Chateau Rouge: Chapter 1

Dear readers,

The long expected sequel of 'The Woman in Red' has arrived. I hope you enjoy the reading.

Rudi J.P. Lejaeghere

CHATEAU ROUGE

Rudi J.P. Lejaeghere

1. The sect

    The light drew creepy shadows on the stone walls that delineated the place. Ten torches attached on both sidewalls burned in the subterranean vault. The chamber existed out of two parts. The larger of both was about twenty by ten meters and filled with forty chairs. In front of this stone hall, there was a little platform. On this second part of this place, not more than three meters deep, there was an altar upon which the sacrifice lay. Left of the podium there stood an iron barrel containing glowing coals that warmed the vault.

    The figures, who one by one entered silently the hall, looked like ghosts. Alien beings who, in their widely purple habits and through the light game of the flames, were projected enlarged on the walls. Only when the forty members had taken their predetermined place, the Master came inside. Dressed in a black toga with a long train, he stepped along his servants and walked upon the platform. He was, at least, a head taller than the tallest of his disciples. When he folded back the hood of his habit and let his wild red hair hanging loose, falling upon his shoulders, it was a sign for the rest of the group to uncover their heads too.

    The group consisted of both men and women from different nature and ethnic origin. The highly pronounced cheekbones and the straight nose of some of the members couldn’t deny their Caucasian provenance. The Americans were the most obese and some of them would profit from a bit more exercise and a stricter diet. Some of the smallest were, without a doubt, originating from the East, Japan and China or even Korea. The Europeans, some of them a bit darker of skin because of their southern roots, were in the majority.

The woman lay naked on her stomach on the stone altar and hands and feet were bound. Nonetheless, her unfortunate and humiliating position she seemed not scared. On the contrary. Her head somewhat cocked, she looked up with fanatical eyes to the man she regarded as her Master and leader. Just like everybody was in the hall, she wanted to be branded with the mark of her 'Master'. From this day on, he would own her. She put her life in his skillful hands. Hands she worshiped, just like the rest of his body. Today she would feel him inside her for the first time, getting his mark, as well on the inside as on the outside. She could hardly wait till it was so far.

    The man with the black habit was pulling his cloth out with capable hands over his head. Beneath this clothing, he wore nothing.  As naked as his creator had made him and in fully sexual arousal by the sight of the woman, but also because of the increasing loudness of the song, he crawled upon the woman on the altar.

            At the crescendo of the song, he took his servant as his own. Hard and brutally pushing, he came in her. Without caring about her shouting, he penetrated deeper and deeper, on the rhythm of the choir that sang the praises of him. With a loud growl, he reached his climax. Now that the first part of the initiation of the girl had finished, a blissful smile glided upon the face of the woman. She received for what she had yearned.

            After he had put on his habit again, he took the bar with the wooden grip that was in the iron glowing barrel. At the end of that metal rod was a metal stamp with three crosses upon. Every blazing cross stood with his foot on the collar beam of the previous one and formed together the sign of their community. With a cruel glance in his eyes, he pressed the sign on the left cheek of the buttocks of the young woman. The skin scorched and a smell released her flesh that was smoky and obnoxious while an inhuman cry filled the hall.

            The demonic singing was so loud now that the painful screams of the woman drowned in the sounds of the hymn. Eventually, when the ritual of the initiation was over, the Master lifted his arms. Instantly the singing stopped as if somebody had turned the music down.

            ‘Brothers and sisters,’ the leader spoke with a firm and charismatically voice. ‘Behold, your new sister, baptized in my name and my body and with the sign of our community. She has borne allegiance to me, but also to you all, just like every one of you has done before her. Remember, this is an oath of life and death. Who breaks it will never be safe anymore till he or she dies a terrible death by my hand.  Who keeps it, will be rewarded, as in this life or that after our death. My wealth, my power is from an for you, as long as you live in my shadow.’

            The crowd responded automatically with the creed they already had spoken a hundred times. ‘We only recognize one "Master" that is you, Lord of the Black Knights. We want to live long and happily in your shadow and glory of the community of our brothers and sisters, Children of the Black Knight.' 

            Satisfied with the renewal of their belief, the red-haired man smiled while he untied the woman from the altar and without any effort he pulled her up. With his flaming eyes, he looked at her speaking affectionately with well-chosen words.

            ‘Jezebel, born again today in my name, you will be assigned a special task. You will be the wolf disguised as a sheep between the real sheep. Nobody will know who or what you are, to whom you obey. Our group and you, in particular, will make our name great so that we can claim again, what was ours and has always been. Today, I’m sending you, Jezebel, as I have sent so many before you. Go and destroy them and those who are helping from the inside out. Be cunning and put suspicion on the good so that the Black Knight will prevail.’ He pushed her a paper in the hand she read with a face a bit distorted from pain. She never had heard of this location, but she would do as he expected from her.

© Rudi Lejaeghere

09/10/15