Taken: Original Sin Book 1 Read online

  What if the men here had convinced all the women that some sort of cataclysmic event had happened outside? That would explain that weird room with the ‘photos’ and would also explain why the women never left the shelter. They were too frightened, probably believing the world was some sort of barren dustbowl by now. They’d probably also been told that they must follow all the rules the men had invented for them down here or else they’d be cast out into the toxic wastelands, or some other such shit.

  No doubt the men had also fed them a giant pack of lies to explain why they were able to go outside whenever they wanted. I had no idea what they’d said, exactly, but it seemed possible that the women would swallow it, considering they were all babies, toddlers or children when New Eden was built. They’d been raised to believe whatever they were told without question.

  How convenient that the church had lost every single older female member not long before the commune formed, along with all the teenagers, male and female. Pretty much anyone in the Path of the Covenant church who was old and wise enough to turn around and say ‘No, this is all bullshit, what the fuck are you doing?’ to the men who’d decided to create this place was no longer around to do so because of the terrorist attack on the church.

  Surely that was no coincidence.

  Either the men had decided to take full advantage of a random attack, exploiting the young survivors with lies in order to build their new society exactly the way they wanted it with men on top and women below (literally as well as figuratively), or they’d engineered the attack themselves to get rid of any likely dissenters in those early days.

  Both options were horrifying.

  Jolie was only seven when New Eden was occupied by the remaining Path of the Covenant members, so she’d basically grown up in the dark recesses of this shelter, very likely believing she was wildly lucky for surviving… what was it she called it? The Great Reckoning?

  Christ.

  No wonder ‘outsiders’ like myself weren’t supposed to speak to any of the girls down here. That would make it too easy for us to discover the truth of the place, whatever that may be. I was just lucky I happened to run into Jolie outside that bathroom earlier, or else I wouldn’t have spotted the tip of whatever dark iceberg lay below the surface of this sordid place.

  I gritted my teeth. I didn’t want to leave now, and it had nothing to do with the fucking money I had riding on it. Not anymore.

  As fucked up as New Eden might be—unless I was simply overreacting and letting my imagination get the better of me—I wanted to stay down here for Jolie’s sake. She was too fucking stunning to turn my back on, and there was no way I could leave tomorrow and return to the regular world, pretending as if none of this happened. As if every inch of me didn’t ache and burn with desire after only a few stolen moments with her.

  It wasn’t just a physical thing, though. No, it ran much deeper than that. I wanted to spend more time with her so I could convince her that the real world wasn’t that bad; that nothing like this ‘Great Reckoning’ had actually happened before the turn of the millennium. Sure, the outside world had its bad points, but the way the women seemed to be trapped here wasn’t fucking right. If they knew the truth, they wouldn’t want to stay here and serve the men like they did day after day.

  I shook my head in disgust. Jacob and his minions probably thought they were so fucking smart, creating this ‘paradise’ for themselves where women were nothing more than a slave class to them.

  That meant it wouldn’t be easy getting Jolie or any other girl to leave. The men would want to protect what they had here, desperate to hold onto the way of life they’d created for themselves. They wouldn’t let an outsider simply wander in and take one or all of their women away. That meant I had to be slow and careful. Ease my way into this place if I even wanted half a chance at speaking to Jolie ever again.

  Granted, I could just call the authorities when I got outside and tell them what I suspected, but I didn’t have any solid proof that would force them to listen to me. No doubt the men here would also be able to cover things up like they’d done when New Eden was inspected in the past, and then I’d never get a chance to see Jolie again.

  I couldn’t risk that.

  “In here, Mason.”

  Jacob looked at me. Despite the fact his face was arranged into a neutral expression, I could tell he was seething mad. I obviously wasn’t supposed to see any of the female section, let alone that fucking weird apocalypse room, but I’d gone there anyway.

  He was probably more pissed at himself, though, for leaving me to my own devices for a few short moments. If he’d simply escorted me to the bathroom instead of trusting me to be alone for five minutes, he could’ve avoided this issue.

  I bet he wouldn’t make that mistake with an outsider ever again.

  He led me into an enormous communal dining room with black marble floors, long polished wooden tables, and plentiful wingback dining chairs. There was enough space to fit well over a hundred men in here, if not more.

  The smallest table was at the far end, set away from the others. Jacob led me over to it and gestured for me to take a seat. I could only presume this was where he sat with the Elders, who—from what I’d gathered—served as his right-hand men.

  “Dinner will be served in a few minutes,” he said lightly, pretending as if there wasn’t any tension between us. “I believe we are having étouffée tonight.”

  “Sounds great. How do the women cook down here?” I asked. I was pretending, too. Pretending it wasn’t totally fucking weird that the women all lived down here like rats.

  “Cast iron AGA cookers,” he replied smoothly. “They burn wood in them to keep them heated. Any smoke goes out the back through pipes which lead up and away from the shelter. It’s an old-fashioned but reliable way of cooking.”

  “Right. It’s all very impressive,” I said, shaking my head in faux-wonder. “It must’ve taken so much planning.”

  “It did.” He turned and gave me a hard look. “What exactly did you see when you mistakenly wandered off into the women’s section?”

  Ah, here it was. The confrontation.

  It occurred to me that he wasn’t so much angry as worried. Worried I might go back into the outside world and tell everyone what I’d seen and let them draw their own dark conclusions.

  I shrugged. “Not much. I was a little confused by the room I found myself in, with all those strange pictures, but I figured someone around here is just a huge movie buff.”

  He stared at me with beady eyes, not saying a word.

  I kept going. “I was very impressed with your daughter, too. She didn’t say a word to me when she saw me, even though she was clearly quite surprised to come across an outsider. She just kept on cleaning. You’ve raised the girls here excellently.”

  He nodded slowly. “You must’ve been surprised at the lack of electricity down in that section.”

  “I’ll admit, that did strike me as odd. Why is it like that?” I asked.

  “Well, before I tell you, you must understand that we follow our own beliefs here, and they might seem strange to you. I know you attend churches back in your city which all worship the same general idea of God, but things here are different. You may not believe me, but I have been receiving messages from our own God for many years now.”

  I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. “I believe you. I remember you saying that when I visited your spiritual retreat as a teenager. It was one of the things I admired most about you. I’ve always dreamed that one day God would deign to speak to me, but I suppose he only chose you as his divine messenger,” I said in a rueful tone.

  He nodded, looking quite pleased at my response. “Well, in regard to the electricity issue, I was told through a vision that all forms of power and technology were capable of corrupting the feminine body and soul.”

  Oh, for fuck’s sake…

  I kept feigning interest in his words. “How so?”

  “With access to electri
cal appliances, a lot of time is freed up for women when it comes to their feminine duties. For example, instead of washing dishes and clothes by hand, they could just dump it all in a machine which does it for them. Free time is not good for women, given their mental weakness. It leads them into temptation and sin, which as you know has always originated in females.”

  “Of course.” I nodded sagely, wondering if Jacob actually believed his own bullshit, or if it was all made up with the intention of gaining control over women.

  “It is better that we keep them away from such devices, so they aren’t tempted to stray,” he added. “When we do that, we are actually helping the women.”

  “I have to say, I respect that a great deal,” I said, pasting on a smile. “So many people are afraid to say things like that out loud in today’s world. But it’s all true.”

  “Yes, quite.”

  “You don’t need to worry, Mr. Chastain. I won’t tell anyone else what I’ve seen here. I understand how most of the ignorant, overly-liberal people in our society would perceive it.”

  His shoulders drooped slightly, presumably with relief. “Thank you, Mason. I really appreciate it. And listen, if you ever need a favor, I’d be happy to help you out.”

  I hesitated for a moment. “Actually, there is something you could do for me in return, if you felt like being generous.”

  His brows knitted with curiosity. “What? More land for your nature reserve?”

  I leaned forward, a guileful smile dancing on my lips. “No, Mr. Chastain. Tell me more about the Path of the Covenant and what it takes for a new member to join…”

  5

  Jolie

  “So what happened?”

  Elena and Lauren leaned their elbows on the dinner table, where we were finishing the remnants of the étouffée the girls on kitchen duty made this evening. They’d both said they thought I was acting strangely all evening, and I’d finally admitted that something happened today.

  Something very confusing.

  I hesitated, not quite knowing where to begin. “I hate to bring this up, but do either of you remember the day of the attack against our church? Before the Great Reckoning.”

  Elena pursed her lips and looked over my shoulder, as if she were staring right into the past. “Yes,” she said. “I know we aren’t supposed to think or talk about it at all, but I remember it very well. I lost my mother and my older brother that day. I still miss them all the time.”

  I patted her shoulder. “I’m sorry for bringing it up.”

  “It’s all right,” she said, forcing a tight smile. “Lauren, what about you?”

  Lauren’s doe-like brown eyes focused on the plate before her. A pink blush had crept into her cheeks. “Sometimes I worry this makes me a terrible person, but I don’t remember anything from that day. I barely even remember the old times at all. Sometimes I get a flashing glimpse in my mind’s eye of my mother’s hair, or I’ll suddenly remember my auntie’s perfume. But never anything more.”

  “That doesn’t make you a bad person,” Elena said, sweeping her long chestnut hair over a shoulder with one hand. “It may be a gift from your own mind; the removal of all your negative memories. That day was awful.”

  Lauren nodded slowly. “Yes. Anyway, why did you ask, Jolie?”

  Both girls looked at me now.

  “Lauren, obviously you won’t recall this, but Elena, do you remember that new family who came to visit for a while that day? The Ashwoods,” I said.

  Elena’s forehead puckered. “Were they the family with that teenage boy you spent some time with? Mason?”

  “Yes.”

  She smiled faintly. “I remember we played that silly game because you thought he was handsome. The one where you pull the petals off a daisy.”

  “He loves me, he loves me not,” I said, returning her smile.

  Lauren looked at us, uncertainty flashing in her eyes. Then she nodded fervently. “I think I remember that game!” she said.

  Elena shot me the briefest of amused looks. Lauren wasn’t dull by any means, but she had an absolutely terrible memory. However, she would often claim to remember or know about things that we brought up, even if we could tell she didn’t.

  I‘d always figured that she did it because she knew how smart Elena was, and she desperately wanted to fit in. A natural-born follower. That was silly, though. Elena didn’t care if someone wasn’t as intelligent as her. She was kind to everyone, and she counted Lauren as one of her best friends, whether she knew lots of things or not.

  “Well, you won’t believe this,” I began, nervously twisting on one of my long braids. “But he was here today. I saw him.”

  Elena’s eyes widened. “Really? In the shelter?”

  I nodded. “Yes. My father was showing him around and talking to him. He left him alone for a few minutes, and I—”

  I abruptly stopped speaking. Martha Chase was approaching our table. If she heard me telling Lauren and Elena that I talked to Mason despite the rule regarding outsiders, I would be in a lot of trouble. My friends would be in trouble as well, for simply knowing and failing to turn me in.

  “Hello, Martha,” I said loudly to alert Elena and Lauren that she was drawing near.

  They turned and looked over their shoulders. “Hello,” they added in unison.

  Martha smiled. “Are you enjoying dinner?”

  “Yes,” we chorused. “It’s delicious.”

  She tucked a strand of curly red hair behind her ear. “It is so fortunate that the men found an uncontaminated water supply out in the Wastelands, so that they can fish up all the seafood we cook with. Surely a gift from above.”

  “Yes. Praise Him,” Elena said.

  Martha smiled again. “Yes. Anyway, I’m going to pray now,” she said. She swept away before we could say goodnight.

  We all breathed a collective sigh of relief. While none of us were active sinners—well, at least Elena and Lauren weren’t—being around someone as devout as Martha frightened us. It made us feel as if she would report us to the Elders for even the smallest infraction, so we had to watch ourselves and hold our tongues around her as much as we could.

  “I spoke to him,” I said in a hushed voice, finally continuing my story. “To Mason.”

  One of Lauren’s hands flew to her mouth. “Oh!”

  “I know we aren’t supposed to speak with outsiders, but I thought He would forgive me this one time. After all, Mason and I knew each other in the old days.”

  “That’s true,” Elena said. “But still, we should keep this to ourselves.”

  Lauren nodded her agreement. “What did you talk about?”

  “Not a lot, because we only had a few minutes. But he said some very kind things to me.” I flushed at the memory. Men very rarely complimented women here at New Eden, so the fact that I had been called smart, beautiful and funny all in one day made my head spin. Mason was a true gentleman.

  “Is he attractive?” Lauren asked, resting her chin on clasped hands.

  I couldn’t help but smile. “Yes. Very.”

  “Perhaps he will come to live here and one of us will marry him,” she said excitedly. “Probably me, because your father wants you to marry Danny Miller, doesn’t he?”

  Weddings happened once a year on the fourth of April. Every girl who had reached fruition within the last year would be given to a man to marry that day. Elena had already been married for quite some time, and Lauren had also been married until her husband died three months ago. He was relatively old, somewhere in his late sixties, so it wasn’t an enormously shocking passing. Now that she was a widow, she would be assigned to another man in the spring.

  I had reached fruition only a few weeks after the last wedding ceremony, somewhere around seven months ago. That meant I was able to spend nearly an entire year as an unmarried woman. I would finally be wed in the next spring ceremony alongside Lauren.

  She was right about my father’s obvious designs for me and Danny Miller, but I didn�
��t like the idea of marrying him if Mason was coming to live here. I’d much rather marry Mason. He was so kind and handsome. So tall and muscular...

  Here I was, letting my mind give way to thoughts of lust again. I was incorrigible.

  I shook my head. “Father said Mason wasn’t staying. Just visiting.”

  “So he’s going back out into the Wastelands?” Lauren’s eyes were even wider now.

  “Yes.” I nodded miserably. Then I frowned. “He actually said some very strange things about the outside world.”

  “Like what?” Elena asked.

  “I took him into the Museum of the Damned, and he seemed to think it was amusing. I told him it wasn’t funny to joke about the Great Reckoning, and then he said the photos were all movie stills. I don’t know what he meant by that.”

  “That doesn’t make sense!” Lauren said. “Movies… well, they moved. That was the point of them, right?”

  Elena’s brows pinched together. “I think someone can pause a movie and print the picture on the screen. Then it’s a still image. Just like a photo.”

  “Oh,” I said. I felt stupid for not realizing that sooner. What she said made perfect sense. “But why would Mason say that? I thought he might be confused or traumatized by what he went through out there, but I’m not sure. It was just so strange.”

  Lauren nodded. “I think you’re right. If he wasn’t in a safe place when the Great Reckoning happened, then he must have witnessed some terrible, shocking things. He’s extremely fortunate to even be alive. His mind may have tried to block some of the bad memories, like Elena said earlier.”

  We looked at Elena to see what she thought. Her face was scarlet.

  “I… I don’t feel very well,” she said, abruptly standing up. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  She hurried away. Lauren and I stared after her for a silent moment, our eyebrows raised, and then we looked back at each other.