Free The Dark Light by Julia Bell Page A

piece. He drew it out and everything, a whole tableau of mythical beasts. Dragons and unicorns and mermaids. But I’m glad I stopped him. I mean, even I knew that fourteen was too young to make that kind of commitment. One day though I was going to have a whole work of art on my body, something beautiful and terrible. Rebekah was staring at me like I was an alien or something. When I caught her eye she blushed and looked away.
    ‘Sorry,’ she muttered.
    ‘You don’t have to keep saying that! I’m starving. Is there any breakfast?’
    When we got downstairs her father was waiting with Mary and Hannah.
    ‘You certainly do look quite the d—’ Mary stopped herself. ‘Tomboy. We’ll have to find you some more appropriate clothes.’
    ‘Look,’ I said, ‘look, this was all a big mistake. If you can just call Ron and Bridget, they’ll pay whatever to get me out of here. I shouldn’t have come.’
    ‘I pray for you, Alex,’ Hannah said, her eyes fluttering. ‘We all do.’
    ‘You can’t force me to stay!’ I said. They couldn’t, could they? All I had to do was call someone – Ron and Bridget, Sue the Social Worker.
    Mary laughed, but it had an edge of falseness. ‘Of course not! We’re forcing no one. Whatever gave you that idea? You come to God of your own free will.’
    ‘We’re not making anyone do anything,’ Rebekah’s father said. ‘But if you are going to live with us, then you need to abide by our rules.’ He looked at my trousers. ‘You’ll need to take that lip piercing out too.’ They sounded just like some of the teachers at school.
    I wondered if they were hearing me at all. ‘But that’s what I’m saying . I’m not going to live with you. I want to go home .’
    ‘We already discussed this. Ron and Bridget entrusted you to our care.’
    I folded my arms. ‘Yes, but I’ve changed my mind. This was a bad idea.’
    ‘I’m afraid it’s not your decision to make.’
    ‘ Seriously? So you’re keeping me prisoner? Is this like an intervention or something?’
    Hannah laughed as if I’d just told a really hilarious joke. ‘Ha! Prisoner!’ I didn’t understand why she thought it was so funny. ‘We’re all prisoners of the Lord! He keeps us safe with bonds of love!’
    I glared at her.
    ‘Come on, we need to get the breakfast ready!’ Mary handed me a pile of bowls. ‘Put these out on the table, will you, please?’
    Hannah was staring at me, all smug like she’d won something. I should have run then, but where was I going to go? I needed a plan.
    Next to the kitchen was a dining room with a huge wooden table that filled the room and about twenty chairs around it. On the wall was a reproduction of da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper, in which Jesus breaks bread with his disciples and everyone looks at him except Judas, who stares out over his shoulder at the green fields, the blue sky.
    I dumped the pile of bowls on the table, but Rebekah came in and told me off.
    ‘You’ve got to put them out ,’ she said, taking them and laying them around the table.
    ‘Whatever.’ I sat in one of the chairs and folded my arms. This wasn’t what I signed up to. Rebekah put a spoon in front of me. I might as well let them wait on me. ‘What’s for breakfast?’
    ‘Oh no!’ Rebekah said. ‘We eat separately. Men first, then the women.’
    ‘ What? ’
    ‘Mr Bevins said it was more proper to separate us, and that the men need to be shielded from the frivolous thoughts of women so that they can better contemplate the mind of God.’
    I snorted. ‘Yeah, whatever. I’m not moving.’
    Then noise came from the kitchen and a few of them filed through. Rebekah’s father, Jonathan the mad guy from yesterday – they all had thick, wiry beards, one huge with hands like shovels that I heard called Micah, the twins’ father, who looked like he could have stepped out of the painting on the wall.
    As they all came in, quiet, subdued, I could sense there was someone behind them,