Raven
In the center of the table is the one-hundredth and one person to confess her sins. A woman who had only a few weeks ago delivered a baby. You could tell by looking at her, but she had screamed it too, when she begged for her life. Brother blood had decided because she had just given birth, that her life should end to give sustenance to the followers of their lord. He'd told her that's why she was last and that her purification would be different. They tied her a pole and roasted her over a fire. She screamed for longer than the others, but eventually, just like them, her life ended in silence. After they roasted her, they plated her on a stained-glass window, repurposed as a platter. She was then carried to their large dining hall, where we now sit, for what Brother Blood has decreed as "The First Supper."
There are five long tables that go the length of the room. I'm placed, still confined in the chair, at the end of the center one. Brother Blood sits to my left, watching as they finish setting the table. A giant bowl of salad is placed next to the woman's corpse, along with other dishes, plates and goblets are placed at the many seats. Soon people begin to sit and others start to serve. They carve into the woman's body and put her cooked corpse on their plates, as if cutting into a goat or pig. As if she wasn't just a person less than an hour ago... Wine bottles are brought out, but the red liquid that comes out looks more like blood than wine. My vision blurs a little and the bottle duplicates for a second. I blink a few times until it clears, but it doesn't stop the pounding in my head.
When they've finished the preparations and everyone is sitting Brother Blood stands. The others rise too and they bow their heads, eyes towards the table, except Brother Blood who stands tall and proud. A smile is plastered on his lips, like he didn't just execute over a hundred people by fire...
"Brothers and sisters. Let us thank Trigon for the feast before us and that we share it with his child." They cheer. "May he rise and cleanse the face of this earth the way we have tonight. Let those who did not believe in his glory, perish in hell fire." They cheer again and chant the name Trigon.
"To Trigon, we offer you this promise, not a prayer. We will bring your glory to earth and reunite you with what is yours." He grabs his goblet from the table and raises it to the sky. The others do the same and then takes a sip. They all sit and brother blood picks up his fork, taking a bite of the woman's corpse. He closes his eyes and chews slowly, like he's savoring it. My stomach churns. How can they eat another human being? When he swallows, he takes another sip of wine and then turns towards me. He picks up my fork and knife, cutting into the corpse plated in front of me. He puts a piece on the fork and puts it up to my lips.
"Eat," he commands. I press my lips together as tight as I can. "Eat." He says again. When I don't open my mouth, he looks behind me. I hear footsteps and someone comes up and plugs my nose. I can't breathe. I hold my breath as long as I can, until I feel like I might pass out, but another hand goes under my chin and squeezes my face, opening my mouth. The fork goes into my mouth and they cover it, so I can't split it out. The person plugging my nose won't move their fingers. I stop moving my mouth and when the hand covering it moves, I spit the human meat out. It hits the table with a wet thud. Brother Blood clicks his tongue and shakes his head.
"It's okay. I understand, you were with Azar for a long time. It will take more than one day for you to understand your destiny." He waives his hand and the men step back. They eat in silence at first, but a few musicians come in and play the violin and cello. I want to close my eyes, but I don't. My head is pounding, my heart palpitates in my chest... it's hard to think clearly, but everything they do, every room they bring me to, is information. To get out of here, I have to pay attention...
When they finish eating, Brother Blood stands and waves his hand again. The chair that confines me is lifted and carried. When we leave the dining hall, we enter a hallway with many doors. As we walk, we pass twenty doors... twenty doors... where the hell are we that there can be that many doors? This isn't a house in Gotham...
One door opens for us and Brother Blood leads the way through. It's small, there's a bed on the right, a metal basin on the opposite side and that's it. They put the chair down near the bed. Hopefully this means they'll unchain me from the chair.
Another man steps into the room. He's wearing the same robes as the others, but has a white collar around his neck. He carries a black tool box and sets it down on the floor near the silver basin. He turns his back to us and I hear him open it, but his back blocks everything he does from view. When he turns around, he has a syringe. Shit.
"Don't worry, it won't hurt." Brother Blood says as the man crosses the room. "This will help you sleep." I try to struggle in the chair, but it doesn't stop him from slipping the needle into my arm and injecting me with whatever is in it. When he's done two of Brother Blood's servants' step into the room. They free my hands, but only for a moment. Metal shackles that remind me of police handcuffs, replace the confines of the chair, keeping my wrists close together and useless. Another ends up around my neck. I follow the chain with my eyes. It goes to the wall near the bed.
"Sleep. Tomorrow we will begin your re-education." Brother Blood gives one last sinister smile, before turning around the leave. The room goes dark except for a dim red light over the basin. I get up from the chair and test the length of the chain. It only allows me to go two feet from the door. The metal around my neck digs into my skin. I can't reach it with my hands, since they're bound, I can only tug at it with my neck. If I keep trying to move forward, maybe it will cut off my airway and I can die. I deserve to die after watching and not doing anything as they killed all those people...
There are so many of them though and only one of me... Even with my powers, assuming I can control them with my head so foggy, what can I do? How do I stop them? They kill like it's nothing... They will die like it's nothing, if it's for Trigon...
Whatever the doctor put in the syringe is starting to take effect. My knees go week and my body gets shaky. I've never felt so tired in my life.
In case anyone reading this is not on Ao3, the next update will be June 5th. Taking a couple weeks off. Life is a little busy right now. Thanks for understanding! Regular Sunday weekly updates will resume on June 5th.