“But that's not the way it's supposed to be!” Al screamed down the once beautiful corridor. Salome began towards him, slowly advancing toward the wide eyed man standing at the other end.
“I know Al, but it's the only option we've got right now, and we have to take it. It's now or never. Do you trust me?” Salome asks, her voice wavering for the first time. She looked at the man crouching before her now only feet away. As she looked at Al, she began to notice how much the last few weeks had aged the beautiful young man she'd come to know as the only person she dared to trust. Time ha hardened him. His face once soft and gentle, now bore the scars of the torture he'd been through recently. His eyebrow would never grow hair where the whip lashed his face, leaving a scar the length of his face discolored as well, a permanent pink across an otherwise beautiful tan face framing piercing blue eyes. The same blue eyes that were now practically piercing Shelia as he studied her with a fierce locked look. That's a new look too Shelia thought to herself as she watched Al wordlessly open and close his mouth, trying to form a sentence out of words and emotions that didn't exist in their lives prior to their recent decisions.
“If I didn't trust you, I wouldn’t be here. Stop doubting that, please Mae.” Al spoke slowly as he got to his feet, his composure rediscovered and the reality of Salome's words began to fully sink in. He stood, finally, looking at the woman he'd met only a few months ago, the same woman that was now the world to him.
Salome eyed him warily, reached out her hand, and silently pleaded with him to trust her. Finally, Al reached her and they locked fingers. The intimacy of the action was new to them, they simply stood like that, gazing into one another's eyes as the eternity stretched out before the two of them. Finally, Al shook hi head, turning from Salome in an attempt to locate an exit from the dismal hallway that had been their prison for so long.
“I guess, let's start this way. We'll never get anywhere standing here waiting for someone to catch us. It's too late for me Mae, but you can still turn back. You are technically still innocent.” All pulled up short of the exit door, turning and searching Salome’s face for any hint of conflict. He had to be absolutely sure that she was committed not just to him, but to their mission, to their un-chosen, but unavoidable lifestyle if they chose to cross through the door.
“I trust in myself, in us, and most importantly, in you.” That was all the more convincing Al needed. It wasn't the words she said that convinced him of this truth, but the conviction she held in the set of her beautiful face. It was in the solidarity he found behind her deep brown eyes. He turned away from her, put his hand on the bar that would release the two of them into the unknown. His left hand tightened around Salome's as they waited for the click of the door that would be their release as well as their undoing.
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Click.
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Al slowly pushed the door, a sliver of light began to fall across their scarred and lean bodies. With a huff of impatience, Salome pushed the door and it swung open, revealing a world they'd only read about prior to this moment. They enjoyed the light on their faces for a split second before the noise came crashing down around them on all sides.
The curled to the ground, Al sheltering his only ally with his torso as their bodies adjusted to the new wold they'd come face-to-face with. As their ears adjusted to the noises around them, they began to blink, an attempt to get them to focus on the world bathed in the natural light they'd never experienced before.
Salome was the first to move anything more than her unaccustomed eyelids. She began to unfurl from her crouch. “Al,” she began tentatively, “I can't believe we did it. After all of those years we finally did it! After years of waiting in solitude for someone to come along and lead me to the real world, I’ve finally made it!” She nearly shrieked as she leaped up from their crouched position against the dingy building where Al still huddled.
“Get back down here Salome!” Al hissed through his clenched jaw. “we've been here 5 seconds and you're already bouncing around and shouting like a damn lunatic!” Al continued, his rage barely contained. Salome knew immediately that Al was furious, he never used her full name. She also knew, however, that he was absolutely right. They had only just escaped everything they'd known for their 18 years of life. She slowly squatted back down next to Al, but not close enough to touch any part of him. She feared his anger, it had never been directed at her before.
Al seemed to sense Salome's hesitation, and reached over to rest his hand between her shoulders. “I'm sorry Mae. It's just that we've only been out here for a few minutes. We have nothing, no one, and no where to go. I'm scared. We have no idea what we're up against.” All attempted to soothe both himself and Salome by finally admitting his fears. Shelia shied away from his hand, still uncomfortable with the physical aspect of being near another person, let alone a man.
Al looked at Salome, mirroring the fear in her eyes with his own. He'd known for a long time he was different. He didn't feel the same need to mindlessly follow the laws that had been set by a deity he struggled to believe in. How could he believe the words that were literally beaten into him in the catacombs they'd been imprisoned to all their lives. His desire for intimacy began at a young age. After the death of his parental figures, he reached out to anyone,c raving the peace that another human being could bring simply with their presence.
He could see now that Salome's disbelief in what they were raised to believe was much more recent, she wasn't used to defying The Book in the subtle and overt ways that he was.
“You don't understand Al,” Salome began, taking a deep breath to collect herself as a shudder of fear shook her as she was relieving a particularly violent memory of her time with The Elders. She began again, “you weren't my first contact. When I was 14, I fell and on of The Elders caught me hugging the boy that helped me up. I knew it was against The Book but I thought we were alone and I wanted to know what it felt like to touch someone.” Salome paused, reaching up to delicately touch her rib cage and began again. “The Elder took both of us to the Gatekeepers. The boy, I can't remember his name anymore, told them that he'd been trying to push me away, so he go off with a much smaller punishment.” Salome looked off into the distance. Al looked expectantly at Salome, silently urging her to continue. “I'm sure you can imagine the punishment for a female making contact with a patriarch. I was forced to have the areas of my body that had made 'contact' scrubbed with fires stones.”
Al looked at her, bewildered. He'd heard of branding punishment, and of stone punishment (torture), but he couldn't begin to image what Salome had been through. He started to reach up and wipe away the single tear that silently ran down her face, but he immediately drew his hand back as she began again.
“They took stones, rough and jagged rocks, and put them in the ember pits. Once they were hot they removed them and scrubbed away my sins, taking my flesh with it as they crossed my arms and torso. Peeling back the 'corrupt flesh' was half of it, they were also attempting to 'burning the memory' into the next layers of skin. My ribs were the most affected, they have the most scars.”
Al looked at her, terrified, “Mae, I will never touch you again if that's what you want. I thought you resistance was based on our upbringing, not the torture you endured at the hands of the Gatekeepers.”
He began to back away from Salome, and she reached, slowly, tentatively, to touch Al's face. “Al please, I told you that story so you'd understand my hesitation. It's not a matter of wanting to touch you, I've never wanted something as much as I think I want that, but I can't handle the reciprocation yet. Not on my body at the least.” Slowly, she reached her hand to Al's face and ran just the tips of her fingers along the scar on Al's face. As much as he wanted to, he resisted the temptation to return the touch.
“Hey look at that,” Al started, smiling, “we've been out of The Purg for almost 5 minutes by my watch and we haven't died yet!” Al began to laugh, an honest, hearty laugh he didn't know had been bubbling inside of him. Salome thought of this simple revelation, and she too began laughing.
Once their hysteria had subsided, they sat on the curb (they'd learned simple outdoor vocabularies as a theoretical knowledge lesson, so they knew vaguely what they were looking at around them) and tried to determine what their next step was. Al kept nervously checking his watch, knowing that the sun (he stumbled over the word, it was still as foreign to him as the crumbling concrete he sat on) would soon set, and they would become much more susceptible to whatever lurked in the world after dark. Al pondered, mumbling aloud about which of the beasts they'd been taught about were real and which were imaginary and if they could possibly be worse than the all too real terrors they faced while living at The Purg.
“What the...hell...are you mumbling about? Hey, that felt pretty good! Go to HELL Gatekeepers, Elders, The Purg! Go! To! Hell!” Salome was shouting, overcome with a total sense of release. Al began to giggle at her eager use of a sin word” and explained his thought process about the beasts. Salome stood up quickly, finally taking in all of their surroundings. She was searching for a place they could stay that would afford some security, and maybe comfort.
“This way.” Salome said and started toward one of the buildings that looked the least dangerous. Al scurried along behind her, in awe of the brilliant, tragic woman with a plan that was leading him through the rubble of what used to be a city. They were never allowed to know the specifics about what happened before humans moved to The Purg and other communities like it all over the Globe. Al had done some “independent learning” which was strictly forbidden and found that The Purg was one of only 3 communities on the Island previously known as North America.
Al absentmindedly traced the scar on his that marked the his defiance of The Book just weeks before. Salome hadn't questioned the scar, and Al had a feeling she was waiting for him to bring it up. She had been so forthcoming just minutes before, and he'd only responded to her story with empathy, rather than with his own story of how he received the first hand knowledge of the power and pain of the Gatekeepers.
While he'd been lost in his own thoughts, Salome had navigated them through the streets and stood looking up a building with “Hi t n ot l” written in gold just above what could have once been an elaborate door. Nothing like that would have ever been allowed in The Purg. They valued the strict word of The Book, and gold paint and elaborate doors would have definitely fallen under one of the Sins and been strictly forbidden.
Salome turned to face him, an excited look on her face. “Are you ready?” she asked expectantly.
“Ready for what?” Al questioned, snapping out of his own thoughts.
“Anything. Everything. A life free from The Purg and all of the laws of the book.
“Let's do it.” Al replied offering Salome his hand. She took it and they yelled and ran toward the double doors, finding everything unknown and all of the endless possibilities.493Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOvnAoLQ04q
