Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 102136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
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.”
“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.