The Devil Tainted Us (A Gothic, Age Gap and Forbidden Romance)

I spent the night at the graveyard, kneeling on the ground and looking over the lives I’ve buried here.

I have committed several sins in life that have always drowned me in the sea of guilt, and I have always felt the pain of those sins so many times that at one point I no longer felt it.

But after seeing the way Agatha’s trust for me was shattered, I felt that pain all over again. Nothing felt more painful than seeing her eyes glimmering with betrayal and heartache.

And the reason was none other but me.

She no longer has faith in me and doesn’t want to be saved by me. But I have to do everything possible to help her. And if afterwards she doesn’t forgive me and wants me gone then I will walk away from her life without any hesitation.

After the things I have put her through, I don’t deserve her. Fuck, I never deserved in the first place. But this fucking heart of mine that she revived back to life didn’t want to let her go.

It only wanted her.

I swore to destroy her since the day she arrived here but that notion changed into something else very soon.

The destroyer became destroyed.

I was willing to wait for her as long as it would take. But she needs my help in this, and this time I won’t betray her. I will be the path towards her freedom no matter what.

I will even make sure Tristen’s shadow remains miles away from her. Even when she isn’t willing to face me, I will still be there for her…to protect her…to love her.

By the time night descends, I decide to get up and leave. I go to the area first where I hid the boat to check everything was ready. I made sure to hide the boat using leaves and scattered branches. Luckily, Julius even packed a few essentials in a sack bag that is inside the boat.

After making sure everything is ready, I return back to the Magdalene and wait at the back entrance.

Every now and then I look over my shoulder, telling myself that she will come. She has to.

But every time my gaze returns on the door, finding it closed, I feel the hope of her coming to me fading away.

I feel hours passing by as I wait there. The clouds start to grumble, foreshadowing a stormy weather as always and the crows start to caw louder than ever. The crashing waves echo along with the cawing, but I am used to this ominous scenario.

But I won’t give up. I keep waiting.

Though when I hear the creak of the heavy wooden door opening after a few more hours, I feel my heart racing.

She came.

I try to control my breathing and relax my nerves, while the urge to take her in my arms feels too strong. But when I’m about to turn, I feel a needle pricking into my neck as I feel something being injected into my nerves. Awareness and sudden weakness overcome me as I turn around while my legs start to turn weak, making me kneel on the ground.

My vision starts to blur along with my nerves suddenly turning weak as well, and shaking my head turns out to be a bad idea as it makes my temple ache. But when I fall back with a loud thud, the voice I hear doesn’t belong to Agatha.

“This is for your own good,” Agnes whispers as I see her blurry face floating in front of me. But using my leftover strength I grab her neck tightly as she struggles slightly.

“What the fuck have you done to me?” I groan weakly.

She lets out a choked voice and I shake her by her neck. “Answer me!” I demand.

“Geryon t-told me to d-drug you,” she answers with a croaked voice. “T-to take you for…”

I barely make-out the rest of her words as the drug controls my mind and makes my hold on her neck slump down before it blankets me into darkness.

* * *

The roaring thunder and heavy spattering of the rain is the first thing that reaches my ears when consciousness returns to me. I slowly open my eyes as my vision steadily becomes normal. But what I see in front of me only makes my heart stop in fear.

I was inside the main hall, the prayers room, with my hands tied behind a bench with wires that were digging into my skin. I can already feel the blood trickling down from my hands whenever I twist my wrists. Even my ankles are tied with more wires.

I look in front of me where Agatha is in the same condition but she is in a white nightdress. Her hair curtains around her face with her head casted down, signaling she must be unconscious.

When my gaze shifts to the other side of the room I see one of my worst nightmares.

It is the final ritual of the Magdalene.

The circle with a star in the center is drawn with a white color on the floor. Candles around it were positioned along with all the women and other nuns of this place around it, holding each other’s hands. They all look at Geryon who is standing at the center and looking at the ceiling. His vast shadow falling upon the wall behind him, but only I know that is the shadow of a monster. The hall doesn’t have any of the other benches, except for the Mary statue that is behind Geryon, surrounded with more candles. The tapestry is brought lower that it touches the floor, acting like a curtain that holds the story of the final ritual of the Magdalene.

He is chanting verses and the women hum along with him. I look back at Agatha who is starting to stir awake. Her eyes gradually open as she takes in her surroundings before her gaze falls on me, filled with concern and confusion.

“Eryx…” she whispers with a hoarse tone.

“W-what is going on?” She looks at the final ritual that Geryon is doing with the women and when realization hits her, her eyes wide open in shock and terror.

“Hey, hey, look at me,” I mutter to her, making sure Geryon can’t hear us as she returns her gaze back at me. “I swear I will save you and get you out of here.”

She swallows, remaining silent while breathing heavily.

“Good to know you are awake, brother,” Geryon’s voice echoes through the hall.

He smiles darkly like the monster he is and stalks towards us. I try to get free from the wires but the more my wrists move the more I feel my skin bleeding and aching so badly that I feel like my hands will get cut off from my arms. But I don’t quit trying.

He stands beside Agatha and kneels in front of her. Agatha doesn’t let her fear get reflected in her eyes or face, being the brave soul she was born to be. I know she once let her walls down because of the torture Geryon put her through, but she refuses to give him that satisfaction again.

“I will never know why God sent you to become a barrier between me and my brother, but I will make sure to send you back where you came from because you deserve to be in hell,” he sneers. He leans closer to her, running his fingertip lightly along her cheek as Agatha instantly shifts her head to the other side. My blood boils that I want to cut his hands into pieces right away.

“You could have been an angel…I would have pleased you and made sure you were happy with me. But you’d rather get tainted by the devil.”

“Don’t you fucking dare touch her! Stay away from her before I cut your hands off and feed them to you!” I threaten him.

He only smirks and grabs her by her jaw, forcing her to face me as he keeps staring at me. “You choose her over your brother! Her!”

“You were never my brother and you never will be!”

Out of nowhere, he charges at me and lands a hard punch across my face that blood splatters from my mouth. Another punch lands on my other cheek with my drool coated in blood dripping down my chin.

“We have been connected by the Magdalene, Eryx. But you never accepted that. I lost my mother and father, but I still hoped that you would understand me…accept me as your brother.” I witness a cloud of misery in his eyes that I have never seen before, telling me he means what he was saying.

“I thought the place that took away our family, will unite us into a new family. But you have refused to accept this place…you defy to see the beauty it holds, Eryx.”

I shake my head. “You defy to see through your sins, Geryon. Darkness has blinded you so much that even goodness has faded away from your life with no hope of returning.”

He hits me again and this time I feel it through my bones. The ache starts to spread through my face, reaching my skull that my temple starts to hurt.

“It’s all bullshit. And she,” he points towards Agatha, “-she put more nonsense in your mind. But I will get rid of her right in front of your eyes, just to remind you that you can never cross me again.”

He goes to her and frees her from her bindings but he grabs her by her hair, dragging her to the circle.

“Let me go, you fucking monster!” she screams, writhing against his grasp with her face flinching in pain. Meanwhile I try to be free but the pain starts to get unbearable with the wires digging deeper into my skin.

“Stop! No!” she yells when Geryon gestures to the women to hold down Agatha. Without hesitation they follow his instruction as he starts to chant the verses again.

“Lord, hear our pleas. Hear our prayers and help us make your world better again by sacrificing this tainted soul,” he mutters looking up with his arms spread.

Fuck.

“And accept our angels in your heaven and let this tainted soul rot in hell for ruining your beautiful world. Accept it, Lord. Accept it!” he begs. “Let me be part of your heaven.”

Adrenaline rushes through me as I give it all to loosen the wire, not caring if my hands bleed to death. I have to save Agatha no matter what.

Please, God. Please give me strength. Please God…Please.

But as if God has truly heard my silent prayers, a miracle happens. I see Agnes hiding behind a pillar with a knife in her hand. She looks back and forth from Geryon to me and when she notices Geryon being lost in his chanting, she takes the chance and rushes towards me.

Using the knife, she cuts off the wires, freeing my blood coated hands and hugging me. “You are safe now; I will save you…”

Leaning back, she touches my face looking hurt from seeing the bruises on my face. “Let’s get out of here…we will escape. Just you and me,” she murmurs with a madness that has possessed her heart and soul. An addiction of possessiveness that made her wide eyes seem like she was losing her mind. She helped me to get me out of here, not to give me a hand to let Agatha escape as well.

But even now she doesn’t understand that she and I can never be together when my heart belongs to Agatha.

She grabs my hands and urges me to go along with her while Geryon is distracted. But when she sees me remaining still with no intention of leaving with her, she frowns in confusion along with her eyes watering up.

“B-but I-I saved you…I…” she rasps.

“And I will always remember this moment, thanking you for saving me from this dangerous situation, but I have to save Agatha,” I mutter.

Her lips press together in a thin line like she is controlling herself from shedding tears, but rage is taking over her as she looks at Agatha.

“It will always be her, won’t it?” she asks.

I nod. “Only she will ever rule over my heart.”

She gets up with her eyes strained on Agatha with her grip tightening on the knife. An unsettling feeling crosses my heart seeing her like this.

Broken. Enraged. Distant.

“She is ruling over your heart now because she is alive. I’m sure she won’t be a problem once she is dead.”

Before I can stop her, she strides towards Geryon, breaking the circle. I try to get up despite weakness making me it’s prisoner but after that drug and losing blood it is proving to be difficult to stand straight.

Holding onto the bench for support, I try to get up but when I see Agnes getting closer to Agatha, I feel my heart freezing from a fear I have never felt before.