-Zoey’s Pov-

  I woke up to the hypnotic ticking of the clock above me. Tick, tick, tick. I had been in and out of consciousness for the past twelve hours. There was no way for me to sleep soundly in this chair surrounded by masked strangers, but I managed to conserve my energy to the best of my ability. As far as I could tell, the three of them were taking shifts watching over me, as right now Peter had left to go sleep in the room off to the side.

  James and Jude, on the other hand, had taken their masks off and were sharing a rather passionate, handsy kiss on top of a table a bit far off from me. Jude, who was seated up on the table, had wrapped her arms around the sturdy back of James, whose own hands were firmly secured around her waist, caressing the area with such primal desire that even I couldn’t resist getting swept up in the excitement of the two of them. The sweat dripping off their skin, off the back of the rger man, off the arms of the woman being devoured, colored their encounter with a depraved shine that elicited a certain excitement within me.

  Jude’s eyes popped out of the lids of her flushed face and they darted over in my direction. She tapped James’s back and he retreated from suckling her lips for a moment to gaze upon her.

  “What’s wrong, babe?”

  “That girl’s watching us.”

  James followed the line of Jude’s gaze right towards me, then turned back to Jude. “Who cares? Let her watch.”

  “She’s creepy,” Jude said.

  I kicked my feet, jangling the chains that held them in pce. It was my makeshift way of asking to be ungagged.

  With a sigh, James put his mask on and walked over to me, then removed the cloth from my mouth.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “If you have a problem with having a spectator then you’re free to leave.” I said to the girl.

  Jude clicked her tongue, James sighed and reapplied the cloth to my mouth.

  “You give her too much attention, babe,” Jude said, readjusting her mask. “Just let her rot.”

  “You know I can’t do that. It’ll be both our heads if the prophet finds her in disarray. You heard what he did to John.”

  “John was going to rape her,” Jude retorted. “The prophet isn’t going to care if she starves a little.”

  “Perhaps you would follow a prophet who didn’t give credence to something like that, but I don’t. She’s just a high school girl. We should treat her with some dignity.”

  “Who cares about dignity? He’s probably gonna kill her when we’re done with her.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  I jingled my chains once more.

  “Don’t do it, James.”

  “I have to,” James said, removing the cloth.

  “I’m pretty thirsty right now.”

  “Oh, fuck off.” Jude threw her hands up.

  James sighed, retreating to kitchen where he filled a gss up with tap water. The swishing noise of the liquid filling the cup, for a moment, had dominated the interior of the room. There was no grumbling or moaning or any sort of movement from anyone else. Jude looked down at the floor, as if anxious to just get this moment of time over and done with.

  When James returned with the water, I grinned and tilted my chin upward. “Not too quickly, please.”

  The man couldn’t help but smile, and pced the gss at my lip, holding it slightly upward so that the water could trickle down into my mouth.

  “Ugh.” Jude’s groan, coupled with her eyeroll, wasn’t something I let slide. Slowly. I had to keep chipping at her slowly.

  Once I was done drinking and he’d pulled the gss back, I smiled. “Mind cleaning up?”

  Some of the water had spilled off to the side of my mouth, down my chin.

  “Sure, let me get a…”

  “Just use your thumb,” I said.

  He raised an eyebrow, then knelt at my feet and ran his thumb carefully along my lip. My eyes never left his. My smile never dissipated. I kept him at the center of attention as he touched my face, longingly analyzing every excruciating detail I could extract from his expression.

  “There, better?” he asked, adjusting the cloth.

  “Thank you James,” I said.

  “Drop dead.” Jude scoffed from the other side of the room.

  James reapplied the cloth then returned to Jude’s side.

  “Now, where were we, babe?” He asked.

  Jude grinned, dragging his right arm up her slender stomach over to her chest and beginning to remove her mask. “Right here, baby.”

  I jingled my chains.

  “Oh, FUCK OFF already!”

  Needless to say, Jude didn’t appear too pleased.

  James, however, offered up a hopeless sigh and made his way back over to me and removed the cloth from my mouth. “Yes?”

  “Bathroom.”

  He squinted his eyes. “Is this a joke?”

  “Should I give you a demonstration of how much of a joke it is?”

  “Why the fuck didn’t you say something earlier?” Jude asked.

  “Because I didn’t have to go earlier,” I said while pouting. “Jamie, Jude is being very unfair to me. Won’t you stick up for me even a little bit?”

  “You fucking bitch…”

  James sighed. “Jude, go in with her.”

  The girl sighed, but there wasn’t much resistance to the order. This must have been something they’d established quite a while ago. James reached into his pocket to grab a bundle of keys then circled around the chair to unlock the chains. Jude picked herself off the table and made her way towards me.

  As I felt the steel bondages tying me down slowly release their iron grip on my limbs, I found myself remembering once again that I am a human being my own arms and legs. I found it quite strange that just half a day of being chained could lead me to forget such an important facet of my own existence. As I stood up, flexing my arms and fingers, twisting and turning as I examined myself, I felt a nudge push me over into the direction of the bathroom.

  “We don’t have all day,” Jude said.

  I grinned. “Are you in that much of a hurry to watch me?”

  “Ew.”

  “No? Maybe James should take your pce if it bothers you that much then?”

  “Shut up and get inside already.”

  The two of us entered the bathroom at her prodding. Myself first, then Jude behind me. Inside the bathroom with its wooden walls and floors, I noticed that the countertop to my left was empty outside of the sink, as was the floor near the toilet. There was a small window above the white throne, though not small enough to prevent me from squeezing through. I turned around and found Jude resting against the door with a bored look on her face.

  “Mind locking the door for me?” I asked. “I wouldn’t want any of those guys coming in unannounced.”

  “No thanks, I’ll keep it unlocked I think.”

  So the door’s lock worked, I thought.

  “Is that so?” With those words, I reached underneath my skirt to slide my undergarments down then took a seat on the toilet.

  “You don’t seem remotely embarrassed by this,” she said.

  “What’s there to be embarrassed about? We’re both girls.”

  Jude paused for a moment. It seemed that she was taking the moment to go over something in her head. If I had Oliver’s spirit, there would be no ambiguity about this situation. I’d know everything going on in that mind of hers. Maniputing her into doing as I wished would be a cake walk. It’s no surprise why the Order of Lady Irma, in that case, has grown so drastically in the past few years if he’s been one in charge. And if he is allowed to gain Tristan’s spirit too, then…

  “I know what you’re trying to do, you know,” Jude said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Don’t bother pying dumb. You’re trying to get us to fight with each other so that maybe James’ll take your side and set you free. It’s pretty obvious.”

  “I don’t…”

  “Don’t bother lying. Let me just say that it’s not going to work. Even if he does end up liking you more than he likes me, his respect for the prophet is beyond anything you could possibly understand.”

  “Is he that amazing?” I asked.

  “Of course he is. He’s got half of the Holy Spirit inside him. He knows what you’re going to say before you say it. He knows all of your intentions. He knows everything about you before ever even meeting you.”

  Oh brother. It seemed like his con involved having them believe that he really was a Great Prophet chosen by God Himself. I wonder how much it would break their heart to find out that he was just a regur guy who happened to be possessed by a vengeful, misanthropic spirit. Not that they’d believe me over their cult leader, anyway.

  “Doesn’t seem to know everything about me, though,” I said.

  “Well, of course not. You’re the Lady Irma.”

  There it is again. She’s talking about that nonsense prophecy Oliver mentioned st night. Just how am I Lady Irma, exactly? Because I’m bait for Tristan and his spirit?

  As I got done relieving myself, Jude held out an opened pack of wipes for me.

  “Thank you,” I said, accepting one.

  “In any case, it’d be nice if you stopped fucking around and cooperated. The only possible way you’re surviving this is by telling us who the false prophet is.”

  She uttered the words after I’d stood up and put my underwear in pce after I was done cleaning up. The words were so ridiculous that a giddy ughter slowly started spilling out of me.

  It was so amusing to me that this girl, after being exposed to something as terrifying as a spirit, couldn’t possibly understand the position we were both in.

  “What?” she asked. “What’s so funny?”

  I held it in. I sucked in air and held it tightly into my lungs in an attempt to forcefully calm myself before her. But before I could respond, there was knocking on the door.

  “Everything okay in there babe?” James asked.

  “Yeah, it’s fine. We’re coming out now.”

  As she twisted the knob and slid the door open, I opened my mouth once more. “How many things would I have to take from you for you to consider death a preferable alternative to living?”

  “Huh?” she turned back to face me. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m just wondering where the line is for you, Jude. If I took your job. If I took your lover. If I took your belongings. If I took your beauty. If I took your hands. If I took your legs. If I took your tongue. If I took your ears. If I took your eyes.”

  “What the fuck are you…”

  “What would I have to take from you for you to consider death preferable to living? For me, that thing is that spirit. If you took it away from us, then I’d have nothing else to live for but to take it back.”

  Her face contorted into confusion. “That’s crazy. You probably lived an entire decade at least without that spirit. What’s so wrong about going back to that?”

  “How could a starving child go back to rice after having a taste of wagyu steak every week?”

  “Because there are other things to live for besides food.”

  “No,” I said. “In this case, there aren’t. If I have to go back to a bnd life of white rice without the taste of that savory steak, then I’d rather die. I’d do everything, everything, everything in my power to taste that steak again. I’d cross deserts. I’d climb mountains. I’d topple civilizations. I’d murder entire poputions. Because the radiance of that steak lit up this boring, empty life of mine and filled it with an excitement I haven’t found anywhere else in this fccid world. Those other things you’re talking about, the things besides the steak, they’re just a distraction. Things to keep me occupied until I die. I don’t care to be occupied. I care to eat steak.”

  Once I was done, I tilted my head towards the man in the doorway and smiled. “Don’t you agree, Jamie?”