Page 118 of Heartless Heathens

“Exorcizamus te, immundissime spiritus,” she began again.

I took a deep breath, trying to find a happy place to go to while I came to terms with the fact that I might be suffering for a lot longer than mentally possible. She went on, and on, and… on. Repeating the prayer until I thought her voice would surely go out.

But the old crone was resilient. I closed my eyes, flashes of the last few weeks playing in my memory, reminding me that this was all my fault. There had been not just one, but three people who cared for me and I left them to walk straight into the mouth of the fire.

“Exorcizamus te, immundissime spiritus. Satanicae potestatis. Vade, satana, creator et magister deceptionis. Sub magna Dei potentia opprimitur; contremiscite et flete. Ab insidiis diaboli, libera nos, Domine–– How did you get down here?” She yelled out in surprise and I jarred my eyes open.

“Through brute force.” I couldn’t see him in the dark yet, he was too far away.

But the honeyed smooth sound of his voice was unmistakable.

“Mr. Escura you are to leave immediately.” Her voice was shrill and coated in anger as if she knew she had no authority over him.

“Where is Frollo?” Felix asked her.

“The headmaster has been called away.”

“Step aside Sister,” he said with a warning tone.

“You are interrupting official church business Mr. Escura, I could have you removed from the grounds for this and even expelled.” He stepped closer, his face still draped in shadows.

“Sister, I’m not going to warn you again, step aside. I have a strict policy against harming women, but you are standing in between me and the only thing I care about in this entire world.”

Sister Sophia stepped back fearfully. Each time Felix came closer she went further away until she’d eventually put enough distance between us all that she scurried back the same way Father Frollo had come from like the rat she was.

“We need to go.” He looked at me with pity in his eyes before cutting my restraints.

Felix had always looked at me with marvel and wonder.

Now the magic had been broken, and he saw that I was pathetic, covered in weakness. Someone who could easily be ripped apart by the angry claws of this world. I had always been covered in the scars Frollo had carved into me, but now he could finally see them. His eyebrows dropped and he scooped me up into his arms carrying me up the stairs and out of the cathedral.

“How did you find me so fast?” I rasped, clutching my throat. The screaming had done a number on my voice.

His eyebrows furrowed in the middle.

“It’s been fucking hours, Romina. I looked through every door in this damned church.” I burrowed into his neck.

I stopped crying sometime during the walk back through the chapel. My body turned cold and my teeth chattered when the nighttime breeze wrapped its tendrils around my bones. Felix pulled me closer into him, but he still hadn’t looked down to meet my gaze.

He didn’t lower me to the ground once we’d got back to the chapel, not until we made our way inside and he sat me down on the comfort of the couch. Sonny was there, pacing feverishly back and forth, only stopping to look down at me from scowling features.

He looked angrier than I could recall ever seeing him.

“Where was she?” He seethed, not asking me, or bothering to spare a glance my way.

“She went to Frollo.” Felix didn’t bother to lie to Sonny, knowing he’d have the truth someway or another.

“So why is she back here then?” He finally turned his hateful expression back to me.

I made myself smaller, wrapping my arms over my knees that pressed into my chest as I cowered into the corner of the couch. If Sonny was angry or tired of me then it was likely Frollo’s threats would be coming to fruition soon.

The only thing that had stood between me and Frollo’s callous ways was Sonny, but now as he stared down at me, the only thing showing through his expression was a generous amount of contempt.

All of it directed at me.

“I took care of you. I gave you sanctuary despite him wanting to throw you out like trash. I gave you what you needed but you still went to him. Regardless of me asking you not to. If you can’t trust me then leave, Romina.”

I covered my ears and buried my face into my thighs to hide myself from him.