Chapter 30: Interlude Part One

Adam, his mother, and Holly sat in the living room of Delilah’s house. The raven haired beauty’s face still held some of the remnants of the damage inflicted by Todd, even days after the fact. Delilah sat across from them, her hands folded in her lap. She was breathing slow and steady, as though trying to centre herself.

“What I am about to tell you ... I have never spoken of before. Not all of it. I’ve tried to forget so much of my past — but keeping it hidden is doing more damage than good. I don’t know if it will be useful or enlightening ... perhaps it will be nothing more than my own personal tale of woe. Regardless, I will tell it as best I can.”

Delilah took a deep breath, looking to one side. Then she stared almost proudly at the three of them. Like she was going into battle.

“It all began long before I was born. But the event that changed my life forever ... I remember that vividly. It was still weeks before I would officially came of age and join my grandfather’s sect proper. The age being a full lunar cycle after your eighteenth birthday. My best friend was older than I, and we were preparing for her own ceremony to take place in a few days. We were both young, in love, and ignorant in that we were entirely cut off from the rest of the world. We trusted what we were told implicitly ... until it grew too much for me to bear.”

Delilah took a deep breath.

“On that day, I was standing at the back of our congregation, trying not to yawn, as the women of our community paid their obeisance to my grandfather. They knelt at his feet, one by one, and I remember wishing that they would all just hurry up so that I could take Lilian down to the beach...”

Delilah sighed as she stood within the hall. The building that the faithful congregated in multiple times a week was the biggest building at the compound by far. Delilah had heard it referred to as the ‘temple’ more than a few times by the older women that were in the Shining Faithful of Serenity proper, but her mother had always changed the subject when she asked what they meant. Whatever its name, the building was also her grandfather’s private residence. The second half of the hall was closed off, with only those he chose allowed access. That said, Delilah had been allowed in enough times when she’d been a child — an example Lilian liked to use when she argued that Delilah was treated differently.

Delilah shifted from side to side, trying to stay still. These sermons always seemed to take forever. It was a perfect day outside with not a cloud overhead. The sky was such an endless blue that it made Delilah itching to go exploring. The weather was warm, and all she could think of doing was spending some time down at the shore with Lilian.

Her grandfather’s voice rose in volume as he began to approach the crescendo of his fiery oration. Delilah grimaced, but covered her face with a hand so that no one saw. She’d heard all of it before so many times that it had begun to bore her — not that she would ever tell her grandfather or mother that. Despite the repetitive nature of the sermon, all the women in the hall looked rapt with attention.

There weren’t all that many in the congregation. Twenty-two women who were properly members of the faithful ... and a smattering of their daughters. Once girls became fourteen they were required to attend their leader’s sermons so that they could properly understand just how lucky they were. It was all done in the name of preparing them for when they could truly become part of the faithful when they came of age.

That was the plan anyway. No daughter of the faithful had yet gone through the ceremony. Delilah would be one of the first to do so in a few weeks time when she had her coming of age rite. She was of mixed minds about it. Her grandfather had always told her that she was to be his heir — even if he had sometimes laughed and teased her as he said it. Lately he had become cagey when she asked what her exact role would be — especially in the last few weeks since she’d turned eighteen. He’d said it wasn’t right to discuss it until she had completed the ceremony.

Somehow Delilah couldn’t picture herself in the same role as her mother and the rest of the women.

That there were no men apart from her grandfather didn’t seem strange to Delilah. It was as it had always been. Sometimes he left for a time — taking the only truck on the long drive towards other settlements. When he came back after a week or two, he always had at least one new member in tow. She would be welcomed, enfolded within the community, until it became as though she had always been there.

Delilah wasn’t an idiot. She knew what went on behind closed doors in the ‘temple’. Becoming a woman, becoming part of the inner circle of the faithful, meant having sex with their leader. It wasn’t strange. It just was. Delilah — along with Lilian — had spied upon the members engaged in private activities enough times that the titillation had long since faded. Her and Lilian had giggled, whispered, and speculated for so many years that they barely raised an eye at it anymore.

Once Delilah became part of the faithful ... well, she didn’t know what her place would be within the Shining Faithful of Serenity. It had never happened before. Lilian and herself would be the first of the new generation to come of age. Unlike the rest of the congregation, who ranged in age from early thirties down to twenty, they had grown up here on the promised land. They were different. They were born to it — not someone who her grandfather had rescued from the outside.

At least, that’s how Delilah’s grandfather had told it.

Delilah ducked her head, hiding a grin. Maybe she and Lilian would just have to make do with each other — to be their own little group amongst the faithful. If so, they’d already made a good start on it.

Delilah craned her neck, looking for Lilian. Her best friend was on the opposite side of the hall, standing with her mother and younger sister. Lilian raised her hand slightly, her fingers twitching in a hidden wave. She turned her palm, curled her index and middle finger slightly in a way that made Delilah both blush and smile widely.

A sudden elbow into her ribs made Delilah gasp. She turned a reproachful look upon the perpetrator, but her mother kept her eyes forward, just murmuring softly.

“Pay attention, Delilah. Don’t make a scene while he speaks.”

Delilah rubbed ruefully at her ribs.

“It’s not like anyone is going to notice what I do, mother. I’m shocked that you did.”

It was true. No one had even glanced at them. Lilian’s mother hadn’t even taken notice. Delilah’s grandfather was nearing the end of his sermon, and his words were making all the women pay rapt attention.

“ ... and you know, in the very centre of your souls. The entirety of your beings! That you — and no one else — are my chosen people! I have saved you! I have spread the love and power — it is my sacred burden! I was elevated — become ascendent! Through my munificent mercy, I have allowed you to touch the divine! Through me all is possible. Through me, you shall have life everlasting!”

Delilah kept her mouth firmly shut, even though her jaw creaked with the effort of a suppressed yawn. Her face was blank. Delilah supposed it would have been more fitting if she had tried to match the looks of adoring servitude that all the other women wore ... but she just couldn’t. He was their glorious leader. Their prophet. But to Delilah he was foremost her grandfather. He’d played games with her, read to her at night, stayed up with her when she’d been sick ... he’d always been with her, as far back as she could remember.

That was who he was to her.

Even if he had recently begun change how he acted with and around her.

The sermon ended to rapt applause. It was now the final part of the gathering — where the members would show their obeisance towards their leader. The adult women of the congregation began to line up demurely, their hands clasped in front of the chests, their eyes down. Delilah’s mother moved by her her without a word, taking her own place in the lineup.

Alone, Delilah shuffled stealthily over towards where Lilian stood with her younger sister. There weren’t all that many younger girls left, and they all watched as their mothers crowded around the leader. Delilah leant over, bumping shoulders with Lilian. She whispered, her voice soft enough that her friend’s younger sister couldn’t even hear it.

“So we got the highlights reel again today. Everyone else certainly lapped it up. I don’t know about you, but I could probably quote it by heart after hearing it so many times.”

“Delilah! If they hear you mocking him you’ll be on dish-scrubbing duty all week again.”

Lilian hissed back, but her eyes were dancing with mirth.

“Why, are you going to tell on me?”

“I should. Especially since you got me washing dishes with you the last time.”

Delilah stuck her tongue out at her friend.

“You should have said something. I didn’t know I had so much power over you that I could control your actions.”

Lilian’s smile widened and she blushed faintly.

They both fell silent as the line progressed. Delilah watched as it became her mother’s turn to greet their leader. She’d heard whispers once — from a young women newly brought to their enclave — that it was somehow wrong for Delilah’s mother to be intimate with her grandfather. That it wasn’t right. That had puzzled Delilah, and she’d tried to find out more. Unfortunately before she’d had a chance to question the new arrival, the woman had gone through the rite of passage granting her full membership. Afterwards she had professed complete ignorance of ever saying such a thing.

Delilah guessed that she was just embarrassed at being so closed minded.

The teenage girl watched as her mother knelt at their leader’s feet. Delilah’s grandfather was a powerfully built man, broad shouldered and tall, with a barrel chest. He had a dark beard, meticulously manicured and styled. He liked to wear loose fitting clothing made of white linen.

Now he sat on a small raised dais, his legs widely spread. Delilah’s grandfather looked down approvingly as her mother crawled between his thighs. She pressed her lips to his inner thigh, rubbing her face back and forth. Nuzzling him. She received the offering like all the others — some kind of dried and desiccated brown thing. It was placed on her tongue, and she swallowed it greedily — closing her lips around their leader’s fingers and sucking on them as she did. Delilah’s grandfather petted her mother on the head, murmuring something for just the two of them. Whatever it was made her mother blush bright red, and a happy smile graced her face. Before her mother got up, Delilah saw her grandfather’s eyes flick to where she stood with Lilian. He smiled.

Delilah shifted on her feet. Lately she had been feeling ... weird when she was around her grandfather. Especially if it was during one of frequent sermons. She was no stranger to arousal and lust. She and Lilian had been playfully experimenting together for ages now. But Delilah had never felt that way around her grandfather, no matter how many times she had spied on the inner goings on of the enclave when everyone had thought her asleep.

Now though ... Lilian fanned herself absently. She whispered to Delilah.

“What do you think it feels like?”

“ ... what do you mean?”

“Serving him? They all look so...”

“Stupefied?”

Lilian hissed at her again.

“Not so loud! No. They look so happy.”

Delilah shifted on her feet again.

“I suppose.”

Delilah’s mother had finished her obeisance, and had taken pride of place next to her father, kneeling demurely by his side. The rest of the women were spread out likewise, lower and by his feet, fanning out so that they all looked at the few remaining younger women who stood watching. Those that were as yet too young to be taken into the fold proper.

Their leader raised his hands wide, taking to his feet as he addressed them all. His voice was low, booming out.

“Soon you shall all take your rightful places by my side! Salvation and paradise awaits you all! You who are truly blessed will live lives of such pleasure and contentment that all the world will envy you! And yet one of you will taste it before any other. Lilian — step forward!”

Delilah flinched as her friend let out a quiet gasp, taking a hesitant step forward. Her grandfather beamed.

“In four days time Lilian will come of age! We will welcome her into the fold, and she will become one of the blessed! Welcome her!”

All the women kneeling around him murmured as one.

“Welcome, sister.”

Delilah’s grandfather continued, raising his arms to the sky.

“Praise be! Our flock shall grow and our power with it. Paradise beckons! Rejoice!”

The kneeling woman spoke as one again.

“Praise be.”

“Rejoice! All must hear your fervour!”

“Praise be!”

Delilah’s grandfather smiled widely, his eyes hungry and intent as he surveyed the future aspirants to the Shining Faithful of Serenity.

“Delilah. Did you enjoy the sermon?”

Delilah gave her grandfather her best smile.

“Absolutely. It was even better than the last time I heard it!”

Delilah’s grandfather’s expression flickered for a second, and then he forced a chuckle.

“You are good for my humility, child.”

After the sermon had ended, the congregation had obediently filed out. Delilah had lingered near the exit until her grandfather had spotted her. She thought he hadn’t been happy at first — the usual routine after their leader had finished speaking to them was that he would retire to his private chambers with some of his followers for the rest of the day. Delilah’s and Lilian’s mothers had been chosen today. Their leader had sent them ahead of him with a curt nod while he waited for Delilah and himself to be alone.

Delilah had walked towards her grandfather, feeling more uneasy than usual. His regard for her had changed lately — but that wasn’t all. Something about seeing him announce Lilian’s impending induction had made her stomach feel strange. Delilah had pictured her friend kneeling at her grandfather’s feet, nuzzling his inner thighs as he petted her, being led towards his private quarters afterwards ... Delilah shook her head wildly. No, that wouldn’t happen. Her and Lilian were part of the new generation — their roles would be different. Her grandfather had hinted as such.

“Are you okay, child?”

“Yes, grandfather. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Delilah made sure to give him an impish smile — the one that had always made him laugh when she was young. This time though, he just sighed.

“You should get in the habit of addressing me with more respect, Delilah. Your coming of age is only a few weeks away.”

Delilah put her hands on her hips.

“Even when we are alone? I’ve ridden on your back as you pretended to be my horse too many times for that, surely.”

Her grandfather’s lips twitched, but then he sighed again. Even heavier.

“I spoilt you too much I fear. More than the other children. Come. Sit with me as we used to if you must insist upon informality.”

Her grandfather took his seat on the dais again. She wasn’t sure where she should sit, but then he patted his knee. Delilah kept her smile fixed upon her face as she perched on the very edge of his knee. However, her grandfather slid his arm around her waist — pulling her into him so that she was seated side-on on his lap.

He chuckled.

“Don’t act so cold, child. As you yourself said — we’ve been this close all your life after all.”