open the door and forcing himself to remain calm as he exits the re-purposed church.