Chapter 47 The Requirement
Ben moved closer to the table, his face now inches from Nora’s. She could see every detail of his expression, every line and shadow that she had once found handsome but now only filled her with revulsion and terror.
“There’s something crucial you need to understand about the initiation,” Ben said, his voice taking on a lecturing tone, as if he were explaining something simple to a child. “Something that makes all of this necessary.”
“I don’t care,” Nora spat, her voice hoarse from crying. “I don’t care about your sick rituals.”
“You should care,” her father interjected. “Because it directly affects what happens to you next.”
Ben straightened up, crossing his arms as he looked down at her. “Before anyone can be initiated into the cult, they must come to terms with it willingly. Do you understand what that means?”
Nora said nothing, just stared at him with hatred burning in her eyes.
“It means,” Ben continued, “that they must be willing to join the cult. Not forced. Not coerced at the moment of initiation. They must genuinely, in their heart, accept that this is their path, their destiny, their choice.”
“That’s insane,” Nora said. “You kidnapped me. You tortured me. You killed my children. And now you’re talking about willingness?”
“The initiation ritual requires consent Nora,” her mother explained, stepping closer. “It’s ancient magic, ancient rules that even we must follow. If someone is forced into the ritual against their will, if they don’t truly accept it in their soul, the ritual won’t work properly. It will fail, and they cannot become a true member.”
“Then it will fail,” Nora said defiantly, finding strength in this small piece of information. “Because I will never, ever consent to joining your cult. I will never accept this. I would rather die than become one of you.”
The words had barely left her mouth when Ben’s hand shot out, connecting with her face in a vicious slap. The impact was so hard that her head snapped to the side. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth as her already split lip tore open further.
“You will not die,” Ben said, his voice cold and hard. “Death would be too easy for you. Too merciful.”
Nora turned her head back to look at him, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. “Then what are you going to do? Keep me prisoner forever? Beat me until I break?”
Her parents exchanged a glance, and her mother nodded slowly. “If that’s what it takes,” she said calmly. “We will drill you, Nora. We will break you down piece by piece, day by day, until you come to terms with what you are and what you’re meant to be.”
“You think you’re strong,” her father added. “You think your spirit is unbreakable. But everyone breaks eventually. Everyone has a limit.”
“And we have all the time in the world,” Ben said. “There’s no rush. We can take months, years if necessary. We’ll keep you here, isolated, alone, subjected to whatever methods we deem necessary until you finally accept the truth.”
“I’ll never accept it,” Nora said, but even as she spoke the words, fear crept into her voice. Could she really withstand whatever they had planned? Could anyone?
“You will,” her mother said with disturbing certainty. “Because you don’t understand yet what you’re truly meant for. You think this is about us forcing you into a life you don’t want. But it’s so much more than that.”
Ben crouched down beside the table so he was eye level with Nora. “You were supposed to be the one to rule the cartel, Nora. Not me. You.”
Nora blinked, confused despite her pain and rage. “What?”
“The bloodline passes through the women in your family,” her mother explained. “The true power, the real authority, it belongs to the daughters, not the sons. You were born to be the leader of this organization.”
“Since you’ve always opposed your parents from a young age,” her father continued, “since you refused to accept your destiny, someone else had to step in. Ben has been ruling the cartel for years, maintaining it, growing it, keeping it strong.”
“But it was never meant to be his permanently,” her mother said. “He’s been holding the position until you were ready to take your rightful place.”
Nora stared at them in disbelief. “You’re telling me that all of this, everything you’ve done to me, was to make me into some kind of cult leader?”
“Not some kind of leader,” Ben corrected. “The leader. The queen. The ultimate authority in one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the world.”
“I don’t want it,” Nora said. “I don’t want any of it.”
“What you want is irrelevant,” her father said harshly. “This is what you were born for. This is your blood, your legacy, your destiny.”
A memory suddenly surfaced in Nora’s mind. Something she had almost forgotten in all the years of pain and suffering. She looked at Ben, really looked at him, and pieces started falling into place.
“When we were married,” she said slowly, “you used to come home really late from work sometimes. And on a few occasions, you had blood stains on your clothes. Small ones, but I noticed them.”
Ben’s expression didn’t change. “And?”
“I asked you about it,” Nora continued. “You said you had been involved in breaking up fights at work. That someone had gotten hurt and you helped them.”
“I remember,” Ben said.
“It didn’t happen often,” Nora said, her voice growing stronger as anger fueled her words. “So I overlooked it. I trusted you. I believed your lies.”
“They weren’t entirely lies,” Ben said. “There were fights. People did get hurt. I just neglected to mention that I was usually the one hurting them.”
“All those late nights,” Nora said, realization dawning. “All those times you said you were working late or out with colleagues, the long duration trips. You were here, weren’t you? Running your sick organization, doing God knows what to God knows how many people.”
“I had responsibilities,” Ben said simply. “The cartel doesn’t run itself.”
“So you lied to me for our entire marriage,” Nora said. “You pretended to be a normal husband with a normal job while you were actually a monster.”
“I was building an empire,” Ben corrected. “An empire that should have been yours but that I had to maintain because you refused to accept your role.”
Nora felt exhausted, drained of everything except a dull, persistent horror at what her life had actually been. “You’re all insane,” she whispered. “Completely, utterly insane.”
“We’re your family,” her mother said. “And this is your destiny.”
Ben stood up and nodded to someone Nora couldn’t see. Two men in black robes emerged from the shadows, moving toward the table.
“What are you doing?” Nora demanded, trying to pull against her restraints.
“Taking you to your new accommodations,” Ben said. “You’ll be staying with us for a while, Nora. However long it takes for you to understand and accept the truth.”
One of the men pulled out a syringe filled with clear liquid. Nora’s eyes widened with panic.
“No,” she said, thrashing as much as her restraints would allow. “No, don’t, please—”
The needle slid into her arm before she could finish the sentence. Almost immediately, she felt the drug coursing through her system, making her limbs heavy, her thoughts foggy.
“Don’t fight it,” Ben said, his voice sounding distant now. “Just let it take you under.”
The men began unbuckling the restraints that held Nora to the table. Her body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, impossible to move or control. She tried to fight, tried to struggle, but the drug was too strong.
They took her to a room in another part of the building, somewhere she had never been before. It was small and bare, with stone walls and a single small window set high up near the ceiling. A thin mattress lay on the floor in one corner. And nothing else.
The men deposited her on the mattress with no ceremony, her body crumpling like a discarded doll. She heard footsteps moving away, heard the sound of a heavy door closing, heard the metallic click of a lock sliding into place.
And then she was alone.
Completely, utterly alone in the darkness, with nothing but her shattered reality and the horrifying knowledge of what her family had done, what they planned to do, and what they expected her to become.