My 359th book is done and out today for free!

Download at various online retailers found on books2read- https://books2read.com/b/bpBr86

Zeke and Kathleen's marriage is on the brink of collapse, and Zeke knows it's because of Kathleen's missing first husband and child. To save their marriage, the two go into town, talking to familiar faces and getting involved in a deeper and darker plot than they think, involving human trafficking and many of the people they know.

A Species Guilty of Adultery: Chapter 3 – The Chains of Good Feelings

Chapter 3 – The Chains of Good Feelings

I groggily wake up with my head feeling weighed down. Colorful lights and loud music make my ears hurt, and I slowly get up. I finally begin to realize where I am when I see the padded floors and weird occult statues and icons everywhere.

I turn my head and see Catalina, who looks pleased with herself, and ahead of us, I see Kathleen, restrained to a wall with chains. In the room with us, I see Catalina’s friends with guns in their hands.

“Zeke! Zeke! Don’t fall for her!” Kathleen screams out with tears in her eyes and dried tears on her face.

“Hehe, I’m sorry you had to wake up like this, Zeke, but I had no choice but to bring you in like this after you resisted my sister. I also hope you don’t mind me having my way with you while you were asleep. It was worth hearing your wife cry while I did.”

“Uck. What’s going on?”

“I’m going to make you mine in front of your wife.”

“I…I refuse. No matter what kind of weird spell or smells, sounds, or whatever you’re using on me.”

“Of course you’ll give in to me. I know who you are and what pleases you. That’s why you’re unrestrained and still have your pistol on you. You’re a slave to lust like I am, and there’s nothing that’s going to change that.”

“I’m nothing like I was before. I’m a better person because of Kathleen. I’m not a perverted whore like you!”

“Which Kathleen? It can’t be the Kathleen that took the cash offered to her when she saw her husband and child being taken away.”

“Shut up! I was afraid, and I had guns pointed at me!”

“Is it the same Kathleen who’s a liar? Her confessor told me it’s the one sin she’s guilty of the most.”

“Since I’m not a liar like she is and you want to know the truth so badly, I’ll tell you everything. Her husband and child were kidnapped, not because they had good evidence of our human trafficking ring, but because they were wanted by certain customers. Kathleen just got home when we were kidnapping them, and she was given the choice of hush money, dying, or joining them, and she pitifully accepted the money. She even spent it, from what I heard from my friends at the bank. Of course, she also confessed her sins to a priest, but didn’t do anything to go after her loved ones or us after we anonymously sent her a picture of them dead. It was not long after that you both met because she wanted to be killed for what she failed to do.”

“She…couldn’t have done anything…”

“You’re right, and neither could you do anything to us. We bought out everyone in this town by giving them what they wanted. They’re all our whores. Give a person what pleases them, and they’ll do anything you want. We’re all whore in that sense. I used to be a consecrated virgin, but that life only made me happy for a time, until it became too miserable to bear. I gave myself to pleasure, took part in a ritual with that statue of a demon over there, and convinced my sister to do the same.”

“Blythe’s pleasure was different, though. She wanted to be seen as a hero and protector by the community, so our friends allowed her to arrest and kill their rivals, traitors, or snitches they wanted gone. I’m sure she pleased herself when she received compliments. Asher’s family’s pleasure was being looked up to as well and receiving a cut of the profits. They only wanted us to be secretive, which we were good at. Ike was originally part of this group, but he’s just the face of the public perverts, who don’t dig into the deeper aspects as long as we give him what he craves. Kathleen loves to lie. Her imagined purity is her pleasure. They all sell themselves to us when they get what they want. That’s what lust is: the second most committed sin behind pride.”

“All men and women are weak to pleasure, and all strive to live happily and feel good all the time. It’s why they give themselves so easily to whatever will make them happiest. Even if the particular sin of lust isn’t committed, people give themselves body and soul to their particular sin or pleasure, just as a prostitute gives themselves body and soul for a price.”

“I…I’m not going to do it! I don’t care what you do to me! I’ve changed!”

 “You may fight it, but I see that old hunger in your eyes for me. I miss it! You’re the only one who ever cared for me for more than my body and what I could do for you. That’s why I love and have to have you all to myself in a cursed marriage. Come to me, and let us consummate it!”

Catalina lies on the floor and reaches out to me. I hold myself back as best I can, but for some reason, I can’t help but move to her. I say all the prayers I know that Kathleen taught me to resist temptation. Still, I struggle to do anything but hold myself back.

Eventually, Catalina gets up and tries to sit on me, but I hold her back with one hand. “You’re making me impatient. Come on already! I know you want me!”

“I…I don’t! I want my wife. I want Kathleen! That’s who I married and will be with forever until I die!” I say as I struggle to grab the pistol. Catalina fights to pin me down and stop me from grabbing my pistol as her friends come over to help her.

When I think it’s going to be all over, I hear gunfire and people busting into the room. Everyone turns to see who it is, and to our surprise, it’s Ike and his friends, all of whom are armed with pistols. “I heard the wrong kind of partying was happening under my nose. I finally figured out what was going on and you’re all going to pay!” Ike and his friends open fire on Catalina and her friends, freeing me from their grasp. I keep my head down as the two groups exchange gunfire.

The speakers and lights of the room are shot out, and I eventually feel some of my strength return to me. Taking this opportunity, I draw my pistol, shoot Kathleen’s restraints to free her, and yell at her to find cover. She either doesn’t hear me or doesn’t care to, as she picks up a nearby pistol and joins in on the fight.

“You bastards will pay for what you did to my husbands and my child!” Kathleen says as she fires the pistol at Catalina and her dwindling number of friends. Again, I have no idea how to feel about what she’s doing.

Soon, the wild gunfight calms down with Catalina seriously injured and all of her friends dead. Thankfully, there’s not a scratch on Ike, Kathleen, or me, though I do feel bad for Ike since many of his friends died, which only seems to have made him madder. Ike, Kathleen, and I stand over Catalina with our pistols pointed at her. “It’s over, Catalina.”

Before she can say anything, both Ike and Kathleen empty their pistols into Catalina. “Bitch doesn’t deserve to have any last words!”

“All the things that I allowed to happen because I got my fill of happiness…tell me there’s a second chance for me or a way for me to atone for my sins! You two are Catholic, right? You specialize in that sort of thing?”

“Is there anything you have or can say to testify against the others in the town so they can face justice?”

“Yes, of course, I’ll testify until I run out of breath! I don’t even care if I spend the rest of my life in jail. If I let my desires blind me to the horrors beneath my nose, then I refuse to listen to them anymore! I’m sure there are even juicy bits of information here to go through too that the feds will find interesting.”

“We should call the state police or someone outside of the town to handle this to get better protection for us. We still don’t know how many people are in the pocket of the human trafficking ring.”

I do as Kathleen says. State police and the FBI soon arrive, secure the bar club, and question everyone. They thank us for bringing this to their attention because they had been trying to dismantle this human trafficking ring for years but had made no progress until now. They go into town, arresting many people at the churches, town hall, warehouses, and numerous businesses. After a week, the FBI leaves and uses what they’ve learned to target other areas of the country where the human trafficking ring and its allies may be. They also leave a new detachment of officers in the town, since many of the officers here were corrupt and being paid off to be quiet or so they could indulge in forbidden pleasures.

It’s Sunday now, and Kathleen and I are doing our daily prayers after going to mass. She’s the happiest I’ve ever seen her and in a better mood than ever. After our prayers are done, she kisses me and says, “Thank you, Zeke. For everything.”

“Thank you, Kathleen. Without you, I would still be a slave to my vices, depression, and be without God. If I didn’t say those prayers you taught me, I would’ve given in to Catalina.”

“If you did that, I would’ve shot you when Ike came in to help out.”

“Haha…wait, really?”

Kathleen kisses and embraces me. “I love you, Zeke. I’m ready to have a child when you are.”

“Haha. Okay. I love you too.” Some time passes, and my first child is born. To think that a man like me became a father. I didn’t think it would ever come. Kathleen is also beyond happy to be a mother again. Thank you, God, for the happy family you’ve given us, our many second chances, and the strength to overcome our vices. Help us not to concentrate on what makes us feel good or happy and to only focus on You, each other, and the right thing to do. I think I’m really starting to get this prayer thing down. I guess I shouldn’t doubt miracles if a man like me can be changed by God’s grace.

 

The End