THE ORDER OF KORES

Tien

"Therapy," he suddenly spoke as I sat across from him in the private plane. I sat with my knees together, my eyes wide, and the dried blood on my face and my dress a reminder of the horror that I went through.

I looked at Kores with wide horrified eyes, and with each blink, a tear slid down my face. While Kores looked on at me with eyes that I could only define as the stare of love that I've always imagined receiving from a man. Oh my...it was so beautiful if I didn't think about it too much.

He had no traces of dried blood on his face or his clothing. He looked spick and span, and the gun on the waistband of his pants made my heart race. I blinked, unable to really speak as I swallowed, "w...wh-what?" I stammered in a broken whisper.

That was the first word that he said to me since I've sat here.

"I spoke about you in therapy. It's how I've kept you alive even after all of these years," Kores spoke to me. His voice sounded husky as if he was drunk off of gin and broken dreams. It was the kind of huskiness that came in a man's voice when he got emotional, but Kores carried it well.

I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand at what he said. I blinked, another tear sliding out of my eye and my bottom lip quivering in fear as I continued to cry in silence, afraid that if I cried too loud, then my fate would be as unfortunate as Adam's.

"You were always my first love, Evelyn," he continued, sitting with his legs open, and his elbows resting on his knees as he leaned forward. A Rolex sparkled on his wrist as sable eyes peered into the deepest parts of my broken soul. I looked on at him like the monster that he was, wondering how he could speak like this after what he'd just done.

It had only been less than an hour and we were on our way to Cape Town– to his mother.

He let out that damned dimpled smile of his, that straw in the corner of his mouth moving upwards with the simple action. And for a moment it was like I was looking at that young boy from all those years ago, my Kores, my hero, and not the monster that I had just been introduced to.

"Do you still have that ear problem whenever the plane takes of?" I still did. He hadn't forgotten the information that I had given him ten years ago, when I revealed that I hated when a plane was taking off because the pressure would hurt my ears and they would pop.

I found myself slowly nodding my head, afraid that if I didn't answer him, then I wouldn't remain as unscathed as I was at this point. I opened my mouth, my wet lips parting with tears, "pl...please," I whispered fearfully, begging him to let me go. I didn't have the strength to finish the sentence, to finish saying that I wanted him to land the plane and let me go home.

He was silent, his eyes peering into mine as if he didn't notice the tears that flowed. Instead, he looked into my eyes and peered deep into them as if he wanted to read the secrets of my secrets.

He gathered his hands into fists and then placed his forehead on them before he let out a sigh, "I must confess," he spoke instead after the eternal silence. "I've cheated on you," he added after a brief pause. "I've slept with women in the past couple of years, and I know that we're married, but I will make things right," he fell to his knees in front of me and grabbed my hands in his.

On his knees, he stood at the same height as me. He held my hands in his and suddenly his face was emotional, "I have sinned," he spoke emotionally, "I have sinned and I have slept with women who are not you, women who were not my wife." I looked on at him in fear, because I was not his wife, and we were not together. I couldn't care that he had slept with other women, but I didn't dare say anything to him. I was terrified.

I looked on at him in continued fear. "I should have waited, I should have found you. I should have never kept your memory alive in a therapy room when I could have easily found you. Oh, Evelyn, my wife," he gripped me by the sides of my face and I let out a sob, unable to hold myself back. "I will prove myself to you, and I will make it right. I will never," he opened his eyes, sable eyes glared into mine with a sickened dark twinkle in them, "let any proof of my sin walk this earth. I will bring you every woman that I have ever slept with, and I will bring them to their knees, and slit their throats to prove my undying loyalty to my wife."

My heart stilled at that and the constant ringing that I had been hearing in my ear went dead silent as my sobbing stopped momentarily. I looked at him, wondering if he was playing around, but I knew that he wasn't. I knew that he wasn't playing around, that he wasn't lying, and as soon as I realised how fruitless my search was for his humanity, I began to sob uncontrollably, shaking my head side to side. "Please, pl-please," I cried, my words coming out an unclear slobbering mess as I prayed for God to wake me from this nightmare that I was stuck in. "No, no, no," he didn't answer me, he only pressed his lips to my wet ones. He kissed me so intensely, that I struggled to breathe. I pushed at his chest, trying to free myself from the attack of his lips on mine.

He didn't pull away even then.

He only pulled away when he wanted to.

As he pulled away, I crawled further back into my seat, crying and unable to speak. "Have you?" he asked me as I tried to bury my face into the seat, tried to face away from him. "Have you?" he repeated, but this time he gripped me by my chin and forced me to face him, turning my face with such force that I cried out his name. "Have you?" he said again, his voice sounding every bit of the twisted monster that he was. "Have you stepped out on our marriage?" he spoke as if I dared to tell him yes, I would pay the price, and if I dared to lie to him, he would make sure that I never used my tongue again.

"No!" I sobbed, shaking my head side to side as I lied. Praying that he wouldn't know the truth.

"Liar!" he suddenly yelled into my face and I became even more hysterical.

"No! Please! I'm sorry! I didn't know!" I yelled back, sobbing and hoping that I could repair my mistake. "I'm sorry, Kores!" I sobbed, gripping my hands to my chest and feeling like this was the worst that life could get.

He took in a deep breath, and then let it out, "I know everything, wife," he whispered out, as he brushed his knuckles along my face as I shut my eyes in fear of him hitting me. "You will never lie to me again, wife."

I nodded my head vehemently, "I won't. I won't. I'm sorry." I rushed to say.

He nodded his head and patted my face, "I hear you, wife," he said gently, as I hiccupped. I felt him brush my hair away from my face, "there's nothing that I hate more than a liar, wife. I can't...dammit, I can't let you just lie to me. I can't let you just...step out on our marriage, and betray me. What sort of husband would I be if I didn't teach you a lesson?" my eyes opened and I looked into his. He held a fake sympathetic look on his face and I felt my heart sink to the pits of my stomach.

As he said that, I watched him reveal a blade. I began to sob, shaking my head side to side, "please, please, I'm sorry, Kores. Kores, please, no," I continued to beg.

"Let me have your tongue, wife," he called for it in a way you would a pet.

I suddenly slapped his face, and then brought my knee up to hit him in the face. I began to fight him, trying to get him away from me, "stay away from me! Get away from me!" But every attempt of mine was futile because he'd positioned himself between my legs and it was easy for him to overpower me. In fact, it appeared that he was barely affected by my attack as he gripped me by the sides of my face.

I cried out, "no! No! No!" I sobbed, trying to break my face free from him.

He forced me to come face to face with him and his face was menacing, "Stick out your tongue, or I gut your mother." I looked at him in horror. My horror stricken face must have been a sight for anyone, because I couldn't believe that he'd say something like that.

"Kores," I breathed out in fear of who the person was before me. He used that opportunity to reach for me. "No, no! Kor-" I screamed fearfully as he reached into my mouth and somehow managed to grip my tongue. I let out horrified screams as he forced the blade into my mouth, and it cut my lips, inner cheeks and gums in the attempt to reach for my tongue. My screams came out muffled but loud as the blade began to slice at my tongue.

Liquid flooded my mouth and a pain unlike any other spread from my tongue to the tip of my toes as I yelled with the kind of unfortunate vigour of a dying man.